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Showtime Picks Up AD, Sort Of

[Via Defamer](http://www.defamer.com/hollywood/arrested-development/still-more-on-the-fate-of-arrested-development-bateman-speaks-162346.php) comes a pointer to [this TWoP post](http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/index.php?s=eb1b6830bdb101f4f6ed6fb6151a57f0&showtopic=3115654&st=5040&p=4783218&#entry4783218) from Glark, which I will quote liberally:

I was coming out of my gym here in Toronto today and downstairs outside the Whole Foods market there’s a guy with his French pug talking dog talk with someone. Super cute dog so I go in for a little owner-authorized pet.

The owner? One Jason Bateman.

I introduced myself and we get talking about the site and the show.

Here are the things I remember (and he gave full blessing to post the info as he loves the site and you guys but he’s too shy and too cute to post on the boards):

– Mitch loves you guys and it was nice to see people getting the show and enjoying the show especially at times when network directives were “make the show 30% dumber”

– Showtime has picked up the show for 2 years at 12 episodes a year (maybe it was 13) with a third year option

– The ball is in Mitch’s court and Jason said Mitch will be making that decision within the next 24-48 hours though I don’t know if that means we’ll know about it at that time or not

I know we’ve been up and down this cancelation road a number of times over the last two years, and I can only hope that this will give us a frozen banana of closure.

(Ten cents gets you nuts.)

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Apple Nails The Sweet Spot

Ever since Apple launched the video portion of the iTunes Music Store, there had been conversations like this echoing around the land:

“Hey, wouldn’t it be awesome if The Daily Show or Colbert Report were on iTunes?”

“Well, yeah, but there’s no way I’m paying $1.99 for each episode. I mean, the episodes are funny for that day, and that’s it.”

Well, today, both The Daily Show and The Colbert Report appeared on iTunes – and the pricing is as follows:

One episode is $1.99.

A “multi-pass” of 16 episodes – and the way TDS and TCR run, that’s a month of episodes – is $9.99.

This is as close to perfect pricing as we’re going to see (outside of shouts of “everything for free!” and running around in circles on the floor). If there’s a single episode you missed that you really want to see, it’s the standard $1.99. But if you want to pledge your allegiance to the respective flag, you get a big price break, bringing it down to 62 cents an episode.

A month is a reasonably discrete chunk of time to allow you to enjoy the show yet not feel like you’re buying too much in advance. $9.99 remains cheaper than a movie ticket (at least in NYC), and you’re getting about six and a half hours of video enjoyment, commercial free, delivered nightly. (At this point it’s unknown how quick the turnaround will be between broadcast and download, but we can hope they’d be available for the morning commute.)

At this point I can’t see any quarrel with how they’re doing this, and I hope in the future there are mutli-pass options for more shows. Cheers to the iTunes Store team.

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Tallying The Oscars

Jon Stewart Self-Deprecation: 5
Brokeback Mountain Jokes: 5 (one by Ang Lee)
Death To Smoochy References: 1
Angelina Jolie Jokes: 1
Democrats/Liberal Jokes: 2
Jon Stewart Making Funny Noises: 2
Jon Stewart Yelling: 5
Jon Stewart Clapping Too Long: 3
Fashion Jokes: 2
Ass-Kissing Name Checks from Jon: 7
Jew Jokes: 2
Jokes about George Clooney: 5
Jokes by George Clooney: 3
Dick Cheney Jokes: 1
Needlessly Large Bow-Ties: 2
Scientology Jokes: 1
Australian Presenters: 4
Times An Award Winner Takes A Shot At The Presenter: 1
Needless Comedy Montages: 1
Needless Drama Montages: 5
Total Montages: 7
Montage Jokes: 1
Stephen Colbert Being Funnier Than Jon Stewart: 4
Stuffed Penguins: 4
Flaming Cars Used In Musical Acts: 1
Desperate Luddite Pleas For People To Keep Going To Theaters: 2
Teleprompter Jokes: 1
3-6 Mafia Jokes: 4
Number Of People Not Only Played Off By The Band, And Not Only Had Their Mics Cut, But Flat Out Ended The Program In A Dead Stop: 1
Minutes Overrun: 26
Quote of the night:

> “And finally, I would say that, you know, we are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood every once in a while. I think it’s probably a good thing. We’re the ones who talk about AIDS when it was just being whispered, and we talked about civil rights when it wasn’t really popular. And we, you know, we bring up subjects. This Academy, this group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters. I’m proud to be a part of this Academy. Proud to be part of this community, and proud to be out of touch.” – George Clooney