TV Recaps Reviews

Jon Stewart (The Daily Show) and Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report) are joining forces to bring sanity and fear back to politics. The comic geniuses are parodying the recent Glenn Beck right wing rally held in D.C. The Comedy Central stars announced dueling rallies on October 30 at the National Mall in Washington D.C. Stewart’s theme was the “Rally to Restore Sanity”, giving regular people who Stewart says are too busy trying to survive a chance to be represented. Colbert’s right-wing character touted his rally “The March to Keep Fear Alive”, in order to keep fear a focal point in politics.

Stewart seeks to draw moderates to the rally who, he says, “beg America to stop shouting, throwing and drawing Hitler mustaches on people other than Hitler (or Charlie Chaplin).” Colbert called on his viewers, The Colbert Nation, reaching out to “freedom-loving patriots” to challenge Stewart and his “dark, optimistic forces trying to take away our fear”. Last week the comic duo proposed they share a rally together since Colbert forgot to get a permit for his march.

The Daily Show and The Colbert Report will entertain the masses next week with shows airing in Washington D.C. at their usual times, leading up to their rally on Saturday of that week. C-SPAN, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report should be good bets to catch some of the rally clips on television during and after the October 30, 2010 rally. Television coverage of the Rally to Restore Sanity begins on Comedy Central Saturday, October 30 at 12 noon ET/9:00 a.m. PT.

Visit the official rally site at http://www.rallytorestoresanity.com for more information on the October 30th rally.

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30 Rock went live on the east and west coast with a live audience. This is a review of the west coast show. Liz Lemon is celebrating her 40th birthday but no one seems to know at TGS other than her, making her angry. Jack has agreed with Avery that he will give up drinking while she is pregnant and not drinking is driving him over the edge. Jenna and Tracy are having the usual battle over who gets the most attention during the TGS show. Tracy decides during the live TGS show he will laugh out loud at his own jokes and break character in order to get laughs from the audience, while Jenna retaliates by threatening to flash her breast to get attention from Tracy.

Live sitcoms are not easy to do, and 30 Rock managed to pull it off. Set on the SNL stage with a veteran SNL director managing the live show, the episode showed twice, once on the east coast and once on the west coast. The live episode was co-written by Tina Fey. Each joke on the live episode appeared to be geared toward a character on TGS congratulating Liz on her birthday, only to end up ignoring her birthday.

The show relied more on jokes and less on a beefed up storyline like usual since time was limited and the fast pace line delivery of 30 Rock was more difficult to do live with a responsive audience. The flashback device often used in 30 Rock episodes was worked in brilliantly by using Julia Louis-Dreyfus as flashback Liz Lemon, a clever way to solve this live action problem. When Jack asks Liz “Why are you better-looking in your memory?” Liz tells Jack “My memory has Seinfeld money”, making the use of Louis-Dreyfus as a stand-in even funnier. Jack’s flashback segment showed his memory of himself as a buff model guy surrounded by beautiful women.

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In this parody of space movies, Greendale Community College must compete with its rival City College in launching a flight simulator, and Dean Pelton knows just who to have clean up the ancient ship. Seems the study group entered a school flag and won the contest, a flag featuring a picture of a butt with the slogan “E. Pluribus Anus”. The dean is unhappy with the gang’s flag and punishes them. Dean Pelton resurrects the old Greendale flight simulator, a converted Winnebago that was a tourist attraction for the study group members when they were children. Abed is excited to clean the flight simulator, his father forbade him to visit the flight simulator because he thought it competed with his falafel truck.

The gang walks in slow motion towards the flight simulator dressed in white astronaut jump suits. Abed and Troy eagerly jump into the simulator to look inside, and Annie tells them they should not be there. Pretty soon everyone is inside the simulator except Abed, who runs home to get his Armageddon orange space suit on. When Pierce enters the simulator he hits a large red button by accident that seals the study group in the simulator. Pierce panics because he is claustrophobic and the rest of the group tries to calm him down, reminding him they are in a fake rocket ship. Suddenly the simulator “launches”, to the horror of the group, who soon realize the ship is being towed out of the school parking lot. Troy decides to become captain of the simulator and takes the captain’s seat. The space station is KFC-related, with all the simulator instruments named after KFC products. The group must follow simulator instructions and use the “original recipe,” “6 pieces” and “tasty” instruments, with the “delicious” instrument as their final goal.

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Annie and Britta show the gang their diorama of the Gulf oil spill that they plan to use on campus to raise money for the cause. Troy comes into the study group room traumatized, he’s just seen Pierce’s mother dead. Having never seen a dead body, Troy is freaked out and the gang comforts him, and wondering how Pierce is holding up. Pierce walks in to the study group smiling like nothing happened. When the gang asks him about his mother’s death Pierce tells them she isn’t dead because like him, she was a level five laser lotus and will be vaporized so she can come back to life in the future. Abed thinks it is unnatural that Pierce has not cried over the death of his mother. The gang is concerned Pierce’s cult church is keeping him from accepting that his mother has died and tries to convince him she is dead, but Pierce is not having any part of the discussion. As the gang quibbles about religion and coping mechanisms, Jeff, the voice of reason, suggests they allow Pierce to grieve in his own fashion.

Its time for Anthropology class, and Pierce explains to the gang what it feels like to be vaporized, much like getting a bite of fudge on the sundae while the sauce is still hot. The gang is perplexed at Pierce’s description of vaporization and concerned the cult is ripping him off. Professor Ian Duncan takes over the Anthropology class for Professor Bauer, who was suspended for trying to strangle Jeff. Professor Duncan has no clue how to teach Anthropology and bumbles around as the class asks him questions. Chang walks through the classroom doors and Professor Duncan warns him he has a restraining order on Chang for a recent run in with him. Chang chides Professor Duncan, pulling out a tape measure which shows he is 25 feet from where Professor Duncan stands at the front of the classroom. Professor Duncan feels frustrated Chang can hang out in the back of the class and taunt him. The next class Chang is stunned to find out Professor Duncan can simply walk closer to Chang, pushing him out of the classroom because of the restraining order.

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As Liz and Jenna walk to work, Liz discovers that being happy in a relationship gives her a special aura. Jenna tells Liz her relationship is responsible for the recent onslaught of men attracted to her. As a confident Liz enters the office, Pete laments that the TGS editors are witholding the show’s opening titles and he must bargain with them every week. Pete begs Liz to take on the TGS editors so he can get what he needs from them.

Tracy, who is easily distracted, is staying locked up in his dressing room at work with Grizz and Dot Com watching over him so he won’t miss the birth of his daughter. A fire drill forces Tracy out of the office, as he holds on to Grizz’ shirt he gets lost in the shuffle of people and ends up on a city bus. Angie goes into labor, frantically calling Grizz and Dot Com looking for Tracy. Angie’s ultimatum means Tracy must be at the birth of their daughter or else. Grizz and Dot Com call Tracy about Angie’s labor, Tracy panics and decides one way or another he has to get to the hospital.

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Dean Pelton arrives at the cafeteria bringing posters to the gang’s lunch table to recruit students, the posters are for Greendale’s first annual Greendale Pop and Lock-a-thon, celebrating Oktoberfest. After lunch Jeff and Abed run into Alan (Guest star Rob Corddry), an old legal colleague of Jeff’s who is on campus attending a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. Jeff, still smarting from losing his job at the firm, tries to avoid Alan but Abed calls him over. Jeff and Alan chat and decide to go out for a drink together.

Chang shows up at the study group and performs a Pop ‘n’ Lock routine for the gang hoping they will join him in the contest. Chang tells the group if they win the Pop ‘n’ Lock competition he gets to join the study group. Jeff is missing in action, spending most of his free time with Alan, and the group can’t make a decision without him, telling Chang they will have to get back to him on Pop ‘n’ Lock. Jeff finally shows up for study group with Alan in tow and introduces him to the group. Annie feels like she’s seen Alan somewhere before but can’t quite place him, while the rest of the study group can’t seem to warm up to Alan.

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Jon Stewart (The Daily Show) and Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report) are joining forces to bring sanity and fear back to politics. The Comedy Central anchors announced last week they would hold dueling rallies on October 30 at the National Mall in Washington D.C. The comic geniuses are parodying the recent Glenn Beck right wing rally held in D.C. Stewart’s rally is the “Rally to Restore Sanity”, to give regular people who Stewart says are trying to survive and are too busy to rally an opportunity to be represented. Colbert’s rally is called “Keep Fear Alive”, representing politicians and pundits who use fear to corner the market on smear tactics that influence voters.

On his show Stewart told the audience if they had to ask “Am I the right person to go to this rally?” Stewart said “The fact that you would even stop to ask yourself that question as opposed to just jumping up, grabbing the nearest stack of burnable holy books, strapping on a diaper and pointing your car towards D.C. – that means I think you just might be right for it.”

Jon Stewart wants to draw moderates to the rally who will “beg America to stop shouting, throwing and drawing Hitler mustaches on people other than Hitler (or Charlie Chaplin).” Stephen Colbert called on The Colbert Nation, seeking “freedom-loving patriots” to join together and challenge Stewart and his “dark, optimistic forces trying to take away our fear”.

C-SPAN, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report should be good bets to catch some of the rallyy clips on television during and after the October 30, 2010 rally.

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The fifth season of 30 Rock starts with Liz and Jack comparing notes on their love life, which both seem to be going well for a change. Jack raves about his relationship with Avery and their four-week vacation on Paul Allen’s yacht. Jack doesn’t even mind their power struggle over wallpaper vs paint when redecorating after Avery moved into Jack’s place, nothing bursts Jack’s love bubble. Liz tells Jack about Carol (Guest star Matt Damon) who visits twice a month, happy enough that Carol stays as a hotel and Liz stays with him. Liz assures Jack when Carol is not around she keeps herself safe at home by wearing a Life Alert button. Jack tells Liz a hotel tryst is more like a prostitute, she needs to have Carol stay at her place and rev up their relationship.

Tracy talks to the head page, thinking it is Kenneth. When the new head page corrects Tracy, he realizes he can’t stop thinking about his friend Kenneth. Tracy see Kenneth everywhere and misses him. Pete tells Liz he is panicking over Jenna’s five year contract stipulations kicking in. Pete tells Liz Jenna’s contract says in fine print she is to become TGS’ newest producer. Liz and Pete are horrified at the thought of Jenna in charge.

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Community’s season two premiere starts with the Greendale college study group meeting up after summer vacation. Everyone is getting out of bed and getting ready for school. We see each of the study group’s bedrooms seem to match their personality. We follow their morning routines: Troy is wearing Spiderman jammies, Jeff is hanging up side down from a bar doing exercises, and Pierce is waking up in his waterbed.

Everyone arrives at the study group room, where there are hugs all around. The study group proceeds to update each other on what they did over the summer. Jeff and Annie look around sheepishly as they try to quash news of their kiss after Britta’s confession of her love for Jeff at the end of school year dance. As the study group goes to the Anthropology class they are taking together this fall, they see Senor Chang as part of the class. Jeff asks Chang if he’s taking the class because he misses the study group and wants to join it, but Chang dismisses Jeff’s suggestion. The Anthropology teacher Professor Bauer (Guest star Betty White) begins the class talking about the most important tools man used and showing various ancient tools. When Starburns ignores Professor Bauer’s lecture, she picks up an ancient dart gun and blows a dart into Starburns sideburn, momentarily paralyzing him. The study group is stunned by the professor’s attack and rethink zoning out in her class.

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