TVSquad

What's happening on other blogs via the interweb.

• Hmmm...maybe we are a little closer to a strike after all.
• Is a cast member of Ugly Betty leaving the show for CBS' new show Harper's Island?
• TV Newser has reactions to the death of Tony Snow.
• Yes fans, it looks like there will be a Sex and the City sequel.
• Stephen Collins says that Hallmark Channel would be a perfect place for a 7th Heaven movie.
• Ed McMahon is recovering from yet another neck surgery.
• Variety has some ideas on how to improve The CW.
• Broadcasting & Cable has a roundtable of TV critics: what if they ran the networks?

ABC is not showing the retooled and reshot Cavemen to TV critics.

Now, this could be a strategy, a la CBS and Kid Nation, to not show the pilot of a show that has been savaged by critics and the industry, to create buzz, or it could be a matter of not showing it to critics because it's just bad, like when movie studios don't let movie critics screen a bad film before it opens on a Friday.

This is becoming almost a daily thing. But that shouldn't be a big surprise at this point. On last night's The O'Reilly Factor, the FOX News host said this:

"If FOX News is the dominant number one rated cable network, and our presentation appeals to millions, why are we hammered in the press? The answer, of course, is ideology.

We can't find one TV critic in the United States of America, not one who isn't a liberal or a registered Democrat. Most are committed liberals, who dislike us for giving conservative and traditional Americans a fair shot.

By the way, if you know of a non-liberal TV critic, please let us know because we always want to be fair and balanced."

• Ken Levine has an interesting post about the use of laugh tracks on sitcoms.
• Aaron Barnhart has a pic of Craig Ferguson's new set. I think it looks kinda Lettermanesque, only Hollywoodized.
• Defamer has a picture of the America's Next Top Model writers picket line.
• Why is FOX handing out free booze to TV critics at 9am? Tim Goodman investigates.
• Alan Sepinwall solves the Heroes mystery (if you've seen it, you know that Greg Grunberg isn't in the pilot like he was supposed to be).

• Lots of TV critics are keeping blogs of their adventures at the Television Critics Association press tour, including Tim Goodman, Aaron Barnhart, Zap2it, Ellen Gray, Alan Sepinwall, Melanie McFarland, Lisa de Moraes, and Hal Boedeker.
• The folks over at TeeVee talk about The Amazing Screw-On Head. By the way, if you haven't already, check out their TeeVeePedia. Funny stuff.
• TV Newser has more info about The Katie Couric Loves Her Fans Tour.
• TV Party is 11 years old? Wow. Some great stuff there.
• Over at the Boston Globe's TV blog, Matthew Gilbert wonders what Rod Serling would be writing today, and points us to the Twilight Zone Convention, August 12 and 13 in NJ.