TVSquad

Jon Stewart kicked off the night with some anger fueled by Mets love. Mets manager Willie Randolph was fired in a rather unceremonious manner. He was all the way on the other side of the country, contacted at 3:00 a.m. and fired by Mr. Met. Sick burn.

"The Gay After": In other news, same-sex marriage is now legal in California, and, somehow, the state is still attached to the rest of the country and it hasn't been engulfed in flames. Hmm, interesting. Some newsworthy couples have tied the knot since this announcement, including George Takei, who married his long-time partner. I just started one of my Summer mini-projects, watching the entire original Star Trek series in preparation for its TV Squad's Retro Squad week, and while I know I'm a newbie Trekkie, I'm pretty sure Takei's name is pronounced "Tek-ayy." It allows for maximum fun in rhyming, "George Takei is gay."

On today's episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Ellen will announce that she and long-time girlfriend Portia de Rossi are getting married.

Her announcement is in response to this week's ruling from the California Supreme Court that everybody has a "right to marry" whomever they choose. The justices ruled that the state's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional. It makes California the second state, after Massachusetts, that will allow same-sex marriage. The legal battle began in San Francisco when the mayor allowed same-sex couples to marry (Rosie O'Donnell and her partner, Kelly, married at that time).

(S01E13) This is the best episode the show has had yet. It had sex, drama, multi-generational relationships, alcohol, mishaps, and really bad puns. It was great.

The premise of the show is simple enough. It's the premise of every show, only this time with a Birthday Theme: Murphy's Law. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong, but we'll all end up having a great time.

In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that I read romance novels, and I adore mystery novels and procedural programs such as Law and Order and CSI. Yes, I was an English major. And yes, all of these things are completely formulaic and a slap in my education's face. But I don't care. Because the formula works for me. I can predict everything that will happen from the opening moments, but I still enjoy myself anyway. Because I am in it for the ride. I know how everything is going to go on the roller coaster, too, but I still strap myself into the car every single time.

(S01E11) While I was watching the scenes with Nora working at Ojai, I kind of hated this show, and hated myself for watching it. Even though I knew that I would be tuning in week after week regardless of whether or not I was reviewing it. But then it got better.

So, what do you think? Should Rob Lowe's character, Senator Dreamy McCallister, be excused for voting against gay marriage when the measure wasn't going to pass anyway? Was it okay for him not to make a stand, when he had an education measure he wanted to pass? I'm going to have to say no. He admits that he regrets the vote, but he also wanted Kitty to come and work for him. And he is good at getting what he wants. But low and behold, he has a cute gay brother. Oh please no. Oh please no.

When people who have met John Stamos say that he's a nice, charming, down-to-earth guy, they're not kidding. He's so damned charming that twice during my phone conversation with him last week, I told him that since he already had my number, he should call me to talk about TV off-the record. (Hey, the guy said to me both times that he enjoyed the conversation. And we talked about New Jersey -- he did a movie in Freehold once. So I caved.)

It's that likability that has carried his career for the last twenty-five years, from General Hospital to Full House to ER. It's also what he hopes will draw people to Wedding Wars, an A&E original movie that will air Monday at 9 PM. In the comedy, he plays Shel, a gay party planner who sparks a national pro-gay-marriage movement when he goes on strike while planning the wedding of his brother Ben (Eric Dana).,The strike happens after he finds out Ben wrote an anti-gay marriage speech for his boss, the governor of Maine.

I spoke to Stamos about the movie for The New York Post, but while I had him on the phone, I couldn't resist asking him about ER, his Uncle Jesse mullet, and his friendship with Howard Stern. The interview is after the jump.

I'm happy to join the group praising NBC for giving full season orders to both Studio 60 and Friday Night Lights. Many of us are quick to get our dander up when a network hits the cancellation button too quickly, so it's great to see one of them actually giving shows a chance to grow. They should be applauded for that. That said, I hope that the memo regarding the pickup for Studio 60 came with a friendly suggestion not unlike the one that Jordan gave Harriet in last night's episode. For the next six weeks Aaron, just pretend that God, gay marriage, crazy Christians... hell, anything remotely to do with religion, just pretend that none of it even exists in the Studio 60 world.

Okay, so Condoleezza Rice went to Rome for a meeting about the Lebanon situation. It didn't go so well. Jon showed a Condimeter graphic to illustrate just how bad it was (TDS has been really graphic-happy lately). Of course, the meeting wasn't as great as "Three days alone at Camp David with the President" or "Christmas morning"... It ended up somewhere between "Kofi Annan cops a feel" and "Bin Laden determined to attack WHERE?!". I have a feeling I may have switched up a few of those details, so apologies ahead of time. I swear TDS knows I'm scrambling to type this all down. They probably have a hidden camera on my monitor, broadcasting live right into Jon's office so that they can giggle at my panic.

"6/6/06": "The day of the devil? Or... regular numerical seeeequence?" Cue the thunder and twitchy eyebrows. Multiple news networks wouldn't shut up about the possibility of impending doom. Some even felt the need to explain the significance of the day, reporting that some people believed that bad things would happen on 6/6/06... "bad things like the Apocalypse". No, no. Losing your keys is bad... The Apocalypse is, well, shitty. "Shitty" went un-bleeped. I'm seriously getting more and more confused as to when bleeping is necessary. Aaanyway...

(S05E15) Hahahahahahahahahaha. Hahaha
hahahahahahahahahahahahahah
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
hahahahahahahahahaha.

Sorry, I just laughed throughout this entire episode. I guess there's just something really funny about gay dogs getting married and a giant gold statue of Dig 'Em, the Sugar Smacks mascot.