TVSquad

Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings now has a blog on his site, "Confessions of a Trivial Mind." And it's pretty damn entertaining. I was expecting some dry commentary and historical facts, but there's a lot of pop culture stuff on there too, and he updates it frequently. He has a message board too, which seems to be pretty active.

Jennings has a new book coming out, Brainiac, and is a regular columnist for mental_floss magazine.

[via TV Tattle]

According to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO likes Big Love enough to bring it back for a second season. The series is about a polygamist family consisting of a husband, three wives, and seven children (and at least one wife wants another child).

The viewership for Big Love hasn't been impressive, with about 50% of Sopranos' viewers not sticking around for the show. It has been averaging about 4 million viewers each Sunday night. Those numbers are comparable to HBO's Deadwood.

Season two of Big Love begins filming in August.

It only makes sense that the theme song for a series about a dysfunctional family is "God Only Knows," recorded by another dysfunctional family, The Beach Boys. (If you want details, read Heroes and Villains: The True Story of the Beach Boys.) Watching this latest episode with that song playing in my head definitely made it an interesting experience.

You certainly get the impression that a man with three wives may have a fantasy life in one respect, but for those moments of pleasure, he certainly has to deal with more tension in his house (or in Bill's case, three houses) than any other married man or woman would need to deal with. However, I don't feel any kind of sympathy for Bill's plight--he put himself in this position. No one said polygamy was going to be easy!

Let's review what was on Bill's plate this week. His youngest wife Margene, who is a bit loud in intimate situations, is begging Bill for a car so she can run errands. Barb and Nicki also continue to compete for Bill's attention, and he pops Viagra like Tic-Tacs to keep pace. (Is it too much to ask for less shots of Bill Paxton's bare behind?)

Are you kidding me? Cingular is charging customers $1.99 for Big Love wallpaper for cell phones. You know what I'm talking about, right? Teeny, tiny, little cell phone wallpaper pictures. For $1.99. For Big Love? It's a brand new show, on late at night, on premium cable. If HBO wants to promote Big Love, it should be giving away those wallpaper photos for free. Puh-lease.

Cingular also has Muppets wallpaper. Ok, I might consider paying for that one. If I didn't already know how to make my own.

I can't say I'm surprised about this news. HBO is launching a new original series after The Sopranos on March 12 called Big Love. It stars Bill Paxton as a wealthy businessman from Salt Lake City who just happens to be a polygamist. He tries to balance the needs of his three wives, played by Chloe Sevigny, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Ginnifer Goodwin (hey, that's some good casting!), by popping a little Viagra every now and then. HBO expects the funny to erupt as Paxton tries to juggle his three families, while keeping his lifestyle secret.