tv

potpourri

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Not much to report on tv shows themselves this week so I thought I’d just check in on a few things of note.

NBC released its year round upfront to the upfronts. Although I actually try not to pay much attention to these since everything changes or disappears before it goes live but, worth noting are a ‘The Office’ spin-off, the surprising return of not great ‘Knightrider‘ and ‘Lipstick Jungle‘ but also another shot for ‘Life‘ which I just told someone wasn’t coming back.

As for the other networks we’re not official yet but I might be a tiny bit excited about Joss Whedon’s (Buffy!) expected ‘Dollhouse‘ show starring Eliza Dushku (Faith!) and trepidatious about Rob Thomas’s (VMars) ‘90210‘ the next generation (Donna has expressed interesting in playing a milf though it sounds like they’re courting Kelly to round out the older generation on the show).

‘Project Runway‘ is slated to move from Bravo to Lifetime, not this next season but the one after, though NBC has something to say about that. People with Tivos will follow but will this impact the show or the networks? Wait do I get Lifetime? And if I hear correctly ‘Scrubs‘ is moving to ABC. So what one more season?

‘ANTM‘ is getting busted for showing some full frontal – albino Anya’s nudie shoot with Nigel was deemed by some to be inappropriate for evening eyes. I actually watched this and thought she was wearing little coveries but I guess they just blurred her out, really it was all fine, but conservative parental organizations are still arguing about Dennis Franz’ butt on ‘NYPD Blue‘ so perspective is not something these organizations have.

Oh and Kathie Lee Gifford took up residence in the last hour of ‘The Today Show‘, I haven’t watched this in ages but maybe she can put some life in what I recall was nearly dead air.

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sports, tv

next week 4/7

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Monday

  • NCAA Men’s Championship (CBS, 9pm) – Didn’t we already talk about this, I think this is really it, if not I won’t talk about it again anyhow.
  • Samantha Who? (ABC, 9:30pm) – Post strike premiere as Samantha has to move back in with her ex, and his new gal, to keep her apartment.

Tuesday

  • NCIS (CBS, 8pm) – Post season strike premiere as they show, secrets, and stakeouts, and murder.
  • Just for Laugh (ABC, 8/8:30pm) Season Finale – I don’t think I’ve ever watched this real world prank/gag show.
  • The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo (HBO, 10pm) – Rape survivor makes a documentary on victims and rapists.
  • Secret Talents of the Stars (CBS, 10pm) – Sixteen ‘celebrities’ compete with secret talents.
  • Boston Legal (ABC, 10pm) – Post strike premiere as they continue to mix crazies and the law.

Wednesday

  • Idol Gives Back (Fox, 7:30pm) – The celebrities and the idol gang gives back by making you want to give money.

Thursday

  • American Idol (Fox, 8pm) – Special Night as another one of the gang gets the boot, Kristy Lee Cook anyone?
  • 30 Rock/The Office/Scrubs/ER (NBC, 8:30-11pm) Post strike premieres, what are you looking forward to most, I’d say 30 Rock.

Friday

  • The Sarah Jane Adventures (SciFi, 7:30pm) – This is a Dr Who spin-off reportedly for kids as our title character is a social worker for aliens.
  • Miss USA (NBC, 9pm) – Donny and Marie host so it’s gotta be good.

Saturday

  • The Memory Keeper’s Daughter (Life, 9pm) – This adaptation of the bestseller is fleshed out with Dermot Mulroney, Gretchen Mol, and Emily Watson.

Sunday

  • Desperate Housewives (ABC, 9pm) – Post strike premiere as the women of Wisteria Lane continue being desperate.
  • Rock of Love (VH1, 9pm) Season Finale – Brett chooses his lady from the latest stripperesque bunch.
  • Dirt (FX, 10pm) Season Finale – Courtney continues to deal with tabloids and personal drama.
  • Eli Stone (ABC, 10pm) – Special night as Eli continues with visions of the earthquake.
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tv

tv catch up

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As the strike continues some of you may be at a loss for what to watch. This might be a good time to catch up on early seasons of some good shows that you may have missed out on. Here are some of my favorites that are worth a look, or even a second look:

  • Bones (Season 1 and 2) – Great chemistry between Bones and Booth and a fun supporting cast as the squints/lab kids help the FBI solve crimes through forensic anthropology, think of it as CSI/Crossing Jordan for the bodies that are just bones.
  • Brothers & Sisters (Season 1) – A fun soapy drama about partly dysfunctional and totally loving family with a great cast, although uneven there’s always something interesting going on from matriarch Sally Field to newest Walker Emily Van Camp.
  • Grey’s Anatomy (Seasons 1-3) – More soapy fun, and the best was the first season as we first meet our surgical interns and get involved in their work and romance, mostly romance at work,  I’m even ok with the fact that Meredith bugs.
  • Heroes (Season 1) – The first season introduces us to our ‘heroes’ as they get their powers and their plotlines bring them together, somewhat uneven as they get rolling but engaging from the start and riveting by the end.
  • House (Seasons 1-3) – Crotchety, drug addicted, medical genius is how he’s portrayed and you get to watch him abuse patients and coworkers as he tries to diagnose the undiagnosable patients and somehow pretty entertaining, mostly thanks to Laurie but good surrounding folks for him to play off of.
  • Lost (Seasons 1-3) – This show has a faithful following partly because it’s really different and really well done with the interplay of on island action and back story character development, and partly because you really can’t miss an episode for fear of missing some big explanation.
  • Prison Break (Season 1 – Season 2 also available) – I recommend this with a warning, I loved the first season fun, watching one guy’s plan to break his brother out of prison, and watching it mostly getting thrown for a loop, but was super annoyed by the second, I have yet to tune into the third.

Maybe you’re more of a 1/2 hour comedy sort of person? How ’bout:

  • Girlfriends (Seasons 1-3) – Four sassy mostly professional gals deal with life and love and each other and their one guy pal through their different experiences.
  • How I Met Your Mother  (Seasons 1 & 2) – Hopeless romantic Ted tells his tales of love, but its the ensemble cast that makes this work, as theoretically we eventually meet Ted’s true love.
  • My Name is Earl (Seasons 1 & 2) – I find Jason Lee kind of endearing in general and enjoy his bad guy turned good, using his lottery winning to fix his karma by righting his wrongs, with the help, or harm, of his misfit friends.
  • The New Adventures of Old Christine (Season 1) – Julia Louis-Dreyfus found a great format for her broad humor as she plays a hapless single mom hanging with her family and friends trying to get her act together.
  • The Office (Seasons 1-3) – A painful office (based on the British series) at first pained me to think of why I’d want to watch at the end of a day at the office, but its oddball characters and biting humor won me over.
  • Scrubs (Seasons 1-6) – Hospital comedy seen through the eyes of goofball JD as he and his buddies treat patients… well it’s kind of like Grey’s Anatomy but shorter and wackier.
  • 30 Rock (Season 1) – This show took a little while to find its rhythm but when it does this behind the scenes look at a sketch show gets it super right with Tina Fey at the helm.
  • Two and a Half Men (Seasons 1 & 2) – Kind of an Odd Couple, where the guys are brothers and one of them has a kid (at least shared custody), sometimes kind of a crass humor, but pretty good humor nonetheless.
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tv

next week 10/21

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This is the last week we seem to have new stuff so I’m throwing in some other items that may or may not be of interest…

Sunday

  • Viva Laughlin (CBS, 10/21, 8pm) – This is the regular timeslot for anyone who made it through the premiere or doesn’t believe everyone that it’s just plain bad, it is.

Monday

  • Heroes (NBC, 10/22, 9pm) – I’m actually behind on this, but this week Kristin Bell (Veronica Mars herself for those of you who missed my earlier notations) is starting her run and I’m dieing to know what her power will be, I’ve been avoiding all references to the show.

Tuesday

  • Damages (FX, 10/23, 10pm) Season Finale – I did watch the first couple of episodes as they replayed on network and couldn’t get into it but some folks do, it’s been renewed for another season.

Wednesday

  • Phenom (NBC, 10/24, 8pm) Series Premiere – Ok, this is where Uri Geller and Criss Angel, two people that I really don’t get, look for more people that, what? do some sort of magic-like things.

Thursday

  • Scrubs (NBC, 10/25, 8pm) Season Premiere – At the end of last season JD was stressing over fatherhood and Elliot was stressing over getting married, so as she and JD got cot cozy, we were left wondering will they or won’t they, again.

Friday

  • Las Vegas (NBC, 10/26, 10pm) – Apparently TC and Rick from Magnum are making a guest appearance now that Tom Selleck has joined the cast, but where is Higgins?

And we’re also getting going on the World Series (Fox, 10/24, 10/25, 10/27, 10/28, 10/29*, 10/31*, 11/1* – check your local listings) I don’t actually watch or follow baseball, though I’m not opposed to drinking a beer at a game, but thought I’d throw this in the mix.

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tv

my schedule

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Well almost everything has started and until they cancel more stuff, move stuff around, or we get to midseason changes. Here is where things seem to be settling in for me for watching, or at least tivo backlog. (I do try to narrow things down to no more than two shows per time slot.)

Monday

  • 8pm NBC – Chuck (CBS – How I Met Your Mother)
  • 9pm NBC – Heroes (CBS – Two and a Half Men/Samantha Who?)

Tuesday

  • 8pm Fox – Bones
  • 9pm Fox – House (CW – Reaper)
  • 10pm NBC – L&O SVU

Wednesday

  • 8pm ABC – Pushing Daisies (CW – ANTM or in repeats Sun 9pm)
  • 9pm CW – Gossip Girl (NBC – Bionic Woman)
  • 10pm ABC – Dirty Sexy Money

Thursday

  • 8/8:30pm NBC – My Name is Earl/30 Rock
  • 9/9:30pm NBC – The Office/Scrubs (ABC – Grey’s Anatomy)

Friday

  • 10pm CBS – Numb3rs

Sunday

  • 5pm CW – (encore) Girlfriends
  • 10pm ABC – Brothers and Sisters

And for a full grid of the current listings check out a couple of sites that I find helpful:

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tv

more returning fall tv

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So in addition to the fall favorites there are some other shows that tend to hit my tivo:

  • 2 1/2 Men – (CBS, Mon 9/24, 9:00) This sitcom sometimes errs on the crass side of comedy but for the most part they’ve made these somewhat stereotypical characters pretty funny, think Felix and Oscar as brothers only Oscar has a crude, lazy, maybe stupid kid.
  • 30 Rock – (NBC, Thurs 10/4, 8:30) A ‘comedic’ look at behind the scenes of a SNL type show, the characters and stories started to get a good groove toward the end of the season.
  • America’s Next Top Model (ANTM) – (CW, Wed 9/19, 8:00) Ok I admit it, this show is super cheesy, but it’s a pretty good mix of actual challenges and model judging with that unbelievable stupid crazy that reality shows (and probably reality) tend to find.
  • Bones – (Fox, Tues 9/25, 8:00) So maybe I tuned into this just because I would watch anything Angel moved on to, but he and his not yet romantic partner both have good characters and chemistry as she, a forensic anthropologist, and her team, help out the FBI.
  • Brothers and Sisters – (ABC, Thurs 9/30, 10:00) I still don’t love Calista, but again I found myself looking forward to this show. This soapy mess of a family deals with business and personal drama that they mostly create themselves, though much was initially triggered by secrets hidden by the recently deceased patriarch of the family.
  • House – (Fox, Tues 9/25, 9:00) I watch it, but I find the fact that since they are always dealing with a difficult disease in a short amount of time they basically look like they try a bunch of stuff that isn’t working for an hour until they land on the right thing mostly just in time. Also though the House character is too over the top, Hugh Laurie does do a great job.
  • My Name is Earl – (NBC, Thurs 9/27, 8:00) I just sort of like Jason Lee as the bumbling white trash small time crook trying to right his wrongs, with the crazy cast of supporting characters.
  • The New Adventures of Old Christine – (CBS, Midseason) Julia Louis-Dreyfus finally found a good vehicle to do her own brand of self deprecating and physical comedy while she deals with trying to reenter the dating world, among other things, with support from her family and friends.
  • Numb3rs – (CBS, Fri 9/28, 10:00) A relatively formulaic crime show, I guess I like the way they use math to solve the crimes, explaining complex algorithms with silly metaphors, and the family dynamic with math wiz, fbi guy, and normal guy dad.
  • The Office – (NBC, Thurs 9/27, 9:00) I was pained at first by watching annoying people in an office, I mean don’t we all get enough of that at our own offices, but this US version seems to have hit it’s stride with some added subtlety to the comic folks.
  • Scrubs – (NBC, Thurs 10/25, 8:30) This hospital comedy has a pretty good dose of ridiculous characters and scenarios but I think it works.

I do tend to hold some procedurals ’til summer reruns: L&O, L&O: SVU, and Criminal Minds with the occasional dash of CSI.

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