I shoulda warned y'all: that's someone on my flist who wrote the column, so I'm mildly defensive on her part.

Heh. I figured there was a connection because of SmartTV - that's actually why I made a point of saying that article itself seemed a perfectly sound critique to me instead of just pointing out the part that made me scratch my head. (Well, that, and I didn't want to just sound all whiny and stuff).

She just loses me in that final paragraph, where she seems to be saying that shoutouts=an attempt to stick it to Fox execs. I don't see the basis for making that connection; in my mind, shoutouts=giving fans (and/or friends) a happy.

At least, I Peter Coyote was an FBI guy in that one.

You know what else he was in? Legend of Billie Jean, baby! Yeah!

He was also a mysterious government guy in E.T.

He was also himself in Commune, on which I was an editor. Making me two degrees from Tim. Yay!

The Closer, well, first I need to get past my annoyance with Brenda, because I do find the concept interesting. The woman gets lost on her way to the grocery store, talks to her dad on the phone, and has enough attitude to make the sweet southern honey bite and sting like a bee.

Hey! I talk to my dad on my phone, too!!1!

The Closer, well, first I need to get past my annoyance with Brenda, because I do find the concept interesting. The woman gets lost on her way to the grocery store, talks to her dad on the phone, and has enough attitude to make the sweet southern honey bite and sting like a bee.

She had kind of a lock-the-lawyers-in-the-wine-cellar Angel moment there last night that was pretty cool.

My dad calls my phone and leaves messages for the dog. Does that count?

The shout outs are hardly slams on the network. And people are reading in a hell of a lot more than are actually there -- at least on purpose. "Melody" is the inverse of "Harmony?" Wow. I just thought Melody was an ironic name for someone who did that kind of work... the "Harmony" thing never occurred. I never wrote Harmony, that character is really not on my radar at all. She came onto Angel the year after I left. I knew the blue gloves would be taken as a shout out... but that's what props had. It wasn't a plan. And Craig Silverstein named the cat "Angel" when he rewrote that act. So unless there was a character called "Angel" on "Dead Zone," I don't think even THAT was a shout out per se. My shout outs are more along the lines of casting, anyway.

I really enjoyed the teevee.org guy's review. I was pleased that he kept talking about the show the way I meant for it to come across. So it must be on some level for some people.

And people are reading in a hell of a lot more than are actually there -- at least on purpose.

So in the episode where the victims are named Darrin, Karen, Sharon, Aaron, & Jaye Tyler that's a coincidence?

So in the episode where the victims are named Darrin, Karen, Sharon, Aaron, & Jaye Tyler that's a coincidence?

Totally. I mean, didn't you notice that the first victim spelled Darren with an e ?

quick post-lunch drive-by...

Tim, you're harshing on our shoutouts. do you have to crush our shoutout hopes under your boot heel too?