Denver Blog

So the date of Jay Leno’s termination -- and a termination is what this is, make no mistake—has now been set. On May 29, 2009, Jay Leno will sign off for his last Tonight Show, and Conan O’Brien will take over the following Monday, June 1. And so the crown and scepter passes.

Leno is taking all of this with aplomb, as even his detractors (and full disclosure: I’m one of them) must admit.

CBS’ reality series Big Brother starts its 10th season this Sunday, July 13, with a whole new cast of housemates. And this year, they’re claiming that the show is returning to its roots: no stunt casting, no Z-list celebrities, no ex-lovers, no estranged siblings. Nothing other than a brand-spanking-new group of people to annoy the crap out of America.

But who’s got the best shot of remaining in the house this season? Here’s a rundown of the new contestants, and their (sometimes completely arbitrary and unfairly reasoned) position of elimination.

I have a confession to make: I'm secretly obsessed with NBC's The Biggest Loser. I really don't understand it ... as a general rule, I'm not a big fan of reality television, but there's something about that show that keeps bringing me back again. And again. And again. I held a special soft spot for last season's winner -- the first-ever female Biggest Loser -- Ali Vincent (pictured in her Got Milk? ad above). The season finale is guaranteed to bring tears to my eyes, not just for the winners, but for all the participants and what they've gained (as well as lost!) in a measly few months.

Maybe this next season (which starts in October; mark your calendars!), you'll be one of the contestants I'm rooting so hard for. On Saturday, July 12, The Biggest Loser: Families, the sixth season of the show, is holding a casting call at 24 Hour Fitness, 2650 West Belleview Avenue in Littleton. Get there early: Casting teams can only guarantee the first 500 people in line will be seen. And if you can't make it, you can always visit www.nbc.com/casting to get another chance. Good luck -- and say hi to Alison Sweeney for me! -- Amber Taufen

Sometimes a television show comes along that just seems to name itself. Sometimes this is a good thing. Sometimes, not so much. The new anthology series Fear Itself?

Yeah, the latter.

Fear Itself is an anthology show, which means of course that its quality will vary from episode to episode more dramatically than other shows. Based on the premiere episode, this is a tender mercy.

That first episode, which aired last week (it continues Thursdays at 9PM on NBC), was called “Sacrifice”. It’s all too appropriate a name, since it seems like a sort of unprepared maiden fed to the hungry maw of a viewing audience, especially a heretofore underserved horror-fan faction. It was Mick Garris who adapted this to TV, from a short story by Del Howison. Since Garris is also the executive producer of the series, it makes sense too that his would be the first one up, the lamb to the slaughter, as it were. But did it have to be so common a breed, so docile a specimen?

The ends, my friends. The ends. Of the 2008 television season, that is. And due to the writers’ strike, they were spread out all over the early months of the year, from January through to the season finale of LOST in this, the last week of May. Some shows broke for the summer on a high note; others a low note—but all of them seemed to reach for the dramatic brass ring. And some, in doing so, fell off the damn carousel horse and landed on their faces. Here are five shows that might have some apologizing to do to their fans come the fall—or worse yet, pull a Bobby-in-the-Shower moment. (Warning: Spoilers Ahead!)

There are things we believe in this world. That the sky is blue, that water is wet, and that Paula Abdul is a complete headcase.

But has Paula's own brand of crazy actually uncovered the real truth about American Idol? Was her performance on Tuesday night evidence that the judges' responses are scripted? Sure seems that way. Paula looked like she was reading directly from a script that she didn't seem to recognize. It certainly didn't look like someone reading her own notes, as she claims. More telling, Paula critiqued a performance that due to a scheduling change that happened mid-taping hadn't actually happened yet. Hm.

Colorado was all over the April 15 Frontline—not that the show was about Colorful Colorado, but our state had a lot to do with the program itself. Denverite T.R. Reid, who lists among his many credits a stint as the Denver Bureau Chief for the Washington Post, wrote and hosted this program, which itself was funded in part by the Colorado Health Foundation and the Colorado Trust. The episode, titled “Sick Around the World” looked at exactly that: what it means to need health care in other wealthy nations, and what the American health care system might learn from them.

Television shows have always had theme songs. When they're good, they add to the show in subtle but important ways. They can set a mood, like M.A.S.H.'s theme song "Suicide is Painless." They can set up the basics of the plot, like the classic opening to Gilligan's Island or The Brady Bunch. And, sometimes, they can utterly fail in trying to do either or both. Here, a list of six of the most memorable TV theme song failures:

Charles in Charge
Ah, what better place to start a "Worst of" list than with Scott Baio? I could probably fill this list with Baio-moments: Joanie Loves Chachi, the waning years of Happy Days, Diagnosis Murder, even Scott Baio is 45 and Single. But doesn't Charles in Charge hold a special place in TV history, not to mention our collective American hearts? (At least that part of the collective American heart that pertains to syndicated '80s TV?) Of course it does. And this theme song proves it—don't we all want Charles in Charge of our days? Our nights? Our wrongs, our rights? Don't we all, in the end, want "Charles in Charge of me"? Or at least that Nicole Eggert be involved, somehow?

NBC got the jump on the rest of the networks by announcing their plans for the 2008-09 season on April 2. NBC execs have been saying for months that they wanted to embrace a new approach. Apparently, the key to that "new approach" is this: more of the same old stuff.

Not more of NBC's same old stuff, though; that much is clear. Instead, they're going to try a bunch of things that are new to NBC, who's apparently taken to heart the slogan that they used to use for summer reruns: "If you haven't seen it, it's new to you!" Which wasn't meant to be insulting, even if it does sound too much like the line your Dad tried to feed you about the '79 Mercury Zephyr that passed for your first car.

The "new approach" that NBC announced Wednesday, April 2 includes:

"The buck stops here." President Truman's famous line, embedded there on his desk for all to see, lingers still today. Specifically, in the presidency of George W. Bush.

Not in the sense that W. embraced that philosophy. On the contrary, he seems to have been eager to pass that buck back down the chain of command. Or, more likely, he was never given the buck in the first place. Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld held on to that buck like it was a shotgun on a captive grouse farm.