If you thought Microsoft's foray into television had stopped with their relative failure in MSNBC, you were wrong - Microsoft acquired (for an undisclosed sum) interactive TV network Navic. Navic provides services to Comcast, Cox, Time Warner, and Charter Communications among others - so I guess what we're saying is, get ready for a blue screen of death when you try to watch TV. Other than watching the amazing flop known as the Lakers perform......

Earthquakes in China, cyclones in Burma, "The Hills" season finale - these are the end days my friends. Quadruple Emmy winner Rob Kutner has written for "Dennis Miller Live", "The Daily Show", contributed to America (the Book), and has now issued a compendium of advice, Apocalypse How: Turn the End-Times into the Best of Times!, for how to survive and succeed in the impending apocalypse. An animated overview is on YouTube. Several scenarios of doom......

The New York Times says that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the Screen Actors Guild will not be reaching an agreement anytime soon. In less than 60 days the SAG contract is up and all motion picture and TV production will stop on a dime with the exception of game shows, reality TV, and the news. I might actually get outside this summer! 8:00pm Death on the Nile TCM - (1978)......

Today's Wall Street Journal reports that '24' co-creator Joel Surnow is bailing from the show and the Fox network. Surnow is the "right-wing nutjob" who is a personal friend of Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and President Bush - he's the one that had the brilliant idea to come up with a right wing "answer" to 'The Daily Show' for Fox, but the failure to produce one is evidence he never understood the question. 8:00pm Survivor:......

TALK Natalie Angier, New York Times reporter and author of Woman: An Intimate Geography, has written foreword to Full Body Project, the recently published book of photographs by Leonard Nimoy (yes Trekkies, Spock). The two will focus their Hammer Conversation on the concepts of beauty and sexuality. 7 pm // Hammer Museum // 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles // Free. MORE TALK As we read in Get Your Lit On, yesterday, Fritjof Capra talks with......

Voting and YOU! I love that France is smelly and filled with laughing Nazis, because, you know, we don't want that here.......

The WGA is engaging in talks but that doesn't mean that the Oscars still aren't in danger. For an idea of what the economic impact of a canceled Oscars will be check out the diagram to the right from the 01/28/2008 issue of Business Week. Obviously the entire dollar amount is not exclusive to Los Angeles but a significant portion of it is localized ($26.5 million on limos, security, and gifts??). After reading some comments......

At this point my whole week is focused on getting to AMC's Breaking Bad which debuts this upcoming Sunday. AMC scored a couple Golden Globes with Mad Men, let's see if they can repeat the success. On face value Breaking Bad is more interesting than anything the Big Four have planned for us. Late night is troubling me lately since NBC and Comedy Central aren't posting their guests into the news feeds or their websites......

It's becoming a task to find episodes of anything new and/or remarkable. Do I even mention that there's new episodes of Celebrity Apprentice, Make Me A Supermodel, and CSI? Am I supposed to be excited about informing you that there will be two (2!) new episodes of NBC's Chuck airing two weeks from tonight? 8:00pm Live From Lincoln Center: I Can't Believe It's Schoenberg! PBS/KCET - I can't believe it either. 8:15pm Wuthering Heights TCM......

So The Colber(t) Repor(t) and The Daily Show are back and while Colbert, Stewart, Kimmel, and Conan are all nimble on their feet, and very funny and engaging, it's amazing how the success of all these shows really comes down to the writing. It's great to have them all back on the air and it does provide us all with some late night alternatives, but I hope NBC, ABC, and Viacom come to their senses......

I've managed to avoid watching NFL playoffs and college bowl games but I'm getting worn down, I'm tellin' ya. If I got the Fox Movie Channel I would watch Less Than Zero tonight at 7pm because I'm just about as strung out as Robert Downey Jr.was in that flick. I'm not begging for the writers to capitulate, I want them to win, I'm just begging the networks to send me some shite to write about.......

David Letterman’s production company, Worldwide Pants, and the WGA have reached an interim agreement that will allow the host to return to the air next Wednesday WITH writers. Letterman, who has been an outspoken supporter of the writers since the strike began, made it clear that he wanted to return to the air, but stressed that it was important to him to work out a deal with the WGA, so that he could return......

Two more strikes against two power players in showbiz today as fallout from the WGA strike. According to a report on KTLA.com this morning, "The union representing striking Hollywood writers has denied requests to allow their members to write for the Oscars - Hollywood's biggest, most glamorous showcase - and the Golden Globes." Interim agreements and waivers were dismissed Monday by the WGA. The Hollywood Foreign Press, who put on the annual Globes gala banquet......

1. The Obvious- My parents and sister are the most important people in the world to me. They support me in every boneheaded endeavor I partake in, and believe me, there are tons. It's astonishing how many, actually. 2. My friends. Once again, totally obvious. Once again, they're totally awesome. Much love to Porter House, SLC, Shalhevet, AU, and everyone who fits into all, some, or none of those categories. World rockers, each and every......

I'm hoping that no one had time for TV last night and if they did they had the class to watch the Boris Karloff marathon on TCM. 8:00pm Ugly Betty ABC - The Halloween Episode. TV Junkie 8:00pm Pick. 9:00pm To Die In Jerusalem HBO - Have heard enough about this documentary on NPR and elsewhere to know it's a good thing. TV Junkie Pick-O-The-Night 9:00pm The Office NBC - If you don't feel like......

Thanks to incessant media overproduction and round-the-clock rambling, the rest of the world could enjoy last week's wildfires as if it were watching another fiery, explosive drama out of Hollywood. Quick, cue the aliens and giant, silicone implant-eating insects. The president even played himself in this one and came with hugs; everyone drank lattes and did yoga; and somehow Britney still made it to court. It was really all just part of a much bigger......

Watching Nip/Tuck has always been a dirty and guilty pleasure. Season five of the show returns tonight on FX and McNamara/Troy are moving the business to our own Los Angeles (as if you haven't been pummeled incessantly by the promos for the last month, and particularly during the World Series). The overpromotion irritates me a bit because it can set up what has been a pretty good show for a fall. Since Nip/Tuck has always......

The much anticipated Damages finale is tonight - since the series was so very good I'm already thinking beyond the finale and more about which players will remain for a second season. Ted Danson's Frobisher is so delightfully evil the airwaves will be much the poorer in his absence, if in this season marks his departure. 8:00pm Five Days HBO - Part 4 of 5. The only new drama programming on at 8pm tonight other......

Get learned-up with PBS tonight. Sarah's also on (thump-thumpa :-)), and late night TV is strong tonight. 8:00pm Wired Science PBS/KCET - This is a cool show. While I'm not enamored of the bizarre enormous set that the hosts saunter through, each of the pieces are very well done. In particular, tonight check out the "ball busters" segment which is about the testing and certification of baseballs for MLB. TV Junkie 8:00pm Pick 8:00pm Pushing......

OK, so maybe I'm inflating it a bit since there were 18 people on the phone interview with Glenn Close and we each got just one question but I got mine in there! I managed to say "uh" only twice or so to the 5-time Oscar nominee which made me happy. What I learned in the interview (other than that Close is a fan of the Daily Show) is that they just finished shooting the......

Don't forget to check out my interview with Glenn Close if you haven't yet. Damages is the pick of the night of course, but there's some other gems out there. 8:00pm Matt Lauer Reports NBC - I'm not a huge fan of Matt Lauer or NBC news reporting but it should be interesting to see him grill Senator Larry Craig about his wide stance. 9:00pm Frontline: Cheney's Law PBS/KCET - A look at the Cheney......

Demetri Martin has taken the deadpan one line style of comedic greats Steven Wright and the late Mitch Hedberg and added his own twist, upgrading the number of comedy accessories from one (just a mic) to three with the addition of a guitar and a large pad (creatively titled, "Large Pad") to his routine. Tonight, the former Daily Show correspondent who wrote a song about his 9,000 friends on MySpace headlines at the Improv. Tonight's......

It's not really a big Wednesday, I'm just making a reference to the obscure and awful surfer flick starring Jan Michael Vincent and Gary Busey. I've got a major case of the munchies as I write this so tonight's primetime is all about food for me. 8:00pm Back To You FOX - Series Premiere - oops, NOT[TD]. I'm not so sure I want to give Kelsey Grammar another chance on network TV. I would like......

If there are 30 minutes of television for you to watch tonight, then those 30 minutes should be 30 Rock. Tina Fey's American Express commercial has left me wanting more and finally I'm getting some. And hey lookie, they actually got Seinfeld back in a sitcom, for at least an episode. 8:30pm 30 Rock NBC - Season Premiere. TV Junkie Pick of the Night. 9:00pm Supernatural CW - Season Premiere. 9:00pm The Office NBC -......

This week seems to be the week that new sitcoms will be unleashed upon us. Tonight we have the bizarre historical moment in which commercial characters have now secured themselves an actual network television series. We're of course talking about Cavemen. While GEICO may have created a successful commercial campaign, one would think that the idea of a series could have been tested online much more economically. Everyone is predicting a flameout and that the......

Ok maybe it's not the worst DVR ever made Oh yes it's the worst. And it's not just me, customers hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it. I'm writing this post to let Time Warner LA know that this cannot stand for long before customers such as myself switch back to satellite providers. I'm talking very soon, like as soon as I can get a day off from work to have......

Did you have a chance to see former President Bill Clinton on the Daily Show this week? Comedy Central is posting all political content on their (re)launched Indecision 2008 website:......

Blown transformer down the street killed my cable and internet connection so no post yesterday - many apologies. Did anyone watch Kid Nation? 8:00pm Surivivor: China CBS - Season premiere. This season features a "kidnap your opponent" tactic. Players were also given Sun Tzu's "Art of War" to study - we'll see who did their homework. 8:00pm My Name Is Earl NCB - Season premiere. Earl's got a new love interest(?!) 9:45pm After Hours IFC......

Fans and critics alike love comedian, Dave Attell. It's too bad Dave Attell doesn't love Dave Attell. A New York native with a knack for self-deprecation, Attell has earned critical acclaim and an allegiance of loyal fans. Many of those fans got their first look at Attell from 2001-04, when Dave stumbled his away across the globe with a bottle of beer in one hand, a disposable camera in the other on Comedy Central's Insomniac.......

Am sorry to report the K-Ville is nothing more than another cop show. A shootout an car chase 8 minutes into it? Tough guy Anthony Anderson 's character crying in the first 15 minutes? I don't know how this show could redeem itself, I essentially tuned out after the first 20 minutes. I'll tell you what though, Saving Grace somewhat redeemed itself what with Holly Hunter's bare butt being the focal point of the......