Locations from our favorite TV shows can seem as familiar as our own neighborhoods. That should explain the shock of recognition you’ll feel as you scroll through this selection of pieces from Tim Doyle‘s Unreal Estate show, which finds the illustrator and print-maker revisiting some unforgettable small-screen sets in a series of prints. See Arrested Development‘s infamous banana stand, the diner where Seinfeld‘s characters were regulars, and Moe’s bar from The Simpsons in a brand-new way after the jump. If you’re in the Bay Area, be sure to check out the exhibition in person, at San Francisco’s Spoke Art, between February 2nd and 23rd.
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In this week’s episode of 30 Rock, Tracy Jordan took a lot of heat for homophobic comments, which reminded us rather strongly of that time Tracy Morgan found himself in hot water after making anti-gay comments during a stand-up routine in Nashville. We thought it was interesting and oh-so-meta that the show chose to address one of its stars’ real-life controversies via the fiction of the show, and the episode left us thinking about how so many of our favorite TV shows are metafictional — or at least have prominent meta qualities. It’s just all so post-modern. Click through to read about the most metafictional television shows of all time, and let us know if we missed your favorite in the comments.
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It’s been almost a decade since Jennifer Saunders graced us with a new episode of Absolutely Fabulous, much to the dismay of fans around the world. But thanks to the magic of the BBC, where it’s never impossible to revive a great show, Patsy and Edina are finally back. To celebrate AbFab‘s 20th anniversary (yes, that makes us feel old), the original cast reunited for three half-hour specials — and the first one airs Sunday night, on both BBC America and Logo.
Having seen the first one, we can safely say that Saunders hasn’t lost her touch. Among other developments, we learn that one of the characters is in prison — and while it’s probably not who you’d think, nothing we could learn about the three generations of Monsoon women would shock us at this point. So, as an homage to one of our favorite dysfunctional families on the small screen, we’ve rounded up ten more we wouldn’t want to see on Thanksgiving but can’t stop watching on TV.
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It’s the holiday season, folks! Time to deck the hallways with diapers and fill a pot with shaving cream. Oh, you don’t celebrate Yak Shaving Day? What about Merlinpeen, the Verdukian Holiday of Mouth Pleasures? Or the Fraggle Festival of the Bells? For some awesome reason or another, television is full of weird fictional holidays. Robanukah, a day of drinking and doing the robot? Sounds good to us! This year, we’ve decided to spice up our age-old holiday lineup with some fictional festivities. Because, well — who wouldn’t want to observe a day about giving yourself presents? Dust off the ol’ Festivus pole, order a meat-lovers pizza, and Treat Yo Self to some fake TV holidays after the jump. Read More »
Bringing the mythic media of your favorite television shows to life, Fake Anything showcases fake ads and products inspired by the antics of your most beloved characters. And as expected, their site boasts a few fake testimonials that are good for a laugh — but their clever ad campaigns for shows like Arrested Development, Parks and Recreation, and Seinfeld (Death Blow!) are infinitely more amusing. We’re a little concerned that we’d totally buy Liz Lemon’s “Night Cheese” and enjoy it “while wearing a Slanket,” but once you see the product’s pretty tin packaging you might feel the same way. Hit the break for more TV ad goodies. Read More »
There comes a time in a TV show’s life when the plot line takes a turn for the literary; a fictional character hunkers down and authors a book. Some are guidebooks, others are self-help books, but they all share one crucial quality: they’re not real. These authors don’t exist in real life, so how could their books? Well — sometimes, just sometimes, our real world is graced with a fake book’s tangible, published, purchasable presence. But, not always — so we’ve gathered some awesomely fake books from TV that you can actually buy, and a few others that we hope will be available one day. Because, well, who wouldn’t want to read Liz Lemon’s Dealbreakers: A Girl’s Guide to Shutting it Down from cover to cover? Or proudly display Cosmo Kramer’s The Coffee Table Book of Coffee Tables on their own coffee table? Read on for some fake TV fiction, and let us know your other favorites.
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There has been no shortage of terrible TV-show spin-offs over the years. Remember Joey, which followed the least interesting character on Friends? How about Joanie Loves Chachi? The surfeit of awful derivative series make it that much more depressing when a spin-off we really, really want to happen never makes it past the pilot stage. After the jump, we take a look at 10 spin-offs that sounded promising but never made it to primetime. Tell us which ones you’d add in the comments.
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It’s National Sandwich Day! That means it’s the 293rd birthday of John Montagu, or as he is more popularly known, the 4th Earl of Sandwich. His legacy is creating the glorious food item (food group, really), in which we stuff many things betwixt two slices of bread. This would later become bastardized by the invention of Hot Pockets and other sloth-friendly grub. In honor of this great day, we give you our ode to pop culture sandwiches past the break. Leave us your favorites — or favorite sandwich fixins so we can all consider new things to stuff our maws with, Liz Lemon style — below.
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While Hollywood still sits on top of a celluloid empire, TV production is rapidly moving east. New York may not have the temperate filming climate that Los Angeles boasts, but it does offer producers a 30 percent tax credit, instated in 2008, and of course the authentic New York City backdrop against which many shows are set. This season, 23 prime-time series are being filmed in New York, up from a measly nine in 2006.
But flying a film crew out east and renting out a Brooklyn loft doesn’t ensure that a show will get the aura — or the facts — right. New York shows have tried and failed to accurately portray New York City on screen, often apparently because they were too busy collecting a library of picturesque Central Park shots to pick up on the kinds of food New Yorkers eat, how much rent they pay, the way they talk to their neighbors, and the fact that most of us actually don’t spend all that much time in Central Park. We’ve rounded up our favorite Big Apple shows and ranked them from realistic to laughable. Which city show do you think is most representative of the real New York?
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It’s hard to wrap up a years-long TV series, with all of its mysteries, questions, and unresolved narratives, in a single episode. Fans will need you to help them cope with the separation, and critics will watch your every move, looking to pick out the one loose end you forgot to tie up. But the 10 TV finales we list below transcended the average tear-jerking resolution. Whether deliberately planned endings or simply the unintentional result of sudden cancellations, these last episodes go above and beyond when it comes to leaving us in the dark, crushing our dreams, and preparing America’s children for years of psychiatric therapy. Browse through our list of happily never afters and tell us which cliff-hanging, hope-sucking shows you’d add in the comments.
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