TVSquad

Have you seen the annoying new ad campaign for the ESPN SportsCenter relaunch? If you watch even a half-hour of ESPN programming -- or like me, Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption -- you can't miss these commercials.

There's a young, 20-something guy named Steve running around with a bulky, scoreboard-like digital clock with a strap that hangs around his neck like he's a peanut vendor at a baseball game.

The ads show him going through his day -- working out at the gym, jogging -- while he's waiting for the launch of the new, 9-hour SportsCenter on August 11. The commercials are completely live, which I grant you is novel, but they are not funny, clever or up to the ESPN standard. I hate them. They're jarring, poorly done and, like I said, annoying. I guess some genius in marketing decided that any way to make the viewer remember that a new format is coming is good enough.

Here's a sample of Steve's work (don't say I didn't warn you!):

Man, how I miss this show.

Someone who attended the Kids in the Hall reunion performance at the Just for Laughs festival posted the encore on YouTube, and I've placed it below for your viewing pleasure. Some of the dialogue is difficult to make out, but fans shouldn't have any trouble figuring out what's going on. Mark McKinney reprises his role as the "headcrusher" guy, that wormy fella who loved to vanquish those he disliked by closing one eye and pretending to crush their heads between his thumb and forefinger. In the segment below, he kills off the other cast members (Scott Thompson, Bruce McCullough, Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald) for their poor career choices post- Kids in the Hall. In a final bit of inspired meta comedy, McKinney turns his wrath on himself.

That's the topic of a post over on the Huffington Post by Bob Saget. The comedian, former Full House star and current host of 1 Vs. 100 ponders what he would do if he suddenly found out he only had 24 hours left in his life. Apparently, he'd spend a lot of time on a plane and laugh at his mother being injured in a surfing accident.

It's a funny piece, but my favorite was this comment, left by a poster named Crowhaul:

Bob, you don't need to be 'funny'. You've been there, done that. Why not hit us with some voice, instead. Need a subject? How about the tens of thousands of kids we've orphaned in Iraq? Dig deep, Bob. Get pissed.

The Sound of Young America, a public radio show and podcast about cool pop culture stuffs, will be taping live this Saturday in Santa Monica, California.

Why should I care about that?, you might ask.

Well ,if you're a fan of Veronica Mars, creator Rob Thomas will be there to chat with SOYA host Jesse Thorn, and tickets only cost ten bucks. Is ten bucks too much to pay to see Thomas, someone who provided you with hours of free entertainment? No, you cheap bastard, it isn't.

The Barenaked Ladies were one of many bands I had a brief infatuation with, but soon delegated them to "not bad, but I can't listen to them all the time" status. Still, the fellas know how to craft a good pop tune and they have great vocal harmonies, so I don't mind taking their CDs for a spin every now and again.

The band recently filmed a two-hour concert in Detroit, which will be available on TV. Or, alternatively, you can watch the concert on PBS.

I was unaware of this until recently, but apparently some live stage versions of Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist were performed with the original cast and crew.

Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist was, if you don't know, an animated series that aired on Comedy Central in the late '90s. It starred comedian Johnathan Katz as a therapist to several comedians, who would essentially do their shtick while he would listen and respond. The episodes didn't all take place in Katz's office, it also expanded to his home and personal life to include his son Ben (played by Jon Benjamin) and his receptionist, Laura (played by Laura Silverman).

Live TV has this way of being, well live. And that means hard to schedule. As any PVR owner who's tried to record The Simpsons after a football game can tell you, that sometimes means your shows will be cut off.

So on the one hand, it shouldn't be that surprising that this week's American Idol finale ran about 9 minutes long. On the other hand, it's not like the producers aren't used to putting together a live program every week. Anyway, thousands of viewers missed the big finish where Jordin Sparks was crowned miss... err.. the next idol.

Comedian Sarah Silverman will be hosting the MTV Movie Awards on June 3.

There will be a few changes made to the ceremony this year with reality show creator Mark Burnett at the wheel: the entire show will be broadcast live for the first time, allowing a more interactive experience for younger viewers, not to mention the chance to win the Best Movie Spoof award, part of a contest set up by MTV and Yahoo.

If you rock the Xbox Marketplace and you're a fan of Stephen Colbert, I have food news for you, sort of. It's not full episodes of The Colbert Report, but it is full episodes of his Tek Jansen Adventures cartoon shorts, which is better than nothing at all, so no complaining. Oh yeah, and the first episode is free.

Tek Jansen, of course, is based on Colbert's novel Alpha Squad 7: Lady Nocturne: A Tek Jansen Adventure. The cartoons follow our superhero as he battles aliens and woos sexy vixens (because, as stated in every episode, he's had hundreds of girlfriends).

You can always watch the episodes on Comedy Central's Web site, too. I've placed the latest episode below for your enthrallment. It's basic cable safe, but possibly not safe for work, so proceed with caution.

Thanks to Zizzy.

Well, it only took them twenty-seven years (or however long its been), but the second season of The Upright Citizens Brigade is finally coming to DVD later this year (or so we assume, there's no official announcement yet). That's great news, but what's even cooler is that this Saturday, March 31, you can actually be in the audience for a live audio commentary recording for the episodes "Spaghetti Jesus" and "Supercool." All the information you need can be found here. The recording takes place at 8 p.m. at the UCB Theatre in Los Angeles. Be there fifteen minutes early, or you'll be denied, sucka.

That leaves us with the third and finally season to look forward to. Hopefully it will be getting the digital versatile treatment sooner than later.

Thanks to reader bd, who sent us the tip after I found about the DVD but before I got off my lazy rump to write about it. I consider his e-mail the poke with a sharp stick I needed.

[via TV Shows on DVD]

Eric Wareheim of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! has posted a ton of pictures and video from the "Tim and Eric Awesome Tour," or, as I refer to it, the "Tim and Eric Suck Because They Made Zero Stops in the Midwest Tour."

The live audience member-filmed videos are the only way you'll have of seeing these shows, as a proposed live webcast was canceled due to legal reasons. There are, however, a lot of vids from the tour popping up on YouTube, and you can always go to Tim and Eric's Web site and see early versions of some of the skits they performed.

I've placed a video from the tour after the jump. If you're a fan of Tim and Eric, I'd like to say "you're welcome." If you're not the kind of person who gets into the kind of surreal, deadpan comedy these fellas do so well, I'd like to apologize in advance for what's no doubt going to be a very confusing three minutes and forty-one seconds.

When a man gets older and he finds himself vulnerable to mortality, and that which affects his heart and his mental health, there are no proper words to describe the fear and anticipation.

By now, the news has been announced that Regis will be leaving the show to undergo bypass surgery. Although you might have read articles about the situation, there really isn't anything like watching the exact moment he describes it. Something about the delicate nature and his soft spoken voice that reminds you of how fragile life is, it really tugs at your soul. No one ever wants to see anything bad happen to Regis.

On a completely opposite spectrum...

Louis CK is one of my favorite comedians of all time. When I say "of all time" I don't just mean the time during which I've been alive, I mean since the universe came into existence. He's even funnier than that fish who crawled out of the sea on a pair of legs and said, "I just came out of the water, and boy are my newly-formed lungs tired!" He's also much funnier than that stupid joke I just made.

One of the things I love about Louis CK is that having kids hasn't changed his comedy in the slightest. Yes, he talks about his kids now, but he's still as raunchy and hysterical as he ever was. It's refreshing to watch a comedian who doesn't fall into the usual comedy cliches about being a father.

On October 15 at 8:00 pm, Jon Stewart will host Night of Too Many Stars: An Overbooked Benefit for Autism Education on Comedy Central. The live event will also be simulcast on ComedyCentral.com along with additional footage. A ton of comedians and performers will be featured, including Bob Odenkirk, Jack Black, David Cross, Elvis Costello, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ricky Gervais, Will Ferrell, Norm MacDonald, Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler and Paul Rudd. Musician Moby will direct the house band for the evening.

Proceeds from the event will go to several autism educational and advocacy groups, including money from any downloads of the event purchased from the iTunes music store, which will be made available for thirty days starting on October 16. Tickets are currently on sale through Ticketmaster.

If you never saw Freaks and Geeks, you probably don't remember much about it because memories are formed by first experiencing the thing you later remember. For example, I have no memory of my recent trip to Florida because I've never taken a trip there before. If you did watch the show, however, you were lucky enough to see one of the best television shows in the last ten years, and one of the most accurate portrayals of high school life. So accurate, in fact, that it was sometimes uncomfortable to watch, especially if your school experience was anything but ideal. If you happen to find yourself in Los Angeles on August 31, Paul Goebel of Beat the Geeks will be hosting his King of TV talk show at the UCB Theater and chatting with four of the actors from the series: John Francis Daley, Samm Levine, Busy Philipps, and Steve Bannos. It should be loads of fun.