I Am A TV Junkie, A Blog For The Clicker Jockey

Monday Sitcoms End Hopefully With Love in the Air, So Cross Your Fingers (That There Are Complications)

Because the complications are where all the funny is, as you all know. With all respect to David Groh, who left us this past February, no one seemed to be interested in watching Rhoda and Joe lead a happy life.

Even I waned a bit, only getting excited about it all again when Johnny Venture pursued the highly skeptical Ms. Morgenstern and jeans store owner Gary Levy elevated the bell bottom to heights never before seen by a young Joe from the 'burbs who was still having to pick stuff up in the husky section at Sears.

So, lets's go show to show starting with the younger skewing ones and moving on to the comedies for grown-ups and beyond ...

The Big Bang Theory

So, they finally kiss. Well, I gotta tell you, by the end of the episode I was ready for anything that didn't involve Sheldon. And even though he wasn't pivotal, all the stuff that they've been doing with him lately did show up, the annoying habits, the nudging, nudging, always nudging on my last nerve ... sheesh, give him a rest or at least show me he's growing as a person. There is almost too much neurosis for that skinny little body to hold.

So Penny decides that Leonard might be the kind of guy she wants to date? Yeah, I've seen this happen before, it doesn't end well for Leonard.

I encourage the writers to give us more Howard and Raj in season two, a growth arc for Sheldon and lots of revelatory stuff for Penny (or should I say some complications for Kaley Cuoco to play, she's very good in this).

How I Met Your Mother

Yes, I know that a bunch of things happened in this episode, but this image below is the moment before the biggest revelation of the episode.

Right after Barney looks to his right at Ted, Marshall and Lily he looks to his left and there's Robin. Barney loves Robin. Ah, complications for season four, just like we like.

If you had to bring one peripheral character into the cast from this episode, wouldn't it be the stoner customs agent played by ? Every show should have Doug Benson or a facsimile, dontcha think?

And I guess we'll see more Sarah Chalke. Love her, but I gotta think that she's getting tired of playing a doctor.

More after the jump.

THR.com Video -- ABC's Two New Series, Just Two

You can just watch Marc Berman from Mediaweek and James Hibberd from the Reporter talks. They were there, after all.

I'll have comments after the jump.

And yes, either Marc Berman is a giant or James Hibberd would fit in your pocket. I'm not really sure.

UPDATE: Sorry, I had to put the clip after the jump, I'm pretty sure it's the thing that's slowing down the loading of my homepage.

ABC Announces Pickups From 2007-8 Schedule

And this is very good news for some of us. Some more than others, right Bob?

And can we please give Samantha Who? a suitable lead-in that will have compatible viewers and not depend on the Dancing ... geriatric audience to fall asleep in front of the set? Please? Because otherwise this very good show will go the route of Ted Danson's Help Me Help You last season.

And let's just stipulate here that Dancing With the Stars is never gonna make a sitcom lead-out a hit. No compelling comedy is going to be helped by that audience. It's like the two concept exists within a generational shift that makes neither compatible to the other.

MediaPost:

ABC has picked up nine series for next season, including four shows that debut this year: "Dirty Sexy Money," "Private Practice," "Pushing Daisies," and "Samantha Who?" Those shows will join five mainstay and veteran ABC shows: "Brothers & Sisters," "Desperate Housewives," "Grey's Anatomy," "Lost," and "Ugly Betty."

"The strength of our schedule this fall was unprecedented and speaks for itself," said Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment, in a release. "We're looking forward to building on that success."

ABC touts its strong fall performance--10 weeks of the season, Sept. 24 to Dec. 2, 2007--when the network was No. 1 among 18-49 viewers, with an average 3.9/10 rating. ABC also says it was atop all networks during the November sweeps period, for its third consecutive November sweeps win.

SAG TV Comedy Awards For Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, The Office, The Sopranos Sweeps Drama

I gotta tell you, and I think I said it just the other day for the Globes, I would have gone for Christina Applegate, who just charms the socks off of you in Samantha Who! (and of course has the words of people like our pal Bob Kushell to do that with).

And yes, I love Tina Fey, I don't want you all sending me hate mail or starting a campaign where you buy eyeglasses at thrift stores and shatter one lens and send that to me in protest, but I really do think she's right when she makes mention of her performance being elevated by Alec Baldwin's, now that's a deserving award.

Get it? Elevated? And I wrote that even before finding this pic. I love Serendipity!!!

And the other thing is that Tina Fey is in a true ensemble at 30 Rock but Christina carries that show on her back, she's in almost every scene.

There's a clip after the jump.

Bob Kushell Makes the Citizen Kane of WGA Strike Videos

You saw Bob's first strike clip here last week. Today he comes back with a revealing look at the making of that clip, and ... how it ended the WGA strike all on its own.

Okay, not really.

But what it will do is make you laugh. Look for guest stars Christina Applegate (again), Jon Cryer, Julie Bowen (who has a great couple of lines at Bob's expense) and the deliciously lovely Wendie Malick.

And look for the scene inspired by Lily Tomlin and David O. Russell.

LINK

Click here for the Kushellivision YouTube page.

Also, remember there are four more new eps of Samantha Who? in the can. Support the show and its writers by watching the show live on air on ABC Mondays at 9.

Sitcom Report -- How I Met ..., Sam Who, 30 Rock

In that order.

(All my estimates on new episodes left comes from TVByTheNumbers.com.)

How I Met Your Mother has one more new episode in the can. This past Monday they ran a rerun from last season, the Fiero episode, which was funny but I've already seen it twice, so I opted out.

Episode title The Yips was a good one the week before, especially Barney's storyline with The Man Maker played by comedy acting vet Stephanie Faracy. Wayne Brady also guests as Barney's brother in a flashback scene that obviously finds James Stinson teetering on the brink of coming out.

Samantha Who?, which is the highest-rated new comedy of the season, has four more eps in the can, and the most recent wasn't exactly the strongest of the series but still entertaining. Also not strong were the ratings -- since the end of Dancing With The Stars the series has taken a serious tumble, as serious as the numbers on that Ted Danson psychologist comedy Help Me Help You that followed Dancing ... last season.

The episode, having to do with Sam's continuing series of cars that have been drown in a local lake, lacked the bite of the previous eps, althought Christina Applegate is always endearing.

And 30 Rock continues to be the best comedy no one is watching. Couldn't tell you why as the show, the leads, the writing ... all right in my wheelhouse, to steal a baseball metaphor. Supposedly, last night's episode was the third last before they go into reruns.

I would love to see Edie Falco stay with the show. Does she have anything else to do? Will she find a better job in TV on the East Coast? Wouldn't it be great if the C.C. character became a buddy for Liz Lemon so that Liz finally has someone with which to share witty banter?

Edie, I know you are a multiple Emmy winner and looking for films to do, but at least consider coming back on an irregular basis.

The last two eps have been brilliant, and it saddens me that any mojo that the show had jinned up after its Emmy win will be lost should the season come to a close for the gang at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.

I still don't understand how just a 7 share of the demo is going to this show.

There's also news from NBC that they will be putting together a comedy night on Saturdays that will include a couple of sitcoms, some repurposed SNL fare for two hours, followed by the local news and then an SNL rerun in late night. The word is that 30 Rock will be one of those two comedies (I'm hoping Scrubs is the other) and it might help the show find an audience.

At least that's the theory. We'll see.

Here's Alec Baldwin and Edie Falco in a scene from last night.

LINK

Video -- Samantha Who? Scribe Bob Kushell and His Wife (Played Here By Christina Applegate)

And yes, Bob could have had his sister Lisa Kushell (Mad TV) play his wife (who Bob tells us refused to be in this clip) but that would have been weird and slightly sick.

So Christina Applegate rises to the occasion to play Bob's wife, who just wants to get Bob back to work and out of the house.

And no, she doesn't want to go to a movie, Bob!

LINK

Charmed Out of My Shoes by Samantha Who?

And if you are not, you must be dead inside. Everything about this show just makes me smile.

And, more important because it's a comedy, I actually laugh, you know, out loud, which is not something that you can say about some things that are purported to be comedies these days on the tube.

Last week's attempt by Sam to find out about sex was just the best. And everyone in the cast had great lines. Jean Smart is a treasure and Jennifer Esposito is spot on, but the two people I'm most surprised by in the supporting cast are Barry Watson and Melissa McCarthy, I guess because although I've known of them for a while, I've never watched them more than the once or twice 7th Heaven and Gilmore Girls have crossed my TV screen on my way to something else.

And Christina? What's not to love? She is so charming and so good at finding that word or phrase that unlocks the funny in a scene. She is a consumate TV comedy pro.

This episode was written by Bob Kushell and directed by a great comedy director, Barnet Kellman(76 episodes of Murphy Brown can't be wrong).

I don't know how many more new episodes there are left, but you can be sure that they will rerun everything they've got in the can, so I strongly encourage you, especially if you're watching either Heroes or Rules in that timeslot, to eventually check it out.

Samantha Who? -- This Week's Great TV, Chapter One

I have to say, finally people are flocking to a show that I can really get behind, because it's funny, charming, the premise seems to be holding up (at least through these two eps, I know it's early) and Christina Applegate is so incredibly likeable in this part that you just can't help but watch.

(And yes, there is something about Christina's delivery that really really -- I mean really -- reminds me of Jennifer Aniston, but I keep reminding myself that Applegate is a proven vet who has been working a joke to perfection for a long, long time, longer in fact than our fave Rachel.)

Parents played by the incomparable Jean Smart (can do anything, anything I tell you) and Kevin Dunn are spot on and Jennifer Esposito and Melissa McCarthy act like the devil and angel sitting on Samantha's shoulders for funny effect.

This past week we met some of Samantha's office inhabitants, and the guy playing her boss is a riot, played by a guy whose name I can't find that always cracks me up (timing, it's all timing). This is also the first thing I've ever seen Barry Watson in. I was not a 7th Heaven fan. He's very good.

I would never pretend to know what will happen to the audience for this show after Dancing With the Stars ends in November (Help Me Help You last year faded after the dancing show left), but I certainly hope they stick around, because this is a show that I would like to see have some legs. Applegate and Smart are among the best performers in their field and they deserve to work and we deserve to see them.

Cross your fingers. Here's a clip from this coming week's show that involves Samantha getting even more bad news from her answering machine, which interestingly has some great lines in this show.

LINK

I Would Have to Say There Are Two Great Freshman Comedies

And they are The Big Bang Theory and Samantha Who? I saw the pilot of the latter earlier today and thought I'd mention it before I mentioned that the former got a full season order this week, which is very cool because they can plan their story arcs with the additional back nine in mind. Or at least they should. I think it's why some first year comedies fail down the stretch, it's the scrambling for ideas because they didn't adjust and regroup for a full season order.

Or at least I think so.

I gotta go, it's late, but there's lots of good stuff over at the [adult swim] video site to keep you up until you crash tomorrow morning. Kidding, I'm kidding. I love to kid.

Including this.

LINK