10 Items or Less: Third-Season Finale Tomorrow
February 23, 2009 by Chandra
You don’t hear many people talk about TBS’ small-scale production 10 Items or Less, but I hope I’m not the only comedy fan who enjoys the screwball supermarket sitcom. Nah, I can’t be since tomorrow night, the improv series is wrapping up its third season with the finale “Sesquicentennial.”
John Lehr & Company couldn’t have made it this far without a decent number of viewers tuning in each week. I personally never miss the show, and this season was pretty good with Living Single’s Kim Coles taking over wicked SuperValueMart manager duties from Jennifer Elise Cox (Amy Anderson during Seasons One and Two) while playing evil New York import Mercy “No Mercy” P. Jones. These women mean business, so good thing Leslie Pool and Greens & Grains are like cockroaches — nothing can destroy them.
New Scrubs, Nip/Tuck, and 10 Items Tonight
January 6, 2009 by Chandra
Comedy fans have a whole lotta options tonight because no less than three shows — two sitcoms and a dramedy — return with new episodes for a new year. Here’s a brief rundown, in broadcast order:
Scrubs
My Jerks/My Last Words
On the eighth-season and ABC premiere, NBC’s former long-running staple gets a new boss in the form of Friends and Dirt alumna Courteney Cox, who ends up not being as pretty as that famous face is. In addition to dealing with Sacred Heart’s latest chief of medicine, J.D. must also cope with the hospital’s screwiest group of interns ever, while Carla does her best to keep Elliott’s enormous sense of self-worth from ballooning too much.
Immediately afterwards on “My Last Words,” the Sacred Heart bunch begins to suspect Dr. Maddox’s (Cox) real nature, even as J.D. and Turk put their heads together to help out a dying patient. The big guest star, at least to me, is former A Different World cast member Glynn Turman. [9pm and 9:30pm, ABC]
December 30 Comedy TV on DVD: Basic Cable Rules
December 29, 2008 by Chandra
Tomorrow is a good day for fans of comedy series on basic cable: DVD sets for ABC Family’s Greek, FX’s Nip/Tuck, and TBS’ 10 Items or Less all hit retail outlets on December 30.
Well, 10 Items or Less was actually released last Saturday, December 27, but people can still get in on the special reduced prices most stores are offering to lure buyers.
Details about the boxed sets follow.
10 Items or Less — Seasons One and Two
Discs: 2
Episodes: 13
Languages: English, Closed Captioned
List Price: $29.95
Extras: A Look Behind-the-Scenes, Coffee Break Blooper Reel, Internet Viral Videos: Choking and Apology, Notes from the Casting Couch
‘10 Items or Less’ Preview - Season 3 Starts January 6
December 26, 2008 by Chandra
I can’t be the only fan of TBS’ often ridiculous, improvised grocery-store sitcom 10 Items or Less.
My fellow fans should know, then, that the comedy returns at 11pm EST on Tuesday, January 6, to give us a third season with eight episodes.
Currently, the lineup looks like:
January 6 — Turkey Bowling
January 13 — Sesquicentennial
January 20 — Star Trok
January 27 — Eye Can See Clearly…
February 3 — Whistle While You Work
February 10 — One Day at a Time
February 17 — The Milk Man
February 24 — Dancing With Groceries
10 Items or Less: 2.6 ‘Amy Strikes Back’ Recap
February 22, 2008 by Chandra
Original Air Date: February 19, 2008
At Greens & Grains, all of the employees stand around INGRID’s customer service station, watching a video on a laptop. The footage features retail rival AMY ANDERSON having sex with SuperValueMart’s District Regional Manager in her store’s employee break room. Apparently, a security guard with access to the video put it online, and now anyone and everyone can watch it whenever they want.
LESLIE comes over, wondering what his entire crew is doing standing around when they’re all on the clock. BUCK turns the laptop around so the boss can see what they’ve been ogling and laughing at. Even Leslie is surprised that Amy is still so limber this many years since she was last a varsity cheerleader. After chastising everyone for making fun of her, he starts noting how athletic she remains. He’s so into describing her triceps and whatnot, he doesn’t realize Amy has entered the store and is standing right behind him.
After Buck finally gets Leslie to turn around, the two bosses head to Leslie’s office. Crying and sad, Amy reveals that she was fired because she signed a contract with a morality clause when she was first hired. After she got the bad news, Amy realized Leslie is her only friend who actually likes her.
Since Leslie still has a crush on Amy, he lies to her that he has an open Assistant Manager position that she’s perfect for. Even better, since there’s no morality clause at Greens & Grains, she can have sex in the employee break room whenever and with whomever she wants. Not surprisingly, the staff doesn’t take the development too well when Leslie makes the announcement to the store.
10 Items or Less: 2.5 ‘The Bromance’ Recap
February 13, 2008 by Chandra
Original Air Date: February 12, 2008
LESLIE coins a new buzzword — “bromance” — when TODD, who recently won five cows from a mentally challenged player in a poker game, successfully pitches the idea of Greens & Grains selling fresh beef. Although Todd has reservations, Leslie is determined to march into the future with his take on the butcher’s idea, namely offering customers freshly slaughtered, “sushi” grade organic beef at the store.
Since he and Todd are now in a so-called business romance, Leslie combines the two words to create bromance, which is like a platonic friendship between guys, according to him. Leslie even applies the term to RICHARD and BUCK, who get into an argument over the white ice skates Richard intends to wear during his forthcoming audition for the part of Golum in the Lord of the Rings ice show. Buck and Leslie are convinced only women wear white ice skates, but Richard insists they match his costume, so big deal.
When Leslie and Todd attempt to slaughter a cow right in the Greens & Grains meat department, INGRID protests and informs them they can’t do that because the United States Department of Agriculture doesn’t allow that practice. Leslie decides he’ll meet with the USDA to get permission.
10 Items or Less: 2.4 ‘First Time’ Recap
February 9, 2008 by Chandra
Original Air Date: February 5, 2008
The opening vignette finds the staff gathered one morning in front of Leslie’s latest invention, the Customer Appreciation Corner, where customers can help themselves to free cups of coffee. The problem is that LESLIE just ordered the 45th case of French Vanilla Coffee Mate that week, and he wants to know where the heck all of the stuff is disappearing to.
The culprit turns out to be CARL, who drinks the coffee creamer straight (!), in addition to adding it to all sorts of alcoholic mixed beverages and food recipes. Leslie vows the staff must cure Carl’s unsettling addiction.
Later, Leslie comes over to INGRID’s customer service station and finds her working in a notebook on her “Virginity Goodbye Project.” At first, Ingrid is mortified she’s been caught, but she then states it’s time for her to talk about the issue like an adult. Now it’s Leslie’s turn to get flustered as Ingrid reveals that he’s at the top of her list of candidates to lose her virginity to.
After the two have a lengthy discussion in Leslie’s office about the vivid fantasies Ingrid has been having of losing her virginity to TODD the butcher, Leslie realizes the issue is a Human Resources problem, so he’ll overlook his ironclad rule not to have sexual relations with employees and honor her request to take her virginity. But, the big event will be a business process, which means they have to plan it beforehand to the very last detail. Ingrid suggests they just do it that night, and Leslie agrees after advising her not to wear green, a big turnoff for him.
10 Items or Less: 2.3 ‘To Heir Is Human’ Recap
January 30, 2008 by Chandra
Original Air Date: January 29, 2008
It’s the one-year anniversary of the death of Bud Pool, LESLIE’s father, and Leslie decides to hold a special remembrance ceremony at the Greens & Grains. After INGRID plays four “mournful tunes” on her accordion, Leslie gives a brief speech, noting how CARL, who’s sobbing nearby, was the first employee to arrive when his father passed out in the bread aisle they’re all standing in. For some unexplained reason, however, Carl, who didn’t know CPR, chose to restock the bread before getting help.
Leslie announces that he’s going to keep the urn with his father’s ashes in the bread aisle for a while, until he figures out where to spread them. He can’t very well spread them around the store when no one’s looking because there are big chunks representing bones that didn’t burn.
At about that moment, everyone attending suddenly realizes that an elderly customer named Mrs. Kerr has passed out on the floor. Although Leslie rushes to giver her CPR and vows no one else will die in that aisle, the next scene shows a red outline of the customer’s body, indicating that she did die. Leslie and Carl sit on the floor nearby, mourning and realizing they both share a common trait: neither has anything significant in their lives — such as friends, family, or hobbies — to keep them from getting depressed.
10 Items or Less: 2.2 ‘Forever Young’ Recap
January 24, 2008 by Chandra
Original Air Date: January 22, 2008
Oh no, Buck! The resident bagger arrives at work over an hour late, reeking of alcohol. When RICHARD ask what’s going on, BUCK reveals his buddies took him out the night before, and he drank five Kamikazes because they didn’t taste like they had liquor in them. Worse, on the dance floor, he hooked up with an older, very blonde woman. Richard tries to find out who the woman was, but Buck insists he wouldn’t be familiar with the woman since she was French and from out of town.
Well, who should walk in at that moment but retail rival AMY from SuperValueMart. She stands very, very close to Buck, almost in a daze, to say hello. Richard ain’t no dummy, and he figures out what’s going on in no time flat: the woman Buck hooked up with is none other than Amy. Yikes!
Amy has ventured over to see LESLIE about another shipment of sprouts that was sent to her store by “mistake.” It turns out that Leslie ships the food to the wrong address intentionally to provoke Amy, whom he’s had a crush on since high school, to come over.
Amy goes to Leslie’s office and soon both managers return, just as Richard is warning Buck that not only is sleeping with Amy like sleeping with Saddam Hussein since she’s trying to take Greens & Grains down, but he’d better not tell Leslie because of their boss’ longtime crush on her.
10 Items or Less: 2.1 ‘Dollar Day Afternoon’ Recap
January 19, 2008 by Chandra
Original Air Date: January 15, 2008
The second-season premiere of 10 Items or Less opens with LESLIE and CARL working on a Money Daze booth near the front of the store as retail rival AMY enters and declares that her panties are in a bunch. Apparently, there’s a big sign in her store SuperValueMart’s parking lot diverting customers to a free money giveaway at Greens & Grains, and she wants to know why.
Leslie explains that all of his top front teeth are fake, so when he was eating celery and peanut butter recently, one popped out. When he went to retrieve it from behind the piece of furniture where it fell, he found a stockpile of $5,000 in silver dollars that his father had horded. Now, Leslie’s going to give all the money away in a store promotion.
Leslie then offers Amy the opportunity to be the first to try out the new Money Daze machine by going inside for a minute and catching as much money as she can while an air mechanism blows the money around. Unfortunately, the heavy silver dollars don’t budge, so Amy starts scooping them up off the floor with her hands and shoes. When her minute finally winds down, however, Leslie can’t get the door to open, which causes Amy to drop all of the money in a panic. The door does eventually work again, and BUCK takes Amy away to calm down as Leslie tells Carl to lock the money in his office until he can go to the bank to exchange it for dollar bills that will fly.