TVSquad

OK, so one of the scenarios below is actually true. Can you guess which one?

a.) Superbad star Jonah Hill is going to write and star in a big screen adaptation of 21 Jump Street.
b.) Nicolas Cage is going to star in a big screen version of the action series Riptide.
c.) George Clooney will star in and direct a movie version of Magnum, P.I.
d.) Ian Ziering will star in a big screen version of The Greatest American Hero.

After the jump, the answer.

We've talked a lot here about theme songs and how they just don't make them like they used to. The openings to shows used to be a lot longer, a real part of the show. Today we're lucky if we get a few bars of music and maybe a credit or two. Heck, one show, Lost, only plays one note and shows the logo.

The Popcorn Trick has a list of the Top 25 Opening Credits of '80s Action Shows, and you can't argue with most of the picks. Magnum P.I. is on the list, as is Riptide, Miami Vice, and The A Team. I would quibble a little bit with the choice of The Rockford Files. One of my favorites, but it was really more of a '70s show than '80s (it ended in 1980). I was 13 years old when Vegas premiered (in 1978 - it ran until 1981) and I wanted to be Dan Tanna and live in Vegas and have hot girlfriends and drive around with a lion in my sports car.

Cagney and Lacey shouldn't be on the list though. It should be replaced with one of several other shows from the '80s. After the jump, the five shows they missed.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• Archie's Fun House - Complete Series
• Doctor Who - Planet of Evil and Destiny of the Daleks
• Flight 29 Down - Season Finale and Season 2
• The Kill Point - Complete Series
• The Love Boat - Season 1, Vol. 1
• Magnum, P.I. - Season 8
• The Pink Panther Show - Season 6
• Saturday Night Live - Best of 2006/07 and Lost & Found: SNL in the 80s
• Trading Spaces - Specials

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• Angel - Collector's Set
• Arrest and Trial - Best Of
• Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book 3
• The Benny Hill Show - Thames Years 1969-89 Megaset
• Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes - Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 5
• CSI: Miami - Season 5
• Checkmate - Best Of Season 1
• Cimarron City - Best Of
• Dark Shadows - The Beginning, Vol. 2
• Everybody Loves Raymond - Complete Series
• Family Affair - Season 4
• Family Guy - Freakin' Party Pack
• Hardcastle and McCormick - Season 3 (Canada)
• Laredo - Best Of Season 1
• Magnum, P.I. - Season 7
• The Mickey Rooney Show - Hey Mulligan
• My So-Called Life - Complete Series
• Mystery Science Theater 3000 - Vol. 12
• October Road - Season 1
• The Outer Limits - Vol. 3
• The Real McCoys - Season 2
• Riptide - Season 2
• Riverboat - Best Of
• Scrubs - Season 6
• Sgt. Preston of the Yukon - Complete Collection
• Tate - The Complete Series
• Twin Peaks - Definitive Gold Box

Whitney Matheson has an interesting topic over at the Pop Candy blog. She lists her 10 favorite props from the movies, and includes some items like Indy's hat from the Raiders of the Lost Ark movies, Darth Vader's light saber, and many items from Steve Martin's The Jerk. This got me thinking, what props from TV shows would I like to own? I have a few from Ed, including a name plate from the courtroom and a drinking bird, but I'd like more. My list is below, in no particular order.

Anything from The Dick Van Dyke Show: In particular, the typewriter in the office or anything from the Petrie's kitchen. Or maybe the ottoman Rob trips over!

• Claudia Cohen: She was one of the more famous gossip columnists, and had a regular spot on both Live with Regis and Kathie Lee and Live with Regis and Kelly, as well guest spots on Curb Your Enthusiasm and ESPN. She got her start writing for The New York Post also wrote the "I, Claudia" column for The New York Daily News. Cohen died last Saturday of complications from stomach cancer that was first diagnosed six years ago.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Gretchen Wyler: She was a veteran TV, Broadway, and film actress and animal rights activist. On TV she had regular stints on Dallas and On Our Own, and guest starred on many series: MacGyver, Charlie's Angels, Judging Amy, Providence, Designing Woman, Who's The Boss, Falcon Crest, Remington Steele, Benson, St. Elsewhere, The Wonderful World of Disney, Hart to Hart, Naked City, and a ton more. The show I'll always remember her for is Friends. In the episode where Monica and Phoebe catered a funeral, she was the widow who wouldn't pay them and sang a song. She died at age 75 of complications from breast cancer.

Michael Ausiello at TV Guide is reporting a big scoop: NCIS star Mark Harmon is threatening to walk off the hit CBS show.

Citing inside sources, Ausiello says that Harmon has always been fed up with producer Donald Bellisario's (Magnum, P.I., JAG, Quantum Leap) "chaotic management style" and wants off the show. The source also says that Harmon is one of the nicest guys on television and that he's in the right on this one. The dispute is described as "a big standoff."

So I'll ask you readers the same thing that Ausiello asks his readers: can NCIS survive without Mark Harmon, or is he the main reason to watch the show?

[via TV Tattle]

Thomas Magnum has a new job: he's going to be the new boss of the Montecito Resort and Casino.

Tom Selleck is joining the cast of the NBC drama Las Vegas this fall. He'll play the new owner of the casino, taking over from James Cann, who has left the show along with Nikki Cox. The only way the show was going to be renewed was to cut the budget, so they're gone (though I wonder how much Selleck will cost?)

This is good news for Selleck fans. It will be great to see him in a regular television gig again. Yeah, I kinda wish they'd bring Magnum, P.I. back for at least a reunion TV movie (as the years go by it looks less and less like that's going to happen), but this is a good replacement for now. Hopefully Rick and T.C. can make guest appearances.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores today.

• Captain N: The Game Master - Complete Series
• DaVinci's Inquest - Season 1
• Dog The Bounty Hunter - Best of Season 3
• The Doris Day Show - Season 4
• The Flip Wilson Show - Best Of Flip Wilson
• Ghostbusters - Vol. 1
• Girlfriends - Season 1
• The Immortal - Complete Series
• Magnum, P.I. - Season 6
• Reno 911 - Most Wanted Uncensored
• The Rockford Files - Season 3

1. Bruce Campbell: The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. was one of the great short-lived shows of all-time. A really entertaining mix of western and science fiction, with a perfect star. Campbell later had roles in Ellen and Jack of All Trades, but it's been a while. I can picture him in a clever private eye type show, or maybe a smart comedy. Whatever is, he should be back on TV (and I don't mean those Sci-Fi Channel flicks...) 

I don't have a  bad life, but there are just so many characters on TV I'd love to be. Here are the top five:

1. Rob Petrie (The Dick Van Dyke Show): Writer for a hit TV show in New York City by day, and then he comes home to an ultra-cool home at night to eat dinner with Mary Tyler Moore. I want to be Rob Petrie.
2. Thomas Magnum (Magnum, P.I.): I'm not even a warm-climate sort of guy, but I can imagine being a private eye (sorry, private investigator, as Magnum himself would correct me) on Oahu, living on an outrageous estate with my own private quarters and a red Ferrari. Yeah, I can picture that.
3. Bugs Bunny: Independent wise-ass. I'd probably put on some pants though.
4. Kelly Robinson or Alexander Scott (I Spy): To travel around the world on someone else's dime, drinking and swingin' and fightin' spies. Sounds cool to me.  
5. Charlie (Two and a Half Men): This guy never seems to be doing his job (writing commercial jingles) because he's too busy drinking and bedding beautiful women, but he still seems to make a boat load in cash. Sign me up.