TV Squad

• Alex O'Loughlin inks deal with CBS...now if they could just create a show like Moonlight...
  

  Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Programming, OpEd, Grey's Anatomy, Short-Lived Shows, Criminal Minds, Cancellations, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free, Army Wives

  I can't decide if this is good news or bad news. Moonlightstar Alex O'Loughlin is staying at CBS.
  
  Unless you've been in another galaxy for the past year, you know that the Aussie actor cultivated an enormous fan base with his role as vampire P.I. Mick St. John on CBS' Moonlight. The uproar caused by the cancellation of the show in May can still be heard, well,...
  



• TV Squad Soap Report: Passions played out
  

  Filed under: OpEd, Daytime, Cancellations, Reality-Free

  Perhaps the strangest soap opera of all time has come to an end now that Passions has been canceled by DirecTV. The gothic, modern psycho-drama set in a small Maine town replete with witches, elves, zombies and even some regular people, lasted nine years on the air. In primetime terms, that would be a hell of a run. For soaps, it characterizes Passions as a noble -- to some -- failure.
  
  I never cared for Passions. It turned me off in the first season, 1999, but it wasn't because of the outre elements. I was actually interested in...
  



• Recently canceled shows I mourn
  

  Filed under: Cancellations, TV Squad Lists, Moonlight, Reality-Free

  There will always be Buffy, Angel, Quantum Leap and Magnum, P.I. on my "Oh Man I Want New Episodes of These Shows" list, but what about the more recently canceled shows of the past few years? Are there any worth mourning?
  
  Maybe not in the same way I mourn my culty loves and classic '80s shows, but there are a few worth mentioning....
  
  Moonlight
  Yep, I know, I am one of Those People -- a fan of Moonlight. Though I agree it was weak when it returned...
  



• HBO canceling sex-drenched Tell Me You Love Me
  

  Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Programming, OpEd, Cancellations, Reality-Free

  I watched Tell Me You Love Me a few times, but it never had enough oomph to bring me back every week. I guess a lot of viewers felt that way, because HBO decided not to renew it for a second season.
  
  The sex-drenched show followed the lives of couples in therapy and was probably one of the most sexually explicit shows on TV. I have friends who watched it religiously, and some say they felt uncomfortable not so much with the sex, but because it felt like...
  



• Non-story of the day: Deadwood movies are dead
  

  Filed under: TV on DVD, TV on the Bigscreen, Cancellations, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free

  
  There's such a thing as beating a dead horse and then there's beating a dead horse, chopping it up into tiny bits, and flinging it around like a monkey flings poo. The fact that we're still reading news items about Deadwoodnearly two years after it aired its final episode just goes to show you how much it's missed. Well get this - as if we didn't already know - those two final "wrap-up the series with a neat little bow" movies are as dead as Wild Bill Hickok.

  Continue...
  




• Kevin McKidd Joining Grey's Anatomy?
  

  Filed under: OpEd, Grey's Anatomy, Short-Lived Shows, Cancellations, Casting, Journeyman, Reality-Free

  Like many people, I was miffed that Journeyman wasn't picked up for another season. But maybe we'll get our fix of Kevin McKidd at Seattle Grace next year.
  
  Entertainment Weekly is reporting that the Scottish actor, who blew (some of) us away as the time-traveling journalist Dan Vasser on Journeyman, is in talks to join the cast of Grey's Anatomy. The rumor is that McKidd would play a doctor who scrubs in at the hospital after a stint in...
  



• Arrested Development: Development Arrested (series finale) - VIDEO
  

  Filed under: OpEd, Arrested Development, Video, Retro Squad, Cancellations, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free

  
  Do not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of classic TV shows.

  (S03E13) Originally aired February 10th, 2006 -- I could roll out about a dozen clichés when describing the series finale of Arrested Development, but I'm honestly not sure that saying "this was the end of an era" does it enough justice. For those that own the DVD sets, take a look at the cover for season two. There's a quote from Entertainment...
  




• Short-Lived Shows: Invasion - VIDEO
  

  Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, OpEd, Video, Short-Lived Shows, Cancellations, Reality-Free

  Invasion aired for one season from 2005-2006. Check out Jonathan Toomey's great reviewcaps here.
  
  Along with Surface, Invasion was one of my favorite new shows that season, with each episode getting better and better. By the series finale, I was hooked. I'm still miffed that ABC didn't give it more time to flesh out the story and characters.
  
  Incorporating a sci-fi-alien mystery, a government conspiracy, and plenty of family drama, Invasion had a built-in audience because it aired directly after another sci-fi mystery, Lost....
  



• Dirt takes a dirt nap
  

  Filed under: Industry, Cancellations, Dirt, WGA Strike, Reality-Free

  You don't usually get cancellation or pick-up announcements about TV shows at a charity fund-raising event. But that's what happened yesterday at the "A Time for Heroes" Celebrity Carnival benefiting the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, or the "ATFH"CCBTEGPAF for short. When asked about the chances of her FX series getting picked up for a third season, Courteney Cox announced that Dirt has been canceled.
  
  The show was never really embraced whole-heartedly, either critically or in the ratings, but it managed a second shot. Unfortunately for Cox and company, that second season was cut short by...
  



• The Arrested Development Award: Winner - VIDEO
  

  Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Arrested Development, Cancellations, Awards, TV Squad Lists, Journeyman, Moonlight, New Amsterdam, TV Squad Awards

  There were plenty of choices for The Arrested Development Award, a.k.a. The Show Least Deserving of Cancellation Award. Among them, Las Vegas, New Amsterdam, Miss Guided, Aliens in America, and Women's Murder Club.
  
  The Readers Choice Award goes to Moonlight, the vampire-themed crime-drama-romance that amassed an insane amount of fans during its short run. And it still might come back on another network, so we'll keep our collective fingers...