Posted Nov 24th 2009 2:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten
It seems like ESPN has been around forever, doesn't it? Can you even remember a time when there hasn't been an ESPN to turn to for a score or breaking news or updates? I can't. But along with the news ESPN provides, the ESPN brand has expanded to include a bunch of networks, a magazine, restaurants and lots of tchotchkes. But let's just look at the TV shows, shall we? One note:
SportsCenter is not included because it's more of a daily news show as opposed to the programs that are more talk and game-oriented. Here's the top ten ESPN created shows, from the worst to the first.
10. Sports Nation
This is a relatively new daily show on ESPN with radio talker Colin Cowherd and Michelle Beadle co-hosting. It's supposedly an interactive program with surveys that include the fans, but all the bells and whistles can't change the fact that Cowherd is an obnoxious know-it-all that dominates the conversation – when they have one. It's new and shiny, but it's a mess.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Top Ten ESPN shows from worst to first
Posted Nov 10th 2009 11:05AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Animation, Commercials, Children, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten
Marge Simpson's spread in Playboy was a groundbreaking moment for cartoon women everywhere. Her sensual skin pics paved new ground for the "feminine-animated."
She told the world that the women of animation aren't just vehicles for humor or straight characters to set up punchlines for the males on the paper. She helped us realize they have thoughts, feelings, emotions and yes, even urges that make them unique, infinitely interesting and utterly fascinating. They are, as Dr. Frasier Crane so eloquently put it, "like a fine wine: always intoxicated, ever surprising and only getting better with age."
And so, for the cause of gender equality and female empowerment, here are the ten cartoon chicks who should pose naked because it would be righteously awesome.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Cartoon women who should have Playboy centerfolds
Posted Oct 28th 2009 10:56AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, House, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, 30 Rock, Dexter, Reality-Free, Mad Men, The Mentalist, TV Squad Ten, Glee
Rules are meant to be broken... especially for these ten television characters. For them, the rest of the world has one standard to live by and they have another. It makes them interesting and fun to watch... you just wouldn't necessarily want to be the person having to deal with them because they could drive you to distraction. Here's my ten pack of characters who live in a world of their own, according to no rules except their own. From the not-too-bad to the really bad.
10. Patrick Jane, The Mentalist
You would think that as a consultant to the CBI -- California Bureau of Investigation -- Patrick Jane would be compelled to uphold the rules and regulations of the department. However, Jane is a free spirit when it comes to office protocol. He does his own thing. For instance, bugging the office of a CBI higher-up is definitely not kosher. Jane doesn't care; he did it anyway and will probably get away with it.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: TV's biggest rule breakers
Posted Oct 5th 2009 2:10PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Video, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten
There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
Friday marked the 50th Anniversary of
The Twilight Zone's debut on CBS. The
first episode was titled "Where Is Everybody?" and featured Earl Holliman as a military man trapped in a town where it seems everyone has vanished. You find out at the end that it was all an experiment to see how astronauts would handle being alone on long missions. Holliman was really safe.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: best Twilight Zone episodes
Posted Sep 29th 2009 11:11AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, TV Royalty, Programming, OpEd, Entourage, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten, True Blood
HBO has slowly become my favorite network over the past few years. I don't know if it's because the mainstream networks have turned to lots of reality programming or what, but HBO just seems to get better and better. Just about every show on the premium channel is feature film quality (if not better), and I've got some favorites listed below.
I know I'm missing a few biggies, like
Rome,
Deadwood,
Flight of the Conchords, and
Extras, but it's only because I either haven't watched these shows or have only watched a few episodes -- not enough to make an informed opinion. I'm sure they'll make my
Jane After Dark column at some point in the future. So I hope you'll tell me your favorites in the comments below.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: My favorite HBO shows
Posted Sep 18th 2009 11:08AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten
When
Guiding Light airs its final episode today, it won't just be the end of a remarkable television success story -- one that has endured on radio and TV for 72 years -- it will also lower the curtain on some of the most memorable characters ever. In the past 25 years that I've been watching
Guiding Light, I've had the pleasure of watching the likes of Michael Zaslow, Justin Deas,
Michelle Forbes and
Kim Zimmer portray some of those characters.
So, in honor of what
Guiding Light has achieved, the fabulous writers who have created these stories and characters, and in salute of all the wonderful actors who've brought them to life, here's
Guiding Light's 10 greatest characters from the past 25 years.
10. Josh Lewis (played by Robert Newman)
With the creation of Joshua, the Lewis family became a foundation in Springfield, as integral as the Bauers and the Spauldings, and Josh was the key. He started as a young, upstart oilman with a romantic streak and over time has morphed from a business tycoon to a minister. And through all the years, he's had one great love, Reva Shayne.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Guiding Light's greatest characters of the last 25 years
Posted Aug 31st 2009 11:05AM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten, Dollhouse
Before pondering the meaning of identity on
Dollhouse, Joss Whedon gave us some great shows featuring iconic heroes and some really nasty but unforgettable villains.
Unlike
Dollhouse, most of Whedon's earlier shows featured a "big bad," a major villain who caused trouble throughout an entire season, or series, for the heroes and their friends. Luckily, Whedon's heroes always managed to outwit these evildoers, but they couldn't stop them from stealing scenes and making the Whedonverse a very, very dangerous place to live.
Let's take a look back at some of Whedon's best "big bads" that made life a living hell for Buffy, Angel and Captain Mal.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Joss Whedon's big bads
Posted Aug 27th 2009 1:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: CSI, Nip/Tuck, Dexter, TV Squad Ten
A good show can keep you so entertained that you're willing to fight sleep to watch the rest of it. A great show physically keeps you awake.
It gets into your bloodstream and forces more adrenaline into your heart.
It turns the synapses in your brain into ferrets on espresso that dash back and forth between the lobes and fires your mind on all of its cylinders.
It is visual cocaine, which is much healthier than actual cocaine and doesn't require a frequent visitor punch card for an eyes, ears, nose and throat doctor.
These are the shows that assault all five of the senses or less depending on how good of a health plan you've got.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Most visceral shows
Posted Aug 11th 2009 2:30PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, OpEd, Talk Show, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free, Mad Men, TV Squad Ten
As usual, I've come back from the TCA press tour with a voice recorder full of great interviews and a brain made of mush. Because of the mush-brain part, I'm sure I'll go back and listen to some of the interviews and find that the ones I thought were full of golden nuggets of wit turn out to be full of nothing but platitudes.
That's okay, though; the tour was a lot of fun and I got to talk to a lot of interesting people. I mean, where else can you talk to Maria from
Sesame Street, Alan Alda, Norman Lear, and Patti Smith.... all in the same day? It's amazing who you feel empowered to talk to when you have a press credential around your neck and a voice recorder in your hand.
But I also learned a bunch of other things during the tour, mostly about the upcoming season, but also a few other things as well:
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Things I learned at the TCAs
Posted Jul 30th 2009 8:30PM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: OpEd, America's Got Talent, TV Squad Ten
This past week, we were treated to two rather cruel and evil "Vegas Verdicts" episodes of
America's Got Talent. During those two episodes, judges reviewed the auditions and chose who would be part of the Top 40. Many fans, me included, are angry at some of the choices the judges made. They let people with no talent be part of the Top 40 while some with amazing acts were sent packing.
It was impossible, after watching the two episodes, to come up with the exact list of the Top 40.
TV Squad reader
Aml commented on my review of last night's episode that the numbers didn't add up and it looked like the judges picked a Top 37 rather than 40, meaning that the Simon Cowell curve ball we are waiting for next week may be that more acts need to be added.
Well, NBC just released the Top 40 list.
Continue reading America's Got Talent Top 40 list
Posted Jul 20th 2009 11:01AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten
The list of Emmy nominations have become the Hummer limo of the awards show world. They get longer and even more uncool, even though they are attempting to show just how cool they are with each passing year.
The whole system is in serious need of revamping. For the most part, the category structure hasn't changed in the last 50 years when then Academy President Rod Serling chose to eliminate favoritism
by widening the playing field and the judging, a move so disastrous that no one has dared to even touch the system since then.
So if you're not going to revamp the process, at least add some categories that we wouldn't mind giving up four hours of sleep, exercise and our lives to wait for the winner.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Emmy categories we desperately need
Posted Jul 16th 2009 2:04PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten
As I mentioned before,
I recently completed my summer project of watching the entire series of
The West Wing from start to finish. After using a month or so to cogitate, I decided that while the show feign realism, it didn't quite achieve the mark.
Many of the events I refer to occurred after creator Aaron Sorkin was ousted from the series. I take that as more than coincidence.
Major spoilers for the show follow after the jump, so if you haven't seen it yet, turn back now.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Events from The West Wing that wouldn't really happen
Posted Jun 16th 2009 11:35AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten
There is nothing inherently wrong with turning a TV series into a video game spinoff. It can fill in the gaps between seasons to quell the viewers' hunger, let audiences explore characters from new perspectives and even give the more hardcore couch potatoes some much needed exercise even if they only burned 1/100ths of a calorie solely through their thumbs.
The problem is video game developers pick TV shows that should never even become a travel sized board game. Developers have given the greenlight to games based on shows like
American Idol,
Desperate Housewives and even ...
Grey's Anatomy?!? I hope that last one was a first-person shooter.
There are far better shows that offer far more entertaining elements for a kick-ass video game. These are the shows that should be next in line for a pixelated re-treatment.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Shows that deserve to have their own video game
Posted Jun 16th 2009 11:35AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten
Posted May 13th 2009 2:27PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, 24, Lost, Doctor Who, Heroes, TV Squad Lists, Reaper, Reality-Free, Fringe, TV Squad Ten
Everybody loves a good mystery. Well maybe not everybody if the ratings for
Harper's Island are any indication. But mysteries and suspense have been a part of television since it's inception. It's one thing for the plot to be full of mysteries. Things like "Who shot J.R.?" can become a part of popular culture. But J.R. himself wasn't a mystery, we knew him pretty well.
But there are those characters we don't know much about. Think about Benjamin Linus from
Lost when he first appeared as Henry Gale among the Flight 815 survivors. There were so many secrets and mysteries surrounding him that we couldn't take our eyes off of him when he was on-screen. Well Ben's story may be more or less told, though something tells me there's still more to be gleaned, but there are plenty of familiar faces on television with not so familiar back-stories. And while Ben didn't make the list, that doesn't mean
Lost went unrepresented.
If you just want the list, click here.Continue reading TV Squad Ten: Most mysterious characters on television
Next Page »
TV Squad Ten: Top Ten ESPN shows from worst to first
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
Have any questions for Vik Sahay of Chuck? Ask them here!
