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TV’s Most Hopeless, Angst-Ridden Romantics

By Caroline Stanley on

If you always secretly wished that The West Wing was a lot more soapy, then mark your calendars for Sunday night, when a new show called Political Animals premieres on USA. At the heart of this fun new series is the Hammond family, a political dynasty in the vein of the Kennedys, who are every bit as flawed and riddled by scandal. There’s also a clear homage to the Clintons happening here. Sigourney Weaver’s Elaine Barrish is basically Hillary Clinton with a much better stylist; meanwhile, Ciarán Hinds as two-term president and general good ol’ boy Bud Barrish is cut from the same cloth as Bill. As in real life, the on-screen relationship between this fictionalized version of the couple is hard to comprehend. Like Carla Gugino, who plays the family’s nemesis, journalist Susan Berg, we can’t help but wonder why a woman as strong as Elaine would put up with a cheating husband — but then, she’s far from the first TV character to let her heart rule over her head. Click through for a roundup of some of the most hopeless, angst-ridden romantics in recent television history. … Read More

Television

The Actors Behind the Most Important TV Characters We’ve Never Seen

By Jennifer Lewis on

Ah, the elusive TV character we never see. Many sitcoms have one. You know, a person who is often integral to the show, but whose face or body is left to the imagination. In many cases, there isn’t even a voice or a silhouette associated with the unseen character at hand — for example, Bob Sacamano on Seinfeld, Diane on Twin Peaks, or Tino on My So-Called Life. Occasionally, however, there’s a distant voice or an obscured body associated with these mysterious characters. We’ve always been curious about these folks, so we decided to put some unseen characters side by side with the actors who played them. Check ‘em out after the jump, and hit the comments to let us know who we missed. … Read More

News

The Morning’s Top 5 Pop Culture Stories

By Caroline Stanley on

1. Yes, she’s been publicly naked in a bathtub before, but it’s pretty weird that Wayne Coyne is talking about replacing Erykah Badu with Amanda Palmer in a re-shot version of the Flaming Lips’ controversial video for “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” right? [via NME]

2. Apparently LA Noir, Frank… Read More

Television

How to Drink Like Your Favorite TV Characters

By Alison Nastasi on

In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve been having a bit of a Mad Men week around here in celebration of season five premiering this Sunday, March 25 at 9pm. In honor of this momentous, head-swimmingly alcoholic occasion, we wanted to celebrate by having a drink with some of our other favorite television characters. Not just any drink, though. We composed a roundup of their preferred alcoholic beverages. It’s the polite thing to do, right? See what bottles of booze you should be bringing to this TV party past the break, and let us know what characters and libations you’d add to the list below. … Read More

Television

TV’s Greatest Alternate Reality Episodes

By Michelle Rafferty on

What if Buffy never came to Sunnydale? Or Ryan Atwood, Newport Beach? Or even Clark Kent, Earth? The “What if?” question has become a staple television plot device, usually executed in the form of an “alternate reality” episode somewhere between the middle and end of a popular series. So it’s about right that Grey’s Anatomy, now halfway through its eighth season, has decided to take a stab at the question: what if Meredith’s mom never had Alzheimer’s? Here’s what we’ve gathered from tonight’s much-hyped previews: Meredith wears pink cardigans, Cristina has bangs, and Derek is now known as “McDreary.” We can’t wait to see what fun, wacky ways the alternate versions of the Seattle Grace staff collide. In the meantime, we invite you to click through our roundup of TV’s best “What if?” episodes and add your favorites in the comments. … Read More

Television

TV’s Most Ill-Advised Weddings

By Victoria McNally on

Everyone knows that TV weddings are ratings bonanzas, and the destructive aftermaths of those weddings are even more exciting. Happy couples tend to get boring pretty quickly, after all. It’s not surprising, then, that Gossip Girl celebrated its 100th episode last night with the wedding of Blair and Louis, even though Blair is still obviously in love with Chuck, in an hour with so many twists and turns and false stops that we’re still not sure what, exactly, happened. To celebrate their clearly ill-advised big day, we’ve put together a list of some of the most disastrous marriages in television history. … Read More

Pop Culture

The Most Hilariously Humiliating Uniforms on Film and TV

By Jennifer Lewis on

Have you ever had to dress like a banana for your family’s business? Or like a pirate to deliver a clamwich? Or like an omelet because you’re Justin Timberlake? Every now and then, our favorite film and TV characters will find themselves with some truly unappealing occupations. Whether it’s flipping burgers at a themed fast food joint or gathering golf balls at a driving range, these fictional work situations typically involve greedy bosses, rude teenagers, and — of course — embarrassing uniforms. Check out a collection of awesomely awful film and TV uniforms after the jump, then hit the comments to let us know your favorites. … Read More

Television

15 TV Kitchens We Covet

By Judy Berman on

As we may have mentioned, we are pretty excited to see Absolutely Fabulous back on TV. We missed Patsy and Edina, we missed Saffy, we missed Gran, and we especially missed Bubble, Eddy’s walking acid trip of an assistant. But it wasn’t until we read Tom & Lorenzo’s great blog post about the show’s return that we realized we had been longing for more than just the characters. As they note, Eddy has one hell of a kitchen, and it feels great to watch the cast sip coffee and chug champagne in it again. The Monsoon kitchen and 14 others that we wouldn’t minding owning are after the jump. … Read More

Television

10 of TV’s Oddest Middle Names

By Jennifer Lewis on

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title.” We get you, Juliet — names are just names, and what we’re called is irrelevant to our true, inner essence. But does this famous Shakespearean notion prevent modern TV writers from weaving a character’s so-called “embarrassing” middle name into a comedy’s occasional plot line? Of course not! When it comes to sitcom middle names, the weirder, the better. Iphigenia? Miervaldis? Leakey? Sure, why not! Let’s play a name game — click through to enjoy some of television’s silliest and most unexpected middle names, then hit the comments to let us know of any others that you’ve found noteworthy. … Read More

Television

TV's Most Memorable Pets

By Romy Oltuski on

Pets are a staple of almost every television household, making for trusty sidekicks, dependable comic relief, and comforting ears that (usually) don’t talk back. But some on-screen animal stars are more than just housemates, with affable personalities and plot lines of their own. The inspiring owner-pet relationships that we celebrate after the jump establish a real equity and rapport between cross-species co-stars and make us reevaluate a pet’s role in the home. Which of your favorite actors yield from the animal kingdom? … Read More