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The Thursday Sitcom Post!!
SPOILER ALERT !!
I am – Hercules!!
Lots of changes coming for “Parks and Recreation,” the biggest being Paul Schneider (“Lars and the Real Girl,” “Away We Go,” “Bright Star”), who plays Ann Perkins’ boyfriend Mark Brendanawicz, is leaving the show to service his big-deal movie career.
Apatow movie regular Adam Scott (who also stars on the Starz sitcom “Party Down”) is joining the show, possibly to replace Schneider, while Rob Lowe (who also stars on ABC’s “Brothers and Sisters”) and Natalie Morales (the hot one from “The Middleman” and “White Collar,” not the hot one from “The Marriage Ref”) are also taking recurring roles. Morales is playing the sexiest busgirl alive, which makes me think she may be vying with April Ludgate for Andy Dwyer’s affections. (Or maybe she’s a potential love interest for Tom Haverford?)
In other Thursday-night sitcom news, we now know why NBC decided at the end of January to renew “Parks and Recreation” while its higher-rated sisters “The Office,” “30 Rock” and “Community” had to wait till early March: Will Arnett knocked up Amy Poehler again! As a consequence, “Parks” will defer the start of its hiatus to late summer and start shooting its third season right after it completes its second season in a few weeks. There’s no plan to get Leslie Knope pregnant.
Meanwhile, over on “The Office,” Amy Pietz (white-hot Annie Spadero on “Caroline in the City”) will be recurring.
Tonight:
“New Leads”
When the sales staff lets Sabre’s new “sales is king” policy get to their heads, Michael hides their new, prized leads.
Next Week:
“Happy Hour”
Michael gets kicked out of the bar when he whips out all the stops to impress a friend of Jim and Pam’s. Meanwhile, Andy and Erin do their best to keep their relationships under wraps. Dwight rethinks his pre-natal contract with Angela.
Deleted from last week’s “St. Patrick’s Day”:
“Survivor” and “American Idol” are taking Thursday off this week, so this might be a good night to check out “Community” and “Parks and Recreation” if you usually don’t. Following Fred Armisen's triumphant appearance last fall, SNL's Andy Samberg turns up on tonight's "Parks," titled "Park Safety":
After Jerry (Jim O'Heir) gets mugged by a bunch of kids, Leslie (Amy Poehler) meets with the head park ranger (guest star Andy Samberg) in hopes of improving park safety. Meanwhile, everyone tries to be nicer to Jerry once he returns to the office.
“Community”: 8 p.m. Thursday. NBC.
“Parks and Recreation”: 8:30 p.m. Thursday. NBC.
“The Office”: 9 p.m. Thursday. NBC.
“30 Rock”: 9:30 p.m. Thursday. NBC.
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Blu-rays Under $10!!
“The Venture Bros.,” $28.99 last week, is momentarily $15.49/Season!! (48% Off!!)
When the sales staff lets Sabre’s new “sales is king” policy get to their heads, Michael hides their new, prized leads.
Michael gets kicked out of the bar when he whips out all the stops to impress a friend of Jim and Pam’s. Meanwhile, Andy and Erin do their best to keep their relationships under wraps. Dwight rethinks his pre-natal contract with Angela.
Follow Evil Herc on Twitter!!
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They're in the top twelve now.
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cuz it's back and funnier then ever starting tonight...get ready to LOL for 2 hours tonight
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Jeff Winger's finale line last week. An in-joke since Glee and Community use some of the same sets.
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And now they are doing some kind of national singing tour? Ugh...
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chopped suey? why is herc pimping for that third rate network, nbc.
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And The Middle is my favorite Wednesday night sitcom.
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I don't get all the constant P&R pimping, not to mention all the love for the well-past-its-prime The Office. Even at its weakest Community is better than either of those shows.
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Abed's dad is also the principal on Glee. And that being Jeff's teary eyed confession was a LOL ending for me.
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I caught the end of an episode once. It was a bunch of kids on stage in wheelchairs singing "Proud Mary" (Rollin' on the River). I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out if it was supposed to be intentionally bad or not.
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I don't know if they're chopped suey, but they're not as funny as these shows. Also, they air on a different night. Also also, NBC is fourth rate until it overtakes ABC in the ratings.
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...when Archer provides ten times the laughs of all these shows combined in a single second?
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I know! you're so right. I mean, it's not like anyone watches more than one show on TV, right?I don't see how anyone can still enjoy one comedy, if there is another comedy out there that a guy online thinks is funnier. it just makes no sense!good call, man!
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The Venture Bros. provides ten times the laughs of every episode of Archer combined in a single second.
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so I can complain about it not airing tonight and instead taking a useless week off and showing next Wednesday. CBS better promote the hell outta it during the tourney.
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aintitcool.com/node/42387
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Try to keep up, junior.
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may return schedule permitting according to LA Times chat w/ Schur. paul schneider has sort of been wasted overall on the show though.
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then i saw some reruns of season 2 and remembered how good it was, so i rewatched the entire series...i gotta say... i expected to get bored around season 5-6 (because thats when i felt the quality dropped from watching week to week.) but i didnt. Maybe season 5 of the office is like season 3 of Lost... it's not so bad if you dont have to wait a week between every episode.
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That is all.
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The problem is the show was so dam good those first 3 seasons, people use those episodes as the benchmark. However, if you use all the other shows on right now as the benchmark, its blows them all away.
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according to imdb.. and Yay Office!
Best show on TV! -
Goddamn I am sick to death of hearing about fucking The Office and Parks & Recreation. 2 of the most unwatchable shows and they print money every second. I guess now we know where all the recently-pink-slipped soap opera writers went, "it's like a soap opera but slower and we bring someone in to throw in some jokes once in a while. We'll shoot it handheld. It'll be brilliant."At least Venture Bros is getting some love in here. But yeah, Archer has been getting my Thursday sitcom business after Community is over. 30 Rock too, but only because Alec Guiness is a comedy genius wrapped up in prettyboy trappings.
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Although I thought this past season has been the worst of the bunch, but it was still highly entertaining!
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Shit, I might have to start watching that again. Between this and the wormy guy from In The Loop ending up on The Office they're continuing to cast the hell out of these shows.
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Great idea Herc. Just pimping the sliding Office show that the train has left you at the station.
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Whenever people talk about The Office and P&R they always go on and on about the relationships, and Jim and Pam, and the dude and chick on P&R...not sure of their names 'cause I hate that show...
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That's where my attention is going to be.
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That's where my attention is going to be.
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that's where my attention is going to be.
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Alec Guinness was Obi-Wan. You mean Alec Baldwin
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McHale's Glee comment last week made me pee a little.
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MORE. As in, I read this post and there is not enough Community in it.
Community. -
Anybody who finds Community (FUCKING COMMUNITY?!?!??!) to be a more well-written, funnier, or better-acted show that Parks and Recreation is a joke, and a pretty lame one at that. Parks has transcended its awful carbon copy beginnings to become the funniest show on NBC, while Community is fooling itself if it thinks it can holds its own agains the other Thursday night programs. Even The Office, in its rapid descent into utter tedium, consistently tops this painfully unfunny show that lays it on thick with its message of friendship and "you-don't-gotta-be-cool-to-be -cool" afterschool-special bullshit week in and week out. Community's probably the worst allegedly funny sitcom this side of Scrubs. I can't believe that love for this series is coming from any self-respecting comedy fans. I recently caught up with the whole season to see if I was missing something, continually hoping that I'd reach the episode where it all clicked and I realized, "Oh, THAT'S why Community's great." That moment never came, yet eye-rolling moments of everyone gathering together at the end of an episode to essentially say "now what have we learned about ourselves today?" were all too frequent. Their attempts at meta jokes are so broad and obvious they come off as horrid attempts at Arrested Development-level comedy. Community needs to stop assuming it's better than it actually is, although apparently it's fooling many of you out there.
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It's sad you can make a reference to that and I know exactly who you're talking about...
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...of a bunch of people chasing possums. Yeah, that's well-written comedy. Oh, look, the possum is crawling on some guy. Oh, wow, how do they write this stuff? It's brilliant. Oh look, there's another possum. Not one possums, but two. Shit, where do they come up with this stuff????
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You have my condolences. And anyone who thinks its fans are "fooled" into thinking it's funny... you're "fooled" into thinking your opinion means dick!
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Mar 18, 2010 10:09:49 AM CDT
Did someone just try to suggest PARKS is better than COMMUNITY?
by mattfini
You poor, poor ignorant bastard.
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That guy is so lame he's nothing but a douchey version of John Krasinski. He was douchey half assed Jim on this show and then he played Krasinski's brother in Away We Go. Who knows maybe this guy is a great actor. I just don't see it.
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I know he wasn't a big character, but with the departure of Mark and the arrival of his replacement, will this show jump the shark?
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"... (“Lars and the Real Girl,” “Away We Go,” “Bright Star”), who plays Ann Perkins’ boyfriend Mark Brendanawicz, is leaving the show to service his big-deal movie career."Shouldn't that be "to service his big-deal indy movie career"? Or "big deal small budget movie career"? Or "to service his big deal 'yeah I kinda remember hearing something regarding that movie' movie career"?
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I'll admit that my fat lazy american ass loves this Thursday night line-up. Parks and Rec has grown the most on me this season but I thought the Fred Armisen episode was probably the series' worst. And I really like Armisen, just think he can do better than the "bag of foreign stereotype" characters he's too often asked to play on SNL as well.
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You guys have won my DVR over.
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How'd that work out for the other 'stars' that have done it? I'm drawing a blank, but I know they're out there.
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I just couldn't stop laughing at the scenes in Rons deathtrap/workshop. Whats really funny is that Ron only gets more dangerous when you try to tell him what to do.
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Even with the start date, we're going to get that Season 1 bloated Amy Poehler on Parks again. Where they throw a bunch of big coats on her and she suddenly looks like my Aunt Fannie.
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that show is wicked funny.
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The only one I can think of that it worked for is David Caruso. Left NYPD Blue, movie career tanked, and now he is a highly rated (albeit crappy) show.
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much funnier than P&R. I watched the first season, and there were some funny moments, but not a good show at all. Community has grown as is better week by week. To say that P&R is better (or even worse funnier) than MF or The Big Bang theory is just plain wrong.
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I agree that Modern Family is better than P&R and maybe the best new sitcom this year, but to judge P&R on it's first season is an injustice. Season 2 has picked up a ton of steam and you owe it to yourself to check it out.
And to those praising Community, isn't it possible to enjoy both? I personally like P&R better, but I catch both every week.
Oh, and Ron Swanson is the best character currently ion TV hands down. -
Nice additions!
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Fair point. I need to grab the newer P&R and check them out, have heard it is better. It made me laugh, but never won me over. I do have that 1/2 hour open for DVR use. I alos hate that my post made me sound WAY too judgemental about a show, something that goes on too often on this site.
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Amy Peitz is the Sexiest Tomboy Beanpole on the planet...... what? This isn't 3 years ago?
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With the exception of The Office, Modern Family is far more superior than any of the other Thursday night crap NBC dangles out there. Even female sitcom Cougar Town gets more ratings then NBC's female sitcom P&R. Hell even My Name is Earl in its lame 4th season had better ratings to these 2.0 shows that nobody watches. NBC won't be overtaking ABC anytime soon, as long as it keeps renewing these abysmally rated failing shows. If they want to move out of the basement, they're going to need to do a massive clean slate.
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on the major networks at the moment. Yes, 30 Rock has lost some of it's mojo but it's still got some really funny moments. "Cool Runnings...Bobsled" rofl. Community and Office suck major wang. Horrible shit.
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tim burton planning to bring the adddams family back to the big screen. in 3d.
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but his name will forever be synonymous with "moronic career decision". He quit NYPD Blue to move on to such gems as Jade and Kiss of Death. For 7 years, while his ex-show became a ratings and critical darling, he toiled in bit roles and forgettable films (Session 9 being the exception, but it wasn't exactly a smash sensation). He's doing well now on a long-running hit show. However, thanks to his "sunglasses on / sunglasses off" style of acting and the really cheesy on-liners he spews out at the beginning of every episode, he still is something of a joke.
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Watch for him in a bit role as a parking attendant in the Schwarzenegger film Twins, and you'll see that this guy has the charisma of dry spackle, and should thank his lucky stars that he is allowed to work.
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...he's a ginger.
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Plus Mercy has been really good since it came back after the Olympics. Dawson has been a great addition to the cast. If you liked his character in The Rules of Attraction, you'll love what he's doing on Mercy.
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Community is fun, but Modern Family... especially with a Cougartown chaser, no matter how lame that show can get, is really laugh-out-loud funny.
The one thing about Modern Family I don't get is, who do they think they're talking to when they address the fourth wall? -
There's never been a show more "beggy" than Community. They build the show with one goal: to attract nerds. That's all. If you enjoy the show then chances are you're a lonely nerd. That's just the reality of it. It's an awful show, but it sppeals to nerds. That lowly 2.0 rating it gets every week just shows you how many nerds are in the world.
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And 30 Rock is the most overrated comedy series ever. I was with it the first season, but now it is just unbearable to watch.
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have one thing in common. They are never without a large economy-size bag of dicks, and they suck each and every one of them.
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What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever read. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone here is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
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Do whatever you want, but there's no way a third season would work without Adam Scott.
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Mar 18, 2010 3:48:32 PM CDT
Are those last two episodes of Better Off Ted ever going to air?
by danielkurland
Please?
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are you saying to suck each and every dick or suck each and every bag that is full of dicks? Louis CK, you are one funny bastard.
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it's that damn good.
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Is the funniest thing on right now. Granted its just a comedian making fun of people, but he's funny as hell.
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It has gotten watchable, it's pleasant now which is a huge step up for this show.
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but it is an achievement, of a sort, to post something so stupid it stands out from the normally stupid stuff posted in TBs here.Take your bow, Slim, bask in your talkback "victory"
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more than the office ... and they are attached to Kaley Cuaco's chest.
I really care more about Survivor being off tonight. That show has been terrific this season. And I suppose I'll watch FlashForward ... I still think that show has potential. -
30 Rock with a soul
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Better off Ted with better (off)characters.
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Scrubs, but in a college instead of a hospital.
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I'm not writing these for talkback amusement.
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Did the screen writers of American Pie write this episode?? It's soo perverted.....
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I was going to record the 2 hr, but there was a show on Discovery Science that I didn't want to wait for the 2am refeed of to record. Sorry Flash Forward. You can suck without me.
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Mar 18, 2010 7:27:00 PM CDT
Holy shit, that last line of Community was darkly humorous....
by bumlove
...and frightening at the same time.
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reminded me of futurama
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ripped pants and farting.
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But season one was terrible, I think many of you are elevating the show way too highly. I went from being gratingly unwatchable to being watchable. I think its still too trapped in the formula of the office, inheriting that show's comedy short hands and as a consequence that show's laziness as well.
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1. Jack does not realize that Japanese wear kimonos. 2. Legoland in California is no where near LA. It is in Carlsbad and about 2 hours away from LA in GOOD traffic.
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yes I know Chase was good back in the day, but he's so fucking boring now. And the rest of the cast of Community...bleuck. Show feels so soulless, Modern Family took me by surprise and knocked it out of the park.
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one of the worst backgrounds I have seen on tv in a long time.
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The wife wanted to watch the KU game, so she stopped the parallel taping of FlashForward and kept Community / Office / 30 Rock.
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Classic. Andy Samberg fuckin' rules.
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good line
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every time someone says modern family is better than community. modern family is like arrested development if a giant cinderblock fell on its head.
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Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ.
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...at the top of this talkback. So either you watched Community last night despite already claiming to hate it...or you're just trolling and repeating yourself.
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he was good when he was annoying, but i don't like how they are featuring him in it more, and a girl like erin wouldn't go with someone who looks like he is 92% downs.
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So don't be surprised if it gets a Nielsen Rating of 0.0. It's a frustrating show, to say the least. Ricky Jay, however, is always awesome (the writers should have realized that, the dopes.)
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Some people hate it, but I find it damn funny. Such is humor. Trying a freeze frame on the list of porn movies on the TV screen provided lots of immature laughs, which they probably would not have had anyone speak aloud. Highlights: "Tits Complicated", "Horny with a Chance of My Balls". And c'mon, geeks... the funeral scene with the "cryogenically frozen" guy is frozen in carbonite?
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All did good last night. Those three and Modern Family are all I need. I'm dropping HIMYM and Big Bang. The laugh track is in excusable in 2010.
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Jumping the Misery. Sorry, the show is done, please finish it now before it goes on for 8 more seasons and Ryan is the only original cast member left a la ER.
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But there were a couple funny things this year like Michael's reaction to Phyllis' farts.
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Is that ALLL of them Office/Community/Parks and Rec/30 Rock/Scrubs and the Cougar Town and Modern Faily reruns this week...were funnier then the new South Park. Ohhh what a world what a world. I will say South Park is still funnier then HIMYM and Nerd Town whatever that show is called or as I like to call them: The New George Lopez and According to Jim shows.
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Who worship Community. SlimButNotReally and pzadvance hit the nail on the head. It's for sad geeks who get off on pop-culture references and obvious meta jokes. The characters are terribly unlikeable and bear no resemblance to any human being I've ever met, and the whole show is just so full of itself. Much like the main character - I seriously want someone to punch that smug fuck in his douchebag face. Community spends too much time trying to be clever and cool, begging for hipsters to love their fashionable irony and quirkiness, instead of actually being funny. It's like 30 Rock or Scrubs, only it ends with some lame moral message.
Modern Family, on the other hand, is clever AND funny AND actually succeeds at tying in a "moral of the story" without being too preachy and condescending. Glad to see the MF love here. -
At one point CaptaiinAxis says it's for geeks...at another point he says it's for hipsters...which is a complete contradiction. SlimButNotreally, whom he is agreeing with, says the show is for nerds. I can see why these two think alike, because they are both small-minded people who see things in black and white and must put people in boxes and easily-defined labels in order to make sense of things...even if their analogies make no sense whatsoever. They also do this to feel superior...while at the same time accuse the thing they hate (Community) of being smug and condescending. It's a whole lot of projection. And one final note, anyone who likes to throw around the word "meta", like you two, probably shouldn't accuse others of being pretentious.
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"... who do they think they're talking to when they address the fourth wall?"They, like Ferris Bueller, are talking to us. "That dump in the office looked awful"No kidding! It didn't help that they kept zooming in and zooming out, making the background much more obviously fake.
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I think they're all great shows for different reasons. I thought last night's Community was great with Buster Bluth and Lee Majors. Loved last week's Parks and Recreation with the possum. Phil in pain with the kidney stone on Modern Family is one of the funniest scenes in the past few months.
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BumLove just told CaptainAxis.
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It would be NBC's best show if it was still on. The writing was great the last season, especially with how they developed Archie Morris' character. As for the Office, I don't think I even smiled once last night ... and I tend to give the show a break.
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"Paul Schneider is leaving the show to service his big-deal movie career."
hahahahahaha
He's doing what with the who now? Movie career??? Good riddance. -
...he will be investigating the disappearance of the writing on the show.
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Plus the Ghost and Titanic references were great.
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Community's ratings were up 11%, while Parks had a abysmal 5% drop against repeats of Bones and Vampire Diaries. Office hit a season low with a 3.6, while 30 Rock was up 3% with a 3.0 (likely will be adjusted down with The Office carrying over). Flash Forward's return was a bomb and likely it's final nail in the coffin.
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The sales leads episode was the best I have seen all season. It felt like an older episode, hitting on all cylinders of the former writing. It really has been rough this year, with maybe a small handful of episodes worthy of the series. If it doesn't get better on a consistent basis, I'm done watching the show.
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I'm serious. It is the Thursday NBC show now. The Office has suffered this season, 30 Rock is flat, but Parks and Rec has been a great show for the entire season.
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The lame host has the most annoying line-reads I've ever heard. He sounds like a bad radio disc jockey who was given a TV show. Now, Web Soup, the spinoff of McHale's The Soup, is the funny show. Check out host Chris Hardwick's podcast with guest Joel McHale if you want to hear funny guys. And oh yeah, Parks and Recreation still sucks. 30 Rock and Community are the best of the night.
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You hit the nail on the head!
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The show is critically acclaimed for a reason - because it's practically the only show pushing the artistic boundaries of comedy and delivering on the funny. Yes, Season 1 is by far the best and it has definitely lost steam, but I'd rather watch a relatively flat episode of 30 Rock because there are usually nuggets of gold in there, which in themselves are funnier than anything else on TV.No offense to your favorite shows, but Community is one of the worst shows I've ever watched. I watched the first 3 episodes and they were tortuously unfunny. I've always hated shows that play the "LOOK HOW QUIRKY WE ARE" card. It's just lame and played out. Modern Family is predictably dull, based on the first few episodes I saw. "Moral-based" shows tend to be pretty dull anyway.Ultimately, I could be wrong. Maybe Community became hilarious or even Modern Family. But so far, I wouldn't bother watching them. But from the little I've seen...Modern Family > Community
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At least we'll have a second season to enjoy a great deal. And FU, erc-hay.
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That first season was bad, at least most of the season. Just like most shows their first year. except for P&R. That sucks all of the time.
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blows. the thursday night lineup would be incredible if it didnt have that turd in the middle
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can steal Martin Star? Ken Marino would probably be a good addition to most shows too. I guess season 2 of Party Down will be the last, which is too bad. It was a great show. I hope all the changes to Parks don't throw it off. It took a while to find a voice and establish the characters, I'd hate to see that thrown off by bringing in puzzle pieces that don't fit.
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