As surely as the snows begin to melt and the first few robins of the year hop about the greening lawns, the TV Club is going to bring you its own collection of fresh, new things, only in this case, they’re all things that have been long dead, and we’re dragging them up on your porch like a cat, hoping you’re proud of what we’ve found. Yes, it’s time to announce another slate of TV Club Classic entries and beg for your approval!
This latest slate includes an all-time classic dark drama, a British comedy many of you are crazy about, one of the warmest (and funniest) hour-long shows ever made, and some bullshit about spaceships, as well as a handful of returning series that you may have been missing. These features will begin debuting on Sunday, just as February sweeps come to a close and the long, often TV-less months of March and April stretch before us.
Let’s look at the lineup, shall we?
Sundays:
Beginning March 3, Alasdair Wilkins will take us through the wild adventures of an Earth-based astronaut who finds himself hurtled clear across the universe and into an unlikely war, complete with lots and lots of Muppets, in Farscape, a classic sci-fi series that laid some of the groundwork for Firefly and Battlestar Galactica. Alasdair’s reviews will appear weekly at 11 a.m. Eastern on Sundays for a few months, then alternate with Christopher Bahn’s classic Doctor Who reviews after that. (Christopher is taking a few months off.)
At 1 p.m. Eastern, David Sims will continue covering the current season of Saturday Night Live, and at 3 p.m. Eastern, Nathan Rabin will continue with his reviews of classic episodes of The Simpsons.
Mondays:
Beginning March 4, Phil Dyess-Nugent will take readers back through the run of the British comedy Peep Show, a series that started out with what could have been an irritating gimmick—everything is seen through the point-of-view of one of the two leads—then branched out to be a great, very funny comedy about growing up and being in your 20s. Phil’s reviews will run weekly at 11 a.m. Eastern.
At 1 p.m. Eastern, Oliver Sava’s reviews of the DC Animated Universe, currently on the final season of Batman: The Animated Series, will continue.
Tuesdays:
We only covered the final two seasons of this show first-run, so it seemed like the perfect time to launch reviews of the early seasons of The Shield, written by Brandon Nowalk. This is our first experiment with looping back around to cover the early seasons of a show we covered the later seasons of, and if it’s a success, we might do it with others. (Hint hint.) Brandon’s reviews will run Tuesdays at 11 a.m. Eastern, beginning March 5.
At 1 p.m. Eastern, beginning March 5, Erik Adams will return to the world of Home Movies, picking up with that show’s second season. Here’s hoping you enjoy the return to that series’ quirky animated stylings.
Wednesdays:
Have you been missing our TV Club Roundtables? Well, good news! We’re bringing them back for even more fun, and the theme this time around is “musical numbers,” as chosen by our own Noel Murray. If you want to get prepared, the episode we’ll be covering on Wednesday, March 6, will be “Look Before You Leap” from the third season of Frasier. In the future, we’ll also have episodes of Daria, Star Trek, and It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia to entertain you. New roundtables will run at 11 a.m. Eastern.
At 1 p.m. Eastern, Todd VanDerWerff’s reviews of Slings & Arrows continue. He finishes the first season this week!
Thursdays:
At 11 a.m. Eastern, Zack Handlen will continue his voyage through all things Star Trek, with continuing coverage of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
By far one of the most requested shows for TV Club Classic has been Gilmore Girls, and starting March 7, we’ll be bringing you a look at the warm, funny small-town series on a weekly basis, with David Sims as your tour guide. If you’ve been missing Lorelai and Rory or Luke or even Mrs. Kim, this might be just the right way to jump back in and remind yourself why you loved the series in the first place. New reviews will appear weekly at 1 p.m. Eastern.
Fridays:
We’ve heard the hue and cry, and we are bringing back Rowan Kaiser’s Babylon 5 reviews. He’ll pick up with season two beginning March 8, and he’ll cover new episodes every week at 11 a.m. Eastern.
At 1 p.m. Eastern, Ryan McGee’s walk through the first season of Netflix’s House Of Cards will continue, hopefully with the lead character mercy-killing more dogs or something.
Saturdays:
Round out the week with Todd VanDerWerff and Zack Handlen’s coverage of The Twilight Zone, running every week at 1 p.m. Eastern.
As always, leave your suggestions in comments for what we should cover in the future. We do read them, though we usually just laugh when you’re, like, “You guys should cover Chicago Hope!” because nobody cares as much about Chicago Hope as you do. We swear.