I Am A TV Junkie

Video -- Glenn Beck: How Many Different Kinds of Crazy?

This is maybe the best bit the gang at Current's Infomania have put together. And it's completely worth your time watching.

LINK

Hey, Sorry About That!

Sorry there's nothing else new here today.

I have stuff going on. Things to do. Details. Deadlines.

Stuff.

More tomorrow. Promise.

I owe the universe a ton of Craig Ferguson clips, at least one per day since the last time I posted one. I'll get on that.

Soon.

Later.

Culture Wars -- Pay Cable's Fast 'n' Easy Trumps Broadcast's Standards & Practices

Interesting piece this AM from The Wrap, which, if you don't know, is the place that Joe Adalian is supposed to land at after his departure from the now web-only TV Week.

(No, no sign of him yet, but I keep checking for a new link for the blogroll. I'm on it, not to worry.)

Anyhow, in their First Take newsletter they have a link to their analysis of HBO and Showtime's success in a bad economy:

“It’s just a very good time for us,” said Matt Blank, chairman and CEO of Showtime. “Regardless of the cost of subscription cable, consumers see staying home and watching premium channels as a cost-efficient use of their dollars.”

“People are starting to spend their money more wisely, and premium cable is a very good value for the cost,” added Dave Baldwin, executive VP of program planning for HBO. “For the price of taking the family to one movie, you can afford all of HBO.”

According to Daniel Frankel's piece Showtime has added almost 700K subscribers, and segment leader HBO has had a huge success selling True Blood season one on DVD and adding an additional 35K users, not much until you consider they are already the star of the category.

Starz even added almost 400K.

Starz? I know! And no, I don't think it's because of their series version of Crash. Better chance that they found 300,000 fans of Party Down than Crash, which is just so all over the place that you don't know what to make of it.

(And you, Dennis Hopper, exactly what ARE you doing on that show?)

Sure, some of the gains have to do with people looking for more affordable ways to pass the time, and I notice that DVD sales as a whole being down is a boon to pay cable and companies like Netflix. But you can't rule out that people are tiring of the formulaic, and pay cable and to a slightly lesser extent their advertising-supported friends on the dial are the innovators in the marketplace.

And, the relaxed content standards just might be more in tune with the viewing public (if not the general public) than the network fare.

Certainly any HBO series is more compelling than listening to the comedy stylings of a 59-year-old comic in prime time. It would be great to see even the pay cable channels program aggresively against Leno weeknights at 10, it's a timeslot that in my opinion is ripe for the taking, despite all the analysis and trend research NBC has paid for and is throwing at you and me.

NGTV Video -- Kristin Cavallari's Other Job, Straight-to-DVD Sequel Star

The movie is Van Wilder: Freshman Year, it's yet another of the Kristin Cavallari catalog of straight-to-DVD releases and the most entertaining thing about this film (?!?) might be the Carrie Keegan interview with the leads which includes Jonathan Bennett (above left).

But, you gotta have something in your Netflix queue when all copies of the theatrical releases you love are out, so why not this?

Especially you fans of The Hills (Janet?) should check out Kristin's acting chops, or lack thereof.

Reality television is no place to be learning how to act, I don't care how many words the "producers" write for you.

Clip after the jumperoo.

Video -- Heroes: Redemption Trailer Very Well Edited, How Will the Show Fair?

Okay, who hired the super powered serial killer to babysit? Never, ever, ever hire the super powered serial killer to babysit. Do you need a home economics class to teach you that? Isn't it obvious?

And, speaking of fair, there was a carnival at Comic-Con to promote the upcoming season, and apparently there's a carnival storyline in the new season, too. And if that's a spoiler, this clip has spoilers.

It also has a lot of footage of Robert Knepper (ex-Prison Break), and per THR today, "Knepper's character Samuel is at the center of the major new story line on the sci-fi series. He is the charismatic but evil Earth-moving ringleader of a traveling carnival who recruits people with special powers for a mysterious purpose."

Carnival? Does that mean that the creepiest puppeteer in all of TV is involved? I'm on that, waiting for a reply from David Lawrence.

I just got the reply, which says, "I wish I could tell you anything, but I can't!"

Of course, just the fact that he can't tell me anything means that he has something to tell, so ... did he just tell us something? Whatev, David, I'm still suggesting that Eric Doyle fans tune in come September.

While you're thinking about him, David would love it if you clicked this link and read all about a movie that he's in called The New True Charlie Wu.

And about the upcoming, Bryan Fuller-less season of Heroes, your guess is as good as mine. Clip after the jump. New season starts in the Fall.

Video -- Tiffani Thiessen "Too Busy" for Jimmy Fallon Saved by the Bell Reunion

She apparently has a number of things on her plate and needed to make a public statement to avoid the slings and arrows of her castmates and fans. The Funny Or Die team was happy to accomodate her.

LINK

Video -- Bill Geist v. Willie Geist Father/Son Smackdown: The Maureen Dowd Interviews

Note to viewers of Way Too Early with Willie Geist on MSNBC ... buy a sleep aid! There is no reason to be up watching TV at this hour. If anyone is going to encourage such behavior it would be me, don't you think?

I say take a Benadryl, it's the least harmful thing you can take to promote drowsiness.

Anyhow, after the jump you have two chances to see someone named Geist interview Maureen Dowd. One of them (Bill, from CBS Sunday morning, inset) worked with her at the NY Times and the other was made by a man who worked with her at the NY Times and probably set the alarm for that Way Too Early time as a favor.

If you think Way Too Early is too early for you on the right coast, think about here in LA when it airs at ... well, thinking about such an early hour renders me incapable of doing math.

It's early.

Bill interviewed Mo Dowd last year, Willie did so yesterday.

Watch both clips after the jump. Vote in the comment section.

How to Get Whitney Houston's New Single I Look to You

For a limited time only ... that means go do it now!

Step One -- Click here

Step Two -- Fill in all the fields (it's just name, email, age and city, nothing too invasive)

Step Three -- Click the download button

Step Four -- Check your email for something from whitneyhouston@aristarec.com. that's the email with the download

Step Five -- Click the link, let the file download, move it over to your iTunes folder or whatever you use, and then you're done

I'm listening to it right now.

Your can pre-order at Amazon at the link below.

Use the comments to tell me what you think of it, and then go to WhitneyHouston.com and tell her that she should promote the album (drops August 31) on The Wendy Williams Show.

I think it's a very 1990s-style ballad. The arrangement is spare. Whitney obviously still has a voice yet it seems more mature and her enunciation is not the same as it has been in the past.

The song is written by R. Kelly.

Yeah, R. Kelly.

2-Part Video -- Before I Go, Let Me Class Up The Joint With a Little Meryl

I find that a little Meryl Streep does the trick just fine.

Inviting old college friends over for a rub-your-nose-in-it dinner? Meryl.

Meeting the future in-laws? Meryl.

Making people pay to hear Pierce Brosnan sing? Meryl.

See, it works.

Clip after the jump from last night's Tonight Show. In two parts. This is actually just slightly less Meryl that I need to class up this joint.

(Whaddaya expect with my making the occasional fart joke?)

Comic-Con Video -- Heroes and Chuck Panels From NBC.com

I have a full morning, so I'm posting this now before I leave and I'll be back this PM with more.

Chuck panel right here, Heroes after the jump.

LINK

Yes, I Work at Sterling Cooper, I'm the Guy With the Coffee

I'm not even much for martoonies after dinner, let along before. And that thing in my right hand isn't a bag of weed, it's a newspaper.

Want something like this? Click here.

G'night.

FearNet.com Video -- The Cast of ABC's V Reveal ... a Little

I haven't even seen all of this yet, but I really wanna close up for the day and relax, so I'm just posting it right here. I know there are a lot of V fans out there chomping at the bit.

Right, Ty Davies?

Joel Gretsch talks about some of the alien v. religion issues that will pepper the arc of the show, and that's what I'm really looking forward to seeing here.

Other than that, you can review the clip in the comments if you like.

LINK

TV.com Report: True Blood Renewed For Season Three

Though, as one who reads everything and anything about the show, I have to add a quick, "D'uh." Of course it was, did you see the DVD sales on the season one set?

From their coverage of the True Blood panel at the Con:

Indeed, the "fangbangers" who filled the ballroom were a mix. Women swooned at Alexander Skarsgard, Sam Trammel, and Stephen Moyer, and men cat-called at Anna Paquin, Rutina Wesley, and Deborah Ann Woll. This wrangling of both genders is why True Blood pulls in roughly six million viewers per episode -- gaudy stats for a cable program.

Because of those numbers, it's no surprise that True Blood will be back for season three, as Ball announced at the panel. An official announcement will come soon, but Ball teases a few characters from the books he's excited to tackle in the next season: Russell Edgington and Debbie Pelt, because "she's kind of awesome." There will however be no Bubba, the Elvis vampire, because Ball doesn't think he can recreate a real Elvis feel. He says in the books it's easy to imagine the real Elvis, but on the show he'd have to use an Elvis impersonator... and that's cheap.

(Note to Tim Surette at TV.com, I am quite sure that there were plenty of men at the Con who no doubt did some of their own swooning over Skarsgard, Moyer and Trammel. And women over Paquin, Wesley and Woll. Especially Wesley, I hear.)

Click there for much more, which includes spoilers for next week, which you'll never see here and I can link to only because I don't read the stuff myself.

I actually haven't watched last night's episode yet. Too much time spent watching Comic-Con clips on YouTube, like this clip from the website AlexSkarsgard.net (also Alexander-Skarsgard.com) that I've very conveniently placed after the jump for you.

Men not swooning? Really? Harrumph.

Dear Moms Who Need to Get Messages to Your Celebrity Daughters, a Special Post From Your TV Junkie

Dear "Mom",

For whatever reason, you don't currently have a way of communicating with your celebrity daughter. Maybe you're harboring ill feelings over a previous contact. Maybe you're hurt because she has her own family now. Maybe since your husband passed no one really cares to be interested in you and what you are doing and you feel less special than you used to.

I know how it is ... you feel like she should call first. She is after all your daughter and she should have some respect for you.

Especially after the last time you wanted to say something to her and decided to use an open letter on a widely-read celebrity website. I mean, you really went out of your way to send that note to Harvey for publication. You even used spellcheck, you know, to keep up appearances (the appearance that you can spell).

Yet, your daughter doesn't respond in kind. Damn her for not wanted to spread her family issues out on the web with a hot spatula. How does she think you're going to keep her your name in the public eye? She doesn't expect you to do anything or make anything ... you wouldn't know how!

But you can make allegations against your daughter in the press, like alleging that she's using her kids as a prop on her TV show.

And exactly what are you doing? Writing open letters to your kid? And that's different because ...

Yeah, I thought so.

Still, I thought I'd offer up my website to you for said open letters. Mostly because way fewer people read this site. Maybe you're new to this, trashing your kids in the press, and you wanna start small.

If so, I'm your guy. Get in touch at the address above. We'll work something out.

Yours Truly,
Your TV Junkie

Totally unrelated of course, but after the jumperoo watch a trailer for this week's Tori & Dean.

Video -- NBC's The Listener (Yes, That Dreary Canadian Drama): All Eps Now Live at NBC.com, Hulu

And just for you -- yes you, the person or people who have been constantly coming to my blog after Google searches of the phrase "is Craig Olejnik married," I have lifted one from Hulu, the next episode you would see after last Thursday, actually (when you should have been watching Torchwood) and posted it after the jump.

Go on, no one's watching, click over the jump and get yours.

I still say it was dreary. Made me think about rainy days and curling up with a mediocre book and a lukewarm weak hot chocolate.

But even at that, I have the next episode after the jump, which is called either Inside Man or Inside the Man, depending where you look. Then switch over to Hulu for the rest, because I think this is probably the last time we'll mention the show here.

One more thing, the pre-roll ad for the episode was for Cymbalta, the depression drug.

Appropriate.

You Don't Have Ben Silverman to Kick Around Anymore, SUNY Bing Grad Gaspin Promoted

Was it something I said?

THR reports this morning that Silverman's out and Jeff Gaspin is promoted to the title of Chairman, NBC Universal Television Entertainment, and Marc Graboff, who was co-chair with Silverman will report to Gaspin, whose role will be expanded to include oversight of Bonnie Hammer's cable entertainment division.

And I can't imagine that Bonnie Hammer, who makes money there with Bravo, USA, Syfy, Oxygen and the other Universal cable channels is so thrilled today, either, with someone vaulting over her after she's turned in such a great few years of growth.

I would have given her the job. At least you can count on the fact that she has good taste. Gaspin comes from the finance side per his NBC Uni bio and his past with the network and outside it at a shopping channel doesn't give any indication that he can find that next big NBC hit:

During his first five years at NBC, as vice president of Programming and Development, Gaspin helped develop and launch “Dateline NBC.” Prior to that, he was responsible for the expansion of the “Today” franchise to seven days. Gaspin also previously served as director of Financial Planning for NBC News, overseeing production finance for “Late Night with David Letterman” and “Saturday Night Live,” as well as for NBC’s TV stations division.

When they say helped develop and launch, I'd like to know exactly what he did to "develop" Dateline. Develop Dateline? What, he invented the newsmagazine format? I don't think so.

His educational background is an interesting one for a network exec, a Masters in strategic planning from NYU's Graduate School of Business and an undergrad from SUNY Binghamton.

Yea SUNY, though! Maybe his parents weren't filthy rich and he has some understanding of regular people and what they want to see on TV.

I'm also a SUNY alum who grew up during the same time in almost the same place (about 25 minutes away) and I have great taste in TV.

I said, "I have great taste in TV."

"Yes, Joe. Yes, you do. We love all the shows you love. You speak for us with your one voice!"

And I do like that I found this image of him on the web accepting an honor from PowerUp, the lesbian entertainment industry insiders group. If a straight guy is comfortable in a ballroom with the PowerUp crowd I'm good with him, too.

NY Times from Jan. 2008:

My first job, in 1984, was as manager of ad sales pricing for NBC’s local stations. I thought, “At least I’m not working in a bank.” Then I moved to the entertainment division and did the budgeting for programs that included David Letterman’s show and “Days of Our Lives.”

Next I did budgeting in the news division. The company held a writing contest every year, and the winner got to have lunch with Brandon Tartikoff, the president of NBC Entertainment. To anyone who wanted to be in the business in a creative way, he was a god.

I submitted a script for the sitcom “Family Ties” and came in third.

That's a promising piece of news. He worshipped Tartikoff and wrote a Family Ties spec script.

More of this post after the jump.

Comic-Con: People Who Were Robbed of Emmys and The Fans Who Love Them

Certainly the pilot should have gotten a writing nod and John Noble was just rooked. And Lance Reddick as well, who apparently wasn't there.

But, look at how these people packed the house.

Now, if all these people will DVR The Office and Grey's Anatomy, and not take Russell T. Davies up on his suggestion to bathe in the beauty that is the boys of Supernatural, if all these people do all that, and tell their friends and the casual acquaintance or two, Fringe may actually survive the most competitive hour in network television.

I just don't get how they (mostly 2,3, and 5 in the image above) are gonna do it. And all their other projects.

The rest of us just have to tune in.

Much more from the Con in the days ahead.

Doctor Who Planet of the Dead -- Snappy Banter: A (Time) Lord and a Lady (Christina)

Now this I like.

Very quickly traded dialogue between the most charming Time Lord out there and a woman who has every reason to believe that she's his equal when faced with a perilous situation.

It really does give one pause when you think about the stories we've all heard about how close Michelle Ryan was to getting the companion role at one time, if they are in fact to be believed.

She certainly does pull off her banter with the Doctor with style.

I particularly like the sequence on the bus just before the wormhole spoils everyone's evening plans while our intrepid hero has his little dish in his hand once again looking for the random hole in time.

He's probably trying to get in some cleanup after those Rose Tyler "parallel universe sprints" during the end of series four while she tried to find Donna. I hope so, anyway, it makes it feel like Donna is still around.

Not proper Donna with the mobile glued to her ear but thoughtful, brilliant temp from Chiswick Donna. And also not half-Time Lord half-Donna Donna because I think after a while that would get really old with her rattling on whether you wanted to listen or not. I mean sheesh, just stick her in a room with a randy Jack Harkness and kill two birds with one stone why don't you.

Look at her in the four views above ... she can hardly be bothered with him and his little contraption, whatever it is. That is, until it explodes.

Oh, it explodes just a little, give a Time Lord a break.

And of course it's Lady Christina De Souza, thank you very much, and the director of Planet of the Dead told Digital Spy in the UK something of her backstory before last Easter's BBC transmission of the special:

"She's young, she's beautiful, she's sexy, but whereas Rose was a very ordinary, normal girl, Lady Christina is a lady, she comes from a very privileged, very elite background. She's different to any of the companions we've ever had in that she doesn't particularly want to get caught up with the Doctor. She's got her own thing going on, so she's very much a match for the Doctor and very much an equal. Often in an adventure the Doctor will take control and everyone will do what he says. She's very much in control – the two of them are in a sparring way, battling against each other to get through this adventure."

And he though he speaks of that possible romantic spark between the two echoing the Doctor/Rose relationship, but I think only because of the attraction we feel growing between the two. Other than catching the eye of our hero and maybe a similar bravura and curiosity they share little.

Speaking of speaking, Lady Christina comes with an upper echelon accent to boot. Maybe that has something to do with her seeming dominance over the Doctor until it is firmly established that he is the one, the only, and the guy who's gonna get this Lady out of this mess. She's not used to that. She's much more used, it seems, to leaving her lovers in the lurch at the scene of a crime.

But not this time. Well, she leaves, because everyone leaves the Doctor eventually, and she does leave quicker than most, but I think those of us watching and the guy in the blue phone box would probably not mind running into her again.

Good, solid outing for all involved.

And like any true fan I say, "More, please."

Video -- Davies, Barrowman & Tennant at Comic-Con

It's just the intros, folks, but I thought just one more clip from the Con before I leave the house today.

Oh, and like every man in the immediate area of John Barrowman, Tennant ends up getting kissed, which is fine I guess but I'm tiring of it now.

LINK

Planet of the Dead tonight after the Torchwood Children of Earth marathon on BBC America, which is happening right now.

Why are you online? Why aren't you watching?

2 Clips -- Dexter at Comic-Con: Lithgow & Carradine in Season 4

Lithgow: "I'm the only one on the set that knows what's going to happen in the next 12 episodes. It's a fantastic feeling. I could actually speak two sentences right now that would make this entire building explode.

"But I'm not going to."

They've shot five already, seven more to go, and Keith Carradine returns this season as the FBI agent Lundy (Carradine, still doing pantsless ass shots on pay cable at this age and lookin' good doing it) that Debra was tight with in season two.

The second clip is Clyde Phillips talking about Carradine's return. The first, Lithgow.

If you've never seen John Lithgow do a really creepy character, you are in for some great stuff. I love John Lithgow the comic actor, the stage actor and the children's performer.

But, John Lithgow the frickin' crazy killer? You're really gonna love him.

Two clips after the jump. More at Showtime's YouTube account, which is at this link.

Comic-Con Video -- G4 Talks to True Blood's "Eric" and "Jessica"

Alexander Skarsgard, voted five times the sexiest man in Sweden.

Five times! And I think he missed out on a sixth only because he left Sweden to work. Apparently, you gotta put in the time to win.

Now this is the kind of vampire I can get behind. Well, not technically behind because I have a sense most of them are not those who would "like you to get behind."

Or, maybe I'm wrong. Someone tell me otherwise.

But at least he's a vampire that, you know, does vampiric things.

Watch him and Deborah Ann Woll (who apparently wouldn't mind more work in scenes with him, who wouldn't?)talk to Olivia and Kevin from Attack of the Show on G4 yesterday. It's after the jump.

(I watched last week's episode last night. Maryann wearing Sookie's grandmother's clothes just freaked me out, why didn't it bother Tara, at all?)

Oh, and click over to the blog VGL (at this link) for a clip from a Skarsgard film in Swedish. It's a shower scene. (Site possiby nsfw depending on where you work, watch at work at your risk.)

Other Olivia Munn news: Jon Favreau cast her as War Machine in Ironman 2, which of course should take her out of reportage mode on the movie, but that's not gonna happen. It's a new world where a segment of the entertainment press crosses over from time to time into the projects they cover. I don't really like it but it happens. In fact, you can watch Munn and Pereira from AOTS interview Favreau at this link.

A Separate Building For Twilight Pattinson Fans, One Sure Fire Way to Improve Comic-Con Next Year

I'm not even there and I can tell you that I would be saying really nasty things under my breath while walking the convention floor having to wrangle past these Twilight movie Pattinson fans.

I can tell just from checking out the clips posted at YouTube.

Maybe it's a good think I didn't go this year. Of course, I just go for the TV and movie stuff and I'm sure there are lots of comic book fans out there that wish there was a separate building for me. And I'm all for that, actually.

Of course, all three groups can meet in a central area if they want that stocks all the action figures and other collectibles and then they could put together a better food presence than they have in the same location and maybe make the bathrooms more accessible.

What I would actually love is a Vegas-based pop culture convention every Fall somewhere on the strip with lots of available rooms at reasonable rates and lots of after-hours adult-themed TV fun like a big club-sized version of the Bob Newhart Show Hi Bob drinking game, or maybe a Secret Diary of a Call Girl-themed toy pavilion.

And, of course, lots of your favorite TV types flying in for some fun at the tables and some fun with the fans.

Can somebody get on that idea, like ... now?

Straight From the Con, No Doctor Who Movie (for now)

Per our online friend Michael Hinman at Airlock Alpha, who spoke with BBC Worldwide's Julie Gardner, there are no announcements to make about a Doctor Who movie.

Doesn't mean it's not gonna happen, just means they're not announcing it at Comic-Con.

What she said specifically to Michael, and what David Tennant said in San Diego, is ...

In terms of any special announcement, "we don't have one," Gardner said.

"I really hope that people aren't disappointed," Tennant said.

Well of course we're disappointed, but we'll get over it.

Actually, I got to thinking last night that the BBC would never make such a grand announcement off the home turf. It would be like the a baseball team winning the World Series out of town on purpose, and that would piss fans off.

Still, it's nice for them to get out to California for some fun in the sun, though both need to take the sunscreen thing to a level not heretofore explored at I Am A TV Junkie.

SPF 50, BBC gang!

Video -- Current Rotten Tomatoes Host Erlich Pimps His Show Michael Dorsey-Style

Oh c'mon, you remember Michael Dorsey, struggling New York actor who spends more time waiting on tables and did an entire evening of vegetables and fruit, including a tomato (which he also played in a commercial), in repertory?

You don't? Well, click here, you'll get it after watching the clip at YouTube.

Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox were at Comic-Con, and Aaron Barnhart, TV critic for the Kansas City Star found him walking the floor in a giant tomato costume to promote his Current's Rotten Tomatoes Show and shoot some promos and interstitial video for the show.

Ellen was dressed as Ellen Fox. Someone didn't get the damn memo, at least that's what I betcha Brett said as he walked away mumbling. She tweeted something about a wearing a Public Enemies t-shirt, but he was totally wearing a Public Eneny (as in the rap group) t-shirt.

Yes, Ellen, per your tweet it's more than apparent that you know nothing about hip hop. Get with Sergio (host of InfoMania's White Hot Top Five) and he'll learn you up.

Yes, I watch Current TV. I DVR three shows; InfoMania, Ellen and Brett's show and Vanguard. And sometimes I check out the bromance between Max and Jason in late night.

And yes, I'm not in any demo that they're interested in, but they can't stop me from watching, can they? Could you imagine Demo Police? Swooping down from the sky when they see me listening to Kelly Clarkson or watching America's Best Dance Crew or snatching some gizmo out of my hand because I'm not part of the core group?

Sounds very Minority Report to me.

A Vampire, a Werewolf and a Ghost Walk Into a House in Bristol -- This is Not a Joke!

But it is sometimes funny. Well, not gag-driven yucks but some clever and whitty banter and interaction between the leads in BBC Three's new across the pond import tonight on BBC America.

All this Torchwood stuff this week has been getting in the way but now the air (and, not too surprisingly, a committment-phobic leader of a certain group that arms the world for the 21st century from the trash of visiting aliens) has cleared for Being Human, which premieres tonight at 9 eastern.

Totally worth checking out. Great premise, great performances, some nice scripting by Toby Whithouse, who's written for everything from Doctor Who (the episode that reintroduced Sarah Jane Smith) to Hotel Babylon for the BBC. He now brings you an interesting cross between horror and continuing drama with a core of leads that have a great ensemble feel.

Ellen Gray in the Philly Daily News:

Mitchell (Aidan Turner) is one of those vamps with a conscience we hear so much about. He and George (Russell Tovey), a mild-mannered werewolf, work in a hospital, but Annie (Lenora Crichlow) mostly hangs around the house, mourning Owen (Greg Chillin), the fiancé left behind when she died.

Not that he won't be dropping in from time to time: He's the guys' landlord.

You can imagine how this different take provides a real world look at what it might be like to have to be hiding your identity in the public sphere, which has ramifications that stretch all over the place in this story.

After the jump, watch and listen to creator Whithouse talk about the show and the road it took to being commissioned by BBC Three. Check it out tonight on BBC America.

Anyone have the channel in HD yet, by the way?

Video -- LA Times at the Con With Dollhouse's Topher & Sierra

And "nameless faceless fanboy reporter" working for the Times (is that you, Geoff Boucher? You, Robert Lloyd?) tests out his theories about the meta-backstory of the show. Which is kind of self-indulgent but you would do the same thing given the chance.

Also, the press gets one of the few spots to set up where you can actually hear yourself think, which you can imagine is a plus.

Dollhouse season one DVD with two unseen eps (which we will have the pleasure of discussing soon) is available Tuesday in the US from retailers including the one below. Click the icon to order. Clip after the jump.

         

Megan Fox Interview -- Jennifer's Body Script Was "Inappropriate and Wrong"

"And I love that," she continued.

We do too, Megan.

Finding all the best Comic-Con coverage from the web and collecting it here for you, at least until I think of something to have for lunch, that is.

Ah, pizza in the fridge.

Clip from IGN.com after the jump, gotta run. Uncensored redband trailer for the film at this link.

Video -- Friends at the Con, E!'s Ben Lyons With Gray Kristen Stewart, Pumped Up Lautner

It would just be me posting a clip the get clicks if I didn't have something to say, so here it goes ... otherwise I'm just a blogwhore.

I think Ben Lyons is laughing because Kristen Stewart is freaking out either about the crowds or because she was just behind the convention center smoking up.

I dunno, I'm not there.

Her skin also looks the color of a heather gray t-shirt.

Speaking of t-shirts, I'm glad Taylor Lautner's wearing a button down and not a tight t-shirt, no one likes a showoff.

Kidding! We love showoffs, they should just be at least over 21 and for me at least 25, or I feel guilty learing. This kid's too young to be dirty ol' manning him. He just turned 17, after all.

So I posted a clip about these Twilight movies. So sue me. I still think vampires who don't have sex aren't vampires, they're some sort of weird fangy intern.

And they all need to meet Eric Northam. Now there's a vampire.

Clip after the jumperoo.

Video -- George Lucas Answers Hair Care Questions from Seth Green

Because that's what everyone wants to know.

LINK

More during G4's Star Wars panel right now on G4 on cable in the west. And I betcha rerun later on, check your channel guide.

More Seth talking about his new Adult Swim show, his Emmy noms and Robot Chicken at this link.

G4TV.com Has All Kinds of Comic-Con Breaking News Incl. Lost Panel Live Blog, Tron Trailer

They have it all, live blogs from panels and comics stuff with Blair, and Olivia (no pie, just Olivia) getting her rack cruised by all kinds of guys and gals at the Con and ...

... no, I'm wrong, I'm the bad guy. It was me that was on the cover of Playboy coming out of a p0ol in a bikini.

G4 Comic-Con link is RIGHT HERE!!!

And, I don't know where on the floor they're setting up this year, but if you loiter there (and people will ask you not to) just do your best Tim Conway old man character from The Carol Burnett Show, pictured left, though that does work better with some gray hair.

Finally, gray hair comes in handy.

Starting today at noon eastern and pacific they have their exclusive Star Wars panel, and then at 2 they have three hours of live coverage from the floor. Considering that today is the day for all the Doctor Who stuff, I'm hoping they get live coverage of David Tennant and Russell T. Davies announcing a movie project. No, not sure, but my hunches are always really good. And, it wouldn't surprise me if they kept Billie Piper holed up in some hotel undercover until the moment they do announce.

Or, they should just hire ME for these big press events. I know what works because I know what would work for me.

Also, if you're a Lost fan (yes, my season one DVD set is still sitting here waiting to be watched) there was a live blog of their panel that was attended by Bob Stencil. I'm led to believe you guys get the Bob Stencil reference.

And, there's embeddable video, including the trailer for Disney's Tron revamp, which is after the jump and shows a bit of a creepy character arc for Jeff Bridges.

You know video of these panels will start showing up on YouTube and the network sites. There are rules about Comic-Con exclusivity and time windows that they all sign, but ASAP I'll have what I can find right here.

Just in case you're busier than I this weekend.

Video -- Jimmy Fallon Sells Obama's Healthcare Plan and His Monster Biceps(?)

Pretty funny, and per my research, particularly this link at Guardian UK (I like fact checking with foreign media, everyone here has too big an iron in our governmental fire), his figures check out.

Before you click over the jumperoo and watch the clip, though, which co-stars Carol Alt (see above) I need you to pay close attention to the cardboard cutout of Fallon in the clip, screengrabs of which I have below.

First, compare Jimmy to the cardboard Fallon behind him. Especially the bicep. And the shoulders. And the neck.

Oh, and the not-laughing during a sketch, but it is only cardboard, it has no sense of self.

Need to see more? I need to know who Fallon's body double is.

If you know, send me an email at the address below.

Your anonymity will be respected.

Clip after the jump.

Video Direct from Comic-Con -- Dexter Season Four Trailer

Eat it up, kids.

Well, not actual kids. I don't suggest the show be viewed by children, certainly. I have trouble sleeping after watching Dexter, I can't imagine what it might do to the delicate psyche of a young teen.

I can't watch this trailer, because ... ouch, I hate to say this, but I never finished last season. I will. Promise I will, it just fell at a bad time, too much other stuff on the air that I had to keep current with, and there was a Presidential election that drew my attention away from it.

Speaking of kids, after last season's 40-Year-Old Virgin inspired ad campaign with a goofy-smiling Michael C. Hall spattered in blood, what do you think the haters will say about the image at the top of this post?

Bring it on, more controversy = more buzz.

And thank you Showtime. I promise to get all my homework done before the season four premiere on September 27 at 9 eastern.

Video -- Only Six Months (What?) Until Spartacus: Blood and Sand Premieres on Starz

Six months? That's what the countdown widget Starz has built for promoting the show says.

One-hundred eighty-one days until the premiere. I must really love the publicist that sent along these pics and the trailer, huh?

However, the new Starz Spartacus series starring Aussie Andy Whitfield does afford a lot of opportunity for half-naked men struggling and straining in combat and conflict with each other, and that's always a draw at this blog, so whatev.

(But yes I do love you Izzy.)

The movie version with Victor Mature (subject of the oft-used line in my home that indicates one's current level of adult behavior, "Who are you, Victor Mature?") is one of my dad's favorites. Which is why I've never really been into the story. I'm not usually much of a swords & sandals epic guy. But I do know that when the movie was re-released with the Tony Curtis bath scene there was plenty of buzz around the homoerotic feel of the material.

(We've been here forever, folks. If you would just get that in your head and that we're not going away you might see clear to letting us get married and raise our children in complete homes.)

But I digress.

Seeing Whitfield in these pics above, I can only quote Oliver Twist. "Please, sir, I want some more!"

It looks to be done, as discussed when the project was announced way back when, done in the style of the film 300. I'm okay with that. I just hope everyone in the cast's gym membership is current and being used. Green screen can't give you big shoulders and those cuts in the abdominal area, if it could I'd live in green screen.

I think I remember Zack Snyder, 300's director, singing praises about the cast workouts, heavy on plyometrics and how it really put some size on his cast, especially Gerry Butler. Just a suggestion from me to this cast, a suggestion coming from a guy who's scoping out a chocolate donut right now.

You hooked me with the visuals, now sell me a compelling story.

More as we get closer (we have a while, gang) and a trailer after the jump.

Video -- Chris Matthews Challenges "Birther" (and felon) G. Gordon Liddy

Go, Tweety! Get after it!

Birther = One who does not believe Barack Obama is an American citizen and not just that, but that he's also pushing all this spending legislation through because he's afraid he'll be caught being not American and gets chucked out of office before it can happen.

And you, baldy, Watergate plumber, chief dickhead ... whatev, you got nothing.

But it's nice to see that even you, the elite of the Republican ideologues, a convicted Watergate conspirator, can be pulled down into the gutter with some of the least educated, stupidest people on the planet, the same people who believe Glenn Beck's every word and lap up Limbaugh's political jizz like it was the nectar of the gods.

Liddy: Old, angry, heading toward dementia, but still more than happy to make a buck off the stupidity and bigotry of the American people of the conservative movement. I'm holding my hand over a candle flame right now, just to get that thought of his assholery out of my head.

Clip after the jump.

Video -- Charlyne Yi, Tonight on The Soup

Promoting her new film Paper Heart, co-starring her ex Michael Cera, in a very meta way. Because the kids, they love the meta.

(I've been waiting for Yi to break out in the same way that Mindy Kaling has, but her breakout seems to be coming in a different form, and I'm excited to see what becomes of her in the business. Very smart young woman with a unique viewpoint, she should shake things up.)

Soup for all tonight at 10 on E! Joel can be seen on a practically endless loop in promos for Community all week long on NBC. And, you'll just have to put up with that, the same way you put up with that ridonkulous ad about how socialized medicine is a scourge of democracy and free markets.

And no, I got nothin' on the Arrested Development movie. I check all the time and I have no info for you. Someone needs to waterboard Mitch Hurwitz and get some answers.

Clip after the jump.

Katie Holmes Compels You To Get Happy Last Night on Fox, Did It Work?

So, are you? Happy, I mean? Did Katie do it for you? If you didn't see it I have a clip (thanks HuffPo) after the jump and you can test it out yourself.

I've always had a bit of a problem with the lyrics, personally ...

Forget your troubles c'mon get happy,
you better chase all your cares away.
Shout hallelujah c'mon get happy,
get ready for the judgment day.

Get happy and get ready to be judged. Sure. Might I ask what I'm being judged on? Is there a swimsuit competition? I hope not, my bikini line isn't nearly ready. Of course, I've been judged enough in my life, for who I sleep with, what I say, what I believe, what I don't ... I dunno that judgment day is something I even wanna get ready for!

(And, I don't really think it's gonna happen. Another post for another time.)

I'm kind of having trouble figuring out why Katie Holmes needed to shoot this production number (pre-taped, btw, which is obvious when you see it, the clip's after the jump) and show it to people to get the point across that the Dizzy Feet Foundation raised money for dance education.

(BTW, did the show or the Dizzy Feet Foundation pay for the production number? I guess the show, probably inserted as part of Lythgoe's deal. Because it seemed to me to be an audition for future musical films by Holmes, who I'm pretty sure no one was clamoring to see do this, particularly. Not that it wasn't somewhat entertaining.)

I'm listening to audio right now on their website and I'm realizing that just about everyone but Carrie Ann could fund this program by writing a personal check. The goal is to provide scholarships to 10 dancers this year? Ten? Not 100, not 1000 but 10?

Plus the website (linked three graphs ago) doesn't have any of the usual legal language that you usually see. And, their donate link leads to PayPal.

What I think? Less production numbers that just happen to show off to directors and producers in Hollywood that Katie Holmes can sing and dance (and at the same time, proficiently, but I knew that already and I think Rob Marshall did too) and more work on the foundation and the website.

And maybe you go with Kintera instead of PayPal for donations. They specialize in fundraising.

Katie sings and dances after the jump.

Torchwood Creator Suggests Ianto Fans Calm Their Nerves With Supernatural Eye Candy

Russell T. Davies, I just adore you. We should really have coffee in West Hollywood at the Starbucks on Santa Monica across from the gym near La Cienega and watch the boys go by, we'd have a crackin' good time.

Today, Russell suggests to Ausiello at EW and Ianto fans in general ways they can quell that anger, saying, "There’s a risk that some people won’t come back to watch now that Ianto’s gone. I thank them for watching the show and I recommend they go watch Supernatural, because those boys are beautiful. And don’t tell me they’re brothers. [Laughs] Not in my mind."

I also run an endless loop of "those Winchester boys aren't really related" fan fiction in my head when I look at them.

Russell, you're in LA, just pick up the phone and call. We can bring Julie Gardner with us if you like. Lunch with all three of us and then off for coffee and cruising after, just us boys.

More from Ausiello:

Question: One of my readers wondered if you were under pressure to de-gay Torchwood and that's why you killed him off.

DAVIES: I think you can forget about people picking up gay rights as an issue. It's rather like children picking up nursery blocks and waving them in the air but having no idea what it entails. We’re talking about issues in my entire life here, not just one small television program. If they did research they’d go and look at the history of gay and lesbian characters that I have put on screen. They should simply grow up, do some research, and stop riding on a bandwagon that they actually don’t know anything about.

See, I don't need to defend the man, he's perfectly able to defend himself.

Let's be done with this Ianto's death is a hate crime meme, okay? You work for Torchwood? There are consequences for that. Get used to it.

When Eve Myles becomes Wales' first female action film star (and don't you LOVE, even LURVE, Action Gwen?)we'll lose her, too. It will be sad, but it will eventually happen. And it should. You don't need to see one person play one role forever and they don't need to play one role forever. It destroys one's career.

Ask Jennifer Aniston.

I Owe The Universe Craig Ferguson Clips (Here's One)

The Tom Lennon interview from last night. The State is now available on DVD and I'm available to review it here online if someone sends me one.

Ahem.

Buy it from Amazon with the link below and I'll collect up all those pennies ... ah, screw it, you won't do it, anyway.

Clip after the jump. I'm going to bed.

Craig "keeps whacking it and whacking it all he wants.

"And that's (Terry) Gross."

It's an NPR joke. I listen to NPR, I listen to Fresh Air ... Craig.

Question: What new and exciting way is Thomas Lennon going to find to make male nakedness funny in his next project?

One Craig clip a day keeps chlamydia away. No, probably not, you should go see a doctor about that.

RIP Ianto Jones Open Thread

Use this open thread as an online sympathy card or use it to argue whether the death of a character on a TV show can be considered a hate crime.

Or anything in between.

I'll save my comments for after you finish, sometime tomorrow.

(It's my Dad's birthday and I have to go have cake and coffee).

I'll post a Janto (Jack & Ianto smushed together) tribute clip from a YouTuber after the jump.

Full Episode Video -- Simon Pegg's Spaced, ABC's Private Practice Now on Hulu

Best news of the day from Hulu, certainly.

You now have absolutely no reason to work at the office. Use that broadband or T1 connection and get your TV on with Simon Pegg and Kate Walsh.

(I do not promise they'll show up at your office, but if they do send me pictures.)

Spaced is here.

Private Practice is here.

The comedy starring Simon Pegg and Kate Walsh as bickering college profs trying to pull off a bank heist to keep their two favorite University of California students, a brother and sister played by Anton Yelchin and Carey Mulligan who turn out not to be UC students but young looking FBI agents looking to set up the clueless Pegg and Walsh and get their first big arrest?

That movie is still in my head, waiting to be written.

Go watch some TV.

(Annotated) Battle of the Canadian Imports: ABC's Defying Gravity Sexier and Not As Dreary as NBC's Listener

Apparently there were a couple of issues raised by this post, annotations have been made. See them as you go.

Still, I wonder how Ron Livingston gets work. Not because he sucks, because he doesn't. In fact, he's a great actor. Have you seen Band of Brothers? Brilliant work.

I just would never, ever have taken the most-hated-man-on-pay-cable role that he did on Sex And The City as Berger, the guy who broke up with Carrie on a Post-It note.

A POST-IT NOTE, PEOPLE!!!!

Being that most (okay emailers, many! - JB) casting directors are women or gay, he polluted his chances of ever getting decent work again. And if you look at what's happened since I would say I'm right on this.

Berger = Biggest Male Ass**** (okay, okay, I don't need to further explain my point -JB) on TV, ever!

In fact, he had to go to Canada to get this job in this new series, Defying Gravity, which puts four men and four women in a spaceship and sends them to the edge of the universe ...

... with sexy situations to come.

(Note to emailer JenS, I'm joking. I know that Livingston has worked in the US since, I've read his imdb page.)

From ABC.com (and I hate to bitch, but someone writing for ABC.com is stealing my writing style, and if must stop now):

Four women and four men hurtle through space with nothing to do for six years and eight billion miles, except maybe solve a powerful and awesome mystery. Maybe, just maybe, some of them will even hook up. How cool is that?

Defying Gravity is a sexy, provocative thriller set in the very near future against the backdrop of our solar system, in which the eight astronauts from five countries undertake a mysterious six-year international space mission on the spaceship Antares.

(Another joke, new readers. Really makes me think about the ramifications of getting your blog linked to by the Worldwide Leader in News. I'm sure there are many people at ABC whose work is flavored by Craig Ferguson fandom and a certain .. je ne se cois. Makes me think I probably won't change, it wouldn't be fun if I had to "watch my vocabulary" -- emailer "anonymous" -- and you should be monitoring your kids' web use, anyway. -JB)

And it's Canadian, from CTV, which brought us dreary Canadian drama on NBC The Listener, which has now been pulled from their sked for low ratings. From the CTV website:

Hurtling into the vast challenge of infinite space, the eight astronauts and the ground personnel that support them are on a mission, which has a powerful and awesome mystery at its core. The intimate relationships among the astronauts and the ground crew, as well as their actions, from the past and the present, on earth and in space, are all connected. Episodes are divided between the present, as the Antares travels towards Venus, and the past, with flashbacks to the earlier years when the astronauts were in the grueling selection and training process.

Five (not four or six but five) preview clips sit at TV.com, watch the first one at this link and then keep going, you'll see a link pop up for more.

And, after the jump, the little hard-to-watch widget thing from ABC with the very short trailer for the show.

ABC show site, what there is of it, at this link.

CNN Video -- "The Wheelchair Story," Hat Tip to Randi Rhodes

You can always tell I've just been in the car when I mention Randi, it's because she's mentioned a story she saw "on the teevee" that she thinks I should see and this one is important for you to see, too, especially right now during this continuing debate over healthcare and the ridiculous charges from the conservative factions in this country that it will destroy your life as you know it.

(Because they love the status quo, it lines their campaign coffers. And not just them, you should be looking at the obstructionist Blue Dog Dems in the house as well. That's right, Mike Ross, Democrat from Arkansas, I'm calling you out!)

BTW, won't happen that way. When you wanna find out if a member of Congress is telling the truth on this issue, no matter what their party affiliation, just go look to see how much money they've taken historically from the insurance and medical lobby groups that fund their campaigns.

And look at where they made their fortunes that they spent themselves to get themselves elected. Remember former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN)? His family ran a hospital corporation and took that money and basically bought him a seat in the Senate.

Back to this particular story, however, this is a Drew Griffin (former KCBS Los Angeles) report on the rental of a wheelchair v. the purchase of one. This woman's Medicare coverage rents this wheelchair for her and a rate so outlandish that someone should be arrested for the crime. The medical supplier, Apria Healthcare, is ripping this country off and they're doing so with the help of lobbyists, money, and members of Congress who set the rates for durable medical equipment.

This is why the President wants to convene this MedPac group to go over issues exactly like this one and make the system more cost conscience. That doesn't mean telling you you can't pick your own doctor (most of you can't anyway, you pick from a list provided by your insurer) and it doesn't mean Auntie Em's hip replacement will, as Dick Morris said on Fox Noise with Bill-O, go to a younger illegal alien.

It means that companies like Apria and others won't get to scam the gov't out of our hard earned cash.

Now, go watch the clip. It's post-jump. And be happy Bill Frist isn't the Senate Majority Leader anymore, because he can't do as much harm outside the system.

Video -- "Julie in Wonderland": BBC's Gardner, Former Whoniverse Guardian, Talks to Newsarama

If you're a Doctor Who fan (and you are, you just might no't know it yet) you know Julie Gardner. She and RTD shepherded the new Who onto BBC One in 2005 and it's been all hail BBC Wales (Cymru, for my Welsh pals) ever since.

I personally would love to sit down for a talk with her about the process, especially since reading Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale recently and of course keeping up with all the scoop and (minor) scandal (like Matt Smith's floppy hair) that goes with being keyed into the Whoniverse.

Maybe after today's mention at CNN.com I might rise to that level of consideration, especially after touted the Torchwood miniseries in my comments. Until then, we have Newsarama on the case, having met with Gardner recently to talk about all things Who, BBC Drama, her new life in Los Angeles (still with the British Broadcasting Company, btw) and ... traffic.

(No, Julie, no toll to get into the center of LA like there is in London, no decently utilized mass transit short the untimely busses that you occasionally see, but lots of sun, which given your fair skin should be warning enough to stock up on the sunscreen. Hey, David Tennant, that goes for you, too.)

She tells Steve Fritz about this Sunday's return of the Doctor in Planet of the Dead with only minor spoilers for you US fans:

We did go for a ripper with “Planet of the Dead.” As fans know, we have a total of four Doctor Who specials coming out. This one is supposed to feel like the last big romp. It’s absolutely and unashamedly frothy fun.

It’s also kind of an unusual story. It starts with a cat burglar, which we’ve never done before. It’s really a disaster movie/survival movie in disguise. It’s all about the Doctor trying to get home from an alien planet without even the TARDIS to help him.

Then, it goes very dark in only the last few minutes, with a premonition. That’s because we want to lay the foundations for what will now become the regeneration from David Tennant to the next Doctor. That will be done over the next three specials.

Click there for much more. Click over the jump for some BBC morning TV with David Tennant promoting the special to the UK market back in November. No big spoilers there, either.

The only problem with this clip, in fact, is Tennant's hair. A lot of it's gone. And he has such great, great hair, as Rose Tyler will tell you.

Note to Julie Gardner: I'll buy, pick the quiet lunch spot of your choice, I'll bring questions.

ABC's Bob Iger Has a New Way For You to Spend Bucks on the Kiddies -- Online Video?

"Oh Bob." (Said in a very Suzanne Pleshette way.)

THR:

Disney plans to offer a broad array of its content, including movies, TV shows and games, online to those willing to pay for it -- possibly at a single Web site that requires a subscription, president and CEO Robert Iger said Wednesday.

"The notion of going online at some point as a subscribe-to, robust entertainment experience is pretty attractive to us," Iger said. "We are developing such an experience."

Not until they make it a more comfortable experience, though, at least not for me. Maybe parents will stick their kids in front of a website with paid video content, but my big fat butt (not actually big or fat, more like flat) is not gonna enjoy sitting in this chair watching Angela Lansbury in Bedknobs and Broomsticks (or, for that matter Angelo Landsburie in Big Knobs and Broomhandles, the gay porn version).

As I said in the comments at THR ... "I bought a huge TV have nice furniture for a reason.The content providers seem to be forgetting that the tech isn't completely there yet. Either your browser clogs up or your wireless connection or the server doesn't respond accordingly. And I'm not buying some device that may or may not work to port the stuff to my big TV just to watch Demi Lovato. I'm an adult, after all."

I would contend that for this to work at all, this subscription model, they would have to collect content by genre and have a separate URL with subscription fee for each; a kid's site, a tween site, a young adult site, and then genre sites for drama and comedy and romance and etc.

And maybe a paid subscription for all or a selection of the URLs, like a cafeteria plan. But that still leaves the issue of my desk chair and the small screen, which maybe some won't mind.

I do.

Comic-Con Attendees, Watch This Clip -- Morgan Sprulock and The Simpsons Need YOU!

Hey you, person who bought the last Comic-Con Thursday-only pass, I'm mad at you. I thought I might try to pop down for today's events and you blew it for me.

Wanna make it up to me? Watch the clip after the jump from Morgan Spurlock (30 Days, SuperSize Me) who is making The Simpsons' 20th Anniversary Special ... in 3D ... on Ice! He needs your help. He needs your voice. He does not need a Quarter Pounder with Cheese however (or a Royale with Cheese, Canadian readers).

Betcha he gets that all the time.

(Hey, wait just a minute, did they steal this idea from my post at this link advocating for a touring version of Dawn, Portrait of a Teenage Runaway On Ice?

Spurlock! (Said like Jerry Seinfeld says, "Newman!")

More details at this Fox.com blog.

The clip's after the jumperoo.

Hello, CNN.com Readers!

Thanks for coming over from this link at CNN.com. Click this link to subscribe to the blog by feed, and please bookmark the site so you can come back, over and over again, every day, without fail ... okay, whenever you get the chance will be just fine.

This is a place for TV talk with a certain flair, that flair being both mine (and not the same flair as Jennifer Aniston's character in Office Space wears on her waitress uniform) and yours.

Have a great time, respect people's opinions and join the party.

You are welcome.

Never seen Office Space? Well, you can at least see the scene where her character quits her crummy theme restaurant gig at this link.

Like other clips I post here, you maybe don't wanna watch this at work or with your kids.

More recent posts below, scroll down for all the tasty goodness.

BBC Worldwide America President on the Race to HD and Torchwood Week

Once again, thank you Facebook.

Garth Ancier, the President of BBC Worldwide America has gotten back to me this morning about the whole HD issue and the various issues that have impeded the rollout.

First, he thanks all of you for all your interest. It's been a big week at the cable channel and though I have no ratings numbers for you as yet the critical response, as we have been monitoring, has been outstanding.

Ancier told me in a Facebook message (I noted that he was a Facebook friend of a friend a while back and pulled that piece of info out of my brain just for you Monday) that the timing became an issue because the US cable channel had to wait for BBC One to announce their "transmission" date before any announcements could be made here.

"Then it was a race to get that info out and talk to our MSO (multiple system operator) partners, "he explained. "We have signed quite a few HD deals, but we cannot announce them until the channel is assigned on each system ... the MSOs don't want to disappoint their customers once an HD deal is announced."

Furthermore Ancier told me in the note that one of the MSO deals actually did get made in time for Monday's first Torchwood hour but a technical difficulty prevented the channel from going live at that point. "These HD channels take up alot of bandwidth," he said, "so the MSOs want to make sure the picture looks great on each of their systems when they launch."

I appreciate that. Quality control is critical to my viewing experience.

Still, it was tough waking up on Monday and not having my Time Warner HD channel up there in the 400s waiting to take me to Cardiff at 9 eastern.

Ancier promises "more to come" and once again thanks us all for what apparently has been very intensive interest in the HD launch. Of course, they knew what they were doing by stacking up the great SciFi stuff, we geeks are after all the early adopters and the most vocal of them.

I'll keep you in the loop on any further news. In the meantime, click here for my last post on the subject with contact info for some of the biggest multiple system operators in the country, one of them is more than likely yours and you can make your request for the HD channel by email or phone.

I did both.

BTW, photo montage above by me, and no, Garth Ancier does not show up in the fourth hour of Torchwood Children of Earth tonight on BBC America at 9 eastern. Though I have to say, if I were in his place I might have tried to wrangle a cameo in the 456 ambassadorial suite.

More on the show itself later in the day.

NGTV Ugly Truth Video -- Rude Behavior, So Hot When it Comes From Hot Blondes and Gerry Butler

Don't even read this post at work, okay? Promise me. Just wait until you get home.

(Okay, you can read it, but look behind you first, and if you don't have headphones no watching the clip.)

I'm putting the whole post behind the jump because ... because I am, and that's the way it's gonna be.

Torchwood -- The Politics of Children of Earth: Government Hits, Surveillance State and Blank Pages

And civil servants v. elected officials. Don't forget that classic struggle. Our old school Mr. Dekker certainly doesn't let his fellow civil servant John Frobisher forget that.

Peter Capaldi (above left, with Prime Minister Brian Green, played by Nicholas Farrell) plays Mr. Frobisher, a hard-working bureaucrat that has see the elected officials whose bidding he does come and go, but he's reminded by Dekker (Ian Gelder, left) about elected officials and their transience in the first hour of Children of Earth.

So, he takes matters into his own very capable bureaucratic hands and puts things in motion, things that include wiping Britain's records of the 1965 visit to Scotland from another realm, disappearing the memory of twelve orphan children and then tracking down those that might betray the plan by utilizing the most extensive network of closed-circuit security cameras in the world and finally, killing those whose allegiance can not be counted on.

Collateral damage includes a huge part of a major Welsh city 132 miles away, damage that was ordered by the British government, ordered from what is technically another country, England, and carried out in order to shut the mouths of just three people.

Of course, those three people work outside the government and beyond the police. And they can't be contained. Or handled. Or silenced. Unless you silence them forever. We know that one of them can't be stopped, and as long as the other two are alive he'll never be contained. They are labeled  enemies of the state. Terrorists.

They are Marginalized. Dehumanized.

And just like the blank page order that gets suggested by Frobisher, approved by the Prime Minister, then ordered to carry out by Frobisher to his personal assistant Bridget Spears, there is distance created from the instruction to commit acts to the carrying out of those orders.

As is the conversation between Gwen and one of the government hitmen in the ambulance at the scene of the hub explosion.

"Who do you work for, " she asks twice before he shoots him in the foot.

"The government. I'm working for the government, I'm just following orders ... I just do what I'm told."

It makes it easier to kill.

Even your favorite Cardiff constable PC Andy is used to get to his old partner Gwen, despite his assurances and then exclamations that "Gwen Cooper is not a terrorist." Fortunately he's smart enough to know that he's right, despite being scooped up by Frobisher's team of assassins near the blown-up Hub and used to find her home, now empty as pregnant Gwen and daddy-to-be Rhys surf a wave of raw potatoes in the back of a delivery truck to get to London to address their government leaders.

Gwen goes right to the source to get answers, even she being more confident than trepidacious, almost not believing that the government that she has working alongside would be targeting her for death based solely on her knowledge of particular State secrets.

Then Ianto reminds us, when he meets up with sister Rhiannon and her laptop and car, that he considers himself a civil servant as well. At that point you really have to think about the people that are placed in positions of power, inside or outside official structures.

What are their intentions? Is a man's allegiance to himself, to his family, to his benefactor, his religion or to the greater good? 

We know Ianto's allegiance is to the memory of his Torchwood London colleagues, to Lisa Hallett, to Tosh and Owen, to Gwen, and ultimately (for some otherwordly spiritually-tinged reason) to Captain Jack both by love and the tenets of the Torchwood rebuild led by Harkness post-Canary Wharf.

Finally, toward the end of this second day of Torchwood, we have this exchange between Frobisher and Prime Minister Green. The PM has already instructed Frobisher, who has in turn instructed his personal assistant Bridget Spears to delete the files and burn the evidence of that day in 1965 when a group of young orphans were left without the protection of their government. 

Once again, enough distance from the order so that both those who implement the directive and those who ordered it can claim distance from the act itself.

Frobisher, just as he turns to leave the PM's office says, "I just wanted to say how grateful I am sir ... I know that I am somewhat of a middle man in these affairs, I just wanted to thank you for trusting me with the responsibility."

"All I've done," Green says, "is put you on the front line. That's what the front line is for, John. First to fall."

Your heart sinks.

Finally, there is just one person with the political, moral and ethical will to do the right thing, a young woman who happens by chance to be in the right place and what many might consider the wrong time.

Meanwhile, Lois places herself on the front lines. Young impetuousness? National duty? Curiosity? It's your call why she does it.

Lois Habiba, after all, "didn't sign the Official Secrets act to cover up murder, and I didn't take the job to commit treason on the second day ... and if you lot Torchwood, if you're the alien expert, and they really are coming tomorrow, why does Mr. Frobisher want you out of the way all of a sudden? "

Conflicted but smart, and still untouched by the cold collective hand of a government in fear of the unknown, a government that has turned their collective backs on science.

Watch a preview of tonight's episode in a clip after the jump.

Better Off Ted Preview -- Veronica's Dad Comes to Compete

It's a Veronica episode, and I know the Ellen/Portia posse (I SAID POSSE, okay?) will be all excited.

Geoff Pierson (from Dexter, sure, but also from Unhappily Ever After, the best WB comedy ever to hit that netlet, if only for Nikki Cox) comes on tonight as Veronica's father, who also heads a large multi-national company. Now we know where Veronica gets her edge. Dad's a big wheel, too.

I'm hoping for a lot of flashback scenes with some great gags.

For the sticklers out there, the image above is from a future episode, ABC didn't have anything for tonight's ep available. The Portia fans are on it like sauce on ribs, they'll comment  on everything and anything, so be warned that you won't see this suit she's wearing above tonight.

Think of it as a time travel experiment on your part.

You can also click over to that TV.com for recaps, full episodes and all kinds of other stuff, including three non-embeddable (AARGH!) clips from tonight's episode.

Just click here.