"I'm a god. I'm not THE God... I don't think."

Given that it's a slow week, and that I'll either be on vacation or traveling on business for the next several weeks, and that it's been a while since I did this, it's another open thread time. For the next eight hours or so (let's set the deadline as 5:30 Eastern), talk about and/or ask what you want, and I'll do my best to respond to what I can.

Hey, it's a slightly more productive procrastination tool than Flickchart (where "Groundhog Day" presently resides at my #1, leading a top 10 of "Lawrence of Arabia," "Three Kings," "Midnight Run," "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Big Lebowski," "The Princess Bride," "Die Hard," "Hoosiers" and "Children of Men").

First potential topic for discussion: can anyone identify the theme of the new blog logo?

UPDATE: 100+ questions later, we're wrapping it up for this time. Thanks, guys! Click here to read the full post

"The name's Jughead! Jug. Head!"

It's been a few weeks since we've had an open thread, and the last one was cut short by my mild sniffle exploding into something resembling the Mutaba virus from that episode of "Clerks: The Animated" series where we learned that "Nothing can kill the Grimace."

Usual ground rules apply: ask/comment on anything, so long as you follow the commenting rules -- in particular, be really vague about spoilers for anything, including shows I don't usually write about -- and I'll try to answer as many as I can for the next 12 hours or so. You may want to skim the previous open threads (click on the tag below) to make sure I haven't already been asked something; I'm not going to answer repeaters.

Also, for those wondering, the photo and subject line are from "Police Academy 2," and came up when, during a discussion of the "Lost" episode "Jughead," I asked if anyone could help me remember what '80s movie or TV show featured an undercover cop posing as a tough guy named Jughead. Several commenters helped scratch that particular itch, and it's in response to moments like that that I try to do this Q&A posts every now and then.

UPDATE: Wrapping it up for this week. We'll try this again soon. Click here to read the full post

"Ladies are unwell, Stone. Gentlemen vomit."(*)

(*) Photo and subject line are both from "My Favorite Year," which came up briefly during a discussion of geek references at yesterday's "Chuck" panel at Comic-Con.

It occurs to me that, with President Obama pre-empting "Chuck," "House" and "How I Met Your Mother"(**), and with my recent break-ups with "24" and "Heroes," the only Monday show I watch that's going to be new tonight is "Big Bang Theory," and I don't even blog on that one very often.

(**) If the press conference is short and CBS News doesn't want the extra time, CBS might run a "HIMYM" repeat, which is why you may see it in your favorite local programming guide, but it won't be new.

With all that in mind, and with the lack of a column in today's paper to pimp, it's open thread time again. For the next 24 hours (UPDATE: 12, actually, as I've been felled by a nasty flu bug and had to cut this short), ask away, or comment on stuff that hasn't been discussed elsewhere in the last couple of weeks, and I'll respond as often as I can. If your question doesn't get answered, it's either because it was asked in one of the last few open threads (you may want to click on the "open thread" label at the bottom of this post to skim them), or because I passed out from whatever Click here to read the full post

Jack, you're a grown man. You have control over your own words.

So, the open thread idea worked pretty well the last time I tried it, and then press tour got in the way of doing another one. So for the next 24 hours or so, fire away with questions or comments on stuff that doesn't seem germane to other posts, and I'll do my best to respond as often as I can. Since it's more of a free-for-all, please try to be respectful of others when it comes to spoilers for whatever you're discussing.

UPDATE:100+ comments later, we're going to wrap this one up and try again in a week or two. Click here to read the full post

While you were out...

Since a lot of you were gone for some or all of the stretch from Christmas Eve until now, I thought I'd do a quick run-down of all the posts from the last week and a half:

• I announced my list of the best shows and best episodes of 2008;
• I expressed surprise that USA was letting the unsold pilot for "To Love & Die" see the light of day (I only got to watch 20 minutes of it, but the consensus seemed to be that it deserved to fail);
• I linked to pure evil;
• I then became pure evil in vaguely discussing the first two episodes of "Lost" season five;
• I memorialized some of the notable TV people who died in 2008 (and the commenters chimed in with some names I didn't have room for);
• I plugged Travel Channel's gluttonous and good "Man v. Food";
• I warned people about the potential Viacom/Time-Warner apocalypse (as with many of these things, it didn't come to pass);
• I expressed my optimism about the state of television in 2009 versus what happened in 2008 (the commenters were split in their own take on the future);
• I discussed the latest episode of "Leverage";
• I resumed my pure evilness in briefly discussing the "Battlestar Galactica" premiere, and only then remembered that I should publish the transcript of the interview I did with Ron Moore back in July;
• I expressed my ignorance about Steven Moffat's choice of 26-year-old Matt Smith as the new lead on "Doctor Who."
• I reviewed the new ABC incarnation of "Scrubs."
  

Only two days until the January press tour. Lots to do.

UPDATE: There have been a few requests in the comments for me to start a weekly open thread for people to ask questions or discuss things that don't have a place in more specific posts. We're going to give it a try here today and see how it goes. Click here to read the full post