Thursday Night TV

I'm still way behind on TV after an extended weekend. Still to watch: The past two Jerichos, The Sopranos, Entourage, House, Gilmore Girls, The Shield, tonight's Smallville, and I'm still not clear on whether this week's Bones was new. But I did catch My Name is Earl, 30 Rock, and Scrubs tonight. Spoilers past the jump.

My Name is Earl: Cool to see a call back to Burt Reynolds' episode, but even better... Norm MacDonald! I've been a fan for a long time. And once when I saw him at a casino, he said "how's it going?" to me. Also cool to see Charles Robinson, fresh off his appearance on The Riches. I never saw him in a casino, though.

So Norm plays "Little Chubby," son of the now deceased "Big Chubby." He was a huge jerk, so in an apparent cross promotion with kickedinthenuts.com, dons a jumpsuit and an orange wig and... well... kicks him in the nuts. But everyone laughing at him sends him on a spiritual quest, and he comes back a better person.

But it turns out the severe testicular injury meant he wasn't producing testosterone, and since he never saw a doctor for it, it was his mangled nads that made him nice. But thanks to a touching rendition of "Freebird," he sacrifices his balls to be a nice person again.


Best parts:

• Catalina
• "It's like having sex with a fat chick, except I can't get her pregnant."
• "Male intimacy: it's not just for gays anymore."
• "Never trust a man who wants to put his finger in your butt."
• "No wonder we make a fortune with this place, I bet everyone here has working testicles."
• "What would I sacrifice to be loved? Not my balls."

30 Rock: Liz sees herself in New York for the rest of her life, but Floyd wants to go back to Cleveland. So they go to Cleveland and it's like a paradise. It even gets it's own musical montage with a song that actually sounds like it's sung by Sudeikis and Fey. Floyd ends up taking the job, so it sounds like he's taking off. I was seriously impressed with how likable Jason Sudeikis has been in this show, and for the first time that I can remember, I'm sad to see a sitcom character's love interest go.


A secret society of famous black people lead by Bill Cosby is apparently out to get Tracy, so he disappears. And is still on the lam when the episode ends. Jack's wedding is still on, even though his fiancee Phoebe is seeming like even more of a crazy bitch lately.

• "By the hammer of Thor!" and "blergh" seem to be Liz's new catchphrases.
• "It's... made of gold."
• "It's going to be at least $30 million with all the claymation sex scenes."
• "I'm gonna have so much money, my grandkids are gonna play lacrosse. Lacrosse, Liz."
• "Who told Tracy about Anagrams? I'm gonna call Dr. Spaceman."

Scrubs: Another episode where the narration gets passed off to someone else, but this time it's to Ted, the Todd, and Jordan. Ted's trying to get Kelso to resolve a pay dispute with the nurses. The Todd is trying to keep Turk from jeopardizing his career by clashing with the head of plastic surgery. And Jordan messes with Elliot and Keith's relationship, but when she succeeds she actually feels guilty. In typical Scrubs fashion, everything gets resolved in the end with a heartwarming narration thing. Nothing was especially wrong with the episode, but it just wasn't all that funny.


Best parts:

• "Internal uh-oh five."
• Elliot's stripper pole.
• "What's with this guy and bees?"
• Ted's murderous rage at Kelso