[Televisionary]

Variety is reporting today that FOX has given an early two-season pick up to long-running animated series The Simpsons , keeping the show--about a certain yellow-toned family who never seem to age and their doughnut-obsessed dad--on the air at least through 2008. The order takes The Simpsons into its 18th and 19th seasons, easily making it the longest-running sitcom in Fox's checkered history (it only seemed as though Herman's Head was on for that long). The order also means that The Simpsons will reach its landmark 400th episode, which will air in the show's 18th season. According to Variety, that milestone is tentatively scheduled to air on 20 May, 2007. I've had my ups and downs with the series and still manage to watch it (when they actually air a new episode) each Sunday, though the quality has been rather sub-par in recent years. Gone now are the classic episodes that you could watch over and over again (and which are shown about 18 times a day in syndication)

I was skeptical at first that HBO could pull it off. Granted they've made audiences love mobsters, morticians, and circus freaks, so why should polygamists be any different? Yet after two episodes of Big Love , I am already won over by the show's fantastic interpersonal relationships, tense drama, and yes, even humor. (Just don't call them Mormons.) Here's the 411 on the series so far: Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton) seems to live a normal life in suburban Salt Lake City. He has a thriving hardware business, beautiful kids, and--oh--three wives. Each night, Bill returns home to negotiate a complicated schedule where each of the wives gets to share him for a day and a night. Helping matters is the fact that all three of his houses are conveniently next door to one another and share one backyard, protecting Bill from wary neighbors. But negotiating the emotional minefield that is his marriage(s) is a little more difficult as Bill has to deal with stress from his three wives

It's been said that great comedy comes from tragedy... or if not tragedy, then genuine emotion. I just had to write a few words about last night's super-duo of comedy goodness, My Name is Earl and The Office . As readers will remember, my thoughts on the respective series' previous episodes were overwhelmingly negative , but last night's episodes--both jam-packed with heart--restored my love for both shows. On last night's episode of My Name is Earl ("Dad's Car"), Earl tries to repair his factured relationship with his estranged father (Beau Bridges) by returning the old Mustang that he had claimed to have driven into a lake at age eleven (he actually lost it in a drag race), but learns that the car was intended for him on his sixteenth birthday. Meanwhile, Joy sends Darnell and the kids away for a week so she can get drunk (it's her Mother's Day present to herself) but discovers that she misses them and the feelings she gets from being a mom

I can swear that someone told me that they were anticipating the launch of Fox's midseason entry, The Loop , but after watching the show last night, I can honestly say that I can't remember why I had any interest in tuning in. Not to be confused with Fox's other twenty-something single camera comedy Free Ride , The Loop is a hodgepotch of ideas. Here's the skinny: Sam (Bret Harrison), is hired as the youngest executive at a major airline thanks to his thesis, but he's the only one of his friends with a Real Job. Faced with messing up at work, Sam must find a way to party and have fun with his friends while still managing to impress his imposing and frightening boss Russ (the usually brilliant Phillip Baker Hall, slumming it here). Russ wants employees to come up with big "fruity" ideas to cut costs to save the sinking airline company. Ah, so The Loop refers to the airport strip then? Or is it referring to the feeling of deja vu that I've seen all of

NBC announced today via press release that it has commissioned ten, original stand-alone "webisodes" of its comedy The Office which will premiere this summer on NBC.com (no iTunes?). The webisodes (heh, webisodes) will make up an ongoing arc and will feature the fictional Dunder Mifflin branch's accounting staff in an office whodunit. According to NBC's official release, "When the Dunder Mifflin accountants -- Angela (Angela Kinsey), Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) and Oscar (Oscar Nunez) -- discover that $3000 is missing from the Scranton office, no one is above suspicion, as the crack team of numbers crunchers tries to solve the mystery before turning on each other. " Sounds like fun. Expected participants in the mini-eps of The Office include Rainn Wilson, Melora Hardin, Phyllis Smith, Kate Flannigan, Leslie David Baker and David Denman. While I was hoping to see first string players Steve Carell and Co. featured, I understand that they are off making big-bud

"Carnivale" Back in Town? It's hard to keep a good avatar down. Rumors are swirling that HBO may resurrect supernatural period piece Carnivale as either a two-hour movie or a four-hour miniseries that would reportedly tie up any dangling plot points (and, believe me, there were many). As a fan of the dust bowl drama (though even I will admit it was frustratingly obtuse at times), I would welcome any possibility for creator Daniel Knauf to wrap up his vision in a way that would satisfy the show's loyal audience, though I also have heard rumors of a possible comic book adaptation of the show as well. While details are sparse (and HBO hasn't said anything official yet), rumors indicate that the Carnivale movie or mini-series would air sometime in 2007. And (and that's a rather big and) if the longform version does well ratings-wise, HBO could be open to bringing Carnivale back as an ongoing series in 2008. News like that would force even scary Brother Justin t

So, I was sitting in the airport in Aspen, waiting for the plane that would take me back to Los Angeles, when what comes on CNBC? Deal or No Deal , of all things. Everyone who reads this blog knows of my confusion about this show . But, desperate to understand what thrall Howie Mandel and a bunch of silver briefcases seem to hold on viewers, I decided to watch. (Plus I couldn't get the airline staff to change the channel.) Purportedly an "international sensation," Deal or No Deal is one hell of a bizarre show. Basically, the rules are this: a contestant chooses one of 26 numbered briefcases, which may contain dollar amounts between $.01 and $1,000,000. Their selection remains closed on their podium. Still with me? In each round, the contestant then chooses a certain number of other briefcases(starting with five), each of which is opened to reveal a dollar amount which is then removed from the board (because the original suitcase could not contain those amounts). At the e