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I saw that last night, it was online even before Conan's show aired, it was very moving. Garry Shandling's generosity to Conan was so touching.

Great News! It's the only drama I currently watch consistently and I'm really glad it's getting one more year at least.

I saw him in person on stage in 1776...it's not every day that a celebrity dies who I saw in person (fortunately....). I still see him in my mind's eye as young as he was then.

Ha, I have no idea where I got that since I've never read the books you linked to. Maybe I heard about it somewhere, or I mixed up Morland and Warlock :)

It's funny because I was just posting about this over in the TV tropes you hate thread. Much as I loved The Odd Couple, they went to the well with celebrity guests so many times that I think the network must have pressured them to do it for the ratings. I really dislike the whole celebrity as him/herself thing because it generally makes the scene so unnatural; though, to repeat my other post, the Odd Couple exception was the great Password show with Betty White and her then husband Allen Ludden. I know a lot of people claim that as their favorite episode (I think Jack Klugman did) but mine will always be the hilarious Subway Show with Felix and Oscar trapped in a stalled subway car with a bunch of grumpy New Yorkers. Unfortunately some of it always gets cut in reruns; I love producer Gary Marshall saying to Oscar, who says he hasn't been on a subway in years: "Can't tell you how we've missed you!"

The dog show segment with Stephen and Paul (and the other dog's owner, I forget) was very entertaining, and there was that nice spontaneous moment recently after Laurie Anderson's music for dogs piece with Stephen and Meredith and one of the dogs on the couch at the end.

Thanks much Trey!

Did anyone recognize the actor who played the tailor that Bell interviewed? I thought I had seen him somewhere. Maybe he's a Hey It's That Guy?

And Joan's shock that Sherlock had taken an original comic out of its plastic bag. Sherlock: "How else was I going to read it?" They did make another strong episode out of what could have been a fairly light-hearted subject matter. I hope Joan will have no further involvement in Morlock's business though, as she indicated. I wonder why she didn't tell Sherlock about that last confrontation with the mole, or if she was going to tell him later. Next week with Sherlock and Fiona looks promising.

Thanks, I never watch Good Wife, so I had no idea how long this was going to take.

I believe the show will be on tomorrow the 20th. I just caught up with this episode and I agree that it was excellent. I wasn't that motivated to see it beforehand just because the film of Baskervilles is the only Sherlock Holmes film I've actually seen (well apart from the John Barrymore silent of 1922 which takes a lot of liberties!) and I thought the story might be too familiar but from what little I remember this was different enough that it didn't matter. The storyline with Sherlock and Eugene was so moving and beautifully played by both actors. I also loved seeing Clyde again, and got quite a kick out of seeing in that same scene the tabloid headlines from the New York Ledger - the obvious substitute for that famous rag, the New York Post, in countless episodes of Law and Order. I don't think Sunday is a bad move for the show per se, at least it will be following other dramas instead of CBS' rotating group of Thursday sitcoms. and I watched both Law and Order CI and Leverage on Sunday until they ended. Sports will be a problem though. I did watch this week's show On Demand over my Roku and the sound seemed unusually tinny - I was having trouble hearing all the voices. Anyone else notice this?

Well, I did think of that, and "Walnut" is brilliant television, but technically Thomas was playing an alien in the dream. So to me that's different, though I see what you mean. I think what I don't like is that when the celebrity plays him/herself, the other actors usually can't have a normal scene and generally treat them like a star, which doesn't entertain me. The Odd Couple, which I loved, had a lot of these star turns but they weren't my favorite episodes, well, except for the Betty White/Allen Ludden Password show. Okay, there's an exception! Sorry I missed that part :)

Don't know if this came up before, but I *hate* seeing celebrities playing themselves in sitcoms. I've recently been watching the Drew Carey show on LAFF and who should show up on the characters' spontaneous trip to New York but...Donald Trump. Yes, Trump.

Another vote for Corner Gas. I discovered it while vacationing in Newfoundland, and just love it. I ended up buying most of it on DVD from Amazon.ca. Not only is it brilliant, but it's even better viewing without commercials that way. I purchased the DVD of the Corner Gas movie through their Kickstarter but haven't seen it yet. I'd be willing to bet you can get it through Amazon.ca though.

This reminds me of an excellent board I belong to that discusses classic films. The mods there have a rule against arguing about politics, religion, sports, or dimwit celebrities, or saying the same old thing more than twice, and while most of the time it's followed...you guessed it, some of it creeps in anyway. There's one person there whose screen name makes me think "not him again..." but anyway I try not to get into flame wars online and I appreciate it when other people do the same.

I've read elsewhere that the warm-up comedian has been asking the audience to drop the chanting for awhile now. Apparently sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. I did like it awhile back though when they would just break into spontaneous chants like "Santa! Santa!" and "Warlock Warlock!" He seems to be feeling pretty bad all this week, it looks like the week off is coming just in time, though it's probably due to the NCAA I guess. I did think his Daylight Saving Time rant on Monday was hilarious.

I was just thinking today that shows like the Odd Couple and Bob Newhart, in addition to being hilarious, seem less dated today because they made very few specific topical references (I've read that Bob at least requested this from his writers, figuring on reruns in the future). I don't always remember when a particular old show was filmed, so watching Night Court last night, for example, it took me a second to catch the political references; I imagine they might be totally lost on young people. Barney Miller made such occasional references as well, but as a more realistic show it seems less noticeable to me. I've been meaning to catch some of the Dick Cavett shows (he has said recently that he never saw some of them the first time around). Strangely, I had trouble watching the time I tuned in Johnny Carson one night recently - though he was interviewing Mel Brooks on the release of Young Frankenstein! But somehow I find it sad now to watch Johnny; I'm just too used to all the times I saw him when he was alive. However, I imagine for younger people who never saw him at the time it would be entertaining.

I was away last week and didn't notice that; it's a shame. It was great to see all those people assembled on the show to help out the students. They did end up extending the donor match an extra day on the 11th.

Not everyone gets Watch TCM unfortunately. Time Warner cable in New York doesn't provide it, and gives no explanation.

I don't know if you've found it yet ABay, but the whole mind-blowing segment appears to be included on Youtube. It was really cool not only to watch it but to hear Brian Greene explain that the waves could go places that light could not. Loved that Stephen had him on the show. Also loved the Hillary segment "I want to make Stephen Colbert happy" (!)

I have to agree on this, the show seems to be over-booking for whatever reason, I just hope that if they go to double taping on Thursday in order to film more taped segments (something Stephen has said in interviews that he would like to be able to do) that they will get out of this habit. I don't think at this point that it's necessary for Stephen's ratings for him to book mega-stars in the first segment of each show so if he wants to go with more unusual guests I think the show will do all right. On another note, I was kind of hoping that Triumph would be scheduled for Friday; he'd make a great "Friday Night Fights" contestant.

I didn't see a lot of Super Bowl ads, but I liked the one about the incompetent bank robbers getting away in a Prius, and so thrilled that they were making social media. Has State Farm gotten rid of the Coneheads version of the "Jake" commercial? I only see them running the original one now. I miss the Coneheads.

I had kind of forgotten about it, but Ferguson and/or Stephen had mentioned running into each other sometime before, anyway they seemed to be having a great time together and I could really see Craig coming back a lot. It was great that he was brought back for the dart segment (I confess to having not much idea about the scoring they were attempting, but it clearly didn't matter much). My theory about Big Furry Hat is that the writers use it for funny lines they can't fit in elsewhere. Maybe that's why I enjoy it, the lines are too good to pass up and Stephen is having fun with them.

I think there may be some truth to this; also, I do think the show needs to resolve the issue of the number of guests they have on. I really don't think they need four guests on any given night (counting the musical act) but it's happening more than I would have thought. I can see where Stephen and his producers would want to make room for the authors, experts, activists and others that he's interested in (and Neil deGrasse Tyson is already becoming a great recurring guest) but I think what is happening is that Stephen seems to be conscious of finishing the interview on time with the celebrity and not letting it run over (especially since it would usually be the first interview), so the questions in those interviews may seem rushed. Again, I agree with Slovenly Muse that he is getting better at it, and I think he will continue to do so with time, but I suspect they may have to break down and maybe do some shows without a musical guest (though the hip-hop and Japanese drum players this week were both amazing) and others with only two one-segment interview guests to allow more time. Of course that also leaves open the question of the time for the desk or remote segments but I think they will have more time to work on them and tape some of them if they go to the taping two shows on Thursday route they seem to be considering. In regard to Jon's commentary, it doesn't bother me either, and I did like the recent moment when Stephen was making a joke about the Iowa corn subsidies and Jon exclaimed "Shucks!" Needless to say, Jon's performance of Blackbird this week was brilliant.

They did do a remote with Von Miller but what seemed to happen was that they didn't get the feed for it when they were supposed to so there was this sudden remote appearance with him in the middle of the Tina Fey/Margot Robbie interview. I imagine something went wrong with the satellite transmission or the timing of it that the remote didn't happen earlier. As far as sports go, Stephen has pretty much admitted not being a sports person though he's done sports satires on both his shows. Still I doubt that had anything to do with Peyton Manning going on Fallon's show instead.