Thursday TV Tournament: Match-up 17 Results

Today's match-up is between thirty-second seed, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season Six, Episode Seven, "Who Got Dee Pregnant?" which aired on October 28, 2010, and seventeenth seed, Community Season Two, Episode Twelve, "Asian Population Studies," which aired January 20, 2011. The results are in:

After today's match-up, I feel certain that the rest of this tournament is going to hurt. During the first round, some episodes were the lesser of several evils, and some episodes only made the list because they were the only new episode airing that week. But during this round I'm forced to say goodbye to some of my favorite episodes of the last year. Nobody deserved to get the boot this week, but unfortunately, one episode had to be discarded.

I was completely incapable of deciding the better episode for myself, so I put it to a vote on Facebook and Twitter. When the results came in, it just happened to be a tie. It was the testimony of long time Cavemen Go follower Adam Friedli that tipped the scales:

After watching both, I think I need to choose the Always Sunny ep. This ep of Community is easily one of the strongest of the season though. Without revealing spoilers, some good plot moments are finally addressed, and the characters themselves definitely progress meaningfully. Lots of funny moments were had by all. 

However, I was just feeling the Always Sunny ep more. A major plot began in this ep that would continue for the rest of the season, and I simply laughed more than with the ep of Community.

Adam appealed to one of my most important rules, one that assisted me in hard decisions concerning which thirty-two episodes would be chosen this season, the rule of which episode made you laugh the most and the hardest. Thanks for your help, Adam Friedli, and everyone else who gave their input.

Tune in next time for ninth seed, The Office Season Seven, Episode Sixteen, "PDA," which aired February 10, 2011, and twenty-fifth seed, Community Season Two, Episode Seventeen, "Intro to Political Science," which aired February 24, 2011. Hopefully, this match-up won't be nearly as painful. Hopefully...

Thursday TV Tournament: Match-up 12 Results

Today's match-up is between seventh seed, The Office Season Seven, Episode Nineteen, "Garage Sale," which aired March 24, 2011, and twenty-sixth seed, Community Season Two, Episode Twenty, "Competitive Wine Tasting," which aired April 14, 2011. I know you've been holding your breath, so here are the results, my blue-faced friends:

While "Competitive Wine Tasting" has its strengths, "Garage Sale" was one of the best episodes of The Office in years, and that is saying something. This one had some of the shine of earlier seasons, when Jim and Pam were wondering whether or not one would return the other's affections and what have you. And arguably the strongest scene we've ever seen on The Office is the scene where Michael proposes to Holly. This is perhaps the only episode this entire season of Thursday night episodes that brought a tear to my eye. (Maybe Michael's final episode - I don't know...) It will take a fantastic episode to knock it out of the running.

Tune in next time for third seed, Big Bang Theory Season Four, Episode Eighteen, "The Prestidigitation Approximation," which aired March 10, 2011, and thirtieth seed, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season Six, Episode One, "Mac Fights Gay Marriage," which aired September 16, 2010. I'll be there...

Thursday TV Tournament: Match-up 4 Results

Unlike our last match-up between Community and The Office, which pitted a couple of the best episodes of the previous season, the episodes doing battle today were by far not the best. They were only better than everything else going on that particular week.

Of the two episodes at hand - The Office Season Seven, Episode Twenty-Six: "Search Committee," which aired May 19, 2011, and twenty-fifth seed, Community Season Two, Episode Seventeen: "Intro to Political Science," which aired February 24, 2011 - the clear winner is:

I re-watched the entire two-part season finale of The Office and there were a couple of really good moments, but certainly not enough for forty minutes of TV. Then I watched the Community episode in question and laughed harder during the opening scene than I did during two episodes of The Office. Notches...

The next match-up is between fourth seed Big Bang Theory Season Four, Episode Nineteen: "The Zarnecki Incursion," which aired March 31, 2011, and twenty-ninth seed Community Season Two, Episode Twenty-Four: "For a Few Paintballs More," which aired May 12, 2011. As Arnold Schwarzenegger would say, "Stick around." As I would say, "Comment so I can know which episode you think should win."

Thursday TV Tournament: Match-up 2 Results

This last match-up was like a civil war: one episode of Community (Season Two, Episode Eleven: "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas") against another (Season Two, Episode Twelve: "Asian Population Studies"). No matter what happens, Community loses some representation on the brackets. And the results are in:

Though the claymation episode of Community ("Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas") had been promoted even before the second season began, it simply couldn't hold up against "Asian Population Studies," an episode that features probably the best performance by Ken Jeong as Senor Chang.

I'd like to take a quick moment to congratulate Cavemen Go fan Adam Friedli. He expressed that he wanted "Asian Population Studies" to win this match-up, and his dream just came true. I'm guessing he's going to go to Disney Land to celebrate.

As for the rest of us, we must march on. Stay tuned for our next match-up between the ninth seed, The Office Season Seven, Episode Sixteen: "PDA," which aired February 10, 2011, and twenty-fourth seed, Community Season Two, Episode Sixteen: "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking," which aired February 17, 2011.

Thursday TV Tournament

Did you notice that some of the most popular television programs of the last season aired on Thursday nights? It was enough to drive a person insane. Most nights of the week, there was nothing on, but all of a sudden, come Thursday, I'd find myself with a queue of four or more television programs to catch up on.

Since Thursday night television was so fantastic this last season, I decided to make a tournament in order to find out what the best show all season was. Every Thursday I would pick out the best new episode of the evening from Big Bang Theory, Burn Notice, Community, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and The Office. I then determined their seeds by how good their ratings were. Finally, I matched up television episodes in the style of a classic 32 bracket tournament. Now, it's time for them to battle.

Our first battle is between the first seed, Big Bang Theory Season Four, Episode 12: "The Bus Pants Utilization," which aired on January 6, 2011, and the thirty-second seed, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season Six, Episode Seven: "Who Got Dee Pregnant?" which aired on October 28, 2010.

What did you think about these episodes? Which was the better episode? According to the ratings, it was Big Bang Theory, but just like in the NCAA, there's always that chance that the underdog will win. Weigh in here with your opinions, and come back soon to find out which of these Thursday Night Titans will win.

Jack Coleman

Actor Jack Coleman. I was never all that big on Heroes, but even as Noah Bennett I could sense that Jack Coleman was probably the best actor on the show. With Ando Masahashi, Noah Bennett was one of the only characters I wasn't completely annoyed with by the end of the first season, probably because these were regular human beings who showed great courage without having insane power to back it up. That said, I really don't want to talk about Heroes. I want to talk about Coleman's performance as political adviser Joe Dugan on a recent episode of House, which is easily one of the best guest performances all year. If you blinked you may have missed him, but he also had a cameo on The Office as an unnamed possible love interest for Angela. The Office needs more breaths of fresh air like Coleman. As a matter of fact, I'm already willing to offer him Michael's job at the end of the current season, but you know that I'd rather they finish the show right. My beefs with Heroes and The Office aside, I want to say that I really look forward to seeing Jack Coleman on my small screen.