TVSquad

(S05E05) This could turn out to be the single most important episode of The New Adventures of Old Christine. Dare I say it was "a very special episode of" The New Adventures of Old Christine? Oh, who am I kidding, things will never change, but isn't that why we love it.

It was a lot of fun seeing Eric McCormack as Matthew's mentor in therapy, as well as his office-mate. That's an easy way to set him up for a recurring role on the show for awhile. And they gave him a shady past, which is an easy way to write him off the show at a moment's notice.

He was there to give Christine someone new to bounce her craziness off of. I absolutely loved their first scene together. Christine all hopped up on diet pills from the '70s, dressed like Maude and working as a temporary fill-in as Matthew's secretary. Every week Julia Louis-Dreyfus cracks me up with just how undignified she's willing to look for this role.

On paper, Trust Me looked like a sure fire hit. I tuned in week after week to watch the show, so I consider myself a loyal viewer, but I have to be honest. The show never took off. Bob got it right in his early look, Trust Me had all the elements for something special, but it just never jelled. TNT has cancelled Trust Me after one season.

The guy in charge of TNT programming, Michael Wright, implied that a drama set in the advertising business was just a little too inaccessible for viewers. And that was the issue; not enough Nielsen numbers.

Are there any big fans of TNT's Trust Me out there? I'm really curious to find out. I like the show, but it still hasn't hooked me. I thought it started out with a lot of potential, and the charismatic leads – Eric McCormack and Tom Cavanagh – are great, but that's not enough to keep me coming back every week.

I guess most viewers feel the same way. Trust Me has been getting killed in the ratings for weeks, and now it looks like the show might never get a chance to find its groove. McCormack is reportedly ready to move on. He's been cast as the lead in an ABC comedy pilot produced by Tad Quill (Dirty Sexy Money).

In case you didn't know, I'm Canadian. That being said, I watch tons and tons of American TV, partially because our main English channels -- CTV and Global, just to name two -- mostly air US shows. And, let's admit it, I enjoy a lot the shows created by my friends south of the border.

Since there are more TV shows produced in the US and because actors can make more money down south, a lot of Canadian actors go to the USA. to work (or try to get work in a US show shot in Vancouver or Toronto). Here I present you with ten Canadian actors currently starring in lead roles in various primetime US TV shows. Did you know these ten actors were not from the US?

Trust Me is one of those shows that will probably not make it -- the ratings have been careening -- but I'm still watching it. I'm not sure why. It's not a great show, but I do like Tom Cavanagh and Eric McCormack. They're good together, even though the show around them seems to lurch from story to story without much cohesion.

I think the problem is that unlike a legal, medical or cop show, it's hard to dramatize the creative process. How do you show two ad men, an art director (now creative director) and a copywriter, come up with amazing commercials, billboards, ads, etc.?

I'll admit that I'm not too thrilled with TNT's new drama Trust Me yet. I want it to be much better than it is.

Of course, the key word there is "yet," because we all know that TV shows can get better as they go along in their first season, and even into their second. Unfortunately, we now live in a fast-paced TV world where shows have to pretty much be a hit from the get-go. Sure, shows on premium cable networks like HBO andf Showtime often get a longer honeymoon because there's less ratings pressure, but for the most part, shows either have to be a big hit early, show growth over the weeks (in general or in a certain demographic), or have to have a lot of "buzz" that cancels out (at least temporarily) any notions of a cancellation (like Gossip Girl).

But Trust Me? The ratings are in free fall.

I will guess that a lot of people think that the reason why we have another cable drama set in the world of advertising is because of the success of AMC's Mad Men. And while the honors that the 60s-based show probably gave TNT execs an extra reason to look at Trust Me and put its production into overdrive, the show has actually been in the works for a while.

The comparisons are going to come though. The shows are very different. Judging from the first two episodes, they're not only different in setting (2009 Chicago vs. 1960 NYC) and tone (faster paced, with more obvious humor than Mad Men), they're not really going for anything deep or tackling any big issues.

Can two cable shows about the advertising world co-exist? Of course they can. With 12 Law and Orders, 9 CSIs, and 57 reality shows where sexy people live in a house, I think we can have two shows about advertising.

Trust Me is the new name of the TNT series Truth in Advertising. It stars Eric McCormack (Will and Grace) as Mason and Tom Cavanagh (Ed) as Connor, best friends who also run an ad agency. Unlike Mad Men, it's set in the present day. Also unlike Mad Men, it's set in Chicago. See? Two big differences right there.

(S07E07) Too often when a show reaches an anniversary, like say 100 episodes, the producers feel the need to mark the occasion with an extraordinary entry. That was what happened with Monk.

To commemorate the 100th episode, they created Mr. Monk's 100th Case, and using a show within a show format, celebrated Adrian Monk, a modern day Sherlock Holmes. San Francisco's defective detective

Thank goodness it all worked! I was afraid we were going to get a clip-laden, down-memory-lane type of show with nothing remotely intriguing. No, writer Tom Scharpling and company were more clever than that.

My first thought when I heard about TNT's Truth In Advertising, which has just received the go ahead for 13 episodes, was "oh, they're just doing that because of the critical success of Mad Men." And who knows, that might be true, but this show by itself sounds awfully intriguing.

I mean, come on, look at this cast: Eric McCormack (Will and Grace), Tom Cavanagh (Ed, Eli Stone), Sarah Clarke (24), Monica Potter (Boston Legal), and Griffin Dunne (Law and Order: CI, 3 lbs.). And it's from the same people who bring us The Closer, so you know it's going to be of some quality. And it's really great to see Cavanagh and McCormack back on weekly TV again (oh, when oh when is Ed coming to DVD?).

In case you haven't heard, there is the possibility of a writers strike in early 2008, and TV networks have started to buy more and more scripts ahead of time just in case.

ABC has Section 8, which is described as being about "everyday people with exceptional neurological abilities recruited to work for a secret branch of a government agency" (again? *sigh*). NBC passed on the show because it was too much like another show they have about ordinary folks with powers (hmmm...The Biggest Loser?)

Everyone knows that Debra Messing has small breasts, including Messing herself. But NBC execs wanted her to have bigger ones.

At a panel discussion during the Tribeca Film Festival, the Will & Grace star disclosed that she wore "chicken cutlets," a form of silicone breast enhancer, when she shot the pilot of the show. But when the show was picked up by NBC, she didn't want to wear them anymore. After seeing the next couple of episodes, the president of NBC called the producers, wanting to know where her breasts went. They wanted her breasts back, but she refused to wear them.

TBS is looking for a companion to its highly-rated reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond, and good ol' boy Bill Engvall appears to be it. The comedian, who appeared in the Blue Collar Comedy Tour alongside Jeff Foxworthy, will star in a pilot for the cable network. Engvall will play the father at the center of a sitcom, which is described by TBS senior vp of programming Michael Wright as, "very clever and witty but not mean-spirited." If you're like me and you have no idea who this guy is, you can watch some of his comedy and an interview with him in this clip on YouTube. Engvall is co-producing the show with Michael Leeson, whose impressive resume includes producing The Cosby Show, Taxi, Happy Days, All in the Family, and Mary Tyler Moore.

Engvall's pilot is the second comedy that TBS is eyeing. The network recently greenlighted a workplace comedy pilot called Imperfect Union, starring Eric McCormack (who recently claimed he was done with sitcoms).

File this under "Famous Last Words": Eric McCormack told an audience at the Edinburgh International Television festival that the experience of doing Will & Grace was so perfect, that he doesn't think that he's going to do another sitcom again.

Ever.

Uh-huh. Suuure, Eric. You're just coming off a long-running sitcom that, no matter how bad it got over the years, still had a palpable chemistry amongst the cast. You're tired of the grind right now, and you think that you'll never be able to replicate what you had on your old show. You may even be concentrating on working on the stage, which is where you started. But if, after a few years in the relative obscurity of Broadway, NBC or someone else waves a juicy sitcom part under your nose, especially one that's accompanied by pots of money, you don't think you're going to say yes? Let's just say that your mouth shouldn't be writing checks that your "artistic integrity" can't cash, pal.

It was recently announced that the 60th annual Tony Awards will go hostless this June 11, because "the 60th Anniversary show is bigger than just one host". Or maybe no one wanted to step up and take the chance of getting ripped apart by the public if things don't run smoothly. Anyway, instead of following the lone emcee tradition, this year's show at Radio City Music Hall will be carried by 60 different stars, including Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, Bernadette Peters, and Hank Azaria.

Back in 2004, MTV's Video Music Awards went hostless, and I remember feeling somewhat disoriented while watching it. Whether this was because I was watching MTV or because it was hostless, is still up for debate.