TVSquad

I'll admit it, I love end of the year lists. Even though I don't always agree with the lists I read in magazines and online, they always make for interesting reading and they put the year in perspective, and make you think of something in a new way. Our Festivus lists are a chance to tell everyone what we'd like to see on our televisions and under our trees next to our metallic Fesitvus poles. Here's my list.

1. An end to the writers strike. Look, I want the writers to get everything that's coming to them. As a writer myself, I'm behind them 100%. But we're talking about what I want for Festivus here, and I would love to see the writers and studios come to an agreement so we can salvage at least a part of the rest of the season. I don't want to see all repeats and reality for the next 6 months. I also miss David Letterman, especially during the holidays.

In addition to the recent renewals and new episode orders for TNT's Saving Grace and The Closer, the USA Network has ordered up thirteen new episodes of Burn Notice.

Burn Notice is great summer fare: a series that doesn't exactly break new ground but is still fun to watch. USA's motivation in picking new shows has been to focus on strong characters, and that's exactly what keeps Burn Notice from being just another crime/detective/mystery series (even though it is just another crime/detective/mystery series). It's also what keeps me tuning into Monk after all these years, even though every episode is pretty much the same. The lead players, Jeffrey Donovan, Sharon Gless, Bruce Campbell and Gabrielle Anwar, work well within the sometimes cookie-cutter self-contained plots, elevating the series to something worth checking out each week. It's not the plots so much, it's the people.

Four million people tuned into the series premiere of USA Network's Burn Notice two weeks ago, and they held on to most of those viewers last week.

The Thursday night show has become a hit for USA. Most shows get big numbers for their premieres, because of lots of advertising and curiosity (*cough* Studio 60 *cough*), but don't hold on to them. It looks like fans like viewers like Burn Notice enough to give it another shot.

(S01E01) The first thing that struck me about Burn Notice was how the show appealed to my senses. While watching the show, I could almost feel the heat of the sun, smell the salt water and taste the Pina Coladas.

I really appreciated the lack of explanation in the pilot. Most of us have already gotten the premise from the ads for the show, so once the action kicked in, right at the beginning, I was hooked. Generally, I don't like voice-overs but it was a great way to give details that make the show very interesting. I'm sure I'm not the only one who was getting MacGyver flashbacks when Michael was explaining how to make a listening device out of two cell phones.

Deadpan and hysterically self-aware B-movie icon Bruce "Don't Call Me Ash" Campbell appeared in an ad for Old Spice back in January, but if you thought he was done pitching the manly fragrance, then you've got another thing coming, you primitive screwheads.

In this new spot (see it below, along with another behind-the-scenes clip) a suave and debonair Bruce woos a group of lovely ladies with a lounge rendition of Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf." I can't imagine Bill Murray would have done it any better.

These ads, along with the Mac/PC ads from Apple, hold the special distinction of being commercials I will actually stop and watch while skipping past other commercials with my Tivo. What can I say, I've been a fan of Bruce from the moment he first strapped that chainsaw to his arm.

See Bruce croon after the jump.

[via Pop Candy]

Last night I did the unthinkable. I actually stopped and watched a commercial on my Tivo. Correction: I stopped and actually hit rewind on my remote so I could watch a commercial. Why did I do this? Two words: Bruce Campbell. If you don't know that name, then you're obviously not a fan of that classic horror trilogy consisting of The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, and Army of Darkness. Evil Dead II is the best one of the three, and I'm willing to fight anyone who says different. You might also know Bruce as the titular lead in the TV series The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., or from such series as Xena: Warrior Princess, Hercules and Jack of All Trades. Bruce often works with his childhood friend Sam Raimi, and has appeared in all of Raimi's Spider-Man films. Raimi also directed the Evil Dead films and executive produced Xena, Hercules and Jack of All Trades.

• At 8, FOX has a new Cops, followed by a repeat episode and a new America's Most Wanted.
• NBC has a new, two hour Dateline at 8.
• TLC has two new episodes of Little People, Big World at 8.
• ABC Family has Eloise at Christmastime at 8.
• AMC has Patton at 8.
• Diamonds Are Forever airs on Spike at 8.
• Hallmark is showing Christmas movies all night.
• At 9, Food Network has Al Roker's Christmas in New York.
• Also at 9: Showtime has Bruce Campbell in Evil Dead 2.
• At 10, TLC has a new Trading Spaces.
• At 10:30, TBS has National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, followed by The Nightmare Before Christmas.

USA Network continues its foray into original programming, this time around with Burn Notice. The new drama stars Jeffrey Donovan (Touching Evil) as a CIA operative who was recently given his pink slip, or Burn Notice in spy lingo. Once he is let go he uses his Special Ops skills to help others who, for some reason or another, cannot go to the police.

Actors recently added to the cast are Gabrielle Anwar (The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines), Bruce Campbell (The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., Evil Dead), and Sharon Gless (Queer as Folk, Cagney & Lacey). Production on the show will begin next week. No word at this time when it will premiere on USA.

Yesterday I pointed to an article in the Boston Globe about all of the nerd heroes that are on TV this fall season. But I didn't see this story until later in the day, a profile of John Hodgman, the PC guy in those Apple ads, Daily Show correspondent, and author of the very funny The Areas Of My Expertise.

I knew that Hodgman was from my neck of the woods in Massachusetts, but I didn't know he wrote his book while sitting in a cafe in Northhampton. The article talks about his family, how he got the idea for the book, and his amazement at not only how popular the Apple ads have become but how he was shocked that he got a gig on The Daily Show.

He's been working on a follow-up book in MA this summer.

• The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. - Complete Series
• Amazing Stories - First season
• Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book One: Water, Volume Four
• Carnivale - Second season
• Jack of All Trades - Complete Series
• The Pretender - Fourth season
• Ren & Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon - The Lost Episodes
• SpongeBob SquarePants - Karate Island
• Ultraman - Volume One

• NBC might have canceled its West Wing retrospective for next Sunday, but EW gathers the cast and crew and goes down memory lane. Among the tidbits: Sidney Poitier was the first person talked about to play the President; producers offered Bradley Whitford the role of Sam, but he wanted to play Josh; John Spencer was the first person cast, but Sorkin had originally seen Judd Hirsch as Leo and had to rewrite the character for Spencer; Eugene Levy auditioned to play Toby; CCH Pounder auditioned to play C.J., as did Janel Moloney; and NBC bought the West Wing only if John Wells agreed to also do Third Watch.
  
• Paris Bennett says "Don't be sad."
• Gillian Flynn answers the question: what is the worst show to have a long run?
• New DVDs: they give a B+ to the first and second season DVD set of The Facts of Life, and an A- for the Scrubs third season set.
• Funny review of 7th Heaven by Ken Tucker, calling the series finale flashback "creepy."
• Bruce Campbell gives a guest review of Supernatural. He says it's fun, but it's scare factor is too conservative and the lead actors pose too much.
• A look at the new Lost tie-in book, Bad Twin.