TVSquad

The New Adventures of Old Christine is one of my favorite sitcoms and last night's episode included what I saw as a tribute to TV icons Lucille Ball and Mary Tyler Moore, as well as Seinfeld. Yes, Julia Louis-Dreyfus had a true Elaine moment that was not only hilarious, but a real wink to her Seinfeld fans.

The CBS sitcom came up with a doozy of a situation, although it felt familiar to me, which I'll explain why in a moment. Christine was determined to prove that she was not afraid of living alone and wound up locked out of her house. She climbed back in through a bathroom window and got her foot stuck in the toilet bowl!

You mean Bea Arthur wasn't already in the TV Academy Hall of Fame before today? Well, actually, that was Bea's choice. In a very Maude-like way, she had turned them down. "I said, `So sorry, very nice of you, but I can't possibly accept. There are so many talented people in the business,'" Arthur recalled.

However, she's had a chance to think it over and when asked again, she agreed to become a Hall of Famer, just like Lucille Ball, Johnny Carson and Bill Cosby.

As I wrote previously, the TV Academy Hall of Fame will expand to include Bea Arthur, Merv Griffin, Larry Gelbart (M*A*S*H), Sherwood Schwartz (Gilligan's Island, The Brady Bunch), and ABC executives Thomas Murphy and Daniel B. Burke. On December 9 in Beverly Hills, the awards will be presented.

As we've told you before, this is the 60th anniversary of the Emmy Awards. The September 21 show, telecast on ABC, will not only celebrate the Best Actresses and Best Dramas of the current prime time lineup, it will also celebrate the many stars and characters and shows of 10, 20, 40, 60 years ago.

ABC has created an ad that features a lot of those stars. A lot of the stars are easy to find and it's a no-brainer that they were included (Marge and Homer, Rod Serling, Dick Van Dyke, Stewie, the South Park guys, etc), but I'm happy to also see some people I didn't think would be in such an ad: Guy Williams as Zorro, Robert Culp from I Spy, Mike Connors from Mannix, Tim Daly from Wings, Wally Cox from Mr. Peepers, among others.

As AOL Television continues their look at the 50 Best TV Comedies -- Ever with their Top 10, we here at TV Squad are also looking at television comedy, but with a slightly skewed difference. Last week, we took a look at the Saturday Night Live cast members from 1996 to 2006 that made it to the big time. This week, we get a bit more serious.

There are those in the industry who say that it is easier to go from acting in a drama to acting in a comedy than it is the other way around. Yet, as you will see from the list we've compiled after the jump, there are plenty of comedic actors who have jumped from the world of comedy films, stand-up comedy, and television sitcoms into the more serious world of drama. In many cases they have had even greater success than they did on the other side of the tracks. There have even been instances where they stayed in the drama genre and never went back to being funny.

(S06E20) Funny is funny and it never goes out of style. That's really true when you consider the enduring hilarity found in the black and white treasure known as I Love Lucy. In honor of Easter, I offer for your enjoyment memories of one of the most brilliant episodes from a series brimming with classics. The episode is Lucy Does the Tango, and it's all about eggs. Lucille Ball and three dozen eggs to be exact.

Pioneers of Television (in stores today) is a pretty big title for a documentary series, especially one that lasts only four episodes. You wonder, what are they going to mention and what are they going to leave out? This PBS show isn't the most comprehensive look I've seen on each of its subjects, but for one miniseries in one package, it's actually well put together, and you're going to see some TV footage, photos, and interviews I bet you've never seen before.

I have to agree with Whitney over at Pop Candy when she says she's confused that Marcia Cross made the list of TV Land/Entertainment Weekly's "Top 50 TV Icons" list. I mean, seriously, Marcia Cross?! Imagine all of the people left off the list that could have gone in that spot. Maybe if Cross had found a cure for cancer she could go on the list. Then again, she'd be on a "Top 50 Scientists" list, not a TV icons one.

Anyway, she's on the list. The full list actually goes up to 100 (Cross is last, but that still doesn't explain anything), and she's not the only head-scratcher.

I think it's a safe bet that's a headline I never thought I'd write and will never write again.

Two Tampa Bay Devil Rays fans are angry at the team for a contest held at the baseball stadium on June 23. The contest was to dress as '50s icons, and Bob Phibbs and Christine Sullivan went all out and dressed like Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, even down to the detailed costumes from an episode and bongo drums. They didn't win, however. The judges gave the prize to a woman and a kid who dressed in standard period wear. And this is why the couple is angry. They say the winners didn't follow the rules of dressing like an icon, and that they should either be disqualified or, at the very least, Phibbs and Sullivan should be given first prize too (they came in third - the first prize is a trip to NYC and tickets to a Yankees game and a Broadway show).

• FOX has the Coca-Cola 600 Nextel Cup race all night (starts at 5).
• At 7, CBS has a new 60 Minutes.
• NBC has a new Dateline at NBC.
• At 8, PBS has the National Memorial Day Concert.
• Food Network has a new Emeril Live at 8, followed by a new Iron Chef America and the All-Star Grill Fest: South Beach special.
• Also at 8: TCM has Houseboat, with Cary Grant and Sophia Loren, followed by Yours, Mine & Ours, with Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda.
• At 8:30, TNT has the Pistons/Cavaliers NBA playoffs game.
• At 9, HBO has the new movie Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee.

Check your local TV listings for more.

Looking for that special last minute Mother's Day gift? Nothing says Mother's Day like the death certificates of your favorite TV star!

Someone is selling the death certificates and wills of Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley on ebay. These aren't just one page descriptions of the date and manner of death, they are the actual detailed wills that they wrote before they died. Lucy didn't want to be embalmed and wanted to make sure her brother Fred and his wife didn't get anything. Desi made sure his mom was cared for. Vance left most of her estate to her much younger husband, and Frawley's will has a lot of bills and notes from creditors attached. It's probably interesting reading, but creepy.

For more background on the stars, here are the Wikipedia pages for Ball, Arnaz, Vance, and Frawley. Vance and Frawley hated each other.

[via TMZ.com]

Do you like TV shows and movies? Do you like to eat? Well, I've got a site for you, but fair warning: it will consume all of your time today.

It's Frank DeCaro's site. He's not on The Daily Show anymore, but he's got quite a site, including this section where you can find a massive list of recipes from celebs! You can try Bitter and Booze from The Dick Van Dyke Show's Richard Deacon, which mixes semi-sweet chocolate chips, whipped cream and brandy (your teeth will ache but you'll be too drunk to care). Or how about Wheel of Fortune star Vanna White's Layered Pea Salad? Martha Stewart loves Bourbon Balls (and check out the pics in her section too). Jim Nabors makes a mean Alabama Chili, and the original Bionic Woman Lindsay Wagner's contribution is a Tabbouleh Salad. Then there's the aforementioned Turkey Potpie recipe from Oprah.

There's a ton more too, and you can search by name or type of food.

New TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• Bosom Buddies - Season 1
• Cool McCool - Complete Series
• Loonatics Unleased - Season 1
• The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour - Seasons 7, 8, and 9
• Match Game 73 - Dumb Dora Set
• The Pretender - Movies
• Robin of Sherwood - Seasons 1 and 2
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Season 4
• Without A Trace - Season 2

Bob Carroll Jr. and writing partner Madelyn Pugh Davis (that's them in the pic, with Jess Oppenheimer in the middle) were writing for Steve Allen's radio in the 1940s when they decided to take a week off. Not for a vacation, but to write a script for Lucille Ball, who was looking for writers for her radio show My Favorite Husband. They got the job, and went on to write on all of Ball's TV shows, including I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, Here's Lucy, and Life With Lucy, Ball's last TV show in 1986. Caroll also wrote for The Mothers-In-Law, The Paul Lynde Show, Dorothy, and Alice, which he also co-produced. He wrote the 1968 movie Yours, Mine and Ours (yup, Lucy again), which was remade a couple of years ago with Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo.

Carroll died of natural causes in Los Angeles on Saturday. (Pugh Davis lives in California. She released a book with Carroll in 2005 titled Laughing With Lucy.)