Something Really Stupid by Bill Simmons

Basically, he's played fewer than six quality seasons … but those seasons were so good, when you throw in three Super Bowl trips, the 1999 MVP, (potentially) four 4,000-yard seasons and whatever might happen in the next two or three years, he's a lock for the Hall of Fame. I have a feeling future generations will be confused, much like I'm confused every time I look at Joe Namath's stats. Has there ever been a more overrated legend? I know his knees went on him early, but he finished with 173 touchdowns, 220 interceptions and a 65.5 QB rating. He played in three playoff games total. His career record was 62-63-4. And he gets lumped in with Montana, Elway and everyone else? Really?

He has to be joking right? Has anyone ever lumped Joe Namath in with Montana and Elway? I've never heard it in my 24 years of life. It's not surprising to see that his stats are bad, because all I've ever heard about him was that he was a superstar in New York that was very charismatic. Never anything about him being a great quarterback. I put at least 20-25 quarterback ahead of him.

Wednesday Wisdom- Wheelin' With Himself

Glee
Glad to have Glee back, especially when it is mostly about the students and less about Shue's marriage problems. I'm also thankful there was an extreme lack of Emma this week. How 'bout that musical number by Artie? Billy Idol's Dancing With Myself. Obviously it could never compare to Al Dukes' version, I Just Shot Myself (about Plaxico Burress), but it was fantastic none the less. Then we get to the issue of the diva-off between Rachel and Kurt. Sure this dude can say that he took a dive all he wants, but before that last note, Rachel was killing him any way. His voice sounds really weird and it wasn't working with the song at all.

Tuesday Tidings- Silver's Half-Birthdays

90210
So Silver celebrates half birthdays because her mom always let her down on her birthday. I'm on board with this. I like that they have kept up with the history of the original show, in the fact that Jackie Taylor was always a mess. Here in lies the problem. They can't even go along with the history of the first season of the new 90210. Naomi complains that Silver doesn't want to celebrate her half birthday for the first time?!? All during season one, these two girls despised each other. I know for a fact that these two didn't have a half birthday party with each other during sophomore year. I'm just speculating but I believe their mutual hatred started a bit earlier than the first season. I bet there were plenty of half birthdays that Naomi wasn't a part of.

What a gut punch at the end of the episode. Is Jackie Taylor actually dead? It's been a long and winding road for Jackie on both Beverly Hills, 90210 and 90210. I'll be sad if Kelly doesn't get another interaction with her before her death. By the way, what the heck are they doing with Kelly on this show. She comes on once every five episodes? Pretty bootleg if you ask me.

Monday Musings- Serena In the Workplace

Gossip Girl
Obviously the Jenny and Eric parts were brutal, but let's talk about something important. How does Serena get a job as an aide to a Senator or Congressman? Whatever Tripp is, he shouldn't be taking on recently graduated high school students to be a part of his staff. And then he claims that Serena deserves this job/opportunity? Why? Because she graduated from high school and skipped out on going to Brown? She frolicked through Europe with God knows who. This is the person that deserves a well respected job, that a college graduate would kill for? I don't get it. Chuck I understand. He inherited his father's company and has millions of dollars, he can do what he wants. Serena is rich sure, but it's not her money. She should really educate herself before trying to get jobs in the real world.

Sunday Speculations- LD Happens to Enjoy Wearing Women's Panties

Mad Men
I've said it before, but I have finally turned a corner with the show that gets rave reviews. This week was the season three finale and it again didn't disappoint. The Sterling Cooper storyline is exactly the type of workplace plot that I can enjoy. Most of the garbage they pour in doesn't do it for me. But Don, Roger and Bert getting Lane to fire them so they can start over with a new company? Very enjoyable to watch. Gathering all of the members of the former Sterling Cooper that they wanted to bring along with them was classic, and as they started Sterling Cooper Draper Price in the confines of a New York City Hotel room, I only had one concern.

Knowing Mad Men the way I do, I would not be surprised if they skip ahead a bunch of time between the third and fourth seasons. We will come back and S-C-D-P will be a well oiled machine and we wouldn't have gotten to watch the whole first year of its existence. This group of people, trying to scrounge everything together in the first couple months of the new company, could be some of the best television Mad Men could put out. I just don't see that happening come season four.

Curb Your Enthusiasm
As we continue to get closer to the Seinfeld Reunion, which I realize will now only be two episodes worth, I am loving the Seinfeldless Curb so much. I wonder if the last two eps are going to ruin what has been a fantastic season. I'm left with three words/phrases from this week's ep...Officer Krupke, women's panties, lemonade. 'Nuff said.

Actually not enough. There is no way someone who is a cop with the name Krupke would not have been told about the West Side Story thing before. I love that LD is the type of guy that sees Office Krupke and then just starts singing the song to no end the rest of the episode.

Larry's frankness is easily his best quality. After sipping the lemonade that the children just charged him a dollar for, he just blurts out, "This is awful!" Later on the kids' mom confronts LD with "Some guy came over and started making fun of their lemonade...was that you per chance?" Larry firmly raises his hand and states that he was "Guilty." Second best "Guilty" I've ever heard (first was Ben Stiller in Starsky and Hutch).

As Jeff is relaying to LD the excuse he told Susie about why he had women's panties in his glove box, he is stone cold when he claims that "Larry likes wearing panties." He thinks this actually made sense as an excuse to his wife. The continuation of Jeff harping on Larry to think to himself, "I'm Larry David, and I happen to enjoy wearing women's panties" worked out fantastically in the end. LD's execution of that very same line, with his pants around his ankles, was fantastic.

Poolies Watch- The Noah Hunter Award

Last year's Noah Hunter Award was a two-man Entourage race. This year I've moved Johnny Drama up to main character status so Ari Gold is the front-runner for the 2010 honor. Of the guys I have definitely accepting a nomination to challenge Ari, I personally like Mark Sloan the best, but think Landry Clarke has the best chance based on how many voters watch FNL. Although, Grey's has gotten so much worse over the years, Sloan has been one of the few bright spots.

Definites
Ari Gold- Entourage
Dale Kettlewell- Greek
Landry Clarke- Friday Night Lights
Mark Sloan- Grey’s Anatomy
Nate Archibald- Gossip Girl
Roger Sterling- Mad Men

As they say in whist (after you win the second trick and have nothing to lead with)...Here's where it gets tricky. I've placed Bored to Death in the drama category, but I'm still thinking about putting it in comedy. I know it is a comedy, but so is Entourage. Ted Danson's George Christopher is almost guaranteed a spot, but not quite. Teddy Montgomery is in unless he continues to use terrible dialogue with the surfer chick week after week. Dan Scott and Puck are the two closes to the edge here. If somebody from FNL steps it up, one of them might lose out.

In For Now
Dan Scott- One Tree Hill
George Christopher- Bored to Death
Noah Puckerman- Glee
Teddy Montgomery- 90210

Now for those that are close but not quite in as of now. Is this a stacked category? I love some of these dudes. Jamie Scott has gone down hill since his first arrival in Tree Hill (he also got kinda fat...what's that about). Clay is a new arrival, but been good so far. The Beav gets so little screen time at the Kappa Tau house that it's tough to make an impact. And again, I'm assuming one of the dudes from Dillon is gonna step his game up and get a nomination.

Outside Looking In
Beaver- Greek
Buddy Garrity- Friday Night Lights
Clayton Dawson- One Tree Hill
Evan Chambers- Greek
Jamie Scott- One Tree Hill
JD McCoy- Friday Night Lights
Vince/Luke- Friday Night Lights

Who else deserves some love?

SNL- Taylor Swift, Scared Straight

I knew that this was a bad idea as soon as it was announced, but then I thought maybe the people at Saturday Night Live knew something that I didn't. Maybe this singer, who had done one episode of CSI, was a perfect choice to host this weeks show. Alas my original thought that she would be terrible was correct. That's not to take anything away from this week's episode, because everyone was else was terrific, and there were some great moments. Taylor Swift was bland, boring and definitely couldn't act. On the positive side for Taylor, I liked her music. Both songs were good, the first one I had heard before. By the way, how do they think to go with a young singer as musical guest/host and not pick Miley?!? She would be fantastic on SNL...I'm just saying. Also it was funny that one guitarist in her band had the Kate Gosselin haircut, and they played shortly after the jokes about Gosselin's hair on The View sketch.

The View sketch was decent as always, with Fred Armisen killing it with the "Who cares?" "So whats", but why did they bring Andy on as Nic Cage for like two seconds?

There were three recurring sketches this week. Penelope and Nicholas Fehn both have run into the same problem. I enjoyed them the first couple times they were on, but the same thing over and over again has worn out the comedy. The exact same format every single time they do it just gets tiresome. Now you may want to call me a hypocrite, but Kenan can do the exact same thing every time he does Scared Straight, and I would fall to the ground laughing each and every time. Without a doubt it is climbing the charts as my favorite recurring sketch of all time on SNL. Don't get me wrong the addition of Taylor Swift greatly hurt this week's rendition, but anything Kenan said was solid gold.


Other parts I hated...Roomies. Sometimes annoying doesn't come across as funny. It comes across as annoying. New cast member Nasim Pedrad and Swift were brutal in this one, as Andy Samberg was relegated to sitting there with no good material. Swing and a miss. And then we had the always terrible Really with Seth and Amy?! How are they still doing this? Hasn't every person on the street gone up to every SNL castmember and writer and told them that this makes them want to throw up every time they see it? No? Some people actually like this? What a joke.

Last two sketches that I enjoyed a good amount. The Firelight trailer. We all know I love a good fake trailer. This was funny just from seeing commercials and previews for Twilight. I imagine it must have been even funnier if you had seen the movie. Am I right JJ? (boom!) And then we had the Swine Fever commercial. Just watch below and enjoy.

Thursday Thoughts- Dot Com at Wesleyan

Flash Forward
My first thought from this week's episode came when Demetri and the Famous Jet Jackson started talking about Madden and how one of them used to dominate the other. Or cheat as the other one put it. So by cheating he meant that he used Michael Vick right? Because that is as good as cheating. Oh let me drop back to pass and then run as fast as I can around the corner with my 99 speed. If there were a way to control every defender it may have been able to be prevented, but alas that was never possible. What a jerk. No using the Falcons in any Madden game of the Vick era.

My next thought of the ep was all about the Famous Jet Jackson (Al Gough). I was excited that they were starting to use him in a more major role. Boy was I disappointed by the end of it. His attitude to get into the club was awesome. I'm gonna be alive in my flash forward, bullet or not bullet. I kept getting angrier and angrier at the characters in this show, as they continued to talk about the future like it couldn't be changed. And then Jet had to go and do exactly what I was thinking. He jumps off the top of the FBI building and therefore screws with his future.

Is this as big a game changer as I imagine it could be? Does him taking his own life change just that ladies life the he accidentally killed at some point in the future? Or does it have a ripple effect that changes everything on Earth? Is that why Beardy's daughter shows up at his place at the end of the ep? 'Cause in his flash it seemed like he was seeing her for the first time. No?

30 Rock
Why does the blatant product placement work in 30 Rock, while it could nowhere else? This week's love affair with Cysco Systems was fantastic. They worked it in many times and the super-obvious effect worked on me every time. Oh then there was also the Winter Olympic Games plug that Jack seemed to mention to the camera only. Still, it was funny.

If I knew that Dot Com was in plays at Wesleyan, I would've driven down the street and checked it out. Since when did we know his name was Walter? Did they just sneak it in there? I love when Grizz or Dot Com have bigger roles in the episodes.

Community
Jeff/Abed storyline: fantastic. Annie/Troy storyline: brutal. Pierce/Vaughn storyline: also fantastic. Very little Britta this week. Another positive. Jeff opening up to the finer side of eating cereal and watching non-stop television was great, but of course it was Abed that brought it all together. Guy has been fantastic so far in this first season. I've never enjoyed Troy, but now he has to bring Annie down with him. She was up and down there for a while, but has been pretty annoying recently.

Major question of the week. How did the casting/writing go down for the character of Vaughn? Did they cast the character looking for an actor with small nipples? Or was it that once they found Eric Christian Olsen to play the part, they realized he had tiny nipples and figured they could use that in some way? I'm not sure, but he's been a great guest spot.