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Pop-Culture Characters Who Would Make Perfect Couples

By Doug Levy on

When you’re as obsessed with pop culture as we are, you can’t help wondering what would happen if some of your favorite characters could break out of the confines of their individual universes and get to connect. Not that this doesn’t occasionally happen, but it’s not often enough to stop us predicting things like which TV characters would be friends in real life (or literary characters, for that matter). Our latest musing along these lines took us into more romantic territory, as we started to imagine which far-flung pop-culture characters were practically made for each other. In fact, some of them were so obvious, we’re amazed we didn’t make the (love) connection before. Join us as we play matchmaker for everyone from Harry Potter to Sookie Stackhouse, and then let us know what you think the chances are for these star-crossed couples in the comments. … Read More

Television

20 TV Mean Girls We Secretly Love

By Michelle Rafferty on

From the tough ladies on Game of Thrones and Revenge to the recent additions of sardonic “gal pal” Jessa Johansson (Girls) and James Van Der Beek’s equally self-absorbed BFF Chloe (B—- in Apartment 23), audiences are quite taken with TV’s latest mean girl class. The “B” (of Apt. 23) has even been called “one of the first truly 21st century chicks on TV.” While we don’t endorse girl-on-girl hate in real life, striking that perfect balance of evilness and likability is a difficult thing for a character to do, and we’d like to give a shout out to the women who have done this with aplomb over the years. Click through to see the mean girls we not-so-secretly love, and please share your favorites in the comments! … Read More

Design

Guessing Game: Minimalist Posters of Iconic TV Shows

By Caroline Stanley on

Inspired by the brilliant work of Albert Exergian, graphic design team Eurydyka Kata and Rafał Szczawiński of re:design have created a set of minimalist posters that pay homage to 15 popular TV shows in just three icons. While some of them are pretty obvious, others took us a while longer to figure out. Click through to put your TV knowledge to the test, and then head over to their website to find out if your guesses are correct. … Read More

Television

12 TV Shows We Can’t Believe Aren’t on DVD

By Jason Bailey on

Taking a glance at today’s new DVD releases (as we do on many a groggy Tuesday morn), we noticed the continuation of a disturbing pattern. Happily Divorced: Season One. The New Adventures of Old Christine: The Complete Fifth Season. Transformers Prime: Season One. “Fan Favorite” collections featuring the “best” of Hogan’s Heroes and Macgyver — since every season of those shows has already been released. And the question we ask (aside from “who the hell is buying this stuff”) is this: How is it that we get every single episode of Fran Drescher’s new TV Land sitcom a mere seven months after they aired, but we’re still waiting for our Wonder Years DVDs?

After the jump, we’ll take a look at a dozen great (or at least interesting) TV shows that are inexplicably unavailable on DVD, and try to figure out why. … Read More

Art

Watch Salvador Dalí as a Contestant on ‘What’s My Line?’

By Emily Temple on

We recently came across this charming clip from What’s My Line?, a popular 1950s game show where guests would attempt to guess the occupation of the famous contestant. In this episode, the “mis-leading man” is Salvador Dalí, who pulls off the role with wide-eyed aplomb. The audience roars as the guests poke around for clues and Dalí freely admits to doing pretty much everything they ask, including being a writer and a sportsman, but it isn’t until the master of ceremonies reiterates the “performer in the arts” connection that someone is inspired to ask after his moustache. Though we were surprised to see an artist like Dalí on a show like What’s My Line?, we have to admit, watching the creatively blindfolded citizens question the patron saint of the bizarre is about as surreal as it gets, at least from a modern vantage, and we imagine he was rather pleased with the result. Watch the video after the jump! … Read More

Television

Television’s Most Memorable Living Rooms

By Alison Nastasi on

TV sitcoms are all about family. Even if the characters aren’t related by blood, friends and enemies alike still form bonds on the small screen for our viewing pleasure. They’re a tribe. Network shows provide someone for families to identify with, gawk at, and be envious of — all in the comfort of their own home. While technology has certainly made it possible to watch your favorite TV shows from just about anywhere, most families who loaf together with a little boob tube do so in their living room (or as it is sometimes aptly dubbed, the family room). Over the years there have been many famous TV living rooms where we watched our favorite characters grow up, share valuable life lessons, make us laugh, and more. Click through to revisit some of television’s most iconic living rooms, and recall what made them special. Who would you add to the list? … Read More

Partner Buzz

Sarah Michelle Gellar and Pop Culture's Most Memorable Twins

By Judy Berman on

Here at Flavorpill, we can hardly wait for Ringer, the new TV series on the CW that has Sarah Michelle Gellar playing the dual role of estranged twins who are both entangled in high-stakes intrigue. In our anticipation of the show’s premiere tomorrow night, we started thinking about other memorable twins — both real and fictional — in pop culture. Our top 10 are after the jump; add yours in the comments. … Read More

Pop Culture

Banksy Produces TV Show About Behaving Badly in Public

By Emily Temple on

Last year, secretive British street artist and growing, if elusive, media presence Banksy expanded his territory with the meta-documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop, and now it seems, he’s decided to start spreading the gospel via television. He has produced an hour long special on Chanel 4 in the UK entitled “The Antics Roadshow” which is… 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

TV Shows That Did Their Classic Predecessors Proud

By Jason Bailey on

Treme, the quietly brilliant HBO musical drama that examines New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, debuts this week on DVD and Blu-ray, and if you haven’t seen it, you should rent or buy it post haste. (If there is one takeaway from this post, that’s it.) The series was co-created by David Simon, the journalist-turned-TV genius behind the show that launched a thousand blog posts, the late, great The Wire. And in addition to the many things that are somewhat miraculous about Treme, there is this: It is a rare case of a follow-up television show that measures up to its iconic predecessor.

TV is a tricky business, and more often than not, the creator or primary creative force behind a big hit will go into their next series, guns a-blazing, only to find that television audiences are more fickle than they thought. Steven Bochco followed Hill Street Blues with Bay City Blues; Garry Marshall and Thomas L. Miller followed The Odd Couple with Me and the Chimp; West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin’s next show, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, was a costly one-season flop for NBC; M*A*S*H show runners Gene Reynolds and Larry Gelbart’s Karen folded after five months; Amy Sherman-Palladino’s Gilmore Girls follow-up The Return of Jezebel James lasted a mere three episodes; and Mitchell Hurwitz’s Running Wilde reunited him with Arrested Development stars Will Arnett and David Cross but ran only spottily on Fox last fall before disappearing altogether. However, there are occasions when a TV series manages to equal (or even surpass) the critical and popular success of its predecessor. Join us after the jump for a look at ten television shows where lightning struck twice. … Read More