How many more do we get?

From what I've gathered via Ausiello, Spoilerfix and various show-specific sites, here's how many episodes we have left of the following (give or take), before the Writer's Strike eats them.

Monday:
Chuck - 5 more
How I Met Your Mother - ?
Heroes - 3 more
Samantha Who - 7 more
Journeyman - ?

Tuesday:
Reaper - between 2 and 4 more
House - 5 more

Wednesday:
Pushing Daisies - 3 more
Private Practice - 3 or 4 more
Gossip Girl - 5 more

Thursday:
The Office - 1 more (cue gnashing of teeth)
Grey's Anatomy - 4 more

Friday:
Friday Night Lights - 9 more

Sunday:
Brothers and Sisters - 5 more

--

So, about 5 more weeks of solid television before it all starts to taper off. Thanks goodness FNL gets it done and will be with us well into the new year - just in time for LOST to begin. And then end again. (Don't get me started right now.)

Random Round-up.

Chuck: I'm still lovin' this show. It's a little bit of everything - action, drama, romance, fantasy and comedy. Geez, Levi cracks me up. He's just so... lovable and adorkable. Perfect casting on their part because I watch him and think, "Man, he's just so ... sincere." It's sweet, really. Plus, come on, last night we had R Bils and Marshall Flinkman in the same episode (who else was cracking up at the gymnast routine?), so I really don't see how they can go wrong. Casey continues to grow on me, simply because I totally understand his complete exasperation in everything and everyone. But my poor Chuck, secret bound and hung up on his romantic cover. Really, Sarah, did you have to lie ... even if you are immune to the Veritaserum poison? Tell Chuckie you like him. You know you wanna.

Gossip Girl: Dang Josh Schwartz and his teenage soap operas. Seriously, there is about as much integrity of story in this show as there is in my pinkie ... but I just can't stop.

Pushing Daisies: Top of my list show, but odd. Honestly, PD is one of a kind unique and quirky, which I love. The dialogue slaps you - quick, funny and sarcastic - in the best way and Lee Pace's delivery of Ned is ... well, I think the whole world has a crush on him. I'm also a fan of the narrator. Love him. Especially when he comments on the story. All that said, I don't necessarily find something to say about PD each week. Mainly because watching it is an escape from my escape. Sure, there are things to comment on, but I know the story of The Pie Hole. I know Ned and Chuck are in love and that Emerson is unabashedly annoyed by everything (another trait I identify with), while Olive pines away for The Piemaker. What keeps me coming each week is that little tag of hope at the end, where Ned and Chuck are the only ones in the room. Romantic. That's what this show is! But not cheesy. Romantic without gouda - the best possible kind.

Private Practice: Watching for Violet and Cooper.

Pushing Daisies: 102

Pushing Daisies
1x02
Dummy

I. Love. This. Show.

I love how it looks. I love how it sounds. I love the strange, funny, quirky sense of humor it maintains. I love the narrator and the yearly countdown. I just... love.

One of my favorite things is the dialogue. But more than that, the delivery... especially on Ned's part. For instance, in this episode we see Ned and Chuck, cute as pie, in matching twin beds, with matching smiles on their happy faces:

Chuck: Is this strange?
Ned: This is not strange. Unusual, maybe, eccentric, in a quaint way, like dessert spoons.

And if Lee Pace continues to look at Anna Friel the way he does, I may melt. Great chemistry, those two.

What we learned this week:

1. Ned and Chuck can touch... just not skin to skin. Prepare for cuteness. Loved Chuck's distaste for the back seat and Ned's plexi-glass screen with gloved hand holding slot. Not to mention the kissing through plastic. I expect to see a plethora of inventive new ways to touch, without touching.

2. Olive is channeling Sandy from Grease. The musical number cracked me up, and, as a huge fan of Wicked, made me slightly giddy to see "Galinda" on screen.

3. Professor Landry is a killer, no matter what show he's on.

4. Emerson keeps his reward money in individually knitted cases... anyone have the key to his office?

5. Digby is awesome. Just because...

House Keeping with Pilots

Hello all. You'll be glad to know I'm on the brink of entering the world of 24. Netflix is sending me the last available Entourage disk tomorrow - and until the new season is out on DVD, I must move forward! In the meantime, I'm doing a bit of upkeep in preparation for the Fall Season. At right, I've organized the links to various show and spoiler/pop culture sites. If there's a great website you know of, and it's missing from the list - please let me know. I'm always looking for good resources on my favorite shows and your help is much appreciated. You'll have to forgive me, I couldn't take the Veronica Mars link down... mainly because it should still be an active show. My own tiny protest.

In other news, I saw the Reaper pilot tonight. Loved it! Very pleasantly surprised. I mean, I'd heard the buzz, but let's face it, The CW is not exactly a hot bed of all things great in TV Land - especially with the loss of the Gilmores and Veronica - so I was a bit unsure, but willing to try it out. And I'm so glad I did. Bret Harrison's, Sam, is lovably goofy and endearing (following the winning, Seth Cohen/Jim Halpert trend, now being employed by many shows, including NBC's, Chuck), but it wouldn't be anywhere near as good a show without Tyler Labine. He had me laughing out loud. Smart idea. Interesting characters. Good payoff. That's enough to capture my interest...

I also watched the Pushing Daisies pilot for a second time. Words cannot detail how much I love this show. Seriously. I mean, it's either going to take off and be a smash hit, or fail miserably because people don't get it (I see no reason it should be the latter, unless people's brains have been fried by watching too many episodes of D listers dancing off for a sequined trophy). It's innovative, smart, funny and completely different from anything else on the tube. WATCH IT!! Tell everyone you know. Screw the dance off!!

P.S. Please go read the most recent Creed Thoughts. I was laughing so hard I couldn't speak... tears, people. Tears of joy and mirth.

ABC, step forward.

The alphabet kings have set us up for the fall.

Once the upfronts are over, I'll compile my full (and overly stuffed) fall TV schedule for next year, but at this point, ABC has me for LOST, Brothers and Sisters, Grey's, Private Practice (I gotta see how it goes...) and I'm hearing a lot of buzz about the new show, Pushing Daisies, so I'm all up for checking it out - especially since it's in the LOST timeslot until FEBRUARY 2008! We won't even discuss how LONG of a wait that is for new eps of LOST (especially after all the spoilers I've been reading this week)!

It appears Oprah has a do-gooder show popping up as well. Perhaps it'll be a bit like Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - I'll watch when I remember.