Blog Posts by Tara Ariano

Those would be the seasons you might now refer to as "The Drake Years." If you want to watch the episode-closing freeze frames of characters looking relieved, aghast, aroused, despondent, terrified, mischievous, dubious...let me shorthand this and say that the full range of human emotion is played out in this supercut on a series of young Canadian actors' faces.

Every Degrassi Freeze Frame from Seasons 1 - 4 from Jeff Rubin on Vimeo.

[Buzzfeed]

Coming soon! (John Lamparski/WireImage.com; Noel Vasquez/Getty Images; Victor Chavez/WireImage.com)Actors have day jobs, but with an eye on a paycheck, a fun day's work, or an Outstanding Guest Actor Emmy, they moonlight in TV guest roles, too. Here are a few performers (and one non-performer) who will soon provide their Guest Services.

Actor: Chris Meloni
Day Job: Star, until recently, of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"; fake star of "The Vigilogna."
POSSIBLY Guest-Starring On: "True Blood"
POSSIBLE Role: An "incredibly powerful vampire"
Pros: Meloni doesn't get as many chances as he should to show off his comic chops. And "True Blood" is basically a comedy. (With porn.)
Cons: He should be above this nonsense.

Christmas comes early?With comic geniuses creating single-topic Tumblrs on what is probably a minute-by-minute basis, it can be difficult to know which ones are worth your time. We can't curate the entire platform for you, but we can bring to your attention the best television-themed sites in a feature we call TV Tumblr of the Week.

Site: The Results Are In!

TV Inspiration: "Maury"

Site Production Values: If we can all agree that the animated GIF is the internet's greatest native art form — and I think we can — then this site made up of GIFs from "Maury" episodes about disputed paternity is a masterpiece.

Oh, JODI. (Screen Shot)As I wrote Monday, this week marked the return of TLC's "What Not to Wear," with two episodes airing back to back last night, both featuring truly memorable moments.

In that first episode, we met Jodi (above, in what hosts Stacy London and Clinton Kelly described as her "Tron's Hooker" look). Jodi is a classic "WNTW" type: a middle-aged single mother who dresses in a way that's inappropriate for her age, and can't figure out why she hasn't met a nice man when she's been out in her pink track pants from the Juniors department. Oh — and she's also way too attached to her out-of-date, too-long hairstyle and will only allow stylist Ted Gibson to make a tiny change.

BriWi looks up at the thing pulling focus from him. (YouTube)Two questions about last night's fire drill at NBC's New York headquarters, 30 Rockefeller Plaza:

1. What genius scheduled a fire drill at 6:30 PM, exactly when Brian Williams anchors the live broadcast of the "NBC Nightly News"?

2. How long can said genius live on his or her savings now that he or she has almost certainly been fired for scheduling a fire drill at 6:30 PM, exactly when Brian Williams anchors the live broadcast of the "NBC Nightly News"?

Here, via The Daily What, is video of the broadcast opening.

Holy crow! Imagine the research that Vulture's Eliot Glazer and Sarah Frank had to do to create this montage of Millionaire Matchmaker Patti Stanger saying unbelievably rude things, because normally she's totally sweet and lovely! I mean, talk about finding a needle in a haystack, right? Just kidding, she's gross all the time. But this supercut is still pretty great. You'll hear such hits as "I love your boobs, but I hate your dress" and "I wouldn't sleep with you, and I wouldn't give you a b---j-- either"! Enjoy.

RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN (Screen Shot)Last night's season finale of A&E's "Hoarders" presented viewers with a nightmare scenario they might never have conceived on their own. That Extreme Hoarding Expert Matt Paxton was called to deal with a home in which an entire room was full of used adult diapers (and when I say "used," I mean they were USED, okay?) was not such a big deal: I would estimate that this occurs with about one in four hoarders profiled on the show. But in this case, things took an unusual turn.

I've always enjoyed Kristen Johnston, from her guest role in a very funny "New Adventures of Old Christine" to her supporting part as Drew Barrymore's character's sister in "Music and Lyrics." (What's this you say? She played a lead in "3rd Rock from the Sun"? I'm not familiar. OKAY, I am familiar, but if you haven't got anything nice to say, et cetera.) And my opinion of Johnston only SKYROCKETED this summer when a story came out about her getting into a scrap, on a plane, with Nadya "Octomom" Suleman over Suleman's inability to control her children on a cross-country flight. On last night's "Watch What Happens Live," Johnston took a viewer question about the incident, and though she downplays the whole flap, her physical impression of Suleman is pretty great.