Swingtown? How About 'Stacheville?

Tonight, CBS debuts Swingtown, a summer-dumped drama about '70s wife-swappers--you can read all about it in this week's True TV column.

The most interesting aspect of the series is, unfortunately, Grant Show's mustache; if My Name Is Earl ever returns on NBC, Thursday is going to be The Place for free rides, ladies.

For the dudes, here's CBS' lame idea of Viral Video promotion:

TruTV Makes First Contact With True TV

TruTV (formerly Court TV) has finally made contact with True TV, as my Salt Lake City Weekly column has been titled, like, forever. It's a promo pack for Black Gold, which is either a new docu-series about oil rig workers or a weekly dissection of a middling Soul Asylum song. Chain of response to come ...

True TV 5.22.08: Life & Death

The new True TV column for City Weekly is online and in print now, FYI. Remember that Life show on NBC? Yeah, me too.

Read it here.

Happy Tru Year

I finally regained access to the ol' True TV blog after two months (don't ask) just in time to watch Court TV click over to TruTV for 2008, thus swiping the name of the television column I've written for Salt Lake City Weekly for nearly 10 years. Happy fucking New Year to me and my nonexistent team of lawyers.

Should anyone still care about 2007, my picks for the best TV shows of the past year went online last week elsewhere--they were all on cable, because broadcast network TV is dead. Sure, some great shows premiered this fall on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and even The CW (Reaper ... how us dozen viewers miss ye), but the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike has pretty much killed even the promising few that were picked up for a full season. A few leftover new eps in January and the 2007-08 season is more or less over. Unless you count reality shows, which no one with an ounce of taste or brains should. Not being elitist--have you seen the shit that's coming?

Anyway, here's hoping the blog of the original True TV gets back on a regular posting schedule for 2008 ... oh, that's on me. Stay tuned ...

True! Not Tru!

Court TV has announced that it will henceforth be known as TruTV (actually, a pretentious lowercase truTV) to better serve its "dual-gender audience that loves programming with real people in exciting real-life situations and a strong interest in compelling stories and characters."

Whatever. I came up with the same name for my TV column five years ago. Those fuckers can't have it ... Oh, they're owned by TimeWarner and have zillions of dollars at their disposal? Guess they can use it, then--just leave the "e" out and maybe we'll be cool, you corporate bastards. And if anyone can make sense of this, please let me know:

"Early in the rebranding process, we realized that the current network name doesn't reflect the direction of our programming or our growing target audience of 'real engagers.' "In truTV, we now have the ideal name that fits both the programming and the target audience. The network will be top of mind for 'real engagers' seeking real-life action programming, real-life emotion and access to places they can't normally go."

What in the name of Nancy Grace is a 'real engager'? Can I really engage in legal action for my rightful name?