TVSquad

John Oliver (The Daily Show) hosted the 23rd Annual TCA Awards, which were given out at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills on Saturday night.

After being introduced by outgoing TCA president Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Oliver opened the show up with (surprise!) some political humor. Pointing out that vice president Dick Cheney was fully in charge during President Bush's colonoscopy procedure, a ranting Oliver joked, "We should be thankful that we are alive to enjoy this evening!"

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Welcome to TV Squad Lists, a feature where each blogger has a chance to list his or her own rundown of things in television that stand out from the rest, both good and bad.

Gung Ho
Before Scott Bakula became one of the hottest leading men in sci-fi, he starred in many terrible sitcoms. The worst of which was this TV version of the Michael Keaton film. Never mind that any conflict was completely resolved by the end of the big screen version, the scripts were not funny and Bakula isn't really known for his comedic timing.

Bob Patterson
One of the more famous flops in history, mainly because it starred Jason Alexander who had just ended his run on what TV Guide called "the best sitcom ever," Seinfeld. Imagine if George Costanza got his own show and then forgot how to be funny. That is Bob Patterson.

Tom Smothers' Organic Prime Time Space Ride
After The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was unfairly canceled, Tom & Dick Smothers were thought of as two of the funniest and most cutting-edge comedians of the day. So when Tom's new show was announced people expected the same bold humor they were given before. Sadly the wildest thing about this show is the title.

Welcome to TV Squad Lists (formerly 'The Five'), a feature where each blogger has a chance to list his or her own rundown of things in television that stand out from the rest, both good and bad.

Being newly single, I've been spending a lot of time these days thinking about the perfect woman. More often than not, my thoughts end up drifting into the realm of television and all of the perfect women there. So I decided to compile a list of the ten hottest moms on television. Unfortunately, there were way too many to fit on a top ten list, so I expanded the list to fifteen. This was a tough list to compile and I'm sure many of your favorites are absent, but I doubt that anyone can refute the fifteen below.

Susan Mayer - Desperate Housewives (Teri Hatcher) Hatcher has always been smoking hot but it wasn't until Desperate Housewives that she became a TV mom. The best part of her character is how Susan is continually clumsy, awkward and unsure of herself and still manages to be hot.

Welcome to TV Squad Lists (formerly 'The Five'), a feature where each blogger has a chance to list his or her own rundown of things in television that stand out from the rest, both good and bad.

Even before "Must-See TV" networks made an attempt to capture a particular demographic with a killer lineup of TV shows. (Bob's done one of these lists in the past.) What follows is a list of the best TV lineups in history.

1. CBS Saturday, 1973: All in the Family, M*A*S*H*, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, The Carol Burnett Show. All classics. If this lineup were on today, it would still get huge ratings. It's hard for most folks to remember when these shows were originally on and it's even harder to believe that they were once all on in the same night. It makes me wonder what the other networks were showing or why they even bothered.

A new feature here at TV Squad: Standout Episodes, where we review a great episode of a TV series, one that's a perfect example of how great television can be.

"The Death of the Party"
Filmed: October 27, 1964
Aired: December 9, 1964

Since I mentioned The Dick Van Dyke Show earlier this week, I figured I'd start with an episode from that classic sitcom. But boy, it wasn't easy picking the first one.

I could have picked, well, approximately 156 of the 158 episodes the show had over its five season run, but this one stands out because it truly has everything you need for a great episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show.

I have often said that all television falls into two categories, good and bad. However, I have recently discovered that television can also be categorized as classic and non-classic. But there's a catch.

When I was growing up, there wasn't a lot of good TV due to the fact that there were only three networks (four if you count PBS, which I certainly didn't). Consequently, local affiliates had no choice but to fill their daytime schedules with reruns of popular sitcoms like The Brady Bunch, Gilligan's Island and The Monkees. These shows and shows like them have become classics almost by default. Bottom line: when an entire generation can sing the theme song of a show, it's a classic.

• Hey, if Heather Mills can go on Dancing With The Stars with a fake leg, then how about Marlee Matlin or maybe the one-armed drummer from Def Leppard?
• Will Brothers & Sisters star Calista Flockhart star in the next Indiana Jones pic with boyfriend Harrison Ford?
• Katie Couric says she doesn't obsess over ratings (though I wonder if her CBS bosses do).
• MTV plans to build thousands of websites around the world, and all of them will feature video of The Real World/Road Rules Challenge playing nonstop.
• A man falls asleep in the Mary Tyler Moore Show house in Minneapolis.
• Are the American Idol judges clueless when it comes to music?
• And finally, video of Lucy Lawless as Stevie Nicks, promoting her fajita-themed restaurant.

OK, not her actual house, but the show she "lived in" on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. It really is in Minneapolis, and it's on the market for $3.6 million.

Of course, this house was only used for exterior shots on the show. The actual sets for Mary's apartment and Rhoda's oh so funky 70s bachelorette pad (remember those beaded curtains and the colors?) were on a Hollywood lot. The home is an 1892 Victorian, bought for $1.1 million by the current owner, and he has spent even more fixing it up. I think it looks really nice in the pic, and I'm sure with the location and the classic TV connection, someone will snatch it up.

Though I'd wonder about tourists. As the article says, past owners have been annoyed by people coming by and taking photos. Maybe they should charge to tour the place. Nah, that wouldn't work. People would just say "hey, this looks nothing like Mary's apartment!" Then they'd leave in a huff and go try to find the offices of WJM-TV.

[via TV Tattle]

Longtime readers of this blog know how much I love this show. I pretty much became a writer because Rob Petrie was one. I also hoped I could get a woman like Mary Tyler Moore. It's my favorite show. Here's more proof: even though I had already bought three seasons of this show on DVD in individual sets, I still bought this complete set.

A quick background on the show, as if you don't already know: Dick Van Dyke plays Rob Petrie, head writer of the hit variety show The Alan Brady Show, husband to Laura (Mary Tyler Moore), father to Ritchie (Larry Mathews), best friend to his neighbors the Helpers (Jerry Paris and Ann Morgan Guilbert). He lives in New Rochelle, NY and commutes to New York City to write the show with fellow staff writers Sally Rogers and Buddy Sorrell (Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam) and deal with exasperated producer Mel Cooley (Richard Deacon) and egotistical star Alan Brady (Carl Reiner).

Got all that? Good. Let's get to the nitty gritty details of the set.

I would love to see the young versions of Mary Tyler Moore and Marlo Thomas put in a cage together and have a battle of cute. I'm not exactly sure how that would work, I'm guessing they would just emit cuteness until one of them was overcome and their head exploded. This violates several laws of physics, but I'm convinced it would work because their cuteness is almost supernatural. What I can't explain is why I would express my admiration for an actress by imagining a scenario in which they might be violently killed. I really need to think these things through better.

Last year I introduced the term "fanesia" on this blog. It's a word that means "fan amnesia," those moments of a TV show that you simply forget ever happened, because they're illogical, hurt the show, or just make you feel bad and/or angry. I think it's time for another five:

1. Toby was the leak (The West Wing): I don't know what happened here. Whether the character was written off because actor Richard Schiff wanted to leave or NBC wanted to cut some payroll, the way it happened was a real kick in the stomach to longtime fans of the show. Not only that Toby would leak info about a secret military plane (he wouldn't), but that President Bartlet would just fire him so coldly and bring up their history in such a nasty way. Sure, these two butted heads many times, but it was always out of caring and love for each other. Great to see Bartlet pardon him as his last act as President and invite him to the opening of the library, but still. Aaron Sorkin must have thrown something at his TV when this happened.

In my mind, Toby just quit the White House to go teach at Columbia.