tvrundown USA 2026.01.04

Sunday, January 4th:

(streaming shows):
Landman (Para+),
Pro Bono (netflix),
Surely Tomorrow (APrime)

(specials):
“Live From the Red Carpet” (E!|USA, midday, 2hrs),
Critics Choice Awards (E!|USA, 31st annual, live, 3hrs),
31st Annual Critics Choice Awards RE!CAP (E!)

(also new):
Sunday Night Football (NBC, regular season final game),
“Mama’s Little Murderer” (LIFEtime original movie, 2hrs)

(hour 0):
America’s Funniest Home Videos (ABC, season resumes),
~60 Minutes (CBS~, flexible timeslot)

(hour 1):
Best Medicine (FOX, dramedy series premiere, special night, 60mins),
When Calls the Heart (HALL, season 13 opener, new time),
Worst Cooks in America (FOOD, season 30 opener, new timeslot, 2hrs)

(hour 2):
Krapopolis (FOX, season 3 finale) /
. / The Simpsons (FOX, new, special time),
Worst Cooks in America (FOOD, contd)

(hour 3):
[repeats]

tvrundown USA 2025.09.28

Sunday, September 28th:

(streaming shows):
Tulsa King (Para+),
Confidence Queen (APrime),
Walking Dead: “Daryl Dixon” (AMC+),
Ride with Norman Reedus (AMC+, season 7 finale),
Bon Appetit Your Majesty (netflix, limited series finale),
The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity (netflix),
Inside: USA (netflix, next 2 eps, competition finale)

[~NFL note: CBS shows are scheduled for a 30-minute delayed start in Eastern time zone, additional delay possible.]

(earlier - hour 0):
America’s Funniest Home Videos (ABC, season 36 opener),
~60 Minutes (CBS~, season 58 opener, flexible timeslot)

(hour 1):
The Simpsons (FOX, season 37 opener) /
. / Universal Basic Guys (FOX, season 2 opener),
“Professor T” (PBS, season 4 finale),
The Chicken Sisters (HALL, season 2 finale),
~Big Brother (CBS~, 2hrs, flexible timeslot)

(hour 2):
Krapopolis (FOX, season 3 opener) /
. / Bob’s Burgers (FOX, season 16 opener, new night),
The Marlow Murder Club (PBS, part 2/2, season 2 finale),
Task (HBO, 70mins),
Reunion (SHO),
Walking Dead: “Daryl Dixon” (AMC, ~72mins),
Halloween Wars (FOOD),
Billy the Kid (MGM+, season 3 opener),
~Big Brother (CBS~, contd, season 27 finale)

(hour 3):
Unforgotten (PBS, season 6 finale)

(hour 4 - latenight):
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO),
Ride with Norman Reedus (AMC, later, season 7 finale),
Women Wearing Shoulder Pads ([as], 15mins, season 1 finale) /
. / Women Wearing Shoulder Pads ([as], English dub special, 2hrs)

“Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, am exhorting you to walk worthily of the calling to which you were called

With all humility and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love;”

- Ephesians 4:1-2 (AFV)

Some photos of my time at Ausarmourfest 2025 at the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum in Cairns. I rode around on a T-72, a BMP-1, Panzer IV ausf. J, and an M8 Greyhound. I got to see and hear a running Panther ausf A, with original engine. Spoke to the mechanics and drivers. Got to fondle many pieces of WW2 and cold war military hardware.

I may post more pics or videos in the future. I will definitely post a video of the Panther idling, my phone’s mic doesn’t do it justice but it sounded mmmmmmmmm good

Just turned on AFV for the first time in a while…

Why is almost every video a skit/staged? What happened to home videos? Unscripted accidents and unplanned funny moments?

Can anyone that regularly watches explain if this is a one episode thing, if it’s been like this for awhile now, or what?

Edit: This is the premier of a different show called America’s Funniest People

Addams Family Values
1993, dir. Barry Sonnenfeld

More than once, I’ve tracked down a leitmotif that I remembered hearing when I was younger, but there’s one that was tougher than the rest:

Anvil Chorus.

I first heard it in, out of all things, the episode of Parker Plays on Disney XD where he played Default Dan, the platformer where everything you know about platformers has been turned on its head. There was a montage of his continuous failure, set to Anvil Chorus, and I instantly fell in love with the melody. It was bombastic and over-the-top in the best way possible.

Problem is, I didn’t know what it was called. I tried to find it more than once, but kept failing, until one day…

I was watching AFV and it was used in a montage. From there, I figured out what season the episode was from and whittled my way through the list of music they used in montages that season. Eventually, I found Anvil Chorus, and also found it that it’d also been used… in SpongeBob SquarePants, because of course it had been.

This whole string of memories came back just a bit ago when I was watching the Animaniacs episode “King Yakko”, where Yakko becomes the king of Anvilania, and I heard a small, subtle snippet of the leitmotif and it made me smile.

SEP V2 TUAH, sabot that PC

New Xiu Xiu a lot like Old Xiu Xiu

Some time in the mid 2000s my family was over at my uncle and aunt’s house for a holiday-type function. It was probably Thanksgiving. I can definitely remember there being leaves on the ground, and my glasses fogging up when I came inside. The other thing I will remember probably forever, is that my cousins, who are teenagers (which makes them exceptionally cool to me) are watching a VHS tape of America’s Funniest Home Videos, hosted by Bob Saget (may God rest his soul), on mute. The stereo next to the television is playing a Xiu Xiu album.

If you know nothing about the band Xiu Xiu, I’m not sure how best to explain them to you. I could tell you that they formed in 2002, or that the main person in the band is Jamie Stewart, but I don’t know how useful or informative that kind of information is. In extremely simple and reductive terms, Xiu Xiu’s music is a direct processing of trauma, and pain, and tragedy.

Jamie Stewart and their collaborators take hurt and harm and transform it into noisy, often danceable, poetic music. Like a form of extremely public art therapy. Given that Stewart has more or less been making music for 22 years under the Xiu Xiu name, maybe things have changed. That sounds like something for music journalists to figure out. Back to nostalgia.

I can’t remember for sure, and probably my cousins can’t either, which Xiu Xiu album it is, but my guess is that it’s The Air Force. Which is the only Xiu Xiu album I actually own, and the second track, “Boy Soprano,” reminds me of Bob Saget and the image of a swing-set on a CRT television.

And so, fortunate for Jamie Stewart or not, the first thought that comes to mind when I think of Xiu Xiu is my two cool cousins, who are now an investigative journalist and an architect, watching people falling off of things or getting hit in the testicles. It was funny. It was weird. It was a new way to experience music. I think having something as emotionally brutal and raw as The Air Force presented to me by my cousins as a soundtrack for slapstick connected some of the more Lynchian wires in my brain. I think they were being ironic about it, but I couldn’t understand that.

When I later put some effort into listening to the lyrics, the connection to America’s Funniest Home Videos made more sense. In an interview with Brandon Stosuy for Pitchfork, Stewart told him, “[t]he subject matter is mostly about making other people feel bad […] as opposed to feeling bad.”

If you’ve never watched America’s Funniest Home Videos, a lot of it is witnessing unfortunate things happen to people you probably don’t know. There is a safety in it, because you can assume that whoever was featured on the tape was fine, so you feel okay laughing at their pain or embarrassment. Undoubtedly it was not my cousin’s intention to create some high-concept art piece transcribing the overall themes of The Air Force onto a VHS tape of America’s Funniest Home Videos. But, it made sense to me, at the time.

13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips came out on September 27, 2024, and I didn’t listen to it until today, November 14, 2024, because I didn’t realize it existed until today. There are a million reviews more insightful and interesting than anything I could do here. Let me point you to one. What I will say is, if you like Xiu Xiu, it’s Xiu Xiu doing what they do best. And if you’ve never heard Xiu Xiu before, it’s a smoother entry and solid introduction than their earlier albums. I’m unsure of how well it pairs with Saget-era America’s Funniest Home Videos.

I like tonks.

Hard to believe in the age of Youtube that a sleeping cat falling off a TV set once won $10,000.

Yall know that lost media video of MTR on AFV?

I’m gunna find it. I’m going to go buy the whole show right now, and if that doesn’t work I’ll 🏴‍☠️. Wish me luck!!

Russian Lagoda command vehicle, made to transport Kremlin officials in the event of a nuclear war. Trialled during Chernobyl, only five were built, and it has recently been seen in Ukraine.

Found it.