TVSquad

In my review of last night's Glee, I praised Amber Riley's voice, noting that it sounded like a combo of Jennifer Hudson and Rihanna when her character Mercedes sang about busting the windows out of Kurt's car. Commenter "czaravm" noted that after about 30 seconds, the computerized music kicked in, giving it a canned sound. I was pretty mesmerized by Riley's voice and the way she was workin' that body, so I didn't really notice it.

Does this sort of canned music bother you? Is it enough to make you stop watching Glee? Based on the comments on my review post, it sounds like some of you are disappointed with how the show is going.

If you had to guess, what's the most coveted, prime TV real estate currently available? In February, it was the post-Super Bowl slot, but now -- what could it be. How about the hour after the American Idol finale on May 19 on FOX. With that in mind, FOX has decided to give one of its most promising, albeit unusual, new products the hour.

Ryan Murphy's musical comedy series Glee is getting the post American Idol finale hour. And yes, it is a musical comedy TV series. After American Idol crowns its new winner on May 19, all those millions of viewers, the ones who stay on the network, will see a special preview of the show about a struggling high school glee club.

Before Viva Laughlin (one of the worst shows to premiere on television in the past five years) debuted, no one would have believed a show like Cop Rock ever existed. Cops and crooks suddenly breaking into song and/or dance about robberies, shootings, drug deals, and murder? Sure, why not!

It came from Steven Bochco and ran on ABC in 1990. Check out the video after the jump. It's the classic scene you saw on Hill Street Blues all the time, the cops getting their morning rundown on what's going on. Then the captain suddenly starts singing "Let's Be Careful Out There." There's a cameo by another Bochco star at the end. I'm still wondering why the cops don't look at the guy singing and say "um, shouldn't we call the police psychologist?"

All right, let's get into this Cop Rock thing that the A.V. Club has just mentioned as one of the top "lamentably lost" television shows. Trust me folks, the show was not something to lament about. In fact, I'm sure there are people out there who wish the show would just be lost and buried deep into the ground.

I guess you could say that the concept of the show was unique. Created by Steven Bochco, who was known as the driving force behind the police drama Hill Street Blues, Cop Rock combined said police drama with musical theater. Each episode of the short-lived series, which ran on ABC from September to December of 1990, began with a music-video style credit sequence with theme music by Randy Newman. Then, throughout each week's program, characters would break out in song and dance during the middle of a scene. For example, a jury would sing out "He's Guilty" in Gospel format, or a lineup of Hispanic suspects would proclaim racial discrimination in a pithy little ditty.

Everyone seems to recall a series that had a completely off-the-wall premise, about a talking car or a man dressed as a woman or an orangutan in Congrees. The problem is, the shows are so short-lived that they've faded into the murky recesses of people's brains, to the point where people start questioning whether the show actually existed or was just a figment of their imagination.

Well, the web site Television Obscurites knows the feeling. That's why they've put together a list of the ten most outlandish series concepts, including the obligatory listings of My Mother the Car and Cop Rock. But some of the other concepts listed don't seem so outlandish these days; Occasional Wife sounds just like Ned and Stacey, and The Second Hundred Years sounds like a live-action version of Futurama. But there are others that are just plain silly; for instance, no one's attempted to do another nuclear war comedy since the disaster that was Whoops! Thank goodness.

In search of information about the absolute, total, non-return of Love Monkey, I came across an interesting article in, of all places, The Calgary Sun. The article, written by Kevin Williamson, counts down the top 25 best series that were canceled before their time.

Some of the entries on the list are those that many others (including those fabulous writers who post on this fantastic site) have mentioned as dying premature deaths. For example, the recently departed Arrested Development falls in at number two on the list. Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night appears at the number 12 spot.