Grid Effect

In case your life is so void of any source of enjoyment, responsibility or a career that lets you out of work in a timely fashion on Fridays, here are some links to close out this week. And yes, much like all of you, we are taking Monday off.

So apparently it is still news when someone famous agrees to a cameo on 30 Rock, and this time around it is Jennifer Aniston. We like and respect Miss Aniston (though we seem to be in the minority with that), but really couldn’t care less about her or anyone else going on Tina Fey’s hit series. It has reached a point now where it wouldn’t surprise us if Obama pops up on that show.

Just to be clear, we're not complaining about the selection.

Michael Phelps is set to host SNL (which will be a trainwreck) and make a cameo on Entourage. This isn’t surprising but still disappointing. The sooner he’s done with all his interviews and cameos and endorsements, the sooner we can all forget pretending to be interested in swimming. His accomplishments are impressive, but just the fact that there is swimming terminology occupying our brain is enough to question our internet surfing at work. Also, I bet there is about a 99% chance someone on Entourage (probably Ari) says something along the lines of, “hhhheeeyyy, the real life ‘Aquaman’”, to Phelps in his cameo. In fact, his entire cameo will be solely for that purpose.

Apparently perceived camaraderie from democratic politicians between them and the staff of The Daily Show has made it difficult for Jon Stewart’s minions to do their jobs. Their jobs being mocking politicians. Apparently they are under the impression that since Jon Stewart is a widely recognized as a democrat (and is most of the time), he doesn’t find them ridiculous. All I want to point to is this clip from Jon Oliver asking DNC patrons about the Clinton speech to disprove that theory. Anyhow, they are airing a Friday episode to cover all the histrionics from last night, we definitely recommend watching.

Nikki Finke wonders why NBC newsmen like Aaron Sorkin so much. Why she gives a shit, I have no idea. But without reading her paragraph about it I would guess that since The West Wing was on NBC, and they currently work for NBC, that they have met at wrap parties or whatever work related functions these people would meet at, befriended, and now they like each other. I know it sounds crazy, but it is this thing called forming platonic friendships that an awful lot of us sentients learn when we are three or four. We commence doing so for the next twenty years, then stop until we are married and platonic friends are the only moral outlet for human contact away from our intolerable spouses and professions.

So apparently it wasn’t official — which means we could have done something to prevent it and never did, which pisses us off to no end — but Chuck was just renewed for a second season. And thank God for that. We don’t have enough emasculated nitwits portrayed on television. Only on every sitcom and reality series. And most network dramas…but that is about it.

And finally, It’s Always Sunny now has a blog, and they recommend that you be over eighteen to enter. I would say require, but all they do is ask you to enter your birth date with three drop down boxes. Don’t get me wrong, teenagers are ridiculously stupid, but they are computer savvy. And while you or me and everyone over fifty might have trouble with this concept, your average teen can probably put the pieces together of clicking on the arrow, selecting a birth month, birth day and a fictional birth year to gain access. There are roughly ten posts there right now, we recommend all of them without having read a word of it.

That’s it for now, we’ll be back next Tuesday with a synopsis of everything that didn’t happen in television over the next three days.