TVSquad

Have you ever noticed that men are often the butt of jokes on television? Whether it's the goofy, lazy husband on sitcoms or the incompetent, oversexed guy on TV commercials, men are often shown in a bad light (I know, I know, woman only make 70 cents for every $1.00 a man makes, but it's almost Father's Day so let's talk about this, OK?). AskMen.com has a list of the 10 worst male-bashing commercials on television.

This Monday, August 6 at 9:00 p.m., VH1's new series, The Pick-Up Artist, debuts.

Mystery, reknowned woman picker-upper, is the center of the new reality series. Mystery takes in six dorky guys and tries to transform them into babe magnets. One man is eliminated during each episode, with the champion going home with $50,000.

According to the paperwork I got back yesterday, I'm a man. Because of this, I'm pretty much conditioned not to care about anything that appears on Lifetime.

Still, I figured it wouldn't kill me to at least watch the first episode of Army Wives, a new original dramatic series that focuses on the lives of several women living on an Army base, rather than judging it without seeing it.

You know what? It's not that bad. Admittedly, the show is geared toward women and is at times a bit too "touchy feely" for my tastes, but I can tell a good series when I see one, and this one has potential, as long as people give it a chance and don't completely ignore it just because it happens to be on Lifetime.

(S02E15)

Orel: Gee, Doughy, your parents really do love you after all. They give you money and they don't ever want anything in return, not even you.

This episode was written by former Mr. Show writer/performer Scott Aukerman, along with Neil Campbell and Paul Rust. It wasn't until about one third through the episode I realized this was the first episode that wasn't tethered to some kind of religious ideal. The only "religious" aspect occurred when Orel decided he had to ask his mother if it was morally acceptable for a woman to accept gifts from a man if she doesn't actually like him.

Recently, Bob made an aside about how he can't find Kate and Allie anywhere on television. Well, I have good news for Bob and for anyone else who was a fan of that sitcom: WE (that's the Women's Entertainment network, not the pronoun) will begin showing episodes in June.

In fact, the popular '80s sitcom will be introduced with a marathon running from noon until 9:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 2. The series will then slip into its regular Monday night slot at 7:00 p.m.

Kate and Allie focused on two divorcees who decide to move in together and help raise each other's children. The series starred Jane Curtin (Allie) and Susan Saint James (Kate), and while I watched it a lot growing up (my mom loved the show), I think I was a bit too young to appreciate it. One of the things I love about having a Tivo is recording those old shows I only vaguely remember to see how good they really are. Lately, I've been watching a lot of Alice, but now I'll have to add Kate and Allie to the lineup, too.

Funnyman Graham Norton will be hosting a new reality pilot for Lifetime.

The new show will serve as a kind of popularity contest in which an audience of women vote off one woman at a time from a group of seven as they answer challenges and tackle different challenges. The Hollywood Reporter article doesn't go into much detail than that, so it's hard to say exactly what the hell the point of the show is supposed to be, other than showing women at their most judgmental and catty. Oh yeah, and the show was originally called Judgment Day, which probably isn't a good sign, either.

Norton will still appear in TV in the UK. The Graham Norton Show, his BBC2 series, hits BBC America on June 2. Previously, he hosted So Graham Norton, a Channel 4 series that was adapted into an American version which ran on Comedy Central for a short time.

An acquaintance of mine used to ask me if I ever listened to The Sound of Young America, and I told her I didn't like it. As it turns out, I had it confused with some low-rent internet podcast with a similar name I cannot recall at the moment.

Anyway, Jesse, the fellow who helms Sound of Young America, recently had a couple great interviews with some very funny women. First, he interviewed Anne Beatts, who was the first female editor of National Lampoon, wrote for Saturday Night Live when that show first started, and created Square Pegs. Major TV nerd points to those of you who remember Square Pegs.

Actor and comedian Matt Besser of Upright Citizens Brigade is producing a new broadband series for TBS.com, and he's looking for some pictures of sexy ladies to use in one of the episodes. Somebody writing on behalf of Besser, or perhaps Besser himself writing in the third person, has the details on his MySpace page. He's looking for "MySpace self portraits," those photos shot in just the right light and at just the right angle to make one appear far sexier than they do in real life. The pictures used will be part of a montage at the end of the episode.

Until Besser's new online series is launched, you should check out some of his prank work over on Prank.com, a site created by artist Joey Skaggs. The site was launched April 1, naturally.

Ana Claudia Talancon has been cast as the lead in Whitney, a new comedy for HBO about a group of sexy women in Miami who take advantage of men by making each men think they're the only ones in the women's lives. The pilot was written by Lisa Schrager and will film in Miami. Ana Claudia Talancon was last seen in theaters in Richard Linklater's film Fast Food Nation.

There's not much information on this new series, so all I can say is I hope it doesn't fall into the newish cliche of smart, sexy women manipulating stupid men. I'm not saying women can't be smart and sexy, and I'm definitely not saying men can't be stupid, I'm saying that mix has been done before. I want to know what Whitney will bring to the table that hasn't been done before.

PBS will air a four-part documentary on Wednesday, January 10 and Wednesday, January 17 at 9pm titled China from the Inside. The documentary will delve into both the history and current political landscape of China from all perspectives. It will also examine how women are treated in the country, problems with air and water pollution, religion, and the government's slow response to the AIDS epidemic. The four parts of the documentary are:

1. "Power and the People"

2. "Women of the Country"

3. "Shifting Nature"

4. "Freedom and Justice"

China is quickly becoming a major player on the world stage, but little is known about it. The creators of this documentary hope to shed some light on a country that still remains a mystery to many. I love the idea, and hopefully it will be as in-depth as they claim it to be.

Tomorrow evening at 9 pm HBO will air Thin, a documentary directed by famous still photographer Lauren Greenfield that looks at the lives of four women trying to overcome eating disorders at the Renfrew Center in Florida, where she previously shot photographs. Greenfield has written about anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders before, once for a 1997 piece for Time. This is her first time directing.

Greenfield stayed at the center for six months in order to obtain access to the patients, their families, and the staff. The documentary will examine not only the women who have improved with the help of the center, but also those who did not, and one who was unable to continue when it was found out her insurance would not pay for her treatment. You can see a trailer for the documentary here.

I'd love to see more documentaries like this to balance out the onslaught of media images that make pencil-thin appear to be the norm, when anyone with optic nerves knows that's not the case. Not to say that overweight men aren't also stigmatized, but it's especially true for younger women and girls.