TVSquad

In the latest issue of Time (hits newsstands tomorrow) the mag's resident critic James Poniewozik has a great article on the upcoming prime-time premiere of The Jay Leno Show. Poniewozik makes the argument (an ubiquitous one at this point) that as a result of Leno's move to 10 p.m., your TV is shrinking.

As he puts it, in a TV viewing world where the attention span of potential eyeballs is so segmented because of cable, DVRs, and Hulu, NBC is throwing all their eggs in one basket with "America's most successful purveyor of vanilla."

However, a lot of people really like vanilla. Good sign? Hard to say.

Highlights and a look the issue's cover after the jump.

Time's annual list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World is out, and for the third year in the row I just missed making the list (last year I was 103, this year I'm at 102, so I'm getting better!). The list is broken down into five different categories: Leaders & Revolutionaries, Heroes & Pioneers, Scientists & Thinkers, Artists & Entertainers, and Builders & Titans. This year, Miley Cyrus, Hannah Montana herself, is #59. And the weird thing is, it's under the Scientists & Thinkers category.

OK, that's not true (she's under Artists & Entertainers), but it got me thinking that there must really be a shortage of influential people in the world today.

I like lists as much as the next guy, but I'm not sure how useful a "100 Best" list of anything is. Twenty-five best? OK. Ten best? That's good too, because you're really picking what you think are the best. But once your lists gets into three digits, it seems more like history than opinion. I mean, what wouldn't be on the list?

Time's James Poniewozik picks the 100 Best TV Shows of All-Time (or All-TIME, as the web site cleverly puts it). Since he picked 100 shows, all the usual suspects are here. The obvious ones (The Dick Van Dyke Show, All in the Family, Your Show of Shows, 60 Minutes, Cheers, I Love Lucy, M*A*S*H, etc) and the not-quite-so-obvious but certainly deserving (Mystery Science Theater 3000, The Odd Couple, Friends). And it includes a few surprises too (American Idol, King of the Hill, Oprah).

• One third of Americans have a negative view of Katie Couric.
• Meanwhile, Bill O'Reilly insults someone every 6.8 seconds.
• A whole bunch of stories about Paris Hilton going to jail.
• Stephen Colbert teaches a congressman about weed.
• Remember that story about Mark Harmon threatening to leave NCIS? He's not the one leaving.
• Are Rosie O'Donnell and Tina Fey really two of the most influential people in the world?
• Will next season be the last for Smallville?

• Hiccup girl goes on The Today Show, so Good Morning America calls her 57 times for an interview.
• I can't tell if Time's James Poniewozik likes Heroes or not.
• Ken Levine was once on The Dating Game?!
• Irwin Handleman gives his opinion on the whole Joe Rogan/Carlos Mencia controversy.
• The original Jill Abbott on The Young and the Restless is in an Hawaiian jail.
• In case you missed it, here's George Takei's answer to Tim Hardaway's rant against gays, from Jimmy Kimmel Live.
• BuddyTV is having an Oscars contest.
• I think Tom Shales is on a wild goose chase here.

Wow, that might be the oddest sentence I've ever written.

A while back it was reported that NBC was editing out the religious aspects of the Veggie Tales cartoons they were airing on Saturday mornings. But now, Time's James Poniewozik reports that the network has had a change of heart and will actually put the religious themes back into the shows. The Parents Television Council broke the news earlier this week.

Like Poniewozik, I'm not a fan of the PTC (I think some of their ideas are dangerous), but I agree that NBC is doing the right thing here. I mean, I'm not a big fan of editing or censorship, no matter what side of the political or social spectrum you fall on, and I thought it was bizarre when it was revealed that NBC was taking out the religious aspects of the episodes. I've never seen the show, but when they took the religion out, what was left? Was it just a bunch of vegetables running around?

Earlier this week we told you that actress Jane Wyatt had passed away at the age of 96, and now Time magazine's Richard Corliss writes a beautiful, long appreciation of the actress.

Most TV fans only seem to think of her as the mom on Father Knows Best, and even then, as Corliss points out, many of them are confusing her with the actress who married Ronald Reagan, Jane Wyman. But she had an amazing depth to her body of work that not only spanned several decades in the movies, but an impressive stage resume as welll, including Clifford Odets' Night Music, Dinner At Eight, The Fatal Alibi (from Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and Lillian Hellman's The Autumn Garden, where her costar was James Lipton from Inside The Actor's Studio(!)

But this isn't just a rattling off of her credits. Corliss had a personal connection to Wyatt after meeting her in 1987, where they got into a discussion of politics and race. It's well worth reading.

Even though former co-host Meredith Vieira doesn't watch the show anymore (she's too busy getting up early and working on The Today Show), she did watch Star Jones' final show, and feels that the show has become a joke and is now hard to watch.

This is one of the many things that Vieira says in a "10 Questions" interview with Time magazine. She also talks about women who were angry with her when she left 60 Minutes, how she was raised a boy, and what kinds of stories she wants to focus on when her gig on The Today Show starts in a couple of weeks.