NBC Comedy Christmas: If You’re Going to Decorate the Drunks, Please Have a Fire Extinguisher Standing By

Who would have guessed that the entry in NBC’s comedy lineup that has put shards of glass in an old man’s eye and married a berry-addled guy off to a raccoon and used crotch-focused heat-vision cameras to catch cheaters would be the one that actually gets Christmas?
What did we learn on The Office this week? Angela [...]

THE WIRE, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS Recognized by WGA

The Writers Guild of America, West and the Writers Guild of America, East today announced nominations for outstanding achievement in television, radio, news, promotional writing, and graphic animation during the 2008 season. Obviously, we only care about television. And we’re excited, because finally someone has given The Wire and Friday Night Lights their due. And [...]

Emmys with a Side of Bacon

Susannah and I have been kicking back at the Emmys for a good long time now. We’ve wept. We’ve wailed. We’ve gnashed our teeth. Personally, I’ve worn sackcloth and ashes, but that’s just my general fashion aesthetic.
Part of the issue is that we can’t put our finger on what the problem is–something’s wrong (really, Academy–Entourage? [...]

Handy Dandy Guide to Returning Fall Television 2008

Suffering from Olympics withdrawal? Burned out on election coverage? Not to fear, my friend, because the new fall television season is upon us. That’s right, all (well, some) of our beloved TV shows are coming back to us. Below is a list of premiere dates for all our favorite (and some not-so-favorite) returning series. And [...]

Thursday Night’s Alright (For Laughing)

All is right with the world once more. That’s right, after five long months of deprivation, we’ve finally got our Thursday nights back again. I’m referring, of course, to NBC’s comedy lineup–My Name Is Earl, 30 Rock, The Office and Scrubs–which is back tonight with all new episodes for the first time since the writers [...]

In Which We Weep for the Future of Television

So, I’ve been scouring all the entertainment news the last couple of days looking for some good update fodder. And you know what? All the entertainment news this week is crap. Seriously. Unadulterated rubbish.
NBC announced plans for their summer schedule and it’s almost all reality dreck. More American Gladiators. The Baby Borrowers. Celebrity Circus. Nashville [...]

Picking Up the Pieces: What’s Left of the TV Season?

Assuming the outcome of today’s WGA vote is positive, we’re only hours away from an end to the strike. So, in the immortal words of President Josiah Bartlet, “What’s next?”
A number of showrunners have already gone back work, making plans for the remainder of the season and scrambling to figure out how many episodes they [...]

2007 Golden Globes Television Nominees

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced its nominations for the 65th annual Golden Globes this morning and the biggest surprise among the television nominees was the head-scratching exclusion of The Office from the comedy series category.
The awards will be presented Jan. 13 and televised on NBC, although the ongoing writers strike could impact the telecast. [...]

MY NAME IS EARL: The Score Is Orange to None

So sang the brave and generous Timothy Stack on last night’s rebound episode, “Our Other Cops Is On!” And the score really has been orange to none this season, with Earl and the storyline stuck in prison with a bunch of other people in incarceration-mandated jumpsuits (in all fairness, the miscreants in Earl’s prison tend [...]