TVSquad

The "Ask TV Squad" column, published every Wednesday, answers your questions about current and past TV shows, as well as about the celebrities appearing on TV. Every week, I will pick a question (or more) sent to us and provide answers in the column. If your question is not picked for a column, it may be answered in a subsequent column or in TV Squad's APB Podcast.

To submit questions to the "Ask TV Squad" column, you can post them below in comments or email them to asktvsquad@gmail.com.

This week, I answer questions about Ghost Whisperer, How to Make It in America and Better Off Ted.

Don't you just hate it when you get hooked on a show and it's yanked unceremoniously off the air, leaving you hanging into infinity? Yeah, me, too. Such was the case with Surface, an alien-sea-monster-inspired drama that aired on NBC during the 2005-2006 season.

The series starred the soulful Lake Bell as Laura Daughtery, a marine biologist who encounters a strange creature on the ocean floor. She writes up her report, only to have it confiscated by the government in the name of national security.

Meanwhile, nerdy teen Miles (Carter Jenkins, whom I predict has a huge career ahead of him, though not if he keeps signing on for shows like the short-lived Viva Laughlin) stumbles across a strange egg on the beach and takes it home. Imagine his surprise when out hatches a weird amphibious creature that emits an even weirder electrical current.

This is not an episode of Punk'd.

Health officials in New York City are suggesting that everyone who was at the Socialista Bar on February 7th (and also on the 8th and the 11th) should get vaccinated for Hepatitis A just in case. A bartender who was working on those days has tested positive for the disease, which is caused by contact with fecal matter and creates an inflammation of the liver.

Why is this story on a TV blog? Well, it just so happens that Demi Moore threw a party for husband Ashton Kutcher on February 7, and guests at the party included Bruce Willis, Grey's Anatomy star Eric Dane, Madonna, Ali Larter, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lucy Liu, Kate Hudson, Lake Bell, Ivanka Trump, and other celebrities. (Side note: doesn't it just make you all warm and gooey inside that Demi and Ashton get along so well with Demi's ex Bruce Willis?)

I wonder if this is what critics mean when they say that Hollywood is infecting America?

With the announcement that the unaired pilot of Aquaman would become a downloadable video courtesy of iTunes I began to ponder all of the television shows that took place, or featured characters that lived, under the sea. After some extensive research (about five minutes) I discovered that there weren't many. So, as a public service to you, the dedicated TV Squad reader, I present the following list of underwater shows. Please put on your wet suits.

Surface: This on the list first because it was the most recent show telecast that featured underwater creatures. Only lasting one season on NBC (despite a strong fan base) the show starred Lake Bell as an oceanographer who is attacked by an unknown life-form in the Pacific Ocean. After that initial encounter, things go a little bonkers on planet Earth, including stars falling from the sky into the water, and unknown creatures washing up on public beaches. A cliffhanger episode was aired at the end of the first season, but was left up in the air due to the show's cancellation.

As fans wait til later this month for word on whether or not there will be a second season of Surface (it doesn't look good) comes news that the first season will be released on DVD on August 15. So even if there isn't another year, we can at least have the first season to watch over and over again (as TVshowonDVD makes clear, the set is called a "first season set" and not "complete series," but that's just before there's no word yet about the show).

I was afraid of this. Sources tell me that it doesn't look like there will be a second season of NBC's Surface. The network won't make the official announcement until next month, when they unveil their fall schedules, but it looks like the show has ended.

But let's try to save it! Yeah, these petition things often don't make a difference, but there's no harm. Here's the Save Surface on NBC petition. Almost 12,000 signatures so far.

It's a shame if this doesn't see a second season. It's better than Invasion and Threshold.

I like a show that doesn't BS around with dull scenes in its season finale. Right off the bat we're given the scenario: Miles and his family are packing up to escape town before the tsunami hits, Caitlin's Vespa is stolen when she arrives too late to find Miles, and she's knocked out when the crook pushes her, and Laura steals a rental car from the airport and blows by a road block to find Rich, who has been locked in a room at the mysterious lab. (And what is Jackson's name and pic doing on the lab's computers? Section Chief?!?)

Here we go!

You know how sometimes they'll advertise an episode of a TV show as the "episode you must see" or "the episode that changes everything?" Usually it's just hype or wishful thinking. They didn't advertise episode 14 of Surface as an episode that changes everything or a must see. But they could have. Because, well, this is the episode that changes everything.

 

So we've already told you that Surface is the best new show of the season, and why you should be watching it. I recently talked with Carter Jenkins, who plays Miles, the shy, curious, lizard-loving teen who started the whole thing when he brought an egg he found in the water into his home and now might be turning into a lizard thing himself. He called from California, after wrapping up filming on the NBC show for the season.

Carter Jenkins: Bob!
Bob Sassone: Hey man, how's it going?