TVSquad

(S01E01) Ed Begley, Jr. loves the environment. In fact, his love for Mother Earth often overshadows his acting career, and after watching HGTV's sneak preview of the new reality series Living with Ed, you get the feeling he's just fine with that.

The new series, which slips into its regular timeslot of Sundays at 10pm starting January 7, follows Ed and his wife Rachelle, who suffers her husbands tenacity with light sarcasm and good humor. She sums up her predicament quite well when she says, "I married into a lifestyle."

The "lifestyle" is one in which her husband cooks on a solar grill, hoses "smog dust" off the solar panels on his roof, times her while she's in the shower, and drives an electric car to the Academy Awards. Rachelle is not always happy with Ed valuing environment over aesthetics, complaining that he always picks out the ugliest environmentally-friendly things he can find. Whether Begley's lifestyle is overkill or not, I can't help but admire a man who actually practices what he preaches.

We got a message in to the TV Squad home office, located in beautiful downtown Orofino Idaho, from the fine folks over at WebMD. They have recently launched a new blog which will support or refute cases from the various medical shows. I've always been one to just roll with whatever kind of crazy story the writers come up with. Two people stuck together on a pole? Ok. A woman with African sleeping sickness? Tell me all about it. But even with my I'll believe anything once attitude, this site is fascinating. After you watch your medical show of choice, check in with the team at WebMD to see how the writers did.

Right now they have stories on the woman with two uteruses on Grey's Anatomy, broken heart syndrome from ER, and the kidney thieves on Nip/Tuck, to name a few. Next time you are at a party, just ask a random person, "Did you know that a woman can have two uteruses? And she can give birth to twins two months apart?" That's an icebreaker right there.

That's the word from a retailer anyway (no word from Fox yet). The first season of the critically-acclaimed drama will be released on December 12.

Sometimes it's easy to forget how groundbreaking this show was. The topics they covered, the writing. And the cast! Denzel Washington, Howie Mandel, Mark Harmon, Ed Begley, Jr., David Morse, Eric Stoltz, and Tim Robbins were all regulars on the show at one point or another, along with many others.

The most famous kidnapping victim ever will appear on, and then disappear from, Veronica Mars. Heiress Patty Hearst will play the granddaughter of the founder of Hearst College (the fictional university on the show). Patty's character, a member of the Board of Trustees, will mysteriously disappear the night before a big vote regarding the university's future. The episode airs during ratings, November 21. Hearst has made a number of guest appearances on shows such as Frasier, Boston Common, and Son of the Beach.

Eh. I like Veronica Mars, but if they're really scrambling for ratings, I don't think the power of Patty Hearst is going to help them much. I'm more excited about Ed Begley, Jr.