Posted Aug 20th 2008 3:04PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, TV on DVD, Reality-Free
It's great that recent shows we love, whether it's
Mad Men or
Seinfeld or
The Sopranos, get released on DVD so we can watch every episode again any time that we want. But the true greatness of the DVD technology is that we get to see shows that we've never seen before, because we were too young to watch them when they first aired and they're not rerun in syndication like
I Love Lucy or
The Honeymooners.
The latest show to be released - and getting the Complete Series treatment! - is
M Squad, a black and white detective series from the late 50s that starred Lee Marvin as a Chicago undercover cop. The set will include 15 discs, 14 that will house the episodes of the show and another disc that will feature the show's music. What's most interesting about this release is that at first it was supposed to be only a Very Best Of set, because the studio didn't have all of the episodes. They sent out a
plea to fans and collectors to see if they had a copy of any missing episodes on videotape, and the fans came through. So now it's a Complete Series set and not just a Very Best Of.
The set will be released on September 23.
Posted Aug 20th 2008 2:04PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free
We're used to reading all of the lists that rank the best and worst TV shows of all-time, now ABC is getting even more specific than that.
What are the top moments in television history?
You can vote for them at the ABC site and your answers will be revealed on the 60th Primetime
Emmy Awards, which will be broadcast on Sunday, September 21. There are two categories, comedy and drama (sorry fans of game shows and reality shows). No, you can't write in your own vote, you have to pick from the finalists that they've already chosen for you, so right off the bat you know there's going to be a lot of "but what about..." and "why did they include..." talk.
Continue reading What are the top moments in TV history?
Posted Aug 19th 2008 5:04PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Late Night, TV Royalty, Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show, Reality-Free
Here's who's on the late night shows tonight.
- Charlie Rose: Designer Bob Lutz
- The Daily Show: Senator Chuck Schumer (repeat)
- The Colbert Report: Lucas Conley (repeat)
- The Late Show with David Letterman: Shia LaBeouf and N.E.R.D. (repeat)
- Jimmy Kimmel Live: Benjamin Bratt and Huey Lewis and the News (repeat)
- Tavis Smiley: Chazz Palminteri and Joey Cheek
- The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson: Rainn Wilson, Corey Kahaney, and The Hold Steady (repeat)
Note: Leno, O'Brien, and Daly are all pre-empted this week for the Olympics.
Posted Aug 19th 2008 4:21PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Web, Celebrities, Reality-Free
Have you thought about creating a MySpace page but thought it was too general and want to make something that's a little more focused, something that celebrates something you're really interested in? You might want to join
HoffSpace.
It's the new social network from David Hasselhoff. The
Baywatch/
Knight Rider/
America's Got Talent star has set up a network on his site where fans from around the world can network with each other. Well, I don't think he actually set it up. I doubt he's in front of his computer at midnight doing HTML and making sure the servers are up, but it's on his site (if you're wondering,
hoffspace.com is already taken by someone else).
Continue reading David Hasselhoff has created his own Space
Posted Aug 19th 2008 4:00PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
- NBC has the Olympics all night.
- TCM is showing Barbara Stanwyck movies all night.
- At 8, ESPN has two new episodes of The World Series of Poker.
- Over on ESPN2, more coverage of The Little League World Series.
- At 9, CBS has a new Big Brother.
- Bill Maher is the guest on Larry King Live, on CNN at 9.
- Sci-Fi has a new Eureka at 9, then a new ECW.
- There's a new Food Detectives on Food Network at 9, followed by a new Road Tasted with The Neelys.
- At 10, A&E has a new episode of The Cleaner.
- Lifetime has a new How To Look Good Naked at 10.
- History Channel has a new Evolve at 10.
- Bravo has a new Million Dollar Listing at 10.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
Posted Aug 19th 2008 1:42PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Daytime, Video, Talk Show, Reality-Free
The mystery of the spaghetti-eating cat has been solved.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's the skinny. During a segment on binge drinking on
The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet, the show suddenly - and without any explanation at all - switched to a picture of a cat seated at a table eating a plate of pasta. The cat wasn't on the show and they never said why it happened. But now
a spokesman for the show has explained what happened. It wasn't a technical glitch or similar error, it was actually done on purpose! The woman talking about binge drinking said something shouldn't have said, so instead of using the usual "bleep" the show went to this picture of a spaghetti-eating cat. If you watch the clip after hearing this explanation you can actually tell that's what happened, because the audio drops out too and when they come back co-host Juliet has a half-smile/half grimace on her face, as if something bad was just uttered.
Continue reading Are you ready for more spaghetti-eating cats? - VIDEO
Posted Aug 19th 2008 1:01PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Commercials, Reality-Free
If there's one thing we can all hate the Internet for is that it has given an amazing array of people the ability to just sit back and complain about everything in the world, even if it doesn't warrant complaining or insults (especially if it doesn't). Today's example: the new commercials for Boston Market (video after the jump).
The ad shows those twins that have been doing the most recent ads for the chain talking about the new meals they offer that cost only $4.99. Only the brother on the left in the video is clearly saying something else, "$5.99," and they dubbed a "4" over the "5" when the price dropped. For some reason, this is causing controversy on blogs from
Gawker to Mediabistro's
AgencySpy. Oooooo, they caught them in a "lie."
Continue reading Stupid non-controversy "controversy" of the day: Boston Market ads - VIDEO
Posted Aug 19th 2008 11:21AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Emmys, Reality-Free, Burn Notice
Here's a neat idea: the
Burn Notice promotional kits that USA Network sent out to Emmy voters were written in invisible ink! You needed a UV flashlight to read the words, which was included in the kit.
The Denver Egoist has all of the details and several pics from the kit, created by TDA Advertising in Boulder, CO.
The kit, which contains 12 episodes of the show on four DVDs, is set up to look like a classified file, and though some of the words are legible, you need the flashlight to read the others. Very cool and very spy-ish, though I wonder if they should have done it a different way. Isn't the preferred method of getting secret messages to Michael via a crossword puzzle? They should have included a secret message about the show inside of a crossword too.
Continue reading Burn Notice promo kits are cool, but ...
Posted Aug 18th 2008 6:00PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: TV on DVD, Reality-Free
Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.There's actually nothing on this list I want to buy. I'm not into
Hannah Montana, I've never seen an episode of
Bleach, I wasn't a big
Married with Children fan, and I haven't bought any previous seasons of
Perry Mason, so I might actually save some money this week.
I like Chelsea Handler though. Not sure if it's worth buying
Girls Behaving Badly just for her.
- Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Season 7
- Bleach - Season 2
- Camp Rock - Extended Rock Star Edition
- Dexter - Season 2
- Galaxy Rangers - Vol. 2
- George of the Jungle - Season 1
- Girls Behaving Badly - Chelsea Handler Exposed
- Gossip Girl - Season 1
- Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus - Best of Both Worlds 3-D Concert
- House - Season 4
- Justice League - Season 1 (Blu-Ray)
- Kenny vs. Spenny - Season 4 (Canada)
- Married with Children - Season 9
- Perry Mason - Season 3, Vol. 1
- Recount
- Spider-Man - Dr. Octopus
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - Season 1
- Transformers - Season 1
- Wayside - Season 1
- William Tell - Best Of
Posted Aug 18th 2008 5:01PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Late Night, TV Royalty, Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show, Reality-Free
Here's who's on the late night shows tonight.
- Charlie Rose: Rick Wagoner, CEO of GM
- The Daily Show: Seth Rogen (repeat)
- The Colbert Report: Jane Mayer and Joey Cheek (repeat)
- The Late Show with David Letterman: David Duchovny and Black Kids (repeat)
- Jimmy Kimmel Live: Rosie Perez, Brandon T. Jackson, and Tyga (repeat)
- Tavis Smiley: Joshua Bell
- The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson: Chris O'Donnell, Larry Black, and Phantom Planet
Note: Leno, O'Brien, and Daly are all pre-empted this week for the Olympics.
Posted Aug 18th 2008 4:04PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, What To Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
NBC has Olympics coverage all night.- At 8, ABC has High School Musical: Get in the Picture.
- TCM has The Big Knife at 8.
- Noggin has a new Go, Diego, Go! at 8.
- At 9, Discovery has a new Raging Nature, then the premiere of Into the Unknown with Josh Bernstein.
- TNT has a new episode of The Closer, followed by a new Saving Grace.
- GSN has a new World Poker Tour at 9.
- HBO has Thank You Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House at 9.
- Toon Disney has a new Chaotic at 9, then a new Digimon.
- At 10, ABC Family has a new Middleman.
- MTV has the season premiere of The Hills at 10.
- There's a new Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on Food Network at 10.
- Showtime has a new Weeds at 10.
- Also at 10: Travel Channel has a new Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.
Check your
local TV listings for more.
Posted Aug 18th 2008 3:04PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
One of the fun games to play when it comes to TV shows is "What If." What if Mickey Rooney had been cast as Archie Bunker on
All in the Family? What would have happened to the show (and to Rooney)?
That's one of interesting revelations (though that one has been known for quite some time) in the new book
Mickey Rooney as Archie Bunker and Other TV Almosts by Eila Mell. It lists a bunch of actors and actresses who almost got roles we know and love. For example, Jenna Fischer (
The Office) tried out for the role of Sydney Bristow on
Alias, but was deemed not sexy enough for the part (as we told you about
before). Whitney Houston didn't want the role of Bill Cosby's daughter on
The Cosby Show so the role went to Lisa Bonet. And Leonardo DiCaprio almost played David Hasselhoff's son on
Baywatch (the role went to Brandon Call and later Jeremy Jackson). That one isn't surprising at all, considering DiCaprio did work on
Growing Pains and other shows.
Continue reading Jenna Fischer wasn't sexy enough to play Sydney Bristow
Posted Aug 18th 2008 2:03PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Celebrities, Reality-Free
Iconoclasts is one of those shows where I always say, "hey, that sounds kinda cool, I gotta watch that...when is it on again?" and then I promptly forget to watch it or even set my TiVo. But this year's lineup sounds like something that will make me remember.
The Sundance Channel show returns in October with these episodes: Bill Maher and Clive Davis; Jon Favreau and Tony Hawk; Venus Williams and Wyclef Jean; Stella McCartney and artist Edward Ruscha; Cameron Diaz and architect Cameron Sinclair; and Richard Branson and Desmond Tutu.
Continue reading New Iconoclasts include Bill Maher, Venus Williams, Tony Hawk
Posted Aug 18th 2008 8:40AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Programming, Reality-Free
Our Monday morning roundup of a half dozen things TV Squad readers - and TV fans in general - will be talking about this week.1. The season premiere of The Hills. It literally hurts my stomach to think that people are going to watch this, but they will. (Tonight at 10pm on MTV.)
2. The Olympics. Many viewers will probably stop watching now that Michael Phelps has done his thing, but there's still plenty of running and jumping going on. (All week on NBC, along with various coverage on MSNBC, CNBC, USA, and Oxygen.)
3. The series premiere of The Cho Show. Hopefully Margaret Cho will have better luck with this than she had with
All American Girl. (Stars Thursday at 11pm on VH-1.)
4. The season finale of Law and Order: CI. Chris Noth left last week. What will happen in the finale? (Sunday at 9 on USA.)
5. The Little League World Series. Guaranteed to be steroid-free! (All week on ESPN and ESPN2, semi-finals on ABC Saturday afternoon, final on ABC Sunday.)
6. The new fall season. Summer isn't over yet, but
here's a handy guide to get you psyched.
Posted Aug 18th 2008 1:30AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Mad Men
(S02E04) "That was beautiful. Are you going to say Grace now?" - Peggy's mom, to the priest
This episode brought a big smile to my face for one reason: Pete was wining and dining the
Gorton's people! I grew up a few blocks away from the Gorton's headquarters, so it was great to see them as the latest client of Sterling Cooper. Hopefully we'll see them in the future too as we've repeatedly seen Belle Jolie, Utz, and Mohawk Airlines.
The rest of the episode shows how intricate this show is. It sort of worries me in a way. How can people who didn't see the first season get into this show, the characters, the rhythms, the seven different stories that each character is carrying around with them? How does the show grow in viewership? I don't know. I just know I love it and other dedicated fans do too, and I hope that's enough for many years to come.
Continue reading Mad Men: Three Sundays
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