TVSquad

Do not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of classic TV shows.

(S02E01) Here's the rundown. Michael and his son leave for Phoenix. Well, not really. Michael needs money so he ends up going back to his old life at the model home in order to track down the company check book.

While Michael tries to do something productive, the rest of the siblings are into the usual mischief. When she and Tobias decide to explore an open relationship, Lindsay falls for a real estate agent. Tobias readies himself to join the Blue Man Group, excited at this new acting opportunity. GOB, who has been put in charge of the company, finds the contracts with Saddam Hussein but inadvertently gives them to his father who is dressed up like Oscar, George Sr.'s twin brother. Buster reconnects with Uncle Oscar but gets enlisted in the army by Lucille.

And at the end of the day, the Bluths realize they all need each other. If they didn't, it wouldn't be Arrested Development.

Yigal Naor will play Saddam Hussein in a new four-hour miniseries about the Iraq president's reign that lasted from 1979 to 2003.

The miniseries, Between Two Rivers, is being produced by both HBO and the BBC. It will begin shooting this summer in North Africa. It will focus on Saddam's family and his personal relationships. The cast also includes Shoreh Aghdashloo, Christine Stephen-Daly, Said Taghmaoui, Phillip Arditti, Mounir Margoum, Uri Gavriel, Amr Waked and Sasson Gabay.

When a cellphone-created video of Saddam Hussein's execution started rocketing around the Internet, news directors were torn as to whether to show it or not, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In the video, which we showed here, we not only see images of the hanging itself but also a contentiousness between Hussein and the people in the chamber, audio of which was conveniently left out of the Iraqi government's official video of the event.

Most networks decided to show the yelling between Saddam and the executioners and witnesses, judging that the audio gave additional context to the event, but they decided not to show his body actually falling through the gallows, deciding to stop at the point where the noose gets put around his neck. However, CNN.com showed a little bit more, stopping right before the hanging itself, and FoxNews.com showed the entire thing. Only MSNBC stayed consistent between its network and web site, just showing the first few seconds.

It couldn't have happened to a nicer fella.

Perez Hilton, the annoying Internet gossip who is fond of outing people who don't want to be outed, was being profiled for a segment on 20/20's year-end program about this entire YouTube/blogging/Internet phenomenon thingy I've been hearing about ad nauseum. Almost as soon as he starts talking about Lindsay or Paris or Britney or whatever, the program breaks in to announce that Saddam Hussein has been executed. Since Perez's yapping suddenly seemed insignficant in comparison (imagine that), the show decided to stay with the Saddam story, playing segments created in anticipation of the Iraqi dictator's inevitable execution. So, at least in the Eastern and Central time zones, Perez's appearance has been lost to the winds of history.

To be fair, Harvey Levin of our corporate cousin TMZ.com was also profiled in the piece, so that site's moment was also lost. But I was more gleefully happy to see Perez's moment get pre-empted because, well... I don't think Harvey is a pimple on society's ass. Not sure what I was more happy to see: Saddam's hanging or Perez's momentus interruptus.

I never thought I'd see the day when the words "Saddam" and "tasteful" were in the same sentence, but that day has arrived. Word is coming from the Iraqi government that Saddam Hussein will be executed by hanging by Saturday at the latest, and they will tape the entire thing. If that happens, the networks are saying that the coverage of the execution will be tasteful, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Now, they're not doing it out of respect to Saddam, of course; they're doing it out of respect for their audience. They won't air the full video if the Iraqi government makes it available for broadcast. "We're very aware that we're coming into people's living rooms and that there could be children watching," Linda Mason, a senior VP for CBS News, told THR. Since the war started, network news executives have considered using graphic video footage on a case-by-case basis, often editing it down to make it more palatable to audiences.

(Update: Embedded below is reportedly a video of Saddam's hanging.)

Okay, first thing I noticed about this episode was Jon's hair. For some reason, it looked a little more grey than usual. Or maybe he just didn't gel it as much. I don't know. I found the absence of a mini-pompadour surprisingly unsettling. It actually took me a while to adjust my eyes. That's probably not a good thing.

"From Top To Bottom": Pastor scandal! The Jesus Camp clip was absolutely terrifying/hysterical. I was, for lack of a better phrase, totally skeeved out. Jon had a talk with Ted Haggard at Camera Three's naughtier cousin, The Glory Hole Cam. First of all, I'm glad Jon remembered to floss before using that camera. Secondly, Jon has really pretty eyes. It was a really funny bit, but I can't help but wonder how many people flipped to Comedy Central right in the middle of that, with no idea of what the hell was going on.

According to Matt Stone, the U.S. Marines are using South Park as a form of torture in Iraq. Apparently American forces are making Saddam Hussein watch the South Park movie: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut... repeatedly. The movie was banned in Iraq when it came out in 1999 because it depicts Saddam as a homosexual.

When speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, Stone said, "That's really adding insult to injury. I bet that made him really happy."

[Via TV Tattle]

Ahh, the Iraqi war has headed into its fourth year... its senior year. And Bush's ratings have hit a senior slump. Currently, it seems as though Bush is the only one who realizes what a great job he has been doing. I absolutely loved that series of manipulated clips of Bush from various press conferences ("One of my favorite tactics is to say the same thing over and over and over again").