Sometimes this country really frustrates me.

I’m not talking about Occupy Wall Street protests, the Tea Party, the super committee or President Obama, but rather television viewers.

Last week, NBC announced they were suspending the show “Community,” which seems like the entertainment industry way of saying your dog isn’t dead, it just went upstate to live at a nice farm.  It’s also the latest Show With a Small, Passionate Fan Base and Critical Acclaim That Nobody Watches.  And that’s really a shame.

I love that show.  It’s a comedy, but doesn’t have the normal trappings of the genre.  They change formats and do crazy things, like turning entire episodes into a paintball war or a claymation Christmas story.  One episode this season went in more of a quantum mechanics/choose your own adventure style, showing how a roll of a dice could unleash seven different possible ways for the same setup to play out.

It’s a show that takes chances and tells stories in a different way, eschewing the more simplified, safe episodes that kept “Friends” and “Everybody Loves Raymond” on the air for so long.  The result is that some people don’t get it or won’t take their own chance to give it a shot.  Sure, sometimes the show’s style leaves even me wondering what’s going on, but I love that even more.  Where so many “Friends” episodes are indistinguishable from one another, most of the “Community” offerings are distinct.

We’ve seen this scenario play out too many times before.  Gone are shows like “Arrested Development” and “Freaks & Geeks,” while networks stick with shows I find inconceivable anyone would enjoy watching.  We’ll lose “Community” but NBC will continue airing “Whitney” and “Chuck.”  Don’t get me started on the Kardashians or Real Housewives. (Yes, I remember that I watch “Jersey Shore,” but I’d gladly trade it for “Community.”)

I understand that television is a business and you need ratings to make money.  So why not try something like switching time slots before axing the show?  NBC recognized “Whitney” sucks on Thursdays after “The Office” and moved it to Wednesday.  Why not push “Community” from 8 p.m. to 9:30 and see how it goes?  Right now it’s up against “The Big Bang Theory” on CBS, a show that likely grabs some of the same demographics (including me).  I guess the easier answer for them is trying something “new” and adding a Chelsea Handler show to their schedule instead.

In September, Wired magazine ran a feature on Dan Harmon, the show’s creator.  It’s a fascinating look into his process and his path to coming up with the show.  It’s definitely worth your time if you find delving into the creative process of others as interesting as I do.

Here’s to hoping NBC changes its mind.

[Note: According to additional research, it appears “Chuck” is ending in January.]

Let’s just get it out there — I love “Jersey Shore.”

There. I said it. Judge if you must, but hear me out.

For those who don’t know, “Jersey Shore” is a reality show on MTV that follows eight 20-somethings as they spend a summer living it up at, you guessed it, the Jersey Shore. Actually one of the seasons was shot in Miami and the current episodes were done in Italy, but whatever. Just go with it.

The show has the normal things you would expect from any reality show, with enough debauchery, infighting, drunken wisdom and egoism to make even Charlie Sheen proud. There are certainly lots of people who think it may be the dumbest show on television, but those people are clearly ignoring the one — or many — shows on their DVR that are no better. Don’t pretend like you’re watching the National Geographic channel all day.

My roommates and I realized last night while watching the show that it is pretty much the only one that all three of us watch. There are others that two of us keep up with, but “Jersey Shore” is sure to bring everyone into the living room at the same time.

One of the things I love is that the majority of the time they refer to each other with nicknames — not ones that came organically from within this group, but rather were brought from home and tossed in as a part of their original introductions. “My friends call me Snooki.” Oh, OK, we’ll just call you that then.

We all have nicknames for friends that we use once in a while, but those always have some sort of inside joke that makes sense within that relationship. I don’t introduce myself with the option of calling me Hotshoe, Heinous, Christafuh, Erty, Channas or Issypher, since those are only meaningful to certain people. I have no idea where Snooki came from, but it certainly wasn’t from the Shore house. For the non-watchers, the other names include JWoww, The Situation, Pauly D, and Sammi Sweatheart — though no one uses that last one because she’s not. At all.

Another sign of a great show is the use of catchphrases, and “Jersey Shore” certainly doesn’t disappoint. When we get close to 10 on Thursday nights (when the show airs) you are guaranteed to hear shouts of “Cabs are heeere” and “Awww yeah, burgers for the boys” ringing through our house. I might even go to Twitter in the pre-show excitement:

That’s all not to mention the now-ubiquitous terms GTL, smush, and grenade that sprang from the show.

But really the main draw of the Jersey Shore comes down to the fact that it features one of my favorite things in the world — drama that doesn’t involve me.

Oh and it inspired the name of my fantasy football team, which year after year brings lots of assets to the table but ultimately underperforms: CWoww.

If you want to do something on a Monday night, I am now free.

After years of looking forward to evenings filled with the glory of “24” and nerd comedy “The Big Bang Theory,” I find myself with a completely empty calendar.

That’s what happens when one show ends after eight seasons and the other gets moved to a new time slot on Thursday nights. With all of this free time I may have to work on some new hobbies. Suggestions are welcome.

Off the top of my head I can think of the following possibilities: bear wrestling, apple throwing, staring at squirrels, baking, curling, pro Wii bowling tour and box stacking.

Or maybe I’ll just take a nap.

Ratings for The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien are up more than 50 percent since the whole brouhaha with NBC began.

The shame is that so many people who have been drawn in by the drama haven’t been able to enjoy the Conan experience, and soon will have him disappear from the airwaves. Well, for a while at least.

I’m not going to feel too bad for someone who today signed a severance deal that will pay him $33 million. But it will be sad for him to lose a show he has wanted for so long. After some length of a non-compete clause in the settlement, Conan will be back somewhere–Fox?–but until then enjoy the last two days.

One of the perks of working a few overnight shifts in the past two weeks has been watching Conan live while at work. The level of sticking it to NBC has been borderline surprising, and yet just gets funnier and funnier with each step.

Take last night for example. This clip shows a segment where Conan points out that while the show is still on the air, they can do anything they want and NBC has to pay for it. So he does the only natural thing and brings in an insanely expensive car with background music that costs a fortune to license. The result is a minute of TV that cost NBC $1.5 million for absolutely no reason other than spite.

In announcing the segment, Conan made it seem like it was going to be a recurring theme for the rest of his time there, which we now know will be just two more shows. I also found it interesting that among the many clips from this episode, the skit is not one offered on NBC.com. It’s also not on Hulu, which is partially owned by NBC Universal.

At least Hulu does have a clip from last night’s episode with Ed Helms offering a very special song for Conan.

Cooooooooooooooooooooooooooonan, Cooooooooooooooonaaaaaan.

One of the perks of my job is the ability to be awake and sitting in a place full of TVs while most of the sane world is asleep.

Wait that’s not really a perk. Scratch that. Because I’m awake at a time when virtually everyone is asleep, the programming on TV when I’m at work is an interesting sort. Some play movies you have forgotten about (and rightly so), while others let you take a trip into the glories of your childhood with gems like Full House, The Cosby Show and Home Improvement.

The rest just play informercials, which can be quite a source of entertainment when you are sleep-deprived. There’s the guy selling his book on how you can eschew modern medicine and cure just about anything by changing your diet. He’s traveled the world and interviewed more than 5,000 medical professionals, doing the legwork so you can just get the book for a better life.

I caught a new one this weekend for a guy selling knives. It was visually the most spectacular bit of television I’ve ever seen. It was a close-up shot of a spinning table packed with 10 different pocket knives. And that’s it. You never see the guy, or even a different angle of the knives. Just the set spinning around and around and around. But it was this guy’s passion for the product that really set this one apart. He kept describing how exremely rare each knife was.

“This one right here, that I know of, there were only like 2,000 of them made. Well that I know of,” he says. I can think of a lot of things that I’ve made only once. That doesn’t mean you want to get out your credit card and BUY NOW!!!!! But hey, maybe I’m just not enough of a knife enthusiast to understand that particular one.

Now Dr. Ho’s Neck Comforter, that’s a product I can get behind. If you were to think of the the most stereotypical infomercial with cheesy assistants asking clearly scripted questions, this one is for you. I’ve only seen it a couple of times, but it’s truly remarkable. It looks like a travel neck pillow, but once you have it on, you push a button to inflate the pillow.

It’s supposed to take the pressure off your neck (apparently by trying to remove that pesky head from your body). It also looks like something Dr. Ho made in his basement in about a half-hour. If you can find it in your local listings, I suggest you try it.

Otherwise, just check out this video. It’s pretty much the same idea, just with a weight loss product and me as your host.

What happened to infomercials? I mean the ones that had such enthusiastic hosts showing you how the latest 47-in -1 slicer dicer juicer mixer chopper cutter baker seerer peeler can make your life so much simpler…and if you order RIGHT NOW you get the steak knives too.

Our station shows infomercials early in the morning, like many do, and I just happen to go to work very early in the morning. Now infomercials are all about two things: How you can make a bazillion dollars playing the stock market by just buying low and selling high (just look for the three green arrows), or all-natural ways for you to eschew modern medicine.

This morning we had both. Then came Entertainment Tonight.

If you happen to live under a rock inside of a spaceship on its way to Pluto, you might have missed the story about wildfires ravaging southern California. ET was all about telling us which celebrities had houses in trouble, and which were safely chillin in their Malibu mansions.

I get that it’s an entertainment show and they feel like they have to play an angle. But sometimes its appropriate to use your resources in a more productive way. You want to play the television angle? Fine. Talk about the San Diego reporter who did a live report from in front of his own burning house. That’s a great story.

The fires in Malibu, while certainly not a good thing, are some of the smallest in this outbreak. Unfortunately, we live in a Britney-centric world. So of course ET had to not only tell us that Britney’s house was safe so far, but that the Starbucks she goes too–it’s even known as the “Britney Starbucks,” is closed for now.

Maybe we need to go door-to-door and give people a swift kick to the priority zone in their brain so we can rethink some priorities. It’s not like it’s unprecedented for an entertainment-based show to change its programming to reflect a more serious situation that’s affecting a lot of people.

Not to equate the fires to 9/11, but the example of ESPN in the days following the terrorist attacks is the first example that came to mind. ESPN, which drills sports as hard as ET pimps Britney, basically turned into the Eastern Seaboard Provider of News. Sure, they had a few sound bites from players and management saying how games really weren’t important at a time like that. But those were poignant comments accompanied by pictures of players standing in empty baseball stadium watching CNN on the jumbotron. The rest of their broadcasts were essentially ABC News on a different channel. They realized what was important, and shifted their focus to reflect the situation.

There is an argument from a programming standpoint that morning shows should feature lighter content so people can have non-contentious items to talk about when they get to work. Don’t give them a bunch of nuggets on the presidential election, that will just stir things up in the office. Britney is what they want to discuss. But what kind of a country do we have if you get to the water cooler and say “Hey, did you hear that Britney’s Starbucks is closed!” instead of “Hey, half a million people out of their houses now, I can’t imagine what they’re going through. Do you know anyone out there? How are they doing?”

Let’s leave Britney alone for a few days. Please.

Stephen Colbert is a man who knows how to keep it real. What is real is calling out people who take themselves a little too seriously, as seen here with a clip from his show the Colbert Report.

Now as you might know I did indeed go to journalism school, but nothing makes me happier than someone taking aim at established journalists who think far too highly of themselves and basically are incapable of seeing value in non-traditional media.

While Jon Stewart sits back and laughs at stupid things politicians do and calls into question their actions, he does so in a way that informs his viewers about what is going on in the world. At the same time, network news honchos wonder why their audience is declining, yet lampoon shows like the Daily Show and Colbert Report. Obviously they are doing something right.

And obviously the networks, particularly the morning shows, need to look in the mirror once in a while as Colbert points out in the clip.

When a congressman says something stupid in an election year like Sen. George Allen calling an opponent’s campaign worker a monkey, that should be taken seriously and reported. When a congressman goes on a satirical show and under clear pretenses gives a joke response about cocaine, sit back and laugh. Enjoy the real side the lawmaker showed for once. That’s not a story.