Janitor

So what's a second banana? Well they're certainly not second best. No, in fact they're often the main reason to tune into a particular show. Not because the show's major plotlines revolve around them, in fact they generally don't, but because they liven up every scene they're in. Virtual show-stealers, a good second banana can turn a generic sitcom or drama into television gold. The ultimate wingman on television, there was no greater second banana than my man Barney Fife, brilliantly played by Don Knotts on The Andy Griffith Show, and later Mayberry R.F.D.

When it came time to put together this list, I wondered if I'd be able to find ten viable and qualified bananas on the airwaves today. But I guess I needn't have worried. It looks like Barney was an inspiration (in more ways than one) to the current crop of second bananas. They litter their peels all over the television landscape, leaving us to trip over in laughter time and time again at their antics. But how do they stack up? Who's the biggest fruit in the tree? There's only one way to find out!

After Scrubs moved from NBC to ABC this season, a lot of fans assumed that this would be the one last gasp for the show. And those fans were right.

Show creator Bill Lawrence spoke at William & Mary last night and told the crowd that the show was indeed ending at the end of this season. It has nothing to do with the network switch, it's actually because Zach Braff decided to leave. J.D. is the pivotal character in the show so the show can't really continue without him (though I'm sure a lot of fans will say that it could).

This isn't shocking news, and the way things went (the switch of networks, Braff hinting he might want to leave, the show being in its 8th season) probably means they had time to film a real finale to the show. And we'll learn the janitor's name! I had no idea that the janitor only spoke to J.D. the first season because he was originally supposed to be someone only J.D. could see. I'll have to go back and look at those episodes again. It might make the first season seem more like The Sixth Sense for fans.

[via AOL Television]

(S06E15) All right, before we begin this week's review I have been told to present the following reminder . . . Remember when Kevin Kelly and my brother Joel visited the set of Scrubs back in February? Well, they were there when this very episode was filmed. In other words, they knew who was going to die long before any of us did. We couldn't pry the secret out of them by any means. Even suitcases full of kittens didn't budge them. So, I think we're all glad that the, ahem, cat is out of the bag. Thank you, I'll be here all week!

Are you ready for some bad singing? Eh, forget that American Idol crap. The much-hyped Scrubs musical is tomorrow night. For a whole half hour, you can watch perfectly respectable/paid actors attempt to harmonize! Actually, I am kind-of curious to see who is a good singer. Something tells me either the Janitor or Bob Kelso is going to bring down the house. What I really want is some head-banging, hateful music from pregnant Jordan.

We've got a clip after the jump of one of the musical numbers from tomorrow night's episode. You may have already seen this, as NBC released it last year. It's a super-creepy ballad with J.D. and Turk called "Guy Love".

Look for another clip tomorrow!

(S06E05) Let's get right to it. Here was the funniest part of this week's episode:

Turk is extremely worried about Carla's postpartum depression so he goes to Dr. Cox for advice. Perry tells Turk that the only person who can help Carla right now is someone else who had the same illness. So, he makes a call to the missus. In walks a extremely angry, third-trimester pregnant Jordan to the melodious notes of Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely". She pushes through hospital staff like a linebacker through offensive tacklers, stuffs some form of cake into her mouth (that she grabbed from another employees) and screeches 'What?' to Perry and Turk while food flies from her mouth.

That was the funniest scene. The rest? Meh.

There are two cartoons I remember very fondly and distinctly from my days as a youngster. Both of them ceased production before I was born, but I gobbled them up in reruns. The first was Underdog, and the second was Hong Kong Phooey. So, naturally, I was ecstatic when I found out that all thirty-one episodes of Hong Kong Phooey, a Hanna-Barbera cartoon which featured Scatman Crothers as the voice of an inept crime-fighting dog who knows kung fu, would be coming out on DVD on August 15. Of course, when Phooey wasn't fighting crime he worked as mild-mannered (all super hero alter egos are mild-mannered) janitor Penrod "Penry" Pooch.  The DVD set will also feature a documentary on the making of the series.

Oh yeah, and the complete series of Magilla Gorilla comes out on the same day, but I never watched that.

[via ToonZone]