TVSquad

It's Fox day, at the TCAs, and they've started the day by giving us some announcements:

• Guest voices on the 21st season of The Simpsons will include: Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Anne Hathaway, Chris Martin, Sarah Silverman, Angela Bassett, Chuck Liddell, Jackie Mason, Neve Campbell, Eli and Payton Manning, Bob Costas, and the late Eartha Kitt.
• From November 9 through November 15, Fox will hold a Simpsons "scavenger hunt" with clues scattered through their programming.
• Gordon Ramsay will conduct a live one-hour cooking demonstration on December 15 at 9 ET. The show is called Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live.
• Finally, Britney Spears will receive the "Ultimate Choice" award at the Teen Choice Awards.

More stuff to come during the day. Of course, for the latest, follow our Twitter feed.

NBC has been promoting the crap out of their new summer adventure series, The Philanthropist, for weeks now. Starring James Purefoy as Teddy Rist, a billionaire playboy who decides to save the world, The previews held absolutely no interest for me. Now, after having seen the pilot, I realize that my first impression was the correct one.

Premiering tonight at 10 PM, The Philanthropist is basically an hour of an insufferable rich dude talking about how awesome he is. We watch the premise of the show unfold through the eyes of Rist himself, as he tells his tale of heroism (saving a Nigerian boy from drowning; surviving a shoot-out and a snake bite in order to deliver some Cholera vaccines to a village) to a bored bartender.

When I first heard that there was a show coming up called The Philanthropist (which isn't an easy word to type out, by the way), I thought it was another reality show. Maybe something where a contestants compete to see who wins more money for charity or something. But it actually stars James Purefoy as a rich guy who goes around the world helping people. It also stars Jesse L. Martin and Neve Campbell. Here's a scene from the pilot. It starts June 24.

The folks at our sister site Cinematical are working hard to give you news and reviews of the best -- and worst -- the silver screen has to offer. Here are some of their latest musings on the latest blockbusters, indies, and everything in between:

• So, if in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Brad Pitt starts off as a tiny old-man, why wouldn't he end up as a giant baby? Cinematical has the answer.
• When we were in high school, my friends and I got together with a VHS camcorder and made Scream 4. It was pretty amazing. What's weird is that even though we didn't get a film deal, Scream 4 is heading to theaters. Neve Campbell needs a job, people.
• Granted, I've missed a lot of movies in the theaters this year, but I still think The Dark Knight is one of the best films of the year. What do you think? Check out Cinematical's top 10 list.
• Hey, want to see something really creepy? Jerry O'Connell and his wife, Rebecca Romijn, are putting her maternity leave to good use by making Mystique and Me, a new Funny or Die video. It's quite funny and quite disturbing.
• As much as I enjoyed The Dark Knight, I don't think Maggie Gyllenhaal and Christian Bale had a ton of chemistry -- at least not enough to make it onto the Cinematical Seven's Best On-Screen Chemistry of 2008 list.

(S03E22) This has been something of a roller coaster week for Medium fans. There was the high of finding out that the show will be coming back for a fourth season. Unfortunately, that was followed by news that NBC is going to move the show to Sundays, waiting until the end of football to bring it back. That makes for an 8 month wait between now and our next visit with Allison.

The big finale followed a similar path. We got all those answers we were looking for in the Recapitator case. The fates of Debra/PD and Walter Paxton were cleared up. The fallout from Allison being exposed started, and took a couple surprising turns. Unfortunately, the episode suffered from some iffy story telling and an abrupt ending.

(S03E21) It's been a big week for the fine folks over at Medium HQ. Not only are they smack dab in the middle of their big three part finale, but they also got an early renewal from the suits at NBC. It wasn't as early as some shows, but having the network make the announcement before upfronts is still a nice vote of confidence. Now, hopefully they'll move the show back to Monday and give it that post Heroes slot next season.

But enough about renewals and scheduling. We have the next to last episode from season three to talk about. In a nutshell, I thought it moved both the Joe story, and the Paxton/Debra/Allison story, along very well. Unfortunately, it also suffered from a couple of problems. First, one way too long, and unnecessary, scene. And second, one missing character.

One of the best things about being the King of TV is that many times people will ask me questions about shows I have never heard of.

Last week, a young man contacted me through my MySpace page to ask me if I knew the name of a certain TV show. He described it thusly, "I believe it may have been British and/or on PBS. It was not narrated but had an eclectic cast (one of whom was deaf). The show was various vignettes, mostly science based from the ones I remember. The one I really remember is the guy who was making bubbles with cigarette smoke. The biggest clue I can give you was the logo. At the beginning of the show they would show the name, then turn it on its side and reflect it in a mirror. It looked like a cricket, then it bounced off..."

Well, I racked my brain and googled into the early morning but to no avail. I had to admit defeat. Now here is the great part.

(S03E20) "Head Games" marks the beginning of the star studded, three part, season three finale. It was a good way to kick things off. There is a murder case for Devalos to prosecute, a new friend(?) for Allison, a new head doctor for Joe, visions that may or may not be correct, a new baby... just a lot going on. It's a good thing there are three parts to this.

Seeing as how the episode opened with Walter Paxton (Jason Priestley), let's start there. The dream within a dream open was very good. The head in the pantry came as quite a surprise, and led to a great Joe moment. He was so calm and forgiving when he woke up in the dream, but so frustrated and fed up when he woke up for real.

He got down on one knee and recited Shakespeare to her.

She said yes.

Former Party of Five actress Neve Campbell is engaged to British actor John Light, according to People magazine. Light starred in the Showtime film The Lion in Winter and in the HBO series Band of Brothers. Campbell was previously married to Canadian actor Jeff Colt, they divorced in 1997 after 2 1/2 years of marriage.