TVSquad

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if American Idol's Katharine McPhee decided to give up her dreams of stardom and just settle into weather reporting?

Of course you haven't, but that's what happened at a St. Louis news station when McPhee, before her interview, decided to jump into the middle of the weather report to give the weatherman a hard time for being a Taylor Hicks fan, and to try her hand at reporting the weather. It turns out it's not that easy: you have to know where to point, and you have to ad lib.

Mental Floss has a clever little quiz in which you must determine whether various descriptions of bizarre crimes actually happened in real life, or are merely plots of various Scooby-Doo cartoons. I'd recommend taking the quiz before reading any further.

I surprised myself by actually scoring 9 out of 10. The only one I was fairly positive about was number four, as I'm fairly certain no Hanna Barbera cartoon would ever feature someone pointing a gun at someone else. At least, not lighter fare like Scooby Doo. I'm sure Batman has had various weapons aimed at him on more than one occasion.

Bill Moyers' Journal, a new version of his '70s news program of the same name, "debuts" tonight with an interview with Daily Show host Jon Stewart. I put "debuts" in quotes because the series actually debuted with "Buying the War" on April 25, but tonight marks the first time the new series finally settles into its regular timeslot.

Below is a clip from tonight's show in which Stewart pithily describes The Daily Show as "very serious people doing a very unserious thing." I think that not only describes The Daily Show perfectly, but also describes what makes the best satire, whether it's television (The Daily Show), movies (Blazing Saddles), or Swift's A Modest Proposal. The best satire comes from either a real love of what's being satirized (Young Frankenstein), or the need to twist real anger and frustration into something comedic (Blazing Saddles, The Daily Show).

You can watch several episodes of the TV Land talk show Sit Down Comedy with David Steinberg right at the TV Land web site (full episodes from the second season and highlights of the first). Steinberg has interviewed everyone from Jerry Seinfeld to Bob Newhart, but the show that I'd like to talk about is the one where he interviews Daily Show host Jon Stewart. It's actually one of the best interviews with Stewart I've ever seen.

If you're a fan of Anderson Cooper 360, you can now download the free video podcast for the show. The podcast does not contain the complete episodes, just highlights, but it is free, so don't complain. Actually, you can complain all you want, what do I care?

If I may digress for a moment, doesn't Cooper look like he's posing in the JC Penney catalog in this picture? I don't know whether to download his podcast or put his shirt and a pair of khakis on layaway. At any rate, "Anderson Cooper 360º Daily" will offer about twenty minutes of highlights ever morning after the program airs on CNN. It's probably not a bad way to catch up if you happen to missed the program, or if you're like me and can't stand to sit still for a full hour.

Oh yeah, and you don't have to download or subscribe to anything if you don't want, you can just watch it right on CNN's Web site. There's all kinds of ways to get your Cooper fix, Cooper Troopers*.

*that's my new term for fans of Anderson Cooper. Spread it around.

So you love CNN but you wish you could get a better look at every wrinkle, crevice and circuit board in Larry King's face? Well, don't slit your wrists just yet, because CNN is going high def this fall. CNN-HD has already been picked up by DIRECTV, which will be launching one hundred new high def channels, most of them in the third quarter of 2007.

I don't own a high def TV set, but I have to ask if high def TV news is really what people want. I can understand wanting to watch movies in high def, and I'm sure nature programs and some animation probably look amazing with this technology, but does anyone really care what the news looks like? I've often wondered the same thing about Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy!, both of which are also now in high def. Unless they start adding explosions and lasers to those game shows, I'm content with watching them on my old TV.

Bill Moyers is returning to PBS. More exactly, he's returning with a new version of Bill Moyers' Journal, Moyers first public television series that debuted in 1972. He hasn't exactly been absent from PBS, appearing in two PBS specials this past year. Moyers last series for PBS was NOW, which was accused of having a liberal bias by PBS board chairman Kevin Tomlinson, who secretly hired a consultant to monitor the program. Speaking at a conference in 2005, Moyers stated:

One reason I'm in hot water is because my colleagues and I at "NOW" didn't play by the conventional rules of Beltway journalism. Those rules divide the world into democrats and republicans, liberals and conservatives and allow journalists to pretend they have done their job if, instead of reporting the truth behind the news, they merely give each side an opportunity to spin the news.

The new series will debut on April 25 with a report on the media's role during the time leading up to war in Iraq.

On Saturday, January 20 at 8pm CNN will debut a new investigative series, CNN: Special Investigations Unit, that is meant to correspond with CNN Presents, the news network's documentary series. Anderson Cooper and Soledad O'Brien will anchor the program, which will air on Saturdays and Sundays at 8pm. The new program is designed to provide in-depth coverage of specific news events. The first episode of the new series, "The War Within," will focus on Muslim extremism in the United Kingdom. Reporter Christiane Amanpour will report on how Muslims of all kinds deal with the conflict of living in the Western world.

Other reporters for upcoming episodes of the series include John Roberts, John King, Candy Crowley and Drew Griffin.