If your ship doesn't come in...swim out to it !
- Jonathan Winters
NEW "Comic Book Men" Reality Show - Q&A with show creator Kevin Smith - pilfered from the AMC Blog
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Actor, filmmaker and podcaster Kevin Smith explains how AMC's new series is like Antiques Roadshow for nerds then imagines the cast of Comic Book Men with superpowers.
Q: Did you ever imagine that being a comic book geek would become something cool enough to warrant its own reality series?
A: S--- no, dude... The s--- that used to be considered geeky or kind of useless or nerdy is kind of what powers the entertainment industry. Back in the day, they'd call you a nerd if you like Star Trek, but a guy who likes football and knows every obsessive detail about every person on every team is calling some guy who likes Mr. Spock a nerd. They are nerds too. It's taken us all this time to figure out everyone is a nerd for something. But we kind of concentrate on the classic stuff: movies, comics, toys -- you know, geek culture.
Q: In a way, Comic Book Men is sort of like Antiques Roadshow for nerds. Was that intentional?
A: Think about when you watch Antiques Roadshow: Every once in awhile somebody brings in a doll or a comic and you're like, "Oh my god I wish the whole show was about that. Why can't the whole f---ing episode be comic books?" Comic Book Men is like that. It's like taking a box of Cap'n Crunch Crunch Berries, removing all the Cap'n Crunch, and just having a bowl of pure Crunch Berries for the geek. Everything that comes through the door, you're just like "Oh my god, I have that!" or "What is that worth?" or just something you never knew that existed, like "I never knew Bulletman had a pal." And suddenly you've got something that, if you're a geek, that is brilliant television.
Q: Do you personally have a piece of memorabilia that kind of fits into the Crunch Berry category?
A: When I sold my comic book collection to make Clerks I had the Sandman statue that Graffiti Designs did and it was based on Kelley Jones artwork. It was the first time that somebody had done something that wasn't a toy related to comics and it was expensive -- like $250 when I bought it. So with that money I funded Clerks and thank god I did, but recently I realized if I could get that piece back -- they're all numbered, I know what number I had -- if I could find that, which a pre-Clerks Kevin Smith purchased on his own steam, that would be a collectible worth having.
Q: Everybody knows you, but the other guys are less familiar. What can you tell us about them?
A: These guys are just funny people that never thought they were gonna get put on display. They're just content to be funny and not use it. Walt is the manager and he runs the store like it's his own. He might as well own it -- I hold the paper, but Walter holds everything else like it's his life's work. Bryan epitomizes "the genius is the one who is most like himself" -- that's Bryan hands down. Mike is finely tuned for exactly what the show needs: You sit there your whole life, and I'm sure some friends of his or maybe even his wife are like, "Why the f--- do you know so much about some s--- that means nothing?" And now it all comes to use. Ming got a whiff of a TV show and he was on board, and thank god because you wanna have one battery in the mix. Walt and Bryan are not the batteries -- they're wonderful content generators, but Ming and Mike are definitely the batteries powering those two dudes up. And suddenly there's our crew, man. And the nice thing is that's the world that existed prior to the show.
Q: In the past, some of your on-screen creations have themselves become comics (Bluntman and Chronic, for example). Could you ever imagine writing a Comic Book Men comic book?
A: Oh in a heartbeat, but it would be so uninteresting. They kind of all function as a four-way married couple that don't have sex, so just imagine that comic: Four men griping at each other, and every once in a while they have a transaction.
Q: What if you were all given superpowers?
A: Superpowers? Yeah, far more interesting. You want to make it a brilliant book to last the ages? Give one of those people god-like powers and let them go crazy and destroy the world. Maybe Mike goes f---ing rogue, and then Walt, Bryan and Ming have to use their superpowers to bring him down. I'd be like Professor X -- I'll stay home in the chair. So Mike would be Galactus, Walt is Cyclops, Johnson is hands down the Wolverine of the bunch, and Ming is Kitty Pryde. [Laughs]
Actor, filmmaker and podcaster Kevin Smith explains how AMC's new series is like Antiques Roadshow for nerds then imagines the cast of Comic Book Men with superpowers.
Q: Did you ever imagine that being a comic book geek would become something cool enough to warrant its own reality series?
A: S--- no, dude... The s--- that used to be considered geeky or kind of useless or nerdy is kind of what powers the entertainment industry. Back in the day, they'd call you a nerd if you like Star Trek, but a guy who likes football and knows every obsessive detail about every person on every team is calling some guy who likes Mr. Spock a nerd. They are nerds too. It's taken us all this time to figure out everyone is a nerd for something. But we kind of concentrate on the classic stuff: movies, comics, toys -- you know, geek culture.
Q: In a way, Comic Book Men is sort of like Antiques Roadshow for nerds. Was that intentional?
A: Think about when you watch Antiques Roadshow: Every once in awhile somebody brings in a doll or a comic and you're like, "Oh my god I wish the whole show was about that. Why can't the whole f---ing episode be comic books?" Comic Book Men is like that. It's like taking a box of Cap'n Crunch Crunch Berries, removing all the Cap'n Crunch, and just having a bowl of pure Crunch Berries for the geek. Everything that comes through the door, you're just like "Oh my god, I have that!" or "What is that worth?" or just something you never knew that existed, like "I never knew Bulletman had a pal." And suddenly you've got something that, if you're a geek, that is brilliant television.
Q: Do you personally have a piece of memorabilia that kind of fits into the Crunch Berry category?
A: When I sold my comic book collection to make Clerks I had the Sandman statue that Graffiti Designs did and it was based on Kelley Jones artwork. It was the first time that somebody had done something that wasn't a toy related to comics and it was expensive -- like $250 when I bought it. So with that money I funded Clerks and thank god I did, but recently I realized if I could get that piece back -- they're all numbered, I know what number I had -- if I could find that, which a pre-Clerks Kevin Smith purchased on his own steam, that would be a collectible worth having.
Q: Everybody knows you, but the other guys are less familiar. What can you tell us about them?
A: These guys are just funny people that never thought they were gonna get put on display. They're just content to be funny and not use it. Walt is the manager and he runs the store like it's his own. He might as well own it -- I hold the paper, but Walter holds everything else like it's his life's work. Bryan epitomizes "the genius is the one who is most like himself" -- that's Bryan hands down. Mike is finely tuned for exactly what the show needs: You sit there your whole life, and I'm sure some friends of his or maybe even his wife are like, "Why the f--- do you know so much about some s--- that means nothing?" And now it all comes to use. Ming got a whiff of a TV show and he was on board, and thank god because you wanna have one battery in the mix. Walt and Bryan are not the batteries -- they're wonderful content generators, but Ming and Mike are definitely the batteries powering those two dudes up. And suddenly there's our crew, man. And the nice thing is that's the world that existed prior to the show.
Q: In the past, some of your on-screen creations have themselves become comics (Bluntman and Chronic, for example). Could you ever imagine writing a Comic Book Men comic book?
A: Oh in a heartbeat, but it would be so uninteresting. They kind of all function as a four-way married couple that don't have sex, so just imagine that comic: Four men griping at each other, and every once in a while they have a transaction.
Q: What if you were all given superpowers?
A: Superpowers? Yeah, far more interesting. You want to make it a brilliant book to last the ages? Give one of those people god-like powers and let them go crazy and destroy the world. Maybe Mike goes f---ing rogue, and then Walt, Bryan and Ming have to use their superpowers to bring him down. I'd be like Professor X -- I'll stay home in the chair. So Mike would be Galactus, Walt is Cyclops, Johnson is hands down the Wolverine of the bunch, and Ming is Kitty Pryde. [Laughs]
Doctor Who Fans and newcomers - clips from every single Doctor Who...(and after 974 Doctor Who episodes, those wild and wooly Daleks are still looting the Galaxy-) shamelessly ransacked from our good friends at Giant Freakin Robot
_It’s the longest running science fiction series in the history of
ever, so don’t feel bad if you aren’t exactly educated on all 50 years
of Doctor Who programming. A lot of people only really got on
board with the program when Russell T. Davies resurrected it back in
2005, so if that’s you, here’s your chance to catch up.
The following video manages to condense all 784 episodes of Doctor Who, starting with “An Unearthly Child” in 1963 and ending with “The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe” in 2011, into a single ten minute montage set to music from the Eurythmics. I’m not entirely sure why they went with the Eurythmics, somehow I doubt that’s The Doctor’s favorite band.
Zombieland the Sequel - a possible TV series slated for 2012... courtesy of Giant Freakin Robot
Zombieland rocked critics, audiences, and the box office when it was released, so it only made sense that talks of a sequel started cropping up. But a half-hour comedy on television? Apparently, Fox and Sony Pictures Television are looking to do just that. Zombieland producer Gavin Polone says the television series would come in place of a feature film sequel to the 2009 horror-action-comedy starring Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, and Emma Stone. THR says that the powers that be are aiming to have Zombieland: The Series ready for the 2012-13 broadcast season.
Fox and Sony are obviously trying to jump on the undead bandwagon, and it’s probably no coincidence that this news comes just after AMC’s The Walking Dead’s huge season 2 premiere ratings. It also isn’t too difficult to see how a Zombieland series might fit into Fox’s line-up. The off-kilter humor and use of voice-over could pair well with Raising Hope, even though the subject matter is miles away.
What will be interesting to see is how the R-rated aspects of the film are translated to network television. Most Fox affiliates don’t air programming during the 10/9c timeslot in which more “adult” fare usually airs on broadcast channels, so language and gore would definitely need to be toned down. Would a neutered Zombieland still work? Can other characters be developed for or plugged into its universe successfully?
With these kinds of questions on our minds, it’s good to hear that Zombieland’s writers – Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick – are on-board to write the television series. It’s easy to imagine studio-assigned writers brought in to destroy the quirky and twisted vibe of the film.
No word yet on whether the series would involve the original characters or come after the actual events of the film, nor do we know if any of the original cast would be returning.
Fox and Sony are obviously trying to jump on the undead bandwagon, and it’s probably no coincidence that this news comes just after AMC’s The Walking Dead’s huge season 2 premiere ratings. It also isn’t too difficult to see how a Zombieland series might fit into Fox’s line-up. The off-kilter humor and use of voice-over could pair well with Raising Hope, even though the subject matter is miles away.
What will be interesting to see is how the R-rated aspects of the film are translated to network television. Most Fox affiliates don’t air programming during the 10/9c timeslot in which more “adult” fare usually airs on broadcast channels, so language and gore would definitely need to be toned down. Would a neutered Zombieland still work? Can other characters be developed for or plugged into its universe successfully?
With these kinds of questions on our minds, it’s good to hear that Zombieland’s writers – Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick – are on-board to write the television series. It’s easy to imagine studio-assigned writers brought in to destroy the quirky and twisted vibe of the film.
No word yet on whether the series would involve the original characters or come after the actual events of the film, nor do we know if any of the original cast would be returning.
The Walking Dead: Sneak Preview of Season 2 -- pillaged from the Hollywood Reporter
There’s nothing like a rock-solid 90 minute premiere to make doubts disappear, and there were a lot of them floating around last year’s out-of-nowhere hit, The Walking Dead.
The zombie drama was AMC’s highest-rated premiere ever with 5.3 million people in last season’s opener, then hovered near the 5 million mark until topping everything with 6 million in the season finale.Then executive producer and writer Frank Darabont was ousted and there were worries that a supposedly slashed budget would add to the upheaval and ultimately ruin one of the true fairytale performances for any series last season.
So much for that.
Maybe you can’t kill a series that has already beaten long odds – standing out in a genre field, particularly one so overdone as zombies. Maybe whatever elements that made The Walking Dead so compelling – and there were a lot of them – just couldn’t be stopped by outside forces. Because that Season 2 premiere? It’s 90 minutes of skill – bringing viewers back into the story without missing a beat, adding immediate depth to characters, ratcheting up suspense (if that was even possible), plus expanding the emotional palette of the series. No small task – any of those. Oh, and there’s more than one shocker mixed in.
Of course, Darabont’s fingerprints are still all over The Walking Dead, but the first two episodes are a reminder that the initial mix, the first shot of freshness that The Walking Dead had in it, remains. And that winning combination from Season 1 is a foundation that just may be too firmly established for anyone to muck up. What that means is that nobody should be looking for failure in Season 2. They should shake off the worries that popped up between seasons and off camera and just focus on the series.
In Season 1, the zombie apocalypse was at hand – the series began with Sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) shot, then waking up in the hospital as seemingly one of the last people standing in rural King County, Georgia. He led a rag-tag group of survivors on a search for – what? That was always a key mystery at the start. Mere survival? Friends and family? Answers to how it all happened? An understanding that might ground the survivors somehow – such as knowing how widespread the events were? Of if there was a cure for whatever toxin turned people into zombies? Or if there was a concerted government response?
That the answers to those questions were often murky was part of the allure. Because all of those questions and concerns had hope as a foundation. People’s will to survive, to believe things were going to get better, was a core of the show. By the sixth episode – the Season 1 finale – the Center for Disease Control was destroyed and so was hope.
In Season 2, the early themes are, not surprisingly, hopelessness and doubt. That’s human nature – and thus real. Mixed in is an exploration of faith – one of those new twists that have broadened the scope of the series.
Rick is still in charge. But his partner from the Sheriff’s department, Shane (Jon Bernthal), is feeling like a third wheel. In Season 1, he thought Rick had died from a zombie invasion at the hospital where he was recovering and subsequently started up a relationship with Rick’s wife, Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) and mentored Rick’s son, Carl (Chandler Riggs). Rick’s reappearance has left Shane feeling like he might be better off on his own, a feeling that also crops up in Andrea (Laurie Holden), still recovering from losing her sister to the zombies and hoping to die in peace at the CDC, before Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) stepped in to save her life.
One of the ideas inherent in pack-survival is how to keep everybody together and even if doing so is a good idea. It’s natural to the storytelling, then, to have Shane and Andrea contemplating leaving.Also feeling antsy is T-Dog (Robert Singleton) who tries to convince Dale to leave as well. “Why are we on the side of the road like live bait?” he says at one point. Feeling antsy and vulnerable is a key underlying element to The Walking Dead, because the group of human stragglers begins to run into ever larger packs of zombies. That feeling of being outnumbered, of struggling with futility, is ever-present.So are the requisite chills and pulse-raising moments (the series is particularly good at shocking the viewer without always illustrating it – a blood soaked and splattered baby seat, for instance).
Essential to the expansion in Season 2 is the aforementioned character growth. This season will find Daryl (Norman Reedus), the redneck hothead taking more of a leadership role as he evolves and Glenn (Steven Yeun), the plucky loner has a surprising redirection as well.
There are 13 episodes in Season 2, which should allow the writers (including new showrunnerGlen Mazzara and comic creator and executive producer Robert Kirkman), to let the series breathe – without losing the crowd-pleasing element of killing zombies that stalk you, of course.
The Walking Dead is at its best when it can go beyond the conventions of the genre and, for instance, raise the emotional stakes. Making the series have gravitas as an adult drama with depth and nuance is what attracted non-zombie movie fans to the series in the first place. Early in Season 2, it’s very clear that keeping that dramatic heft is of primary concern.
Viewers will meet new characters in Season 2 (a given, since the core group is on the move) and there should be more intrigue around motivation and personal interest –not just from the newbies, but from the core.
Above all else, The Walking Dead hasn’t lost the most important ingredient in its strangely successful recipe: it’s thrilling.
The zombie drama was AMC’s highest-rated premiere ever with 5.3 million people in last season’s opener, then hovered near the 5 million mark until topping everything with 6 million in the season finale.Then executive producer and writer Frank Darabont was ousted and there were worries that a supposedly slashed budget would add to the upheaval and ultimately ruin one of the true fairytale performances for any series last season.
So much for that.
Maybe you can’t kill a series that has already beaten long odds – standing out in a genre field, particularly one so overdone as zombies. Maybe whatever elements that made The Walking Dead so compelling – and there were a lot of them – just couldn’t be stopped by outside forces. Because that Season 2 premiere? It’s 90 minutes of skill – bringing viewers back into the story without missing a beat, adding immediate depth to characters, ratcheting up suspense (if that was even possible), plus expanding the emotional palette of the series. No small task – any of those. Oh, and there’s more than one shocker mixed in.
Of course, Darabont’s fingerprints are still all over The Walking Dead, but the first two episodes are a reminder that the initial mix, the first shot of freshness that The Walking Dead had in it, remains. And that winning combination from Season 1 is a foundation that just may be too firmly established for anyone to muck up. What that means is that nobody should be looking for failure in Season 2. They should shake off the worries that popped up between seasons and off camera and just focus on the series.
In Season 1, the zombie apocalypse was at hand – the series began with Sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) shot, then waking up in the hospital as seemingly one of the last people standing in rural King County, Georgia. He led a rag-tag group of survivors on a search for – what? That was always a key mystery at the start. Mere survival? Friends and family? Answers to how it all happened? An understanding that might ground the survivors somehow – such as knowing how widespread the events were? Of if there was a cure for whatever toxin turned people into zombies? Or if there was a concerted government response?
That the answers to those questions were often murky was part of the allure. Because all of those questions and concerns had hope as a foundation. People’s will to survive, to believe things were going to get better, was a core of the show. By the sixth episode – the Season 1 finale – the Center for Disease Control was destroyed and so was hope.
In Season 2, the early themes are, not surprisingly, hopelessness and doubt. That’s human nature – and thus real. Mixed in is an exploration of faith – one of those new twists that have broadened the scope of the series.
Rick is still in charge. But his partner from the Sheriff’s department, Shane (Jon Bernthal), is feeling like a third wheel. In Season 1, he thought Rick had died from a zombie invasion at the hospital where he was recovering and subsequently started up a relationship with Rick’s wife, Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) and mentored Rick’s son, Carl (Chandler Riggs). Rick’s reappearance has left Shane feeling like he might be better off on his own, a feeling that also crops up in Andrea (Laurie Holden), still recovering from losing her sister to the zombies and hoping to die in peace at the CDC, before Dale (Jeffrey DeMunn) stepped in to save her life.
One of the ideas inherent in pack-survival is how to keep everybody together and even if doing so is a good idea. It’s natural to the storytelling, then, to have Shane and Andrea contemplating leaving.Also feeling antsy is T-Dog (Robert Singleton) who tries to convince Dale to leave as well. “Why are we on the side of the road like live bait?” he says at one point. Feeling antsy and vulnerable is a key underlying element to The Walking Dead, because the group of human stragglers begins to run into ever larger packs of zombies. That feeling of being outnumbered, of struggling with futility, is ever-present.So are the requisite chills and pulse-raising moments (the series is particularly good at shocking the viewer without always illustrating it – a blood soaked and splattered baby seat, for instance).
Essential to the expansion in Season 2 is the aforementioned character growth. This season will find Daryl (Norman Reedus), the redneck hothead taking more of a leadership role as he evolves and Glenn (Steven Yeun), the plucky loner has a surprising redirection as well.
There are 13 episodes in Season 2, which should allow the writers (including new showrunnerGlen Mazzara and comic creator and executive producer Robert Kirkman), to let the series breathe – without losing the crowd-pleasing element of killing zombies that stalk you, of course.
The Walking Dead is at its best when it can go beyond the conventions of the genre and, for instance, raise the emotional stakes. Making the series have gravitas as an adult drama with depth and nuance is what attracted non-zombie movie fans to the series in the first place. Early in Season 2, it’s very clear that keeping that dramatic heft is of primary concern.
Viewers will meet new characters in Season 2 (a given, since the core group is on the move) and there should be more intrigue around motivation and personal interest –not just from the newbies, but from the core.
Above all else, The Walking Dead hasn’t lost the most important ingredient in its strangely successful recipe: it’s thrilling.
FRINGE -- It's like the X Files meets LOST -- only CRUNCHY...
Falling Skies - 80% Cool
Falling Skies, TNT's summer alien invasion series (which was just renewed for another season - coming Summer 2012) has everything you want: creepy bug-eyed aliens, a determined yet rag-tag human resistance, realistic action, characters that you really learn to like, and more twists than a skitter's intestines.
The cast is generally good. Noah Wylie is great as the college history professor cum military leader dealing with the loss of his wife and the kidnapping of his son by the aliens. Will Patton plays a grizzled and flawed commander of the 2nd Massachusetts (the name of an actual military group that fought during the Revolutionary War) with a number of secrets. Moon Bloodgood is a convincing physician/love interest for Noah Wylie. But my favorite character, Pope, played by Colin Cunningham, is a dark, unpredictable loner/outlaw who finds his path crossing that of the Mass 2nd - often against his wishes.
The creator, Robert Rodat, was the writer of such films as Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot, and the series is Executive Produced by Steven Spielberg.
Frankly, this series is what Spielberg's 'War of The Worlds' movie should have been. Not that it isn't without its flaws. Like most TV today, there is too much moralizing between episodes of violence and carnage. Other than the main characters, everyone seems pretty weak and one-dimensional - nearly everyone is divided neatly into two camps: either gung-ho warriors or helpless citizens who look at guns like they might bite your hand off. And it does tend towards melodrama.
But the story is compelling. It has been a great ride this summer and I am looking forward to seeing season two as the season one cliffhanger was really well done.
Given that the series doesn't start again until next summer, look for the series as repeats on TNT, or grab episodes off of their web site. It's just 10 episodes and well worth your time.
NOTE: For those with a Way-Back Machine, Vic Morrow and Rick Jason's characters in Combat! are very similar to those played by Will Patton and Noah Wylie in Falling Skies. Vic Morrow/Will Patton = seasoned, burned-out veteran, Rick Jason/Noah Wylie = idealistic, moral warrior with a conscience.
The cast is generally good. Noah Wylie is great as the college history professor cum military leader dealing with the loss of his wife and the kidnapping of his son by the aliens. Will Patton plays a grizzled and flawed commander of the 2nd Massachusetts (the name of an actual military group that fought during the Revolutionary War) with a number of secrets. Moon Bloodgood is a convincing physician/love interest for Noah Wylie. But my favorite character, Pope, played by Colin Cunningham, is a dark, unpredictable loner/outlaw who finds his path crossing that of the Mass 2nd - often against his wishes.
The creator, Robert Rodat, was the writer of such films as Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot, and the series is Executive Produced by Steven Spielberg.
Frankly, this series is what Spielberg's 'War of The Worlds' movie should have been. Not that it isn't without its flaws. Like most TV today, there is too much moralizing between episodes of violence and carnage. Other than the main characters, everyone seems pretty weak and one-dimensional - nearly everyone is divided neatly into two camps: either gung-ho warriors or helpless citizens who look at guns like they might bite your hand off. And it does tend towards melodrama.
But the story is compelling. It has been a great ride this summer and I am looking forward to seeing season two as the season one cliffhanger was really well done.
Given that the series doesn't start again until next summer, look for the series as repeats on TNT, or grab episodes off of their web site. It's just 10 episodes and well worth your time.
NOTE: For those with a Way-Back Machine, Vic Morrow and Rick Jason's characters in Combat! are very similar to those played by Will Patton and Noah Wylie in Falling Skies. Vic Morrow/Will Patton = seasoned, burned-out veteran, Rick Jason/Noah Wylie = idealistic, moral warrior with a conscience.
Combat! (1962-1967)
Terra Nova: 8 Secrets Revealed about FOX's new Prehistoric sci fi show (dredged up from The Hollywood Reporter)
Which cast member did Steven Spielberg insist on? What is the truth behind its delayed launch? The new issue of The Hollywood Reporter goes exclusively on-set with Fox’s epic dino series. Fox’s Terra Nova follows the Shannon family and other settlers who, threatened with extinction in the year 2149, travel back 85 million years in time to join a prehistoric Earth colony.
Among the revelations from this week’s cover story:
1. STEVEN SPIELBERG CAST AVATAR’S STEPHEN LANG
Executive producer Steven Spielberg made his first choice very clear on who he wanted to play paramilitary guy Nathaniel Taylor — the first to travel to Terra Nova: Avatar’s Stephen Lang. “He was always an advocate of Stephen Lang — and he was right,” says Brannon Braga. Another Spielberg note: add oxygen masks. He was responsible for the “rebreathers,” masks inhabitants of 2149 wear as there’s no longer fresh air on the overcrowded earth. That people from the overpopulated future nearly choke to death when they arrive in the oxygen-rich Terra Nova was an ironic twist that also came directly from him. “It was such a cool detail,” Braga notes. “A lot of the ‘Here’s what would really happen if...' came out of Spielberg’s brain."
2. THESE ARE NOT JURASSIC PARK DINOS
The dinos from Terra Nova are not from the same period as the ones in Spielberg’s seminal dino flick. Instead, they are from the Cretaceous period, 85 million years in the past. The pilot will feature a Brachiosuarus and a Carnotaurus, and there will be at least one dino per show. Though Spielberg brought in the same paleontologist he used on Jurassic Park, “he didn’t want people to see a show affiliated with his name where they follow the same dinosaurs they saw in Jurassic Park – like a T. rex running around,” says Braga.
3. THE SERIES COULD HAVE ENDED UP ON SYFY
Originally titled Gondawana Highway, the then 12-page short story by British writer Kelly Marcel found its way to former William Morris scripted television head Aaron Kaplan in 2009. He intercepted just as Marcel’s U.K.-based agent was deep in discussions for a deal with Syfy U.K. “I begged her to put me on the phone with Kelly,” Kaplan recalls, ultimately convincing Marcel that the only way to sell a project of this size was to do so in the U.S. “I was hooked by the paradigm of the future and the past,” Kaplan says.
4. BOTH CBS AND FOX WERE INTERESTED IN THE SHOW
After shopping the show around in late 2009, both CBS and Fox were interested, a source says. In the end, the team was struck by Fox’s track record of betting big on out-of-the-box shows like Prison Break, 24 and Glee. “Matt [Cherniss] and Terence [Carter] immediately got it,” Kaplan says of the then-Fox executives whom he pitched. Four months after Fox picked it up, Kaplan got a call from Fox that not only would the series bypass the standard pilot process and receive a 13-episode order, but Steven Spielberg and former News Corp COO Peter Chernin would come aboard as producers.
5. SPIELBERG VETOED HAWAII
Among the early decisions that needed to be made was where the production would shoot. The plush landscapes of Hawaii seemed a suitable choice but Spielberg vetoed that option, fearing that the comparisons inevitably drawn to his earlier dinosaur feature Jurassic Park would become that much greater if the two projects were to shoot in the same locale. Florida, Louisiana and New Zealand were all voted out as well. On to Australia.
6. TERRA NOVA IS NOT CHEAP: A "BIG SWING"
The two-hour premiere episode alone has been pegged at a price tag of between $10 million and $20 million. “Terra Nova is a big swing — and the best of Fox tends to be big swings, in concept and/or tone,” Fox Entertainment chief Kevin Reilly tells THR of a series that has become one of the most scrutinized and anticipated shows to hit the small screen. “We are in the big-bet business. So if you’re looking to break through and garner a big share of a fractured audience, and it is going to be costly regardless, you take the most exciting shots you can for your audience.” It was Fox’s Peter Rice who reached out to Spielberg. Then the network and studio collectively agreed that Chernin, who launched a Fox-based production company upon his News Corp. departure, would be a valuable addition. “When he was at News Corp., Peter really talked a lot about this type of event programming and about taking risks and being bold,” says 20th TV chairman Dana Walden. “It just felt that this would be something that he would be incredibly responsive to and helpful with as we moved forward with production.”
7. THE SHOW WAS DELAYED PARTIALLY BECAUSE...THEY RAN OUT OF TAPE
After the show was teased to the media at January’s Television Critics Association tour in January, and then again in a Super Bowl commercial, Fox abruptly announced that its two-hour premiere after American Idol in May would be pushed back to the fall. Braga acknowledges they were short of material (the set had been plagued by torrential rains); there were also executive departures that complicated the creative process. “It’s never fun to publicly change an announcement,” admits showrunner Rene Echevarria. “We went to Australia with the hope of hitting a home run, and we hit a triple.”
8. THE SHOW BECAME MORE FAMILY-FOCUSED IN RESHOOTS
The producers returned to Australia determined to add an emotional hook to ensure the series would appeal to the family audience that its 8 p.m. slot necessitates. The plot now revolves around the Shannon family — matriarch Elisabeth (Shelley Conn), a doctor who helps her inmate husband Jim (Jason O’Mara) escape prison and, with their three children (Landon Liboiron, Naomi Scott and Alana Mansour), head for a new life free of 22nd century population laws put in place to combat the planet’s overcrowding in Terra Nova. The pilot now includes a prologue telling their story. “I felt it was a mistake to ask the audience to follow these characters who you don’t know,” says Echevarria. “You can throw endless amounts of money at the screen, but if it doesn’t have
Among the revelations from this week’s cover story:
1. STEVEN SPIELBERG CAST AVATAR’S STEPHEN LANG
Executive producer Steven Spielberg made his first choice very clear on who he wanted to play paramilitary guy Nathaniel Taylor — the first to travel to Terra Nova: Avatar’s Stephen Lang. “He was always an advocate of Stephen Lang — and he was right,” says Brannon Braga. Another Spielberg note: add oxygen masks. He was responsible for the “rebreathers,” masks inhabitants of 2149 wear as there’s no longer fresh air on the overcrowded earth. That people from the overpopulated future nearly choke to death when they arrive in the oxygen-rich Terra Nova was an ironic twist that also came directly from him. “It was such a cool detail,” Braga notes. “A lot of the ‘Here’s what would really happen if...' came out of Spielberg’s brain."
2. THESE ARE NOT JURASSIC PARK DINOS
The dinos from Terra Nova are not from the same period as the ones in Spielberg’s seminal dino flick. Instead, they are from the Cretaceous period, 85 million years in the past. The pilot will feature a Brachiosuarus and a Carnotaurus, and there will be at least one dino per show. Though Spielberg brought in the same paleontologist he used on Jurassic Park, “he didn’t want people to see a show affiliated with his name where they follow the same dinosaurs they saw in Jurassic Park – like a T. rex running around,” says Braga.
3. THE SERIES COULD HAVE ENDED UP ON SYFY
Originally titled Gondawana Highway, the then 12-page short story by British writer Kelly Marcel found its way to former William Morris scripted television head Aaron Kaplan in 2009. He intercepted just as Marcel’s U.K.-based agent was deep in discussions for a deal with Syfy U.K. “I begged her to put me on the phone with Kelly,” Kaplan recalls, ultimately convincing Marcel that the only way to sell a project of this size was to do so in the U.S. “I was hooked by the paradigm of the future and the past,” Kaplan says.
4. BOTH CBS AND FOX WERE INTERESTED IN THE SHOW
After shopping the show around in late 2009, both CBS and Fox were interested, a source says. In the end, the team was struck by Fox’s track record of betting big on out-of-the-box shows like Prison Break, 24 and Glee. “Matt [Cherniss] and Terence [Carter] immediately got it,” Kaplan says of the then-Fox executives whom he pitched. Four months after Fox picked it up, Kaplan got a call from Fox that not only would the series bypass the standard pilot process and receive a 13-episode order, but Steven Spielberg and former News Corp COO Peter Chernin would come aboard as producers.
5. SPIELBERG VETOED HAWAII
Among the early decisions that needed to be made was where the production would shoot. The plush landscapes of Hawaii seemed a suitable choice but Spielberg vetoed that option, fearing that the comparisons inevitably drawn to his earlier dinosaur feature Jurassic Park would become that much greater if the two projects were to shoot in the same locale. Florida, Louisiana and New Zealand were all voted out as well. On to Australia.
6. TERRA NOVA IS NOT CHEAP: A "BIG SWING"
The two-hour premiere episode alone has been pegged at a price tag of between $10 million and $20 million. “Terra Nova is a big swing — and the best of Fox tends to be big swings, in concept and/or tone,” Fox Entertainment chief Kevin Reilly tells THR of a series that has become one of the most scrutinized and anticipated shows to hit the small screen. “We are in the big-bet business. So if you’re looking to break through and garner a big share of a fractured audience, and it is going to be costly regardless, you take the most exciting shots you can for your audience.” It was Fox’s Peter Rice who reached out to Spielberg. Then the network and studio collectively agreed that Chernin, who launched a Fox-based production company upon his News Corp. departure, would be a valuable addition. “When he was at News Corp., Peter really talked a lot about this type of event programming and about taking risks and being bold,” says 20th TV chairman Dana Walden. “It just felt that this would be something that he would be incredibly responsive to and helpful with as we moved forward with production.”
7. THE SHOW WAS DELAYED PARTIALLY BECAUSE...THEY RAN OUT OF TAPE
After the show was teased to the media at January’s Television Critics Association tour in January, and then again in a Super Bowl commercial, Fox abruptly announced that its two-hour premiere after American Idol in May would be pushed back to the fall. Braga acknowledges they were short of material (the set had been plagued by torrential rains); there were also executive departures that complicated the creative process. “It’s never fun to publicly change an announcement,” admits showrunner Rene Echevarria. “We went to Australia with the hope of hitting a home run, and we hit a triple.”
8. THE SHOW BECAME MORE FAMILY-FOCUSED IN RESHOOTS
The producers returned to Australia determined to add an emotional hook to ensure the series would appeal to the family audience that its 8 p.m. slot necessitates. The plot now revolves around the Shannon family — matriarch Elisabeth (Shelley Conn), a doctor who helps her inmate husband Jim (Jason O’Mara) escape prison and, with their three children (Landon Liboiron, Naomi Scott and Alana Mansour), head for a new life free of 22nd century population laws put in place to combat the planet’s overcrowding in Terra Nova. The pilot now includes a prologue telling their story. “I felt it was a mistake to ask the audience to follow these characters who you don’t know,” says Echevarria. “You can throw endless amounts of money at the screen, but if it doesn’t have
Dr. Who - New Season (90% cool)
OK, I'll admit it. I really like this new Dr. Who. Matt Smith is great as the Doctor, playing him as a geek who never quite tells you everything he knows, so when he's talking a mile a minute you're sure that his words are struggling to keep up with his thinking. And his geeky yet in control persona is spot on.
The rest of the cast is really good as well. Amy Pond, played by Karen Gillan, is excellent. As is her husband, Rory Williams, played by Arthur Darvill. Which is a surprise, because originally I didn't like Amy's dorky boyfriend/husband. Having two traveling companions is a departure for the usual Dr. Who formula, but the entire cast has really nailed it.
So far this season the story line has been equally exceptional. The two-part opener, filmed partly here in Utah, was great, and the new villain/monsters, The Silence, were especially creepy. And I really want to see more of the FBI agent, Canton Delaware, played so well by actor Mark Sheppard. So far this season there has been an episode written by Neil Gaiman, and the new two-parter with the new life form, The Flesh, is quite cool.
There are the occasional missteps, like the episode on the pirate ship (was that an attempt to cash on on POTC 4?), but generally the scripts and special effects have been top notch. BBC and Dr. Who have always relied on script and acting, with strong character development, so the SFX don't overwhelm the story. BBC has got the mix just right.
Definitely a must see show. Watch it on BBC America Saturday nights, with repeats during the week.
The rest of the cast is really good as well. Amy Pond, played by Karen Gillan, is excellent. As is her husband, Rory Williams, played by Arthur Darvill. Which is a surprise, because originally I didn't like Amy's dorky boyfriend/husband. Having two traveling companions is a departure for the usual Dr. Who formula, but the entire cast has really nailed it.
So far this season the story line has been equally exceptional. The two-part opener, filmed partly here in Utah, was great, and the new villain/monsters, The Silence, were especially creepy. And I really want to see more of the FBI agent, Canton Delaware, played so well by actor Mark Sheppard. So far this season there has been an episode written by Neil Gaiman, and the new two-parter with the new life form, The Flesh, is quite cool.
There are the occasional missteps, like the episode on the pirate ship (was that an attempt to cash on on POTC 4?), but generally the scripts and special effects have been top notch. BBC and Dr. Who have always relied on script and acting, with strong character development, so the SFX don't overwhelm the story. BBC has got the mix just right.
Definitely a must see show. Watch it on BBC America Saturday nights, with repeats during the week.
Sneak peek of JJ Abram's "Alcatraz" slated for January 2012...
There is nothing wrong with your television set...here is a mini documentary on the cold war sci fi show "The Outer Limits"...do not attempt to adjust the picture (because it's old grainy video from the non digital year of our Lord ...1991)
"Fringe" to be renewed, "Human Target" is being liquidated, and the new JJ Abrams sci-fi "Alcatraz " is coming soon...
After a promising pilot season, Fox is the first television network to unveil their crop of new shows, and I imagine the omissions will affect fans more than the additions. For starters, Fox cancelled every series on the proverbial “bubble” after lackluster ratings, except for cult favorite “Fringe.” This means the end of Shawn Ryan’s crackling cop drama “The Chicago Code,” Tim Roth’s body language procedural “Lie to Me,” action drama “Human Target,” 30-somethings sitcom “Traffic Light,” and Christian Slater’s third consecutive dud, “Breaking In.” Ryan said on Twitter, “Fox suits love the show but they have a business to run.” Five series canned. As Deadline points out, that is as many live-action cancellations as those returning (e.g. House, Raising Hope). Originally programming, we hardly knew ye...Fox has also officially ordered 12 episodes of “Lost” co-creator J.J. Abrams’ “Alcatraz,” another quasi sci-fi series about a group of people who mysteriously appear on an island. This it’s centered on prisoners who vanished thirty years ago and the law enforcement officials assigned to track them down. Jorge Garcia (who played Hurley on “Lost”) is part of the cast, as well as Jurassic Park hero Sam Neill and “Sons of Anarchy” alum Sarah Jones.
Before we launch into MovieFanFare's 25 best cartoons, I wanted to pay homage to the groundbreaking Jonny Quest -- which was the pinnacle of perfection for Hanna Barbera and made the Cold War...well, cool...
Top 25 Saturday Morning Cartoons from 1949 - 1985 -- pillaged from MovieFanFare.com
It sure is heartening to know that I'm not the only Ruff and Reddy fan out there. That's the lesson I learned from the responses to last month's article on new DVD collections of 1970s Hanna-Barbera cartoons, where I mentioned how my own Saturday morning memories skewed a bit older. Today's younger generations--with 24-hour channels devoted to animation and other kids' programming--may not recognize how good they've got it, because up until about 25 years ago such "sugar-charged supershow" fare was relegated on the three networks to weekend mornings (and, often on local UHF stations, to weekday afternoons after school). In spite of these limited hours--and some pretty limited animation, to boot--many of the shows of that era are still fondly remembered by Baby Boomers and Gen X-ers alike.
With that in mind, I thought the time had come to toss my Beanie copter into the endless ring of Internet lists, and offer up my picks for the 50 best animated cartoon series of all time, starting with the years 1949-1985 (Part two will be coming along soon). Here are the relatively few restrictions I placed on myself: no shows comprised of older theatrical cartoons (The Bugs Bunny Show, Tom and Jerry), because it's an unfair comparison; no live-action series (like the Krofft Brothers' H.R. Pufnstuf), puppets (Kukla, Fran and Ollie) or marionettes (Gerry Anderson's Supercar), or clay animation (Davey and Goliath); and no post-1975 Japanese animation, because frankly I'm just not that into giant animal-themed robots or schoolgirls battling tentacled monsters (Sorry, anime fans, that's how I feel. Feel free to submit your own list). In ascending order, my choices are:
25. Schoolhouse Rock - Okay, this one wasn't an actual series. Regardless, the educational shorts that used songs and animation to introduce kids to the basics of math ("Multiplication Rock"), language ("Grammar Rock"), the sciences ("Science Rock," "Computer Rock"), history ("America Rock") and other topics were so ubiquitous on ABC's weekend programming in the '70s and '80s that they had to get a mention. Besides, who will ever forget such tunes as "Three Is a Magic Number," "Interjections!" and "I'm Just a Bill"?
24. Journey to the Center of the Earth - One of two 1967 ABC shows based on 20th Century-Fox films and created by the less-than-stellar Filmation studio (the other was Fantastic Voyage), Journey to the Center of the Earth followed a group of subterranean explorers to...well, read the title. While there was little that Jules Verne would have recognized, Journey was a fairly entertaining sci-fi/adventure saga that boasted a nifty theme song. And yes, that's The Mary Tyler Moore Show's Ted Knight doing the narration.
23. The Huckleberry Hound Show - The first Emmy for a cartoon series went in 1958 to this Hanna-Barbera syndicated show, with Daws Butler supplying the easy-going canine star's Southern drawl. Can anyone now hear "Oh My Dealing Clementine" without thinking of Huck's off-key rendition? Joining put-upon Jack-of-all-trades Huck in his first half-hour incarnation were Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks ("I hate meeces to pieces!") and--before graduating to his own show in 1960--Yogi Bear.
22. Top Cat - Sure, it was Sgt. Bilko with animated felines. It was also a very amusing and very New York-flavored comedy that benefited from a voice cast that included Allen Jenkins as Sgt. Dibble, Bilko regular Maurice Gosfield as Benny the Ball, and Arnold Stang in the title role as the "leader of the gang."
21. Thundarr the Barbarian - I talked up this 1980 sci-fi/action series from the Ruby/Spears studio in an article last year, so let me just say that, thanks to the sun sword-swinging title hero, I still find myself meeting surprising situations with an exclamation of "Lords of Light!".
20. G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero - Perhaps the quintessential Reagan-era cartoon, with the star-spangled paramilitary force facing down the scheming minions of an "evil empire," this syndicated action series managed to overcome its toy line-promoting origins with some well-thought-out storylines and strove to give most of its gargantuan character line-up distinct personalities and their own individual spotlights. But you Joe fans out there already knew that, "and knowing is half the battle."
19. Crusader Rabbit - Before gaining fame with Rocky and Bullwinkle (see below), Jay Ward teamed with Terrytoons vet Alex Anderson on this, the first animated series made for TV. In many ways it was an R & B precursor, with small and quick-witted bunny Crusader and not-too-bright pal Ragland T. Tiger taking on a gallery of comical villains in multi-part, cliffhanger storylines.
18. The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo - The 1962 holiday favorite Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol led to this short-lived 1964 prime-time entry on NBC. Myopic protagonist Quincy Magoo (voiced by Jim Backus) played such figures as Cyrano de Bergerac, Dr. Frankenstein, Gunga Din, Long John Silver and Sherlock Holmes' Dr. Watson in mostly-serious adaptations of noted literary works. Goofy? You bet, but it helped introduce me to stories I had never heard of before and even inspired me to read a couple. Take that, Classics Illustrated!
17. Sinbad Jr. - Produced first by Sam Singer for American-International Pictures in 1965, then continued by Hanna-Barbera, this syndicated show followed the exploits of the young sailor and his parrot pal Salty. Sinbad Jr.--one of the few heroes to wear Capri pants--got super-strength whenever he gave a tug on his Magic Belt. Make of it what you will, but there didn't seem to be anything odd about it when you were a kid.
16. Roger Ramjet - Whenever I hear "Yankee Doodle," I start singing "Roger Ramjet and his Eagles, fighting for our freedom," thanks to this 1965 syndicated superhero spoof. Gary Owens (more serious a year later as Space Ghost) was dim-witted aviator Roger, whose Proton Energy Pills gave him "the strength of 20 atom bombs for a period of 20 seconds," and who fought enemy spies and other foes with the help of the young members (Yank, Doodle, Dan and Dee) of his American Eagle Squadron.
15. The Fantastic Four - Marvel Comics' flagship superhero title first came to the small screen, courtesy of Hanna-Barbera, in 1967. Because the art design was based on Jack Kirby's original comic book illustrations, this was undoubtedly the best-looking animated F.F. translation to date (not counting The Incredibles). They even managed to depict the Galactus Trilogy better than a certain live-action film did...and in just 30 minutes. Oh, and that was future M*A*S*H actress Jo Ann Pflug voicing the Invisible Girl.
14. The Ruff & Reddy Show - "They sometimes have their little spats, even fight like dogs and cats," but feisty feline Ruff and his easy-going canine pal Reddy would always overcome their differences in time to defeat bad guys like Harry Safari, Captain Greedy and Salt Water Daffy in their own 1957 series, Hanna-Barbera's very first made-for-the-small-screen cartoon.
13. Space Ghost and Dino Boy - Long before he was played for laughs as an Adult Swim talk show host, Space Ghost was H-B's first serious superhero, sharing a 1966 Saturday timeslot with Dino Boy and his caveman pal Ugh. By the way, just how many rays did Space Ghost have on his power bands? (Fun Fact: the actor voicing Dino Boy was Johnny Carson...but not the talk show host.)
12. 8th Man - "Faster than a rocket, quicker than a jet," this Japanese cyborg crimefighter reached U.S. shores in 1965. The brainwaves and personality of a lawman gunned down in the line of duty are transferred by a scientist into a super-strong and super-fast robot body. Similar to the DC Comics hero Robotman, 8th Man at times lamented his lack of humanity, which added a unique touch of drama to the goings-on. Oh, and in those bygone days before Surgeon General warnings, 8th Man could get away with carrying special "energy cigarettes" in his belt buckle than he would "smoke" to recharge!
11. Here Comes the Grump - There was a fun Alice in Wonderland-like quality to this 1969 fantasy from the De Patie-Freleng company, creators of the Pink Panther cartoons and co-founded by Warner Bros. veteran Friz Freleng. None other than the inimitable Rip Taylor gave voice to the short-tempered, Yosemite Sam-ish Grump, who rode his allergy-prone Jolly Green Dragon in pursuit of Princess Dawn, trying to free her kingdom from the Grump's curse of gloom, and Terry Dexter, a boy from the "real world" who accidentally landed in this magical realm. Confession time: as a 10-year-old, I did have a bit of a crush on Princess Dawn.
10. Star Trek - The entire cast of the original '60s series--save for Walter Koenig, who did script an episode--returned to the Enterprise to reprise their roles in this 1973 animated continuation of the show. Even Filmation's limited resources didn't totally detract from the entertaining stories (which included appearances by Harry Mudd, the Tribbles, and other '60s series elements). And I for one would like to see the tri-limbed Lt. Arex and cat-like Lt. M'Ress worked into the next live-action Trek film.
9. The Mighty Heroes - Next year's big-screen rendition of The Avengers is all well and good, but how about a live-action movie based on the slapstick super-team of Strong Man, Cuckoo Man, Tornado Man, Rope Man and Diaper Man? Future Fritz the Cat director Ralph Bakshi created the kooky quintet, who debuted alongside Mighty Mouse on CBS in 1966, for Terrytoons. Know what Diaper Man, the Jolly Green Giant, and Charlie the Tuna have in common? All were voiced by actor Herschel Bernardi.
8. Astro Boy - Japan's "god of comics," Osamu Tezuka, created the robotic lad for a 1952 manga series under the title "Mighty Atom" (which seemes sadly ironic given the country's current crises). Equipped with super-strength, rocket feet, night-vision eyes, and machine guns built into his butt (!), Astro Boy patrolled the futuristic skies of "the year 2000" in this 1963 cartoon series. The first toon from Japan to make it across the Pacific to America, the show mixed humorous dialogue and animation with a theme of harmony between humans and robots that (deliberately?) spoke to overcoming racial prejudices.
7. Wacky Races - Why was it when Dick Dastardly and Muttley tried to sneak ahead of everyone it was called cheating, but when the other racers did it (Rufus Ruffcut sawing through Peter Perfect's Turbo Terrific, for example) it wasn't? By the way, you can tell a lot about a person by their favorite Wacky Racer; mine was "ingenious inventor Professor Pat Pending and his Convert-a-Car."
6. George of the Jungle - If it only featured the adventures of klutzy, tree-colliding dim-bulb George and his ape sidekick Ape, Jay Ward's Tarzan send-up would still make my top 10. But add to the mix the sublime superhero spoof Super Chicken--and, to a lesser degree, racing fool Tom Slick--and this 1967 Saturday morning classic easily swings its way into sixth place.
5. Challenge of the SuperFriends - After years of annoying kid sidekicks (sorry, Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Twins) and no antagonists save for lost aliens and well-meaning scientists, Justice League members Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman--bolstered by Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and the multiculti troika of Apache Chief, Black Vulcan and Samurai--finally got some worthy and truly evil foes to (non-violently) battle in the form of the Legion of Doom, 13 deadly super-villains. Well, maybe the Riddler wasn't really that deadly.
4. Beany and Cecil - How can you not like a '60s kids cartoon that made reference to Lenny Bruce and The Kingston Trio in one episode? Veteran Warner Bros. animator Bob Clampett turned his acclaimed '50s puppet series about the crew of the Leakin' Lena and Cecil the Sea-Sick Sea Serpent, Time for Beany (which counted Albert Einstein and Groucho Marx among its fans) into a cartoon in 1962--even working his own name into the theme song, twice! All of the marvelous, pun-filled wordplay was left intact, with characters ranging from Slopalong Catskill (voiced by the one and only Mickey Katz!) and Tear-A-Long the Dotted Lion to everyone's favorite bad guy, Dishonest John ("Nya-ha-ha!").
3. The Flintstones - A half-century after their debut (the first made-for-TV toon to air in prime time), there's little more to say about Fred, Barney, Wilma, Betty and company, except that they've beloved pop culture icons. It started out as The Honeymooners in bearskins, but went on to become a very funny sitcom in its own right ("Pebbles' Birthday Party," with the dancing girls sent to Fred's house by mistake, still makes me laugh). Did you know that Hanna-Barbera was originally going to call the show and its "modern stone-age family" The Flagstones, but that surname had been claimed by the comic strip Hi and Lois?
2. Jonny Quest - With all the deathtraps and monsters he had to escape from before he even reached puberty, I'd be amazed if Jonny didn't grow up to be a paranoid pill-popper, as satirically depicted on The Venture Bros. (more about that next time). But come on...lizard-suited scuba-men with a laser cannon, giant spider-like robot spies, living mummies and pteranodons, and mutant, man-eating monitor lizards led on a leash by a fat guy in a loincloth? What's not to like? There was nothing like Jonny Quest when it hit the Friday night airwaves in 1964, and H-B's first "realistic" cartoon--created by comic book artist Doug Wildey--remains a Baby Boomer classic.
And the winner is...
1. The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle - What, you were expecting maybe Baggy Pants and the Nitwits? For sheer comedic brilliance and a non-stop array of jokes, topical references (Rocky: "You know who we haven't seen in the game today?" Bullwinkle: "Well, among others, Prince Suvana Phuma.") and puns that often went young its young audience's heads (It wasn't until college that I heard of the opera Boris Gudonov and finally learned where bad guy Boris Badenov got his name from), nothing compares to Jay Ward's heroic moose and squirrel duo. As if Rocky and Bullwinkle's escapades weren't enough, the show also featured such co-stars as mutton-headed Mountie Dudley Do-Right and the time-travelling team of Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman, among others.