Community

Over on io9, (which is a pretty good site as long as you ignore their shameless plagiarism) they've got a quote from Community executive producer Dan Harmon discussing how "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" one of Season 2's best episodes almost never happened. Here's a snippet:

"They [the studio and the network] were so upset about the crime of this episode having been written. The note session as a whole was preceded by a 45-minute period of them walking around the lot whispering to each other. They told me they would come up to my office and meet me privately. When they came up, I had the director and all of the writers in the office with me, because I was terrified. They sat down, and they said, ‘Look, where do we start?'

The full quote is even more disturbing, as Harmon gets so frustrated with the network execs that he contemplates quitting one of the funniest shows on TV. If you haven't seen it, you're really missing out on a wealth of brilliant material. It gets fairly low ratings but I'd attribute that to the frequent meta-fictional dissections of common TV and film tropes (particularly in the genre space) going over the average viewer's head. I would assume that the people who enjoy Two and a Half Men and the ones who like Community fall are for the most part mutually exclusive. I mean they had a freaking clip show made up of clips from episodes that never existed! People who watch the same episode of CSI week after week won't catch on to that one.

So if you've got a few minutes, watch the first part of "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons," the episode that was received as anathema to the NBC execs. As the title suggests, it's basically 23 minutes of a bunch of people sitting around a table making up a story together. Who could possibly enjoy that?

If you enjoyed the first half of the episode, find a way to track it down [preferably in a way that actually gives the show some support such as iTunes or on DVD]. If not, at least tune in next season. Community is a brilliant show and I would hate to see it go the way of Arrested Development or Better Off Ted [may they Rest In Piece] just because it didn't have the fanbase of some lowest common denominator sitcom.

Please.

Great News Everyone! [Futurama Premieres Tonight!]

Bender's Back Baby!

After 7 years and change, Fry, Leela, Bender, and co are back! Zoidberg, Lrrr, Morbo, Clamps, Hedonism Bot, I've missed them all.

Comedy Central picked up Futurama for an additional 26 episodes. Suppossedly, it's to be split into two 12 episode "seasons" with two specials but I haven't been able to confirm that with a source.

To be fair, I'm being a little cautious. The four direct to DVD movies were nothing special (the first was good, the rest were disappointing) but I am optimistic that that was just a result of the format and not of a lack of ideas. Futurama might just work best in 20 minute chunks not as full length feature films which allow jokes to become stale. I'm really hoping that it doesn't pull a Family Guy and devolve into a stale parody of what it once was. io9 has seen the first two episodes and they thought they were good. Not "Roswell That End's Well" or "Luck of the Fryrish" good but decent nonetheless.

They also have an interview with creator David X. Cohen who provides some information about what to expect from the new season.

If you are looking for more Futurama news, check out Got Futurama a great fansite with all the latest news.

Here is the first 90 seconds from the new season.


If you haven't watched Futurama in a while or *gasp* never watched it, here is a 7 minute video summing up the first five seasons.

Futurama	Thursdays 10pm / 9c
Recap-O-Rama: 5 Seasons in 7 Minutes
www.comedycentral.com
Futurama New Episodes Futurama New Episodes Ugly Americans

Plus, the entire cast is back.

Well the voice cast at least. Although they tried to change it.

And for the sake of discussion, what's your favorite episode? Mine might have to be A Big Piece of Garbage or Why Must I Be A Crustacean in Love? or The Problem with Popplers or... I forgot how much I loved this show.

And then there's my alltime favorite quote from Season 2 Episode: The Deep South. Click here to listen.

Futurama Season 6 premieres on Comedy Central at 10 PM ET / 9 CT.

I'm excited are you?

Good News Everyone!

In an unprecendented move, Fox has not shot one of their series in the foot before it even airs. Well, in Futurama's case it was more not shooting the guy when he unexpectedly got up after being knocked out. Either way, there were concerns a few weeks back that Fox was going to replace the voice talent

Today there was a story on TheStar.com announcing that the original voice talent and Fox have come to agreement. Huzzah!

All glory to the Hypnotoad...

FoxFail

Oh Fox. You just can't do something right, can you?

Give Firefly a shot, and then show the episodes out of order...
Renew Dollhouse but give Sarah Connor Chronicles the axe...

And now this?

Apparently, Fox is looking for new voice talent to replace Fry, Leela, and Bender among others. Seriously? You give us more Futurama and then chop out the soul of the show?

A casting call has gone out for voice actors for the roles normally voiced by John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, Billy West and Katy Sagal. Besides the big 3, their roles also include Professor Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg, Zap Brannigan, Mom, and Kif.

Those are some pretty important roles that are responsible for the majority of the best lines. Not to mention all of the tertiary roles that the characters voiced, characters recognizable to the fans who've worn out their DVDs over the past few years such as Morbo or Robot Nixon.

The best result that can come from this is a show that looks like Futurama, sounds like Futurama, but doesn't feel like Futurama. The worst result is something that just doesn't work. Not to mention the voice actors losing their jobs.

If you feel strongly about this like I do, send an email to FUTURAMA@SCOTTMULLERCASTING.COM and voice your opinion.

Bad Fox. Bad.

TV Reminder: Warehouse 13

Just a reminder that Warehouse 13 premieres on The Sci-Fi Channel SyFy tonight. Part X-files, part Indiana Jones, Warehouse 13 is an hour long dramedy straight out of the script for National Treasure 3.

After saving the life of the President, two Secret Service agents find themselves abruptly transferred to Warehouse 13 -- a massive, top-secret storage facility in windswept South Dakota that houses every strange artifact, mysterious relic, fantastical object and supernatural souvenir ever collected by the U.S. government. The Warehouse's caretaker Artie (saul Rubinek) charges Pete (Eddie McClintock) and Myka (Joanne Kelly) with chasing down reports of supernatural and paranormal activity in search of new objects to cache at the Warehouse, as well as helping him to control the warehouse, itself.

I'd rather see a more serious Sci-Fi show from SyFy to replace Battlestar Gallactica (Virtuality perhaps?). I do enjoy SyFy's other dramedy Eureka (returning July 10th!). I also loved the pulpy fun of the first 3 Indiana Jones movies as well as the two National Treasure movies. If Warehouse 13 can manage to capture the tone of these shows without becoming too cheesy, it should be an enjoyable summer show to watch on those rainy afternoons. I would prefer if the show were a little bit more serious than Eureka perhaps matching the tone of some of the lighter episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I would agree that the show most likely can't try for realism or a dark tone given the subject matter.

Hopefully this show is a success and SyFy will start to get back on track with their programming. After the loss of Battlestar and Stargate Atlantis, SyFy is somewhat lacking in original content. Stargate Universe (yay Scalzi!), Caprica, and the Alien Nation reboot will hopefully be quality but they all represent continuations or reboots of existing properties. Eureka, Warehouse, and Sanctuary are the only "original" shows they have running now I believe. It's nice to see completely new properties in a media landscape dominated by CSI spinoffs, Comic Book movies, and Reality TV garbage. Try and make an effort to watch Warehouse 13, if for no other reason than to support something unique.

Learn more about Warehouse 13 at The Official Warehouse 13 Website

Thoughts on Virtuality

I watched the 2-hour pilot of Virtuality on Friday and long story short: I want to see more.

While not perfect, Virtuality is legitimate SF of the kind not seen on network TV. While I'm sure they took some liberties with the physics, Virtuality is plausible Hard SF. Lost, Firefly, Fringe, Battlestar Galactica, Dollhouse, Heroes and every other example of "genre" TV current on the airwaves has at least some elements that could be considered fantastical.

The only questionable item in Virtuality was the virtual reality system they used for R&R and escape from the reality TV cameras. It seemed to be a little too immersive for just the visors but it certainly didn't break any fundamental rules of physics or try to explain why genetic mutations would allow you to fly or predict the future. Cough *Heroes* Cough. This is the kind of SF that could get a new generation interested in space travel.

I was fairly impressed with every aspect of the show. The cast was great. The writing was good. The premise was solid. The effects were better than most on TV. The show wasn't predictable (the events toward the end of the pilot really surprised me). The plot threads they introduced were intriguing. While somethings could have been better, I didn't have too many complaints, especially for a pilot. Compared to Dollhouse or Fringe, Virtuality hit a home run.

I'm not sure why they were trying so hard to screw over the show. Maybe Ron Moore wanted too much money, maybe the SF budget is too high for the expected ratings, who knows? But they did dump the premiere show on a Friday night, in the middle of summer, against the opening weekend of Transformers 2 with almost zero advertisement. I don't get it. What did they expect to happen? Record ratings? Add to the fact that it was also running against specials commemorating the lives of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett and it's no surprise it didn't do well. Pair it against Dollhouse and I guarantee it will find an audience.

Virtuality is definitely marketable. It has the spaceship and SF tropes to connect with the core geek audience but it also has the reality TV and relationship drama that could reach out to female viewers without alienating them with the more extreme SF tropes like aliens or time travel. More than Stargate, Heroes, or Fringe, I feel like Virtuality could be watched in mixed company. I've even heard from a source or two that the eye-candy on board the ship works both ways.

All in all, I'm disappointed that Virtuality did so poorly. The show has a lot of potential and I want to know what was going on. Who is the murderer on board? And what did the victim's last message mean? I would definitely tune in again to find out. The fact that I will most likely never know makes me hate the economics of network TV. Any chance the SyFy channel is looking for another show?

You can watch Virtuality on Hulu here if you enjoy the pain of knowing this decent show most likely died before it even aired.

Reminder Virtuality Airs Tonight

Just a reminder, Ron Moore's Virtuality airs tonight on Fox from 8-10 ET (7-9 CT). I haven't read a ton on it, but I know it deals with crew of astronauts on an extended mission in outer space passing the time using a sort of virtual reality. The astronauts' lives aboard the Phaeton.

Here's the official Fox blurb:

From Ron Moore and Michael Taylor, the minds behind "Battlestar Galactica," comes the World Broadcast Premiere of the new science-fiction thriller VIRTUALITY. As the crew of the Phaeton approaches the go/no-go point of their epic 10-year journey through outer space, the fate of Earth rests in their hands. The pressure is intense, and the best bet for helping the crew members maintain their sanity is the cutting-edge virtual reality technology installed on the ship. It's the perfect stress-reliever until a glitch in the system unleashes a virus onto the ship. Tensions mount as the crew decides how to contain the virus and complete their mission. Meanwhile, every step of the journey and every minute of the crew members' lives are being taped for a reality show back on Earth.

Sounds interesting. I'll be watching and I encourage everyone to do the same, even if it's only leaving the TV on and turned on to Fox. C'mon, who really goes out before 10 anyway? Don't give me Transformers as an excuse. The reviews sucked.

You should watch, and watch live because regardless of quality this "pilot" is one of the few actual examples of speculative fiction with the potential for airtime next year. And it needs to have spectacular ratings because right now, it's just a movie. There's no follow up series without a spectacular rating. I don't know what defines spectacular for a series airing at 8 PM on a Friday night in the middle of the summer with absolutely no advertising but I'm guessing it's unreasonable. I'm confident Fox will manage to outfox themselves again but still; the more watchers the more likely we get an actual SF series.

There's always the possibility that the series will suck, but we will never know unless it gets made. No series is perfect from it's pilot episode so be forgiving and try to stick with it the whole two hours, even if it means leaving the TV and reading a book in the other room. There's always time to cancel it later.

This is just one episode on one day. It's a minor commitment. You don't have to do much, just make sure your DVR/Cable Box/ratings monster thinks that you are watching Virtuality (preferably live). Your geek friends will thank you later.

5 Minute Review: Merlin

Earlier tonight, NBC debuted the first two episodes of the BBC produced Merlin. Merlin is a new twist on the Arthurian legend. Merlin features the typical heroes as teenagers with Arthur, Merlin, Morgana and Guinevere making appearances in the first two episodes. Lancelot is nowhere to be seen but I'm guessing he will be appearing sooner or later. I read somewhere that Merlin is best described as a Smallville meets Camelot and I really couldn't agree more. Sub-par acting, lazy plot devices, and teens. That's Smallville 101.

The first two episodes featured MotW (Monster of the Week) villains; a haggish witch out for revenge against the King and a duplicitous knight whose attempts at cheating would put Sammy Sosa to shame. They do little but establish the world of Uthar's Albion; magic is illegal, Merlin has an inate but untrained magical ability, Merlin gets a job as Arthur's manservant, etc. The plots themselves are fairly tame and predictable, relying on a few agonizing techniques to get the characters from point A to point B. For example, when the weapons dealer sells the crooked knight a magical (and illegal) shield and shows him how to use it, the crooked knight kills the weapons dealer in a fit of predictability that would be right at home on CSI: Denver.

The production values aren't anything to write home about. The special effects are fairly poorly done and it's pretty obvious most of the SE budget went into the dragon in the cave which manages to always give Merlin the right idea (He's 2 for 2!). None of the characters are especially attractive (my fiance provided the female perspective) so there is no eye candy there, either. The scenery and the props are decent but more often that not the poor special effects and/or awkward cinematography really drew attention to themselves.

Honestly, while I didn't particulary enjoy the show, I wouldn't go so far as to give up on Merlin. The first two/three episodes of any series are garbage. You have to go through the paces of establishing the rules of the world and the relationships between the characters before you can really let loose. Look at Fringe or Dollhouse, both of which started with subpar first and second episodes (Fringe was especially horrible) and both of which managed to hit a few homers by the end of their rookie seasons. I apologize for the excessive baseball references, I was at a thirteen inning Cubs game yesterday and I haven't got it out of the system just far. So while Merlin didn't wow me from the get go, I'm not going to cancel it off the DVR just yet. After all, there's nothing else on TV.

TV Reminder: Merlin

NBC is airing the British series Merlin today starting at 8 (7 CT). I believe its a reairing of a British series.

I haven't heard too much one way or the other on Merlin. From the previews the special effects don't look up to par with most genre TV but I'm always willing to forego the special effects as long as the plot is strong and the characters are intriguing.

Genre TV is extremely lacking this summer. Other than Merlin, I can think of Warehouse 13, Eureka, and the Virtuality 2-Hour movie/pilot. That's not a whole lot.

Anyway, set your DVRs if your interested. I might have a short review if I find its worth watching.

Primeval Extinct?!

Horrible puns aside, Primeval’s cancellation is just another kick in the teeth for us fans of sci-fi television. While it wasn’t the deepest SF show on TV, the first two seasons were quality fun (haven’t seen the full 3rd season yet) and they managed to elevate the story quality past Monster of the Week. Primeval improved on itself in Season 2, both in terms of quality and sci-fi content (time-travel/alternate history). Unless the quality dropped significantly toward the end of Season 3, this is somewhat surprising, especially the spoilers floating around which suggest that there is absolutely zero closure to any of the plot lines.

I know TV is all about money. While the showrunners and writers might be crafting labors of love, the networks executives have all the power. Unless you are George Lucas (who could afford to run a Star Wars TV show without any advertisers at all, probably on its own channel), without the networks, you don’t have a TV show. Things are slowly changing with the internet but without a network budget profitably lower than your advertising revenue, your show is dead. Primeval either cost too much or was watched by too few. And now it’s extinct.

I’m not sure about the actual percentages but I'm sure a not-so-insignificant amount of revenue comes from DVD sales. I know Family Guy and Futurama sold well enough on DVD to get new episodes. Firefly did well enough to get Serenity which, while not a box-office smash hit, was a quality SF adventure. There has to be some money there, right? You’ve seen them in the stores: Jericho: The Complete Series, Firefly: The Complete Series, Journeyman: The Complete Series. The fans who loved the series will buy the DVDs. Some for enjoyment, others with some deranged hope of getting the series renewed, yet others to gift to their friends to show them what they were missing. “Can I borrow Season 2?” “Cancelled, you say?” “Thanks, asshole.”

I for one won’t buy a series DVD without some resolution, at least not for serialized TV like most SF tends to be. I didn’t buy Firefly until there was Serenity. I’ll admit I should have been watching when it was on, but I didn’t realize it was there until after it was gone. Journeyman, I watched the episodes on TV but why would I want to rewatch a show with no ending? If you are going to pay good money for some story content, shouldn’t you want at least some semblance of a completed story? There is more quality content out there than you can ever hope to consume. And most of it has a resolution.

Would you buy a book that was missing the last 200 pages? Sorry, the book got canceled. A CD that abruptly cuts off in the middle of track 7? How about a video game with no bosses? The final level just doesn’t happen. Go see Shakespeare on a stage where the actors just do the first two acts because the runtime was getting too long. These would be lampooned by reviewers, consumers, and everyone else in between. So why can the TV production companies get away with it? Why do we let them kill our favorite TV shows AND then pay them for the privilege of owning the headless corpse?

Primeval: The Incomplete Series will be arriving in your local Best Buys and Wal-marts this fall

Horrible News Everyone!

Word around the internet suggests that a certain animated show created by Matt Groening set in the year 3000 is getting new episodes on Comedy Central. No, not The Simpsons: Season One Thousand and Eleven, the other one. FUTURAMA!

Futurama has always been a favorite of mine since its original debut in 1999. It was The Simpsons for the hardcore geek, blending math and science jokes, science fiction clichés, and floating celebrity heads. Futurama offered a cast of characters more diverse and almost as numerous as that of The Simpsons. Fry, Leela, Bender, Professor Farnsworth, Zap Brannigan, Calculon, Morbo, Hedonism Bot. My list of favorite characters could go on and on. If you haven’t seen the original episodes, do yourself a favor: Futurama, Volumes 1 - 4

Unfortunately, Futurama debuted in an unfortunate timeslot, airing on 7:00 PM ET Sundays, just early enough to be pre-empted every other week by the long running NFL football game. I remember the traumatic experience of popping in a VCR tape only to watch 25 minutes of a game I could care less about followed by a mangled 5 minutes of insensible Futurama if anything. Those were the days before Tivo. Those were dark days. For the most part, a geek audience is a loyal audience as long as they are happy. Pre-empting episodes, showing episodes out of order, and generally abusing a show is not how you keep a geek audience happy. (See Firefly).

Eventually, the production of new episodes for Fox ceased but Futurama refused to die. Lingering on in comics and syndication on Cartoon Network, Futurama (paired with Family Guy) got enough ratings to eventually justify a syndication promotion to Comedy Central in combination with 4 Direct to DVD feature length movies (Bender's Big Score, Bender's Game, The Beast with a Billion Backs, Into the Wild Green Yonder), the last of which was released in February of 2009.

Obviously the cable ratings remained decent enough and DVD movies and TV seasons sold well to prove that Futurama was still a viable property. It might not be sustainable on Network TV like CSI: Cincinnati or Law & Order: Campus Police but for a smaller station like Comedy Central, Futurama represents a profitable franchise with a built in audience. Something increasingly hard to develop in today’s mediaverse, resulting in the re-use and overuse of any tangible property.

So Futurama is coming back with 26 brand new half-hour episodes. It’s like Christmas in June. But which Christmas? Christmas 2000? Or X-Mas 3000, complete with Evil Robotic Santa? Since cancellation we’ve gotten 4 feature length Futurama movies. They were ok. I laughed occasionally, but most of the time I didn’t want to admit to myself I was disappointed. It could just be that Futurama works best in 22 minute chunks and when expanded to feature length most of the plot-centric jokes get too stale to still be funny. Hopefully, the new episodes will recapture the tone of the old.

Family Guy, the original animated Lazarus, was renewed after stores realized they couldn’t keep the DVDs on the shelves. However, when it debuted it returned like something buried in sacred Indian soil. It looked like Family Guy and sounded like Family Guy but it wasn’t the same thing that we buried. The characters seemed different and the jokes weren’t as funny. Maybe the jokes were all used up. Maybe the cancellation/rebirth made the writers feel like they could get away with anything. The jokes that used to be offensive and hilarious were just offensive now. The magic was gone. Not to mention the fact that Family Guy somehow mutated the once classic Simpsons into a shadow of itself.

I want more Futurama. But only on the condition that it’s quality Futurama. Family Guy, once great, is now merely passable. The Simpsons, as iconic as iconic can get, is no longer remotely watch-able. I don’t think I can stand to watch another property slowly ground into bachelor chow.

I hope the new Futurama episodes will reach Omicron Persei 8 before they destroy the planet. I fear our alien overlords might obliterate us anyway.

All Glory to the Hypnotoad.