TVSquad

You think you know pop culture? Do you watch Jeopardy and think, "I'd clean up on that show!" What about The World Series of Pop Culture on VH-1 -- are you a wiz at that one? Well, you don't have to wait for new episodes. Check out this new web site, Hey, Nielsen, and get going on the quizzes. It's killer.

Experts from all kinds of pop culture web sites -- including our own King of TV Paul Goebel right here on TV Squad -- have contributed to the quizzes. And you can actually win some cool stuff -- iPod nano, one-year subscription to Netflix, $1,000 -- if you're smart enough. I, sadly, am not. I was severely slapped down by the quiz I took. I dare you to try and do better! I'm going back to the books before my next shot!

Earlier this year, Adam told you about the pilot that comedian Lewis Black was filming for Comedy Central titled The Root of All Evil. Back then the show was described as a roundtable discussion a la Politically Incorrect or Real Time with Bill Maher or maybe Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn. Well, the network has now picked up the show, and it seems the format has changed (I think).

The show will now feature two celebrities or two pop culture topics that go up against each other. Black will be the moderator and will give the final decision on who "wins" at the end of the show. Comedy Central said the show will put pop culture on trial.

• At 8, ABC has a new The Next Best Thing, then new episodes of American Inventor and Traveler.
• FOX has a new So You Think You Can Dance at 8, followed by the premiere of Don't Forget The Lyrics!
• At 9, NBC has a new America's Got Talent, then a new Last Comic Standing.
• There's a new American Masters on PBS at 9, on Les Paul.
• Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, talks to Larry King on CNN at 9. Should be surreal.
• Sci-Fi has a new Ghost Hunters at 9, followed by a new Destination Truth.
• VH-1 has The World Series of Pop Culture at 9.
• There's a new Footballer's Wives at 9 on BBC America.
• More stuff at 9: G4 has two new episodes of Code Monkeys.
• At 10, FX has a new Rescue Me.
• Discovery has two new episodes of Cash Cab at 10.
• Also at 10: Bravo has a new Top Chef.

Check your local TV listings for more.

Well, this is news to me: comedian Mo Rocca has a blog on AOL, and I have to say, it's the second greatest blog under the AOL umbrella. Rocca calls it "Mo Rocca: 180°" ("only half as tedious as the regular news"), and it's actually updated on a regular basis with Rocca's wry take on politics and popular culture.

What I've learned from Rocca's blog so far is that not only is he funny, he's also discovered possibly the most disgusting breakfast in the known universe: a combination of oatmeal and cottage cheese, a meal I'm pretty sure maintains the exact same look and consistency through all stages of digestion.

The blog also features exclusive video: below is a pre-Oscars clip in which people on the street talk smack about the best actress nominees.

In case you missed Julia's earlier post about it, TV Land's countdown of the one hundred greatest quotes and catchphrases kicks off a five-night run this evening at 10 pm (it will also air at 10 pm the following nights).

I like TV Land, I really do, and this is just another example of the network's dedication to light-hearted entertainment that's not meant to be analyzed too deeply. It's easy to find fault with the list and notice certain omissions, but what the heck, it's only television.

Interesting piece over at Seed magazine. A Boston University researcher decided to try out for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and used his training in learning, memory, and decision-making to win $500,000.

Ogi Ogas describes his thought process for each question he got, and how he got the answer that he chose for each question. How he would use bits and pieces of knowledge and what he knew was right about an answer to put together the pieces that would give him the final answer, like a memory detective. There's also a bit of intuition involved, as with the question of the first produce that Sears sold in its catalog. Ogas had no idea what the answer was, but for some reason, immediately, "watches" came into his mind. Was it some sort of information that he had read quickly once and had been stored in his memory bank? I wonder if intuition isn't pure intuition at all, but a decision we come to from what we've learned in the past and stored. I'm not sure if this explains why I can't remember to pay certain bills every single month but I remember the Bionic Woman's telephone number (555-2368), but it's fascinating.

Of course, if various aspects of memory and learning are the keys to winning Millionaire, I guess luck and a lack of greed is the secret to winning Deal Or No Deal.

I've always found the guest interview segments of The Colbert Report to be the oddest part of the show. Because it's not like a separate segment, where Colbert comes out of his character for a serious chat with the guest, he stays in character throughout the entire interview, and it's up to the guest to make his point, plug his book, or just completely play along with the "sketch" and have some fun with it. Some of the best moments of the show is when the guest catches Colbert offguard and Colbert laughs and slips out of character for just a moment.

So what should you do if you're a guest on the show? Troy Patterson over at Slate has some tips. Basically, it comes down to 1.) Act your age, 2.) Laugh Uproariously, 3.) Embrace The Theater, and 4.) Go on the offensive.

Sounds like good advice to me.

In a scene from one of my favorite shows, Newsradio, Dave (Dave Foley) makes a comment to Bill (Phil Hartman), saying something about "you're like Andy Rooney, only without a sense of humor." And Phil retorts, "Andy Rooney is Andy Rooney without a sense of humor."

It's a lame, inaccurate joke, the only one I can think of from this great show.

Eric Fogel, the creator of Celebrity Deathmatch, has created another stop-motion animated series, this time for the E! Network. The new series is called Starveillance and will focus on imagined candid celebrity moments such as Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes running into Brooke Shields at the hospital, or Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore's first date. Since I've never been a fan of Celebrity Deathmatch I can't imagine I'd care much for this show, but hey, maybe it'll be better than I think. Episodes of the new series will begin in January, and will also air on the E! Web site.

Roger Ramjet, a very funny cartoon that originally aired in 1965, could be mistaken for a Jay Ward creation, as its aesthetic, pop cultural references, and "too smart for the little kids watching it" sense of humor bear a striking resemblance to Ward's Rocky and Bullwinkle. While I was born about eleven years too late to catch Roger Ramjet when it first aired, I did catch occasional episodes on Cartoon Network while I was in college, and actually found it much funnier than Rocky and Bullwinkle (again, a show it had no connection with). Luckily, you can catch a bunch of episodes on YouTube, and I highly recommend that you do. The series featured Gary Owens (Laugh-In announcer and original voice of Space Ghost) as Roger Ramjet, the leader of a group of spunky cadets known as the American Eagles. Ramjet would often try to save the day, but ultimately he was more interested in saving his own skin. The show, as I said, sampled from the same well of humor as Rocky and Bullwinkle, but was much tighter, and much more rapid fire with its gags. Rocky and Bullwinkle's gags were constructed in such a way that one could clearly see the set up, and the punchline that followed. As funny as that show was, its pacing was actually very methodical. Roger Ramjet, by contrast, would overload every line with several gags, sometimes eschewing its limited animation and instead simply having the characters' words flash onto the screen. There was never any lesson learned in any of the episodes, at least none parent's would want kids to remember. It was, essentially, a satire of so-called heroism, the story of a man who wants to save the day, but is really only interested in looking out for his best interests.

And what the heck, because I like you all so much I stuck a three-minute episode in after the jump. Happy viewing.

VH1 is hosting two tests tonight on its website for a new game show, The World Series of Pop Culture. At 7 pm or 10 pm (ET), you can log on to this website and take the pop culture quiz. There are six sections, with 10 questions each. You have six minutes to complete each section, but only the fastest to answer will make it through to the interview session with the producers. From that pool, VH1 will choose three people to be on a Wild Card team when it hosts the pop culture tournament in New York City on the weekend of April 28-30.

I took the sample quiz and it was a breeze, with lots of references to '80s and early '90s television shows and movies such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Cosby Show, and Seinfeld. Good luck!

[Thanks, Lee!]

While YouTube isn't getting any love from networks like NBC and CBS, cable channel E! recognizes a good thing when it sees it. E! will spin-off a web-only segment of its original series The Soup, exclusively for YouTube. It's called Cybersmack and it's described in The Hollywood Reporter as "a compilation of user-generated video clips that satirize pop culture." I suppose that includes all those mock Narnia raps and all the videos making fun of the "My Humps" music video by the Black Eyed Peas. Cybersmack launches Friday. Best clip wins $25,000. The deal also gives YouTube permission to provide clips from other E! programs.