Posted Nov 13th 2009 11:02AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Video, Children, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
It's not surprising that a colorful and lively show like
Sesame Street, one devised by the genius that was Muppets creator Jim Henson, was at heart a comedy. What is surprising is that so many adults who grew up with the show still find it so damn funny (or maybe that has more to do with
the rise of marijuana use, but beggars can't be users, er, choosers).
In fact, a recent box set of the show's earliest episodes came with a disclaimer that the episodes contained within it were "
not for kids." That's also because it contained the rare lost episode from the early 1970s when Grover and Prairie Dawn accidentally wandered into the Plato's Retreat swingers club where they learned the difference between "top" and "bottom".
The point is adults can find just as much to laugh at as their kids do and here are the biggest chortle-makers.
Continue reading Sesame Street's 40th: Five funniest characters
Posted Nov 12th 2009 11:01AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Children, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
Sit a kid in front of a TV for an hour a day and a parent is bound to find something that offends them, other than the fact that plopping impressionable minds in front of a TV unsupervised is considered "good parenting."
Sesame Street is no stranger to controversy. Critics, cynics and crybabies have called out the show on everything from questionable behavior to the ambiguous situations...of puppets. Of course, all of these complaints and cackling criticisms just scratch the surface of a much bigger issue that has largely gone unaddressed: the total loss of our sanity and grasp on reality.
So as we look back at the last 40 years of television's greatest children's show, we see some speed bumps along the way. These are the ones that caused the greatest loss of tire pressure.
Continue reading Sesame Street's 40th: Five biggest controversies
Posted Nov 11th 2009 11:00AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Animation, Children, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
This week marks the
40th anniversary of Sesame Street, the greatest and most celebrated kids' show in the history of the known universe.
Its cast of colorful character and innovative use of the medium have made it more than just entertainment for the young ones. It's a children's show that has educated the growing minds of children all over the world. It's a show that has shaped a generation into curious and innovative people. It's a show that could kick the ass of any other children's show on the planet if the two were in some sort of a weird battle to the death, provided that no weapons were involved and
Justice League doesn't count as a kids' show.
To celebrate this momentous day in television history, I'm compiling the most interesting moments, memories and characters from the show's 40 years into four special lists for their anniversary week (Why four? Because 40 would break the last ounce of my spirit), starting now with the show's best short cartoons.
Continue reading Sesame Street 40th: Five greatest animated shorts
Posted Nov 10th 2009 11:05AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Animation, Commercials, Children, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten
Marge Simpson's spread in Playboy was a groundbreaking moment for cartoon women everywhere. Her sensual skin pics paved new ground for the "feminine-animated."
She told the world that the women of animation aren't just vehicles for humor or straight characters to set up punchlines for the males on the paper. She helped us realize they have thoughts, feelings, emotions and yes, even urges that make them unique, infinitely interesting and utterly fascinating. They are, as Dr. Frasier Crane so eloquently put it, "like a fine wine: always intoxicated, ever surprising and only getting better with age."
And so, for the cause of gender equality and female empowerment, here are the ten cartoon chicks who should pose naked because it would be righteously awesome.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Cartoon women who should have Playboy centerfolds
Posted Nov 9th 2009 2:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: OpEd, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, Mad Men
That was
some Mad Men finale, wasn't it? If you haven't seen it yet, please stop reading now, because there was just too much going on for me not to just launch into some discussion.
OK, I'll wait until after the jump to really get into things. But, suffice to say, the end of season three left some characters going down a pretty well-determined path, but others have entered a sort of limbo state, where we don't quite know what their roles will be in season four.
Continue reading Six Mad Men characters who are in limbo after the finale
Posted Nov 8th 2009 2:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, V
You probably heard that
ABC's V premiere got off to a big start in the ratings. In fact, it was the biggest drama series premiere of the season, seen by 14.3 million viewers and netting a 5.2 rating among adults 18-49. What does all that mean? To me, it says that even without the
skywriting promotion that was canned, ABC marketing had raised awareness and drew the curious, the sci-fi fans, the nostalgic and a few more watchers for the launch.
Despite the big number, there's a good chance that
V will sink in future outings because viewers like me were not hooked. I wanted to fall in like/love, but it didn't happen. Here's five reasons why:
Continue reading Five reasons V didn't work for me
Posted Oct 30th 2009 2:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, How I Met Your Mother, NCIS, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, The Big Bang Theory
The candy manufacturers had better watch out, because as Halloween is approaching, TV shows have been coming up with their own candies, inspired by some of the more colorful, interesting characters. Take a look at this list, and see which are treats and which are tricks. And, listen, tell us what kind of candy your favorite TV characters might inspire!
8. How I Met Your Mother - Robin Scherbatsky's Canadian corn
Oh, Canada. Slutty pumpkins aside, Robin had to convince her American friends that Canada not only celebrates Halloween, but Canadian corn is the best Halloween candy ever. That's right, Canadian corn. It's like candy corn, only it's orange on the top and white on the bottom. It also tastes like pancakes because it isn't made with corn syrup; it's made with maple syrup.
Continue reading Eight TV character-inspired Halloween candies
Posted Oct 30th 2009 10:03AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, NCIS, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
If I tell you right now, before November sweeps, that CBS will renew
NCIS: Los Angeles for a second season, you won't be surprised. The pre-season projections for this show were that it was a guaranteed success. It wasn't only that it was a spinoff from CBS's top-rated drama series,
NCIS. No, it was programming. CBS slotted
NCIS: LA in the hour right after
NCIS. It had a very strong spot, a monster lead in.
Continue reading Five reasons I'm not hooked on NCIS: LA
Posted Oct 21st 2009 6:02PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Sports, OpEd, Things I Hate About TV, Commercials, Celebrities, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
No, this is not going to be another post about the
shoddy umpiring or
spittle analysis or any of the other on-field matters that have been going on in baseball since the playoffs began. No, we're on a TV blog, so I'm going to just talk about the things that have annoyed me about FOX's and TBS's coverage of the ALCS and the NLCS. In no particular order:
1. The Fidelity-sponsored Fox Trak. The pitching tracker, which shows if a pitch actually hit the strike zone or not, has been around for years. But, the flight of the ball has been to this point represented by a red streak and a dot. Now that Fidelity Investments is sponsoring the tracker, the red streak/dot combo has been replaced by a green streak/green arrow combo that mimics
Fidelity's "stay on the line" series of ads. What financial guidance has to do with balls and strikes, I'll never know.
Continue reading Six things that annoy me about the baseball playoffs
Posted Oct 12th 2009 2:05PM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: OpEd, NCIS, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
I love military style series. I haven't missed one episode of
JAG or its spin-off
NCIS over the years -- I even watched reruns, including airings dubbed in French! -- and have watched all
NCIS: Los Angeles since it began.
What I like most about
NCIS: LA is that they do undercover missions, taking different personae and using gadgets, and that it stars one of my movie crushes when I was a teen, Chris O'Donnell, as well as the talented Linda Hunt.
Sadly, there are small things that I don't get about the series. These small issues are sort of bugging me and making me not enjoy the show as much as I would like as I keep asking myself these questions every episode.
Do you share the same issues? Do you have answers for me so I can enjoy the show as I want to? The list of things I don't get about
NCIS: LA coming up!
Continue reading Things I don't get about NCIS: Los Angeles
Posted Oct 5th 2009 2:10PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Video, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten
There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
Friday marked the 50th Anniversary of
The Twilight Zone's debut on CBS. The
first episode was titled "Where Is Everybody?" and featured Earl Holliman as a military man trapped in a town where it seems everyone has vanished. You find out at the end that it was all an experiment to see how astronauts would handle being alone on long missions. Holliman was really safe.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: best Twilight Zone episodes
Posted Sep 29th 2009 11:11AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, TV Royalty, Programming, OpEd, Entourage, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten, True Blood
HBO has slowly become my favorite network over the past few years. I don't know if it's because the mainstream networks have turned to lots of reality programming or what, but HBO just seems to get better and better. Just about every show on the premium channel is feature film quality (if not better), and I've got some favorites listed below.
I know I'm missing a few biggies, like
Rome,
Deadwood,
Flight of the Conchords, and
Extras, but it's only because I either haven't watched these shows or have only watched a few episodes -- not enough to make an informed opinion. I'm sure they'll make my
Jane After Dark column at some point in the future. So I hope you'll tell me your favorites in the comments below.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: My favorite HBO shows
Posted Sep 27th 2009 3:01PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: TV on DVD, OpEd, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, Jane After Dark
This week in
Jane After Dark, I caught up with season one of
Castle. I'm a sucker for fun whodunits, especially when they feature great male and female characters who've perfected the art of the snappy banter. Specifically, here are five reasons why I'm loving
Castle:
1. Nathan Fillion is boyishly charming. I've been a big fan of this Joss Whedon favorite since seeing him in 2005's feature film
Serenity. I finally completed that awesome circle by watching
Firefly last winter. Fillion has the ability to be goofy one minute and deadly serious the next. In
Castle, he plays Richard Castle, a best-selling mystery author who's raising a 15-year-old daughter Alexis (Molly C. Quinn) -- and, in many ways, his free-spirited live-in mother Martha (Susan Sullivan), as well. Having killed off his latest fictional character, Richard found inspiration in NYPD detective Kate Beckett, after being called in to advise on a case. Now they're working as pseudo-partners.
Continue reading Jane After Dark: Five reasons I'm loving Castle
Posted Sep 22nd 2009 11:05AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Reality Shows, Late Night, American Idol, Celebrities, Game Show, TV Squad Lists
American Idol's choice of Ellen DeGeneres as a judge replacement threw everyone for a loop, even schlubs like me who don't watch the show.
It's not that she's not talented, successful or funny. It's just an odd choice, putting a comedian on the show that takes its goal of crushing losers' dreams on live television so seriously. It would evoke the same reaction from me if they picked Andrew "Dice" Clay as the new judge, if the Diceman was talented, successful or funny.
And besides, why do they need humor and comedy on such an otherwise serious show? There are lots of humorless, vapid and downright boring shows that are crying out for comedic interjection.
Continue reading Seven shows that need funny commentators more than American Idol
Posted Aug 31st 2009 11:05AM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten, Dollhouse
Before pondering the meaning of identity on
Dollhouse, Joss Whedon gave us some great shows featuring iconic heroes and some really nasty but unforgettable villains.
Unlike
Dollhouse, most of Whedon's earlier shows featured a "big bad," a major villain who caused trouble throughout an entire season, or series, for the heroes and their friends. Luckily, Whedon's heroes always managed to outwit these evildoers, but they couldn't stop them from stealing scenes and making the Whedonverse a very, very dangerous place to live.
Let's take a look back at some of Whedon's best "big bads" that made life a living hell for Buffy, Angel and Captain Mal.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Joss Whedon's big bads
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