Yo!
For those of you who haven't heard of this yet, the futuristic "Simpsons" spinoff, "Futurama", has just been officially resurrected!!!!! And before you think to yourself "Alright! New episodes on Fox/Adult Swim!!!!!", ..............WRONG. New Futuramas will premiere on the one network almost none of us really anticipated: Comedy Central. That's right, people, the infamous cable channel that brought us "daily" satiric primetime news, a festive, talking piece of crap, Stephen Colbert and Dave Chappelle is now the exclusive home of not just the 13 new episodes coming soon, but the 72 episodes previously produced for Fox from January, 1999 to August, 2003.
Allow me to elaborate: See, in 2007, apparently, Turner Broadcasting's acquisition to the franchise's broadcasting rights will expire, so last year, a quiet buyout took place to prevent Turner from holding onto the show any longer. Apparently, Viacom won that bid, and so the new Futuramas will be shown only on Comedy Central starting in 2008. It hasn't been confirmed yet as of this writing whether or not Comedy Central will also air the DVD movies later down the line, or how much of the original cast will return, other than Billy West (Fry, Prof. Farnsworth, Zap Brannigan, Dr. Zoidberg), Katey Segal (Leela), and John DiMaggio (Bender), all of whom have definitely signed on for the new stuff. The full news story can be found HERE, courtesy of IGN.com.
Well, it's about darn-tootin' time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ever since word of the Family Guy resurrection last summer exploded across the internet back in 2004, there were just as many message board posts, blog entries, and editorial podcasts left-and-right, asking the (until-now) ultimate unanswered question: Will Futurama ever return?????? If you saw the Family Guy DVD movie that came out last fall (and aired on Fox last month), that was one of the gags used in the opening red carpet prologue sequence, that had the question-asker inevitably killed immediately (He worked for Entertainment Weekly. He had it coming. HERE's an explanation, at the bottom of that section).
Bottom-line: In my opinion, Futurama is very high in my personal top-10 TV shows EVER list, and even though it's a shame it took so long for it to come back, and it won't be returning on the original network, it's good to see the old gang back together. After the five-year wait to see new episodes, here's hoping the writers haven't gotten rusty over time, or there won't be a season seven, even on Comedy Central. But there will be DVDs. Thank God for DVDs. Us fans will always have the DVDs. ...But seriously, though, Futurama writers, you better not blow this or the fans will be seriously pissed about the long wait for sub-par new material. ....................But that's just me.
Later!
-D.
P.S. In case you didn't catch it, this blog entry's title is a subtle reference to an episode title of arguably the greatest animated superhero show ever, Justice League. Specifically, the "Unlimited" episodes that started in 2004. This show recently aired its series finale on Cartoon Network a few months back with a few dangling plot threads, and a rather interesting end for Lex Luthor, when compared to where he was in the beginning of the Superman cartoon, almost exactly ten years ago (get the season one DVD from Amazon HERE). From head of Lexcorp, at the top of Metropolis, to a smoldering crater at the bottom of Metropolis. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Monday, June 19, 2006
Entry 14: "Summer Movies, You Can Always Predict 'Em"
Yo!
Well, probably the top-- well, among the top internet chatter this week was the realization of the release dates of two teaser trailers for two of the most anticipated films of 2007: The Transformers movie, and Spider-Man 3. Supposedly, the big Flash countdown on the Transformers official movie site, found HERE, is counting down to the teaser release date, which apparently will be July 4th. Exactly one year prior to the actual film's release. Nothing has been officially released as far as plotline, full cast, stuff like that, but when the countdown reaches zero, I suppose one of two things will happen: either the site will shift to an alternate teaser site, with VERY brief and non-specific plot synopsis, cast list, a behind-the-scenes area that won't have anything until 2 months before the actual film's release (et tu, M:I-3?), and MAAAAYBE a link to a promotional MySpace mini-site (God, how rich must that Tom what's-his-last-name guy be??), OR our hopes will be realized and Paramount will release the teaser! ...and nothing else. But at least a teaser (rumor has it, it'll be approx. 90 seconds long) will hopefully whet our appetite enough to almost want to go see the film enough times for Michael Bay to make up for "The Island." ALMOST.
The other film is Spider-Man 3. This film, in case you didn't know, is so extremely profoundly anticipated, that dozens of fan-made teaser trailers have been popping up sporadically around YouTube and Google Video that it's not even funny. Well, who am I kidding? Of course it's funny. Check out THIS one I found in a message post on CountingDown.com. Perfect example of the kind of content these trailers offer. Nothing on these kinds of trailers are snuck in from the ACTUAL Spidey 3 flick, but rather, a meticulously crafted super-montage of Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, and Topher Grace in assorted closeups from Spidey 1&2, Spidey 1&2, Spidey 1&2 and That '70s Show, respectively with Venom (aka the "Anti-Spidey" ...okay, not really. I just thought that one up just now.) clips made up of various carefully re-colored clips from Spawn, and closeup drooling footage from the Alien quadrilogy.
Guys! Three words: GET A LIFE!!!!! The REAL teaser will come out with Superman Returns next weekend, can't you refrain from doing the faux-video capturing and geeking out on how risky, cinematically, it will be to have FOUR bad guys mashed into the same film (helluva jump, huh? From Goblin in 1 to Doc Ock in 2, to Venom, Sandman, Goblin 2 [read: Harry Osborn], and supposedly Lizard in part 3, all with origins, all with big solo Spidey fights, and all within the same film) long enough to wait out just under two more weeks??? For God's sake, take a walk outside! Get away from the computer!! After this trailer comes out, THEN start sneaking your HandyCams into theatres to score captures of the trailer, post 'em on YouTube and form your divided opinions on whether or not this'll top Spidey 2. .......But that's--- aw, forget it. You know the rest.
Later!
-D.
------ADDENDUM TO BLOG POST: 6/20/06------
It has come to my attenton today that, according to ComingSoon.com, the Transformers teaser will debut in theatres in front of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 on July 9th, instead of Superman Returns. Whatever, I'm still waiting for the online version, between the official Flash version on the website, or the soon-to-be leaked YouTube version, whatever comes first.
Well, probably the top-- well, among the top internet chatter this week was the realization of the release dates of two teaser trailers for two of the most anticipated films of 2007: The Transformers movie, and Spider-Man 3. Supposedly, the big Flash countdown on the Transformers official movie site, found HERE, is counting down to the teaser release date, which apparently will be July 4th. Exactly one year prior to the actual film's release. Nothing has been officially released as far as plotline, full cast, stuff like that, but when the countdown reaches zero, I suppose one of two things will happen: either the site will shift to an alternate teaser site, with VERY brief and non-specific plot synopsis, cast list, a behind-the-scenes area that won't have anything until 2 months before the actual film's release (et tu, M:I-3?), and MAAAAYBE a link to a promotional MySpace mini-site (God, how rich must that Tom what's-his-last-name guy be??), OR our hopes will be realized and Paramount will release the teaser! ...and nothing else. But at least a teaser (rumor has it, it'll be approx. 90 seconds long) will hopefully whet our appetite enough to almost want to go see the film enough times for Michael Bay to make up for "The Island." ALMOST.
The other film is Spider-Man 3. This film, in case you didn't know, is so extremely profoundly anticipated, that dozens of fan-made teaser trailers have been popping up sporadically around YouTube and Google Video that it's not even funny. Well, who am I kidding? Of course it's funny. Check out THIS one I found in a message post on CountingDown.com. Perfect example of the kind of content these trailers offer. Nothing on these kinds of trailers are snuck in from the ACTUAL Spidey 3 flick, but rather, a meticulously crafted super-montage of Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, and Topher Grace in assorted closeups from Spidey 1&2, Spidey 1&2, Spidey 1&2 and That '70s Show, respectively with Venom (aka the "Anti-Spidey" ...okay, not really. I just thought that one up just now.) clips made up of various carefully re-colored clips from Spawn, and closeup drooling footage from the Alien quadrilogy.
Guys! Three words: GET A LIFE!!!!! The REAL teaser will come out with Superman Returns next weekend, can't you refrain from doing the faux-video capturing and geeking out on how risky, cinematically, it will be to have FOUR bad guys mashed into the same film (helluva jump, huh? From Goblin in 1 to Doc Ock in 2, to Venom, Sandman, Goblin 2 [read: Harry Osborn], and supposedly Lizard in part 3, all with origins, all with big solo Spidey fights, and all within the same film) long enough to wait out just under two more weeks??? For God's sake, take a walk outside! Get away from the computer!! After this trailer comes out, THEN start sneaking your HandyCams into theatres to score captures of the trailer, post 'em on YouTube and form your divided opinions on whether or not this'll top Spidey 2. .......But that's--- aw, forget it. You know the rest.
Later!
-D.
------ADDENDUM TO BLOG POST: 6/20/06------
It has come to my attenton today that, according to ComingSoon.com, the Transformers teaser will debut in theatres in front of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 on July 9th, instead of Superman Returns. Whatever, I'm still waiting for the online version, between the official Flash version on the website, or the soon-to-be leaked YouTube version, whatever comes first.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Entry 13: WWE vs..... ECW?!?!?!?! (Part 2)
Yo!
Phew! Cut the 8pm deadline close this time! Okay, I gotta make this super-brief this time. So last week I ran a tad long in the middle of a rant about the re-emergence of the Extreme Championship Wrestling league. I just wanted to mention that from what I've read online about ECW's long-standing history of (scripted) battles against the WWE, well I just can't wait to see how this turns out. Especially considering the handful of WWE'ers who migrated over to ECW recently.
I have to set something straight here:
Admittedly, I've only been half-regularly watching this stuff since about late 2004, so I clearly can't base any rants I do on this topic on first hand viewing experience, but then, isn't that kind of research part of the reason Google was invented? Anyway, bottom line: The way things have been chaotically happening just on the parent series (Monday Raw), especially over the last thirteen months, it's gonna be really interesting to see just how "Extreme" these guys can get, since I've never seen anything ECW on-air; the original ECW show on the channel formerly known as TNN (SpikeTV, these days) ended in 2000 so this is gonna be a fresh viewpoint for me. From what I've seen of their early days though, here's hoping it doesnt turn into another Saturday Night's Main Event revival (one-shot deal, apparently). ...But that's just me.
Later!
-D.
Phew! Cut the 8pm deadline close this time! Okay, I gotta make this super-brief this time. So last week I ran a tad long in the middle of a rant about the re-emergence of the Extreme Championship Wrestling league. I just wanted to mention that from what I've read online about ECW's long-standing history of (scripted) battles against the WWE, well I just can't wait to see how this turns out. Especially considering the handful of WWE'ers who migrated over to ECW recently.
I have to set something straight here:
Admittedly, I've only been half-regularly watching this stuff since about late 2004, so I clearly can't base any rants I do on this topic on first hand viewing experience, but then, isn't that kind of research part of the reason Google was invented? Anyway, bottom line: The way things have been chaotically happening just on the parent series (Monday Raw), especially over the last thirteen months, it's gonna be really interesting to see just how "Extreme" these guys can get, since I've never seen anything ECW on-air; the original ECW show on the channel formerly known as TNN (SpikeTV, these days) ended in 2000 so this is gonna be a fresh viewpoint for me. From what I've seen of their early days though, here's hoping it doesnt turn into another Saturday Night's Main Event revival (one-shot deal, apparently). ...But that's just me.
Later!
-D.
Monday, June 5, 2006
Entry 12: WWE vs..... ECW?!?!?!?!
Yo!
Well, well, well.......... So the big, bad World Wrestling Entertainment is about to square off in yet another "franchise war" against the long-since absorbed Extreme Championship Wrestling guys. Just like the good old days, I suppose. I'll come back to this battle in a moment. First, I gotta say something about ECW's big brother, the WWE.
First off, about the whole death of Eddie Guerrero thing last fall... Like most of the world (aw heck... probably at least 99.9999 percent with the 0.0001 percent being the actual WWE guys themselves, give or take), it took me a good long while to accept the gravity of the newly unfolding situation. When I tuned in to Monday Raw on November 14th, literally the day after news of Eddie's passing was slowly beginning to seep out into the mainstream, and I noticed the very first shot of the show had every Raw and Smackdown star all standing in a horizontal line in front of Raw's stage/ring entrance area practically in police suspect lineup-style (sorry, that was what it kinda looked like to me at the time. I calls 'em as I sees 'em), I knew something was up immediately. It was only after WWE Chairman Vincent Kennedy McMahon went into full eulogy mode breaking the news about Eddie's death to the public (and verifying this online at several websites other than WWE's homepage) that it started to sink in, after about ten minutes of raw disbelief (obviously, no pun intended).
Check this out: When you work in a business where the rules of pain, theatrics, reality, sportsmanship and death are bent and distorted almost beyond recognition, it comes as no surprise how long it took (for me, at least) to realize that this was, for once, real. The thing is, tragedies like Eddie's death shouldn't be met with so much disbelief, unless of course, it's a majorly massive loss of life. Katrina? That deserved disbelief like that. September 11th? Of course that took a while to accept. But the death of one man who isn't immortal, despite certain of his own "co-workers" constantly toying around with the permanence of death itself (*cough, Undertaker.....), shouldn't have been, in my opinion, been blown out of proportion like that.
With all due respect to Eddie's fans, friends and of course, family, I acknowledge that he had a lot of history with the WWE, and his legacy was justfully cemented in the annals of wrestling history at this year's WWE Hall of Fame ceremony not so long ago, but eventually everyone had to accept that even in the WWE, there's obviously no such thing as immortality, and even though those guys (except for in the Pay-Per-View events, I guess. Darn network Standards-and-Practices) almost never sustain any REALLY real injuries, they're far from gods. Well, John "Wrestling God" Leyfield still had that particular superiority complex going on, last time I checked Smackdown, which was a good while back. I'm not a big UPN viewer. Bottom line, Aside from his almost unneccessarily long mourning on-air on BOTH Raw and Smackdown, Mr. "Latino Heat" did have a great, long run while it lasted, and no doubt his legacy will be felt in the industry for years to come. ...........But that's (obviously not) just me. Rest in peace, Eddie.
Oh! Sorry about the length of that rant. I almost forgot the main thing I was going to talk about this week. I'm gonna have to divide this up into my first two-part blog entry! Let me just throw in this plug and then I'll get to what was supposed to be this week's rant next Monday night. The WWE's long-standing rival franchise through the '90s and late '80s, the ECW, is making its "triumphant" return Tuesday nights starting next Tuesday, 6/13 on SciFi Channel. That's right, SciFi. I know, I never woulda guessed those guys either. Check this link for more info. Okay, that's it! Rant to be continued NEXT MONDAY NIGHT! Same timeframe, same website!
-D.
Well, well, well.......... So the big, bad World Wrestling Entertainment is about to square off in yet another "franchise war" against the long-since absorbed Extreme Championship Wrestling guys. Just like the good old days, I suppose. I'll come back to this battle in a moment. First, I gotta say something about ECW's big brother, the WWE.
First off, about the whole death of Eddie Guerrero thing last fall... Like most of the world (aw heck... probably at least 99.9999 percent with the 0.0001 percent being the actual WWE guys themselves, give or take), it took me a good long while to accept the gravity of the newly unfolding situation. When I tuned in to Monday Raw on November 14th, literally the day after news of Eddie's passing was slowly beginning to seep out into the mainstream, and I noticed the very first shot of the show had every Raw and Smackdown star all standing in a horizontal line in front of Raw's stage/ring entrance area practically in police suspect lineup-style (sorry, that was what it kinda looked like to me at the time. I calls 'em as I sees 'em), I knew something was up immediately. It was only after WWE Chairman Vincent Kennedy McMahon went into full eulogy mode breaking the news about Eddie's death to the public (and verifying this online at several websites other than WWE's homepage) that it started to sink in, after about ten minutes of raw disbelief (obviously, no pun intended).
Check this out: When you work in a business where the rules of pain, theatrics, reality, sportsmanship and death are bent and distorted almost beyond recognition, it comes as no surprise how long it took (for me, at least) to realize that this was, for once, real. The thing is, tragedies like Eddie's death shouldn't be met with so much disbelief, unless of course, it's a majorly massive loss of life. Katrina? That deserved disbelief like that. September 11th? Of course that took a while to accept. But the death of one man who isn't immortal, despite certain of his own "co-workers" constantly toying around with the permanence of death itself (*cough, Undertaker.....), shouldn't have been, in my opinion, been blown out of proportion like that.
With all due respect to Eddie's fans, friends and of course, family, I acknowledge that he had a lot of history with the WWE, and his legacy was justfully cemented in the annals of wrestling history at this year's WWE Hall of Fame ceremony not so long ago, but eventually everyone had to accept that even in the WWE, there's obviously no such thing as immortality, and even though those guys (except for in the Pay-Per-View events, I guess. Darn network Standards-and-Practices) almost never sustain any REALLY real injuries, they're far from gods. Well, John "Wrestling God" Leyfield still had that particular superiority complex going on, last time I checked Smackdown, which was a good while back. I'm not a big UPN viewer. Bottom line, Aside from his almost unneccessarily long mourning on-air on BOTH Raw and Smackdown, Mr. "Latino Heat" did have a great, long run while it lasted, and no doubt his legacy will be felt in the industry for years to come. ...........But that's (obviously not) just me. Rest in peace, Eddie.
Oh! Sorry about the length of that rant. I almost forgot the main thing I was going to talk about this week. I'm gonna have to divide this up into my first two-part blog entry! Let me just throw in this plug and then I'll get to what was supposed to be this week's rant next Monday night. The WWE's long-standing rival franchise through the '90s and late '80s, the ECW, is making its "triumphant" return Tuesday nights starting next Tuesday, 6/13 on SciFi Channel. That's right, SciFi. I know, I never woulda guessed those guys either. Check this link for more info. Okay, that's it! Rant to be continued NEXT MONDAY NIGHT! Same timeframe, same website!
-D.
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