Where are the Great 4th of July Television Episodes?

Happy 4th of July everyone.

That is actually what leads me into what I want to touch on very, very briefly today. The 4th of July is a pretty big holiday. Or, at least, I imagine it is for most. For me as a kid the Fourth meant that I got to eat Dairy Queen and watch fireworks on the hood of my folks car. Pretty simple, yet very fun as a kid. As I got older, the fourth wasn't too important. Then I met my wife, and her family loves the Fourth. They have a big cookout, a barbeque and we shoot off fireworks. It has been that way for 13 plus years now.

I recently noticed that most of the TV shows I watch don't do an episode focused on the Fourth. I know that "Saved By the Bell" had one episode where they played games while working at the beach one summer, and it ended with fireworks, thus leading us to believe it was July 4th. And RD pointed out to me that the episode of "The Simpsons" where they go to Flanders beach house takes place on the Fourth. So, there are 2 examples of shows I do watch that may have a Fourth themed episode.

When thinking about this topic, I searched my brain for other shows I watch that do good holiday themed episodes, and none really came to mind. "The Office", the American version, even when it was bad, they did a good Christmas/Hanukkah themed episode. They also did solid Halloween episodes. But, no real Fourth of July ones. "30 Rock" crushes their Christmas episodes. I think they make some of the best in fact. But, not only do I not recall seeing a Fourth ep, I don't know that I have seen a Halloween or Thanksgiving one. "Parks and Rec", who you'd assume would have a great Fourth of July episode, or episodes, never touches on the holiday. They do excellent Halloween ones. The one with Greg Pitkitis, or when Gerry has a "fart attack", those are classics. But not even when Anne moves to Michigan and Leslie throws a mega party with all the holidays crammed into one, do we see a Fourth of July themed area. It just strikes me as weird is all.

I'm sure there are some shows out there that do celebrate this holiday, I just haven't seen them, or they were forgettable. It is strange is all I am trying to say. The Fourth of July seems to be a major holiday, and the shows I watch that cover major holidays, have never really dipped their toes into the Fourth. Please let me know if I am wrong, or just missed something because I'd like to see how an "Office" or "Parks and Rec" handles the day.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Make your 4th of July resolution to be the person on your block who grills the best hotdog. We have a guide for that.

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Better Late Than Never to Catch Up and Enjoy the Great "Orphan Black"

Dolly would have loved the show about other clones

My wife and I just recently got caught up on the television show "Orphan Black". The show is absolutely phenomenal. They do action, suspense, drama and even a little comedy to perfection. There is some of the best action sequences I've ever seen on TV on the show. Car chases, shootouts, fights, every action thing you could want, they deliver. The show is also very quiet in their suspense. That's how I like my suspense. Quiet moments that build and deliver. It's perfect. Even the few moments of comedy are gold. Every time they throw a joke in there, or even a whole scene based on comedy, it works.

Fans already know how good of a show "Orphan Black" is. It's currently airing it's fourth season on BBC America, they're only two episodes in, with the third coming this Thursday. But, my blog today will focus on how great of an actress and the many, many roles that Tatiana Maslany plays and portrays on "Orphan Black". Everyone on the show is wonderful, but Maslany does all the heavy lifting, and then some. She is a powerhouse, and she should be so much more well known than she actually is. In fact, I only knew her as the doctor that played Tom Haverford's girlfriend for a couple of episodes on "Parks and Rec" before I started watching "Orphan Black". She is incredible on the show.

So, as most of you know, if you watch the show, it's all about clones. There's a lot of science talk and romance talk and all the stuff I mentioned before, but the bare bones of the show deals with all these clones. And they are all played by Maslany. In the very first episode, we meet Sarah Manning. She is kind of a street punk that steals from people. She's basically a petty thief. Then, one night she sees a lady step in front of a train and take her own life. This is all shocking to her, but what is more shocking, after she takes her wallet, the lady who just committed suicide looks exactly like her. We go down a rabbit hole from here for the next three seasons. We meet so many other clones throughout the course of each season. There's Sarah Manning, the aforementioned petty thief and mom. Clones are not supposed to be able to bear children, but she did. She is an anomaly in the world this show has created. It's pretty cool that she is the "indestructible" one. She is also the most simple, but in a good way, looking one. She is what Maslany would be, if she were English, minus the stealing. Manning is my favorite clone. But, we also get a housewife in Canada named Alison. She is bored and tired and fed up with her husband and suburban lifestyle, until she finds out that she is a clone. She also looks like a housewife. She has very sharp bangs and dresses like a mom. Lots of sweaters and pleated pants. But, Alison also has a drinking problem and she is a pill dealer. Alison comes on strong at first, but you grow to really like her in the middle of season two. Alison is my wife's favorite. Then there's the dread head, glasses wearing scientist, Cosima. She is the most down to Earth one. She is cool and hip and very well read and incredibly smart. She helps all her "sisters" understand what is going on and why they are clones. She is also very sick and needs to find help anyway possible. Cosima is the clone that I would hang out with and want to be friends with. She is very, very cool. And then there's Helena. She is the Russian bad ass of the crew. She is a stone cold murderer, but she might be the most sympathetic character of all the clones. She had a miserable childhood. She has brutally murdered hundreds of people. Sarah, spoiler alert, tried to kill her in season one. She gets caught up in a weird religion that's a mix of Mormon and Catholic. She gets thrown in a war prison. I mean, Helena has it rough. But, she is a fighter and she fights for the ones she truly loves. She grows to love her "sestras" and she becomes a huge part of the show and a pretty big deal in seasons two and three. Helena has seen and been through some pretty gruesome things, but she is an excellent character. Sarah is my favorite, but Helena is the best clone, and it's not even close. There have been some other clones as well. There's the leader of DYAD, the science company that controls the clones, Rachel. She is pretty mean, but she also has to deal with some rough stuff. There's another German/Russian clone that gets shot when she and Sarah are trying to escape. There's a ditsy spa worker named Crystal they introduced in season three. And I'm sure there's many more to come.

Sarah, Cosima, Alison and Helena are the main ones, with a decent amount of Rachel thrown in there. And, they are all played by Maslany. I cannot imagine how tough that must be. She has to know different dialects. She has to walk and carry herself differently with each character. She has to give each clone their own persona. She has to memorize the most lines. She has to spend more time in make up than anyone else on the show. She has to spend the most time filming. And she is absolutely fantastic at doing all of this. She is just an absolute treasure and this show lets her showcase her incredible talent. It is no surprise that I enjoy strong female leads and "Orphan Black" is right up there with Furiosa in "Mad Max: Fury Road". Maslany, much like Theron, is the driving force and everything revolves around her. I love it. One of the best things about all the clones she plays, they all look similar, but they are all extremely different. That's a testament to how well Maslany does all of these roles.

I love "Orphan Black" and I love Maslany's acting on the show. Like I said before, everyone on the show is great, but they all pale in comparison to the absolute top notch work from Tatiana Maslany. It's a powerhouse role. Everyone should watch "Orphan Black" and be amazed at the great work Maslany and everyone involved does.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. His love of female action heroes started when his three older brothers forced him to watch Aliens on repeat for days. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

The Greatest Television Ever: NBC Thursday Night Comedy

In the coming weeks and months, we at SeedSing will be doing our favorite TV shows. It will be a lot like our greatest American band debate, each week picking a show or a season or just particular moments from TV shows that we enjoy.

I'm going to kick it off today by talking about one of my favorite two hour blocks of TV on NBC. There was a time that the Thursday night line up on NBC had four of the best sitcoms that I've ever seen. It was epic, must watch TV for me and any other fan of comedic television. The four shows they trotted out were "30 Rock", "The Office", "Community" and "Parks and Recreation". Talk about a murderers row of great, great TV. These four sitcoms are all in my personal top ten of TV shows. I love these shows and I love them all for different reasons.

First we'd get "30 Rock". This show is one of the all time greats. Tina Fey is a genius. Her writing and acting are beyond genius. She's on a whole different level from any other sitcom writer I've ever seen. She is a legend. But, it wasn't just Tina Fey that made that show great. We got Tracy Morgan, Jane Krawkowski, Jack McBrayer and, of course, Alec Baldwin. Tina Fey basically revived both Morgan's and Baldwin's career with their roles on this show. And they were both fantastic. Any episode that revolved around Morgan's character, Tracy Jordan, was so hilarious and so well written. Anytime he interacted with McBrayer, or Grizz and Dot Com or with Liz Lemon or Jack Donaghy was great. Morgan's first appearance on the show, naked, except for underwear, freaking out on the highway, waving around a fake light saber, was a perfect introduction to his character. And when he tries to get the EGOT, that was a great run of episodes. Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy was the perfect representation of the arrogant, yet idiotic studio head that has no clue how to run a network. He was so great on this show. Two of my favorite lines spoken on a sitcom were said by him. The first, Liz asks him why he's dressed so nicely and he says, "it's after six, what am I, a farmer?", loved it. The only line I like better is when Donaghy is talking about his hard working father and he says, "he worked the day shift at the graveyard and the graveyard shift at the Days Inn", that is exquisite writing. I love "30 Rock" and I could go on forever about it, but I need to talk about the other three shows.

After "30 Rock", we got "The Office". This is my second favorite show of all time, behind only "The Simpsons". When this show was great, it was the best thing on TV. Seasons 1-4 of "The Office" is some of the best TV that's ever been aired. We got three phenomenal episodes in those first four seasons. In season one they had the episode where the sales team challenged the warehouse workers to a game of basketball. It was so good. Michael Scott(Steve Carrell) warming up and then playing basketball is so god damn funny. I love that episode. Season two gave us "The Dundies". That was the award show that they had for the employees of Dunder Mifflin. It was cringe worthy comedy, with Michael Scott and Dwight Schrute(Rainn Wilson), emceeing this train wreck. It was so funny and it was the first time that Jim(John Krasinski) and Pam(Jenna Fischer) kissed. This episode is great. The best episode of "The Office" came in season four. The episode titled, "Dinner Party", is the most uncomfortable 44 minutes of brilliant comedy ever written. Michael and Jan(Melora Hardin) constantly fighting while they have four employees over to their condo is so good, yet so uncomfortable. I still love this episode to this day. It is excellent comedy. I adore "The Office" and it will always hold a special place in my heart. It is the second greatest show of all time, in my personal opinion.

Then, we got the weird, off the wall, bizarre comedy, "Community". At first glance, I didn't think Id really like this show, but the more I watched it, the more I grew to love it and look forward to it every week. Joel McHale finally got his chance to be the lead role on a show and he did it so well. He is criminally underrated for his work on that show. But the other actors were just as good. Danny Pudi. Gillian Jacobs, Donald Glover, Jim Rash and Ken Jeong were great. Alison Brie and Yvette Nicole Brown were also really good. The only person I didn't really care for was Chevy Chase, but he's an asshole. I loved the off beat humor that Dan Harmon brought to major network TV with "Community". The show was an almost perfect representation of community college life. I could relate to the people because I ran into the exact same people in my almost two years of community college. There were athletes, nerds, regular joes, old people and good looking ladies that never got into a four year school, so they had to go to community college. Sure, "Community" is a glorified version of community college, but they made it relatable, especially when Dan Harmon was the main writer and show runner. They had ups and downs, but there were way more ups than downs when it comes to "Community". And yes, the paintball episodes are as good as the fans say they are. Go back and watch those and be amazed at how well "Community" was done. It's an underrated cult classic show.

NBC would close the night with probably my third all time favorite show, "Parks and Recreation". This show is a classic that only got better and better the more seasons it got. I loved the first season, but each season that followed was better than the last. This show was the exact representation of what it's like to work for a parks and recreation department. My sister in law, that works for Columbia's parks and rec department, even confirmed this. Ron Swanson(Nick Offerman) and Tom Haverford(Aziz Ansari) are real representations of people that take government jobs in parks and rec and just sail from there. They don't take their jobs seriously at all because it's not a serious job. They plan parties and races and community gatherings, not that tough of a job. Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope was the perfect post "SNL" role for her. She was so, so good on that show. She excelled. When shows bring new people on, it's usually a bad sign, but the additions of Rob Lowe, whom I've written about before, and Adam Scott made this show that much better. Rob Lowe, as the always upbeat and exercising Chris Traeger, was the perfect foil for Ron Swanson. and Adam Scott as Ben Wyatt, failed mayor and Leslie's love interest, was perfect. When these two showed up, "Parks and Rec" went to a whole new level. Chris Pratt, Retta, Aubrey Plaza and later on, Jon Glaser and Billy Eichner were also excellent on the show. I love every episode of "Parks and Rec", there isn't a bad one. If you haven't seen it and you're looking for a starting point, start at the end of season two, when Rob Lowe and Adam Scott show up, that's when the show went from good to great.

So, there you have the first entry in our greatest TV choices on SeedSing. I figured I'd come out of the gates strong, and this Thursday night lineup is a slam dunk. Come back for more TV later. I already am writing "The Simpsons" blog in my head now.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He desperately wanted to add "Andy Barker P.I." to his list, but then realized the show was no "Andy Richter Controls the Universe" Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.

Rob Lowe is the current MVP of Television Comedy

Rob Lowe has a new show? I'll watch that for a while.

Today I'm going to take my time to talk about how Rob Lowe is killing it on TV.

Not only is he back, but he's starring in comedic TV shows. I knew he had comedy chops when I was a kid since he was so funny as the bad guy in "Wayne's World", but before and after that, he appeared in pretty much straight dramas. He was on procedurals, in dramatic movies and was part of the "brat pack". He's always been a good actor, but I'm a comedy nerd and I love comedy. Those are my favorite types of movies and shows. If you can make me laugh in a 30 minute TV show or a 2 hour movie, I'll be your biggest fan. Hell, until recently, I used to stick up for Adam Sandler come hell or high water, but he's a nut job. That's another blog for another day though.  

Recently, Rob Lowe has made me not only a fan, but his appearances on recent shows like "Parks and Recreation" and "The Grinder" have been appointment viewing in my household. I also hear very good things about the animated show "Moonbeam City" on Comedy Central. I haven't seen it, but I've heard that it's pretty good. It's a spoof of 80's cop procedurals and Rob Lowe voices the main character. I'll probably start watching it soon since Lowe is involved, and the good reviews don't hurt. But, let's first look at his role on "Parks and Recreation". Lowe, playing the super upbeat, super in shape Chris Traeger was so funny. His addition, along with Adam Scott turned "Parks and Rec" into a great show. It was already good, but those two made it great. When they joined, the dynamic was, Lowe was the good guy and Scott was the bad guy. They played city financial planners and one of them had to be the good guy. This role was perfect for Lowe. Not only is he very handsome, but he also seems like a genuinely nice guy. First, all the female characters would comment, playing it for jokes, about how attractive he was. They all thought that the happy go lucky thing was just a front, assuming that someone that attractive couldn't be this good of a person, but he's also a really good guy. He first approaches Anne, played by Rashida Jones, and at first she rejects him, but they end up together. They have a typical TV relationship, and when Chris eventually breaks up with her, he does it so nicely, she doesn't realize he's broken up with her. Rob Lowe does this to absolute perfection. He later dates Jerry Gergich's daughter, Millicent, and she actually breaks up with him because she thinks he's too old and can't keep up with her. This is a shock to the Chris Traeger character. He's never been dumped, but what's worse, in his opinion is, the fact that she didn't think he could keep up with her. He's the most in shape person in all of Pawnee, but he is getting older, and time always wins. This was an interesting spin on this character, because we, the audience, saw doubt in Traeger's eyes for the first time. Rob Lowe played this very, very well. He was sad, but the sadness was played to many laughs. It was excellent. He and Anne decide to have a child together in the second to last season. They don't want to date, but Anne wants Chris to father the baby since he's perfection in her eyes. And Anne is pretty attractive as well, so they both agree that they'd make beautiful children. She eventually gets pregnant, and after awhile, they decide to couple up again. They even talked marriage, but they decided that as long as they loved each other, they wouldn't need a ring to symbolize it. They moved to Michigan in the season six finale and Lowe plays this to tears and laughter. Anne has Leslie and we all knew that would be emotional. Chris, on the surface, seems to only have Ben Wyatt(Adam Scott), but it's revealed that Tom(Aziz Ansari), Andy(Chris Pratt) and even Ron(Nick Offerman) like Chris. They revealed that they will miss him, and give him a meaningful present as a goodbye. This was played to some tears, but it was mostly laughter. Rob Lowe was phenomenal on "Parks and Rec", and it put him back on my radar. I remembered his excellent work in "Wayne's World", and "Parks and Rec" reaffirmed that he could do comedy.

Early this fall, I saw commercials for a show called "The Grinder". It stars Lowe and Fred Savage. Lowe was an actor on an "SVU" type of lawyer show called "The Grinder" and Savage is his younger brother that is an actual lawyer. Lowe's show comes to an end and he moves back to his hometown to live with his brother and become a real, bona fide lawyer. I know, the premise sounds stupid, but this show is hilarious, and it's due to Lowe and Savage, mostly Lowe. It's nice to see Fred Savage act again because he's a pretty good actor. He's been directing a lot lately, but he's just as good in front of the camera as he is behind it. But, the star and main voice of comedy on this show is Rob Lowe. He's always narrating his life, asking ridiculous questions and some how, some way, winning unwinnable cases, just like he did on his TV show. Two things I really like that he does on the show are, one, whenever he's questioning someone about a case, he has sunglasses on and he slowly takes them off, a la David Caruso when he was on a cop procedural. Clearly this is the writers and Lowe poking fun at that, and it's hilarious. The other thing I like, he makes Fred Savage's younger son watch all the old episodes of "The Grinder" with him, and that's how the episodes start. It's Lowe and the son watching an old episode of his show, and them critiquing it. This is also, very hilarious. "The Grinder" is one of the better new shows to come on TV in awhile, and everyone needs to start watching it if you aren't already.

This brings me back to the reason for my blog today, and that's the fact that Rob Lowe is, quickly and easily, becoming one of my favorite comic actors and just crushing it in general. I know a celebrity of his fame doesn't need anymore accolades, but what he's doing right now requires some kind of recognition. Rob Lowe is a great comedic actor, and people need to realize it.

Keep doing what you're doing Mr. Lowe, because it's working and you are making weekday TV better with your roles.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man podcast. He thinks Rob Lowe learned comedy while filming "Schoolboy Father".  Practice safe sex and follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.