Except ... do I get VH1? No. It's not available in my area. Gee, it's too bad there's not some alternate way to access television shows, like some interconnected network of computers where people could share stuff like that.
They're burning off the eight already-shot episodes - no word on it being renewed for a second season, but I wouldn't hold my breath. I'll be writing something about it for Blogcritics to spread the word, but I just had to post the news now, in my insomniac excitement. Here's my original Love Monkey article based on an interview with creator Michael Rauch if you missed it.
In sad but not unexpected news, Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz rejected Showtime's offer to pick up the series.
The studio says:
"While there are no plans to resume production at this time, we know all too well from our experience with 'Family Guy' - another brilliant comedy which didn't find its audience in its first network run - that anything is possible," the studio said in a statement to the press. "We'll always be a little hopeful that this is not quite the end for this amazing show."
I want to say: "Let it go." Time for the fans to stop blaming FOX, maybe time to stop getting our hopes up that it will come back, and be grateful they stopped before they could screw up the legacy, as Jason Bateman was quoted as saying.
In other pressing TV news, I finally got my brother, the person who long ago hooked me on Blackadder and therefore Hugh Laurie, to watch House. I know, after all the evangelizing I do on the web, I couldn't get my own flesh and blood to watch it before. I tend not to proselytize in real life. Here's what he said about it in a recent Instant Messaging conversation, which I saved because I knew I wanted to ridicule him at some point:
Brother: Why would you name a show "House" if it wasn't about a house? You take one word as a title, and you couldn't make it what the show was about?
Me: It is a stupid name. I mean, I think it's fun that they named the character that (it's a reference to Sherlock Holmes ... Homes ... House) but it's still not a great title for a TV show. And unGoogleable.
Brother: Oh, didn't know it was a character name.
Me: You didn't? Yeah, Hugh Laurie is Dr. House. He's like a medical version of Sherlock Holmes.
Brother: I've never seen it or heard anything about it except from you. And you only blather about the writers and Hugh Laurie with his cane, never about what it's actually about.
At this point, I gasped. That is SO not true. I just gave up on him early because I knew he wasn't interested in medical shows, and if the fact that Hugh Laurie was playing an American in a drama wasn't enough to intrigue him, my hands were tied. He knew I interviewed a writer, but was he interested in reading the article? No. Sigh.
Brother: ... "blather" means, of course, "intelligently discuss" in Samoan, which I am studying.
He's a funny boy. There's a bit of House in him, actually. I gave him the DVDs after he finally expressed interest after that conversation. He's only watched four episodes so far, but he seems to have the hang of it:
I really like it. A 40 minute episode seems to be House being wrong for 30 minutes, then finally getting it right. And I don't think a lot of shows have the guts to kill a baby. Maybe I'm wrong and ER kills them every other episode - I don't watch a lot of medical shows.
And he adds:
It's called House MD dammit. If people called it that in the first place I wouldn't have thought it costarred Norm Abram.
I had to break it to him that they dropped the "MD" at some point this season, since no one called it that anyway.
