Not ashamed to admit I'm obsessed with this crime story. Read the rest

Gil Gerard, star of the fantastic 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century' has joined '2491' as an actor and producer. '2491' was inspired by the fantastic Buck Rogers series.

Hollywood Reporter:

Former Buck Rogers in the 25th Century star Gil Gerard has come aboard a sci-fi project that wants to recapture the spirit of the late 1970s-early 1980s NBC series.

The actor will be an executive producer and series regular on 2491, a drama from creator Salvatore Verini (FYI's Country Daze). Verini grew up as a fan of the Gerard-led show and says the new project was influenced by it — down to the title, which refers to the year 20th-century astronaut Buck Rogers returned to a future Earth on the series.

Like Buck Rogers, 2491 "will follow an astronaut as he is catapulted into the future and returns to an Earth far different than the one he left behind," Verini said Monday in a statement. “But the protagonist will follow a direction more the way [Gerard] was originally pushing for Buck to go back in the '80s."

The Buck Rogers title is tied up in a copyright battle involving a question of whether the original source material, a series of stories by Philip Francis Nowlan that began in 1928, is in the public domain.

I love the Philip Francis Nowlan stories, but the TV series was very different. Read the rest

"Hear that Elizabeth? I'm coming to join you, honey!"

Truly one of the most entertaining shows ever on television, Sanford and Son sports the TV theme song that taught me to appreciate theme songs!

The incredible Redd Foxx played the wild and excitable Fred Sanford, while Demond Wilson played his more neutral son Lamont. The theme was by Quincy Jones.

Redd Foxx was the stage name of John Elroy Sanford. Read the rest

Plus a look at some of its swell merch.

Hey hey, I'm fresh back from a short two-day excursion to Disneyland. I have a bunch of stuff to share with you but I'm going to start with my visit to Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar, that little cocktail oasis behind the pool at the Disneyland Hotel. And, if you haven't been, it really is small. Read the rest

The Goop purveyor was familiar with the line of vibrators but had apparently not seen 'The Tennis Coach' up close. As the interview continues it seems she may not be very familiar with these products.

At least one prior attempt by Goop to sell things that go in and or near a woman's vagina have had bad results. Read the rest

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was wonderful. Far and away my favorite episode, however, was Hush.

Overnight, skeletal ghouls with metal grins and MIB style steal the voices of Sunnydale's townspeople. How the Scooby gang handles some of the evilest characters the series has seen, during a communication breakdown, is wonderful.

Nowadays public schools in California teach Powerpoint.

This super creepy episode was just fantastic. I am going to re-watch more Buffy. Read the rest

Puddles' voice is that of an angel. An angel in clown make up, but sure.

I love this guy. Read the rest

In 1987, Arleen Sorkin played a bizarre dream jester on the classic soap opera Days of our Lives. Watch above. Several years later, that curious character became the inspiration for Harley Quinn on Batman: The Animated Series. Naturally, Sorkin voiced Ms. Quinn.

From Vulture:

In 1987, Sorkin was a regular on the soap opera Days of Our Lives, playing the show’s comic relief: the ditzy, leggy, Noo Yawk–accented Calliope Jones. But unlike her flighty character, Sorkin was a skilled and experienced comedy writer. “I could never just come in and run my lines,” she told Vulture. “I was forever suggesting stuff, probably out of boredom!” So when she went to a screening of the faux-medieval The Princess Bride, an idea struck her: Why not do a fairy-tale dream sequence on Days? The producers were into it and aired an episode in which Calliope acts as a court jester, roller-skating into a throne room and doing some hackneyed borscht belt gags for a royal family.

(Writer Paul) Dini and Sorkin were college friends, and one day, she gave him a VHS tape of her favorite Days moments — including her jester bit. The tape sat idle for years. But in mid 1991, Dini was sick as a dog and popped the tape into his VCR. He was a budding television writer at the time, cranking out freelance scripts for the as-yet-unaired Batman: The Animated Series. He’d been struggling to come up with a female character to use as a one-off in an episode about Batman’s archnemesis, the Joker.

Tim Gonzales has loving edited together a trailer for an Ahsoka Tano feature film. Using old footage from Star Wars Clone Wars and Rebels, the story is focused on Ahsoka, one of the few worthwhile Jedi, as she proctors, the galaxies' remaining Jedi and faces off against her old Master.

This arc in Star Wars Rebels tries to lend Obi-Wan's lie credentials. The whole 'Vader killed Annikon Skywalker,' i.e. that Anni wasn't a massive asshole the entire time story.

He was and sematic bullshit seems to be a form 3 lightsaber move. Read the rest

A ridiculous show of LEGO mastery.

However...

Read the rest

Kristen Stewart, in a wide-ranging interview with Harper's Bazaar, says she was told to hide her sexuality if she wanted to get a Marvel movie role. Stewart identifies as bisexual and has publicly dated both men and women.

If she can make the conversation about sexuality easier for anyone, she’s happy. She also couldn’t care less about the impact any of this might have on her career. In the past, she says, "I have fully been told, 'If you just like do yourself a favour, and don’t go out holding your girlfriend’s hand in public, you might get a Marvel movie.'" She looks almost amused at the memory. "I don’t want to work with people like that." Now, by contrast, people approach her, drawn to that undefined sexuality, wanting to make movies about it. Stewart shakes her head in mock despair. "Literally, life is a huge popularity contest."

Hollywood is, contrary to media myth, a deeply conservative place. In fact, the most distinctively liberal thing about is how its presents its homophobia as something it is forced to do by conservatives. Read the rest

I like Suki, Molly of Denali's pet dog.

Molly and her dog Suki, an Alaskan Malamute, live in the fictional town of Qyah, Alaska. Molly of Denali is the first US children's show to feature a Native American lead character, the titular Molly. Every indigenous character is voiced by an indigenous actor. Alaska Native and Canadian First Tribes people also work as writers, producers, and staff on the show.

Wisconsin Public Television Blog:

“When I was growing up, Indigenous people weren’t reflected in television and film,” said Princess Daazhraii Johnson (Neets’aii Gwich’in), creative producer for Molly of Denali. “When an Indigenous person was portrayed, it was usually a stereotype. What makes the Molly of Denali series so exciting is that Alaska Native voices were incorporated from the start of the show, and WGBH and PBS KIDS continue to incorporate more Alaska Native voices at every level of production. We can’t wait for Native youth to see themselves in Molly and her friends.”

Molly of Denali includes Alaska Native voices in all aspects of the production, both on camera and behind the scenes. Every Indigenous character is voiced by an Indigenous actor. Producers developed Molly of Denali with a working group of Alaska Native advisors, and is creating opportunities for developing Alaska Native talent via a scriptwriting fellowship.

The show also provides a window into the Alaskan experience through live-action interstitials featuring local children and regions, filmed by Alaskan production teams.

My first dog was an Alaskan Malamute, her name was Sabrina. Read the rest

Josh Ellingson, an artist from San Francisco, connected a Roku to his old black-and-white TV and enjoyed The Twilight Zone as it should be watched. Here are some other fun things he did with the setup.

[via digg] Read the rest

Watch this new trailer for that upcoming Martin Scorsese Netflix feature on Bob Dylan. Read the rest

Deadwood: The Movie airs on HBO in the US on Friday, May 31.

Can't wait for Swearingen's swears.

“Thirteen years after it was abruptly cancelled, David Milch’s grimy, glorious western finally gets the ending it deserves.”

From James Donaghy's tease in The Guardian:

Set in the historic lawless mining camp in the Black Hills gold rush of the 1870s, Deadwood melded profanity and poetry like no TV show before, reimagining the historic figures of the town in a bloody, grimy revisionist western that felt resolutely arthouse from its first shot to its last. It deserved better and now Deadwood: The Movie is a bold attempt to right that wrong, 13 years after its cancellation.

It does the trick. While it isn’t quite Deadwood at its jaw-dropping best – few things in TV history are – there is enough of the old magic left to deliver a satisfying ending.

We find Deadwood well on its way to gentrification, a far cry from the rough-as-guts encampment that greeted us in 2004, caked in shit and blood. Trains not wagons now deliver newcomers, the thoroughfare looks more like a street, less like a pigpen, and there’s even a public phone. We are 10 years down the line from the final action of the TV show, with the town coming together to celebrate South Dakota becoming the 40th state of the Union. Philosopher king Al Swearengen is in still in situ at The Gem, perma-angry marshall Seth Bullock still inhales and expels pure righteousness and malevolent robber baron George Hearst is back in town.

Spoiler: Guess who's back!

Twenty-seven years after the events of the summer of 1989, It (Bill Skarsgård) returns. The Losers' Club fulfill their promises and return to Derry to put an end to the evil being once and for all. Unbeknownst to them, It has returned, stronger and crueler than ever.

In theaters September 6. Read the rest