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Despite dealing with a cyborg Stan from the future, 'American Dad' gave us the strongest Valentine's outing of the night. The final image, albeit a little morbid, was genuinely sweet and emotionally satisfying for anyone seeing true and lasting love. For all his buffoonery, and there is a lot, Stan always comes through on the side of love in the end. Tonight's battle was with his own selfishness.
Stan proved it by taking himself to the Hershey park, and then eating Francine's promised breakfast-in-bed himself, and even agreeing to be turned into a cyborg in the future by the CIA, rather than spend eternity in a joint coffin with Francine. It took future Stan coming back, after 1000 years alone, and trying to steal Francine away from him, for Stan to realize that he did care about her.
Think you know everything there is to know about 'Seinfeld'? Ok, maybe you do, but for the rest of us, TV Guide Channel put together a special called '25 Things You Didn't Know About ... Seinfeld.'
For example, Elaine isn't the only one who can work for J. Peterman. In fact, J. Peterman is a real person with a real catalog that 'Seinfeld' just happened to make famous. And John O'Hurley, who played J. Peterman on the show, actually bought the company a year after Seinfeld ended, bringing it out of bankruptcy to co-own it with J. Peterman himself.
According to both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, Larry Charles and Ant Hines, the director and writer behind 'Borat' and 'Bruno,' are teaming up again for a new CBS pilot starring English comedian and actor Paul Kaye. The project, which the Reporter says stars Kaye as a "British low-life moving to LA to reconnect with his daughter who is a teen celebrity," is untitled.
Charles has been much acclaimed for his work with Sacha Baron Cohen, as well as Larry David on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' Jerry Seinfeld on 'Seinfeld,' and Paul Reiser on 'Mad About You.' In Kaye, he has another talented comedian who likes to instigate trouble and who can move easily between characters.
Kathy Najimy, who has recently appeared on 'Desperate Housewives' as Susan's high school enemy, is set to make a guest appearance on 'Ugly Betty.' What's interesting isn't that she's going to be there, it's why she's going to be there. Betty's finally getting the braces off!
Najimy plays Betty's orthodontist and the one responsible for getting all of that metal out of her mouth. I guess Betty decided to switch orthodontists rather than have to deal with the creepy advances of her old one, played by 'Modern Family''s Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
If you're a big fan of the CBS drama 'Numb3rs,' stick your fingers in your ears and run around the room yelling "LA LA LA LA LA I'M NOT LISTENING TO YOU."
Michael Ausiello over at Entertainment Weekly says that 'Numb3rs' star David Krumholtz has been cast in the new FOX Ron Howard sitcom about an IRS agent. The show doesn't have a title yet, it's just called 'Untitled Ron Howard IRS Pilot,' which I think would be a funny title for the show (very 'Arrested Development'-like). "Tonight after 'American Idol,' an all-new 'Untitled Ron Howard IRS Show'!"
If there's any good news about this for 'Numb3rs' fans it's this: if 'Numb3rs' is renewed for another season, Krumholtz has to continue with that show. He gets the Ron Howard show only if 'Numb3rs' doesn't come back for a seventh season. And it doesn't really seem like that show is coming back next fall (though everyone thought that about another CBS show last year, 'Cold Case,' and that was renewed).
(S05E14) Christine went into full crazy mode this week, after virtually the entire extended family showed up for New Christine's ultrasound. There was a lot of fun to be had with everyone trying to explain to the doctor, guest star Tim Meadows, how they were all connected to one another, and it made me realize that sitcoms -- or at least this one -- are more like soap operas than we may realize.
The marriages and relationships and romantic entanglements of this particular cast go beyond the unusual and into the realm of disturbing. And yet, it all seemed to progress so naturally over the last four-and-a-half seasons. That must be why it's so easy for soap fans to accept the crazy things that happen on their shows. And their crazy characters can't be nearly as crazy as Old Christine.
(S01E15) Parents can certainly relate to Mike and Frankie simply wanting to have a night to themselves on Valentine's Day for the first time in 16 years. And too many of them can also relate to that simply never working out the way you expect it to.
This episode did throw a little surprise for us, showing all three children hanging out with friends, and at least two of them doing so in a way that proves they're growing up, which wasn't such great news for Mike when it came to Sue. Brick, on the other hand, actually found a kid who may be even weirder than he is.
Sue was out again with Carly, whom we first met in 'The Neighbor' when she tried to have a choreographed fight alongside Sue, but we met Brick's strange new friend, and two of Axl's buddies. All three are characters I wouldn't mind seeing again.
ABC's 'Mr. Sunshine' is slowly becoming one of those shows where you say "wow, that sounds interesting." We already know that it stars Matthew Perry as a sports arena manager who rethinks his life when he turns 40 and that Allison Janney will costar with Perry. Now there's more casting news, and it involves another person who once costarred with Perry on an NBC show.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that Andrea Anders, who now costars in ABC's 'Better Off Ted,' will play Perry's love interest in 'Mr. Sunshine' (sorry 'Better Off Ted' fans, but it doesn't look like that show is going to get renewed). She'll be joined by Nate Torrence, who costarred with Perry in 'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip' (he played Dylan).
Jesse Metcalfe of 'Desperate Housewives' has a new show too. He'll costar in NBC's Jerry Bruckheimer drama 'Chase,' about a Texas law enforcement team.
I have a lot of irrational fears: nuclear war, CHUDS, whatever the dark magic is that keeps Jeremy Piven's hairline in place ... the list is long and varied.
Ever since I saw the movie 'Contact', I've been afraid that the TV we pump into space is being watched by aliens far more advanced than we are. Imagine all that garbage floating up into the ether, being judged not by bloggers armed with keyboards and snarky bon mots, but by ETs armed with Gunstars and Death Blossoms.
Who knows what aliens might make of our current TV landscape? What if an alien culture used sophomoric double entendres to make declarations of war? In that scenario, it would take just a single episode of 'Two and a Half Men' to end the human race.
Even if the aliens understood what we were saying, most of what passes for entertainment doesn't make us look good - we've become a world obsessed with karaoke and sex rehab, mostly. In fact, there's only one show on TV today that I'd actually WANT aliens to see ...
Minka Kelly might not be on 'Friday Night Lights' anymore but she is keeping busy. She has just signed on to star in the pilot for a new CBS comedy, 'True Love.' It comes from Matt Tarses of 'Scrubs.' It's about four close friends in New York City and their relationships.
I know, I know, everyone is going to say "hey, that sounds a lot like 'Friends,' doesn't it?" But is that really fair? There are just so many plots that a TV show can have before it starts to seem like they're copying it. I remember when a lot of 'Friends' clones popped up after that show became a hit, but that was more about the timing of those new shows. It's all about the writing and the cast and the direction and all of those elements, not that it's about single people living in Manhattan.
Besides, 'Friends' ended years ago. How much longer will we compare new shows to it?
Paul Reiser, one of the stars of NBC's "Must See TV" heyday of the 1990s, is reportedly returning to the Peacock Network. Thankfully, he's not producing a hokey reality game show like his pal, Jerry Seinfeld.
Reiser, co-creator and star of NBC's hit sitcom 'Mad About You', is executive producing and starring in a new single-camera pilot backed by Warner Bros. Word is that NBC has picked up the project, possibly to help fill the coming gaps in its schedule thanks to Leno's return to late night.
(S07E15) Remember how Charlie and Chelsea's relationship was drifting into the danger zone last week? You know that 'to be continued' we were left with... well, we picked up with the story as Charlie and Alan had cleaned up at home after their sojourn in the woods -- Jake, too -- only to find that Chelsea was pulling a 'Charlie.' That's right, she was coming home in the wee small hours of the morning and hadn't bothered to call. More on that and Alan's topiary below the belt after the jump.
Last week, when Annie posted about the series HBO is developing the comedy 'Tilda,' about the life of "a powerful female online showbiz journalist with a no-holds-barred style," the first person I thought of was Nikki Finke, who writes the blog Deadline Hollywood.
In fact, pretty much everyone who works in entertainment journalism thought of Finke; she's reclusive, opinionated, confrontational, litigious, and likes to punctuate news that corroborates with her inside info with a big fat "TOLDJA!" in all caps. So it's not a surprise to think that more than one person had to wonder if Finke was involved in this show, and if she wasn't, would she sic her lawyers after HBO and anyone else within subpoena-shot.
Gawker called Finke, who, in between threats to sue the site's writer and corporate parent, said she'd talk about her involvement (or lack therof) with the project soon. But The Hollywood Reporter managed to find out that Finke wasn't involved, leading to their wondering if Finke has the right to sue over this series.
How's this for an odd occurrence of non-product placement? On Wednesday night, during the ABC sitcom block -- actually during 'Modern Family' -- there was a commercial for Stouffer's Family Size dinners. The commercial referred to 'The Middle,' making the case for how positive it is for families to sit down and share a meal together.
It was a great idea for a commercial, but did anybody at Stouffer's realize that with the exception of Thanksgiving, the Hecks don't actually cook dinner? They're usually bringing in bags of take out from a burger joint. You see hamburgers and fries and lots of paper products, but it was only for Turkey Day that anybody actually fixed dinner.
Way back when, Ricky Gervais did a hilarious podcast cleverly titled 'The Ricky Gervais Show.' Then suddenly, he stopped it and between that, New Coke and the cancellation of 'Hank,' the world found another reason to stop smiling.
Now HBO is returning that joy to the world with an animated version of his podcast starting Feb. 19. Here's a little joy appetizer, but don't get too full because the main course is right around the corner.