TVSquad

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]

This is how the web works.

Last night I thought of an old song that I like ("old" as in 1986 or so) by Stan Ridgway, former lead singer of Wall of Voodoo, of "Mexican Radio" fame. So I downloaded the song ("The Big Heat") from iTunes, then went to YouTube to see if they had the video. Of course, they did! Odd video. Film noir, but with lots of artsy sci-fi touches too.

Anyway, I'm looking around at the other Ridgway videos they have, and came across this. He's interviewed on Canada's MuchMusic channel, probably right around 1986-88, about his new album and the music business. The interviewer looked familiar to me, even if he was sporting a MacGyver-like hairdo and hip New Wave shirt. Can you guess who it is?

A hint: he's a former CBS anchor/correspondent, now on CNN. Don't cheat by reading the description or comments!

I would watch Amy Sedaris do anything. If she was in a music video featuring Kevin Federline and Nancy Grace, I would watch MTV all day long until the video came on. If she wanted to just go on TV and sit in a chair and eat a bowl of cereal, I would set my TiVo season pass for it. In short, I've had a crush on Amy Sedaris since...well, forever.

So that's why I really enjoyed this, her appearance on Sesame Street last week. She played Snow White, looking for Sesame Street. I have to admit though, Elmo's voice gets really annoying really quickly. Part 2 of the show is on the menu to the left, along with Sedaris' appearances on The Colbert Report, The Late Show With David Letterman, and other shows.

Does Sesame Street always have jokes about burping and cheese in shoes?

Does a day go by on The View where they don't talk about something controversial? Where an argument doesn't occur? Where somebody doesn't freak out?

YouTube has the latest meltdown, from today, when Elisabeth Hasselbeck gets into an argument with Joy Behar about the 72 hour pill and pregnancy and rape and the sanctity of life. Then Barbara Walters gets into it, and displays that phony "voice of reason" tone that she so often has.

It honestly looks like Hasselbeck is going to walk off the set, or at the very least start crying or pouting. Guest host Lisa Loeb just looks really, really uncomfortable and is probably thinking, "I should have gone to Regis and Kelly."

Video after the jump...

[via Gawker]