TV Shows To Be Thankful For

This Thanksgiving let us celebrate the free over the air shows that give us joy.

Persons of Interest
Raising Hope
Sleepy Hollow
NFL Football

Short list but most of the other show are barely worth watching. Persons of Interest has been the best thing on TV lately, not including the premium cable channels.

NBC Cancellations

Ironside (TV series) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Canceled:

Welcome To The Family, a show about a Latino family that must get along with a white family because their kids are expecting a baby. The white daughter gets knocked up and her mother is also preggers. I watched the most recent episode with a special appearance by Eva Langoria. The show is not that funny and surprisingly not that racial or edgy, despite my description.

Ironside, a remake of the original Ironside except the main character is cool while Raymond Burr, the original was more tough and straight. I tried watching an episode but when Ironside found a gun because it was at eye level saying something like thanks to my wheel chair I  have a new perspective I knew it was poorly written.

Sean Saves the World and the Michael J. Fox show are still hanging on. I have not seen Sean's show but it looks like a typical sitcom. Michael's show is good as I saw the pilot and liked it better than Robin William's show but it is less shiny than Robin's show so it may not last.

Is it a coincident that the "ethnic" shows were canceled first? Probably not but I blame the writers since they are not yet writing for all types of voices.

Community is coming back praise be the lord.

New and Shiny Shows

The Crazy Ones: Pilot
Robin Williams is the dad, Sarah Michelle Gellar is the daughter and together they are the perfectteam in an ad agency. Real celebrities like Kelly Clarkson and McDonalds were used in the pilot. Clarkson was great as a version of herself that wanted to become less pure and sweet. Williams was typically and annoying while Gellar was almost invisible.
The Crazy Ones refers to a old commercial that pitched nothing but an idea before a product was made.

Two and a Half Man: Nangnangnangnang
The episode title refers to the sound/action that Alan made when breast feeding. The show introduced the new "Half Man". Since Angus T. Jones is gone they needed another woman crazy perv. Amber Tamblyn is a horny drunk lesbian who is also Charlie's secret daughter. In this modern day no one on the show asked for DNA proof which seemed a bit false. Amber is a great actress but so far her character is very one-dimensional.

Also Alan is no longer a chiropractor as he refused to pay higher rents for his practice.Now he is Walden's personal assistance.

Parenthood: It has to be now
Amber is going to marry her unstable boyfriend because that will help the situation. Kristina is running for mayor because her opinion matters even though all she cares about is her kids. that autistic kid is huge and now a photographer.

Great that the show is back but I forgot how silly these people act sometime, just like real people.

Sidenote: Optimum is still interrupting breaking news stories with Optimum commercials after 15 minutes of air time.

CBS Monday Night Premieres

Except for Merritt Wever winning and her short speech the Emmys were just typical.

How I Met Your Mother: The Locket / Coming Back
This is going to be a long weekend. They establish that "The Mother" is adorable and perfect in every way. Ted is stalking Robin, again. Marshall is doing a road trip with Sherri Shepard.  Then on the second half Robin seems more insecure then Barney. Overall some nice moments but too much foreshadowing.

2 Broke Girls: And the Soft Opening
The writers threw every genital joke they saved up over the break into this one episode. I missed this show and glad it is back but they still have Jennifer Coolidge doing the worse character currently on TV.

Mom: Pilot
Horrible women use alcoholism as an excuse for their messed up lives. Maybe there is more to the story but the canned laughs made it distracting. I prefer show without a studio audience so I need to get use to other people laughing at stuff that not funny.

ABC Friday Night Premieres

I skipped the Tim Allen show because I never watched it and do not plan to.

The Neighbors: Family Conference
Funny and sweet episode. The entire plot involved the teenagers new found love for each other. Alien and human love is adorable. The whole alien invasion of Earth is on hold leading to problems for the alien dad that will be featured all season.

Shark Tank
Cake balls ruled the day. I enjoy this reality show about people trying to sell there ideas to established professionals. The rejections are my favorite parts because it is usually well explained and is actually a learning moment.

Tuesday Night Premieres

Fox is on a roll starting a week earlier then every other network.

Dads: Pilot
It feels like a 1980s sitcom and that is not a good thing. Everything typical of a sitcom is here with no surprises. One of the dads shows up to his son's work and cost them a multi-million dollar deal and everyone just shrugs it off. That scene just made me dislike everything about this show. Add to that there were no laughable moments. That said this is the pilot which is usually the worst episode so maybe I'll try again.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Pilot
Andy Samberg does bits while solving cases as a detective. Again no laughable moments but at least it is less formulaic then Dads. This show has a better future but it still is a low brow comedy which is not a good time for me.

New Girl: All In
Jess and her new beau run off to Mexico while the roommates continue to ruin their own lives. The show is sweeter than it is funny but worth watching if you like absurd situations.

The Mindy Project: All My Problems Solved Forever
Finally a funny show that I actually laughed out loud. Mindy and the cast are constantly throwing out clever and funny lines showing how the writing and acting are the best among Fox's comedies. New to the cast is James Franco who is great when he tries and yes he is trying for this role.

Not so action packed Tuesday nights

Tuesday once was filled with lots of shows worth watching. Unfortunately most were on NBC and currently that channel is a wastebasket of reality shows, as is many channels.

This is what I am left to watch.

Cougar Town cast source TBS/Cougar Town

New Girl: 9pm on Fox
Jess is in love with her roommate and he loves her back but since they are both so awkward they cannot make it a happy time. The show is okay but I prefer Happy Ending. There are some clever situations.

The Mindy Project: 9:30pm on Fox
Mindy gets into incredibly awkward situations and still manages to keep a great attitude.

Cougar Town: 10:00pm on TBS
Great ensemble cast the only awkward moments are between mother and son, everything else is pure comedy. The romance in the show is sweet and should be applauded.


The oldest show is Cougar Town and is a true comedy. New Girl is half of a comedy but it also relies heavily on cringe worthy moments. The Mindy Project is nearly all cringe worthy which seems to be a trend among the internet/reality show generation. I do not mind if funny but like Girls it is less funny and more laughing at others tragedy.

Anger Management Premiere

Anger Management: Charlies Goes Back To Therapy, Charlie and the Slumpbuster

Charlie Sheen plays Charlie Goodson an ex-ballplayer turned therapist for an anger management group. Now putting my dislike for Sheen aside the show has some funny moments most from the cast few from Sheen. 

The cast is made up of crazies or playing crazy. His daughter has OCD. His ex-wife is played by Shawnee Smith from Becker fame. Brian Austin Green is the exes new boyfriend. Selma Blair plays Charlie's friend with benefits. Brett Butler from Grace Under Fire fame is the local bartender. Michael Boatman from Spin City fame plays his friend. Barry Corbin from Northern Exposure fame plays an old fashioned bigot that is seeking help in group therapy.

Charlie is seeking therapy as his anger is back out of control in first episode. The second episode has Charlie making up for sleeping with an ugly girl back in his ball playing days or slumpbusting.

Don't Get Robbed!

New shows are arriving and one looks particularly bad.

¡ROB!

From what the commercials shows Rob Schneider marries a extremely hot girl of Mexican descent and as he meets the family the hilarity ensues.

Now I enjoy Rob and Cheech Marin is always great but nothing else is appealing. Look the best way to judge a book is by its cover, that is why books have two covers (dust jacket).

This seems like typical bad sitcom clash of cultures that should have been relevant in the 90s or even the 70s when Mexican life was unknown to most. Plus that chica is way too young.

What would have been great is the exact same show except with a Muslim or Arab or Persian family.

Sure I have been wrong with other California centric shows like The Shield which at first I vowed to never watch but then got hooked. But this is rare and also that was a drama. Sitcom should be elevated to a higher standard and just by the ads it seems like a one joke show.

Feel free to watch a few episodes and get back to me. I am open to change.

The writers of 'Two and a Half Men' think you are one sick puppy.

http://www.shaunashower.com/

http://www.malibupuddinggirls.com/

What Else is On

Image via Wikipedia

So it is that time of the season where all my shows are on hold and I watch other shows just to have something unproductive to do.

Burn Notice is always great, caught up a lot with the marathon they had.

Modern Family: Julie Bowen and Ty Burell steal the show it is funny with out being outrageous.

The Middle:  Everyone is great while being outrageous, they are so good you don't even realize Chris Kattan is on the show.

Cougar Town: Courtney Cox tries real hard. What Julia-Louis Dreyfus does with ease Cox makes so hard...he he he. Busy Phillips is great as is the rest of the cast.

Scrubs: Med School while most of the original cast slowly fades away, although Carla was dropped like a brick, new students fill in their spot. I still enjoy the show although Dave Franco is a bit too much.

Better Off Ted: Great, great, great.

V: Finally caught up with all the episodes and it turned out better than I thought.

Currently Watching: July 2009

Meteor - NBC mini-series about an Earth killing asteroid where everyone is horrible, even Marla Sokoloff's character who is the hero of the story turns to a killer, justifiably of course. A complete opposite of the ABC kiler asteriod mini-series Impact where everyone helped each other.

Tonight's conclusion should determine if Earth is worth saving, I'd vote no but Sokoloff is the only thing worth saving.

True Blood - Vampire, shape shifters, religious nuts, mind readers, and something ancient lurking in the deep south. My Buffy withdrawal has been quenched.

Weeds - Never saw the first season and still love these episodes. Funny show.

Nurse Jackie - Edie Falco is a great actress but I still can't feel for Jackie.

Royal Pains - Still funny, it is like MacGyver got a medical degree.

Movies
Eagle Eye -Shia LaBeouf being himself while recreating Enemy of the State by Wil Smith.
Made of Honor - Funny romantic comedy, no surprises.
Immortal - A mixture of 98% CGI and 2% real actors where humans, aliens, and Gods mess with each other in the future. Freaky, would be great if it weren't for all the bad graphics.
Margot at the Wedding - A truly evil sister comes to a wedding and spreads her evil.
Pineapple Express - Action adventure pot comedy. Dumb, not a judgment but the category.
Naked Fear - Joe Montegna must of desperately needed a paycheck.
El Cuerno de la Abundancia - Cuban families try to inherit a large fortune, chaos ensues.


Deaths- Round 2?
Walter Cronkite before my time but a gold standard of news anchors.
Frank McCourt brilliant writer and former NYC school teacher.

Science is Great

No time to explain how showing a Kung Fu Panda short cartoon instead of a sitcom on primetime is horribly wrong so instead here are some cool r-evolutionary discoveries.

Courtesy of Wired.com

Now back to the books.

WPIX turned 60

WPIX Celebrates 60 Years on the air as New York City's first independent television station. Granted a license under the WLTV call letters it was an open contest to pick new call letters that someone suggested WPIX.


To this day this is the best news show in NYC.

To celebrate they've been giving a showcase of some of their well known broadcasts. The line-up is as follows...

• 12noon The Little Rascals
• 1pm Abbott & Costello
• 2pm The Three Stooges
• 3pm The Adventures of Superman
• 4pm Get Smart
• 5pm My Favorite Martian
• 6pm I Dream of Jeannie
• 7pm The Odd Couple
• 8pm The Honeymooners
• 9pm WPIX 60th Anniversary Special

Watching The Little Rascals, Abbott & Costello, and The Three Stooges you get kind of that funny-creepy feeling because of all the stereotypes and racial jokes.

With The Adventures of Superman, Get Smart, and My Favorite Martian they cleaned up their acts but the shows were kind of cheesy. I don't mean to say they're second rate but they were not high budget shows.

WPIX is given trivia in between the breaks one was that the budget for The Adventures of Superman was so low that they filmed all the scenes for each set at once in the same clothes. Meaning for each season the cast never changed their outfits.

Other trivia...

• Anytime the Three Stooges hit their noses a bike horn would sound.
• The Martian's spaceship was made of wood and cardboard and painted silver later it was sold in 1975 for $750.
• Superman's original costume was brown and gray because it showed up better in black and white then red & blue.
• Babara Eden and Larry Hagman later starred together in Dallas.

I wathced most of these shows on WPIX channel 11 growing up. My least favorite were The Honeymooners and The Odd Couple I just never got into them didn't think they were funny.

Oh Yeah I Forgot Him

While I've been slow to blog lately it doesn't help when I have no idea what shows are on.

George Lopez came back but Lost didn't and King of Queens was back for a while and now it's gone. Prison Break is back so is 24 and Heroes while quietly Battlestar Galactica restarted while the Stargates are not on.

Oh yeah Monk came back again with Psych but The Dead Zone, The 4400, and Rescue Me are no where to be seen. Rome is also back with Extras but Sopranos won't be out until much later.

I'm confused and fed up. While I can now TiVo everything I still like a regular schedule, I'm a TV fan not a recording fan.

George Lopez: George's Mom Faces Hard Tambien
So Masiela Lusha aka Carmen Lopez is off to college and out of the show which is sad on many levels. While the rest of the family is slowly falling apart.

Not much to say but it is a fairly good comedy.

Pilots Under Attack

Saw some pilots this week. I always say the first episode is the worst the only exception being Lost. Take that into consideration when reading the following.

Dirt: Pilot
The world of tabloid reporting and their celeb victims is given a dark and crazy theme. Lucy Spiller is the cold hearted tabloid bitch who goes around telling other crazed reporters how to get stories. She also makes side deals that cause pain and death to celebrities.

No character on this show is likable even though they have bad dreams all night long. They're almost human. This is unrealistic because the real paparazzi don't have bad dreams and could care less about honoring deals.

This is the show that Laura Allen chose over The 4400 ruining that show.

All in all I don't like the show even with the cussing and sexual content which seems forced.

Knights of Prosperity: Pilot
A group of loser plan to rob Mick Jagger in order to fulfill their boring dreams. While the main cast is dull the one bright spot is Mick Jagger. He plays a happier version of himself and goes around torturing his house boy.

Knights of Prosperity is the gangs name.

I laughed but not hard.

In Case of Emergency: Pilot
Again a group of loser who knew each other in high school meet up. Harry is the main guy who helps everyone else. A lot of money was spent on this pilot that had car chases, hospital scenes, and cakes galore.

The best part of the show is the interaction between Kelly(Kelly Hu) and Harry(Jonathan Silverman).

Again I laughed but not enough for a show with this budget. It is well made for a sitcom.


I will render my final judgement by the second episode but I may not make it through all of Dirt.

Yeah, More Sitcoms

Big Day: Pilot
The best 24 rip-off since 24 first aired. This show is a comedy that takes place in more or less real time, starting at 8am the morning of a wedding. Alice played by the still hot Marla Sokoloff, is getting married to Danny played by Josh Cooke, formerly of Committed and Four Kings.

Wendie Malick is the mom and the best part of the show, another great character is the ex-boyfriend. Apparently everything that can go wrong in a wedding will go wrong. The best man is now legally blind after a one night stand with the brides sister who drank his contacts. One of the groomsman is in love with the groom and the father hates his soon-to-be son-in-law.

Stephnie Weir of MadTV fame plays the wedding planner who tries to referee the mom and Alice.

While I say never judge a show by it's pilot I still have hope this one will stay funny. Too bad it's on a terrible time Tuesdays at 9pm ET on ABC.

Image Source: http://a.abc.com/media/primetime/bigday/images/gallery/101/pilot_01.jpg

Sheen Should Be Shunned

My rant about Charlie Sheen a few days ago has been confirmed by his wife, Denise Richards. When I wrote Stupid Guy I was just speaking about his ridiculous comments about 9/11 but now he has stupid ideas about everything.
At The Smoking Gun they claim to have a restraining order filed by his wife.
Here's some points I found interesting...

1. He believes that stopping breast-feeding causes brain damage.
2. He thinks that vaccines are poisonous.
3. He used a chiropractor to give bad medical device about his daughter.(Yes in Two and a Half Men his brother is a chiropractor, Hey Charlie that show is fiction!)
4. Obsessed about vaccine poisons, 9/11 conspiracies and hid gun under tables for protection while kids played in the house.
5. Carried Nicole Simpson's dead body pictures.
6. He watched barely legal gay porn. (Which would be fine if he were gay.)
7. He was addicted to TV but not in a good way, he used it as a gambling tool.
8. He emailed his erect penis to 30 women.
9. He repeatedly shoved his wife around.
   

While I usually ignore gossip this one is a great example of how people who believe in conspiracies actually live their lives.

Since Mister Sheen loves to troll the net if you are reading this I hope you face the truth of this world and retract all your conspiracies, as for the hookers , porn, gambling and drugs...well everyone needs a hobby.

New Thursday Line-Up

No more Joey, yes, wooooo yeah.

Four Kings: Pilot
Pilot episodes are the worst episodes of a show and this one is no different. They set up the show about four life long friends who inherit a beautifully large apartment in New York City and deice to live together. They are all now single and ready to move on to their next stage of life.
Seth Green is the funny angry one and the only thing worth watching. That guy from Commited is the main guy but not as funny as when he did Commited.

My Name Is Earl: Barn Burner
Earl's brother burns down a barn and Earl makes him do the list. Eventually Earl forgives him for ruining their future and takes the list back.
This was a dang funny episode with Catalina stealing most of the scenes. When asked what she feared the most she plainly says snakes..."snakes and rape". Also in another scene she speaks Spanish when responding to Joy. Let me translate what she said..."To all the Latino in the audience thanks for watching and for those non-Latinos thanks for taking the time and learning another language." I fell over laughing when she said that.

ER: If Not Now
The announcers for NBC should be tortured. All week long they announce the shock of what will happen to Dr. Neela will go down in ER history and then not only is it not on this week's episode it looks to be something stupif and boring.
As for the episode it was all about abortion and Dr. Abby keeping her baby. The only person I like in the show now is Dr. Morris played by Scott Grimes. I always liked him since his sci-fi horror days doing those Critters movies. Which comes back to the point that these Critters should eat the NBC announcers.

On With The Shows

Strike Poster
Originally uploaded by David Reeves.

Okay going back a day or two the President made an impromptu speech on Sunday trying to justify the war. Well I like his moxy but he keeps stumble while speaking.

Family Guy: The Father, the Son and the Holy Fonz
Peter is looking for a good church and invents the Church of Fonz. They took some funny shots to Desperate Housewives and Madonna, who now looks like a 70 year old prostitute.

SideNote: The recent South Park episode about the bleeding Mary statue has been condemed by the Catholic Church and called to be smited from existence.
American Dad: Not Particularly Desperate Housewives
Fran tries to join a click and Stan gets a dog. Could be better.

Arrested Development: Making A Stand
Damn funny episode. Having the father filming his sons fighting and then selling the tapes was great, but when the Latino workers recognized the sons that had me rolling. Overall a great show so many small laughs.

How I Met Your Mother: The Limo
A cool episode with Neil Patrick Harris playing Barney stealing every scene.
Thanks to TV Squad here's a list of his "Getting Psyched" mixed tape.
1) I Wanna Rock -- Twisted Sister
2) You Give Love A Bad Name -- BJ (Bon Jovi)
3) Lick It Up -- KISS
4) Paradise City -- GNR (Guns & Roses)
5) Dancing With Myself -- Billy Idol
6) Rock You Like A Hurricane -- Scorpy (Scorpions)
7) Panama -- Van Halen
8) Talk Dirty To Me -- Poison
9) Thunderstruck -- AC/DC
10) Dr. Feelgood -- Crue (Motley Crue)
11) Round and Round -- Ratt

This was a New Years episode and was as funny as it was sweet having Robin kiss Ted after midnight.
God the girl they get to be Ted's future wife better be perfect.

Two and a Half Men: Santas Village of The Damned
Alan has a girlfriend is a nester and she is plying the family with home cooked feast. A truly funny episode while we watch the guys get fatter every scene.
Also having Josie Davis playing the domestic hottie was perfect, many may remember her from Charles In Charge as the nerdy sister.

At the end of the show they have an essay as the closing credit, form Chuck Lorre I assume he did the same at the end of Dharma & Greg. Usually just rambling but his one was a complain about the fact that Weeds got nominated for an award over this show. I said the same. Weeds is horrible and not funny, while this show is crass but hilarious. He said he won before for Cybil because he took the judges out for dinner and this year he gave the judges junk.