TVSquad

Controversy raged last weekend as fans and media types reacted to a new DirecTV ad using the late Chris Farley in scenes from Tommy Boy. Now, some aggressive YouTubers are taking their shot at offending some people (with DirecTV execs at the top of the list).

The original ad featured a live action David Spade discussing DirecTV against Farley's antics from Tommy Boy. While Spade insisted Farley wouldn't mind, a lot of his fans took offense to using a dead man to hawk a product.

But the video below, from a YouTube page, The Landline, lights up the satellite TV provider with an edgy send-up of the "dead talk cash" stunt with faked DirecTV ads featuring a pseudo Heath Ledger, John F. Kennedy, and someone else you'll recognize.

There's a conspiracy theory floating around that this is actually clever viral marketing from DirecTV itself -- since no publicity is bad publicity. But, if that were true, and word really got out, it'd be "deadly" to the company's business.

Most prime time network shows have a chain of command that would make the Pentagon look like a PTA board.

There's the writers who send their scripts to the show runners who then have to filter their changes through the director who send them to the producer where it's thumbed through and sent to a group of picky censors and so on and so on. Ninety offices later, the script is finally ready for shooting, even though the story went from a quirky drama about a lawyer who represents illegal immigrants to a sci-fi epic about mutant leeches who suck out astronauts' brains through their nostrils.

But actor Jaleel White has found a place in Hollywood where the usual studio aristocracy has been thrown away in the name of freedom and simplicity: the Internet.

"I'm so excited about it because I don't need to go to an executive now," White said in a recent phone interview. "Our focus group is America."

As a kid, my parents were totally cool with my television viewing habits, as long as it never became excessive or kept my face from being kissed by the light of day every once in a while. Not that they had anything to be worried about, of course, considering that all I was watching was Nickelodeon.

While my fellow prepubescents were slowly but surely migrating to more grown-up programming on MTV (and Playboy, if you had a cable box), I spent the bulk of my time between 1992 and 1996 fully devoted to Roundhouse, a 30-minute sketch show sandwiched between the more popular Clarissa Explains It All and Are You Afraid Of The Dark? on SNICK, Nickelodeon's Saturday night programming block.

Former Weeds co-star Romany Malco is developing his own series and testing it out on YouTube viewers. Malco decided to create his own character after his Weeds role was written out of the show. He's leaving Conrad Shepard behind and moving on to the role of Tijuana "T.J." Jackson.

Malco described Tijuana Jackson as an ex-convict living under house arrest. Under a strange, "only on TV" legal arrangement, T.J. stays out of jail by supporting the three women that live with him. The women also happen to be prostitutes and T.J.'s employees.

File this under the category of do-it-yourself politics. In this YouTube.com era, it was only a matter of time before it happened. MoveOn.org has joined forces with Oscar-winners Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Oliver Stone, multiple Grammy-winner John Legend and author Naomi Wolf to a TV ad contest for Barack Obama. The contest is called "Obama in 30 Seconds," in which Barack supporters are being asked -- challenged -- to come up with half-minute videos that focus on what it is about the Senator from Illinois that inspires them. The winning entry will be shown on national television.

Have you ever laughed at an inappropriate time? Maybe during a serious story someone is telling or a funeral or a speech by your boss? That's how Taina Hernandez feels.

She was anchoring ABC World News Now with Ryan Owens the night that news broke that actor Owen Wilson tried to kill himself. The two anchors were laughing about something during the break, and when the show returned live Owens started to talk about the Wilson story and Hernandez started to laugh.

I would cut the show a little slack but 1.) Hernandez didn't really try to stop laughing and made light of it when she tried to "move on," and 2.) The segment is introduced with wacky music and narration and the caption at the bottom of the screen says "Poor Owen," which seems a little bit too sarcastic to me. Video (via Best Week Ever) after the jump.

I don't know what type of TV viewer is still interested in beauty pageants. I'm especially confused by people who would tune into this past weekend's Miss Teen USA Pageant. But if the show has more priceless moments like the one in the video after the jump, I might start watching in the future.

It's Miss South Carolina, who tries desperately - and painfully - to answer the question on why so many Americans can't even find the United States on a map. It's one of the great TV moments of the year. Host Mario Lopez must have been thinking about something really sad to keep from laughing.

If you can decipher what she says, please let us know in the comments. I predict she'll have a big future in modeling, or maybe as a model/TV anchor!

OK, so we've all seen that surreal video of William Shatner "singing" Elton John's "Rocketman" at the 1978 Science Fiction Awards (and Stewie's version), but I bet you probably haven't seen Kojak taking a shot at Bread's "If."

I'm not sure what's scarier: Telly Savalas coming off as Blofeld trying to sing a love song (it's like he's going to announce his plans for world domination, but he has to sing this ode to his girlfriend first) or the giant head of the actress who is on the screen in back of Savalas. It must have been kind of odd to be her, just being told to "just stand there and look like Loretta Swit's sister." Full video after the jump!

Fascinating piece in the L.A. Times this weekend, about how many old TV shows are showing up on YouTube. And when I say "old" I don't mean All in the Family or Charlie's Angels. I'm talking about stuff from the 40s and 50s, like Captain Midnight, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, old Dinah Shore shows, and old commercials.

It's great to watch these early shows online (you can watch shows from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and today on our own In2TV), but is it legal for people to just put these shows online?

If you're of a certain age, you know that disco infiltrated every aspect of popular culture many years ago. Every sitcom had to have at least one episode where the characters talked about going to a disco or practicing for a dance or actually going to a disco. Rock songs were disco-cized, commercials had disco music, and everyone wore bad clothes.

It happened with Sesame Street too. I don't know what year this is video is from, but it features Cookie Monster in a disco looking for a cookie. Or maybe some blow, if this is Studio 54. Not sure. But it's rather disturbing, especially since CM is wearing a bowtie and necklace that I don't think even Liberace would have been caught in. Video after the jump.

One of the saddest changes in the television landscape has been the disappearance of the theme song. They're really not that important to the people who create TV shows now (or the networks who want to get more commercials in). Lost has just a single note as their theme song, ER has changed and shortened their theme song, Jericho has static, and Heroes doesn't have a theme song or credits either.

Luckily, the shows that still have theme songs also have opening credits. Shows like The Office and Dexter all have theme songs and opening credits. They're classic TV openings. Of course, it's nothing like years gone by, where almost all shows had theme song and opening credits. The Onion has picked 22 that they feel fit their shows perfectly. I don't know if that is the same as "best opening sequences," but the choices are interesting, quirky, a little maddening, and they left out a few, as I'm sure you'll agree.

Ah, the people of the internets are endlessly clever. In the tradition of recut trailers such as Brokeback To The Future comes The Office...if it was a crime thriller instead of a Must-See comedy.

My favorite parts: the slow motion shot of Jim in the rear view mirror, Dwight and Ryan out in the empty field, and Kevin saying "My God, what have I done?" They should have ended it with Dwight saying "you're dead" though, instead of the gunshot.

I guess TV shows and movies can look like anything you want them to be. It's all in the editing. I want to see The Wire done as a wacky sitcom.

I'm quickly coming to the realization that Michael Cera is a very talented guy, beyond his work on Arrested Development. The video after the jump is one of the funniest things I've ever seen on YouTube.

I'm not exactly sure what the parody is (who the heck is Aleksay Vayner?), but it's hysterical nonetheless. It's a faux-interview with Cera, where he talks about what it takes to be successful: in career, in relationships, in fitness, and in life in general. Like a teenaged, Hollywood star/Anthony Robbins. There are a ton of lines you'll be quoting to friends tomorrow, but my favorite might be about proving to his parents he could play guitar:

"Cut to nine years later, I play guitar every chance I get, when I'm not signing an autograph or reading a script or having copies of keys made. And whenever I see my mother calling on the phone, I'll pick up the guitar and play a song. They'll hear it and say, 'hi, I was wrong, how are you? I haven't spoken to you in a while.' "

[via Gawker]

Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer is one of my favorite Christmas specials, along with It's A Wonderful Life, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town, but a few things about it have always bothered me. Like the way Santa treats a lot of his workers, from the flying reindeer to his elves, he just seems a little harsh and mopey.

This video after the jump explains it further. It's like a little investigative compilation of scenes from the special to show how much of a jerk Santa is. Is this fair? Or did the person who put it together have it out for Santa and only pick the worst parts? I would say it's fair, because there's a lot of proof, from almost every scene in the special.

This is one of the more ridiculous videos I've seen in a long, long time. It's footage of a local weatherman freaking out on camera because a bug was crawling on his leg.

Let me repeat that: he completely freaked out because a bug was crawling on his leg.

No joke. This isn't just an "oh my God!" exclamation, this is an all-out Jerry Springer-guest-meets-Little Richard explosion. And he does it twice. Video after the jump...

[via Gawker]