I forgot to post yesterday (oops!). Sunday was a busy night, with one new show (The Cleveland Show, a spin-off from Family Guy) and many returning shows (60 Minutes, The Amazing Race, season 21 of The Simpsons, Family Guy, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Californication on HBO, Desperate Housewives, American Dad, Cold Case, Brothers and Sisters, and Dexter on Showtime).

For the rest of the week, here’s what you can catch.

New shows:

• Monday: Trauma (NBC drama from Peter Berg of Friday Night Lights, a San Francisco-based medical drama focused on paramedics in the field)
• Wednesday: Hank (an ABC comedy starring Kelsey Grammer as a suddenly-unemployed CEO) and The Middle (ABC comedy about a middle class family, starring Patricia Heaton)
• Friday: Stargate Universe (another Stargate series, this one with Lou Diamond Philips, Ming-Na, and Robert Carlyle)

Returning shows:

• Monday: Lie to Me
• Thursday: Private Practice (third season starting only two weeks after the second season, airing during Summer, ends)
• Friday: ‘Til Death
• Sunday: America’s Funniest Home Videos

Here’s what you can find this week. First, for new shows:

• Sunday: Bored To Death (HBO comedy with Jason Schwartzman and Ted Danson)
• Monday: Accidentally On Purpose (CBS comedy starring Jenna Elfman as a mother-to-be)
• Tuesday: NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS extending the franchise), The Good Wife (CBS drama starring Julianna Margulies, and the forgotten (ABC forensics drama with Christian Slater)
• Wednesday: Mercy (NBC medical drama with Delroy Lindo), Modern Family (ABC comedy with Ed O’Neill), Cougar Town (ABC Courteney Cox vehicle), and Eastwick (ABC adaptation of the Updike novel, with Rebecca Romijn)
• Thursday: FlashForward (high concept ABC SF show with an impressive cast)
• Friday: Brothers (FOX comedy with Carl Weathers)

And for returning shows:

• Sunday: Curb Your Enthusiasm (HBO — lot of press over the Seinfeld cast reunion)
• Monday: House, Dancing with the Stars, How I Met Your Mother, Heroes, Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Castle, and CSI: Miami
• Tuesday: NCIS
• Wednesday: The New Adventures of Old Christine, Gary Unmarried, Criminal Minds, Law & Order: SVU, CSI: NY
• Thursday: CSI, Grey’s Anatomy, The Mentalist
• Friday: Ghost Whisperer, Smallville, Law & Order, Medium, Dollhouse (woo!), Numb3rs
• Saturday: Dateline NBC, 48 Hours Mystery

I’m told there are 99 new shows this Fall (many more than last year, which was stunted by the after-effects of the writer’s strike of 2007). I’ll be curious to see how many of those 99 new shows make it. The one I’m anticipating the most is probably Flash Forward.

Last week, the first two new shows for Fall 2009 debuted:

• The first was Melrose Place, on Tuesday.
• The second was on Thursday: The Vampire Diaries. (I recorded it but haven’t had a chance to watch it yet.) If you missed it, you can get it for free (either to watch online, or to download to your DVR) from Amazon.

(I guess you could count Glee as a new show as well, even though it first appeared last year.)

This week, Jay Leno’s new show starts tonight, and it’ll be fascinating to see if NBC’s gamble of scheduling a talk show in primetime from Monday to Friday pays off.

Also this week, on Wednesday, a new show from the CW will debut, The Beautiful Life, starring Mischa Barton.

On Thursday, you can check out NBC’s Community (with Chevy Chase) — a 30-minute comedy about a lawyer who has to return to law school.

Also on Thursday, a primetime version of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update starts on NBC.

Returning shows that start up again this week include:

• Monday: One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl
• Tuesday: The Biggest Loser
• Thursday: Bones, Fringe (yeah!), Survivor: Samoa, Parks and Recreation, The Office, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (busy night!)
• Friday: Crash (on Starz)

TiVo’s Fall TV Schedule calendar is a big help. We’ve also put some work into a Fall TV Guru Guide to make it a bit easier to find the new and returning shows using your DVR.

You can also check out the Premiere Dates thread on the TiVoCommunity forum.

While the new shows appear, I’ll be posting here each Monday with a list.

Of the four new shows this week, I’ll definitely give Jay a chance, and have already set a Season Pass for SNL. I’m not hugely into fashion, so I’m not too sure about The Beautiful Life. But I’ll give Community a watch or two.

Finally, I know I’m biased, but the “Build Your Own Network” Game is fun and worth checking out. My own network isn’t doing so well yet…

Today is blue moon day, the national holiday where you should stay home and catch up on television on your TiVo.

(It’s really Blue Moon 11, if you count the first one, but Blue Moon X sounds better as a title, so I’m leaving it at that.)

Ten years ago, the world’s first DVR shipped. To celebrate and to thank TiVo employees for their hard work in the final push to ship in Q1 of 1999, TiVo Inc. co-founder and then-CEO Mike Ramsay declared that the last Friday in March would henceforth be a national holiday.

Well, we may not have made much progress in making it a national holiday, but today none of us are at work. (Although as I say that, I’m running a query and checking e-mail and answering a support escalation, but at least I’m not wearing pants in the office.)

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an episode of Survivor to watch, and then probably some Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles or maybe the new season of Heroes. Plus that new Nathan Fillion show, Castle. And CSI has been so good since Laurence Fishburne joined the cast; they’ve really stepped up the writing, I think. And and and

• I started at TiVo on March 2, 1999, precisely ten years ago. That was one office building, nine desk locations, six different bosses, over 113,000 e-mails sent, and over 15,000 meetings ago. This is by far my favorite job of my career so far, and TiVo is an enjoyable and challenging company to work for. In terms of what I’ve learned and the people I’ve met and had the chance to work with, and the products and services I’ve been involved in, the experience has been greatly enriching. I look forward to ten more years (at least!).
• A corporate press release today announces TiVo’s first profitable year. Congratulations, TiVo!

As I’ve described elsewhere, that first month at TiVo was insane, especially as we got closer and closer to the Blue Moon launch date.

The photo here (scanned from an actual developed photograph, I’d almost forgotten about those) shows me and Richard Bullwinkle at our launch celebration, at the manufacturing plant where the first real TiVo units are about to roll off the production line. We’re all wearing blue smocks so that we could go onto the factory floor to see them pass diagnostics in real-time. Standing next to me is Richard Bullwinkle, TiVo’s first QE guy and webmaster and evangelist (in that order). Behind me you can make out Bob Vallone’s head, to the left, and Tony Dicroce (who used to commute to TiVo from Los Angeles each week, and sleep in the parking lot; that’s the kind of stuff we did back in the dot-com bubble days). I think I see Jaz’s head and Ta-Wei Chien’s head as well. You can see the exhaustion dripping off our faces. We lost count of the all-nighters that month. Ah, nostalgia!

Starting right this second, you can begin downloading some amazing art house, independent and foreign films to your broadband-connected TiVo Series2 or Series3 DVR. There’s also a wide selection of anime.

To get started, either visit Jaman’s TiVo site or on your DVR head to TIVo Central -> Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Jaman Movies & Shorts. You can find more information over at tivo.com.

Jaman has been a great partner to work with, and I’m very excited about the new content available today for TiVo customers.

From now on, these updates are no longer going to be in text form and won’t be featured here. Instead, we’ve created a new channel for TiVo Video Download fans to learn about the best new content, and we’ve also created two other new TiVo channels that we hope you’ll enjoy!

• The Badoop-Badoop Show: This show stars “the voice of TiVo,” Shanan, with covering topics as varied as folks who dress up as stormtroopers (in the first show) and AMC’s hit show Mad Men (in the second show). Previously the only place to watch The Badoop-Badoop Show was on the TiVo channel on YouTube,  but now it can be downloaded directly to your DVR.
• The Best of Video Downloads: Featuring John T.’s picks, this new show replaces the blog posts that I previously put here. We’ll also include announcements about new channels.
• Try This: Learn more about the latest TiVo features and how to get the most from your TiVo experience. Features instructional videos about different TiVo features (many starring Shanan), some of which were previously posted to YouTube.

To subscribe to any of these channels on a Series2 or Series3 broadband-connected DVR, you can either visit the TiVo Channel page on TiVo Central Online, or go to TiVo Central -> Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Other Videos -> All (and then pick the channel you want to see from the list, in the Ts).

1. Veracifier: John McCain: A Chicken in Every Pot. With everything happening today on Wall Street, it’s interesting to use the way-back machine to look at the interviews that Senator McCain gave to the morning news shows regarding his “the fundamentals of the economy are sound” speech. The power of editing is not his friend.
2. Break.com: Mary Poppins jumps off a bridge. Why is it funny to me to watch a guy hurt himself by jumping off a bridge while holding an umbrella in an attempt to fly? Because I tried it. Every year when I was a kid, my family would order a huge load of firewood for the winter that would get dumped into our driveway for my sister and I to stack up. One year, I decided that if I took the umbrella from the patio furniture (a huge umbrella meant to shade a whole table) and jumped off the top of the 15 foot pile that I would float…even if only for a moment. Needless to say, I did not and I still have the scar on my knee to prove it.
3. CNET: Must Have Gadgets. It’s been a while since I’ve highlighted CNET (one of my all-time, can’t miss favorites each week) but this time it’s not really about that tiny phone they reviewed or the latest uber-powerful gaming PC they’re playing with. No, this week I’m convinced that Brian Cooley (one of CNET’s editors-at-large) has the coolest job in the world. Almost every week, Brian’s got a piece of the show dedicated to driving some super awesome tech’d-out car through the streets of San Francisco. He’s the luckiest man on the planet.
4. The WB.com: Sorority Forever. Yes, it’s true. I’m addicted to this web-only drama series all about the trials and tribulations of a sorority that’s involved in something mysterious. It’s fluffy drama that’s great for watching in-between commercial breaks for live prime time viewing or for burning a half an hour here or there during a lazy weekend. It’s great fun and I’m totally into it.
5. The Totally Rad Show: Flume. It’s no secret that I’m a fanboy for this weekly show about the latest in movies, games, TV, and comics — but this week’s episode struck a special chord with me. We’ve all been a bit “Rock Band” crazy since about this time last year with many a Friday/Saturday/Tuesday night completely blown trying to get to the next venue. So seeing the boys of TRS playing “Rock Band 2″ was awesome…and can partially be blamed for my blown weekend of “Rock Band 2″ madness.

That changes as of today. Thanks to our partnership with The WB, you can now catch Sorority Forever, a new episodic show executive-produced by McG, following the lives of three freshman sorority members as they arrive on campus. I definitely got a bit of a Gossip Girl vibe from the show.

You may recognize the star, Jessica Rose, as the infamous “lonelygirl15″ of YouTube fame.

The first five episodes (about 2-3 minutes each) are available now:

1. “Sisterhood”
2. “Terrible Mistake”
3. “Sexy Bra Shopping”
4. “Panty Pledge”
5. “Nobody Likes a Fat Girl”

The next five episodes are already available from TheWB.com, but you don’t have to watch them on your laptop — we will publish those five on Monday, and we’ll publish five new episodes each Monday after that to match the run from TheWB.com.

To get a Season Pass, visit TiVo Central -> Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Other Videos -> All -> TheWB.com. Or you can use TiVo Central Online’s TheWB.com page.

1. Pixel Perfect: Feel at Peace with a Pastoral Scene. If Bob Ross was the king of the painted Happy Tree, then Bert Monroy is the Bob Ross of the Photoshop Happy Tree. Each week, Bert teaches another lesson about everyone’s favorite photo editing software. It’s a useful and fun way to learn all the little tricks that will help you edit your ex out of all those pictures.
2. Nickelodeon: iCarly Don’t be Lame. If you’ve got kids, they probably watch a lot of Nickelodeon. Even though Nickelodeon doesn’t have all my old favorites like Danger Mouse or Double Dare, they’re still cranking out a lot of great original programming. Each week, our Nickelodeon Video Download channel highlights a behind-the-scenes look at one of the shows that the House that Green Slime Built is producing. It’s a great quick break for kids to watch instead of commercials for cereal, toys, or other things they want you to buy for them.
3. Days of Our Lives: Dena Hagley. The folks at Days of Our Lives provide the bigger kids with the same kind of behind-the-scenes look at all the different pieces that go in to making one of television’s longest-running soaps. While I don’t spend a lot of time in the afternoon watching the stories since ‘Passions’ was canceled, this should be on your Season Pass list if you like Days of Our Lives or just want a backstage pass for the making of a soap opera.
4. Vogue.TV: Models.Live Episode 4. One of the biggest hits of the last few years has been Tyra’s fierce America’s Next Top Model, but for a more realistic view of what it takes to become a fashion model, you should check out Vogue’s new Models.Live series. A real life look at what it really takes to be a model (even once the lights have turned off), this should be required viewing for everyone who’s got The Hills, 90210, or One Tree Hill in their Season Pass list (and I know you’re out there).
5. Zen Living: Aromatherapy. While I know I’ve talked about Zen Living before, it’s just not something I’ve been able to connect with. While lots of people I know are really into massage and therapeutic teas, it’s just always been a bit high and outside for me. That being said, I find the Zen Living series interesting, entertaining and a great way to learn about things that otherwise mystify me. This is a great show to help take the ‘um?’ out of ‘ohm’….which may be the best pun I’ve written in a year.

So that’s what I’ve been pondering this week…what are you watching that everyone should know about?

• iFanboy: Y: The Last Man. The guys at iFanboy took a look back at the entire “Y: The Last Man” series and talk about the themes, questions and over-arching awesomeness of the comic book series. Yes, it will someday be a movie, but do yourself a favor and read the entire comic book series first…if for no other reason than the fact that there’s a monkey named “Ampersand.”
• Diggnation: Live at NVISION 08 in San Jose. Yes, I am a total Bay Area fanboy so there’s no way I could let this go by without mentioning it. Last week, Alex and Kevin from Diggnation did a live show here in San Jose and the nerds showed up in force. It’s awesome to see an online show translate from a webpage to an auditorium full of screaming fanboys.
• Wine Library: 6 Wines from VA. As I just mentioned, we’re in the Bay Area (home of some of the best wines in the world) but I’m originally from Virginia (home of some of the worst “wines” in the world) so it was great to see Gary V. and the Wine Library team tasting and (for the most part) enjoying wines from my home state.
• The Totally Rad Show: Geekdipointment. You know a host (or in this case, a group of hosts) has something going for them when you find yourself enjoying something that might normally bore you to tears. That was the case this week as the TRS gang attempted to make their own clever t-shirts. Watching Dan try (and fail, and fail, and fail, and fail) to come up with something funny to put on a shirt was hilarious. It’s amazing what these three can find to compete in.
• The Onion: Portrayal Of Obama As Elitist Hailed As Step Forward For African Americans. There’s not a lot to say about this other than the fact that there’s nothing more inappropriately hilarious than The Onion. They’re not afraid of anything or anyone and that’s just plain awesome.

With the Olympics sadly coming to a close, its time for the real games to begin! This week my focus turns sharply from Beijing, China to Denver, Colorado and the Democratic National Convention. So take off your sports fan hat and fasten on your citizen helmet! Lots of our channels will be covering the convention this week including: Barely Political, Epic Fu, and Veracifier. So don’t forget to supplement your network coverage with reports (and spoofs!) from the convention floor. That’s this week, but let’s takes a look back at my favorites from last week.

1. Scam School: Clever Match Scores Two Free Drinks. While sitting in a restaurant recently, a member of my party looked over the wine list and ended up ordering a “Conundrum,” which immediately sparked a fifteen minute discussion of the best riddles, puzzles, and tricks… We were amateurs compared to the crew at Scam School. It’s a weekly show that demonstrates the best in free drink-getting bar tricks. After watching the match trick in this week’s episode, I’m still not sure I could pull it off, but I’m eager for others to try.
2. Break.com: Best of Break 74. Speaking of bar tricks, this week’s Break.com included some guys attempting to take a flaming shot…which is listed in the dictionary under “terrible ideas” right next to “anything following the sentence, ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’” As with all Break.com videos, the best-laid plans lead to the most hilarious of consequences.
3. Internet Superstar: Daisy Whitney. Internet video hit a bit of a crossroads this past week, as Internet Superstar had New Media expert and critic Daisy Whitney in the shack. Daisy’s a writer for TV Week who’s got a show of her own called “The New Media Minute,” and she’s made no secret about being a huge fan of Internet Superstar (and of its host, Martin Sargent). It’s nice to see old media fawning over new media for once.
4. CNET: Back to School Gear. Although I don’t always include CNET in my Top 5, it’s easily one of my favorite shows each and every week. They’ve implemented a couple of changes (based on feedback from TiVo users) that are worth highlighting. Not only is Molly trying to talk about the prices of the products they’re reviewing each week, but the team is also constantly soliciting feedback from the TiVo viewers by including an email address each week (tivoreport@cnet.com). It’s so great to see viewers getting the chance to interact with their favorite shows, especially when it helps a great show get even better.
5. The Gourmet Channel: The Technique: Sweet Dough. Finally this week, I was really interested to watch The Technique’s version of a sweet dough. I really loved how Richard Bertinet took the time to explain more than just the recipe for making sweet dough. I often feel that I’m missing something in the translation from television cooking show to my home kitchen, so it’s nice to get an even more in-depth lesson on food creation.

• Wine Library TV: Episode 519 – Lambic Beer Tasting: I went wine tasting recently with a group of friends and heard one of them exclaim that they loved the way the wine tasted in their cheeks…at which point I thought I’d never understand why/how people went wine tasting. Gary Vaynerchuck’s show is exactly the opposite of that. Although he’s not tasting wine in this episode, he gives beer the same energetic and down-to-earth treatment that’s helped bring wine to those of us that previously just didn’t get it (for example, he uses bacon as a palate cleanser…awesome).
• Internet Superstar: Episode 38: When you spend all day watching internet tv like I do, it’s nice to know that someone else out there finds the hilarity in the growing stable of Internet Celebrities. This episode has Martin interviewing Marnia Orlova from HotForWords about the insults that he often endures. Classic interview show with an internet twist.
• EPIC FU: Postcard Secrets, Killing Plastic, Emo Hate: It’s no secret that I’ve been a fan of EPIC FU for a long time (in relative internet time). This week Zadi’s highlighting the PostSecret project, trying to go an entire week without using plastic…and highlighting the plight of the Russian Emo kids. Stay strong sad teens! EPIC FU’s helped me find time wasting games, great new music and kept me informed about the latest in internet pop culture. EPIC FU is my internet PBS.
• Tekzilla: Episode 46: As part of the fun of working with TiVo’s Video Download’s department I have a gigantic laptop. No really, this thing has its own time zone, gravitation field, and zip code. One of the first things one of my co-workers asked when he saw it was “So what games will it play?” It’s close, but not quite in line, with the super computers on this week’s Tekzilla. We’re big fans of Patrik and Veronica (they’ve both appeared on multiple shows on Video Downloads over the past year) so it’s the best of both worlds. Tekzilla is This Old House for Tech.
• The Totally Rad Show: Brechted – and more Comic Con!: Yes, this is my second mention of TRS in this post, but c’mon! What’s not to love about three rad dudes who are forced to review the latest in games and movies too? I discovered The Totally Rad Show this past winter and burned through all of their episodes during my trips back and forth between home and TiVo headquarters. The three hosts (Alex Albrecht, Dan Trachtenberg, and Jeff Cannata) offer informed opinions on everything from the latest movies to the classic board game “Fireball Island”. This week’s episode includes the fan Q & A from Comic Con where they once again discuss how they actually met while playing “Dungeons and Dragons”…and how even then they talked over each other. Consider it essential viewing for informed opinions on the latest in everything pop culture…and to watch Dan continue in his quest to become a man. BONUS: Each and every episode begins with a recreation of a “famous” scene.

This week’s top five list includes hot dogs on pizza, cats chasing lasers, and me getting pelted with index cards. Check out the best of the best in Video Downloads this week.

1. I can’t figure out whether The Onion thinks they’re really funny or if they’re just trying to save us from ourselves. This past week, they took us inside the ever-evolving world of fast food innovation. Part of me thinks that pizza topped with hot dogs would do really well.
2. Did you know you can now buy products from Amazon right from your TiVo DVR? If you were watching Media Bytes with Shelly Palmer last week you would know. Shelly covers the top tech news stories each day with a bit of commentary and a bit of snark.
3. What’s a better distraction from the news and the expanding American waistline than cute animals chasing a laser pointer? Nothing. Which is why I know I can always count on Ultra Kawaii Pets to help me unwind.
4. With the almost complete lack of interesting broadcast TV this summer, I’ve been forced to go deeper into my dial to find suitable entertainment. While surfing one Sunday I came across my new obsession: Top Gear. It’s a car show on BBC America that’s gotten me more interested in automobiles in general, which means I’m enjoying VOD Cars even more. VOD Cars is all about user-generated car video, with everything from fast laps on a track to some crazy highway driving. It’s almost enough to make me learn to drive stick.
5. Finally this week, I have to say that I enjoyed Cranky Geeks even though I ended up watching it twice on the same day. Let me explain. I was lucky enough to be invited to watch the live taping of Cranky Geeks in San Francisco last week. I had been in a meeting in their offices so I didn’t get into the studio until about 8 minutes into the show. As the lone audience member that day, I got a bit more attention than I was planning on and had the pleasure of dodging index cards for the bulk of the show. I also got to correct the Geeks during a commercial break regarding our new Amazon service, which was somewhat satisfying after spending so much time talking back to my television during their discussions over the past year. Thanks again to the Cranky Geeks folks for letting me sit in on their show!

You can now browse through Amazon Unbox’s entire catalog of movies and TV shows by genre.

Check it out on your broadband-connected TiVo Series2 or Series3 DVR at TiVo Central -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Amazon Unbox TV & Movies -> Browse Entire Catalog.

It’ll take a couple of weeks or so before everyone using a high-def TiVo DVR gets this, but there are some exciting behind-the-scenes improvements that are involved.

• YouTube is the first content partner using streaming instead of download for video delivery.
• YouTube is our first implementation of H.264 video, a major evolution over the MPEG2-based video format that runs on all other TiVo DVR platforms.
• YouTube is the first Home Media Engine (HME) application that incorporates seamless video playback.

Unfortunately, Series2 owners will never be able to run this. The changes I mentioned require the chip technology that’s only available with the high-def boxes.

Because we now have a streaming partner, one small change: when you use the Download TV, Movies, & Web Video menu item under Find Programs & Downloads on TiVo Central (which is where you’ll find the new YouTube menu item), the title of that page used to be “Video Downloads.” But with YouTube, nothing is being downloaded. So the new title is “Broadband Video.” A small and subtle but important distinction.

As a kid, I used to dream about being able to order things from my TV with the push of a button. When I watched Happy Days, I wanted to be able to buy Fonzie’s motorbike — have it waiting for me on my doorstep the next morning. When I watched Battlestar Galactica (the original one), I wanted to be able to get the cool toys.

Well, we’re not quite there yet, but we’re closer. Previously, TiVo let you purchase movie tickets from your couch through our partnership with Fandango. We also let you use paid subscriptions to Rhapsody and Live 365 and One True Media. We also let you purchase and rent movies and TV shows from Amazon Unbox.

Now, when you’re watching Oprah and see the book she’s promoting, you can buy that book right from your couch, thanks to the new product purchase feature and our partnership with Amazon.

It’s out now. If you’re a broadband-connected Series2 or Series3 user, give this a try: TiVo Central -> Find Programs & Downloads -> Universal Swivel Search and then type in enough letters so you find “Oprah Winfrey” (Don’t get distracted by that entry for Oprah Noodlemantra, heh.) You’ll see the “If You Like This…” menu item, which leads to the “Related products at Amazon” item, showing some items you can now purchase online.

If you’ve previously used Amazon Unbox on TiVo and have linked your TiVo account to your Amazon account, you’re good to go. One-click users will get the item delivered as soon as they confirm. Otherwise, the item is added to your amazon.com shopping cart for later purchase.

Our intention with this new feature is to make it easier for you to learn about and buy new items that are related to your favorite shows. At launch you’ll see related products for such shows as The Colbert Report, Burn Notice and Mad Men in addition to Oprah Winfrey. More shows are planned for the future, and we’ll also test Showcases to highlight different talk shows as well as new CD & DVD releases.

Maybe motorcycles and vacuum cleaners will arrive in the future, but for now this feature will let you buy books, CDs and DVDs.

One capability is to enhance existing commercials you watch. Suppose, for example, a commercial for a new album from your favorite band is airing. We could add a thumbs up icon to that commercial allowing you to buy that CD from Amazon with just a few clicks. All from the comfort of your couch.

Over on the TiVo Community forum, some outspoken members are concerned about the advertising on our product and that this feature would be intrusive. That’s not our intention at all. It’s in our best interest to make this a useful and compelling and fun feature, not something that would be annoying. Most of the time, you’ll need to seek out (via Showcases and Universal Swivel Search) the related items. You’ll also sometimes see mentions when a show is deleted — at the point where your asked if you want to keep the show or delete the show you just watched.

Depending on how this feature is received by our customers, we do want to explore additional ideas with you in the future. But for now, check out the example I described above, and let me know what you think.

(Our support article for Product Purchase is also available.)

While you were watching America’s Got Talent (which is apparently trying to make that title an oxymoron) and the much more excellent So You Think You Can Dance (Twitch and Katie FTW, btw), I was watching everything there is to watch in the world of TiVo Video Downloads. Here’s a rundown of what I enjoyed this week.

1. For years, we’ve enjoyed watching ordinary people do extraordinarily stupid things, and now the Internet’s given us a perfect word for those actions: FAIL. And this week, nothing says “fail” like watching a kid with the bright idea of having his unmanned lawnmower pull him on his skateboard from Break.com. The skateboard gets away from this genius kid and an epic FAIL ensues.
2. After hearing one of my co-workers talk about how much they liked beYOU.tv, I gave it a closer look this week and you know what? She was right. beYOU.tv offers a great mix of holistic lifestyles and exercise routines designed to help you be a better you. This week’s stretching exercises were a definite help before a charity 10k that I attended on Saturday.
3. This week’s Ultra Kawaii Pets made me laugh and I don’t know whether or not to feel bad about it. The topic: Animals recovering from injuries. I know it doesn’t sound funny on the surface, but when you see a montage of cute animals wearing those cones they attach to keep them from messing with their stitches, you can’t help but laugh. This enjoyment was in stark contrast to one of my biggest pet peeves: Animals dressed as humans.
4. For some reason, I’ve had a bit of a dining affair with lamb this weekend. The summer started with an outdoor meal at a close-by German restaurant that serves amazing lamb shanks the size of my fist and continues with Greek lamb dishes from a local restaurant near TiVo Central. So when I saw that The Minimalist was preparing lamb this week, I was overjoyed. As always, it’s a simple dish that I’m sure I could pull off in my own kitchen given the chance which I think is truly the mark of a great cooking show. It’s nice to see fancy things, but it’s also nice to see something that I could actually make myself…especially if it’s lamb.
5. Finally this week, I have to highlight our newest channel: Nite Fite. Now if you missed The Meth Minute 39 (the thirty-nine cartoons from Dan Meth featured on Thursdays on Channel Frederator) then you missed the origins of Penalty and Lloyd. To say that they antagonize each other is a bit of an understatement. Nite Fite is an animated talk show that tackles a new topic each Thursday in the style of any talking head show on the 24 hour news networks. They’re loud, they’re obnoxious and they’re hilarious. Episode One dealt with the absolute selling out of The Who to the producers of the CSI franchise and almost made Diet Coke come out of my nose.

City By City is “a travel show with a twist, your virtual little black book for the swankiest cities across Europe.”

This show will publish every Monday (along with the other five series we’ve added so far from On Networks).

The first two episodes focus on Berlin and Milan.

To create a Season Pass, visit its page on TiVo Central Online, or on your DVR, head to TiVo Central -> Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Other Videos -> All -> City By City.

With this week’s premiere of Celebrity Family Feud (which should be listed as “Celebrity” Family Feud), you can tell that we’ve officially entered the crazy “throw it at the wall and see what sticks” part of the summer. Although, I am cheering for a few shows to stick around (Swingtown is like a traffic accident you just can’t stop looking at) and happy to have a few old friends back (Nancy, Andy and the rest of the Botwin’s on Weeds), I’m glad to have my summer entertainment supplemented with all-new TiVo Video Download goodness. Here’s what I was into this week.

1. The Meth Minute 39 train came hurtling into the Channel Frederator station this week with its final episode, which was dedicated to the fact that it was the last episode of The Meth Minute 39… clever. I’ve enjoyed most of the past 39 weeks of Dan Meth’s opus, especially the now infamous “Internet People” episode that started the whole thing off 39 weeks ago.
2. ViroPOP’s Zaproot had a great green story this week about a tanker that offset 30% of its fuel consumption by attaching a giant sail to itself for the duration of its journey. With the cost of oil skyrocketing, it’s nice to see that we’ve come up with solutions from the 1700s to help us reduce our costs.
3. Budget Health Nut, one of our newer channels from the folks at ON Networks, featured an easy-to-make recipe for healthy beef enchiladas. Now I know we all love Taco Bell and their endless supply of combinations for the same five items (the beef Crunchwrap Supreme is a religious experience) but with bathing suit season upon us, we could all use a fast food alternative.
4. I was going to go see The Love Guru this weekend…but alas, I could not after seeing The New York Times review posted in Movie Minutes last Friday. To say that the review was brutal would be an understatement. At one point, the reviewer is debating whether The Love Guru is worse than Mike Myers last live-action movie (the terrible adaptation of The Cat in the Hat) but refuses to make a decision on which is worse, as that would require watching both movies again. Ouch.
5. Last but not least this week, there was The Onion’s coverage of the high school Tony awards. As a drama kid in high school and a theater major in college, I can attest to the accuracy of these ridiculous awards. This episode actually hit a bit too close to home for me at first, but also brought back some awesomely awkward memories with its lower-thirds like “Host Mr. B urges students never to settle for a teaching job.” Somewhere in the middle of nowhere USA, my high school drama teacher is still telling kids the same thing.

MediaBytes will offer its updates each weekday. Check it out!

To subscribe, visit the TiVoCast section of TiVo Central Online, or on your DVR head to TiVo Central -> Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Other Videos -> All -> MediaBytes.

Episodes from Monday (about the iPhone 3G among other stories) and Tuesday (talking about Verizon, Tiger Woods, NBC, Adobe, and Brightcove vs. Move Networks) are available to download now.

• Zipidee Action Sports (zipidee.com)
  Launched on 5/15; new shows every Wednesday
  In the Fitness category of Video Downloads, Zipidee Action Sports brings us “cutting edge BMX, skateboarding, surfing, mountain biking, snowboarding, and more!”
• beYOU.tv (beYOU.tv)
  Launched on 5/15; new shows every Wednesday
  Also found in the Fitness category of Video Downloads, beYOU.tv “brings you informational and inspirational video to help you attain all of your fitness, health and wellness goals.”
• Budget Health Nut (ON networks)
  Launched on 5/21; new shows every Monday
  In the How-To category, “Don’t let modest funds get in the way of gourmet taste. Instead, learn how to shop, cook and eat on a budget with culinary cheapskate, Joe Dias.”
• Cocktails on the Fly (ON networks)
  Launched on 5/21; new shows every Monday
  Also found in the How-To category, “Alberta Straub (a.k.a Miss Flighty) is known for turning fresh homemade ingredients into wildly sexy, exuberant drinks.”
• ON Dating (ON networks)
  Launched on 5/21; new shows every Monday
  Also found in the How-To category, “Online dating is the fastest growing social phenomenon on the Internet, and something celebrity dating coach Andrea Syrtash knows all about.”
• Golf Tips (ON networks)
  Launched on 5/29; new shows every Monday
  Also found in the How-To category, Golf Tips with Joe Beck “is a show that will make your drive longer, your putts more accurate, and your game better.”
• Vogue.TV (vogue.tv)
  Launched on 5/29; new shows every Tuesday and Thursday
  In the Lifestyle category, Vogue.TV takes you behind the scenes of fashion, beauty, and culture and gives you up-to-the-minute trend reports and more.

To subscribe to any of these, visit the Video Downloads page on TiVo Central Online, or on your broadband-connected Series2 or Series3 DVR, head to TiVo Central -> Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Other Videos -> All.

It’s official. I spent more time this week watching Video Downloads than actual TV. Besides Battlestar Galactica’s big “huh?” ending and Tiger’s awesome performance at the U.S. Open, was there anything else great on regular TV that I missed out on? I don’t think so. I’m working my way back through the first three seasons of Weeds in preparation for this week’s premiere (downloaded directly to my TiVo thanks to Amazon Unbox) but here’s my Top 5 Free Video Downloads from the past week:

1. “How can you not care about Skaar? He’s the son of the Hulk!” “Any guy on a dinosaur with a huge axe…yes!” Two great quotes from today’s episode of The Stack from Pulp Secret. It’s impossible not to love Alex, Justin and Pete’s thrice-weekly comic book reviews, even if Justin and Pete are getting closer and closer to choking each other.
2. Speaking of The Hulk…it seemed like the green guy was everywhere I turned this week (four of our channels referenced the release of the Hulk movie in one way or another). But when it comes to parody, you can always count on the folks at Barely Political to bring the hype back to this year’s presidential election. This week, the ubiquitous Obama Girl met her new nemesis “The Incredible McCain Girl”…and hilarity ensued. Watch for cameos by Justin and Jared from Indy Mogul and Rush Limbaugh…just because.
3. Unfortunately, we’re just one episode away from the finale of The Meth Minute 39 on Channel Frederator. This week, we looked into the future of The Meth Minute 39 Thousand…and the creative bankruptcy that accompanies it. My personal favorites: “Fire Cat” (“Don’t be on fire, OK?”) and “Stoic Squirrel and the Omniverse of Madness.”
4. GeekBrief.TV successfully combined two of my favorite things into Episode 375. First, there was a new gaming PC that could also double as housing for five (seriously, it’s huge). Second, they highlighted the addition of the Microsoft Surface to the iBar in Vegas. It’s worth a look if you’re a fan of gaming, bars or things you can touch.
5. Finally this week, there was the sad news of the sudden passing of veteran journalist Tim Russert. Today’s Veracifier does a good job of summing up the reactions across yesterday’s Sunday morning talk shows. I grew up just outside of Washington, D.C. so politics were local news for most of my childhood and I’ve been a news junkie ever since. I still remember watching Russert on Election Night 2000 pointing at the lowest of low-tech vote tabulators (that unforgettable white board) and seeing his accurate prediction that it was really all about Florida. Sunday mornings won’t be the same without him. Today’s Veracifier includes some of his best moments from almost two decades of Meet the Press.

In a week that saw the return of The Mole and the reinvention of Password (congrats for the originality, TV!), there was even more great stuff available through Video Downloads. Here’s the best of the best from last week:

1. Super Deluxe turned to The Daily Show’s Rob Riggle for a look at the often-ignored casualty of novelty basketball exhibitions like the Harlem Globetrotters. Riggle, as coach of the Colonels, asks the question we’ve all been wondering for years: What kind of ref allows a tiny trampoline onto a basketball court? (Although we’ll have to wait to find out why the Globetrotters made a movie called The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island where they fought robots….)
2. The New York Times‘ resident tech guru David Pogue reviewed three great voice-activated cell phone services on this week’s Circuits, including Goog-411, Cha-Cha, and Jott. All three are great additions to my already geeky Blackberry. Soon I won’t have to talk to real people at all!
3. Speaking of socially awkward, this week’s Break.com “Best of 65″ show included a clip of a young man attempting to teach his aunt to lock her back door…by popping out of a cabinet wearing a hockey mask and wielding a butcher knife. (Next week, motivation techniques requiring a chainsaw.) The best part of the clip though is watching his aunt attempting to climb over the railing of the deck to escape instead of using, I don’t know, the stairs. Maybe slasher movies have been more accurate than we give them credit for.
4. Cali Lewis from GeekBrief.TV brought us the awesome news that Starbucks is now offering two hours of free WiFi service to their latte-drinking customers. This brings me one step closer to permanently relocating my cube within scone-throwing distance of a barista. Viva la free internets!
5. And finally, The Onion’s headline explains it all: “New Wearable Feedbags Let Americans Eat More, Move Less.” Thanks, Onion. You just crushed the hope/dreams of some R&D scientist deep within the bowels of McDonald’s or Burger King.

We’ve been working hard with the CinemaNow folks to get this ready for you. Keep an eye on your Download TV, Movies, & Web Video menu (under TiVo Central -> Find Programs & Downloads); this new service will arrive later this year.

Between CinemaNow and Amazon Unbox, every major movie studio will be available on your TiVo-branded DVR.

Personally, my favorite classic Disney movie has to be The Jungle Book. I’ve been reading the book version to Sammy for a few weeks. At some point pretty soon, he’ll be old enough to watch the movie — now I know how I’ll get it to him.

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While I was feting twins, Kimi took Sammy and Sophie to the Hiller Airplane Museum, which never gets old for Sammy.

Me: Sammy, what did you see at the airplane museum today?
Sammy: Airplanes.
Me: What kind of airplanes?
Sammy: Old airplanes. With wings!

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Yesterday was Sophie’s eight month birthday. She babbles incessantly now, has the tiniest of teeth buds coming in, gives a smile to everyone, likes to wave somewhat erratically at people, and can roll over, but seems to show no interest in crawling. We’ve started the ferberizing to break her of her 3 a.m. feedings, and so far so good; she slept through the night for the last two nights.

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Yesterday was also photo day at Sammy and Sophie’s school, and in addition, teachers’ lunch out for Sophie’s class. This semi-annual event asks the parents to donate their time and a little money for the teachers to get an escape, while parents come in during the lunch hour to watch the kids. There are eight kids in Sophie’s class, ranging from four months to almost a year old. For the noon to 1 shift where I helped out, we had five parents. When we first started our shift, the teachers had left us well-fed, happy, clean-diapered kids. Within about, oh, ten minutes, half of the kids were bawling, and most had dirty diapers. We parents just looked at each other and laughed. What a profoundly difficult job. The two teachers handle four infants each, with aplomb. We parents were having difficulty with less than two each. Things soon settled down though, and the hour ended up flying by.

* * *

While the photographers set up outside the school and we lined the kids up to have their individual and class photos taken, smoke and haze filled the sky from the nearby Santa Cruz mountains fire. Yesterday morning over 3,400 acres had burned, dozens of homes were destroyed, and the fire was less than 1% contained. Even though we were fifty miles away, kids rubbed their eyes and coughed; and the strange air reminded me of a smell from my childhood, in London: walking down the street in winter evenings, with seemingly every house having a fireplace with a blazing wood fire, smoke pouring out of chimneys, getting on your clothes.

Chim chimminee, chim chiminee, chim chim cheroo.

I was very glad to see the unexpected and unseasonable light rain today, giving the firefighters the break they needed to control the mountain blaze. The dull weather was not so much fun for five-year-olds attending a birthday party, but everything in life is a trade-off.

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Earlier in the week, I caught Speed Racer and then snuck in to a showing of Prince Caspian. It took me about thirty minutes to catch on to Speed Racer’s vibe, but once I did, I loved it. I think this is a vastly underrated movie. The critical smackdown is somewhat intense; I guess most of the critics never watched the original cartoon, because I think the movie catches the goofy tone of the movie pretty much perfectly. And the visuals do not disappoint, exceeding even the hype.

Prince Caspian, on the other hand, is a dreadful bore, missing all spark of charm and whimsy of the first Narnia movie, laying the religious theme on over-thick, and really missing the point of the book (which I read probably twenty times before I was 12).

Speed Racer is over two hours but feels like 60 minutes. Prince Caspian is over two hours but feels like three or four.

* * *

Rob and I have been playing a new card game, Race for the Galaxy (which Steve and Larry introduced me to when they visited a couple of months ago). We play whenever we get a chance. I love this game. It’s a bit fiddly to learn, and the fact that you’re not directly interacting with your opponents takes a few plays before you understand how you can actually have a huge effect on your opponents’ play — but it’s such a short and intense game, I find myself even dreaming about it. Get this game!

* * *

Kimi gave me the new Flight of the Conchords CD for my birthday (among a lot of other CDs, thanks sweetie!). Although I loved the first season of the HBO show, I had thought some of the songs were hit or miss. But I was able to really listen to the lyrics (thanks to the iPhone making it easier for me to carry around music), and now I love all the songs. Buy this CD. Please mister, you won’t regret it.

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There’s a friends-and-family deal at TiVo right now for a TiVo HD. If you’re a friend or family and want a new HD DVR, drop me an e-mail.

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While I do aim to generate content, rather than pass along content from elsewhere, here’s a link. I have to say I applaud these two for their convictions and avocation.
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Kimi: “Your blog is so random. No one likes all the content. No one!”

Guilty — variegated miscellany is what this is. I do tend to be all over the place. Everything’s connected, somehow. Just think though — there are half of the categories listed on the right not even touched by this post. But comments are what I like best, so let me know what you’d like to see more of, and less of.

1. Remember that scene in Network where the anchor, troubled by the content forced upon him, finally breaks down and screams at the camera that he’s mad as hell and not going to take it anymore? This isn’t that….Barely Political brings us a hilarious take on everyone’s favorite Fox News commentator losing his cool back in his early Inside Edition days. It’s almost as if he’s going to spontaneously combust right there on the set of his syndicated “news” magazine.
2. Channel Frederator’s ReFrederator went all VH1 on us last week with a pop-up version of “Superman in Mechanical Monsters.” With a mix of insightful commentary and a bit of Beavis & Butthead, I hope Channel Frederator tries this kind of thing again.
3. If anyone knows of anything funnier than a guy dropping to the ground and flopping around like a salmon after asking his friends to shoot him with a taser from this week’s Break.com, please let me know.
4. Pulp Secret’s Summer Movie Spectacular was a great preview of all of the blockbusters based on comic books we have headed our way this summer. Alex, Justin, and Pete always have lots of say about the way some of my favorite characters are handled in comics, so it was great to hear their thoughts on these big screen adaptations.
5. Last but not least, happy birthday, Indy Mogul! Today’s episode is a retrospective of some of the best moments from the past year of my favorite DIY film-making show (giant sandwich!) and includes a great joke about bees. What started as a single show (“Backyard FX”) has grown into three great shows a week with the addition of “Q & Erik” and “4 Minute Film School”. Even if you’re only shooting home movies of your family, Indy Mogul’s full of great tips to help you get the most from your camera.

I watch it all so you don’t have to and here’s what I enjoyed this week.

1. Week 33 of Dan Meth’s 39 week experiment on Channel Frederator brings us a re-imagining of the first 32 weeks in glorious 8-bit. Insane? Yes. But Hilarious? Most definitely.
2. John McCain is calling you out, sissy-boy! This week The Onion had an important report about McCain’s plan to control government spending by eliminating the need for a Secret Service detail during his presidency. What will the Treasury Department do with all that extra money and manpower?
3. Speaking of politics, during last Tuesday’s CNN primary coverage, things got a little heated between some of the panelists. Thursday’s Veracifier gives the Sportscenter treatment to the best political team on television.
4. It all began with one red paper clip….and ended with a book. Tuesday’s Rocketboom gave us an interview with Kyle MacDonald, the man who just kept trading up.
5. Remember when the Wachowski brothers’ name stood for crazy effects and an awesome story? Anyone? Well, that first Matrix movie was awesome, but apparently their newest project, “Speed Racer,” (with Jack from “Lost” as Racer X?) misses the mark. Luckily, The New York Times is here to steer us clear of this one.

Not using Web Season Pass? You should be! This week I also enjoyed these shows using TiVo’s Web Season Pass:

• Lindsey Campbell was arrested for civil disobedience following the Sean Bell verdict in New York and covered it all on MobLogic.tv (http://www.moblogic.tv/)
• The blockbuster season kicked off with reviews of “Iron Man” (awesome) and “Grand Theft Auto IV” (more awesome) from the guys on The Totally Rad Show (http://revision3.com/trs/shuttlecock/)
• No idea what to make for dinner tonight? Left with crazy ingredients in the cabinet that don’t go together? Sounds like a job for Stump the Chef (http://onnetworks.com/videos/stump-the-chef/)

Enjoy!

John