You may have noticed that cable channel G4 is showing reruns of Arrested Development. Then again, you may not: G4 is hiding way up in the far regions of the box, and it's a video gamers channel. I'm not even sure what that means, or why they should be showing Arrested Development, but I'm grateful anyway.

I've been watching them for some nostalgic viewing recently, and it is still amazing how good it is. That's why it's exciting to hear that Mitchell Hurwitz, Arrested Development creator, is developing a new show based on a hit British series.

I'm excited, but also cautious. Just because The Office is a raging success doesn't mean we should lose sight of all the failed Brit imports of the past: Fawlty Towers. Coupling. The monarchy. Etc.

Dudes and dudettes, it was a tragic/celebratory Thursday here at TiFaux. On the one hand, there was no access to the site all day. On the other hand, it was because we exceded our bandwidth. (Which is neat.) On the negative side, I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to post about. On the positive, I can post about it now.

• NBC is bringing back comedy Thursdays, with My Name is Earl, The Office, Scrubs, and 30 Rock. Speaking of which, I hope everyone caught 30 Rock on Wednesday. Best episode yet. Kenneth Ellen the page went toe-to-toe with Alec Baldwin and held his ground. This show is starting to be as good as I want it to be.
• Which, of course, I still can't say for Studio 60. I've been obsessively reading the comments to The Hater's similar tirade (and, yes, I commented, I couldn't help it), and my anger is starting to spill over from the show itself to the Studio 60 apologists. It reminds me of the feeling you get trying to debate Republicans, or ideologues of any stripe (Studio 60 apologists tend to be on the very liberal end of the spectrum, but it's the same idea). They're not actually critiquing the show, they're focused on the idea of the show, and they seem to think that people who criticize the show are against "intelligent" entertainment, which is so far from the truth it's practically on another planet. Television is absolutely capable of being better than this. Just watch better shows. They're out there, I promise. But I have to stop now, or I'm going to start crying or hitting something.
• On a more cheerful note, the actor who plays Hiro on Heroes is a computer effects programmer for ILM. This is surprising to absolutely no one, but increases the actor's charmingness by a factor of four.
• Also from Wired: "Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so." That's Joss Whedon's 6-word story; other luminaries write more, but Joss's is my favorite.
• The "Best New Show" sidebar poll is racking up some serious votes, in our meagre standards. It was quite a horse race for a while between Dexter and Heroes. I feel guilty: I voted for Heroes on two different computers. I just couldn't bear to see it beaten by Showtime. So you have my permission to go ahead and use your coworkers' computers to stack the votes whatever way you want. And will someone please give some love to 30 Rock?
• Dan is a graphing genius.

I'm so glad we're back.

A lot of shows aim to be funny.  These shows are called comedies. 

Sometimes, shows are half-funny, half-serious.  These are cleverly called dramedies.

Still other shows aim to be half-funny, half-serious and end up being annoying.  These shows are called Greys Anatomy. 

I end up watching a lot of comedic and dramedic shows for unknown reasons.  Possibly, it's just habit.  But why do we (read: I) watch shows that aren't actually funny.  Let's put it all on a graph, shall we?

News nuggets to get you through your mid-morning slump.

• Todd Oldham is set to host Top Design, a Project Runway-style show but this time with interior designers. It's going to hit the airwaves in January on, surprise, Bravo.
• Take shelter!  Nina Garcia is preggo!  Something must be in the Evian on the Project Runway set.  There is something oddly compelling, though, about the idea of Michael Kors sitting between two bubble-bellied women while dishing out criticism to the designers.
• In 'too little too late' news, Isaiah Washington has apologized for being an ass.  Greys Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes denies that he's being replaced, thereby blowing my Burke-kills-himself prophecy to smithereens.
• In aggressive females news, both Bravo's Work Out and the Janice Dickenson Modeling Agency have been renewed, thereby providing basic cable with two more shows for me to accidentally begin watching.
• Did you know about this shit they're pulling with Lost? After the Nov. 8 episode, the show won't air a new episode until Feb. 7.  Preposterous!

We're three episodes into the new season of Lost, and it's been pretty satisfying.  Well, as satisfying as Lost ever is.

The producers are really good at making me hate The Others and keeping me curious as to what they're all about.  Of course, I'm always teetering on the verge of oh-who-gives-a-crap-ness, but the mystery gets bigger every episode.

And I don't buy the whole "we're the good guys" thing — seeing as how they're continually kidnapping and imprisoning/enslaving people.  The secrecy is one thing, but the kidnapping and the violence?  Maybe not.

One thing that I think is interesting was this discovery on Pink is the New Blog.  If you follow this link and scroll down a little, you can see Trent's recap and some pictures.  In those pictures, he does a side-by-side comparison of Mike (the male half of the pot-growing couple) and Zeke (the Other).  It would appear that they're the same person.  I am historically awful at figuring out mysteries within movies and TV shows.  It can be the most hackneyed, formulaic production ever, and I'll be guessing (wrongly) til the last minute. 

I just hope that this doesn't all culminate in some sort of mind experiment thing where you find out in the last episode that half of the series never even happened. 

One of the other new developments was that we finally met Paulo and Nikki .  Now, where did they come from?  They've been there all along, silly.  You know, one of those faceless survivors populating the island who only show up when they need extra manpower to dig a grave or launch a raft.  This is a bit disappointing, as I was expecting some sort of dramatic entrance — perhaps emerging from a cave after years of seclusion or a crashing off a wayward hang-glider.

In other news, I'm glad they clarified that The Others can communicate off the island.  At the beginning of the first episode of the season, I was raising an eyebrow when Juliette began giving Jack his life story.  Then, Ben started saying how Bush won the election (boo!) and the Red Sox won the World Series (yay!).  I really don't have anything particularly novel to say about this development, except that it makes the whole Others plot a lot more interesting.

Anyone else have any remarks about the new season to add to this unfocused, rambling post? 

Sometimes I just want to strangle Studio 60. I'm not going to stop watching, because it's an interesting show and I don't want it to be my fault that it gets canceled, but what was once just mild eye-rolling has progressed into yelling and feet-stamping. It's a good show, at least in part, I think — but something about it just rubs me the wrong way.

Plenty had been written — here and elsewhere — about how the sketches aren't funny. That isn't even my problem any more. Last night, there weren't any sketches. Though Matt and Simon were supposed to have discovered an amazing comedic talent whose jokes weren't all that hilarious, at least it was clear that he was superior to the first comic, who didn't even bother making jokes. 

And I've really grown fond of Tom and Simon and Harriet. They have a great rapport together. I even kind of love Jordan, who made a wonderful mess of herself at the wrap party. And I have a great fondness for Jack, who can be counted on to say the wrong thing (and quote musical theatre? He did it again last night, I think) and liven things up. 

Partly I think my problem is Matt: what kind of arrogance, what sort of enormous, fragile ego does this man have that he has the balls to be insulted by Simon's suggestion that he take the input of other writers? From the look on his face it was clear that there could be no other writer whose genius was as earth-shattering as Matt's. He eventually agrees to listen to Simon's advice, but the fact that he had to be persuaded to do something so sensible and reasonable and decent boggles my mind.

Partly, too, it's the stifling air of superiority shared by all the characters. They are making good TV, they constantly tell us, important, historically resonating TV for Alpha Consumers. But in order to buy into their mindset — that they are bringing a revolution to the small screen — you have to accept that TV in general sucks. People who say that TV in general sucks obviously aren't watching the same shows I am, or, for that matter, much television at all. It's small-minded and snobby to say that TV sucks.

I get the sense that the people who enjoy this show, who truly believe that the show itself, like the show-within-a-show, is bringing something revolutionary to the airwaves, these are people who turn their nose up at most TV. And that just makes me crazy.

Battlestar Galactica, Deadwood, House, Lost, The Office — these shows don't go around talking about how important and meaningful and high-art they are. They just tell really interesting stories in novel ways. That's revolutionary.  

*George Clooney (not me) messing up Network in Out of Sight. 

UPDATE: Amelie at The Hater spells out more reasons this episode made us want to choke someone. 

Survivor: Ain't Nothing But a Race Thang has voted out seven castaways so far and most of the ballyhoo surrounding the season has died down considerably. Now that the initial shock of the idea has faded, maybe now is a good time to ask: was it as racist as some people said it was going to be?

Well, no.  It isn't really racist at all.  Shameless, yeah, but not filled with hate.

For the most part, the series has steered clear of any race-fueled conflict. That is, no person has been badmouthing any of the other tribes just for kicks.

How have the races been faring?

So far, the Latinos have made a poor showing. Four of the five Latinos have been voted off, with the scrappy Ozzy as the last man standing.  I don't think there's any reason for this trend, as they've all been voted off for different reasons.  Heavy metal guitarist Billy got the boot (from his own racially-divided tribe — they're now in two mixed tribes) after they threw the competition to get rid of him.  Supa-hot piece of manflesh J.P. was taking the knives out of his back after the women of his tribe turned the tables on him.  The perfectly nice Cecilia was given her walking papers because no one knew who else to vote out.  And now Christina got the axe because no one seemed to like her.

How does this break down?  

Latinos: 4
Blacks: 2
Asians: 1
Whites: 0

So Team White is the only race to have everyone still on the island.  Even the grating Flica, a self-described performance artist and rollergirl. Thanks God, though, they recently voted off Cao Boi (yes, pronounced 'Cowboy'). He proclaimed himself not a "typical" Asian because he has crazy facial hair and tattoos.  And, presumably, didn't score in the 700s on the SAT math portion.

We're a couple days late with this, but NBC has announced that it is giving up on 8 PM. To save money, they won't be scheduling scripted dramas or comedies in the 8 PM time slot — only game shows and reality shows.

This is sad to me, as it means fewer opportunities for great shows to get produced. (Not that all shows NBC produces are great. But you have to throw a lot of pies at the wall to get one that sticks. Or something.) And I doubt they're going to come up with any groundbreaking game shows or reality contests, especially as it's now the game-and-reality dumping ground, the hour that it's okay to ignore.

Poor NBC. All this talk of saving money and rising from the ashes. Buck up! You have my favorite new shows — Heroes, 30 Rock, Studio 60 — and returning champ (and Emmy-award-winner!) The Office. Things aren't so bad. No need to go cutting off your own limbs.

How is it possible that this show has managed to escape my attention?

Celebrity Paranormal Project premieres this Sunday and it promises to be absolutely horrible.  Love it.   You can probably figure out the concept.  It's MTV's Fear meets The Surreal Life when five of the usual C-list actors and reality show alums go to haunted houses, armed with paranormal investigation equipment, and then freak out.

The first episode features Gary Busey, Hal Sparks, Tocarra (from America's Next Top model), Jenna Morasca (from Survivor) and Baywatch's Donna d'Errico exploring Louisville, Kentucky's Waverly Hills Sanatorium — a TB hospital where 63,000 people died during the White Plague epidemic. Number two features Survivor's Ethan Zohn, Traci Bingham, Godfrey and Rachel Hunter.

Hey now!

What started off as a giggle-inducing spat between two pretty men over who got a more flattering camera angle has blown up into something different entirely.  

First off, T.R. Knight, who plays George on Greys Anatomy, has officially come out of the closet!  Hooray!  We're happy to have you, George!  Cosmos are on the right, mini-quiches are on the left.  Fernando will be around soon with your fitted t-shirt and Six Feet Under box set. 

Oh T.R.!

But while a coming out is always cause for celebration in my book, the Greys Anatomy situation is a bit darker thanks to Isaiah Washington (Dr. Burke), who is rapidly losing stock.  Apparently, there's more to the story than just makeup and camera angles. 

Even though the story originated in the Enquirer, blogs like Defamer and papers like the Chicago Tribune have picked up the story.

The original story reads:

"As The ENQUIRER exclusively revealed last week, Patrick and Isaiah clashed over cast members being late to the set, right before shooting a scene at Prospect Studios in Los Angeles.

Because of the extreme nature of the slur, The ENQUIRER is withholding the name of the co-star targeted by Washington. During the brawl, an enraged Isaiah grabbed Patrick by the throat and shoved him a few feet."

Knight's coming-out is in response to all of this, which is not necessarily the way a person likes to do such things. 

My favorite part of this story, as reported by the NY Daily News, is that at one point Dempsey barked that Washington should "pick on someone his own size."  This makes me love him.  I could give or take Patrick Dempsey before, but now he's firmly in the "love" camp.

Finally, I want to go on record for something.  I may very well be wrong, but I think Washington's number will officially be up on the Greys set.  And I predict that Dr. Burke is going to kill himself because he can't be a surgeon anymore.  Anyone else with me?