As you all know, today is the most important holiday of the year. I’m knocking off early for trick-or-treating / candy-handing-out duty, then to count the number of Sarah Palin imitators at the Park Slope Halloween parade this evening. I leave you with this holiday treat. Unfortunately, Hulu inexplicably does not offer Freaks and Geeks [...]

TTCFFC This is sad news. (H/t Sepinwall.) Not entirely unexpected news—I remember interviewing Stephen Root, on the set of ABC’s 9/11 miniseries, way back when King of the Hill was in the middle of one of its previous death scares. And maybe it’s more or less time. You could argue that the show properly should have [...]

…but, um, it just announced the pickup of a new reality-competition fashion show: NEW YORK – October 30, 2008 – Today, Bravo announced the pick-up of its newest fashion design creative competition series “The Fashion Show” (working title), in which the ultimate winner will be chosen by viewers and will have their designs sold by [...]

Series-high ratings for 30 Rock.

The press releases announcing various networks’ election night coverage have been rolling in fast and furious, but for those of you looking for a little different perspective, here’s the lineup from BBC America (which has been doing a good job this election with their beefed-up U.S. news coverage): Household names from the worlds of politics, [...]

Spoilers for this week’s Office coming up after the jump…

I’m a secular Jew (Mom’s side) from a half-Catholic family (Dad’s side), so except for weddings and funerals, neither side of me usually makes it into a temple or church on Saturday or Sunday. What I have instead is Thursday night. I still watch Survivor regularly, good seasons or bad. The current one, Gabon, has [...]

  30 Rock returned last night, pulled by the publicity snow machine that was Tina Fey’s impersonation of Sarah Palin. Of the two episodes I’ve seen, I liked next week’s—with guest star Oprah Winfrey—better, but last night’s, which returned to the storyline of Liz Lemon trying to adopt a baby, was welcome too. It’s been [...]

According to the Political Ticker blog, John McCain is going to appear on this weekend’s Saturday Night Live, where he’s been a favorite guest over the years. I don’t know how effective appearances like this can be at this point in the race—or any other point, for that matter—but when you’ve got an opponent who’s [...]

In this week’s TIME, I take one last look back at the coverage of the 2008 election; in particular, the metabolism of an election cycle in which new media were ever more dominant, and how the old media huffed and puffed trying to keep pace on that treadmill:  If you’re like me–and I hope for [...]

During my run this morning, this forgotten song came on my iPod: We’ve got nothing better to do Than watch TV and have a couple of brews Double simultaneous nostalgia: for both early 1980s hardcore and early 1980s TV titles. (That’s Incredible! Dallas!) And it made me think: since TV is such a big part [...]

The preliminary Nielsens from last night are in, and Barack Obama’s infomercial was the first, second and third most watched program last night at 8 p.m. E.T., finishing in that order on NBC, CBS and Fox respectively. Pushing Daisies trailed in fourth place, but it was up 16% from last week, so there’s a little something [...]

Thanks to the magic of Tivo, I was able to watch both The Barack Obama Variety Show and its network competition, Pushing Daisies, which is unfortunately facing tightening in its own numbers this fall. I’d missed a couple episodes lately—I am part of the problem, not the solution—but from where I’m sitting the show still [...]

Why do political parties put their conventions on TV? You get a big block of network prime time and get to put on a show. You can air slick produced pieces about your biography. You can get your colleagues and former rivals to come on stage and tell the world how wonderful you are. You [...]

Tonight at 8 p.m. E.T., Barack Obama’s half-hour infomercial will air on CBS, NBC and Fox. If you miss it on TV, you will dream it tonight at approximately 2 a.m. Your nightmare about being back in high school and having to take an exam for a calculus class you haven’t attended all year will [...]

This just in from USA Network. Law & Order: Criminal Intent, in which Vincent D’Onofrio solves crimes by overacting, has had its season premiere pushed back from November 7 to an unspecified time early next year:  USA Network will be moving the eighth season premiere of hit series LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT to 2009 when it will air in first quarter in an uninterrupted [...]

  Tuned In Jr. Jr. is in his first year of school and has had his first encounter with direct democracy. His pre-K class has held a vote on its class nickname: “The Star Wars” won in a landslide over “The Kitty Cats.” There is apparently some question of whether the name should be amended [...]

I don’t cover a lot of newspaper news on Tuned In, but this seemed worth noting. The Christian Science Monitor is ceasing to be a daily newspaper, at least if you take the “paper” part literally. Starting in April, the only place to find a daily version of the paper will be on the Web.  [...]

Brief spoilers for The Shield coming up after the jump.