Dispatches From The Couch: THE L WORD, JERICHO, SWINGTOWN & More!

Attention network bigwigs. CouchTater here. And while I’m sure you don’t really care as you look down from your big black Hollywood towers, I’d like to just point out a few things to y’all.

First, to Showtime president of entertainment Bob Greenblatt. I know you’re real excited about that spin-off of THE L-WORD that may or may not get the go-ahead (the pilot is only now being edited). But agreeing with reporters that it sounds like “a female OZ” why not give credit where credit is due and admit that it sounds like a PRISONER CELL BLOCK H ripoff… er, homage.

iFMAGAZINE.COM is reporting that former JERICHO executive producer Jon Turteltaub is developing a big-screen flick around the twice-failed series. I don’t want to call the man delusional, but he thinks if reruns of the series on the CW are “like this remarkable success”, it might get another shot at life on a network. And did we mention he’s developing a feature film? Dude, give it up.

New York’s Daily News says that by adding judge Kara Dioguardia, AMERICAN IDOL has “finally found its mean girl.” Yeah, cause that’s what the show needed. To be meaner.

PRISON BREAK’s executive producer told Entertainment Weekly that they were ending the show because nobody wanted it to “become a parody of itself.” Um, too late.

Word has it Michael Cera is holding up the ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT movie. Seriously? I see a fatal corn-baller accident in George Michael’s future.

To the folks at ABC who filled last night’s LOST-fest with such “fascinating” tidbits as “This is Claire.” or my personal favorite, which told us who the Oceanic Six were… as they were on screen, as if we weren’t smart enough to put the pieces together… there’s mentoring and then there’s treating us like short-bus riders.

In the least shocking news ever, CBS president Nina Tassler told reporters this week that SWINGTOWN is, in the words of those famous munchkins, really, most sincerely dead. “The show was well executed, it was well received, the performances were great, the writing was great,” she said to the gathered journalists as reported by Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello. And given all those facts, gee, we can see why they cancelled the show. Nina, next time people take shots at your network for airing 15 procedurals, know that this is why. Oh, and know that when we say “people” we mean us, your friends at thetvaddict.com.