The Eighth Annual Scooter Television Awards

Welcome to the 8th Annual Scooter Television Awards honoring show that aired a majority of their season between July2011 and June 2012. Without further ado, here are the winners of the 2012 STA's:

Best Scripted Show: Homeland

Best Sitcom: Suburgatory

Best Basic Cable Show: Justified

Best Reality Show: Survivor: One World

Best Animated Show: Beavis & Butthead

Best Talk Show: Pardon the Interruption

Best Talent Competition: The Sing-Off

Best New Show: Homeland

Best Mini-Series Hatfields and Mccoys

Guiltiest Guilty Pleasure: Pretty Little Liars

Best Awards Show: 2012 Grammy Awards

Best Hour of TV: Pilot - Homeland

Best Half Hour of TV: Werewolves of Highland / Crying – Beavis and Butt-Head

Biggest Shocker: Brody was working with Abu Nazir all along (Homeland)

Worst Idea: Bringing back The Killing for a second season

Worst Moment: Daniel not turning out to be the dead body on the beach (Revenge)

Best New Title Sequence: The Lying Game



Best Song Placement: It Was a Good Day – Ice Cube (Happy Endings)

Best Karaoke: Take On Me – Jeffster (Chuck)

Best Singing Competition Performance: Say Aah – Lindsey Pavao (The Voice)

Best Dance Sequence: Megan Draper’s Zoo Be Zoo Dance (Mad Men)

Best Promo: The Lying Game - Rumour Has It



Hottest Token Hot Chick:







Best Character: Raylan Givins (Justified)

Best New Character: Dalia Royce (Suburgatory)

Best Recurring Character: Neal McDonough (Justified)

Best Guest Appearance: Carla Gugino as Karen Sisco Goodall (Justified)

Best Duo: Rumpelstiltskin / Mr. Gold and Regina Mills (Once Upon a Time)

Most Entertaining Reality “Star”: Kat Edorsson (Survivor: One World)

Most Annoying Reality “Star”: Colton Cumbie (Survivor: One World)

Best Quote: “You know what they say: getting old ain’t for pussies.” (Raylan, Justified)

Show That Should Be Brought Back: The Sing-Off

Most Anticipated New Show of Next Season: Masters of Sex (Showtime)

Biggest Question for 2011-2012: What does the purple mist mean for Storybrooke on Once Upon a Time

Best of the Week - 2/4/12

Quote of the Week: I’ll even watch one of those artsy foreign ones you like where all they do are stare at windows. (Hanna, Pretty Little Liars)

Song of the Week: Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to Be a Long Long Time) – Elton John (The Big Bang Theory)

The Very Last Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week: (at least until she is cast in the next inevitable ill-fated Charlie’s Angels reboot)



Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: NBC Goes Pilot Shopping: We still have to wait about four month until we learn what new shows will be hitting the small screen next fall, but a bunch of shows have just gotten the green light to film a pilot. NBC has gotten out of the gate with three new shows including the Munsters reboot from Brian Fuller (who created three of the finest shows ever: Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls Pushing Daisies) and director Brian Singer (X-Men) but now has a new name: Mockingbird Lane. And with a 2 million dollar penalty, it is a good bet that Revolution about a world without energy from J.J. Abrams will be making it to air. Though the last time NBC bid that high from the master of high concept / low rewards, which did not turn out well (see Undercovers, or do not, it sucked massively). In other shows you could not pay me to watch news, NBC also gave a thumbs up to a Ryan Murphy sitcom The New Normal about a gay couple and their surrogate.

Free Download of the Week: These Days (Music Video) - Foo Fighters (iTunes)

Deal of the Week: 100 Albums for $5: Amazon MP3 has released a new batch of $5 album including ones from Blind Melon, Norah Jones, Keith Sweat and Madi Diaz.



New Album Release of the Week: A Different Kind of Truth - Van Halen

New DVD Release of the Week: Throw Momma From the Train [Blu-ray]

Video of the Week: Some football game got the coveted pre-The Voice premiere slot this year and I was not entirely sure I was going to watch this season until I saw Cee Lo Green’s bedazzled leather jacket. Considered me sold. Bonus points for wrangling Lionel Fracking Richie in as a mentor. And to tide you over until tomorrow, here is some white chick singing a smoky rendition of Trey Songz’ Say Aah for her blind audition.



Next Week Pick of the Week: The River: Tuesday at 9:00 on ABC: Considering last weekend I watched Paranormal Activity 3, a television show hyping the writer / director of the original film is not a big plus in my book right now. It became clear to me while watching the third installment that all the films could be fast forwarded during the first hour because nothing interesting happens until the last twenty minutes. In Oren Peli’s defense, the first one was the best and originally done and he did everything in the film, write, direct, cinematography, editing, and only wrote the second and nothing with the third, but has signed on to write the fourth (if we are stuck watching “found” reel to reel movies of grandma, I’m out on the franchise). Hopefully his new television show has a bit more action in the first two acts than his movies did because the ads do have me curious. Plus he has brought along the hot chick from the first movie in a recurring role. She might be able to get me through the boring parts.

You're Not the Person You Were, You Are so Much More

Knowing this was their last season, you have to wonder if the writers of Chuck were trying to cram two to three seasons’ worth of storyline into their final season. We started off with the evil CIA dude but he was randomly killed off by the chick from The Matrix. He was replaced by the chick from X-Men, but only one episode who revealed the big conspiracy was to release Superman from prison. Except he only lasted an episode but introduced us to Sarah’s former handler who also only lasted one episode. All this lead up to a final show down with… a Horatio Sanz lookalike? Seriously?



Despite a shaky lead up this season (and lets be honest, they show has been rocky for the last three seasons), it put together a pretty entertaining series finale even if I could care less about Horatio Sanz. The final two hours featured countless throwbacks from Chuck and Sarah’s first date (unfortunately they did not recreate that dance sequence, one of the greatest scenes ever in the history of television), Wienerlicious (why they ever dumped that costume is beyond me, Orange Orange was lame), Fernando getting his first lines as part of the Pervert Squad, Sarah breaking into the Intercect room was almost a shot for shot recreation of Bryce Larson breaking out of the Intercect from the series premiere (yes, I went back and rewatched the Pilot this weekend), Subway, the porn virus (of course Sarah remembered that, that plot devise was beyond obvious I knew it was the solution as soon as they uncovered the bomb), naturally the beach scene, and of course one word: Jeffster. The series finale was so well crafted for fans of the show it’s amazing how so many series screw up their finales. The only way the Chuck series finale could have been any better is if they had one final showdown with a Big Bad anyone actually cared about (it makes you wonder if they were banking on either getting the evil CIA dude or Superman for more episodes but had to scramble when they could not).



At its best Chuck mixed action, comedy and nerd culture better than anyone else. It all culminated with the finale two episodes of season two where the Bartowski clan reunited for Ellie’s wedding complete with an epic showdown with Pierce Hawthorne against Sarah, Chuck, Bryce Larson and a parachuting in Casey. And who would have guessed it would have Sam Kinison and a lesbian Indian that would save the day with a gem from the eighties?



Oh Jeffster, how have you rocked us, and now you are off to rock Germany much like David Hassellhoff before you. Aside from the epic performance of Mr. Roboto, you gave us thrilling renditions of Africa, Blaze of Glory, encouraged Ellie to Push It during her pregnancy, slowed it down for Leaving On a Jet Plane and Is This Love, and ended out the series with one last performance of Take On Me. It is a shame as the series progressed, the less they used the Buymorons especially seeing what could have been happening all along had they let Jeffster in on the spying earlier than the last two weeks because the duo coming to the rescue twice were comic gold with Jeff’s flame throwing and Lester’s high notes.



But Chuck would be nothing without his two handlers. Adam Baldwin can do more acting with grunts than most actors have in their entire repertoire. Then there was Sarah, the single hottest token hot chick ever in the history of television (with apologies to Daisy Dukes who held the title for two decades). Sarah even took the Token Hot Chick to a whole new level and would ruthlessly kick your behind if you looked at hers the wrong way. Oh, and that Weinerlicious uniform and the editors insistence of gratuitous use of slow motion. And for a guy who was a nerd that dropped out of college, living with his sister, working a dead end job, Chuck amassed the single greatest list of girlfriends ever in the history recorded film. Seriously, name a character that had a greater foursome than Rachel Bilson, Jordana Brewster, Kristin Kreuk, and Yvonne Strahovski.

Even at its worse (where it was the last couple season or whenever Morgan was on screen) Chuck still remained at the very least entertaining and always knew the right pop culture reference to put into the dialogue. And if all else failed, they could still be able to get the Token Hot Chick into the most tasteful small clothing they could find. You will be missed. Except for Morgan, they should had left him in Hawaii after the first season.

Chuck 5.x gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Chuck: The Complete Series gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

Best of the Week - 1/28/12

Quote of the Week: The weird thing about this is that I am scrapping honey off of no-no special places of my partner that I haven’t spoken to in over a year… and, oh yeah, she hates me. (Dumbar, The Challenge: Battle of the Exes)

Song of the Week: Take On Me - a-ha (as performed by Jeffster backed by an orchestra, Chuck)

Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week:



Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: Newt Back From the Dead… Again: Going into South Carolina it looked like Mitt Romney was going to win the first three primaries for the first time in modern history for a non incumbent. Then Iowa finally got around to counting their ballots and realize Rick Santorum actually won their state and then the Evangelicals of SC realized they would rather vote for thrice married Catholic than a Mormon. But if there is a silver lining for Romney is Republicans are starting to remember why they hated Newt in the first place so he may just wrap up the nomination by Super Tuesday anyway.

Free Download of the Week: Gimme a Kiss - Madi Diaz (RollingStone.com): If that is not enough free music from Madi Diaz, you can also grab her Let’s Go for the low, low price of free.

New Album Release of the Week: Born to Die - Lana Del Rey

New DVD Release of the Week: Drive

Video of the Week: The premiere of The Voice is just one week away and last year’s breakout singer Dia Frampton recently went out on tour with her coach Blake Shelton and has been doing some side gigs along the road like recently in Nashville where she streamed her entire set on Livestream. Check it out in its entirety below:

Watch live streaming video from exitin at livestream.com

Next Week Pick of the Week: The Challenge: Battle of the Exes, Wednesday at 10:00 on MTV: Where Survivor pulls out tricks no one wants to see like Redemption Island and Immunity Idols, last season The Challenge cam up with its best idea ever: pair up people who hate each other for Rivals. I did not think it could get much better than that until they announced their new season: Battle of The Exes forcing past hook ups to team up with each other. Brilliant. It always seems like I miss the first couple episodes of The Challenge because it is the only thing I still watch on MTV (until the triumphant return of Beavis and Butt-Head), but there was no way I was missing the new season and it totally lived up to expectation. I do not know why Survivor does not throw money at the people who create challenges for The Challenge but they should because the Honey challenge was more creative than any challenge on South Pacific.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 1/22/12

Once Upon a Time: One thin g this show has going for it that Lost did not is that it can bring in interesting characters for flash back episodes so we will not be stuck with a an episode dedicated to Jack’s tattoos or Locke at a commune that no one was looking forward to.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Once Upon a Time.

Leverage: It is off that everyone made a huge deal out of Nate not actually killing anyone but did not seem to mind that he put two guys in a position where they were guaranteed to kill each other. But it is always entertaining when they bring in Chaos to jaw with Hardison and I loved how they did the cartoon skeleton when Parker’s dad shocked him.
You can stream recent episodes on TNT.tv. You can also download Leverage on iTunes.

Shameless: It is weird how seamless the new Mandy is. I guess after half a season of Suburgatory I cannot even picture Tessa as anything else but an Emma Stone clone, let alone a goth chick that she was on Shameless last season. And I knew I should have taken the under on how many episode it would take Karen to have sex despite being in sex anonymous.

House of Lies: Slightly more entertaining than the previous episode thanks to the one dude trying to pick up the chick at the airport, but a lot of the flaws from the pilot remained. And are we really going to see Don Cheadle have angry sex with his ex-wife at the start of every episode?

Pretty Little Liars: So Lucas was not at the greenhouse, he was really shifty last episode because he gambled away Caleb’s money. What? Is this was the next couple episodes are going to be: the Liars think someone is an A helper only for it to be a red herring? Ugg, this may be a long season.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

The Lying Game: I was shocked when Sutton showed up last episode (I would have guessed by the end of the season) and even more surprised when she took over her life. So if I am playing this right, Sutton now has to play Emma playing Sutton for the person who is blackmailing her / them. But the big question for the episode is where does Emma go from here?
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Lying Game on iTunes.

Castle: A mayor is connected to a death of a young woman in his campaign car… where have I heard this one before? At least we found out who killed her. Oh, wait, never mind.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

Switched at Birth: If you are going to have a show with subtitles, how about not put up banners that covers the subtitles? Should that not be a no brainer?
You can stream the show on Hulu. You can also download Switched At Birth on iTunes.

Justified: With Raylan battling hillbilly families, the Bennetts and Crowders, the first two seasons, it is going to be weird seeing him go up against a big city slicker as a main antagonist. It may be more interesting watching Boyd this season. I did not realize why he would attack a federal marshal in his office space (best line: You wouldn’t like Mexico… it’s full of Mexicans) until that last scene with Dickie and Dewey. I would not mind a season of the three blind mice in prison.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Justified on iTunes.

Parenthood: It is about time something went Haddie’s way, she always seems to get the short end of the stick in the family. She even had a great line, something to the effect that she understands but she does not have to be happy about it. But she should not have been too upset, seriously, if you are from Southern California and smart enough to get into an Ivy League school, just go to Stanford instead, because school in the Northeast sucks massively. And I bet she will end up at Berkley by the end of next season anyway.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Parenthood on iTunes.

Suburgatory: Just when you think Dalia could not get any scarier, she actually makes dancing look scary.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Suburgatory on iTunes.

Revenge: So Emily had the lawyer in her back pocket the whole time, did not really see that coming. I am just wondering how she can keep up appearances sleeping a with a guy who is convinced that her father raped his mother? Seriously, when did this show stop becoming a guilty pleasure and become just pleasurable?
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Revenge on iTunes.

The Big Bang Theory: What the frack just happened? Did the editor seriously screw things up or was this a dream sequence? I was just lost with the flashback to earlier in the episode.
You can stream recent episodes over at cbs.com. You can also download The Big Bang Theory on iTunes.

Chuck: One of the big drags on the show in recent seasons was they just did not seem to know what to do at the Buy More and its storylines kept shrinking and shrinking. At least they closed out the series with one last great Buy More plot with Jeffster saving the day with Casey’s massive stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Chuck on iTunes.

Best of the Week - 1/21/12

Quote of the Week: Live long and suck it Zachary Quinto. (Sheldon, The Big Bang Theory)

Song of the Week: Rock Lobster – The B52’s (Suburgatory)

Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week:



Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: The Republican Field Keeps Shrinking: The slow march to Mitt Romney vs. Barack Obama (hopefully America Elect nominates someone worth voting for) picked up a little this week when the Republican candidates shrunk by two this week. First Jon Huntsman who seemed too smart for the Republican electorate dropped out. The other shoe dropped with Rick Perry who possibly withdrew for the second time. Perry was supposed to be the anti-Bush Texas governor but managed to perform worse at debates than W. But the big new of the week had to do with the high number of drop outs just short of tomorrow’s South Carolina primary, the spotlight was back on Newt Gingrich’s many marriages with wife number two claiming that Newt asked her if they could have an open marriage so he could hook up with eventual wife number three. On the bright side, this wife was not going through chemotherapy when he asked. So tomorrow we get to see if evangelicals would rather get behind a Mormon or a Christian who actually tried to get his wife to sign off on polygamy.

Free Download of the Week: Hurry Hurry - Jessie Baylin (Amazon MP3)

Deal of the Week: Over 1,000 Albums $5 Each: With over a 1000 album for sale for just $5 there are a lot of hidden gems, here are a couple from my list of The 100 Greatest Songs of the 00’s including Michele Branch, John Mayer, The Killers and Kanye West.



New Album Release of the Week: The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy - Nada Surf

New DVD Release of the Week: Kojak: The Complete Movie Collection

Video of the Week: House of Lies premiered to a resounding yawn a couple weeks ago and tomorrow’s episode should make any fan of Kristen Bell’s feet happy. Until then the two guys on the show not named Bell or Don Cheadle are starring in webisodes for the show entitled Friday’s at Gallweather, one of which even features Bell, with shoes on, in a cameo.



Next Week Pick of the Week: Chuck, Friday at 8:00 on NBC: An end of an era comes Friday when the hottest token hot chick ever in the history of television will presumably be donning her last skimpy outfit on the small screen. Sure the show itself has not been great since the second season and arguably has not even been good for the last couple seasons, but hopefully Chuck will go out on a high note, preferably by finally killing Morgan off, something they should have done a long, long time ago.

57 Channels and Only This Is On - 1/14/12

Once Upon a Time: How dressing is it that the kid actually think his mother is some evil queen capable of killing a dude. Sure it turns out that he is right, but you would think he may start living back in the real world after the sheriff’s death.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Once Upon a Time.

Leverage: Usually I rail against promo monkeys and their spoilery ways, but I am actually glad they actually told us who that was behind the bars because I had no clue who the guy was in the final shot.
You can stream recent episodes on TNT.tv. You can also download Leverage on iTunes.

Shameless: The Chicago cold was such a character of the first season it is weird seeing the cast walking around in summer clothes. Well, Fiona is still wear the same amount of clothing, little to none.

Pan Am: In other promo monkey news, thanks for letting us know next week Christina Ricci will be making out with the hot chick from those horrible vampire movies.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pan Am on iTunes.

Pretty Little Liars: Lucas as A’s lackey helps my theory that he, Mona and Jenna actually comprise as A and a wet Mona and an arguing Jenna also bolsters that theory. Of course with all that smoke I am beginning to think they are all just red herrings (which brings me back to my original theory that Allison really is not dead). But the biggest question now is how did Lucas get from the door to the middle of the lake in the time Emily talked to Spencer? Does he have an evil twin? Or was it just horrible writing? I will assume that latter until proved otherwise.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Pretty Little Liars on iTunes.

The Lying Game: That was a great ending. Just as the credits ends with everyone eulogizing Sutton while I role my eyes (anyone who watches television knows no one is ever dead until you see the body, and even then there are exceptions) Sutton shows up at the door a second before the episode ends.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download The Lying Game on iTunes.

Castle: I do not understand how Ryan was so calm about learning his future wife was in a conquest book by some sleazy dude. I do not care about exclusivity; she had a one night stand with someone who is probably a hotel for VD. I would call off a wedding for less.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Castle on iTunes.

Switched at Birth: Whenever they go into silent mood whenever Emmitt is talking is always jarring but effective, but the silent mode when the cops showed up was really striking.
You can stream the show on Hulu. You can also download Switched At Birth on iTunes.

Suburgatory: I did not think Dalia could get any scarier, then I saw the 3-D laser rendering of her inside a paperweight.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Suburgatory on iTunes.

Modern Family: Funniest sight gag of the week was Hayley sticking an egg in Luke’s mouth after theorizing that the egg could survivor a story drop inside his mouth.
You can stream recent episodes on Hulu.



Happy Endings: It is nice to know I am not the only person who goes around copying The Wire without actually ever seeing an episode.
You can stream the show on Hulu. YYou can also download Happy Endings on iTunes.

Revenge: I have had the inkling since the beginning (the timeline set up very well), but actually hearing someone suggest that Charlotte may actually be Amanda/Emily’s half-sister was pretty jaw dropping (mostly because I had forgotten of this theory a long time ago). And it was nice to finally see Emily go back to destroying people’s lives. But I wonder if we will be getting the first scene of the series earlier than the season finale like I have always expected. By my count there are still ten episodes left and are they really going to string out Emily and Daniel’s inevitable engagement out that long?
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Revenge on iTunes.

Chuck: Isn’t Bo Derek a little before Morgan and Chuck’s time? Wouldn’t Kathy Ireland or Elle Macpherson been more age appropriate for the boys? But anyway. Is it a shame the writers did not have the foresight to make the Memento notes a season long gag.
You can stream current episodes on Hulu. You can also download Chuck on iTunes.

Best of the Week - 1/13/12

Quote of the Week: Let’s go steal us a time machine. (Parker, Leverage)

Song of the Week: If You Leave Me Now – Chicago (as sung by Cameron, Modern Family)

Gratuitous Token Hot Chick Picture of the Week:



Scene of the Week:



Big News of the Week: Frank Darabont Coming Back to Television: You would think after he was treated over at AMC with The Walking Dead, you would think it would be a while before Frank Darabont would get back into the television business. But TNT just announced that they ordered a pilot for L.A. Noir (based on John Buntin’s book not the video game) where Darabont will serve as the executive producer as well as write and direct the pilot.

The network is also getting into the reality competition game with The Great Escape from the guys behind The Amazing Race along with Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. The show will feature three pairs of players as they try escaping from exotic locations such as a seven story castle, a deserted island, a sinking ship or a maximum security prison. Rich Eisen is set to host and will hit the network this summer. While over on TNT’s sister station TBS has ordered ten episodes of Men at Work starring Danny Masterson (That ‘70s Show), James Lesure (Las Vegas), Michael Cassidy (The O.C.) and Adam Busch (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), who my sources tell me will not be wearing woman’s clothes as part as their job.

Free Download of the Week: Pennies On the Floor – Little Willies (iTunes): If you are not familiar with The Little Willies, it is Norah Jones’s country band.

Deal of the Week: Over 1,000 Albums $5 Each: With over 1000 albums for $5, here are a couple Greatest Hits that you could find while sorting through all of them including the Steve Miller Band, Otis Redding, Run-DMC, and Roxette.



New Album Release of the Week: Voyageur - Kathleen Edwards

New DVD Release of the Week: The Ides of March

Video of the Week: House of Lies is not the only new show Kristen Bell is lending her talents to, Unsupervised is FX’s latest animated series following two 15 year old boys who find themselves without parental guidance. Unsupervised airs Thursdays at 10:30. Check out a promo below:



Next Week Pick of the Week: Justified, Tuesday at 10:00 on FX: In its first two seasons, Justified was kept out of the top slot of my Best Television Shows of the Year by Friday Night Lights and with FNL retiring its jersey last year, Justified is primed to take the Best Show on Television tag. Though with the entire Bennett clan either dead or in jail, it will be hard for the show to find better replacements to be antagonists for Raylan. But the addition of Carla Gugino as Raylan’s boss’s boss will make things interesting especially with Raylan’s high body count that follows him.