TVSquad

Lifetime does not currently air any original scripted series, but it plans to change that with three new original series. The first two, Army Wives and State of Mind, were mentioned previously, and the third, a "comedic drama" called Side Order of Life, will premiere this July along with State of Mind (Army Wives will premiere in June).

Those of us who grew up in the '80s tend to look at cartoons from that era in two different ways: we remember them fondly because they were a part of our childhood, but at the same time the '80s signified a significant decline in the quality of animation. While toys and games based on cartoon characters were certainly not an '80s invention, many of the cartoons from that era were essentially half-hour toy commercials weighed down by bad animation and stilted dialogue. Some may argue that televised animation never fully recovered from the rote quality that ruled most of the animation from that decade.

I have to admit, this is one show I thought I'd never see on DVD, so maybe there's hope for other short-lived shows from the 80s.

Anything But Love, the ABC comedy that ran from 1989 to 1992, will be released on DVD February 6. The first set will be the first two seasons (28 episodes total). Here's the info, including episode titles.

If you can't place the show, it starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Richard Lewis as writers at a top Chicago magazine. They're friends at first but eventually (of course) they become more than that. The show costarred Ann Magnuson as their boss, as well as Holly Fulger, Richard Frank, Louis Giambalvo, and Joseph Maher. It was a solid little show, smart and funny, so I'm really glad it's coming to DVD. The set will include commentaries by Curtis and Lewis.

STEWART: Are you kidding?
COLBERT and STEWART in unison: His dad was a goat-herder!

I normally don't buy magazines off the rack, but I'll definitely pick up this one... if only for the awesome cover photo. The issue will be out until November 12th.

Animation historian Jerry Beck mentioned a very cool new site set up by Nick Magazine (that's "Nick" as in "Nickelodeon") that features drawings of Nick characters as interpreted by other Nick animators or underground and alternative comic strippers. The concept originated in Nickelodeon Magazine, which has a section called "The Comic Book" that features underground cartoonists --or so I'm told, since I don't subscribe to Nickelodeon Magazine. The Live Journal site is a nice bit of synergy between Nick and the underground artists, and something I'm sure I'll be checking out a lot in the future. Here's Avatar as drawn by Butch Hartman of The Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom. The picture on the left is Jimmy Neutron as drawn by comic artist Jake Parker. I think I prefer his version to the original.

(S01E20) In this age where depictions of sexual fantasies which cover the entire spectrum from mildly titillating to mind-bogglingly depraved are available to anyone with an internet connection, a television episode about a kid swiping his dad's Playboy almost seems like something Norman Rockwell would have painted.

Those of us who grew up before the advent of the internet each have our own story about the time we first discovered our dad's hidden treasure of skin mags. I grew up on a farm and discovered my father's collection of Playboys from the '70s and '80s in an old wooden shed, resting inside a stack of dresser drawers. Like any boy who was too young to really be interested in sex yet, I found the magazines to be equal parts fascinating and repulsive. As much as our parents would try to protect us from such things, discovering those magazines was a kind of rite of passage for many young boys. You didn't know what you had found exactly, but it opened a window into the grown-up world you never knew existed. These days, that window no longer exists. In fact, the whole damn wall has been removed and replaced by an endless digital conduit of smut pouring out of the computer monitor of anyone with the ability to type the word "boobs" into Google's search field. An old copy of Playboy with nothing more than a nude female lounging next to a fireplace seems downright quaint.

Come on, you knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Rachael Ray is all over the Food Network with 30 Minute Meals and the show where she eats and cooks with celebs and that show where she tries to survive in a city for only nine cents a day, so you knew she was going to get her own food magazine. She's teaming with Reader's Digest to offer Everyday With Rachael Ray, a food and lifestyle magazine. You know it's good because not only will it cover all the things that everyday people are interested in (it will be similar to Real Simple), but the title actually rhymes. That's excellent. And here's my prediction: there will be some cross-promotion with a TV show of the same name that Ray will host. Martha Stewart, watch out.