While watching the two family sitcoms on ABC last night, 'The Middle' and 'Modern Family,' it seemed to me that they were funnier than usual because the writers took the effort to incorporate topical, timely elements into the scripts. On 'The Middle,' it was all about basketball and the NCAA Final Four. On 'Modern Family,' it was the highly anticipated release of the Apple iPad.

Now, while Joel thought the latter was an overdone commercial that may have been penned by Apple CEO Steve Jobs himself, my reaction was completely the opposite. And some critics agreed with me, too.

The idea that Phil would be obsessing about the latest technology was in keeping with the character. Phil's been established as a techie guy, a geekster of the first order. Why wouldn't he be an early adopter of the iPad considering that it is being touted as the next big thing?

As a fan of music from the 80's and the early 90's, I didn't believe it at first when one of my friends told me that Michael Jackson died. Since TVs were rare where I was at the time, my first instinct was to check CNN.com. As soon as I got confirmation, I found a TV and was glued to one of the news-only channels to get all the latest updates on the death of one of my music idols.

TV coverage of Michael Jackson's death was worldwide and every source of media. The news of his death, the coroner's investigation, the rumors that his death may have been faked (see the video after the jump), the news of where he would be buried, the details of the various tributes, as well as coverage of the special funeral ceremony, etc., made Michael Jackson's death one of the 2009 events that got the most air time around the world. Even as huge an MJ fan I am -- I do have about 30 of his hits on my MP3 -- I can admit that this event got too much air time.

(S06E01,S06E02) Every end of a television season, I ask myself, "Why do I keep watching Grey's Anatomy?" Then I realized why; I love Callie. Sure, she came into the show in the second season and isn't an "original" character, but she's become what I consider the most genuine character.

Then they start the show with "Wade in the Water?" I'm automatically an emotional wreck for two hours. Instead of a regular episodic format, the premiere episodes shifted to a timeline (Day One, Seven, Ten, Thirteen, and so on). I guess they got the memo that FlashForward was on before them.

I wasn't the only guy wishing Michael Jackson's friends and family would have shown a little more decorum and restraint in turning the singer's funeral into a bad impersonation of The People's Choice Awards.

The BBC reported 473 complaints about its coverage of the Jackson memorial service. The calls "expressed unhappiness" at the way the BBC dedicated two of its networks to the Los Angeles ceremony.

Obviously, considering the millions of TVs trained on the Jackson farewell all around the world, a few hundred moans with British accents don't qualify as an avalanche of negativity. But, the BBC admitted that 91 of the calls were specifically about the "excessive" coverage, and many griped about the maudlin tone of the reporting.

This isn't usually a blog with photos from funeral services, but I thought this one was appropriate for TV fans to see. Pallbearers at Billy Mays funeral the other day all wore blue shirts in a tribute to the commercial king.

It has been announced that Michael Jackson's public funeral with be held next Tuesday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. CBS has revealed that they are going to cover it extensively, with The Early Show broadcasting live from the Staples Center on Monday and Tuesday and Katie Couric doing The CBS Evening News from there as well. No word yet on what ABC and NBC will be doing, though I assume they'll do similar coverage (not to mention the massive coverage we'll see on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News).

But how extensive should the coverage be? Should the news channels cover it all day long? Should the networks report live from the funeral? Should the funeral be televised live on all channels? Should there just be stories of it and no live coverage at all?

(S02E13) There was a lot of action is this penultimate episode of Army Wives. After the ripples created by all these stones in the water, I expect that next week's season finale will be a humdinger, although I don't think the finale can equal the punch of last year's suicide bomber at the Hump Bar.

It's clear that the writers like to keep us on our toes, surprising us, and I don't mind the unexpected. But the twist in tonight's show really came out of left field. I'll be frank; it was bad. I won't talk about it further until after the jump, but suffice to say I felt very manipulated, and not in a good way.

The Trevor/Roxy drug story has been building and it's definitely coming to a realistic boil. I feel for Roxy. She's doing her best to keep it together and Trevor has been like another person since returning from Iraq, guilt ridden and injured.

(S03E15) Holy. Frikkin. Frak!

You all speculated on it, but you couldn't believe it was true. Heck, even I mentioned it in a previous post. I just didn't realize that Hart Hanson and his writers would actually do it. Some people are going to be happy, some will be sad, and some will be downright angry about who turned out to be Gormogon's apprentice.

Now, I'm not going to reveal who it is on this page, because I would be pulled out of my house and systematically flogged. So, if you have not watched the season finale of Bones DO NOT JUMP AHEAD! If you did watch the episode, then click forward and read on.

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(S19E19)"Mom, I can't believe you're here! You keep disappearing and reappearing and it's not funny! You're just like that show Scrubs" -- Homer to his mother after her unexpected return.

Over the past few Sundays this space has been reserved for deeper looks into The Simpsons. Despite the fact that it is an animated series there is usually an underlying base of themes, emotions, and psychoanalytical analysis that takes place amongst the Simpson family and those around them. In fact, one 22-minute episode can contain many layers of subtext that define each character further.

This week, though, not so much of that. What we may have thought to be a sweet story about the return of Homer's mother turned out to be a huge joke fest. Well, actually more a joke fest during the second half of the show than the first half. The first half was actually kind of sad as Homer couldn't take one more of Mona Simpson's promises that she had stopped running from the government and was now ready to devote her time to Homer and his family. The second half was a totally different Simpsons episode.

(S03E03) Does anybody else really, really want cake? The scene near the end of this episode where the entire team was eating an angry bride's wedding cake made that cake look so damn good. Yeah, it was a good episode. But, what stuck with me was the cake.

I love when the writers pull out episodes like this one. Sure, there's a dead person and an investigation, but the entire episode still manages to be light-hearted. It all started with Lt. Provenza dropping a coffin down a flight of stairs, then proceeded to a fight between an angry bride and Brenda, and to the entire homicide team eating the bride's $30,000 catering (including that damn cake).

"It was wrong for people to portray Anna, they way they did, after she passed away." - Howard K. Stern

Reprimand her mother all you want, but tell me something Howard, is it not wrong to consistently try to make money selling any sound bite you hawk to Entertainment Tonight? You alone are keeping Anna in the spotlight to be portrayed with exclusive coverage every night since Daniel's death.
It would be speaking too soon if we said that this is the last we will hear of the circus. Since Anna's passing, Howard has stated in court that he has no one to live off of but his parents, it's apparent that he will do anything to make a dollar.

(S02E13) As we saw last week, Earl re-ignited his quest for karma and began doing good deeds for people again. Although the show this season has strayed from the basic concept and we've seen more character development, the "Cops" episode was this season's nadir, in my opinon, and I thought the show had to get back on track. Last week it did, and this week was more of the same.

What made this episode so satisfying to me was that it took the situation over Joy's stealing of the Bargain Bags truck and the kidnapping of its driver--Josh Martin--and brought it to a whole other level. After Earl gets himself stuck trying to get into his car, and with Slow Roger being of no help, he notices a Bargain Bags truck and flashes back to Joy's misdeeds. He decides to do something nice for Josh by having him get a "regular" massage, but to Earl and Randy's great shock, Josh is dead. Of course, death by being crushed in a Murphy Bed certain qualifies for a Darwin Award, but hey, stuff happens.

(S03E04) Is our hero Michael Scott feeling a bit of his own mortality? He was really devastated by the news of his old boss' death, and he could not comprehend why his staff and his manager (Jan) did not feel the same way he did.

I thought Pam was especially good in this episode, especially when making Michael get coffee from the warehouse during his walking down the stairs bit and during the funeral pyre scene where she broke out in song. I guess the fact that she feels liberated from Roy (and Jim, to some extent) is allowing her personality and sense of humor to come out even more.

(S04E07) After taking a week off for the William Shatner Roast, Reno 911! returns for the season finale, and we finally get to find out who it was that murdered Sheriff Chechekevitch with peanuts.

While the gang tries to figure out who did it, they also have to attend to the usually police business, which includes confronting a man at a carnival with a stage built into the front of his pants that hides what he refers to as an albino snake that "grows rigid in your grasp." Jones and Garcia can't see nor touch it though, because it's very sensitive to light and it's really more for women. The officers also answer a call from a pot dealer who's complaining about people trying to buy pot on a Sunday when he's closed. The officers threaten to arrest him for selling pot and the dealer threatens to arrest them for trespassing. When Garcia points out he can see the marijuana through the window, the dealer insists that's only ditch weed, and the good stuff is in the back with the cocaine.

(S07E18) Now this was the type of episode longtime West Wing viewers were hoping for. If you had asked me what should happen in the Leo's funeral episode and who should be in the episode, this is what I would have done. The montage at the beginning of the episode showed everyone getting ready for the funeral - President Barlet, Josh, Toby, C.J., Donna, etc - and then showed all of the people at the church. Sure, it was jarring not to have Sam there (Rob Lowe isn't back yet), but you really can't complain when you have Mallory, Nancy McNally, Carol, Margaret, Hoynes, Russell, Joey Lucas, Danny and everyone else. Nice touch having Toby stay in the church til everyone leaves and Charlie offering to walk out with him.

I was a little afraid they'd rush though the Leo memories and shove in the whole Santos plot, but that didn't happen. You had to show what was going on with the Santos plot (life does go on after all), and it was a nice balance of the old and the new.