This week's episode marks our transition from talking about Dancing With the Stars to talking about So You Think You Can Dance. But the first episode of the new kiddie version of the dance competition has us so disheartened and uncomfortable that we spend most of the podcast talking about the huge number of trailers we watched for upcoming fall and midseason TV series. We hope you like time travel, because that's the "designated completely random theme that a whole bunch of shows independently settled on" for this season. Also, apparently stay-at-home dads are still hi-larious, which makes us think somehow we've time-traveled into the past ourselves. If you'd like to take a look at what we're talking about, we followed the links to trailers from this Entertainment Weekly page, though you can play the winner for "Most Tear-Jerking/Least Comprehensible Trailer" above. Traveling back in time even further, we continued our Parks and Recreation marathon with the Season 5 episodes "Ann's Decision," "Emergency Response," "Leslie and Ben," and "Correspondent's Lunch." For those marathoning along with us, next week brings "Bailout," "Partridge," "Animal Control," and "Article Two."

Another season of Dancing With the Stars has pirouetted away, with our season-long favorite Nyle taking the mirror-ball trophy. We come to you one day late this week so we can talk all the dancing and fabulousness and blatant filler of the deluxe two-night finale. After a mention of a Kickstarter campaign to help the Deaf West production of Spring Awakening pay for its performance at the Tony Awards, we move on to Catherine's latest book-club book, The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon, which is more creepy than she expected (maybe a good thing for some folks, not for her). We skip over our weekly Parks and Recreation marathon because we just didn't have time to watch this week, but we did take in "The Short List," the episode of The West Wing covered by The West Wing Weekly last week, and chat about it a bit. For next week, the Season 5 Parks and Rec eps "Ann's Decision," "Emergency Response," "Leslie and Ben," and "Correspondents' Lunch" are still up, and "In Excelsis Deo" is the West Wing one to watch.

So one of our final three Dancing With the Stars contestants is a big pile of meh as far as we're concerned, and one of the folks who went home is someone whose joy we enjoyed, but all things considered, it's not been a bad season under the mirror ball. We give our thoughts on this week's dances, wins, and losses, and look forward to next week's two days of finals (look for our podcast on Wednesday). We also continue our Parks and Rec marathon with the season-five episodes "Pawnee Commons," "Ron and Diane," "Two Parties," and "Women in Garbage"; watch "Enemies" along with the West Wing Weekly podcast; and work in a quick chat about the recent slaughter of not-yet-renewed shows and the way Lin-Manuel Miranda's Twitter presence is reinforcing all our worst procrastinating habits. If you're following along on our marathons (and not procrastinating), next week we'll be watching the Parks and Rec episodes "Ann's Decision," "Emergency Response," "Leslie and Ben," and "Correspondent's Lunch," and the West Wing episode "The Short List."

Dancing With the Stars is starting to get real -- well, not real, like having anything to do with real life, but real like people who you wish would stay around longer are being sent home. Catherine and Terri chat about this week's dances and gimmicks and hailstorm of 10s, and then move on to a more dignified competition — the Tony Awards — for which the nominations have recently been announced. Out of a large field of musicals and plays they've never seen, they're pretty excited for Hamilton, the cast album of which Terri has played so many times that her kids are about ready to take away her iPhone. Next, they continue their Parks and Recreation marathon with four season 5 episodes — "Sex Education," "Halloween Surprise," "Ben's Parents," and "Leslie vs. April" — and follow along with the West Wing Weekly podcast by watching and discussing Season 1's "The State Dinner." If you're watching along too, up next are Parks and Rec eps "Pawnee Commons," "Ron and Diane," "Two Parties," and "Women and Garbage," and the West Wing ep "Enemies."

On this week's entertainment-themed Round 2, Catherine and Terri chatted about the latest episode of Dancing With the Stars and Icons and Easily Confused Paddle-Wielders; continued their Parks and Rec marathon with Season 4 closer "Win Lose or Draw" and Season 5 openers "Ms. Knope Goes to Washington," "Soda Tax," and "How a Bill Becomes a Law"; and suppressed their iTunes review envy to watch the West Wing season one ep "Mr. Willis of Ohio" with the West Wing Weekly podcast. Listen along, and if you want to marathon with us next week, we'll be discussing the P&R eps "Sex Education," "Halloween Surprise," "Ben's Parents," and "Leslie vs. April," and the WW ep "The State Dinner."

On this week's entertainment-themed podcast, Catherine and Terri wonder why people can't just dance on a dancing show, who should be cast in Catherine's latest book-club book, when Leslie Knope's council campaign will ever be over, and why we can't all age like Rob Lowe. Want to fast-forward through some of that? Here's your guide:

0:26: Dancing With the Stars — It's Iconic Dances Night, and it's pretty clear that they're using "iconic dances" with the same air quotes as "stars." 

14:52 Catherine's Book Club Report — Catherine read The Art of Crash Landing by Melissa DeCarlo and gives us a quick review.

19:56 Parks and Recreation Marathon — This week, we discussed the Season 4 episodes "Lucky," "Live Ammo," "The Debate," and "Bus Trip." Up next week: "Win, Lose, or Draw," "Ms. Knope Goes to Washington," "Soda Tax," and "How a Bill Becomes a Law." Watch along with us!

27:37 The West Wing — We're watching along with The West Wing Weekly podcast and discuss "The Crackpots and These Women" right along with them. Up next: "Mr. Willis of Ohio."

We've got four shows to discuss on this week's entertainment episode of Parenting Roundabout. In case you want to fast-forward over stuff you don't watch or care about, here's a road map through the episode:

0:27 Dancing With the Stars — It was Switch-Up Night on DWTS, and also "Can't anybody do their dang job?" night, as pros failed to choreograph their assigned dances, judges forgot how to hold up the correct paddle, and producers forgot that if you don't even pretend that the scores aren't predetermined, people are going to catch on.

11:54 The People v. O. J. Simpson — So we're a little late in following up on Catherine's initial review of this with a final opinion on the whole thing, but we no longer live in a pop-culture environment where time has meaning, right?

16:19 Parks and Recreation marathon — Our viewing continues with the Season 4 episodes "Operation Ann," "Dave Returns," "Sweet Sixteen," and "Campaign Shake-Up," continuing the generally campaign-centric second half of the season that Terri feels decidedly meh about. The campaigning continues in our episodes for next week, "Lucky," "Live Ammo," "The Debate," and "Bus Tour."

22:35 The West Wing — We're also watching episodes of The West Wing to keep up with the new West Wing Weekly podcast, and so we took a moment here at the end of our ep to chat about "Five Votes Down" and look enthusiastically forward to next week's "The Crackpots and These Women."

On this week's entertainment episode of Parenting Roundabout, we've got four things to talk about. In case you want to fast-forward over stuff you don't watch or care about, here's a road map through the episode:

0:30: Dancing With the Stars — It was Disney week, which meant lots of princesses, cool costumes and props, 8s and 9s all over the place, and Nyle in a loincloth shaking his butt at the camera. So a satisfying night all around, then.

11:20: Zootopia — Catherine went to a movie! Specifically, Disney's latest animated offering. She and the 11-year-olds she went with give it a thumbs up.

17:24: Our Parks and Recreation marathon — Up this week: the Season 4 episodes "Citizen Knope," "The Comeback Kid," "Campaign Ad," and "Bowling for Votes." For next week, join us in watching "Operation Ann," "Dave Returns," "Sweet Sixteen," and "Campaign Shakeup."

24:20: The West Wing Watch We've been watching Season 1 of The West Wing along with the West Wing Weekly Podcast, and the most recent episode was "A Proportional Response."

Apologies for the background noise partway through. Catherine has learned her lesson not to sit under an air vent.

Dancing With the Stars Week 3 involved the "stars" recalling and dancing to something at least vaguely related to their most memorable year. Sometimes the connection was strong, as with Kim Fields's The Facts of Life dance, and sometimes not so much, as with Von Miller celebrating his recent Super Bowl win with a song that makes Terri think of Miami Vice, a show that was on so long ago there were phone booths. The removal of a phone booth was significant to one of Terri's most memorable Parks and Recreation scenes, as the vacant patch of concrete it left behind became the site of an adorable little park and the adorable reunion of Ben and Leslie in "Smallest Park," one of our P&R marathon episodes for this week along with "End of the World," "The Treaty," and "The Trial of Leslie Knope" (click links for more memorable scenes). Finally, we checked in with the West Wing episode "Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc" and the West Wing Weekly Podcast episode that discussed it. (If you're keeping up with our Parks marathon, next up are Season 4's "Citizen Knope," "The Comeback Kid," "Campaign Ad," and "Bowling for Votes.")

Apologies for some technical glitches and basically inferior sound. Our podcast editor is on vacation, and this is what you get with unskilled labor.

For this week's Round 2, we not only watched the Parks and Recreation episode that introduced Donna and Tom's annual day of self-indulgence (it's the best day of the year!), but we treated ourselves to another sparkly episode of Dancing With the Stars and topped it off with an ever-so-satisfying West Wing pilot rewatch inspired by our new favorite podcast, West Wing Weekly. Treat yo self to a half hour of listening to our opinions, and then treat us to your own thoughts in the comments here or on our Facebook page. And if you're watching along on our Parks and Rec marathon, cue up four of Terri's favorites for next week: the awesome little Ben-and-Leslie arc of "End of the World," "The Treaty," "Smallest Park," and "The Trial of Leslie Knope."

Dancing With the Stars is back! And the season is actually looking promising. We're happy to see the return of Len, not so happy to see the return of Mark's ridiculous hair stylings, but overall encouraged by a field with no obvious ringers and few obvious train-wrecks. Our early money is on Nyle and Wanya, but there are plenty of dancers we're happy to see in action.

Meanwhile, on our continuing Parks and Recreation marathon, we watched "Road Trip," "The Bubble," "Li'l Sebastian," and "I'm Leslie Knope" and said hello to Entertainment 7/20, Ron's first ex-wife Tammy, and Rob Lowe's unfortunate haircut; goodbye to Li'l Sebastian; and hello and goodbye to Ben and Leslie as a couple (if only for the moment). On the agenda for next week are the Season 4 episodes "Ron and Tammys," "Born and Raised," "Pawnee Rangers," and "Meet and Greet."

Finally, we mentioned another marathon we're going to be going on courtesy of another podcast -- West Wing Weekly, on which Joshua Malina and Hrishikesh Hirway will be watching WW episodes one by one and talking about them, sometimes with guests. While we won't be doing a full-on chat about the eps, since we'll both be watching and listening, we'll probably have a thing or two to say here too. Why not watch/listen along?

If you notice that we seem to be talking VERY LOUDLY in today's podcast, it may be that we're all just sittin' too close to our mics, or it may be that today's topics bring out the rant in us. In real life, we cringe silently; in podcast life, we get our yell on. Here's a road map to what's riling us up this week.

00:48: Intros and What's New With You -- It doesn't help that most of us need a nap. Yet we soldier on, podcasting through our hacking coughs, headaches, neck aches, Daylight Saving jet lag, epic carpool hangover, sleep deprivation, and deadline stress. Would have maybe been a good week for some nice, quiet, friendly topics.

03:20: Being Embarrassed by Other Parents — Instead, we start out talking about those parents, the ones who ruin it for everyone, the ones who are the reason we can't have nice things, the ones that make us want to wear a T-shirt that says, "The opinions of other parents are not shared by me," or maybe, "I'm not with stupid." What can we do, besides passive-aggressively snark and eyeroll?

14:39: Nude Selfies? Yikes! — And speaking of mortifying things we feel powerless against, we now have to worry about our kids sending out naked pictures of themselves, or seeing naked pictures of their friends (or Kim Kardashian), or finding naked pictures on their teacher's phone, or having such a bad body image that they feel unfit to take naked pictures ... could people stop making parenting teen girls even MORE complicated, please?

27:57: Interview of the Week — All right, calm down. Grandparenting expert Susan Adcox is here to talk about families and sports, and although you might expect a grandparent to get snappy about the way parents today do things, she's actually quite supportive of our drive to be at every single sports event every one of our kids participate in.

39:47: Shameless Self-Promotion — And now, for the kind of shamelessness we can get behind: Terri touts the Round 2 entertainment podcasts she does with Catherine, on which they'll be covering a new season of Dancing With the Stars while continuing a Parks and Recreation marathon; Amanda shares 4 Hard Questions I Asked Myself After the 2016 LDA Conference; Catherine has advice on What Not to Feed Your Child Before They Play Sports; and Nicole really wants you to take her online workshop.

Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our podcast and for our fun in-and-out music. If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

Update: The story about the teacher was in South Carolina, not North Carolina, and the kid who stole the picture has since been arrested, which as parents of teens who sometimes do stupid things does not necessarily make us feel better.

On this week's Round 2, we had three — count 'em, three! — topics, and in case you're only interested in one or two of them, we thought we'd provide you with a little fast-forwarding guide:

0:27: Dancing With the Stars — We talk about the cast for Season 22, who will hit the dance floor on March 21.

11:58: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr — Catherine read this 500-page tome for her book club and then was not able to attend, so we thought she could get a chance to talk about it somewhere.

18:23: Parks and Recreation marathon — Up for discussion today are the Season 3 episodes "Soulmates," "Jerry's Painting," "Eagleton," and "The Fight."

Next week, we'll start bringing you DWTS recaps and continue with four more Parks and Recreation eps: Season 3's "Road Trip," "The Bubble," and "Li'l Sebastian," plus the Season 4 opener "I'm Leslie Knope."

The Speed Rounds you've been listening to all week will be replacing Round 3 and 4 as you've known them -- we're tucking those mini-interviews into our group chats starting January 15. So the end of our anniversary week seemed like a good time to look back on our favorite Round 3s, Round 4s, and even Round 2s (which will still be bringing you entertainment chat every Tuesday-ish.) If you want to listen to the full episodes after hearing us chat about them, here are the links:

+ Nicole's favorites: Round 4s by Amanda and her husband Jon; Round 2s on Dancing With the Stars
+ Amanda's favorites: Round 3 on school lunches with Lexi Walters Wright; Round 4 on IEP meetings with Robert Rummel-Hudson
+ Catherine's favorites: Round 4 on Inside Out and Special Needs with Robert Rummel-Hudson; Round 2 on audiobooks and Dancing With the Stars
+ Terri's favorites: Round 3 on kids and commercialization with Lexi Walters Wright (and that Hulk cologne pull-quote); Round 2s on So You Think You Can Dance

(If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

Yesterday Catherine and Terri chatted about the first day of the Dancing With the Stars finals, and today they follow up with a quick review of the second day -- a two-hour show that offered approximately 105 minutes of padding, 10 minutes of competition, and 5 minutes of award-giving. But who's complaining? There were lots of slick pro numbers, video retrospectives, the return of defeated contestants, musical selections, and Victor Espinoza popping up like he was in some sort of giant Whack-a-Mole game. We chatted about the long-predicted winner, the gracious losers, and who they might scrape up ... that is, recruit for the next episode coming in the spring. Did you watch along with us this season? How do you feel about the results? Share in the comments here if they're working, and if not, find us on our Facebook page. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

Dancing With the Stars has finally made it to the end, and we're one show away from someone hoisting the mirror-ball trophy. After watching Night 1 of the finals, Catherine and Terri discussed their favorites and predictions, the freestyles they liked and didn't, what constitutes a gimmick, how hard a lift is, and how enjoyable a show can be when you don't pack it full of unprepared non-professionals trying to learn too many dances. They'll be back tomorrow to discuss the winner, but in the meantime, they took a moment to chat about Netflix's new series Master of None and Terri's new favorite Undateable Live, which she finally got Catherine to watch. The verdict: thumbs up on both, but if you think Undateable's 8 p.m. timeslot means its safe for the kids, be warned that it very much is not, as the above clip will illustrate. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

On a new Round 2, Terri and Catherine chat as usual about Dancing With the Stars, which this week included three dances for each star, a withdrawal due to illness, a number involving a rope and a nearly invisible bodysuit, another involving a box and another rope with a lightbulb on it, and a fake-out non-elimination that was really kind of mean. We chatted about this year's likely winners and how the show could be improved in the future, if the producers would just listen to us and people who write on Internet forums. Next, after discussing the problems with asking a 17-year-old to dance dirtier, we turned our attention to shows that ask kids to do other unlikely things, including fashion designing and cooking with unusual items. Catherine shared her thoughts on Project Runway Junior, Terri did the same for Chopped Junior, and they joined Catherine's dog in strategizing other possible reality-show permutations. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

This week's Round 2 started as it has for the past many weeks with a chat about last night's Dancing With the Stars, which reveled in its live status by not knowing until the very last minute whether one of its stars would even be able to make it onstage to dance. But Tamar Braxton didn't let a little pneumonia keep her out of the race for the mirror-ball trophy, arriving from the hospital just in time to avoid automatic elimination. Did we mention this show is live? Tom Bergeron did, a lot. Also live: the NBC sitcom Undateable, which Terri is going to be talking about a lot until you watch it (or at least Catherine does), and the unfortunately titled Best Time Ever, also on NBC, which is maybe not the best time but still a good time and full of the kind of completely random entertainment moments you don't see that much of anymore. Catherine ended the episode by reporting on a re-watch of the movie Big with her son. Listen and see if the scene that got the biggest laugh in her house would get the same in yours. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

This week's Dancing With the Stars left us a little underwhelmed, with poorly filmed dance-offs, uncomfortable baby-gender-revealing gimmicks, unnecessary lying on the floor in a fancy dress, and the departure of good-guy Andy. With hopes that perhaps the competition will step up a bit in the weeks to come, we moved on to a reality cooking show Catherine's been enjoying, My Grandmother's Ravioli, and then a more general discussion about whether we care as much as Terri's husband does about the lack of reality in reality shows, or whether we just want the food to look pretty, the houses-hunted to look interesting, and the dancers to look like they're having fun. Terri also encouraged everyone to get with a show she's starting to watch faithfully, Undateable live, and follow all the many, many Periscope segments the folks involved are doing. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, go to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

It was Halloween theme night on Dancing With the Stars, as well as team-dance night, which provided lots of opportunities for the costume, hair, and makeup folks to show off. (Or not: what WAS that thing on Bindi's head in the group dance? Andy's contacts for his couples dance were indeed fantastically freaky, though.) We then moved on to other unsettling things -- like news of Ricky Gervais hosting the Golden Globes and Chris Rock hosting the Oscars; or doing a sitcom live every week; or watching an actor you like in a show you hate. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlnks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com. And if you're interested in watching Undateable Live, it's on Fridays at 8 p.m. on NBC, as I should have remembered to say on the episode.)

Famous dances of some sort or another were the focus of this week's Dancing With the Stars, and Catherine and Terri found both the dances and the judging to have no particular rhyme or reason. They chatted about the dances they liked and didn't, the scoring they liked and didn't, the readiness of Paula Deen to go home, and the unfairness of low-scoring anyone who has to dance with a snake. They quickly moved on to something a little more respectable -- the two stage shows Catherine managed to see in one week, Kinky Boots on tour and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Timeon Broadway. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.

It was switch-up night on Dancing With the Stars, and also "Judges say what?" night, because the scoring was all the heck over the place. We talked about the dances we liked, the conspiracies we wondered about, and the partnerships we wish could stay switched. Then, we moved on to our promised discussion of Fox's Grandfathered and The Grinder, although neither of us completely did her homework and watched all eps of both. Still, we liked what we saw or heard enough to try again to watch and chat next week. Other fall TV we've been consuming? Mostly stuff from last season still on the DVR and whatever Terri's husband happens to be watching when she walks through the room, but we're working on it. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

It's the most thematically uncomfortable Dancing With the Stars of the season: the dreaded Most Memorable Year episode, where celebs are asked to honor the death of a loved one with a cha cha. The mix of real-life hardship with sequins and fluff is always tricky, and this year's degree of difficulty was kicked up by contestant Alek Skarlatos's personal connection to the shooting at an Oregon college and host Tom Bergeron's absence to be with his ailing father. We chatted about our favorites, those that impressed us less, the awkwardness of judging someone who's just cried on camera, and the dilemma of having a happy personal story amongst the angst. Leaping on to non-dancing topics, Catherine gave her review of A Lego Brickumentary, and Terri bid a sad goodbye to one of her favorite podcasts, Firewall and Iceberg, RIP. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)

Football pre-empting ABC's schedule foiled Catherine's efforts to watch Dancing With the Stars this week, and if you had to pick an episode to be pre-empted in your viewing area, this would be the one. Terri gave a recap of the TV-themed episode -- which labored under the need to 1) pick only TV theme songs they could get rights to and 2) use the TV show as the theme of the dance -- and recommended Alek's, Alexa's, and Nick's as the three to watch if you also missed the ep (and previously.tv forums if you want more commentary). Then Catherine reported on her latest book-club read, The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, a Swedish novel that's described on its cover as "a mordantly funny and loopily freewheeling novel about aging disgracefully." (Despite what Terri says, she hasn't read a Swedish novel --Smilla's Sense of Snow was Danish, and not loopily freewheeling at all.) Finally, we looked forward to watching Grandfathered and The Grinder on Fox tonight and discussing it next week, along with hopefully un-pre-empted star dancing. Join us, won't you?

We started out our Round 2 this week with a look back at Sunday's Emmy Awards, which we live-tweeted with Round 3 contributor Kathy Ceceri. Since neither Catherine nor Terri watches much of the stuff that gets nominated for Emmys-- even though Olive Kitteridge sounds to be right up Catherine's alley -- we mostly talked about how Andy Samberg did, what happened to those interesting little interviews with creative types ad the evening went along, and how the critics we read who do watch this stuff felt about the winners.

Next, we chatted about last night's Dancing With the Stars,and maybe the fact that Terri accidentally called Gary Nick when admiring his unexpectedly decent foxtrot and Catherine called Alek Andy when wondering whether Terri still hates contemporary says something about the lack of memorable-ness in this field so early in the season. We said goodbye to Chaka and "shape up" to Allison and "surely you're gone next" to Victor, and looked forward to a week when the good get better and the bad get out.

Finally, we looked forward to a new TV season for which Terri at least is not ready, having so much of the old season still on her DVR. But she figures her family will try out Grandfatheredand The Grinder, Catherine is planning to sample The Muppets and Empire, and by next week they'll already be behind on what everyone else is streaming, but have a few new-show reports. (If you're reading this somewhere without hyperlinks, go to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)