Well, Apple didn't take my suggestion to replace Microsoft as the new sponsor of Seth MacFarlane's comedy special. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stepped up. Actually, it's Warner Bothers Pictures' Sherlock Holmes that'll sponsor the MacFarlane variety special.

Microsoft backed out of Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show when they caught a run through of the program and objected to the humor. Goodness only knows what they thought they were getting with Seth, but it's all water under the bridge now.

Fox is fortunate that Warner Brothers thinks the same demographic that'll watch a Family Guy variety show is going to plunk down $8 (or more) to see Guy Ritchie's version of Sherlock Holmes.

The movie is reportedly not the classic Sherlock Holmes, like TV's Jeremy Brett. It's not the movies' Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as Holmes and Watson; it's Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. Just based on the trailer, it's going to be unconventional and comic.

You know, one thing about this TV special, the original plan was that the Microsoft promos for Windows 7 would be included in the show itself. It's anybody's guess if Seth could get Robert Downey Jr. or Jude Law to participate in the show, but I do think MacFarlane could definitely write some Sherlock Holmes-inspired humor in. That's prime material for satire.

The MacFarlane special will air on November 8 and Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes hits theaters on Christmas Day.