First off, thanks to the Mobius team for opening this forum. I am sure it will get plenty of use from Mr. McKee!

Now, the big question: what do you watch on TV? I am not a regular TV viewer (too many videos to watch) but here are the shows I tune in regularly each week to see.

Sunday
FAMILY GUY
AMERICAN DAD

Thursday
THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER 3
TNA WRESTLING

Friday
THE ANDY MILONAKIS SHOW
THE SOUP
REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER

I usually also try to catch the opening minutes of THE DAILY SHOW and the monologue on THE TONIGHT SHOW. Two other staples through the week (depending on my timing) are FAMILY FEUD (Dawson preferred by Combs is acceptable) and MATCH GAME on GSN. So, what's your schedule?

Looking forward to this forum! Great idea!

I don't really keep a regular TV schedule, but I'll usually tape these if I'm not home or if I'm working:


Sunday
Pro football in the afternoons (in season, of course--everything else, including EuroCult, takes a backseat on Sunday during football season)
THE SOPRANOS/CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM (depending on the schedule)
FAMILY GUY (though it seems to be fading for me)
AMERICAN DAD (ditto)
LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT (usually tape this and watch the others)

Monday
MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL (see above)
CSI: MIAMI (Caruso is The Man)

Thursday
THE OFFICE

Friday
REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER

Saturday
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE


I'll watch a lot of LAW & ORDER reruns on TNT (they've been getting into the Dennis Farina era, and no disrespect intended to the always-reliable Mr. Farina, but it's just not the same without Jerry Orbach, though Farina is as good a choice as anyone for replacing what can't be replaced), and the CRIMINAL INTENT and SVU reruns on USA, and I'll usually just watch the first segment of THE DAILY SHOW, unless there's an interesting guest, and occasionally THE COLBERT REPORT, which is finding its stride after a (to me) shaky debut.

My TV viewing is so irregular because of DVD and trips to the cinema, that I usually play catch-up with TV shows on DVD, which is how I got into ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, the original THE OFFICE, and MR. SHOW (years after the fact on the latter).

I only tune in for one current show these days, the second season of LOST on ABC. Every other TV program I've watched lately has been viewed on DVD. That being the case, what's in my current TV DVD rotation includes:

THE TWILIGHT ZONE [Definitive]: 3rd Season (1961-62)
TALES OF ZATOICHI
DANGER MAN
SECRET AGENT
VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA
LOST: Season 1
THE SIMPSONS: Season 6
UFO
FRACTURED FLICKERS

Sunday:
WEST WING. Not regular watchers, but we've tuned in since Leo's death and we'll see out the last episodes. When the show bows out, we won't replace it.

Tuesday:
GILMORE GIRLS.
HOUSE.

Thursday:
WILL & GRACE
MY NAME IS EARL
THE OFFICE
ER

I've really taken to MY NAME IS EARL and I've also warmed to THE OFFICE (it helps that my wife has a friend on it). But by and large, I've been happy to work more movies into our evenings.

Sundays - Simpsons and football (during football season of course)

Mondays - 24

Tuesdays - House

Thursdays - Survivor, although I'm not as into it as I used to be

Saturdays - South Park re-runs, in Cleveland we get all 5 episodes on Saturday night rather than one episode each weeknight.

I'll watch a lot of random stuff too. If I'm home during the day I always tune in for some sitcom reruns. I'm starting to get hooked on CSI and I'll usually watch Law & Order if I have nothing better to do.

Before I got a small LCD HD set in February, I watched a lot of movies on the premium channels. But now I find I can seldom ignore the panning & scanning and other indignities hoisted upon most movies. Combined with poor reception on most "analog" channels, my viewing has drifted back to more network series -- most of which I DVR and then watch sans commercials.

Sunday

THE WEST WING (last two episodes are the best of the past three seasons)
THE SOPRANOS

Monday

24

Tuesday

THE GILMORE GIRLS
HOUSE
BOSTON LEGAL (James Spader, William Shatner)

Wednesday

LOST
INVASION (William Fichtner)

Thursday

THE OC (Peter Gallagher, Adam Brody when he's funny)
COMMANDER IN CHIEF (newly restored; Donald Sutherland)

I realize this includes several train wrecks (with reasons for watching noted).

Living in the Central Time Zone means I can usually squeeze in a movie on DVD after my television viewing is caught up.

Have also been trying to catch up with DOCTOR WHO (reruns of the 1st season of the "new" series on Sci-Fi), and MILE HIGH (intermittently enjoyable, trashy soap on BBC America).

And must admit that I've grown to enjoy Craig Ferguson on THE LATE LATE SHOW. His monologues are loose and digressive, and his interviews quite often sound like real 4-5 minute conversations.

No reality, no newsmagazines, and no sitcoms except MY NAME IS EARL and THE OFFICE, which is the best network sitcom since SEINFELD. I say that having only seen ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT twice and not being able to get into it. From my perspective, if you didn't start watching ARRESTED from day one, you were completely lost, and it's no surprise to me that it was never able to attract new viewers. I'm more media-savvy than most TV watchers, I'm sure, but I had no idea what was going on in the episode. It was just a whirlwind of characters with no indication of who they were, what they were up to, what they wanted to accomplish, and what their relationships were to one another. I'm not putting down the series in any way, but I don't think you can blame America for not "getting it" or not being smart enough to follow it. I'm not sure anyone could follow the series without a handbook.

Sunday:
THE WEST WING--It's too bad it's going off the air just as it started to get good again (though not great, as in the Sorkin era). Man, this show was pretty bad for awhile, but really rejuvenated itself with the election storyline.
LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT--Only a "must see" if it's a Noth/Sciorra episode. I like the d'Onofrio episodes just fine, but only watched them five or six times a year. He should be at the end of his contract, and considering what a pain in the ass he is, I expect him to be shown the door and Chris Noth to carry the ball in all 22 next season. I'd be curious to know if there's any different in ratings between the d'Onofrio and the Noth episodes.

Monday:
PRISON BREAK and 24--I can't miss them. PRISON BREAK is in something of a rut; it was just unable to sustain its arc for this long. The prisoners should have busted out long ago, and its ill-conceived decision to turn T-Bag--a rapist, murderer and pedophile--into likable comic relief is downright offensive. I'm still watching for the cast (more foxy Michelle Forbes, please) and to see how the writers paint themselves out of corners each week.

24 is the best show on network television. Period. It makes me want to buy one of those amazing "Jack Sacks" that holds everything from firearms to explosives to magic burglar-alarm-busting machines.

Tuesday:
LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT--The best of the L&O shows, though I wish it would use its supporting cast more. The level of guest-star performances is astonishing.

Wednesday:
LAW & ORDER--Usually, but not a must-see anymore. I miss Orbach like everyone else, but admire Farina.
INVASION--I'm really intrigued by where this show is going. William Fichtner is giving an Emmy-worthy performance every week, but will never get nominated. I could pick some nits with it (Lisa Sheridan plays the thinnest pregnant woman in history), and I liked the similar THRESHOLD better, but I like INVASION and it's better than LOST, the show it follows.

Thursday:
MY NAME IS EARL and THE OFFICE--Sublime performing and writing every week. EARL is particularly inventive, and who knew Jaime Pressly could act?
SUPERNATURAL--It's true: I love this show. Especially the brothers' super-duper spirit tricorder, which is an absurd device, but the show is smart enough to not try to explain it or how it works, but just let it lay out there. The cast is very good, and I appreciate the show's retro-like approach: just two leads, uncomplicated stand-alone plots, and a nice mix of adventure and humor that doesn't overwhelm the scares.

Friday:
NUMB3RS--Again, a very good cast makes an absurd premise work. There's a surprising amount of action in it for a CBS procedural, not that it'll make anyone forget HAWAII FIVE-0. You can also count on this show to hire talented veteran guest stars; on back-to-back weeks, they had Robert Forster as an FBI agent and John Glover as a psychic.
REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER--I was a big fan of POLITICALLY INCORRECT, and this series, which is basically a weekly one-hour version, is just as smart, just as funny at more than twice the length. You're also apt to hear less b.s. here than on MEET THE PRESS and FACE THE NATION.

Monday - 24
Wednesday - SOUTH PARK
Friday - WONDER SHOWZEN

I also tend to dvr THE OFFICE, MY NAME IS EARL, and THE SIMPSONS. And when RESCUE ME comes back, I'll likely watch that

I'm no doubt well out of the TV-viewing mainstream, having neither access to the premium cable channels like HBO nor a DVR of any sort (yet). The only show that I have made time to sit down and watch religiously every week in the past few years is THE BOONDOCKS on Sunday nights, and that's currently in between seasons. My wife is a fanatical viewer of 24, but I've never seen more than snippets of an episode - I don't have much desire to play catchup for the previous seasons, given the already-daunting amount of DVDs I have yet to watch.

I wasn't even aware of the existence of WONDER SHOWZEN until the recent DVD release, but I caught part of an episode last week while channel-surfing late one night, and found it entertaining enough to want to track down further eps.

Dave

Saturday:

Soccer A.M. (the funniest programme on British television right now)
Doctor Who

Sunday:

The Simpsons
Desperate Housewives
Dream Team (a frankly terribly melodramatic soap about a fictional soccer club. I can't help myself)
E.R.

As a rule I'm hopeless at being in front of the telly at any given time, so I am usually watching something on DVD or the Tivo:

C.S.I. (Las Vegas & N.Y.)
24
Invasion
Alf (Season 2 DVD)
The Twilight Zone (Season 1 DVD)
The Outer Limits (Season 1 DVD)
Roseanne (Season 2 DVD)

But this all plays second fiddle to sports. I watch alot of Premiership soccer and usually follow the NFL and NBA. I love NHL but coverage of that is fairly sporadic in the U.K.

And in five weeks, it's the greatest sporting spectacle in the world, The World Cup. I shall eschew the pleasure of E.R. for Angola v Portugal. C'mon England!

Monday evenings (until recently, when season 2 came to an end -- with an awesome cliffhanger of an episode IMNSHO)
THE 4400

Tuesday evenings
FOOTBALL (i.e., soccer to you Americans) FOCUS

Friday evenings
HERE WE GO (More association football/soccer discussion)
FIRST EDITION (Still more association football/soccer discussion)

Saturday or Sunday (depending on the EPL schedule) evenings
Arsenal in 'live' action

...so, yeah, my regular TV viewing is rather footie-oriented -- and ESPN (plus Star Sports) my favorite TV channels (along with the Asian feature film showing Celestial Movie Channel)! :P

As for 'real' TV series: Love 24 but prefer to watch it on DVD rather than on TV. And when I was in the U.S., I also used to watch E.R. -- but can hardly believe that it's still going strong some seasons on after Anthony Edwards (whose Mark Greene character I always thought of as the heart of the show) left it -- and various editions of LAW & ORDER (but the latter don't interest me anymore). But even if I were still there, am not sure that I could accept the American version of THE OFFICE as an acceptable substitute for/alternative to the original British one.

I don't have a TV. I don't have cable or broadcast reception. There's a broadcast tuner in a VHS deck which is gathering dust, unplugged, disconnected, amid the stacks of electronics, but I have not used it in years. I watch DVDs on a projector. I have never been able to make myself adhere to enough of a schedule to keep up with any regular TV broadcast. I always end up missing episodes, and subsequently losing interest in the show, even when I like a given show.

Paradoxically, I watch more TV shows now than I ever did when I was shelling out $70 a month for cable. DVD box sets are the perfect antidote to my erratic viewing habits.

In the last year and a half: THE SOPRANOS, FIREFLY, FRACTURED FLICKERS, PETER GUNN, DANGER MAN & SECRET AGENT, I SPY, YOU BET YOUR LIFE, THE HONEYMOONERS, STAR TREK (With Kirk, Spock & McCoy, not some bald-female-captain-friendly-Klingon False Trek!), UFO, NAKED CITY, GREEN ACRES, THE SANDBAGGERS, FREAKS AND GEEKS, and currently the new BATTLESTAR GALACTICA for the second time.

I may never be able to watch another SF TV show after BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, however.

It's the best frackin' science fiction show on right now.

A BG prequel spinoff, CAPRICA, has been announced. My wife can hardly wait.

Right now, our his, hers, and ours TV schedule is...

SUNDAYS

KING OF THE HILL--my show
THE SIMPSONS--more or less mine; good eps. rewatched with Lora
THE SOPRANOS--ours

[At other times of the year, we both like CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM; I may try to hook Lora on DEADWOOD come June. We eagerly await more ROME next year.]

MONDAYS

24--strictly my show

TUESDAYS

SCRUBS--strictly my show, though I'm not sure why I keep going with it. Funny but expendable.

[We both love NIP/TUCK when it's in season]

THURSDAYS

SMALLVILLE--she got me into it.
MY NAME IS EARL--our first show together as marrieds :P
THE OFFICE--initially mine, but she's come around to it

FRIDAYS

DOCTOR WHO--we're both loving it. A mostly delightful revamp, paced by the charming Billie Piper.

[BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, her absolute fave, when it's on.]

Here's what I make an effort to catch on television:

TUESDAYS
"Scrubs"

THURSDAYS
"My Name Is Earl"
"The Office" - I really didn't like this show when it first came on. At first they just seemed to be doing straight adaptations of the UK storylines, which really bothered me. Since they started on the more original stuff though I just can't get enough of it.
"ER"

SATURDAYS
"Battlestar Galactica"

There's not a lot of things on my regular schedule anymore, but if I happen to be channel surfing and there's something like "Law & Order" on, then I'll probably watch it. :P

I've watched the entire runs of "Buffy" and "Angel" in reruns more than once on Space (Canadian channel). Right now they're airing three episodes of "Angel" every night.

I don't mind this nearly as much as each week's obligatory trip to the laptop to download the profiles of each monster they have to battle. (The brothers very resourcefully find a Bates Motel-style motor inn-- no Ramada for them-- with a data port week after week) I still don't get how the boys are able to print hard copies without an obvious printer, but then again they don't call the show SUPERNATURAL for nothing.

SNL (!!!), now that it's for adults again.

The Simpsons, forever, and ever, hallelujah, hallelujah!

American Idol (in season), Scrubs.

Will & Grace, The Office.

On cable: What Not to Wear (US version), Bulls**t, In a Fix, The Sopranos.

Jay and I are devout Food Network, TLC, and HGTV noodlers, and I likes my Kratt Brothers on National Geographic's Be the Animal.

I also love how all of these small towns are blessed with Gothic-style libraries stuffed with arcane books on myths and monsters and with local newspapers with amazingly organized morgues...all of which are manned by incredibly helpful, friendly people.

That's more difficult for me to swallow than a hotel with Internet access. They are picturesque motels though. You can tell SUPERNATURAL is shot in Canada, 'cause I don't see anything like them in Illinois.

And all the Boogeymen say "I'm gonna get ya, eh?"

"Pokémon" - a full hour of NEW episodes every Saturday morning at 10:00 AM! :D

Tivo Season Passes...

THE DAILY SHOW
THE COLBERT REPORT
LITTLE BRITAIN
SOUTH PARK

That's about it for me and tv.

I don't watch much television. I don't have cable, so haven't really watched much of the famous cable shows -- though I've seen bits and pieces of most of the ones talked about. I've liked what I've seen of "Deadwood", "Rome", "Battlestar Galactica" and "The Colbert Report".

But normally:

Monday: Occasionally I'll look at "24", although I think that show's better in small doses.

Tuesday: My big tv night, usually. I'm a sucker for "Antiques Roadshow", ie "that piece of dusty crap is worth $5000-$7500". I'm a big fan of "House", which I think, at it's very best, is the best show on free tv, anyway. If I can stay awake I'll check out "Boston Legal", which isn't the show it once was, but still can be amusing.

Wednesday: I guess nothing, although I think that's the day the local PBS station plays reruns of "I Spy" here. I do try to watch that.

Thursday: I like "My Name is Earl" a lot too. I find office environs depressing and have never warmed to "The Office", but I'm aware that's a minority report.

Friday: If I'm home, I usually watch WWE -- Vince McMahon is an American genius.

Sunday: I do like "Family Guy", although I can't stand the deeply unfunny "American Dad".

Some other shows:

"CSI Miami" -- the best of the (imho) very lame genre. One of the funniest shows on tv, nothing quites beat David Caruso, the pistol-packin' coroner.

I never liked any of the "Law and Order" shows, though I agree with Mr. Mckee that Noth/Sciorra are appealing as the leads. I do like "Cold Case", partly because it's shot here in Philly, partly because while it usually doesn't live up to it's promise, it's a helluva great idea, I think. And some episodes have been memorably moody. I'll watch "South Park" reruns if I can stay up for them. And the local PBS station occasionally plays a classic British series, I got quite hooked on "Red Dwarf" some months back, I think that's a brilliant show.

doug

I'm pretty lukewarm on SNL these days. I was talking to a coworker earlier today and commented that it speaks volumes that the all-"TV Funhouse" retrospective that aired this past weekend was the best thing I'd seen on SNL in recent memory. The "trip to Disney's vault" bit was hysterical.

Dave

I think my own TV viewing is made easier when some of the shows that I enjoy the most have limited episode seasons (those 10 - 15 episode shows) and then vanish for an extended period. For a while it seemed like 3/4 of what I wanted to watch all fell on Tuesday night within the same two hour block, and inevitably not everything could be fitted in. Things like SUPERNATURAL become casualties, though I'm sure I'll see re-runs along the way.


Some programs that I loved - THE SHIELD and RESCUE ME come to mind - have already wrapped up and now the long wait for the next season begins. The new season of TRAILER PARK BOYS began a couple weeks back, but they've only got a six-episode season this year, due to the commitments for the feature film in August. I was also addicted to CLOCKING OFF and AFTERLIFE, but they were short-term pick-ups from the UK and I don't know if there will be any new episodes forthcoming.

CBC should be carrying the next season of DOCTOR WHO soon, and I don't know when A & E plans to run the next season of MI-5 (aka SPOOKS) but that's a must-see when it does happen.

I'm watching ROBOT CHICKEN, SOPRANOS, WWE wrestling (I write for the official website of WWE's minor league promotion, OVW, so I watch WWE mainly to keep up with what is going on in the "majors") and that's about it, with a little SOUTH PARKS sprinkled in there somewhere. I would be watching BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, but my wife and I just caught on to the show through the boxsets, so I'm of the mind to wait until the next box before bothering in watching it on a weekly basis.

Was watching DR. WHO on Sci-Fi and have to admit that I lost interest in it after the third episode. Something about it just isn't working for me, although I really can't quite put my finger on it. For now I'll hold off and rent the boxset of the first season and see if I can get back into the swing of it. It IS clever in spots, but the people behind it seem to be too self-aware of how gosh-darn clever they're trying to be, perhaps? I don't know.

Beyond that, I've been mainly sticking with the boxsets. The aforementioned BG, COLUMBO, BABYLON 5 (just finishing off the fifth season there), BOB NEWHART, SUPERMAN and a few others.

My current faves:

LAW AND ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT
LAW AND ORDER:SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT
LAW AND ORDER
WITHOUT A TRACE
CONVICTION
THE L WORD
24
SIX FEET UNDER (I'm about halfway through the 4th season)
SLINGS & ARROWS
LAS VEGAS

A tv board! Cool! Here's my schedule, most of which is recorded to DVR and watched in chunks later.

Sunday:

Midsomer Murders
Masterpiece Theatre/Mystery!
Robot Chicken/ATHF/various & sundry other [adult swim] shows

Monday:

Prison Break
Mystery Monday on BBC-A [currently "Sea of Souls" which is not a particular fave]

Tuesday:

Nova, if the subject is of interest. Ditto American Experience.
CONFLICT: House vs. Veronica Mars. I record House and watch VM live.

Wednesday:

Alias - I'm seeing this out since it's almost over, but the degree of convolution on this show makes me roll my eyes.

Lost - Been recording this all season. Didn't watch for months, had one long marathon catching up, then stopped watching again. Will have another big marathon the next time I feel like spending a lazy Sunday on the couch.

Thursday:

CONFLICT: My Name Is Earl vs. Supernatural. Record My Name Is Earl watch Supernatural live, if I remember that it's on.

Thriller Thursday on BBC-A [currently "Wire in the Blood"]

Friday:

Doctor Who - been saving these to DVD but I'm about ready to throw in the towel due to Sci-Fi's obnoxious pop-up ads for other programs. Enough already! And Sci-Fi isn't even the worst offender. Some stations cover up 1/3 to 1/2 of the screen with this crap and include sound effects. Also hate the perennial ads for Doctor Who DVDs during the end credits, which are pushed to the side making them impossible to read. Okay, I get it. If I want my Doctor Who unmarred by advertising, I'm going to have to buy the DVDs.

We love SLINGS AND ARROWS, which Sundance has been running. The HAMLET series hits DVD early next month. A keeper, and an absolute must for anyone who enjoys theater. Some of the writing staff worked on the new Broadway musical THE DROWSY CHAPERONE.

Like every other import from across the pond, DOCTOR WHO is severely affected by its non-American running time, which doesn't conform to US commercial block structures. Even keeping up with it with one hand on the zapper, once it's been DVR-ed for viewing, is trying. But it's worth the effort.

I have a friend who has me watching SOUTH PARK again (after a lull, I think it's gotten pretty damn funny again) and ROBOT CHICKEN (which was funny at 1st in its premiere season, lost its steam, and hasn't regained it, with every action figure sketch basically ending in death and mutilation), but I only see them when I'm at his house -- I never remember.

The only shows I've been watching regularly are (yes, I now) AMERICAN IDOL, HOUSE, THE EVIDENCE (which wasn't good at all, filming in San Francisco but then whipping the camera around in that idiotic style everything is shot in so that you can hardly see the locations -- I watch(ed?) it largely due to loyalty to good ol' Rob Estes, late of SILK STALKINGS), and that law show with Kyle Mclachlan whose name I don't know, which should say something. And RESCUE ME, when I remember it's on, but I rarely do...

But, really, IDOL and HOUSE are the only network shows that seem to get a weekly viewing. I do watch KEEPING UP APPEARANCES & AS TIME GOES BY repeats fairly regularly, and THE SIMPSONS, SEINFELD and RAYMOND repeats, but the incessant commercials on network tv has me basically tuned out. I watched ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT religiously, but on the commercial-free bonus laden dvds.

On DVD, I watch THE SAINT, THE BARON (Sue Lloyd!), I SPY, ROCKFORD FILES, TAXI, BOB NEWHART, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS and REMINGTON STEELE pretty regularly during the week when I need a little tv time. Otherwise, its work and movies...

And I guess it's just me, but even well-made recent shows, such as (I assume) ALIAS, 24, and even LAW & ORDER don't get me; as a New Yorker, I want to love all the LAW AND ORDER shows (they film regularly where i work), but I find the "formula" too schematic for me; also, with all the extra commercials, everything seems rushed, and not in the good Howard Hawks HIS GIRL FRIDAY sense; crimes are simply "solved" too easily, characters give up their knowledge to the cops way too easy, but because the camera shakes, we're supposed to find it "realistic."

But with the rest, I find them designed to irritate and upset; people mock the old tv show structure, but I like spending an hour with Jim Rockford, solving a self-contained crime, having some laughs, watching some good actors do their things. I don't really need/want to fear if Simon Templar "might" get killed because tv is so darn "realistic" these days; I have found 24 or ALIAS, when I've seen them, more dread-provoking than entertaining; obviously, millions disagree.

Sunday: SIMPSONS (though less and less frequently) and THE SOPRANOS.
Monday-Friday: THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART and THE COLBERT REPORT, with the occasional-yet-with-increasing-frequency dip into COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN.
Monday: I catch up on stuff I've TiVo'ed or have on DVD.
Tuesday: HOUSE, MD
Wednesday: LOST
Thursday: THE O.C. (which I watch live), MY NAME IS EARL and THE OFFICE (which I record)
Friday: I'm in love. (For all you Robert Smith fans lurking about the place.)
Saturday: I obtain via...ahem...nefarious means the latest eps of DOCTOR WHO and DOCTOR WHO CONFIDENTIAL, which I watch at the end of the day.

Regularly TiVo'ed (season passes on all), but hardly ever watched live or on the day recorded: GOOD EATS (Food Network), the Sunday night [adult swim] line-up (whatever new episodes are on, whether it's AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE, ROBOT CHICKEN, THE BOONDOCKS, PERFECT HAIR FOREVER, what-have-you), AUSTIN CITY LIMITS and WONDER SHOWZEN.

With the end of ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT, we don't watch network TV apart from an occasional episode of AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS, and we never watch live TV at all anymore. 20 min. of commercials an hour made sure of that. Most of our TV show viewing is on DVD(follow the link in my sig if you want an indication of our TV on DVD selection). Here's what's on my DVR regularly:
WONDER SHOWZEN - the best show on TV right now? I think so.
MINORITEAM
MING'S QUEST(reruns on the Fine Living channel - I'm a Ming Tsai groupie)
ROBOT CHICKEN
SOLOS(HDNet's jazz performance show)
BEGINNING TAI CHI with Patrick Martin(NAU's Universityhouse channel)
LINGO(the only thing on "GSN" worth a damn anymore)
MY MESSY BEDROOM(The Free Speech Channel's ridiculous sex gossip show - the closest thing to a guilty pleasure I can imagine)
BALAMORY(BBC kids show on Discovery Kids)
and the various Rick Steves travel programs shown on HDNet.

I can't abide the waste of good actors. Yeah, I'm grateful they're getting any kind of paycheck, but it's sad to see good actors like Dan Florek, Courtney Vance and Jamie Sheridan reduced to walkons and lines like "Okay, people, let's go door to door" and "You've got 24 hours... make it stick." I know Marty likes SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT (which I like to call LAW & ORDER: YOU SICK FREAK, as that's what Meloni yells at every other perp) but I think it's a show that wants it both ways, pretending to care about victims while enjoying the wallow in human degradation, piling outrage upon outrage because apparently we're all so jaded we could never care about a simple rape victim again. I still enjoy the courtroom scenes of the original series but we only catch the show in passing, never making a point of watching it.

This is true, although SVU usually gives Florek one or two shows a season to grab some spotlight. I think it's the best work Ice-T has ever done in film, and it kills me that the great Belz doesn't get more to do. I'm not certain CI gives Vance or Sheridan (whom I've followed ever since his excellent but shortlived SHANNON'S DEAL, created by John Sayles) the same opportunities. The biggest tragedy may have been the brilliant Steven Hill, who rarely got to do more than yell, "Take the deal!" in all the years he was on LAW & ORDER.

On the other hand, you get to see a lot of really good actors in guest roles, some of which are stars of a sort, but many are New York-based who are presumably talented stage actors and unknown to we TV viewers. I can't defend SVU's lurid storylines except that I do think they do them in a far classier manner than any other network show would.

If it wasn't "take the deal!" it was an exasperated sigh at a powderkeg of a case, and he'd grumble "....and in an election year!" then cut to him having a drink with an adversary representing either the defense or a political opponent, seemingly played by Robert Vaughn regardless.

Last week, TNT ran an episode with one of my favorite Hill moments: Sam Waterston's McCoy is using a noted mobster as part of his prosecution, and Hill asks something like "How's the case....consigliere?

Hill was unforgettable in the episode where he had to decide to take his wife off of life support.

Tee hee. In our house it is LAW & ORDER: BABY RAPE UNIT.

I watch THE SOPRANOS. The lady watches all those COLD CASE FILESy shows.

There is no other new TV for me.

Ah, TV. Teacher, mother...secret lover...

These are the shows I'm currently tuning in to...

Sunday:
MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE
KING OF THE HILL
THE SIMPSONS
ROBOT CHICKEN
AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE
TOM GOES TO THE MAYOR
THE VENTURE BROS. (Let me add a few exclamation points after this one--!!!!!!!!--I think this is a shamefully overlooked show. The "Brisbyland" and yard sale episodes were two of the most entertaining half hours I've seen in the last year.)

Monday:
KING OF QUEENS
HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
TWO AND A HALF MEN

Wednesday:
LOST

Thursday:
MY NAME IS EARL
THE OFFICE

Saturday:
JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE


I also try to catch David Letterman at least a time or two each week.

I usually Tivo Letterman and watch him during my breakfast the next day.

Sunday: Whatever HBO has on at 8pm (central)
West Wing
Desperate Housewifes( my wife loves this, so I usually end up
Tivoing HBO.
Monday: Two and a Half Men (one of my favorites)
CSI: Miami if I'm not doing anything else.
Tuesday: NCIS
House
Boston Legal
Wednesday:Lost
Invasion
Thursday: Smallville(ever since I saw Lois in that star-spangled bikini)
CSI
Friday: We pick a movie or go out to dinner
Tivo Bill Maher
Saturday: Samurai Cinema
Cooking With Paula Dean
Nero Wolfe or the comedy channel
Usually Tivo the SciFi 8:00pm movie.

This can all change if there is something good on one of the science channels.

I'm in Madrid, so when I catch American TV it's usually dubbed (often well) into Spanish.
HOUSE is a winner in any language, and they show the various CSI series in a four hour time-slot, on a rotating basis.... for example: 2 Las Vegas & a Miami this week, 2 Miamis and a New York the next. (Is it me or do they coordinate each CSI's color palette based on the skin & hair tone of each series lead?)
I ran out of gas halfway through the first seasons of LOST, 24 & DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES... or was it the writers who ran out of gas?
An unspoken law of mine is if I wouldn't sit through it back home, I sure as hell aint puttin' up with it here. (cough ALIAS/BUFFY/various WB filler)
The best dubbed series remains the SIMPSONS... you would swear that Castelanetta, Shearer & Co. were doing it themselves, the voices are so close.
Movies are another story... reedy voiced film stars like Costner & Willis get a testosterone transfusion in the dubbing booth... some Spanish voiceover actors even become recognizable as the 'voice of Clint Eastwood', etc. as they return to voice them in film after film.
To my Yankee ear it sounds as though the same (articulate & sexy) woman dubs all other women, but I'm sure it isn't true. Black & White & Asian performers get the same accents... strangely it's Arab & Indian cast members that get a strange broken kind of pronunciation. Women do all the kid's voices, not always well.
With movies though, you sometimes get an option to watch them version/original subtitled in spanish, which I take when offered. Violence & nudity is never cut & profanity is often added!
They haven't censored a movie since Franco punted the pail back in the 70's.
Because they aren't required to dole out huge chunks of money everytime they show a clip, everything's fair game & they've got some of the best montages ever in their programs about International Cinema, which are also really good. It's not unusual to catch (uncut/undubbed) Billy Wilder or John Ford flicks in network prime-time placed in proper context by a career montage before & half-hour critics discussion after. (Less heralded ones like KISS ME, STUPID for example.) Great films from throughout Europe & Asia turn up at regular intervals... of course the US only sees a tiny fraction of Spain's cinema output, shown several times a week here.
I've the option to get cable but it's unnecessary with new films in English in theaters (& DVD).
Sure wish I could watch that FLAVOR FLAV show though..... sigh.

If possible, catch the episode of DOCTOR WHO they aired last week on Sci-Fi. It's the one where Rose asks to go back to the moment her father died when she was an infant. Despite some of the usual questionable logic that comes with time travel stories, I thought this was excellent TV and really fascinating science-fiction. The dialogue and acting were both really spot-on brilliant. Over 20 years after my teen nerd self gave up on Dr Who, they've effectively sucked me back in. I really dig the new show.

For my money, the first season of the new DOCTOR WHO improved mightily as it progressed, as the various threads started weaving themselves into something larger. The second season starts a little awkwardly-footed with its first episode, but almost immediately rights itself, and by its third episode produces something, IMO, close to the best episode of DOCTOR WHO ever conceived. Seriously. You will care deeply about the trials and tribulations of a tin dog...