I just read that The Bonnie Hunt Show "is not expected to continue" for a third season.  I am a big fan of Bonnie's and have met her on two occasions and she couldn't be nicer.  I've had a huge crush on her since I met her in Woolworth's in 1991.  

I saw a woman from behind and thought, "That woman has gorgeous blond hair just like Bonnie Hunt.  She turned and I thought, "Wow, she even looks like Bonnie Hunt!"  Then it dawned on me - "Hey! This is Bonnie Hunt!"

She went down an aisle and as I tried to get up the courage to speak to her, an elderly woman beat me to it.  I thought I had missed my chance when this woman recognized her, too.  Or so I thought. I slipped into the next aisle and overheard Bonnie say to the woman very apologetically, "I don't know.  I'm sorry.  I don't work here."  I waited for the woman to leave and came around the corner.  Bonnie's back was to me as she was going through a stack of welcome mats.

"Excuse me," I said. 

Without looking up, she replied, "No, I'm sorry, I don't work here."

I chuckled nervously and said, "I know who you are." And I proceeded to list her recent credits in an effort to prove it.  We talked for about 5 minutes or so about her recently cancelled series Grand and how she turned down the role of the wife on Home Improvement to take a job on Davis Rules for the chance to work with her idol, Jonathan Winters.  She was very gracious, never making me feel as if I was intruding on her time or bothering her in any way (which was my fear).

That being said, if I have to be honest, I'm not surprised her talk show will likely be coming to an end. If she was only half as engaging and funny hosting her own show as she is when she is a guest on other talk shows, she'd be renewed in a heartbeat.

Television was never better than when she was a guest on the Late, Late Show with the late Tom Snyder.  They had a fantastic ease and a chemistry together. (I got to tell her this the second time I met her at a screening of Return to Me.) She's always a hilarious joy to watch when she's on David Letterman. I would tape and repeatedly watch these appearances with Tom and Dave and laugh harder each time. I don't know why that didn't translate into her own show.  I imagine it's very difficult hosting a show, and to her credit, she always seems to treat her guests well, making them feel at home.  But it seems that the pressures of being a good hostess and producing, writing and starring on a daily talk show have squelched her wonderful talent.

I really wanted to love her show, but I've only caught it a handful of times.  It's pleasant and often amusing, but not enough to turn me into a regular viewer.  I wish her the best and I'd love for her to finally get the breakout sitcom or movie roll along with the audience she deserves.  Until then, I'll watch for her on Dave.

All of this political correctness is making me ill.

Now we have to refer to the flu pandemic as H1N1 so we don't offend the pig farmers, the National Pork Board, or God forbid the pigs.The hell with that. 

From now on, I'm calling it FFKAS or the "Flu Formerly Known as Swine".

An organization that provides people whose personalities can be "wiped" and replaced with whatever a paying client needs/wants. When I first heard the premise of Dollhouse, I thought that it would play itself out pretty quickly and get boring and predictable - that it would be some sci-fi version of a soft porn Fantasy.

Boy was I ever wrong. I'm never sure where they're going next with this show. There's action, mystery, espionage, and, yes, even some sex. I know I should have had faith in show creator Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly).

It's taken it's time to begin to let you know the characters; revealing bits at a time, keeping you wondering. Eliza Dushku stars as one of the dolls, or "actives" as their handlers refer to them. As Echo, she doesn't even know who she is. When she is not a blank slate, she can be anything from a hostage negotiator to a dominatrix.

But it seems we viewers know more about Echo/Caroline than we do about the people running the Dollhouse. I am very happy to see Amy Acker (Angel) back on TV. I'm concerned for her survival on the show as she is billed as a guest week-to-week and is not in the opening credits.

I recommend this show for Whedon fans, action junkies, sci-fiers, and anyone looking for something a little different. It's no Battlestar Galactica, but like Battlestar, I have no idea what's going to happen next. The episodes so far have all run about 50 minutes, 7 minutes longer than your typical hour show. The commercial breaks are shorter. I don't know how Mr. Whedon worked this deal out.

Dollhouse airs Fridays on FOX at 9pm/8pm Central. Past episodes can be found on Hulu.com.

Joss Whedon, creator of Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer is in perfect form with this, his new internet project, a by-product of the recent writer's strike.

Dr. Horrible is a super-villain, bent on ruling the world and getting up the nerve to speak to the girl at the laundromat. Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother, Doogie Howser) plays Horrible brilliantly. Dr. Horrible dreams of getting into the Evil League of Evil and the only thing standing in his way is his nemesis, Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion of Firefly). Oh! Did I mention it's a musical? I've seen the first two episodes of this trilogy and I love it!  Doogie can really sing! 

This hilarious musical parody of comic book heroes can be viewed only through July 20th on drhorrible.com and it can be downloaded for a fee at i-Tunes.   Don't waste another minute - go see it now!

UPDATE:  There are plans for a possible DVD release in the future with loads of extras, including a musical  commentary.  Read more about the DVD and how the project came to be here.

This new summer series stars Mary McCormack (West Wing, Murder One) as a U.S. Federal Marshall for the witness protection program. Her personal life is almost non-existent because her job requires that she keep a low profile. Or at least that's what she tells herself. As she slowly realizes the need for more in her life, she has to deal with her ditzy alcoholic mother and a cokehead slacker sister who are "temporarily" staying with her.

The show was a little slow to find its footing, but after a few episodes it (along with Mary McCormack) has really hit its stride. Lesley Ann Warren and Nichole Hiltz make likable, sympathetic characters out of people you really wouldn't want staying at your house.

Her partner, Marshall Mann---yes, a Federal Marshall named Marshall. To this point, none of the characters in the show has pointed this out. The writers have just left it for the viewer to realize and chuckle at. I appreciate not being hit over the head with a gag. Anyway, Marshall has a wry sarcasm and sounds uncannily like Randal from the movie Clerks. It took me most of the first episode to place that voice. But it is Fred Weller playing this role, not Jeff Anderson.

I give In Plain Sight a grade of B. It airs Sunday nights on the USA Network Sundays at 10:00 pm / 9:00 pm Central.

This is a considerably darker and less kitschy version than the original 70’s incarnation, ala the recently re-envisioned Battlestar Galactica. Exec producer David Eick even hails from Galactica.

It stars Michelle Ryan as Jaime Sommers (natch), the recipient of some unexpected biological replacement parts. She then becomes the target of both the agency that created her and her rogue predecessor, played by Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff. Ryan is pretty, but doesn’t have quite the appeal for me that Lindsay Wagner had in the original.

It’s a dark re-telling of the story, with such heavy themes as – should we really be messing around in God’s territory? And – a woman’s decision on what she should do with her own body. Tackling these topics is ambitious, but could potentially drag the show down. I just want to see her kick some bad guy ass, is all.

I want to like this show, but it seems a bit distant and cold. It’s trying hard and is technically well done, but like the bionic rogue, it seems to be plaintively begging, “Tell me you love me!” Well, this was just our first date. Give me a little time and we’ll see.

Bionic Woman premieres Wednesday, September 26th at 9:00 pm / 8:00 Central on NBC.

This was an excellent pilot. It’s smart. It’s funny. It’s sexy. A successful blend of comedy and action, it grabs you very early on with some pretty cool action sequences.

Chuck is a highly intelligent but underachieving employee at a Best Buy-type of store. He gets an email from an old college roommate who is now a spy. Chuck opens the email and is barraged with images which apparently download government secrets directly into his brain. Now everyone is after him.

Zachary Levi plays Chuck. He’s not necessarily believable as a nerd. He seems a bit too cool to be a geek. But he’s got enough charisma and the show is so well-written that you don’t really care.

It’s always great to see Adam Baldwin (Firefly). He plays the shady NSA agent who wants to protect the government’s secrets at all costs (aka killing). He is always able to inject humor into his edgy characters.

Yvonne Strzechowski is smart, funny, and gorgeous as the CIA agent who is trying to find out if Chuck’s old roommate had passed on any of the agency’s secrets to him. In one scene she demonstrates some dance moves you won’t see at any of the clubs.

The slick visuals, editing and direction are top notch, too. I want to believe that they didn’t pour everything they had into the pilot, and that the rest of the episodes will maintain the quality and be just as much fun. Though, I’m afraid that since I liked it so much, that if history is any indication, it will be cancelled quickly. That would be unfortunate.

Chuck premieres Monday, September 24th at 8:00 pm / 7:00 Central on NBC.

I just saw a preview of The Big Bang Theory, a sitcom about two highly intelligent but nerdy roommates who have a pretty new neighbor move in across the hall from them.

It was co-created by Chuck Lorre, the man who gave us Two and a Half Men so I had reasonably high expectations. It seemed to be well written with plenty of clever lines, but the characters were little more than two dimensional stereotypes. As is so often the case with half hour sitcoms these days, they only have 21 minutes to bring the funny and the jokes often seem rushed, throwing off the timing.

The best part was the vanity card at the end of the show. A vanity card identifies the production company and Chuck Lorre’s shows have a vanity card with a different joke/funny story nearly every week. You have to freeze frame it with your TiVo, and it is usually very funny. I wonder if he will keep this up and have unique cards for this show and for Two and a Half Men.

If the actors get a better handle on the timing, this could be a funny show, but if it does not improve over the pilot, I would skip it.

The Big Bang Theory stars Johnny Galecki (Roseanne) and Jim Parsons. It premieres Monday, September 24 on CBS at 8:30/7:30 Central.

When I saw that an advance copy of the new Showtime series Californication was availble on Netflix, I had mixed feelings. A comedy starring David Duchovny could be really good. He's proven his comedic chops on The Larry Sanders Show and he brought some humor to his role on The X-Files as well. Plus, advanced reviews tend to generate a good number of hits on the blog. However, I was afraid I would like it and not be able to watch future episodes as I don't have Showtime. That's something I needn't have worried about.

Duchovny plays Hank, a bachelor with writer's block and a penchant for unavailable women. He sleeps with one married woman after another on his path to self destruction. It's played for laughs - not big laughs, but ironic puffs of air escaping your nostrils kind of laughs. I didn't find it very funny, and aside from normal respiration, there was no air coming out of my nose. As a character study, I suppose it's mildy interesting and the acting is fine, but I just don't care enough about any of the characters to continue watching. Even if I did have Showtime.

If you are still interested in checking it out for yourself, Californication premiers on Showtime Monday August 13th at 10:30 pm / 9:30 Central.

Update: I should have mentioned that this is R-rated fare and not meant for the kiddies. Mature situations, nudity and foul language.

Saving Grace is a new series on TNT starring Holly Hunter, the latest film actor to make the jump to the small screen. She plays Grace (natch) Hanadarko, an Oklahoma City police detective battling her own personal demons.

You might say she's slightly flawed. She's an alcoholic, exhibitionistic, sexual addict with anger issues. She blames herself for her sister's death in the Oklahoma City bombing. She's having an affair with a married man.

One night she hits a pedestrian while driving drunk and kills him. She calls out to God for help and is promptly visited by a tobacco-chewing, wise-cracking angel.

I can just hear the pitch meeting for this show: "It's Rescue Me meets Touched by an Angel." While there are familiar elements from these shows, Saving Grace is like nothing I've seen before. It plays like a complete original.

For a show that deals with faith and God, it's pretty racy. There's as much sex, semi-nudity, and cursing as any episode of Rescue Me. I'm wary of TV shows telling me what God is or what God wants, but so far, Saving Grace has managed to cleverly avoid giving us, or Grace, the "Answers".

Holly Hunter is fantastic as Grace. She is joined by Laura San Giacomo as her best friend and the rural equivalent of a CSI. Leon Rippy plays Earl, the angel that's come to save Grace.

Saving Grace airs Mondays at 10pm/9pm Central on TNT.

Here is the latest addition to our family, Joey. He is a min-pin (miniature pinscher) that we adopted from petfinder.com.

Larger ImageJoey

Here he is with our other dog, Vegas. They seem to be getting along, but she's still not quite sure what to make of him.

Larger ImageVegas and Joey

While I was surfing for info on my last post on the TV show Rules of Engagement, I came across someone else's review of the show. They referred to David Spade as a "comic genius". Really?? David Spade?

Some might argue that the phrase comic genius is an oxymoron, but it got me to thinking about who I would consider a comic genius or as I prefer to call them - comic giants.

What constitutes a comic giant? Above all, laugh out loud, side-splittingly funny. That along with longevity, intelligence, ingenuity and versatility are some of the criteria. Longevity, however, is not enough in itself. There has to be a body of work that stands the test of time.

Most of my giants/geniuses wrote for a fifties comedy program called "Your Show of Shows". Included in that bunch are Mel Brooks (Young Frankenstein), Carl Reiner (The Dick Van Dyke Show), Neil Simon (The Odd Couple), Woody Allen (Annie Hall), and Larry Gelbart (M*A*S*H*).

Steve Allen pioneered the late night talk show and was the funniest to ever do it. David Letterman patterned much of his show after Steve Allen's Tonight Show.

Would I include any comics that got their start more recently than five decades ago? There's only one modern genius that immediately springs to mind and it is NOT David Spade. Steve Martin has proven time and again that he belongs in this group. From stand-up to movies, books, and columns in The New Yorker he has remained consistently funny through a long career.

I suppose I would also have to include Billy Crystal. Yeah, he disappointed me with City Slickers 2 and Forget Paris, but who hasn't had their clunkers? Easily the best Oscar host of all time. That and When Harry Met Sally put him firmly in the giant category.

I'm sure you have your own list. Feel free to comment, but don't waste your time trying to convince me to change mine.

COMING SOON: A guide to some of the works that made me include these people in my list and that I highly recommend to anyone who hasn't seen them.

Rules of Engagement

This new sitcom on CBS stars Patrick Warburton, David Spade, and Oliver Hudson as three friends/neighbors/acquaintances in very different stages of relationships. Warburton plays Jeff a veteran of marriage, while Hudson portrays the newly engaged Adam. Spade’s Russell is a bachelor with no plans of ever getting tied down. Megyn Price, formerly of Grounded for Life, plays Jeff’s wife Audrey and Bianca Kajlich is Adam’s fiancée.

It sounds like a great concept for a series with great potential. Unfortunately, when I am watching it, I feel as if I am watching two very different shows depending on who is on the screen at the time – one funny, one not-so-much.

The scenes with Jeff and Audrey, are often hilarious, but the engaged couple is sadly lacking in comic timing and seem out of their element. I have never been a big fan of David Spade's and he does nothing here to win me over. I still have a couple of episodes on my TiVo that I have not seen and I’m hoping that the rest of the cast improves with time. For now, Warburton and Price are enough to keep me watching.

Rules of Engagement currently airs on CBS Mondays at 9:30 pm / 8:30 Central Time.

My 13 year old dog Lady was diagnosed with a bladder tumor 7 months ago. She was the best dog, always eager to please. She did a very good job of hiding her discomfort, trying to carry on as normally as possible (between peeing). She barked happily when my wife and I came home, ate heartily, followed me everywhere, as she always did, up and down stairs in our split-level home.

Lady

In recent weeks, my wife Mary and I discussed with greater frequency whether it was time to let her go. But she still had that light in her eyes and seemed to be having many more good moments than bad. The bad being increased urination and some whimpering in her sleep. Over the last weekend I noticed her trembling somewhat as she stood eagerly waiting for a treat. She must have been using every ounce of energy trying to maintain as much normalcy as possible. We thought it might be time, but we just couldn't bring ourselves to make the final decision.

Last Monday when I left for work, I told Lady that she had done her job very well for the time we were together and that she did not have to do it anymore. I said that it was time that we both let go.

When our neighbor came by to let her out and give her a pill that day, Lady did not greet her as she normally would in excitement of the treats that the kind neighbor-lady always brought. In fact, she was so weak, she would not get up at all. When Mary and I got home, we took her to the vet to be put to rest.

Despite being almost completely deaf, and being a dog unable to comprehend human speech, she still was able, being the obedient companion she was - she somehow listened that morning and did what she was told. What a good girl. Too good.

We will miss her terribly.

Lady

There's been a lot of media coverage lately about a certain f-word. A tremendous amount of power is being given to this word.

Just to recap, in case you hadn't heard: In October, on the set of Grey's Anatomy, Isaiah Washington referred to T.R. Knight as a homosexual epithet while having an argument with Patrick Dempsey. T.R. Knight came out several days later, saying he was gay and hoping that there were more interesting things about him than that.

A few weeks ago at the Golden Globe awards, Isaiah Washington grabbed the mike at a backstage interview and said, "I never called T.R. a f****t." Needless to say, this went over very poorly with the cast and execs of Grey's Anatomy, not to mention GLAAD and other gay, lesbian, and civil liberties groups. Many were calling for the termination of Washington, but the latest is that he has attended anger management counseling, since he says his problem is being "hot-headed" not homo-phobic.

I do not advocate Isaiah Washington's actions at all. No one should have to be uncomfortable in their workplace. However, this is a matter to be handled internally, by Washington's employers - not to be played out in the media.

This isn't really even a matter of free speech. This is an instance of a word, mere air and vibrations, being given more power than it should have. We assign the meaning to these sounds and it is the listener who decides how this particular group of sounds is going to affect them or make them feel. Sticks and stones, etc. Words only have power if we decide to give it to them.

If we were to somehow ban words like "f****t" or the "n-word", it would not change what is in the hearts of the people who speak them. If they hate homosexuals or blacks, they are not going to stop hating them or change their behavior just because they can't say the words. And how do you really know for an absolute certainty what is in Isaiah Washington's heart/mind or anyone's for that matter? And if you start banning words, where do you stop? (Will we one day develop the ability to ban thoughts?) Then it does become a matter of free speech.

I'm not saying people should go around yelling these words at each other, I'm just saying that if you don't show how much you let the words bother you and stop calling even more attention to it, the words will lose their power.

(I get the irony of the fact that I have not actually used the words mentioned, but I wanted to keep this office friendly.)

This show has not been on the air yet, but as a critic, I am able to get advanced copies of shows. Okay, I’m full of it. I got it from Netflix. It's available on DVD with a mid-season recap of the show Heroes.

NBC doesn’t seem to be fully behind this show. The Netflix DVD gives Heroes top billing and it only features a recap of the season so far. You would think that the full length pilot would be the focus. Heroes is already successful, while a new show with a cast of unknowns could benefit from some extra marketing / promotion. NBC's website doesn't give nearly as much info on this new series as TV.com does. And aside from the names of the cast members, probably not as much as I provide here.

The Black Donnellys is a show about four Irish brothers in a New York neighborhood who get caught up in the world of organized crime. There is nothing these siblings would not do for each other – as long as it involves gratuitous violence.

I don’t mind a little darkness in a story, but there’s got to be a glimmer of hope. This show just has characters that make one bad choice after another, sinking themselves deeper into a violent abyss. At the end of my day I want a slightly sunnier picture of the world than this show offers. The performances and the writing are fine and this may be someone else's cup of tea, just not mine. I should also mention that the pilot is co-written by Paul Haggis (Million Dollar Baby, Crash).

I didn’t see any schedule info on the official web site, but I read on TV.com that NBC will air The Black Donnellys on Mondays starting March 5th in the timeslot that Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip now occupies (10:00 / 9:00 pm Central). After a trial period - length unknown, Studio 60 will return for the season's final four episodes (God-willing).

My favorite new show of this TV season is Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Unfortunately, I seem to be in the minority. But that’s because people just don’t get it.

The show boasts a great cast that includes Matthew Perry, Sarah Paulson, Amanda Peet and a handful West Wing veterans. It’s a smart and funny show produced by Aaron Sorkin, the creator of such excellent TV fare as The West Wing and Sports Night. It takes place behind the scenes of a Saturday Night Live type of show called "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip". The key words here are behind the scenes.

One of the main complaints I’ve heard around the water cooler or seen on line, is that the jokes and sketches that are in the show-within-the-show (to be known for this posting as "Studio 60") are just not funny. I don't know what they're spiking the water cooler with, but I have laughed more watching Studio 60 than I have in the last 20 years of SNL.

Well, in case you missed the premise, this show is about what goes on BEHIND the scenes of an SNL type show. The emphasis is not on the content of the show-within-the-show or what happens when “Studio 60” is “on the air”. The humor comes from how the characters react to what happens offstage or in preparation of the show. A couple of the actual sketches were quite funny as well, such as “Spit-take Theater” or when Dateline: To Catch a Predator busted Santa Claus.

It would seem to me that they would not want to compete with SNL for topics/material seeing as how they are on the same network and all. I think the people that are disappointed with the show are just looking for a show like SNL. That is not what this show is. (behind the scenes, people.)

So, do yourself a favor, watch Studio 60 with no pre-conceived expectations or at least the correct one. Watch it expecting that you’re going to see a well-written, character-based drama that will also make you laugh.

Update: Studio 60 Live on the Sunset Strip airs 10:00/9:00pm Central - Monday Nights on NBC (thanks, Bonnie!)

Hi! I’m Gary the new Windypundit Art & Entertainment critic. I will primarily be writing about books, movies, TV shows and sometimes CD's that I have recently read, seen, or listened to. It will not necessarily include the most recently released movies or the latest books or CD’s - only what I may happen to see. I will try to stick to things I really like and point out some treasures that you may have missed. Who knows, as I get back into blogging, it may inspire me to keep up on more current fare.

My main topic will be TV as that is what I spend most of my entertainment time viewing. I may venture into some non-entertainment postings on occasion and possibly do some dogblogging to provide a balance to the catblogging you’ve grown accustomed to.

I hope this will be something that you, the readers and I will both enjoy.