TVSquad

So what did you do yesterday? I spent the entire Sunday watching detective movies on The Hallmark Channel. Of course, when I say "detective movies" it sounds like I was watching old film noir flicks from the 40s and 50s. Actually, I was watching Murder, She Wrote, Perry Mason movies, and Matlock.

Yes, I have the social life of a 70 year-old woman.

I've always been a sucker for these shows, going back to the NBC Mystery Movie and Columbo and McMillan and Wife. Those shows were probably better produced and written than the stuff you see on Hallmark Channel, but I think the new shows are quite entertaining and fun, and it's good to see favorite familiar faces on TV again: the McBride movies with John Larroquette, the Murder 101 movies with Dick Van Dyke, and the TV movie series I'd like to talk about, Jane Doe.

To put it simply, I'm worried about Jane Doe.

Superhero TV shows can be really great if done right, but for every Heroes or The Flash we get a half dozen shows that never made it past the pilot episode or made it and just weren't very good. Cracked recently had a feature about comic books that shouldn't be made into movies, and that got me thinking about superhero TV shows that failed and/or weren't that great. Below are six examples of shows that should have never been made, along with video clips so you can marinate in their awfulness.

At least once a week, someone will write me an email asking me to "settle a bet" or "ease their mind" about some trivia question that they can't seem to find the answer to. I'm also happy to use my knowledge to help out in any way I can.

On my own weekly podcast, I always ask a trivia question that I consider to be somewhat simple although difficult to research online. Rarely do I get a correct answer. So I thought I would use the TV Squad forum to give readers a chance to answer the trivia questions as well.

So here is the first question inspired by the great Boston Legal episode, 'Son of the Defender'. Good luck.

Finally, after having to deal with lesser Stephen J. Cannell shows being released (Renegade?!), one of my favorite shows is coming to DVD: Riptide!

Riptide starred Perry King and Joe Penny as Cody Allen and Nick Ryder, two private eyes who lived and worked off a boat in California. They were helped on cases by the third member of the team, the nerdy brainiac Boz, played by Thom Bray. This was a highly enjoyable 80s adventure-drama, and I've been waiting for it to come out on DVD for quite some time.

Interestingly, there might be two versions being released: a Canadian version is coming out, and insiders tell TVshowsonDVD that an American version is in the works too.

During this upfronts week, you'll not only hear about the shows that make the schedule, you'll hear about pilots that didn't make it. But what happens to the pilots that don't make it? The pilots that are never seen by the public (unless they make it to the internet, which couldn't happen years ago), what happens to them? Forbes has an interesting article about failed pilots (and if you'd like to read a great book on failed pilots, try to track down a copy of Lee Goldberg's two books, Unsold Television Pilots I and II.)

Forbe's also lists the Top 10 Failed Pilots, and while it doesn't include Samurai (with Riptide's Joe Penny as a lawyer by day, sword-wielding superhero by night!), it does include Ethel Is An Elephant, about a guy who moves into a NYC apartment with an elephant roommate; Poochinski, with Peter Boyle as a cop who is killed on duty and comes back as a dog; Rewrite For Murder, with George Clooney and Pam Dawber as mystery writers; Wil Wheaton in 13 Thirteenth Avenue, about a kid who moves into a new apartment building and has vampires and werewolves as neighbors (!), and L.A. Confidential, a TV version of the movie, with Kiefer Sutherland! Wow, I actually would have loved to have seen that.

[via TV Tattle]