'Chuck' and 'Life' could get the ax

"Chuck" is one of Kristi's favorite shows (and I enjoy it, too).

"Life" is one of my favorite shows (and Kristi enjoys it, too).

Now the two shows could be dropped by NBC.

Television Without Pity offered these reasons for keeping the two shows on the air.

"Chuck"
In short, this show is clever, all-around fun, with a great cast, stellar writing and lots and lots of heart. And Chuck and Sarah may be the TV couple we most enjoy seeing almost hook up, but not quite. Save that for season five or six.

"Life"
Charlie Crews, the fruit-loving L.A. detective with a Zen attitude, has become one of our favorite TV cops ever in just under two years, thanks to Damian Lewis' deceptively placid, quirky charisma. This season, the weekly cases got more creative, the supporting cast got stronger (partly due to the addition of Donal Logue and Gabrielle Union) and the underlying conspiracy plot got twistier.

And let's face it -- Sarah Shahi on "Life" and Yvonne Strahovski on "Chuck" are HOT.

See the rest of the Television Without Pity list via the Yahoo! TV blog here.

'Little Toy Gun' by Honeyhoney on NBC's 'Life'

I love NBC's "Life," and tonight's episode featured the song "Little Toy Gun" by Honeyhoney, which I first heard on a Paste magazine sampler CD. Here's a clip and a link to purchase the download.

The evening news with WMBF, Myrtle Beach's first NBC affiliate

Danner Evans is the right woman for the anchor seat in the WMBF local news operation: she's crisp, quick, charming and attractive.

WMBF is the new -- and the first -- NBC affiliate in the Myrtle Beach-Florence market. Friday (August 8) was the local news operation's first day on the air.

But even with Evans' solid handling of the co-anchor position with Michael Maely, the WMBF 11 o'clock news on Friday evening(running late due to the NBC coverage of Olympic opening ceremonies in Beijing) brought these questions to mind:

1. The segment with the Internet reporter is a smart idea, but will the camera get close enough to the screen, or will the screen become big enough, so that the viewers can see what is on the displayed Web sites? CNN has an Internet reporter who does the same thing, and it can be an effective and useful segment, but the CNN screen is larger, and the viewers can see what is on the Web sites.

2. Tonight's opening report, regarding the Olympics, was broadcast live from a local sports bar. The report had only one bar patron talking on camera; the rest of the report was a voice-over of the reporter talking while the viewers watched mundane shots of the people sitting around inside the bar. Will WMBF generally avoid mundane footage?

3. Was everyone a bit nervous tonight? The introduction to a segment on counterfeit bills was awkward and repetitive. Another segment about air quality in Beijing included a fumble with graphics and video. That's all understandable. After months of build-up, the big day was here, and the folks in the newsroom knew they were riding the NBC legacy. It was truly a big day. Brian Williams, reporting from Beijing, gave a shout out to the new WMBF during NBC's Nightly News.

All that being said, hats off to Justin Felder for two good stories about local Olympic athletes -- crisp reports with charm.

And, WMBF's graphics, color schemes, and set are appealing and engaging.

Only good can result from another news operation in the area.

The new NBC affiliate will make WPDE and WBTW work even harder -- and that's important when broadcast journalism's usual crib sheet, the daily newspaper, in this case The Sun News, has gone through a recent round of counterintuitive layoffs and belt-tightening.

Maybe the cuts were not so counterintuitive. Maybe locals just prefer TV news (the short version with bright, spiffy graphics) to newspapers (the in-depth, and best-reported, version), but Horry County, the so-called Independent Republic, needs all the public accountability it can get.

Even if every report ends with the reporter saying "live, local, and late-breaking." Which brings me to:

4. Will WMBF really end each and every report with "live, local, and late-breaking"? Really? I mean, time is everything on television, right?

#

Newcomers to the area might not understand the significance of a local NBC affiliate. Since I moved to Myrtle Beach in 1996, I have had both the Columbia, S.C., and the Wilmington, N.C., affiliates available on my local TimeWarner cable box. Meanwhile, WBTW 13 (CBS) and WPDE 15 (ABC) both have been covering the Myrtle Beach-Florence market for several years now.

#

Late update: Conan O'Brien just did a shout-out to the new WMBF on his Late Night with Conan O'Brien show.

-Colin Foote Burch

NBC's 'Life'

Here's what L.A. Times TV critic Mary McNamara said about NBC's 'Life':

NBC's new show about Charlie Crews, a cop sprung after 12 years in the pen for a frame job, is the best new show of the season. Balancing Zen and vengeful rage, Crews (Damian Lewis) is the most interesting quirky cop since Columbo.

I couldn't say it better and briefer than McNamara, but I'll add a paragraph of my own:

I'm drawn to this show because Damian Lewis does a thoroughly convincing job of portraying a peculiar character who (1) genuinely appreciates every little thing in life following his time in prison, and (2) seeks a religio-philosophical path to balance a barely visible but driving anger.



Ratings haven't been great, but there's good news.

"The action-fantasy 'Chuck' and the crime drama 'Life' have both received full-season orders, despite less-than-stellar ratings," reported the Contra Costa Times.

Give the ratings a bump. Catch up at NBC.com/Life and then tune in when the holidays -- and hopefully the writers' strike -- are over.