First, Jane Lynch was underutilized during this weekend's Saturday Night Live and then last night the Emmy-winner was M.I.A. from an entire episode of Glee. I understand that Ryan Murphy's show is ensemble-oriented and needs to be adjusted each week to satisfy budget and scheduling constraints, but! Couldn't Sue Sylvester have at least hijacked the P.A. system once to deliver a zinger about the stench of salicylic acid wafting from the New Directions clogged pores? Or something? Let's try to move past our Jane Lynch withdrawal to assess the highs and other lows of last night's episode, "Duets."
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During The Daily Show, Jon Stewart prepared for his upcoming Rally to Restore Sanity by getting in touch with his inner despot. Meanwhile, Jay Leno shot down Conan O'Brien's new TBS blimp, Matt Damon got lost in a corn maize, Judah Friedlander talked 30 Rock live and The Situation addressed those steroid rumors once and for all.
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In attempt to warn protective parents of questionable erectile dysfunction ads, the Parent Television Council has partnered with the manufacturer of Cialis and Viagra to publish their promo schedule...which means that CBS -- and 60 Minutes in particular -- have been outed as the #1 market for erectile dysfunctional consumers. And with Andy Rooney's caustic commentary second only to a cold shower in its ability to deflate a throbber, it is no wonder that loyal viewers of the news magazine could probably use some assistance. But can you guess which other two CBS shows host the bulk of ED propaganda?
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To promote his upcoming TBS talk show, Conan, Conan O'Brien answered his fourth question today from the thousands that have been submitted on Facebook over the last few weeks. Today's answer was, yes, Andy Richter will indeed be coming along to TBS with Conan. As always, on the link, Conan asks for more questions. Like always, 90 percent of the questions consist of something along the lines of "Who will be your first guest?" or, popular this week, "What will you be for Halloween?" But the other 10 percent contained some of the most ridiculous questions that only the Internet could provide. After scouring through them, we found 20 favorites -- and yes, again, let's hope that Conan decides to answer at least one of these.
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Whether you're ready to get your shoes and go home or to double down on this season (lest you lose your state room on the Titanic), one thing is certain: No show has created more Internet memes in the last three months than Mad Men. From the adventures of Sad Don Draper to Pete Campbell's bitchface for-all-seasons, it seems like there are more Mad Men-centric Tumblrs on the web than actual tumblers in Don's office. (At Movieline HQ, we're all still waiting for the Murderous Sally Draper one to arrive; maybe after the season finale.) It's with that in mind that we offer up our own version of this particular Mad Men craze: Contemplative Don Draper.
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Bad news, Running Wilde groupies. After Fox announced that it would be preempting the October 26 episode of Mitch Hurwitz and Will Arnett's latest collaboration, Arnett took to his Twitter account yesterday to start a grassroots campaign to save the series. (Creator Hurwitz even allegedly opened his own Twitter account just so that he could participate.) Will 140 character missives hash-tagged #SaveRunningWilde be enough to save the show? Who knows, but Movieline has three series in mind that it would prefer seeing Fox cancel first.
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God, this show. Say what you will about The A-List: New York's cast of petty prima donnas, but they've sort of nailed that Real Housewives formula: haughty blandness for the first 45 minutes and some semblance of confrontation in the final act. It's a winner every time. Last night we watched as Austin pined for Reichen, Derek hated everything about everyone, and Rodiney invented new verb tenses almost every second. Let's review.
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The damage caused by the disaster of How I Met Your Mother's fifth season is not an easy thing to forget. I used to be the biggest champion for this show, going so far as to once declare it my favorite comedy on television (that, now, is Community). The first interview I ever conducted was with Josh Radnor, where we spent almost an hour of deconstructing every aspect of the show. Then, something changed -- starting in season four, the show wasn't the same. Then season five arrived and it saw HIMYM turn from a smart show with five talented actors into a typical mid-90s sitcom with shtick. Thankfully, this season has shown a rebound. I'm back on board...but, like a betrayed lover, I'm not sure I'll ever trust HIMYM again.
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Even though we as viewers didn't have the greatest time watching the most recent Saturday Night Live (though Jane Lynch did her damnedest to try and entertain). For the most part it was just a battle for airtime before the one-week break, and while most of the new featured players didn't have a particularly memorable evening, Kristen Wiig sure as hell did -- for better and worse. So how did they all rank in Movieline's Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time-Player Relevancy Poll?
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If you like watching overweight people chase each other down the streets of a Chicago sound stage and get stuck climbing through windows, you would have loved last night's Mike & Molly, which found the plump lovebirds three dates into their relationship. Cue the insecurities that accompany over-sized intimacy in the latest installment, "Mike's Not Ready."
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Last night's "acoustic" routines on Dancing with the Stars should have been subtitled "Unplugged and Unwatchable." Did you dig Kurt Warner's "Drops of Jupiter" performance? Bristol Palin's stormy "Umbrella" choreography? Man. Instead of breaking down every lame rumba and tango, we're awarding door prizes to three (perhaps dubiously) memorable performances. Who will win Carrie Ann Inaba's super-smiley "Diplomacy" award? Len Goodman's "Victorian Disgrace" anti-trophy? And what about Bruno Tonioli's hormonal affection forever? Click ahead to find out, friends!
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For the seven of you who were worried, here's some good news: Andy Richter is headed to Conan. It was confirmed today that Conan O'Brien's longtime sidekick will be a regular part of Coco's new TBS show when it premieres on Nov. 8. "I'm thrilled to be going back to work with Conan, and very excited to start a whole new venture on TBS," said Richter in a statement. "However, I am mostly looking forward to getting out of the house again." Aren't we all, Andy. [Deadline]
In the wake of last week's The Event, when wayward RVs careened into FBI vehicles and anonymous gunmen opened fire on a police stations, this week's A Matter of Life and Death was actually pretty tame. That is, until the last two minutes of the episode, when the Leila subplot -- while starting to gain the slightest focus, perhaps -- turned totally on it's conspiracy-addled head. Read on for the Event breakdown and the final convolution analysis!
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While most of America slept through the final hours of Columbus Day, Red star John Malkovich visited The Late Late Show to recall his recent visit to the middle ages and show off his clothing line. Elsewhere, Johnny Knoxville and Jon Stewart shared a laugh over Jackass 3D's new audience, Jim Parsons talked about his Emmy win gift from Alec Baldwin and Stephen Colbert filed another Muslim ThreatDown report.
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Reason No. 235 why Gossip Girl is one of the most fun shows currently airing on television: last night's episode, "Goodbye, Columbia," got its title from Philip Roth's novella, Goodbye, Columbus. Never mind that the star-crossed lovers from Roth's story have more in common with Dan and Serena circa season one than anything going on in season four; that the Gossip Girl writers' room even had Roth on their collective minds while writing counts as a major win. Well, that and the fact that they flirted with giving Serena an STD.
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