Jay Leno Gets a New Show

I read tonight that NBC is set to announce they’re holding onto Jay Leno in a most unexpected way. Now, as many of you may know, NBC worked out a deal with both Leno and Conan O’Brien a couple of years ago in which Conan would inherit The Tonight Show in fall 2009. Since then, it’s been announced that Jimmy Fallon would take over Conan’s slot. And Jay would….well, no one really knew what Jay would do. Unlike, say, Johnny Carson (and there’s a little debate about how much Johnny really wanted to leave too), Leno didn’t really want to go. Whereas Carson had The Tonight Show for 30 years, Leno had had hit for about 15. And all indications were he still loved doing it. But NBC was desperate to hang on to the younger-skewing Conan, whose contract was due to expire. So they worked out this deal, and, for a while anyway, Conan was happy, NBC was happy, and Leno ….. if not exactly happy, he at least had a lot of money.

30 Rock is Rolling

It being a Thursday, I got all comfy on the couch for the dynamite hour of TV that is The Office followed by 30 Rock. And when all was said and done, I asked myself a very important question: Am I starting to like 30 Rock just a little bit more than The Office? And the answer is……I just might be. Both shows had great episodes tonight, but, while I laughed hard at The Office, I laughed even harder at 30 Rock.

Welcome to a new TV blog

Hello all. I’ve long had an interest in television, and in fact wrote a weekly column about it, “On TV with Mike Thompson,” my junior and senior years at Marist College. I’ve continued blogging about it off and on since I graduated five years ago, and intend to blog about it more regularly, so I’ve decided to just put all my TV-related thoughts here. For now, most of the entries are from my Marist column, but that should change in the future. Also, all the entries are back-dated, to reflect the time they first appeared, be it on my personal blog or in The Circle (the Marist College newspaper). It should be noted most of the dates for the “On TV” columns are approximate. I don’t have every issue of The Circle from that time. 

And there’s no revisionist history here either. The blog entries and Circle columns are as they first appeared. For example, in an early 2000 column about Freaks and Geeks I misidentified the characters as Lindsay and Sam Beir. In fact, it is Weir. And any bad writing of mine from my college days is left alone, as well as any baffling opinions I might have had back then. (It’s hard to believe I ever thought The King of Queens was a good show.) Anyway, enjoy my previous TV thoughts, and rest assured new ones are around the corner.

“The Office” Makes a Mistake?

I read today the producers of The Office have decided to make Ed Helms a regular on the show. Ed Helms plays Andy, one of two transfers from Stamford to the Scranton branch of Dunder-Mifflin. This just strikes me as a really bad idea, perhaps the worst that has been made in The Office’s (admittedly rather brief) existence. Andy is easily the weakest character on the show. He’s the only one you can’t really believe. He’s a cartoon character who’s not funny, just grating. In small doses, when he doesn’t detract too much from the action at hand, I can tolerate him. But now that he’s a regular, Andy might see more action, and that’d be a mistake. I have nothing against Ed Helms the person, but I just really hope the producers of the show change their minds.

Must-See TV Done Right

On the last Thursday of November, NBC launched what it called “Comedy Night Done Right.” It rhymes and all, but I’d have preferred it if they called it “Must-See TV” again. Chances are if you lived through the ’90s, you’re familiar with “Must-See TV.” It was that two-hour block each Thursday that notably featured Friends at 8, Seinfeld at 9, and basically crap in between (remember Caroline in the City? Suddenly Susan? Veronica’s Closet? Boston Common? The Single Guy? The list goes on and on). It wasn’t that there weren’t any other good sitcoms on NBC at that time. It’s just that after the Thursday lineup proved so popular, NBC decided to try to have “Must-See TV” basically every night of the week. The result was shows that would’ve fit in well on Thursday nights, like NewsRadio, were kept away, and instead those cushy 8:30 and 9:30 slots were given to lousy shows that ultimately would fail once NBC removed them from those timeslots (and replaced them with still more dreck).

 

“The Book of Daniel” Mourned; Also, the new CW

I discovered this afternoon NBC canceled The Book of Daniel. I’m disappointed, but not in the least surprised. The show, saddled with a lousy Friday nights at 10 p.m. timeslot, had been getting lousy ratings ever since it debuted. The conservative American Family Association had been blasting the show since before it debuted (despite not actually having seen an episode of the show, mind you), calling on people to boycott it, and stations not to air it. The desired effect was acheived. Seven NBC affiliates across the country opted not to air the show, which I thought was just ludicrous censorship. Let people have a chance to decide for themselves if they want to see a show. Advertisers, scared of people boycotting their products, pulled out of the show, and, apparently, nobody signed up to fill their spots. Four episodes of the show aired (the first two actually aired back-to-back in the form of a 2-hour movie), and the last two I watched on tape, as I had been busy when the shows initially were on. So I had time to note the “advertising” that was shown during commercial breaks. There was usually one advertisement for a nationally-sponsored product, and the rest were either commercials for Universal movies (Universal is a member of the NBC family) or extended commercials for other NBC shows. There were a handful of local spots, such as Bob’s ads, as there are in any hour of prime-time network TV programming. But the national advertisers are how NBC makes money, and these guys were staying away. Good job, AFA. Maybe if they had actually watched the show they’d have seen there really wasn’t much offensive there.

“Arrested Development” Winds Down?

Friday brought some sort-of good news for Arrested Development fans. The Jan. 2 episode (which was quite possibly one of the best of the entire series) looked like it might very well wind up being the last episode of AD Fox ever aired. The episode was a brilliant piece of writing that not only sent up every ratings-grabbing stunt out there (including going “live,” broadcasting in 3-D, killing off a character, and trucking out a cavalcade of guest stars) but also satirized some of the criticisms that have been levied against AD since its 2003 premiere (Michael talks about how the family’s not that likable, how their problems perhaps aren’t always relatable). It, of course, got piss-poor ratings, which has become the standard for AD. And Fox apparently decided that was enough. There were four episodes left to air (including one featuring the return to TV of Jason Bateman’s real-life sis, Justine “Mallory Keaton” Bateman), and Fox immediately yanked them from the schedule. A repeat of House aired last Monday in AD’s place, and 24 will be airing tomorrow night. But this past Friday saw news that Fox will indeed air those final four episodes of AD. Get this, though: They will be shown all in one two-hour block, from 8 to 10 p.m., on Friday, Feb. 10. Not only is the Friday night slot a dreadful one for Fox, on that particular night NBC also happens to be showing the opening ceremonies to the Winter Olympics, which are usually a big ratings winner. So it looks like the die-hard fans will watch (or at least tape) AD that night, but Fox probably isn’t expecting record-setting numbers. This certainly smells like burning off the episodes, and while it isn’t as bad as burning off unseen episodes in the middle of summer (as NBC did with Freaks and Geeks in 2000), it looks like a definite sign that Fox is ready to close the door on Arrested Development.

“That’s My Bush!” May Get Old Fast

 Bad sitcoms have been a way of television life since, well, ever. For every really good sitcom over the years, there’s probably at least 15 or 20 that never even should have made it on the air. Many of these shows follow the same clichés, either because the creators are unoriginal or because television executives often fear anything new (and sometimes, it’s both). As a result, it’s become pretty firmly established over the years what elements go into making a bad sitcom. It was only a matter of time before somebody took those elements and did a parody of a conventional sitcom. That’s My Bush!, the new show from South Park’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone, does just that. So far the results have been pretty amusing. I have to wonder, though, how long it will stay this way before the whole thing just gets old and annoying.

“The Job” is TV at its Best

A new show debuted recently that is a nice change of pace from the standard sitcom we’ve all grown used to seeing. The fact that The Job is unusual isn’t all that surprising, given that the show is from the mind of Denis Leary (who also stars as the main character). However, what is surprising is how good the show is. Too often, new sitcoms that have tried to break free of the standard sitcom mold wind up collapsing under the weight of their overstated edginess. The results can sometimes be painful to see. I’m happy to report that watching The Job is anything but painful. It’s a great show.

A Column about Classic TV

As my senior year is winding down, I take pause to remember some of the many changes I’ve seen during my four years at Marist. I remember the old, creaky library that sat in the spot where the new one currently presides. I remember the old Fontaine building, Adrian Hall, and the old mailroom. I even remember when there wasn’t a McDonald’s across the street. Yes, I have seen a lot of changes here, but one of the ones that sticks out in my mind the most is the old cable system.