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McCain to Not-Campaign on All Three Network Newscasts Tonight

While Barack Obama—um, I guess in his case it is campaigning?—appears as well. Last one for today, I swear!

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Tuned In Suspension Suspended

Earlier I said I was suspending further posts on the campaign/debate suspension issue. I lied. Get over it. Politics ain’t beanbag. This one isn’t really political, though. David Letterman’s ranting against John McCain last night is currently the number one video on YouTube. But not the minute-and-a-half official CBS video I embedded earlier (which has [...]

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"Yeah, Mocked. I Guess That's the Word, Yeah."

In the second half of her Katie Couric interview—the foreign-policy segment, bumped to tonight’s CBS Evening News by last night’s John McCain sit-down—Sarah Palin doubles down on Alaska’s proximity to Russia as foreign-policy credential: Watch CBS Videos Online

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Project Runway Watch: Dress You Up

Bravo Photo: Barbara Nitke Spoilers for Project Runway coming up after the jump.

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How Suspended Does This Campaign Feel?

OK, one more post re: the Suspension Bridge to Nowhere, and then I pledge to suspend such postings in order to focus 100% on the national crisis of reviewing Project Runway. I posted a CBS video excerpt from David Letterman’s tirade about John McCain last night, but it doesn’t include what was probably his best [...]

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The Morning After: In Other Car Wrecks…

Monty Brinton/CBS I did not write a proper review of Gary Unmarried, for a simple reason: I previewed the pilot, when it was called Project Gary, and it ain’t got any better with age. Dissenting opinions from Jay Mohr fans, postmortems of Knight Rider, or David Blaine status updates welcomed here. I’ll have a Project [...]

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Why the Debate Should Go On

We’re big on transparency here at Tuned In. So when I tell you that I believe tomorrow’s televised debate should go on as planned, you are free to conclude that I am biased as an Obama supporter. Or that I am biased as a TV critic interested in having exciting TV events to critique. But [...]

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Disbelief of Suspension

Debate, schmebate—you ditch Letterman, and there’s hell to pay: Craig Ferguson, meanwhile, has Dave’s back:

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And Speaking of Friday Night

The New York Post’s Don Kaplan asks something I wondered aloud to my editor yesterday but never got around to blogging (or finding the answer to): why in hell did they schedule the first Presidential debate on one of the week’s least-watched nights of TV? Bonus question: does this mean you can forget about targeting [...]

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Friday Night Lights Returns, Sort Of

I’ve just seen the first episode of Friday Night Lights‘ season 3, and except for some understandable heavy exposition, I loved it: despite the cast turnover and some changes, it was as funny, compelling and heartbreaking as anything in season 1. And I sort of feel I should leave it at that, because most of [...]

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Shocking Clay Aiken Revelation!

He’s a dad!

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Knight Rider: A Vintage '80s Lemon

An ironic nostalgia lunchbox in video form. / NBC Photo: Mitchell Haaseth Pretend you’re a TV screenwriter. You’re writing an episode of a cop procedural, involving the murder of a washed-up ’80s TV star. The opening scene of the episode is a scene from his former hit action show. You want to make it cheesy, [...]

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Splice of Life

From a company I shall leave unnamed comes a PR pitch with a subject line I am going to hope is a joke: National Punctuation Day is Sept 24, How Are You Celebrating? Then again, maybe it isn’t. From the body of the email: We’re not the only ones celebrating correct grammar, the [product name [...]

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The Morning After: Dance Card Full

Who lights the lights of Chinatown just by walking in view? / ABC It’s heavy fall-debut time, the season The Morning After was made for. I only have one set of eyes and one pair of hands—all thumbs—so any discussion of Dancing with the Stars, the premiere of The Mentalist or another episode of 90210 [...]

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TV Tonight: Mentalist Anything

Lance Staedler/CBS To understand why The Mentalist is on CBS’ fall schedule, you need to understand three basic things: 1. CBS got burned with shows like Viva Laughlin and Swingtown last year 2. A lot of people apparently like Psych 3. CBS is singlemindedly convinced that Simon Baker is destined to be a big TV [...]

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Palin and the Press 2: Couric's Up

…but evidently Sarah Palin isn’t avoiding all media questions on her visit to New York: This notice just in from CBS News: Katie Couric will conduct an exclusive interview with Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin tomorrow (24) as Palin meets with world leaders in New York City coinciding with the meeting of the United Nations [...]

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Palin vs. the Press: She Blinks!

“You can’t blink,” Sarah Palin told Charles Gibson earlier this month, describing her resolute nature. In a showdown with her media pool today in New York, however, Palin—or at least her press handlers—did. Before Palin met with her first foreign head of state (always such a special moment), her staffers laid down some conditions: cameras [...]

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DVD Watch: Shorts Heard 'Round the World

Hey, parents! Want to teach your kids about American democracy in time for the election but are afraid of revealing your own ignorance? Well, fear no more! Today brings the DVD release of Schoolhouse Rock: The Election Collection, featuring each Bicentennial-era ABC Saturday morning short—from No More Kings to Three-Ring Government—plus a few other government-related [...]

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Heroes Watch: Third Time the Charm?

If you are reading this, I am already dead. That, or, more likely, I am mid-deadline, pulling my lack of hair out over my column, and have not yet gotten around to writing up a review of the season 3 premiere of Heroes, the second half of which I had to watch on live TV [...]

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HIMYM Watch: Wookiee of the Year

Eric McCandless/FOX SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, watch Star Wars one more time, then How I Met Your Mother.