TVSquad

(S01E04) "I'm almost done. Just three more tugs!" - Ray

After I screened the first three episodes of Bored to Death early last month, I had resigned to not watch it ever again. For the most part, save for Ted Danson's performance, there wasn't much I found funny about the show. Add in last week's weirdo installment featuring Jim Jarmusch and I wasn't sure what to think. Given the premise of the show, last week's episode didn't even feel like the same program. It was like they took a script from something else and just had the Bored to Death ensemble act it out.

But then HBO went and renewed it for a second season and I figured, hey - maybe I'll cover the rest of the season for TV Squad. Well, I'm glad I did. Despite numerous shortcomings, "The Case of the Stolen Skateboard" is easily the best episode of the series thus far. And Ted Danson? Still very funny.

• "I mean, if we can have a bajillion stripper movies, can't we have a least a handful or 50 library flicks that not only entertain, but also do great things for the communities across the country?" I couldn't have said it better myself. Check out how a movie starring Parker Posey may save a library.
• Chris Rock was on Oprah today talking to women about his new documentary Good Hair. It sounds absolutely fascinating to me, and is already stirring up a lot of Controversy. Check out the review on Cinematical.
• I love a good scary movie, and it seems as though the upcoming Paranormal Activity fits the bill. Cinematical interviews writer-director Oren Peli.
• The movie Burlesque sounds absolutely insane: Cristina Aguilera, Cher, Stanley Tucci, and now Veronica Mars herself, Kristen Bell has joined the cast.
• Speaking of the lovely Kristen Bell, her movie, Couples Retreat, opens this weekend. Check out the review on Cinematical.

This is what's known, in network-speak, as "we really don't have any confidence in your show."

FOX has cut the episode order for the new comedy The Return of Jezebel James. The original order was for 13 episodes, but now the network has reduced the order to 7. The network says that they always planned the show to be a midseason show and seven episodes is all they need right now, but it can't be a good sign. This follows news that the producers had changed the show's setting from Hoboken to Brooklyn because they "wanted her to have a loft instead of a brownstone."

Two days of presentations from FOX wrapped up with yet another outdoor "all-stars" party. FOX held its gala at the Santa Monica Pier just in time for out-of-town TCA members to see the sunset and the Pacific Ocean.

While there was plenty of swag in sight (mostly various sizes of dolls from The Simpsons), you had to earn it!

Party attendees played carnival games (ring toss, shooting baskets, knocking down bottles with baseballs, popping balloons with darts) in order to take home prizes.

Julianna Margulies, who's starring in the FOX mid-season replacement Canterbury's Law, says that she'd love to do another project with former ER love interest George Clooney. But the actress,who left the hospital drama in 2000, wants there to be a full decade in between projects so that fans won't think of them as lovebirds.

Alas, the reunion won't likely take place at Country General, either.

I can't get the theme out of my head: "Bad boys, bad boys ... whatcha gonna do when they come for you? Bad boys, bad boys..."

Fox kicks off its second day of the press tour with a look at Cops, which is turning 20 years old. That's a lot of torn, white tank tops and name-calling, isn't it?

After a historical look back at the real-life crime show that was ahead of its time, when you think about the amount of reality TV that's out there today, Fox will present the rest of its lineup. Bonus: a table read of the 100th episode of Family Guy!

• Charlie Rose: Tina Brown
• The Daily Show: Robert Schrum
• The Colbert Report: Josh Wolf
• The Late Show With David Letterman: Kyra Sedgwick, Sir Richard Branson, and Maroon 5
• Jay Leno: Fred Thompson, Lauren Graham, and Toby Keith
• Jimmy Kimmel Live: Bernie Mac, Bob Odenkirk, and Fiction Plane
• Tavis Smiley: Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff and author Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Late Night With Conan O'Brien: Tim Russert, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Feist
• The Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Parker Posey and Ian Hunter
• Last Call With Carson Daly: Bijou Phillips and Satellite Party

There's a good chance I'm losing my mind, but I swear I've written about the series The Return of Jezebel James before. However, I can't seem to find the post anywhere on this blog. Perhaps I just imagined it, or I'm schizophrenic and my other personality wrote about it for a rival TV blog.

At any rate, Parker Posey has just been added to the new FOX pilot about a children's book editor who asks her estranged sister to carry her baby for her. The series comes from Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, who is executive producing along with her husband, Daniel Palladino. The couple, rightly so, were thrilled when Posey said yes. I was also thrilled when Posey said yes, to me, in a dream last night when I posed this question: Do you want to make out on this giant plate of elbow macaroni?

Sorry, I've always kinda had a thing for Parker Posey. She's enough to make me want to check out this new show at least once. We'll see if the series as a whole is worth sticking around for, as well.