All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

-Just not a good month for TV celebs: On the heels of the deaths of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, MTV video legend Michael Jackson and pitchman Billy Mays, The Gale Storm Show and My Little Margie star Gale Storm – one of TV’s first big stars – died on Saturday at age 87, while comedian, celeb impersonator and frequent late-night TV guest Fred Travalena died Sunday at age 66 after a battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

– The B-Side Blog has a sneak peek at the new Big Brother house, where the latest round of reality TV hamsters will move in on July 9.

– For TV fans, this is the year to attend Comic-Con in San Diego. The TV-heavy line-up includes panels with the casts of Lost, 24, Chuck, Bones, Burn Notice, Glee, MythBusters, The Cleveland Show, Futurama, Heroes and upcoming series V, Flash Forward and Human Target.

– No good Oprah deed goes unpunished? May be, as her gifts to her staff – a fancy luxury cruise – is reportedly going to cost each of them $1,000 in taxes.

– As the Sept. 18 series finale of long-running daytime soap Guiding Light grows sadly closer, 60 Minutes is planning a special Sept. segment that includes interviews with cast, while the Daytime Emmy telecast on Aug. 30 will also include a special tribute. Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter‘s Roger Friedman claims the show’s sponsor, Procter & Gamble, is purposely trying to turn fans against the show because the company wants out of the soap biz.

– Casting news: Reaper star Missy Peregrym has signed on to star in ABC’s Canadian cop drama Copper, while Desperate Housewives guest star T.J. Ramini – he played Gabby’s trainer, Yaniv – will be a recurring star on season eight of 24, where he’ll play Tarin, a cohort of the Middle Eastern leader who’ll be played by Anil Kapoor.

– And tonight in primetime:

– The premiere of Oxygen’s Dance Your Ass Off (10PM ET), a Biggest Loser-meets-Dancing with the Stars/So You Think You Can Dance-ish reality competition
– Brenda and Fritz clash when they work together on a missing person/murder case on a new ep of The Closer (9PM, TNT)
– New York will apparently be unemployed after the season finale of New York Goes to Work (10PM, VH1)
– Zoey wigs when she loses her first patient on Nurse Jackie (10:30PM, Showtime)
– Celia’s baaaa-ack – and living in Nancy’s garage, while Agent Roy Till also pops back into Nancy’s life on a new Weeds (10PM, Showtime)
– Buddy bakes a cake and plans to stash live birds inside of it on Cake Boss (10PM, TLC)
– Kathy Griffin hangs with Paris Hilton (is getting off the D-list really worth that?) on My Life on the D-List (10PM, Bravo)
– Guy Fieri hits the road for pumpkin-oatmeal pancakes and bacon-wrapped meatloaf on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (10PM, Food Network)
– And it’s down to five on The Bachelorette (8PM, ABC)

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• Filed in 24, Reality, TV News
• Tags: 24, Big Brother, Big Brother house, Cake Boss, Comic Con TV, Dance Your Ass Off, Desperate Housewives, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, Fred Travalena, Gale Storm, Guiding Light, Guiding Light finale, Guy Fieri, Kathy Griffin, Missy Peregrym, My Life on the D-List, New York Goes to Work, Nurse Jackie, Oprah, Paris Hilton, The Bachelorette, The Closer, Weeds

All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

– Mad Men, season three, August 16 at 10PM ET on AMC. Be there, or be somewhere else, somewhere where people don’t knock back three vodka gimlets before lunch, aren’t nearly as dapperly-attired as Don Draper (Jon Hamm) and don’t have offices that are bigger than my entire New York City apartment. Yeah, not sounding nearly as much fun as Mad Men, right?

– Is designer Vera Wang going to be competing on the next season of Dancing With the Stars? And if so, does that mean we can count on less cheesy costumes?

– Plus-size model Emme has been hired to host Fox’s More to Love, the reality dating show that will feature “average-looking” people

– Discovery Channel’s 22nd annual Shark Week kicks off on August 2.

– Matt Mitovich at TVGuide.com says Rick Springfield will play, fittingly enough, Rick Springfield, when he guest stars on the new season of Californication, but he’ll be a naughty Rick Springfield, one whose sex play makes David Duchovny‘s Hank “look like a Jonas brother.” Not that I’m buying that whole purity ring business about the Jonas Bros. …

– In celebration of its 15th anniversary, TCM has created its own social network site, TCM Classic Film Union, for movie buffs.

– Gordon Ramsay has apologized for, well, basically, for being a tool. You can watch the apology here.

– I reeeally want to like Dr. Drew and trust his motives, but a real doctor prolly should offer to help Lindsay Lohan, or a less-famous addict, whether or not she accepts a reported six-figure offer to appear on his reality show, Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, right? Of course, the story seems to be originating with Lohan’s dad, so, grain – no, make that rock, huge, ginormous rock – of salt on the whole thing.

– The Shield creator Shawn Ryan is going back to FX with a comedy about private detectives, called Terriers.

– Futurama‘s back! With 26 new episodes in 2010!

– Good news for David Letterman: He, with guest Julia Roberts, beat Conan O’Brien‘s Tonight Show on Tuesday. Worse news for Conan: His ratings keep dropping. Don’t count him out tho; remember his first years as Late Night host?

– More ratings wars news: Judge Judy beat Oprah. Whoa.

– ABC’s getting a jump on the competition by announcing its fall premiere dates.

– The ratings for the Nurse Jackie series premiere were so good, Showtime’s already greenlighting a second season, so go ahead and get hooked.

– Heidi Pratt‘s launching her own line of dry shampoo, after her shampoo shenanigans on I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. I’m sure Oscar Blandi is shaking in his celebrity hair-cutting boots.

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• Filed in Celebreality, Late Night, Reality, TV News
• Tags: Californication, Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, Conan O'Brien, Dancing With the Stars, David Duchovny, David Letterman, Discovery Channel, Don Draper, Dr. Drew, Drew Pinsky, Emme, Futurama, Get Me Out of Here, Gordon Ramsay, Heidi Pratt, I'm a Celebrity, Jon Hamm, Jonas, Judge Judy, Julia Roberts, Lindsay Lohan, Mad Men, More to Love, Nurse Jackie, Oprah, Rick Springfield, Shark Week, Shawn Ryan, TCM Classic Film Union, The Shield, Tonight Show, Vera Wang

All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

– R.I.P. Kung Fu star David Carradine. Check out some of his Emmy-nominated days as Caine at the YouTube Kung Fu page.

– Hey, yeah! TheWrap.com asks the question, If Kal Penn left House to work for the Obama White House, why isn’t he there yet?

– And don’t miss the two-part TheWrap.com investigation into just how dire post-reality TV life is for some of its stars. Not everyone turns reality TV stardom into a thriving career like Elizabeth Hasselbeck has, of course. But some of the cast-offs have been so haunted by their short-lived fame, or infamy, that they’ve committed suicide.

– Whoa: The Big O has been dethroned as the most powerful celeb in the world, says Forbes mag.

– Oprah has responded, meanwhile, to that Newsweek story on the iffy-ness of the advice from the health segments of Oprah’s talk show.

– A&E has reportedly decided to cancel The Beast, the Patrick Swayze drama that failed to pull in big ratings.

– After being bounced from the Iron Man movie series, Terrence Howard is bringing his considerable talents to the tube for an upcoming cop drama.

– The people have spoken, and they’ve declared in Ted Casablanca‘s The Awful Truth column that Spencer Pratt is The Most Awful Celeb in Hollywood. But somehow, I think the arrogant one will just see it not as an insult, but as confirmation that he is considered a celeb.

– Prison Break alum Robert “T-Bag” Knepper will be the newest Heroes villain next season. May have to actually start watching again.

– Kris Allen, you just won American Idol, what are you going to do next? Um, play a Wal-Mart shareholders meeting.

– Once and for all: Eminem was in on the Bruno joke at the MTV Movie Awards.

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• Filed in American Idol, Celebreality, Reality, TV News
• Tags: Bruno, David Carradine, Elizabeth Hasselbeck, Eminem, Heroes, Heroes villain, House, Iron Man, Kal Penn, Kris Allen, Kung Fu, MTV Movie Awards, Newsweek Oprah, Obama, Oprah, Patrick Swayze, Prison Break, R.I.P., reality stars, Reality TV, reality TV stars suicide, reality TV suicide, Robert "T-Bag" Knepper, Spencer Pratt, Ted Casablanca, Terrence Howard, The Awful Truth, The Beast

The Big O’s at it again. Not content to give away crap during the regular season, now she’s promising swag to viewers who tune in to her summer repeats.

“Oprah’s Summer Giveaway” begins today, in which viewers watch the show, get a secret word, and enter it at Oprah.com for the chance to win prizes galore, from cars, washers and dryers, a big-screen TV, Target gift cards and, the big get, tickets to an Oprah taping for September’s new season.

PS – TVWeek.com points out that you don’t really have to watch those repeats; the secret word of the day will be available at Oprah.com, too. Not that TVScreener.com encourages you to skip the Oprah repeats, to watch King of Queens on TBS, for example. Just sayin’ … the secret words will be available at Oprah.com.

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• Filed in TV News
• Tags: free stuff, giveaways, Oprah, Oprah show, Oprah ticets, Oprah Winfrey

All the tube news that’s fit to surf …

– Did AT&T help Kris Allen win American Idol? Allegedly so.

– Everyone loves a good case of schadenfreude, but it makes you wonder just how insufferable Jon and Kate Gosselin are that no one seems to be coming to their defense these days, don’t it? BTW, nearly 10 million viewers watched the season five premiere of Jon & Kate Plus 8 … again, schadenfreude. I wonder how far that number will drop for next week’s new episode, especially since the premiere made it pretty clear that the Gosselins can barely stand to sit next to each other on a couch.

– As the New York Daily News points out, the Gosselins are hardly the only exploiting their children for reality TV dollars.

– Jessica Simpson just isn’t going to go away, and TV may be helping that.

– Whoa … Is Susan Boyle really a potty mouth?

– If you doubt The Big O’s influence, tune in Thursday night for CNBC’s The Oprah Effect (9PM ET), a special that delves into how just a mention on her show can mean the difference between a business thriving and filing for bankruptcy.

– Hoo-ah! Al Pacino‘s headed to the tube, playing suicide doc Jack Kevorkian in an upcoming HBO movie.

– 24, which begins production on season eight today (yay!), has added another pair of new cast members, including Kissing Jessica Stein star (and girlfriend of Mad Men star Jon Hamm) Jennifer Westfeldt.

– And, there’s plenty of serious TV business to talk about today, but for some comic relief, and just plain old fun summer TV watchin’, you can’t beat tonight’s return of Wipeout (ABC, 8PM ET) and The Big Red Balls.

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• Filed in 24, American Idol, Celebreality, Comedy, Drama, TV News
• Tags: 24, Al Pacino, American Idol, AT&T, big red balls, controversy, Gosselins, HBO, Jack Kevorkian, Jennifer Westfeldt, Jessica Simpson, Jon, Jon & Kate Plus 8, Jon Hamm, Kate, Kris Allen, Mad Men, Oprah, Oprah Winfrey, scandal, Summer TV, Susan Boyle, The Oprah Effect, Wipeout