General Television Thread

[9 to 5]

Why sit on the fence, fr34k? :/

[GoGo Yubari]

Why are you even asking that? Haven't you been on EWB for the last two years?

[fr34k]

Colly, stop reading this thread and watch Community now!

[Colly]

Why are you even asking that? Haven't you been on EWB for the last two years?

Yeah, but I tend to ignore stuff about things I have no legal access to lest I become depressed by my lack of Sky Atlantic. Silly Virgin Media.

I shall finish watching Brass Eye since I've not seen it in a decade, then move on to Community. Do you have any clarkycat?

[Lord Nibbler]

Saw someone on another forum ask about actors who auditioned for/were offered/were cast in roles that went to someone else. There were a few interesting ones mentioned;

John Lithgow as Frasier Crane (Cheers)

Selma Blair and Katie Holmes as Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Nathan Fillion as Angel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Ryan Reynolds as Xander Harris (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Paul Giamatti as Michael Scott (The Office)

Judd Nelson, Ben Stiller, Jon Cryer, John Cusack, Charlie Sheen, James Spader, Emilio Estevez, Sean Penn, Macaulay Culkin, Matthew Broderick, Andrew McCarthy and Dan Aykroyd as Dexter Morgan (Dexter)

[GoGo Yubari]

Mike O'Malley, who plays Kurt's dad on Glee and was the host of Nickelodeon GUTS way back in the nineties, almost played Ron Swanson on Parks and Rec but they went with Nick Offerman instead. That probably leads to a vastly different, and probably not as good, characterization for Ron.

[Guest mr. potato head]

Paul Shaffer was offered George Constanza. Glad that never came to pass.

[Dingle]

Saw someone on another forum ask about actors who auditioned for/were offered/were cast in roles that went to someone else. There were a few interesting ones mentioned;

John Lithgow as Frasier Crane (Cheers)

Selma Blair and Katie Holmes as Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Nathan Fillion as Angel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Ryan Reynolds as Xander Harris (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Paul Giamatti as Michael Scott (The Office)

Judd Nelson, Ben Stiller, Jon Cryer, John Cusack, Charlie Sheen, James Spader, Emilio Estevez, Sean Penn, Macaulay Culkin, Matthew Broderick, Andrew McCarthy and Dan Aykroyd as Dexter Morgan (Dexter)

If Charlie Sheen had become Dexter, sure I'd hate the first six seasons, but the storyline in the seventh would be an absolute gold mine!

[GoGo Yubari]

James Spader as Dexter would have been pretty great, though. Probably not vastly different than Michael C. Hall as Dexter, of course, they both orbit in that same zone of creepy.

[KONGO]

AJ on the Sopranos is spectacularly useless.

Season 6, episode 8, when AJ decides he's going to kill Junior. Asks to be woken up at 10, doesn't get up and out the door for 6 more hours. Hiding the knife horribly in his jacket when he gets to the ward, immediately gets cold feet and drops the knife. Outside after the argument with Tony, he goes to puke and he can't even puke up anything. That moment was just heartbreakingly pathetic.

[Colly]

One of the McGanns (I want to say Paul) would've been Sharpe had he not been injured on set, which would have deprived us of having a South Yorkshire accent in every fantasy tv show and movie made since. And in Patriot Games, where the IRA represent Sheffield.

[Benji]

Anyone watch Sinbad? It wasn't quite as action packed as I'd hoped, but I guess they had to set the scene and introduce everyone. Next weeks episode looks ready to please me on the action front.

[Josh]

AJ on the Sopranos is spectacularly useless.

Season 6, episode 8, when AJ decides he's going to kill Junior. Asks to be woken up at 10, doesn't get up and out the door for 6 more hours. Hiding the knife horribly in his jacket when he gets to the ward, immediately gets cold feet and drops the knife. Outside after the argument with Tony, he goes to puke and he can't even puke up anything. That moment was just heartbreakingly pathetic.

A.J.'s whole relationship with Tony always fascinated me. His conscious and subconscious attempts at emulating his father were particularly tough to watch in the best of ways.

[Baddar]

I'm 6 episodes into Terriers now. Enjoying Hank and Britt, and the cases they take on. The relationship drama, not so much.

[Benji]

So, someone edited the entirety of LOST into chronological order. LOST CHRONO for anyone interested. I think I may have to check this out

[Benji]

I forgot how good Voyager is.

[Johnny Drama]

Have flown through the second series of The Wire on the penultimate episode now. Off to Portugal Thursday so will have a break before I get onto number three.

[Thrilla]

Anyone watch Sinbad? It wasn't quite as action packed as I'd hoped, but I guess they had to set the scene and introduce everyone. Next weeks episode looks ready to please me on the action front.

From the adverts it looks absolutely awful.

[Guest mr. potato head]

I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I might slowly be coming around to The Newsroom. Nothing I particularly loved about this week's episode, but two reasons:

1) A good deal of the preachiness isn't stuff I've had stuffed down my throat by other Sorkin shows (as I'd been thinking) but stuff I've had stuffed down my throat by four years of j-school, which isn't a position most people find themselves in. Many of the ideas in these rants are newer and fresher to most of the audience.

2) I'm almost starting to think Will and co.'s in-universe justification for doing their show is also Sorkin's real-world justification for doing his show. It's not "this is what the news would be like if today's journalists got their shit together and we'll just ignore how much hindsight factors into this", it's "this is what the news would be like if today's journalists were able to cover it two years after the fact, with the benefit of hindsight". I'm not sure I'm explaining it well, and like I said, I'm definitely not sure it actually is the intention, but wow, if it is, that's amazing and completely changes how I look at the show.

[Benji]

Decided to drop Veep. It's not that it's bad, it just... isn't very good.

It's just your typical awkward comedy, with no discernably interesting characters, which is basically the key to a good awkward comedy.