TVSquad

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• The 4400 - Season 4
• Acapulco H.E.A.T. - Complete Series
• 'Allo 'Allo - Series 8
• Avatar The Last Airbender - Book 3 Fire, Vol. 3
• Bewitched - Season 6 (color)
• Crossing Jordan - Season 1
• Greg the Bunny - Best of the Film Parodies: Vol. 2
• A Haunting - Hauntings in America
• Hiya Kids! A 50's Saturday Morning Box
• The Jack Benny Show - The Jack Benny Show
• Madeline - Next Stop America
• Man vs. Wild - Collection 1
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (widescreen)
• Naruto - Uncut Boxed Set Vol. 7 (special edition)
• Punky Brewster - Season 1, Vol. 1
• Sgt. Preston of the Yukon - Best Of
• Speed Racer: The Next Generation - Vol. 1
• Spider-Man - Mutant Agenda
• That Girl - Season 1, Vol. 1

There have been rumors swirling ever since Conan O'Brien was tapped by NBC to replace Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show that O'Brien would be asked to move to L.A. from his current New York City home. And now it's been made official by NBC: Conan will move to L.A. when he takes over the show in 2009.

The network has big plans for the area. NBC is selling off part of its Burbank lot and Conan's show will beam to us from the renovated Studio One at Universal Studios.

Yesterday as I was getting ready to Tivo the Ricky Gervais episode of The Simpsons, I started to think about whether something like this had been done before, where an actor not associated with a cartoon was brought in to contribute to an episode. While I'm sure there's many, the only one I could think of was the Looney Tunes' short "The Mouse That Jack Built" which featured Jack Benny and his fellow stars from his famous radio and television program playing themselves as mice. The result was a hilarious short about Jack and his friends going out to eat at the Kit Kat Club, which turns out to be an actual cat. In the end, we're treated to a live-action shot of the real Jack Benny waking up from his nightmare, only to see the two mice from his dream crawl from his cat's mouth and scurry into a mousehole. Benny didn't write the episode, but by bringing in new voice actors with a more cerebral and less "cartoony" approach to humor, it resulted in one of the more unique Warner Bros. animated shorts when mixed with the slapstick and sadism for which these cartoons had become famous. Also, it should be noted that Mel Blanc, who voiced ninety-nine percent of the Looney Tunes characters, was also a regular on the Jack Benny Program, so maybe ol' Jack didn't need much convincing to appear in animated form. Rumor has it he asked for no money, just a copy of the cartoon. Oh yeah, and just to bring it full circle, the foppish shop owner on The Simpsons who says, "Yeeeeeesss???" is based on a character on Jack Benny's show. It's like a big ol' Mobius strip o' comedy.

So, my fellow cartoon-lovin' peeps, can you think of any other cartoons to turn themselves over to "new management" if only for one episode?

Jeff Garlin, who plays Larry David's loyal manager on Curb Your Enthusiasm, may be getting his own comedy show on TBS. It's one of those show-within-a-show thingies where the character, "Jeff", hosts a variety show but we also watch his exploits when he's off stage. The "Jeff Garlin" character will be a talk show host much like Jack Benny.

Says Garlin, "I play Jeff Garlin, the biggest variety star on television, and pretty much the show follows me getting into trouble each week. This is the show I've wanted to do since I was little."

Phil Rosenthal, of Everybody Loves Raymond, is producing the show, along with Garlin. Production on the pilot begins in March.