TVSquad

You might have noticed a few interesting items have come out that have the phrase "he/she said to a gathering of television critics." Well, that can only mean one thing... the Television Critics Association press tour is underway!

Because the writers' strike scuttled the winter edition of the twice-yearly tour earlier this year, this is the first time in a year that the various networks have had a chance to go though the painful process of peddling their wares in front of a group of cranky, jet-lagged, and hungry TV critics and journalists. This year should be interesting, since the broadcast networks don't really have much to offer in terms of new shows (and even fewer pilots for the shows they are picking up), and the whole nature and effectiveness of the press tour is being called into question by both the networks and the critics (more on that in a second).

All that being said, though, you can be sure that TV Squad will be at the Beverly Hilton to cover the dog-and-pony show. Kristin will attend selected cable presentations, and I'll be flying in Sunday, just in time for the broadcast networks to do their thing. Expect reports about executives and producers getting grilled, critics jostling each other out of the way to get a question in during post-press conference scrums, and tales of the unusual happenings at the all-star parties. Also keep an eye on our Twitter page, as I'll likely be throwing out silly dispatches (and maybe even breaking news) from the various events.

To use a well-worn phrase...Good News, Everyone! Your friends over here at TV Squad are heading on out to San Diego during the last week in July to cover one of the bigger, if not biggest, comic book and science fiction conventions on mainland America and the world. I speak, of course, of ComicCon.

From July 24th through July 27th you'll see us with our TV Squad T-Shirts (and underwear -- viewings of those by appointment) as we join the rest of the throngs attending the convention. At some point we may even be doing a bit of Twittering to find out where you are at the convention so you can find us in order to shake our hands (or, in the case of some of our commenters, punch and kick us) and potentially get some free stuff as well.

We thought it was time again to point out a few features of TV Squad that have been around for quite some time now, since we have new readers coming to the site every day.

First up, RSS feeds. Most blog readers know what these are and how to subscribe to them, so I'm not going to get into the basics of that now. What you may not know, though, is how many different RSS feeds we actually have here. Sure, you can subscribe to the main feed with all of the posts, but maybe you want to zone in or posts in certain categories?

NBC is certainly giving their new comedy Chuck a good PR push, and it's now headed off on something of an unconventional path. The latest bit of Chuck pseudo-PR is a top ten list over at The Bachelor Guy. It's a post reportedly from our hero, Chuck Bartowski, running down the top ten things you'll need when running from assassins.

It's not what I would deem comedy gold or anything, but he manages to get a dig in at the iPhone keyboard, sing the praises of the Wii, and use the word spork, which you just don't see every day. You can also follow along with Chuck on twitter, if you've jumped on that bandwagon.

I give the whole thing extra points just for being different. Maybe it's because I've watched too much TV (is that possible?) over the summer, but at this point in the new season game, I've grown awfully tired of the same promos for the same shows over and over. It's time for premieres, and week after week with new episodes. Until then, the goofy web hijinks are a welcome distraction.

Comic-Con 2007 officially began with Wednesday's "Preview Night" or, as I like to call it, "Get the Lay of the Land So You Don't Get Trampled to Death by a Grown Man in a Pikachu Costume Night."

Over the next couple of days, I'll be covering panels featuring the casts of Lost, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica and a few of this coming season's most anticipated new shows - Pushing Daisies, Reaper and Chuck among others. You can keep abreast of the latest scoop by following TV Squad's Twitter feed. (You can score a free TV Squad t-shirt if you're in San Diego by finding me via our Twitter feed.) I'll also be posting photos on Flickr and wrapping-up each day with as many posts as I can churn out to keep you, gentle viewers, informed.

It's time once again for the big geek-out event, Comic-Con 2007, where legions of fans descend upon the city of San Diego for several hot days in July, hoping to meet some stars and learn some juicy news about their favorite comic book, movie or television show. How on Earth could we dare miss it?

Our own Julia Ward will be representing TV Squad this year with some help from Kevin Kelly, attending as many of the panels and events they can muster in three or four days. While at Comic-Con, Julia will be using our handy-dandy Twitter account (widget after the jump) to not only update on big TV news as it happens at the event and when she's got new posts up on this site, but she will occasionally update on her whereabouts so you can locate her and get one of our awesome new TV Squad T-Shirts! Check back here later for an update from Julia on what she'll be attending and more.

Have you heard of Twitter? All the techies are doing it. It's a cell phone or IM tool that allows you to update your friends on what you are doing. It's basically text messaging a whole bunch of people at the same time. The idea is to send out a line or two about what you're up to.

One of the writers on My Name is Earl is a friend of the Twitter creators and so he's incorporating the technology into tonight's show. During the west coast feed (woo! West Coast!), writer Mike Pennie will send 'extras' to accompany the show. Think of it as real simple DVD extras but in real-time on your cell phone. That means you're going to have to watch Earl live tonight from beginning to end if you want the messages to make any sense.

To get messages from Mike Pennie during Earl, join his network here. (By the way, his latest message says they're working on an upcoming script for Norm MacDonald to appear on Earl)