My life is now complete

In the All TV e-mailbox this morning, I got a message with the subject line "Come and knock on my door," which was full of praise for Matt and me, and which was signed by Richard Kline -- aka Larry Dallas, sleazy/wacky neighbor supreme on "Three's Company." Between this and the angry e-mail Tom Arnold sent Matt a while back, I'm pretty happy with our celebrity readership.

I've written so much here about the leads on "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Office" being the least funny characters on each show that I figured I ought to get a column out of it, so here it is.

Liked the "Grey's Anatomy" Thanksgiving episode a lot. Sometimes I think the show is too in love with its own sense of humor -- the twinkling string music over any scene that's even halfway amusing can get tiresome -- but this was a funny hour, mixed in with a strong poignant story about the rebirth and death of coma guy. One question: "My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance" is gay? Yet another reason that girl's parents should have hated him.

"Curb Your Enthusiasm" was awful, again. Much as I love to see Larry try to Jew it up, this one was so dumb and phony and contrived that I was surprised Richard Kline didn't pop into the chalet halfway through the episode to invite Larry to cruise for chicks at the Regal Begal. Good to see that Stuart Pankin has trimmed down, but I couldn't believe that any person in this episode would do or say anything that they were doing and saying. Even when "Curb" is wacky, there's an internal logic to it that wasn't anywhere to be found here -- except in the scene where the doctor busts Larry on his reason for lingering over Louis Lewis' bed, and Larry congratulates him for the deduction.

Back to "How I Met Your Mother," this was a solid one, though once again the non-Ted portions were much better than the Ted portions. Marian and I have about the same height differential as Lily and Marshall, and as Lily gawked at the turkey, Marian admitted that when we were seriously dating, some friends suggested that she might consider how big a baby of mine would feel inside her belly. (Sure enough, Julia had a ginormous head and didn't want to come out for weeks.) Oh, and that ending? If the stripper really was the kids' mom, I think I would be a lot more interested in Ted's story. But that's just me.

I'll be back tomorrow with thoughts on "Prison Break" and most of the Tuesday shows. Maybe my inbox today will have a message from Pat Harrington...