"Thank you for stalking me, Dad."

It was foggy this morning - that cool humidity that diffuses light, hides the future, and turns life into a series of captured images.  Even with the sun struggling to shine, the wispy tendrils hang on.  The whistle blew, the bell sounded, and then the faintest of lights growing brighter until the Genesis engine broke through the cloud and pulled into the station.

Quite a fitting start to the 31st of October.

In today's "Must See TV" we'll look at Tim Allen's "Last Man Standing."  The pilot did not impress me (as you may recall) but just as you should never judge a book by its cover - unless it has my name as the author, of course - you shouldn't judge a TV show by the pilot.  Often there are substantial changes to the writing team and/or cast between episodes 1 and 2.

LMS was much better in the 2nd episode.  I laughed out loud a few times which is a great trick for Tim Allen.  He has been very successful and lots of people think he's very funny but I never drank the "Home Improvement" Kool-aid and find him just a bit, oh, I don't know... dull?  Repetitive?  He gets old fast.  The Santa Clause movie with him and Martin Short about sent me over the edge.  Alan Arkin saved me from stepping in front of a truck.

Point is, while I have nothing against Tim, I'm just not a huge fan of his work - although "Wild Hogs" was pretty funny.  On the surface, there's nothing new to recommend this show, either.  LMS is a typical sitcom with Tim playing his typical macho man but this time he's the married father of three daughters and the only other male is his baby grandson.  He works in a hunting supply super store (think Cabelas) for Hector Elizondo who is very, very good here.

Generally, LMS is contrived but fun.  It looks like there might be some chemistry in the cast and it was good enough that I plan to watch a few more to find out though I wasn't up for back to back episodes.  Oh, no.  That would have been too much and as I said to my wife, "Even something I'd think was funny on another night will be bleh now, he's always the same."

So we watched an "Office," laughed soundly, and went to bed happy.