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Television

The Top 10 Guilty Pleasure TV Shows of All Time

By Judy Berman on

Here at Flavorpill, we often sing the praises of such genuinely excellent TV shows as Mad Men, Friday Night Lights, 30 Rock, and everything David Simon has ever done. But, as much as we love that stuff, we can’t deny that we have our fair share of guilty pleasures. No, we’re not talking about cult series with small, vocal followings (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Doctor Who) or shows whose main audience is little kids or raunchy sitcoms that somehow manage to double as biting social critique. For our purposes, a guilty pleasure only qualifies if we (or others whose taste we trust) know it’s bad but enjoy watching it anyway. We’ve listed our all-time top 10 after the jump; clear your conscience by confessing your own in the comments. … Read More

Television

How Depressingly Old Are Our Favorite '90s TV Casts Now?

By Judy Berman on

JTT is 30. That’s right, girls who grew up in the ’90s — your pre-teen crush entered his fourth decade on Earth yesterday. (For everyone else: We’re talking about Jonathan Taylor Thomas, of Home Improvement fame.) We don’t know about you, but this kind of freaks us out. And, because we’re gluttons for punishment, it also has us thinking about how old our other favorite ’90s TV casts are in 2011. Click through after the jump to learn that the Friends are all solidly middle-aged, DJ Conner is older than you, Uncle Jesse is pushing 50, and Andrea Zuckerman qualifies for AARP. Depressing, huh? … Read More

Television

A Brief History of TV Weddings

By Colette McIntyre on

My Fair Wedding, Say Yes to the Dress, Get Married – there is no shortage of wedding-related TV programming. Now it seems unremarkable for nearly forgotten celebrities to broadcast their wedding to strangers across the nation, sharing their fairytale ceremony with audiences who are betting on how soon the divorce papers will be filed. Here at Flavorwire, we wondered how a private milestone became such a public phenomenon, how the highly-anticipated and romantic TV unions of yesteryear became the Bridezillas of today. After the jump, check out our compressed timeline of TV weddings, from Carol and Mike Brady’s blended family to TLC’s gypsy nuptials. … Read More

Pop Culture

The Most Memorable Sleepovers on Film and TV

By Judy Berman on

In case you couldn’t tell, we’re big fans of coming-of-age movies here at Flavorpill, so we’re really looking forward to seeing The Myth of the American Sleepover, which came out Friday and, promisingly, reminded New York Times critic A.O. Scott of Freaks and Geeks and Dazed and Confused. Although the movie isn’t entirely, or even mostly, about a slumber party, it can’t help but remind us of some our favorite sleepovers on film and TV. Ten of the most memorable, from Grease to Beverly Hills, 90210 to Superbad, are after the jump. … Read More

Television

10 Series Finales That Featured the Return of Beloved Characters

By Kirthana Ramisetti on

This week, the long-running WB-turned-CW drama Smallville airs its two-hour series finale. No doubt the most anticipated moment of the episode will be the return of Michael Rosenbaum reprising his role as Lex Luthor. The actor, who left the series in 2008, finally decided to come back due to the intense outcry of fans, who lobbied long and hard for the bald villain to bid adieu before Clark Kent flew off the airwaves forever. There are a variety of reasons why actors return to shows they had departed, including wrapping up storylines and honoring the series that launched them into stardom. Here is a look back on other actors who came back for the swan songs of their respective series. (Needless to say, there are spoilers ahead.) … Read More

Television

10 TV Couples Who Would've Broken Up After the Show Ended

By Judy Berman on

Die-hard Boy Meets World fans got quite the shock yesterday, when former co-star Rider Strong agreed in an interview that the show’s eternal lovebirds, Cory and Topanga, “probably” would have gotten divorced. Then, he quickly backpedaled and assured us that “the whole conceit of the show was that they were meant for each other. So I can’t say that. Of course they’re still together in magical happy land.” As far as we’re concerned, though, the damage is done. And Strong’s response got us thinking about other TV couples who were together when their series ended but would never, realistically, have made it for the long haul. See which relationships we think are doomed after the jump. … Read More

Television

Video of the Day: Remember When We Hated Shannen Doherty?

By Judy Berman on

The folks at World of Wonder have dug up a wonderfully bizarre artifact of 1993: an MTV News segment about the apparently sizable Brenda Walsh/Shannen Doherty backlash. Tabitha Soren (remember her?) reports that, in the few years after Beverly Hills, 90210 premiered, fans grew to hate bitchy Brenda and turn their anger against Doherty. The outrage gave rise to an “I Hate Brenda Newsletter,” in which one Eddie Vedder ridicules Doherty’s attempts to meet him, an enormous Brenda piñata, and a Sub Pop single called “Hating Brenda.” One hater goes so far as to accuse her of “pop-culture terrorism.” The clip also reminds us that Doherty, the Taylor Momsen of her time, once planned to front her own, U2-meets-Pearl-Jam rock band. But, as tended to be the case in the ’90s, Soren’s co-anchor Kurt Loder gets the last word: “She’ll never have as little to do as those people do.” Burn. … Read More

Television

A History of Teen TV Scandals: 25 Years of Parental Outrage

By Christine Jordan on

MTV’s Skins may be the “most dangerous show on television” according to the Parents Television Council, but the racy British import isn’t in hot water solely for its characters’ constant drug use or girl-on-girl action, because that would be just too damn predictable. Instead, the show’s latest scandal stems from claims that it may have violated federal child pornography laws. Oops!

The thing is, this isn’t teen TV’s first media circus, by a long shot. After the jump, we’ve rounded up some of the biggest teen TV scandals from the ’80s through present. … Read More

Celebrity

’90s Pop Culture Dolls: A Long, Strange Trip Down Memory Lane

By Judy Berman on

It’s been a nostalgic day at Flavorpill HQ. Earlier today, we checked in with some of our favorite authors from when we were kids. And when The Hairpin posted a photo of some supremely weird Full House dolls, we couldn’t stop ourselves from revisiting the full array of pop culture dolls we owned (and coveted) back in the ’90s. Reminisce with us after the jump, where you’ll find everyone from Punky Brewster and Blossom to New Kids on the Block and Macaulay Culkin. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1.The Council of Conservative Citizens want you to boycott the new Thor movie because it considers it an “insulting multi-cultural make-over” that a black actor (Idris Elba from The Wire) has been cast as a Norse god. [via Gawker]

2. Last night Shaquille O’Neal filled in as guest conductor of the Boston Pops… Read More