Watching Sitcoms

I know I haven’t been writing about sitcoms too much lately, which is a little sad, since this site is called Watching Sitcoms. I guess there just aren’t too many sitcoms that I like to watch anymore. Maybe there never really were. At least not anytime in the last few years.

There are a couple I still watch, every week, even though I don’t always talk about them, and they are The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother. The last couple of weeks were repeats, and so is this week, which makes me unhappy, cause I do miss them when they aren’t on.

I think part of the problem why I haven’t been blogging about the eps, which were great, is that Mondays are a very busy night. At 8:00 pm, I’m also watching Chuck, House, The Bachelor and The Secret Life of the American Teenager. I’ve basically been DVRing two shows upstairs (Chuck and House) and two shows downstairs (The Bachelor and Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother). I have to DVR The Secret Life when it repeats at 10:00 pm. Of course, I also watch Heroes and True Beauty on Mondays (or at least I DVR them and watch them at some point).

So what that all means is that I end up watching The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother on Tuesday and Wednesday during my lunch hour when I come home from work to eat. So I’m downstairs and not near the computer. I should take notes so I can blog later, but I never do, cause I’m eating.

And that’s really my entire story about why I don’t talk about sitcoms too often. I’ll try to do better.

So I sat down and wrote out a complete schedule of all the shows I want to watch coming up in the next few weeks and I realized something.  I’m not gonna be able to do it.  There just isn’t enough time in the day for it.  Especially since I went back to work full-time.  *sigh*

Here’s the breakdown:

Mondays (7 hours)
8:00 pm - Chuck (NBC), House (FOX), The Secret Life of the American Teenager (ABC Fam), The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
8:30 pm - How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
9:00 pm - Heroes (NBC), The Bachelor (ABC)

Tuesdays - (4 hours)
8:00 pm - 90210 (CW), American Idol (FOX)
9:00 pm - Fringe (FOX)
10:00 pm - Law and Order: SVU (NBC)

Wednesday (2 1/2-3 hours)
8:00 pm - American Idol (FOX), America’s Next Top Model (CW)
9:00 pm - Lost (ABC)

Thursday (4 hours)
8:00 pm - Bones (FOX), Smallville (CW)
9:00 pm - Kitchen Nightmares/Hell’s Kitchen (FOX), Supernatural (CW)

Friday (4 hours)
8:00 pm - Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (FOX)
9:00 pm - Dollhouse (FOX), Monk (USA)
10:00 pm - Psych (USA)

That’s over 20 hours of television. There is no way I’m fitting that all in, still working full-time, maintaining two blogs and having a life besides. Some shows are gonna have to go, but I just don’t know which ones. Monday is the worst. I was just coming around to being OK with the fact that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles had been banished to Fridays, mostly because Monday’s wouldn’t be so crowded anymore. Then they moved both House and The Secret Life to the same time slot on Monday. So now its gonna be even harder.

I guess I’ll just have to watch some shows online, since I can only DVR two things at a time. But when will I have time to watch these other shows. They kinda frown upon that sort of thing where I work. (”Gee, boss, I’m sorry, but I didn’t have any other free time to watch The Bachelor. I didn’t think you’d mind.”) *sigh*

I think I’m a TV junkie. I may need help.

New stuff is coming!! Maybe I get too excited about TV, I don’t know, but I can say that I’m happy that some new shows are coming. Well, not actually new, but returning shows with new episodes. And one new show that I care about, anyway. But that’s not until February.

Here’s how the week starts out:

On Monday, January 5, 2009 at 8:00 pm (ET) The Bachelor is coming back to ABC. I’m not a huge fan of reality TV, but some shows I just love and this has turned into one of them. I’m not even sure why. Maybe it’s all the stupid hot chicks. I guess it makes me feel good to know that they really are idiots. I mean, it wouldn’t be fair if they were all beautiful and young, with great bodies, and smart, too!

Also returning on Monday (more…)

A friend was over Monday night and watched The Big Bang Theory with me.  She commented that it is one of the best shows on television to come out of the last few years.  I have to totally agree with her.  Especially, as far as sitcoms go, since its the only one from the last two years that I am still watching.

This week’s episode was, once again, good.  I guess I have to stop talking about how Sheldon has stolen the show away, cause its pretty much a given at this point.  So this week, Sheldon finds himself with an admirer, although he doesn’t seem to understand what is happening.  At first.

Before too long, (more…)

I was talking to some friends about shows we watch in common, and it was pointed out to me that I watch a lot of TV. I didn’t really think so, well, I guess I did, but I didn’t think it was that noticable. Anyway, it got me to thinking about (more…)

So sorry I haven’t been around for a bit. The problems between Time Warner and LIN Broadcasting were really crimping my style. As it turns out the only sitcoms I watch are on CBS (The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, Gary Unmarried). So that was a real problem. I needed to wait for someone to upload the shows and then I had to find time to watch them other than the time they are actually on, and then I had to care enough to talk about them.

I’ve also been sick for the past couple of weeks. In a bad way. When you add all that up, it basically meant no blogging for me. But the good news is that we have CBS and the CW back!! Yay!! I didn’t think I would miss them so much, but it really messes up your schedule.
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Once again, as always, The Big Bang Theory pulls off a funny, smart episode. This week in “The Griffin Equivalency,” Raj Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar) has been named as one of People Magazine’s 30 Visionaries Under 30 Years Old. Unfortunately for his friends (but fortunately for the rest of us), he lets it go to his head.

At first, the guys are less than supportive and feel badly, except for Sheldon, who doesn’t seem to comprehend the nature of the honor done to Raj. So they go to invite Raj out to celebrate, but on the way insist that Sheldon at least act happy by smiling. But when he does, it is, as Howard comments, “terrifying.” Leonard tells Sheldon, “we’re here to see Koothrappali, not kill Batman.”

Sheldon decides that they should get new friends, since Raj doesn’t seem to want to be part of their group anymore. Well, he actually talks about making a new friend, and he tells a story about when he was young and he wanted the perfect pet. A griffin. He didn’t let the fact that griffins are imaginary get in his way, and if only his parents would have gotten him some eagle eggs and lion semen, he knew how to make one.

Raj gets more and more annoying about his great honor. He gets drunk and asks Penny to go to the People party with him. She wants to go to support him, since she doesn’t understand why the guys are being so unsupportive. Then she figures it out.

At the end of their “date” Raj takes Penny back to his apartment and introduces her to his parents over the computer. They fight a little over the fact that she’s not Indian, while Penny keeps insisting that she and Raj aren’t on a date.

Raj does come to his senses the next day and apologizes to Penny (although its not easy for him to say anything to her when he’s sober), but Leonard sees them hug and, of course, gets the wrong idea. Poor Leonard.

Clearly, the writers of The Big Bang Theory have realized that Sheldon (Jim Parsons) steals the show each and every week. I say that because this week’s ep, The Barbarian Sublimation, basically took everyone else out of the way, for the most part, and focused on Sheldon and Penny (Kaley Cuoco).

The only part where the other guys really came into the show, was when they mixed corn starch and water and made it do this funky dance on a stereo speaker covered in plastic wrap. It was very cool looking, by the way, and I wondered, as I was watching, how many people were going to end up killing off their own stereo speakers trying to do the same trick.

The episode was especially interesting in that Penny and Sheldon usually don’t have a great relationship and in this episode, they are shown to have a better understanding than previously. Penny is upset because everything in her life seems to be going wrong. Sheldon comes to her rescue, unwittingly, of course, and introduces Penny to online role play gaming, the Age of Conan. (One fun scene is when Sheldon uses the phrase “afk” and has to explain to Penny that it means “away from keyboard,” but then he is confused when she responds with “Oh, I see” and repeatedly asks her what it stands for, thinking she is saying “oic.”

Anyway, Penny gets completely caught up in gaming, as Queen Penelope, and stops doing anything else. She gets more and more sloppy, even ending up with Cheetos in her hair (which she eats when she finds!) She so annoys Sheldon with her constant reliance on him, that he even registers her at an online dating site, trying to get her interested in someone. It doesn’t work out, though, when the guy says, “she doesn’t look anything like her picture.” (Leonard, “That always happens.”)

Penny keeps up with her gaming, even ignoring Leonard’s attempts to intervene, until Howard, in the game, approaches her and asks her to go get a flagon of ale at a virtual tavern. Penny accepts and then, suddenly realizing what she just did, closes the computer abruptly and she’s done.

Thanks to LIN Broadcasting, I no longer have CBS (or the CW) on my TV. They decided to have a disagreement with Time Warner. Apparently, when the contract ran out, since they had not come to an agreement, they pulled their stations. They suck.

What makes me even crazier is that LIN Broadcasting is going around trying to say this is all Time Warner’s fault, when its not. The fault lies entirely with LIN Broadcasting, who demanded more money from Time Warner and then chose to pull the channels from Time Warner’s line up during negotiations. Time Warner doesn’t want consumers to have to pay more money for channels that we can get for free, and I totally agree.
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Have I mentioned how much I love The Big Bang Theory lately? Have I? OK, maybe once or twice. Its just that its so funny and I love funny.

The ep starts out with the guys coming back from the Renn Faire, all dressed in costumes. Sheldon (Jim Parsons) is a monk, Leonard (Johnny Galecki) is a knight in chain mail, Howard (Simon Helberg) is a court jester and Rajnesh (Kunal Nayyar) is (what looks like) a medieval page. Sheldon is all concerned that the Faire is not historically accurate. I have to say, that this is one of the things that always bothers me, too. Not necessarily at a Renn Faire, but just in general, like when I see a TV show or movie or read a book and they play around with historical accuracy. So, of course, I think Sheldon is amazing.
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This year, because I’m a huge glutton for punishment, I decided to watch Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles again. I watched all of last season, but I really didn’t like it, cause it seemed like every ep was exactly the same. Lots of things blowing up and terminators smashing things. Look, I’m a big fan of blowing stuff up, but I do like a bit of a story line to go along with the blasts.

Last year, I didn’t think Sarah Connor lived up to even that minimal goal. But since I’m a fan of the movies, plus the fact that I like Summer Glau, (oh, and the glutton thing above) I thought I’d give it another chance this season. And, honestly, it’s not that bad. I’m not saying its masterpiece theatre or anything, but this season, three episodes in, I’m really enjoying it. I’m interested in what’s going to happen next.

Maybe I was just too hard on it last year, maybe I expected too much. I did notice that there aren’t as many explosions this year, so maybe that’s it.

One little issue that’s going to cause me a problem is that Monday nights suddenly got full. Last week The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother both started their new season on CBS at 8:00 pm and 8:30 pm, and this coming week Chuck starts back on NBC at 8:00 pm. With Sarah Connor on Fox at 8:00 pm, I’m gonna have to choose, since I can only DVR two things at once. And I can’t watch another station when I’m DVRing two different shows. It’s gonna get tricky.

Maybe I can go somewhere else and watch Sarah Connor.

It was great to see the Big Bang Theory again. How I missed it, let me count the ways.

The episode was packed full of funny lines and very full of story (all meat, no fillers). What was even more great (even more great?) was that the show seemed longer than half an hour, cause of all they covered, and yet too short, cause I was ready for more.

It was so perfect. I especially loved the scene with Sheldon and Wolowitz, “Will you go to sleep?” “I’m trying, I’m counting catwomen.” And then Sheldon counted, in order, his favorite X-Men. (Mine would be Wolverine, Rogue, Cyclops, Beast, Professor X - well, that’s the top five anyway). Oh, also, “I’m Batman.” You’ll just have to go to the site and watch the ep to understand the context, but believe me, the lines were great.
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I’m so excited cause Big Bang Theory will be back on Monday, September 22, 2008. Finally a sitcom I can watch and talk about instead of all these other shows I’ve been reviewing, cause, well, I have to talk about something, right?

Not only is Big Bang Theory back starting at 8:00 pm ET, but CBS is also following with the season premieres of How I Met Your Mother, Two and Half Men and the series premiere of Worst Week. I know where I’ll be Monday night.

This is actually a big week for the sitcom, as Wednesday night, September 24, marks the season premiere (also on CBS) of The New Adventures of Old Christine at 8:00 pm ET, and the series premiere of Gary Unmarried at 8:30 pm ET. They are joined on Wednesday nights by the already started Til Death at 9:00 pm and Do Not Disturb at 9:30 pm on FOX.

Then on Thursday, September 25, we have the season premiere of My Name is Earl on NBC at 8:00 pm ET, followed by another new episode of Earl at 8:30 pm ET, and then the hour-long season premiere of The Office at 9:00 pm ET.

I know people keep saying the sitcom is dead, and maybe that’s true of the good old fashioned family sitting in the living room with their TV dinners watching together kinda sitcom, but perhaps there’s a new form of situation comedy for now.

Another new show that’s premiering this week, which is not a sitcom, but I wanted to mention anyway, is The Mentalist, which airs on Tuesday, September 23 at 9:00 pm ET on CBS. Apparently, its the story of a former fake psychic who uses his heightened observation abilities to assist the police in solving crimes. Can you say Psych, anyone?

On CBS, there are a few returning sitcoms and two new ones.

One new comedy is Gary Unmarried, which premieres on Wednesday, September 24 at 8:30 pm ET.  The show stars Jay Mohr and Paula Marshall.  Gary Barnes is a recently single painting contractor, who, after 15 years of marriage to his controlling wife, Allison, now faces post-divorce life as they each embark on new relationships and share custody of their two children, played by Laura Marano and Ryan Malgarini.
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It’s getting to be about that time again. August is almost upon us and we begin to wonder when our favorite shows are going to start back up in the Fall. Well, I am anyway. The absolute best list ever, I mean the absolute most comprehensive list anywhere around is found at The Futon Critic, right here. They have lots of other lists, too, showing all the new shows, all the old shows, on every single network, and when they are starting, how many eps there will be, or just showing the fate of some shows that are never to be seen again.

It’s an amazing undertaking and I give them a lot of credit, cause I don’t know how much time and effort it must take to compile such a list. But luckily for me, all I gotta to is link to it and then I get to share all that info with all of you.

I am going to give a quick rundown of the shows I’m excited about seeing, and when they start, but you really, really ought to go check out their list. I’m in awe of it.

So here’s my list of the shows I’ll be watching (all times are ET):

Wednesday 9/3
8 pm - Bones - FOX

Monday 9/8
8 pm - Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles - FOX

Tuesday 9/9
8 pm - Fringe - FOX

Thursday 9/11
9 pm - Kitchen Nightmares - FOX

Tuesday 9/16
8 pm - House - FOX

Monday 9/22
8 pm - The Big Bang Theory - CBS
8:30 pm - How I Met Your Mother - CBS

Tuesday 9/23
10 pm - Law and Order: SVU - NBC

Sunday 9/28
11 pm - Little Britain - HBO

Monday 9/29
8 pm - Chuck - NBC

I’m also looking forward to these shows, coming in 2009:
Dollhouse - FOX
Lost - ABC
Hell’s Kitchen - FOX
Torchwood - BBC America

But honestly, go over to The Futon Critic and check out their list. It’s incredible.