BestWeekEver
VH1 Cancels 'Best Week Ever'
Since its inception in 2004, VH1's 'Best Week Ever' has brought fans a comedic recap of each week's biggest news and boldest headlines. Now they've taken on their strangest task yet: reporting their own cancellation.Yes, 'Best Week Ever,' the showcase for unknown comedians and friends of Mo Rocca, has officially gotten the axe according to their own website, BestWeekEver.tv. "Sadly, the show that we've all come to know and love, 'Best Week Ever,' has been canceled," the statement read. "The folks that worked on the show were some of the smartest, funniest, kindest people you could find. It was a real creative collaboration from start to finish, and in between hard work and late hours you could find real friendships and dedication. It goes without saying that each and every person who helped make 'Best Week Ever' the success it became will move on to even bigger and brighter opportunities."
Worst six months ever as Best Week Ever loses Tompkins and goes on hiatus
Apparently it's just me, but I actually like Paul F. Tompkins as the host of Best Week Ever. And probably because I like him on there, VH1 is yanking BWE for SIX MONTHS (?!) and when it comes back, Tompkins and his crew aren't expected to be there. Which makes sense. That's a hell of a long time for a supposedly topical show to disappear. It's also sad because Best Week Ever is one of the few shows on VH1 worth watching.Before Tompkins took over last fall, the show was more of a typical VH1 clip show with the narrator running the clips interspersed with commentary from various comedians, including Tompkins. In reading online reactions about the format change, I realized that I actually missed some of the variety we had in commentators on the show. I'm certainly not seeing some of those comedians anywhere else (I am intentionally not seeing Frangelina on I'm a Celebrity...).
Christian Finnegan's Au Contraire!
You're used to seeing Christian Finnegan being funny in short bursts on Best Week Ever. Tonight at 11 PM, you'll get to see him for a full hour on Comedy Central for the debut of his special, Au Contraire!. A full hour of sarcasm and snark, Best Week Ever's main weapons, would probably be pretty grating. Thankfully, Finnegan has more to offer than that. You won't hear any celebrity names during Au Contraire! (unless you count American Idol contestant "Temptress"). You also won't get a physical comic flying around the stage or a bomb-throwing satirist.
Comedy Central Presents ... some familiar TV faces - VIDEO
If you tune in to the premiere of the new Comedy Central Presents... stand-up shows tonight, you'll see a couple of familiar faces in John Mulaney (11PM) and Kristen Schaal (11:30PM). Schaal might be the easier face to place - her role as Mel, the lone groupie on Flight of the Conchords expanded this season, to the point where Bret and Jemaine were actually living at her apartment for a while. Mulaney has done more work behinds the scenes writing for Saturday Night Live (he's been on camera once or twice, in the fine tradition of writers like Conan O'Brien). But he's also been on shows like Important Things with Demetri Martin and Best Week Ever.
Both are worth catching for their stand-up acts. Schaal brings some of the quirkiness of her Conchords character, without the creepiness. She's got a great, vivid imagination, which is easy to see in this clip about her dreaming of George Washington.
Andy Rooney is making the elderly look terrible - VIDEO
Andy Rooney is 90 years old, and has spent the greater half of the twentieth century (and well into the twenty-first) providing political and cultural insight to the masses through op-eds in both print and on CBS newsmagazine staple 60 Minutes. Despite remaining America's Any semblance of lucidity Rooney may have employed in ... I guess (?) what was once considered clever or funny or - at the very least - entertaining material has most assuredly fallen to the wayside. The scraps with which we've been left are, indeed, entertaining, but not for the reasons Rooney (or the producers of 60 Minutes) probably intended.
No more talking heads: Best Week Ever is now Paul F. Tompkins' show
A lot of us over here at the Squad are fans of VH1's Best Week Ever. We're either fans of the comedians who are asked to be pop-culture wise-asses, or we just like the format in general. Heck, we even like the website, mainly because it has the same attitude as the show.However, the network has decided that the multiple talking-head format needs a change, so they've named Paul F. Tompkins as the show's sole host. Tompkins (aka "That comedian in the suits"), of course, was one of the best of those talking heads, and his surreal takes on pop culture's funnier bits were always among each episode's highlights. So it's not like the producers are going "outside the family" in order to find a host.
VH1 picks up Antonio Sabato Jr. matchmaking show
If it were me, if I were the guy (or gal) sitting up in my solid gold throne at MTV tower in charge of programming at sister station VH1, I'd have thrown myself from the roof by now. I mean, I've already given Brooke Hogan her own show, I'm responsible for both Rock of Love and Flavor of Love and their bastard progeny I Love Money (which is really what this channel is all about now). How can I possibly live with myself? Sure, I also brought the genuinely entertaining Best Week Ever to fruition, and I keep sub-par comedians in regular work with all my stupid list shows, but haven't I done enough to the world? Isn't it enough that I took a channel named "Video Hits One" and turned it into a circus side show of money-grubbing whores and E-List celebrities trying to recapture what little glory they never really had? Apparently not, because VH1 is going to air a show in which they follow Antonio Sabato Jr. around while he tries to find true love.
Out of the Blogosphere

Here's what's happening on other blogs via the interweb.
- FOX is playing around with its Monday night schedule.
- Happy 10th Anniversary, William Shatner and Priceline.com! [via Best Week Ever]
- Is Lou Dobbs angry about his lack of airtime during CNN's Iowa Caucus coverage?
- We've talked about this here before, but what five cable channels would you choose if you could only have five?
- The longtime Leno vs. Letterman battle is over. Leno won.
- The effect that Tom & Jerry had on the making of cartoons.
- Pictures from the season two premiere of Jericho.
Out of the Blogosphere
Do you remember the show Big Wave Dave's? - Best Week Ever gives us The Reverse Savage.
- A lot of people want Tucker Carlson to be fired.
- More nasty news about Andy Dick.
- Singer Chris Brown takes his jacket off at The Today Show, causes a riot.
- Did you know Hugh Laurie was almost picked to host the Emmys?
- BuddyTV has some interesting info about the Jericho season one DVD set.
How about John From WKRP In Cincinnati?
As Rich reported this morning, there's already a petition online to save HBO's John From Cincinnati from the canceled show graveyard. I doubt this is going to work, because of the reaction from viewers and the fact that David Milch probably wants to go on and do something else. But the gang at Best Week Ever has a great idea if it were to come back: change it to John From WKRP In Cincinnati!
OK, the joke doesn't go beyond changing the opening of the show, adding Loni Anderson, "Al Bundy" and (in a funny moment) Brian Austin Greene (?), but it's still a clever idea. I would have loved to have seen what this John guy could have done to those turkeys in the WKRP Thanksgiving episode.
"As God is my witness I thought turkeys could fly." That sounds like one of John's weird quotes.
Out of the Blogosphere
I guess Bill and Geraldo have made up. - Best Week Ever lists the Top 15 Sexiest Nerd Boys, then readers weigh in on the Sexiest Nerd Boys they forgot. And hopefully that's the last time I have to type the phrase "Sexist Nerd Boys."
- Aaron Barnhart gives a rundown of what we learned at last week's network upfronts.
- Radar has a gallery of stars giving the finger, including David Schwimmer, Paris and Nicky Hilton, and Jeremy Piven.
- Anne Heche's divorce is starting to get nasty.
- PETA dumps something on Gordon Ramsay's doorstep (and I do mean "dumps").
Ronald McDonald knew Lance was gay years ago
And here's the proof: a 2001 ad for McDonald's that *NSYNC (is that how you write the bands name? I can never remember if it's lower case or not and what symbol/puncuation goes in front) did. The ad features not only all the band members, but Britney Spears is there too, playing Spin The Bottle with five guys (read into that what you will), long before she was Federlinized.
I like how someone says in the comments that with five of the six Spin The Bottle players in the ad being guys, odds are that when a guy twirled the bottle around it would end up on another dude.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Full House career pyramid
Ready for a chuckle? In honor of former Full House sweetheart, and recent meth user, Jodie Sweeten's return to television as host of the game show Pants-Off Dance-Off (catchy), our dear, dear friends at Best Week Ever.tv have produced an excellent guide to the careers of the former stars of the ABC sitcom after the series ended.
Named the Full House Career Pyramid, it charts the career successes of the former cast members. At the very top is John Stamos, Why him rather than the irascible Olsen Twins? Well, according to Best Week Ever, he's friggin John Stamos, that's why! At the bottom is Andrea Barber, who played the grating Kimmy Gibler on the show. According to Best Week Ever, she has been placed at the bottom because, well, she's probably dead (She's not, I swear! She's currently married with one child and living in Denmark.)
To peruse the pyramid, and see where life has taken our friends, click on this link.
[Thank you to Piper Weiss for the tip]
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