Andy And Pee-Wee's Night Out

[via Boing Boing]

Spoiler Alert

Al Roker Gets His Nub Yubbed

On October 30th, the entire cast of the Today Show got into the Halloween spirit by dressing like characters from Star Wars. They even hired extras to play characters like the Ewoks featured in this clip. Maybe you should have a better screening process for extras when you have a live broadcast...

That Ewok is my new hero.

[via Geekologie]

I'm Officially Hooked On Glee

The pilot didn't completely sell me on Glee, but the show has been getting progressively better in each episode. Here's one of my favorite moments so far:

Shatner Does Palin On Conan: Twitter Edition

Shatner Does Palin On Conan

It really is kinda beautiful.

Super O'Brien Bros.

Great bit about Conan's new backdrop:

Sweeeeeeet Tweeeeeeet!!!

It's nice to see that Conan is still wonderfully absurd.

Ned Flanders

Ned Flanders is quite possibly the most famous mustachioed cartoon character of all time. And also possibly the most famous evangelical in America. Despite all the jokes at his expense, The Simpsons has shown time and again that God is very much on Flanders' side:

This is either vindication of the faithful, or evidence that there is power in the 'stache.

Tom Selleck's Moustache

The Conan Cometh...

We're less than a month away from Conan O'Brien's triumphant return to late night television, and he has an important message for us:

Come Back, Conan, As Soon As You Can!

After trying to make it through three episodes of the new Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, I've gone into some sort of Conan withdrawal. My hands shake, and my mouth dries up, and I begin to wonder if late night television was ever funny, or did I just imagine it? So far, Fallon's schtick has included sketches about Facebook, beer pong, popular YouTube clips, and getting college kids to do "funny" things on camera. Late Night has officially become the go-to program for all your painfully sub-par frat boy humor.

I understand that when Conan took over Late Night from Letterman he wasn't perfect right out of the gate. There was a lot of room for improvement. But Conan always had a unique writing style and point of view. Can someone please tell me what style Fallon has, beyond mumbling something unintelligible and then being the only one laughing? I have no doubt that Fallon will improve with time, but I can't foresee anything ever coming out of his show that reaches this level of greatness:



June can't come quickly enough.

Tilt-Shift Dollhouse

I watched the first episode of Joss Whedon's new show, Dollhouse. It was a good pilot, and I was delighted to see some brief tilt-shift shots in the opening credits. I think this is the first mainstream use of tilt-shift.

New Simpsons Titles

So The Simpsons is now being broadcast in HD, and they've completely redone the opening credits, which have remained unchanged for nearly twenty years:


I'm glad they kept it so close to the original. Now there are some fun new gags to pick out, and for Tivo users to pause on. I love the box of Mr. Sparkle in the check out line.

What do the rest of you Simpsons devotees think?

[via Laughing Squid]

The American Future

The most recent episode of Bill Moyers Journal has an interview with Simon Schama, creator of the fantastic BBC series, Power Of Art. He discusses his new book and series, The American Future: A History. It sounds great.

Xavier: Renegade Angel

I recently got into the Adult Swim show, Xavier: Renegade Angel. It's an incredibly bizarre show about a wandering guardian angel.

Here's one of my favorite scenes from the first season:

You can watch all the episodes at Adult Swim.

Look Around You

Look Around You is coming to Adult Swim. Rejoice!

[via Boing Boing]

Nostalgia Overload

I felt like rediscovering some of my favorite childhood television programs. Some are pretty obvious, but I'd almost forgotten about a few of these. I've focused on some of the odder shows, skipping favorites like Chip And Dale's Rescue Rangers or Tail Spin (or pretty much anything that Disney made in the 80's and 90's).

I've listed them in the order that they originally premiered:





























Bonus - My favorite recurring segment (besides Mathnet) on Square One Television:

Filling The Void

Well, it looks like Pushing Daisies is officially dead. And no amount of magic touching will bring it back. Once again one of television's best and brightest gems is being tossed into the trash heap of history.

I've compiled a list of possible replacements for the coveted post-Lost time slot. May they fare better...

1. Hospital Town
Two young surgeons, John and Jane, fight for dominance in the E.R. One of them is cute, the other one sexy - but they're all professional. When they're not having sex at every opportunity, that is.

2. Police People
Tempers flare at an inner city police precinct when it's discovered that recent recruit, Stanley, is bi-curious. The rugged, and often sexy, chief of police will have to battle his inner bigot after Stanley saves his life from Somali pirates.

3. Law Firm
Holy shit! Court rooms!

4. Reality Contest
Watch ten assholes you would never associate with in public humiliate themselves again and again for the chance to appear in next week's episode. Snakes!

5. Validation
Our charming host tells the viewing audience how smart and kind they are, for forty-five minutes.

6. Loster
No one gives a shit what's on after Lost anyway, right? So why not more Lost? In each episode of Loster you get to see the events of the preceding episode of Lost...through the perspective of Jacob, the surly cabin spirit. Hint: he doesn't know what the hell is happening either.

Are You Watching Pushing Daisies Yet?

If you're not watching the best show on television, io9 gives a quick rundown on why you should.

"Welcome To Magical Realism That's Both Magical And Real.
Unlike Heroes, Ned's superpower is unique... and grounded in a reality that isn't rewritten to fit the plot of the week. It's not just that there are very definite rules to what happens when Ned brings someone back to life - and with the show's backstory based around those rules, they're unlikely to change when someone decides that they'd like to keep the undead around for more than a minute - but also that we've been shown what happens when those rules are forgotten or ignored. Even outside of Ned's abilities, however, the show's reality is one that recalls Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, both in terms of wonder and awe and... well, cruel cynicism at how the world really works. We discover a company that rents friends to social outcasts, only to find out that it's been created by a former nerd who killed and stuffed his jock tormentor so that he wouldn't feel so alone, or corpses being disguised as crash test dummies in the laboratory of the factory of a car that runs entirely on Dandelions. The spirit of Roald Dahl is alive in this series, something that's weirdly accentuated by the use of Jim Dale as an ominpresent narrator with a penchant for explaining everything through the use of puns. And talking of the cast..."

Read the rest.