This week we learned of the passing of Ken Ober, who died at the very young age of 52. Over the last few years, Ober was a mainstay behind the television cameras, as producer of comedies like Mind of Mencia, and The New Adventures of Old Christine. However, for many of us who grew up in the 1980s, Mr. Ober was much more than that. To us, he was a resident  of 72 Whooping Cough Lane who presided over one of the best television game shows ever.

Yes, Ken Ober was host of MTV’s Remote Control.

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After the dramatic entrance of V last week, there were no similar big splash stories to lead things off this week. Then, as I was perusing the year-ago numbers, something occurred to me. It’s quite possible that FOX could improve both Monday and Thursday at 9:00 if they swapped Fringe and Lie To Me. If you look back to the initial Fringe run, it had a lot of success following House. In fact, while the House numbers are virtually unchanged from Tuesday to Monday, Fringe was holding much more of the House audience on Tuesday than Lie To Me currently is on Monday.

Example:
11/18/08: House (13.03m/5.5), Fringe (9.36m/4.2)
11/09/09: House (13.31m/5.3), Lie To Me (7.41m/3)

And that was against very similar competition. Both faced DWTS on ABC, which was pretty much a wash. NBC was greatly improved against Fringe with Biggest Loser (7.84m/3.3), as opposed to Trauma (5.35m/1.8). And CBS was mixed, with The Mentalist (15.83m/3.5) trailing the Men/Big Bang hour (13.62m/4.6) in the demo.

Now we look at where we are this season. Fringe did manage something of a rebound this week, finishing with (5.91m/2.2) on Thursday. That’s still a distant fourth place, and should find the show on the hot seat at the end of the season. It would, obviously, do better on Monday following House. The question is, would it do better than the (7.41m/3) that Lie To Me is currently offering? I think it would.

On the other side of that coin, while I’m not quite as confident about the move of Lie To Me to Thursday, I do still see the potential for it to outperform the current Fringe numbers. That bar has been set, after all, rather low. It would likely take a  hit in the move, but the end result would be that Thursday at 9:00 is stronger as well. Just something to think about. The usual numbers junk is after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Today we’re going to offer you, the tried-and-true CliqueClack reader, a two-for-one special. Not only will we be reviewing the latest set of webisodes from The Office, but we’ll also be giving away a sweet package, courtesy of NBC Universal Comcast (sorry, got ahead of myself there).

For the latest round of Office webisodes, the creators have taken a page from the continuing surge in everything musical, and whipped up a small story — a behind-the-scenes look, shall we say — about a music video produced at the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of Dunder Mifflin. Not a video by one of the hottest bands of today, like Bon Jovi or Ace of Base. Rather, this video was directed, written, and produced by two members of the D.M. staff.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Kelly Kapoor and Erin Hannon; otherwise known as the duet Subtle Sexuality.

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Another slow week for the current big network shows, but there are a number of interesting packages hitting the store shelves this week. First up — complete with some very cool packaging — is the complete collector’s set from G.I. Joe. You’ll also see complete series sets from Dawson’s Creek, Justice League, and Show Me Yours. My pick of the week is a series of sets from late-70s British drama The Sandbaggers. The Cold War shenanigans of MI6 are always a good place to start. The rest of the list is after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

The World Series was the big ratings winner last week, but with New York involved, everyone kind of expected that, right? What nobody expected — most notably ABC — was the success of the V premiere. The numbers weren’t just good. It was the highest rated scripted program on the network, topping the Housewives and Grey’s. Even better, the V demo rating was the highest for a scripted show on any of the networks.  Someone at ABC has to be kicking themselves for only ordering four episodes of V, while they continue to crank out more Hanks than they know what to do with. Read the rest of this entry »

This week I turn my attention to one of the most shocking and sad moments in the history of Lost. It was a huge turn of events, particularly for the character of Ben. It was nothing more than a simple “held at gunpoint” scenario that has been used many times before. However, this time it would be different. It was such a great moment because the writers and creators of Lost decided to buck all the conventions regarding the cliched scenario.

That’s right, I’m talking about the standoff between Keamy (from the freighter) and Ben that included Alex being held at gunpoint that was featured in the fourth season episode “The Shape of Things to Come.”

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For the past few years both Hulu and YouTube, now the grandparents of video-streaming sites, have been the main source for viewing shows from our childhood. While YouTube offers thousands of these shows, many of them are just clips — some of below-average quality — that rarely quench the viewers’ thirst. Hulu, on the other hand, offers full episodes, but not as much variety.

Recently (within the last year or so), two new video-streaming sites have gone online that cater exclusively to kids and, most importantly, our fat, near-middle-aged selves. For this column I thought I’d take some time and review the content on KidsWB.com and the brand-spanking new Jaroo.com.

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