Watching Sitcoms

What in the world is happening? What? Is? Happening? I mean it, how can this be? Look, I watched the second ep of Gary Unmarried this morning. As it turns out, I already watch two shows between 8 pm and 9 pm on Wednesday, Bones and America’s Next Top Model, so I can’t DVR or watch a third at the same time. So anyway, I had to watch Gary Unmarried on the CBS site, like last week, and as I will have to next week, should I decide to ever, ever watch it again.

Last week I was pleased that the show was simply humorously funny and not just about sex. I even overlooked the fact that the opening scene was Gary having sex with a woman he barely knew. I’ll never understand that. Why in the world does someone want to gave sex with a total stranger? If you ask me, that’s just completely icky. But I didn’t let it bother me cause I thought the show was funny otherwise.
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As this season is drawing to a close once again (didn’t this just happen a few weeks ago? No, wait, that was a strike) and most of the shows I watch are going into hibernation for the summer, I did a little sleuthing to see what was what. So here’s a really, really, really (and I mean, really) comprehensive list of all the shows on TV right now, what’s coming soon, and what’s never coming back, from the Futon Critic. I’m amazed at this list. It must have taken forever to put that together and I’m glad all I have to do it link to it.

Anyway, I’m pretty disappointed about a couple of things. First of all Moonlight. They promised me it would be back. Well, maybe not promised, maybe I just assumed it would be back. But it was cancelled. Also, Fox kept Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and cancelled New Amsterdam. It’s like no one even listens to me when I talk.

As for sitcoms, Back To You was cancelled, which is no surprise to me. It had been going downhill ever since it came back after the strike. Also cancelled, and no surprise, were Miss/Guided, Welcome to the Captain, Cavemen, Carpoolers, The Return of Jezebel James and Unhitched. I kinda liked Miss/Guided.

Of all those new sitcoms that came out way back last Fall, we did get to keep my fave, The Big Bang Theory. The last few weeks have seen me laughing out loud, not something I do often, and I’m looking forward to the show coming back even funnier next Fall.

So you’ll want to to check out the list to see if your fave shows are returning or if they are going the way of Moonlight. *sigh*

I’ve been watching the new episodes of Back To You. Like anyone else, I’d been looking forward to the new eps, even if just to have something to watch after the dry spell of the strike. But then, they weren’t as funny as I thought they would be. Maybe I was asking for too much, expecting more because of the long wait.

Don’t get me wrong, there were some funny moments, but they definitely seemed to be going for the easy laughs. And by that, I mean one episode centered on the death of an older news reporter, and Kelly (Patricia Heaton) is asked to do a eulogy, although she has no idea why. What everyone else knows and she doesn’t is that the man had told everyone they were having an affair. There were just a lot of cheap shots using the words of her eulogy. One bright spot was when Chuck (Kelsey Grammer) offers to babysit Gracie (Laura Marano), who doesn’t know he is really her father. The chemistry between the two of them is lovely to watch.

Then, in the last episode, entitled “Wall of Fame,” sportscaster Marsh (Fred Willard) throws a party, vaguely in Chuck’s honor. Gary (Ty Burrell) and Ryan (Josh Gad) spend the entire episode wandering around Marsh’s home gazing at racy pictures of Marsh and his wife, painted like murals on the wall. Kelly, meanwhile, notices she and Chuck in an intimate embrace in the background of a photograph hanging on Marsh’s wall. She spends the entire time trying to hide the picture so no one else will see the incriminating evidence.

Honestly, I’m not even sure what the outcome was, because I sorta lost interest and started doing something else. But the saddest part for me was that this episode was conspicuously missing weathergirl Montana (Ayda Field) and had a new actor as Gracie. I don’t know who she was, because I can’t seem to find anything, outside of chatter on forums, that explains why or with whom they replaced Laura Marano.

If you ask me, it’s a real shame, too, because as far as I was concerned, Laura’s interaction with Kelsey was pretty much the only highlight of the new episodes and the one thing I was interesting in watching develop on the series.

Back To You is back tonight. It starts off a couple of new eps at 9:30 pm ET on Fox, immediately following American Idol. The same exact scenario repeats tomorrow night. I’m happy about this, because even though it wasn’t my fav new sitcom of last season, at least its new.

Another sitcom coming back tonight with a new ep is Carpoolers. It’s on ABC and will air opposite the new ep of Back To You, which poses a slight problem anyone who wants to watch both. Thankfully, the world has DVRs. There’s another new ep of Carpoolers next Tuesday as well.

I see that the premiere of the mid-season sitcom, Unhitched is going to be this Sunday, March 2, at 9:30 pm ET on Fox, as well. So even more newness.

Somehow I missed the fact that Welcome to the Captain, which airs on CBS on Monday nights at 8:30 pm ET has been on the air since February 4. I blame my husband. I mostly I just forgot cause I’ve been forcing myself to watch Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. But I’ll catch it online here.

Although it’s not a sitcom, I have been looking forward to the premiere of New Amsterdam, and now I don’t have long to wait. It airs next Tuesday, March 4 at 9 pm ET on Fox also following American Idol, so apparently The Powers That Be at Fox want it to do well as much as I want it to be good. I guess we’ll both see.

At least we’re being saved from all the repeats and reality shows.

Alright, I’m tired of this now. I just want my shows to come back on so I can watch them. The strike has gone on too long to be interesting anymore. And what’s more, I was trying to think about it, and I can’t even remember everything I was watching. Honestly. I’ll have to go look it all up just to make sure I don’t miss any of the shows when they do come back on. If ever.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve found out so far (all times are ET):

Tuesday, January 1
10 pm - Law and Order SVU - NBC

Tuesday, January 8
9:30 pm - Carpoolers - ABC

Friday, January 11
9 pm - Moonlight - CBS
9 pm - Monk - USA
10 pm - Psych - USA

Sunday, January 13
8 pm - Sarah Connor Chronicles - Fox

Tuesday, January 15
8 pm - American Idol - Fox

Saturday, January 26
Torchwood - BBC America

Wednesday, January 30
9 pm - Lost - ABC (I also saw somewhere that it wouldn’t start until Feb. Although, Jan 30 is pretty close to February, isn’t it?)

Friday, February 22
8 pm - Bones - Fox

I understand that The Big Bang Theory won’t be back until next season, since they have aired all the shows they had that were shot and they don’t have any new eps written, nor will they have until the strike ends. *sigh* I believe January 11 is also the last ep they have for Moonlight until next year as well.

I couldn’t find out anything about House, Supernatural, Reaper or Back To You.

So if anyone has any info I’m missing, please share.

Christmas has been keeping me really busy. I’m sorry I haven’t updated in a bit. In any case, I decided it was a good time to take a look into news on the strike - although, honestly, I’d rather not know.

One thing I uncovered that was kinda cute is this blog with the text of a letter from the writers of How I Met Your Mother. Clearly, they are just as unhappy as the rest of us.

Further investigation uncovered some exciting news for me. Apparently, on December 4, 2007, while I was shopping or baking or something, Les Moonves, President of CBS, announced that both The Big Bang Theory and Moonlight, possibly my two favorite new shows, will be renewed for a second season! Of course, that’s provided that the writers strike does eventually end and they can go on with the present season. I’m pretty happy, though, cause I really was worried. Not so much for Big Bang, cause that seemed like everyone liked it right away, but definitely for Moonlight, which definitely has a much smaller target demographic.

One of my other very fav new shows is Chuck, which was picked up for the rest of this season. (You know, the one that’s not really happening right now?) So that was more good news.

Checking out the other couple of sitcoms I’ve been watching, Back To You will be back to us in late March and finish out the season. There’s been no word on a second season. As for Carpoolers, it was greenlit for 13 eps and 6 aired. But there’s no word on whether or not we’ll ever seen any of the remaining 7 episodes. Or any others for that matter.

Well, at least I’ve still got my DVDs. (Except my DVD player has been starting to skip . . . but Christmas is coming, so you never know.)

How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Moonlight, Chuck, Carpoolers

Last week was kind of sad, with lots of reruns. I was pretty busy, so it wasn’t terrible, but still, I could have been happier. So I did a little research to check out the shows I’m watching and to see what’s happening over the next couple of weeks. Here’s what I found out:

For Mondays, NBC’s Chuck has new eps for at least the next two weeks. Yay!! And as I mentioned before, The Big Bang Theory on CBS is done for now. Sigh. Samantha Who is still on going with new eps at ABC, probably cause it started so much later, but I don’t care anymore. I didn’t even bother to watch last week.

On Tuesday, Bones and House (Fox), Reaper (the CW) and Law and Order: SVU (NBC) are all new eps this week; but only Reaper and SVU get new eps next week. So that’s both good and bad.
Carpoolers has fallen right of ABC’s schedule. It’s being replaced this week by Charlie Brown Christmas and next week by America’s Funniest Home Videos.

Back to You, Fox on Wednesday, is already into repeats, as we know. But I actually watched it again last week anyway, which even surprised me. America’s Next Top Model is, obviously, still showing new eps. But they’re down to the last few weeks as well.

On Thursday, both Smallville and Supernatural on the CW are repeats for the next two weeks. Boo!

And for Friday, my new fav, Moonlight isn’t even on, not even for repeats over the next two weeks. Other programming is just taking over the CBS Friday night lineup entirely.

Just for fun, here’s an Ausiello report of the 20 things He’s Thankful for this year. It’s worth it, just for the link to the Veronica Mars trailer, so check it out.

Chuck, The Big Bang Theory, Samantha Who, Bones, House, Reaper, Law and Order: SVU, Back To You, Smallville, Supernatural, Moonlight, Ausiello Report

To keep going with the sitcom stereotyping, if you go back a few years, women were actually portrayed as the weaker sex, and as needing the strong male role model. Look at I Love Lucy. She was always getting into scrapes and needing to be saved by Ricky. (”Lucy, you got some “splaining to do.” Insert your own fake Cuban accent.) Now, compare Lucy to Raymond (this has apparently become our standard sitcom, against which all others are judged), who plays the buffoon to his strong wife, Debra. Although, that might just be Patricia Heaton, cause she pretty much emasculates Kelsey Grammer in Back To You, as well.

How about looking at parents and children. There used to be shows like Father Knows Best, Leave It To Beaver and Happy Days where the parents were shown as actually being a little smarter than their children. As actual authoritative figures. Compare those shows to something like Married With Children or Aliens in America. I’ve already commented on how obnoxious and annoying the parents came across on that show. I suppose you could argue that the parents of today’s shows are part of the Me Generation (which as far as I’m concerned is a label for the Baby Boomers, and which should not be confused with Generation Me, a label now applied to people born in the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s, but only cause they are even more selfish than we Boomers and want the title for themselves) and as a result, they are more self-involved than the parents of the 50s. That probably started with Michael and Elise Keaton. Clearly, Alex P. was much more evolved than his parents. (But then they were all Boomers, right?)

Obviously, it’s a new world and maybe kids are smarter than they used to be. So what examples can you think of that prove or disprove my point?

I Love Lucy, Everybody Loves Raymond, Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, Kelsey Grammer, Father Know Best, Leave It To Beaver, Married with Children, Family Ties, Alex P. Keaton, Micahel J. Fox

I watched all four of my chosen sitcoms this week and pretty much feel the same way as last week. I am ready to drop Samantha Who at this point, cause I’m just bored.

Its unfortunate that because of the strike, The Big Bang Theory and Back To You will be done after this week. At least for the time being.

I thought Big Bang Theory was great again. I loved that they centered on Rajesh and that we got to see him interact with Penny more. He’s nearly as funny to me as Sheldon, albeit in his own silent way. I’m confronted each and every week with something I know I would do or say, which makes me feel even more of a geek than I already do. And yet it’s a good thing. I think.

Carpoolers was pretty funny this week as well, and I loved the little bit at the end, with the video of them smashing into the cash machine. Especially when Gracen’s bat hit Dougie where it really hurts and you see him dancing around in the background. We had to rewind that and watch it a few times. I really liked that not one of them could keep the secret about the car fire. It makes them into people you know are really good at heart. I think I might actually miss this show when it’s gone.

Although Back To You had its moments, I didn’t think this ep was as good as some of the other eps so far. I was kinda sad, too, cause my husband has been wanting to watch it for a while and he picked this ep. It won’t leave a big hole in my life or anything, but I am a bit sad it won’t be on again for a while.

So, any ideas? What sitcoms out there should I try to catch the reruns of while the strike lasts?

Samantha Who, The Big Bang Theory, Back To You, Carpoolers

All is not lost. I might have been panicking too soon. Here’s today’s Ausiello Report. It has a pretty complete list (which is what I was looking for yesterday, actually, but couldn’t find anywhere) of how many episodes different shows still have in the pipe line. It appears that many shows still have anywhere from 4 to 8 more eps to air, which, by my count puts us to at least the end of the year. I mean, Christmas is only 6 weeks away. Not even, actually, as six weeks from today is December 26 and that’s the day after. Plus, as I already mentioned, many shows go on hiatus during the holidays anyway.

Of the shows I care about: Back To You has 3 more eps to air; Reaper has 2 to 4; Supernatural 4 to 6; Bones, Chuck and House each have 5; SVU has 7; Carpoolers, Samantha Who and Lost have 8. I don’t see anything here about Big Bang Theory or Moonlight, but I would imagine they are at around the same, maybe 4 more. Which, if you don’t count next week (cause its a holiday week and the networks will probably be showing stuff like Charlie Brown Christmas instead) means that most of the shows I like will be airing through at least mid-December and beyond. I’m actually OK with that. I get much busier as it gets closer to Christmas anyway and then I have all these tapes of shows I don’t have time to watch.

Also, I’ll probably get some full-season DVD sets for Christmas (they are on my list and Santa loves me cause I’m such a good girl) so I’ll probably be busy for a few weeks just with those. Actually, this whole thing isn’t really upsetting me as much as I thought it would. I’ll still try to keep you all updated though, cause I have to have something to blog about.

Ausiello Report, Writers Strike, Back To You, Reaper, Supernatural, Bones, Chuck, House, Law and Order:SVU, Carpoolers, Samantha Who, Lost, The Big Bang Theory, Moonlight

I’ve been trying to keep up with what’s happening with the Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) Strike. It’s only been a week, and already some sitcoms (just after the late night talk shows) are feeling the impact, which is sad.

One affected adversely is The Office, as Steve Carell is also a writer for the show. It makes me think I should go get the DVDs and start watching it. I know I’m weird. The show is off and now I wanna watch it.

I’m particularly unhappy about The Big Bang Theory, which I am really enjoying so much. I hadn’t realized that sitcoms were missing from my life until I started to watch it this year and now . . . I’m losing it so soon. Other stopped sitcoms include Back To You, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Rules of Engagement, Two and a Half Men and ‘Til Death. So what if I never watched them. Someone did, I’m sure of it.

Desperate Housewives is done and the premiere of 24 has been postponed. I believe I read somewhere that Lost was good, as all the eps had been written, which makes me a bit more happy knowing I have that to look forward to. Although some actors won’t cross the picket lines to shoot, so who knows.

The only up side I can see is that many shows go on a hiatus over the holidays for other programming anyway, so maybe we’ll all be too busy roasting turkey and making cookies to realize what’s gone until January. A girl can hope.

Writers Guild of America Strike, The Office, Back To You, Big Bang Theory, 24, Desperate Housewives, Lost

I’m just as happy with Big Bang Theory this week as I have been. It’s just funny. I love Sheldon as much as ever, too. He’s so wonderfully anal. I loved the Doctor Who reference, since I’m a huge fan, and I loved when he kept saying, “Every Saturday since we’ve moved into this apartment . . . .” His single-mindness is awesome. Plus, I really, really loved this exchange with Penny:

Sheldon: It’s Halo night.
Penny: Well for Penny, it’s dancing night.
Sheldon: Do you go dancing every Wednesday?
Penny: No.
Sheldon: Then it’s not dancing night.

Even though the ep was about sex, again, they did a good job because they still managed to keep it clean and funny, rather than crude. I like that. Another line I liked: Sheldon: Where do I begin? Leonard: It’s up to you, crazy person’s choice. *giggle* I’m gonna be so very sad when this thing has to go on hiatus because of the writer’s strike. I hear it will happen soon, too.

Carpoolers was also pretty good this week. I loved the whole Joanifer thing. Like when she appeared and the dark clouds followed her, and when Marmaduke backed away into the bushes to avoid her. I’m glad that Laird finally figured it out and din’t go back to her. They made it funny, but you see it happen all the time when people go back into abusive relationships and it’s not a joke. Besides, we like to see Laird as the swining single guy, right?

Back to You was OK. They did not take my advice and show more of Gary, so I’m a little mad at them anyway! The best part for me was when the named the kid “Xander” and his mother was Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel). I love when stuff like that happens. Meaning, Buffy stuff. I like to see anyone from Buffy in anything else, cause I love those guys! *sob* Plus, since my husband went to school in Pittsburgh, it was fun watching Montana not be able to say Monongahela. From what I’ve read, this show is gonna be another one to feel the pinch of the strike soon.

I’m less and less interested in Samantha Who? I want to like it, but I’m kinda bored.

The Big Bang Theory, Carpoolers, Back to You, Charisma Carpenter, Samantha Who?, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel