(Stop reading now to avoid spoilers) Read the rest

Congratulations to Disney on the exciting new merchandising opportunity of bounty pucks.

I swear these are three different scenes:

And if bounty pucks don't prove popular, there's the less sophisticated tracking fob:

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Polygon interviewed Watchmen costume designer Meghan Kasperlik, who described the movie magic used to bring Looking Glass to life:

“We had five different masks,” the designer says, explaining that exactly what Nelson was wearing would change depending on the demands of the scene. Some of the masks were for motion tracking, featuring a special print that would aid with motion capture and tracking, keeping track of the orientation of Nelson’s face at all times. Others were purely green screen or spandex, while yet another — the only mask that wouldn’t require the reflectiveness to be added via CG later — was made of lamé, a type of fabric that has metallic fiber woven throughout it, meaning only one of the actual masks used during shooting was that distinctive silver.

Den of Geek talked to Tim Blake Nelson about wearing the mask:

“The mask is fine to wear. I really like it,” he says. “Actually it furnishes a wonderful challenge that is specific to itself. In drama school we did mask class and the reason they taught that was to take away the visage, which is an essential form of expression that we have, and force the actor to use only body and voice. I looked at this as a really fun exercise over an entire season of television in which I would get to explore that. And moreover going in the opposite direction with this character. Rather than amplifying body and voice to use the mask to pull back even more.

The Activist is a new 5-part series from Peter Sunde (previously), AKA brokep, who cofounded The Pirate Bay and also founded Flattr. Read the rest

On August 8, 1974, President Richard Nixon delivered his resignation speech to the American public. Moments before this historical event, he was calmly joking around with the TV crew as if this was just any other presser. And then....

"...I have felt it was my duty to persevere, to make every possible effort to complete the term of office to which you elected me. In the past few days, however, it has become evident to me that I no longer have a strong enough political base in the Congress to justify continuing that effort."

(via r/ObscureMedia)

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Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey, aka The Office's Pam and Angela, are launching a new podcast together about The Office. Listen to the trailer below. Titled “Office Ladies,” the podcast will feature the two actresses, who are real life best pals, rewatching every episode of the TV series and bantering about it. It premiers tomorrow! From an interview in the New York Times:

So where did the idea for the podcast come from?

KINSEY I was going through my garage, and I have all of these Rubbermaid bins full of photos and memorabilia. Jenna jokes that I’m a hoarder because I save everything. I would save a little note that Oscar passed me, a drawing that Jenna drew or a prop. I have Michael Scott’s business card.

FISCHER You have Dwight and Angela’s wedding invitation.

KINSEY So I was going through it all and Jenna came over and was looking through it with me, and it made us really nostalgic. We started reminiscing, and the 15-year anniversary is coming up so we thought this is a great opportunity for us to rewatch it and talk about our memories, our behind-the-scenes moments and share it with the fans.

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Sesame Street continues its run of excellent, empathetic new muppets to help kids deal with a changing world: after introducing muppets experiencing homelessness, living with autism, and explaining marriage without recourse to gender norms, the show has introduced a muppet whose mother lost custody of her after becoming addicted to drugs. 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

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

DMZ, an outstanding post-apocalyptic comic written by Brian Wood which came to its satsifying conclusion in 2012, and has been subsequently collected in beautiful deluxe editions (which also reprint my introduction to the series' third volume) is being adapted as a pilot for HBO by Ava DeVernay, the afrofuturist filmmaker whose work includes A Wrinkle in Time and Selma. Read the rest

[[You may know Richard Littler from the astounding dystopian alternate fiction/bleak humour series Scarfolk (previously). He's been working on an on-again/off-again animated series that is, at long last, on. I was honoured to be offered the opportunity to launch the series here today!]]

Dick and Stewart is a series of short animations set in either Britain’s dismal past or the Britain that’s soon to come. It's hard to tell nowadays, isn't it? Either way, just imagine what it would be like if children's TV programmes were written by George Orwell or Franz Kafka. Or the government itself. Read the rest

My 13-year-old son showed me this and we couldn't stop laughing. How dare Mario be so rude to his brother!

The 1989 TV series "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!" starred wrestler Lou Albano as Mario, Danny Wells of "The Jeffersons" as Luigi, and Jeannie Elias as the voice of Princess Toadstool.

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Children of the 80's will remember the disturbing puppets from satirical puppet show Spitting Image and the video for Genesis' Land of Confusion.  Co-creator Roger Law has confirmed that a pilot has been filmed, with hopes of a new series focusing on major celebrities like Donald Trump and Mark Zuckerberg.

Jeff Westbrook, a writer on The Simpsons and Futurama, is serving as show-runner, and caricaturist Adrian Teal is working on the puppets.  You can get a glimpse of the Trump puppet in action in this clip:

On #FrontRowLate tonight, @wmarybeard speaks exclusively to Roger Law, as he films a pilot in the UK for the new Spitting Image series coming to American TV. pic.twitter.com/JFuX5dHCEU

— BBC Arts (@bbcarts) September 27, 2019

(Images via Avalon and The Guardian.) Read the rest

In this 1984 TV commercial for Coleco's failed Adam home computer, Lori Laughlin observes a young fellow able to power through his school assignment thanks to the magic of word processing. Laughlin asks, "Is that legal?" Ahem.

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Gilligan's Island creator Sherwood Schwartz named the ill-fated S.S. Minnow after the then-chair of the FCC who Schwartz said "ruined television." Read the rest

The WarnerMedia streaming platform HBO Max has ordered two "reimagined" seasons of the cult favorite 'The Boondocks,' so we're getting 24 episodes of a new Boondocks show.

This is real. Read the rest