DVDxR/blog

Comedy Central has confirmed their order for 26 new episodes!

Full story over at TV Week

A thought occurred to me the other day.  Who really, in their job, needs a word processor?  Most of my users just use it to make documents and shove them on a file share to be forgotten.  These docs almost always contain information that, really, would be better stored in either an online document system or via email.  Think of it this way: You wake up in an alternate universe.  This universe is just like ours except for one tiny difference: The word processor, for whatever reason, was never invented.  Instead, for formal documents they use a….typewriter.  Really.  Or a typesetter for big stuff.  Anyway, you go to work and look at your alternate universe desk.  Now ask yourself, would that desk contain a typewriter?

I’ll bet your answer would be no (nostalgia “old school!” answers don’t count).  More than likely you would use email or use an online knowledge base or document system.  What got me thinking about this was Google Wave and the thought of integrating everything into a hybrid, web based communication system.   Foget document types, concentrate more on document content.  You enter it, drop it into an search indexed public or private folder. Want to email it, click email and email headers appear.  Sending it internal, it just links to the document in the folder instead of generating 5000000000 copies of it, since you, of course, hit reply-to-all.

OK, ramble over

Just a reminder, there are some cool shows starting up soon, or continuing.

• Mental - New Fox show about a mental ward. Think ER, but for crazy people.  Starts Tuesday, May 26th on Fox
• Wipeout - Starts on ABC Wed, May 27th
• Pushing Daisies – The final episodes get burned off starting Saturday, May 30th on ABC.
  
• Ice Road Truckers – Always a cool show in the summer (get it? I’m a riot).  Starts Sunday, May 31 on Discovey
• Dexter - Showtime is re-running the entire series leading up to the new season.  Starts Sunday, May 31 on Showtime
• Burn Notice – 3rd season starts Thursday, June 4th on USA!  Don’t forget to follow Jeffrey Donovan (Michael Westen) on twitter @Jeffrey_Donovan
• The Listener – The Canadian import mind-reading drama starts Thursday, June 4th on NBC
• Royal Pains – The new USA drama starts on Thursday, June 4th
• Weeds - New Season Starts Monday, June 8th on Showtime.
• Nurse Jackie – The new Showtime show staring Soprano’s Edie Falco starts Monday, June 8th.  I’m looking forward to this one.
• Raising the Bar – The TNT legal drama kicks off its second season on Monday, June 8th.
• The Closer – The Closer opens its new season on Monday, June 8th on TNT
• Kings - NBC starts burning off the remaining episodes starting Saturday, June 13th.
• True Blood – The second season starts up Sunday, June 14th.
• Torchwood - For those of you in the UK (or, um, P2P users) the awesome Doctor Who spinoff starts its 5-episode 2009 run on Monday, June 15th on BBC 3
  
• Top Gear – Again, just for our UK viewers (yea, right), Top Gear returns Sunday, June 21st on BBC 2
  
• Eureka - SciFi’s Eureka returns on Friday, June 15th on SciFi
• Leverage - The very cool “Ocean’s 11″ like TV show returns to TNT on Wed, July 15th
• Hawthorne - Thursday,  July 16th on TNT
• Saving Grace – Thursday,  July 16th on TNT
• Eli Stone – The Final four episodes air starting on Monday, June 20th on ABC
• Merlin - The British import starts its US run on NBC on Tuesday, June 21st
• The Cleaner – The  A&E drama pickes back up on Thursday, June 23rd
• The Philanthropist – The new NBC drama about a billionaire playboy who uses his money as a weapon in his pursuit of good starts Wed, June 24th

More updates coming later today.

Did I miss something? Drop it in the comments or twitter me @DVDxR

In the WTF department comes news that Twitter (the company) wants to integrate Twitter (the service) into an unscripted reality/game  show.

From the article: “The show would harness Twitter to put players on the trail of celebrities in an interactive, competitive format.”

WTF?  A Twitter game show where you stalk celebs?

From Mashable and Yahoo/AP via @chrispirillo via @KimSherrell via @mashable (whew!)

It’s that time of year again.  Is your favorite among the slaughtered? A few of mine are.  Here is a list of scripted shows that got the ax this year:

NBC (the slaughterhouse for TV shows this year)

• My Own Worst Enemy
• Knight Rider (Really, who though this would actually work!?)
• My Name is Earl (May jump networks, stay tuned)
• Life
• Lipstick Jungle
• ER
• Kings
• Crusoe
• Deal or no Deal (not a scripted show, but a noteworthy cancellation)
• Medium (Technically canceled on NBC, but it’s moving over to Fridays on CBS for season 6)

Fox

• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Damn cliffhangers!!!)
• King of the Hill (Fox still has a few unaired episodes to burn through though)
• Do Not Disturb
• Sit Up and Shut Up (Such an awful show to have such a talented cast).
• Prison Break

ABC

• According to Jim (This was still on?)
• Samantha Who?
• Life on Mars (Interesting ending, but overall not near as good as its UK counterpart)
• Boston Legal
• Cupid (Remake a canceled show from the 90′s, great idea!)
• Dirty Sexy Money
• In Motherhood
• Eli Stone
• Pushing Daisies
• The Unusuals

CBS

• Eleventh Hour (Another one I liked)
• Harper’s Island
• Swingtown (If a show about swingers can’t pull in ratings….)
• The Unit
• Without a Trace
• The Ex List
• Worst Week

CW

• Reaper (Sounds like the studio is shopping this one around for a new home) Save Reaper Info
• Everyone Hates Chris (apparently so..)
• Privileged
• The Game

Almost forgot the two SciFi shows we lost this year….

SciFi

• Battlestar Galactica
• Stargate: Atlantis

So there it is. T:TSCC really hurt but wasn’t a great surprise. On the upside, my other favorite bubble shows, Chuck and Dollhouse, make the cut this year and will be back.  NBC ended up cutting 25 shows this year, in part to make way for Leno at 10pm/9pm central.  Can’t wait to see how that works out….

To keep up on the latest news for your favorite shows, check out these awesome sites:

http://pifeedback.com/ – Forums for The Programming Insider has all the overnight ratings info your heart could desire.
http://tvbythenumbers.com/ – Just what it says, ratings info and stats based predictions.  Also a great source of TV news.
http://tvseriesfinale.com/ – Again, just what it says. Great source for cancellation info and general TV show news.
http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/ – Nikki has all the best insider gossip.  Great resource in upfront season!
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/ – Another great TV insider source.