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.

“Lost” will return on January 21, 2009! I can’t wait!

Check out the latest tv promo for the next season of “Damages”:

FX Network just announced that the second season premieres on January 7th (10pm/9pm EST). Besides the obvious return of Glenn Close as duplicitous Patty Hewes and Rose Byrne as the now vengeful Ellen Parsons, there are a slew of new characters for the new season. We’ve got Timothy Olyphant (hotness!), Marcia Gay Harden, and Mario Van Peeples just to name a few. I’m pretty stoked for the new season since it ended on such a cliffhanger.

However, I’m not sure if the new promo will win any new fans by its contents alone. It’s a bit flashy, sorta like “Nip/Tuck” as TV Squad points out. And oh boy, do I not want another show to jump the shark like “Nip/Tuck”! That show became the shark! But back to “Damages”, I think the second season has a good outlook, fresh story line and new relevant to the plot characters. Plus, those Emmy awards can’t hurt either.

Catch up on season one of “Damages” on dvd before the January premiere. Otherwise, you’ll seriously have no idea what’s going on. There are way too many double-crosses, blackmailing schemes, and secret alliances to be adequately represented on this here blog.

VH1’s “Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew” began its second season last week. As in the first season, the cast is a bunch of “celebrities” I’ve never heard of, for the most part, with the exception of Rodney King (since when does getting the crap kicked out of you by the LAPD in 1991 make you a celebrity?), and Gary Busey.

In just the two episodes that have aired so far, Gary Busey has successfully usurped heights and centipedes, to take place as the thing I fear the most. However, I have to commend the “Celebrity Rehab” producers, because that was a stroke of casting genius.

It’s only a matter of time before the suits over at VH1 realize just how genius they were to cast Gary Busey, and we begin to see promos for “Busey of Love,” “Busey Knows Best,” or simply, “Busey!” That one’s my favorite.

In the meantime, you can get your dose of The Buse on Thursday nights, 10pm eastern and pacific on VH1. I can tell you from personal experience, he will haunt your dreams.

So, duh, I like cartoons. One of the ones I like is called “American Dad!”

The show is in its fourth season, and I’m delighted to see the show has survived the onslaught of dismissals of it as a “Family Guy” clone, which plagued its maiden season. And second season. And the third…

The similarities are superficial, at best, and are more indicative of of a particular formula upon which Seth MacFarlane likes to base his projects, going all the way back to “The Life of Larry” (look it up), and in the upcoming “Cleveland” (look that up, too). I’m not going to dissect magic recipe at length here, but if you’re not an idiot, you’ve probably already realized that the basic formula is:

Patriarch + Wacky Family + Anthropomorphous Pet(s)/Sidekick(s) = hilarity/$100 million Fox development deal for Seth

At this point, since “Family Guy” has dissolved into a series of disconnected non sequiturs and obscure references. Each episode’s “plot” is a transparent and hackneyed mess meant to justify making said non sequiturs and obscure references, although I will say last week’s “Road to Germany” was refreshingly coherent.

I admit readily that I believe “American Dad!” has proven to be the better of the two shows, as long as we’re comparing the two. I’ve gotten into plenty of bar arguments over this opinion, and I’m sure I’ll have plenty more Friday nights where I debate this issue, punch a cat, and make out with a mailbox.

So, if you wrote off “American Dad!” back when it first began, I recommend you give it another chance. If you’ve never watched it, then give it a first chance. The writers and producers had really caught on to something midway through season 1, and it’s only maintained or improved on the show’s unique sense of humor, since then.

Leave it to me to give the show a great send-up on a night when it’s airing a repeat. “Dad!” will be back next Sunday night on Fox at 9:30, though, with a new episode. And, you can bet I’ll be watching.

Showtime just announced that they ordered two more seasons of their hit show, “Dexter”. The fourth season begins filming the next twelve episode run in Spring of 2009.

Yay! I love me some Michael C. Hall (even more than Nefertiti, the other tv revival contributor, does! ), so I’m glad he’s continuing to get work. When I first watched the first season of “Dexter”, I worried that I couldn’t separate Hall’s performance of David Fisher on “Six Feet Under” from his new character. But after seeing Dexter slice up a few corpses and dump them in the bay, I got over it. =)

Buy (or netflix) the first two seasons of “Dexter” today. It’s so worth it! Watch the rest of season three currently airing on Showtime on Sundays at 10/9c.

Source: /Film and Pajiba

“The Sarah Silverman Program” is back on Comedy Central, and the second season is off to a strong start. I’m hoping more poop songs will abound as the season progresses.

The show seems to already have hit its stride in the latest installment, entitled “High, It’s Sarah.” As you may have guessed, this episode is all about “Sarah” (played by Sarah Silverman) getting really, really stoned with “Brian” (played by Brian Posehn). I wonder if these two did any research for their roles. Sounds like a real stretch for them both.

Of course, in the reality– if you can call it that– of this series, way more ridiculous and funny consequences follow than would ever happen to any of us real people after too many bong rips. If only life had writers, no weed laws, and occasional cameos from Eddie Peppitone. If you missed this when it aired a couple of weeks ago, try to catch a rerun of it or the other two episodes that have aired since then. Com Central is pretty decent about second chances. And third, fourth and fifth chances, for that matter.

Technically, this is the second half of the second season that is airing right now. I know this because I just checked to make sure the first season is available on DVD, only to discover that both the first season and “Season Two, Vol. 1″ are available, which is news to me. It’s now about to become news to my credit card company, because I’m off to buy them both. Toodles!

[Picture source: www.JewishJournal.com Seriously.]

Pop Candy’s interview with Ed Asner reminded me of how hilarious he was on “Mary Tyler Moore” as her boss, Lou. And let’s not forget that Ms. Moore still has that natural tv magic. She’s pretty funny on her “Lipstick Jungle” guest spot as Wendy’s mom, brutally honest but with a warm heart. Once you get past that botox face, you see that she’s still the woman who played that spunky reporter all those years ago.

The “Mary Tyler Moore Show” was one of the first television shows to focus on an unmarried (aka gasp, single!) woman with a promising career. And whatdyaknow, the character works in a television newsroom as an associate producer. The show was all about Mary and her adventures at work with Lou, Ted Baxter the anchorman (Ted Knight), and Murray Slaughter (Gavin MacLeod). Plus, her trials at home with her friend and neighbor Rhoda, played by Valerie Harper. The show was created by the legendary James L. Brooks, who went on to later produce “The Simpsons” with Matt Groening.

“Mary Tyler Moore” theme song:

Mary Tyler Moore played one of those seminal television characters that you’ll never forget. I think I need to rent some dvd of the first seasons and get reacquainted with Mary and her friends.

Here’s the massive list of episodes I watched this weekend in my pathetic effort to free up some much needed space on my DVR box:

The final four episodes of “Doctor Who”. The season finale was rewarding since the Torchwood gang, Rose, Martha, and Sarah Jane Smith all made appearances. The poor Doctor, he’s all alone again.

Robin Tunney and Simon Baker in"The Mentalist"

The first two episodes of “The Mentalist”. Simon Baker is cute and does a good job on the show, but somehow I feel it’s too darkly themed for the CBS crowd.

The “Personae Non Grata” episode of “Law and Order” from last season. Yeah, I keep shows forever and they re-run L/O all the time. But this time it was worth it and not just for the Jeremy Sisto scenes.

Law & Order (2008)

A mother poses as her daughter on the girl’s Bspace (i.e. myspace) page to con a guy into giving her $60,000…oh and getting said guy to commit murder later on. And then turns out, she’s more than just a sociopathic manipulator (well, duh). She’s a bonafide murderer! She killed the daughter she was impersonating like two years before! And buried her in her unsuspecting boyfriend’s cellar. That’s just plain demented, L/O.

The first three episodes of this season of “Lipstick Jungle”. Boy is that dialogue terrible. But that Kirby (Nico’s boy toy) is cute and the fashion designer character, Victory Ford, is actually funny and realistic.

Victory Ford

And can you believe Wendy got fired over insurance fraud?! Oh well, I never liked Brooke Shields character all that much. It was a bit over the top with the “world is falling down around me” camera effects on Wendy. She’s all melodramatically standing in the street alone (in NYC?), looking up at the sky as she realizes her life is pretty much screwed.

“Eleventh Hour”, cloned babies, Rufus Sewell as quirky scientist, tough FBI agent Marley Shelton…zzzzzz.

I like to give my undivided attention to “It’s Always Sunny”, so I finally got to watch the “Mac and Dennis: Manhunters” episode. It was crude beyond belief - gorilla mask/teabag pranks, cannibal jokes, and Frank confusing his life with the plot of Rambo:First Blood. Oh, how I missed the “Sunny” gang so much. I plan to watch the rest of the season tonight.

Col. Shepherd and Dr. McKay in "Stargate Atlantis"

Next, I watched the latest eps of “Adventures of New Christine”, “Heroes”, “Stargate Atlantis”, and “Sanctuary”, which is actually way better in the second episode. That pilot was redundant, but once the show focused on a specific story and no exposition, I liked it.

Gee whiz! How the heck is my DVR still at 69%?! Oh wait, because I still have entire seasons of “Burn Notice”, “Psych” and “New Amsterdam” on there!

Last night, FX premiered its new sitcom, “Testees,” following a new episode of the already successful series “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.” To cut to the chase, after viewing the first episode of “Testees,” I am not a fan.

“Testees” was created by Kenny Hotz, of “Kenny vs. Spenny,” which you probably never saw. (You didn’t miss anything.) “Testees” is about two guys, Peter and Ron, who live together and work together.  By “work together,” I mean they participate in clinical studies for pay, and the idea is that hilarity ensues. It doesn’t.

In last night’s episode, Peter (the curly haired one on the left, above) is given a drug that, apparently, makes him pregnant. Yes, the first episode of “Testees” is an even less funny version of the movie Junior. I didn’t think it was possible to make a less funny version of Junior.

Anyway, I’m going to go ahead and tell you to skip this one. It tries too hard to be edgy, and ends up being juvenile and vulgar, instead. Considering that this appraisal is coming from a person who still giggles uncontrollably every time someone says “butt cheeks,” you can rest assured that this show is truly crude, and in a bad way. Worse yet, it’s crude in an unfunny way.

All of the jokes are about as subtle as the poor attempt at double entendre that is the title. (”Testees?” Get it? Because they’re “testees” in clinical tests, but “testes/testis” also means “balls!” Hilarious!)

Save the space on your DVR and record something better, instead.

[Picture source: FXnetworks.com]