Around The Dial: Archer gets good ratings, Gervais excels with the Globes and JLH has bedazzled junk

Back in the day, there was this show called Frisky Dingo. And by "back in the day," what I really mean is January 2009, when it and a spin-off show, The Xtacles, was formally canceled. Anyway, it was a wacky show that featured the evil villain Killface, who resembled a white-skinned standing crocodile, battling Xander Crews, a buffoonish billionaire with the alter-ego of... Awesome X!

Like most of the shows on Adult Swim, it was pretty wacky and funny. I considered it like a more over-the-top version of The Venture Bros., since both shows loved to lampoon the conventions of their genre. Dingo was by the same guys who did Sealab 2021, one of the four original shows on Adult Swim, and it features the same deadpan humor.

This brings me to present day, and the show Archer, which is done by the same guys. Actually, in many ways, it seems like a clone of Frisky Dingo. The main difference is the theme - It merely transposes Xander Crews from a superhero to Archer, a secret agent in an incompetent bureaucracy. Only two episodes have aired so far on FX - it is currently in the time slot of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - but they have shown incredible promise. I'm hoping the show has a good future, and the first articles out about it have noted that it has done surprisingly well in the ratings.

In other television news...

- I watched the Golden Globes last night, and I wasn't really that impressed, outside of all the older celebrities who are still foxy as all heck. I did think that Ricky Gervais did an incredible job hosting, and some of his jokes were just savage. He got in the obligatory shots at NBC and Jay Leno, but his best burn was definitely on Mel Gibson, making a reference to his drunken driving arrest right before he presented an award.

The other amusing part of the broadcast was how drunk some celebrities clearly were. I'm referring mostly to Maggie Gyllenhaal, who looked so drunk-red that it seemed like she was wearing a clown nose, and Felicity Huffman, who repeatedly stumbled over simple teleprompter lines. Also, I was really glad that Glee managed to take home an award, and the cast looked great, too. And as Billy Crystal would say, if you look great, then you must feel great.

- Jennifer Love Hewitt apparently has been into "vajazzeling" her vagine. I don't really think it adds anything to her, but hey, I'm still a fan. She was one of my earliest crushes, along with Melissa Joan Hart.

The Frisky Dingo picture at the top is from this blog. Jen is from this site.