TVSquad

Watching The Jay Leno Show the other night, I was trying to figure out what his set reminded me of. Not the main stage where he does his monologue or the area where the band plays (which is so far away it seems like another zip code), I'm talking about the chairs where he interviews his guest. Leno made a big deal about how he wouldn't have a desk, as if that's innovative (and it's not true either - he uses a desk for "Headlines"), and the chairs and end tables he's using remind me of something.

Movieline.com has it all figured out: it's an airport!

If you're like me, then you're probably a mom. Although, I don't have children. In fact, I'm a quarter-century old dude built like an extra from a 1960's beach movie (that's not necessarily a compliment, especially if you think "compact" is a terrible description of body type, as I often do). However, when I'm at the gym, I seem to get along like gangbusters with all the mothers who take to the Stepper for a mindless lower-body workout in which one essentially climbs to nowhere.

In fact, every now and then, you'll catch me on the machine upwards of an hour, which is by no means an easy task when you have the attention span I do. But luckily, I've got plenty of friends to keep me going, and I don't even have to talk to them. Because they're inside the TV! (Sorry, moms!)

A lot of people don't realize that the first James Bond wasn't Sean Connery on the big screen, it was Barry Nelson on television, on a 1954 episode of the CBS series Climax. Nelson played 007 in an adaptation of Casino Royale.

Nelson died in Buck's County, PA on April 7 while traveling. He was 89.

Besides the classic role of Bond, Nelson was a regular on the 50s series My Favorite Husband, and guest starred on several other shows, including The Twilight Zone, Murder, She Wrote, Fantasy Island, Magnum, P.I., Dallas, The Love Boat, Thriller, Cannon, Longstreet, The F.B.I., The Philco Playhouse, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and many others. On the big screen he was in several films, including The Shining, Airport, and Pete N' Tillie, and starred on stage in several productions.

(S11E03) This episode really had my heartrate going! When it came down to the end, there was a certain team that I wanted to be eliminated but they remain. Sigh.

The teams remained in Chile this week. Things went from tense (thanks to Mirna) to hilarious (thanks to Rob) throughout the episode. I think my favorite team so far is Rob & Amber just because they're so laid back. Everyone else is taking this waaay too seriously.

Spoilers after the jump:

Variations of this story may have wound up in your inbox at some point, but if you don't feel like reading the whole sappy piece, I'll give you the Cliff's Notes version: a man in an airport cheers along with a crowd of people as soldiers in camouflage walk through the airport. A little girl asks one of the soldiers to give something to her daddy, and kisses him on the cheek. The soldiers pretend to contact the girl's father via walkie talkie and then the soldier kisses the girl and tells her it's from her father.

It's a sweet story, though its veracity is questionable. What makes it ripe for satire isn't necessarily the story itself, but the way it's told, from the perspective of a person who wants everyone to know how he also stopped to clap for these brave men. Even if he's not essential to the story, he will make himself essential, god damn it.

Comedian H. Jon Benjamin, who has provided voices for many cartoons including Dr. Katz, Home Movies and Freak Show, gives his own take on the story in this editorial for Junkiness. It's full of dry Benjamin-y goodness. Enjoy.

[via CC Insider]

On October 18 at 9 pm CNBC is airing the two-hour documentary Inside American Airlines: A Week in the Life. CNBC was allowed unprecedented access to most of the departments within American Airlines, the biggest airline in the world. A special like this would have been, at best, mildly interesting six years ago, but the change the industry has went through since 9/11 has me much more intrigued about how operations are handled on a daily basis. I rarely fly anywhere, but those who do will find out why the same seat cost more for one person than another, and why frequent flyer miles are so difficult to trade in. Peter Greenberg will serve as anchor for the documentary, which will be rebroadcast at midnight.

Last week I mentioned that Standoff was a lot like Bones. But after this episode, I'm wondering if it's not that Standoff is like Bones, it's more like FOX has a specific formula for the way they do dramas now.

That's not necessarily a bad thing. It's not a good thing either, but this episode is a vast improvement over the pilot, if only because the premise was meatier, a little less predictable, and it had some genuine tension.

So I was all set to review The Loop last night, but for some reason I thought it was on FOX at 9:30 instead of 8:30 and I missed it. Yeah, I know, and this is coming from the guy who does the What's On Tonight posts every damn day.

Anything happen on the show last night? Did it suddenly become hysterical and brilliant? Was it canceled and replaced by reruns of Stacked?