Today’s TV Addict Top 5: Things That Make Us Go “Hmmmm…”

Despite assurances that entitling an episode “Firefly” for FRINGE’s first foray onto Friday nights starting on January 21, 2011 is mere happenstance, we can’t help but wonder why the brilliant brains behind FRINGE would even go so far as to dare tempt fate? After-all, is not naming an episode after a critically lauded FOX series just so happened to share the same unfortunate Friday night timeslot the equivalent of casting Eric Balfour as your series lead.? We’re just sayin’

With contract renegotiations for THE BIG BANG THEORY cast all but finalized, our thoughts now turn to our favorite fictional family. Considering it took months of secretive behind-the-scenes negotiations to secure deals for the five stars of the hit CBS sitcom, just how on earth is Twentieth Century Fox TV going to handle the cast of MODERN FAMILY? A cast that not only consists of six equally brilliant adult leads, but four pint-sized stars just as integral to the show’s success (see: Their recent inclusion in Entertainment Weekly’s 2010 Entertainers of the Year Issue.)

As much as we are enjoying the poignant way in which Teddy’s “coming out” story has been handled during the surprisingly stellar third season of 90210, this true blue Canadian TV Addict does feel that it’s our patriotic duty to ask the obvious: Why, of all the coming-out stories… on all the television shows… in all the world… was it necessary to name Teddy’s soon-to-be boyfriend Marco. You know, the exact same moniker held by the trail-blazing character on the Canadian series [DEGRASSI] that started it all?

Tonight on ABC, Barbara Walters will unveil her 10 MOST FASCINATING PEOPLE OF 2010 and what really grinds our gears — other that the obvious fact that we’re not quite sure as to whether Ms. Walters actually knows what the definition of the word “fascinating” is — is the fact that we’re left asking: What’s the point? No really. When the every interview, thought, and excursion is live tweeted, photographed and/or recorded for future generations to wonder “What’s a Snooki?”, is there really anything left to be fascinated about when it comes to the likes of Justin Bieber, Sarah Palin and [shudder] the cast of JERSEY SHORE?

And finally, fresh off the news that Mandy Patinkin is returning to series television alongside Claire Danes in Showtime’s HOMELAND, we find ourselves scratching our head over who on earth would give this man another job in series television. And by that we mean, are we the only ones who are aware of his notoriously difficult reputation that not only saw him abruptly depart CRIMINAL MINDS in 2007, but CHICAGO HOPE as well?