"Friday Night Lights": Turning up the man-on-man heat

If frat houses are homoerotic, imagine how much more so football clubs are. Frat brothers only live together; football players practically sweat on each other. Why else would the locker room be the symbol du jour of raging man-on-man action?

So when you take a football club and make it one of 24/7 horny teenagers, you'd expect a little between-brothers experimenting, right? Sadly, for a season and a third, "Friday Night Lights" has steadfastly denied us that plotline.

That doesn't mean, though, that the past three episodes haven't given me cause for hope.

"Brothers and Sisters": Rob Lowe's Shiny New Flaw

With all the attention that's been showered on Matthew Rhys, you'd think that there were no other guys on hit show "Brothers and Sisters". But no more. Enter Exhibit A: Rob Lowe's Senator McCallister.

"Now wait a minute," I bet you're gonna say. "Hasn't the guy been on the show for like, forever?" And you would be right. Rob Lowe - and Robert McCallister - have been on the show for like, forever (and ever). But it wasn't until the past two episodes that the character became interesting.

Fischer on the strike: "End the strike for Riggins!"

I heart Pam Beesly. Always have. The only sane woman working in "The Office", Beesly makes normalcy look so attractive I want to make sexy time with her.

Given that, it's a relief that real-life Beesly is a sweetheart too. Actress Jenna Fischer has always struck me as one of the proverbial good guys, but you can honestly never tell with those L.A. types (Ellen Pompeo on "Punked", anyone?). With Fischer, however, I'm glad to say that there's definitive proof of her basic decency.

Project Runway New Season: It's Sew Gay!

Theyyyyy're baaaack! Finally, Tim Gunn and Heidi Klum welcome a new group of fashion misfits to battle it out in what may be PR's most gayest season evah.

As with every other season, PR's producers mercifully limit Heidi's opportunities to talk. You'd think she'd have her delivery down better by now, as she says the same thing every season ("As you know in fashion, one week you are in, the next your are out"); instead, she sounds like she's posing on an ice floe in a metal thong...in a word, pained. I can only imagine how she talks to all those children of hers: "Henry, you are in; Leni, you are out. Aufedersein!"

"Heroes" Hurrah

After last night's great episode of "Heroes," all I have to say is why oh why did we have to sit through seven ho-hum episodes this season before we got to the good stuff. And when I say the good stuff, I mean the forward momentum from last year's crazy-ass finale.

While the show's first season had its ups and downs--including a tendency to be way too convoluted--plotting and action never seemed to take a backseat. But this year, to carry on with my car metaphor, plotting and action were relegated to the trunk while exposition became the driver, the front seat passenger, and the both passengers in the back seat. There were some plot lines that came to light, such as the family histories of the main characters, but why was all this dragged out over seven episodes?

Solved! The Mystery of Shirtless Peter on "Heroes"

The two biggest mysteries since the beginning of the season: how did Peter Petrelli, played by the sizzling Milo Ventimiglia, end up shirtless in a shipping container? And, more importantly, how can we get him to do that again?

It turns out that the answer to the first question involves a black man and memory wiping. And the answer to the second? A trip to Flashbackland, Heroestopia.

The Lost Art of TV Theme Songs

I haven't the slightest idea why, but for the past week, the song from "Family Ties" has been stuck in my head. And unlike most earworms, I'm actually ok with it.

Why? Because it's a good song! "What would we doooo babyah, without us (us, us)...sha la la la..." C'mon, you know you love it too (and now it's in your head...your welcome).

More than just being a good song though, I think I feel affection for it because "Family Ties" was a great show, and it aired during at time when my own family was such a disaster that I could only imagine how fantastic it would've been to have the Keatons as my parents.

I guess the cuddle gene just skipped me...

Poor Calista Flockhart's character Kitty on "Brothers & Sisters" worries that she's not maternal enough, but I'm just happy to know that someone on television is paying attention to cuddling. I mean, isn't that what Sunday evenings are for--just cuddling up and getting comfy? With the sad realization that work starts up again all-too-early Monday morning, my Sunday nights are for hunkering down on the sofa in front of the tv.

Ellen Can't Win

(Getty Images) Aaah, the dog controversy. Seems like just yesterday that people were calling in those silly death threats to Moms & Mutts on Ellen's behalf after she used her talk show as a platform to try and right her and Portia's doggy disaster. And now here we are, two weeks later, and Ellen has crossed another line...the picket line.

Apparently Ellen is the only comedy/variety show host to have done so. Leno, Letterman, Stewart, Colbert - all the fellas have honored the striking Writer's Guild of America and stayed home. But Ellen, the only female host among the group, has opted not to stay home. Perhaps too many animals running around the ol' homestead?

This Week This Happened: What do "30 Rock" and "Heroes" have in common?

It's been a bad week for television. From reports of shows running out of episodes earlier than expected, to irrelevant guest stars on network blockbusters, the theme this week is capital D Downsizing, both quantity- and quality-wise.

The only good D news this week? A possible trimming of cast fat on the hopelessly bloated "Heroes". A massacre of meaningless characters that would make everybody happy. A return to a happier time when every character had a serious part to play.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves.