Warning: Contents may blow

Scrubs, now into its fifth season just started it’s run earlier this month. NBC has been burning them off two at a time over the past three weeks. The last two weeks it went up against American Idol. I’m not a big fan of Idol, but with the ratings that it pulls in (19.6 million people watched it last night), the other networks aren’t really putting up much of a fight (which is wise). My issue is that I wouldn’t consider Scrubs to be the kind of show that you use for filler (which is pretty much what it’s been relegated to).

This, along with the “limbo” status that it maintained into this year (the fact that no one knew if the 5th season was even going to be broadcast), makes me think that NBC doesn’t see Scrubs as a valuable property. I don’t know what the cost of production is, and more to the point, I don’t know how much revenue it brings to NBC, but I can hear the nails being hammered into the coffin, which is a real shame.

Probably much to the chagrin of one of my friends I was really disappointed in the 1st (new) season of Doctor Who. After seeing the episodes I understood why Sci-Fi decided to pass on showing them.

Of course, now I read that Sci-Fi changed their mind and they will now be running the first season. I can’t say that I’m surprised, after all they’ve been creating ‘B’ movies for the last two years, so Doctor Who is actually an improvement.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big Doctor Who fan. I actually just finished watching the Key to Time series (which was originally aired in the late 70’s). My issue with the new Who, is that it’s that the script quality hasn’t improved. It’s still campy and silly, and I think that’s a shame.

Maybe I should give the BBC credit for not messing with an almost 40 year old recipe, but it could have been so much more. Maybe Battlestar Galactica skewed my view on this kind of thing. Maybe the BBC didn’t want to travel down the path that Fox had tried to take in the 90’s. Either way, Doctor Who is a couple decades behind the times (even if the special effects have improved).

Note to the BBC: If you want to mix humor and drama without pushing the “camp” factor over the edge, hire Joss Whedon as a consultant, and try to reorient Who to something a bit more adult.

I read a new article today about David Lee Roth commenting that he thought that a reunion with Van Halen was a certainty (a when, not an “if”). Of course this made me wonder why I hadn’t heard anything about Sammy being out (I was under the impression that he was still front man). I guess not, after some digging (not found on Van Halen’s Web site or the Van Halen News Desk), I ran across this article describing how Sammy (a happy-go-lucky guy) was pretty disgusted with Alex (apparently a drinking, smoking train wreck of depression).

So I think Hagar is done, probably for good this time. I have to say this doesn’t really bother me that much though. I do feel a little disappointed that I didn’t spend the $100+ a ticket to see them when they toured (for perhaps the last time). I can’t say I was super impressed with what I’ve heard from them since Balance, so perhaps this is for the better (and Sammy’s solo/Waboritas music is quite good in it’s own right).

Maybe Dave’s right, and he will return to the band some day. Maybe that music will rock when it happens, but I can’t say that I’m going to worry about it if it doesn’t happen. I guess I’ve lost faith, which is too bad. I was hoping we wouldn’t remember Van Halen as the band that rocked for 15 years, then called it quits.

I wonder what Van Halen would sound like with a different guitarist?