No Sunset on the Strip

The House! The Senate! The Studio! NBC has announced a full-season pick-up of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, but denied rumors of merging the hella-expensive Aaron Sorkin series with the even less successful 30 Rock (a little Scranton/Stamford reference for you Office fans). This means Studio 60 will at least make a nice Season 1 DVD set sometime next year—and if ratings don’t improve, it can go directly to your One Season Wonders shelf (yes, some of us have those … don’t judge). “I am pleased to show our support for this outstanding and ambitious effort from executive producers Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme,” said NBC Entertainment Prez Kevin Reilly. “From the start, they have delivered the superb show that we wanted. The critical support has been rock-solid and there is a passionate core audience. We can’t wait for what’s going to come in the remainder of the season.” Just as long as it stays on the Sunset Strip and the hell outta Pahrump.

SunnyBack

Yes! Yes! What? No! Sure, the overall Blue-flip outcome of the midterm elections was nice (unless you live in the perma-freeze Republitopia of, say, Utah), but the now best news of the week has really broken: FX has renewed It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (only the best comedy series ever) for a third season, 15 new episodes set to premiere Summer 2007. Great, right? Yeah … here comes the taint-kicker: Deadweight guest star Danny DeVito will also be back. Season 2 was funny as hell despite him, but another? And ponder this from Variety: “Should Sunny last beyond next year, DeVito has agreed to remain as a cast member through Season 6.” Six seasons! But with DeVito! I’m so torn … and where's the damn Sunny DVD set, anyway?

The Real Calvin & Hobbes From Robot Chicken—can’t stop watching this, sober even …

The Big F

You mean "Fuck"? Tomorrow night on IFC, The Only TV Column That Matters™ suggests checking out The F Word, a faux documentary as reported by a guy who's racked up $1 million in FCC fines and, naturally, decides to spend his last day from the belly of the beast in the 2004 Republican Convention in NYC. Funny/weird stuff combining real protests and slumming actors, but I'll be watching for a glimpse of Callie Thorne (Rescue Me's Sheila; also currently appearing on Prison Break). Hey, Rescue Me may have killed her off—I'll take whatever I can get.

Or Just "Foxed"? Fox has pulled the plug on the craptastic game show The Rich List after one virtually unseen episode; same goes for how-did-it-last-this-long? sitcom Happy Hour. This means you'll get an extra ep of The O.C. on Wednesday and a second helping of 'Til Death on Thursday. Celebrate/lament accordingly.

Gay Up! How I Met Your Mother's Neil Patrick Harris (or, for those of you who haven't yet discovered that funny-ass CBS sitcom, Doogie Howser M.D. and/or the guy named Neil Patrick Harris from Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle) has come out of the closet. His Barney on HIMYM is/was an inspiration to serial-womanizers across the land ... I don't know what to believe anymore ...

The Lost Hit List The only other TV columnist that matters, The San Francisco Chronicle's Tim Goodman, has assembled a rambling list of Lost characters who should die next, now that Eko's has been (here it comes) smoked: Pretty much everyone but Sayid and Charlie. Great, but Season 4 would be nothing but the fucking flashbacks. Isn't that already The Nine?