I came across a random picture from “Beetlejuice“, the cartoon spun off from the amazing Tim Burton film, and realized I watched that show every Saturday morning. I don’t even think I liked it at first, but after awhile it was a staple of my television cartoon menu.

In the tv series, Lydia and Beetlejuice are besties who hang out all the time seeing how Lydia is anti-social. She would much rather hang out with the dead than living people. The gothic duo would travel to the “Neitherworld” whenever Lydia had the time. Lydia was such an awesome character in the movie, who wouldn’t want to watch what chick does in animated form? She’s like quintessential anti-social, kinda goth, really smart girl character before MTV gave us my favorite cartoon nihilist, Daria.

“Beetlejuice” ran for four seasons, starting out on ABC for three years and then finishing up on Fox for its last season. If you’re feeling nostalgic for late-eighties/early nineties animation, the Blu-Ray edition of the Beetlejuice dvd contains a few episodes of this series. And if my memory serves me correctly, I think The N airs episodes every blue moon or so. Beware, the cartoon was made for kids, so it’s somewhat lighthearted in comparison to the movie. No word when the actual tv series will be on dvd yet.

Time for Sunday lunch, your weekly hearty hate stew, and this one will really stick to your bones. Or chill them. This week’s topic: MTV’s “Paris Hilton’s My New BFF,” the grandest exercise in televised narcissism I have ever seen. Keep in mind, I watch these shows so you don’t have to.

The gist of the show is you have a bunch of imbeciles competing– yes, competing– to become Paris Hilton’s best friend while on camera and only until the end of the taping of the finale episode, but not in any legitimate sense.

Naturally, this leads to a cast of sycophants participating in activities like “always looking hot,” doing whatever Paris tells you to without complaint, seeing who can party the longest, etc., all while providing a truly endless supply of compliments and adoration to one Paris Hilton. Most noteworthy of all aspiring BFFs is Onch, below.

First of all, that is a dude. My estimation was that what Chris Crocker was to Britney Spears, Onch is to Paris Hilton, so you can imagine my surprise when I learned that Chris and Onch had some sort of feud that I don’t quite understand or care about, sometime last year.

Anyway, this show is pretty unbearable, but if you’re in the mood to yell at your television, this just might be for you.

[Picture source: MTV.com]

The last time I watched “TRL” was when I was becoming slightly obsessed with that Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian flick.

Thank god, MTV is putting “TRL: Total Request Live” to bed, so I don’t have to watch my favorite stars in shame as they plug their shows/films on that silly show. Seriously, it was getting really bad for awhile there for stars of television and film. It seemed like it was a pre-requisite to appear “hip” with the 18-24 demographic, one must make a stop at the TRL studios in New York City.

(Picture source: Ben Barnes and William Moseley on TRL in May 2008)