TVSquad

• TV Land has an Andy Griffith Show marathon tonight while CMT has a Scott Baio Is 46...And Pregnant marathon.
• At 8, CBS has a new Big Brother.
• NBC has a new, two hour Last Comic Standing at 8, followed by a new Fear Itself.
• FOX has new episodes of Don't Forget The Lyrics and So You Think You Can Dance.
• At 8:30, HGTV has a new Myles of Style, followed by new episodes of Rate My Space, Extreme Living, and House Hunters.
• At 9, History Channel has a new Modern Marvels, then a new episode of The Works.
• At 10, ABC has a the season finale of Hopkins.
• CBS has a new Flashpoint at 10.
• There's a new Burn Notice on USA at 10.
• Food Network has a new Ace of Cakes at 10.
• Bravo has a new Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List at 10.
• Showtime has a new Penn & Teller's Bullshit at 10.
• Also at 10: Comedy Central has a new Gong Show, then a new Reality Bites Back.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Earle Hagen: He was a legendary, Emmy-winning composer of music for TV shows, including the themes to The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, I Spy, That Girl, Gomer Pyle, USMC, Make Room For Daddy, The Mod Squad, and Mike Hammer ("Harlem Nocturne"). He also worked on the music for many movies, including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Monkey Business, Daddy Long Legs, Carousel, Let's Make Love, Compulsion, Don't Bother To Knock, and There's No Business Like Show Business. Hagen died at age 88 in Rancho Mirage, CA.

• At 8, ABC has Vacation Swap, followed by a new episode of The Bachelorette.
• NBC has a new American Gladiators at 8, then a new Dateline.
• ABC Family has a new Greek at 8, then a new Wildfire.
• Also at 8: TV Land has an Andy Griffith Show marathon.
• At 8:30, ESPN has the NBA Playoffs.
• At 9, Larry King Live has all the finalists from American Idol.
• USA has a new Monday Night RAW at 9.
• A&E has the premiere of The Andromeda Strain at 9.
• At 10, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
• E! has the premiere of Denise Richards: It's Complicated, then the premiere of Living Lohan.
• Also at 10: MTV has two new episodes of The Paper.

Check your local TV listings for more.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Gloria Cromwell: She appeared in a number of TV shows over the years, including Kate & Allie (she played Janet, their landlord), Ryan's Hope, Murder, She Wrote, Moonlighting, Hill Street Blues, The Golden Girls, Hunter, Cop Rock, Designing Women, Coach, L.A. Law, and many others. She was also in many films, including Say Anything, The Odd Couple: Together Again, The War of the Roses, and The Parent Trap II. She died on March 3 (age unknown).

Did you get money for Christmas? I don't get money for Christmas anymore. Gift cards have become the money substitute now, for both adults and kids. But if you did get cash for Christmas, or maybe you got a Christmas bonus or maybe you got cash back for that ugly sweater Aunt Sally bought you, here's a guide to some TV show promotional items and other collectibles you might want to buy.

Heroes stamps. Yup, these are official U.S. stamps, and they come with a pic (actually, Isaac-ish drawing) of your favorite hero. Right now they have Claire, Nathan, Hiro, Peter, and also that mysterious helix symbol. What, no Syler?

• At 8, every station in the universe has the Patriots/Giants game.
• ESPN has football too at 8, the Valero Alamo Bowl.
• TV Land has a mini marathon of The Andy Griffith Show starting at 8.
• At 9, FOX has a new America's Most Wanted.
• CNBC has a new Suze Orman Show at 9.
• Lifetime has the movie My Baby Is Missing at 9.
• Also at 9: Cartoon Network has two new episodes of Naruto at 9, followed by a new One Piece.
• At 10, BBC America has a new Graham Norton Show.
• Sundance has the Hitchcock movie Rope at 10.

Check your local TV listings for more.

• TV Land has an Andy Griffith Show marathon all night.
• At 7, CBS has a new 60 Minutes, then new episodes of The Amazing Race, Cold Case, and Shark.
• ABC has two new episodes of Extreme Makeover starting at 7, then new episodes of Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters.
• NBC has a new Football Night in America at 7, followed by the Eagles/Patriots game.
• FOX has a new King of the Hill at 7.
• There's a new CW Now on The CW at 7.
• At 8, FOX has a new Simpsons.
• ABC Family has a new holiday movie at 8, Christmas Caper.
• TNT has one of their 700 showings of A Christmas Story at 8.
• AMC has Santa Claus: The Movie at 8, followed by the excellent 1984 TV version of A Christmas Carol.
• Food Network has a new Challenge at 8, then a Christmas dessert battle on a new Iron Chef America.
• At 8:30, PBS has The Best of Masterpiece Theatre.
• At 9, FOX has a new Family Guy.
• At midnight, Cartoon Network has a new Xavier: Renegade Angel, then a new Tim and Eric's Awesome Show, Great Job.

Check your local TV listings for more.

New TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• The Andy Griffith Show - The Complete Series
• Charlie and Lola - Vol. 4
• The Closer - Season 2
• F Troop - Season 2
• The Kids in the Hall - Best of Vol. 2
• Rawhide - Season 2, Vol. 1
• Weeds - Season 1 (Blu-Ray)

Now here's an interesting idea: a line of food based on a TV show.

They're called Mayberry's Finest, and they are a line of "southern comfort food" based on the type of stuff The Andy Griffith Show's Aunt Bee used to cook for Andy and Opie (and anyone who was sick in town, like Clara): beef stew, mustard greens, and mixes for buttermilk biscuits and lemon icebox muffins. They're being launched at the Food Marketing Institute's convention in Chicago. Each package will be based on a character from the show and will include snippets of show scripts and episode info.

This could start a trend. How about a line of food based on Gilligan's Island (canned pineapple, coconut cream pie) or Survivor (bugs)?

You folks might recall that a man running for Sheriff in Grant County, Wisconsin changed his name from "William Harold Fenrick" to "Andrew Jackson Griffith" so he could run under the name "Andy Griffith" and hopefully use the iconic name to win the election.

He didn't win.

He did, however, have a lawsuit filed against him by Andy Griffith, the actor who played Andy Taylor on the Andy Griffith Show. Recently, however, a judge dismissed the case, saying that Fenrick did not violate any copyright and that what he did was protected under the First Amendment. I'm not a fancy big city lawyer, so I can't say much about this.

One of the saddest changes in the television landscape has been the disappearance of the theme song. They're really not that important to the people who create TV shows now (or the networks who want to get more commercials in). Lost has just a single note as their theme song, ER has changed and shortened their theme song, Jericho has static, and Heroes doesn't have a theme song or credits either.

Luckily, the shows that still have theme songs also have opening credits. Shows like The Office and Dexter all have theme songs and opening credits. They're classic TV openings. Of course, it's nothing like years gone by, where almost all shows had theme song and opening credits. The Onion has picked 22 that they feel fit their shows perfectly. I don't know if that is the same as "best opening sequences," but the choices are interesting, quirky, a little maddening, and they left out a few, as I'm sure you'll agree.

I'm a sucker for commercials. I think they're needed, and when they're done right they can sometimes be better than the shows they're inserted into. I also think they can tell more about a certain time than the shows themselves.

After the jump is a bunch of commercials from the 60s, 70, and 80s. Some you'll remember instantly, and some you'll see for the first time. Another reason to love the internets: commercials you thought you'd never see again can live on forever!

There are drinkers, and then there are drinkers. The ones that always seem to have a drink in their hand. It's a social thing, it's a private thing, but most of all, it's an everyday thing. Here are five TV characters who drank. A lot.

1. Larry Tate (Bewitched): Sure, it was the 60s and drinking was everyone and not frowned upon like it is in a lot of situations today, but mother of God Larry used to drink a lot. Every single time he came over to the Stephens' home he rushed over to their bar and made himself a drink, or Samantha gave him one. He seems like a prime candidate for alcoholism: a harried advertising guy, always on the go, and an ad exec who works for him that seems to vanish or have odd things happen to him all the time. That couldn't have been easy to deal with. This guy drinks a lot. In fact, if you play the Bewitched drinking game (take a drink every time Larry takes a drink), you probably won't make it past an episode.

So I was watching an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show this weekend. What does this have to do with Buffy The Vampire Slayer/Firefly mastermind Joss Whedon? Read on.

The episode I was watching was "Scratch My Car and Die," the one where Rob buys a new sports car and Laura accidentally scratches it while shopping. Watching the credits (I often watch the credits to see who was in an episode and then I run to the comptuer to check the IMdB to see what else they've done, if they're still alive, etc) I noticed that it was written by someone named John Whedon. Now, Whedon isn't the most common name, and he did work in television, so I checked and...yup, it's Joss Whedon's grandfather! He wrote another episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show and also wrote episodes of Leave It To Beaver, The Donna Reed Show, The Wonderful World of Disney, and several episodes of The Andy Griffith Show (though it's hard to figure out how many exactly with the IMdB's odd credits system).

Whedon died in 1991.

Last week we told you how plans to create a Barney Fife statue in Mount Airy, NC in honor of the late Don Knotts (he died last February) were stopped because CBS and Paramount had to pull their support of the project because they didn't have the rights to say yes or no to such a project. Knotts' family was against the project as well because they wanted a statue of Knotts that wasn't of Fife but of Knotts as himself.

Now they might get their wish. Officials in Morgantown, WV, where Knotts was born, are well on their way of raising the $50,000 they need to erect a statue of the actor. They already have a small version of the statue (designed by the guy who designed the back of the WV quarter). The statue will show the actor dressed in regular clothes, sitting down, reasding a script.

The town also has a bronze star honoring Knotts on their city sidewalk, and they plan to name a park after him as well.

[via TV Tattle]