My friend Jerry appeared as contestant on Jeopardy! last summer (and unfortunately, came in third). At his job today, this came up in conversation, prompting someone to go to a computer and Google his name. The first thing that came up was The J Archive, a website with detailed breakdowns of hundreds of episodes of Jeopardy! going back to its first season, which was in 1984. Lord only knows why they'd want to do this, but they've taken their task pretty seriously. There are even line graphs showing which contestant was in what place throughout the game. You can also quiz yourself by reading old answers and questions, which is pretty cool.

Tom Coombe

The Police are apparently reuniting to play at the Grammys.

Finally, a reason to possibly consider weighing whether to wonder about tuning into a TV awards show. Maybe.

Tom Coombe

Why does 24 even bother ending episodes with Jack Bauer facing certain death? It's the least compelling cliffhanger on TV. Even if we didn't know that Kiefer Sutherland's contract gives us at least another season, FOX always shows clips of next week's episode with Jack back in action (this week's preview even shows us how he escapes his brother's goons).

On a related note, is Graham Jack's older or younger brother? In real life, Paul McCrane is roughly five years older than Sutherland (according to the Internet Movie Database anyway). But on 24, he really seems like a whiny little brother, still bitter after years in Jack's shadow.

Dad Bauer, to Mom: You should have seen the game, honey. Jack just scored his 1,000th touchdown, all while playing with a broken leg!

Jack, barely audible: It was just what I had to do dad. I think Graham has something to tell you about school.

Graham: Um, yeah dad, the computer club just invented...

Dad: Yes, yes, we all know about you and your computers, Graham.

And now he's making up for all that dismissive, negligent parenting by covering up his son's role in a horrible terrorist attack. It's what any good emotionally absent father might do.

Tom Coombe

For those die-hard "24" fans like myself, I can't find the nerve to sway my loyalty to the NBC hit "Heroes." Too big a Jack Bauer fan.

Simple, solution, just schedule Heroes on the DVR and watch 24, right? Add a 9:30 p.m. baby feeding to the mix and you've got a big problem.

Rather than turn to the archaic VCR for show no. 2, I've been pleasantly surprised by the ease in which NBC has made it's new series available online.

NBC.com painlessly offers up its latest episodes to watch on demand, and best of all, it's pretty much commercial-free. Just a few in-house promos between segments. The full screen quality is surprisingly solid as well. Bonus to LCD tv owners with laptops who want to just hook the two up.

While it's not the same as taking the time to download high-quality shows legally via iTunes or illegally via bittorrent, it's nice to see the major networks getting on board to offering already free network television to users to watch current season episodes online. Here's to hoping they continue the trend.

-Marc Rosenberg

A few days ago I wondered if the BBC actually had sitcoms as bad as "When the Whistle Blows," the fictional comedy from HBO's Extras. Now I know it does, after watching Hardware Friday night. It wasn't terrible, but it seemed like a giant throwback. It could have been filmed in 1987. What made it truly painful was the presence of Martin Freeman, who was so good on the British Office.

Tom Coombe

I'm slightly aggravated with the second season of "The Hills," which I had most eagerly waited for all winter.

Oh, last week's opener started out as fabulously as I'd hoped. Heidi and Audrina aren't friends anymore and Spencer, Heidi's new crush, is totally playing both of them. GREAT.

But then the second episode (which I caught on MTV's Thursday night encore) features the introduction of Brody Jenner, who dated "what's her name"  The episode ends with Lauren and Brody's first date. Oooh, is that chemistry in the air? Might Lauren's heartache be slightly lessened after the devastating heartache of losing Jason?

Maybe.

But the thing is, not for long. Cause Lauren and Brody have already broken up. It was all over "People" in November. What is that?! How can I fully enjoy my favorite show knowing how it turns out in the end?

Somehow I'll manage, I'm sure.

Whether it's new to you or the usual repeats, fans of 'The Office' can treat themselves to three episodes of the hit comedy tonight.

While I'm not thrilled with the "Scrubs/30 Rock" sandwich that NBC is trying to shove down our throats, die-hard Office fans can treat themselves to three pre-merger episodes from earlier this season tonight at 8:30 p.m., 10:00 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., respectively:

8:30 p.m.: 'The Coup' (S3E3) -- In the "Movie Monday" episode (where Michael forces everyone to watch movies in the office instead of working), Angela pushes for Dwight to make a push to take Michael's Job.

10:00 p.m.: 'Grief Counseling' (S3E4) -- Michael finds out that his former boss dies and of course goes to extremes in his attempts to pay homage to him, dragging the staff into the mix as well.

10:30 p.m.: 'Initiation' (S3E5) -- Dwight takes Ryan on his first sales call, which includes a stop at the Schrute family beet farm; Pretzel Day at Dunder Mifflin.

All three are fantastic episodes, if you've missed any of these or want to see them again, tonight's your chance.

'The Office' returns next week with a new episode on February 1 entitled "Ben Franklin."

-Marc Rosenberg

I've had a lot of people tell me they'd like to watch 24, but they haven't seen it from the beginning, and worry they might be lost. The BBC apparently feels their pain, and has this handy guide to everything that happened in the first five seasons.

Tom Coombe

The following contains a plot twist from 24 that had me sit up and say "Whoa." You'll need to highlight the text below to read it, for people who haven't seen it yet.

That devious bald guy who was behind President Logan's plot is Jack Bauer's brother. It's perfect that Jack's own brother could be his arch enemy, giving the show a more mythic quality. What did their parents do to these kids? Also, I'd wager that Jack is actually Josh's father. That look that passed between them was a little too meaningful.

Also, I caught the end of Prison Break, which I stopped watching at the start of this season. If this show was in German, I'd have a better idea of what was happening.

Tom Coombe

Thanks to Marc for suggestion HBO's Extras to me. While I don't agree that it's better than The Office, it's still funnier than most comedies out there. It really has more in common with Curb Your Enthusiasm than Ricky Gervais' previous show (the scene where Andy tries to get the homeless guy to make change for a twenty was pure Larry David). And I still can't get that David Bowie song out of my head ("See his pug nosed face...").

The scenes from "When the Whistle Blows," the show-within-a-show were painfully bad (as they were meant to be). Are there really comedies like this on British TV?

Tom Coombe

Once again, Ed Helms steals The Office. His Andy, who seems to speak only in jokes, funny voices, and brown-nosing, seemed like a good foil for Jim and Dwight, and...well, pretty much anyone else who works at Dundler Mifflin. But he's an even better foil for Michael Scott. More to the point, he's Michael's punishment, a dark mirror of everything that's irritating about him, with an added pinch of malevolence. (And who would have thought we'd hear "Zombie" by The Cranberries again?) With Andy in the office, Michael actually seems like a reasonable, competent boss.

Until he's talking to Oscar, his lone gay, Hispanic employee: "Your gayness does not define you. Your Mexicanness is what defines you."

As for Andy...well, he wrapped up his part in this week's story by punching a hole in the wall. There's not many places the character can go from there without The Office turning into an HBO drama.

Speaking of drama, CSI managed to do a little penance for every weak CBS drama in its first five minutes, with its time travel montage set to the Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane." Why they need Liev Schreiber (or any other actor) to pinch hit for William Petersen is still a mystery.

Tom Coombe

Remember when advertisers tried to get us to remember products by being funny, or failing that, coming up with an irritating-yet-resonent jingle? They still do those things, but they're passe compared to the newest trend in commercials: being really creepy.

There's that Nasonex ad, with the not-quite-human, not-quite-cartoon people, and of course, the silent, masked Burger King. This week we've seen a commercial that even usurped the king, for Orville Redenbacher Popcorn, no less.

  From what I can tell, they used some sort of computer generated effect to put Redenbacher's face on another actor, similar to what The Sopranos did after Nancy Marchand died between seasons two and three. For some reason, it's much less effective, possibly because on The Sopranos, they just had Livia sitting still. Ressurrected Redenbacher is moving around, even listing to an MP3 player. You'll notice in the commercial the look of surprise by everyone in the kitchen when Orville starts talking. I guess the director chose not to go with the more realistic reaction: horrified people asking "Why is a zombie shilling popcorn in our kitchen?"

Tom Coombe

Yep, that's the Jack Bauer action figure, courtesy of McFarlane Toys. Back in the '90s, Todd McFarlane was the uber-comic book artist, drawing Spiderman for Marvel Comics. Then he and pretty much all of Marvel's starting line-up illustrators left to form Image, a stable for independent, creator-owned, and (in retrospect) not very good comics. These days, McFarlane seems to design toys, many of them based on movies and TV shows. There was a whole collection of Lost action figures last year. As much as I love both shows, the idea of reenacting, say, Locke and Jack blowing open the hatch is kind of depressing.

As for the Jack figure, Kiefer Sutherland has apparently subjected to some torture of its own, setting it on fire while drunk. Really.

Tom Coombe

As much as I loved Ricky Gervais' work on The Office, I haven't seen Extras yet. This clip really, really, makes me want to watch, as much for the David Bowie song as anything else.

Tom Coombe

One in an occasional series on the all-time greatest television shows.

COLUMBO

The skinny: Clever writing and brilliant acting make it the best mystery series ever seen on television.

Background: Columbo debuted in February 1968 as a one-shot special, returned in March 1971 as another one-timer – a second pilot, if you will – and then returned that fall on a regular basis as part of the Mystery Movie rotation on NBC. Columbo ran until 1978 and returned as an occasional TV movie starting in 1989. There have been 23 other Columbo TV movies since that 1989 broadcast, the last one airing in January 2003.

Why it’s a great show: Columbo was a delight to watch because of the parrying between star Peter Falk, who played police Lt. Columbo (at right), and the murderer – who, unlike in other shows, was revealed to the viewer in the opening minutes of the show. The unassuming, disheveled, supposedly bumbling homicide detective was a killer himself – at nailing the bad guy. And Columbo did it without DNA.

Trivia: What was the song that Columbo whistled in many of the shows? (Answer below.)

Update: Unfortunately, you don’t see Columbo reruns on cable TV much anymore. Occasionally, Bravo will run one. And for a while there, Channel 69 out of Allentown was airing them on weekends. DVDs are available for purchase, though.

For more info: Check out these Web sites: museumtv,  legendarytv and a Peter Falk bio.

Trivia answer: “This Old Man.”

And “one more thing” – For those of you out there still reading books, check out Mark Dawidziak’s “The Columbo Phile: A Casebook,” which is an entertaining and thorough examination of the Columbo series.

-- Bill Kline

"The first four hours of "Day 6" of 24 are supposed to end with some sort of shocking plot twist. Other than us learning that the start of this season has all been a dream or something like that, there's not much else they can do. I'm also 98 percent sure I'll regret the previous statement in about 7 hours."

And here we are, roughly eight hours later, and I'm retracting that statement. Wow. I can't believe that Jack (redacted for fear of giving things away for anyone who hasn't watched yet) or that the terrorists (redacted, same reason). Both of those things would be pretty shocking in any episode, but happening back to back...man.

Tom Coombe

The first four hours of "Day 6" of 24 are supposed to end with some sort of shocking plot twist. Other than us learning that the start of this season has all been a dream or something like that, there's not much else they can do. I'm also 98 percent sure I'll regret the previous statement in about 7 hours. Anywhere, here's some thoughts on the season so far:

* One of the best things about 24 is knowing that no matter where the story starts, they'll be dealing with a new threat, and a new villain, within the next few hours/episodes. We may have suicide bombers now, but we could have, I don't know, killer bees by 1 p.m.

   * Was there some kind of presidential decree ordering the nation's TV reviewers to use the phrase "on a slow boat to China," to describe what happened to Jack Bauer at the end of the last season?

(He was captured by the Chinese government because of something that happened in a previous season, and taken to China on a boat, and yes, it was going really slow, but still...)

* How many times is it now that Jack Bauer has agreed to sacrifice himself for the good of the country? College students writing a paper called "Jack Bauer as a Christ figure" should take note.

* He bit that guy's neck open! Aggggh! (Although Assad stabbing that guy in the kneecap was much more squirm-inducing).

* There's always a teenager in danger at some point in any season. Thankfully, it's not Kim Bauer this time.

* A few of the negative reviews of this season have complained about this season's "sudden" lack of belivability. Apparently, professional TV writers get a different version of the show than the rest of the public.

"This storyline is absurb...grumblegrumblegrumble..."

Yeah, and House would have been fired by a real hospital, and Al Swearangen probably didn't use the word "c--------r", and, uh, hey, you know what? I think "Hitler's Navy" or something like that is on the History Channel. I'd love to hear about it once Day 6 wraps up.

Tom Coombe

Here's a good question, submitted by reader Linda after she happened across this post on our TV Watchers Blog:

"I just googled "Can I tape 2 shows on my DVR, while watching a third on TV" and your site came up.  No one at Cox Cable seems to be able to tell me how to do it ... It's not in the pathetic remove instruction book they gave me.

 

I got my DVR today.  I know how to tape 2 shows, but don't know how to switch to watch a show on TV."

Anyway, I think I've got the answer to your question. Most new DVRs are 'dual-tuner.' What that means is that they can receive two live cable feeds from the wall at once.  So, you've already got that going on - like watching Heroes and taping 24. You could also watch something that's recorded and be taping both 24 and Heroes. But because there are only two cable feeds available inside the box, you can't tape two things and watch a third live on TV. 

The only solution for that would be to have a second box - either another DVR, or a VCR - with a tuner in it.  That way, you would have to get a two-way splitter (Radio Shack or even the grocery store has them - one input, two outputs). In that case, you would connect both boxes to the split cable. Set the main DVR to record whatever two shows you want to record in the background, then switch the TV over to the second box (VCR or second DVR) and watch/tape whatever other channel.

A few caveats here:
-I really wouldn't recommend doing this if you have a weak cable signal, or if you are watching/recording high definition. Adding a splitter into the mix will most likely weaken the signal a bit, so you could see problems if you have a poor signal, or the HD might lose quality.
-You need to have a TV with multiple inputs - one or both the DVR and VCR/second DVR needs to be hooked up to your TV through either RCA cables (the red/white/yellow) or S-Video or component cables...  In other words, you can't use the kind of cable that connects to the wall with both, because the TV only has one connection for that.

I think that should cover everything - any questions or clarifications? Feel free to leave a comment.

    -Tucker

I've always enjoyed the Mythbusters on Discovery Channel.  New episodes started airing last night - they were constructing mini Hindenburg blimps to blow up. The myth was that the paint used on the outer shell was the cause of the fast burn and not the hydrogen inside. So the team built three mini-Hindenburgs and blew them up.  It was awesome, of course.

How lucky are Adam and Jamie? I mean, it's like every guy's dream to have a job where they get paid to do cool stuff like blow things up, fire guns, break stuff, etc. all day - and these guys not only get paid to do it, they're celebrities *because* of it.

There are reruns on Discovery all the time, which is great.  Next week's is a "Pirate Special" where they'll be looking at all pirate myths - excellent.  It'll be on Wednesday at 9 p.m., so set your DVR or make sure you're in front of the TV.

    -Tucker

Just catching the end of a 1963 movie, “A Ticklish Affair,” on Turner Classic Movies – and it’s delightful not necessarily because the movie is good, but because of the future TV stars in the cast. To wit:

-- Shirley Jones, who went on to be many a schoolboy’s dream in The Partridge Family.

-- Carolyn Jones, who later played Morticia, the mother, in The Addams Family.

-- Edgar Buchanan, who played Uncle Joe on Petticoat Junction. “Here’s Uncle Joe, movin’ kinda slow," the song went. (You talk about a schoolboy's dream: You are talking Bobbie Jo and Billie Jo, two of the daughters on that 1960s show.)

-- Edward Platt, who played the chief of CONTROL on Get Smart, one of the 10 funniest shows in the history of the free world.

-- Billy Mumy, who would play Will Robinson, the boy in Lost in Space.

That’s a lot of nostalgia, folks. Enough to put a smile on my face and make me run to get the high school yearbook. If I could find it.

-- Bill Kline

Well well, I broke down and read this huge, spoiler-ific interview with Ron Moore and David Eick about what's in store for the rest of the season on BSG.  Let's just say it sounds like they have some great stuff in store (with, unfortunately, two typically throw-away "standalone" episodes that have nothing to do with the forward motion of the overall story).

I won't be a jerk and post them right on the site here, but if you're interested check out the summarized version with the full interview following:

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2007/01/something_profo.html

I can't wait.

    -Tucker

This was a neat little surprise: BET is apparently showing The Wire from the beginning, starting tonight at 9 p.m. It's far less flashy and popular than The Sopranos (another HBO making its basic cable debut tonight), but in the end a far better show.

Tom Coombe

A word of apology to the Law and Order producers/writers. A few days ago I wrote that it seemed like they were turning basically any celebrity scandal into a murder mystery. But the most recent episode only used the celebrity (Anna Nicole Smith and her late son) as a jumping off point to a real-life crime (the illegal organ harvesting that happened in New York last year). Also, it was nice to see an episode where the defendant was acquitted. The way they were putting people away, often on pretty weak evidence, made L&O feel less real.

======================

Speaking of things feeling less real, the profanity-free Sopranos airs Wednesday on A&E. (A&E, which paid HBO several small countries for the episodes, has been airing commercials non-stop). Of course, no one watches The Sopranos for the cuss words. But the language does make the characters seem more authentic. Don't believe me? Visit http://www.wmob.com/prev.html, where The Smoking Gun and Court TV have transcripts of a few dozen wiretapped conversations between two members of the Genovese crime family. (Word of warning, the language, to quote actor Troy McClure, "gets a little blue." Well, a lot blue. And also hilarious.)

Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that people who don't get HBO (and don't feel like paying $100 for the DVD) can watch The Sopranos. But you have to think that hearing Tony Soprano say "I'm like King Midas in reverse, everything I touch turns to poop" would seem a little off.

Tom Coombe

Television writer Ken Levin has created a new show: "Lost House 24," combining elements of his three favorite TV dramas into one program. You can read about it here:

http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2007/01/lost-house-24.html

Part 2:

http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2007/01/lost-house-24-part-ii.html

ABC's Daybreak was by no means a great show, but it had me interested enough to watch until the last episode to find out what was going on. Apparently, there weren't as many people interested as I was, and low ratings caused ABC to pull the show half-way through its run, with the promise of posting the remaining episodes on-line. That was three weeks ago, and still no Daybreak on the ABC website. It's like it never aired. It's not the same as, say, Lost or 24 getting cancelled, but I'd still like to know what happened. It's like someone tore the last 50 pages out of a mystery novel.

Tom Coombe

Slate.com recently ran an article about the worst television commercials of 2006, and there were (I thought) some glaring omissions. Yeah, those Volkswagen ads with the out-of-the-blue accidents are jarring, and it's irritating to see the reanimated Audrey Hepburn shilling for the Gap. But what about:

* The Capitol One commercials with the family that can't afford a decent vacation. Their earlier campaign, featuring the barbarian horde that needs to take up new employment, were brilliant. But these new ads are grating and unfunny. The dad seems stupid to the point that you wonder if he and his wife are related.

* The masked Burger King. Easily the creepiest thing on TV right now. What we need is for a gang of bank robbers to wear the King masks on a series of jobs, so that the negative publicity forces Burger King to pull the ads.

* Pretty much any commercial for a prescription drug. The worst is the one with the group of doctors walking around and talking about what the drug does, its side effects, etc. It's like an episode of House written by a robot.

Anything else? I'd be happy to hear from you...

Tom Coombe