Formative TV Experience No. 12: Taxi Survival-Sex in a Snowstorm

I got curious about how many shows have featured trapped-in-a-box scenes (elevator, basement, car), and found this hilarious page from TVtropes.org listing tons of examples.

Glee Glee

Glee, I apologize.

The ’00s: The Greatest Decade in Television

Here's my big, fat essay on the decade in television, full of starry-eyed raving and theories that are mine.

Baby Scrubs and the Trouble With Lucy

I've always loved the idea of a TV show rebooting from scratch.

Formative TV Experience No. 11: Blues for the Toddler Soul

Here's a clip I remember from when I was a kid -- not one from 'Sesame Street' itself but from the equally wonderful 'The Electric Company.'

John Leonard: One-Year Anniversary

John Leonard died a year ago, after nearly a quarter century as 'New York' Magazine's television critic.

The Case For, Against, and Around Cougar Town

My essay denouncing 'Cougar Town' (and placing the sitcom in the historical context of television cougardom) is in the current print issue of 'New York.'

Formative TV Experience No. 10: The Balls of Leather Tuscadero

Late-seventies television was, with a few exceptions, a wasteland for teen girls.

The Twelve Grossest Characters Who Get Laid Constantly

Bored to Death: A Reconsideration (a.k.a. Sternbergh Was Right)

Early this fall, I'd watched the first few episodes of 'Bored to Death' in a state of mild twitchiness, griping that I wanted to like it but didn't.

Static: Random TV Patterns

I'm not saying 'Mad Men' is flawless, but a panicky jump-the-shark reflex is a reliable phenomenon among audiences during the third season.

Formative TV Experience No. 9: The Day After the Day After

Maybe I'm still a little shook up from our long national silver-balloon nightmare yesterday, but I got PTSD-ish flashbacks re-watching this excerpt from The Day After, the Very Scary and Important Television Event of 1983.

HIMYM-Friends Follow-up: Or Maybe It’s Lost?

My friend Misha just IM'd me with a different comparison for 'HIMYM': It's the new 'Lost,' according to the excellent James Poniewozik of 'Time.'

Static: Random TV Patterns

Even for fans like me, 'How I Met Your Mother' has always felt like a clear update of 'Friends': You've got your Manhattan hangout, your friends from college, two geek males plus one womanizer, and the unsettling feeling that all that warm likability could curdle with a few bad episodes.

My Cougartown Problem — and Ours

I sit next to a writer named Adam Sternbergh and this writer, an otherwise decent Canadian type, will not stop talking about Cougartown. COUGARTOWN

Static: Random TV Patterns

My scattered responses to this week's TV.