TVSquad

If you're one of the millions, nay billions, who's laughed at the antics of Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer or if you can't pick up an order of kung pao shrimp without wondering if they shorted you on the number of shrimp, then you -- my friend -- are a Larry David fan. The brain behind Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, David has a unique comic view of the world and on February 20, the Writers Guild of America is giving Larry David a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The actual award is called the Paddy Chayevsky Laurel award for television, and Larry has most definitely earned the recognition. Seinfeld remains a masterpiece of character and comedy with or without a plot. The very nothingness of Seinfeld made it historic television. It was a show that NBC nearly canceled because the suits didn't get it (what a shock!), then went on to become America's favorite half-hour. Twenty years later, Seinfeld is embedded in the psyche of pop culture. Not bad for a nothing kind of show.

If you had any doubt before, James Franco is taking his guest appearance on General Hospital very seriously. This isn't a stunt or a grab for attention, as some have speculated. It's not even a challenge to see if he could dip into the soap opera world and keep up with the pace and volume of a TV convention that's extremely demanding (250+ episodes a year without reruns). Well, James has written about his goals in the Wall Street Journal and for him, General Hospital is performance art.

I'm sure I'm simplifying what he's writing about because I'm not savvy about the form, but in his own words, he wrote, "I took the plunge and experimented with the form myself when I signed on to appear on 20 episodes of General Hospital as the bad-boy artist."

As part of the 20th anniversary celebrations, Fox is holding a contest in which fans can create a character online that will appear in an upcoming episode of The Simpsons. Entries can be submitted on The Simpsons website (although apparently not yet) and should include such information as name, age, appearance, occupation and catchphrase ("D'oh!").

I suspect that all entries will be the property of Fox upon submission. Since the show has been around for so long, it must be tough to invent new, unique and interesting characters so Fox is having the fans do it.

Of course, everyone could always just submit themselves as a candidate. It would be a little like that "Simpsonize yourself" craze from not too long ago. So many celebrities have made appearances on the show over the years, it would be nice if a non-celebrity, the sort that kept the show in business, would have a cameo.

Lead characters are extremely important for TV series, as they are the basis of the shows' storylines. However, to make said lead characters shine and make the storylines interesting, supporting characters must be introduced. Sometimes, those characters have a major impact on a series and even end up becoming leads. Just see how Ben Linus on Lost was set to appear in a few episodes, but ended up being so helpful to the storyline and loved (or hated) by the fans that he became an integral part of the series and is now a major player on the show.

That compelled me to make a list of new supporting characters who helped make their series better this season. Since my list only has 10 items and because I don't watch all current TV series, I will have missed tons of supporting characters, so feel free to add to the list by commenting below. However, note that I restricted my list to supporting characters that were introduced THIS season. So the Ben Linuses of the TV world are not on the list.

I'd forgotten all about this little online game until last week's freak-out in Boston over the Mooninites. As with many, many similar games, you can answer questions about yourself and discover which character from Aqua Teen Hunger Force is most like you.

Now, this isn't the best 'which character are you' game out there. It's pretty obvious by the options which one will make you Shake and which one will make you Meatwad. Still, it's a way to kill five minutes (ten, if you're a slow reader).

I was expecting to be Frylock but I ended up being Carl. Yep, Carl. The hairy, stupid neighbor with a cool car. I went very wrong somewhere.

TVShowsOnDVD reports that the supposedly-canceled Mr. Magoo DVD set is now available through Classic Media. "The Mr. Magoo Show Complete DVD Collection" includes 130 cartoons from the '60s animated series. It does not seem to include Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, however, which is kind of a shame. Still, the entire series on DVD is a pretty sweet deal, so I'm certainly not complaining.

After Columbia Pictures picked up United Productions of America (UPA) to create theatrical shorts, the third short created was Ragtime Bear, which contained the first appearance of Mr. Magoo. When cartoons made the transition from theater screens to television, the company created The Mr. Magoo Show, which ran from 1960 to 1962. Magoo then returned yet again for two more series: The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo and What's New, Mr. Magoo?

We've only seen him cloaked in his black hood, both in the original Space Ghost cartoon and on his talk show Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, but what does Space Ghost look like beneath that mysterious hood? Well, he looks like this. That's a model sheet drawn by original Space Ghost designer Alex Toth, who passed away last June. C. Martin Croker, who worked on Space Ghost: Coast to Coast from the beginning and voiced the characters of Zorak and Moltar, posted the image on his blog. Is it just me, or does Space Ghost look a little like Aquaman? Maybe they were actually brothers, and one day he tried to swim like Aquaman but drowned, later coming back to fight aliens and eventually host his own talk show.

So you think you know all there is to know about Kwik-E-Mart worker, father of eight and friend of the Simpsons, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, do you? BeliefNet.com has a quiz to test your knowledge of the hindu convenience store clerk, a quiz I would have easily scored 100 on if it didn't cut out the last three questions for some reason, and then penalyze me for not answering questions it never gave me in the first place. There's also a quiz based on Ned Flanders, which cut out the last question. Seriously, what the hell, people? Anyway, I'd say the quizzes are pretty darn easy for any Simpsons fan. Give 'em a spin and let me know how you did in the comments.

[via Pop Candy]

(S01E03) Writers are the most shameless, self-centered bastards in the world. We lie, we seduce, we'll steal your soul. Anything to look good on the page. -Sam Landry

I thought I had read every story from Nightmares and Dreamscapes, and I might have, but nothing about "Umney's Last Case" was familiar when I read it just recently. Nevertheless, it's not a bad story, and it's also very "meta" as the college kids like to say.

In the story, as in the TV adaptation, we begin in the 1930s where a grizzled private eye named Clyde Umney is leading a storybook life that he'll soon learn is more "storybook" than he realizes. He wields snappy dialogue with the precision of a trapeze artist, and always knows just what to say to get what he wants, at one point managing to turn two women to jelly in his office one after the other.

Mischa Barton and I are both happy about her character's death on The O.C. last week. We just have different reasons. I am just thrilled that she's no longer on the show. Mischa, however, says she's happy her character, Marissa Cooper, got killed in a car wreck rather than "one of those lame farewells." She told Newsweek, "Well, I was really excited that I got to die, to be honest. I've done pretty much everything else with that character." Like pout. And drink. And do drugs. And pout some more. She said that the decision to kill of her character was the producers', not hers. But, she says, she's ready to focus on movies now. She was only on The O.C. for three seasons.

I don't know what is with all the Star Trek-related posts from me today. Maybe it's on my radar because I watched First Contact the other night (that Borg chick rocks!). Anyway, there's an internet quiz to determine which Star Trek character you are. Sadly, I am a "redshirt", or an expendable crewmate who gets killed as soon as the away team beams down to the planet's surface. Bummer.

Take the quiz, then tell me: Who are you?

[Via Blogdex]