TVSquad

Tom Cavanagh, known for his goofy-but-sweet roles in Ed, Love Monkey and Scrubs, is going all nerdy on us! He's going to host six episodes of a backstage pass-type show for the Smithsonian Institution.

Last year, the Smithsonian announced it is creating a television channel with Showtime that will launch in April. There are at least 60 programs planned, with a few already in the works. One of those few is Cavanagh's Stories from the Vaults. The premise of the 30-minute series is that Cavanagh gets to take viewers behind-the-scenes to check out some of the Smithsonian Institution's coolest and oddest artifacts.

The Smithsonian programming is being offered to cable and satellite profiders as an on-demand channel. Many of the other programs will focus on Smithsonian research, which is not as well-known as its artifacts. So far, no television providers have picked it up.

Boy, the eggheads are certainly pissed about this one, I tell you what!

A deal between Showtime Networks and the Smithsonian Institution has some researchers and historians a bit freaked out. It seems they're fearful that this new agreement could limit or completely cut off their access to the collections and/or the curators of the famous institution. This is due to a clause in the new agreement that states the combined Showtime-Smithsonian has first refusal rights to commercial documentaries that rely heavily on the numerous artifacts the institution keeps in its museums and beyond.

A spokeperson for the Smithsonian, as quoted in an article for The New York Times says that the collections will remain open to researchers and makers of educational documentaries; however, scrutiny will be applied when a commercial documentarian wishes to record certain activity that is a specialty of the institution and will be used in future television broadcasts. For example, why that pendelum at the Museum of American History doesn't stop!