Go On Will Go On
NBC hit a home run with Go On. The show stars Matthew Perry as sportscaster Ryan King, whose boss forces him to join the Transitions therapy group. Of course, Ryan feels that he does not need therapy and any attempt to convince people to agree with him fails because he keeps lashing out at everyone. For those who insist on making Friends comparisons, Ryan is Chandler Bing, if Chandler Bing suffered from clinical depression and was constantly sardonic. It is a little jarring at first, since Friends is still being rerun continually, but it works.
Ryan’s first Transitions’ meeting makes up a big part of the pilot episode. When he first arrives, Ryan takes his place in the circle and listens briefly to some of his fellow group members’ problems. He quickly gets fed up with the wallowing because everything in his life is a competition. Deciding to do something about this, Ryan pulls out a whiteboard and starts making a bracket that one of the group members dubs “March Sadness.” For someone to progress in “March Sadness,” they have to tell their sob story in 5 seconds and it has to be more depressing than their competitors. It is twisted that Ryan turns suffering into a competition, but for some reason it does seem like a feasible way to move on in one’s life. The winner was a Fausta, a woman who spoke mostly Spanish and lost both her husband and her son. As the winner, Ryan crowned Fausta with a pastry box that she now cherishes.
Sharon Osbourne is Leaving America’s Got Talent
After a dispute with NBC involving her son, Sharon Osbourne has decided to quit America’s Got Talent. Obsourne has been with AGT for six years. Her reasons for leaving NBC may be justified, but another change is going to be hard to handle. Sharon Obsourne wasn’t a great judge. She was too lenient with the contestants, even the terrible ones. She always wanted to be nice to the contestants and apologetic to the ones who had no talent. It may not have been reasonable, but it was part of the show. The AGT judge panel thrived on polarity. The other judges’ harsher personas have been at odds with Osbourne for her entire tenure. It was always good television. The classic arguments will be gone. The instinct of telling the men to “behave” will be gone. Howie Mandel is about to become AGT’s longest tenured judge and he has only been on the show for three out of its seven years. There is a huge possibility that a lot of the entertainment value will be gone from the show once Osbourne departs. Of course, it all depends on who replaces her, which has yet to be determined.
Cool TV Video of the Day: Celebrity Double Dare
If you thought the worst show Bruce Jenner has been on was Keeping Up with the Kardashians, you would be wrong. In 1987, someone decided to make a spin-off of the Nickelodeon game show Double Dare with Bruce Jenner as the host because nothing says acting like an adult more than the Sundae Slide. Fortunately, the show never made it passed the pilot stage.
Scott Baio and Heidi Bohay are the celebrity guests in the pilot.
Part 2 is after the jump.
Episodes: The Lincolns’ Relationship Slowly Recovers
This week, Episodes was very blunt and was filled with both serious and absurd conflicts. The show opens with Matt entering his house late at night to find his stalker, Labia topless in his kitchen. He is shocked that she even found a way into his house. Labia has a very calm response to Matt’s anger. She is very aware that Matt does not like her, but she does not care. She is just excited to tell him that she made cookies. Labia still thinks of Matt as a childhood crush who kept her spirits up when she had cancer. She uses her cancer as a way to get sympathy from Matt. Matt tries to calm her down somewhat nicely. He explains that she had cancer, but she survived and is now healthy. Under the circumstances, Matt has no problem screaming at her to get out of his house. She then says that she would die for Matt. He acknowledges, almost regrettably, that she did not die. Finally, Matt threatens to call the police. Labia promptly puts her clothes on and leaves. The beginning was not particularly relevant to the rest of the episode, but it did a great job setting up Matt’s bitter attitude that he would have for the rest of the episode.
Weekly TV Update: August 6
Each week we bring you stories from around the Internet that you might have missed.
Showtime ends Weeds and The Big C. The season finale of Weeds will air September 16. Date for The Big C have not been announced yet.
Comedy Central roast stalwart Jeffrey Ross offends with a too soon joke about the Aurora, Colorado shootings.
Nick Jonas may become a judge on American Idol.
According to The New York Post, Sharon Osbourne is quitting America’s Got Talent because NBC fired her son from Stars Earn Stripes.
Which new daytime talk show hosts will last? The Hollywood Reporter assesses the pros and cons of all the new daytime hosts.
Cool TV Video of the Day: You + Me= Us
Boybands were everywhere in the 90s, so MTV decided to mock the phenomenon with the fictional boyband 2gether and their rivals, Whoa! and Unity. 2gether’s “U+Me=Us” was the breakout single from the show.
The lyrics to “U+Me=Us” may be funny. However, they cannot beat (pun not intended) the hilariously inappropriate lyrics of Whoa!’s “Rub One Out.” (NSFW)
Cool TV Video of the Day: Dave Says “Don’t Blame Conan”
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Conan O’Brien hosted to The Tonight Show for a total of 7 months and was replaced by his predecessor, Jay Leno. Regardless of whose side you’re on, Conan’s last two weeks at NBC made for some great television. Not just on NBC, but on CBS as well. David Letterman took delight in tearing into Leno because he had found himself in a similar situation 18 years prior. In this clip, Dave warns that you can think whatever you want about NBC’s late night drama, but “don’t blame Conan.”
CBS’s Brady Bunch Reboot is a Bad Idea
The Brady Bunch Hour
Ignoring the terrible track record for Brady Bunch spinoffs and remakes, CBS has announced plans for a Brady Bunch reboot with Vince Vaughn as the executive producer. Instead of Mike being the Brady getting remarried and starting a new family, his youngest son Bobby will take his place. Unlike the original, which ran from 1969-74 and rarely mentioned Mike’s dead wife or Carol’s ex-husband, the new Brady Bunch will feature Bobby ex-wife, his new wife’s ex-husband, and, of course, their children. While the basic premise of the latest Brady Bunch remake sounds decent, connecting the new show to a series that has not been relevant since the 1970s is a bad idea.
Whether it was first run or syndicated, everyone who has been a child from the early-70s onward has found memories of watching The Brady Bunch. Some people related to having a parent remarry and finding themselves with step-siblings. Others knew what the Bradys were going through when their dog Tiger ran away. Young girls were jealous of Marcia when she got to take her idol Davy Jones to the prom because they would never get to meet their celebrity crush, whereas boys wished could be Bobby just so they could meet Joe Namath. The show is clearly stuck in the 70s, but the themes and events are those that every generation of kids either experiences or wishes would happen to them.
Wait! What's A Dial? 