Tonight NBC's Thursday night comedies are celebrating the holidays with some hilarious looking episodes.  And after the jump we've got some sneak peaks for you.

Labels: Christmas, TV

TBS new series Glory Daze is about a group of freshman students who decide to pledge a fraternity in the mid-80s.  The series centers on Joel (Kelly Blatz), a sweet geek who's not quite sure about pledging, Eli (Matt Bush), a sex obsessed virgin, Jason, a prudish young republican who plans to pledge the "preppy" fraternity, and Brian, a star baseball player whose being force to play by his dad.

Labels: TV

TNT announced today that they have renewed original series HawthoRNe for a second season to premiere in 2010. The show which stars, Jada Pinkett Smith as Christina Hawthorne, a compassionate nurse who has a hard time balancing her working life and her personal life. If you haven't seen the show before you can tune in tonight for an all new episode. And stayed tune for a new episode of Saving Grace. You can find details of both episodes below as well as the complete Press Release announcing the second season pick-up.

Christina battles over budgets and may have to cut one of her staff members in a new episode of TNT’s HAWTHORNE

“Mother’s Day” – Tuesday, Aug. 11, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT)

Christina leaves Bobbie in charge of the entire hospital nursing staff while she goes into budget battles with Morrissey, who gives Christina until the end of the day to lay off six nurses. The order couldn’t come at a worse time for Kelly, who gets into trouble when she refutes Dr. Marshall’s treatment for a stroke patient. Nor could it come at a worse time for the ER, which becomes the scene of a devastating tragedy.

A strange murder becomes a big scoop for Butch’s reporter girlfriend in a new episode of TNT’s acclaimed drama SAVING GRACE

“Looks Like a Lesbian Attack to Me” – Tuesday, Aug. 11, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT)

The squad investigates the death of a parole officer with secrets, while Grace and her brother Johnny finally track down Neely, the young addict who shares visions of Earl. Meanwhile, Rhetta decides to make some personal changes in the wake of her troubles at home.

TNT’s Hit Series HAWTHORNE, Starring Jada Pinkett Smith, Set to Return for Second Season

Character-Driven Medical Drama Averaging 3.8 Million Viewers for First Season

TNT has picked up a second season of its hit medical drama HAWTHORNE, starring and executive-produced by Jada Pinkett Smith (The Women, The Matrix trilogy) and created by Emmy^® winner John Masius (St. Elsewhere, Providence, Dead Like Me). The network has ordered an additional 10 episodes of the character-driven drama, which airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. (ET/PT). For its first season, HAWTHORNE is averaging 3.8 million viewers and ranks as ad-supported cable’s #1 entertainment program on Tuesdays among adults 25-54 and women 25-54. The second season is slated to air in 2010.

HAWTHORNE co-stars Michael Vartan (Alias), Suleka Mathew (Men in Trees), David Julian Hirsh (Lovebites), Christina Moore (Hyperion Bay) and Hannah Hodson (TNT’s The Ron Clark Story). The series is produced for TNT by Sony Pictures Television in association with Pinkett Smith’s 100% Womon Productions, John Masius Productions, and Jamie Tarses’ FanFare Productions. Pinkett Smith, Masius, Glen Mazzara (The Shield, Crash, Life) and Jamie Tarses (My Boys) serve as executive producers.

“HAWTHORNE has been a great addition to TNT’s lineup of original series, and Jada Pinkett Smith’s performance has been a tremendous draw with viewers,” said Michael Wright, executive vice president, head of programming for TNT, TBS and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). “There are powerful episodes remaining, and we’re looking forward to what is certain to be an extraordinary second season.”

HAWTHORNE, which premiered Tuesday, June 16, with 4.4 million viewers (Live + 7), is one of six high-profile original dramas populating TNT’s Monday-Wednesday lineup this summer. The six series, which include The Closer, Raising the Bar, Saving Grace, Leverage and Dark Blue, are the fulfillment of an aggressive TNT strategy to build a slate of quality original programming in primetime.

HAWTHORNE is scoring tremendous growth over programming in the same Tuesday 9 p.m. timeslot last year, with adults 25-54 up 90%, viewers up 69% and households up 63%. In addition to its success as part of TNT’s Tuesday night lineup, the show performs well among DVR users, averaging a 38% lift when comparing Live to Live + 7 delivery of adults 25-54.

Pinkett Smith plays Christina Hawthorne, a compassionate and headstrong Chief Nursing Officer heading up a group of dedicated nurses at Richmond Trinity Hospital who spend long days and nights on the hospital’s front lines. Hawthorne is the kind of nurse who fights for her patients and doesn’t let them slip through the cracks. When necessary, she takes on doctors and administrators who are overworked, distracted or just unable to see the human being behind the hospital chart.

But the long days at the hospital and Christina’s intense focus on helping others take a toll on her personal life. She is still coming to terms with losing her husband, who died a year ago after a battle with cancer, leaving her to raise their smart, rebellious teen-age daughter on her own. Constantly trying to strike a balance between her career and her equally important role as a parent, Christina finds little time to take care of the one person who always seems to fall through the cracks – herself.

Vartan plays Dr. Tom Wakefield, the oncologist who treated Christina’s husband and serves as Chief of Surgery for the hospital. The cast also includes Mathew as Bobbie Jackson, the head ER nurse and Christina’s best friend; Hirsch as Ray Stein, a nurse struggling with being accepted in a female-dominated profession; Moore as Candy Sullivan, whose stunning beauty is matched by a unique sense of duty; and Hodson as Camille, Hawthorne’s daughter. In addition, special guest star Joanna Cassidy (Six Feet Under) portrays Amanda Hawthorne, Christina’s mother-in-law, who also happens to be a member of the hospital board.

TNT, one of cable’s top-rated networks, is television’s destination for drama and home to such original series as the acclaimed and highly popular detective drama The Closer, starring Kyra Sedgwick; Saving Grace, starring Holly Hunter; Raising the Bar, with Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Gloria Reuben and Jane Kaczmarek; Leverage, starring Timothy Hutton; HawthoRNe, with Jada Pinkett Smith; and Dark Blue, starring Dylan McDermott. TNT also presents such powerful dramas as Bones, CSI: NY, Cold Case, Law & Order, Without a Trace, ER and Charmed; broadcast premiere movies; compelling primetime specials, such as the Screen Actors Guild Awards^®; and championship sports coverage, including NASCAR and the NBA. TNT is available in high-definition.

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.

Labels: TNT, TV

The 3rd season of Psych returns tonight with Shawn (James Roday) and Gus (Dule Hill) taking on their most "inhuman case" of all time. Inhuman in that the victim is a Sea Lion! But not just any Sea Lion, no it's Santa Barbara's beloved Shabby the Sea Lion. When Gus drags Shawn along to the funeral he quickly comes to fear that foul play is involved and in a flash the two are on the case, which leads them into something far more dangerous than a dead animal! The episodes even features a guest appearance from "the show killer" himself Ted McGinley, lets hope he doesn't kill this one!

I got a chance to see the episode early and I can tell you it's classic Shawn and Gus. The episode is of course an intriguing mystery but also combines the humor that we've come to love from these two goofy detectives. Plus the episode once again gives us hope that there might be more than friendship in the future for Shawn and the beautiful Juliet (Maggie Lawson).

The rest of season three will bring us some big names guest stars T including Cybill Shepherd ("Cybill," "The L Word") returning as Shawn's mom, Rachael Leigh Cook ("She's All That," "The Babysitter's Club") reprising her role as the one that got away from earlier in the season, Mykelti Williamson ("August Rush," "Lucky Number Slevin") and Jonathan Silverman ("The Single Guy," "Weekend At Bernies"). And the third season ends with a serial killer and a shocking twist!!!! I don't know about you but I can't wait to see what happens next for these two.

And if all that's not enough for you you can head on over to the Official Site. There you can play along with "Shawn’s Nickname Generator" and even check out the cast’s yearbook photos in PSYCH Yearbook Superlatives." As always, PSYCH fans can watch new "Psych-Outs," view full episodes, read writer commentary on each episode and play fun games featuring their favorite fake psychic detective.

And immediately preceding Psych at 9/8c you can catch an all new episode of Monk as it's penultimate season returns with Tony Shaloub's award winning portrayal of OCD detective Adrian Monk. Tonight's episode, which I can't wait to see tonight, introduces us to Monk's delinquent half-brother, Jack Jr. (Steve Zahn) who escapes from prison and breaks into Monk's apartment where he manipulates Monk into helping him find the person he claims framed him for murder.
Also this season Monk gets involved with a case straight out of "Encyclopedia Brown," Monk must solve a disappearance while trying to keep the parking garage where his wife was killed from being demolished, Monk matches wits with a magician (Steve Valentine) who has the ability to make evidence disappear; and when a childhood bully (Noah Emmerich) who terrorized Monk hires the detective to trail his wife, whom he suspects of infidelity, Monk relishes the opportunity to prove him right -- and things get even sweeter when the bully is accused of murder. And this all leads up to Monk's 8th and final season which is coming this summer.

And over at Monk's official site you can check out the all-new “OCD Video Trivia” game, which allows users to view screengrabs from the show and try to guess what isn’t quite right. Fans can get involved with the “Monk Lookalike Contest” by sending in their best Monk lookalikes and vote on the uncanniest resemblance. Full episodes are always available to watch online, including both classic and new episodes, along with weekly podcasts with cast, writer commentary and new quizzes.

So tune in tonight then head back here to tell me what you think of the episodes.

Labels: Monk, Psych, TV, TV Reviews

NBC's Chuck is one of my favorite shows on TV. It's mixes the funny, intrigue, and action into a wonderful amalgam of a show that I look forward to watching each week. And now we've got some new webisodes to tide us over between episodes!!

I've already seen the first one, "Employee Health" which features Casey showing how to handle shoplifters, it's brilliant! The second one "Leadership" looks funny, but I've yet to watch it.

You can watch them both by clicking the links below and then come back here to tell me what you think.

Labels: Chuck, TV

NBC's Crusoe premieres this Friday and NBC wants you to know it. They've got some big promotions going on, including a giant tree house in Manhattan, and I've got some links for you to possibly win big prizes. So keep reading and if you lie in/around Manhattan head on over to the tree house and get me some pics!

Robinson Crusoe is currently living in a tree house erected from the remains of his wrecked ship in the middle of an island -- and that island happens to be Manhattan. Lucky for him, we can all help him survive in this urban jungle by visiting SaveCrusoe.com -- we can keep up with what he's up to through a live cam and vote in polls to influence what he does throughout the day. Crusoe is still tech savvy it seems because we can all communicate with him via Facebook and Twitter.

Each day folks will have an opportunity to win a Microsoft Zune as well as enter a larger sweepstakes for a Sharp Aquos LCD Flat Screen Television, 120 gig Zune and a Microsoft XBOX 360 Elite.

Remember Crusoe makes his 2-hour debut on NBC this Friday 10/17 @ 8/7c -- check out the latest preview and interview videos and tour the tree fort below:

"The Tale of the Legend": http://www.nbc.com/Crusoe/video/clips/the-tale-of-a-legend/751522/

Behind the Scenes Interview: http://www.nbc.com/Crusoe/video/clips/crusoe-behind-the-scenes/748544/

Tree Fort tour: http://www.nbc.com/Crusoe/video/clips/crusoe-tree-fort-tour/748542/

Save Crusoe Contest and Live Webcam: http://www.nbc.com/Crusoe/savecrusoe/

Labels: TV

Hey gang don't miss out on the season finale of the fantastic USA show Burn Notice. Tonight at 10/9c on USA all of Michael's work this season seems to have finally panned out, but when a client is forced into a kidnapping scheme Michael has to pose as a security consultant - a guy who will stop at nothing to foil the gang's plan. Will this interfere with his plan to finally find out who burned him? I don't know but I'll be tuning in tonight to find out, just like you should.

Below you'll find a clip from tonight's episode and for more on the show head over to the official fan page on Facebook or visit the official site.

Labels: Burn Notice, TV

Dear Readers,
I need to apologize to you. I've done you, and my pal Javier Grillo-Marxuach, a great disservice. You see this summer through a series of events (studying for the bar, and mainly my Tivo and ABC Family hating each other) I missed out on a few episodes of a wonderful show, which I am only now getting caught up on. Because I'm only just now getting caught up on the show I've not been able to tell you all about it. What makes this a bigger shame is that it's simply The Best New Show of the Summer!

The show I'm talking about is ABC Family's The Middleman. The Middleman, based on three excellent comic mini-series by Javier and artist Les McClaine, follows the misadventures of Wendy Watson (Natalie Morales), an artist and temp worker, who gets hired to be the sidekick of The Middleman (Matt Keesler), a nice, well mannered, hero with no name who works for a mysterious organization to "Fight Evil, So You Don't Have To." Wendy is a slacker artist who longs to find out what happened to her dad, who disappeared when she was 14. She lives in an illegal sublet with her best friend, and fellow artist, Lacey (who also happens to protest anything she possibly can).

The Middleman himself is a 50s throwback, a nice genial man, who despises foul language (instead he uses phrases like 'Sweet Molly Brown!'), won't use violence unless he has too, and treats women with respect, imagine if Leave It To Beaver had a spy, then you've got The Middleman. Add in the Middleman's helper Ida, a robot who could watch shapeshift but is now stuck in the form of a middle age crotchety woman played with hutspa by Mary Pat Gleason, and you've got one crazy, and fun organization that anyone would want to work for. (Ida is clearly an homage to The Doctor's Tardis, stuck in the form of a 1950s police box, from Doctor Who)

Each week The Middleman and Wendy must face off against the most crazy villains you've ever seen, from Dracula the Ventriloquist dummy to a haunted tuba from the titanic to an evil boy band (aren't they all) made up of intergalactic dictators. But underlying this battle against evil are several other story arcs, one main one being the aforementioned disappearance of Wendy's father.

Another great part about this show is Wendy's relationship with her friends. These friends include Lacey, Noser (the wonderfully strange guy who hangs out in the hall and speaks in song lyrics), and Tyler, an amazing guy who was himself up for Wendy's job as Middleman in Training. While the strange adventures Wendy goes on with the Middleman are a blast, her daily life with her friends is almost just as fun. We see the gang through an Art Crawl (ART CRAWL!) through their apartment, which includes paintings, sculptures, performance art, and of course Noser's version of Stump the Band, which doesn't actually include Noser playing the song, but simple saying if he knows it or not.

But possible the best part of the show is how cram packed it is with pop culture references, the only show I can think of that could possible keep up is Gilmore Girls. And I know you're thinking "what kind of pop culture references?" Well the 2nd episode was jam packed with references to Back to the Future, from a bomb being at "the twin pines mall" to using the fake names "Bufford Tannen" and "Clara Clayton." Other episodes have been packed with references more fitting for the episode, such as a recent episodes about Ghost which included a slew of Ghostbusters references. In fact to keep up with all the references Javier has gladly posted a reference to all the gags from several episodes over at The Middleblog.

So again I'm sorry for not letting you know of this wonderful show sooner, but don't fret, you can still see the show. For starters you can watch the Season Finale tonight at 10/9c on ABC Family, and don't worry most episodes are stand alone so you can probably get by with what you've read here. You can also catch some episodes over at the Official Site. And if that's not enough you can download the entire season on iTunes. (You should at least check out episode 10, "the vampiric puppet lamentation," which is by far the best episode of the series thus far)

It's well worth your time to at least check out the episode tomorrow night, plus it could use all the ratings as it can get, while it's loved by the critics it's ratings aren't the greatest. Also if you really want to experience The Middleman you can swing over to Amazon or any other number of online stores and pick up The Collected Series Indispensability which contains all three volumes of the comic.

Also to Javi I'm very sorry it's taken this long to write about your amazing show, hopefully my 3 readers can help make the difference in ratings!

Labels: Javi, Javier Grillo-Marxuach, The Middleman, TV

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I said there was a potential "game changer" coming to Lifetime. Well today in the New York Times (where I hinted the story would first break) it was announced that Project Runway was heading over to Lifetime after 5 seasons at NBC Universal's Bravo.

And NBC Universal is none to happy about it. In fact they've filed a lawsuit against The Weinstein Co. claiming that the move violates their contract for the series, saying "NBC Universal has continuing rights related to Project Runway, including a right of first refusal to future cycles of the series, which the Weinstein Company unfortunately has refused to honor."

TWC on the other hand says "We believe that this lawsuit is without merit," and it "is always unfortunate when parties try to win in court what they have lost in the marketplace."

Either way this is a huge deal for Lifetime as it gives them a guaranteed hit for the next five years. I'll try to score an interview with someone from Lifetime this week if possible.

Labels: Lifetime, TV

Did Britney Spears ruin last night's episode of How I Met Your Mother? That's the question I find myself asking today. The episode was well written, Sarah Chalke was brilliant, and Ted's 2-minute date was amazing, but Spears performance was far under par.

But the casting stunt (initiated by Spears and not the Runners of the show) did one thing positive, it brought the series it's highest rating of it's 2.5 years in the coveted 18-49 age group. The show had a total of 10.6 Million viewers and came in 2nd in it's time slot behind Dancing with the Stars.

The episode had some great moments, but Spears acting really seemed to fall flat. Her delivery was stilted and she just seemed strange. Maybe that's how the character was supposed to be, and I will admit she kind of grew on my as the show went on, but overall I'd have to give her a C. I came in hoping Spears would do a great job, but her first line seemed so off-base that it threw me and I spent the rest of the episode hoping she'd get better everytime she was on screen.

The episode revolved around Ted trying to get the doctor removing his Butterfly tattoo (from the Season Premiere) to go out with him. Ted had 10 Sessions - one each week for 10 weeks - to win her over, even though she told him from Week 1 she'd say no when he asked her out. Sarah Chalke played, Stella, the doctor (who may or may not be the titular Mother) who gets a 2-minute lunch each day, and did a great job, here's hoping HIMYM can bring her back after Scrubs wraps up. Spears played Stella's assistant who develops a crush on Ted, before ending up with Barney in the end.

The Good: The story taking place over 10 weeks made for some amazing moments. Ted asked "Who knows what they want for lunch 10 weeks from now?" Marshall's response "Sloppy Joe, Shrimp Cocktail, and a milkshake." Cut to 10 weeks later and we see Marshall eating a Sloppy Joe, Shrimp Cocktail, and a milkshake. Also Lily commits to not chewing her fingernails for 10 weeks and as the weeks progress we see her nails getting longer and longer.

The Re-Return: Marshall Manesh's return as Cab Driver Ranjit!!!

The Great: Once it's revealed that Stella won't date him because she's a single-mother, and her free time is her girl's night once a month, Ted meets her outside her office for a lunch date. Ted proceeds to catch a cab next door, where he has a lunch set up, then goes one door over for a movie (the important parts of Manos: The Hands of Fate - about 10 sec), and back for dessert, flowers, and back to her door - all in 2 minutes. (And all in one take) But my description doesn't do it justice so just watch it:



The scene was sweet, touching, and an amazing date. Too bad Stella won't be around again (at least not for some time) But she did have just enough time to mention being at a terrible St. Patrick's Day Party, which may or may not be the party that both Ted and his future wife were attending.

All in all a good episode, but had it not been for Spears it would have been a Great episode. But hopefully the stunt worked and the extra people who turned in will see how great the show is and tune in again next week.

Labels: Britney Spears, How I Met Your Mother, TV

First off, once again we are safe and back at home. The fires got pretty close to our apartments, but didn't reach them. Some of campus got pretty burned, but no buildings were destroyed, save for a small structure which housed pool equipment. you can see some photos of campus here.

Jeri's work did burn down completely (as seen above) but they have already found a location to have the pre-school temporarily. So they should be back up and running in about 2 weeks. And thanks to amazing Insurance they may be able to get portables on the old site and return there in the close future.

In other good news, the Amazing Pushing Daises has been picked up for a full season! This is the best new show of the season, and continues to be both strangely beautiful and amazingly quirky. thank goodness people are watching!

Also in Great News the horrendous Viva Laughlin was canceled. I watched the pilot and this show had some of the worst acting, writing, singing, pretty much everything I'd seen in a long time. It was worse than words can describe. I was a bit sad, because I love Hugh Jackman, but man it needed to go.
The worst part may be that the title of "Musical" placed on the show was completely false. There were only 4 songs in the hour long pilot, and it was just characters singing over established songs, such as Elvis's Viva Las Vegas, the lead sang with Elvis in the background. And in Hugh Jackman's one song, I could barely hear him over the voice of the original singer.
To sum up, the show was horrible, the singing was bizarre and not well done, the acting was crap, and the writing wasn't even off-off-off-broadway one-man show quality.
Here's how fast this show went:
Thursday: Pilot Airs
Sunday: 2nd Episode Airs in it's regular time slot
Monday: The show was yanked and will be replaced with reruns of CSI until The Amazing Race Returns.
Hows that for being tossed to the curb, gone in less than 5 days. Amazing.

That's all for now, keep praying they will get the fires completely under control, and that no one else will be hurt or killed.

Labels: fires, safe, TV