TVSquad

The long, drawn-out cancellation of Arrested Development was one of television's greatest crimes against humanity. It ranks right up there with the approval of a new Knight Rider when the original was already one too many, the spinoff Baywatch Nights, and the made-for-TV movie Knight Rider 2000. That's right, I just hassled the Hoff. If any of you want a piece of me, I also come with a side of "whoop-ass."

But with the Arrested Development movie clawing its way inch-by-inch towards the big screen, Mitchell Hurwitz will at least have one other project on the horizon and on the very same network that tried to destroy him. Either he's showing he's a good guy and can take rejection in stride, or he's trying to bring down the place from the inside. You make the call.

Fox announced that Hurwitz's new show, Sit Down, Shut Up, will air sometime next fall. Critics also got an advance screening at the Television Critics Association conference last week.

And you thought that all that business with the WGA strike was over.

The writers for the new animated FOX show Sit Down, Shut Up have walked out, saying they were misled by Sony Pictures. They thought that under the agreement reached a few months ago they would be represented by the Writer's Guild of America but Sony actually has them covered under the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Under their rules, writers don't get all those things they fought for, including new media (online, DVD, etc) money or even residuals.

As Bob reported earlier this week, FOX is considering a number of new animated series for its schedule. Most likely due to the fact that their new live-action series tend to, um, stink. One of those being considered is Sit Down, Shut Up, which may have an upper hand over its competitor The Pitts due to the creative talent behind the show.

I'm talking about Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. Fans of The Simpsons would know these two as writers and executive producers of the show during its so-called golden years. Others may know them from their WB animated series Mission Hill and their sort-lived UPN live-action comedy The Mullets. Now they have been named executive producers on Sit Down, Shut Up. They will be taking the creative reigns from Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz, who wrote the first script and now wants to be in a more supervisory role.

Are you a Mike person or a Joel person? And of course by Mike I mean Mike Tyson, and by Joel I mean singer/piano man Billy Joel.

OK, I'm actually talking about Mystery Science Theater 3000 hosts Mike Nelson and Joel Hodgson. Some people like Joel, who was the original kidnapped guy stuck on a ship with robots, but other people are loyal to Mike, the guy who took over for Joel when he left the series. I liked them both of course, though I think Mike grew on me a more. The commentary on The Brain That Wouldn't Die had me in tears.

Fans of Joel will be happy to know that he's coming back with a very MST3K-sounding project called Cinematic Titanic.

Despite twenty-somethings making up a large part of its fanbase, The Simpsons has never really been about that particular demographic. Rather, the show focuses on the baby boomer generation Homer and Marge more or less belong to, given the ambiguous concept of "time" on the series. After the first few seasons, which were helmed largely by people born in the 1950s, some younger talent was brought in, such as Conan O'Brien and the writing/producing duo of Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein. While this added a welcome new dimension to the series, it still remains largely indifferent to the twenty-something zeitgeist. Young adults aren't absolved from the series' satirical jabs, but the heart of the show has always been about the nuclear family and its many struggles.