Regis Philbin's farewell tour has celebrated the many half-weird, half-endearing aspects of his on-screen persona with a run of awesome montages. Monday's 'Live' (weekdays, syndicated on ABC) installment payed tribute to Regis' various bromances in a mancrush-mashup that featured footage of Reeg gushing over Matt Damon, Kobe Bryant, David Letterman and more.

In a surprise twist at the end of the tribute, Robert De Niro appeared from backstage to present Regis with a dozen roses and wish him a fond farewell.

As they hugged it out, Regis told De Niro, "You don't mind all the other guys, do you? They're just passing friends, you're the man, you really are." Right back at you, Reeg.

NBC is all about live awards show coverage these days. Coming off the much-improved ratings from its first-ever live telecast of the Golden Globes, the network is now considering airing the 62nd Primetime Emmys ceremony live or West Coast viewers in August as well, according to Variety.

Due to the ever-increasing use of Twitter and Facebook, it's becoming easier to spoil the winners and speeches by the time the telecast hits the West Coast (where the ceremony is held).

Rifftrax, the Mystery Science Theater 3000 descendant written and performed by Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, is taking its show live to the nation's movie theaters on August 20.

In a move sure to draw desperate MST3K fans from out of their parents' basements (this reporter among them -- though my folks' old house only has a washer/dryer downstairs), Fathom Events will present the Rifftrax trio live in theaters via vid-cast up on the big screen.

They'll take on Ed Wood's classically inept Plan 9 from Outer Space, a movie they've wrestled with on DVD and in past live shows.

When the folks at The Daily Show announced that they were going to do a live broadcast from Washington on Inauguration Day, I'm sure a lot of people envisioned Jon Stewart behind a desk in some D.C.-area college auditorium, with up-to-the-minute field reports and maybe even a brief appearance from President Obama ... or at least someone near and dear to him.

What we got was Stewart sitting behind his New York desk, and ... pretty much a normal episode of TDS. In fact, nothing about it indicated to me that they needed to make it live. The only parts that came from the nation's capital, in fact, were a shot of reporter Wyatt Cenac at the Youth Inaugural Ball and a satellite interview with Bishop Gene Robinson, who did the invocation at the Lincoln Memorial concert on Monday.

Have you seen the annoying new ad campaign for the ESPN SportsCenter relaunch? If you watch even a half-hour of ESPN programming -- or like me, Around the Horn and Pardon the Interruption -- you can't miss these commercials.

There's a young, 20-something guy named Steve running around with a bulky, scoreboard-like digital clock with a strap that hangs around his neck like he's a peanut vendor at a baseball game.

The ads show him going through his day -- working out at the gym, jogging -- while he's waiting for the launch of the new, 9-hour SportsCenter on August 11. The commercials are completely live, which I grant you is novel, but they are not funny, clever or up to the ESPN standard. I hate them. They're jarring, poorly done and, like I said, annoying. I guess some genius in marketing decided that any way to make the viewer remember that a new format is coming is good enough.

Here's a sample of Steve's work (don't say I didn't warn you!):

Man, how I miss this show.

Someone who attended the Kids in the Hall reunion performance at the Just for Laughs festival posted the encore on YouTube, and I've placed it below for your viewing pleasure. Some of the dialogue is difficult to make out, but fans shouldn't have any trouble figuring out what's going on. Mark McKinney reprises his role as the "headcrusher" guy, that wormy fella who loved to vanquish those he disliked by closing one eye and pretending to crush their heads between his thumb and forefinger. In the segment below, he kills off the other cast members (Scott Thompson, Bruce McCullough, Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald) for their poor career choices post- Kids in the Hall. In a final bit of inspired meta comedy, McKinney turns his wrath on himself.

That's the topic of a post over on the Huffington Post by Bob Saget. The comedian, former Full House star and current host of 1 Vs. 100 ponders what he would do if he suddenly found out he only had 24 hours left in his life. Apparently, he'd spend a lot of time on a plane and laugh at his mother being injured in a surfing accident.

It's a funny piece, but my favorite was this comment, left by a poster named Crowhaul:

Bob, you don't need to be 'funny'. You've been there, done that. Why not hit us with some voice, instead. Need a subject? How about the tens of thousands of kids we've orphaned in Iraq? Dig deep, Bob. Get pissed.

The Sound of Young America, a public radio show and podcast about cool pop culture stuffs, will be taping live this Saturday in Santa Monica, California.

Why should I care about that?, you might ask.

Well ,if you're a fan of Veronica Mars, creator Rob Thomas will be there to chat with SOYA host Jesse Thorn, and tickets only cost ten bucks. Is ten bucks too much to pay to see Thomas, someone who provided you with hours of free entertainment? No, you cheap bastard, it isn't.

The Barenaked Ladies were one of many bands I had a brief infatuation with, but soon delegated them to "not bad, but I can't listen to them all the time" status. Still, the fellas know how to craft a good pop tune and they have great vocal harmonies, so I don't mind taking their CDs for a spin every now and again.

The band recently filmed a two-hour concert in Detroit, which will be available on TV. Or, alternatively, you can watch the concert on PBS.

I was unaware of this until recently, but apparently some live stage versions of Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist were performed with the original cast and crew.

Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist was, if you don't know, an animated series that aired on Comedy Central in the late '90s. It starred comedian Johnathan Katz as a therapist to several comedians, who would essentially do their shtick while he would listen and respond. The episodes didn't all take place in Katz's office, it also expanded to his home and personal life to include his son Ben (played by Jon Benjamin) and his receptionist, Laura (played by Laura Silverman).

Live TV has this way of being, well live. And that means hard to schedule. As any PVR owner who's tried to record The Simpsons after a football game can tell you, that sometimes means your shows will be cut off.

So on the one hand, it shouldn't be that surprising that this week's American Idol finale ran about 9 minutes long. On the other hand, it's not like the producers aren't used to putting together a live program every week. Anyway, thousands of viewers missed the big finish where Jordin Sparks was crowned miss... err.. the next idol.

Comedian Sarah Silverman will be hosting the MTV Movie Awards on June 3.

There will be a few changes made to the ceremony this year with reality show creator Mark Burnett at the wheel: the entire show will be broadcast live for the first time, allowing a more interactive experience for younger viewers, not to mention the chance to win the Best Movie Spoof award, part of a contest set up by MTV and Yahoo.

If you rock the Xbox Marketplace and you're a fan of Stephen Colbert, I have food news for you, sort of. It's not full episodes of The Colbert Report, but it is full episodes of his Tek Jansen Adventures cartoon shorts, which is better than nothing at all, so no complaining. Oh yeah, and the first episode is free.

Tek Jansen, of course, is based on Colbert's novel Alpha Squad 7: Lady Nocturne: A Tek Jansen Adventure. The cartoons follow our superhero as he battles aliens and woos sexy vixens (because, as stated in every episode, he's had hundreds of girlfriends).

You can always watch the episodes on Comedy Central's Web site, too. I've placed the latest episode below for your enthrallment. It's basic cable safe, but possibly not safe for work, so proceed with caution.

Thanks to Zizzy.

Well, it only took them twenty-seven years (or however long its been), but the second season of The Upright Citizens Brigade is finally coming to DVD later this year (or so we assume, there's no official announcement yet). That's great news, but what's even cooler is that this Saturday, March 31, you can actually be in the audience for a live audio commentary recording for the episodes "Spaghetti Jesus" and "Supercool." All the information you need can be found here. The recording takes place at 8 p.m. at the UCB Theatre in Los Angeles. Be there fifteen minutes early, or you'll be denied, sucka.

That leaves us with the third and finally season to look forward to. Hopefully it will be getting the digital versatile treatment sooner than later.

Thanks to reader bd, who sent us the tip after I found about the DVD but before I got off my lazy rump to write about it. I consider his e-mail the poke with a sharp stick I needed.

[via TV Shows on DVD]

Eric Wareheim of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! has posted a ton of pictures and video from the "Tim and Eric Awesome Tour," or, as I refer to it, the "Tim and Eric Suck Because They Made Zero Stops in the Midwest Tour."

The live audience member-filmed videos are the only way you'll have of seeing these shows, as a proposed live webcast was canceled due to legal reasons. There are, however, a lot of vids from the tour popping up on YouTube, and you can always go to Tim and Eric's Web site and see early versions of some of the skits they performed.

I've placed a video from the tour after the jump. If you're a fan of Tim and Eric, I'd like to say "you're welcome." If you're not the kind of person who gets into the kind of surreal, deadpan comedy these fellas do so well, I'd like to apologize in advance for what's no doubt going to be a very confusing three minutes and forty-one seconds.