Posted Apr 10th 2010 2:00PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Celebrities, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
There are so many channels now, and so many celebrities. It seems like everyone will get a TV show at some point. But there are still some TV stars that no longer have TV shows but really should. For example, someone like Tom Selleck should have a weekly series again, and luckily he is going to return to TV in
a new show on CBS.
If not for that recent announcement, Selleck would have been number one on the list that follows after the jump: five stars I'd like to see on a regular TV series again.
1. Nick Mancuso. Mancuso starred in one of my favorite TV shows,
'Stingray,' and he has had a rather interesting career since then. He's been in a couple of TV shows and a slew of movies (including the 'Under Seige' films), but these days it seems like he's very content focusing on his artwork, his writing (check out
his blog), and doing the occasional role in a movie.
Continue reading Six Stars That Should Have TV Shows Again
Posted Apr 10th 2010 9:00AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, TV Squad Lists
Discovery Channel unveiled its lineup for the 2010-11 season this week, and it looks like more stellar programming for the real-life stories network. You can read more about it
here, but two that caught my eye are 'Engineering the Impossible,' where a team of specialists search for clues about how some of the world's most fantastic structures were built; and 'The Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero.' a documentary executive produced by Steven Spielberg.
This made me think about some of my favorite shows on the Discovery Channel, and I realized that they usually involve people in ridiculously disgusting or deadly situations. I think of these as the "real" reality shows, rather than the manufactured reality shows like
'Survivor' and
'The Amazing Race.'
Ok, we'll take Bear Grylls out of the equation, because, clearly, there's no need for him to be dropped into the wilderness and have to drink his own pee. But the others on my list are just awesome people doing death-wish jobs no one else wants to do. Follow me after the jump to see who made my top five list.
Continue reading Top Five Death-Wish Shows on the Discovery Channel
Posted Apr 8th 2010 5:03PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
Several years ago on this very blog I introduced the concept of
fanesia. That's not a new soft drink or an 'American Idol' contestant, it actually stands for 'fan amnesia,' those TV moments that we refuse to acknowledge even happened on our favorite shows.
Past examples I've used have
included Fitzwallace dying on 'The West Wing,' the last episode of 'Seinfeld,' Mark dying on 'ER,' and 'Will & Grace' not speaking to each other for years in their final episode. In my mind, those things never happened on those shows.
Here are four more. Let us know your favorite Fanesia moments in the comments.
Continue reading And Still More Fanesia Moments: Conan, 'The West Wing,' and Barney Fife
Posted Apr 8th 2010 4:00PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Game Show, TV Squad Lists
If you were shocked to hear about
ABC's 'Downfall,' a game show that drops people off of buildings for our amusement, you clearly don't watch enough TV and lead a rich, fulfilling life.
Television's long and storied history is filled with game and competition shows that pit their contestants in a physical, psychological and gastrointestinal showdown, most of which were lost to the ravages of obscurity. Well, it's "filled" if you only look at the last few years or so when the economy tanked and people turned to humiliating themselves in the national media to keep from having to hunt small rodents for sustenance. That's how
'The View' got started.
These are the shows that not only tortured contestants, but also their viewing audience unless Dick Cheney happened to be watching any of them.
Continue reading Six Game Shows that Used Actual Torture
Posted Apr 8th 2010 1:05PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, Mad Men, Burn Notice
Since summer is the time for beaches, parades, cookouts, and fireworks, and I hate beaches, parades, cookouts, and fireworks, it's TV time! That's especially true since there are more original shows on summer now than there used to be. Here are the five shows I'm looking forward to the most. And none of them are reality shows.
1. 'Mad Men.' To use a popular phrase,
duh. Of course this is number one on my list. It's still weird to me that the best drama on television is a summer show. I don't know why this is still surprising, since we're not living in 1980 anymore and summer in a real TV season now and not just a place for repeats, reality shows, and shows that need to be burned off.
Maybe it's best that this show airs in the summer. It has a little more breathing room than it would have if it debuted in October.
Continue reading Five Shows I'm Looking Forward To This Summer
Posted Apr 6th 2010 6:29PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Saturday Night Live, Celebrities, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
A host can make or break an entire episode of 'Saturday Night Live.' In fact, the mere presence of some celebrities like Chevy Chase, Milton Berle and Frank Zappa have turned their slice of Saturday late night into the lowest moments of "Must-Miss TV."
However, things are looking good this season. A
preliminary list of hosts includes Oscar nominated actress Gabourey Sidibe, former 'SNL'er and
'30 Rock' star Tina Fey and 'Golden Girl' actress and
new found Internet champion Betty White.
However, some pop culture icons, nay legends, will never get to prove their celebrity power by hosting this comedy powerhouse simply because they never got an invitation, the show wasn't around in their time or they physically couldn't go to the studio. These hosts would have made for the best shows if the laws of time and space went on a week-long coffee break.
Continue reading Five Great 'SNL' Hosts That Will Never Happen
Posted Apr 5th 2010 2:08PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Food/Home/DIY, OpEd, Celebrities, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
Whether it's
'The Barefoot Contessa' or
'Tyler's Ultimate,' there's a wide variety of food, cooking, chefs and experts on The Food Network. For the most part, the diversity is great and if you're a food fan -- a foodie -- you can watch FN for hours on end and be entertained. However, if you do watch for more than a few hours, especially the 'in the kitchen' programming which is all about creating dishes, there are some things that stand out -- five burning questions about the Food Network.
1. What's with the hygiene?
On nearly every cooking show, the food preparers -- whether they're an American Iron Chef like
Bobby Flay or a restaurant owner/home cook like
Paula Deen -- are obsessive about washing their hands. Any time they touch meat or chicken, there's a camera following them to the sink to wash hands with soap.
Continue reading Five Burning Questions About the Food Network
Posted Apr 5th 2010 11:06AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, TV Squad Lists, Chuck, Reality-Free
One thing that TV fans love to do is create their list for "My Favorite TV Shows of All-Time." Every few years I calculate mine, and for several years, the list didn't change that much.
Oh, maybe a couple of shows switched places or maybe a show dropped from number five to number eight, but for the most part the list stayed the same. That all changed a couple of years ago when I had to add both
'Mad Men' and
'30 Rock' to the list. I still haven't figured out which two shows in the top ten I'll have to take off.
I'll also have to add a third show to that list, and that would be NBC's
'Chuck' (tonight at 8 on NBC). I don't know if it wedges its way into the top ten, but it's definitely top twenty. Here's why.
Continue reading Four Reasons Why 'Chuck' is an All-Time Favorite
Posted Apr 2nd 2010 6:24PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Pickups and Renewals, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
It's pilot time again and this season the networks have decided to turn back the clock,
specifically on old cop and crime shows, to save their sinking ratings.
For instance, NBC is bringing back the mystery series
'The Rockford Files' with Dermot Mulroney in the role that James Garner turned into a classic TV crime fighter. CBS has also ordered a remake of the procedural cop classic
'Hawaii Five-O' with Scott Caan and Jean Smart.
Normally, my gut reacts to a TV remake the same way a person who just washed his car reacts to a line of dark clouds (a lot of cursing and shaking of fists at God or some other celestial being). However, if done right, anything has the chance to be good... unless it's one of the following cop serials, which should never be touched by a TV producer ever again.
Continue reading Five Cop Shows That Should Never Be Remade
Posted Mar 8th 2010 2:00PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Music and Variety, How I Met Your Mother, Celebrities, Awards, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten, Modern Family
"The morning after ... we ask the right questions. The morning after ... we make the suggestions."
Those are the lyrics to a song Barbra Streisand once sang and it occurred to me this morning after recovering from the long, long and rather uneventful
2010 Oscar ceremony last night on ABC.
Looking back through the bleary-eyes of my memories, there were quite a few things that could have been better, a few that were just plain lousy, and a few moments that lived up to the hype.
Danny shared his view. Check out my ten Oscar observations list:
Continue reading Ten Oscar Observations -- A Morning After List
Posted Feb 22nd 2010 5:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd, TV Squad Lists
In my cubicle world days as an IT guy, I always wondered if upper management would have a much different picture of what went on among the rank and file if they just took some time to come to the office and do what we did. So the premise of the new CBS reality series
'Undercover Boss' intrigued me; a CEO goes undercover to work with various employees to see what really goes on where the rubber hits the road.
But after three episodes (and seeing the preview of the fourth), a few troubling questions have come up that make me wonder if this show is going to be as illuminating as originally thought:
1. Why so many food service companies? Of the
five episodes already scheduled, three involve food service companies (Hooters, 7-Eleven and White Castle). I know these companies have more manual-labor, entry-level jobs than a technology company might have, and seeing the CEO of 7-Eleven struggle to make coffee is fun to watch, but the formula is going to get a little boring after a while, isn't it?
Continue reading Three Burning Questions About 'Undercover Boss'
Posted Feb 15th 2010 11:06AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, Celebrities, TV Squad Lists, Casting, Reality-Free
News that New York Times reporter
Bill Carter is working on a pseudo-sequel to his groundbreaking book The Late Shift' made a smile creep across my face. I haven't yet read the book, but the buzz it caused and the weird stories that came out of it just by word of mouth gave it an aura of mysterious wonder that made the television industry infinitely more fascinating than it already was.
It also spawned a pretty decent made-for-TV HBO movie. Now I don't know what kind of craziness "Round Two" has to offer, but the players involved are definitely going to have all sorts of wild secrets revealed from Carter's work and when it does, HBO is going to want the movie rights. So here's who should play who in this new tragic merry-go-round of television programming hilarity that shall be called 'The Late Shift 2'.
Continue reading 'The Late Shift 2': Who Should Play Whom?
Posted Feb 10th 2010 3:02PM by Jay Black
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, OpEd, TV 101, TV Squad Lists
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 ...
Continue reading TV 101: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love 'Jersey Shore'
Posted Feb 8th 2010 11:00AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: 24, Ratings, TV Squad Lists, Emmys, Reality-Free
What is going on with Jack Bauer? Have you been watching '24' this season, the first time set in New York City? There were high expectations that this might be the best season yet for
'24' because we'd be seeing a lean, mean, older Jack who has been through the wringer and knows all the tricks and turns of the business. Comparisons were made to Jason Bourne, but with the Bauer edge.
Unfortunately, we're not seeing the vim and vigor of
'The Bourne Identity' or any of the other Bourne pictures. We're not even seeing the quality of
'24' from seasons past. Instead, '24' has turned into something else entirely -- an empty shell of its former self. It's time to call it a day for '24.' The show has definitely jumped the you-know-what.
Continue reading Six Reasons Why '24' Has Jumped the You-Know-What
Posted Feb 7th 2010 11:22PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: The Simpsons, Video, Watercooler Talk, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
Look, I knew as soon as I saw the promo for '
The Late Show with David Letterman' that featured
Letterman, Oprah and Jay Leno, that nothing was going to top that. There was just no way anything could be better than that 15-second ad. While I was correct, there were some commercials for non-CBS products that put a smile on my face. Of course there were many others that made me groan, wince or sigh, but
Bob's handling those.
The videos below are from
Hulu, because they were the first ones available. If you can't view them due to location restrictions, they will all be up at
Fanhouse.
Continue reading The Super Bowl Commercials: The Best
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TV 101: Podcasts That Could Be TV Shows
David Cross: 'Arrested Development' Movie "Not Going to Happen"
Five Burning Questions About the Food Network
