Early this television season, I quickly embraced Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and praised it as one of the best shows around. Aaron Sorkin responded by getting preachier than an Oblate at a Desperate Housewives convention, and NBC responded by yanking the show from the air, refusing to renew it, and telling fans they could see their precious final six episodes when they were done with the 145th season of ER. That night is tonight, and I have to tell you…I’m not really all that excited. Perhaps it’s because Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds’ End comes out tonight, and perhaps it’s because I’m still getting over last night’s episode of LOST, but I’m not ready to get sucked back into this show, knowing that it won’t be back next year. Of course, I’ll watch the last six installments if I’m home or on tape if I’m out, but I’m not pacing my living room waiting to see what happened to Danny and Matt.

After months of speculation about the future of TV’s favorite snarky college-age sleuth, the CW network finally dropped the axe on Veronica Mars today when it announced its fall schedule. My love for Veronica is well documented, here and elsewhere, and so its cancellation delivers a palpable blow to my Tuesday-night television habits. Series creator Rob Thomas is contracted through the end of June, and rumors abound that he and series star Kristen Bell (pictured, so cute) could start a new show together, possibly within the Mars continuity. At this point, though, I would rather the series just die than continue to tease me with unfulfilled promises of renewal. After the jump, more news on my favorite TV shows.

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I’ve come to the realization that I’m probably the only person who has a relationship with this site who watches Friday Night Lights. At some point during this television season, people got pulled away by their American Idols and 30 Rocks and decided it was either better to watch a different show on Wednesdays at 8 or not watch anything in that slot. But I still feel compelled to write about the show, because, like my oft-lauded Studio 60, I feel that Lights hasn’t gotten a fair shake, and that its slow growth trend may send it scurrying off the air.

There has never been a show that, week after week, has left me saying “God damn, that show is fantastic” the way Lights does. Maybe if I had watched The West Wing on TV instead of DVD, I’d have had that experience in my life, but Lights is the first show over which I can recall being blown away each week (Note: The Office does this most weeks). This show is a class in advanced television. The actors are brilliant, the camerawork is inspired, and the writing is smart. At this point, I’d rather save Friday Night Lights than Studio 60. Will this obligatory hot girl picture (She’s the coach’s daughter! She dates the socially awkward quarterback! It’s so CUTE!) make you watch the show? Pretty please?

The best moment of the entire LOST season so far: as Locke makes the submarine explode, Kelly Anne, with perfect comic timing, shouts “you sunk my battleship!”

…and that pretty much sums up how I feel about LOST this season. The jokes we make while watching the show are more exciting than the show itself. The last few episodes have been okay, but haven’t made up for the Jack tattoo episode and Hurley’s love letter to Little Miss Sunshine.

I’m extraordinarily late in reporting this news - I first heard about it before the new year - but I got an email from reader Tom G. today that reminded me and made me chuckle all over again:

Dave Matthews will be playing the patient in tonight’s episode of House.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m a big fan of House and used to be a big fan of Dave Matthews, so it would make sense that I report the guest spot as soon as I found out about it. But, honestly, I was too overcome with jokes to focus on one. “Does Dave play a patient so riddled with drugs that he mumbles everything he says?” “Will this episode feature a 17-minute jam session?” And so on. Dave plays a mentally challenged musical savant, which isn’t too far off from the truth. Let’s just hope that House has enough Vicodin to put up with listening to selected tracks from Stand Up.

Tonight’s episode will certainly be worth checking out. And once you’re done that, go get the first two seasons on DVD, and be amazed at the wonder that is Hugh Laurie’s American accent.

Yes, I know that NBC committed to running a whole season, and yes, I still am a shameless promoter of the show and all things Sorkin, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the folks over at Throwing Things are right and we’ve seen the last of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Ratings have steadily declined over the past several weeks, and even the staunchest supporters of the show have grown weary of the fact that this show could be summed up as “Hey, did you know Aaron Sorkin dated Kristin Chenoweth and that it didn’t go well?” On a wider scale, the general public has had a difficult time being berated for any number of things, from watching reality television to being Republican.

That said, there have been plenty of fantastic moments over the short run of Studio 60, last night’s comedy-rich episode among them. My personal favorite remains the Christmas episode, which laid low on preaching and focused on characters. Comments are welcome; let’s just hope this isn’t an Irish wake for a fabulous show. Then again, there’s always a second life on DVD. Think Sorkin’ll produce a few straight-to-video seasons if NBC cancels it and we ask nicely?

…not to be confused with Friday Night Lights, which is on Wednesday and is a fantastic show. Start watching.

In the age of Tivo, Netflix, BitTorrent, iTunes, free streaming episodes online, and the still-reliable VCR, it’s almost inappropriate to complain about the unavailability of time to watch television. But for several weeks now, I’ve been dealing with an incredible internal struggle on Tuesday nights: whether to dedicate my hour between 9 and 10 p.m. to watch Veronica Mars or House. That debate intensifies on nights like tonight, when I will not be in my house during that hour and must tape both, but only watch one before I collapse after an evening of not knowing my lines for Beauty and the Beast.

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Until recently, TBS has been largely known as a recycling plant for dead TV shows. From Friends to Everybody Loves Raymond to bowdlerized repeats of Sex and the City, TBS has been the go-to place if you want to relive your favorite sitcoms long after they had shuffled loose the network coil. The network has finally thrown a hat of its own brand into the ring, though, offering original programming in the form of two new sitcoms: 10 Items or Less and the charming My Boys (Tuesdays, 10 p.m.).

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Nothing major to write about today, so instead let’s reach into the grab bag that is the Interwebs.

• Speed Racer will be a real life, live action movie, directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, the guys responsible for the mindblowing film The Matrix and the…mindblowingly underwhelming The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Somehow I can’t get the image of Racer X punching Speed in the stomach and slowly turning him into a clone.
• Kazakh movie theaters will “probably” not screen Borat. I recommend the U.S. follow suit. Borat is the next step in the devolution of comedy started by Napoleon Dynamite. I, of course, will wind up seeing it, liking it, and hating myself for it.
• Fraggle Rock will be a movie. Remember when George Lucas re-released the original Star Wars trilogy in theatres because of all the hype around The Phantom Menace? Might I suggest the re-release of The Muppets Take Manhattan to lead into this release?
• And, for what it’s worth, LOST is on tonight. You can follow all the action over at Balls, Sticks, & Stuff as loyal Moviehawk reader Tom G. liveblogs the episode.

The new television season is now a few weeks old, and I think I’ve finally come to a decision about what I am going to dedicate my evenings to watching. Of course, there’s old staples like LOST, House, Veronica Mars, and The Office, all of which have returned in fine form, but the intrigue is always in new programming. Though they seem to be struggling for ratings, NBC has put out some of the better new shows this year (of course, they had the most open time slots; witness the quality programming already mentioned and you see why the peacock had to lose so many of its shows). I’ve already stated my approval of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and will continue to watch even if it seems unlikely to make it through the season. After the jump are my thoughts on the rest of what I’ve been able to catch of the network’s new offerings.

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