I don’t know about you, but I totally related to Modern Family’s story lines tonight. OK, maybe not the baby killer one (we only had an acquaintance threaten to feed little Owen to the lions — not a good friend), but the other two? Oh yes.

I have fond yet annoying memories of my male friends coming over in my high school and home-for-the-holiday college years and not making it out of my father’s Mantown basement lair. You know I’m talking to you, Vinnie and Steffan — you came to pick me up and take me to a party, yet you spent all night playing pool, darts and computer games. This, my post-reading friends, happened on more than one occasion.

The anniversary gift fiasco, I must say, did strike a chord with me as well. You know, it’s their fault — if they would just cash in the coupons, they’d be a really good gift. Men. I’m off to shine my sapphire ring now. I know Keith is about to cash in that coupon for a free back massage anytime, but man, it’s like waiting for a slap bet.

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Or, put another way, is there only so much funny out there in TV land that if another success story shows up, or something already on the air gets better, everything else is destined to get worse?

Maybe it’s that as individual viewers we’re only allotted so much laughing in a week. I don’t know which is the case … all I know is that, week in and week out, some of my favorite sitcoms are consistently falling flat. 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 »

I have missed the Supernatural boat. Everyone tells me what a great show it is, but I’ve never taken the time. If this week’s lead quote is any indication, I sure am missing out. The week before the start of November Sweeps also brings us some good quotes from Modern Family and Community. Next week, however, I promise the return of Glee!

Supernatural

“You gotta calm down.” — Sam
“Calm down? I’m wearing sunglasses at night!! You know who does that? No talent douche bags! I hate this game! I hate that we’re in a procedural cop show and you want to know to know why … because I hate procedural cop shows! There’s like 300 of them on television and they’re all the freaking same. It’s, ‘Oh, plane crashed here.’ Oh shut up!” — Dean

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One of the things I love about Modern Family is that it’s not only quotably funny, it’s situationally funny. Like tonight, for instance — I roared with laughter through the entire cold open, but I couldn’t pick a quote from it, because it wasn’t the lines that made me laugh, it was the situations the characters were in.

From Phil getting manhandled by Jay (while he was enjoying Gloria and Claire hugging far too much), to Cam shooting the film, to Haley rubbing the battery on her head, there’s something special that happens when the entire extended family interacts. Therein lie the situations.

You want quotes? Let’s break it down to pairs of characters, because that’s where the rich quotes happened tonight.

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A combination of baseball and pre-sweeps repeats made for a bit of an odd week. Repeats don’t mean there aren’t numbers of note however. We had Jay Leno’s first shot against CSI: Miami and NY repeats, and a look at what running repeats on Friday does for FOX. That is, nothing good for Dollhouse season 3. Also interesting this week — The Mentalist finally topped CSI in viewers and the demo, and even a repeat Gibbs appearance is worth 16 million viewers. Read the rest of this entry »

Halloween week on TV always is fun. Costumes, parties, and horror stories, oh my! This week wasn’t all about the Day of the Dead, however. We saw Derek buck the odds (and his boss) and perform a miracle like surgery, NBC cancel my favorite new show of year (Favorite show not named Glee that is), and the folks from Supernatural meet their future counterparts. And its not even November Sweeps yet!!

Community

“Batman.” — Jeff
“Yeah.” — Abed
“Are you staying for the party?” — Jeff
“If I stay, there can be no party. I must be out there in the night, staying vigilant. Wherever a party needs to be saved, I’m there. Wherever there are masks, or there’s tomfoolery and joy, I’m there. But sometimes I’m not, ’cause I’m out in the night, staying vigilant, watching, lurking, running, jumping, hurtling, sleeping. No, I can’t sleep. I don’t sleep. You sleep. I’m awake. I don’t sleep. I don’t blink. Am I a bird? No. I’m a bat. I am Batman … or am I? Yes, I am Batman. Happy Halloween.” — Abed

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