Podcasts

Do you know why stand-up comics have so many lame jokes about flying? It's because we spend so much (expletive deleted) time on (expletive deleted) planes. (My own lame joke about flying involves overweight people next to you: "So much of her was on me that we hit turbulence and I technically cheated on my wife.")

That much time in coach turns your brain into pudding - you need a crutch to get you through it. I've turned into a podcast junkie. At any given time of the day or night, I'm probably flying over you, listening to some guy in his basement rant about the whether the "Blackest Night" event is good or bad for the DC universe.

I'm like an awkward, misshapen George Clooney from 'Up in the Air.' Except instead of hot sex with Vera Farmiga, I'm snuggling with Leo Laporte.

After all this podcast listening (not to mention the success of the 'Ricky Gervais Show'), it occurred to me that a few of my favorites would make excellent TV shows.

It's always refreshing when a showbiz vet indulges in a passion project that's entertaining, informative and funnier than anything he's ever done before. That's exactly what 'Web Soup' host Chris Hardwick is doing with his latest online venture, The Nerdist Podcast.

Hardwick, 'Web Soup' writer Jonah Ray and pal Matt Mira launched the free-form podcast earlier this month. So far, they've posted three hilarious episodes featuring candid conversations with TV comedians Drew Carey, Tom Lennon ('The State', 'Reno 911!'), and Adam Corolla.

The show is worth a listen for anyone looking for a good laugh and some entertaining and honest conversations about life in the entertainment business. Nerdist gives Hardwick's famous friends a comfy venue to cut loose on countless topics and to tell personal stories you'll probably never hear anywhere else. (Most shows are recorded at the guest's home.)

Kelly and Patricia marvel over 'The Good Wife,' one of the best new shows of the fall season -- and the only legal procedural, to boot. Plus, they look forward to the 'Top Chef' finale and lament some DVR dilemmas (damn you, Wednesdays at 9PM and Thursdays at 8PM!).

Watch or listen to the podcast now.

Karl Pilkington, longtime friend and podcasting costar of Ricky Gervais, has a head like an orange. He possesses very little education, an extremely pessimistic take on life, a sad obsession with insects and a perpetually confused world view.

But, even with all that going against him, he holds a share of the Guinness Book of World Records title for most popular podcast with Gervais and Stephen Merchant -- and he's about to star in a new animated series on HBO.

According to Variety, The Office creator will bring The Ricky Gervais Show to TV in a series of 13 animated half-hour episodes. In audio form, the Gervais, Merchant and Pilkington formula features Gervais throwing a vast variety of topics at the intellectually challenged Pilkington to see what sense he can make of them.

TiVo is preparing to release TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6, which includes enhanced features for downloading podcasts and web video and transferring it to your TiVo. In essence, you can use subscribe to a "Season Pass" of any web content with an RSS feed.

The TiVo Desktop software will download audio and video content from your feeds, save it on your computer, and automatically transcode it and copy it to your TiVo for viewing. You can also make a Season Pass recording from folders on your PC where you save home movies and downloaded video. The software will regularly scan those folders for changes and transfer media to your set top box.

TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6 will be available in March for $24.95. Current TiVo Desktop Plus users will be able to upgrade for free.

One of the first things I noticed when I set up my home theater PC running Vista Media Center is that there are some pretty cool online features. You can watch a huge library of music video's MTV's Overdrive interface for MCE, or watch The Daily Show on Comedy Central's Motherload page.

There are also a ton of obvious online features missing. For example, no built in weather forecast application? What's up with that? Luckily there are plugins for pretty much anything you could ever need (including weather forecasts).

But what about podcasts and video blogs? Surely there must be an easy way to download and enjoy online media from Media Center's 10-foot interface. Well, there kind of is. You can subscribe to feeds and automatically download enclosures with Internet Explorer 7 or the podcatcher of your choice. Then you can tell Windows Media Center to monitor your download folder and your files will show up in your My Videos and My Music folders. This is hardly an elegant solution, so here's a few better options for you:

Really brief podcast this week – as the fans know, last Sunday's episode was a re-run – but you can still download the episode directly (here).

More importantly, it's time to announce the winner of our Drinking Game Contest. And the TV Squad t-shirt goes to ... Diana, whose drinking game went like this:

"I think only Tequila should be used, since it is Meredith's weapon of choice.

I think everyone should be required to drink one shot when:

-the word Seriously is used.
-Derek is on his Sidekick or whatever he's carrying around this season
-They're all gathered eating or in the basement talking
-Bailey says something funny
-Christina gives someone the 'you're an idiot' look Sandra Oh does so brilliantly

I don't think double shots should be required, cause you wanna actually make it through the show, but:

The bottle should be finished whenever Addison makes her exit, and/or when Derek/Meredith finally have sex again."

Diana, please contact us with your size and address, and we'll send the shirt right out to you.

Next week's podcast is up in the air right now, as Kat will be on vacation. We're going to try to do it over Skype, but if that doesn't pan out, we will return the following week with a double episode – and a report on how Diana's game works in practice. See you then!

The Grey's Anatomy podcasting team is back with an all new post-show edition. This time around, we're discussing last night's episode, "Yesterday" - and yes, there are spoilers, so if you haven't watched the show yet, and are sensitive to such things, you probably want to hold off on listening. At the very end of the podcast, we announce The Totally Unofficial Grey's Anatomy Drinking Game Contest, so listen all the way through for your chance to win a TV Squad T-shirt.

You can listen to this episode directly (link), subscribe to our podcast RSS feed (link), or visit the iTunes music store (link). Enjoy, and please - snark back in the comments.