"tv squad" news and stories

Our friends over at TV Squad (where I also work, so I guess I'm one of the friends) are reporting on the campaign by fans to save the just-cancelled CBS show Jericho. And it involves nuts.

In the series finale, the head of the town of New Bern asked Jake to surrender so no one else in Jericho had to die. Jake thought about it for a second and said "nuts." So fans have been bombarding CBS headquarters with nuts! So far they've sent over 7000 pounds of nuts, so much that the network has had to donate them to local zoos. CBS' Nina Tassler has already announced that there they are working on some sort of "closure" for the series, perhaps a TV movie to wrap things up (or maybe just an explanation of what would have happened on the show), so we'll have to see what happens from here.

Too bad about Jericho though. Good show, and a real cliffhanger ending in the last episode.

[thanks to Shaun for the info]

It's that time of year, the time to look back on the stories that made 2005 great. Our countdown began with God and moves on to - what else? - TV.

It all began in 1998. My obsession with the Food Network. I was hanging out in New York awaiting the beginning of business school. I'd quit my job and, other than boning up on the calculus, I had absolutely nothing to do. I scheduled my life around Too Hot Tamales, Ready Set Cook! and Cooking Live with Sara Moulton. In those days, the Food Network was all about cooking, especially cooking at home. I mean, Cooking Live - Sara would list the ingredients the day before so you could be prepared to cook along with her. People called in and they were actually in front of their stoves, yes, cooking live.

It was gradual, but the channel has changed over the past seven years. A couple of major things happened this year that indicate a turn away from the original core audience - people who liked to cook - to a new and (for whatever it's worth) bigger audience. People who eat.

The Food Network, it seems, is divesting itself of the foodies and embracing food, of the edible and eye candy variety. And this is such a shame. Some of the big changes that spell doom for the home chef: