Just testing. Nothing important.

Official: TNT picks up ‘Southland’–The Live Feed | THR:

This is the best news of my Monday morning so far.  Congratulations to the cast of Southland and to TNT.

Oh goody. I really needed to wake up to this news today. Its bad enough that work is sparse right now — on top of it all, the Screen Actors Guild (the film actors union) is preparing to vote on October 18th regarding whether or not the union should go on strike. It would be the second such strike this year in my industry, a strike which has been looming for many months as talks continue to break down with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

The studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, said the economy is in trouble and urged actors not to strike.

“It is unrealistic for SAG negotiators now to expect even better terms during this grim financial climate,” the AMPTP said in a statement. “This is the harsh economic reality, and no strike will change that reality.”

The SAG’s national board, a 71-member body, is scheduled to meet Oct. 18. A simple majority is needed to approve the call for a strike vote.

On the flip side, can I really blame the union for wanting to strike? The AMPTP is now attempting to pressure the union, using the economic crisis as a reason not to re-negotiate their terms. Um, okay, so…what about your other contract agreements? Are you saying that you won’t be able to honor them because the economy is in trouble?

The guild wants union coverage of all shows made for the Internet, regardless of budget, and residual payments for actors on made-for-Internet shows that are reused on the Internet. It also demands protections for actors during work stoppages.

The alliance has stuck by a final offer it made June 30, which it said mirrored deals accepted by directors, a smaller actors union called the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and writers following their strike.

Oh okay. So, AFTRA gets theirs, and DGA members (directors) get theirs, but actors don’t? That’s great for me, but not so great for our actors. I’m sorry but um…that dog won’t hunt.

I support the union in their negotiating position & hope a strike will be averted. If not, it’s going to be a bumpy autumn.

The Associated Press: Actors union moves closer to strike vote.

Obviously, my answer is a resounding yes. First off, I hate television. Secondly, I love television. And finally, I hate that I love television which makes this show the end-all and be-all for people like me. 30 Rock is a crowning achievement in a world of mediocre comedies and reality shows that don’t seem so real. For the first time in a long time, I laugh for almost an entire half-hour at something that isn’t a cartoon. The concept is fairly simple: it’s a television show about making a television show at NBC Universal. Doesn’t seem very complicated on its face; but the consistently over-the-top humor takes necessary jabs at the ways television rots our souls and minds — from the writer’s desk through the ivory executive towers.

I haven’t cared for Saturday Night Live in many, many years. However, I always enjoyed Tina Fey. As Liz Lemon, the hard-driving producer/director of a weekly comedy show, she proves herself as a writer, an actor, and a cheerleader against the evil empire which, ironically, pays the salaries of the actors on the show. The phenomenal ensemble cast, which includes fellow SNL alumnus Tracy Morgan, “Ally McBeal” regular Jane Krakowski, Scott Adsit and pre-eminent character actor Judah Friedlander, the show takes the green room to the people and exorcises the demons of backstage drama and politics. Particularly amazing is Golden Globe-winner Alec Baldwin whose sardonic turn as network executive Jack Donaghy never misses a beat as he delivers the funny — frequently doing so with the help of his foil cum sidearm Jack McBrayer as sexually-ambiguous NBC page Kenneth.

The formula has yielded 24 half-hour episodes that are without a doubt the funniest thing the network has seen since Seinfeld. Every episode pushes the envelope without reveling in playground humor. Not that the show doesn’t go there; but when it does, it only adds to the consistency of the show. It takes the deep ambitions and desires of show business people to make the best show possible and turns the gun on them all, leaving no one unwounded.

This is the show of my dreams.

Perhaps the following monologue from the show best explains what makes it a unique and beautiful snowflake in a hail storm of nonsense. “Do you know why I put up with this job, Mr. Donaghy?” asks Kenneth, the omnipresent page boy of his doting boss. “Why I fetch these folks lunches and clean up their barfs? Because THEY make television. It’s more than jazz or musical theater or morbid obesity. Television is the true American art form. Think of all the shared experiences television has provided for us….from the moon landing to the Golden Girls finale. From Walter Cronkite denouncing Vietnam to Oprah pulling that trash bag of fat out in the wagon. From the glory and the pageantry of the Summer Olympics, to the less-fun Winter Olympics….I am living my dream.”

Fortunately for the world, NBC Universal has picked up 30 Rock for a second season so that we can have the shared experience of laughing out loud at the people who create the thing we all love to hate so much.

30 Rock comes on Thursday nights at 9:30/8:30c on NBC. Click here for more information about the show.

I’m the first to admit openly that I cry at movies. I’m not afraid to admit having shed my share of tears at films that were moving to me in some way or another, but I know I’m an anomaly of sorts. Unlike most guys I know, I’ve always been into film. See, most guys don’t have this extensive knowledge of films or this worldly knowledge of the movies of a particular director or whatever. Well, ok, maybe a little bit when you start talking Scorcese or Coppola.

But how many of these grown men start bawling watching the same movie every time it comes on? I have a theory about the movie Rudy (1993) starring Sean Astin, Ned Beatty, and Charles S. Dutton. I’m not alone in this soul-searching, tear-soaked situation as evidenced by dozens of hits in Google for otherwise normal, grown men talking about how a movie “makes me cry every time I watch it”. No movie has ever hit me the way Rudy does, and I really can’t quite put my finger on it. Is it the feeling of triumph of the will over the obstacles of life? Is it the joy of seeing Rudy’s own teammates walking into the coach’s office to ask for Rudy to dress in their place? Is it the thrill of seeing Rudy’s family and close friends in the stands at the one game where he gets to dress out? Is it watching Rudy carried out by his teammates from that stadium?

It’s probably a combination of all of these things, but don’t let that movie come on cable unless you want to see your man watered down to a shard of his former self, bawling like he just took a belt across the ass from his father for breaking some priceless family heirloom.

Perhaps it is only because I share this same affliction with so many other men that I feel okay about telling you about it. Maybe you’ve never seen the movie Rudy and, if you haven’t, I’ve already ruined some of the good stuff for you. But then again, the good stuff is really just the bare essence of what any of us would consider the basis of a life worth writing about.

I’ve gotta go, I’m still sitting here crying. Damn you, HBO.

It was recently suggested to me by a friend that I should veer outside the lines of mainstream television looking for a show to become addicted to. Clearly, my addictions to The Sopranos, Desperate Housewives, Law & Order and The Amazing Race were not enough to lull myself into submission that I had a problem. It was time to prove one and for all that I had fallen completely off of the no-TV wagon, and I’ve discovered a show that does the job. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia is clearly one of the most overlooked, underappreciated, and absolute hands-down fall-0n-the-floor-laughing hilarious shows I have ever watched. The F/X original series premiered in 2005 and, since I didn’t have a television in 2005, I missed it completely. Now that I have seen the funny, its as if I had been wandering the halls in a housecoat and slippers carrying a torch and a glass stem for years.

The show centers around four friends, Mac (played by show creator Rob McElhenney), Charlie (actor Charlie Day), Dennis (actor Glenn Howerton) and his sister Dee (played by Kaitlin Olson) working in the Irish pub that Mac, Charlie, and Dennis own together. Of course, a television show about a bar in Philadelphia could go flat and draw comparisons to Cheers if not for the twenty-somethingness of the characters and their struggles to make the bar successful. The show’s storylines involve the usual young adult stuff — relationships, college, girls, drinking. However, the infusion of each character’s troubling world views makes the show far from normal. Dealing with racsim, homosexuality, abortion, politics, religion, and inner-city life (and that’s just in one episode), each character’s obliviousness is so confounding and surreal that if you’ve ever lived in the inner city, you’d almost think you were seeing yourself there on the screen. There is truly something to offend almost everyone in this show, but it doesn’t go for the “dick and fart” joke comedy. It does what really great comedy does — it hits you right in the places you don’t want to talk about and makes you laugh.

Only seven episodes of the show were ordered last season, however I am told that there will be more episodes coming this year. I’m looking forward to it and hope that people will catch on to this gem. It’s really and truly the single best comedy on television, easily outpacing other shows I love like Arrested Development, Family Guy, and my Desperate Housewives. If you hear that it’s coming on, I’d suggest you put down the bong for a few minutes to catch the laughs. You’ll be very happy that you did.