TVSquad

I got a great letter this week from a TV fan named Jim R.

"Dear TV Squad, About 15 years ago, I watched an episode of a scifi/fantasy TV show wherein an Elvis impersonator traveled back in time to meet (and eventually kill) the real Elvis. Could you please tell me the name of this program? Thanks"

One day in 2001, I was having lunch with a friend and we were talking about the new fall shows. We discussed shows that we thought weren't going to make it as well as shows we really enjoyed. Towards the end of the meal we started to discuss The Tick and how we were both excited to see the live version that was premiering later in the season. I remember turning to my friend and saying, "Isn't there another show premiering on FOX later in the season?" We couldn't think of which show it was and so went back to discussing The Tick.

The show we were trying to think of was The Bernie Mac Show and five years after The Tick had come and gone Bernie's show had become one of the funniest family sitcoms on television.

I finally got a question I can answer this week.

Monica writes...
"My friend used to watch this cartoon, but all he remembers is this one character. He says he was a small small guy with a really tall hat. He wore a black robe. He was some kind of emperor..Hm..He was somewhat Asian looking. He thought the name of the show might be hysteria, but i can't find anything on that. anything you can think of will be greatly appreciated. It's one of those i have to figure it out or it'll kill me things. Haha. Thank you."

This week's letter comes from a reader named Elaine and I definitely need any help I can get.

"I'm looking for the name of a TV series that ended with a group of people walking up to a truck and it exploded with someone in it. The show was cancelled a few years ago and I need to know the name or I'm gonna go crazy"

Wondering what the deal is with new fall TV show Life on Mars? Now, you can ask two of its stars, Jason O'Mara and Michael Imperioli, yourself!

AOL TV's new video interview series, Outside the Box, takes questions submitted by fans and poses them to cast members of the hottest shows. We're already gathering questions for Scrubs, Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money.

If you don't know much about the series, O'Mara plays a modern-day police detective who suddenly finds himself transported back in time to 1973. There's been a lot of buzz and gossip surrounding around this show, which is a remake of a popular British hit.

If you've got questions for O'Mara and Imperioli, submit them in the comments below by Tuesday, July 15. Be sure to include your first name and city/state. We'll take the best entries and ask some of them in the interview. Good luck!

As TV fans, we all dream of being able to communicate with our favorite stars (Taylor Kitsch, why aren't you answering my letters?), but now AOL TV is going to make it happen.

In a new video interview series called Outside the Box, stars from the hottest shows will sit down together to answer questions submitted by you, the fans. Will a on-again, off-again couple finally get together? Boxers or briefs? What is the smoke monster? You ask, and they'll answer.

First up in our series will be the stars of Scrubs, which, in case you haven't heard, is moving from NBC to ABC. Shows almost never jump networks (Buffy switching from The WB to UPN is a rare example), so it's great to see a veteran show with a healthy fanbase getting a second chance. And I'm especially happy that Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence will get the chance to end the series his way -- or even extend it to a ninth season.

Stars Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke and Donald Faison will be going "Outside the Box," so we need your questions! Submit them by Tuesday, July 15 and be sure to include your first name and your city and state. Now, wanna play Jiggly Ball?

There aren't a lot of TV shows that I can watch with my kids and enjoy them. They love crap on the Disney Channel and I love The Daily Show. While we both love Spongebob, I can only see the same episode so many times.

One show that seems to hold up for all of us is The Flintstones. The kids especially like the later episodes with Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm.

Last week was a historic one for me. Something happened that has never happened before and it actually happened twice.

Last week, as I often do, I wrote reviews of a few TV shows. The first review was for a new documentary series on Showtime. I didn't really like the show but I made a comment on how beautiful I found a young lady who was featured on the show. Well, much to my surprise, not only did she read the review but she wrote to thank me for the compliment. I was certainly flattered but I was even more surprised that someone I mentioned would actually take the time to write me.

I'd like to begin this week's offering by adding my thoughts on the untimely death of Tim Russert. I didn't know him personally, so anything I could say about the man would pale in comparison to all the nice things his friends and co-workers have already said.

What I will say is that the irony of Russert dying on Father's Day weekend so soon after writing his book, Big Russ and Me (which chronicled his life with his father as well as his son Luke), is so thick that twenty years from now, it will be hard to believe that it happened the way that it did.

As a guy who rarely watches the news and gets most of my information from The Daily Show, I appreciated Russert's informative and entertaining style of reporting.

So this week, NBC aired The Best of Mike Meyers and it brought back a lot of memories for me. When I was in my twenties, Meyers was the man. Wayne, Dieter and Simon were some of my favorite topics to discuss on Sundays. More importantly, he was one of the few SNL alums to make the move to the big screen successfully.

For those of you who have been living in a cave, while wearing a blindfold with your hands over your ears, the special was clearly just a way for Meyers to promote his new film, The Love Guru. Even though, the movie looks like crap, it's nice to see Meyers making another try at a film franchise.

You guys did awesome last week coming up with Action. See if you can help out on this one...

Debbie Knight asks.

"Hi, I'm hoping someone will be able to help me. I'm a huge fan of horror TV Sitcoms...ie Tales from the Darkside, Tales from the Crypt etc...However I'm remembering an episode and can't think where it's from. I'll describe it and hopefully someone here can give me a title and hopefully somewhere where i can watch it. The episode a female Dr. received a severed hand from the police that was from a serial killer who strangled his victims. It was explained to her that the hand seems to still move. As the episode continues murders are being committed in the same fashion as the serial killer. However the end of the episode, her and her boyfriend/husband Dr. are at home he goes in the tub she's waiting for him in bed reading. Well the hand reattaches itself to this decomposing body and the boyfriend Dr. is killed ."

I got a real stumper this week and I need your help.

Samuel Quiring writes...
"Need name of old TV series pilot A few years ago (possibly many years ago) I saw part of a pilot of a TV series. The plot: the main character was trying to secure funding for a movie. I remember two hilarious scenes and would like to see them again:
(1) The main character is in a nightclub, kind of out of his league, with some slightly unsavory characters from which he's trying to get funding. Finally they agree and he's happy for a moment. Then one of them pulls out a monster knife and cuts the palm of his hand, hands the knife to our hero to do the same, and says, "let's shake on it." As I recall, the main character faints.
(2) Towards the end of show, he's giving a speech to the folks in his office telling them how they've got funding, but everyone's going to have to totally focus and not spend a penny on anything frivolous. During this, a helicopter lands and he says that he's taking a vacation for a couple of weeks in some exotic location. As part of this speech he says something really funny about some women at the office treating an accidental pinch as a sexual assault and if they can't work as a team then maybe they don't belong (that's the gist, but probably not 100% accurate). What is the name of this TV Series pilot and who is the main actor? I can picture him. I've seen him before. But I don't think I ever knew is name. Thanks."

Robbie Rist is one of the most well-known child stars there is. Oddly enough it's not because he got arrested or starred in a reality show about his crazy marriage. He is well-known for his body of work.

Robbie has worked on some of the most popular shows on television including The Brady Bunch, Mary Tyler Moore, Galactica 1980, The Bionic Woman and, of course, the immortal Kidd Video, just to name a few.

Since I have kids and a job, I don't get to see many movies in the theaters these days unless it's a crappy kids movie. Generally if I want to see grown up movie I have to rent the DVD. In some cases, the movie is such a blockbuster that watching it at home defeats the purpose.

Luckily once in a while a film is released that I want to see and I can also take my kids. Iron Man is one of those films.

It seems we can't get through a season of American Idol without Paula doing something nutty. Whether it's dating a contestant or giving bad interviews or just being wacky. These events inevitably lead to an allegation that Paula has a drinking problem or is on drugs or something equally scandalous.

Some people seem to get very angry when these allegations start flying. These folks are fans of Paula and AI and therefore feel that they must defend her in any way they can. They make up excuses for her behavior which range from sleep deprivation to technical problems. Unfortunately none of them ever admit the truth: