TVSquad

Our Monday morning roundup of a half dozen things TV Squad readers - and TV fans in general - will be talking about this week.

1. Mad Men season two premiere. More smoking, more drinking, more advertising. (Sunday at 10pm on AMC.)

2. Comic-Con. We'll be there this week, handing out DVDs and trying not to look geeky. Follow us again on twitter for what's happening and where to meet up with us.

3. It's X-Files Week here. Just in time for the new big screen movie that opens Friday. The truth is in here, if you want to believe.

4. Jingles. A new reality competition show where ordinary people try to come up with commercial jingles. Find out who's bologna has a first name Sunday at 8pm on CBS. (Update: looks like this has been delayed until at least late summer. Stay tuned...)

5. The 2008 World Series of Poker. People still watch poker on television, right? (Starts Tuesday at 8pm on ESPN.)

6. High School Musical: Get In The Picture. High School Musical + a reality competition = ratings. (Started last night; another new episode airs tonight at 8pm on ABC.)

• AMC's Mad Men marathon runs all night until 1am.
• BBC America's Spaced marathon continues until 9pm.
• At 7, G4 has a new Hurl!
• At 8, CBS has a new Big Brother.
• ABC has the premiere of High School Musical: Get in the Picture at 8.
• Disney has a new Hannah Montana at 8, followed by a new Wizards of Waverly Place.
• There's a new Challenge on Food Network at 8, then new episodes of Iron Chef America and Next Food Network Star.
• At 9, NBC has a new Dateline.
• PBS has a new Masterpiece at 9.
• ESPN has the ESPY Awards at 9.
• USA has a new Law and Order: CI at 9, then a new In Plain Sight.
• A&E has two new episodes of Gene Simmons' Family Jewels starting at 9, followed by a new Two Coreys.
• History Channel has a new Ice Road Truckers at 9.
• HBO has a new Generation Kill at 9.
• Nickelodeon has a new Nick News at 9.
• Sundance Channel has a new Shameless at 9.
• Also at 9: HGTV has a new Design Star.
• At 9:30, TCM has Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.
• At 10, Lifetime has a new Army Wives.
• E! has a new Denise Richards: It's Complicated at 10, then a new Living Lohan.
• At 11:30, Cartoon Network has a new Venture Brothers.
• At 12:15am, Cartoon Network has a new Fat Guy Stuck In Internet.

Check your local TV listings for more.

Tonight, the members of the Television Critics Association (including me) gathered at the Beverly Hilton to give out its annual awards. The membership voted on the awards in the month leading up to the press tour; we were given a number of candidates to choose from in various categories. The membership was also asked to choose recipients for an individual Career Achievement award and the Heritage Award, which recognizes a past show that had a big impact artistically and on the industry.

The members didn't reach back too far for the Heritage Award: it was given to The Wire. As for current shows, the members gave Mad Men a bushel of awards: Program of the Year, Outstanding New Program, and Outstanding Achievement in Drama. 30 Rock won for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy, and Tina Fey won the Individual Achievement in Comedy award for her performance. John Adams won the mini-series award; its star, Paul Giamatti, won the Individual Achievement in Drama award. Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live received the Career Achievement award.

A complete list of winners is after the jump.

Interesting yet - OK, I'll say it - odd piece over at the Los Angeles Times: Are the Emmys out of touch with what most TV viewers watch?

I would I think in some ways, yes, and thank God for that.

The main point of the article (titled "The TV Hit No One Watches") is that a show like Mad Men can garner 16 nominiations (a lot for any show but it's especially impressive for a new show, and a new show that's on cable) but still only average about one million viewers a week. And to this I say "so what?" If the Emmys just nominated/gave awards to American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, CSI: Miami, Two and a Half Men, and Grey's Anatomy, wouldn't we be a little ticked off? The fact that shows such as Mad Men, Damages, and Breaking Bad got so many awards is a very, very good thing, for the Emmy voters and viewers alike, because they also happen to be fantastic shows.

I'm going to share my Emmy thoughts, but there's so much to digest, I figured I'd space it out a bit. If you missed the announcement, check out Bob's live blog.

First thought: Why do I feel like I did when the Daytime Emmy nominations were announced? Oh yeah, because all these nominations are predictable! Where's the surprises, where's the nominations from out of left field? These nominations lack the element of shock, at least to me. Here's my thoughts, plus I dug through the whole list and found some other interesting items...

9:23: Here are all of the nominations. Leave your comments below as to what should have been nominated but wasn't and the nominations that make you roll you eyes and say, "give me a break..."

9:22: I have a feeling James Spader is going to lose this year.

9:20: Battlestar Galactica fans will be happy to see a nom in the writing category.

9:18: So...no nomination for The Wire? That's going to make fans throw their TV sets through their windows (though TV sets are harder to lift nowadays...maybe they'll just kick them in). Still not sure why Jon Cryer is "supporting" and Charlie Sheen is "lead" on Two and a Half Men.

9:15: So I lied. Instead of reposting up here I just went back to the entries below (oh, the wonder of the internet!) and put show titles in, made them italic, made everything easier to read.

The Emmy nominations will be announced tomorrow morning at 8:30am, and I'll be live-blogging the announcement, so come back here at that time for all the news. Well, actually, you won't have to "come back here" if you never leave, right? So please keep TV Squad open in a separate window as you do the rest of your web surfing and keep hitting refresh for the latest news. Thank you.

I'm sure a lot of the usual suspects will be in the mix when they announce the nominees: Lost, House, Desperate Housewives, The Wire, Hugh Laurie, Boston Legal, etc. But there are several shows and actors that I'm really pulling for and should get nominations, if the world is fair. My list after the jump.

Numbers don't lie -- although some people can manipulate them -- but in all the ways that matter for television, the second season debut for USA's Burn Notice was a 100% hit. The spy caper-drama did something that brings smiles to the lips of all cable execs, it beat first run episodes of ABC and CBS programs.

I'm generally not a numbers person. (I freely admit that I sucked at algebra.) However, the Burn Notice success in Nielsen ratings and key demographics -- 1.8 rating/6 share among adults 18-49 and approximately 5.4 million viewers overall -- is impressive. It built on last season's numbers considerably -- 35% in viewership.

Our Monday morning roundup of a half dozen things TV Squad readers - and TV fans in general - will be talking about this week.

1. Emmy nominations. If Moonlight and Jericho aren't nominated for every award, fans are gonna be pissed. (Thursday at 8:30am on E!, ABC, CBS, and NBC. We'll also have live blog coverage here!)

2. Season premieres of Monk, Psych, The Closer, and Saving Grace. Remember when summer was all about reruns? (The Closer and Saving Grace premiere tonight on TNT, while Monk and Psych premiere Friday on USA.)

3. The Gong Show. A remake of the classic show that has three judges choosing the very few talented performers out of dozens of terrible ones. Wait, that sounds like American Idol. (Thursday at 10 on Comedy Central.)

4. TV Squad reports from the TCA tour. Follow us here and on Twitter. All the hip kids are doing it!

5. It's Star Trek Week here at TV Squad. We'll all be dressed as our favorite character as we post reviews, lists, and essays about the original series.

6. Mad Men marathon. The second season starts on July 27, so grab your Lucky Strikes and some bourbon and settle in for an all-day season one marathon. (Sunday starting at noon on AMC.)

During the HBO's panel at the TCA Press Tour, executives Richard Plepler, Co-president, and Michael Lombardo, President of Programming and West Coast Operations, said they'd be interested in doing a Sopranos movie and a second Sex and the City movie. Plepler said that Warner Bros. and New Line are definitely interested in doing another Sex and the City movie. They are trying to put something together, but there's no timeline. "Everyone associated with the project was really heartened by the fans and by the new fans to the show," Plepler said.

As far as a Sopranos feature goes, Lombardo says HBO would be delighted to take part in it. He says that series creator David Chase is in France on vacation right now but, "If David wants to do it, we'd be delight to explore that."

When the executives were pressed about Mad Men (rumors are abound that HBO turned down the show and AMC snatched it up), Lombardo said only this, "Heres the bottom line, it's a wonderful show and I wish it were on HBO. Matt [Weiner is] an extraordinary talent and I hope that one day, he'll do something for us."

Would you see another Sex and the City movie? How about a Sopranos movie?

It's somewhat rare when a TV show lives up to massive hype, but Mad Men really is one of those shows. It really is as great as you've heard, and it's great to see AMC putting so much money and time behind it. The second season premieres on Sunday, July 27 (after a July 20 marathon to get non-fans caught up), and below are some videos to give you a taste for what the show is like and what might be in store for the guys and girls at Sterling Cooper.

(And yes, in the new cast photo above, Paul has a beard!)

Is there a new trend in the television landscape? Could be. At the TCA panel for Mad Men, creator Matt Weiner, revealed that the show is only going to run four more years.

That's right, the man has a plan. Each season of Mad Men will jump ahead approximately two years, so that when Don Draper's story comes to an end, it will be 1969. Can you imagine how radically the show will look by the end of the 1960s? With their attention to detail, it'll be amazing.

So what's the trend? It's setting an endpoint for a series. Battlestar Galactica did it, and Lost has as well. Traditionally, American television series run and run and run until the creators choose to end or the network calls it quits which usually corresponds to viewers having tuned out.

I'm not sure why anyone, at this point, hasn't seen the first episode of AMC's Mad Men yet (anyone who wants to see it, that is). The entire first season is up on iTunes, AMC reran the show after the first run, and the DVDs have been out for a couple of weeks now, so there have been a lot of different ways for newbies and fans alike to get caught up on the show if they're interested enough. And now there's another way: AMC has made the first episode available for free on its site.

If you become hooked on the show after watching this first episode (of course you will!), check out AMC on July 20. They're going to have a marathon of the entire first season starting at noon. The second season starts the following Sunday, July 27, on it's new night, Sunday at 10pm.

(After you watch chapter 1 after the jump, click here for chapters 2 and 3.)

How much of Swingtown is real and how much is pure fiction? According to Mike Kelley, Swingtown's creator, there are elements in the show that come right from his childhood memories of growing up on the North Shore, a trendy suburb of Chicago. But the sex and the swinging? That's mostly creative license.

So were there really sex parties and swinging in the Kelley home? "You know, it comes from imagination, for the most part."

Inspired by 1976, the era of women's liberation, disco-dancing, the end of the Vietnam War, and sexual freedom thanks to the pill and no AIDS, Kelley balances the fantastic elements with nostalgia.

Another day, another list of 10 semifinalists from the Emmys. This time, it's the Best Actor in a Drama.

There are a lot of the usual suspects on the list (which will be knocked down to five nominees in the next round), including actors from Dexter, Mad Men, Grey's Anatomy, Friday Night Lights, Breaking Bad, and House. One show that's not represented is Lost. I thought Matthew Fox did some great work this season, especially his drunk/screwed-up scenes.

After the jump, the list of the ten semifinalists (also check out those in contention for Best Actress - Comedy, Best Supporting Actor - Drama, Best Comedy, and Best Drama).