Two seconds may not seem like much in the real world (in fact, there's two seconds you'll never get back right there). In TV, however, it can mean an eternity (there goes another two seconds).
Ross and Southern Illinois University professor David Gilbert went for a ride in a Toyota to recreate the supposed electrical failure that causes the sudden acceleration. Footage of the speedometer's needle spiking was actually taken when the car was idle and not while the car was in motion.
If you want to spend a night in the house that Snooki, J-Woww and the Situation slept in, the price of Scotchguard won't be the only thing driving your expenses through the roof.
It's also not the first time a former MTV reality show abode has attracted a higher asking price. The 'Real World: Las Vegas' at the Palms goes for $5,000 a night. Again, the price of Scotchguard must be just astronomical.
'Castle' might be reeling that they aren't scoring the coveted Sunday slot, but at least it's not going to some dreary rerun and maybe even a worthy cause.
The show mirrors his attempt to revamp the British school food program. This time, it chronicles the chef's attempt to "plant the seed" of change in Huntington, W.V., the same town that scorned his help and drove him to the brink of tears. Here's just a taste of the town's reaction to his offer to help. I'm shocked that the guy in this clip was spitting hamburger crumbs at Jamie as he refused to eat "lettuce".
Not sure which TV doctor/psychologist/superhero has a bigger ego, Dr. Drew or Dr. Phil, but this week I'm going with the former. Dr. Drew Pinsky says that he and people from his show 'Celebrity Rehab' reached out to Corey Haim several times over the past few years and every time Haim angrily rejected their pleas for him to be on the show, saying that he didn't need help.
Now, beyond the fact that Dr. Drew is assuming that Haim died of a drug overdose before autopsy results are even complete*, I think he doesn't quite understand (or maybe he does and doesn't care) how much of an exploitative guy he is. So Haim didn't want to appear on your show where you get celebrities to look awful while they live in a house and try to break their addictions? Is that surprising? If I was an addict I wouldn't want to do that show either.
The rumors of a Conan O'Brien road show, called the 'Legally Prohibited from Being on Television Tour,' were finally confirmed today (see our post earlier today), but few details have been announced. TV Squad spoke with longtime Conan writer Brian Kiley a couple of weeks ago, when the rumors first started popping up, about what the show might be like. The show was still in the planning stages, and probably still is. But there are a few details we can relate.
First of all, don't expect the road show to be a carbon copy of the 'Tonight Show' or of 'Late Night'. "[On] TV, things can be very small," said Kiley. "This stage show is going to have to be big. So I don't think he's going to come out and do a long monologue about current events, for example. I think it's going to be a romp. I think it'll be kind of fun, wacky things. Things we can't do on TV. It should be a very loose, fun show."
In the season finale of 'White Collar,' we actually saw several plot developments (and these are massive spoilers so stop reading now if you haven't seen the episode yet).
Katharine McPhee is a singer turned actor made famous as a singer by a television show (more specifically, by 'American Idol'). If that's hard for fans to figure out, imagine how it feels for McPhee, who has a new album out, 'Unbroken,' a pilot for NBC called 'The Pink House,' and a guest appearance tonight on 'Community,' playing the stepdaughter of Chevy Chase's character. In between that, she's shifting tour dates around to accommodate her shooting schedule.
It's clear McPhee is where she wants to be, but it can leave her a bit scattered. "I'm just really grateful that I'm a person who doesn't just have to rely on one thing," she said in a recent media conference call, "because I'm a real - I mean I'm not ADD but two of my friends used to joke - my husband always jokes like that I'm ADD just because I can't really focus on something for very long."
I don't care about the politics of this clip, I just think the whole thing about the shower and the birthday party and all that is pretty damn odd and funny. Last night on 'The Daily Show,' Jon Stewart talked about the resignation of Congressman Eric Massa and his appearance on Glenn's Beck's show. It involves tickling.
Olsen was someone who had successful careers in both sports and acting. TV drama fans will remember him from his roles in 'Little House on the Prairie' (he played Jonathan Garvey) and 'Father Murphy' (as the title character) and football fans will remember his long pro football career playing for The Los Angeles Rams. He was the 1962 Rookie of the Year and retired in 1976 after being named to the Pro Bowl fourteen times. He also had a career as a sports commentator and analyst.
Olsen had roles in other TV shows and movies as well, including 'Aaron's Way,' 'Fathers and Sons,' 'Kung Fu,' 'The Brian Keith Show,' and 'Petticoat Junction.'
After being just a rumor and then unofficially officially announced, it's now officially official: Conan O'Brien is going on tour. It's going to be called the "Legally Prohibited From Being On Television Tour" and it starts April 12 in Eugene, OR. Andy Richter and members of the band will go with him and they're actually hitting a lot of cities (30 in all). Tickets will be available at TeamCoco.com or through TicketMaster.
Here's the complete list of cities. The most interesting part of the tour? He's going to play both Universal City (where he did 'The Tonight Show' for seven months) and 30 Rock (where he did 'Late Night' for years).
(S05E16) Ah, the beauty of farcical theatre. The simplest of tasks laid to waste by the outrageous shenanigans and outlandish responses of one brilliant comedian. In this case, Julia Louis-Dreyfus. She needed help from no one in the cast to make her extended stay on the subway platform funnier and funnier to watch as the episode progressed.
That's good news because Richard, Matthew and Barb were pretty busy back at Christine's place ... doing stuff. At least the writers bothered to give us a reason that Matthew is still hanging out and eating at Christine's as if he lives there. The catfighting between Richard and Matthew about all their roommate annoyances with one another certainly brought me back to my roommate days. Man, do things get annoying.
Barb's role this week was to spread the message that texting while driving is incredibly dangerous. No matter where you are. I certainly didn't expect her to come flying into the scene when she did.
(S09E12) With our illustrious leader away on a covert mission for the state (you didn't hear that from me), I agreed to step in for this penultimate episode of 'Scrubs.' Hopefully, he'll be back in time for next week's finale as it may be his last chance. Still no word on the fate of 'Scrubs' 2.0 beyond these two episodes; I suspect ABC is holding out just in case ratings go up with the show as part of their successful "ABC Comedy Wednesday" block.
The episode itself was a bit of a mixed bag. I'm still just not able to get into Cole as a character. He's far too cartoonish for my tastes. At least J.D.'s antics were tempered by the sense that he was a person we could believe in, while Cox showed a vulnerable side underneath all his venom. I'm still struggling to believe in Cole as a sympathetic character.
Luckily, some moves were made to correct that as the episode wound down. Words of wisdom from one Bob Kelso making the difference in that one; what an interesting progression Kelso's character has had over the seasons.
This whole "Betty White as 'SNL' host" movement has been fascinating to watch. Think about it: the users of a decidedly 21st century technology, Facebook, got together in support of a star who started working before the vast majority of the site's users were even born. No one on FB is looking to have Tony Curtis be a guest panelist on 'The Marriage Ref,' or want Dick Cavett to be the new host of 'The Tonight Show,' for instance.
Most people were overjoyed to hear that the online movement to get her on the show was a success; now, according to WNBC and People magazine, White's 'Saturday Night Live' hosting gig has an air date: May 8. She'll be part of a Mother's Day-themed episode which will feature former cast members who are also moms, including Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Molly Shannon. Rachel Dratch will also be there; she's not a mom but tended to play one in a lot of her sketches when she was a cast member.
This is a reason to rejoice. No, it is not the fact that 'Jersey Shore' is getting a second season. Indeed it is questionable whether the show even having a first season is a reason to rejoice. Rather, I am referring to the fact that the second season of 'Jersey Shore' will take place in Miami Beach instead of my home state of New Jersey. On behalf of the state, good riddance.
Of course, this brings about the question of the name of the program. It's not really the Jersey Shore anymore, is it? Will the show now have a subtitle: 'Jersey Shore: Guidos in Miami?' Perhaps future seasons (and sadly there will likely be future seasons) will have the crew on a different beach in a different state every year. That is, until they turn 30 and the Sandmen have to hunt them down and kill them. If MTV makes a show of that concept, I would tune in.
(S01E07)'Human Target' returned to the tube with a fun episode packed with big explosions, clever gags, an exotic locale, and some femme fatale hotness. The hotness came courtesy of guest star Leonor Varela, the latest in a string of babes we've seen pair up with Chance during the show's freshman season (according to star Mark Valley, she definitely won't be the last).
Varela did a fine job playing Maria, one of Chance's old flames - an old flame who could've turned out to be "the one" for Chance, if only he would've stuck around to find out. But, as our boy explained midway through this ep, he left her because everyone he's ever gotten close to "has been taken away."
Was Chance making a reference to Katherine Walters here, the woman we found out about a few episodes ago? The woman he was in love with? The woman whose death he might be responsible for?
(S01E16) Sometimes it's important to realize that there are things going on in your kids lives that you know nothing about. It's important, but horrible at the same time. It certainly makes me afraid for when my son becomes a teenager. If they can keep a relationship with a Hollywood superstar a secret, imagine what else you don't know?
Okay, Alexa Vega, of 'Spy Kids' fame, wasn't playing herself but she was playing Axl's secret girlfriend. A girlfriend that on the surface seemed way too good to be true. I certainly didn't trust her.
The remainder of the episode spotlighted an all too common phenomenon. What happens when kids watch scary movies at too young of an age. When I was Brick's age, I made the mistake of walking into the living room to ask my mom a question during the wrong part of 'The Exorcist.' Later, an encounter with 'Psycho' had me showering with my eyes open for more than a decade.
(S01E17) Dammit! Wives are more right than we'd like to admit, aren't they, guys? I was convinced Claire was completely overreacting to Phil's Faceook communications with his ex-girlfriend. My wife and I both have several people from our pasts that we talk to online, and it is completely innocent.
If anything, perhaps the events of this episode could be criticized by saying that they are promoting negative sexual stigmas attached to social networking sites. While the sites do have their dangers, they're certainly not worthy of fear-mongering.
But I'm not going to jump on that soap box. Instead, I'm going to say that this episode was absolutely brilliant. Everything from Flyza Minelli to "A little bit louder" was pitch perfect comedy. I laughed out loud more at this episode than I do entire seasons of most comedy series.
(S01E17) "When Andy and I met, we were in the same circle of friends, but basically, it was just a doink chain that I worked my way around." - Ellie
Wow, Grayson is really stepping up his Jules love, isn't he? Obviously he's been into her for a while now, but I didn't think we were quite to the point of threatening neighbors and scaling houses to drop threatening notes down chimneys. It's pretty sweet, really. I also like how their relationship is being written now. Instead of going the typical sitcom route and having Jules be oblivious to Grayson's feelings for her, they're keeping it as something that's acknowledged but unspoken between them, because neither one is ready to take the plunge. It really works for me.
Speaking of things working, the whole "gay trap" thing was honestly pretty offensive at first, but it just ended up being so funny, especially when Jules lady-gay trapped Ellie with an Indigo Girls song, that I couldn't get too upset about it.
(S14E01) In an 'America's Next Top Model' first, the premiere spends 90 minutes on the casting episode. Luckily for the viewers, the camp factor is severe this season. Not only in the first two minutes of the show did one contestant compare her fellow contestants as "bitches," we got a lot of really weird back stories and quips. Where does Tyra find these women? They were part of religious cults, impregnated on their first time, and Krista is afraid of white men's "pink penises" because they look like "raw meat."
Tyra decides to knock off Myspace with what she called "MyFiercePage" to cut the semi-finalists to the final thirteen contestants. This would have been really edgy in 2007, but now anything Myspace related feels lazy and outdated. If Tyra created "FierceBook," I would have found it more believable.
Two seconds may not seem like much in the real world (in fact, there's two seconds you'll never get back right there). In TV, however, it can mean an eternity (there goes another two seconds). 
If you want to spend a night in the house that Snooki, J-Woww and the Situation slept in, the price of Scotchguard won't be the only thing driving your expenses through the roof. 
Not sure which TV doctor/psychologist/superhero has a bigger ego, Dr. Drew or Dr. Phil, but this week I'm going with the former. 
The rumors of a Conan O'Brien road show, called the 'Legally Prohibited from Being on Television Tour,' were finally confirmed today (see 
Katharine McPhee is a singer turned actor made famous as a singer by a television show (more specifically, by 
On January 1 we reported that former football star and actor Merlin Olsen was 
After being just a rumor and then unofficially officially announced, it's now officially official: 
This whole "Betty White as 
This is a reason to rejoice. No, it is not the fact that 
(S01E16) Sometimes it's important to realize that there are things going on in your kids lives that you know nothing about. It's important, but horrible at the same time. It certainly makes me afraid for when my son becomes a teenager. If they can keep a relationship with a Hollywood superstar a secret, imagine what else you don't know?
(S01E17) Dammit! Wives are more right than we'd like to admit, aren't they, guys? I was convinced Claire was completely overreacting to Phil's Faceook communications with his ex-girlfriend. My wife and I both have several people from our pasts that we talk to online, and it is completely innocent.
(S14E01) In an 