(S01E04) If you are watching 'Parenthood' with the idea of learning anything about how to be a parent, you should consider finding another form of education. The Bravermans seem to be more about how not to parent or "how to get lucky and not screw up our children too much" school of learning. Every week is a lesson in how parents can really make a muddle of their parenting.

Adam and Kristina's attention this week shifted from Max to Haddie. Sarah's advice to Adam was so rigid -- practically lock up your daughter and don't let her out of the house. Considering Sarah's troubled relationship with Amber, why was Adam listening?

(S01E03) "You know Crosby, however hard you think it is having a kid, just double it." - Adam to Crosby as Crosby cleans kid puke out of his car

This week, things have slowed down a bit, compared to the land speed record that last week's episode achieved. And the show has started to grow on me a little bit.

It scored some great moments of sentiment and honest drama that were endearing and drew me a little closer to the characters, but it's still lacking in that other, all important area of the dramedy: the comedy.

(S01E02) "I can deal with anything: disease, illness, broken bone. Give me something I can fix, but I don't know how to deal with this. This is for life." - Adam to Kristina after learning that Max has Asperger's Syndrome

Ferris Bueller once said, "Life moves by pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

And while that bit of movie trivia is actually true (unlike say "Stupid is as stupid does" or "Pain don't hurt"), if actual life went at the speed that 'Parenthood' does, stopping to look at it would require some kind of anti-lock braking system.

Martha Stewart, breeder?

Stewart and actor Peter Krause talked about their respective farms on 'The Martha Stewart Show' (weekdays, syndicated). Krause has an apple farm in a small town in Northern California while Stewart has a farm with horses, miniature donkeys and "lots and lots of chickens and some geese now."

But there's trouble in paradise: Donkey Billie wants to get pregnant but male donkeys Clive and Rufus have been altered. "So we have to figure out how to do that," Stewart said. "I'm sorry for her," Krause added.

Watch the video after the jump.

(S01E01) There are moments in 'Parenthood' that are so uncomfortably realistic that you might think it's a re-telling of the PBS series 'The Loud Family.' Yes, it's that real in some ways, but is it entertaining and inviting? Would you want to keep up with the Bravermans week after week? That depends. The show offers promise, but it's a jell-o that's yet to be jelled.

It would be hard for any series to go wrong with Lauren Graham and Peter Krause and Craig T. Nelson top-lining the cast. They all acquit themselves well, although the characters are all under more pressure than a pressure cooking with a faulty lid. You just sense explosions around every corner. And that's the way it is with a lot of pilots, especially where there's so large a cast.

After what has been a long time coming, NBC's new version of 'Parenthood' is finally premiering tomorrow night. And if the anticipation wasn't already high, TV Squad received an unexpected, very nice little invitation to tune in from Opie himself. Or Richie Cunningham if you prefer.

Yes, that's right, Ron Howard, the executive producer of 'Parenthood,' did a handful of shout-outs to the media and we were included. Aren't we special?

A lot of times, when a show that we love gets canceled way too early in its run, we like to trot out the mantra: "It was before its time." But looking at a television landscape with The Office, 30 Rock and Parks & Recreation (and that's just one night on one network), I really do think Sports Night may have been too innovative for its own good.

Creator Aaron Sorkin even wanted the sitcom to air without a laugh track, but ABC balked and there is one evident in the first season. It was dropped by the second season, but unfortunately the show was dropped as well after only 45 episodes.

Character relations were front and center, and the humor was much more subtle and dry. In 1998, comedies were still dominating the television landscape, led by traditionally formatted shows like Frasier, Friends, The Drew Carey Show and ABC's TGIF lineup. Maybe the very non-traditional Sports Night should have been an hour long, and acted more like FOX's Ally McBeal.

Here's a play date you won't want to miss: NBC has just announced the premiere date for its new midseason drama series 'Parenthood.'

The one-hour dramedy, from the creative dream team of writer/producer Jason Katims ('Friday Night Lights') and producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer ('Arrested Development') will debut in a post-'Chuck' slot on Monday, March 1 at 9PM (this is after both the 'Heroes' season finale on Feb. 8 and the Winter Olympics have aired).

Any of you who were slavishly devoted to 'Sports Night' -- the late, great dramedy that exposed the comic timing and acting chops of stars like Felicity Huffman and Peter Krause early in their careers -- good news! Series creator Aaron Sorkin (who also produced a little somethin-somethin called 'The West Wing') tells TV Guide he's coming back to TV with a series that promises to tread the same juicy, fast-paced behind-the-scenes turf as 'Sports Night.'

The catch? That's also the same turf he covered on another series, 'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,' which, while also late, is not particularly lamented by anybody.

'It's going to be what turns out to be the third in the trilogy of TV shows that take place behind the scenes of a TV show, but this will be a different kind of TV show,' Sorkin told the site. "That's all I can let out of the bag right now."

Several DVD sets came my way this week, so I did some marathon viewing sessions for Jane After Dark. I'm brand new to some of these, so you'll get the stark, raw newbie version. But I'll start with one I've watched since the beginning ...

Dirty Sexy Money: The Complete Second and Final Season. I really liked this show at the beginning. It had all the elements of a great series, including excellent actors (starting with Donald Sutherland, Jill Clayburgh, and Peter Krause) and intriguing storylines with rich people, sex, murder, and mystery. But by the time they got to season two, the storylines just seemed to fizzle out. I would love to hear your thoughts on why Dirty Sexy Money didn't work. Crummy writing? Poor use of great actors? Too many characters to keep track of? Poor timing with the writer's strike occurring in the middle of its run, resulting in ten months between seasons?

Bonus features: Directing the Darlings (behind the scenes with director Jamie Babbit); A Total Knockout (a day in the life of Natalie Zea, who played Karen); Dirty Sexy Crafty (a featurette about the food on the set); Faux Pas (bloopers); deleted scenes.

NBC seems to be sending out their screeners in dribs and drabs, so I'm making my way through their fall offerings very slowly. I've already given you previews of both Community and Trauma, and now we've got Parenthood, a new series based on a movie that was already turned into a series nearly twenty years ago. Who says Hollywood is out of ideas?

Parenthood is basically a less-melodramatic Brothers & Sisters. It follows the Braverman clan, a family in Fresno made up of four siblings: Adam (Peter Krause), Crosby (Dax Shepard), Sarah (Maura Tierney), and Julia (Erika Christensen), along with their children and parents, played by Craig T. Nelson and Bonnie Bedelia. They all have their share of drama, but at the end of the day, they're all brought together in the most suburban of pursuits: Little League. Say it with me now: "awwww."

Wow, this sounds rather serious.

Maura Tierney, most recently on ER and now one of the stars of NBC's new comedy/drama Parenthood, is ill and will be going through a medical evaluation that will take several weeks. This means that the show will not start filming at the end of this month as originally planned. Instead, production will begin in September. No word yet on what exactly is wrong with Tierney.

Update: Tierney has released a statement.

What should you expect from the new TV shows coming this fall? Read our first impressions of NBC's 'Parenthood,' starring Peter Krause, Maura Tierney and Craig T. Nelson.

Premise: Struggling single mom Sarah moves her two teenage children back home to Berkeley, Ca., where she's welcomed back into the fold by her big, imperfect but loving family. Meanwhile, her three adult siblings all parenting issues of their own in this drama that is loosely based on the 1989 Ron Howard-directed film of the same name.

It probably strikes some people as odd that a network would greenlight a show in 2009-2010 that's based on a movie from 1989 that was later made into a series in 1990 (one of the writers on that version was Joss Whedon). But this seems like a natural for a network family sitcom, and it least it has some good people behind it: producers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, director Thomas Schlamme, and cast members Peter Krause and Maura Tierney. Could be worth checking out.