We threatened to never do another TV Talk Podcast if you didn’t flock to iTunes and leave us comments… well I’m happy to report that you love us as much as we love you! Thanks to your generosity, we are back and this week’s podcast is a lot of fun!

We revise our thoughts on Swingtown now that we’re both completely caught up (and loving it), we talk about my chat with Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica) and her stint on Burn Notice plus some scoop on her new Fox pilot Inseparable.

Next we tackle one of the most talked about Fall pilots, J.J. Abrams FRINGE! Kath and I will review the plot, the mystery and the hotness that is Josh Jackson but don’t worry we don’t spoil anything for you! We’re good like that!

Then it’s time for some listener emails because you guys are cramazing!

Who wants to talk Comic-Con? No? Tough because we run down the shows that will be in San Diego and vent our frustrations over the scheduling. If you’re going to be in town for Comic-Con and you’re a reader or listener, let us know… we’d love to see you!

Before wrapping up this week we have a little fun with our TV version of F, Marry, Kill! That’s right, we each pick one we’d boink, one we’d marry and one we’d go Dexter Morgan on. join in the fun and leave us some comments about who you’d F, Marry and Kill based on our choices. We’ll read some of them on the air in our next podcast.

It’s TV Talk with GMMR & Ducky #24!

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Listen Online: TV Talk with GMMR & Ducky #25

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Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose… So started the FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS Paley Panel last night and if ever a show had the heart, the quality and the drive to make it, it’s FNL. TV Guide’s Pooper Scooper Michael Ausiello moderated the night honoring those down to earth, frighteningly realistic, and always lovable Dillon Panters.

In attendance were Exec. Producer Jason Katims, Jeff Reiner (Co-Exec. Producer/Director), Ms. Tami Taylor herself the flawless Connie Britton, Scott Porter (#6 Jason Street), Minka Kelly (Lyla Garrity), Aimee Teegarden (Julie Taylor), Zach Gilford (Saracen), Adrianne Palicki (Tyra Collette).

That’s right folks, no Coach Taylor. Kyle Chandler was scheduled to be there but the film he’s shooting in Vancouver ran long and he couldn’t get in. And gals, Taylor Kitsch, Mr. Tim Riggins was MIA as well (probably off having a beer). You’ll all have to swoon later.

Kath and I did a podcast so I’m not going to write up much but I would like to comment on how incredibly sweet and honest this crew was. They seem beyond appreciative of the support the fans have given them, NBC’s determination, and the ability to be on a once in a lifetime show like Friday Night Lights. From the writing process to the shooting style all the way down to the casting of bit parts, FNL goes for authenticity and almost always succeeds.

Jason Katims was quick to own up to the fact that there was no pressure by the network to create the Landry/Tyra/Rapist Murder plot. It was all his own. While he understands folks frustrations (and is honored by the level of commitment and love for the show it brought out) he and the rest of the cast agree that the outcome was well worth it. Adrianne and Jesse Plemons worked their asses off this season and have given us fans one of the coolest TV Couples in recent history.

Everyone on stage was great. Connie Britton is beyond stunning and had cleavage for miles! Minka Kelly was gorgeous (as you can imagine). Adrianne Palicki looked classy and was very fun. She talked at one point about how when she read the script about the rapist, she loved Tyra so much that her first instinct was to kill the bastard (rapist). How’s the for honesty? Zach Gilford was quiet and seemed really nervous about the panel but was more open and entertaining in person during the signing. Aimee Teegarden is so young but adorable (that dress though?). Scott Porter’s shirt put Will Truman’s skin tight shirts to shame and fans of that hideous movie with Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant will be pleased to know he performed some dance moves for the crowd.

Overall such a different panel than the nights before but no less interesting, insightful and fulfilling.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS PODCAST:
Another late night, another Paley centric podcast. Again, this one is short (20 min). LISTEN TO OUR FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS PODCAST.

MY PICTURES:

gang, as you know I’m in LA for the week and I’ll be attending the Paley Festival with my girl GMMR and I’ll also be having a couple other things in the works (fingers crossed) that you’ll want to know about. Aside from Pushing Daisies, Chuck, Friday Night Lights and Buffy, I’ll be visiting my favorite people in Los Angeles whom I haven’t seen since I left here in 2000 and roaming around town. Visiting with my favorite Casting Agent Jenny and meeting up with someone that will hopefully be giving me (& you) some inside scoop on the return of Supernatural. Not to mention we’ll be podcasting our asses off.

If you want to stay on top of all my nonsense, follow me on Twitter:

Holy Horcrux Dumbledore! Finally, Warner Bros. is doing something that they needed to do for quite a few films… Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be split into 2 films! Sure it’s a little late *cough* Book 4 *cough* but I’ll take it. This is the best possible news for the Potter franchise.

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

Titled “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1″ and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” the movies are set to be released in November 2010 and May 2011.

David Yates — who is directing the adaptation of the sixth novel, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and is slated to helm the seventh film — will direct both movies, which will be shot back-to-back. Steve Kloves, who has written all but one of the “Potter” movies, also is returning to write the two-parter.

Back in TV news, the announcement was recently made that a Class of Beverly Hills 90210 spin-off is in the works. Seriously, this is the end times y’all. I don’t care how you spin this, it’s hideous news.

People are all excited that Veronica Mars‘ helmer Rob Thomas is in talks to write the Pilot but I’m not getting behind this one no matter who they cast. If Kristen Bell herself was headlining, I don’t think I could watch. Well, it would pain me but damnit I would try not to watch!

The only way I see this thing taking off is if Emily Valentine is the star and the show is about a psycho girl that kills rich kids after befriending them… a black comedy/satirical take on the youths obsession with folks like Paris Hilton and their secret desire to watch bad things happen to them. Bad CW, bad…

Finally, in a couple hours I’m on a flight to Los Angeles to attend the Paley fest with GMMR for the week. It should be a blast, I just can’t wait to get there and be done with the tension/anticipation of getting out there. It’s been such a crazy week so it will be nice to have all of that behind me.

I’m hoping to watch LOST on the flight and fingers crossed there are no scenes from the Pilot episode recreated! Plus, I took advantage of my friend Amy’s BDay iTunes Gift Card and bought Season 1 of UGLY BETTY to watch while I’m away. I can’t wait! So excited to finally get into this show. I’ll keep you updated on Project Ugly Betty as Kath has Project Buffy!

We’ll be doing regular (almost nightly) podcasts from Paley so there will be plenty of reasons to check back while I’m gone. It’s a working vacation of sorts, as I’ll be online most days doing my day job as well. Pictures of me all over Kyle Chandler, Lee Pace and Zac Levi - don’t you worry I’ll post them!

Follow me on Twitter while I’m away for fun updates as well.

Until I’m a little more slightly Left of center….

Hey gang, as a bunch of our favorite TV Shows are only a week or two (or 5 months) away from returning after their WGA Strike imposed hiatus, a handful of TV Bloggers got together to share their favorite characters currently on television.

Below is a list of the Top 25 Characters of Television! Did your favorite make the cut? Share your Top 10 in the comments section below if you like!

1. Kara “Starbuck” Thrace (Battlestar Galactica)
2. Tami Taylor (Friday Night Lights)
3. Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother)
4. Benjamin Linus (Lost)
5. Dexter Morgan (Dexter)
6. Coach Eric Taylor (Friday Night Lights)
7. Landry Clarke (Friday Night Lights)
8. Dwight Schrute (The Office)
9. Lily Rush (Cold Case)
10. Omar Little (The Wire)
11. Gaius Baltar (Battlestar Galactica)
12. Olive Snook (Pushing Daisies)
13. Shawn Spencer (Psych)
14. Sheldon Cooper PhD (The Big Bang Theory)
15. Dr. Juliet Burke (Lost)
16. Michael Weston (Burn Notice)
17. Captain Jack Harkness (Torchwood)
18. Dr. Miranda Bailey (Grey’s Anatomy)
19. Chuck Bartowski (Chuck)
20. Brenda Leigh Johnson (The Closer)
21. Emerson Cod (Pushing Daisies)
22. Ned “The Piemaker” (Pushing Daisies)
23. Liz Lemon (30 Rock)
24. Stephanie Lane (My Boys)
25. Stewie Griffin (Family Guy)

Also receiving multiple votes: Desmond Hume (Lost), Major John Casey (Chuck), Jack Donaghy (30 Rock)
Voters: Dan, Ducky, Jo, Kate, Sandie, Scooter McGavin, TVFan, Vance

While everyone’s known that Kathie would be attending Paley next week, I’m happy to report that I will now be joining her… officially! We’ll be hanging with our friends from PUSHING DAISIES, geeking out with CHUCK, molesting Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton and the rest of the Panthers from FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS and vamping out with my girl BUFFY and her gang of Scoobies!

We’ll be doing nightly podcasts from Paley so now’s the time to subscribe to our TV Podcast so you don’t miss a single minute of our trip.

It’s all the buzz on every TV blog within a galaxy’s radius… FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS is *this* close to being renewed for a 3rd season which will give some folks, 2 chances to watch 6, Riggs, Coach Taylor, Tami, Smash, Tyra and Landry make and break our hearts.

According to Deadline Hollywood and all but confirmed by sources close to E!’s Kristin Dos Santos, NBC and DirecTV are hammering out details to renew FNL and broadcast it on both NBC and a DirecTV dedicated channel.

While I’m so excited to hear that the Dillon Panthers will have another chance at State, I’m even more excited to see them all at Paley in less than 2 weeks! Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton need to watch out because I’ve got grab-hands ready to molest those two!

The WGA Strike continues well into the Day 90s so the television landscape is like no winter we’ve seen before. Kath and I are back to talk about Lost’s return as well as the return of American Idol.

It’s TV Podcast #19!

Also on the agenda are Friday Night Lights, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Prison Break, American Gladiators, Paradise Hotel, Project Runway, Torchwood, Pushing Daisies, Comic-Con 2008 and much more.

Subscribe and Listen via iTunes

Listen Online: TV Podcast #19

Interested in catching up on our past podcasts? Head on over to the podcast page where you can listen to all of our previous episodes.

Have a question for Ducky and GMMR? There are a couple ways to contact us:

Free Voice Mail (Comments/Questions):
This is Dan and Kathie’s favorite method of contact because it allows us to hear from you and we use these messages live on our podcast to answer your burning television questions. It’s FREE and you don’t have to do anything but click RECORD BY PHONE on the box below and it will walk you through how to contact us!

It’s super easy and free to leave us a message:

iTunes Comments:
This is a great way to spread the word about our podcast and it really helps new listeners determine if they want to subscribe to us or not based on YOUR COMMENTS. Subscribing to the joint podcast between duckydoestv.com and givememyremote.com is the best way to listen to us.Please comment on Ducky Does TV and Give Me My Remote’s TV Podcast at iTunes.

While some fans will say that FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS has jumped the shark (and I agree on some counts), last night’s episode “Jumping the Gun” was pretty much dead on for what I want FNL to be. There was a ton of focus on character, family, football and how those three intertwine to give us the characters we’ve grown to love over the last season and a half.

Coach Taylor started the episode in a bad mood and it got much worse before it got any better. He finds Riggins sleeping in the equipment room at the school after kicking him on his ass for supposedly macking on young Julie; He fights with Tami’s over-stayed-her-welcome Sister and sends her packing to a hotel and after repeated attempts at making Laribee’s Coach feel welcomed he gives up on the guy. But in the end, Coach Taylor does what he always does and helps everyone because he’s that kind of guy. He’s a good man through and through; one you can count on and that’s one of the reasons why I love him.

All of the family drama was incredibly believable and really heartfelt. When Julie confesses that Riggins was only trying to protect her and that she didn’t say anything because she was drunk and didn’t want to get in trouble all Coach said (three time though) was “Damn.”

That one word expressed so much disappointment and pain and both actors played the scene aces. Moment’s like this or his conversation with Tami after Shelly left are what center Friday Night Lights and no matter how stunty the show gets at times, will always set it on the highest pedestal in my book. Kyle Chandler can bring the pain like no one and while his character can sometimes frustrate the hell out of you it’s only because you know deep down he’s going to come around and be your best friend at any cost. Look at how he turned the stern conversation with Julie into the most affirming proclamation of love a child could hope for when they’re expecting to be grounded until they’re 40. Look at how he manned up and apologized to Riggins for “jumping the gun” or how he gave some Fatherly advice to Smash about holding out for the right school for the right reasons.

And Connie Britton’s Tami is right there with Coach Taylor. She’s complex and wonderful and sexy and just darn sweet… a character you can really count on and trust. Watching how she dealt with Mama Smash and the pesky recruiter or how honest she was behind closed doors about the intrusions of her sister mesmerize me in their freshness. No moment rings false. No moment seems scripted. She’s a living, breathing, flawed woman you can root for.

Same with Smash Williams. I want good things for the kid no matter how pompous or selfish he can be. And his Mother? Forget about it. She’s brilliant! Deep down he is a sap, his Mother’s Son through and through. That pesky Naomi or whatever her name is freaks me out a little though. What’s her deal? I know her Brother used to play for Dillon and is now some bigshot College player so she has some experience in the field but didn’t you get the idea that maybe she was a plant? Like the college her Brother attends sent her in to persuade Smash into signing with them? Is she really that good of a person that she’s helping him out of the goodness of her heart? Nah.

Overall this was one of the most Season 1 feeling episodes so far this shortened season. My only issue is the Riggins storyline. I enjoyed watching him go home at any cost. I’m glad he was able to talk to his neighbor and patch things up before she and that hideous kid moved. I’m glad that he was worried about his future and that he was looking to better himself. That’s why I have an issue with Riggins and his worthless Brother stealing $3,000 from his fat underwear rompin’ ferret owning ex-roomie. We don’t need theivery and gun play to make Friday Night Lights flashy, that’s what the football’s for. We need honesty and good dialogue with supreme acting. Save the stunts for Las Vegas or something crappy like that. Keep my FNL simple stupids!

I’m going to stop now because I’m not really saying much other than I love my friends in Dillon and do not want it to all end in the next couple weeks. Long live Friday Night Lights.

Friday Night Lights smokin’ sexy KYLE CHANDLER (Coach Eric Taylor) sat down with The Advocate Magazine for a great interview about the show, his upbringing, Taylor Kitsch’s body, and the gays!

Are you surprised to find out that you have a big gay following?
Well, I hadn’t thought about it, but I don’t see why I shouldn’t. I didn’t do anything to y’all! [Laughs] Actually, I told a friend of mine that I was doing this interview, and he said, “What gay people follow you?”

We tend to follow handsome men. Do you work hard to look good?
Not as hard as I should. I’m 42 now, and I find myself slowing down a little bit. Doing the show and flying back and forth from Austin to Los Angeles takes it out of you. And I’ve got a wife and a couple kids, so I have to deal out all my attention and time there. When the show shuts down, that’s when you get to reinvent yourself, recuperate, get back in shape, and get ready to do it all over again.

Was the big 4-0 a difficult milestone?
No. I don’t worry about age. I figure every extra year is a good thing. I’ve got enough things to worry about it in life than getting older. I like living.

But is it a bit depressing to be surrounded by a bunch of 20-year-olds in their physical prime on Friday Night Lights?
Hell, yeah, it’s depressing! Bastards. Especially that Taylor Kitsch, showing himself off in all those damn muscle magazines and everything. Meanwhile, I’m counting my extra gray hairs every morning. But it’s neat to see those guys do well. I was there at one point, so I know where they are. They’ve got great years ahead of ’em.

You couldn’t be in those magazines?
Hell, I guess I could. As long as it’s from the neck up or the ankles down.

Is it a very “boys will be boys” atmosphere on set, particularly during those locker room scenes?
Yeah, they’re usually smacking each other with towels, pulling the towels off of each other, bragging about their virtues here and there — you know how it is.

You paint a beautiful picture, Kyle.
[Laughs] And those shower scenes that are not on film sure have sparked some curiosity on the set.
(more…)

The WGA Strike is about to take away television but before that happens, there’s plenty for GMMR and I to talk about!

Dan and Kath are back for TV Podcast #16, and it’s all about the shows! It’s not about the strike, it’s just us talking about what we’ve loved and hated about television over the past couple weeks. I’m going to warn you now, it’s an hour long podcast. We haven’t talked in a while so sit back, relax, and listen to us in 2 sittings if that makes it easier. Thanks for sticking with us!

We tackle each day’s best and worst starting with Monday and working our way all the way to the lazy nights of Sunday. Chuck, HIMYM, Big Bang Theory, Prison Break, Heroes, House, Bones, Reaper, Pushing Daisies, Gossip Girl, Dirty Sexy Money, Private Practice, The Office, Grey’s Anatomy, Ugly Betty, Supernatural, Moonlight, Friday Night Lights, Torchwood, The Amazing Race, Brothers & Sisters, Dexter, and more. Phew, who’s tired already?

Subscribe and Listen via iTunes

Listen Online: Podcast #16

Interested in catching up on our past podcasts? Head on over to the podcast page where you can listen to all of our previous episodes.

Have a question for Ducky and GMMR? There are a couple ways to contact us:

Free Voice Mail (Comments/Questions):
This is Dan and Kathie’s favorite method of contact because it allows us to hear from you and we use these messages live on our podcast to answer your burning television questions. It’s FREE and you don’t have to do anything but click RECORD BY PHONE on the box below and it will walk you through how to contact us!

It’s super easy and free to leave us a message:

iTunes Comments:
This is a great way to spread the word about our podcast and it really helps new listeners determine if they want to subscribe to us or not based on YOUR COMMENTS. Subscribing to the joint podcast between duckydoestv.com and givememyremote.com is the best way to listen to us.Please comment on Ducky Does TV and Give Me My Remote’s TV Podcast at iTunes.