Ugly Betty airs in the UK on Channel 4 tomorrow (Friday) at 9:30.

This show was my TV hightlight of last year and Icannot recommend it enough, so adorable and funny.

So please watch it to ensure they carry on showing it in a prime spot, so often the good US comedy’s get burried in the schedules over here.

I was already downloading the show every week just days after it being premered in the US and it only seems like yesterday! So it’s cool that it’s barely taken any time at all for a brand new show to begin on mainstream telly over here.  I can’t help wondering if the ease at which torrents of US shows can now be downloaded ahead of time is resulting in us finally not having to wait years for new imported shows.  Usually they will have to have been kicking around for a fair few seasons before a UK channel will show interest.

There seems to be wiffy hints of Ricky Gervais all over american TV these days.

There’s the US version of The Office of course but also british actresses he’s propelled to fame are now popping up all over.  Firstly Ashley Jensen from Extras’ who I love to bits has quite a major part in the awesome Ugly Betty.  But also Lucy Davis who played Dawn in the original version of the Office is also in Ugly Betty as some demented TV show host, plus she popped up in Studio 60 in a laughably small part.  This is troubling because I have an irrational dislike for Lucy Davis, there’s something about her that really grates, I think its because she has some kind of bizarre speech imparement, plus all that fake tan!

Scally-Wag, I’ve been watching some USA Pilots, lemmie see, i’ve look-see’d Studio 60, Smith, Jericho, Kidnapped, Happy Hour, Shark, Six Degrees, The Class, Brothers and Sisters, Heroes, Runaway, Help Me Help You and Ugly Betty.

Actually this is the second time I’ve written this because bizarrely my domain expired between visiting my blogs write post page and hitting the publish button. Even more bizarrely it’s only been a few hours since writing a sturn email to the hosting service and the domain coming back to life. Is that even possible.. the way dns’s work and all that. I smell a rat.

So back to the subject, i’ll probably write this in a quick-fire way actually because i hate rewriting stuff. Most of the shows could be categorised into 2 camps. They were either “terrible sitcom about some friends (I wonder what hole it’s trying to fill)” and “24 style running around going ‘bang! bang!’” The ones i’ll carry on watching (”downloading”) probably are…

Studio 60: A very lavish production about a TV network undergoing a bit of a managerial crisis. Oddly this fictitious network only seems to make one show and it’s some kind of tacky variety show. I found the pilot a bit slow and i kinda zoned out but the 2nd was good fun. It’s got some potential, especially in the TV network satirising dept.

Jericho: A disaster movie padded out to fill a whole season. A small remote town notice a mushroom cloud in the distance and all of a sudden their communications are knocked out, they daren’t travel so they do not know what has happened. Occasionally it’s quite a ride.

Help Me Help You: Sitcom with Ted Danson. Teds a therapist having a mid-life crisis. It’s a bit too twee but there is some witty dialogue and I did LOL a few times so that’s a good sign. This could go either way.

Runaway: Not sure why I liked this but I did, I was possibly in a good mood at the time because I can’t think of any actual good points looking back. A family relocate to escape some trouble the father is in. We do not yet know what has happened so I guess this is a mystery drama of sorts.

Ugly Betty: My favourite of this lot, this is a comedy about a girl who wants to work in the fashion magazine industry, problem is she has no style nor fashion sense (she’s also supposed to be ugly but she really isn’t). No self respecting fashion magazine would hire her, but a magazine tycoon hires her as an assistant for his son because he’s been fucking all the glamorous ones. The comedy is childish and extremely silly but I was in serious giggles! It’s also incredibly charming, especially the obviously gay young brother. I can’t see this lasting even a season so please watch it and keep it on the air, just for me. Please?  Oh, a little surprise too, the woman who play’s the best friend of Gervais’ character in Extra’s is in it.