FRIDAY FUN: Featuring the Crazy Cast from 'Scrubs!'

This is definitely the funniest comedy that you're not watching. Scrubs blends plenty of slapstick humor with a heavy dose of heart and wonderful characters. I recently discovered some great behind-the-scenes stuff on this fun show.

Ever wonder what it was like to film the show in front of a live audience last season for the first time? Star Sarah Chalke (Elliot) describes her experience and how it led to a cool summer job.

Click HERE to go to the nbc.com page with the link to her interview
(Scroll down to "Featured Video")

You can also view videos from cast members Judy Reyes (Carla), Neil Flynn (Janitor) and Ken Jenkins (Dr. Kelso) by clicking on that "Featured Video" link at the nbc.com page linked above.

The web site IGNFilmForce.com has a ton of cool Scrubs behind-the-scenes features including blog entries. In the most recent entry, you can watch Executive Producer Randall Winston answer fan questions from the mailbag and watch as Costume Designer Carey Bennett explains the difference between medical scrubs and the ones used on the show, including how you can get your own pair. There's also an interview with John C. McGinley (Dr. Cox):

An Interview with John C. McGinley
Ken P. goes in-depth with Dr. Cox.
by Ken P.

March 10, 2006 - John C. McGinley is one of those actors that you've seen in dozens of films, is instantly recognizable, and whose performance in any project is always solid as a rock.

Like the legendary character actors of the 60's and 70's - people like Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall, Roy Scheider, Ned Beatty - no matter how big or small the role, drama or comedy, McGinley brings a palpable intensity to any scene he's in.

As Dr. Perry Cox in Scrubs, he's brought to life one of the most loveably caustic characters to hit a television sitcom since the days of Ed Asner's Lou Grant.

He's also a tireless fundraiser for the National Down Syndrome Society, particularly in conjunction with their annual Buddy Walk.

Shortly before the start of the current fifth season of Scrubs, I had a chance to chat in-depth with Johnny C. (as he's known to his friends - though I'm sure he'll smack me upside the head for being presumptuous when I see him in L.A. next week) about his career, his philosophy, being a father, and much more.

To read more of IGN Film Force's in depth interview with McGinley, click on over to their site.

Don't forget that there are two exciting recent news items on Scrubs!
- You can now watch all of the current season's episodes of this hilarious show on iTunes. Each episode is $1.99, but you're certainly getting enough bang for your buck (or rather buck - 99). Click HERE to get iTunes free.

- NBC is giving you the opportunity to name Carla and Turk's baby! Just send in your name suggestion for a chance to pick the sex and name their impending bundle of joy. If your name suggestion is chosen, you'll also get a future character named after you! Click HERE for all the baby-naming details.

That's all for this edition of Friday Fun! Be sure to check back here Monday for the latest edition of Pass the Remote and next Friday for another installment of Friday Fun! Have a great weekend everyone!

Martin Turns a Corner and 'CSI' Rounds Up an Unusual Suspect! Plus a 'Model' Interview and a New Home for 'Race'

It seems that Martin may have finally turned a corner with his addiction to pain meds on Without a Trace. At least he's willing to admit that he has a problem and fixing it is not something he can do alone. Of course, it took Sam's constant checking up on him and her subsequent yelling session to get him to finally realize that he wanted help. I think with their history together, it's best that she turned him over to Danny. I liked Martin and Danny's scene together at the end of episode when Martin finally showed up at group. I thought the missing persons case was one of the best of the year so far. I found myself completely involved in Matt's plight, and I couldn't help but to feel such heartache for him and his siblings. He sacrificed everything so he could keep his brother and sisters together after their drug-plagued mother abandoned them. It's just so sad to watch these crime dramas and see all the different ways that drugs hurt the people who don't even use them. I'm just so happy that they found Matt unharmed and before he did anything to seriously jeopardize his future. I loved Viv's emotional connection with Matt, and I found it very appropriate that she was the one who took him down to booking. Loved, loved, loved when his mother's attorney asked Viv to wait so his client could see her son, and Viv just looked at him and shook her head. The last thing Matt needed was to see his mother in that condition. Overall, an excellent episode that managed to nicely blend Martin's battle with the missing person case.

CSI was excellent last night too, wasn't it? I really felt like we were members of the jury, and there is no way I could have convicted Marlon either. By the end of the episode, I really thought that Hannah had killed Stacy. The child prodigy had me convinced that she had motive, access to the necessary chemical, and the means to pull it off after she revealed that she had used a flat bed cart to move the body. I was as shocked as Sara when Hannah told her that she didn't kill Stacy. She made up her confession in order to keep her brother out of jail because she felt that the family treated him unfairly. Wow, just wow. I'm glad she wasn't responsible, though, because she does have a bright future. Like Sara, I was concerned that she wasn't going to turn out alright, so finding out that she was innocent was a relief. It's sad that Stacy's killer will never see the inside walls of a jail cell, though. That makes me kind of dislike Hannah a little. No denying it, though, the girl is smart and she played the justice system like a fiddle.


After she experienced emotional turmoil with fellow contestant Jade, Gina (left - photo courtesy UPN) fell to pieces on America's Next Top Model Wednesday night. It wasn't a huge surprise to see the judges send her packing at the end of the hour. The now 22-year old Gina talked about her feud with Jade to bloggers last night during a teleconference. "We were always kind of negative to each other. It's really unfortunate," she says. She and Jade may not have been close, but Gina says that she was close to Nnenna ("She was just a sweetheart to me") and Danielle. "She was supportive and always made everyone laugh. She always gave me tips on my photo shoots. She was really awesome," she says sincerely. Gina has a different impression of her dinner experience with Janice Dickinson. She says she was excited to get the chance to meet the supermodel and learn from her, but things didn't turn out well at the restaurant when Dickinson asked her who was giving her a hard time. Gina reluctantly pointed to Jade, and Dickinson sided with Jade. "I'm not the type to rat people out, but she was really persistent," she explains about the misstep. Gina also faced Madagascar hissing cockroaches for a runway show, something she calls a "scary" experience. "They were huge and they didn't give us much time to prepare for it," she says. She felt that the fairytale photo shoot was the most challenging, but the shoot where she had to go bald was her favorite. "I hope a lot of people, after seeing that episode, realize that they don't have to hide behind their hair to look beautiful," she explains. "A lot of people have this idea that you have to have hair to be beautiful." So, what does the future hold for the little girl who dreamed of being a model since she put on her mom's lipstick and heels? She says that she'd love to pursue modeling, but she always has her education to fall back on. She believes that Top Model was a great experience, and she'd like to take it and run with it. "I think if anything, I've grown into a tougher skin." America's Next Top Model airs Wednesday nights on UPN.

About Last Night...CBS won the first hour of the night with the return of Survivor, followed by NBC comedies Will & Grace (with special guest star Britney Spears) and My Name is Earl (r) and ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (After the Storm). At 9, CBS stayed in the lead with CSI, followed by a tie between ABC's American Inventor and NBC comedies My Name is Earl and The Office. The final hour of the night went to CBS' Without a Trace, followed by NBC's ER and ABC's Primetime. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - NBC's Deal or No Deal continues. Fox's The Bernie Mac Show returns from hiatus with back-to-back episodes.

@9 p.m - Robert Wagner, Hal Sparks and Brooke Burke guest star on a new episode of NBC's Las Vegas. Over on CBS, Annabeth and her office investigate a string of real-estate fraud cases involving a crooked developer on Close to Home. ABC's In Justice airs its first season finale.

@10 p.m. - The FBI investigates the murder of a female Iraqi activist on CBS' Numb3rs. Over on NBC, Finn gets dragged into a shaken baby case and the decision to pull life support from the infant on Conviction.

SUNDAY EDITION
@8 p.m. - Lilly and Jeffries reopen the 2002 case involving the death of a local cabaret singer on CBS' Cold Case. Adam Pascal guest stars and is reunited with his Rent co-star Tracie Thoms (Det. Kat Miller). I've heard through the grapevine that we'll be hearing Thoms sing in this episode. If you've seen Rent, then you know this is a real treat! Over on NBC, it's the night before election day on The West Wing.

@9 p.m. - Bree gets closer to her sponsor and faces off with Lynette and Edie and Karl have an engagement party on ABC's Desperate Housewives.

@10 p.m. - Chris O’Donnell, Mare Winningham and Laurie Metcalf guest star on ABC's Grey's Anatomy.



QUICK CUTS

*Mark your calendars and reprogram your VCRs because CBS' The Amazing Race is moving to a new night and time. The reality competition is moving to Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. beginning next week. CBS says that comedies Out of Practice and Courting Alex, displaced by the Race move, will return to the schedule at a later date. For the time being, reruns of the network's crime dramas will fill the Tuesday night slot that Race previously held. The Amazing Race airs its next episode this Wednesday, April 5th, at 8 p.m. on CBS.

*NBC is flipping Law & Order and Heist beginning next week. Law & Order will return to its previous slot on Wednesday nights. Since moving to 9 p.m. to make way for Heist, the show has struggled, landing in fourth place for the hour on the two Wednesdays that it aired there. Heist, which will move to 9 p.m., hasn't fared much better in its 10 p.m. slot, landing in third behind CBS' CSI: NY and ABC's The Evidence. The change takes effect this Wednesday, April 5th.

*And finally, CBS' short-lived dramedy Love Monkey is getting a new run on cable's VH1. The music channel will air all eight 1-hour episodes beginning next month according to a network spokeswoman. CBS aired three of the eight episodes before pulling it. VH1 will air those three episodes back-to-back on April 11th, and will air the others on a weekly basis beginning April 18th.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in Monday for thoughts on Cold Case and Desperate Housewives. Plus, all the latest television news. And be sure to check back here today for another exciting edition of Friday Fun where you'll go behind-the-scenes with the funniest comedy you're not watching. Stay Tuned...


SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

'Veronica' Goes to College! Plus 'Lost' in a Locke-down, 'Idol' and 'Model'

We're back at square one with the bus crash on Veronica Mars. Admit it, you thought you were smarter than the show when you thought you had it all figured out. Sure, Terrence looked guilty with hidden explosives located in the same place where he keeps his expensive cars, but the hanger belongs to Woody Goodman! Woody must be responsible for the bus crash, mystery solved, case closed. Ah, but Veronica Mars is never that simple. Last night we learned that Woody has those explosives to implode the old stadium. Of course, this doesn't eliminate Woody or Terrence as suspects, but it does make me revisit the possibility of other suspects just when I thought I had it narrowed down. You've gotta love a show that toys with its audience by pulling us in different directions all the time and keeping us on our toes. Speaking of keeping us on our toes, what role did the Fitzpatricks play in the bus crash, if any? Perhaps Felix's death and the bus crash are more related than we realize. In addition to the brief, important revelation about the explosives, we also learned that Logan didn't have the best of intentions with Hannah when they first met, but his feelings have changed. I didn't realize how strongly he felt for her until the scene where her father broke them up and then the subsequent scene where Logan finds out that Hannah has been shipped off to a boarding school in Vermont. Logan's deep feelings for her should have come as no surprise to me since I remember him falling very hard for Veronica as well. The character is definitely intense. In other Logan news, a hooker ("Escort, hunny") swiped Cliff's briefcase for some "man." Bad news for Logan since his case files were in there, and I'm leaning toward Dr. Griffith as the thief. Cliff was at an Ob/Gyn convention, so Hannah's doctor father probably had easy access to it. I know he made that deal with Logan, but he has to get the Fitzpatricks off his back somehow. I think Logan is headed for some harsh times ahead.

We also got our first taste of Veronica at college last night. Did you notice that she never solved the serial rape case? Could this be an indicator of what to expect next season? Will Veronica go to Hearst and find that more rapes with the same M.O. are going on and then work to solve the case? Or maybe it's something that the show visits later this season. Very interesting. I also forsee an interesting relationship between Veronica and the frat with the scoring system. I loved how she easily handled all those college boys! I wonder if Troy is sincere when he says he's reformed. It's hard to tell with him because he seemed sincere when he was playing Veronica for a fool, so, like Veronica, I will never trust him again.I know we're all sad that Arrested Development is pretty much dead, but how awesome would it be if both Michael Cera and Alia Shawkat joined the cast of Mars next season! Alia's character certainly has more story left, considering that her rapist is still out there, and I can see Michael's character becoming an interesting ally with Veronica. See, this is why we must get a third season! This was an excellent episode that gave us plenty to chew on and set up some interesting prospects for the episodes to come this season and next.

RANDOM MARS MUSINGS

1) Madison and (gasp!) Lamb?! That's awesome!
2) As was Veronica's hysterical reaction to seeing the two of them on the hotel elevator security tape
3) Keith and Cliff's visit to Sheriff Lamb was pure comic gold. How great was that campaign flyer?
4) Veronica's reaction to Keith's escort was so great
5) The Emmy nomination line and scene was pure genius. But then, what else would I expect from television's best written show?


Lost has been stuck in the land of ho-hum episodes lately. It started off the season with a bang, but lost its way somewhere between there and last night's excellent outing. I can only hope that this episode is a foretelling of what's to come for the remainder of the season. Henry Gale isn't really Henry Gale - he's just the man that stole the real Mr. Gale's identity after he probably killed and buried him. Which begs the question, who is the man in the hatch with them? It seems that he is a member of the Others, which means he more than likely knows all about the hatch. Did he cause the strange malfunctions because he knew that Locke would enlist his help? We know from the flashbacks that Locke wants to trust people, even if he shouldn't, so it was only a matter of time before he began trusting "Henry Gale." If "Henry" did cause the hatch malfunctions and then stopped them, why reveal that weird island map only visible under UV light (see it HERE at Pink is the New Blog, courtesy of this SITE)? This just plays further into the idea that this entire island is some sort of weird social experiment and the "Others" are the ones conducting it. It seems that they are toying with the survivors' minds more and more. "Henry" went back for Locke, but more than likely because he still needs to establish trust with him. I'm sure he never counted on Jack and Kate finding that food drop courtesy of the Dharma Initiative. I'm sure he never assumed that Sayid would dig up the buried body at the "balloon" site either. Are we even sure that's a balloon and not another food drop parachute? And who was the real Henry Gale? Did he really crash his balloon on the island? So many questions! I need answers!

The Idol Moment
You guys know that I love Lisa, but her performance Tuesday night was definitely one of the worst along with Ace's ridiculously phony version of "Drops of Jupiter." I definitely wanted Ace to go, so I was happy to see him in the bottom three, but not so happy when Ryan sent him back over to safe land. I had resolved myself to the fact that Lisa was going home, and felt that she deserved to after Tuesday's performance. BUT, I will never be OK with the fact that Katharine McPhee was in the bottom two! Bottom two!!?? Really people? I wasn't the biggest fan of her Christina Aguilera impersonation, but my gawd! The girl has one bad performance and you send her to the bottom two? For Simon's sake, Ace makes ears everywhere bleed every week and he gets to stay! This is why I teeter between liking and loathing this show. I feel like it morphs into a teeny-bopper popularity contest somewhere along the way, and that's the point when I start to lose interest. I can only hope that the serious wrong of Katharine in the bottom two will be righted next week.


The Model Moment
Gina (left - photo courtesy UPN. Not for use on other sites/blogs) is a very pretty girl. She has the whole model-look going on, but she just doesn't have her stuff together emotionally to last in a competition. We've been not- so- slowly watching her self destruct these past few episodes, but last night's meltdown after dinner with Janice, and how she let that stay in her head, was cause enough to send her home. I feel bad for Gina because she seems like a lovely girl, but she just doesn't have the confidence to propel her shoots, poses or anything else to the next level. Jade is back on my loathe list. I can't stand the way she badgered Gina and wore her down so badly that she basically ensured her own elimination at the judges meeting. I'm still rooting for Leslie, Brooke and Danielle. Oh and guys, I'm thinking that Nnenna is now available after her hot photoshoot last night! Just a reminder, I'll be talking to Gina tonight via a teleconference. If you have any questions for her, drop me a comment and I'll try to get an answer.

About Last Night...NBC won the first hour of the night with Deal or No Deal, followed by Fox's Bones and CBS comedies Out of Practice and Courting Alex. At 9, Fox took over with its combination of the American Idol results show and Unan1mous, followed by ABC's Lost and CBS' Criminal Minds. UPN's Veronica Mars beat the premiere of The WB's Bedford Diaries to land in fifth place. The final hour of the night went to CBS' CSI: NY, followed by ABC's The Evidence and NBC's Heist. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - Survivor is back on CBS, and tonight the tribes merge. Britney Spears guest stars on NBC's Will & Grace. Over on ABC, it's another Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (After the Storm) special. This time, the team travels to the storm effected areas of Florida.

@9 p.m. - A shocking confession throws a high profile murder trial for a loop on CBS' CSI. Over on NBC, Earl tries to cross off "made a kid scared of the boogyman" from his list on My Name is Earl. Julie Cooper gets engaged on Fox's The O.C.

@10 p.m. - Samantha works to uncover what's going on with Martin while the team searches for a missing bike messenger on CBS' Without a Trace. Over on NBC, police bring in two teenagers involved in an car accident, but all is not what it seems on ER.



QUICK CUTS

*20th Century Fox Television is now confirming that Arrested Development is over - for now. In a statement issued yesterday, the company says, "While there are no plans to resume production at this time, we know all too well from our experience with 'Family Guy' -- another brilliant comedy which didn't find its audience in its first network run -- that anything is possible." The statement follows the news from earlier this week that show runner Mitch Hurwitz would not continue with the show should cable outlet Showtime pick it up.

*And finally, you can now catch up on this season's episodes of NBC's Scrubs that you've missed! The hilarious hospital comedy is now available for download on Apple's popular iTunes music service. As usual, each episode will set you back $1.99. Scrubs, which is produced by ABC-affiliated Touchstone Television and airs on NBC, will be listed under the NBC storefront on iTunes, marking the first time that another studio's product will be listed under a different network's name. NBC is also releasing more shows on Comcast's Video On Demand service. To see a complete list, visit The Futon Critic.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for thoughts on the return of CSI and Without a Trace. Plus Gina's thoughts on her Top Model experience, and as usual, all the latest television news!


SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

NEWS FLASH: 'Veronica Mars' Has NOT Been Canceled!!!

From the good folks at mPRm:

There's a rumor on the internet that Veronica Mars is canceled. It's not true. Please help us spread the word. If you were on the Rob Thomas Blogger Press Conference yesterday, you know that he's planning for a third season. Season three is still absolutely possible with your support!



So tune in tonight, 9 PM, ET/PT on UPN.

So, be sure to clear your schedule tonight and tune in for an all-new episode of Veronica Mars! Creator/executive producer Rob Thomas calls tonight's episode one of his favorites this season! You can't miss this! We now return you to your regularly scheduled edition of Pass the Remote, so scroll on down for all the latest including breaking news on Prison Break, Commander in Chief, The 4400, and more from Rob Thomas on his show's upcoming move, the exciting season finale and thoughts on a possible change for season 3!

Teams Fall to Pieces on the 'Race!' Plus the Scrubies, 'Mars' ' Rob Thomas and Nielsen Wednesday

Monica from Team MoJo tries to complete the Roadblock (photo courtesy cbs.com)

Wow, this Race is certainly moving fast. The teams were not long for Germany, as they learned when they ripped open the first clue of this leg, and discovered that they were bound for Palermo, Italy. Once there, they would have to find the Teatro Massimo. You know the drill, each team left the Pit Stop in the order in which they arrived, and they all give us plenty of silly dialog that makes us mock them. Take Monica for instance; I love Monica, but it's never wise to tell us that the other teams underestimate you because they think you're the typical dumb blonde, and then follow that comment with a completely botched pronunciation of your next destination. Instead of Palermo, she gave us PALER-mo. Moving on, the teams quickly made their way to the airport where Team Slacker (Eric/Jeremy) and Team Hippie (do I even need to specify?) were goofing off with the wheelchairs as they waited for the ticket counters to open. Lake/Michelle decided to search for a computer and buy their tickets over the Internet. Team Hippie went along as well, but things went sour when Michelle couldn't read the German Internet. Team Hippie seemed to have no trouble and snatched the last two tickets on the earliest flight to Palermo, much to Lake's chagrin. He, of course, instantly blamed Michelle, but also revealed that he doesn't "do the Internet." I suppose that's Michelle's fault as well. Once the ticket counters opened, Team Slacker was able to talk their way onto Team Hippie's flight, but they weren't able to get on the same, earlier connecting flight that Team Hippie snagged over the Internet. Random TAR question, why do all of the teams have such a love affair with Lufthansa airlines? I mean it seems like a fine airline, but what is it that makes the teams automatically default to it? Maybe it's just a well-placed product placement, but my curiosity is piqued now, and obviously, TAR and Lufthansa have completed their mission. Anyway, Lake/Michelle had to settle for a later flight along with a group of other teams. Everyone was making their way to Palermo via different connecting flights. Lake almost burst a blood vessel when he found out he and Michelle were on a later connecting flight, but they were joined by the last group of teams. Once in Palermo, teams found their next clue, which had them driving 42 miles to Castellammare de Golfo to get their next clue. Lake/Michelle slipped out of last place when Team Double D stalled out on the stick shift. Soon enough, all the teams were heading to their next destination.

Once there, teams found this leg's Detour: foundry or laundry. In foundry, teams had to carry a 110-pound church bell to a special transport vehicle, they had to drive the bell to a church and carry it up a set of steps. In laundry, teams had to search more than 2,400 pieces of laundry hanging on clothes lines for a piece with the TAR flag on it. Team Hippie chose the laundry and quickly began searching it. They found the marked piece rather quickly and learned that they would need to travel 13 miles to the ancient city of Segesta and find the archeological zone and hike one mile to the Teatro di Segesta. The clue warned that there was a Yield ahead. Meanwhile, Team Slacker searched for a marked piece of clothing while Team MoJo worked on foundry. While they continued their search, the boys couldn't help but take a jab at Phil's turtleneck collection. Every time they came across a turtleneck, they joked that it must be Phil's. I'd be careful Team Slacker - Phil sees all. He already knows about your womanizing ways, but this, this could push him over the edge. You don't insult Phil and his turtlenecks! Anyway, Team Slacker found their clothing and began worrying about the Yield. Team MoJo (or rather just Jo since he carried the bell for about 80% of the task) completed foundry and began making their way to the next destination. Fran/Barry worked on laundry after searching for the clue box in a scene that was reminiscent of the one in Brazil. Soon they were heading off to the next destination as well. Team Nerds began working on laundry while Ray/Yolanda carried the bell. Ray's excessive strength propelled the team through the task, but Lake/Michelle and Team Double D were quickly working through laundry. Team Nerds was getting more and more frustrated as they kept coming up empty, but they finally came through with Lake/Michelle and Ray/Yolanda close behind. Team Double D struggled in last place, but suddenly found their marked piece of clothing and began their journey to the next clue box.

Team Hippie, meanwhile, had reached the Teatro and chose not to yield anyone. They encountered a Roadblock. In this Roadblock, one team member had to correctly assemble a classical Greek statue. What they didn't know was that there were two extra pieces. Oh that Phil, he's a tricky one! The tricky part didn't trip up Team Hippie as they raced through it and made their way to the Pit Stop in first place. Team Slacker was close behind and Team MoJo behind them. Monica "I'm not a dumb blonde" MoJo lamented herself for not realizing that the statue had two extra pieces. But, she wasn't the only one who didn't realize it. Team Nerds struggled and struggled, but just couldn't figure out how to make all the pieces fit. Meanwhile, Fran/Barry completed the task and cruised to fourth place. Lake/Michelle got turned around because Lake was convinced that the bright illuminated building was the Teatro (it was actually the Pit Stop), but it didn't matter much because they still reached the Yield mat before Team Double D and Ray/Yolanda, who had gotten terribly lost trying to reach the Teatro. Lake decided to yield Team Double D. The girls were extremely upset and cried while they waited for their time to run out. Meanwhile, Lake breezed through the statue building and he and Michelle landed in fifth. Team Double D took to the Roadblock after their sand ran out while Lori still struggled with the two extra pieces. Ray/Yolanda finally arrived and began working on the statue. Lori soon figured it out, and Team Nerds landed in sixth. Ray/Yolanda finished next and avoided elimination. Team Double D finally got the OK from the judges, but it was too late. The girls were eliminated from the race. What did you think of last night's episode? Were you glued to your TV sets at the edge of your seat? Drop me a comment with your thoughts.


Carla's finally pregnant!! There's going to be a Scrubs baby! And you can help name the child. NBC is holding a baby-naming contest. The winning baby name entrant will have a future Scrubs character named after them as well as the distinction of choosing the name and sex of Carla and Turk's baby. For all the details, click on over to nbc.com. In other Scrubs dealings, how funny was the electronic hide and seek game? Who knew Janitor was a track star in hurdles? And oh my gawd, Pizza Rolls are seriously the hottest things ever! I could totally relate to Turk. The baby-shaped balloons were hysterical as was the campaign to keep Carla from finding out that she was the only one who didn't know she's pregnant. I especially loved the wine scene. As usual, here's a look at last night's best, funniest and overall awesome lines with this week's edition of the Scrubies.

The Scrubies
"If I get one this little, everybody's going to think I'm gay." JD, spoofing the little dog myth, in a daydream sequence that found him at the Grandfather kennel

"My friend, we just Lo-jacked the janitor." JD to Turk after getting Janitor to swallow the electronic tracking device for the hide and seek game

"Abort the babies!" JD, referencing the baby-shaped balloons, to the crowd after learning that Carla would be upset if she learned that everyone knew about the baby before she did

"He's got you two by the short ones." Dr. Kelso to Dr. Cox and Elliot regarding JD's blackmail tactics to get them to agree to his plan to keep Carla from knowing that everyone already knew about the baby

"This plan is fool-proof!" JD
"That's impossible. You two are involved." Dr. Cox to JD and Turk, who subsequently bumped into each other trying to walk away

And the night's best line/exchange goes to.......

"We're having a baby!" Turk, who had his arm around JD, to Dr. Cox
"Red states be damned! I'm sure you're going to make great fathers." Dr. Cox

That's a look at this week's Scrubies. If you have a quote that you would like to nominate for a Scrubie, leave me a comment and I'll include it in a future edition.

About Last Night...Fox won the first hour of the night with American Idol, followed by CBS' NCIS (r) and ABC comedies According to Jim (r) and Hope & Faith (on its new night). At 9, Fox stayed in first with House, followed by CBS' The Unit and NBC comedies Scrubs and the debut of Teachers. The final hour of the night went to NBC's Law & Order: SVU, followed by ABC's Boston Legal and CBS' The Amazing Race. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - The girls get tips from Janice Dickinson and complete a seasonal photoshoot on UPN's America's Next Top Model. I've seen some advanced clips from this episode, and it looks like tensions are rising between the girls, especially Gina and Jade. Brooke struggles a bit with her photoshoot, and all of the girls are very excited to learn that they'll be working with male models this time instead of cockroaches. One of the girls gets a little too close to her model. Over on Fox, Angela fears that Brennan's latest case may be her boyfriend on Bones. NBC airs Deal or No Deal on a special night.

@9 p.m. - You guys trust Veronica Mars creator/executive producer Rob Thomas, right? I mean, this is the man who gave us this awesome show. Well, he told bloggers last night in an Online Teleconference (for more on that see today's Quick Cuts) that tonight's episode and next week's episode (episodes 16 and 17) are his favorites from the season! And, if you don't trust him, then you have to trust his parents. They concurred after watching the episodes on a recent visit with their son. So if you have never seen an episode before, you must click on over to marsinvestigations.net and get yourself caught up pronto! Then, tune in tonight on UPN and catch the latest episode with special guest stars Michael Cera and Alia Shawkat (both from Arrested Development). Tonight, Veronica gets caught in a rape investigation after running into someone from her past while touring Hearst College. I know what you're thinking, "but Lost is new tonight too and it's promising 5 shocking events!" People, this is why the TV gods invented DVRs and VCRs. Speaking of ABC's Lost, tonight Locke must enlist the help of an unlikely ally when the hatch takes on a life on its own and look for Katey Segal to return. Fox airs the American Idol results show with special guests Shakira and Wyclef Jean. And the WB premieres The Bedford Diaries.

@10 p.m. - A helicopter containing a liver from an organ donor is hijacked from the roof of a hospital, killing an intern in the process on an episode, that was co-written by series star Gary Sinise, on CBS' CSI: NY. Over on NBC, Mickey puts his plan further into motion by bringing in a getaway driver to test out an escape route on Heist. ABC's The Evidence finds Cole and Bishop trying to solve the murder of a boxer found dead in an alley following a fight.



QUICK CUTS

*Veronica Mars creator/executive producer Rob Thomas says that he's happy to follow Gilmore Girls when his show moves to Tuesday nights next month, even if the two shows aren't on the same network - yet. Thomas made the comments during an online teleconference with bloggers last night. He is, however, slightly concerned about the move. "I'm a bit nervous about all of our fans finding us," he says, but he also believes that Lost and Veronica Mars have similar fans, so moving his show out of Lost's path will hopefully help it. "We've done so much better when Lost is in repeats," he concedes. Thomas also discussed this season's big finale. "We're blowing out the bank on the season finale," Thomas says enthusiastically. "It's a big, big episode spanning the continent." And what about a season 3 on the new CW network, including a possible pairing with the aforementioned Gilmore Girls? Thomas says he's hopeful right now that his show will be back next fall. And if it does return, Thomas and his writing staff are mulling over the idea of three, shorter mysteries next season instead of the 2 overarching season-long mysteries of season one and two. Each mystery would be solved in roughly 7-8 episodes, allowing more fans to join in along the way. "People are leery of joining in [during the season] because they don't know the mystery. We want to welcome more fans in," he explains. Nothing is set in stone, including the show's pick-up, but Thomas is looking for fan feedback because he feels the fan support is crucial. "It is the passion of the fans and the press that have kept this show on the air," he says sincerely. Leave me a comment with your thoughts on the potential three, shorter mysteries season. Veronica Mars moves to Tuesday nights beginning April 11th on UPN. We'll find out if the show will get another season when UPN announces its fall schedule on May 18th. If you'd like to help the show get third season, click on over to marsinvestigations.net to learn what you can do.

*Fox's Prison Break is coming back for another season. The network announced yesterday that it's giving the hit thriller a second season. The show has been receiving good ratings since it returned March 20th, winning its timeslot in the 18-34 year old category.

*ABC is moving Commander In Chief when it returns to the schedule next month. The political drama will go from its crowded Tuesday night slot to Thursday nights at 10 p.m. up against CBS' powerhouse Without a Trace and NBC's still potent ER, but it will have the successful American Inventor as its lead-in. Commander In Chief will return Thursday, April 13th on ABC.

*When USA Network's The 4400 returns this summer, don't be surprised if you see a few flocks of birds hanging around. That's because actress Tippi Hedren (she of Hitchcock's The Birds fame) will be making a multi-episode guest appearance. The network isn't disclosing any details about her role, but it is saying that fans will be surprised. The entire original cast including Billy Campbell (Jordan Collier) and Katrina Lombard (Alana Mareva) will return for the show's third season. Lombard now will be a series regular. The show will return to its 9 p.m. Sunday night slot when it returns sometime this summer on USA.

*And finally, it's Nielsen Wednesday! CBS edged Fox for the win in total viewers (Fox had the edge in the 18-49 year old category). The Eye network was led by CSI: Miami (#4), 60 Minutes (#5), Two and a Half Men (#7) and The Unit (#10). American Idol (#1, 2), Desperate Housewives (#3), Deal or No Deal (#6), Lost (#8) and Unan1mous (#9) rounded out the top 10. To see a list of the top 20 shows, click on over to USA Today.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for thoughts on Veronica Mars and Lost. Plus the Idol and Model moments and all the latest television news!


SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

Welcome Back to 'Everwood!' Plus, Simon's New Show and 'Idol's' Star Power

So, Ephram loves Amy and he told her so after they sort of mistakenly slept together before the show's hiatus, and Amy still has feelings for Ephram, in fact, she believes that he is her "person," but she's not ready to enter back into a relationship with him because she wants to go off and have her Europe, but she still finds herself wondering if she should be with him. Oh, and Amy is concerned that they only have one more shot of making their relationship work, so she doesn't want to blow it if she's not fully ready to commit to Ephram because she's still so young. I think that about covers last night's Amy/Ephram report. You all know that I want these two together forever and have since the pilot, but I have a tremendous amount of respect for Amy's decision. She wants to go out and experience the world before she settles down with the guy she's more than likely going to spend the rest of her life with, and I think she's smart. She needs to know that she can do things for herself, have her own life and be happy with herself before she can commit to her happily ever after. She and Ephram will find their way, it's just going to take some time. I'm OK with this because I think it's the smartest move for both of them. I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that they can go back to being friends again because I love their friendship, and even Amy admitted that she misses him more than she expected. In other Amy news, I like the way the writers are having her open her horizons at college. The character is developing and growing from a teenager to a woman in the natural progression that most girls do as they enter college and break out on their own. It's just too bad that it's coming at the expense of her friendship with Hannah. That's another friendship I miss, so girls, you need to work through your sudden differences and go back to being friends. You both need each other!

In other Everwood news, Ephram is finally going back to the piano! The fear that the piano might not make him happy anymore, when it's the one thing he is still holding onto, was keeping him from sitting down and playing. But, that changed when he was forced to play after Will died. I think that scene at the house when Will's son asks Ephram to play and he finally agrees to do so is one of my favorite this season. It's just so poignant and meaningful. So, will the Abbotts adopt or not adopt? I loved Rose's example of what they could handle. She's right, though. Nina's not giving up on Jake and Andy's not giving up on Delia. I think the latter is just going through that tough age where you're not really sure where you belong and who your true friends are, so you get caught in a sort of unhappy limbo. And then there's Edna, who missed Irv so much that she started having mild panic attacks at the thought of him enjoying life without her. Silly Edna, she should know better than to think that Irv could truly be happy without her. Yes, it was good to have Everwood back. The best scene from last night had to be the one shortly after the first episode started. Hannah and Bright met up at Sam's to plan their afternoon, but before they could go very far with their plans, both of their cell phones rang, and this hilarious scene unfolded (I went ahead and uploaded the video because it's that good):

Click here to watch 'Everwood'

(Video hosted courtesy of Putfile)

Just a reminder, if you wish to see Everwood make the jump to the new CW network next season, click on over to my Save Everwood site to learn where to send you letters. The show had a so-so return last night in the ratings, so we need the letters now more than ever! What did you think about last night's Everwood doubleheader? Were you happy to finally have the show back? How about Amy and Ephram, are you OK with Amy's decision, or are you thinking she's crazy? Leave me a comment with your thoughts.

About Last Night...NBC won the first hour of the night with Deal or No Deal, followed by ABC's Wife Swap and Fox's Prison Break (which actually had more total viewers). The first episode of The WB's Everwood landed in fifth ahead of UPN's comedies. At 9, CBS landed in first with comedies Two and a Half Men (r) and The New Adventures of Old Christine, followed by Fox's 24 (which had more total viewers) and a tie between ABC's Supernanny and NBC's The Apprentice. The second hour of Everwood tied for fifth with the UPN comedies. The final hour of the night went to CBS' CSI: Miami (r), followed by ABC's Miracle Workers and NBC's repeated Heist premiere. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - Fox's American Idol shrinks down to 1 hour instead of its usual cumbersome 2 (serious happy dance time!) with the top 10 finalists.

@9 p.m. - Turk accidentally finds out about Carla's exciting news before she does on NBC's Scrubs. Over on Fox, House and his team race against the clock to find the source of a man's illness, but the clues point to a shocking answer on House. NBC premieres its newest comedy Teachers at 9:30.

@10 p.m. - The teams travel to Italy where things get crazy when they have to reconstruct broken statues on CBS' The Amazing Race. Over on NBC, rapper Ludacris guest stars as Fin is torn between family and "the system" on Law & Order: SVU. ABC's Boston Legal finds a rough day in court for Alan Shore when he experiences a horrifying condition that causes him to speak unintelligible gibberish.


QUICK CUTS

*NBC, Simon Cowell and the producers of American Idol are looking for America's talented people for a new summer reality competition. America's Got Talent will search for the most talented person in America with casting calls in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Atlanta next month. Cowell, himself, will make a special appearance during the L.A. casting call April 6th. According to executive producer Ken Warwick, the show is "looking for performers of all ages in every talent category in hopes of finding that next big name in lights." Look for the show to premiere sometime this summer on NBC.

*And finally, Shakira and Wyclef Jean are lending some extra star power to Wednesday's American Idol results show on Fox. The pair will perform Shakira's new single "Hips Don't Lie." Look for their performance and the results from tonight's competition tomorrow night on the live results show on Fox.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for thoughts on The Amazing Race and the Scrubies! Plus, all the latest television news! And don't forget today's your last chance to send me your questions for Veronica Mars' Rob Thomas and Jason Dohring via the comment link or email (tvfan08@yahoo.com). I'll be speaking with them tonight!


SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

Vera's Marriage Grows 'Cold!' Plus, Gaby's 'Desperate' Move, 'Bones' and TV on DVD

I always seem to enjoy the episodes on Cold Case that make good use of the year they take place. After all, what's the point of setting a case in the past if you don't utilize the year? This isn't to say that I don't enjoy the cases that tend to not reflect the year well, but I almost always like the ones that do. Last night's tennis-themed episode nicely incorporated the famous Battle of the Sexes match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, Title IX and other women's rights causes from the time period. It seemed very plausible to me that colleges would have staged their own Battle of the Sexes match-ups after Billie Jean King defeated former Wimbledon men's champion Bobby Riggs in the legendary 1973 match. What I love most about these more historic episodes is seeing the different attitudes. I know we have Title IX now, but even so, can you imagine a college athletic director saying the things that UPenn's (fictional) Arnold Brown said to Andi? Who, by the way, I totally pegged as the doer until we learned that he was dead. This show is not big on dead doers because it loses its whole sense of justice that makes it so strong, so I knew he was out. Even seeing Fritz's attitude about losing to a girl and how the match-up was a lose/lose situation for him was fascinating when you put it in today's context. It's amazing to think that this wasn't that long ago. Andi's dad was the typical overzealous parent, and I didn't want him to be the killer. I was very glad when we learned that he left her room angry with the still-alive Andi, although I found it kind of tragic that that exchange was their last. I know that had to be weighing on him all these years. There were subtle clues that pointed to the reporter along the way (his constant coverage of her, acting like he owned her at the alumni dinner and calling her "superstar"), but I was still surprised when Andi's father said that the caller called him "sport." Loved, loved, loved Lilly's interrogation with Eric. I don't know whether it's the writing or Kathryn Morris' brilliant acting or a combination of both, but Lilly's interrogations are always the best. She blends the right amount of intimidation, brains and understanding and I always enjoy watching her chip away at these suspects. She maintains control, but always seems to give the suspect the illusion that they have the upper hand because she appeals to their emotional side. The way she called Eric "sport" was priceless! Lilly seemed more together last night than she has seemed all season. I think she may have turned a corner emotionally. It was nice to see the old Lil back.


Nick Vera wasn't enjoying the same sort of emotional luck last night. After 12 years of marriage, plenty of fights, too many nights spent at hotels, and indescretion allusions, his wife finally reached the point where she had emotionally disconnected from him and their life together. It was one of those sad, honest moments that this show plays so well. You could feel that both of them were hanging on by a thread, but deep down, were ready to let go. They had pushed each other so far away that they reached the proverbial point of no return. It always seems that television shows present easy scapegoats when it comes to the end of a character's marriage (affairs, long hours, etc), but there really isn't anything simple about the end of a 12-year marriage. I liked the way this episode captured the complex nature. Major kudos to Jeremy Ratchford for his spectacular performance in this scene. He gives Vera a complexity that left me feeling bad for him when his wife dropped off his suitcase at work, even though we know that he hasn't been the most faithful husband. I hope that the show continues to delve into the complexities of Vera's situation without going down the Jack's divorce (Without a Trace) route. Bummer that the adoption thing is kind of off the table for now, but Vera's wife was smart not to let that keep them together. Things would have only gotten worse if they had brought a child into their crumbling marriage.


Speaking of adopting a child and bringing one into your marriage, Gaby and Carlos are a lot closer to having one of their own, or is that even further? Things didn't seem to be on the up and up in the closing scenes. Did anyone else get the impression that the birth mother is scamming them? Of course, it's not like this adoption is really all that legal anyway, but I think the deception goes much deeper than we know yet. I can't say that I feel 100% bad for Gaby, though, after all, she's the one who insisted that the birth mother be pretty. All of this mother's other qualities didn't seem to matter because she had a pretty outside, so Gaby's kind of making her own bed here. It's an interesting storyline, and I'm certainly looking forward to seeing how it develops. I'm also interested in Bree "I'm just not a compulsive person" Van De Kamp's struggle with alcohol. I'm hoping that her little jaunt in the department store is her rock bottom, and that she'll start to acknowledge her problem now. I could tell from their brief car conversation that something is going to develop between Bree and her sponsor (previews seemed to confirm it). He's so not her, but that's why I think this potential relationship could be a lot of fun. Lynette's new employee and her breast feeding creeped me out and Susan's antics were as silly as ever. Why doesn't she just own up to her feelings for Mike and be done with it? It seemed that he still has feelings for her as well. I guess we'll have to wait and see with this story. What did you think about each of the stories for the ladies of Wisteria Lane last night? How about last night's Cold Case episode? Feel free to drop me a comment with your thoughts on one or both of these shows.

About Last Night...CBS won the first hour of the night with the end of 60 Minutes and the beginning of Cold Case, followed by ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (r) and Fox's The Simpsons and The War at Home. The second hour of the night went to ABC's Desperate Housewives, followed by the end of CBS' Cold Case/beginning of a CSI rerun and NBC's Law & Order: CI. The final hour of the night went to ABC's Grey's Anatomy (r), followed by NBC's Crossing Jordan and the end of CBS' CSI/beginning of Without a Trace (r). For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - The WB's Everwood returns!!!! After more than three months, TV's best family drama returns with two back-to-back episodes. First, Amy and Ephram have to decide what their future holds after sleeping together during the last episode, and Jake and Nina face their biggest obstacle yet. Over on Fox, a face from the past haunts Lincoln on his execution day on Prison Break. NBC's Deal or No Deal rolls on.

@9 p.m. - Everwood continues with its second episode. Amy's new college professor and mentor encourages her to get involved with Planned Parenthood, so Amy tries to get Hannah involved as well, but it leads to a huge rift between them. Over on Fox, Jack Bauer interrogates the most recent link to terrorist mastermind Bierko and shocking secrets are revealed on 24.

@10 p.m. - NBC repeats the premiere of Heist.


QUICK CUTS

*Fox isn't making any Bones about it, the network wants to see more of its hit forensics show next season. Fox announced Friday that the freshman drama will get a second season. Bones has flourished in its pre-Idol slot, garnering more than 12 million viewers last week. On the flip side, The WB confirmed last Friday's broadcast of What I Like About You was the show's SERIES finale. It will not be returning for another season on the new CW network this fall. The comedy, starring Amanda Bynes and Jennie Garth, is the network's least-watched program with an average of 2.2 million viewers an episode.

*On the heels of its big return tonight, the cast of The WB's Everwood talks to Zap2it about this season's remaining episodes and its chances for a fifth season. Look for big things to begin happening with Hannah, a possible Abbott adoption and more on the Andy/Nina/Jake front. As far as the show getting a fifth season on the new CW network, star Tom Amandes is "concerned" since the show has not been given a definite pick up, a first for the family drama. You can read much more from the cast (including spoilers) over at Zap2it. If you would like to help Everwood get another season, click on over to my Save Everwood site for information on where to send your letters of support. Everwood returns tonight with back-to-back episodes on The WB. The new CW network will make its schedule presentation on May 18th.

*And finally, it's TV on DVD Monday! Look for Knots Landing (season 1) to hit store shelves tomorrow, along with Northern Exposure (season 4), Quantum Leap (season 4), Six Feet Under (season 5) and The X-Files (seasons 4, 5, 6). To see a complete list of tomorrow's releases, visit tvshowsondvd.com.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the all-Everwood edition! Plus, all the latest television news! And don't forget to send me your questions for Veronica Mars' Rob Thomas and Jason Dohring via the comment link or email (tvfan08@yahoo.com). I'll be speaking with them tomorrow night!


SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

FRIDAY FUN: Fun with 'Everwood' and 'Trace!'

It has been more than three long months since we have seen a new episode of The WB's Everwood, but the wait is finally over!! The show returns this Monday, March 27th at 8 p.m. with two back-to-back episodes!!! Mark your calendars, free your schedules and sit down and enjoy one of the best shows on television. And when you're done enjoying the Everwood charm, be sure to sit down and write a letter to help the show get another season. Click HERE to get all the details. While you're waiting for the first new episode in more than three months, check out this interview with the show's newest star Sarah Drew, who plays the self-conscious Hannah, from thewb.com.

Sarah Drew
Hannah Rogers

On making-up:

"I was all dolled up and I bumped into Greg Smith at a WB event and he walked right up to me and looked right at me and didn't recognize me because usually when he sees me for the show I'm the girl with the frizzy hair and glasses. So not the glamour look. The good news is I only have to spend thirty minutes in the makeup trailer. I just wear mascara, chap stick, put my glasses on and Hannah arrives."

On bridging the kissing gap:

"When Bright and I first did our kissing scenes it was so funny because our director told me I should think of myself as the librarian with the glasses flying off. He's like: I want hands flying. I want crazy, crazy passion. So basically I attacked him."

To read more of this interview with Sarah, click on over to thewb.com. And remember to catch Everwood this Monday from 8-10 p.m. and every Monday at 9 p.m. on The WB! If you need a quick refresher on where we left off, here's a brief recap of the last episode "Getting to Know You" from TV.com.

A very-much-in-love Ephram discovers that he has unwittingly become a "girlfriend" to Amy, but the friendship takes a turn for something more when a moment of intimacy leads to them waking up together the next morning. Meanwhile, Nina grows suspicious of Jake's recent strange behavior, which is further amplified when his brother, Brian (guest star Tom Parker), shows up unexpectedly. Delia takes up with the popular girls in school, which worries Andy. Also, Bright tries to rectify Hannah's low self-esteem issues. Lastly, Rose drops some startling news on Harold, which could drastically change their lives

Today's edition has a double dose of Fun. Those crazy kids over at Without a Trace are hamming it up for TV Guide's cameras this week. Check out these behind-the-scenes pictures from their latest cover shoot for TV Guide.

(From L-R) Eric Close, Poppy Montogomery and Enrique Murciano pose for their TV Guide photoshoot

Enrique Murciano hams it up with a TV Guide photographer

Close, Montgomery and Murciano get ready for the shoot

To see more behind-the-secenes photos from the shoot, click on over to TVGuide.com. And to read about how Martin will battle with his addiction to pain killers and how his friends come to his rescue, pick up the latest edition of TV Guide on newsstands now. Without a Trace returns next Thursday, March 30th on CBS.

That's all for this edition of Friday Fun! Be sure to check back here Monday for the latest edition of Pass the Remote and next Friday for another installment of Friday Fun! Have a great weekend everyone!

'Model' Talk, 'Earl's' Y2K and a 'Chris' Funeral! Plus an Edited 'Diaries' and a Live-Action 'Simpsons'

Kari poses for this week's fairy tale themed photoshoot (photo courtesy UPN. Not for use on other sites/blogs)

This week's elimination from America's Next Top Model left a lot of viewers surprised. Kari, an 18 year old student from Brookings, South Dakota, was sent packing over Gina. Tyra explained that Kari's first two pictures (including her first, in which she had to go bald) were great, but her third (above) just didn't cut it. The judges also weren't pleased with Kari's runway walk. "It was something that I didn't have any experience in, so I was really nervous about it," Kari said during a press teleconference with bloggers last night. She says that the show is designed to mold contestants into better models and she was 100% ready to be molded into a better runway walker. The judges felt that Kari wasn't exactly runway model material, and Kari admits that she is more interested in commercial modeling. "I'm not skin and bones. I'm happy with who I am," she concedes. Still, the 18 year old was disappointed when she was the one left without a photo, but she says she understands the process. "This is the sixth cycle of this show. They know what they're doing." Her elimination from the competition did give her the chance to go home, and the distance seemed to be bothering her during Wednesday's episode. Kari says the pressure, coupled with being away from home, started to weigh on her a bit, but she bounced right back. "There's up and down days. That day just pushed me over," she explains. And now that she's back home and off the show, what's next for Kari? "I'm open for anything. I'd be the first one to pack up and see what's out there for me," she says enthusiastically. Right now, she's back at school, but she says that she'd love to go into modeling or acting. "Whatever comes my way, I'm ready for it." America's Next Top Model airs Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. EST on UPN. Just a note, I'll be participating in most, if not all, of these ANTM Eliminee Teleconferences this season. If you have questions for any of the girls after they're eliminated, just drop me a note in that week's Thursday edition or send me an email anytime at tvfan08@yahoo.com


Last night's episode of My Name is Earl has to be my favorite so far. It out funny-ed the Christmas episode, which I thought was an impossible feat. What worked so well last night was that in addition to the usual hilarious lines, the overall premise of the episode was hysterical. In order to explain why Randy didn't want Earl to cross off number 24 (took red Take- a- Number machine), they had to take us back to 1999 on the dawn of Y2K and in the midst of the national panic that led up to the millennium. Darnell, the smartest of the group, explained that the computers were going to shut down and how that would lead to the end of the world. When the clock struck midnight, the power went out at Donny's sister's house, and they all assumed it was due to Y2K. In reality, the sister just hadn't paid her electricity bill and it was due to go out at midnight on January 1st. The crew decided to go looting, but heard grenades and bombs (read fireworks that they assumed was grenades and bombs), so stayed inside until the next day. They took to the streets, but didn't find a sole (everyone else was at the parade). When they arrived at a Wal Mart type store to loot it, they decided that since they were the only people left on Earth (or so they thought), they would just live there. It just got funnier and funnier as each person claimed their own section of the store and had to bargain for items not in their section until an all out war began. Randy quelled the hysteria by grabbing the red Take-a-Number machine and handing out numbers. Everyone was so impressed that they named him president. The next day, they woke up to find shoppers taking advantage of the January 2nd sale, and they realized that they weren't the last people on Earth. It was an excellent premise that was beautifully executed with smart writing and top-notch acting.


Why is it that the older we get, the more it seems that we only see most of our family at weddings and funerals? That latter was the case on last night's Everybody Hates Chris. Rochelle's father passed away suddenly while telling a joke at dinner and munching on a pork chop, which led Chris to declare that he's never eating pork chops again. Rochelle's extended family came to town, including her over critical mother, her weepy aunt and her never-held-a-job brother, to settle funeral plans. Chris explained that Rochelle's mother is even more of a ghetto snob than Rochelle. So when they got to the funeral parlor, she was sure to select that most expensive casket in order to keep people from thinking that they didn't have any money. Too bad Rochelle and Julius had to foot the bill. The funniest part of the episode came when the family was leaving to go to the funeral. Apparently, they had reserved one limo. There was a mad dash to the luxury car as Chris told us that come the day of the funeral, "there was only one thing left for us to fight over: Who gets to ride in the limo!" As usual, the humor was nicely blended with the more heart-felt as Rochelle finally got a hint of acceptance from her mother after she stood up to her. And Chris got his old mom back, which made him smile even if it meant getting yelled at for leaving his yo-yo out again.

About Last Night...CBS won the first hour of the night with its NCAA coverage, followed by ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition After the Storm and NBC comedies Will & Grace and My Name is Earl (r). At 9, CBS stayed in the lead with its second hour of NCAA coverage, followed by ABC's American Inventor and NBC comedies My Name is Earl and The Office (r). The final hour of the night went to NBC's ER, followed by ABC's Primetime and CBS' NCAA coverage. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - NBC's Deal or No Deal continues. CBS airs the NCAA Basketball tournament Sweet 16 round (begins at 7 p.m.).

@9 p.m. - Brianna becomes personally involved when she advocates for a man serving 30 years for stealing a case of vodka because it was his third strike on ABC's In Justice.

@10 p.m. - Billy has to prosecute a star rap producer charged with murder on NBC's Conviction.

SUNDAY EDITION
@8 p.m. - Lilly reopens the 1973 case of a young female tennis phenom who was murdered after beating a male player in a high profile battle of the sexes match on CBS' Cold Case (may start late due to NCAA Basketball coverage earlier in the day). Over on NBC, the Attorney General pressures Toby to reveal his source in the shuttle leak on The West Wing.

@9 p.m. - Gaby zeros in on a baby, Bree joins AA and Lynette's new employee has mothering issues on ABC's Desperate Housewives. Over on NBC, a crucial file in an ugly $20-million lawsuit may be behind the murder of a daring young man who was killed while trying to steal evidence on Law & Order: CI.

@10 p.m. - Jordan hears gunshots in her apartment building and finds a 13 year old with a gun in her hand standing over her father on NBC's Crossing Jordan.



QUICK CUTS

*You won't see the original version of the pilot for the new drama The Bedford Diaries when it premieres next week on The WB. The network edited out two scenes, one with two girls kissing and the other with a girl opening her jeans, in an effort to avoid fines from the Federal Communications Commission according to the show's executive producer Barry Levinson. Levinson says he doesn't blame the network saying, "We don't believe the show should have been edited, but the network is very fearful of what the FCC has been doing recently," alluding to the recent hefty fine waged against CBS for an episode of Without a Trace. The Bedford Diaries revolves around a college course on sexuality and stars Matthew Modine, Milo Ventimiglia and Audra McDonald. You can catch the unedited episode on thewb.com now. The regular series premiere, with the edited version of the pilot, will air Wednesday, March 29th on The WB.

*And finally, Fox's The Simpsons is giving viewers a chance to see live-action versions of the show's famous characters. This Sunday's episode will have a live-action opening sequence with lookalike actors playing the roles of Homer, Bart, Marge, Lisa and Maggie. A team from the British network Sky One created the clip. The Simpsons air Sundays on Fox.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in Monday for thoughts on Cold Case and Desperate Housewives (How far will Gaby go?). Plus, all the latest television news! And don't forget to send me your questions for Veronica Mars' Rob Thomas and Jason Dohring via the comment link or email (tvfan08@yahoo.com). Be sure to check back here today for another exciting edition of Friday Fun where you'll catch up with Everwood and find out which crime caper is hamming it up for a new photoshoot! Stay Tuned...


SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

The Healing Powers of the 'Lost' Island? Plus, 'Veronica' and the Runaway Bride, 'Idol,' 'Model' and a Schedule Change for a Favorite Show

Sun and Jin meet with a fertility specialist during a flashback (photo courtesy abc.com)

I don't know what it is about the Sun and Jin episodes on Lost, but they always seem to be some of my favorites. Last night's outing was no exception. I guess it's just the complicated nature of their relationship that seems to strike a cord with me. They have been through a lot together, been on the brink of separating and yet, deep down they have a compelling love for each other that doesn't seem to go away. It's fascinating to explore how things have gone so sour between them when they have this strong connection. Sun's pregnancy was certainly a surprise to her and Jin. I liked the twist that we originally thought that Sun was unable to conceive, but in reality, it was Jin. So, the island has allowed Locke to walk again and Jin to be fertile again. I also liked the way they led us to believe that there was a possibility that Sun had been unfaithful, but in the end, it was apparent that she hadn't. In other island news, I'm still torn about whether or not to believe Mr. Gale. He did draw a map, but it very easily could have been a trap as he stated to Jack and Locke during breakfast. From the previews, it seems that there is a balloon up in the tree, but that's no guarantee that he's telling the truth. And then there's the continuously brewing tension between Jack and Locke, which seems to be poised to boil over any minute. The constant tug-of-war for control has been ongoing this season, but Locke's decision to involve Ana Lucia, and then Ana's subsequent betrayal with the map, seemed to really frost Jack's cookies (and rightfully so). It appears that there is now a three-way fight for control. With the group showing the first signs of splintering amidst the growing dangers on the island, I wonder how things will progress this season. Things are beginning to look a bit ominous. I think we need to hold on tight because this show is about to take us for a wild ride!

How awesome is the Aaron/Kendall storyline? When these two team up, you know it's going to spell T-R-O-U-B-L-E for someone. Unfortunately for the departed Duncan, it seems the trouble is meant for him. When Kendall went into his shower and plucked that hair out of his drain, I knew a frame-up was in place. Now, the only question is, where will Aaron have Kendall plant "Duncan's" (I'm assuming it's his, but you never know) hair in order to frame him for Lilly's murder? I love how this show manages to incorporate storylines and characters from last season into storylines and characters from this season so seamlessly. Logan moved forward with his plan to use Hannah to get Dr. Griffith to recant his false witness account from the bridge, and it seems to have finally paid off. Only problem is that he's beginning to feel bad about using Hannah. They left us hanging with Logan going to Veronica for advice. I can only imagine that he needs her help because of what he has done to Hannah, but we'll have to wait until next week to know for sure. And then there was the runaway bride with a twist story. Jane (the daughter of the driver of the bus crash) went to Veronica after her engaged sister Heidi seemed to run off three days before her wedding. It seems the wealthy family of Heidi's fiance hired Vinnie Van Lowe (loved seeing him again) to look into her background. When they found out that she was a little wild and liked to hang around with bands, they told their son and he decided that he couldn't marry someone with her past. But if he dumped her, she would keep the family heirloom engagement ring, so he had Vinnie arrange for Heidi to meet back up with her former flame in hopes that she would call off the wedding and he would get the ring back. No such luck, and now he's out the family heirloom and a fiancee. I loved the Keith and Sheriff Lamb interaction, and the way Keith got the better of Lamb (again) by discovering that Terrence's car detailer would have found the explosives in that cabinet, so why would Terrence leave them there? It looks like the signs are pointing back to Woody Goodman again. After all, it's his hanger. That's going to be one awkward interrogation for Lamb! Can't wait!

Attention All Veronica Mars Fans!!!

In addition to yesterday's exciting announcement about your chance to be on national TV during an upcoming airing of Veronica Mars, I have another exciting announcement today. I will be attending a teleconference, along with other bloggers, with the show's executive producer Rob Thomas and star Jason Dohring (Logan Echolls) this Tuesday night! So, if you have any questions for Rob or Jason, please leave me a comment or drop me an email (tvfan08@yahoo.com), and I'll try to get them answered. I have some more BIG Veronica news today regarding a move for the show, so be sure to scroll down to the QUICK CUTS to get the latest.



The Idol Moment
So, Chicken Little is finally gone! I have nothing against Kevin Corvais personally; I'm just not a fan of his voice. In my opinion, he was the weakest link in the remaining top 11. His performance Tuesday night was better than his previous, but still not up to par. I wasn't surprised to see Bucky right there with him because I felt that he was definitely one of the weakest three the other night. Why people, why do you keep putting Lisa in the bottom three? I agree that she didn't give us her best performance the other night, but she can sing! The future does not look bright for Lisa and that makes me sad. I've been voting for you Lisa! I know I have been hard on Kellie Pickler because, frankly, I just don't get her, but I'm going to give her props because she chose the perfect song the other night and she rocked it. It was the first time that I could actually hear some talent under all that so-called charm. I'm still loving Paris, Katharine, Chris (How freakin' awesome was his rendition of Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line???") and Taylor. So far, I'm happy with the way things are unfolding (except for Lisa's constant bottom 3 appearances).



The Model Moment
I can't say I'm as happy about who got the boot last night on America's Next Top Model as I am about Idol. Sure, Kari (Pictured to the left. Photo courtesy UPN) isn't exactly high fashion, but she was doing better than Gina in my opinion. Bummer! Jade actually didn't bother me last night. She seemed to have the wind knocked out of her sails the week prior and it did her personality some good. After winning the runway challenge and receiving a lot of compliments on her photoshoot, I'm very afraid of next week's Jade. My ankles are still sore from watching that runway judging at the end last night! I felt so bad for all those girls, especially Danielle. Her ankle-twisting looked so painful it made me cringe. I'll be talking to the eliminated Kari tonight as part of a press teleconference, so I'll have a report on her thoughts tomorrow. If you have any questions for her, leave me a note and I'll try to get them answered.

About Last Night...NBC won the first hour of the night with a special Deal or No Deal, followed by Fox's Bones and ABC comedies George Lopez and Freddie. At 9, Fox landed in front with American Idol and Unan1mous, followed by ABC's Lost and CBS' Criminal Minds. UPN's Veronica Mars landed in 5th ahead of a Gilmore Girls rerun on the WB. The final hour of the night went to CBS' CSI: NY, followed by the debut of ABC's The Evidence and the debut of NBC's Heist. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - Rochelle acts like nothing has happened after her father dies unexpectedly on UPN's Everybody Hates Chris. Jimmie Walker ("Good Times") and Loretta Devine ("Crash") Guest Star as Rochelle's Parents, Ernest Thomas ("What's Happening!!") Guests Stars as The Funeral Director and Antonio "Huggy Bear" Fargas ("Starsky & Hutch") Returns as Corner-Store Owner Mr. Harris. Over on ABC, the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition team travels to Biloxi, Mississippi to help communities devastated by Hurricane Katrina on this After the Storm special. CBS airs the first night of the NCAA Basketball tournament Sweet 16 round (begins at 7 p.m.).

@9 p.m. - Earl tries to cross number 24 off of his list (stole a red take-a-number machine) on NBC's My Name is Earl. Over on ABC, American Inventor moves to its permanent timeslot. Fox has The O.C. and tonight, Seth and Summer are faced with a new problem.

@10 p.m. - Abby and Kovac try to keep a 21 year-old girl brought into the ER with stab wounds alive while they wait for a surgeon to operate on NBC's ER.



QUICK CUTS

*Veronica Mars is getting a new timeslot starting April 11th. The show is moving to Tuesday nights at 9 p.m., where it spent last season. The move is designed to shield the show from its crowded Wednesday night slot up against American Idol, Lost and Criminal Minds. The new slot will pit the show against House and CBS' latest hit The Unit without its strong America's Next Top Model lead-in. Reruns of the show will air on Wednesday nights for the first couple of weeks after the move.

*And finally, NBC is lining up the stars for its new reality series Celebrity Cooking Showdown. The series, which pairs stars and celebrity chefs in a cooking competition, has lined up Naomi Campbell, Allison Sweeney, Ja Rule, Tom Arnold and Big Kenny among others. The show will air consecutively for five nights beginning April 17th on NBC.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for thoughts on two of television's funniest comedies - Everybody Hates Chris and My Name is Earl. Plus, a report on Kari's thoughts on her America's Next Top Model experience, and of course, the latest television news!


SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Be on National TV During Future Airings of 'Veronica Mars!'

The PR team behind Veronica Mars has advised me of an exciting new opportunity for the show's biggest fans. UPN is looking for tapes to air during future airings of Veronica Mars of you and your friends watching the show! Get all the details below:

VERONICA MARS Viewing Party

If you videotape you and your friends watching Veronica Mars, you may get a chance to see yourself on national TV!

UPN is offering its dedicated Veronica Mars bloggers a great opportunity to have your 15-seconds of fame! Every week, get a group of friends together for a Veronica Mars viewing party and shoot some video of your event. The tape can include anything you want: sound bites of your friends talking about their favorite characters, you saying why you love Veronica Mars, or a group shout-out to your friends and family in your hometown. But keep it clean, because your tape could end up airing on UPN during an episode of Veronica Mars!

Every week starting in April, tune in to Veronica Mars on UPN to see if your party is chosen as the featured party that airs during that week’s episode. Even if your party doesn’t make it on UPN, make sure to check out UPN.com to see if it is online.

Creativity counts and don’t forget to express why you are the biggest Veronica Mars fan. This is an excellent opportunity to convert your friends into Veronica Mars fans!!!!

Please keep in mind that if your video is broadcast on TV, it will need to be brightly lit and the audio will need to be clear. Also, in order to ensure that we can use it, the video can’t include any copyrighted materials, such as logos on clothing, music or television programming playing in the background, or signage, like posters, paintings, photographs, and etc.

The featured parties will run during a commercial break and UPN’s producers will be editing your footage into an on-air promo, so the tape only needs to be a few minutes long. Finally, depending on your home video camera, VHS, mini-DV or DVD are best.

In order for UPN to be able to use your tape on air or on UPN.com, you and all of your friends at the party need to sign releases and provide a current photograph of each of you so we can identify who everyone is.

If you are interested in submitting a tape for the promotion, please send me an email (tvfan08@yahoo.com), and I will give you the contact information for receiving the releases and sending in your tape. Happy viewing!

The Teams Have a Smashing Good Time! Plus the Scrubies, ABC Finales and Ratings

Eric & Jeremy (Team Slacker) compete in the Detour (photo courtesy cbs.com)

It was another thrilling edition of The Amazing Race last night! After each of the teams found Phil-on-the-mat, they learned that they would be making the 1000-mile trip to Frankfurt Germany. One member of Team Slacker (or Team Casanova according to Phil) asked the other member how they were going to get there. I so wanted Phil to tell them that they had to walk the 1000 miles. I mean, if they're looking to impress Team Double D, what better way to do it than "to be the man who'd walk a thousand miles to fall down at your door" (my apologies to the Proclaimers). All of the teams began making their way to the airport to book flights to Frankfurt. Team Slacker scored a serious coup when they nabbed the last ticket out on a flight that was about to leave. Lake/Michelle just missed the cut off and had to settle for a flight that left two hours later. As the rest of the teams arrived at the airport, minor drama ensued when the ticket window had long lines and computer malfunctions. Team Hippie managed to luck up when the closed window in front of them suddenly opened. They purchased tickets for the same flight as Lake/Michelle. The rest of the teams had to settle for the earliest flight out the next morning. Once the first three teams arrived in Germany, caught a train to Stuttgart and found the Mercedes-Benz Factory, they were surprised to learn that it didn't open until the next morning (Really guys? Have you ever seen this show before?). It didn't seem to matter much because the other teams next-day flight was too far behind to allow them to catch the three already there. The next morning, the teams had to take a ride on the auto manufacturer's test track with speeds up to 170 kph and high banking turns. After each team completed the challenge, they learned that they would need to drive 200 miles to the town of Bad Tolz to receive their next clue.

All of the teams seemed to easily find Bad Tolz, except for mother/daughter team Wanda and Desiree, who wound up going in circles on the interstate and lost a huge chunk of time. Unfortunately for Team Double D, they had decided to follow Team Mother/Daughter. Meanwhile back at Bad Tolz, the teams encountered a Roadblock. One team member had to search under Travelocity Traveling Gnome (TAR shameless plug number 2 for the night) hats and boots to find their very own Travelocity Traveling Gnome and then bring the gnome to Phil when they reached the Pit Stop later in the race. Do you think that Phil has a collection of traveling gnomes stashed away somewhere? This was one of those tasks that is much easier for the first few teams that complete it, so everyone seemed to breeze through it until the last teams arrived. More on that later. After finding the gnomes, teams learned that they had to travel to Bavaria Film in Grunwald. On the way to the gnome Roadblock, Lake and Michelle stopped and picked up a local who they thought would help them reach their destination faster. Too bad this local was still drunk from his night out, but he was able to navigate the team anyway. Once the teams arrived at Bavaria Film, they found this leg's Detour: Break it or Slap it. In Break it, each team member took a turn breaking a stunt bottle over the other member's head until they found a label with the word "Prost" on it. In Slap it, teams had to learn and perform steps from a German folk dance. All of the three leading teams chose the former. Team Slacker struggled with it and decided that the task was only fun in the beginning, but they found a label just as the other two teams arrived. Lake/Michelle found a label on their second try, followed by Team Hippie. Each team learned that they needed to travel 10 miles to Munich and find the Siegester, a monument to peace and the Pit Stop. Team Slacker was sure to secure a kiss from the poor girl handing out the clues before they took off for the Pit Stop. All three teams made their way there, with Team Slacker coming out victorious. Phil told them that they were the biggest Casanovas ever to grace The Amazing Race. Next came Lake/Michelle and finally Team Hippie who took the opportunity to run backwards to the mat, which caused Phil (or as I like to call him Captain Obvious) to remark to his gnome-like friend that the team was running backwards. Man, if Phil hadn't pointed that out, I never would have realized it! Good catch, Phil! You guys know I LOVE Phil!

Meanwhile back at the Detour, all of the other teams sans Team Double D and Team Mother/Daughter, were trying to complete Break it while Fran and Barry worked on Slap it. They struggled with the dance moves, but after a few tries finally got it and the clue and made their way to the Pit Stop. Meanwhile, Team Nerds found the label first and sped off to the Pit Stop as well. Team MoJo and Ray/Yolanda struggled with Break it. Monica decided that she and Joseph should switch to Slap it, and they soon learned that they should have chosen it all along as they quickly mastered the steps and received their next clue. Ray/Yolanda switched as well and quickly completed Slap it. Meanwhile back at the Roadblock, Team Double D and Team Mother/Daughter struggled to find their gnome, with Team Double D finding theirs first and speeding off to the Detour. Desiree searched and searched, but she kept coming up empty. It started to get darker and the entire scene reminded me of those poor sisters a few seasons back who couldn't find the clue in the haystack and then Phil had to come tell them that they had been eliminated from the race. I was worried that the same fate would befall Team Mother/Daughter, but just then, Desiree found her gnome! They made their way to the Detour, where they found Team Double D (who had just completed Slap it) making their way back to their car and the Pit Stop. Team Mother/Daughter hurried through the Detour and caught up with Team Double D, but it wasn't enough to keep them from finishing in last place and getting eliminated from the race. What did you think of last night's episode? Were you bummed to see Wanda/Desiree leave? Drop me a comment with your thoughts.


You know an episode of one of your favorite comedies is going to be great when it starts off with one of the characters giving her boyfriend a mouth guard and then progresses to Maria Menounos' obsession with JD's hair and the term "Kelly Rippa" catching on all over the hospital! And then there were the hilarious scenes with Dr. Cox reading lines with one of his patients so he too can "go the extra mile." You just gotta love Perry as Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire! The best moment from the entire episode, though, was learning about Prick, the hospital's hypodermic needle mascot. I'm still laughing hysterically at this one even as I type it now. It was made even funnier when Turk decided to dress up as Prick to impress Dr. Kelso into giving him a permanent surgical position at Sacred Heart. I'll let you insert your own jokes here. Speaking of jokes, here's a look at last night's best, funniest and all around awesome lines in this week's edition of The Scrubies.



The Scrubies
"My job is to make sick people better, not to help Bernie in there score a slice of Episcopalian tail on opening night." Dr. Cox to JD after JD suggests that he should read lines with his patient in order to go the extra mile

"You know, in 4 1/2 years I've watched your pal Stephanie go through a multitude of irritating fads: the Ugg boots, the campaign for better grammar among the staff and of course, the double European air kiss. And seeing as you two are sorority sisters, I was kind of hoping you'd be able to tell me when this extra mile crap is likely to end." Dr. Cox to Turk regarding JD

"All day sucker, my ass! Try 20 minutes." Dr. Kelso after finishing an enormous lollypop

"Knowing him, he's probably out getting her a cake shaped like a cancerous white blood cell." Dr. Cox regarding JD and his campaign to go the extra mile with his leukemia patient

That's this week's Scrubie honorees. If you have a quote that you would like to nominate for a Scrubie, leave me a note and I'll post it in a future edition. Or, just drop me a comment on your thoughts about last night's episode.

About Last Night...Fox won the first hour of the night with American Idol, followed by CBS' NCIS (r) and ABC comedies According to Jim and Hope and Faith. At 9, Fox continued its dominance with the second hour of American Idol, followed by CBS' The Unit and NBC's back-to-back episodes of Scrubs. The final hour of the night went to NBC's Law & Order: SVU, followed by ABC's Boston Legal and CBS' The Amazing Race. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - The girls learn to walk the walk while dealing with Madagascar hissing cockroaches on UPN's America's Next Top Model. I've seen some advanced clips from this episode, and the cockroaches do not go over well! Plus, Jay designs a fairytale-themed photoshoot that has the girls falling into their poses. Over on Fox, the remains of a young documentary filmmaker are found in a ventilation shaft in an underground Washington, DC, tunnel on Bones. NBC airs a special night of Deal or No Deal. CBS moves Out of Practice and Courting Alex to their new slots at 8/8:30, respectively.

@9 p.m. - Talk about a loaded hour of television! I'm going to start with UPN's Veronica Mars because it's the most awesome show to ever awesome, but also because Kristen Bell is an absolute sweetheart! I received a personalized, handwritten thank you from her in the mail the other day for attending the Veronica Mars Bloggers Press Day last month! Can you believe how sweet that was? On tonight's episode, Harry Hamlin and Charisma Carpenter return while Veronica helps Wallace's new girlfriend find her runaway bride sister. Over on ABC, Sun must decide whether she should tell Jin a secret that could upset the balance on the island on Lost. We find out which contestant gets the boot tonight on Fox's American Idol. After Idol, Fox premieres its new reality show Unan1mous which locks 9 strangers in a room until they decide which one of them should get the $1.5 million dollars. NBC moves Law & Order an hour earlier. CBS has Criminal Minds and tonight, the team investigate a series of killings that appear to be the work of a vigilante. And now I'm completely exhausted from just typing it all, let alone trying to take it all in tonight! DVRs and VCRs everywhere will be working overtime tonight.

@10 p.m. - ABC premieres its new crime drama The Evidence. The show stars Martin Landau and Rob Estes. Each week, the evidence in the crime will be presented to viewers at the beginning of the show, and we'll learn how it all fits together. Over on NBC, it's the premiere of Heist. This series, starring Dougray Scott, revolves around a group of professional thieves who are plotting to simultaneously rob three prominent Beverly Hills jewelry stores during Academy Awards week. Over on CBS, the 6-year old witness to a museum curator's murder refuses to talk on CSI: NY.



QUICK CUTS

*ABC is planning huge finales this May for its most popular shows. Look for 2-hour finales from Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, Alias, Boston Legal, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and America's Funniest Home Videos according to the network. Anatomy will air its finale over two nights on May 14th and 15th, with Legal wrapping up its season the following night. Alias will end its 5-season run on May 22nd. Look for Home Edition and Housewives to wrap things up May 21st. Lost will end its sophomore season on May 24th where it will go head-to-head with the season finale of Fox's American Idol. And finally, Invasion will wrap things up with a typical 1-hour finale on May 17th.

*Former Veronica Mars actress Alona Tal (Meg Manning) might be back on the same network with her former employer this fall. The actress has just been cast in a new pilot for the CW according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show, called Split Decision, follows a girl who gets a chance to reinvent herself when she moves to a new high school. It will have dual plotlines that follow her decision to sit with either the popular kids or the arty outsiders on the first day of school in a Sliding Doors-esque premise. Another Mars actress is also signed on for the pilot, Jessy Schram, who plays Logan's latest girlfriend Hannah. We'll find out if the show makes the CW's line-up on May 18th when the network announces its fall schedule.

*And finally, it's Nielsen Wednesday! CBS won the week with the most viewers led by CSI: Miami (#4), The Unit (#5), NCIS (#6), Two and a Half Men (#7) and 60 Minutes (#10). American Idol (#1, #2), Grey's Anatomy (#3), Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (#8) and Deal or No Deal (#9) rounded out the top 10. To see the list of the top 20 shows from last week, click on over to USA Today.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for thoughts on Veronica Mars (including another VM related special announcement!) and Lost! Plus, the Idol and Model moments and all the latest television news! And be sure to check back here later today for a chance to be a part of Veronica Mars (sort of)! I'll explain in a special edition later today.


SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

'CSI' in Any Other City Just Isn't as Sweet! Plus, 'Four Kings' Pulled and 'Anatomy' Awarded

In preparation for this entry today, I watched last night's episode of CSI: Miami. I hadn't seen this show in a long time, but I quickly remembered why I don't usually watch it (in addition to the fact that it's up against Medium). This CSI is missing the magic that makes the original so special. It also has the David Caruso problem and really cliched writing (last night's "When you say it, I believe it" "That's because it's true"), but more importantly, it's missing the magic. It makes me sad because I do love Calleigh (actress Emily Procter has much good will built up with me because she was the awesome Ainsley Hayes on The West Wing). The original has a wonderful set of characters that play off of each other perfectly. It blends humor with the absurd and throws in a little emotion on the side all while never taking itself too seriously. Miami seems to take on a more serious tone, and yet, I find myself laughing at things I probably shouldn't be laughing at because it ventures into the ridiculous. I will give props to both shows for making their cases match the atmosphere of their locations. CSI's venture into the bizarre side of human nature and its often darkly lit scenes blend nicely with the wild world of Las Vegas and the active nightlife the city offers. Miami's expensive cars, opulence and flashy appeal combined with its bright sunny days and picturesque blue waters match that city's wealthy culture and warm weather. And then there's CSI: NY, which admittedly, I haven't seen since last season. I have heard that the show has vastly improved, and the ratings seem to reflect that as well. I think the problem with NY is more that it doesn't have anything to distinguish itself from other cop shows on television. There are 4 editions of Law & Order that all take place in New York, and fellow Jerry Bruckheimer crime drama Without a Trace also bases itself there. It is also lacking memorable characters like the original (although I do like Hill Harper's character). I remember reading about a third installment of CSI, and how the producers had narrowed down the cities to New York and New Orleans. I think New Orleans would have served this edition better than another New York based cop drama. Having said that, I don't think it's the location that makes the other two editions inferior to the original, but rather a combination of characters, writing, cases and originality. It sounds cliche, but nothing can top the original.

Every time we turn on the television it seems there's one of these procedural cop shows on the air. Most of them do very well. In any given week, you can expect to see CSI, CSI: Miami, Without a Trace, Cold Case, Law & Order: SVU, CSI: NY and NCIS along with new procedural -ish Criminal Minds all in the top 20 shows of the week. Some worry that the networks will over do it as they did with the reality craze in the early 2000s. With the recent premiere of Conviction (creator Dick Wolf says this law show blends more character than most procedurals) and the still yet to premiere ABC crime procedural The Evidence, is there any sign of the trend over saturating the market? Last season, NBC tried out a fourth edition of Law & Order, called Trial By Jury, but pulled it after it failed to deliver the ratings the network had hoped for on Friday nights. CBS, which has found success with 5 Bruckheimer crime shows, is still trying to find a solid audience for the latest Bruckheimer show Close to Home. That show started out on Tuesday nights against Law & Order: SVU (the highest-rated of the L&O franchise), but stumbled, so CBS moved it to its current Friday slot where it has done much better. Yet when CBS recently announced several renewals for next season, Close to Home was noticeably left off the list, indicating that the network wants to wait and see before it commits to the show for another season. The original Law & Order (now in its 13th season), which started the procedural movement, has lost some of its steam in the ratings, falling to second in its timeslot this season to CSI: NY. NBC is moving the show an hour earlier to make room for its new drama Heist this week, which will pit it against Lost and American Idol. It's fierce competition that will probably sink the crime show into fourth place for the hour behind Criminal Minds. In recent seasons there has been a push for more character-based, serial dramas thanks to mega hits Lost and Desperate Housewives, but the market for crime procedurals is still out there and thriving. Consider the fact that CSI averages around 30 million viewers an episode and only seems to be growing in popularity as it gets older, proving that the procedural is still going strong as well. Just as with anything else in life, television needs a balance. Currently, things seem to be evenly distributed, giving viewers like us a lot of variety so we can load up our viewing plates with serials, procedurals, law, order, comedy and even a small dose of reality. I wouldn't want it any other way.

About Last Night...NBC won the first hour of the night with Deal or No Deal, followed by CBS comedies King of Queens and How I Met Your Mother and Fox's Prison Break. At 9, CBS took over with comedies Two and a Half Men and The New Adventures of Old Christine, followed by Fox's 24 and ABC's Supernanny. The final hour of the night went to CBS' CSI: Miami, followed by NBC's Medium (r) and ABC's Miracle Workers. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - The 11 finalists compete with songs from the 50s tonight on Fox's American Idol.

@9 p.m. - JD encourages his fellow doctors to go the extra mile with their patients on NBC's Scrubs (a second episode follows (rerun), and this week it's John C. McGinley's (Dr. Cox) favorite episode). Over on CBS, Jonas attempts to rescue a group of American missionaries in hiding in The Philippines on The Unit. ABC airs back-to-back new episodes of Sons & Daughters.

@10 p.m. - The teams head to Germany where one team follows another who leads them in the wrong direction on the way to the Roadblock on CBS' The Amazing Race. Over on NBC, a co-ed on financial aid is found dead with a lot of cash on NBC's Law & Order: SVU. ABC's Boston Legal finds Shirley Schmidt and former husband Ivan Tiggs (Tom Selleck) working together on a divorce case.



QUICK CUTS

*NBC is pulling its Thursday night comedy Four Kings. Effective immediately, reruns of My Name is Earl will occupy the 8:30 p.m. slot on Thursday nights until further notice. Four Kings had been averaging only 7.5 million viewers and it is the lowest rated show on NBC's Thursday night line-up. The network hasn't said whether or not it will air the remaining 6 episodes of the series in the future.

*And finally, Grey's Anatomy may have just started last season, but it is already getting the distinguished "classic" label - future classic, that is. TV Land named the medical drama a Future Classic at the TV Land Awards last night. The award "recognizes the one new show from the past calendar year which best exemplifies the qualities of an emerging television phenomenon that will endure for years to come" according to the press release. The TV Land Awards: A Celebration of Classic TV air Wednesday on both TV Land and Nick at Night at 9 p.m.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for thoughts on The Amazing Race (It's the conclusion of a thrilling two-parter!) and The Scrubies! Plus, all the latest television news!


SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

A Psychological 'Case!' Plus 'Simpsons,' a Nick Lachey Comedy and TV on DVD Monday

Wow, there is a lot to say about last night's episode of Cold Case, and luckily, I have an entire edition to say it in because there was little else on over the weekend. I've always been a fan of Cold Case's "whydunit" approach (to quote star Kathryn Morris). It's something that separates this show from the crowded market of crime shows on television today. The show has backed away from that premise in the last couple of seasons, but it was back in full force last night! The show is at its best when it tackles the psychological depths of human nature. Because they're dealing with long unsolved cases, it's fascinating to delve into how someone commits a crime and how that affects them through the years. It had obviously taken a toll on John, last night's killer. Shortly after he began confessing, I started to believe that he must be dying of an illness. Otherwise, it didn't make any sense as to why he would come forward 26 years later after claiming another victim. This man learned that he was suffering from, and eventually dying from, MS 26 years ago, and never accepted his fate until he walked into that police office. He was so angry that the disease took away the belief that he would live forever that he wanted to take it away from others. He killed one young man right after he found out and he tried to kill another when the final stage of his disease began 26 years later. He had jumped off a 100-foot bridge into a raging river and lived to tell the tale, but a disease that took over his life years before was going to get the best of him, and he just couldn't handle that truth.

Lilly's interro - gation scenes with John were well played. Kathryn Morris is so deserving of an Emmy and she doesn't even get nominated! It's such a shame. Between her performance last night and in "Saving Patrick Bubley" (the episode where the four brother had all been killed) earlier this season, she should be a shoe-in, but she won't even get the nomination again. She managed to bring Lilly to the brink of being too emotional, but never really taking her there (see above). We got that Lilly was finally talking about her experience with George and how it affected her deep down without her going off on an emotional diatribe that would have been out of character for her. Finding out that her encounter with George affected her in a more permanent way was nicely done and it provided some unforced closure that the show had neglected this season. It's funny because I would have thought that Lilly struggled more with the idea that she had killed George or the fact that he fed her all that crap about her being just like him or even just the fact that she was forced to relive a painful experience from her childhood through the ordeal, but it was the loss of something very valuable to her that seems to have affected her the most. It was the same thing that turned John into a killer - losing the belief that you can live forever by facing your own mortality. Both dealt with the realization in a destructive way: John wanted others to suffer the same loss and Lilly has gone from being an emotional basket case to getting involved in a seemingly dead-end live-in-the-moment relationship with a former flame. She was the perfect person to extract from John the location of the new victim.

My one complaint for this episode was the lack of the time issue. Here they were trying to get information from a killer on where his next victim is slowly suffocating to death, and yet, I never once felt that there was any sense of urgency or race to beat the clock. I expected to spend the episode on the edge of my seat, but that never happened. Every time one of the detectives mentioned the dwindling time, it was more of an afterthought than a focus. This episode was centered on one location - an interrogation room - and a small amount of time (instead of the usual days that go by in a single episode), so playing up the time factor would have enhanced the pacing for me. Earlier this season Law & Order: SVU did a similar episode where Olivia was on the phone with a little girl who claimed to be a kidnap victim. The episode also revolved around a single location (Olivia in an office on the speaker phone) and a small amount of time, but the time factor was played up much more heavily and I found myself on the edge of my seat in this case. Surprisingly, the lack of the time element didn't really hurt this episode, though. It was well done despite the slight misstep and the playing it up would only have enhanced it. Overall, this was an excellent episode and a stand-out for the season. What did you think of Cold Case's break from its usual format? Did you like the intense interrogation scenes? Leave me a comment with your thoughts on last night's episode.

About Last Night...CBS won the first hour of the night with the last 44 minutes of 60 Minutes and the first 16 of Cold Case, followed by ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and NBC's The West Wing. At 9, a rerun of ABC's Desperate Housewives won the hour, followed by the last 44 minutes of Cold Case and the first 16 of the CBS movie and NBC's Law & Order: Criminal Intent. The final hour of the night went to ABC's Grey's Anatomy, followed by NBC's Crossing Jordan and CBS' movie. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - Fox's Prison Break finally returns as Michael comes up with a plan to keep Lincoln alive after his escape plan fails. Over on NBC, Deal or No Deal continues.

@9 p.m. - CTU follows new leads to Bierko while conspiracy theorist and First Lady Martha Logan questions the administration's next defensive tactic on Fox's 24.

@10 p.m. - Horatio protects Marisol after she witnesses a robbery on CBS' CSI: Miami.



QUICK CUTS

*Fox wants more of two of its animated comedies. The network announced that it is renewing both The Simpsons and King of the Hill. The Simpsons got a two-year pick-up that will carry it through the 2007-08 season, making it the longest running animated series ever and the longest running current show. King got a one-year deal that will carry it through next season. The show probably won't premiere until January because of the long production cycle for an animated show. King is the second longest running comedy currently on television behind The Simpsons.

*The CW is adding to its pilot repertoire with a new sitcom starring Nick Lachey. Lachey will play a bachelor living in Manhattan in the pilot called She Said/He Said according to a network spokesman. Word on whether the show will make the new CW's line-up (a combination of the soon-to-be defunct WB and UPN) will come May 18th when the network makes its schedule announcement.

*And finally, it's TV on DVD Monday! Look for the powerful war drama Over There to hit store shelves tomorrow along with Huff (season 1), Bewitched (season 3), The Flying Nun (season 1), Roseanne (season 3) and South Park (season 7). To see a list of all of tomorrow's releases, click on over to tvshowsondvd.com.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the reasons why a CSI in any other city isn't as sweet (and other thoughts on the prolific nature of procedurals). Plus, all the latest television news!


SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

FRIDAY FUN: Inside Scoop From 'Mars'

As you know, I was lucky enough to visit the set of Veronica Mars last month for the Veronica Mars Bloggers Press Day. While I was there with my fellow bloggers (see links to their blogs in the right column under "Veronica Mars Blogs"), we learned some interesting inside info on the show. Here are two fun anecdotes:

2 Racy 4 TV

The shirt pictured above was intended for one of the guest characters on Veronica Mars to wear in a flashback in an upcoming episode (2.18). Said character had a friends-with-benefits relationship with Dick Casablancas, so they thought it would be clever to have her wear this shirt. The censors at the network didn't find it as clever, so the shirt now reads "I (HEART) Dick Casablancas." Now when you see the episode and the amended shirt, you'll know the true story behind it.

Ode to a Dog?

The Lilly Kane Memorial Fountain is located at the entrance to Neptune High. On the fountain, is a nice engraved message in memorandum to the murdered Lilly. How nice, right? Well, the passage actually comes from an episode of Freaks and Geeks that aired on NBC back in 1999-2000. Except in the episode, the words are used for a eulogy for a dog!

And Finally...

I snapped this picture of Veronica's dresser with a photo of her and her mother Lianne during happier times. You know, before her mother sped out of Neptune to keep Clarence Wiedman from hurting Veronica, returned after Veronica's sleuthing found her on a bar stool in the middle of nowhere and then absconded with the reward money Veronica and Keith had gotten after finding Duncan for the Kanes. This is the same money that was supposed to be for Veronica's college fund after she used the original money to fund Lianne's (wasted) stint in an alcohol treatment facility. I guess we need to keep our fingers crossed that Veronica gets that Kane scholarship!


You can catch all new episodes of Veronica Mars every Wednesday after America's Next Top Model on UPN. Everyone from Buffy creator Joss Whedon to Clerks director Kevin Smith to author Stephen King is watching. Shouldn't you? And be sure to check back here Monday for the latest edition of Pass the Remote and next Friday for another installment of Friday Fun! Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Mother's Day: 'Earl' Style! Plus 'Inventor' and a CW Renewal Mix Up

(Photo courtesy NBC.com)

With the NCAA Basketball Tournament causing my usual Thursday night line-up to take a back seat, I'm able to talk about different shows this week. One of those shows is one of my favorite comedies currently on the tube: My Name is Earl. I came late to the party on this show, but since watching my first episode, I haven't missed one. Like my other favorite comedies, Scrubs and Everybody Hates Chris, this show blends big laughs with tremendous heart. Earl is such a good person (since he karma-induced change), and I love how he'll stop at nothing to cross the righted-wrong of the week off his list, even if the person he wronged is himself. Last night's episode found Earl busy with two items on his list. He wanted to make up for the Mother's Days he had ruined in the past. After finally fulfilling the coupon book he had given to his mother after stealing it from another kid one year when he was a child, Earl had to do something for his dad at his mother's request. Earl and his dad don't really speak, but Earl settled on getting his father's car back from the man he lost it to in a drag race years ago. The best part of this story line came when Earl returned the car and found out that his dad had planned to give it to him someday. Earl then had to add himself to his list since he cheated himself out of the car and the potential for better experiences with it. He decided to fix up the car at his parents house and soon enough his father was helping. Earl realized that he hadn't just cheated himself out of a car, but out of the experience of working on it with his dad. Meanwhile, Joy sent the kids with Darnell to his parents house for the week as her Mother's Day gift, but she was so lonely without them that she wound up drunk most of the time they were gone. I loved the way Randy filled the void that her family left. I also loved the many scenes of Joy drunk, especially the one at the bar with the margarita she was drinking directly from the blender.


People were pulling out all the stops last night on ABC's latest reality show American Inventor (photo courtesy ABC.com)! I didn't catch the entire 2-hour premiere, but the things I did see - just wow. I'm going to start with the woman who thought she had a novel idea with the little bed caddie thing. Now, when I graduated high school and went to college more than seven years ago, I almost bought one of these at Bed Bath & Beyond. I also worked in that store one summer, and it was a very hot item. We couldn't keep it in stock! This woman swore up and down, after the judges told her it already existed, that they were lying. I guess I'm lying too. Oh, and so is Bed Bath & Beyond, Linen 'n Things, Target and just about every other retail store in America. I loved how she admitted that she called one of those 1-800 numbers to get her patent, and one of the judges told her that those numbers are a scam, and she still didn't believe him! Oh well, it's her $12,000. What was up with the creepy child-cage-packaged-as-a-fun-timeout-room woman??!! That thing was just disturbing. I loved the man with the exercise weights that brought judge Mary Lou Quinlan to tears. Part of me felt bad for the 14-year old boy with the doggie air conditioner, but the other part felt that he needed a dose of humility. Overall, it was an interesting show, but probably not something that will become appointment viewing for me. Did you catch the premiere of American Inventor last night? What did you think? Leave me a comment with your thoughts.

About Last Night... ABC won the first hour of the night with the premiere of American Inventor, followed by CBS' NCAA basketball coverage and NBC comedies Will & Grace and Four Kings. At 9, a second hour of Inventor easily took the crown for ABC, followed by NCAA coverage on CBS and comedies My Name is Earl and The Office on NBC. The final hour of the night went to NBC's ER, followed by CBS' NCAA coverage and ABC's Primetime. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - Deal or No Deal continues on NBC. CBS bumps its usual Friday line-up for coverage of the NCAA Basketball Tournament (begins at 7 p.m.).

@9 p.m. - Mary has to coordinate a huge wedding for one of Sam's biggest whales on NBC's Las Vegas. Over on ABC, an anonymous tip leads the NJP to reinvestigate a couple convicted of a bombing crime on In Justice. The WB's premieres its new Jerry Bruckheimer comedy Modern Men starring Jane Seymour as a life coach helping three men deal with their relationship issues at 9:30 p.m.

@10 p.m. - Finn investigates the mysterious suicide of a 12-year old girl whose mother claimed her daughter was dying of cancer on NBC's Conviction.

SUNDAY EDITION
@8 p.m. - Lilly and co. use the pieces of a killer's demented puzzle in order to save a young boy's life, all while time is quickly slipping away on CBS' Cold Case. From what I'm hearing this is a can't-miss episode, so clear your schedules Sunday night for this one. It comes to us from writer Veena Sud who also wrote last season's intense serial killer arc as well as some of the series' most emotional episodes. Speaking of last season's serial killer (SPOILER WARNING - STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW), series star Kathryn Morris told TV Guide's Mike Ausiello a while back that there will be some reference to Lilly's experience with George in this episode. She seemed to hint that this guy knows about Lilly's experience with him (END SPOILER WARNING). Over on NBC, an unexpected twist gives Vinnick an opportunity to damage the Santos campaign with only two weeks left before the election on The West Wing.

@9 p.m. - The brutal beating murder of a female Secret Service agent in her home has Logan and Barek looking through her husband's many clients on NBC's Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

@10 p.m. - Mary Kay Place guest stars on ABC's Desperate Housewives as a series of deaths occur at Seattle Grace and the uncanny events bring out the doctors’ superstitious sides and make Izzie nervous about Denny’s surgery. Over on NBC, Jordan investigates why several firefighters perished in a devastating wildfire on Crossing Jordan.



QUICK CUTS

*And finally, you just knew it had to be too good to be true, right? Yesterday, TVWeek.com reported that the new CW network had renewed 13 series including Veronica Mars and Everwood. Not true according to TV Guide's Mike Ausiello who writes about the gaffe in today's edition of the Ausiello Report. It seems a reporter at TVWeek.com "assumed too much" at a development presentation the CW gave to advertisers Wednesday according to a rep from the network. TVWeek.com quickly pulled the story from its site Thursday afternoon, but not before many of the shows' fans quickly spread the erroneous news. The CW will announce who makes the cut on the upstart network during its fall schedule announcement on May 18th. Fans of both shows can show their support for them by writing letters. To find out more on how you can save Veronica Mars, click over to Mars Investigations. To find out how you can help Everwood, visit Save Everwood Now (Be sure to read all the way to the bottom for the latest info).


That's all for today. Be sure to tune in Monday for thoughts on Cold Case (I'm really psyched about this episode. Will it live up to my expectations?). Plus, all the latest television news. And don't forget to check back here later today for the next installment of Friday Fun! You don't want to miss this edition!


SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

'Mars' Gives Us an Explosive Revelation! Plus 'Idol,' 'Model,' 'Office' and Internet TV

Veronica (Kristen Bell) interrogates guest star Kristin Cavallari (photo courtesy UPN/Warner Bros. Not for use on other sites/blogs)

It's so good to have Veronica Mars back, so good that I'm going to completely overlook Kristin Cavallari's so-so performance. She only had a few scenes and she wasn't terrible, but not great either. I had a feeling all along that the person blackmailing the gay teens at Neptune High was one of them. After Cavallari's character Kylie outed herself on the student news, I was pretty sure she was also the blackmailer. I did think that her reason for outing her girlfriend had good intentions, even if her tactics weren't the best. I just couldn't figure out how Kylie was connected to the pizza delivery muggings, but that's because she wasn't. Two seemingly connected events were actually just random coincidences, which I thought made the mystery of the week a little stronger. Overall, though, I felt that the mystery was a bust. It just didn't have enough intrigue or development for me to get completely into the story.

I'm OK with the lackluster mystery of the week because there was a lot of explosive revelations about Terrence's possible involvement in the bus crash and new developments on the Logan/Hannah front (photo courtesy UPN/Warner Bros. Not for use on other sites/blogs). Both of these storylines made up for the weaker one. First, Logan and Hannah. So, Logan knew that Hannah's father was the "eye witness" on the bridge framing him, but he says he didn't know that when he met her. He seemed pretty sincere when he told Hannah, and he didn't lie to her about anything else when he came clean, so I'm going to believe him for now. I think he probably saw Dr. Griffith pick up Hannah and realized that a golden opportunity had just landed in his lap. I loved the way he confronted Dr. Griffith and didn't back down. The question is, will Hannah join forces with Logan now that she knows the truth about her father? And if she does, will Logan have more leverage over Dr. Griffith? It's an interesting dynamic, and as much as I want to trust Logan, you always have to be on your toes with him. The character is so rich and complex, and that makes him incredibly fascinating. Speaking of incredibly fascinating, how about that look Veronica gave when she found out that Hannah's father is a plastic surgeon! Things are beginning to heat up in Neptune!

On the Terrence front, we learned that he has a shaky-at-best alibi and he happens to have some explosive devices in his hangar (which he uses to house his many expensive cars). Of course, Jackie pointed out to Veronica earlier that evening that Woody Goodman actually owns the hangar, so it's possible they aren't Terrence's explosives. I get that Terrence was gambling at a casino during the bus crash, but what I don't get is how this proves he's not involved. I know the casino blocks out cell signals to decrease cheating and there are photos showing Terrence at various places inside the casino, but the photos skip from 7:01 p.m. to 7:06 p.m. and the bus crash happened at 7:03 p.m. Couldn't Terrence have slipped out of the casino in that five minute span, make the call that triggered the explosion and then go back inside to continue gambling? I mean, I know he doesn't want the whole gambling thing coming out, but as Keith told him, casinos are some of the most videotaped places in the world. Surely this didn't slip Terrence's mind when/if he chose to use it as his alibi. I'm not saying that he's responsible, but when you couple the missing five minutes with the explosives that Veronica found, it's certainly possible. I'm not ruling him out, but then again, I don't rule anyone out on this show because every time you think you have something figured out, it finds a way to surprise you.


The Idol Moment
Well, the top 12 experienced the first casualty last night, and I can't say I'm bummed. I always thought that Melissa McGhee (photo courtesy Fox's American Idol) was the weakest link. Compared to her competition, she was just alright. I thought Ayla was more deserving of a top 12 berth, but that wasn't in the cards for her. Despite forgetting some of her lyrics the other night, I think Melissa did a nice job, but she was still my least favorite. I was surprised to see cutie Ace in the bottom three just because he is so popular. I guess his fans were too busy voting for Kevin Corvais (insert eye roll here). Zap2it's TV Gal predicted that Kevin would be this season's John Stevens, and I think she's right. I'm hoping not since the whole John Stevens debacle frustrated me to no end. My favs right now are still Katharine, Paris, Lisa (OMG!! I was so upset when she was in the bottom three. I will swear off this show if she doesn't make at least the top 5. Well, maybe not, but you know what I mean), Chris and, like Simon, I have warmed up to Taylor. He just exudes so much energy and he can sing! We're down to 11 contestants, who will go next? I think Kellie Pickler's days are numbered. I just don't get her appeal. Her voice is just so-so and she's just too ditzy for me, endearing, but ditzy. What did you think about last night's results? Were you happy to see Melissa go or sad that she went before some of the others? Leave me a comment with your thoughts.


The Model Moment
I am also happy with who got the boot last night on America's Next Top Model. Wendy (photo courtesy UPN) from New Orleans was sent packing after the judges felt that she wasn't a model. She's a pretty girl, but I have to agree. She seemed really sweet and she was obviously still struggling with everything that happened to her and her family during Hurricane Katrina, so I felt bad for her when she found out she was leaving. I liked everyone's makeovers except for Sarah's, but she's such a beautiful girl that it doesn't affect her looks. I agree with her, it just doesn't fit her personality. She's still my favorite, though. I thought it was interesting to learn that Jade's arrogance and lack of humility are really just a cover for her deep-rooted insecurities. I actual have a tiny ounce of sympathy for her now (yeah, it probably won't last). Furonda is increasingly getting on my nerves, and I think someone needs to knock her down off her pedestal real fast. I really like Nnenna. She just seems like a class act and very regal. I think that Joanie's days are numbered. What did you think about last night's elimination? Was Wendy your pick as well? Who do you think is going next? Leave me a comment with your thoughts.

About Last Night...Fox won the first hour of the night with Bones, followed by CBS' Survivor clip show (CBS had more total viewers) and ABC comedies George Lopez and Freddie. At 9, Fox maintained its lead with American Idol and new comedy The Loop, followed by CBS' Criminal Minds (r) and NBC's Law & Order (r). UPN's Veronica Mars landed in fifth ahead of the WB's Beauty and the Geek rerun. The final hour of the night went to CBS' CSI: NY (r), followed by NBC's Law & Order (r) and ABC's Invasion. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - ABC kicks off its new reality show American Inventor with a 2-hour premiere. Simon Cowell and the producers of American Idol will conduct the biggest search ever for America’s best new invention on the new reality competition. Over on Fox, The Loop moves to its usual timeslot. CBS begins its coverage of the NCAA basketball tournament, so that means no usual Thursday line-up. Basketball coverage begins at 7 p.m.

@9 p.m. - Earl tries to do something nice for his mother on Mother's Day and Beau Bridges guest stars as Earl's father on NBC's My Name is Earl. Over on Fox, Marissa and Volchok grow closer on The O.C.

@10 p.m. - Dr. Weaver contemplates hip replacement surgery after she finds it hard to do her labor intensive job and Armand Assante guest stars on NBC's ER.



QUICK CUTS

*CBS might face the music to the tune of more than $3.6 million. The Federal Communications Commission ruled that a December 2004 broadcast of the network's hit show Without a Trace contained indecent material. The episode, entitled "Our Sons and Daughters," had a scene showing teenagers at a sex party that had "explicit and lengthy ... depictions of sexual activity, including apparent intercourse" according to the FCC. The organization felt that the scene went "well beyond what the story line could reasonably be said to require." CBS originally aired the episode in November 2003, and received complaints at that point as well. The proposed fine will not apply to all of the CBS affiliates in the country, just those in the central and mountain times zones and Alaska and Hawaii because they air Trace before 10 p.m. when material such as that contained in the episode is less acceptable. CBS says it "strongly disagrees" with the ruling on Trace.

*NBC's The Office isn't getting much of a break this year. The comedy will be shooting 10 webisodes that will air exclusively on NBC.com this summer. The serialized-arc will feature the accounting staff at Dunder Mifflin paper company in a mystery over who stole $3,000 from the Scanton office. The episodes will not be connected to this season or next. Look for the webisodes to premiere sometime this summer on NBC.com.

*The next edition of Rock Star will search for a lead singer for the new band Supernova CBS announced today. The band will feature drummer Tommy Lee (Motley Crüe), Jason Newsted (Metallica) and Gilby Clarke (Guns N' Roses). The show will narrow the field of contestants down to 16, and then choose the lead singer from there. Once the singer is chosen, the band will record its debut album of original tracks. Rock Star (working title) will return this summer on CBS.

*And finally, America Online is taking the concept of television to a height. The Internet service provider is now offering reruns of 30 classic Warner Bros. shows including Growing Pains and Eight is Enough on its new Internet channel. Dubbed, In2TV, the Internet only network is free to anyone with high-speed Internet access and is advertiser supported. The company plans to air more than 100 series and at least 300 episodes a month along with games, polls and other interactive features in the future.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for thoughts on American Inventor (Will it be Idol with inventions as it's being billed?) and My Name is Earl. Plus, all the latest television news!


SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

'Race' Keeps us Hanging! Plus the Scrubies, 'Veronica' Returns and Nielsen Wednesday

You're a tricky one Amazing Race! You decided to do one of those now infamous "Phil on the mat" non elimination eliminations last night that you usually reserve for the latter legs of the race. You definitely fooled me this once, but don't expect to fool me twice! And could they have picked a worse point in the competition to put up those dreaded three words ("To Be Continued...")? Who do they think they are? The evil producers from Deal or No Deal? Anyway, the teams started out the gate in Brotas, Brazil where they learned they would have to ride a 300-foot zip line to get their next clue. Nothing exciting transpired here, unless you count Lake getting lost and only partially blaming himself again. Oh, and there was the usual playfulness between friends Eric and Jeremy (Team Slacker). You know those two, they just can't start a leg without a fun pat on the rear end from each other. Speaking of Team Slacker, they apparently made some major strides at the Pit Stop with Team Double D, so maybe these crazy kids will find a way to make it last. That is, if Eric and Jeremy change into some clean underwear after that scare Team Hippie gave them at the zip line location. Seriously, have you ever seen someone jump so high out of their car seat? Awesome! Moving on, after the teams completed the zip line, they learned that they would be traveling to Moscow, Russia. The teams thought the language barrier was difficult in Brazil, just wait until they have to deal with another alphabet! Man, this edition is seriously making up for that family experiment. The prospect of going to Russia is very exciting to everyone, except for Lake. He apparently has a strange aversion to Russia, or rather "Freakin' Russia" as he put it. Speaking of Lake, did you know that he and Michelle haven't been "ugly" to each other yet? Yeah, I'm scared to see his definition of "ugly" too. The teams had to make their way to a bus stop, grab a departure time and head to the airport. Poor Fran and Barry were the only team on the last bus. At the airport, all of the teams landed on the same flight and made their way to "Freakin'" Moscow (TM Lake).

Once in Moscow, the teams had to find Chaika Bassein, a water sports facility once used to train Olympic athletes. Team Hippie was first to arrive, and it was Roadblock time. The Roadblock required one member to dress in a bathing suit, face the ice cold temperatures and dive 10 meters into the pool. Once in the pool, the team member had to dive down and get a clue. This Roadblock doesn't sound too difficult, but it produced a lot of drama. First, Yolanda began instantly regretting her decision to complete the Roadblock. It seems she's not a very good swimmer, but after a lot of hesitation on the diving board, she completed the task. The second dose of drama arose after Wanda (Team Mother/Daughter) jumped in the pool. We soon learned that she has a fear of diving down into deep water. She tried to get the clue, but to no avail. It seemed like all hope was lost as the show faded to commercial. When it started back up, I expected the usual "everything is fine now" routine, but for the first time that I can remember in the history of The Amazing Race, this was not the case. Eventually, and after a lot of coaxing from her daughter, Wanda completed the task. Meanwhile, the rest of the teams had made their way to the next route marker in an old, beautiful cathedral, where they found a Detour: Scrub or Scour. In Scrub, teams would have to travel to a trolley depot and wash a trolley thoroughly on the outside and inside. In Scour, teams would have to search 1,500 multi-piece Russian nesting dolls to find one of 10 tiny clues hidden inside (I LOVE these challenges!). And when I say the "rest of the teams," I mean everyone except Team Double D who discovered that they had forgotten their fanny pack back at the Roadblock. The girls had to find a taxi back, get the fanny pack, and then find another taxi back to the cathedral before they could even get to the Detour. Yeah, they seemed like goners. But wait! As the girls pulled up to the Roadblock, Team Mother/Daughter was just leaving! All hope was not lost.

The rest of teams struggled with the language/ alphabet barrier (see, I knew that was going to be a problem) and wound up at the Scour Detour instead of Scrub, much to their dismay. Now, Team Hippies, Lake/Michelle, Team Slacker, Ray/Yolanda and Fran/Barry were all stuck searching for a tiny clue hidden in the nesting dolls while getting-on-your-last-nerve music played in the background. I figured this was going to be a worse case scenario for Lake, but he didn't get too frustrated. I guess that's because Michelle found the clue right after Team Slacker found theirs. So, Michelle earned some serious brownie points that might keep Lake from degrading her for a task or two, but probably not. The rest of the teams continued to search. Meanwhile, Team Nerds and Team MoJo shared a taxi, but ended up driving around in circles for what seemed like forever. They finally reached the Scrub Detour, but Team Mother/Daughter and Team Double D had already gotten there. Apparently, it didn't just seem like forever, it was forever! All four teams began scrubbing away as Ray/Yolanda and Team Hippies both found the hidden clue back at Scour and made their way to Phil. Team Slacker and Lake/Michelle wondered aimlessly around Red Square searching for Phil, but Team Slacker got there first. Too bad for them that this was just a Phil on the mat finish, and they would need to keep racing. Will Fran and Barry ever find the hidden clue at Scour? Will the trolley washers complete their task? We'll have to wait until next week to know for sure, but the previews made the answers pretty obvious (photos courtesy cbs.com).

Once again, Scrubs continued to pack plenty of laughs into a 30-minute episode last night. I loved the Watchie-Talkies! We also had the return of JD's half acre, Crisco sunscreen, JD taking Turk to the fertility clinic, and Dr. Cox named the best doctor in the city, which led to the hilariously uncomfortable scene where Dr. Kelso had to admit that Perry is the best doctor. As usual, here's a look at last night's best, funniest and overall clever lines.

The Scrubies
"Perry, the last publication I read was the issue of Out my son left by the crapper when he was home this weekend asking for money." Dr. Kelso pretending to be ignorant about Dr. Cox's honor

"Yes I am. I'm going to give you a second so you can think about how lucky that makes you." Dr. Cox after a patient asks him if he's her doctor

"See, this is why I hate cancer." Elliot after learning that Keith wouldn't be able to come over that night because he had to tend to a patient with cancer

"Turk may be sterile." Carla after Elliot and Jordan were competing over who had it worse with their significant other
"We have a winner!" Jordan

"It's not weird that you know that at all." Dr. Cox to JD after learning that JD can tell when Turk's naked because his voice is higher

"People started talking and Perry ended up completely emasculated, so it worked out for me." Jordan on what happened after she got Perry his promotion

"Excuse me, are any of the reading materials in there available out here?" JD to the nurse at the fertility clinic

"If I wanted to waste my breath, I would have given my wife mouth-to-mouth last night when she went into cardiac arrest." Dr. Kelso to Dr. Cox

That's this week's edition of The Scrubies. If you have a quote that you would like to nominate for a Scrubie, be sure to leave me a comment and I'll publish it in a future edition. Or, if you would just like to comment on last night's episode of Scrubs or The Amazing Race, feel free to drop me a line as well.

About Last Night...Fox won the first hour of the night with American Idol, followed by CBS' NCIS and an hour of ABC's According to Jim. At 9, Fox's Idol continued its dominance, followed by CBS' The Unit and a tie between an hour of NBC's Scrubs and an hour of ABC's Sons & Daughters (NBC had more total viewers). The final hour of the night went to NBC's Law & Order: SVU (r), followed by ABC's Boston Legal and CBS' The Amazing Race. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - It's makeover night on UPN's America's Next Top Model and the girls get put on ice. Over on Fox, Bones moves to its new, temporary timeslot. CBS moves Survivor to this new slot while it airs the NCAA basketball tournament tomorrow night. Tonight's show is just a highlight reel from the first 15 days on the island.

@9 p.m. - UPN's Veronica Mars finally returns!! Tonight, Laguna Beach's Kristin Cavallari guest stars as a cheerleader who enlists Veronica's help to find out who is blackmailing her and other gay teens at Neptune High. And if you can't wait until the new episode airs tonight (like me), you can click on over to TV Guide's Insider column (beware, there are some minor spoilers) for the site's exclusive Q&A with the show's creator/ executive producer Rob Thomas. Over on Fox, we learn which contestant is going home on American Idol. At 9:30, Fox premieres its new comedy The Loop, which follows the youngest executive at the corporate headquarters of a major airline who also happens to be the first of his friends to get a real job.

Kristin Cavallari guest stars as a blackmailed cheerleader on tonight's Veronica Mars (photo courtesy UPN/Warner Bros. Not for use on other sites/blogs)

@10 p.m. - ABC's Invasion airs its last episode before it upcoming hiatus. Tonight, Christina forces Mariel to perform an ultrasound to find out what’s growing inside her.



QUICK CUTS

*NBC and Microsoft are teaming up to give you more chances to catch NBC's new thriller Heist. Before the show premieres March 22nd, you'll have a chance to see 16 minutes of the pilot exclusively on MSN Video the network announced yesterday. The preview is available now. The Internet site will also have the exclusive rights to stream the entire first two episodes of the upcoming series after they air on NBC. Heist follows professional thief, Mickey O'Neil (Dougray Scott) as he "assembles an expert team of career criminals to attempt one of the biggest heists in history. Their plan: simultaneously rob three of the most renowned jewelry stores on Beverly Hills' famed Rodeo Drive during Academy Awards week" according to the release. It premieres March 22nd on NBC.

*And finally, it's Nielsen Wednesday! Fox won the week fueled by the ever-popular American Idol, which landed in the #1, 2 and 4th positions for the week. CSI (#3), Grey's Anatomy (#5), Desperate Housewives (#6), House (#7), Without a Trace (#8), CSI: Miami (#9) and The Unit (#10) rounded out the Top 10. To see which shows made the Top 20, visit USA Today.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for thoughts on the return of Veronica Mars (Do the happy dance!) and The Idol Moment! Plus, all the latest television news!


SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

Siblings that See Ghosts Together, Stay Together! Plus a Big Announcement, 'Veronica Mars' and More 'Idol'

So, Medium was pretty excellent last night! As usual, it definitely kept me guessing and I never saw the big revelation coming, even though after we learned that Lea was dead, I thought back to the clues (no one in the bar hearing her drink order except Allison's brother Michael, Lea not knowing where she was staying, etc) and realized that the groundwork had been laid for this big twist. I just failed to see it along the way. Now, before any Ghost Whisperer fans write in and say that last night's Medium was some sort of rip-off of that show, it should be known that I do not watch Ghost Whisperer (I have never even seen an episode), so my thoughts on Medium will be independent of that show. Anyway, Allison's brother Michael rolled into town very unexpectedly at the same time that she began having dreams that he was involved in a bank robbery. During the robbery, the robbers took a young red head hostage as they made their escape. The next day, Allison learns that the robbery she dreamt about really happened and there is a red head hostage. So, what does a bank robbery with a hostage have to do with Michael coming to town? Nothing, except for the small fact that Michael meets a girl (Lea) on his first night in town and that girl wants him to get her stuff back from her ex-boyfriend. He agrees to get it, but everything gets turned upside down. One of her boyfriend's "business associates" is still in the hotel room while Michael tries to escape with the suitcase, which unbeknownst to him is full of money - money taken in the bank robbery. And remember that red head hostage, well she's Lea and she's part of the bank scheme, not really a hostage, and oh yeah, she's dead. It seems her ex-boyfriend shot her, decapitated her and removed her hands to make identification more difficult. Is this guy a prize or what? Lea doesn't realize that she's dead, though, until Allison councils her, and Michael doesn't believe in Allison's gift until he experiences it for himself. I think this is the first episode of this show where I felt a little choked up at the end. It was very well done.

COMING SOON!!!

As promised, I have a big Pass the Remote announcement! Coming soon to a computer screen near you, the new, more expansive Pass the Remote. Not the blog, but a brand new site serving all of your television needs. The new site, PassTheRemote.Net, will have television news, listings, Friday Fun archive, Best of Pass the Remote, a photo gallery and more! The best part, you'll still get your daily dose of thoughts on the previous night's programs, Primetime Pass, About Last Night and all your other favorite Pass the Remote features right here in this daily blog! The blog isn't going anywhere; it's just getting fancier new digs and an easier web address (www.passtheremote.net). Here's a breakdown of PassTheRemote.Net's features:

~NEWS: You'll have access to the day's biggest television headlines and stories
~PASS THE REMOTE BLOG: Easy link with a preview of the day's hottest topics
~BEST OF PASS THE REMOTE: Includes a photo gallery (which will house all of my pictures from my Veronica Mars set visit among other future endeavors) and easy reference links to the best editions of Pass the Remote (including all my posts on the set visit)
~FRIDAY FUN: An easy to use archive of all the Friday Fun editions of Pass the Remote
~LISTINGS: Find out what's on TV each night

And more! I'll keep you guys up-to-date right here on Pass the Remote on the launch date of PassTheRemote.Net. Stay tuned!

About Last Night...NBC won the first hour of the night with Deal or No Deal, followed by CBS comedies King of Queens and the premiere of The New Adventures of Old Christine and ABC's Wife Swap. At 9, CBS took the lead with comedies Two and a Half Men and a second episode of Old Christine, followed by Fox's 24 and NBC's The Apprentice. The final hour of the night went to CBS' CSI: Miami, followed by NBC's Medium and ABC's Miracle Workers. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - The top 12 contestants perform in a special 2-hour episode of Fox's American Idol. Over on CBS, the NCIS team is called in when a teenager holds his school hostage with a bomb.

@9 p.m. - JD gets fed up with intern Keith's level of perfection on NBC's Scrubs. Another episode follows at 9:30 (rerun), and this week it's Sarah Chalke's (Elliot) favorite episode. CBS' latest hit, The Unit, follows up its huge premiere last week with a mission that turns into an opportunity to catch a wanted terrorist.

@10 p.m. - The teams say goodbye to Brazil and head to Russia where they face the frustrating challenge of finding a clue hidden inside thousands of Russian nesting dolls on CBS' The Amazing Race. Over on ABC, Alan Shore’s secretary is arrested for tax evasion on Boston Legal.


QUICK CUTS

*There's great news on the Veronica Mars front. UPN announced yesterday that it will air 9 consecutive new episodes of the show beginning tomorrow night. The network also released some plot points surrounding these new episodes that you'll see over the next several weeks. You know the drill, if you don't want to be spoiled, stop reading now (SPOILER WARNING). Veronica investigates who's blackmailing the gay students at Neptune High, Dr. Griffith tells Logan to stay away from his daughter Hannah, Veronica searches for a runaway bride who happens to be Wallace's new girlfriend's sister, Harry Hamlin and Charisma Carpenter return as Aaron Echolls meets with Kendall to discuss getting into Logan's hotel suite, Veronica runs into Troy while taking a college tour and Arrested Development's Michael Cera and Alia Shawkat guest star (END SPOILER WARNING). Veronica Mars returns tomorrow night at 9 p.m. EST on UPN.

*American Idol is getting its own pre-show courtesy of the TV Guide Channel. The new live hour-long show, dubbed Idol Tonight, will air before every new episode of the popular Fox reality competition. It will feature appearances by former contestants and past Idol stars, along with interviews with vocal coaches, casting agents and industry insiders. Former Idol contestant Kimberly Caldwell and former Popstars contestant Rosanna Tavarez will host the program that premieres tonight at 7 p.m. EST on cable's TV Guide Channel.

*And finally, Sunday's huge ratings battle between the return of HBO's Sopranos and the behemoth that is ABC's Desperate Housewives ended with both shows showing some battle scars. The Sopranos' audience was down from its last two season premieres according to Nielsen Media Research. The show still managed to garner an impressive 9.5 million viewers. Housewives was down from its season average, but only about 900,000 viewers, coming in with just over 22 million viewers for the hour. The two shows will face off again on March 26th when Housewives returns with a new episode.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for thoughts on The Amazing Race and the Scrubies! Plus, all the latest television news.


SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

Scotty Learns the 'Cold' Truth and Gabby is 'Desperate' to Adopt! Plus DVD Releases and Alicia Silverstone's TV Return

There were many things in last night's Cold Case episode that shocked me. First of all, Scotty worked as a narc? Undercover? And he looked like this (above)? This just doesn't seem very Scotty, but then we learned that it wasn't, which led to the problem. And then there was the disturbing look at the world of drug mules, something that you hear about, but experiencing through a character on a television shows makes it hit a little closer to home. The final shocking turn, and what I found to be the most shocking, was the revelation that Scotty purposely omitted pertinent information when they first re-opened the case. From the promos, press release, and just about everything else, I had the impression that he and the murdered drug mule (Ana) were involved, so I was expecting some big "shocking" revelation scene where the rest of the characters (who don't have the benefit of promos) catch up with the rest of us. Imagine my shock when we learned that Scotty and Ana didn't have an inappropriate relationship, but rather, he just got too close to her in a more human way and that closeness led to his bad decision. I don't blame Scotty, though. Yes, he shouldn't have let his emotions get in the way (thus, the reason why he's not cut out for undercover narcotics work), but giving Ana his number in case of an emergency is not what led to her death. I can't even blame his sergeant, although he's not my favorite person after what he did, or rather what he didn't do (he could have protected her), because this murder came down to two people willing to do absolutely anything to get the two "cookies" of drugs that Ana had stashed as a bargaining tool to get her passport and money back. Cold Case is the master at manipulating emotions so well that you're willing to forgive the fact that it is purposely trying to evoke a deep sadness from you. This was certainly the case last night. How sad was Ana's murder scene in the SUV? When she looked up and saw herself achieving her dream it seriously pulled at my heartstrings. Manipulation successful achieved.


I have to give props to my girl Lilly. I thought for sure that she would have been all over Scotty for leaving out pertinent information, getting too close to Anna and almost blowing the entire investigation back in 1998. It just seemed so her, but she surprised me. I didn't detect a high-and-mighty moment in the entire episode. In fact, despite Scotty's past untruthfulness, she was one of the last to believe that anything more than friendship transpired between him and Ana. She didn't even get on him when he finally admitted that he hadn't been entirely forthcoming about the night of Ana's murder. She had more of a disappointed look to her than a judgmental or angry one. I do think that she took mental note of a pattern that seems to have developed in Scotty's life. He's not very good at controlling himself, especially during the times it seems most needed. There was no mention of Ray the motorcycle man, but several allusions to Scotty's misstep with Lil's sister last season. I liked the way the episode chose to hint at it without beating us over the head with what happened. We got that Lil might doubt Scotty because he lied to her about Chris without them telling us, so I appreciate the subtlety. I thought Scotty's realization that he needed to mend his ways was interesting and I'm hoping we get to see where it leads.

Please don't tell me that Desperate Housewives is going back to being boring. Not when things just started picking up this season! Even as I sit here to write about the episode, I find that there's little of note. Why can't all shows use set-up episodes as effectively as Veronica Mars? All of these shows (I'm looking at you Desperate Housewives and Lost) could take a page or two out of Veronica's notebook. I did find the Gabby-and-Carlos-try-to-adopt storyline interesting and comical until it took a turn toward black market baby-land. I don't know how I feel about that idea. John's mom working at the adoption agency was a surprising turn, and it led to a very uncomfortable scene. I really dislike the whole dying-man-needs-to-see-grandson story line. It has dragged on for far too many episodes. I thought it had gotten interesting when we thought that Paul had died, but that was just a red herring. We get it, Dierdre's father is the quintessential soap opera bad guy. Can we please move on now? Susan was up to her usual silly antics. Is anyone surprised that she still loves Mike? I guess maybe she'll be when she wakes up. Lynette and Tom should not be working together, although, it makes for interesting scenes between them. It's just not good for their marriage. The only other interesting story last night was Bree's decision to go to AA to fight Andrew's emancipation. This chick is in serious denial! She keeps excusing her behavior away while drowning herself in her many stashed bottles of wine. Bree, there are some things you can't handle yourself, please seek help!

About Last Night...CBS won the first hour of the night with Cold Case, followed by ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Case won in households, Makeover in total viewers) and Fox's The Simpsons and The War at Home. At 9, ABC took over with Desperate Housewives, followed by NBC's Law & Order: CI and CBS' movie How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. The final hour of the night went to ABC's Grey's Anatomy (which got the night's biggest audience again), followed by NBC's Crossing Jordan and the second hour of CBS' movie. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - NBC airs another edition of Deal or No Deal. Over on CBS, new Julia Louis-Dreyfus comedy The New Adventures of Old Christine premieres (another episodes airs at 9:30 p.m.).

@10 p.m. - Allison has a disturbing dream about her brother just as he rolls into town and she begins to fear the worst on NBC's Medium. Over on CBS, the team finds evidence that may prove that a man found innocent of killing his wife is really guilty on CSI: Miami.



QUICK CUTS

*Actress Alicia Silverstone is coming back to TV. She has just been cast in the lead role for the ABC pilot Pink Collar. The single-camera comedy (in the same tradition as this year's breakouts My Name is Earl and Everybody Hates Chris as well as Scrubs and Arrested Development) will follow the relationships between female co-workers. Silverstone was last seen in NBC's short-lived Miss Match back in 2003.

*Reruns of HBO's critically acclaimed Six Feet Under are coming to a basic cable channel near you. Bravo purchased the exclusive rights to the show's reruns for the next four years according to an HBO rep. The series, which ended its run last August, aired for five seasons with a total of 63 episodes. HBO gave the cable channel the right to edit out content to make it suitable for a PG audience just as it did for TBS' airings of Sex and the City. The episodes are expected to start this fall and air once a week on Bravo.

*And finally, it's TV on DVD Monday! Look for I Dream of Jeannie (season 1 - available in both color and black/white) on store shelves tomorrow along with Columbo (season 4), MacGyver (season 5), Murder She Wrote (season 3) and Sleeper Cell (season 1). For the full list of tomorrow's releases, visit tvshowsondvd.com.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for thoughts on Medium and a special announcement that will bring exciting changes to Pass the Remote! Plus, all the latest television news!


SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

FRIDAY FUN: I (Heart) 'Cold Case!'

Welcome to the first edition of the latest feature from Pass the Remote. Each Friday afternoon, I'll post a fun anecdote to carry us through the weekend. Everything from articles and pictures to video featuring your favorite shows and their stars will get its turn at being our weekly dose of Friday Fun. It's sort of my homage to TGIF.

I (heart) Cold Case and here's why...

This video comes from Los Angeles' KTTV Fox 11's Good Day LA, which features the latest news, weather, traffic, and entertainment gossip. In this 7-minute video, Cold Case stars Kathryn Morris, Danny Pino and Jeremy Ratchford talk live with hosts Steve Edwards, Dorothy Lucey and Jillian Barberie about their hit CBS show. You know how you always hear about star squabbles on the sets of your favorite shows? Well, rest assured, this isn't the Case here as you can see from the actors' great camaraderie in this clip. A special thanks to Irishkale from Look Again for obtaining and uploading the video! Enjoy a lighter look at the actors as they take a break from their heavy work on Cold Case (1/30/06).

Click here to watch 'Good Day LA'

(video hosted courtesy of Putfile)

In other fun Cold Case news, stars Kathryn Morris and Danny Pino are on the cover of the current issue (March 13) of TV Guide. You can pick it up on newsstands everywhere and learn some plot secrets for the remainder of the show's third season. TVGuide.com has some exclusive behind-the-scenes photos from the cast's recent photoshoot. Here are a few of the photos:

Kathryn Morris and Danny Pino get prepped for their cover shoot


The shot that made the cover


(from left to right) Danny Pino, Kathryn Morris and Thom Barry pose for the inside shot

You can see more behind-the-scenes photos from the shoot at TVGuide.com and you can see the photos that made the cut in the latest issue of TV Guide on newsstands now. Be sure to check back here Monday for the latest edition of Pass the Remote and next Friday for another installment of Friday Fun! Have a great weekend everyone!

The Lighter Side of 'CSI' and 'Trace!' Plus, 'Idol' and News on 'House' and 'Joey'

Has there ever been a show that has explored the depths of the weird side of human nature better than CSI? I didn't think so. Last night's foot fetish episode was a classic example of how this show loves to take a dark comedy approach when addressing the underbelly sector of society. This guy was so engrossed in his foot fetish that he went to extreme measures to feed it, including dressing as a fireman and setting off smoke bombs in the apartment building. The more he did it, the more it escaladed until one of his victims ended up on the cold morgue slab. The best part of last night's episode, though, was the way the show made fun of itself through the reality television show story line. Everything from the comments (Grissom's "There are too many forensics shows on television" and Hodges "Yeah, but when they cut it together, it will only take 30 seconds.") to the overarching satirical theme played nicely into the show's idea to laugh with its audience. In fact, both of those quotes mentioned above were so awesome that I'm giving them each an honorary Scrubie despite the fact that they were not said on Scrubs. They were just that good. What made Hodges' comment even better was the way they went right into one of those 30-second montages that he just described. You have to love a show that is this self-aware this willing to laugh at itself!

Speaking of laughing, it was nice to see Without a Trace take a lighter approach last night. That show is usually pretty heavy, so I enjoy the lighter episodes mixed in. I don't think they did a very good job of connecting Rachel's incident at the bowling alley when she was young to her present day agoraphobia, though. It happened when she was an adolescent, but she doesn't develop the agoraphobia until just two years ago? I'm guessing it has to do with her childhood friend banging on her door that night, but it still seemed strange to me. All of the dots did not connect in this one, but overall, it was a good episode. I loved the ending with Jack and Danny singing, especially since Danny is one of my TV boyfriends (Scotty from Cold Case and Det. Lee Scanlon from Medium being the other two). Jack's one-on-one with Rachel in the bowling alley was nice as well. I'm not a huge Jack fan, nor am I a Jack hater, but he's starting to grow on me this season. Maybe it's the fact that the writers stopped focusing so much on his messy divorce.


The Idol Moment
We're down to the final 12! Yay! Maybe now this show can stop filling up 2/3 of the weekly schedule. I like American Idol, but in a totally non-fangirl type of way, so the multiple episodes a week format drives me crazy. There is just no way I'm catching all of them. But, alas, it is (hopefully) over, and I'll be able to get down to watching the top 12 performances. Four contestants that won't be competing anymore got the bad news last night. I feel like all four of them had the potential to shine in the top 12, but the problem was that everyone in the top 12 does as well (except maybe Melissa, but she could always surprise me). For the ladies, Ayla Brown and Kinnik Sky got the bad news. Both of them are really talented, so we may hear from them again. Ayla can finally accept that basketball scholarship to Boston College. For the guys, it was Gedeon McKinney and Will Makar. Now that we have our top 12, I'm going for Paris, Lisa, Katharine, Ace, Chris and Elliot (yeah, I have a lot of voting to do).

About Last Night... Fox won the first hour of the night with American idol, followed by CBS' Survivor and ABC's movie Bringing Down the House. At 9, CBS took over with CSI, followed by the second hour of ABC's movie and NBC comedies My Name is Earl (r) and The Office (r). The final hour of the night went to CBS' Without a Trace, followed by NBC's ER (r) and ABC's Primetime. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - NBC premieres its Friday edition of Deal or No Deal.

@9 p.m. - Annabeth tries to build a case against a convicted criminal whom she put in jail years earlier after he is arrested for robbing a jewelry store on CBS' Close to Home. Over on NBC, Danny arrests a chip thief who claims to know someone who is planning to blow up the Montecito on Las Vegas. Old wounds are opened for Conti when the NJP team re-investigates the case of a cop accused of killing another cop on ABC's In Justice.

@10 p.m. - Charlie tries to discredit a psychic who may have helped Don and his team solve a crime on CBS' Numb3rs. Over on NBC, the prosecutors must charge a 14-year old boy as an adult for killing his brother on Conviction. Sci Fi channel's Battlestar Gallactica ends it second season with a special 90-minute finale.

SUNDAY EDITION
@8 p.m. - Valens takes an unexpected trip down memory lane when Lilly reopens the 1998 murder of a drug mule and he becomes the focal point on CBS' Cold Case. Over on NBC, The West Wing returns with a nuclear scare.

@9 p.m. - Paul gets arrested, Lynette and Tom butt heads at work and everyone begins to notice Bree's drinking problem on ABC's Desperate Housewives. Over on HBO, The Sopranos begins its 6th season.

@10 p.m. - Cristina has a bad day when Bailey asks her to take care of her baby on ABC's Grey's Anatomy. Over on NBC, A bomber strikes a Boston commuter train, leaving multiple people dead and many more injured on Crossing Jordan.



QUICK CUTS

*NBC is pulling Joey once again. The network announced that the recent decision to order a second edition of its hit game show Deal or No Deal is ending in a bad deal for Joey fans. The extra edition on Friday nights forces the network's Most Outrageous Moments out of its scheduled slot. So, NBC decided to move it to Tuesday nights in Joey's current slot after Joey did so poorly in the ratings this week, which leaves the comedy without a slot. Variety is reporting that the show won't return until the summer, and even then it will more than likely be to burn off unaired episodes. There is no official announcement from NBC yet.

*Fox is ordering another dose of its medical drama House. The show's creator told the crowd at the Museum of Television & Radio's Paley Festival Wednesday night that he had just received word that the show would be back for its third season. Yesterday, Fox confirmed the decision. The show has increased its audience since American Idol returned from more than 12 million viewers to now almost 14 million viewers each week. House airs Tuesday nights on Fox.

*And finally, not getting enough American Idol? Well, the Fox Reality cable channel promises to cure your withdrawal with its new show American Idol Extra. After the contestants are voted off each week, you can tune into the new show to see "the backstage drama of what really happens." The show premieres March 16th on Fox Reality.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in Monday for thoughts on Cold Case(I think Scotty has some splainin' to do! Who wants to bet Lil gets up on her high and mighty horse? This is going to be awesome!) and Desperate Housewives (Seems Bree has some splainin' of her own to do!) . Plus, all the latest television news. And coming later today, a brand new feature on Pass the Remote! Every Friday afternoon, check back for Friday Fun. This latest feature on Pass the Remote will provide a fun, anecdote featuring either video, pictures or other media of your favorite shows and their stars. That's every Friday afternoon on Pass the Remote! Be sure to check back later today for this week's edition.


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Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

Talking with 'Mars' ' Kristen Bell and Jason Dohring! Plus, 'Top Model,' 'Earl' and More 'Deal'

Star Kristen Bell talks with bloggers for the Veronica Mars Bloggers Press Day (2/27/06)

Meeting Kristen Bell is quite a thrill. The petite star of Veronica Mars is friendly, gracious and candid, especially when it comes to her recent Maxim magazine photoshoot (to see Kristen's cover and photo spread, click HERE). "I talked with the photographer and with the stylist and with everybody and I was like, 'nothing pink, nothing ruffled. I'm not doing the whole pedophile thing,'" she says with the same charm of her beloved character. The actress had previously turned down the offer to pose for the men's magazine, but she says it all came down to a business decision saying, "There's a good amount, more than you'd think, of Veronica Mars fans that read Maxim everyday and that's the [her upcoming big screen movie] Pulse audience pretty much, so it's kind of like strategically building your career." Bell says that she is happy with the result and that she went for the "most amount of coverage" because she believes "if you see it all, what's the point? There's nothing sexy about it. There's nothing mysterious about it, so I tried to have as much class as possible." There is one bit that she would like to clear the air about, and it has to do with the bubble next to one of her photos that makes it sound like she thinks a good first date ends with her taking her pants off. "They asked 'What do you think about dating?' and I said, 'I think you should always be yourself.' The worst thing I think is like 6 months down the line you're like, 'Oh, I have all these weird habits,'" she says matter-of-factly. According to Bell, the whole thing stems from her own experiences. "On one of my first dates, I was like, 'I'm really full and I'm going to unbutton my pants. If you think that's gross than I'll see you later, but I'm really full,'" she recalls. In the end, Bell says that she went for a more "50's pin-up" look with the shoot and she made the most of the experience.

Another experience that Bell had recently was her appearance on MTV's Punk'd. Host Ashton Kutcher and his band of jokesters set her up with the help of her boyfriend. While filling up with gas, Bell noticed a dog all alone. After asking everyone at the gas station if they knew who the dog belonged to, Bell decided to take the dog home and help it find its owner or a new home if the dog turned out to be a stray. She and her boyfriend drove to a nearby pet store to get some supplies. While he was inside the store, Bell noticed a young boy hanging up a flyer for a lost dog that looked exactly like the one she was holding. She, of course, asked him if she had his dog, and he said yes. Next thing she knew, the boy and his father were accusing her of stealing their dog. Bell and her boyfriend often take in strays to help them find a good home, so she happened to have a flyer with her, which she used to try to prove that she wouldn't steal a dog. She says that the show cut a lot of it out, but "I was really angry with this guy because he was talking down to his son. I'm totally the person to open my mouth and be like, 'You shouldn't talk to your son like that.' He got me all fired up because he was blaming me for stealing the dog." In the end, Bell says that she was happy with the outcome. Before she could share anymore thoughts, she was called away to shoot a scene, and you're suddenly reminded that being a part of a critically acclaimed television show is still just a job, and it's a job that Bell is happy to have.

Jason Dohring jokes with us outside the hair and make-up trailer during the Veronica Mars Bloggers Press Day (2/27/06)

Veronica Mars creator/executive producer Rob Thomas is happy to have Jason Dohring playing Logan Echolls. "He's a fantastic actor that you rarely see on teen shows. He just has an intensity that's amazingly watchable to me," Thomas says. Dohring is indeed impressive; just consider the snappy, quick dialog that he delivers each week. "A lot of it is sarcastic, so there's subtext, which is what's really going on. You say the lines, but it's what's underneath that, especially with this guy because what he says is facetious all the time, but it's what makes it fun," says Dohring with the same intensity that he brings to his character. That dialog carries through the more snarky scenes as well as Logan's more vulnerable scenes. Dohring says that he likes playing both sides of Logan and he believes "it's kind of an interesting dynamic when it's not all Veronica and Logan." He says that Kristen Bell brings a real honesty to her role, especially when her Veronica character is reacting to Dohring's Logan character. "That's what breaks my heart when I see her. She's just so damn honest, " he says genuinely. Dohring also enjoys his scenes with guest star Harry Hamlin (SPOILER ALERT: who more than likely will be making another appearance before this season ends) saying, "It's cool to work with him and talk to him about acting because he's been around [the business] so long."

Before landing his role as Logan, Dohring made a guest appearance on CBS' Cold Case during its first season playing a troubled teen at a military school who may or may not have been involved in the death of one of the school's instructors. In a dark twist, the instructor was molesting some of the troubled teens at the school. The entire storyline culminates in an edge-of-your-seat moment that packed an extra punch to the already emotionally charged episode.

Dohring's character trades jabs with star Kathryn Morris' Lilly Rush on this episode of Cold Case.

Things go from bad to worse as Dohring's character gets a hold of a gun at police headquarters

Dohring looks back on his Cold Case experience fondly, saying "I had a great time on that show. It was so cool." He says he sees the Case gang around because of CBS and UPN being under the same corporate umbrella and they still discuss his episode. "They work such long hours. I got there at 6:30 in the morning and wrapped at midnight and they shot one more scene after I left," he says with the same impressed flair that his fans feel for him. One of those fans, Mars creator Rob Thomas, sums it all up when he says, "He's a really interesting, fun, unique actor."

The Model Moment
Attitudes were in full swing last night as many of the final 13 contestants believed that they rocked their first photoshoot on America's Next Top Model. The shocking news that they would need to be bald for the shoot threw off a lot of the girls, but they were all relieved to learn that it was only a bald cap and not the real deal. Early front runners for me: Sarah and Leslie. It came down to Furonda and Kathy (Pictured to the left. Photo courtesy UPN. Not for use on other sites/blogs). Tyra said that Furonda took the worst photo from the shoot, but the judges didn't see a lot of potential from Kathy. In the end, it was Kathy's lack of potential and her lifeless photo that sent her home. Tyra was quick to remind Furonda that although she was safe this week, she was at the bottom of the heap and would have to work harder to remain in the competition.


About Last Night... Fox won the first hour of the night with American Idol, followed by an hour of CBS' Still Standing and ABC comedies George Lopez (r) and Freddie. At 9, CBS took over with Criminal Minds, followed by Fox's Bones and ABC's Lost (r). The final hour of the night went to CBS' CSI: NY, followed by NBC's Law & Order and ABC's Invasion. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.


~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - Four more hopefuls go home (leaving us with the top 12) on the hour-long results show for Fox's American Idol. Over on CBS, the social dynamics of tribe Casaya continue to implode on Survivor.

@9 p.m. - The team becomes the subject of a reality show on CBS' CSI. Over on Fox, Ryan and Marissa's relationship is in jeopardy on the return of The O.C.

@10 p.m. - The team searches for a missing agoraphobic advice columnist who hasn't left her apartment in two years on CBS' Without a Trace.


QUICK CUTS

*NBC is adding another edition of its new hit Deal or No Deal to the schedule. The game show had a five-night run last week before moving to a once-a-week format on Monday. Now, the network has decided to air another edition on Friday nights because the ratings have been strong. The show performed well last Friday night, coming in second for the hour right behind CBS' Ghost Whisperer and winning the 18-49 year old demographic. Look for the Friday episodes to begin tomorrow night on NBC.

*And finally, look for a little something extra when NBC's My Name is Earl is released on DVD later this year. The show's creator, Greg Garcia, announced Tuesday to the audience at the Museum of Television & Radio's annual Paley Festival that the DVD set will include a 15-minute mini episode where Earl meets Family Guy's Stewie Griffin. Garcia is a former producer on that animated series, and both it and Earl are produced by 20th Century Fox TV. In the mini-episode, after Earl wins the lottery and gets run over by the car, he lands in the hospital. But instead of getting his life lesson from Carson Daly (as he did in the pilot), he comes upon Stewie Griffin. In addition to the mini episode, look for lots of commentary and footage from the gag reel that the cast and crew has collected this year. According to Garcia, the DVD set should be out before the second season premiere this fall.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for thoughts on CSI (You've gotta love an episode that parodies the reality craze! And who better to do it than CSI?) and Without a Trace. Plus, all the latest television news and The Idol Moment!


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'Race' Takes the Plunge! Plus the Scrubies and Nielsen Wednesday

It's only week two of The Amazing Race and already partnerships are forming. How unlikely of a pair are the pretty boys from Florida and the hippies from California? What I'm finding most interesting is the fact that none of the teams seems to hate any of the others - yet. It seems to me that the hate usually starts right out of the gate, but everyone is getting along so far. You know I totally just spoke too soon and now we're going to see major fighting next week! I'm still strongly disliking Lake. I think the main thing that bugs me about him is the way he is so controlling and demeaning. It says a lot to me when Michelle says that doing the Race will give her an opportunity to show to herself and LAKE that she is capable of doing it. Shouldn't her husband already know this? Ugh, he's just so degrading! Moving on, the teams all left the pit stop and headed to Edificio Copan where they had to find Blanco F to get their next clue. After a mad taxi-dash to the location, all of the teams learned that Blanco F didn't open to 8 a.m. One noteworthy event during this taxi-dash was Michelle's comment that Lake "is definitely the typical Type A personality." Now, we all know what she meant, but it seems more likely to me that he is a different "Type A" personality, the kind that begins with an" A" and ends with an "SS."

Once again moving on. Once the location opened for business, teams learned that they would be facing their first Roadblock of the Race. One team member had to climb up the fire escape of Edificio Copan and rappel 400 feet down the side of the building. The rappelling order would be decided by the order in which each team member reached the top of the fire escape. There were three fire escapes to choose from, but somehow most of the teams felt the need to all compete for the first one. A few more climbed the second one, and only BJ and Tyler (team Hippies) chose the third. Most of the teams easily completed the task. And then there was poor Danielle (team "Double Ds") who suddenly realized that she has a huge fear of heights. Problem is that she didn't remember until she was on the top of the building about to take her turn and rappel down, and thus, our first breakdown of the new season commenced. Tears were flowing, but luckily Fran stepped in and coaxed her down. See, I told you the teams are all getting along beautifully! Of course, Fran may have been so helpful because she was concerned about the fact that Danielle's breakdown was holding her up since she still had to take her turn after Danielle, but I'm choosing to see it the other way. After completing the task, the teams had to make their way to the bus station and rip off a departure time (10:15 a.m., 11:15 a.m. or 12:15 p.m.) to travel to Brotas, Brazil. BJ/Tyler, Monica/Joseph (team "MoJo") and Eric/Jeremy (team Slacker - as I told you last week, this is what I will be calling them) snagged the earliest departure time, while the other teams had to settle for the later ones.

Once in Brotas, teams had to take one of the marked VW Bugs with a clue on its windshield. Insert your own hippie jokes here. The clue held a Detour - Press it or Climb it. In Press it, teams had to travel to an old plantation and press 15 stalks of sugar cane to release the liquid inside. Once they had pressed all 15 stalks, they had to take the liquid to something that resembled a high school chemistry set and turn the liquid into ethanol (a popular form of fuel in Brazil), and then pour the ethanol into their VW Bugs (again, insert your own hippie jokes here). In Climb it, teams had to travel to Usina Jacare where they would hike in to a waterfall and then perform a 90-foot rope climb up the falls. The three teams on the first bus decided to work together to find the waterfall. Once there, all three teams easily completed the task and learned that they would need to dive 20 miles through the country to find the next Pit Stop. The race was on for first place with BJ and Tyler getting a local to take them to the Pit Stop location. Team Slacker followed, but got concerned when the trip seemed to be taking too long. They pulled off at a gas station only to learn that they were 1 kilometer from the location, so BJ and Tyler (who had pressed on) landed in first with Team Slacker not far behind. Monica's stress issues reared their ugly head again (breathe Mo, breathe), but she was happy to finish in third. Back at the Detours, David/Lori and Wanda/Desiree both chose to Press it, and both teams easily completed the task. Things were a little different at the waterfall as Fran struggled to ascend the falls. After watching Michelle go up rather easily, Fran got the hang of it and, she too, made her way up the waterfall. Danielle/Dani seemed to also easily complete it, and all three teams were on their way to the Pit Stop. Fran and Barry ran into some bad luck when their VW Bug's battery died and stranded them on the side of the road. They were given a replacement car, but no time credit, so they headed to the Pit Stop believing they were in last place. That was because they didn't know about sisters Lisa and Joni's bad day. After getting lost, the sisters finally made their way to Press it. They struggled a little bit with the task, and wound up in last place, and thus, were eliminated from the race. Is it just me, or are the producers just screwing with Phil now? There are four teams who have at least one member whose first name ends in an "A." This, of course, sets up Phil's infamous replacing the "A" with an "ER" on the end of the name. Instead of Wanda and Desiree, we get "Wander and Desiree." I don't care how many seasons there have been, this is still awesome!

How sad was it to only get one dose of Scrubs last night? I've gotten so used to see back-to-back new episodes every week that I have been spoiled! Even though we got only half the new episodes, that didn't mean half the laughs. Who knew that Sacred Heart had a beach on its roof? Or more accurately, that it COULD have beach on its roof? And what do you do with all the sand once it starts seeping, make that pouring, into Ted's office? Build a sand castle in the parking lot, of course! I love Janitor. If you want to go to a real beach, why not start the Dorian-Cox Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida? It comes complete with two big-hearted doctors who linger a little too long in the denial stage of the 5 Stages of Grief. And then there was Dr. Kelso versus Ted. That stand-off was hysterical, and I loved how Ted the lawyer settled for 7 Sunday afternoons off. This show is just too awesome for words, so I'll go ahead and let it speak for itself with this week's look at the funniest, most inventive and all around awesome quotes.

The Scrubies
"Would you like a virgin daiquiri? It's a regular daiquiri. I just have him give it to you." Dr. Cox (referring to JD) to his terminally ill patient on the rooftop beach

"Oh good. The piles are getting smaller." Ted after coughing up another pile of sand

"Looks like rain. That could be a problem." Janitor while standing on his sand castle

"Ted, the only thing I hate more than bikes are procedural cop shows. We get it. The pedophile did it." Dr. Kelso after learning that Ted wanted the weekend off for a charity bike ride

"It's not denial. She could rally!" Dr. Cox to grief counselor Lester Hedrick (guest star Dave Foley) regarding his terminally ill patient

"Oh for the love of God! What is this? Some pansy-get-in-touch-with-my-feelings-because-my-mommy-didn't-love-me group?" Dr. Cox to Hedrick's support group

"What do you think he's dying from? A case of the handsomes?" JD after noticing one of the members of the support group (which we find out is for terminally ill people)

"I know. They hear what they want to hear." Turk to Keith regarding women

And now the night's best delivered (and longest) quote:

"You couldn't push my buttons if you tried. In fact, I have no buttons. Please think of me as button-less -- all smooth like GI Joe's nether regions. And by the by, this message is brought to you by my son Jack, who has been yanking the pants off his toy soldiers and leaving them in provocative positions on my nightstand. It is just disturbing enough, so that leaving the house, I'm cranky and less able to suffer fools, which brings me back to you - the fool. So, go now. Go before you can write a book entitled Help, a Large Doctor is Beating My Ass colon The Lester Hedrick Story." Dr. Cox to grief counselor Hedrick

What did you think about last night's episode of Scrubs? What about The Amazing Race? Be sure to drop me a comment with your thoughts. Also, if you have a quote that you would like to nominate for a Scrubie, leave me a comment and I'll publish it in a future edition.

About Last Night...Fox won the first hour of the night with American idol, followed by CBS' NCIS and two episodes of ABC's According to Jim. The real story of the hour was the poor showing for the return of NBC's Joey, which only managed to garner 3.95 million viewers and a fourth place finish. At 9, Fox stayed in the lead with House, followed by the premiere of CBS' The Unit and ABC's new comedy Sons and Daughters (back-to-back episodes). NBC's Scrubs landed in fourth. The final hour of the night went to ABC's Boston Legal, followed by NBC's Law & Order: SVU (r) and CBS' The Amazing Race. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - The 8 remaining men take the stage tonight on Fox's American Idol. Over on UPN America's Next Top Model kicks off its 6th cycle with a special 2-hour episode that includes a shocking requirement for the first photoshoot.

@9 p.m. - Brennan and Zack are called to the crash site of a small jet carrying Chinese diplomats and one mystery female passenger on Fox's Bones.

@10 p.m. - Russell and Underlay must team together to catch hybrids Derek and a pregnant Christina on ABC's Invasion. Over on NBC, the detectives investigate the death of a banking associate. CBS' CSI: NY look into who murdered a doorman when the body is found in a water tank.



QUICK CUTS

*Fans of Sci Fi channels Battlestar Gallactica will have to wait until October to see the third season. The network announced today that the popular show will begin production in April, with the entire ensemble returning, on the 20-episode season. The show's second season wraps up this Friday with a special 90-minute finale on Sci Fi.

*And finally, it's Nielsen Wednesday! Fox won both the total viewers crown and the 18-49 year old one with its ratings juggernaut American Idol, which finished 2nd, 3rd and 5th for the week. Rounding out the top 10 was ABC's broadcast of the Academy Awards (#1), CSI (#4), Without a Trace (#6), CSI: Miami (#7), Two and a Half Men (tie #8), Oscar Countdown (tie #8) and Lost (#10). To see the list of the top 20 shows last week, click on over to USA Today.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for my interviews with Veronica Mars' Kristen Bell (including her thoughts on that Maxim shoot) and Jason Dohring (I asked him about another Pass the Remote favorite show that he guest starred on. Can you guess which one?) Plus, all the latest television news!

*The Amazing Race picture from cbs.com


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Of 'Models' and 'Mediums.' Plus, Find Out Which CBS Favorites You'll See Next Season

Tyra strikes a pose for the new cycle of America's Next Top Model premiering tomorrow night (photo courtesy UPN. Not for use on other Web sites/blogs)

When America's Next Top Model premieres tomorrow night on UPN, expect a few agape jaws and wide eyes from the 13 contestants vying for a modeling contract and a fashion spread in Elle magazine. That's because they learn very quickly from art director Jay Manuel that they will be bald for their first photo shoot! It's all part of helping the girls achieve this cycle's theme: "Fairy tales come true." At a recent online press conference, Jay Manuel, photographer Nigel Barker and executive producer Ken Mok took some time to field questions about the upcoming premiere and the show's track record. Regarding that latter point, Barker pointed out that "the evidence speaks for itself." Manuel explained that the fashion industry works about 3-4 months in advance, so viewers do not see immediate success from the contestants after the show ends ala American Idol, which releases the winner's single within a week after its season ends. Manuel also explained that the show gives these women the right to work in the fashion business. "I'm proud of our record," said executive producer Mok.

What about the possibility of opening the voting to America? After all, the show is called America's Next Top Model. "Interesting," Manuel says. "But, the whole premise is having industry professionals groom a girl to be America's Next Top Model." And then there are the concerns that the show isn't doing enough to recruit plus sized models. Manuel says the show looks at all women. "It's about personality and having that 'it' factor. Not about the size of the girl," Manuel goes on to explain. Mok agrees saying, "Tyra fights for plus sized models. We're constantly looking for it every season." When it comes to those photoshoots and the photos that they choose to showcase each woman's talent, Manuel explains that it's a decision between him and Tyra. He says they "make sure each girl has her best photo." The contestants' surprised looks tend to stem from the fact that they are surprised the shoot didn't turn out as they expected according to Manuel.

America's Next Top Model is about to enter its sixth cycle and it is the first show to get a guaranteed pick up for next season on the new CW network, so what keeps the show so successful? According to Barker, it's a simple combination of two interesting industries. He says, "People are fascinated by the fashion industry and celebrity. The show delivers all of that in one." ANTM premieres with a special 2-hour episode tomorrow night on UPN beginning at 8 p.m. EST.

Was anyone else having A Beautiful Mind flashbacks during last night's episode of Medium? It definitely borrowed heavily from the Oscar-winning film, but that's OK because it did a nice job with it. The only problem is, when you borrow from a well-known concept, people are going to compare the two. I'm going to refrain from doing so for two reasons: 1) the episode had its own originality thrown in with its borrowed themes 2) I haven't seen the movie in a while, and thus, an accurate comparison wouldn't be fair (In other words, I don't remember). This was the first episode in recent memory where I began to figure things out before they began revealing them to me. I knew that the brother was going to turn out to be a paranoid schizophrenic and that his mathematical equations were, in his mind, a way of helping the country. I wasn't sure if he had been dropped off the roof in reality or only in his mind until they introduced the brother-in-law and I realized that he was the man from Allison's visions. It was an interesting story that led you in all different directions (David Carradine? That one really puzzled me until they made it clear). The picture in the right column above (from nbc.com) of Det. Lee Scanlon (David Cubitt) is my way of thanking the show and NBC for making him a regular. In addition to the fact that I LOVE him on this show, there's the fact that Det. Scanlon and Allison work very well together. I love the way he has come to rely on her insight, even going as far as to work the case last night off the record with her. His presence on the show, as I have mentioned before, has greatly improved it overall.

About Last Night... NBC claimed the first hour of the night with Deal or No Deal, followed by Fox's 24 and CBS comedies King of Queens and How I Met Your Mother. At 9, CBS took over with comedies Two and a Half Men and Courting Alex, followed by the second hour of Fox's 24 and ABC's Supernanny. The final hour of the night went to CBS' CSI: Miami, followed by NBC's Medium and the premiere of ABC's feel-good reality series Miracle Workers. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - The top 8 female contestants perform on Fox's American Idol. Over on NBC, Joey returns on a new night. Tonight, he begins acting weird around Alex in this first of two episodes (the second is a repeat).

@9 p.m. - JD and Dr. Cox grow closer as they go through the 5 stages of grief together when a patient takes a turn for the worse on NBC's Scrubs. A second episode follows, but it's a repeat and it's star Zach Braff's favorite episode (different cast members will showcase their favorites for the next few weeks). Over on Fox, House and his team race against the clock to diagnose a dead woman in order to save a dying man on House. ABC premieres its new comedy Sons & Daughters and CBS rolls out its new military drama The Unit.

@10 p.m. - One team member breaks into tears on a challenge that requires facing an extreme fear of heights on CBS' The Amazing Race. Over on ABC, Denny Crane finds just the right thing to cure his depression after his one-day-old marriage falls apart on Boston Legal.



QUICK CUTS

*CBS is taking an unusual step and announcing some of the shows that will be back next year for another season. New shows Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer and How I Met Your Mother will all be back, along with favorites Cold Case, all three CSIs, NCIS, 60 Minutes, Without a Trace, The Amazing Race, Numb3rs, Survivor and Two and a Half Men. Absent from the list are Close to Home, King of Queens, Out of Practice and Still Standing. CBS announced over the weekend that comedy Yes, Dear will not return for a seventh season. The show ended its run last month. Word on the other shows is not expected until the network makes its fall schedule announcement in May.

*Oscar winner Susan Sarandon is set to guest star in a three-episode arc on FX's Rescue Me. She'll play a successful older woman who seduces Franco (Daniel Sunjata). Look for Sarandon's first appearance in the second episode of the third season, which is set to premiere this summer on FX.

*And finally, Bravo wants a longer Runway. The cable channel announced yesterday that it will bring back its popular fashion reality competition Project Runway for a third season. The show gives aspiring designers a chance to break into the competitive world of fashion design. Heidi Klum will return as host. The show's second season wraps up tomorrow night on Bravo.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for thoughts on The Amazing Race (Welcome back!) and the Scrubies! Plus, all the latest television news!


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The Genius From 'Mars': Rob Thomas Talks College, Kendall and Which Episode He Can't Wait to Show You

Thomas stands in front of the ill-fated bus (photo courtesy The Attractive Nuisance)

When you meet Veronica Mars creator/executive producer Rob Thomas, you're expecting someone intimidating. After all, this is the man behind what Buffy creator Joss Whedon calls "the best show ever," and it's the show that author Stephen King can't take his "eyes off of." Someone this creative and talented has to be intimidating, right? Not in Thomas' case. The surprising thing about him is his approachability and his candidness when it comes to discussing his critically acclaimed UPN show or the hot topics facing its future success. Ask him about the new CW network (the merger between CBS Corp. and Warner Bros. that will essentially shut down both the WB and UPN, Veronica's current home, to form one, unified network this fall), and he candidly and honestly lights up with excitement. Thomas feels its a positive development for his little-show-that-could, that is, as long as Veronica makes the cut. Things have been promising on that front since CBS Corp.'s Les Moonves announced the merger back in January. At the press conference to introduce the CW, Moonves excitedly raised the prospect of a Gilmore Girls (currently airing on the WB)/Veronica Mars night on the CW when it launches this fall. It's an idea that Thomas feels could help his show garner more viewers. Gilmore Girls averages around 6 million viewers an episode, almost double that of Veronica's average audience.

With the recent brief February Sweeps hiatus, a move UPN says was designed to help the show find its audience again after suffering from its ratings-plagued lead-in South Beach, a lot of new episodes are still left to air (which UPN says it plans to show uninterrupted until the second season finale in May). Some of the show's most interesting plot points, including the most intriguing one - who caused the bus accident that claimed so many students' lives - are still left for viewers to unravel. Included in those plot points is the upcoming "Versatile Toppings" that features guest star Kristin Cavalleri as an outed gay cheerleader at Neptune High. Thomas says viewers can also expect to learn more about the students killed in this season's central mystery - the bus crash. And if that wasn't interesting enough, Thomas excitedly promises that episode 17 "Plan B" is one to watch for this season, calling it "an amazing episode." He says, "I think Veronica Mars gets at its best in episodes 17-22. Things happen fast." The same was true for last year's Lilly Kane murder mystery as it unraveled in the season's final episodes and viewers were surprised to learn who was responsible. Thomas says when he plans out the central season-long mystery he tries to strike the right balance. "You don't want it to be so obscure that no one figures it out, but you don't want it to be so easy that 60% of the people have it figured out," Thomas notes. He believes it's all about the small bits of information along the way saying, "We try to get all the clues in there so people look back and go 'Oh, yeah.'" Some of those clues will introduce some elements of the season three mystery as this season progresses. Thomas devilishly points out that the next mystery is already planned out and he thinks that "savvy viewers will see what it will be." He coyly says that viewers should pay close attention to the next three episodes to find the clues.

Next season's big mystery and a hopeful move to the new CW network aren't the only changes in store for Veronica Mars. This season marks Veronica's senior year in high school, so expect her to head off to college next season. With the loss of Neptune High, many viewers may be wondering how the show will morph from a high school setting to a college one. Thomas says that the basics will stay the same, including the mystery-of-the-week and the big overarching mystery. He says he's not worried about the change because he believes Veronica is more than just a high school show. "So many high school shows are built around a coming-of-age story, so it's about high school and those formative years. We are sort of a noir-mystery show, so it's less about 'what personal strides am I making in high school?' We're not tied to those age years." He also expects that "the characters we love will be back." One character not returning next season is Kendall Casablancas (Charisma Carpenter) because Thomas explains that her story is a one-season thing. He says, "In any given season, we're going to have our regular cast and each year we'll probably have 2-3 big recurring guest actors who are integral." Last season Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna were integral to the season-long mysteries, but play little to no role this season (Rinna's character committed suicide last season). Thomas says, "We need new blood each year." And more characters to further the show's penchant for blurring the line of moral ambiguity. Thomas likes that area of the show even if viewers are a little more black and white at times. "I think a lot of television is built around moral absolutes. With noir, the genre itself is all suppose to exist around that gray area," he explains.

One of the more talked about plot points this season has been the relationship between Duncan (Teddy Dunn) and Veronica (Kristen Bell). Many fans would love to see Veronica with bad-boy Logan (Jason Dohring) because they don't feel that Duncan was a good person after he got former girlfriend Meg Manning (Alona Tal) pregnant and dumped her for Veronica. Thomas blames himself for the resulting Duncan-hate. "I think the audience didn't go along with that relationship largely because we didn't invest enough into showing it," he says also pointing out that it paled in comparison to season one's Logan and Veronica relationship. But Thomas is quick to clarify that Duncan did not sleep with Kendall Casablancas. He says the show meant for that revelation to be ambiguous at the time, but he wants it to be clear now that Duncan was not the type to do something like that to Veronica. He says Veronica never fully confronted him about Kendall because "the type of guy he is, Veronica would just trust Duncan."

For now, fingers are crossed and hopes are high that the CW gives Veronica a chance to expand its audience next season, but Thomas says these next few weeks are critical with his show going head-to-head with ratings juggernauts Lost and American Idol. And then there's the recent hiatus that UPN employed to help the show with a better lead in. Now with that lead-in, America's Next Top Model, returning this week and Veronica next, things will hopefully look brighter for the show. Thomas knows that fans grumbled about Veronica's sudden absence from UPN's February schedule, but he is quick to point out that the move was "good for us." He goes on to say that it further showed the network's and president Dawn Ostroff's commitment to giving the show the best chance for success possible. And Thomas is happy to have the network support. Veronica Mars returns March 15th at 9 p.m. EST on UPN.

About Last Night... ABC won the first hour of the night with its Oscar telecast, followed by CBS' Criminal Minds rerun and the second hour of NBC's Dateline. At 9, ABC continued its run with the Oscars, followed by CBS' Cold Case (r) and NBC's Law & Order: Criminal Intent. The final hour of the night went to ABC's Oscar telecast, followed by CBS' CSI (r) and NBC's Crossing Jordan (r). For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - Fox airs special back-to-back episodes of 24. Over on NBC, Deal or No Deal begins its weekly run.

@9 p.m. - ABC Family's hit summer show Beautiful People begins its next cycle of new episodes.

@10 p.m. - Allison tries to help find a missing person who is close to the District Attorney and finds herself experiencing paranoia and delusional encounters with government agents trying to route out terrorism. Over on CBS, Horatio asks Natalia to reveal a dark secret form her past in order to solve an investigation on CSI: Miami.


QUICK CUTS

*Preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research shows that last night's Oscar broadcast on ABC was down in the ratings compared to previous years. The data shows this year's broadcast down about 3 ratings points, which would make it the least watch Oscars since 2003. More accurate numbers are expected later today and tomorrow.

*So, you love Desperate Housewives, but do you want to smell like one? Disney/ABC and Coty Inc. are hoping that you do. The media group and the fragrance company are joining forces to develop a new scent based on the popular satirical dramedy about the happenings on the fictional Wisteria Lane. They plan to have the scent on department store shelves this fall. This is the first time Coty has teamed up with a major studio to produce a perfume based on a hit television show.

*And finally, it's TV on DVD Monday! Look for the fifth season of The Brady Bunch to hit store shelves tomorrow along with Three's Company (season 6), The Cosby Show (season 2) and Hogan's Heroes (season 3). For the full list of releases, visit tvshowsondvd.com.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for a special preview of America's Next Top Model and thoughts on Medium. Plus, all the latest television news. And be sure to stay tuned to Pass the Remote all week for more news and information from my Veronica Mars set visit including an interview with Veronica herself, Kristen Bell.

SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

Martin has a Prescription for Disaster and 'CSI' Goes Chimney Sweeping! Plus 'Idol' and 'Desperate Housewives' News

You guys know that I'm not a big fan of the "Martin the Addict" story line on Without a Trace mainly because it's just so cliched. I was hoping that last night's episode would spell the end of the story line, but I fear that it is only about to get worse. For those of you who didn't see the episode, we're now at the point where his pain killer addiction is affecting his work. You know the drill from the million and one other shows that have covered this ground in the past; he lashes out unexpectedly to the victims' families, makes poor judgment calls in the line of duty and almost gets himself killed (Danny has to step in and save him right before he gets shot blah, blah, blah). Seriously Without a Trace, you are so much better than this! And for the record so is Eric Close' acting talents, and they just seem wasted on this story line (although, he is doing a fine job with what they have given him). I'm all for throwing a bone to the characters on procedurals from time to time by giving them personal story arcs, but it seems that this show is either hit or miss when it does it, and this addiction arc is a definite miss for me. Regardless, I did enjoy the irony of the case having to do with a prescription drug manufacturer's son. It was very timely with all the lawsuits regarding the newer drugs on the market that got FDA approval based on their clinical trials, but are having adverse affects in the real world. This made the plot very believable and relevant. It was nice to see that this one had a happy ending, too. Maybe not for Martin just yet, but certainly for the 5-year old kidnap victim, his family and hopefully the millions of children who would have been exposed to a drug that may have taken their lives as it did the few children in the trial.

I never put anything past CSI. How can you? I mean this is a show that has introduced us to the world of Plushies (people who like to dress up in animal costumes), taken the scuba-diver-in-the-tree urban legend to new heights, explored the world of S&M with Lady Heather and grossed us out with melted bodies in the trunk of a car, so I always expect the unexpected when I sit down for an hour of this show. This is why I always say that the show doesn't take itself too seriously and it has a healthy sense of humor, which is what I expect from this particular crime show. I save the heavy stuff for some of the other crime shows I watch. Last night's body-in-the-chimney story was the perfect piece in the bizarre puzzle that is CSI. As I was watching the beginning of the episode, I really couldn't believe they had a story where someone dumped a body down the chimney because it just seemed so crazy, but then I realized that it was just so CSI. It got less bizarre as the episode progressed, though, because we learned that the body was merely a means to an end. Once the body was discovered, a warrant was obtained and the house searched. Once the house was searched, it was only a matter of time before the team found the second body in the house, which was the real murder victim. The homeowner was connected to a cold case from last year where a young female photographer went missing. He was the prime suspect, but the team didn't have enough evidence to obtain a warrant. So, the victim's father, who worked at a hospital, stole a badly burned body from the hospital morgue and shoved it down the chimney in hopes that the investigators would find his daughter's body and arrest her murderer. It was a complicated plot, but it worked and it fit perfectly into the world of CSI.


An Idol Moment
(this new weekly feature will detail the latest elimination(s))
It was elimination time again last night and that meant four more American Idol hopefuls had to pack their things and go. On the girls side, it was Brenna Gethers (top left) and Heather Cox (bottom right). I think these were the correct choices again. Brenna has one of the worst attitudes I have ever seen on this show and I think that kept her from sticking around longer. She has a decent voice (although she really didn't showcase it well the other night), but I think that her biting attitude sunk her. Heather also had a decent voice, but I think that she made a horrible song choice that led the audience to compare her to Mariah Carey. On the guys front, David Radford (top right) and Jose "Sway" Penala (bottom left) were sent packing. David was too forgettable and I always felt that "Sway" was just alright, so I think the correct two went home here as well.

About Last Night... Fox won the first hour of the night with the results show for American Idol, followed by CBS' Survivor and NBC's Deal or No Deal. At 9, CBS took over with CSI, followed by the finale of Fox's Skating with Celebrities and NBC comedies My Name is Earl and The Office. The final hour of the night went to CBS' Without a Trace, followed by NBC's ER and ABC's Primetime. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - NBC's Deal or No Deal wraps up its 5-night run, but will return Monday to begin its weekly airings. Over on Fox, it's the 37th Annual NAACP Image Awards.

@9 p.m. - My Name is Earl's Jaime Pressly guest stars and Wayne Newton and Howie Mandel make cameo appearances on NBC's Las Vegas as it moves to its new night and time. Over on CBS, Annabeth faces a defense attorney who misleads the jury on Close to Home. A convicted rapist case divides the National Justice Project on ABC's In Justice.

@10 p.m. - NBC rolls out its latest Dick Wolf legal drama Conviction that, according to the press release, is a "character-oriented story focusing on young assistant district attorneys in New York who handle tough, high-profile cases that challenge their experience." Over on CBS, Don and Charlie deal with a personal case involving an anti-war bombing on Numb3rs.

SUNDAY EDITION
@8 p.m. - ABC airs The 78th Annual Academy Awards.


QUICK CUTS

*Actress Carol Burnett will guest star in an upcoming episode of ABC's Desperate Housewives. She'll play the evil stepmother of Bree Van De Kamp (Marcia Cross) who comes to town with her husband after Andrew announces he wants to be emancipated. So far, Burnett is scheduled for only one episode, but the option to bring her back for future episodes remains open. The episode is tentatively scheduled to air April 9th on ABC.

*And finally, it seems that the WB's Charmed will cast its final spell this spring. Multiple sources are confirming to TV Guide's Mike Ausiello in his Ausiello Report that the new CW network (the merger between UPN and the WB) has pulled the plug on the show after eight seasons. Details about the final episode are remaining hush-hush, but according to Ausiello, Brian Krause is likely to appear. The series finale is scheduled to May 21st on the WB.


That's all for today. You don't want to miss Monday's edition, though. I'll have all the dirt from Veronica Mars showrunner Rob Thomas, including which episode he's really excited about, what's in the works for next season, what's next for Kendall and much, much more! That's Monday on the Rob Thomas edition of Pass the Remote! As always, I'll also have all the latest television news. And be sure to tune in Tuesday for a special America's Next Top Model preview.

SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

Hatch: Part Deux! Plus the Scrubies, a Photo Tour of 'Mars' and Casting News

Last night's hour of Lost was one of the show's best in a quite a few episodes. I kind of liked the lack of the usual flashbacks that center on the characters' lives before they crashed on the island. Seeing what happened to Claire during those two weeks that the Others had her was fascinating. We learned that they took her because they were planning to take Aaron out of her womb, but we still don't know why they want him. Whatever the case, it seems that the Others are part of the Dharma Initiative and they had their own hatch (complete with their own medical Dharma-like logo). Kate's discovery in the locker room was very interesting. The lockers had the torn and tattered clothing that we're used to seeing on the Others, but there was also a box of straggly hair pieces, one of which looked an awful lot like the beard we've come to identify the leader of the Others with (Speaking of the leader, did you notice him wearing normal clothes and clean shaven in the flashback?). The whole thing made me think that this whole push-the-button trick is nothing more than a psychological experiment after all. If the Others are in on it, then they may be dressing up in those rugged costumes as part of the experiment. And speaking of the Others, where were they last night? I thought there was an agreement that the survivors of flight 815 wouldn't enter the Others' area of the jungle? Weird that nothing happened to Claire, Kate or Rousseau. Speaking of Rousseau, we finally got to meet her mysterious Alex who disappeared when she was only a child, and it seems that she shares her mother's pendant for hating the Others.

Was Scrubs in top form the other night or what? An hour-block of this show and we get a raccoon shower gag, Janitor and Dr. Cox love (and hate, but only at work), Elliot on rollerblades, a burning bed (Janitor has a key to JD's - awesome!), Elliot and Keith love (much to JD's chagrin), Carla finishing Dr. Cox's sentences when his mouth is full, the return of the fabled "Dr. Acula" screenplay and a running sore spot on who makes Elliot's cell phonebook. So much funny packed into one show! As usual, here's a look at the other night's best and funniest lines.

The Scrubies
"Marge, the patient should not have to be braver than you." Dr. Cox to JD

"You know where there's all kinds of equipment for women - Todd Land." The Todd to Carla and Elliot after they complained about the lack of gym equipment for women at Sacred Heart

"Where's your wife going?" Dr. Cox to Carla after Turk left

"That's why it's such a magical place." Dr. Cox to Turk after explaining to him why the hospital gym needs to stay female-free

"Welcome to Fuglyville." JD (narration) after trying to pick an intern for a booty call

"The ladies cannot resist that ivory rascal." Dr. Kelso describing the albino radiologist

"If the pear-shaped shirt fits, wear it." Elliot to JD during their argument after learning that he's upset that she told Keith that he's unhappy with his doughy physique

"Let's face facts. You're their teacher. How competent can they be?" Dr. Cox to JD regarding his interns

"I had no idea you were going to go all cotton on their asses." Carla to JD after hearing him say that he was going to crackdown on his interns

"You bested me again you little chocolate b*tch!" Dr. Kelso to the brownie he was trying to resist

"That's Keith? That kid's the best intern we've got. Hell, I'd like to bronze him, turn my office into a Keith-edral and convert to Keith-tianity." Dr. Cox to JD

BEST EXCHANGE(S) OF THE NIGHT...

Elliot: JD, I really don't want to do this. Can't we just go home and put on our PJs and watch Grey's Anatomy?
JD: Oh, I do love that show. It's like they've been watching our lives and then just put it on TV.
Elliot: Yeah

Dr. Kelso (to Janitor): Do you know the number one cause of death in a hospital?
Dr. Cox (passing through): Your breath?
Dr. Kelso (to Janitor): Infection. And do you know how quickly infection spreads in a hospital?
Dr. Cox (passing through again): Your breath.
Dr. Kelso (finally acknowledging Dr. Cox): That doesn't make any sense!
Dr. Cox: Don't care.

So there's a look at some of the best and funniest lines of Tuesday's double dose of Scrubs. If you have a line or exchange that you would like to nominate for a Scrubie, leave me a comment and I'll publish it in a future edition. Or, if you would just like to chat about Scrubs or Lost, be sure to drop me a comment at well.

As I have been telling you, I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity earlier this week to visit the set of the brilliant Veronica Mars. It was such a full day with so many interesting things going on, that I'll be splitting up my coverage of the event. On Tuesday, I brought you some initial thoughts and reactions to the visit as well as some pictures of the cast members on set that day. Today, I thought I'd give you a brief photo tour of the world of Mars. These photos are only a small handful of what we got to see Monday, but I will be sharing lots more with you in the future. In the meantime, you can click on over to any of the blogs I have linked over in the right side column of this page under "Veronica Mars Blogs" for more pictures. Here's a brief tour:

The Mars kitchen

The Mars living room (photo courtesy The Attractive Nuisance)

Veronica's desk in her room (photo courtesy The Attractive Nuisance)

Neptune High (photo courtesy The Attractive Nuisance)

Neptune High's famous bathroom where Veronica wheels and deals

Sheriff Lamb's office - quiet as usual. Maybe Lamb is off working on his abs

Table for two at Java the Hut!

So, there's just a sampling of the photos from the set visit. As I said, I will continue to bring you more from my visit in the coming days and weeks. Coming up Monday, I'll have an entire edition devoted to all the great and interesting things that creator/executive producer Rob Thomas had to say, including which episode he's very excited about, what's in the works for next season and what about Kendall? That's Monday on Pass the Remote. I would like to give a tremendous thank you to Chelsea and Sienna at mPRm for organizing this fabulous bloggers press day, Holly at Warner Bros. for answering all of our questions, giving us a wonderful set tour, and being so helpful during our visit, Rob Thomas for spending more time and answering more questions than was required of him, Kristen Bell, Jason Dohring, Ryan Hansen, Kyle Gallner and Percy Daggs (and, as Magnolia pointed out, his mom!) for taking time out of their busy schedules to chat with us and take pictures, and all the wonderful people who work so hard every day to bring us one of the best shows on television. You guys rock!

About Last Night... Fox won the first hour of the night with American Idol, followed by NBC's Deal or No Deal and two episodes of CBS' Still Standing. At 9, Fox kept its lead with the last half hour of Idol and the premiere of Free Ride, followed by ABC's Lost and CBS' Criminal Minds. The final hour of the night went to CBS' CSI: NY, followed by NBC's Law & Order and ABC's Barbara Walters Oscar special. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - We find out which four contestants are leaving and last year's winner Carrie Underwood performs live on American Idol on Fox. Over on UPN, Chris resorts to desperate measures to hide his "F" from his parents on Everybody Hates Chris. The survivors find out that two members secretly ate some of the tribe's reward on CBS' Survivor.

@9 p.m. - The team investigates the murder of a man found stuffed down the chimney of a residential home on CBS' CSI. Over on NBC, Earl attempts to pay back the government for all the back taxes he owes on My Name is Earl. Fox airs the finale of Skating with Celebrities and we find out who is named the champion on this special night and time.

@10 p.m. - The team tries to find a missing 5-year old and Danny begins to notice Martin's pain killer addiction on CBS' Without a Trace. Over on NBC, Dr. Carter (Noah Wylie) returns on ER for more than just a teaser scene this time.


QUICK CUTS

*There's some BIG SCOOP on the Cold Case front courtesy of TV Guide's Ask Ausiello. [Don't read any further if you don't want to be spoiled] Meredith Baxter has just been cast to play Lilly's (Kathryn Morris) mother. She'll appear in episode 19 that is scheduled to air April 9th on CBS. [End spoiler warning] Talk about your "family ties." Cold Case airs Sundays on CBS.

*And finally, NBC will launch a new interactive web site for Crossing Jordan later this month. The web site will have webcasts, viewer polls and Nigel's latest blogs. Additionally, leading up to the May 7th season finale, viewers will get a chance to help Nigel (Steve Valentine) play Cupid to the love triangle that has come about this season between Lily (Kathryn Hahn), Bug (Ravi Kapoor) and Lily's love interest Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Brandau (Ethan Sandler), who is played by the real-life husband of Kathryn Hahn. The site - www.nigelblog.com- will launch March 12th, with thoughts from Nigel on the latest case, immediately following that evening's episode broadcast. Crossing Jordan airs Sundays on NBC.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for CSI (Bodies stuffed in a chimney? Can only be CSIThursday!) and Without a Trace (Maybe this will signal the end of the "Martin the addict" story line). Plus, all the latest television news. And don't forget to come back Monday for all the scoop from Veronica Mars creator/executive producer Rob Thomas.

SAVE EVERWOOD NOW! Click HERE to learn how to help the show get another season

Don't forget to help Veronica Mars with the $4,000 Shower Campaign. Click HERE for details

The 'Race' is On and A 'Cold' Line is Drawn! Plus, 'Alias,' 'The West Wing' and Nielsen Wednesday

And they're off! The next set of 11 teams vying for a million dollars via a race around the world left the starting gates last night and headed off to Brazil. Instantly, I was excited because I knew this was a return to The Amazing Race I'm used to and love. In fact, it threw me off a little when we learned that the teams would be leaving the country in the first episode because I was thinking they would stick around for a while. Family Edition must have messed with my head. Since we don't know the teams too well yet, I'll just post some initial reactions to each of them. Also, since I'm so scrunched on space and time today, I won't be doing a recap. But, the episode recaps for The Amazing Race will return next week. In the meantime, here are my initial reactions to each of the teams:

LAKE/MICHELLE - I am NOT liking Lake at all. He's rude, demeaning and refuses to read the clues thoroughly (and then claims that he's only partially at fault when things go wrong). When he told his wife to "Shut the **** up!" I about lost it with him. Can this guy be any more obnoxious and horrible? Is he trying to channel Jonathan from Jonathan and Victoria?

DANIELLE/DANI - There isn't really much to say about a team that agrees to being called the "Double Ds" (it's a play on their names, but I think we all know the other meaning). It annoyed me that this team decided to try to use their looks and low-cut clothing to complete the Detour, so I was glad when it didn't work.

BJ/Tyler - Definitely the fun team of this edition. They don't seem to take anything too seriously, which has been working to their advantage.

RAY/YOLANDA - This is one of my favorite teams. They work very well together and they seem to have a great relationship. I'm interested to see how things develop since they have been long-distance dating their entire courtship (a staggering 5 years!).

JOHN/SCOTT - This is a fun team as well, although they did bicker a bit on the first leg. I liked that John was able to conquer his fear of flying (even lifting off in a helicopter!).

DAVE/LORI - The self-proclaimed "Geek Team" of the race. They have a very loving relationship that borders on a little too PDA for me at times, but it's nice to see a couple get along so well on this show because we usually see the opposite. Although, the race is still young. We'll check back in with them closer to the end when they're stuck in a taxi facing elimination with a driver that doesn't know where he's going.

ERIC/JEREMY - This is another team that I don't like. Yes, they're funny, but they lost so many points with me when they said that they want lots of money, but don't want to work for it. This team will forever be known to me as Team Slacker because of this proclamation.

FRAN/BARRY - This is the token "older team" that seems to have become a staple of each season. I actually like these teams, so I'm all for TAR bringing them onboard each season. They tend to prove that muscle and youth aren't the only determining factors on who succeeds in the race.

LISA/JONI - These two sisters are hysterical! The one who wet her pants had me cracking up. I want them to stay around just for the comic relief.

JOSEPH/MONICA - Better known as "MoJo" (it's a combination of the first two letters of each of their names). I (heart) this team. They remind me JonVito and Jill from several seasons back who are possibly my most favorite team ever! I have high hopes for this team. Monica has a few stress issues, but I'm hoping she can keep it together.

WANDA/DESIREE - Another one of my favorite teams so far. They work well together and they seem to be very on their game.

In the end, best friends John and Scott landed in last place and were eliminated from the race. What did you think of the premiere? Are you happy to have the real Race back? How about the teams? Leave me a comment with your thoughts.


And now we move to a more debated hot topic at the moment with last Sunday's episode of Cold Case. We finally met Lil's mystery motorcycle man, but it wasn't exactly what I was expecting. The rumblings on the Internet stretch from happiness to complete hatred regarding the storyline. It seems a line has been drawn between thinking it worked and thinking it didn't. I find myself somewhere in the middle. I was disappointed because I was hoping that this new relationship would be more of...well...a relationship. It didn't come across that way to me, though. I really wanted Ray to just kiss Lilly or something, but it never came to fruition. I'm holding out hope that we haven't seen the last of this storyline, but the actor (Brennan Elliot - see below) is not listed in the cast list for the next two episodes, so it doesn't seem too promising. I did like the way the case seemed to parallel Lilly's life, especially with the whole "Bad Boy" thing. Roween seemed to lose herself with Julious and even went as far as to agree to the robbery. Lilly seemed to do the same thing back when she first met Ray and they almost got married. Both women had a sensible side that kicked in when it needed to, and neither went through with their plans. Roween tried to help Phil, and it ended up causing her death. Lil moved on, but she obviously got back in touch with Ray recently since the two seem to have been hooking up prior to this episode, but I think she realizes that she and Ray more than likely will not end up together because their lives are just too different. Their scene in the interrogation room seemed to sum it up perfectly - she cares for him (maybe more than she's willing to accept), but she's trying to keep herself from getting close to him because she has been burned too many times. I did like the way we saw a different facet to Lilly, but she still remained within her normal perimeters. For instance, she told Scotty she needed another minute with Ray, but she also told Ray that she couldn't blow off work to hang out with him. It was a nice contrast to the "new" and "old" Lilly. We also got to see her actually happy with someone, which was something that we really didn't see with Kite. Oh, and Kathryn Morris just earned a tremendous amount of brownie points with me (As if she needed more with me - we all know I think she's fabulous!) for this tremendous transformation. She went from:

"Oh crap!" she tells Scotty after seeing Ray pull up on his Harley

To:

A smiley, flirtier Lilly

All in the course of a few steps as she said goodnight to Scotty and walked forward to meet Ray. It was also the moment when we all realized that she and Ray had a little secret thing going on. She had me fooled until the big smile in this scene, and then it was all clear. Overall, I enjoyed the episode. I just hope we haven't seen the last of this little mini-relationship between Lil and Ray.

About Last Night... Fox won the first hour of the night with American Idol, followed by CBS' NCIS and NBC's Deal or No Deal. At 9, Fox continued its dominance with the last half hour of American Idol and comedy The War at Home, followed by CBS' premiere of The Amazing Race and ABC comedies According to Jim and George Lopez. The final hour of the night went to NBC's Law & Order: SVU, followed by ABC's Boston Legal and the final hour of CBS' The Amazing Race. For more on last night's ratings, visit Zap2it.

~Primetime Pass~
@8 p.m. - The ten remaining guys perform tonight on Fox's American Idol. NBC continues its week-long every night run of Deal or No Deal. Over on UPN, find out what some of the former contestants are doing now on America's Next Top Model: Where the Girls Are.

@9 p.m. - Fox premieres its latest comedy Free Ride at 9:30. The show follows the antics of a recent college grad who moves back home. UPN repeats an interesting episode of Veronica Mars as Veronica helps Keith determine who is haunting the bus crash victims' families.

@10 p.m. - Barbara Walters airs her annual Oscar special on ABC. Tonight, she interviews George Clooney, Patrick Dempsey, Matthew McConaughey and Mariah Carey.



QUICK CUTS

*We finally have a return date for ABC's Alias! The spy caper will return later this spring to finish its final season. The show will come back with a two-hour episode on Wednesday, April 19th, and will occupy the 8 o'clock timeslot for the run of its final episodes. ABC also announced Tuesday that current timeslot occupants, George Lopez and Freddie, will end their seasons earlier than expected to make room for Alias. Invasion, which will take a four-week break to make room for The Evidence beginning March 22nd, will also return April 19th.

*Rob Lowe is returning to NBC's The West Wing later this spring. The actor will reprise his role as speech writer Sam Seaborn for the final two episodes of the political drama. Joining Lowe for at least one of the final five episodes will be Mary-Louise Parker, Deavere Smith, Emily Proctor, Marlee Matlin, Gary Cole, Tim Matheson, Timothy Busfield and Annabeth Gish. The show will end its seven season run this spring on NBC.

*And finally, it's Nielsen Wednesday! NBC won the week in total viewers, but Fox won in the 18-49 year old group. NBC was led by its Olympic coverage, which grabbed the 4th, 5th, 8th and 10th spots. Fox was led by that ratings jauggernaut American idol, which found itself in 1st, 2nd and 7th place. Dancing with the Stars - finale(#3), Grey's Anatomy (#6) and Dancing with the Stars - Thursday (#9) rounded out the top 10. For the list of the top 20 shows from last week, click on over to USA Today.

That's all for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the return of the Scrubies and a photo tour of the Veronica Mars' set! And be sure to tune in later this week and next for more on my Veronica set visit. I have plenty of pictures and stories to share with you. I also have some scoop on America's Next Top Model that I will share with you next week before the big premiere. Plus, all the latest television news!

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