Rat Pack

In anticipation of the Tuesday, April 13th premiere of Fox's musical hit 'Glee,' two of the co-creators, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan, met with the press via a conference call the other day. TV Squad was in on the call and you'll be thrilled with some of the big news coming up in the last nine episodes of this award-winning first season. There were some insights revealed when the cast and the other co-creator and executive producer Ryan Murphy were on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' yesterday, but Gleeks want more, and that's what this is all about.

Among the highlights – for all you who need encouragement -- Jane Lynch does "Vogue" in the Madonna musical episode. Kristin Chenoweth was not paired up with Idina Menzel, but Kristin's episode (the third one back) is supposed to be wonderful. And if you liked Puck's performance of "Sweet Caroline," wait till you see him do a song like a member of the Rat Pack. For all the details, read on.

When Ryan Seacrest did the results from the voting last night on American Idol and put Adam Lambert in the bottom three, my reaction was like Kara's. It was a jaw-dropper. How was it possible that Adam, who's been flying through week after week and has been wowing the judges, was suddenly on the short end of the votes? Being just a tad suspicious, my first thought was that the producers had manipulated the votes or something to make it more dramatic.

And it was! Not only was Adam in the bottom group, so was Kris and Matt. I expected Matt to be there because he's been hanging by a thread for weeks, ever since the judges used their new rule -- the Judges' Save -- to keep him in the competition. So, Matt made sense. Kris was quickly moved to the top group, so sweating over him wasn't in the cards.

The last of the Rat Pack is dead.

Joey Bishop, who along with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Peter Lawford comprised the Rat Pack in the late 50s and early 60s, died of multiple causes in Newport Beach this morning.

Besides several movies, including the original Ocean's Eleven and The Naked and the Dead, Bishop starred in two different TV series titled The Joey Bishop Show.

This news instantly reminded me that Dennis Farina can be really funny in a comedy. You can see the movies Out of Sight and Get Shorty for examples, or try to track down copies of this short-lived CBS show from a few years back, Buddy Faro.

Farina starred as Buddy Faro, a famous private eye who disappeared in 1978 and is found twenty years later by Faro buff and fellow P.I. Bob Jones (Frank Whaley). It's hard to describe the plot (plots aren't that important anyway, as long as the cast and writing is good) except to say that the two team up to solve cases, and Faro tries to get by as a Rat Pack-type old school guy in an Internet world. To top off the casting, Allison Smith (Kate and Allie, The West Wing) played an actress who helped the duo, and Charles Robinson (Night Court) played a character named "El Jefe."

This shows seems like a natural for DVD (a cult show, short-lived, you can fit the whole run in one set), so I hope we see it some day. There are actually several episodes that never even aired.