NBC Premieres Two Shows Last Night

For those The Office and 30 Rock fans out there, you may have accidently caught the new comedy Parks and Recreation or stayed for the new crime drama Southland. I've been quietly anticipating Parks and Recreation since I first got word that the people behind The Office we're putting together a new show around Amy Poehler. It seemed like it was destined for good laughs, but early reviews are harsh.

(Trailer)

I'm not going to be quite as harsh, though I definitely left disappointed. I don't get the criticism of it being "too much like The Office" as I thought that was the selling point. It's shot in the same style, the humor is very similar, but hopefully Poehler and her pretty decent supporting cast (Aziz Ansari, Human Giant and Rashida Jones, I Love You, Man and former cast member of The Office, swoon) can make it their own. Either way, while I'm not going to go out of my way to catch any episodes I'll definitely check back in if it makes it to a second season. The Office took off to a slow start too and look at it now.

Southland, on the other hand, was much more impressive out of the gate. Pretty much if you're a fan of CSI or Law & Order you'll enjoy this as it falls right in line with other cop dramas. However, there's a bit more personality here. The story didn't go from point A (crime committed) to point B (crime solved). There was a lot of background on the characters and on their lives outside of the job. I know shows like CSI do this sometimes, but it always comes off as filler and rarely matters when it comes to understanding what's going on episode to episode. I hope this wasn't done to get to know the characters in the first episode and is something visited in every episode.



The main character is played by Benjamin McKenzie aka Ryan from The O.C. and it's created by John Wells of ER fame. So there's a good mix of sitcom star power and resume to grab viewers and keep them. Oh and they used a song off one of my favorite albums of 2007, The National's Boxer.

Oops, a Week Late (TV Premieres)

For some reason I thought today was the week CBS premiered their Monday lineup, but apparently I'm off by a week. Regardless, How I Met Your Mother may be one of my new favorite shows. I mean, it features Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser, M.D.), Jason Segel (Freaks and Geeks) and Alyson Hannigan (errr, American Pie). What else could you ask for in a sitcom? That's practically an all-star lineup.

By the way, in case you missed it the A.V. Club did a great interview with Neil Patrick Harris. Actually they probably did it right before the premiere and I just can't catch a hint.

The CBS lineup of The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Two and a Half Men (also good, but the kid being old now kind of freaks me out since all I watch are the reruns), and the newcomer Worst Week starts at 8 p.m. EST, in that order. Can anyone tell me if Worst Week is bad? It looks bad.

In actual premiere-related news, Chuck kicks off it's second season tonight 8 p.m. on NBC. I have caught a handful of episodes here and there, and I'm pretty much agreeing with most critics on this one. It's okay. Many great sitcoms have been called "okay" in their first season too, so I wouldn't be too surprised if this second season (if I tune in) will be better. I'm not betting on it though.

There's a few more premieres this week too (Pushing Daisies, yes!), so I'll be sure to touch on those when they come around.

The Office Returns Tonight

It seems like it's been forever since we found out Jan was pregnant and Andy's proposal to Angela put Jim's proposal to Pam on the back burner. Quite the final episode of season 4. Well, tonight at 9 p.m. EST on NBC the show is back for the season premiere and I assume a good amount of those unanswered questions will be addressed in the hour-long episode.

You can watch a handful of last season's episodes, including the full episode of the season finale here. I attempted to embed a key scene in it, so we'll see how that goes below.

Edit: It worked. Just Yahoo videos don't believe in blogs, or at least blogs with this sort of layout. So I'll just link you.

Guilty Pleasure: Farmer Wants a Wife

"Wanted: A girl who's smart, beautiful and ready for some serious plowing."


And let the double entendres fly!

Plenty of cock jokes and such to be had with CW's new Farmer Wants a Wife, which premiered tonight and airs (I assume) on Wednesdays. I have a thing for series premieres as you may remember way back when for Dirty Sexy Money and Pushing Daisies (which was actually good). So when I stumbled upon Farmer Wants a Wife as it was about to debut I had to stay.

Every once in a while I'll succumb to an awful show. I actually caught the first handful of episodes of the most recent Big Brother then caught the episode where Natalie got voted off (3/4ths of the season later), cried and then gave up on that show. So I'm back at it again.

Are there any redeeming qualities to Farmer Wants a Wife? Nope. Not really. Will people watch it? Probably. It's the old Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire recipe with a dash of Larry the Cable Guy, which means America will love it. Plenty of eye candy and wacky antics to keep everyone (into this kind of stuff) happy.

My money is on Amanda and since my track record (Natalie was one of the last four in Big Brother) is decent, I feel pretty good about this pick. Man, there needs to be better television for Wednesday's.

Tapes n' Tapes on Conan Tonight

Tapes n' Tapes must be pretty busy.

They just released Walk It Off yesterday and tonight they will be on Conan O'Brien (check your local listings!). I was going to link to a review I thought Ed did, but apparently someone else did. And he said it sucked and despite me only listening through the album a handful of times I'm going to have to respectfully disagree.

You can't call Tapes n' Tapes an annoying band name either when 1. what? and 2. there's 100x worse band names out there. Does It Offend You, Yeah? anyone? I will link you to this Rolling Stone review because I couldn't find anything else.

Tomorrow the band kicks off a nice and long tour in Minneapolis and will actually be coming our way a bit.

4/17 - Paradise Rock Club - Boston, Mass.
4/18 - Fillmore New York - Irving Plaza - New York, NY
4/19 - Music Hall of Williamsburg - Brooklyn, NY

VW on SNL

Sorry fans in St. Augustine, Orlando and Clewiston, FL. We heard that Vampire Weekend canceled one and rescheduled two of your shows, but it's all good because anyone with cable TV will be able to see them live on Saturday Night Live on March 8 when Amy Adams will be hosting.

In the weird circumstance that you're unfamiliar with Vampire Weekend, luckily for you, we're not. We're so familiar with them that we did this, plus other things like shows that aren't really relevant right now.

Also, this is totally random, but kind of related: La Blogotheque is a French Web site that posts these "Take Away Shows." Vampire Weekend does "Mansard Roof" in a moving van downtown in the first one, but scroll down the page for more.

Edit:

You Can Now Turn Your TV Back On!

After a few months of horrid television the writers are back as of today. While some shows won't be back until the fall, others you will begin to see much sooner than that. The late night talk shows - Daily Show and Colbert Report (see below) included - will return today. That is fantastic news considering how bad shows like Leno and Craig Ferguson were before the strike. Maybe the writers will come back with new and refreshing ideas.

Some shows of note and when they will return:

30 Rock will shoot 5 new episodes and will begin airing those April 10.
Chuck will not return until the fall.
Heros no new episodes until the fall.
Both Grey's Anatomy and House will return in the April-May area with 5 and 4 episodes, respectively.
Lost still has 6 episodes left and will shoot 5 more.
My Name is Earl sucks.
The Office will shoot 6 new episodes that will air April 10.
One Tree Hill has 5 episodes left and will shoot 5-6 more.
Pushing Daisies will very sadly have no new episodes until the fall.
Saturday Night Live begins a week from Saturday.

For a more complete list of shows and when they will return check out TV Guide.

Super Bowl Commercial That Never Was

After we commented on the Super Bowl commercials throughout the game last week, I had to post this. I assume this was planned to run right after the Patriots won the game. Too bad, huh Ed?

Live Blog: Super Bowl Commercials/Halftime Show

So I'm multitasking like I promised.

7:09 - Did you see that FedEx commercial with the carrier pigeons? That is definitely the best one so far. I'll get the video for it once it shows up on YouTube in case you happened to miss it. GoDaddy.com also had like a trillion hits thanks to promises of Danica Patrick exposing herself. Don't waste your time, guys. (Mark)

7:14 - Wow, am I pumped for Iron Man. They showed a trailer during Cloverfield, but the one they justed showed a bit more action. Oh and Tom Petty - get off my television. (Mark)

7:20 - A new movie trailer just played for Leatherheads, a old-time Football movie involving George Clooney and Christina Applegate (Married With Children, Anchorman). The movie doesn't look that funny, but there is a solid scene with a big dude punching people when given the instruction to hit anyone coming at him. (Ed)

7:29 - Fuck Carlos Mencia. (Ed)

7:35 - Is there some sort of rewards game where the more Pepsi you drink, the further you are away from Justin Timberlake? Why is this guy in everything? (Melissa)

8:00 - I hear "Free Falling" in the background. Are they cheating me out of some Petty? Get out of here. (Mark)

8:02 - So far, nothing too exciting. For 90,000 dollars a second, you would think these commercials would be all out. STEP IT UP! (Ed)

8:06 - "Is he going to die?" - Mark referring to Tom Petty. Mark also feels that Tom should join Clyde Frazier and Keith Hernandez in the Just For Men commercials. (Ed)

8:09 - He's horrible and it looks like he hasn't aged too well. So far, we've got "American Girl," "I Won't Back Down" and "Free Fallin'." It's sad that he's still willing to wear tight black denim, or something that resembles tight black denim. (Melissa)

8:14 - Jeez, we're having a bit of trouble here. I guess we all want to say something about Tommy boy and are overlapping each other and deleting each other's comments. Actually that's just Melissa. Hey Melissa, back off. Petty rocks your world. "Free Fallin'" was just fine. (Mark)

8:21 - Bring back the game or let Prince play every halftime show till he dies. (Ed)

8:28 - Prince is immortal. So that bodes well for America. (Mark)

8:35 - Duncan just asked me what the so bad it's good commercial of the night was so far. I wasn't sure what to say until that Bridgestone commercial came on with Richard Simmons. I don't even know how they are related, but Simmons almost got hit by a car so they were close to making some extra sales. (Mark)

8:40 - They just announced that they'll be posting all of the commercials on MySpace 2008 Superbowl Ads. (Melissa)

8:54 - Bud Light is terrible and so are their new series of commercials. This will probably be my last post of the night due to the fact that my MacBook's battery is almost dead. Night folks. (Ed)

9:26 - We should get those E-Trade commercials on here; a baby is way more convincing than regular people. (Melissa)

9:27 - The rules are being broken by the minute. First, Ed was hating on the baby commercials and then Melissa praises them. He was also hating on the Bud Light commercials and then Will Farrell saves them while also promoting Semi-Pro. Another movie I'm personally looking forward to since it has two of my favorite things. Ridiculous comedy involving drunks playing basketball. Wait, maybe that's more than two. (Mark)

9:44 - I hope that I'm not the only one thinking this, but with all of the crazy energy drinks Ed always has, did anyone else picture him in that Amp commercial? That one should also be on this post. (Melissa)

10:15 - We're done here. Ed is, of course, pissed about the outcome of the game. I would be too if somehow the Jets were able to go 18-0. We will try to get some links to the commercials we talked about in these updates in case you missed them during the game or want to revisit the good ones. (Mark)

Super Bowl Play-by-Play

So we're thinking about being total nerds and blogging during the Super Bowl, but we may be too busy stuffing our faces and drinking beer to get it done during the (boring) sports part (jk).

However, I've come up with a better alternative...halftime and potentially commercial blogging. There's already footage of that Pepsi commercial with Justin Timberlake floating around the Internet. Sadly, it's already been taken down on YouTube, but you'll see it tomorrow. It is okay. So I wouldn't feel terrible "spoiling" it for you (when did Super Bowl commercials become Harry Potter books?) just because it wasn't really funny.

Anyways, if you're bored and near a computer during the Super Bowl, feel free to check out our musings and add your own. We'd love hear your thoughts on the ever-popular Super Bowl commercials. After Sunday things will kick off again and we'll be sure to shout in excitement over Ra Ra Riot in New Haven on Wednesday too.

Edit: This post was bare, so I'm adding this classic video of Joe Namath drunk and hitting on a reporter. Only problem I have with this is that Namath was actually drunk enough to think Chad Pennington is good.

In Anticipation of the Super Bowl

I almost titled this "Part I," but I don't want to go too sports happy leading up to Sunday. However, I thought this was rather amusing and one of the few Peyton Manning commercials I haven't seen. Eli Manning recently admitted that this was his favorite commercial that he has done with his brother.

The Story of Grunge Revealed...Ok Maybe Not.

In this week's episode of The Simpsons, Matt Groening and company continue to kill the once hilarious sitcom. This week, they give Homer and Marge a completely new history that doesn't work on any level because it contradicts anything the show has said in its previous 19 seasons.

This time around in what appears to be 1992, 3 years after the show started airing, Marge goes to college, leaving Homer behind to work a dead-end job. While Marge becomes infatuated with her left-wing professor, Homer starts a band called Sadgasm (think Nirvana but much worse than they actually are). The episode is complete with two songs, a Weird Al parody and a sad Back to the Future reference already used by Family Guy last year.

To be honest with you, this episode seems like a complete ripoff of Family Guy's travel back in time episode entitled "Meet the Quagmires."

YouTube video of a YouTube video from The Simpsons

If you didn't catch last night's Simpsons, you missed their version of that annoying YouTube video of some guy taking a picture of himself everyday for some long extended period of time and sets it to dreary piano music. Well those video suck, but the Homer Simpson version is actually quite funny.

Snowed In? What to Watch Tonight

If you're located in the Northeast like us, you're probably stuck in your home. Lucky for you it is a Thursday night and there's usually a good amount of television at your disposal. I can't expect you to swim through all your channels and find what to watch yourself though. So I'll do it for you.

There's nothing really going on until prime time, so we'll start at 8 p.m. Note all the times are Eastern.

8 p.m. -
I haven't watched Survivor since the first season, but I know there's plenty of you out there that get off on this stuff. This season's China edition will be on CBS. I'm leaning towards The Office on NBC, however. Despite the fact that it is a repeat of last season's holiday episode, it seems fitting given the weather.

I would probably spend this hour over at Comedy Central watching The Daily Show and Colbert Report, but I have a very limited amount of channels here. There's also a new episode of Smallville on CW.

If you're looking for something long-term you have a couple options. FX is running American History X tonight while Disney is running The Polar Express. ABC Family will feature Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (movie links go to trailers). The NFL Network is also running the Broncos/Texans game, which should make some some good television unlike the Wizards/Heat game on TNT.

9 p.m.-
For those of you who didn't make long term commitments to either the movies or sporting events, I have another block of television for you.

30 Rock (NBC) takes home the cake at 9 p.m. I blew this show off when it first started, but it has really grown into great comedy. Tina Fay does great work in front of (acting) and behind the camera (writing). I still can't figure out if Tracy Morgan is that bad of an actor or it is just his ridiculous character. CSI on CBS is a decent standby and for those who didn't get enough punishment at 8 p.m. with Survivor can torture themselves with Don't Forget the Lyrics! on Fox.

The movie channels finally decide to become a factor at this hour with The Hills Have Eyes on HBO and The Pursuit of Happyness on Starz. Pursuit is a really great movie that I had the chance to rent over the summer. Will Smith is great, as usual. Watching this would be good preparation for his new movie I Am Legend, which comes out tomorrow. Little Miss Sunshine, another great and cute movie, is on another HBO channel at this time too.

10 p.m.-
We take a bit of a nosedive here thanks to local news and repeats, but there are still some goodies. Mad Men, created by The Sopranos writer and executive producer, will be airing on AMC. The show was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Drama Series. If you do have a hankering for the news, BBC's World News America will begin here. So skip the house fires. The earlier (and terrible) basketball game should be coming to an end around 10:30 p.m., which is exactly when the Spurs/Lakers game begins. If you're a sports guy or gal and the Broncos/Texans game is getting boring (or you don't get NFL Network), this isn't an awful one to tune in to.

11 p.m.-
It doesn't get much better here. More local news and some Sex in the City reruns. Scrubs reruns start on My TV 9, or whatever they are calling that channel now. Today's episodes of The Daily Show and Colbert Report start here too. So if you caught up on yesterday's earlier, now you can watch today's. Sticking with BBC from last hour will give you Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, which is one of the few reality shows I find myself enjoying.

HBO has some amusing stuff on, like Taxicab Confessions - certainly a guilty pleasure for some. They also have Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio, another great movie I saw this summer. Keeping with the Will Smith theme, Starz is running Independence Day here. Solid choice. Pursuit and Independence Day may be my two favorite Smith flicks, so just typing this is hyping up my I Am Legend anticipation.

12 a.m.-
Here comes the end of the night for most of us and with that comes all the usually bad late night shows. Leno and Letterman may be the least funniest people I've ever seen on television. On the other hand, feel free to switch the channel to Jimmy Kimmel on ABC. will.i.am will be appearing as the musical guest. TBS stops running reruns here and runs Jerry Maguire, a nice change of pace from late night talk shows and gives us poor chumps without HBO a movie to watch.

I guess I'll finally mention Meerkat Manor here. It is actually running all night on Animal Planet, so consider this a nice little fall back. Comedy Central gives watchers their crass cartoon, Drawn Together, which is usually good for a couple laughs. You, Me and Dupree airs on HBO2. Dupree is in the same vain as everything else Owen Wilson has done in the last five years. Nothing special, but it will provide some laughs without much thinking.

You're own your own for 1 a.m. SportsCenter is about the only thing new on at this point, so find something you know you like and enjoy the reruns.

Golden Globes Nominations Annouced This Morning + Juno

The nominations for the Globes were announced this morning. You can find the whole list here.

It is good to see Pushing Daisies getting some respect on here. Nominated under the "Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy." I don't know how much of a comedy the show is, especially when you compare it to some of its competition like 30 Rock and even Entourage. I was really surprised to see The Office or even Scrubs (in it's last season) missing from this list. Steve Carell is nominated for Best Performance by an Actor In A Television Series - Musical Or Comedy, but still the show is only getting better.

I don't see anyone giving Grey's Anatomy much competition in the field of Best TV Drama, although House could surprise. I imagine the same sort of thing happening in the Best Animated Feature Film category and Ratatouille.

I actually haven't seen any of the nominations for best drama or best comedy. Some of these films aren't even out yet and I'm sort of surprised how top-heavy the list is with latecomers. What I can say about this is that it is good to see Juno in the Best Comedy or Musical category. Ellen Page, who plays the main character in the film, is also nominated for Best Performance.

The film has been getting great reviews so far with its limited release. Expect it to start expanding in the Connecticut area within the next week or two. I'm actually going to a screening of it on Monday so I'll let you know if it is worth the hype. The film is directed by Jason Rietman, who also did the film Thank You For Smoking (also good) and written by Diablo Cody. Cody is a bit of a newcomer, as this is her first film. So far, so good though. A lot of people are assuming Judd Apatow actually wrote Juno, due to the moniker I've often heard as Knocked Up from the female perspective. Superbad comparisons will also be bound to happen with Michael Cera in the mix. Without further ado I present to you the trailer.



The Golden Globes will air on NBC on Jan. 13 at 8 p.m.

Ed's Big Christmas List

As I sit here and look at Mark and Jamie's Christmas Gift guide in The Recorder, I feel like I need to make my own list with stuff that I want. While some of it is more realistic than others, I like to think my parents love me enough to pick up a few of these things. Hint, hint, wink, wink. What the fuck am I doing, my parents don't read this, or for that matter, know how to use a computer.

1. Vizio 32" LCD HDTV

While having a xBox 360 is awesome, it doesn't do a whole lot for me if it isn't attached to a sweet TV. Anyways, all TV channels are going to be digital by 2009, so why wait?

2. Call of Duty 4 (xBox 360)

This is the most bad-ass game out right now that I can actually see myself playing. Halo 3 is losing its luster already and I rather play a war-based game. Come find me on Live mothafuckers.

3. Superbad - Unrated (Two-Disc Special Edition)

While Superbad was one of my favorite movies this year, I only want this DVD cause it comes with an actual McLovin Hawaii ID, which Walmart banned for that exact reasoning. They suck anyways.

4. Nintendo DS Lite Crimson & Black

I know Mark already has a DS and absolutely loves it, so I decided that i needed a portable gaming system. Nintendo has never let me down, so I guess the DS is my choice.

5. Apple iPhone

Yeh, this is a complete cop-out because I work for Apple and I love
all of their products. This is the hottest thing all year and was named "Invention of the Year." Fuck all other phones.

The Amazing Screw-On Head is...Amazing.

I'm a little behind the times here, but as I was doing a little research on Pushing Daisies (my new favorite television show), I came across The Amazing Screw-On Head. It is a one-shot comic book from 2002, but an animated pilot was created in 2006 and released on DVD earlier this year. The Sci-Fi Channel did not pick up the show and now it seems it is sitting in the vast purgatory of television shows. Either way, the pilot is below and Bryan Fuller was the executive producer. Fuller is also the creator of ABC's Pushing Daisies (8 p.m. EST, Wednesdays), as well as Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls (both canceled, but great and on DVD). As I watched the pilot I couldn't help but be surprised that this wasn't on Adult Swim, because it seems to fit in nicely with the weird/funny, but still serious shows they have on there. Check it out and make sure to check out Pushing Daisies on Wednesday, it is a real hit.

PS: I forgot to mention some of the most important things about this pilot. Paul Giamatti (Sideways, Cinderella Man) does the voice of the Amazing Screw-On Head. David Hyde Pierce (Frasier) voices Emperor Zombie and Patton Oswalt (King of Queens) does Mr. Groin, Screw-On's butler. Enjoy!

Bloc Party on Conan Tonight

Bloc Party will be performing a new song called "Flux" tonight on Conan O'Brien, which airs at 12:30 a.m. EST. The song will be released as a single on November 12 and it can be pre-ordered here. No news yet on if it is part of a full-length or EP down the line.

The band's last release, A Weekend in the City, came out in February of this year. Four songs from that album are currently available on their MySpace. It was one of the better releases of this year, so if you haven't heard it yet I would give those songs a listen and pick up the album when you get a chance.

Here's hoping "Flux" is awesome.

Edit: It is awesome. Here's proof--Bloc Party at Madison Square Garden on Oct. 3.

Didn't Feel Dirty, Didn't Feel Sexy, But Almost on the Money

Dirty Sexy Money, ABC's newest dramedy, premiered last night. After being hounded on the train to and from New York City all summer, I decided to make a conscious effort to tune in. Which is more than I can say about NBC's Bor-onic Woman. I tried my best to stay interested in Bionic Woman, if only to tell of it later, but it wasn't even worth the petty conversational piece.

Dirty Sexy Money, however, impressed. Don't get me wrong. It isn't great. I won't be making an effort to watch every Wednesday at 9 p.m., but I certainly won't turn away if I come across it. But for a show that is watched entirely on the shallowness of the majority of the characters, it does draw you in. Similar to how other shows featuring equally shallow, but instead non-fictional characters (i.e. Entertainment Tonight and the like) attempt to suck in people. Unlike Entertainment Tonight though, Dirty Sexy Money left me without feeling guilty as I enjoyed the vapidness of the Darling family as it tortured Nick George, their dead lawyer's son played by Peter Krause of Six Feet Under fame.

In short, the idea of this rich, clueless-to-the-outside-world family making Nick George jump through hoops as he tries to keep his down-to-earth life intact is certainly of interest. However, I couldn't help but wonder during the premiere if I was just watching a basic cable, family-version of Entourage.