Today’s era of webisodes can be categorized in a number of ways. Some are connected to TV shows like Heroes and Battlestar Galactica. Others are series that are basically a big “Screw you!” to the current state of television. And then there are those that are aired on the Internet as a test bed for a potential TV series.

Tease falls under the “test bed” category. Created by Peter Marc Jacobson (creator of The Nanny), Micah Goldman, and Michael Wormser for FOX Television Studios, Tease tells the story of young Marie (Lisa Jay — Days of our Lives, Everybody Hates Chris) — an aspiring writer who takes her story about strippers a bit too seriously (in other words, she becomes a stripper herself). The goal of Goldman, Wormser,  and Jacobson is to impress enough people with Tease to get it onto the mid-sized TV screen. Read the rest of this entry »

Due to a combination of lax parental oversight and just being kind of a weird kid, I spent what would now be called my “tween” years in a weird horror phase. From the age of about 9-12, or so, I rented every single Friday the 13th movie, every Alfred Hitchcock movie I could get my hands on, as well as other random horror films. This dovetailed with another obsession I had at the time — Nick at Night. I would watch Dragnet, Dobie Gillis, and Car 54, Where Are You? constantly — but as much as I enjoyed those shows, none of them ever came close to my absolute favorite: Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Since I was already familiar with his films, it brought me no end of delight to find out that there was a TV show that basically had 30-minute versions of Alfred Hitchcock movies. They were dark, scary, gruesome, and even funny at times. They were everything I wanted, and I got to see them all the time.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve missed a few weeks, but luckily nothing significant happened. There are now plans in place to ensure this never happens again, as we are training panda bears to write this column in the event I fail to (please don’t go extinct or anything).

• The big story of the week was the funeral for Michael Jackson, which turned into a star-studded three-hour event broadcast worldwide on way too many channels.
• Continuing his meteoric second coming rise, Neil Patrick Harris is tapped to host The Emmys.
• The group Little People of America have called on the FCC for a ban of the word midget on the airwaves, as the word is as offensive to them as racial slurs.
• Hulu is heading to the UK. The site is working on a deal to bring its wide range of streaming television across the pond.
• Sci Fi rebranded itself Syfy with the debut of new series Warehouse 13, and the world still thinks the new spelling looks stupid.
• Former House actor Kal Penn officially started his new job for the Obama Administration in the Office of Public Liaison. Look at that, a Hollywood star who actually gave up acting to pursue politics, rather than just talk about it constantly.
• In a bizarre but fun publicity move, Lost producers have asked fans to create a theme song for the show, which will debut at San Diego Comic-Con but probably not really on the show.
• Robin Williams is coming back to HBO to scream and yell a lot in a new special … wait a minute, is Robin Williams the Dane Cook of his generation?

We started this week off with the Super Bowl, which, despite having some of the worst commercials in recent memory, yielded some pretty great quotes. In fact, between that, The Office, Leverage and 30 Rock, this was a great week for quotes. Below are some of our favorites — feel free to post yours in the comments.

The Super Bowl

“The entire Office cast is assaulted by a strange Xerox repair man played by Conan O’Brien, and it becomes a special Law & Order SVU.” – Rainn Wilson explaining the special episode following the Super Bowl

“Not only has she never been to the Super Bowl, apparently she’s never been to Tampa.” – Bob Costas on seeing Hayden Panettiere’s ridiculous fur-lined boots.

“Stop Drinking!” – Duane Johnson to Al Roker after he screws up the name of the movie again.

“It turns into a car!” – President Obama, telling Matt Lauer just how tricked out his Blackberry is now.

Matt Lauer: “You got replaced [on the cover] with Jessica Simpson….”
President Obama: “Who is in a weight battle apparently.”

“You know they say TV will rot your brain? That’s absurd. TV only softens the brain, like a ripe banana. To take it all the way, we’ve created Hulu.” – Alec Baldwin in the best commercial of the night.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last night, I settled in front of my TV, excited to spend three joy-filled hours fast-forwarding through the Super Bowl to get to the commercials. Even though a few had popped up online in the days before the game, I avoided them to make sure I could have the “proper” viewing experience. I even made sure to have my 3-D glasses ready to go. I was all set for an evening full of awesome and needlessly expensive new ads, but then something weird happened: they all kind of sucked.

I honestly don’t even remember most of what I watched, since they were just so relentlessly mediocre. A few, however, stood out. The Alec Baldwin Hulu commercial, for instance, was hilarious. It, in fact, was the only ad I truly loved. I’m not here to talk about that though. What I want to talk about is the really messed up Doritos commercial that aired in which a man uses the power of Doritos to take off a woman’s clothes in the middle of a busy public street.

Read the rest of this entry »

Breathe. I know it’s been a long time since your favorite shows have been on, but you’re going to be OK. I’m sure of it. Well, almost sure, but since this post is about thinking positive, go back to that breathing thing.

If you are feeling that emptiness in the pit of your heart, that space that is longing to be filled with quality, scripted programming never before seen, you have at least a week to wait, perhaps a bit more. It doesn’t have to be spent pining away, sitting in front of your television with your remote, going blindly from one station to another, hoping upon hope you’ll click onto something that will give your life meaning. That won’t happen, but you can entertain yourself while waiting for your favorite shows to come back.

Read the rest of this entry »

There’s more to TV than television. Every year — heck, every month — there are more new Internet-only shows popping up online and in podcasts, and existing shows expanding their worlds in the same way. Here are some notable things going on in the world of webisodes …

Dr. Horrible available for pre-order

Big non-surprise of the day: I’m a huge Joss Whedon fan. So when I’d heard of his Dr. Horrible musical coming online, I didn’t hesitate to buy it on iTunes. Finally, though, the complete movie is coming to DVD and is available at Amazon.com for pre-order now. What’s surprising to me is that the run-time clocks in at 100 minutes — that’s longer than some feature films. The trio of videos released online only totaled about 40 minutes. What’s in those extra 60 minutes?

Anyway, I highly recommend the series, even if you’re no fan of musicals or Joss Whedon.

Read the rest of this entry »