Way back in September, Kyle, Friend of the Faux Katie, and I attended a taping of the Parker Posey/Lauren Ambrose/Amy Sherman-Palladino sitcom The Return of Jezebel James. I’m excited to say that the episode we saw is airing tonight! (Unless they cancel the show between now and 8:30. Which is… possible.)

This is our episode! That kid with the horns on the right is based on this kid.

Living in New York, and in the age of the single-camera sitcom, we don’t get a lot of opportunity to see scripted shows being taped. I’ve been to the Daily Show, which was awesome, but it was also remarkably similar to sitting at home watching the Daily Show (for example, it took almost exactly a half hour to tape). Seeing Jezebel James taping was completely different and fascinating. Watching the crew at work, manipulating these giant cameras at insane speeds and making instant decisions and changes and improvements, was like watching a whole other show in addition to the one being taped. I loved it. I could’ve stayed there all night just to watch them do their jobs.

… Which is good, because the taping went until after 1:00 AM! Keep in mind these numbers: Taping began at around 7:00. About 8-10 minutes of the show had been previously recorded. That means that we spent 6+ hours taping 12-14 minutes of actual show. Now, if this were a movie, that might not be so insane. But according to the audience’s cheesy host/comedian(?), who’s been a host/comedian(?) at dozens of tapings of many shows, in his experience, this was the latest a sitcom taping had ever gone. (Also, his family owns Town Shop. FYI.)

Like I said, I had no problem with this, because I was loving the whole experience. However, it did not bode well for the show. The problem seemed to be the house style of dialogue, those lovely convoluted twisty-turny sentences that tripped so lightly off of Lauren Graham’s tongue. Apparently, not everyone is so adept at turning the Palladino witticisms into natural speech. I adore Parker Posey, and she was delightful to watch, but it was not a natural fit for her — not the speeded-up rhythms of taping a TV show, not the mouthfuls of dialogue, not the increasingly late and exhausting night. Not any of it, really.

Her assistant was our favorite. Great timing. Get that guy his own show!

I’m very curious how it all turned out. Critics and audiences don’t seem to like it so far. For the crews doing overtime last September, that may turn out to be a relief. But for poor me who likes seeing TV being taped, that’s a shame.

So is anyone going to watch tonight? I’d recommend it, even though it’s not a slam dunk show. It’s worth taking a look, and not just because you may hear my laughter.

I have to admit, I made this post an “I’m Sick of Your Shit” primarily for the shock value. I love Jon Stewart endlessly, of course, but I have a bone to pick with The Daily Show and why not resurrect the series?

It’s a weird, unpleasant feeling — I must say — having to raise a beef with one of our favorites. But no show is perfect and even the teacher’s pet has to get a B+ every once in a while to keep him on his toes.

Here’s what has been on my mind for a while now…

I don’t watch The Daily Show consistently, but I watch it enough to notice that they have a certain kind of gag I find cheap and not constructive. Often when they are discussing media coverage, they’ll do segments where the splice together lots of anchors and reporters asking the same question in different ways. For instance, on a big primary night recently they had a montage of network anchors describing the colors they used on the different maps. There’s a shot of Wolf Blitzer calling a certain color code “cranberry” and then Chris Matthews calling something “umber.” Etc., etc., etc.

That’s a silly example, but they often tackle more substantive issues and you’re supposed to make inferences based on the clip compilations. Because everyone is asking whether Barack Obama’s speech on race did the job, then there must be something wrong with that.

What gets me about this phenomenon is this: it’s an easy trick that can fill up a good twenty to thirty seconds and you don’t have to write an actual joke. I’m not trying to say the media should be let off easy (far from it) or that the 24 hour news networks aren’t ridiculous much of the time (they are), but often these clip compilations don’t have a real point. Just because a lot of people are asking the same question and it seems silly in the reel, doesn’t mean it’s not valid. I feel like when you’re in the game of political satire, when you make fun of something there should be a lesson to glean from it.

Not that everything comes back to Project Runway (well, it kind of does in my world, but whatever), but they do the same thing on the Project Runway reunion shows. They often to montages of all the times a certain event happened on the past season — like Ricky crying, Christian saying “fierce,” Tim Gunn saying “make it work.”

When you take them all at once, it’s funny to see. But it doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

Awww… it’s just like old times.  Want to bitch about Studio 60?

• Michelle Trachtenberg is joining the cast of Gossip Girl.
• Mr. Show’s Bob Odenkirk and David Cross are reuniting on a project called “David’s Situation.”
• In case anyone was wondering, The Bionic Woman is officially kaput.
• Things look good for a second season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
• A talk with Lost’s creator about last night’s episode.
• Michael from Lost talks to TV Guide.
• I can’t tell if this Lost/Battlestar Galactica comparison is annoying or profound.
• Rainn Wilson talks about Office spin-offs.
• Sock from Reaper talks to E! I have completely forgotten about that show.
• Looks like a few people actually posted the Spike graphic!  Take a look at Amuse Biatch, Wannabe Foodie and Cliffieland.

Hey guys — did you know on that newfangled Hulu.com thing you can see some exclusive content? It’s true. Waltz on over why don’t you?

Or, simply take a look at this clip of Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey talking about pregnancy, Bed Bath and Beyond and Jenna screaming.

April 10 is nearing.  Can’t you just taste it?

Just Jared has some pictures from the new episode of The Office. Savor it, relish it. Caress it like a naughty, naughty lover.

NBC does have a promo running for The Office’s return, but it’s a pretty awful, unironic, shot-through-gauze ad that doesn’t give you any meat to chew on. If you feel you need to watch it, I’ve embedded it below. I guarantee you’ll be left with a feeling of emptiness.

Does this post make me look fat?

• Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica no longer cancelled!
• Tina Fey gets randomly bitchy about The Daily Show, which is weird since SNL suffers from the same problem she describes
• You can watch the Battlestar season premiere 10 hours early on April 4th 12-1pm EST
• Bob and David are officially returning to HBO!
• Good Housekeeping busted for peddling fake Conan O’Brien stew recipe
• More details are emerging about the 90210 spinoff
• Is Jimmy Kimmel a homophobe? You decide
• This guy is making an assload of cash off of Vote for the Worst. Dan pays me in bottle tops and wooden nickels
• A surprisingly interesting article about the history of South Park and where it’s heading

While we’re on a music kick, I thought I’d point out the fact that the new Mitsubishi ad campaign features songs by The Go! Team.

Here’s the latest commercial, featuring the song “Doing it Right.”

And here’s the real video.

I’m just keeping you in the loop. The other spot features the song “Grip Like a Vice,” which I actually like more.

There’s a good chance you’ve already heard about Britney Spears’ future appearance on How I Met Your Mother.

If not, Britney Spears is going to be on How I Met Your Mother.

In any case, there’s a new clip of her cameo that I thought I’d share. It’s not much (really, it’s not much), but it’s something to watch, I suppose.

It’s no Crossroads, but it’ll do.

I don’t have anything too TV-ish to share with you today, but I just got back from the Tilly and the Wall show, so it’s kind of appropriate for me to give you a little musical interlude.

Tilly and the Wall is Omaha’s greatest pop sextet with a full-time tap dancer (quintet? septet? I’m not sure which members are official). They’re getting ready to release their third album, but in the interim they’ve release a single for Beat Control.

Beat Control is easily the gayest song the band has released yet. And I’m obviously saying that in the literal sense of the word. I can totally picture sipping an imported beer in a gay bar and having this song come on. Plus, Tilly is already a pretty gay-friendly band in that they enjoy novelty and sparkles.

Oh well. If the shoe fits…

In any case, does anyone else sense a little Gloria Estefan in there?

And in case you were wondering, the show was very nice. They had a good local band called Pash open (very anthemic rock with ethereal female vocals) and another band called Capgun Coup. Not such a fan of the latter, since they sang so off-key that you were left thinking that it must be a “style” they’ve adopted on purpose. The singer wore a bandanna around his neck as if he was a bandit. Or a puppy.

Tilly has a super energetic live show, to the point where it kind of just seems like they’re running around the stage. If you’re familiar with their catalog, they really rock out hard to “Nights of the Living Dead.”

• Jezebel James did poorly, and rightfully so.
• The reviews are in: Rachael Rays SXSW party was decent, featured Raveonettes
• Joss Whedon decides not to direct an episode of Battlestar Galactica
• Mayor Bloomberg makes an appearance on 30 Rock
• Did Tim Kring of Heroes plagarize himself?
• Punky Brewster has a second kid and will be starring with Janine Garafolo in a gay nuptials comedy.
• Variety reviews Miss Guided, says it just OK
• Lost conspiracy theories - more than you want to know?
• Eddie Izzard talks about the Riches as well as being a non-cross dressing transvestite