Question: Is The Class canceled or did it just have an early season finale? I'm so disappointed if it is canceled! It has turned out to be one of my favorite shows!
Answer: Tonight's episode is an early season finale, fulfilling a shortened season order of 19 episodes, but it could well be the first step toward a cancellation. (Shades of last season's Out of Practice.) It's too bad. The Class is still figuring itself out, but there are a handful of characters here (Ethan and Kat, Richie and Lina, Nicole and Duncan) I'd like to see more of. It's just that the show lacks a center, with more tenuous connections between the couples than on David Crane's hard-to-surpass Friends. If the prime-time environment were more hospitable to comedy, there might be room for The Class to return and evolve. But with CBS having basically a single two-hour comedy block to work with, and with Rules of Engagement doing well enough after Two and a Half Men to be a lock for renewal (groan), its prospects loo ...
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Law & Order
The networks have started working on new fall series, which means pink slips are coming for some of your old favorites. Here's what could be on the chopping block.
NBC Did you ever imagine the day when Law & Order would be canceled? We're not saying it's going to happen — it probably won't. But costs on the show have risen while its ratings have dropped, which means its renewal is no longer automatic every year. NBC's other middling crime dramas — Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Crossing Jordan and Medium — are more vulnerable. The network has also yet to decide on another season for The Apprentice
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I titled this week's blog "feeling sorry" because I kept feeling sorry for so many people in this episode. Of course, I kept laughing at all of their sorrow and pain as well. It was a good balance. I felt sorry for Duncan. He had to go out to lunch with Yonk and listen to him talk about keeping Nicole company while he's out, all while hiding the fact that Nicole's about to leave him. I actually might have felt sorry for him that he wouldn't get to see the Sixers game, either. (No wait, no one needs to see the Sixers right now.)I felt sorry for Nicole that Yonk got home early and ruined her plans to have things packed and ready to go. I felt sorry for Richie that he had to hold in the fact that Nicole was packing to leave Duncan. And I felt sorry that he got tossed on his head after riding the bull for .01 seconds. I felt sorry for Kyle that he never gets to see his boyfriend. And I felt really sorry for Kat that she gave her heart to Benjamin Chow and it turned out ugly. So that's a...
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Heather Goldenhersh, The Class
With only two episodes left before CBS' The Class (Mondays at 8:30 pm/ET) starts on its early "school vacation," we at TVGuide.com were dying to find out what is happening between one of the oddest but most adorable couples on TV, Lina (Heather Goldenhersh) and Richie (Jesse Tyler Ferguson). Now that they've finally managed to overcome some problems — he had a wife; he ran Lina over with his car; Lina was in a wheelchair for most of those episodes; their first awkward time together — they've really come into their own, which must mean there is more trouble ahead, right? Goldenhersh, a New Yorker, was happy to chat with us from her East Coast dwelling and offer a real behind-the-scenes look at the sitcom.
TVGuide.com: Is The Clas
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Question: Where has Holly Ellenbogen (Lucy Punch) from The Class gone? I'm assuming it's a permanent thing since she no longer appears in the opening theme.
Answer: I'm frankly amazed no one brought it up before now. Holly has been erased from the opening class lineup like she never even existed. Even to someone like me, who found her the weakest and most shrilly unfunny member of the ensemble, that was pretty harsh. Simply put, the character wasn't working, it was getting harder to find a way to justify including her in story lines, and the producers justifiably dropped her ...
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Alright, alright. I hear you loud and clear. You're saying, "Dave, you better not say this episode sucks, too, because then I'll know you're nuts." Well, you are right about that. I'd be crazy not to like this. It was sweet. It was funny. It was unrequited love finally coming together. What's not to like about that? Now, from what I understand, this was the episode everyone saw via the table read. I never watched that for some reason. I really have no idea why, either. You all recommended I view it, but I never got around to it. I'm very curious to see your opinion of this episode if you did take the time to watch the run-through. I thought it was very funny and, most importantly, it's finally out: Duncan and Nicole love each other! I'll admit it, sometimes I can be a heartless idiot. I like to find humor in all situations and, really, other people's problems can be very funny. But I felt really sorry for Nicole. Whether she married Yonk simply for his money is irrelevant. She deser...
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Right off the bat, I want to say that it will appear to you, the reader, that I am an angry, mean-spirited and overall just a crappy human being as you read the rest of this blog. The reality is, I'm only two of those characteristics. But today, you will clearly get the point that I thought this episode was a complete waste of VCR tape (oh, c'mon you were also watching Morris O'Brien take a drill to the shoulder).This just didn't make any sense to me from the beginning. First of all, I know we've seen Ethan stretching in the hall before, but not like this. Why was he exercising there instead of in the apartment? There was no explanation for that at all. Bizarre. Then, they are watching the weather forecast and it said that Philadelphia was 55 degrees and Allentown was 31. Right now, I'm typing from pretty much smack dab in the middle of those two cities and I guarantee you that this discrepancy would never happen. I get the point that the weatherman was completely wrong since...
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Question: I guess I'm still in the minority on The Class, but I love it. And I find myself loving it more as the weeks go by. I know you've always been a bit iffy about it, but I'm not seeing the mess. It's better without Holly, and I agree with you that any marginalization of Kyle has nothing to do with him being gay, but is rather an attempt to focus on fewer characters. (For the record, I prefer him with Ethan and Kat anyway.) It saddens me to think that CBS will probably dump this show, but my question is, why? You mentioned that 30 Rock will more than likely get a pickup, and while I understand its award pedigree, The Class regularly outdoes Rock in ratings. Even How I Met Your Mother doesn't do that much better ratings-wise, but for whatever reason that is seen as a success. This show still has better ratings than any other new half-hour comedy on TV (not that it's that hard right now), and better than several of the long-existing ones (just not on CBS). I also have nothing ...
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OMG! How hilarious was this episode? I've thought other weeks were funny, but never did I laugh the entire way through. And it might be a bit hard to recap, since I was laughing while taking notes. So, as I like to do now and again, I'm just going to spout off my favorite quotes from the show (you know, the adult diaper moments).The first really funny moment came at the tail end of Nicole getting angry that pizza was being thrown away, since she was on a strict diet. So after she asked the guys to make sure the pizza touched something else in the trash can and they didn't understand her, she screamed at them, "If there's pizza that's only touched the box, I'm gonna eat that son-of-a-bitch." Nicole had another great one later as the cheesesteak conversation got all phone-sexish. She asked Duncan if he got sweet or hot peppers and he told her that he got both. Then in her sexy voice she says, "I like it sweet and hot." Even Jerry Rice had some funny moments in this one, especially whe...
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Question: Just wanted to throw some praise (rather than the usual "sexist pig" name-calling you're used to, apparently) your way for your comments on Brothers & Sisters' refreshing treatment of its gay character. I noticed in your response that you mentioned homosexual characters who are forced to be "laughable sitcom bait." I couldn't help but think of Sean Maguire's character on the otherwise steadily improving The Class. While all of a sudden the show strives to define itself as "Friends 2.0," I see Maguire's character Kyle getting pushed more and more to the periphery. At the start of the series he was in a stable relationship with his boyfriend, but nowadays he seems to be the least gay homosexual since Will Truman. Between the Heroes de-gaying and The Class' Kyle, I have to wonder why networks feel that fully developed homosexual characters have to be sacrificed for increased popularity? Thankfully, ABC seems to be above that.
Answer: Good point, but knowing the producers behind
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