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10 of the Greatest Pop Culture Homage TV Episodes

By Emily Temple on

Yesterday, we read a great article over at NPR entitled “In A Fragmented Cultureverse, Can Pop References Still Pop?,” which ruminates on the way insider references work in our wide-sprawling cultural consciousness. Here at Flavorpill, we’re (obviously) big fans of the pop culture reference, and the article got us thinking about all our favorite cultural inside jokes — in particular, a few of our favorite TV episodes that pay homage to other great cultural artifacts. After the jump, our picks for the greatest pop culture homage TV episodes — but since taste is everything, and we haven’t watched all the television we probably should have, be sure to add to our list in the comments! … Read More

Television

25 of the Best Dance Numbers in TV History

By Michelle Rafferty on

Amy Sherman-Palladino’s Bunheads is having one of those freshman seasons where everything is struggling just a little bit to come together. But since this isn’t an uncommon attribute of other shows we’ve come to love (Parks and Recreation, for starters) and because we are really enjoying the show’s ballet numbers (which are surprisingly seldom), we’re sticking it out. Having found ourselves unexpectedly enthralled with the dance aspect of the show, we’ve decided to highlight our favorite performance so far (an environmental allegory!) as well as the other dance sequences in TV history that have left us amazed, amused, and flat-out inspired to get up and move our legs in time. Have a favorite we missed? Let us know in the comments! … Read More

Pop Culture

A Selection of Awesome Table Read Videos from TV and Film

By Jennifer Lewis on

Every now and then, we’ll come across footage of an awesome table read. Y’know — when the cast of a film or TV show comes together, sits at a table, and reads through a new script. Because we’re so accustomed to seeing these performances in their final formats, it’s pretty enjoyable to watch our favorite actors chatter through their characters’ famous lines for the very first time. After stumbling upon the hilarious Superbad sex-scene table read (via Reddit, naturally), we were inspired to gather a collection of ten more similar videos. … 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

Pop Culture

A Comprehensive Rule Book to Pop Culture’s Fictional Games

By Jennifer Lewis on

It’s getting colder, folks, which means we’ll be spending more and more time indoors. How do you like to spend the winter months? Watching TV? Playing games? Reading Flavorpill? Well, let’s combine all of three, shall we? Every now and then, our favorite fictional characters will use their fictional brilliance to invent some awesomely fictional games, and we’ve been itching to play ‘em. The rules of these fake games, however, are often left somewhat unexplained, so why not piece together what we do know and add a few guidelines to create real, playable games? Gather some pals, order a pizza, and read on for the real life rules to 10 of pop culture’s most competitive creations. It’s game night! … Read More

Television

5 Real Things Doctor Shows Taught Us About Medicine

By Romy Oltuski on

What can you possibly learn in medical school that you can’t during a weekend-long marathon of House? We’ve only experienced the latter, so we can’t say for sure — but the answer seems to be “a lot,” considering that our doctors keep disagreeing with our self-diagnoses. Hospital shows receive endless scorn for their medical inaccuracies, and the customary rebuttal is the fact that they’re nothing more than entertainment. But we can’t deny that these series have taught us some things about the field, so we’ve rounded up some of their profound, didactic, med-school-worthy, and factually correct lessons. … Read More

Television

10 Classic TV Vacation Episodes Filmed on Location

By Kirthana Ramisetti on

Hot off an insane haul at Sunday night’s Emmy Awards, Modern Family kicks off its third season tonight with a special one-hour premiere — a family vacation episode filmed at a dude ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In honor of everyone’s favorite comedy trading the soundstage for the real world, here are ten other TV vacation episodes that were shot on location. Did we miss your favorite? Leave it in the comments. … Read More

Television

What Happens to Ratings When TV Shows Change Leads

By Jason Bailey on

Last night, CBS announced that departing CSI lead actor (and Boyz n the Hood alum) Laurence Fishburne will be replaced on the series next season by Ted Danson. Fishburne was himself a replacement for the show’s original leading actor, William Petersen, who fronted CSI for its first eight seasons before Fishburne took over. The ratings have dipped a touch in the last year, but it is still one of the most popular shows on television — a case where the series and the brand did just fine without the leading actor, and it will presumably continue to thrive once its third lead takes over. (All we have to say about Danson’s participation is this: he better still make time for Bored to Death.)

This turnabout at CSI, the continuation of Two and Half Men with Ashton Kutcher taking over for Charlie Sheen, and this season’s exit of Steve Carell from the leading role of The Office (which will continue for an eighth season, reportedly with British comedienne Catherine Tate stepping in as Dunder-Mifflin manager, and with support from new cast member James Spader), got us thinking about other shows that had soldiered on after losing their leads — and what had happened to them. After the jump, we’ll look at five shows that thrived under new leadership, and five shows that, well, didn’t. … Read More

Television

10 Classic Beach-Themed TV Episodes for Your Weekend Inspiration

By Emily Temple on

Fun, sun, ocean breezes, and wait — is that Zach Braff? Yes. Yes it is. It seems like every TV show — or at least every sitcom — has an obligatory beach episode jammed in somewhere or other. Often it’s a time-out from any regularly scheduled drama, a vacation from the plot line, as it were, or sometimes it’s just an excuse to show ladies in bathing suits in a relatively plausible way. Well, we don’t mind. Now that it’s officially summer, we deem it to be the beach episode of our daily lives, and so for a little sandy inspiration, we thought we’d take a look at ten of our favorite classic beach-themed TV vacations, from the ridiculous to the, well, ridiculous. Click through to watch clips from the list, and let us know which of your favorites we’ve missed! … Read More

Television

The Best Besties in Sitcom History

By Christine Jordan on

Sitcoms aren’t shy about their underlying formula: take a protagonist who’s thoroughly average in every way, give her a colorful best friend, and set their pun-laden exchanges to a laugh track. Not all shows sink to those depths of formulaic cheesiness, but even the greatest ones know it’s hard to misstep with the one-two punch of a pair of strong characters made even better by the depth of their friendship. After the jump, check out our favorite sitcom besties and be sure to chime in with the the ones we missed in the comments. … Read More