Filed under: OpEd, Cable/Satellite, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, So You Think You Can Dance

I'm going to hazard the guess that if you are a regular visitor to TV Squad that you, like me, probably watch more television than the average bear. Partly out of good old fashioned curiosity, and partly because I'm paying for all of those channels so I might as well use them, I make it a point to cover as much of my cable TV package as I can when time allows. Doing so, you end up finding some odd and interesting things. After the jump, five things I've learned from my cable TV over the last week or so.

Continue reading Things I learned from my cable TV

 

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Filed under: Cable/Satellite, Reality-Free

This just might be child abuse.

OK, I'm kidding, but I know this would have freaked me out when I was a kid. A mom in Salt Lake City was spending so much money on cable television that she had to cancel it so she'd have money to commute to work. And what did her kids do? They protested, of course! The woman's two daughters, Pyper and Sadie (two very television character-ish names) got out protest signs and started walking up and down the streets to protest the high price of gas. And in a remarkable twist, the big oil companies saw the protest the girls created and have decided to lower gas prices all across America starting immediately.

Well, no, but the girls did get in the paper! (By the way, I think the AP really has to change the pic that accompanies the link above, unless the girls' protest went really far.)

Continue reading Would you give up TV for gas?

 

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Filed under: Cable/Satellite, Celebrities, Reality-Free

Way back in the early 1970's, when I was a kid (I'm not that old!), I remember seeing some amazing movies on the CBS Children's Film Festival. It was on either Saturday or Sunday afternoons and I vaguely recall my mother encouraging me to watch. Kukla, Fran and Ollie introduced the movies and to this day, I can still remember seeing classic foreign films that were made for children like The Red Balloon (French), Hand in Hand (British) and Skinny and Fatty (Japanese). I think those movies may have been the first that really got be interested in film.

Turner Classic Movies seems to be providing a similar service for kids today, albeit by presenting great classics from Hollywood's golden era. TCM started a new series called Essentials Jr. Grey's Anatomy star Chris O'Donnell (Scent of a Woman) co-hosts with Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine). Together, they provide introductions and discuss the films, movies that are picked to be just right for kids. According to TCM, "The chosen films are ones that any cinema-literate child should know about and be able to enjoy with family and friends including grown-ups."

Continue reading TCM presents movies for kids - The Essentials Jr.

 

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Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Industry, PVR Wire, Cable/Satellite, The Daily Show, Web

Online video site Hulu has added some high profile programming to help tie you over during the summer rerun season. Thanks to a partnership with PBS, Hulu users will be able to watch shows like Nova, Carrier, Scientific American Frontiers, and Wired Science starting later this month.

Wait, that's not the really exciting part. I mean, sure, it's pretty cool for science geeks. But most of those shows are already available via the PBS web site, not to mention available for free over the air. But Hulu is also announcing another partnership today. The company has teamed up with Viacom to stream full length episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

Continue reading Hulu snags Daily Show, Colbert Report, and NOVA

 

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Filed under: Cable/Satellite, Reality-Free

It sounds like HBO is looking for another series in The Sopranos tradition. Or maybe it was The Sopranos that was in the Scorsese tradition? Either way, we recently told you about Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese's HBO project Boardwalk Empire (teaming with Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson of Entourage fame), and now we can report that they've hired Terence Winter to pen the script for Boardwalk Empire. That's the name of Nelson Johnson's book about the dark underbelly in the rise and fall of Atlantic City, on which this project will be based. Call me crazy, but this sounds like perfect material for Scorsese's sensibilities, even if he's producing rather than directing.

Continue reading HBO signs writer to Scorsese's Boardwalk Empire

 

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Filed under: PVR Wire, Cable/Satellite, TiVo

Comcast, Cox, and TiVo have been working on deploying TiVo software on cable company hardware for well over a year now. But while the original goal was to let cable operators flip a switch and automatically send the TiVo software to a customer's box, the reality has been a bit trickier. For the most part, if you've been one of the lucky few people who even had access to Comcast's TiVo service, you probably had to wait for a guy in a truck to roll up to your house and work some magic.

But now TiVo CEO Tom Rogers says the days of auto-flip activation are nearly upon us. This feature will make it much less expensive for cable operators to deploy the TiVo service, which means it's likely we'll see the service expand beyond its current test markets in New England.

[via Gizmo Lovers]

 

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Filed under: PVR Wire, Cable/Satellite, TiVo

You didn't think the legal battles between DISH and TiVo were actually over, did you? TiVo may have won the last round, which means that the PVR technology DISH had been offering customers infringed on TiVo patents. But TiVo officials have also apparently been going around making claims that DISH's new software also infringes on TiVo patents.

Rather than wait for TiVo to file another suit, DISH has taken its own legal action by asking a court to rule that the company's new software does not violate TiVo's patent. On the one hand, this obviously shows that the company is confident its new software will stand up against any challenges. On the other hand, DISH PVR users won't have peace of mind until this whole court battle is finally worked out. Any day now, a court could order DISH to just shut off the PVR functions of DISH set top boxes. So it'd be nice if the whole thing were just over with.

[via EngadgetHD]

 

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Filed under: Industry, OpEd, PVR Wire, Cable/Satellite, Reality-Free

Verizon Communications is hoping to have its FiOS TV service available to customers in New York City within the next two months. This would be a tremendous boon to those who subscribe to cable, as suddenly the choice for providers will increase from solely Time Warner.

From the article: "Verizon spokesman John Bonomo said the city's Franchise and Concession Review Committee had given the green light to the video service, which is delivered along with high-speed Internet over an all-fiber network and is meant to compete with cable television."

Continue reading Verizon FiOS to debut in NYC?

 

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Filed under: Cable/Satellite, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free

After the first 15 minutes of the HBO movie Recount, I was so upset, so filled with rage that I wondered if I wanted to watch the rest of the movie. Did I want to relive the events of November 7, 2000? Did I want to watch what happened, the craziest election fiasco in the last 25 years? I was compelled to stick with it because I had lived through it and I was dying to know what I didn't know when it unfolded in real time. I thought the HBO movie might teach me something, and, in fact, it did.

For those who don't want to know what happened in Recount, I won't reveal any spoilers until after the jump. Of course, if you don't already know how the election turned out, you've either been in a coma or are woefully out of touch. Suffice to say that Recount doesn't rewrite history. The ending is exactly as it was in 2000.

Continue reading HBO's Recount: A review

 

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Filed under: Industry, Cable/Satellite, Casting, Reality-Free

If Judy Greer was in tears about Miss Guided not being picked up by ABC for the fall schedule, she can wipe her eyes and blow her nose because something else -- maybe better -- has come along. Greer has been cast as the lead in HBO's Suburban Shootout. This is the same comedy that has already been announced with Kelly Preston, Rachael Harris (Notes from the Underbelly) and Kerri Kenney (Reno 911).

The comedy pilot is being directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, best known for features like Men in Black and Addams Family (I'll be kind and not harp on The Wild, Wild West), but on TV is one of the prime players behind ABC's Pushing Daisies (as well as Notes from the Underbelly which is the connection to Rachael). So, you see, Judy may have landed in a project that's bound for glory. Well, we'll see, but it does sound interesting.

Continue reading Miss Guided's Judy Greer gets a new gig

 

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