Private Practice Will End After This Shortened Sixth Season

Well, Shonda Rhimes will soon have a little more time to work on one of her bazillion other shows. Rhimes announced today that her Grey's Anatomy spin-off Private Practice will call it a series after the current season, the show's sixth. The news isn't that surprising, as star Kate Walsh already declared that she wouldn't return for a seventh season if the show were renewed for one, and, well, it just didn't have the same success as the show from whence it came.

Rhimes took to the interwebs to make the announcement, calling the decision "heartbreaking." But she also said the current season has reached "a creative renaissance" and that ABC, the studio, and she all decided the show "was reaching its finish line," which is kind of confusing. Here's the statement in its entirety:


I'm sad to say that Private Practice's run will end after episode 613 this season. There was a lot of discussion and debate but, in the end, the guys at the network and the studio and I all decided that Private Practice was reaching its finish line. Creatively, we are all extremely proud of the show and especially proud of this season—which you will all soon discover is a creative renaissance. I can't wait for you to see it.

It's heartbreaking to end. Truly. I feel so lucky to write for these characters and tell these stories and I truly feel this show has taught me so much as a writer. And there's a family here, of crew and cast, people who have bonded over these past five and a half seasons. It's rare for a show to go for more than 100 episodes and we are incredibly proud to have been such a show. And we're grateful to all of you for spending time with us for an hour every week for the last 6 years. It's meant the world.

Thank you.


The sixth and final season of Private Practice is currently on its third episode and will end with its thirteenth. Grey's Anatomy, meanwhile, is still going strong and was just extended by a couple of episodes, as were both Modern Family and The Middle. Castle recieved an extension of one episode.


Will you miss Private Practice?


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30 Rock "Stride of Pride" Review: Mining Bossypants

30 Rock S07E03: "Stride of Pride"

After last week's sendup of Tina Fey's 2008 Sarah Palin impressions on Saturday Night Live, this week's episode of 30 Rock explored another account from Fey's book, Bossypants. In 2007, Christopher Hitchens wrote a Vanity Fair column about how funny women are as mythological as unicorns. In Bossypants, Fey famously stated that claiming funny women don't exist just because you don't like female comedians is like claiming Chinese food doesn't exist just because you don't like it. (Plus the women-aren't-funny debate seems to keep resurfacing, as it did in June when Adam Carolla told The New York Post that "the reason why you know more funny dudes than funny chicks is that dudes are funnier than chicks.")

In "Stride of Pride," Tracy tweeted that women weren't funny. Liz confronted him about it, and he insisted that not only are women not funny, but that monkeys are funnier (tell that to the now-canceled Animal Practice!).

Liz set out to prove to Tracy that women can be funny by doing a sketch with Jenna about a female doctor giving plastic surgery to a child. Tracy did find the sketch funny, because the idea of a woman doctor was outrageous to him. Liz counted it as a victory.

The whole episode was very female-themed. Jenna wanted to escape being a middle-aged actress in favor of being an old actress, like Helen Mirren. She succeeded, and was named the "spokescrone" for a company that makes those chairs that go up stairs. Is it bad that I wish my apartment had one of those?

Jack, meanwhile, was upset that one of his friends with benefits also had friends with benefits. I did really love that she called the practice "Pokemon-ing," because "you gotta catch 'em all!" I'm really curious as to how this season is going to end for Jack. His career and personal life are pretty dismal right now; he's still working on tanking NBC, and now he's settled for being the father figure in an array of boy toys that includes Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte and one whose e-mail address ends in @brooklyn.beard. I'm hoping there's a triumphant end in store for him, because ever since he didn't get Don Geiss's job his stories have felt more and more depressing.

Overall, I liked this episode, but I also didn't feel like I laughed all that much. It was a little preachy, and even though I agreed with its message, I could have done with a few more side-splitting jokes and a few fewer speeches about feminism. I am also a little nervous that the writers are just going through Bossypants looking for material.

However, the timing of this episode was coincidentally amazing. Mitt Romney's "binders full of women" comment during the second presidential debate was just this Tuesday, so there's no way 30 Rock could have planned this. But the recurrent theme of not having to list funny women just to prove they exist sounds awfully similar to having a binder full of qualified women.

Also, I really want Stride of Pride to be a thing. I got married in April so I'm out, but can other people start doing it, please?

30 Rock "Stride of Pride" Photos

QUESTIONS:

– Are you going to start doing Stride of Pride? If no, why not? I demand a good excuse.

– Which is a better term, Great Escape-ing or Pokemon-ing?

– Do you intend to stick with 30 Rock to the end, or bail early?

– If 30 Rock has been on for seven seasons, why is Cerie still supposed to be youthful?


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Community Explains Its Scheduling SNAFU in Community Terms (VIDEO)


Great news, guys! Community is returning on October 19! "But wait," you say. "Today is October 19, and I don't see the internet exploding in reverie!" I'll let Troy and Abed explain:


So there you have it. The cast and crew are very aware that they're getting jerked around by NBC, but they also know it won't do any good to pout about it, so they made a hilarious video with a perfectly absurd positive spin. October 19 isn't a date, it's the joy you feel inside after getting the last plate of chicken fingers, the thrill of seducing an Elven maiden so she'll let you borrow her Pegasus, the ecstasy of eating Starburn's ecstasy at Annie's Dia de Los Muertos party while dressed as The Beastmaster.

No, Community still does not have a premiere date. But now that NBC has scheduled Whitney away from Fridays (where it'd initially been paired with Community in the most mismatched comedy block of all time), maybe the network has bigger, grander plans for Community than to simply dump it in the litterbox that is Friday night? Who knows, maybe NBC will even do the right thing and bring Community back in the midseason, either as part of its Thursday comedy block to replace 30 Rock or as a partner for the almost-as-goofy Go On, which has been performing well and definitely shares a vibe with Community.

And for those of you who may have missed it, here's Joel McHale on Ellen showing off a clip from Community's Season 4 premiere, which plays off The Hunger Games and will debut... someday.


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