sitcoms

Yup, it's that time of year again, the week when we're supposed to shut off our TVs (and computers, I assume) and go outside and get some fresh air, maybe eat a salad.

I mention this every year, and it has gotten to the point where it would be ridiculous to give the opposing viewpoints yet again (but you can read them here and here). Suffice to say, we think you should leave your TV on this week (and in September - there's a TV Turn-Off Week then, too - when the new fall season starts!). If you don't, you're going to miss some cool stuff.

I'm going to assume that one of the big reasons why you can now watch full episodes of various TV shows on YouTube is because of the success of sites like Hulu and AOL Video. There have been a lot of TV shows and movies uploaded to YouTube, often in hard-to-navigate "parts," with bad sound. But YouTube has made deals with several networks/studios, including Sony, CBS, Showtime, and Discovery to show full length, legal copies of many TV shows.

It's a fair collection, including current shows like Harper's Island, Jimmy Kimmel Live, As The World Turns, Man vs. Wild, Mythbusters, along with classic shows like Bewitched, MacGyver, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Barney Miller, I Spy, I Dream of Jeannie, and many others. It's not the selection you'll find on Hulu, but it's OK (and I'm sure the list will grow). I just wonder if it's enough to get people to drift away from other video sites.

It's not glitch-free, however. Take a look at this and this and tell me what the heck they have to do with The Dick Van Dyke Show. Only five episodes of the show on there and two of them aren't even from the show.

Actually, it's not every season of every show that Norman Lear produced and/or created. That would probably take two UPS trucks to deliver and a spare bedroom to store. But this sounds like an interesting collection nonetheless.

On June 9, Sony will release The Norman Lear Collection, a 19-disc set that will include the first seasons of the shows that Norman Lear did over the years, including All in the Family, Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, Maude, One Day At A Time, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and Good Times. The set will include lots of bonus material, including new interviews with people like Rob Reiner and Jimmie Walker, along with the two unseen pilots for All in the Family, Those Were The Days and And Justice For All (in the original pilot, the Bunkers' last name was actually Justice).

How happy is Chuck Lorre this morning? I'd say on a scale of one-to-ten, he's an eleven. According to reports, CBS wants more of its Chuck Lorre sitcoms. In particular, they're talking three years more of Two and a Half Men and at least two for The Big Bang Theory.

While other shows sweat out the word of renewal or cancellation, Mr. Lorre seems to be CBS's prime time player they count on the most. Okay, second-most. Jerry Bruckheimer is numero uno with the CSI franchises, Without A Trace, Cold Case, Eleventh Hour and The Amazing Race.

If you watch a lot of TV like I do, you often go through patterns. You'll drift away from a show for many months or even years, and then you start watching an episode one night and find yourself watching the show on a regular basis again (I'm talking about watching the shows on TV, not DVD). Here are a list of shows that I've found myself watching again recently, usually at 1 in the morning when I should be in bed.

1. Home Improvement. What a good show this was, and the type of show you don't see much of anymore, a sitcom shot on video in front of a live audience (most filmed-before-a-live-audience sitcoms today, like Gary Unmarried and Old Christine, have that film look). I think a lot of people dismiss this show because it was about a guy who was more into cars and tools than reading and emotion, but the show was a lot deeper than that.

The network that brought you Family Matters, Cavemen and is still bringing you the parade of unfunny that is According to Jim wants to bring the sitcom back to its rightful throne on the airwaves.

ABC made a solemn vow to bring back more hit, half-hour sitcoms to the airwaves starting with the new TV season, according to Variety.

The network's heads made their announcement at last week's Television Critics Association gathering.

Do you think there are times when Patricia Heaton wishes she was still working on Everybody Loves Raymond? What about Kelsey Grammer...don't you think there are days when he reflects on how lucky he was to have played Frasier Crane first on Cheers then on Frasier all those years, winning awards and having job security, critical acclaim, the knowledge that you were at the top of your game? That's not to say that either Patty or Kelsey are not on the top of their game now, but the failure of Fox's Back to You last season must have been a shock to the system.

Now they're both working on new sitcom projects and hoping for the best. Scrubs' Neil Flynn has joined Patricia Heaton in The Middles, an ABC sitcom pilot about a middle-class family living in middle America struggling in these tough economic times. They have three kids, too, just like the set up in Everybody Loves Raymond. Meanwhile, Kelsey Grammer's also doing comedy for ABC. The network has ordered a Grammer pilot about a corporate big shot who tries to reconnect with his estranged family.

The TV neighbor has served many useful roles over the years; some that many thought had been lost by the unrelenting sands of time.

They've become the great modern philosopher like Wilson, the evolving thinker like Bill Dauterive, the bearer of bad news like Newman, and even the court jester -- as long as you don't count one of these guys.

Not only would we not want some of them living next door to us, we wouldn't want them living. Period. These are the annoying next-door neighbors who should have been run out by the Neighborhood Homeowners' Association with torches and pitchforks.

We're used to reading all of the lists that rank the best and worst TV shows of all-time, now ABC is getting even more specific than that. What are the top moments in television history?

You can vote for them at the ABC site and your answers will be revealed on the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards, which will be broadcast on Sunday, September 21. There are two categories, comedy and drama (sorry fans of game shows and reality shows). No, you can't write in your own vote, you have to pick from the finalists that they've already chosen for you, so right off the bat you know there's going to be a lot of "but what about..." and "why did they include..." talk.

Recently, the AOL list of the 50 Best Sitcoms of all time got me thinking about ten all time great sitcom sidekicks. Working on that list inspired me to look at the best in sitcom siblings -- ADULTS ONLY. The brother/sister relationship, brothers, sisters, family dynamics are great fodder for comedy. For my collection of the best, I've limited it to grown-up siblings only because there are some truly funny things that happen only among adults brothers and sisters that are unique and universal at the same time. After all, unlike the childhood years when kids are controlled by parents, adult siblings remain close and in each other's lives by choice -- and that has made for some wonderful situation comedy.

Niles & Frasier Crane, Frasier
Two brothers, both psychiatrists, both opera buffs, both wine connoisseurs, both heterosexual despite evidence to the contrary. The Crane brothers were like two peas in a very funny pod, sparking each other in comedy, competitive and supportive at the same time. Making their brotherly friendship even funnier was the fact that their Dad, Martin, who was nothing like either one of them. What's even funnier is the fact that when Frasier was originally spun-off from Cheers, the writers didn't include the character of Niles. It was only after seeing an 8x10 of David Hyde Pierce, and how much he looked like Kelsey Grammer's brother, that they put him in the pilot. Frasier would not have been nearly the hit comedy it was without the brother angle.

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Pioneers of Television (in stores today) is a pretty big title for a documentary series, especially one that lasts only four episodes. You wonder, what are they going to mention and what are they going to leave out? This PBS show isn't the most comprehensive look I've seen on each of its subjects, but for one miniseries in one package, it's actually well put together, and you're going to see some TV footage, photos, and interviews I bet you've never seen before.

After having a slew of beautiful faces grace the set, Ugly Betty is well-known for its guest stars. I mean, come on, they got Victoria "Major!" Beckham. It doesn't get much more fabulous than that. Following the logical progression of guests, the next celebrity preparing to shoot a spot on the campy fashion show is... Gene Simmons.

Yeah, I'm confused too. Reading this article doesn't make me feel any better, as it looks like Mr. Simmons is determined to keep the details of his appearance super hush-hush. Past guests have been pretty open about their roles, so I'm starting to wonder if Simmons is going to play a significant, storyline-shifting part. Dare I speculate that he's Amanda's real daddy?

Hmm... Fey Sommers and Gene Simmons. For some reason, the idea of Simmons having a secret sex room doesn't seem so far-fetched.

As the WGA strike continues, it's not only Letterman and Leno who won't be getting paid. Many shows are already in hiatus or laying off staffers due to production shutdowns.

Show fans are searching high and low trying to find out the status of their favorite shows. Search no more. I researched the web and have compiled the most complete list I can at this time to let you know where your favorite show stands.

In July, I was at a sitcom writing seminar in which Sam Simon (who helped develop The Simpsons) declared: "the sitcom is dead." Veteran comedy writer Ken Levine (who hosted that sitcom seminar), however, disagrees. Ken believes the traditional multi-camera sitcom might be on a respirator, but still has a pulse. Levine said, "I would amend Sam's statement and say that yeah, the bad, stale, family sitcom with tired rhythms, forced laughs, and bogus characters is dead."

I guess if you're trying to revive the dying sitcom, a good way to start is by assembling a top-notch team. And Fox's new Wednesday night comedy, Back to You, does just that.

Starz Entertainment is getting into the scripted sitcom biz with two new comedy series slated to kick off in January.

The first, Hollywood Residential, focuses on the problems facing a home-makeover show geared toward celebrities. The other new series, Head Case, is about a psychotherapist whose clients are all big Hollywood celebs.

The "celebrity" angle of both shows is not a coincidence: Mike Ruggiero, Starz VP of programming, says it's a way of getting viewers used to seeing scripted shows on the channel by featuring some of the celebrities also seen in the movies that originally made up Starz's programming. I don't quite understand that logic, since HBO seemed to do just fine when it started airing original programs without any big names attached.