Archive for the “Television” Category

There’s a new show on Discovery channel that I’ve really gotten in to; Prototype This!  In it, four guys take a wild idea and in a fit of wild rapid prototyping, bust out a working prototype in 14 days.

Now, it sounds sort of hum drum (unless you’re a geek), but it’s really quite remarkable when you consider that THEIR STUFF ACTUALLY WORKS!!  Right off the bat, you might think, “So?  Isn’t it supposed to work?”  Well, yes.  Ideally it is.  However, the show that this is replacing rarely had anything work.  If you never heard of Smash Lab, I’m not all that surprised.  It was horrible.

A few months ago, my wife and I were walking through a store that specializes in second hand kids stuff.  Our boys had grown past a certain point, and it didn’t make much sense in keeping many of the things they wouldn’t use again.  While walking down one of the store’s aisles, I saw something from my own childhood: The Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia.  Though entirely out of date now (thanks to recent discoveries and whatnot), it was in perfect condition and only $2, so we got it for the boys.

My own son is still a little young to really get into it, but he enjoys looking at the pictures nonetheless.  My stepson, however, is two years older than him and gets a kick out of it.  He and I will sit on the couch and he’ll turn to a page and ask me to read it to him.  Thanks to how it’s laid out, he can immediately see (thanks to some special graphics and charts on every page) how large the dinosaur is compared to a human, if they lived REALLY REALLY long ago, pretty long ago, sort of long ago, or just not so long ago (my terminology), and if they ate plants or meat.

The very first book I ever read on my own was Robinson Crusoe. I was seven years old, and had been reading for some time, but never with any interest. Between my short attention span and over active imagination, most story books were just too boring for me to want to read them all the way through.

Crusoe changed that however; I was bringing the book with me to the dinner table so I could keep reading, I would sit on the couch with the TV on and not look once at it all night, I would beg my mom to let me stay up just a little bit longer till I reached the end of the chapter. She must have been so happy (my mom is an avid reader herself, and I can only imagine how she must have worried that she had a 2nd grader who wouldn’t read).

Doctor Who makes an announcement.

Rumors have been flying fast and furious.  David Tennant, our current resident Time Lord, took some time away from the show to work with the Royal Shakespear Company (with Patrick Stewart).  Usually when something like this happens on a BBC production, the actors are moving on.  Yes after much deliberation, David announced that he would be leaving the TARDIS when the scheduled Doctor Who specials have been completed.

This sucks.  But it is official as you can see here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7698539.stm

With the article was an interview with David about his decision to leave.  As I was watching it David mentioned how excited he was to see how they would do the regeneration scene.  The BBC literally gets to kill the main character of a hit show and have the show continue.  The regeneration scene was originally conceived when William Hartnel (the first Doctor) decided to leave the show.  The script writer, Gerry Davis, proposed that the alien doctor could have the ability to die and return with a new body.  This would allow them to continue the show with a younger actor in the lead role.  Recasting kept the show fresh and allowed it to continue for 40 years.

As a fan of a lot of Sci-Fi shows, I end up joining various fan clubs. Of course I run the USS Ticonderoga fan club for Star Trek. I’ve been involved in various clubs for Star Wars, Doctor Who, Firefly and others. One of these is the Visitors Fifth Column, a fan club of the various V mini-series and television series. Today the leader of the local chapter directed me towards a Variety report announcing that ABC would be producing a re-image of the V story. Warner Brothers TV will be producing the show.

Did you miss me?

Scott Peters, the co-creator and executive producer of the USA series The 4400, will be writing the new adaptation. Peters has also written for The Outer Limits and Highlander. He has also directed for The 4400 and Jericho.

So, I was able to catch the pilot and second episode of Knight Rider. I am disappointed.

Ok, so I get the fact that the original show wasn’t so great either. It was about a guy and his car, and as kids we didn’t care that the action was obviously staged and the driving was rather low budget. At the time, we couldn’t drive ourselves, so it impressed the crap out of us. But here’s the thing; we’ve grown up. I know that our parents are probably chuckling with the thought that we’re all old enough now to understand how lame our childhood heroes were, but it’s frustrating just the same.

I made a claim once in our forums that the fastest way to kill a show was to put it on the CW.  When UPN and WB combined, they somehow managed to open the portal and allow Gozer to come into our world.  

In their latest attempt to screw up people who have no business even thinking about superheroes, they are creating a show about Dick Grayson . . . before he knew Bruce Wayne.

Holy prequel, Boy Wonder, the CW is prepping a series based on Batman sidekick Robin’s pre-Caped Crusader days.

“Smallville” exec producers Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson, as well as“Supernatural” exec producer McG, are behind “The Graysons,” which has landed a put pilot commitment at the netlet.

You can read the whole article here.

I’m fairly convinced that 90% of the people who work in advertising are high as a kite while at the work place. Either that, or it’s actually a very small minority that is high, and they just happen to be the ones making most the ads we see. Maybe they’re cheaper, I don’t know.

I know I’m not the only one who’s thought that, I’m sure. I’m sure not the first person to bring up how dumb some ads and logos and such are. A great example would be a couple strips from Real Life Comics by Greg Dean

It so happens that certain Native American tribes are allowed the use of peyote for religious ceremonies since they’ve already been doing so for thousands of years.  I honestly wonder if there are other laws that protect people in certain occupations in a similar manner.  Something along the lines of “All bonafide advertising agencies may enjoy the use of crack cocaine for inspirational purposes.”

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The new television shows for Fall 2008 network season are almost here.   Amid the cesspools known as ‘reality’ tv, cop show copy-cats and lame sitcoms we can usually find nuggets of interesting television.  Here are some of the shows that I feel would be of interest to fellow geeks with some of my comments for you to rip apart.  With some of the schedule conflicts, I can only thank the gods for DVR service.  All times posted are Eastern.
Think a show is missing from this list?  Remember that several shows have Mid-season premiers such as Lost (ABC), Reaper (CW), 24 (Fox) and Merlin (new show, NBC) .

I’m also interested in hearing what other geeks are looking forward to.

On a crusade....

Mondays:
8:00pm Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles (Fox)- Returning show starts on September 8th.  I will be watching this show again.  I really didn’t think this would make good episodic television, but I found myself watching each week.

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New Red Dwarf episode from the BBC?  Could it be true?

The PBS station in Steattle, KCTS 9 hosted Robert Llewellyn (aka Kryten) for a 20th Anniversary Celebration of Red Dwarf on Sunday, August 24th.  To advertise the event Robert recorded a special promo seen here:

http://www.kcts9.org/video/red-dwarf-robert-llewellyn-coming-seattle

On this video he states that he has some special news about the future of the show and that he was saving it for his visit.

Fans watched the show and posted a report on the official Robert Llewellyn message boards.  Here is that link:

http://llewtube.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=841

At KCTS Robert announced that BBC Worldwide has commisioned a 1 hour episode of Red Dwarf.  The script is in the final stages now and should be filming in October of 2008.  He wouldn’t provide any details on the plot.

So far my search has only turned up these two items.  As I come accross more information, I’ll post it here.