The Office: Hard-working. Alpha male. Jackhammer... Merciless. Insatiable.

Spoilers for "The Office" just as soon as I tell my drill instructor, "I GOT NOWHERE ELSE TO GO!!!! I GOT NOWHERE ELSE TO GO!!!!"

First of all, awesome music choice with the Muzak version of "Up Where We Belong" in the background of Michael's reconciliation with Dwight. I already had the "Officer and a Gentleman" theme running through my head as soon as I saw Michael walking into the Staples, then I wondered if they were going to play the real thing (and somehow violate the documentary conceit), then heard what sounded like random Muzak, then realized that it was "Up Where We Belong." Just perfect. To quote Marv Somebody, YES!!!!

This one wasn't as laugh-out-loud funny as "Traveling Salesmen," but that's because they were going for more of a poignant tone. Everybody's out of sorts in this one. Dwight's working elsewhere, Andy is trying to become Dwight (but is oddly turning into Michael), Michael seems normal in comparison to Andy (his only real bad moment was at the Party Planning Committee meeting), Karen's refusal to play accomplice briefly turns Jim into Tim from British "Office," Angela is (temporarily) human, and the reunion of the Jim/Pam Prank Squad clues Karen into what a terrible mistake she just made.

(Minor) credit to Jim for manning up and admitting the truth, even if he had to wait to be asked by Karen. So what do you do if you're her? You're young and smart, but the economy sucks, and you've already moved once in the last few months. Do you stay with Jim and spend the rest of the relationship waiting for the other shoe to drop? Do you break up with him but stay at that job and feel humiliated every day? Do you join Fat Guy Who Isn't Kevin, Non-Stereotypical Black Ex-Con and Nursing Mother on the bread line?

Some random thoughts, good bits and lines:

• Was that Kevin Reilly as Dwight's first job interviewer?
  
• Oh, one other Michael-as-Michael moment: he explains Ebonics. (On the flip side, the revelation that he was hiding behind the door during what seemed to be B-roll of Andy looking for him was beautiful.)
  
• Jim to Ryan: "I liked you better as a temp." Ryan to Jim: "Me too."
  
• Phyllis thinks she has a big personality?

What did everybody else think?
Click here to read the full post

Scrubs: You're the only man who's ever been inside me

Spoilers for the "Scrubs" musical episode coming up just as soon as I think of a good rhyme for hypothalamus... As I mentioned in my column the other day, I wish I had seen "Guy Love" and "Everything Comes Down to Poo" for the first time in the context of the show. "Guy Love" in particular was my favorite number of the night, but having watched it a few times in advance, it had lost a lot of its kick by the time I got to it here. Still fun, but not rolling on the floor, crying my eyes out fun. And that's the way I felt about the whole episode, I think. I'm glad they did it, I enjoyed a lot of the numbers -- particularly Carla and Turk's tango, the Les Miz-ish pre-intermission song (complete with curtain pull), and the "Avenue Q" songwriters getting around John C. McGinley's minimal singing ability by giving him a "Modern Major General"-type speak-sing number -- but I wasn't over the moon about it the way I was with, say, "Once More with Feeling" on "Buffy." I think I'd probably even put the "Chicago Hope" musical episode over this one. Again, I don't want to sound too down over this. I've been very pleased with the last couple of episodes, but I was ecstatic when I first heard that they were doing a musical and that a bunch of "Avenue Q" people would be involved(*), and I built it up in my head beyond a point they could live up to. ((*) Keep in mind that "The Internet Is For Porn" was my ringtone for a really long time until I started to worry that my daughter could understand it; now it's Fountains of Wayne's "Maureen.") What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Losing Isaiah

Back in Jersey, and it looks from a skim of TV Tattle that a whole lotta stuff went down while I was in the air. Not surprised but pleased to see "Earl," "The Office" and "Heroes" get full-season pick-ups for next year, and only mildly surprised that "Idol" was even bigger than ever in the numbers. (People love the freakshow.) And it looks like my Trump/Rosie proposal was as futile as I expected it to be.

The one bit of news I want to talk about began before I left California: the latest round in the Isaiah Washington-T.R. Knight kerfuffle. Shonda and ABC have done their best to manage the problem to date, but it sounds like things have escalated beyond their control. So, two questions:

1)Given how public and ugly this has become, is there any way that both Washington and Knight will be on the show next year?

2)If not, is there any way that Washington won't be the one to go?

In terms of 1, I think we're past the point of no return. There have been TV shows where the leads couldn't stand each other ("Moonlighting," to name a classic), but the viciousness has rarely become this public. Something has to be done, and I think it's the bouncing of Washington. He wasn't even the first choice to play Burke (Paul Adelstein, aka Kellerman from "Prison Break," had the part but couldn't get out of a movie commitment), one of the character's more interesting facets (his friendship with George) is being wiped out by real-world factors, and they already have Brooke Smith on hand as a replacement heart surgeon (if not as a new love interest for Sandra Oh). George, meanwhile, is one of the show's most popular characters, and T.R. Knight is the victim in all this.

Am I wrong? Does Isaiah remain employed next season? Click here to read the full post

Press tour: another POV

Since I'm cutting out early and will be in the air for much of tomorrow, here's Ken Levine on what press tour is like from a producer's perspective. At one point, he cites this incident:

For one of our sessions we followed a producer who insulted all of the critics, made fun of one member’s accent, and listed every euphemism for vagina he could think of. By the time we got up to speak there was almost a mutiny.

This occurred at my very first tour, the summer of '96, and involved Jamie Tarses' dad and one of the worst sitcoms ever made. And Tarses was every bit as hostile as Ken makes it sound, if not moreso.

Oh, and while "American Idol" premiered tonight, I won't be watching much or commenting at all until at least the Hollywood rounds, if not the semi-finals. The freakshow audition version has never done much for me. (Given how highly-rated those episodes are compared to the rest of the season, I suppose that puts me in the minority.) Comment on it here if you want, but I don't really pay attention until the audience gets involved in the process. Click here to read the full post

That's it for me! You've been great!

As mentioned over at the official tour blog, I have to go home several days early to deal with some matters that are more urgent than the timeslot for "Hidden Palms." The good news is, at least I got to end my tour on an interesting note: a face to face with Aaron Sorkin on the "Studio 60" set. I'll be writing that up for Monday's column, I think, and any details that don't make that will be blogged here.

Gotta pack. Click here to read the full post

Notes from the TCA underbelly

Since yesterday was primarily an off-day, I fill most of today's column with short reviews of stuff airing later in the week ("Dresden Files," "Galactica" and the "Scrubs" musical), plus a few leftover news tidbits (including the fact that, yes, Lucy Punch is no longer working on "The Class").

Instead of watching the Golden Globes, I went out to see "Pan's Labyrinth," about which I'm still pondering. The fantasy sequences are amazing, and I loved Sergi Lopez's performance as the fascist captain, even if he was maybe too relentlessly wicked (as a fairy tale for adults, shouldn't there have been just a little nuance). I'm just not positive the two halves hung together well enough.

As for the Globe results themselves, happy to see America Ferrera and Alec Baldwin get some love, though neither was a surprise. She's a Young Ingenue, he's a Famous Hollywood Star, and those are the types the HFPA typically fawns over. Would've liked to see Sacha Baron Cohen's speech, but beyond that, I'm good. These days, I only watch awards shows if I have a professional obligation to do so.

Today's a set visit day, the highlight of which should be a stop by the "Studio 60" studio -- if only because I look forward to Sorkin's defense of the show, and/or Sarah Paulson attempting to say nice things about the material she has to play. Click here to read the full post

24: Bing, bang, boom

"24" spoilers coming right up...

Rest in peace, Curtis Manning. I had you pegged in my "24" Dead Pool almost from the moment you appeared this season. Frankly, I'm stunned you survived this long as Jack's sidekick. At the very least, I would have expected you to have lost a limb by now. I'm sorry I didn't care about your inner torment over what Assad did to you and your buddies in the Gulf, but you did something no one's been able to do since Nina capped Teri Bauer: you made Jack weep.

And rest in peace, Raphael Sbarge and the people of Valencia. Damn. In the can-you-top-this world of "24," what happens when a nuke gets detonated in a populated area in the season's fourth episode? Ordinarily, I'd speculate, but I think Surnow, Cochran and Gordon know only slightly more than I do about where things are going from here.

The 2x2 premiere worked well this time, if only because episode three was by far the weakest of the bunch, and it was immediately followed by the double-whammy of Jack killing Curtis and the nuke going off.

Some other random thoughts:

• Episode four wasn't perfect, either. The Chloe/Morris/Milo scene is giving amnesia and the cougar a run for their money in the Worst "24" Ideas of All Time sweepstakes.
• Speaking of non-existent titles, I didn't see "Kingdom of Heaven," but between "Syriana" and this, Alexander Siddig may start challenging Colm Meaney for Best Post-"Deep Space Nine" Career. He's got a long way to go to catch Meaney, but I like what I've been seeing out of him lately.
• The Morris/Milo silliness did at least yield one good line, Morris' "Let's just stop this mad psychotic terrorist bad guy before he detonates a nuke on Wilshire Blvd."

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Denying The Donald

From the official blog: in which I take a valiant but futile stand against celebrity PR feuds. Click here to read the full post

End of the island?

Today's column, in which Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse try to detonate a nuclear bomb in the middle of press tour:

The "Lost producers have a plan that they think will finally satisfy their legion of demanding fans:

They're going to end the show.

Maybe.

"That's one of the things we're in discussion with the network right now, picking an endpoint to the show," producer Carlton Cuse told a roomful of skeptical critics. "Once we do that, a lot of the anxiety and a lot of these questions, 'We're not getting answers,' a lot of them will go away. I know there's a lot of anxiety, people think we don't know what we're doing. J.K. Rowling has announced that there's going to be seven Harry Potter books, and it gives people a certainty that the story will reach a conclusion. It's time for us to find an endpoint for the show."

Cuse and fellow showrunner Damon Lindelof have insisted in the past that they do know what they're doing, that there is a master plan, but that they have to reveal things in haphazard fashion because they don't know how long they have to stretch out the story. By setting a finishing date far in advance instead of following the usual TV business model of running a show into the ground, they feel they'll be able to have a more coherent storytelling approach going forward.

To read the full thing, click here. Also, Lindelof helped bring the funny to an ABC showrunners panel later in the day. Click here to read the full post

Extras: What a damned handsome man

Since the Ricky Gervais interview post is so damn long, I'll handle the details of the "Extras" season two premiere here. Spoilers coming up just as soon as I Google Keith Chegwin...

As I've said in the past, I didn't love season one. I felt like Andy was a bad fit as central character for Gervais and Merchant's style of uncomfortable comedy, since more often than not he was the victim of circumstance, where David Brent always brought the humiliation on himself. There were too many incidents where I just felt sorry for him.

But with Andy so brazenly selling out his creative vision with "When the Whistle Blows," it's become much easier for me to laugh at him, as well as with him. (As opposed to Barry from "Eastenders," since according to Darren, "The thing about Barry is, people will laugh at him, they never laugh with him.") I still felt some sympathy for him at the end, at his realization of how much people enjoyed the stupid wig and glasses and catchphrase, and at that look between him and Maggie, but it's the same way I can feel bad for Michael Scott for growing up friendless and still find it painfully funny when he can't bring himself to fire Creed.

Orlando Bloom's guest spot was one of the funnier ones (though not up to Kate Winslet or Patrick Stewart), particularly the scene where he was so desperate to get Maggie to look at all the magazine stories discussing his magnificent beauty. However, Bloom couldn't hold a candle to Keith Chegwin. I have no idea who he is, save what was said about him, but the whole sequence where Keith couldn't get anything right was a scream. ("Door's stuck." "That's lunch.") And, of course, the racist/homophobic exchange afterwards (particularly David's inability to think of a single funny English black man) was the sort of thing they probably couldn't get the more famous guests to do.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

24: Taking a bite out of crime

I feel like I gave most of my thoughts on the first four "24" episodes in my column on Friday, so this is mostly an excuse for people to comment. However, I have to discuss one spoiler-y thing after the jump...

Dude! Jack totally bit out some guy's carotid!!!!! Dude! DUDE!!!!!

Sorry, but moments like that unleash my inner 14-year-old, and also excuse the usual "24" sins, in this case including a higher talkiness quotient than usual. The stuff about civil liberties vs. security is interesting to a point, but mostly I'm guessing that it, like Jack's temporary crisis of confidence, will last only until the writers get distracted and move on to something else. For a guy who was barely capable of moving early in episode one, Jack got limber in a hurry, what with the way he kicked the bomber off the subway car.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Talkin' comedy with Ricky Gervais

As briefly discussed last month, I interviewed Ricky Gervais in advance of the new (and vastly improved) season of "Extras." The story's in today's paper:

So, Ricky Gervais, do you want to make a third season of "Extras"?

"What's the point?" he shrugs. "Got other things to do, really."

Then he pauses, realizing what just came out of his mouth.

"But then again, that's like saying, 'Do you want to be on telly?' 'What's the point?' I've just reduced my life's work to 'What's the point?' My gravestone: 'He did "The Office." What's the point?' That's the terrible thing. When you're not a pioneering heart surgeon or a leader of men, what's the point?"

Legacy has been very much on Gervais' mind as he comes to the end of what he and writing partner Stephen Merchant jokingly call "our Picasso blue period," or, more plainly, "our fame period."

To read the full story, click here. Or, if you're just drowning in free time, a full interview transcript is below.


(If you're reading this transcript without having read the Ledger story, here's what you have to know about season 2: Andy's "Office"-like sitcom gets noted to death by the BBC until it's "When the Whistle Blows," this broad, hacky, "Are You Being Served?"-style sitcom where Andy has a floppy wig and oversized glasses and a catchphrase he's required to recite every 10 seconds. There will be some spoilers, mainly of jokes. In certain cases, I tried to obscure them in the transcript; in others, it was impossible to. So you may want to save this until after you've seen all six episodes.)

Watching the new season, I couldn't help thinking that "When the Whistle Blows" is what I feared the American "Office" was going to be.

I suppose, like most of the stuff I do, it's a bit of "There but for the grace of God go I." Like, that could have happened. What would I have done if, when I walked into the BBC and said, "Listen, I've got this thing called 'The Office.' There's no stars, no jokes, there's no plots. I want to write it and direct it, which I've never done before, and I want to be in it." They went, "Alright." What if they'd said no way? What would I have done? Would I have walked away? Who knows. Luckily, I didn't have to make that decision, whereas Andy did. The chance of not making it was too unthinkable, so he chose, against his better judgment, to take the compromise, and now he's got to live with it.

Wow. I'm just thinking about how American networks operate, and you have no idea how fortunate you were to be starting on that side.

I know that, and I think, whenever I say what a great job Greg Daniels has done and Steve Carell, I also give a nod to NBC. They could have panicked, and they didn't. They could have watered it down, they could have had crazy things happening, but they stuck to their guns, they didn't panic when the ratings weren't as good. I remember Greg Daniels sending me an e-mail saying, "We scored really bad on the focus group." And I said, "Yeah, so did we. That's a good omen."

I remember talking to Greg about the pilot, and I told him that in the scene where Michael pretends to fire Pam, I found him almost menacing. And he took a step back and said, "That's not good." And they've definitely softened Michael since then.

The thing is about the first episode, it was largely pointless. They were really trying to fit these new characters into the old box. He's not David Brent. He's Michael Scott. It's not Tim and Dawn, it's Jim and Pam. They've really found their own -- it's clearly based on what we did, but there's no need to compare and contrast anymore. It's a different show, and it's my favorite show on television at the moment. The most amazing thing about it is, they didn't think it would work on network TV. The English one certainly wouldn't. But they took what we did, the essence of it, and made it work on network America.

They've been able to keep true to the spirit of what they were doing, and yet make it just palatable enough to a mass audience.

And they had a harder job to do than us. One, we were unknowns. We came out of nowhere. We did 12 episodes. They were coming off the back of this show that all the critics were saying they'd ruin, and they've got to keep things going for 50 episodes, at least. I'm in awe. I'm in awe at what they've done.

They've also, obviously, had to make concessions to Michael's competence, show him closing a deal now and then.

Of course, because American offices are different than British offices, they're run differently. And, yes, their teeth are cleaner and whiter, because American people's teeth are better. That's a fact of life. The other thing is, the expectations are different. Americans are taught they can grow up to be president of the us, and most believe it. English people are taught, 'It won't happen to you.'

It also seems like there's more room on British television for a more overtly negative central character.

In England, we like the underdog until he's not the underdog. In America, you stick by him. If an American works hard and buys a Rolls Royce, people go, 'Oh, I'm gonna work hard and buy a Rolls.' In England, they'd spit on it and go, 'Who do you think you are?'

How was the experience writing your episode of the American show? It's the world you've created, and yet it's not.

I treated it like a writer's job, like I was writing for this new show called the American "Office." I didn't play it out as David Brent. Well, I probably did. And what you've got to realize is, it's certainly a co-write. Because at the English "Office," we'd write, we'd rewrite, we'd write again, we'd tear it apart. With the American episode, we wrote 20 pages, gave it to them and said, "Do what you want with it."

What percentage of the final script would you say was your work?

Oh, I don't know. But the story was. The story was a convict comes because of this new directive, Michael Scott worries about what he's done and, obviously, the more he tries to be politically correct, the more he puts his foot in it. That's remained. Everything else is theirs, really.

With "Extras," how much time do you spend writing the show within the show, or the movies within the show? Is it harder to write a bad show, or is not something you put a lot of effort into?

What we wanted it to be was, again, it's a very fine line, because of course there would be no point in showing too much of this thing that is bad and is supposed to be bad, because then you go, "Why am I watching this? This is three minutes of a bad show." So we had to make it funny, ironically funny. But it's harder than you think. Because of course we wanted it to be a good example of a bad show. The irony is, it's more fun playing Ray than Andy. Much more fun.

Why is that?

It's always fun to play the comedy romp. David Brent was the comedy romp, great fun to play. I'm the putz, I'm the one driving people nuts. Whereas everyone else drives Andy nuts. I'm the normal guy, I'm Tim, as Andy, whereas (unintelligible jibbering in Ray's voice). It's like stretching, as a comedian, playing Andy playing Ray.

When I first watched "Extras," what struck me was that Andy was so much more normal and self-aware and intelligent (than David), and yet he would often find himself in these mortifying situations.

That's the duality of all of us. When we're in charge, we're cool. When there's a jeopardy and we're on the back foot, we're a putz, we're David Brent. When Andy is surrounded by idiots, it's "You idiot. (Sigh)" But when he meets a director or producer, he can't. It's the two sides of Bob Hope. That's the way we all behave. When we're in control, we're cool.

There's this term that's bandied about a lot: The Comedy of Embarrassment. Do you think it's more effective if the person being made to suffer is the architect of his own misery versus someone who just has bad things happen to him? You know, David versus Andy? Does it even matter?

It doesn't matter, but clearly, I think it would resonate more if you're the architect of it. You've made your bed, now lie in it. That's funny. Because if things happen to you and they're not your fault, you're a Tim. You're Ollie instead of Stan, Tim instead of David, you're Andy Millman instead of everyone else in the show. Vanity's funny. Vanity is funny. So getting your comeuppance is the cherry on the cake. No one wants to see unfeasibly handsome people doing things well. What's the fun in that? There has to be a blind spot, I think, in comedy. There has to be that gap in how they see themselves and how you see them. And vanity is just such a weapon.

In the first series, there was that one episode where Andy didn't want anything to do with the other extra who wanted to be his friend, and that one felt more like he was bringing his misery on himself.

The one with the dullard?

Yeah.

Andy is actually us, okay? We do things that we'd rather not do because we don't want to be the person who says, "Fuck you." We don't want people to go, "Oh he wasn't very nice." He can't fire his agent, he can't tell that dullard to leave. And when he does he doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. So he's burdened with a conscience. That's the point of Andy. He's nicer than he'd want to be. He wants to be Gordon Gecko. "You're fired." But he can't be Gordon Gecko, because he looks at Darren's stupid face and thinks, "I don't want a grown man to cry. One more chance."

In the last episode, where Andy's on the verge of firing him, Darren looks so sad. I almost felt sorry for him.

(Surprised) Have you seen all six?

HBO only sent out the first three, but I found the others through the wonders of illegal downloading.

Oh, great. Good. Because it makes more sense when you've seen all six. That's good, because I can talk about the arc.

Well, how would you describe the arc?

This man is at a crossroads. Certainly, for the first three episodes it's Be Careful What You Wish For. Then we go through the journey of seeing the difference between fame and infamy. Fame without respect is nothing. And then he gets some breaks, as you do. Everyone gets a break. And then, I suppose, how it resolves is that it could be alright. It could be alright. that's it, really. There's no big -- we've never liked black and white. We've never liked hero/villain. There's hero and villain in everyone, there's luck and bad luck. We just wanted to go, 'C'est la vie.'

The "Office" Christmas special had an element of hope to it that was never present in the regular series.

That's exactly it. There's an element of hope. We don't see David Brent getting married, we don't see Tim and Dawn live happily ever after, we don't see if Gareth was fired, but who knows?

And we don't know how (a development in the final "Extras" episode) is going to go.

We don't know anything.

And is that it? Are you done with the series now?

That's it. There was a story in the English papers yesterday, "Series three with Arnold Schwarzenegger." If Arnie called me up and said, "I vhould do 'Extras,'" that would be great and I would try to write something. But I don't think I'll do more "Extras."

Why not?

What's the point? Got other things to do, really. But then again, that's like saying, "Do you want to be on telly?" "'What's the point?'" I've just reduced my life's work to "What's the point?" My gravestone: "He did 'The Office.' What's the point?" That's the terrible thing. When you're not a pioneering heart surgeon or a leader of men, what's the point?

Hey, at least you're making TV instead of just watching it, so you're one up on me.

I think I'd rather be watching it, frankly. Wasn't it Noel Coward who said, 'TV isn't for watching, it's for being on.'

And I think it was Oscar Wilde who said "Being a critic is like being a bystander at an orgy."

(Uncontrollable giggling.) Oh, wow. That's great.

Speaking of which, you deal with the critics a lot in the second series. Andy really wants their respect, Darren keeps saying they don't matter. I've made peace with my own lack of influence on anything. Are the critics in England any more influential than we are?

No. It's purely personal. You read a nice review, you go, "They got it." You read a bad review and go, "They didn't get it." I'm fine with critics, and I've had a great run. It's ridiculous. It's like I wrote them myself. But you've got to take them both with a pinch of salt. I make this show for me and like-minded people. I don't make it for people who don't like it. I don't want to convert anyone. I don't care. I don't sit in people's homes watching it with them. It's still nicer to read a great review than a poor review. Just human nature. How can we really not be offended. But I've never been troubled by people saying, "I don't like Ricky Gervais. He's the worst comedian that ever lived." Doesn't bother me. It's only when they get a bit of information wrong, and I go, "Just look it up!"

With the celebrity guests, do you approach them, or have they approached you?

Oh, nobody comes up to us and says, "I want to be in 'Extras.'" But, certainly with the first series, where the English "Office" on BBC America made its biggest impact was in the industry. We probably got a million viewers, and 990,000 of them lived in LA or New York. For at least a year, whenever there was an interview with a Hollywood A-lister and someone asked what they were watching at the moment -- it got to the point where I was disappointed if they didn't say "'The Office.'" I'd come to expect it. So we thought, "Ah, they'll remember that." We basically did "Extras" for a couple of reasons. But one of them was that we were going to strike when our cachet was high. These people were fans of "The Office," and we thought, "If they're not going to trust us now, they never will." Everything came from "The Office."

How much of what the celebrities do is devised by you and Stephen and how much is, say, Daniel Radcliffe coming in and saying, "Oh, I'd love to be horny and wave a condom around"?

It's our idea, it's scripted. Daniel, for example, came up with the line, "Ring don't mean a thing," which is funny. It's all scripted. We write for it and say, "Do you like it?"

What was Dame Diana (Rigg)'s reaction when she found out she would have a condom on her head?

I don't know, but we got a call saying, "She's in." That was a funny day. I remember going, "Can we put it just over one eye?" Now, that's not a normal day's work, is it? Dame Diana Rigg!

We have this weird relationship with our celebrities. It horrifies me how obsessed we've become.

Basically, celebrity and fame, every single side of all that stuff has ruled my career in TV. "The Office" was about fame. It was clearly about fame. "Extras" is directly and explicitly about fame, but it's about what fame is, actually, and what it does to normal people. Because, eventually, it's all got to come down to normal life. Whatever you do, there has to be an empathy there... Everything I do is about people's fascination, expectation, hope. People want to be famous, and a lot of people do want to be famous, for the sake of it. There was a survey amongst 10-year-olds, and they asked, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" And they said, "Famous." They didn't say, "Soccer star" or "Movie star" -- they said, "Famous." And they're 10, they don't understand, but when adults want to be famous, they confuse it with all that other stuff that's good. They see George Clooney and they go, "He's happy, he's successful, he's got everything, he's famous. Therefore, I shall become famous." No, no, no. He's happy, because he's successful, because he's good at something. His fame is an upshot of what he does. They actually use it as a shortcut for happiness. They don't know what will make them happy, they think, "Fame will make me happy."

And reality TV has come along and made people entitled to be famous.

You know what? Andy Warhol, did he know how prophetic that would be? Incredible. It's become truer than I imagine he knew. But 25 years ago, people got on telly in a game show, and that was it, they showed their grandchildren, "Look, I was on TV once." Now, they get a call, "You're on," and they get an agent.

The first American season of "Big Brother" was one of the biggest fiascos in broadcast history. They all thought they were going to break into showbiz after, and nobody cared.

Wouldn't that be a great joke, though? To put them in there and not film it? Actually, a celebrity one would be funnier. They'd just go in and be out of the paper for three months.

In watching "The Office," I always assumed the cameras made David's behavior far, far worse than it would have otherwise been.

Of course. But that's why it was so important that people knew they were watching a fake documentary. If we let them forget they were watching a fake documentary for a minute. there's suddenly no show. There's no point. Brent's motivation was fame and glory. That's why he's acting like that. He's in free-fall, in a bit of a breakdown, and he's going, "I'm going to show the world now that I'm not just this jerk. I'm a philosopher, I'm a philanthropist, I am a singer/songwriter, I am a poet." He can't get to it quick enough. And, of course, the lesson learned is, if someone's filming you all the time, they're going to show the bad bits, too. Through the power of editing.

But what were the good bits for David? Do you envision there were times when he successfully delivered a joke?

Yeah, but why would a documentary team put that in? The important thing there is, you're not in charge. TV's in charge. TV's in charge.

I'm making sure that when my daughter grows up, she will never, ever sign a release if someone films her.

Never, never. I hate those hidden camera things. I hate them. It's just so easy. Unless it's done with goodwill, or there's a reason to it.

I have to confess I've seen a lot of your work through the horror movie finger filter. I occasionally have to cover my ears as well. You're obviously doing it right, but...

Why am I obsessed with the comedy of embarassment? I can answer that. You've got to write about what you know, really. As a middle-class, Western male, I'm not being shot at, I'm not starving, the worst thing that happens to me is I make a fool of myself. That's it. What's the most interesting thing in a day for a normal person? The bus driver was rude, or you accidentally insulted someone, they took it the wrong way. Everyone can identify with that. Imagine watching "Extras," and suddenly Maggie gets taken out by a sniper. "What the fuck's that? What are you doing?" It's in all of us.

And I think lot of my discomfort comes from me being able to relate to a moment where you do and say things you instantly regret.

It's strange, I've never been easily embarrassed, but just like Andy, if you're known, the jeopardy's even worse. You've seen episode three. We had that idea a while ago, and we saved it for when someone famous complained about a Down Syndrome boy without knowing he had Down Syndrome. It was going to be in "Extras" series one, but we thought, let's wait till he's famous. Because then it's a terrible thing he's done. Then it's Andy Millman who insulted a Down syndrome boy, not some random guy.

So in a given week, occasions where you say or do something you regret, or something you say is taken the wrong way, that does not happen to you?

That's my worry. I don't get easily embarrassed because I don't get myself in those situations. My big worry is hurting someone's feelings. You've seen (the episode) when I don't know the make-up girl's name? Well, that happened to me. It was a guy we were working with for a while, and at the end of the day, he said, "Can I have your autograph?" And I was trying to stall, trying to remember his name, and finally I said, "Who is it to?" And he said, "Me." So that didn't work. And I said, "How are you spelling your name?" And he said, "T-O-M." And I went, "Oh, you're Tom." Which made no sense at all. ... I wasn't embarrassed that I didn't know his name, I felt it was an insult to him. It's much less embarrassed that I slipped over, it's more, "Have I upset someone?"

A lot of actors hate watching themselves in anything. Obviously, as a writer/director/producer, you don't have that luxury. Do you enjoy watching yourself work?

If I'm being a putz. If I'm being the funny one or a putz. I haven't watched my episode of "Alias," because I'm being cool and that makes me feel ill. If I'm being fat and stupid and rubbish, I can do it. If I'm being cool, it makes me cringe to think of it.

Why is that? You don't think you're cool?

It makes me cringe.

So that's what makes you cringe!

Yeah. To me, someone thinking, "Oh, he's trying to be cool." Irony, as well. I was really concerned about the ("Extras") poster. Me with dark glasses, smiling. The joke is, I'm not a star but I'm trying to be. But I worried, "Do people think I think I'm Elvis?" That's the worry. Being accused of being vain, that's a worry for me.

Were you uncomfortable in the process of doing the "Alias" episode?

Well, everyone's play acting. But I did find it hard, the first day, not to laugh. But, yeah, me being cool... ohhhh. Also, as a comedian, I've seen other comedians pop up in things, and they've ruined it.

Is that something you'll try to avoid in the future?

I get no pleasure anyway of watching back the result. For me, it's the creative process that's exciting. I'd rather come up with an idea than see my fat face on a billboard. That gives me much less of a buzz. I go, "Oh, good, they're advertising it, I want people to watch this." I do interviews, I'm basically talking about myself for an hour, but it is my business, and I want people to watch what I've made. It's my job. It's the idea, the work. I know why I'm in it for. I know why I love doing this. I love getting up and coming up with an idea that I can then get someone to give me the money to make. That's the exciting thing for me. And that's why I worry about ratings as well. Because then someone'll go, "Do you want to do that again?"

How did the second series do over there?

Great. We got four million on a channel whose average is under two million. So we went to that channel so we're left alone, it's an arty channel, BBC1 has got things like "When the Whistle Blows." That's the point. We're BBC2.

It's not a coincidence that the last exchange of the series involves someone talking about how they like edgy BBC2 comedies.

Little in-joke. Of course. You've got to dig at yourself if you're digging at other people as well.

What I like is not only is there the uncomfortable stuff, but there's this very old-fashioned comedy sensibility as well. You talked about Laurel and Hardy and Bob Hope and Abbott and Costello...

Me and Darren, that's straight Laurel and Hardy. And I'm always Ollie. In "The Office," Tim was Ollie, Brent was Stan. That's their dynamic: "I'm with this idiot." The people who go, "I'm with this idiot," they're the ones that end up in the water. Stan never ended up in the water. It was always Ollie.

And Stephen is so funny.

He's blessed with that face, isn't he? If he had been anything else, other than a comedian...

(I bring up the subject of season two's raunch level and cite a specific scene that I wouldn't dream of spoiler-ing here. If you've seen the show already, it involves Darren and a whisk, and I shall say no more. As I'm describing it, Gervais goes into a prolonged giggle fit.)

I like that, after living that long with it, you're still able to laugh that hard at it.

Because it's a funny scenario. Scenarios are funnier than jokes. You can laugh at a scenario, you don't know what you're laughing at. ... Faux pas is the funniest thing in the world. It's not when you say something stupid, it's when you realize you said something stupid.

Behavior, I've always found, is much funnier than punchlines. It's like there's this entire generation of comedy writers here who don't know anything but setup/joke, and that's why the traditional sitcom here is pretty much dead. People don't relate to that.

It's because you know what they're thinking is what's funny. It's not what people say. It's the gaps that I like, with "The Office," with "Extras." It's funny when people have nothing to say and you know they're thinking, "What can I say?"

How planned are the gaps, how much room is there for improvising? Is it written in the script, "David says this, then everyone waits five seconds, then Tim says this"?

We wait. We know we're going to do that, but we wait and direct people on the day. It comes out of improv anyway, actually acting out the thing. It sort of comes in one package. But we just put in the script, "so and so reacts," because we're directing it and we're pretty laid back. If we were handing that over, it'd probably be twice as long, but we know we're there on the day.

So as you're editing it down, how do you decide, "This should be this long and that should be that long"?

Matter of taste. I've got a couple of examples now. One is when Gareth's massaging me after I've been told off by Neil, and I just left it on for ages, knowing you can cut anywhere. And one is a shot in episode four of Barry waiting, and we left it for ages. And we thought, "Now it's funny. Now it's not funny. Now it's funny again. Now it's still funny..." So it's a question of, do you cut on the first funny or ride it and get to the second funny? It's a matter of taste. But here's the thing: me and Steve will split frames. We'll go, "This should be six frames longer." We'll do it to a split-second. Because it's forever. We don't apologize for being totally nerdy and anal.

I think there probably is a science to it. What's the longest pause you've done?

David Brent watching Dawn cry is cruelly long, isn't it? I think for straightforward, comedy of reaction, it's Keith's appraisal of episode 2, season 2 of "The Office." Just the silences and the waiting for Keith to speak. That's one of my favorite scenes. He's amazing. Matt Groening's favorite character.

Do you have a favorite among the American characters, even among the supporting group?

I don't. I think they really are so great, so watchable. I do like the human resources guy, his face, he's the bane of David's life.

You say everything you've done so far in television has dealt with fame. Is that a theme you feel you've done enough with?

Yeah. My next stand-up is called "Fame," and that's it. We're never going to do anything to do with media again. It seemed right. We were fresh to it and we thought we had a fresh approach to it. We never would have done it if we couldn't find a new angle. There's no point in telling someone something twice. It's worth exploring the same themes -- relationships, wasting your life -- all of those things are worth because they're fundamental. It's not like humans have moved on, you know, "We're going to give up relationships." But we've pretty much, that's our Picasso blue period -- that's our fame period.

So what do you want the next thing to be?

We've got a couple of things that pre-date "Extras." One is called "Men at the Pru." The Prudential is a big building soceity, it's about a gruop of twentysomethings selling insurance in the 1970s in a seaside town where the sexual revolution never hit.

Would you be in it in some way?

Not as a twentysomething. I'd be a 45-year-old in 1970, so I'd probably be one of those people who thought the permissive society was disgusting, "That's why we're losing our Empire."

Would a wig or glasses be involved?

You know what? I don't like wearing wigs. Glasses are alright.

How much of Andy's relationship with both fans and the media mirrors in any way what you've gone through in your rise? Any of it?

Not really. Because I came at it with a completely different footing. Because I'd done "The Office," I was quite a media darling. Cool people liked it, and I avoided pubs.

Have you ever proposed something to a celebrity guest that they out and out said, "I'm not doing it"?

One. Simon Cowell. I know Simon and I just had a little idea, in episode six where I'm in the green room and Jonathan Ross is playing with the dogs? Originally it wasn't going to be the dogs that called me back, but Simon Cowell doing karaoke. And he said, "I will do anything else. I can't, I can't, I can't." I said, "That's the offer." And he wouldn't. I wanted him to be singing "Daniel." I think he knew that clip would be played forever.

I can see it being blown up on a giant screen behind Ryan Seacrest.

What does he care? He gets 35 million viewers.

"Idol" is such a brilliant idea for a show, getting back to the obsession with fame.

Incredible. So basic. You've got a little bit of everything. You've got the preliminary rounds with people bordering on the mentally ill, the most delusional people on the planet, which is cruel and fun, if that's possible, and then you've got the soap opera element, you root for someone, then you've got justice versus injustice, then you've got what it's really about: three judges doing a great pantomime

Did you watch "The Comeback" at all?

I loved it. I thought it was very underrated. Didn't do well, did it?

There were originally a lot of bad reviews, and then a reverse backlash where a lot of people declared it a misunderstood masterpiece.

And do you know what annoys me about that? If she'd have come out and she was Phoebe, critics would've said, "She's a one-trick pony," and she comes out and does something different and they say, "Oh, she's not like Phoebe." What can you do? I thought it was very good. I liked it a lot.

I ask because it's in the same territory, the humiliations you'll suffer to be famous or stay famous.

Before fame, there was the humiliations you'd go through to ingratiate yourself in some way. Could be fame, could be money. The aspirations have changed. There's a great quote, Socrates said, "Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds." Well, back then it was. You were famous if you were a leader of men or a great scholar. Now, you're famous if you're willing to go on a reality game show.

I once had a discussion with a TV executive about the success of Paris Hilton, and he said, "You don't get it. She's famous for doing nothing at all, and that's what they love about her!"

Because that means it could happen to them. And they still don't learn. People still go into "Big Brother" thinking they're going to be the next big thing. I say, look at the other 50 people who did "Big Brother"! They were on the covers of magazines for eight weeks and now they can't even work in a shoe shop because people recognize them.

Will you ever return to Brent, or are you 100 percent done with him?

Absolutely. even if I wanted to. And I do miss him on occasion. But what's the point? Click here to read the full post

The O.C.: The owls are not what they seem

Spoilers for "The O.C." just as soon as I figure out which surgical intern helped Dr. Roberts with the unicorn...

I'm a few days late to the party and I have other writing to get done, so I'll be brief. A very light, funny episode that ended on sad notes for virtually every character. (Sandy seems happy, I suppose, but then, the only thing he got to do was his hilarious, out-of-left-field and very loud Jerry Lewis impression.)

Though the cancellation wasn't made official until last week, this one suggests Josh saw the writing on the wall. It's one thing to not try to write ratings bait anymore, which has been the prime motivator for this resurgence. It's another thing to fill up an episode with Jerry Lewis impressions and David Hume name-checking, neither of which is exactly catnip to the younger demo.

Much fun was had with the Taylor storyline -- "Ryan, even if I was that limber, you know I would never do it in the Chunnel" is an early candidate for Line of the Seas0n -- and it was nice to see Henri Lubatti not plotting to kill thousands of people (or performing "I Left My Wallet In El Segundo"), even if his smarmy Frenchman did bear a strong resemblance to Henri from "Cheers." I've had to force myself to stop saying "Je pense!" at random moments as well.

Liked the brief visit to Seattle Grace, complete with "Grey's"-y music, particularly Dr. Roberts summing up the themes of the unicorn case the way Meredith's stupid voiceover usually does. Summer's quick descent into Newpsie-hood was as unrealistic as the idea that "Je Pense" would come to Newport to tape an episode, but Rachel Bilson gives good drunken airhead, and Che continues to be used just right.

Don't care about the Muppet Babies stuff, and I feel like they've gone to the "Summer doesn't know who she is" at least a couple of times already this season alone, but overall, quite fun.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

The smartest guys in the room

Another official blog posting: David Milch on "Deadwood," drug use and string theory.

Meanwhile, I tagged along with Maureen Ryan to have lunch with Ken Levine, writer/producer on what seems like most of my favorite comedies ever ("Cheers," "Frasier," "MASH," "The Simpsons" and more) and author of the terrific By Ken Levine blog. (You may remember my link to his If Aaron Sorkin wrote a show about baseball entry back in September.) It was an off-the-record, friendly lunch with Ken and his wife, so I won't share any of the war stories he told, but he has no problems being candid about past work experiences over at his blog. Check it out if you haven't already. The man knows funny. Click here to read the full post

Dick loves HBO

The latest official blog entry: Dick Wolf thinks broadcast network execs should intern at HBO.

Also, I'm curious: do the allegedly entry-specific links take you to the entry in question, or just to the most recent entry? Just as a test, can someone tell me where clicking on this link to the Sarah Silverman entry takes them? Click here to read the full post

Earl & 30 Rock: My name is Glurg

Spoilers for, in order, "My Name Is Earl" and "30 Rock" just as soon as I submit my application to the Ho Chi Minh School of Medicine...

Wow, the "My Name Is Earl" writers have just blown up the formula, haven't they? And I couldn't possibly be more pleased. They're on a great run right now, with the Mexico trip, last week's "COPS" visit, and now the "My Name Is Randy/Joy/Crabman/June Cleaver" perspective-shifter. (Best fake credits, by far: Crabman. I remember his love of cheese, but is him being a cello virtuoso new information?) It almost makes the first season feel worth it because it layed the groundwork for all these unconventional episodes.

The "Rur Jur" returns on "30 Rock," and it's still funny. (In particular, I liked Frank trying to make sense of that "View" interview and complaining, "I feel like I'm getting further away from it.") The Meat Machine story turned into a rip-off of The Cornballer at the end, but Dr. Spuh-che-men is quickly becoming an indispensible recurring character, so I won't complain too much.

Best scenes: Jack being schmoopy on the phone with Maureen Dowd (and is this in any way a dig at Aaron Sorkin, or just a dig at Maureen Dowd?), Jack explaining the GE corporate flowchart (a wig company "owns NBC outright"?), Dougie the prop guy harassing Kenneth with a fake bass, the Rashomon approach to the Liz/Jenna flashbacks (particularly Liz's boyfriend), and Dratch's Barbara Walters, which I liked much better than anytime she did it on "SNL."

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

The Office: Duets

Spoilers for "The Office" just as soon as I ask my friend Long Tim to help straighten up my offive...

What a perfectly-constructed little episode. They've done funnier episodes than this one ("The Injury" and "Conflict Resolution," to name two), but the design of this one played out so well.

With the exception of Jim and Dwight, the sales teams paired up characters who haven't had much to do together in the past, and even with those first two, we got to see them in a new way: well-oiled selling machine. But what I especially loved was the falling-domino quality of the sales calls, how great the payoffs were to set-ups that I didn't even recognize as set-ups. I just assumed that Phyllis was trying to bond with Karen in an unfortunate way, that Happy Stanley made an appearance because Ryan was going to be doing all the work for him, that Dwight was being angry and random because he was stuck working with Jim. In taking notes on the episode, there were a bunch of lines that began with, "Ohhhh!" as I realized what was actually happening.

There were a few more serious developments. Dwight quits Dunder-Mifflin, in a sequence evoking his resignation as a volunteer deputy. Not sure how I feel about that one. If Pam didn't know all of the details of what Dwight did, she knew enough to be able to go to Michael and assure him that Dwight's New York trip had nothing to do with him. Plus, while I totally believe that Dwight would never reveal their secret love without Angela's permission, is Angela really so awful that she would cost Dwight his job to avoid becoming the next Ryan and Kelly? Okay, so maybe she is. I'm sure Dwight will wind up back at work soon -- and that Angela will unleash some kind of Biblical vengeance upon Andy -- but this was unsettling.

Meanwhile, Phyllis goes and outs the history of Jim and Pam to Karen -- and, worse, Jim tries to deny it. He gave it up pretty quickly once he realized she knew something, but that's still not a good sign for this relationship. Or maybe not. I need a ruling: if you're the Karen in this scenario, do you want to know this stuff? And if you're the Jim, are you trying to keep it a secret because you're still in love with Pam, or because you're trying to spare both women some awkwardness over a situation that no longer exists? I'm too jet-lagged to untie this particular knot.

Some lines/jokes of the week:

• Ryan on Stanley: "I'm very flattered. I was his second choice after 'Pass.'"
• Jim: "Oh, Young Jim... there's just so much I need to warn you about, and yet... I cannot."
• Pam to Angela: "You seem so happy. I bet you wish you were like this all the time."
• Jan on Dwight: "Where he was asked to state his business, he wrote, "Beeswax, None of Yours, Incorporated.'"
• Dwight and Michael: "That's what she said." "Don't you dare!"
• Andy: "Oompa-loompa, doopity-dawsome! Dwight is gone, which is totally awesome!"
• Michael's computer: "Boobs!"

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Scrubs: The wrath of Dudemeister

Spoilers for "Scrubs" just as soon as I figure out why Ted has an evil twin who shops at The Gap...

Phew. The show's been in a slump since it came back after Thanksgiving, but between this episode and the musical (which I watched before I left for press tour), I feel like they haven't lost it just yet.

In particular, I laughed a long time at jokes involving two very, very different body types: the two sequences with J.D. and Shirtless Keith (well, one was Partly-Shirtless Keith), and Monstrous Jordan storming down the hallway to "Isn't She Lovely?" Keith's been a very good addition who I'd like to see more of (except, of course, that the show already has too many characters), and Christa Miller deserves some bravery points for her stuff. (Not so much for showing her pregnancy weight, but for the complete lack of grooming.)

Twice this season, they've taken an uber-heavy topic and turned it into a running gag, first abortion, now post-partum depression. I think this one worked better than J.D. and Kim's abortion debate, mainly because Turk recognized it quickly and spent the episode trying to fix it. (The lactation consultants, for instance, were played straight, which made it easier to go with the jokes in those scenes.) Also, Turk danced again, and I think I've long since established how I feel about that.

Not a perfect episode (Cox and The Janitor have had better shared moments), but still a big improvement.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

'Stache men

Latest tour blog entry: secrets of the "Reno 911" mustaches (plus a small bit of info about that "State" reunion in the "Reno" movie). Click here to read the full post

24: "TELL ME WHY I FEEL SAD!!!!!!!"

"24" review in today's column:

"I don't know how to do this anymore."

With these eight words, "24" -- that gorgeous, messy, fist-pumping carnival of post-9/11 anxiety -- gives us its most terrifying scenario yet: Jack Bauer, broken man.

Sure, this is a show where a nuke has gone off on the outskirts of LA, where one president was assassinated and another turned traitor, where deadly viral agents have penetrated malls and hotels, where Elisha Cuthbert's acting ability entered a life-or-death struggle with a cougar (a cougar, people!). But through it all, we knew Jack Bauer would be there to either save the day or avenge the fallen, most likely while putting unnecessary strain on his vocal cords.

As season six begins, that Jack's gone. He's liberated from nearly two years of torture in a Chinese prison -- karmic justice for a guy who never saw a leg he couldn't shoot or stab? -- an unkempt ghost of his former self.

Even after the POW hair and beard get clippered away and Jack starts capping bad guys, he's entirely on auto-pilot. Give him a minute to breathe or think -- of which there are surprisingly many early on -- and he starts to doubt himself. By the end of the now traditional two-night, four-hour season launch, he's reduced to sobbing longer, louder and harder than he did back when his wife was murdered in season one.

To read the full thing, click here. Click here to read the full post

The man with two blogs

The official press tour blog is up, with two entries so far: the traditional (and largely cut-and-pasted) introduction to press tour, and a slightly expanded account of the Sarah Silverman thing. Click here to read the full post

I've only been at press tour for, like, 20 minutes...

...and someone has already told me to STFU. Sure, it was Sara Silverman, and I was kind of asking for it (my question was an admittedly anal nitpicky, Comic Book Guy-style question about a plot hole in the pilot of her new Comedy Central show), but still -- it's nice to feel welcome.

The official tour blog is a little buggy right now, by the way. Click here to read the full post

Friday Night Lights: Blondes have more angst

I leave for the airport shortly, so some quick thoughts on "Friday Night Lights" before I go...

Definitely not one of my favorite episodes. In its best moments, "FNL" feels almost documentary-like in its authenticity, which is why I get uncomfortable when it starts acting like Just Another High School Drama, and the Saracen and Tyra stories both fell into the latter category.

A shrieking Tyra chasing her mom's abusive (and, compared to Tyra, tiny) boyfriend around the house with a poker? Would have been a great moment if we'd seen any of this dynamic before. Instead, Tyra's been the show's forgotten character (Landry gets more respect), popping up on occasion to snap at Lyla or Riggins, then walk off as someone comments on how long her legs are. So all the stuff with her mom (whose every appearance made me want to say, "Can I borrow your towel? My car just hit a water buffalo") was far too rushed to have any real impact.

Saracen's story, meanwhile, ended far too easily. A week ago we saw Matt so far at the end of his rope that he can't even see the rope, and now he's just hunky-dory sending his dad back to Iraq? They tried to sell us on the idea that nothing had changed, workload-wise, but again, they rushed the job too much for it to work. As with Tyra, this would have played out better over several more episodes. (Also, isn't Matt just the littlest bit concerned about his dad dying? I know Harry's not working in combat, but engineers are getting killed over there, too.)

Outside of the "Waverlash" joke (somebody on the writing staff hangs around message boards), Smash's subplot wasn't too special, either, with his big speech another "Hi. You're watching a fresh episode on the CW" moment. Really, if it wasn't for the Street story and the usual slice of Taylor domesticity, I would have written the episode off as a total loss.

What did everybody else think? See you all when I get to LA. Click here to read the full post

Sanitized Sopranos

Today's column looks at the vaguely cleaned-up A&E version of "The Sopranos," which, not surprisingly, I'm not happy with:

Christopher Moltisanti has had it. He's watched Tony Soprano let Uncle Junior run roughshod over him and his whole crew, found his friend Brendan shot dead by Junior's goons, and Tony doesn't seem willing to fight back. Christopher's at a boiling point, and he's going to use the strongest language possible to describe the situation to Tony:

"Your freakin' uncle's spittin' on your head!"

Welcome to "The Sopranos" on A&E, where the Bada-Bing girls dance in their underwear, where Paulie Walnuts uses phrases like "weirdo jerk," where AJ will presumably complain about the lack of freakin' ziti.

It's an awkward, often unintentionally hilarious transition away from the freedom of pay cable, and one that changes the overall meaning of the series.

To read the full thing, click here. Click here to read the full post

HIMYM: Tales from the lobby

Spoilers for "How I Met Your Mother" just as soon as I figure out whether Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy actually have sex in "WarGames"...

Very funny episode, even if the insertion of Barney into the "Dirty Dancing" footage felt a lot funnier when Billy Crystal first did it (close to 15 years ago, and God do I feel old right now). "Falafel" as an "I love you" substitute, Marshall and Lily's semantic debate, Ted and Marshall accidentally giving the suicidal guy reasons to live, Robin's entire reaction to her sister's boyfriend ("You just say things!"), more of Flashback Ted being pathetic, more of Flashback Robin being oddly blonde... good stuff all around.

(I was especially pleased to hear Nada Surf's "Always Love" played over the climax. I love that song. Alex Patsavas, who picks the music for "The O.C.," "Grey's Anatomy" and some other shows, has called it "the perfect pop song" and yet has never found the right place to use it on one of her shows. I don't know if this was the 100% perfect place for it, but I just love hearing the band come in.)

Only one real complaint: it feels like forever since we've seen Future Ted's kids, and this is the episode they get brought back for? At some point, the writers really need to have Son or Daughter complain about how creepy it is for their father to tell them about his sex life.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Mail time

The morning column link: a mailbag dealing with the "My Boys" finale, the future of "Big Day," my continued dislike of "The Class," plus stuff on "Love Monkey" and "Doctor Who."

Also, the Television Critics Association press tour starts today, though I'm not leaving for LA until Thursday morning due to some obligations at home. The bosses and I haven't ironed out yet whether I'll be doing an official tour blog over at NJ.com, but if so, I'll follow the same procedure as last time and do mirror links here to everything I write there.

And being at the tour means my actual TV-watching time will be at a minimum. (Ironic in the same way as Randal Graves' hatred of people but love of gatherings.) In certain instances, I'll have episodes in advance (next Monday's "Heroes" came in today's mail), and I'm going to try to take advantage of Internet streaming when I have the time, but a lot of the show commentary is going to be late, if not pushed back until my return to Jersey. So please be patient. Click here to read the full post

In a VAN DOWN BY THE O.R.!

Spoilers for, in order, "Scrubs," "30 Rock" and "My Name Is Earl" coming right up...

I've already seen an advance copy of the "Scrubs" musical (short version: "Buffy" did it better, but still a lot of fun), so I kept being distracted during "My House" wondering when somebody was gonna sing. Good episode, and a more extended look at the eerie Cox/House parallels that we've all been noticing for a few years now. Frankly, I wish they could have really gone to town on that subplot, but servicing four stories in 20 some odd minutes makes that tough to pull off. (And a question for the many medical minds out there: in the original Orange Guy story in the "House" pilot, it was the carrot juice -- or maybe some kind of carrot-y vitamin, I forget -- that turned the man orange, where here Cox said that would make someone yellow. Who's right?)

Few other random thoughts before moving on to "30 Rock":

• I really wish they had brought Elizabeth Banks in for a different storyline that just let her be funny all the time.
• The Janitor's art (as seen above) rules.
• Hands up, anyone who somehow didn't realize it was Carla crying as soon as Party Doc mentioned it to Cox. They've been subtler.
  
• Hands up, anyone who intends to incorporate "mega-loathe" into everyday speech.
• Dave Foley! Love Dave Foley. Still trying to figure out exactly when this whole Satanic imp look of his started, however. What was he up to between "NewsRadio" and the celebrity poker show?

Now, "30 Rock." Is there any circumstance under which Alec Baldwin doesn't win the supporting actor Emmy? Big name star, satirizing cluelesss Hollywood executives, and screamingly funny all the time. The stress eating. The casual way he delivers lines like "My mother sent me to Vietnam to try to make a man out of me. I was 12." The contempt he puts into phrases like "trawling for seed." The rage behind "YOU CUT POP'S BALLS OFF! AND LEFT HIM IN THE STREET TO DIE!" Amazing.

A good Liz episode, too, and I never get tired of hearing Tina Fey refer to "my junk." Dr. Spacemen returns (and reveals multiple specialties), Tracy casually refers to "sex pooping," and the dubbing on the Jack and Tracy impressions was just obvious enough to actually make them funnier. (The faux-Baldwin sounded like Tom Davis dubing for Bill Murray in "Il Returno De Hercules.")

But the funniest show of the three, by quite a stretch, was "My Name Is Earl." This is why I've been arguing for more of Bad Earl. This right here. And you can tell the writers have wanted to go here, too, because the entire season's been leading up to it, notably his babyishness during the Mexico two-parter. Earl (man and show) gets funnier and oddly more likable the worse he behaves, and the entire episode felt packed with gags that the writing staff had been saving up for the right occasion (the stolen artificial voice box, the photo booth bit, Randy's "I love stealing!"). How do I not remember that Tim Stack (as himself) lives in Camden County? His IMDb entry -- which, at the moment, has 63 acting entries, not 62 -- lists him in an early first season episode. Did I miss it, or did it not address the fact that it was Tim Stack as Tim Stack? I love that guy, and great to see him in the Notch Johnson costume again.

But the highlight -- especially in light of the "Pardon the Interruption" discussion below -- was them recreating the bear/trampoline video that Tony played, like, three times a week for most of 2005.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

The O.C.: You've got chutzpah. I hate chutzpah.

Spoilers for "The O.C." just as soon as I find my spare Torah scrolls...

Cancellation Salve Part 2: A very funny episode, particularly the Seth/Summer story. The bad way to go would have been for them to drag out their ambivalence for weeks, not having them tell anybody how they feel, and get increasingly pissy with each other. Instead, Ryan (not caught up in any major girlfriend drama right now) and Taylor (not a self-involved drama queen) trade notes, quickly rat Seth and Summer out to each other, and the story turns into a much sillier form of dysfunction. Favorite moment: Summer giving the Torah a violent shake after walking out of Taylor's room. (Close second: the Summer/Julie scene.)

The Frank/Ryan reunion plot was fine for the most part, though I'm still at a bit of a loss about how Frank has become so trusted by the Bullet in the six months he's been out of prison. Sorbo's also a little too smooth, particularly in the dinner scene. I get that he's turned his life around in the last eight years, but this felt like they pushed it further than they needed to so the faked illness would seem like a bigger sin. Also, Julie and Frank? No, please.

Willa Holland had to carry the Kaitlyn story, because the Very Special Guest Star (my ignorance of whom definitely puts me on the outer edges of the show's demo) brought absolutely nothing to the table. But it's a measure of my growing affection for the character (and/or Willa) that it still worked. With the end around the corner, all the Muppet Babies stories feel a little pointless, but I suppose we have to have one character still attending school somewhere.

Previews for next week look very promising. What'd everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Loudmouths

I'll get back to the episode reviews shortly, but I wanted to post the morning column link and ask a question about "Pardon the Interruption" for those of you who watch it.

The column deals with the continued lameness of "The Apprentice," plus the debut of MTV's "I'm From Rolling Stone" and the cancellation of "The O.C." A snippet:

New city, same blowhard.

Donald Trump's empire has been largely built on hype and an ability to outmaneuver his creditors, and in an attempt to hide from the rapidly-dwindling numbers for "The Apprentice," he's moved season six to Los Angeles. But the location wasn't the problem. The Donald was.

To read the full thing, click here.

Meanwhile, "PTI": While I usually shudder at the appearance of guest hosts, I've developed a weird fondness for Dan Le Batard since he started regularly subbing for Tony on Tuesdays during football season. His knowledge base is much better than Tony and Wilbon's combined, he doesn't mind playing the clown but can also be very thoughtful, and he and Wilbon have good chemistry.

This week, however, it's been him and Tony, and things have, I think, started to get ugly. I started listening to the "PTI" podcast a few months ago as a time-management solution (makes the commute go faster, gives me a chance to watch other stuff at home), which means I may be missing out on some visual cues, and what I'm interpretingg as ugliness could just be more banter.

Anyway, on Wednesday's show, Tony and Le Batard were already approaching "Around the Horn" volume while discussing Nick Saban's departure from the Dolphins. Then they moved over to the legal problems of so many players on the Bengals, and Dan suggested that in a violent sport like football, you need a few guys on your team who will live on the edge of lawlessness. Tony flipped out, and got so loud and angry that Dan even said, "I'm not in love with your tone right now" (though you could hear crewmembers laughing off-stage), and there was a hostile undercurrent to the rest of the show. Things seemed a little calmer yesterday, but Tony was still yelling a lot more than usual.

So am I misreading this, or is there a feud going on that StatBoy can't moderate? Click here to read the full post

The Office: No shirt, wrong e-mail, big problem

A very funny night of television last night, and I haven't even seen "Earl" yet. I'll get to "Scrubs," "30 Rock" and "The O.C." later this morning, but spoilers for "The Office" just as soon as I get a stray piece of tape out of my friend's hair...

She doesn't know. She doesn't know. Jan has no idea. Genius. Absolute freaking genius.

I think we had all guessed that Jan was on the other end of Michael's Christmas party call, but poor, poor Jan. Not only does she have this unhealthy fixation on Michael, now her stupid therapist is telling her to embrace her self-destructive tendencies. If the guy ever met Michael, he would tell Jan to run far, far away. When Kevin started asking her about her tan and she floated the Arizona line, I thought she was desperately trying to deny her presence in the picture, and that we would see her tear into Michael in private (she can't fire him over this, because that would be sexual harassment), but she doesn't know. I love it.

I also love the speed with which Darryl got that e-mail circulating. Packer got it, like, two seconds after Michael sent it to the wrong address, and Toby got it from nine different people ("including my ex-wife, and we don't talk"). Darryl's never liked Michael, and he's had a particular grudge against him ever since he trashed the warehouse in "Boys and Girls." Revenge is a dish best served topless. Or something.

But for me, the funniest moment of the episode was the capper to what had been shaping up to be the sweetest scene: Dwight comforting a sobbing Pam, acting the most human he has ever, ever been on this show, followed by "So you're PMS'ing pretty bad, right?" Beautiful set-up, perfect pay-off.

A few other thoughts and quotes:

• What was that bit about Darryl's iPod? I thought it might be explained in the deleted scenes on NBC.com, but the only stuff there is about the postcards Michael sends Pam from vacation and Dwight listing all the pranks Jim pulled on him in the last week.
  
• Speaking of which, nice teaser with Jim running the sales meeting and totally messing with Dwight's tape recorder. Hell, even Phyllis got involved before Andy had to go and ruin it. However, it feels a little off for Jim -- who keeps vowing that he's going to stay away from old patterns, even though he backslides -- to be so openly mocking of Dwight while running the office. Funny, though.
• Did anyone else feel like Michael's sad shuffle to his office to confront Jan needed to be accompanied by the Charlie Brown music?
  
• Hannah the new mom quit over Christmas break, which leaves Karen and Andy (and, technically, Jim) as the only Stamford people left.
  
• "That's all I'm gonna say... sex... sex... we had sex... I had sex with her..."
• Pam's always so good at quietly undercutting Michael's foolishness, in this case with her line about Jamaica being an impoverished country.
• Why does Kevin get to keep the poster?
  

So what did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Friday Night Lights: Why Timmy can read

"Friday Night Lights" spoilers coming up just as soon as I figure out what to name my Jewish speed metal band...

Ah, so good to have it back, and especially on a night when I was feeling down about the end of "The O.C." Sure, "FNL" isn't likely to make it to next season, but on a night when I was mourning one intelligent teen drama, it was nice to have another to turn to.

First things first: I'm going to figure out a way to work "I'm crippled, and I want to listen to Nirvana!" -- or other variants, like, "I'm crippled, and I want to eat some fro-yo!" or "I'm crippled, and I want to watch Rocky III!" -- into everyday conversation. "This place is not well-built!" has joined "Is that something you might be interested in?" in my conversational dustbin, and this seems a good replacement.

Liked the montage of Street getting ready in the morning; it reminded me of a similar bit on "Ed" where we saw Eli get dressed. (Though, of course, Chill Mitchell is really paralyzed, where Scott Porter could go run track tomorrow if he wanted.) I have to assume that the "dirty, dirty, dirty quad porn" video was the reason for the vague parental advisory at the start of the episode, and I'm happy the show is dealing more with the realities of Jason's situation, even if the discussion is yet another "Murderball" lift. (The actor who plays Herc is a little too hammy, but his comment about Street's unit looking out for him by going limp was almost as funny as the Nirvana line.)

Riggins and Landry as new BFFs felt more TV-ish than the show usually gets, the sort of thing done not because it feels organic but because two underused characters need something to do. (Speaking of which, what the hell was that preview with Tyra for next week? Until I freeze-framed it, I thought that her abusive dad was Coach Taylor and the woman being abused was Tami. Very weird.) Still, both Crucifictorius and the stigmata-themed band names were hilarious, and I like Landry, so I'll deal.

(Another Riggins question: did I hear Tami right that he's taking the same class as Julie? Isn't Rigg a senior like Street, and Julie a sophomore, maybe a junior at most? Not that it's going to be an issue unless last night's ratings were a huge leap up, but I wonder how the show would have dealt with Tim, Jason and Lyla leaving school after the first season.)

How in the world is the show going to contrive to keep Coach from taking the U of Texas QB coach job? Better pay, bigger stage, not all of the pressure is on him, etc. On the other hand, since Mack Brown has already played a Dillon booster back in the pilot, will they have to cast someone else to play him? Or will he slip in some line about having an identical cousin who lives in Dillon?

The meat of the episode was obviously the non-triumphant return of Pa Saracen. Even with the long shot the director used on Tim hugging his dad, you could see the relief overwhelming him, the mistaken belief that his father was going to save him from this hell he had been living in. Turns out daddy just made things worse. His family is absolutely falling apart, his son is being asked to do things no 16 year old should have to if he has a father in the picture, and he doesn't want to come home? No. I'm sorry. No. I understand believing in a cause and the idea of finishing a job you started, but these are extraordinary circumstances.

So, does Taylor take in Matt? And, if so, is that the contrivance that keeps him from making the leap to college? Click here to read the full post

End of The O.C.: Try the veal?

Press release excerpts from Fox:

The sun will set for the last time on THE O.C. when the series ends its four-season run Thursday, Feb. 22 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. The countdown has begun, with all-original episodes airing from Thursday, Jan. 4 through the last episode on Feb. 22.

"THE O.C. Season Four finale will also be the series finale. This feels like the best time to bring the show to its close,” said Josh Schwartz, creator and executive producer of THE O.C. “Thanks to the hard work of our cast, crew and writers, we have enjoyed our best season yet, and what better time to go out than creatively on top. It has been an amazing experience and a great run. For a certain audience, at a certain time, THE O.C. has meant something. For that we are grateful."

Not a shock, and if I'm doing the math right, all 16 episodes will have aired by Feb. 22. Josh was always a "Seinfeld" fan, so I suppose there's some (very) small satisfaction in knowing he's going out on a high note.

UPDATE: Just heard from Josh, who wanted to add this:

Part of my quote from the press release that didn't make the cut was "There has been some speculation about a Season 5 on another network but this feels like the best time to bring the story to an end". I felt better to go out now with the run we're having then try and move the show, etc etc. and maybe not be able to deliver the same level of quality. Teen dramas have a shelf life. We've had a lot of parties on the show, and so I've learned, best not to stay too late.

The ending will be fun and bring real closure to the series.

Click here to read the full post

Like school on Saturday

Two new ABC sitcoms tonight, two different columns to deal with them. First is "Knights of Prosperity," where seeing the Mick-less second episode confirmed for me how important he was to the pilot, and maybe how thin the joke is overall:

Mick Jagger is the funniest new sitcom star of the season -- but unfortunately, he isn't starring in a sitcom for very long.

Jagger plays himself as the celebrity target of a group of bumbling idiot thieves in "The Knights of Prosperity." That awful title is actually the show's third or fourth. It began as "Let's Rob Jeff Goldblum," then changed to "Let's Rob..." after Goldblum signed to do another show, and was perhaps briefly referred to as "Let's Rob Mick Jagger." Now, finally, we come to "The Knights of Prosperity," which is so bad that the characters complain about it as the name of their criminal organization. The problem is, their leader already had T-shirts printed up, so Knights it is.

To read the full thing, click here. Still, whatever long-term probblems "Knights" has, it's infinitely preferable to "In Case of Emergency," a show so terrible I spent half the review wondering if I'd been too hard on "The Class." Click here to read the full post

Not dirty enough

This morning's column reviews FX's "Dirt," which I did not like:

We have such a dysfunctional relationship with our celebrities and the coverage of them. We mock Britney and K-Fed, but we know more details about their relationship than we do about some of our closest friends. We complain that our society is too focused on the superficial, yet we make a hot seller out of the latest Nicole Richie anorexia story. In this age of obsessing about celebrities -- and wondering when our turn in the spotlight is going to come -- a great TV show could be made about our national addiction to the rich and famous.

"Dirt" is not that show.

Produced by and starring a badly miscast Courteney Cox as a tabloid magazine editor, it's the first outright catastrophe of FX's post-"The Shield" era. The cable channel has specialized in building absorbing series around characters who, on paper, should be despicable. So either a tabloid editor is too far down the evolutionary ladder, or the execution is a failure. While presiding over "Stars... They're Just Like Us" isn't a ticket to spiritual fulfillment, I don't know that it's any worse than being a dirty, homicidal cop or a womanizing plastic surgeon, so I'm going with bad execution.

To read the full thing, click here. Click here to read the full post

Welcome to the '07

Happy New Year, everybody! Couple of minor pieces of business before TV gets back to normal (relatively) starting tomorrow.

First, David Mills -- who you might remember from his writing for such shows as "NYPD Blue," "Homicide," "ER," "The Corner" and "The Wire," not to mention his own creation, "Kingpin" -- has joined the blogosphere under his nom de guerre, Undercover Black Man. A heavy emphasis on his love of funk music, and a lot of the early entries deal with the death of James Brown.

Second, what say you all on Dick Clark's continued involvement as an on-camera presence on "New Year's Rockin' Eve"? I'm torn. On the one hand, he invented the thing, his ability to keep appearing on it has been the prime motivator in his rehab, and in general I find it shameful the way Hollywood treats the old and infirm. On the other hand, the stroke has eliminated the smoothness that was the bulk of his appeal as a TV personality. (His canniness as a producer was his greatest asset overall, though.) Given my own experience with stroke victims, his speech isn't likely to improve much past where it is now, and his rhythms overall were so off that he was 3 or 4 seconds behind both the graphics and the crowd on the countdown to New Year's.

Ah, to hell with it. It's not like he's a Supreme Court Justice trying to hang on into his late 80s; this is a New Year's Eve countdown show, and it's his thing. As long as he wants to do it, I say let him.

What say the rest of you? Click here to read the full post