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I Am Almost Ready to Return to TV Blogging, Just One More Day!

Hi, it's your "I Watch TV and Write About It On the Web" pal Joe.

Moving has been an arduous task. It's just about over, though, and starting tomorrow I'll be back with all the usual yada-yada. And yes, I just looked for an image of Jason Alexander and Suzanne Cryer from that Seinfeld episode and came up empty.

You'll have to close your eyes and imagine them sitting in Monk's.

Your homework tonight is to watch Castle at 10 on ABC, if only for the rugged handsomeness of Nathan Fillion and the discreet yet faaaaabulous charms of Susan Sullivan, a personal favorite of mine.

G'night.

Video -- Tonight's FlashForward Preview, And My Last Post Before Moving

Blue hand. Just keep thinking about the blue hand.

And, I'll by offline until Tuesday (possibly) or Wednesday (more than likely).

In the meantime, the clip widget thingy from ABC.com is after the jump and I'll see you on the back end of my move.

Video -- Hey, Remember the Day I Met FlashForward's David Goyer and Brannon Braga?

Well, this is what happened that day at No Good Television. Carrie and Shark (and a small crowd of very vocal fans, myself included ... though off-camera where I belong because I'm not quite TV-ready) experienced this, below.

(Don't even have to click over the jumperoo for it, so watch it.)

Thanks to Kourosh and the NGTV gang for yet another fun day west of La Brea and the best time I've ever had in Beverly Hills.

LINK

Clip Bonanza -- Watch the First 8:30 of ABC's V Reboot Right Now! (Sorry, US Only)

And, bonus, if you read my Mad Men post from today already the beginning of this will completely freak you out.

Okay, maybe not, but it freaked me out that after I spent a couple hours writing about the Kennedy Assassination and 9/11 that they should be referenced in the first ten seconds of this show.

Watch the whole thing tonight at 8, of course, and click over the jump for the aforementioned clip and two Hulu exclusive interviews, one with Elizabeth Mitchell and the absolutely adorable Morris Chestnut and the other with absolutely adorable Scott Wolf and Morena Baccarin.

Joel Gretsch from The 4400? Also absolutely adorable and pictured in the image at the top of the post (all the way to the left wearing the priest garb ... is it wrong to objectify an actor dressed as a priest? I guess I'll burn in hell.)

Caught glimpses of the original series over the weekend on Syfy. Those lizard heads are laughable, they made me think of Sid and Marty Kroft.

Reviews have been for the most part good. Mary McNamara in the LA Times was especially impressed and Shawna Malcom did a quick feature on Mitchell, at this link and this link.

Linda Holmes at the NPR blog Monkey See:

(W)here something like X-Men takes a shot at fear and suspicion of people who are "different," V flips that on its head and says, "What if we enthusiastically welcomed space aliens with open arms and integrated them warmly into the population of Earth?" That's probably not what would happen, I think it's safe to say.

What I'm saying is that some alien stories have very interesting ideas about visitors, about us and them, about the way the unfamiliar is confronted, and about the way the promise of something good conflicts with fear of the unknown. This isn't really that kind of a show. This is really just a show about alien-human fighting.

So far. She hasn't seen more than the pilot. We haven't even seen the pilot. ABC, why don't you love me in the same way CBS, NBC, TBS, TNT and Fox do and send me screeners? I'm a good guy and careful with copyrighted content!

Whatev, I'll be watching tonight. Clips after the jump.

ABC's FlashForward -- Exactly Who Is Beilby Porteus Anyway?

You probably saw the scene in the second episode of FlashForward where the guy who bore quite the resemblance to WWE star The Undertaker quotes anti-slavery activist and Archbishop of London from the late 1700s Beilby Porteous.

Of course, I think the reason both the guy in the office of that doll factory in episode two who said, "He who foresees calamities, suffers them twice over" looks like The Undertaker (seen here to the right) as does that figure in the sports stadium that skulks around ominously during everyone's flash forward is because of the uniform.

I'm pretty sure the body in the shadows of that doll factory was wearing a black trenchcoat as was the Oxide Stadium observer which looks a lot like The Undertaker's duster which also looks like ... a black trenchcoat, as in the Trenchcoat Mafia (?!?) from ... well you know.

(So, ominous indeed. Thanks for borrowing that visual and making me feel all the more creepy about these people that gave people this 137-second long glimpse of their futures.)

And, what about this idea from the multiverse theory that every decision we make creates a slightly different version of our world and how will that play out when some people see their futures as needing fixing because of what they did (or in the case of Agent Noh) didn't see?

But, back to Beilby Porteus, there are a few sources on the web to start with, one being this Porteus family website (at this link, curated -- if you will -- by Bruce Porteus of Norwich, England) and particularly this page on the Archbishop, which provides a wealthy of background material.

Interestingly, this year on May 13 (but not April 29, which we know is a critical day for the show) is the bicentenary of the death of the Bishop.

Hmmmmm.

The bishop, btw, and obviously a number of other bishops are given the educational degree designation D.D., Doctor of Divinity, which I think might have something to do with the whole D.D. Gibbons thing. Possibly Thomas Gibbons? He was a contemporary of Porteus who like him had lived in England and in the Colonies before the American Revolution. Gibbons wrote about Calvinism and the Nonconformist churches of England who were looking to separate from the Anglican church right around the same time Porteus was advocating for that church to take a position on the horrendous conditions suffered by African and Carribbean slaves. He also worked in the House of Lords toward the abolition of slavery.

(Robert J. Sawyer, who wrote the book which the series is based on, is blogging about the show and his other projects and the world in general from his perspective at this link. Interesting, not spoilery so far, and I'm adding him to my links list to the right today. He lives in Mississauga, Ontario, home of Musclemag International, not that that means anything, it's just one of those random pieces of unremovable ephemera in my brain.)

I know, I know, I'm the king of digression. More about Porteus as we go forward. There are a few Porteus quotes with some real oomph to them not yet used, you can check them out at this link. Two preview clips for the next episode of FlashForward are in the widget from ABC.com after the jump.

World Exclusive -- ABC's The Middle Discovers TV's Next Big Star

 

He's gonna be a huge star. First time out and he's acting, reacting and working with the leads -- amazing!

More of this guy please! Who is he? My research team tells me that his name is Jim Wilson. And he's versatile, too. In a different scene in a different shirt and glasses you would think he's a completely different guy!

Everyone, write to ABC and get on those forums and demand more Jim Wilson, not just in this show but in every show on the air. He can do it all.

His scene, which will always be known from here on in as the Jim Wilson scene in a clip from Hulu  (and further explanation) after the jump.

Video -- I May Be Breaking Up With Modern Family Tonight, Because The Men Are Assholes

Either read below or watch the clip from last week's episode after the jump.

I'm so frickin' sick and tired of husband-as-buffoon characters. Enter one Ty Burrell playing Phil Dunphy. What a moron! What's with all the male characters on TV being either ineffectual at their jobs or terrible husbands or clueless fathers?

What happened to men who understand what parenting is about? I see them all the time in my actual life ... my friends who are parents are good at it. If an alien race is picking up our TV signals, they must think penises are the implements by which we drain our bodies of intelligence.

The flip side of that is that Julie Bowen's Claire comes off as a shrew. Sure, but you'd be one too if you were married to Phil.

And it's not even just Burrell's character ... the two gay guys are racing to the title of idiot father of the year. I would have to break up with Mitchell just for being so lacking in the balls area (no guts) and Cameron, for all his faaaaabulousness can't seem to understand that last week's group playdate wasn't about him, it was about baby Lily.

That kid should be taken away from them, not because they're gay (I would never consider such, especially considering it's the one thing I regret not doing in my own life) but because they haven't made that paradigm shift away from it always being about them.

I must refer you now to that quote from the Craig Ferguson memoir I posted the other day, which ended, "I think when you become a parent you go from being a star in the movie of your own life to a supporting player in the movie of someone else's."

Sheesh, someone forward that quote to the show's writers. Please. Or buy the Modern Family writers his book, it's worth every penny and more.)

Jay (Ed O'Neill) doesn't do so well in the parenting department. Okay, he's the previous generation and maybe not expected to be as capable in the role, but he treats stepson Manny like a cockblock, and that's horrible. There's nothing funny in that, about that or even near that.

Even Manny's off-camera father sucks at it -- he didn't take the kid to Disneyland because he couldn't pull himself away from a craps table?

Nice.

They have one more week. After tonight, if things don't turn in a direction I can stomach, I'm done. Honestly, I watch comedies to laugh, anyway, and I haven't laughed out loud at this show more than once, and that happened two minutes into the pilot episode.

Watch Phil Dunphy be a total dick in the clip after the jump. As it's from Hulu, when it's over you can click the proper link and watch the whole episode.

(Speaking of Hulu, there was a big Business section cover story in the LA Times this week about a possible pay-for-content scheme being put together by Hulu. Will you pay for Hulu? I won't. I love my Hulu and really like my email buddy CEO Jason Kilar, but I won't pay to watch shows while I'm sitting in this desk chair. I like my TV to be consumed in a reclining position and on a bigger screen.)

NGTV FlashForward Preview -- In Which David Goyer Tells Me, Your TV Junkie, That I Don't Matter

And, though he's not quite right ... I do have another year to live inside the 18-49 demo ... you can't blame his logic. He's not speaking for himself, of course, he's talking for the network when he says that.

Goyer (The Dark Knight), who with Brannon Braga (24, Enterprise) created the ABC series FlashForward spent some time on Thursday with my friends Carrie Keagan and Shark Firestone (see image above) at the No Good Television studios in Beverly Hills (man, I hate the traffic on the west side) love the idea of making smart television for smart people and I love them for it.

Now, I don't wanna give away too much of what went on the in room, but it was a far-ranging and rollicking conversation that started with "No Joe, we're not going to tell you what happens" and then veered into a conversation about merkins, 80's straight porn (in which, thanks to college roommate Dave I'm pretty well schooled) to that mysterious kangaroo from the pilot.

(About the kangaroo, btw, I never did hear a definitive response on why the kangaroo ... hmmmm.)

Why 80s porn? Because it's No Good Television, of course. And we're always talking about 80s porn there, though in defense of the golden age of porn arguers (talkin' to you, Braga) I'd have to say that the mid 70s is the golden age of straight porn, what with The Devil & Miss Jones, Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door all being part of what I consider the 1939 of the X-rated movie business. Oh, and add the rest of the Mitchell Bros. stuff from up in San Francisco.

Of course the 80s, with the advent of video cassettes in one's home and the war between Beta and VHS being won by the latter because the porn industry embraced the format were the beginning of the power and money years for the industry.

Okay, I digress. Sorry. It's been on my mind ever since Thursday.

What so impressed me about the pilot (which is all I had seen at the time) was all the money they spent, especially on all the action that took place on and above the 101 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles. Goyer seemed particularly thrilled about having stopped traffic on the 101 in both directions for 20 minutes while they shot parts of that sequence.

When you see this interview in the next two weeks or so, and I'll have it right here for you, Goyer talks about getting texts from friends while on location there bitchwailing up and down at him for bringing LA to a standstill, and when you think about that it's quite the accomplishment.

More, including a full episode embed from Hulu of this past Thursday's show (US only, sorry) and a preview of next week, after the jump.

Just Back From Setting Up My TV.com Watchlist, Including FlashForward (and I have BIG news about that show)

It's a brand new feature at TV.com and I plan to make good use of it.

Watchlist is the most innovative way for TV fans to easily organize and navigate your favorite shows, discover new shows, and connect with your friends through what they watch. 

Check it out now at this link.

What it does is it compiles all your favorite shows and on one page you can click around, check out what's gonna happen this week, watch clips, read the latest about the show and the stars and ... saves you time.

Time that you can spend coming back here and leaving pithy comments under my snarky posts.

As you can see, FlashForward is on my watchlist, and tomorrow I'm headed up to No Good Television, invited by Carrie Keagan and the Big K (Kourosh, you rule!) to meet series creators Brannon Braga and David S. Goyer, so if you have any questions for them I'm here to be your conduit!

Send me an email (contact info in the third column) or leave a comment below. If you want to rewatch that pilot episode before you send in your voluminous queries, click this link.

US only. Sorry world, I have no control over Hulu.

TV.com Writer Successfully Uses ABC's Life As We Know It DVD as Hangover Cure

Okay, maybe it didn't cure Richard Lawson's (not the actor, the TV.com writer) vodka hangover on Saturday, but it certainly made it less annoying.

He writes today:

If you liked Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared but don't want to think that hard (thinking is done with one's head and one's head is currently in searing pain because of a vodka incident), Life As We Know It is a perfectly entertaining (if ultimately unsatisfying because of its abrupt ending) forgotten show to watch while lying on the couch and praying for fried food.

Hell, it beats staring slack-jawed at National Treasure on TNT for the hundredth time, right?

Indeed, Richard.

I watched some of these when they aired in 2004 ... the guys on the show were entirely too old to play high school students, but that was okay because I was doing a little leering anyway and if they were younger I'd feel (once again) like a dirty ol' man.

Sean Faris was the lead and the cast included Jon Foster (costar of the abysmal Accidentally on Purpose this year on CBS -- hopefully not for too long) and Kelly Osbourne, who was really really good in this.

I've never seen Kelly act in anything else, but here she was vulnerable yet tough, not conventionally pretty yet very compelling and engaging, and she's actually what made me watch more than one episode.

And, per image right, her female costars were Missy Peregrym (Reaper, Heroes) and Jessica Lucas (who I don't find very appealing this season on Melrose Place, but again, that might just be because she's playing the Courtney Thorne-Smith role, and anything CT-S touches makes me sad).

The complete series (13 eps, only 11 aired) is available on DVD. You can buy it by clicking the icon below or getting off your butt and getting to the store.

See a clip with Kelly from the fifth episode after the jump.

Missed FlashForward? It's On Again Tonight (in moments in the East, in fact ... or watch it right here, US Only)

It's very good. Very very good.

Don't miss this. And not just for the bus ads for ABC's Desperate Housewives and the billboards for Lost airline Oceanic Air (I see what you're doing, you sneaky sons of guns).

You probably know the deal already, the consciousness of everyone on the planet flashes forward to 10:00 pm Pacific time this coming April 29 for two minutes and 19 seconds. What they flashed forward to is now the only evidence, as sketchy as that is, that the powers that be have that can lead to the following questions being answered ...

• Why that date?
• Why two minutes and 17 seconds (or, 137 seconds, keep that number in mind)?
• Who did this?
• How did they do this?
• What was their intent?

I'm just missing where and when questions. Do you have any?

Nice to see Brit Jack Davenport from Coupling (above right) still on the show (and getting to use his own accent).

"But Joe, whaddaya mean still on the show? It just started!"

More including a full episode embed from Hulu after the jump.

Olbermann Video -- Worlds Collide, Keith & Craig Ferguson on His New Book, Palin, "You Lie" Wilson

Because I love it when my worlds collide (unlike George Costanza). I'm off to buy Craig's book and then have lunch. More later.

Also, Craig today on The View without Hasselbeck who's still on maternity leave at this link.

No Hasselbeck means a much more tolerable clip.

Buy the book by clicking the icon below. Clip after the jump.

And what the hell, I'll throw a bonus clip ... last night's Craig email segment was genius and starts with Danny DeVito reading a selection from the book. Watch it!

ABC's Flash Forward: Watch the First 18 Minutes Right Here Right Now

For me this is the most anticipated new show of the year.

Watch it now, it's after the jump just waiting for you.

I wish there was a screener in the mail coming my way, but I hear that screeners for this show are very very hard to come by. Still, if someone from ABC wants to make me happy (like you, Jeff Fordis), you can always drop one in the mail for me.

Premieres Sept. 24 at 8 on ABC.

John Stossel Leaves ABC for Sweater Babes at Fox "Hardly Any Business Done Here" Channel

He's no stranger to Fox and Newscorp, as you see above. This is something that nobody is really surprised about.

Popeater.com:

Stossel, who joined '20/20' in 1981 and upgraded to co-anchor in 2003, will also make regular appearances on Fox News Channel. An opening in his ABC contract allowed him to jump ship for Fox, where he is expected to sign a multi-year deal. He won't be an unfamiliar face to the Fox faithful. The outspoken Libertarian has been a frequent guest on 'The O'Reilly Factor' and 'The Big Story.'

You don't think he quit when he found out he wasn't getting Charlie Gibson's job, do you? Because if John Stossel was gonna get a network anchor job it would have been a while ago.

I don't think he was holding his breathe.

Isn't "outspoken Libertarian" what they call wackadoo conservatives while they're still working for the mainstream media? Isn't that what they called Glenn Beck when he worked at CNN?

Stossel recently, in a nutshell:

MediaMatters.org: ABC's John Stossel will reportedly moderate three "town hall-style" "health care meetings" organized by the Wisconsin chapter of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity and intended to increase "pressure" on the state's Democratic members of Congress on health care reform. Stossel has recently reported on health care issues on ABC's 20/20, which he co-anchors; that report included criticisms of the purported health care reform goals of President Obama and Democratic members of Congress.

LaCrosse (WI) Tribune: ABC-TV reporter John Stossel on Thursday defended his participation in health care forums in Wisconsin organized by the same conservative group that sponsored "tea parties" throughout the state earlier in the year. "I say most of you in the liberal media already show your opinions," Stossel told reporters before speaking Thursday at a forum in La Crosse. "You just don't admit it. I do clearly have an opinion, a point of view that I've acquired from 40 years of reporting. I think it's honest to say, 'Look, here's my point of view. It's based on this reporting. Take it or leave it.'"

On his own ABC News Blog: He defends the plastics and chemicals lobbies and tells his readers he's not going to donate to Mt. Sinai Hospital in NYC because they are using "scare tactics" (his words) to stop people from buying plastic bottles that utilize toxic phthalates, bisphenol A and lead to harden the plastic. He also seems to take a shot at a medical school acquaintance of his brother's who's connected to the issue. Me-ow!

I think we'll all be better off that he's taken himself to the corner of the room where no one will pay attention to him and we can get on with the business of gleaning accurate, useful information from proper news sources that aren't the Newscorpse.

(While he's in that corner, I'll be imagining him wearing a dunce cap and drooling at the hot chicks in colorful tight sweaters, like Liz Claman.)

The latest ratings (according to Newscorp stablemate The Wall Street Journal) have Fox Biz Channel averaging 21,000 viewers from 5 am to 9 pm daily.

To compare, the latest edition of 20/20 on ABC garnered a 1.3/5 and 4.24 million viewers, which is about the same as he'll do guesting on O'Reilly's FNC show.

I've been watching Stossel for years, from WCBS in New York to ABC, where he started in '81. I've found myself more slackjawed every year listening to the crap that comes out of his mouth.

In 2005 Stossel wrote in defense of price gouging on potable water during Hurricane Katrina.

See ya, don't let that door smack you in the ass on the way out.

Video -- ABC's Modern Family Pilot Sneak Peek at Television Without Pity

Did you get the email from TWoP today about seeing the Modern Family pilot?

Or maybe your got something in your email like it from Entertainment Weekly's website inviting you to watch.

And, if you've a member of ABC Inner Circle (something I just learned about today), you can see it there.

I chose TWoP, I would provide a link but it was password protected and it wouldn't take the password again once I watched it.

Anyhow, about the show ... it's gotten a lot of buzz for the mockumentary format it utilizes (like those NBC Thursday night squirmfests The Office and Parks & Recreation) but at least in the pilot it didn't seem as forced as it does sometimes on those shows.

(Maybe that's because the conceit here is that Dutch documentary filmmakers are producing the show in a show. And as well all know, the Dutch aren't as aggressive as those dastardly Yankees.)

The action centers around three nuclear families:

Phil & Claire and kids Haley, Alex and Luke -- Phil (Ty Burrell) thinks he's the cool dad, mom Claire (Julie Bowen) is harried and hurried. Teen daughter Haley (Sarah Hyland) wants to date a senior with facial hair. Middle daughter Alex wears glasses and is sensible. Youngest Luke could do with a less cool and more engaged dad.

Mitchell and Cameron and baby Lily -- Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) are a gay male couple together five years who just came back from Vietnam where they adopted Lily, who so far just poops, eats and sleeps.

Jay and Gloria and her son from a previous marriage, Manny -- Jay (Ed O'Neill) and Gloria (Sofia Vergara) are a May-December couple and Manny, Gloria's child from her previous marriage, Manny, seems like he learned everything about pursuing his crush on the photo kiosk girl at the mall from watching telenovelas with his mom. Jay is somewhat insecure about him and his wife's age difference and aspects of her first marriage, including what was apparently a major league sex life.

Now, here's the trick ... Mitchell and Claire are brother and sister, and Jay is their dad.

More, including clips, after the jump.

Surprise! One big modern family. Hence the title. And with one big modern family come the issues of the world with all their modern twists.

Video -- Sorry About the Light Posting, Check These ABC Fall Show Clips While I'm Gone

I am attending to family matters.

(Couldn't resist posting some Urkel above. Get it? Family Matters? See what I did there? And another thing, and I know I harp on this a lot, but ... is Urkel all that Jaleel White gets to do? Why are we penalizing Jaleel White to obscurity unless he's Urkel? He created an iconic comedy character when he was just a kid, just a kid, and we're gonna banish him to the sidelines because of the whole omnipresence thing? It just doesn't seem fair.)

If you've emailed me I'm just getting to the mail. Hold on and I'll be with ya.

In the meantime, watch some of the stuff after the jump, it's a bunch of ABC Fall Preview clips. Check out the NBC Fall Preview show hosted by Joel McHale at this link.

Thanks, Hulu.

Fall Preview Video -- In Which I Take On TV.com's Five Most Promising Shows of the Fall (and how they missed one)

Okay, first things first, Tim Surette is apparently TV.com's editorial king of the hill, he gets to choose two. I'm just sayin', not trying to rile anything up (though Richard Lawson is getting to be my favorite writer there).

Lying, I love stirring up office politics where people I don't even know work.

Also, they missed one show, but we'll get to that later.

Okay, five shows that TV.com thinks will make it, and I agree with four of the five -- Modern Family (Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet pictured left), Cougar Town, Flash Forward (top of post, Joseph Fiennes and John Cho in action) on ABC and Glee on Fox (Lea Michele below right) -- and I could be convinced of the fifth,The Good Wife with Julianna Margulies on CBS, I have a soft spot for her, if CBS would send me screeners like they used to.

Ahem. Throat clearing very loudly. Cough. Cough. Hacking cough.

(Then again, ABC isn't really forthcoming with their stuff, either. Cable channels love me, broadcast not so much.)

Of course we've all seen Glee, though you get another chance Thursday night at 8, if you can stand to have a crawl of Twitter messages from the cast, creators and others (fans?) running under it the whole time.

I can't.

Can't watch the Twit-ty rerun of the first season finale of Fringe for the same reason. Of course, I can just throw the DVD in the machine.

About Glee, Lawson says:

Glee is wickedly funny in the same gonzo way that Popular was, with strange cutaways and almost-cartoonishly manic characters who will stop at nothing to get what they want. Oh, and it has musical numbers! Big, beautiful, clear-voiced pop numbers sung passionately and without any of that irksome irony that's been laid on too thick in most of the things people deem “smart” these days. The cast, led by Broadway vets Matthew Morrison (South Pacific at Lincoln Center) and Lea Michele (Spring Awakening), is attractive and majorly, earnestly talented. And hey, it's nice to see that it’s so gay-friendly, considering that it’s on Fox.

Yeah, what he said, Sean Hannity. And you too O'Reilly you lying sack.

Sorry, can't ever resist the opportunity, you know.

If there was one show I think they missed, it's Joel McHale's Community on NBC. Hey, that gives me an idea -- if you'd like to see either a) the NBC Fall Preview Show which includes clips of Community or b) yet another show where Joel McHale introduces TV clips, you can kill two birds with one stone and watch the NBC Fall Preview 2009 hosted by McHale.

It's the Hulu embed after the jumperoo. Click over, enjoy the lush self-promotion. I'll also include the video widget from the ABC Flash Forward website that you can click around on to find a bunch of clips from and about the show.

Just one more week until actual real Fall TV shows start. Not to diss the Summer stuff, but there just isn't the sense of urgency about Royal Pains and Burn Notice for me that there is about Fall shows.

Don't you think?

I Smell a Hit -- Courteney Cox in Cougar Town

Think I'm kidding? Go watch the clips at TV.com, just so you have a little somethin' somethin' to go on, then come back.

I think this hits. Solid story for the female demo, Courteney is still beloved (check out the ratings for Friends in syndication), she's doing a lot of physical comedy here which we seem to enjoy as Americans.

Bill Lawrence (Scrubs) in driving the bus and brings wifey (Christa Miller-Lawrence, going hyphenate for the first time here). Busy Phillips brings the Real Housewives vibe as the neighbor, Dan Byrd (who I've been touting on this blog since Aliens in America) has the sardonic son thing down, solid TV and film comedy vets Josh Hopkins and Ian Gomez know their way around a joke, and John from Cincinnati's Brian Van Holt as the ex ... it all works for me!

It sure would be great to see a screener, ABC.

(Clearing my throat.)

(Clearing my throat louder.)

Though it's lead-in is also a new comedy, it's the most arguably the buzzed about comedy of the Fall, Modern Family.

The competition (Wednesdays 9:30 eastern) for interested eyes will probably come mostly from the second half hour of Fox's Glee.

(Other shows against it include CW's new The Beautiful Life, L&O: SVU and Criminal Minds.)

ABC's given it a clear path to succeed. Now it's up to the show, and I think they've got the goods.

I guess we'll find out in due time.

Video -- Yet Another Reason to Love Reba McEntire and Watch Her Sing Her New Song

Photo by Me! TV Land Awards, 2009

Hat tip to Pam Spaulding's Facebook account. Read her at Pam's House Blend at this link.

In an interview with Out Magazine, Reba's asked about her marriage and then gay marriage. Here's the exchange:

Speaking of Narvel, you two just celebrated your 20th wedding anniversary. How have you maintained such a successful marriage?
Respect, faith, love, trust, and lots of patience.

There are many in the LGBT community who want the right to marry and have what you and your husband have together. What are your thoughts on same-sex marriage?
Again, I can’t judge that. I have gay friends who have partners, and I see where they would want to get married. I understand why. So, I can’t judge that.

On the question of talking to a gay publication at all and what her more traditional country music fans might say, there's this:

Out: There are going to be people who will not appreciate you doing an interview with a gay publication. What do you say to those individuals who are more conservative and don’t support the LGBT community?

Reba McEntire: I just try not to judge. Don’t judge me, and I won’t judge you. And that’s what it says in the Bible -- “Don’t judge.” Keep an open mind. That would be my voice. I have gay friends. I have a lot of straight friends. I don’t judge them. I take them for what they are. They’re my friends, and I can’t defend my feelings for them, other than I like ‘em.

She also discusses her Broadway experience in Annie Get Your Gun and her new album, the first new studio work in six years. Released August 18, Keep On Loving You in the 33rd album release of her career.

And we should talk about Reba getting back in the TV game. Maybe not a series again so fast, but it would be a shame not to see Reba out there promoting this disk in the usual locations; an episode of Soundstage on PBS, Oprah ... whatev!

She's already done a Good Morning America appearance. Listen to her perform Strange from the new album in the clip post-jumperoo from a live cam a fan was holding, or click this link to watch the GMA clip.

There's never anything wrong with turning on your TV and having Reba look back at you and smile. I know it makes my day every time it happens.

Now, quick like a bunny, go join her legion of Facebook fanatics at this link, tweets included (if you're into that stuff).

And good morning, gang.

She has great hair, huh?

Video -- Abdul Circling Ugly Betty Arc, But She's Just Be a Temp

A temp in the show, a temp on the show.

And if you haven't seen Paula act before, you know why. She's, uh ... not an actress.

(That WAS a polite way of saying it!)

Ausiello at EW reports that she'll be a new temp at Mode who has finds a friend in Becky Newton's Amanda character.

Wanna watch her try to act? Check this clip from BBC's Hotel Babylon after the jump. Image from that episode.

Video -- Will NBC Let Greg Grunberg Play at ABC for Lost's Final Season?

If they ever, even a gazillion years from now want to work at some time in the future with J.J. Abrams it would be a good idea if they did.

Grunny is telling TV Guide, purportedly, that the Lost people have asked him to come back for the final season. Of course, I can't find that at all at TVGuide.com, but it's referenced in this New York Magazine blog post:

Greg Grunberg — the childhood friend of J.J. Abrams who played the pilot of on Lost's first-ever episode — tells TV Guide he's been asked to return for the show's sixth and final season. His return isn't a sure thing, since he'll need time off from his regular gig playing Matt on Heroes, but he says he's in if NBC okays the vacation days.

You're guess is as good as mine. I lean in the no direction. Networks are really touchy about their stars doing outside work for other networks lately. It's why I think no one ever successfully brings Battle of the Network Stars back, and let's face it, it's due.

I suggest a trade ... maybe send an ABC star to an NBC show for a while, even if you have to put together a five-network deal. I think Ty Pennington has to be jonesing for something different by now, how about he goes to Fox to host Idol for a year while Seacrest becomes a contestant on CW's America's Next Top Model, Miss J moves to CBS and The Big Bang Theory to play Penny's Cheesecake Factory manager and Simon Helberg spends a year on NBC's Chuck as a CIA analyst.

There. Done.

Full Episode Video -- Lost is New to Hulu, Watch Season One Now

You know what this means? It means that the Lost season one DVD boxset that is STILL sitting here unopened on my desk (yes, I dust around it) his dropped considerably in perceived value.

Not to $0, after all I can watch it on my big screen without commercials. Still, devaluation is devaluation.

If you click this link and then click the feed link at the top of the page, you can be updated daily on the new Hulu shows and movies. That's how I do it.

Watch the first part of the pilot episode, I've posted it after the jump. Don't tell me what happens, I haven't seen it yet. They have all of season one and five episodes of the most current season posted and ready for you to eat up. US only, sorry my outside the country friends.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Video -- New to Hulu, ABC's Castle, Watch the Pilot Episode Right Here

Smart, sexy, funny, intriguing fun from creator Andrew Marlowe, both Castle and a blog favorite, Better Off Ted, premiered this spring on ABC to solid critical reviews and decent, if not stellar ratings.

Let's get you into this show and improve those numbers, okay?

TV Overmind:

What makes Castle really different from previous mystery shows, however, is the metafictional device they employ.  You see, Richard Castle himself is a mystery writer, creating fake murder mysteries for his novels.  He knows ever murder plot cliché out there, and makes these weak points and clichés known during the case they’re working on, which is also inadvertently pointing out the same weak points and clichés out to the audience about the show itself.  It’s an interesting balancing act that makes the show amusingly self aware and entertaining to watch at the same time.

Overall I found the pilot episode of Castle to be fantastic and far above my expectations.   If you’re a fan of the procedural mystery series with a little fun, you’ll definitely want to tune in for this show.  I certainly didn’t think the show was flawless, and there is room for more improvement, but for a mid midseason replacement, it more than exceeds the expectations that I had for the show.  I’ll be setting my DVR so that I don’t miss this one at all.

The dynamic between leads Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic is solid, and for a change, not so sexually charged, which is fine with me. Not all male/female couples on TV have to be doing the will they or won't they dance, at least not right out of the box.

(It's something I take issue with on TV, I note the old NBC sitcom Good Morning Miami as an example. How are we supposed to care about two characters and if they get together if we don't really know them?)

Also, you can't beat Susan Sullivan for great comedy support in the role of Castle's stage diva mom. She brings it. Nice supporting work from everyone in the NYPD squad room where much of the action takes place.

ABC continues to roll out new shows to Hulu (they became a partner this year) and I'll continue to fill you in as shows are added. Watch the pilot after the jump, it got an Emmy nomination this morning for dramatic score.

ABC's Scrubs New to Hulu, Eliza Coupe Upgraded to Regular

Eliza, seen here with that damned PBS moneygrubber Elmo (nah, I'm just joshin', we LURVE Sesame Street here, I still learn new things from it) was the standout of the new class. How she will fit into the new Scrubs universe is yet unknown to me.

Ausiello at EW:

Scrubs boss Bill Lawrence recently hinted that Coupe's hilariously insensitive intern, Denise (a.k.a. "Jo"), would play an integral part in next season's med school reboot. "I really like Eliza," he told me last month. "I think she's a really interesting actress and we didn't give her a full character [last season]. I think she's hyper-talented."

She was cast in the unfortunately not-picked-up pilot for ABC's version of ITV's No Heroics this summer for my pal Jeff Greenstein who thinks the world of her as well.

He said this morning via Facebook, "I adore her. Sweet, inventive, kind, lovely, gorgeous and SMART."

Nothing like a hot blonde with great comic timing. I betcha Eliza graduates further soon, she's a natural for the Judd Apatow gang. Would love to see Judd write her a movie. Maybe her and Elizabeth Banks as slutty spies or thieves, or Eliza and Jonah Hill as a couple of ... I don't know what, but something.

Watch a full episode from last season that features "Jo" and the other interns. I would embed it, but ABC seems to have brought their own rules to the site, which pisses me off a little.

It's at this link.

After the jump, I'll find some Eliza Coupe stuff from YouTube so you can get a taste of her character. Damn, the only clip I can find is not enough of a taste, but you can see her at Hulu.

The new season has a lot, I mean a LOT, of format changes. Perry and Turk are going to be instructing at a local medical school which opens things up a little and should freshen up the show.

BTW, also new to Hulu this week is Brothers & Sisters (never seen a single episode) and Ugly Betty (notable to me only for the guest appearances of Alec Mapa, an old friend, and the remarkable Vanessa Williams, who will always have my heart.

By Vanessa's new CD at the link below. The little bump I get off your purchase will allow me to send my dog Homer to Russia to train for space travel.