Conan O'Brien
Show minus stars equals different show: It's one of the mantras of Jump the Shark, and it's true — unless, maybe, the show is The Tonight Show.
The Tonight Show is an institution that has had only four full-time hosts in more than half a century. Jack Paar, Steve Allen, Johnny Carson and Jay Leno all made their own imprints on the show, but in the way a minister does a church. Whether or not congregants like his or her personality or jokes, the basic religion stays the same.
Leno is...
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Life on Mars
p>"Can a series finale make a show jump the shark?" asks my colleague Mickey O'Connor, referring to ABC's wackadoo Life on Mars wrap-up, in which we discover that time-traveling cop Sam Tyler is actually an astronaut from the year 2035 on his way to Mars. Cue the David Bowie; it's going to be a wild ride.
You see, in order to make the two-year-long journey more bearable, the astronauts upload a type of virtual-reality vacation for the brain. In Sam's case, he thought it would be cool to be a cop "way back" in 2008. But of all the luck, the ship hit an asteroid field or something, which rejiggered the program's calendar, sending Future Sam even further back into the past — to 1973.
Nevertheless, there are some nice touches. Tyler's copilots on the 2035 Mars probe are played by the same actors from the 125, including Michael Imperioli, Gretchen Mol and Harvey Keitel — who, it's revealed, is actually Sam's father. But otherwise, the finale reveals that the entire show as we knew it was a fiction. All those cases and characters and complications never existed. (Poor Lisa Bonet!)
What did you think of the Life on Mars finale? Refreshingly original or an idea past its time?
Give us your thoughts after the jump.
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Grey's Anatomy, Melissa George
We love us some Grey's Anatomy, but just when we get to know new characters, they're out the door. One recent mystery revolved around the abrupt dismissal of Brooke Smith (Dr. Erica Hahn). People were really starting to get into the idea of "Callica" (the pairing of Callie and Erica), when poof, she was gone. Melissa George will wrap her time as Meredith's unpredictable, bisexual friend Sadie in the next few weeks. Why was she on the show if not to be another love interest for Callie? What do you think about the ins and outs at Grey's?
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