TVSquad

TV viewers will remember the series of commercials that featured the animated law enforcement icon McGruff The Crime Dog, the ones that told us to "take a bite outta crime." He now has a blog.

Yup, the crime-solving (or crime-preventing) canine takes his paws and taps out blog entries for the kids to read, handing out advice about safety, health, and life in general. You can also read stories on how McGruff became a crime dog (he used to hang out at the local police station and listen to cop stories and asked cops how he could help - the cops said "what's a dog going to do to fight crime?" - I guess a talking dog was OK but a talking dog that fought crime was completely unrealistic) and play McGruff games.

While it has persevered for almost four decades, Sesame Street's heart and soul is very much a product of the 1970s. There was nothing like it when it first hit the public television airwaves in 1969; while other children's programs took place in mystical and magical lands, Sesame Street took place in a regular inner city neighborhood. Okay, it was an inner city neighborhood where monsters and people lived together, but it's that partial realism which set it apart from other programs, and, perhaps subconsiously, gave kids a sense of community and belonging.

Via Toon Zone comes news that Noggin and its evening version, The N, will be splitting into two separate, twenty four-hour networks on December 31.

Noggin will continue with programming aimed at the preschool set with programs like Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, Oobi, Jack's Big Music Show, and Nick Jr. properties like Dora the Explorer, Blue's Clues and The Backyardigans.

The N, originally the evening version of Noggin aimed at teens (and "tweens" to use a meaningless marketing term), will expand to 24 hours with TEENick programming during the day (All That, The Amanda Show, etc) and original programming at night: Degrassi: The Next Generation, South of Nowhere, and Beyond the Break. The N also acquired rights to air reruns of That '70s Show starting June 2008.

Ben Stiller, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Hudson, Tony Sirico, Steve Schirripa, Alicia Keys, Sheryl Crow, Brad Paisley and Ty Pennington will be joining the likes of Elmo, Big Bird, Grover, Bert, Ernie, Oscar the Grouch and Mr. Snuffleupagus for a primetime ABC special titled Elmo's Christmas Countdown.

The one-hour special will be narrated by a puppet version of Stiller aptly named "Stiller the Elf." Sirico and Schirripa of The Sopranos will play Bert and Ernie in one scene, along with some help from their Muppet pals.

So, last year I mentioned that Snoop Dogg got into a bit of trouble for allowing both a feature film and a reality series to be made about his youth football league.

It would seem whatever problems hindered the possibility of a Snoop reality series have been taken care of, because later this year Snoopy Snoop will be the center of a new series for E! that will follow the rapper, actor and producer as he tries to balance his family life and his work.

As a teenager, your opinion is irrelevant to most of society, but the Teen Choice Awards is your chance to let your voice be heard, and to nominate Paris Hilton for some reason.

Hilton is just one of the folks who have been nominated for Teen Choice 2007, which airs live starting at 8:00 p.m. on August 26 on FOX. She's been nominated in the "Choice TV: Female Reality/Variety Star" category for her "role" on The Simple Life. She's also nominated for the "OMG! Moment" for her jail sentence. Yes, you can win an award for that now, so star commiting some felonies right now, kids.

(S02E18)

This is an early review.

Orel [reading from the Necronomicon]: I'm gonna read from this book that's written in a different language: "bon jour, arrivederci, ooh la la, that's Italian!, ching ching ching chong, spaghetti, top o' the mornin' to ya!"

When I interviewed Moral Orel creator Dino Stamatopolous last October, he mentioned that an upcoming episode would feature a short film created by Orel himself (but actually animated by Dino*). This is that episode, and it both rewards fans of the series and takes a few shots at those who hate it.

If it weren't for public service announcements, kids everywhere would be drinking Liquid Plumber and throwing themselves in front of trains.

You know what I mean: those PSAs you watched as a kid told you how to be safe, avoid abduction, deal with bullies, eat the right foods, and seventeen ways to kill a man with a paper clip. I'd say, in most respects, TV raised you better than your parents ever could.

Anyway, here's a few old PSAs. Two come from Concerned Children's Advertisers in Canada, the last one from the American Lung Association.

The Muppet News Flash, always a great place for Muppet scuttlebutt, has written that The Disney Channel will be introducing a series of interstitials featuring the Muppets as well as characters from various Disney Channel programs. The goal, apparently, is to introduce the Muppets to the next generation.

Muppet News Flash also mentions a possible new Muppet movie and Muppet Web series, but nothing has been announced to the public yet. I'm just happy to see more Muppet stuff being developed, no matter what the medium.

Speaking of Muppet projects, I haven't heard much about Tinseltown since Jim Henson began shopping the series around back in November. The series centered on two gay puppets (a bull and a pig) who adopt a human child. I loved the concept, but I fear it may have disappeared into the ether. Bummer.

Okay, just for a moment let's set aside the fact that Pee Wee Herman doing a serious commercial about using crack is really, really (unintentionally) funny, and focus on just how logical it was to use that character in the first place.

One assumes this commercial was made when Pee Wee's Playhouse was on the air, which means his main audience was grade school children and not so much the older hipsters who knew the more "adult" Pee Wee character Paul Reubens created while with the Groundlings.

Recently, Paul mentioned that the ombudsman for children's television in Poland had come out against the Teletubbies, and Tinky Winky specifically, for promoting homosexuality.

To be fair, the comment about Teletubbies promoting homosexuality was brought up by journalists during a magazine interview, and ombudsman Ewa Sowinska replied by saying that, due to the "purse" carried by Tinky Winky, she would investigate these claims. I say "to be fair" not to defend Sowinska exactly, but just to point out that she was responding to claims made by others. Still, that doesn't quite explain how holding a "purse," or "money bag," or whatever the hell that thing is, equals being gay. I think someone needs to go back to Gay School and learn a lot more about that specific sexual orientation.

(S11E08)

Peggy: There's a brown spot on the lawn, and there is a brown spot on your son.

Wow, a whole hour of King of the Hill. I must say I thought this one had more yucks than the other episode.