Sometimes you win ...
... and sometimes you lose, bigtime - scoring the new TV season
Nov. 3 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
As we drag our exhausted civic selves toward tomorrow's election finish line, America's voters can take comfort in the reassuring knowledge that no matter what happens, at least we don't have to watch Cloris Leachman dance anymore.
When the endearingly hammy Leachman was voted off of “Dancing With the Stars” last week, she became the latest loser of the new TV season. But she isn't alone.
Oct. 31 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Scream test: There is a “Munsters” marathon on WGN and “100 Scariest Movie Moments” on Bravo. Cartoon Network is hosting a “Goosebumps” marathon, and KPBS is revealing “The Secret Life of Ghosts and Werewolves.”
Oct. 3 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Familiar faces, familiar scenery: If you watch tonight's debut of “The Ex List,” you may notice that the new CBS romantic comedy features some familiar faces.
Sept. 26 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Prepared pals go to 'Amazing' lengths: They have taken an oath of reality-TV silence, so local “Amazing Race” contestants Mark Yturralde and Bill Kahler can't say whether they won or lost, or even how they played the game.
Sept. 13 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
More than cozy chats on talk shows for candidates: “This is sort of silly season in politics,” Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama said on TV the other night. And he was right, up to a point.
Sept. 1 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
More of the same: Show what you know, then show it again. Derailed by the Hollywood writers' strike and humbled by cable's gains in the hearts and minds of viewers and critics alike, the five networks will be kicking off the new fall TV season by retreating to their comfort zones.
Aug. 25 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
'Fox 5': First the bad news and now the good news?: If one of the many weather updates featured on KSWB's new “Fox 5 Morning News” tackled the condition of the station's fledgling news operation, “technically stormy with increasing patches of improvement” would sum it up pretty nicely.
Aug. 1 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Trading places: Fox, CW switch network channels: The networks have changed places. Now it's your turn to change channels. As of today, fans of the Fox and CW networks will find their favorite prime-time shows airing on different channels. The Fox network – home of “American Idol,” the NFL and Major League Baseball – has moved from XETV/Channel 6 to KSWB/Channel 69 (Cable 5).
July 28 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
The panel from hell? It was 'Supernatural': There are a lot of things you can do at Comic-Con that you can't really do anywhere else. You can wear your “Battlestar Galactica” Cylon mask and not have any explaining to do. You can eat nachos for breakfast while watching the season premiere of “Heroes” almost two months before it airs.
July 26 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
'Brilliant' casting: If Comic-Con International ever needs official television mascots, the cast and creators of “The Big Bang Theory” would be perfect. They've got the brains. They've got the video-game skills. Co-creator Bill Prady wears a Green Hornet ring and once spent $8,000 on a rare piece of “Star Trek” memorabilia.
July 21 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
'Mad Men' madness: “There's life and there's work,” advertising guru Don Draper tells eager-beaver ad rep Pete Campbell during an upcoming episode of “Mad Men.” And while he doesn't add that never the twain shall meet, he sounds like he means it. But how could he, really?
July 14 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
In the running: Mad about “Mad Men”? Wild about “The Wire”? Over the moon for “Flight of the Conchords”? Then hold your grousing tongues, Emmy watchers. When the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announces the nominees for the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards on Thursday, you might not have anything to complain about.
July 11 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Soldier on; HBO drama worth the early struggle: Before you embark on the mind-bending journey that is HBO's “Generation Kill,” you should know there will be big chunks of time in which you will have no idea what is going on. It will also take an episode or two before you can tell the characters apart. And even then, you will sometimes get it wrong.
July 4 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Fun-packed 'Burn Notice' rekindles summer romance: It is not a perfect television show. But for reasons that returning viewers already know and newcomers will grasp before the first commercial, “Burn Notice” is the perfect summer TV show. And like its unflappable hero, it is showing up just in the nick of time.
June 20 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Give us a reason to love Showtime's bad girls: Sex, drugs and anarchy. What's not to love?
June 6 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Summer guilty pleasures coming to a tube near you: The last time we saw some of our favorite “Army Wives” characters, they were about to blow up.
June 2 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
The year TV tumbled and struggled to get up: The last finale of the 2007-08 prime-time TV season aired Thursday, when “Lost” signed off with a flash-forward scene showing where some of its main characters would be three years into their futures. As it turns out, it was a weirdly appropriate send-off for a season many TV people would like to put in their pasts as soon as possible.
May 19 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
THAT ... was 'American Idol'!: Now that it's down to David vs. David, it's all over but the confetti dropping. And the bloated hit single. And the summer tour featuring finalists you've forgotten about already. Not to mention the auditions for next year's edition.
May 12 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
'Sex: The revolution': Birds do it, bees do it ...: Barbara Walters had an affair with a married U.S. senator. Former New York governor Eliot Spitzer consorted with a high-priced prostitute. Baseball great Roger Clemens is battling allegations that he had an affair with a 15-year-old singer, and actor Rob Lowe and his wife are being sued by their nannies for sexual harassment.
May 9 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
'Idol' vocal coach is never idle as she guides the apprehensive contestants: In conversation, Debra Byrd is a whirlwind. A fast-talking force of nature for whom the laws of punctuation do not always apply. But in her role as the first “American Idol” vocal coach, the woman everyone calls “Byrd” is the calm center of a pop-culture storm.
April 28 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Our pals are back and in fine form: They're back! Our TV shows are back! And not a moment too soon, since some of us were coming dangerously close to exercising.
April 21 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
The way they were: You loved them, you lost them, and you missed them like crazy. Or did you?
April 4 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
For 'Wire in the Blood,' a little nuts is a good thing: After a busy TV week marked by the post-strike returns of “CSI,” “CSI: NY,” “Cold Case,” “Criminal Minds,” “Without a Trace” and tonight's “Numb3rs,” you are probably thinking you don't need a new crime series in your life.
March 21 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Once exposed, you may need decontamination: It could be one of the more painful lessons of modern life that we get the television we deserve. But I'm not sure even the most shameless peephole-lurker deserves “The Moment of Truth.”
March 17 (UNION-TRIBUNE)
Late bloomers: The Writers Guild of America strike was resolved more than one month ago, but your prime-time television schedule? Not so resolved.
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Karla Peterson's "In the Air" column runs Mondays in the Currents section of the Union-Tribune. She can be reached by e-mail at karla.peterson@
uniontrib.com or by telephone at (619) 293-1275.
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