I wasn't really prepared to like The Middle. I had no expectations, really, because aside from knowing that it was Patricia Heaton's latest sitcom, there had been very little scuttlebutt about it. So, when I tuned in, I expected the typical Patty Heaton I had seen for years on Everybody Loves Raymond or the upscale version I'd watched on Back to You.
Well, what a surprise when I saw her on The Middle. This is a Patty I had never seen before, and I not only liked her character, I admire her performance.
It'll be how I met Lily's dad on How I Met Your Mother. Chris Elliott has been cast as Lily's father on the CBS sitcom, a character who is supposedly something of a good-for-nothing parent. Elliott is hilarious and specializes in playing these kind of goofy roles. On Everybody Loves Raymond, for instance, his was Robert's overly familiar brother-in-law, Peter, who liked Ray just a little too much.
On HIMYM, Lily's dad will appear for the upcoming Thanksgiving episode on November 23. According to Michael Ausiello of EW.com, there will be series of flashbacks to illustrate exactly what's what with Lily and her father, why their relationship is "troubled." I'm hoping for more from this casting than Eric Braeden as Robin's dad; they never really used him right.
This might not be the biggest DVD release day in history, but it's certainly one of the business. There's something for everyone this week, including a bunch of "Fan Favorites" DVDs for various sitcoms, including NewsRadio, All in the Family, and I Dream of Jeannie. That's a neat idea, though I wonder, if you're a big fan, wouldn't you already have the DVDs?
Oh, and remember Day Break, the ABC mystery series from a couple of years ago? You can get the Complete Series. I don't think I ever saw the end of that show. You can watch it on SlashControl, so maybe I'll start there before buying the set.
Math was my worst subject in school, by far, but I still think I would have gotten this question that Patricia Heaton got on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire last night. This is something that Debra would dump on Raymond about.
Ray Romano was a guest on last night's Late Show with David Letterman, and he revealed he made a bet with his sons: if they could guess what the tagline for the Worldwide Pants logo at the end of each show would be, he'd give them $10,000. They haven't won yet, but they did supply Letterman will some new taglines for the show.
Mother's Day is Sunday, but we all have to realize that not every mom deserves a box of chocolates, a nice dinner, or a bouquet of flowers. AOL has their picks for the worst TV moms of all time, and a lot of the usual suspects are on the list. I think we can all agree that Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond should be on the list. She clearly loves her kids, but...wow, how manipulative and pushy and meddling can a person get?
Evelyn Harper from Two and a Half Men is on the list, too. She's such a bad mom that it's sometimes easy to forget that she's even Charlie and Alan's mother. She seems more like some older, sexy aunt or something.
Do you think there are times when Patricia Heaton wishes she was still working on Everybody Loves Raymond? What about Kelsey Grammer...don't you think there are days when he reflects on how lucky he was to have played Frasier Crane first on Cheers then on Frasier all those years, winning awards and having job security, critical acclaim, the knowledge that you were at the top of your game? That's not to say that either Patty or Kelsey are not on the top of their game now, but the failure of Fox's Back to You last season must have been a shock to the system.
Now they're both working on new sitcom projects and hoping for the best. Scrubs'Neil Flynn has joined Patricia Heaton in The Middles, an ABC sitcom pilot about a middle-class family living in middle America struggling in these tough economic times. They have three kids, too, just like the set up in Everybody Loves Raymond. Meanwhile, Kelsey Grammer's also doing comedy for ABC. The network has ordered a Grammer pilot about a corporate big shot who tries to reconnect with his estranged family.
The TV neighbor has served many useful roles over the years; some that many thought had been lost by the unrelenting sands of time.
They've become the great modern philosopher like Wilson, the evolving thinker like Bill Dauterive, the bearer of bad news like Newman, and even the court jester -- as long as you don't count one of these guys.
Not only would we not want some of them living next door to us, we wouldn't want them living. Period. These are the annoying next-door neighbors who should have been run out by the Neighborhood Homeowners' Association with torches and pitchforks.
Last week another terrific cable drama, The Shield, took its final bow in a series finale that still has fans talking. The talk is mostly about the last three minutes, which featured Vic Mackey's silent contemplation of the life he now leads after losing his friends, family and, some say, his freedom. Right before the screen went dark we saw Vic stride out of the cubicle that is now his home -- unsure of what his fate would be from now on.
Some fans of the series were unhappy with this ending, saying that there was no closure to the life that Vic had led over the last seven seasons. Some hearken the ending to the now-famous series finale of The Sopranos, which featured several seconds of nothingness before the credits rolled. This concept of not giving finality to a series finale is a new one for viewers to grasp onto. But, when you look at it further, it makes complete sense. Why should the lives of our favorite characters come to a complete ending when our own lives don't?
The series, titled The Middle, centers on a family in the Midwest, and Heaton will play the mom. I know, that's a really generic description. I might as well say Heaton will play a human being in a comedy that will feature humor and talking.
Ricki Lake was originally cast in the role when the show was first developed a couple of years ago, but things changed later when the network wanted Heaton in the lead role and held the show until a deal with Heaton was finalized. That means the show has been on hold since even before Heaton starred in the short-lived FOX comedy Back To You with Kelsey Grammer. A lot of people thought that show would come back for a second season since it got OK reviews and had two big names attached. But FOX canceled it and now Heaton has a new job.
Primetime Wednesday seems to be the toughest night of all for TV programmers. There's not one network that seems to do particularly well in the 8-9 p.m. time slot, and the juggling has begun. Fox yanked Do Not Disturb weeks ago, admitting it was a dud.
Now the Brad Garrett-Joely Fisher sitcom Til Death will be off the air for two weeks, effective immediately. In that time slot, instead, we'll be seeing more House, albeit repeats. Still, you watch, those reruns will do markedly better than the sitcoms did.
Til Death, to be frank, has regressed this year. I defended the renewal of the show when Fox gave it a third season, based on the episodes I watched last spring. But the comedy has really strained since its season premiere in September. There's no other way to put it -- Death is in the death throes and should be put out of its misery. This two week hiatus should be the end of the series.
Sam Briggs is a schlemiel. Everything that can go wrong in his life, every dumb thing a guy can do while trying to do the right thing, happens to Sam.
The preview of Worst Week (premiering Monday at 9:30 PM ET on CBS) has not changed dramatically from this ready-to-go pilot. The premise is simply this: can a good guy like Sam overcome all the stupid things he does and find happiness with the girl he loves and her family that loathes him?
For the pilot, Worst Week works really well as broad farce. The situation of this situation comedy goes from bad to worse to worse still. It's funny. It's over the top. It's very, very outrageous. Whether or not they can sustain this level of silliness and maintain some semblance of believability week in and week out is the big question for Worst Week.
Where are the family comedies these days? They're a rare commodity on the big three plus Fox, and even if you include the animated clans on The Family Guy and The Simpsons and American Dad, you can count the family-type comedy shows on one hand.
I've watched The Bill Engvall Show and enjoyed it. It's meant to evoke Cosby, but I also found a lot of Everybody Loves Raymond and Home Improvement in it as well, and that's a good thing. Engvall's a funny guy, and he's greatly aided in the show by sitcom vet Nancy Travis as his smart, attractive spouse.
(S07E01) It seems like only yesterday when Monk, the ultimate obsessive compulsive Sherlock Holmes, began on USA Network, and now here it is the start of its seventh season. In all that time, for a man who doesn't like change at all, Adrian Monk has had to endure quite a bit of upheaval. The untimely death last April of actor Stanley Kamel, who played Monk's security blanket/therapist Dr. Kroger, was written into this premiere episode, in -- what I believe -- was a very subtle, graceful way.
Monk's sudden displeasure with his home is rooted in his discomfort in his life now that Dr. Kroger is gone. The ultimate egotist, in that Monk cares most for himself, Adrian is desperate to throw himself into work to avoid the irritating piano-playing coming from the little girl across the street and disturbing the sanctuary of his home. Kudos to the new therapist, Dr. Bell, for connecting the dots and quickly sizing up why Monk finds the music so displeasing.
Another week, another list issue of Entertainment Weekly.
I'm not sure what to make of all of these lists. We do them here too, but it seems to me the more giant lists that are done the more meaningless they become. This EW issue is "The New Classics," the 1000 best TV shows, movies, books, and music of the past 25 years. Since this is a television blog, I won't get into their book, movie, and music picks (but if I can just say as a side note, they pick both Clueless and The Naked Gun before L.A. Confidential?!), but let's talk about their TV choices.
And argue about those choices in the comments, of course.
It'll be how I met Lily's dad on How I Met Your Mother. 
Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.
Mother's Day is Sunday, but we all have to realize that not every mom deserves a box of chocolates, a nice dinner, or a bouquet of flowers. AOL has their picks for 
Do you think there are times when Patricia Heaton wishes she was still working on Everybody Loves Raymond? What about Kelsey Grammer...don't you think there are days when he reflects on how lucky he was to have played Frasier Crane first on Cheers then on Frasier all those years, winning awards and having job security, critical acclaim, the knowledge that you were at the top of your game? That's not to say that either Patty or Kelsey are not on the top of their game now, but the failure of Fox's 
The TV neighbor has served many useful roles over the years; some that many thought had been lost by the unrelenting sands of time. 
Last week another terrific cable drama, The Shield, 
Everybody Loves Raymond star 
Primetime Wednesday seems to be the toughest night of all for TV programmers. There's not one network that seems to do particularly well in the 8-9 p.m. time slot, and the juggling has begun. Fox yanked Do Not Disturb weeks ago, admitting it was a dud. 
Where are the family comedies these days? They're a rare commodity on the big three plus Fox, and even if you include the animated clans on The Family Guy and The Simpsons and American Dad, you can count the family-type comedy shows on one hand. 
(S07E01) It seems like only yesterday when Monk, the ultimate obsessive compulsive Sherlock Holmes, began on USA Network, and now here it is the start of its seventh season. In all that time, for a man who doesn't like change at all, Adrian Monk has had to endure quite a bit of upheaval. The untimely 
Another week, another list issue of Entertainment Weekly.
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
Have any questions for Vik Sahay of Chuck? Ask them here!
Mike Henry and Daryl Hall on a Cleveland Show Thanksgiving
