TVSquad

This is Spoilers Anonymous, a weekly column here at TV Squad where we supply you with the dirt on some of the more popular shows on the air. We'll never put spoilers up here on the main page in order to help the reformed stay unspoiled. If you have anything to add to the group, feel free to step up and let yourself be heard, either with our tips form or by emailing us at tvsquad at gmail dot com, or call and leave a message at (775) 640-8479. Your anonymity is guaranteed, if you wish to remain as such.

This week we have spoilers for: 24, 30 Rock, Damages, Desperate Housewives, House, Lost, Melrose Place, Private Practice, and Ugly Betty. (SPOILERS FOLLOW!)

Hewes & Associates is getting bigger.

FX announced yesterday that season three of Damages, which returns to FX in January and begins filming today in New York, has added four big names to the cast. Martin Short and Campbell Scott have both signed on as regulars and Lily Tomlin and Keith Carradine are joining as guest stars.

This news has me really excited. Last season, after William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, John Doman, and Darrell Hammond all signed on, I said it was arguably one of the finest casts ever assembled for a TV drama. With these new names added to the roster, this season is shaping up to be just as good, if not better. The only thing missing from this news? Confirmation that Ted Danson will return for at least a few eps to reprise his role as Arthur Frobisher - hopefully, he'll be back as well.

This year the Tony Awards garnered the lowest ratings since 1992. Most people are quick to say that it's because they were broadcast on the same night as the finale of The Sopranos but we all know better, don't we?

The Tony Awards are given for excellence on Broadway, which for many years now has been an oxymoron. Aside from the occasional movie star driven vehicle like Martin Short's Fame Becomes Me or blockbusters like The Producers, Broadway has done very little of note in a long time. More importantly, any decent Broadway production is overpriced while also being sold out, giving average Americans little chance to ever see a Broadway show.

Regis Philbin, the iron man of daytime television and entertainment in general, looks to be on the mend after having triple-bypass surgery last month. The New York Post reports that not only is he walking again, but he's actually taking shopping trips with wife Joy, and told reporters that he was feeling well.

Originally he was supposed to be out for five weeks, but it's possible he could be back a little earlier than that (though it's already been three weeks, so I doubt he'll be back until the five weeks are up). He didn't ask me, but Regis? Take your time coming back. We know you're in great shape and a workhorse and all that, but really, you're 75 years old and just had major surgery. You don't need to be all excited listening to Kelly's stories about her kids and all those screaming fans.

On Monday, Martin Short will be the guest host on Live with Regis & Kelly, and then Pat Sajak takes over for the rest of the week. The following week, Jeff Probst is the guest host.

Anna told you yesterday about Regis Philbin's surprise announcement that he will undergo a heart bypass procedure this week. Philbin's last day for at least five weeks was yesterday, and the show has announced who will fill in for him while he's recuperating.

Today and tomorrow, CNN's Anderson Cooper, who has guest-hosted the show before, will take over for Regis in the chair next to Kelly Ripa. Then on Thursday and Friday, MTV's Damien Fahey will fill in. Then there will be a rotating group of celebs who will take over, and that list includes Jeff Probst, Martin Short, Donald Trump, Neil Patrick Harris, Howie Mandel, and Pat Sajak.

Wait a sec...no women? I know they like to have that male/female dynamic on the show, but come, who wouldn't watch Kathie Lee Gifford sit next to Kelly Ripa for a few days?

Man, that must have been a hell of an after-party Saturday night, huh?

Saturday's episode, hosted by Alec Baldwin, set the record for guest cameos: Tracy Morgan, Tina Fey, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Tony Bennett, and Paul McCartney all showed up to help bring some juice to what turned out to be a middling episode (the Nancy Pelosi sketch and the Baldwin/Martin sketch were good, as was Alec's line, "Bobby McFerrin raped my grandmother," but that was about it). Some of the participants, like Short and McCartney, were true surprises, but the others weren't. Why? Because NBC's promotions department are a bunch of putzes, that's why.

In the 1970s, all the hip kids were watching David Steinberg. You had your mainstays like Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas, but Steinberg was an intelligent talk show host who also used to be one of the newer voices in standup comedy. And now you'll be able to see the best of his 1972 CBS talk show on a special DVD set that's coming out on July 11.

As a bonus, the six episodes include many familiar faces from SCTV (the show was produced in Canada), including Martin Short, Joe Flaherty, Andrea Martin, and John Candy. And the set is only $9.99 if you get it from Amazon. Sweeeeeet!

It was recently announced that the 60th annual Tony Awards will go hostless this June 11, because "the 60th Anniversary show is bigger than just one host". Or maybe no one wanted to step up and take the chance of getting ripped apart by the public if things don't run smoothly. Anyway, instead of following the lone emcee tradition, this year's show at Radio City Music Hall will be carried by 60 different stars, including Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, Bernadette Peters, and Hank Azaria.

Back in 2004, MTV's Video Music Awards went hostless, and I remember feeling somewhat disoriented while watching it. Whether this was because I was watching MTV or because it was hostless, is still up for debate.

Sometimes cartoons that are better suited to an older audience find themselves lost in the oblivion of Saturday morning children's fare. The most recent example of this I can think of is Freakazoid! which packed far too many pop cultural references into a single episode for any young person to really comprehend it. Before that, however, there was The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley, based on the spastic, stiff-haired character created by Martin Short.

 

If I may be so bold, the cartoon was in some ways better than the live-action version of Short's character. The surreal world Short created around Grimley was given a more vibrant life when animated, and other touches such as a singing pet mouse gave the show an oddball quality that would portend the absurd humor of Adult Swim and other recent animated fare.

The show featured Short as the voice of Ed, as well as many of his friends from SCTV such as Joe Flaherty (who played children's show host Count Floyd in a live-action segment) and Catherine O'Hara. Jonathan Winters and Andrea Martin also worked on the show. The series began in 1988 and was off the air in 1989. The combination of being shown on Saturday mornings, and an attempt at humor that wouldn't gain wide acceptance until a few years later pretty much spelled doom for the series from the very beginning. Those of us who were lucky enough to catch it, however, got to at least spend a few moments with one of the strangest, most inexplicable animated shows of the late 1980s.