Since the music version of MY List of Lists did well, I've decided to talk about something that's near and dear to my heart - not sprawling babies, you smartarses, television. All opinions are mine and might be ignorant. They might be based purely on personal opinion. In fact, the entire article is America-centric, with some Canadian and British shows thrown in. Really, I'm just trying for an editor's pick here like everyone else is, but at least I'll admit it freely. It's a good thing that I follow the television business, too, or else I'd sound right stupid...well, more stupid than I sound right now. I can pretend to be more intelligent than Alex Trebek. At least I have that going for me.
SHOW THAT HASN'T DEBUTED AND STILL LOOKS LIKE IT COULD DAMN NEAR SAVE NBC: Deal or No Deal's rules are a bit convoluted, to say the least. Deal or No Deal looks like Endemol USA threw Jackpot, $ale of the Century and Let's Make a Deal into a bran tub and added in some nonsense backstory whenever the need arose. Still, the UK version of Deal or No Deal is killing all its competitors in the ratings. Hell, even with Howie Mandel hosting, it looks like NBC just stumbled onto a winner.
Still...Howie Mandel? Donny Osmond did well on Pyramid and Richard Karn made Family Feud watchable again, but this is just taking the piss. No one thought Billie Piper could act, either. It's funny how second careers work. I still would have preferred Peter Tomarken.
SHOW THAT'S DRAGGING NBC DOWN BY BEING ON WAY, WAY TOO LONG: Where should I start? Is there a continual need for ER? Has Will & Grace ever been funny? What the hell happened to Saturday Night Live that it's become more unwatchable than MadTV? Why tease people by announcing that Jay Leno is going to stay on The Tonight Show until 2009 when Leno and Conan O'Brien are unfunny now? (Oh, I'm sorry, did I step on a sacred cow? I've tried to watch O'Brien recently, but the show just isn't that funny to me. Coked-Up Werewolf fans will now tell me how I'm homosexual.) Should The West Wing even be on anymore, considering the creators abandoned the show a few years ago? Kill a few of those Law & Orders, too. Slash and burn, NBC, slash and burn.
COMEBACK THAT I CAN VOUCH FOR: The Simpsons. I'm admittedly a fan, and others think the show has become death. Still, no show on its seventeenth season should be doing as well as The Simpsons. The show has finally become comfortable in its pacing as Al Jean seems to have perfected the show's current formula - The Simpsons is more political, respectful of its past, and has rediscovered the joy of an Albert Brooks voiceover. The Simpsons isn't trying to be Family Guy redux like in the Mike Scully "era," and the show has stopped trying way too hard to relive a past it can't possibly duplicate. Sure, The Simpsons makes a dumb continuity error or two these days (uh, Homer never went to college? I guess Scratchy never finally killed Itchy, then), and it'll never be what it was. No show could ever be what The Simpsons was, but it looks like the writers are writing better scripts to justify Dan Castellaneta's ridiculous salary. Expand my brain, learning juice!
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