TVSquad

After last season's success of The Mentalist, I made a point of watching the show this season. I wanted to see if vox populi was right and this was must-see TV. Well, now that I've tuned in for a few episodes, my opinion of the show remains the same as when I previewed the pilot in 2008. It's a star vehicle for Simon Baker. He's wonderful in the role and commands the screen.

However, since watching this season, there's one major thing about The Mentalist that's ticking me off. Aretha Franklin sang about it: R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Not only is The Newlywed Game hosting its first ever gay couple. It's hosting its first ever gay celebrity couple. At least, one of them is a pretty well-known celebrity. George "Mr. Sulu" Takei and his partner Brad Altman will be appearing on the program. Although they've been together for over 20 years, they were only legally married last year (before all that Proposition 8 hoopla nullified gay marriage in California).

In case nobody remembers the rules to game: each partner is given a question about the relationship without the other partner present. If each member of the couple give the same answer, they win points. Considering that they've been together for 20 years, somebody is going to be pretty pissed off if one or the other gives a different answer to the same question. Hopefully it won't lead to a divorce. The most interesting answers in the game will come from any question about "making whoopee".

In what may be one of the biggest acts of nerdiness ever, a man in California has actually constructed a life-sized statue of the Transformer Bumblebee in his front yard. To make it even cooler, he based the design on the 80's cartoon and not the movie. In a final act of awesomeness, he used an actual VW Beetle to build the thing.

The funny thing is that the builder showed more respect to the original cartoon in this single act than Michael Bay did with the whole franchise (although I give Bay props for using some of the original cartoon voices in the movies).

Granted, car styles have changed a lot since the 1980's, but the VW Beetle is back in style and changing Bumblebee to Chevy Camaro seems sacrilege. My guess is that Michael Bay simply wanted to buy American.

So which Transformer do you think he should build next?

[via Topless Robot]

Note to Rob Lowe: Stop looking so damn healthy. Signed: The powers that be at ABC.

Seriously, Brothers & Sisters' star Rob Lowe has been ordered to stop tanning. Apparently, the actor just looks too good -- bronze and healthy and full of that Kennedy-style of vigor for the role he's playing. ABC brass, the president of the network no less, has told him to stay out of the sun. According to Lowe, he was warned that he is getting too dark and has to mend his ways now.

(S02E13) In 1962, President Kennedy threatened to fire the missiles of October, facing down with Russia over the nuclear launch sites in Cuba. On last night's season finale of Mad Men, creator Matthew Weiner actually pulled the trigger and set off a few carefully aimed rockets guaranteed to alter the future of the series. It was a stunning climax to the second season and if you were hoping for some big twists, you got them.

With little fanfare, Don came back from California. He appeared at the riding club where Betty's breath was seemingly taken away by the sight of him. No explanation. No excuses. And with a new sense of power, Betty wasn't ready to welcome him home.

If Don were ten years older and this was 1972 instead of 1962, we'd be saying that Don Draper is going through a mid-life crisis. After spending last week contemplating a new future with the jet set, or at least getting the offer of a hobo-existence without the worries of finances or fidelity, Don was compelled to look back before making a choice. That phone call at the end of The Jet Set was to the real Mrs. Draper.

Back home, meanwhile, Betty is again faced with having to grow up. Between her father's decline, Don's disappearance and her rebukes of Arthur and Glenn, Betts has been forced to be more than she's been in the past. Sally's latest stunt shouldn't be a shock considering that she's snuck a drink earlier this season and clearly idolizes everything her father does.

Sally blames Betty for Don's absence, and Betty realizes that pain she's been feeling is just as acute for her child and she does something human about it -- she gives Sally the boots to cushion the blow of the truth that Daddy may not be coming back.

(S02E10) This seemed an oddly structured episode, with the emphasis more on Betty than Don, with a splash of Pete and Kinsey thrown in. The idea that life was simpler in the old days, should anyone still think that adage applies, is disproved with every hour of Mad Men that unfolds.

For Betty, the impending death of her father has shaken her to the core. A series of strokes has led to dementia and when Don accompanies Betty to visit him in her childhood home, she has to come to grips with not only the fact that he's slipping away, but also be reminded that nearly every vestige of her mother has also gone.

"What makes a child go bad? Nurture or nature?"

(S04E06) For the first act of tonight's show, I kept thinking, what's the deal with Sergei? The episode unfolded like an onion, revealing more and more about this kid. The more I heard, the less I cared that he was missing.

It makes you wonder, how does someone like Brenda remain neutral and not form an opinion too soon in the investigation? It must be her training, because while Pope was quick to remove the "critical missing" status from the case, Fritz -- who came along to provide backup -- was not. It was up to Brenda to make the tough call. For a while there, it seemed like she may have messed up by yielding to Will's point of view.

One of the virtues of The Closer is that even though it's a procedural drama, they let true feelings show. There are visceral emotions at play, like when the neighbor cried about how his dog was killed, and when Theresa showed the detectives Sergei's room and revealed how evil her brother was (to her), and when Jason confessed that Sergei was terrorizing him.

I didn't hear about yesterday's earthquake from the usual sources, CNN or one of the major newspaper web sites. Nope, I heard about it on Twitter! Ah, the days of rapid communication. They're calling it TwitQuake, since everyone in the area of the quake made a note about it on their Twitter pages the moment it happened. It took CNN and Fox News a few minutes to catch up.

The quake made news on the blogs too, including Rich Sommers'. Rich plays Harry on Mad Men, and filming of the show was interrupted. Rich took the picture above showing cast and crew mingling outside the studio. The quake also interrupted things at the Big Brother house (probably a romp in the hot tub) and on Judge Judy (video!). The judge promptly told everyone to shut up because she knows more about earthquakes than anyone else. Sunset Tan also felt the 5.4 jolt but looked fantastic during it.

And if you were wondering, everyone at America's Best Dance Crew is safe.

On today's episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Ellen will announce that she and long-time girlfriend Portia de Rossi are getting married.

Her announcement is in response to this week's ruling from the California Supreme Court that everybody has a "right to marry" whomever they choose. The justices ruled that the state's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional. It makes California the second state, after Massachusetts, that will allow same-sex marriage. The legal battle began in San Francisco when the mayor allowed same-sex couples to marry (Rosie O'Donnell and her partner, Kelly, married at that time).

I have to hand it to the producers of ABC's Ugly Betty; they've re-created the look of New York City and Queens so effectively in the first two seasons that I thought they did film the show in the Big Apple. Well, no. They filmed the pilot in Manhattan and inserted a real location or two here and there, but the bulk of the series has been filmed in Los Angeles. (Although the Wicked episode was clearly not a Broadway theater -- it was just too spacious!)

Now comes words that the Ugly Betty production may actually pull up stakes and make New York its real home, complete with costumes, props, studio and stars. The ABC Studios are contemplating the relocation for financial reasons, including very lucrative tax credits. While that's good for the producers, it sucks for the crew. They won't be transported to the city; they'll be let go -- about 150 in all. But if you're a glass half-full kind of person, that's 150 new jobs for New York workers. As for the stars, this change isn't a big deal as most are from New York and aren't objecting to moving -- at least that's the word from ABC.

By a vote of 8-1, the highest court in the land has ruled against Alex Ferrer, Judge Alex. Now, we're not talking the Emmy judges, ruling against the TV show. This is the real legal business, not the Let's Make A Deal-justice of the sort Judge Alex is all about. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against him. Ferrer, star of the syndicated court show Judge Alex, a former police officer and Florida judge, had brought a case before the high court involving a dispute over commissions he supposedly owed to a former associate, Arnold Preston.

You know how the contestants on Survivor really aren't very interesting anymore? You gotta give this guy points for originality. A California man recently skinned a snake alive and ATE IT at open auditions for Survivor in Bakersfield, CA. He freakin' ATE IT. The guy gave a fake name to the newspaper and told them he's unemployed and he's ready to play a real game of Survivor. [Side note: Do they do background checks for homicidal tendencies?]

The city newspaper, The Bakersfield Californian, actually has a 2 minute video of the entire event complete with commentary from other horrified Survivor hopefuls. I honestly got about 30 seconds into the video and nearly lost my lunch, so consider this your warning.

[Via TV Tattle]

The FOX Reality channel has created a new series specifically for the Web called Nightclub Confessions. Each episode will run about ten minutes and feature club goers in Southern California revealing deep, dark secrets. The episodes will begin airing on the FOX Reality channel's site on May 30.

If you liked HBO's Taxicab Confessions, it sounds like you'll probably also enjoy this series, which pretty much uses the same format of getting drunk people to speak candidly about themselves. Of course, these people are made aware that their confessions may be shown on both the Web and television (an hour-long version of the series culled from the Web clips will air on the FOX Reality channel on June 30). The Web version of the series will be somewhat racier than what makes it to television.

FOX Reality will be installing the confession booths in select bars and nightclubs this weekend.

The temptation to make the headline "America salutes America" was great, but I resisted. Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis took the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday to salute America Ferrera for her Golden Globe win and for "breaking down barriers for Latinos in prime-time television...I commend America and everyone involved in Ugly Betty for helping break down stereotypes and provide a role model for young Latinas." (Heck, she deserves praise for being one of the only non-Brits to snag an award. It was a regular Anglophile-o-rama at the Globes on Monday.)

Solis' own work in "breaking down barriers" isn't too shabby either. She was the first Latina elected to the California State Senate, and she is serving her third Congressional term. She was also the first Latina to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award. Maybe giving Betty this nod will win her a guest spot on the show where she can come and convince Betty to give up the frivolous world of fashion for a turn at politics.