ABOUT TEST PATTERN

Don't touch that dial: Test Pattern tunes into television, entertainment and pop culture links, gossip and idle chat from around the Web. Our annual commercial contest, held every summer, recognizes the best and worst in TV advertising. Multi-link Monday offers up five fast, fun links to fill in those workday boredom breaks. Other topics range from movie mistakes to canceled shows we're still mourning. ("My So-Called Life," anyone?)

MSNBC.com Television Editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper started Test Pattern in 2003. She also operates her own pop-culture Weblog, Pop Culture Junk Mail, which began in 1999 and has earned praise from Entertainment Weekly and the New York Times. You'll occasionally see her on MSNBC cable or hear her on radio discussing the ABCs of TV.



Comic strips (RSS)

Meet MSNBC.com's new comic strips

Posted: Friday, April 27, 2007 6:00 AM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
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It was way back in January that we first started discussing updating MSNBC.com's comic-strip offerings. The much-beloved "Fox Trot" had moved to Sundays only, and "Boondocks" has been on hiatus for months, with no word as to when creator Aaron McGruder might bring the strip back. CONTINUED >>

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Comic relief

Posted: Friday, January 26, 2007 6:00 AM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
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More than 100 of you have registered comments about which comic strip MSNBC.com should choose to replace the now Sunday-only "FoxTrot." You've spread your choices far and wide, but a few favorites have emerged. CONTINUED >>

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Help us choose a new comic

Posted: Thursday, January 25, 2007 6:01 AM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
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It's obvious from our discussion of "For Better or For Worse" that I'm not the only comic-strip fan reading MSNBC.com. Another favorite strip of mine, "Fox Trot," retired to Sunday-only strips on New Year's Eve, and that left a hole in the MSNBC.com comic-strip lineup. (For now, "Fox Trot" is still up there, but in repeats.) CONTINUED >>

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For Better, For Worse, For Hybrid

Posted: Thursday, January 11, 2007 12:44 PM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
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I know I'm not the only fan of Lynn Johnston's "For Better or For Worse" comic strip out there. We've talked here before about how the cartoonist had discussed ending the strip or at least cutting back, and now she's finally announced how she's going to do it -- and to my knowledge, it's a way that hasn't been tried by a cartoonist before.

CONTINUED >>

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