I’ve been subjected to a lot of bad teevee of late, evidenced in yesterday’s tirade about the dearth of American talent, paired with last weekend’s lamentation of how much Beverly Hills 9021-blows. Thus, I’ve armed myself with a box of Shiraz and my personal TV on DVD collection to cleanse my palette of the stale aftertaste of “Baywatch” wash-outs and the world’s oldest teenagers.

To wit, I’m looking forward to firing up the “DVD machine,” as my Aunt Louise called it, and perhaps enjoying some “Clerks: The Animated Series,” to start.

The “Clerks” TV series aired on ABC back in 2000, and Kevin Smith was chillingly accurate in his pre-premiere prediction that ABC would blow the marketing and scheduling, and the show would be canceled within 6 episodes. Smith was so right, in fact, that while six episodes were produced, only half as many ever made it to air. Being the animation fan that I am, and Kevin Smith fan that I used to be, you can imagine my delight when I purchased the DVD and unearthed the three treasures that were the “lost episodes.”

If you have any lingering skepticism, you should be aware that Alec Baldwin voices Leonardo Leonardo in the show, a Mr. Burns type of character, who is hilariously treacherous. As always, you can count on Baldwin’s comedic brilliance in his effortless delivery to make this unsung gem of a series really shine. If only it had come along during the [adult swim] age, then perhaps it would have had a fighting chance of survival. Sigh.

So go buy it on DVD. Or rent it, even. Trust me, it’s worth it. Despite it’s failure on ABC, “Clerks: The Animated Series” is one of the last bastions of Kevin Smith’s pre-suckfest era.

[Picture source: www.dvdtimes.co.uk]

For reasons I am not going to get into, I had to watch NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” this week.

Sweet. Fancy. Moses. If David Hasselhoff isn’t back on the sauce, you could have fooled me. Between his slurring to a 4-year-old girl “You should run for President!” and Sharon Osbourne, who has had enough work done at this point to be a prime candidate to play Jocelyn “The Cat Woman” Wildenstein in a Lifetime biopic, I barely had enough energy left to hate Jerry Springer properly.

By the time the show got to an act called “The Zooperstars,” which is a bunch of jerks in inflatable mascot costumes who formed a dance team, I was genuinely concerned I had unwittingly slipped myself a lethal dose of PCP. The fact that there is an act on this show where people dance around a stage– and quite enjoyably, sometimes fall off the stage– in duck and monkey costumes to an old “Jock Jams” CD is more than enough explanation for NBC’s standing as a fourth place network. Abandon all hope for humanity, and check out this clip.

[Picture source: NYMag.com]