TVSquad

"Very Funny" has been a tagline at TBS for a little while now. It's there to clarify for us that The Bill Engvall Show and Tyler Perry's shows are funny. And I'm glad they did, because I've caught snippets of both House of Payne and Meet the Browns and I swear I would have had no idea they were funny if TBS hadn't told me. That's a public service well appreciated.

Now they're taking this one step further. TBS' The Very Funny Show will feature stand-up comedians being funny. And not just funny, but very funny. Tim Meadows who was the very funny on Saturday Night Live is pegged to host. And by very funny I mean that he was there for a long time. Actually, Tim can be funny in a stand-up environment, so he may do alright here. All of the footage for the November-bowing series will be filmed at a July event called "TBS Presents a Very Funny Festival: Just For Laughs." So at least the comedians on the very funny show will come from this very funny festival meaning it will be very, very funny. Right?

Look, a family sitcom that's NOT on Disney or Nickelodeon which been renewed for another season! How unique!

TBS has ordered up a second season of 10 episodes of The Bill Engvall Show. The comedy, which entered the television landscape back in July, premiered with fairly strong ratings and remained the number two sitcom among adults 18-49 on ad-supported cable (fancy talk for basic cable) for the rest of its freshman season.

After he ended his long run on Saturday Night Live in 2000, it seemed like Tim Meadows followed the career path most former SNLers go down; in other words, he faded into the background.

Now it looks like Meadows has come back, but stealthily so. He's been all over TV over the last year or so, but in small supporting or guest roles. For instance, last year, he was in a great episode of The Office, playing a client that Michael Scott schmoozes over drinks at the local Chili's. He's also has been a few episodes of Help Me Help You, playing a character named Petey. He also made a reality push this past summer, as a contestant on Gameshow Marathon and a judge during the early rounds of Last Comic Standing.

(S01E04) It could be my imagination, but I could swear that the remaining three celebrities vying for the last seat of Game Show Marathon semi-finals were having a good time. Maybe they were finally warming up to each other after four games, maybe it was a 'I don't care what happens, I'm going to have fun' belief. Or, maybe it's the fact they were playing Press Your Luck and, dammit, they really had a competition going on.

The original Press Your Luck, which aired on CBS from 1983 until 1986 was such a cool concept that the show is still a favorite to this day. So, it was great to see it in all it's glory on Game Show Marathon. Other than the late Peter Tomarken all of the elements were there, the spinning set, the big board, the theme music, and, of course, the Whammys. In addition, it was probably the best episode of the series so far.

(S01E03) Much better! After the awkwardness of The Price is Right and the emotionally robotic Let's Make a Deal, CBS's Game Show Marathon finally came up with a game that was fairly enjoyable:  Beat the Clock. There were two reasons for that. First, it's always good to watch celebrities knowingly make fools of themselves in front of an audience. Second, they didn't have to guess the friggin price of Aspercreme to win a prize!

Add to that the fact that Beat the Clock is one of those quietly classic game shows that has endured since it first premiered on television in the 1950's. In this game there's no getting close to the actual dollar amount, no pressure to choose what was in the box or what was behind door number three. It's basically a game of teamwork. And, if the team works really well then riches abound. The concept has been used other shows such as Double Dare and, Lord help us, Fear Factor.

There also one more reason why I could tolerate this episode a bit more than the last two:  Paige Davis is just so spunky!