Although I'm grateful they did the WKRP roundtable, the attitude of many of the participants about older sitcoms was rather depressing. It certainly explains why coverage of anything before 1990 has very little chance of catching on here.

I think of the taped sitcoms that Norman Lear popularized as the real hard-core multi-cams, shows that felt almost live and with the audience reactions seemingly amplified, making the viewer feel as if they were right there in the bleachers.

Back in the day, the key times for syndicated sitcom reruns were from around 4:00 through 7:30 and as you suggested, Mary seemed a bit too adult-oriented to be a comfortable fit there.

So here are the demo ratings and total viewers in millions for last night's Fox lineup:

Or that they didn't even say "creator of Chicago Fire and SVU", given that the show comes on right after SVU and will be dependent on that show's fans sticking around to survive.

I'm missing it too, since it would be coming back on right about now.

NBC has to give up the Thursday sitcom block next season. It's over, done with, kaput. Time to establish a new identity there built around a hit and The Blacklist is the show to do it with.

Not only did Martin Sheen wear the hell out of that suit, his technique for putting on his jacket alone made him presidential material.

Well, they're launching it after a ton of promotion on football over the weekend and after another "very special episode" of SVU. If the debut can't do at least a 2.0 then the show is probably going to be a disappointment for NBC.

The key point being that Southland improved immensely once it got away from NBC.

I just find it interesting that NBC is in such a hurry to do a spinoff of a show that's only been on for a little over a year and has done OK, but isn't exactly a ratings world-beater.

Which brings to mind a very good question a perplexed Crow T. Robot once posed: "Mike, were there really 'WOOOOO' guys on The Titanic?"

She's the hero, but as a comic lead her cheery optimism about her dismal little town is clearly meant to seem humorously excessive.

Leslie keeps trying to do good work and believes in public service in the face of a populace that is at best apathetic and at worst hostile. At times she is inspirational, but she also is presented as almost hopelessly naive much of the time.

There are some good ones out there, they just don't get nearly the amount of publicity that the moronic ones do.

With so many people trying out for so few spots, it's no wonder those who finally do make it to the show often get there only after many, many attempts.

Jeopardy! thread for Tue., Jan. 7 - Very competitive game in which the lead at the end of DJ came down to the final clue. Champ Mary had a $400 advantage and missed on a $2,000 clue, so all Andrew had to do was stand there to ensure first position going into FJ…but for some reason he rang in and missed, so Mary got…

Agreed, SVU isn't the crapfest it used to be since Leight took over. Still not up to Mothership or CI standards, but generally watchable.

They made Farina a real fashion plate on L&O, which took away from his Crime Story-era authenticity a bit.

The networks hardly ever do TV movies anymore, otherwise L&O:CI would be especially well-suited to the occasional TV movie approach.