Tuned In

American Alterna-Idol

American Idol airs tonight, but it’s a little known fact that, contrary to popular belief, you are not required by Federal law to watch it. Supposing you don’t actually find David Archuleta cuter than Hello Kitty in a field of unicorns. Supposing you’re tired of listening to the hypertrophied lungs of professional amateurs try to [...]

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Maureen Ryan Works So I Don't Have To

The Chicago Tribune’s TV critic has put together this very useful list of when network TV series are returning post-strike. Here’s a fun game to play! Look down the list and see how many of them you’re actually anxious to see again! Me, I have April 10 circled on my calendar, and… and… still looking… [...]

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Pay-Cable Whore-Off!

Well, I’ve been waiting my entire career to be able to use that headline, so I guess I can retire now. It’s been great knowing you. So: This summer Showtime is debuting Secret Diary of a Call Girl, a British production based on a memoir, which promises to be like Sex and the City, except [...]

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Star Wars According to a Three Year Old

The title pretty much says it all. If you’ve already seen it, move along. If it sounds a little too cute for you, move along. But Star Wars—as interpreted and reimagined by two children who know the story only from a Lego videogame—has been such a part of the Tuned In household in recent months [...]

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The Morning After: How I Met the Mother of Your Much Older Half-Sister?

Ted and Stella get intimate. / MONTY BRINTON/CBS We’ve already established that all it takes to make me go gaga is to put a Big Star song on the soundtrack of your TV show. But I’m pretty sure that even if the beautiful “Thirteen” had not been playing over Ted and Stella’s two-minute date, the [...]