If you happen to be house shopping in the Brantford, Ontario area of Canada -- and if you're a British sci-fi fan -- I've found the perfect ivy-covered drive-by cutie for you.
Obviously, the current residents are huge Doctor Who fans -- unless most Canadians keep evil robotic killers in their home. I have no idea what the cuddly snow creatures to the north do with their free time -- besides crowding up against the U.S. border for warmth.
A closer inspection of the housing listing doesn't make it clear if the alien artifacts come with the jacuzzi, but I doubt you get the whole package with your down payment. But, if the Tardis is part of the deal, you can travel 30 years into the future when the mortgage is paid already off and move in for free.
Many sci-fi fans wonder what classic Doctor Who might look like if the BBC bosses of the '70s and '80s could have budgeted more than £6 per episode for visual effects.
A new Who DVD set from BBC Video features a specially remastered episode that offers you just that experience.
Doctor Who: "The Black Guardian Trilogy" serves up a trio of 1983 Who episodes featuring Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor in a life and death struggle against a supernatural evil force.
A team of restoration and digital effects artists took the final episode of that trilogy ("Enlightenment" -- a well-written, high-concept adventure featuring a simulated sailing race in deep space) and laid in 21st Century CG visuals.
(E01) I can't help but feel tempted to compare this to the Patrick McGoohan classic from the '60s, but that wouldn't be fair. Attitudes, technologies and even our expectations of TV programming have changed so much in the intervening time. And yet, as an homage to the original, there are many elements to this new AMC mini-series that nod back to the classic paranoia suspense saga.
While The Village has been updated to be a much larger and more vibrant desert oasis (think kitschy Las Vegas) than the original's sleepy seaside villas, it's still as much an enigma, even in this first hour. And while Jim Caviezel doesn't command the role of Number 6 as powerfully as McGoohan, really who could? So I give him a pass, and enjoy him for what he brings, and try not to hear McGoohan's booming defiance when Caviezel shouts: "I am not a number! I am a free man!"
If Mad Men is any indication of what its like to work in the real advertising world, then the writing process alone must cause more migraines than swimming in radioactive sewage.
That's still no excuse for stealing material, if that is in fact the case with this British ad. UK comic Micky Flanagan claims an ad agency stole a joke from his act for a phone service commercial and is a stone's throw away from filing a lawsuit. Punchline Magazine posted videos of the joke and the ad. Is this just a coincidence or is the ad pulling a Carlos Mencia?
Do Daleks wear jingle bells? Probably not. But the creator of Doctor Who's deadliest enemies is in stateside toy stores to celebrate the holiday season with the human species he's tried to kill off more than once.
His arrival is very timely when you consider it's November and time for pundits like me to start sending some gift ideas your way.
Since I'm more than comfortable shilling for the geek contingent, the good folks at Underground Toys sent the evil scientist (right) over for a visit. Though he's a bit of a grump -- the 12" high, radio controlled Davros should keep any Who fan entertained. The only question I have is whether he'll end up in the fans of kids or their sci-fi fan parents.
Oprah Winfrey is all over the news these days as she fires up her new network and considers moving her talk show from Chicago to Los Angeles.
Now, we get to listen to her narrate the epic BBC nature series, Life. Subtitled by the BBC with, "The Definitive Exploration of the Adaptability and Diversity of Life on Earth," the eleven-part series examines evolution and the behaviors that animals devised to live, thrive and survive. Discovery Channel is bringing it your way in March after Oprah vocalizes a bit.
I know the BBC has done this sort of thing before. In fact, no one does it better. But this time around, they're using state-of-the-art high-definition filming techniques.
But why is Oprah necessary? I have nothing particularly against the woman. Despite her massive media pull, I manage to more or less steer clear of her estrogen fest. But, the BBC production comes pre-narrated with world-famous naturalist, Sir David Attenborough. Is over-dubbing necessary?
Think of the most popular American daytime soap. Then, multiply that by a factor of 10. That's the ongoing craze known as the BBC's immortal EastEnders. Premiering in 1985, the working-class melodrama remains one of the U.K.'s highest-rated series.
Now, EastEnders is set to kick off its own web spinoff series next year. According to a Beeb press release, the online BBC Vision Multiplatform commissioned EastEnders: E20 to go live in January, 2010.
In addition to taking advantage of TV's online evolution, the web series will help to celebrated the EastEnders 25th anniversary.
Now, the question is if anyone in Hollywood can catch on to moves like these and adapt more successful U.S. shows into big name web series. Shows like 24 tried brief web dalliances, but nothing this ambitious has yet to take flight from American networks.
American Idol and Britain's Got Talent judge Simon Cowell might have shown some unfair misgivings about Susan Boyle before she proved her musical worth to the universe, but here's a preconception that even Paula Abdul would support.
Mr. Methane, a familiar guest to fans of The Howard Stern Show, is the world's only (thank Holy Christ) performing flatulist and he took a turn at the mic on Britain's Got Talent. Anyone want to guess if he made it through to the final round? If you guessed wrong, please get out of the gene pool and take a shower immediately.
As I scoured Google Images for a picture to accompany my Lego reality show post, pictures of James May's mop-topped mug kept popping up in my browser. What possibly could the Top Gear presenter have in common with the classic kids' toy that has caused a million foot fatalities? If you've ever stepped on one barefoot, especially the one peg bricks, you know how close to death it actually feels.
It turns out he lived in a whole house made out of them for our amusement. The Lego house was one of many projects for James May's Toy Stories, a series of projects designed to show kids that the classic toys of yesteryear can be just as cool as their newfangled video games and iPods.
This particular story does have an unhappy ending. The producers tried to sell the house to the Lego company for one of their theme parks, but the cost of transporting the house was too much. So they had to tear it down.
When I was a kid, I remember seeing episodes of a couple of strange British shows on my local PBS affiliate in Rochester, NY. I never caught them regularly, not even sure when they aired, but I remember one of them was a peculiar little period piece with some funny gags, and a storyline I never completely grasped.
I learned later this first show was the classic Blackadder series with Rowan Atkinson, and the reason the storylines never made sense from show to show is that there are four seasons of the show, all taking place in a different historical period. I saw them out of order, and mostly caught the first season.
Watching the new Black Adder Remastered - The Ultimate Edition DVD set from BBC America (video and audio both remastered), it's clear the best way to watch Blackadder is to at least watch each series in order. And if you can watch the whole run in order, so much the better. From the first series set in the Dark Ages to the last set in World War I (Blackadder Goes Forth), Atkinson's character, Blackadder, remains a scheming coward. But he changes, too.
Given the level of Python geekery out there, I'm not sure any Monty Python sketch is truly obscure. But there are plenty of gems past the more celebrated Fish-Slapping, Dead Parrot, and Argument Clinic sketches you see most often.
Since the Python reunion was broadcast yesterday, IFC starts "Monty Python Midnights" tonight with The Holy Grail, and starts airing the six-part documentary Monty Python: Almost the Truth: The Lawyer's Cut on Sunday, I thought it would be a good time to toss my own bit of nostalgia on the building heap this week.
I'm sure any list could be nitpicked to death with so much to choose from, but these are a few of my favorite less talked about Python sketches, starting with one from the troupe's great concert film, Live at the Hollywood Bowl.
Before Speed Racer offered an anime slant to Saturday morning cartoons in the 1970s, and before G-Force or Voltron made kids rush home from school in the 1980s, there was Astro Boy.
Widely considered the original manga comic, Astro Boy was conceived and written by the recognized pioneer of the genre, Osamu Tezuka in 1952.
From the franchise's diminutive launch pad, the endless chain TV anime franchises took flight. Without Tezuka's creation, there's no Lupin III, no Golgo 13, no Ghost in the Machine, no Cowboy Bebop, etc. The strange thing is, some of those TV shows from different eras pack more U.S. pop culture recognition than the franchise that set the table.
The founding members of one of the most groundbreaking comedy troupes and TV shows of all time are reuniting this week. And you're invited.
Monty Python's 40th anniversary reunion at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City will be broadcast at IFC.com and Pythonline.com. Both sites will host the event at 9 p.m. Eastern.
This latest reunion marks their first appearance together in public since their memorable reunion show at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo. Watch it or you're no fun anymore.
That's a Kakapo over there. It's an endangered species of flightless parrot. We'll get to him in a second. But I wanted to point out that this is, in fact, the first time a Kakapo has appeared at TV Squad.
This year is the 30th anniversary of Douglas Adams' classic TV, radio and book series, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. As part of the celebration, BBC2 TV sent Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine off to visit the endangered species Adams searched for in another of his books, Last Chance to See.
Adams documented his growing passion for preserving fading species in the book. And BBC2 sent Fry and Carwardine out into the world to document how those species (like the Kakapo) were fairing.
You'll be able to discover the results when the show crosses the Atlantic in the coming weeks after its U.K. run. But, for now, the TV series spawned one of the web's hottest viral videos.
One of the Earth's most beloved books and mini-series celebrated a big birthday today.
Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was first published 30 years ago today. The wildly imaginative and funny science-fiction novel spawned four more books, a radio series, a text based video game and a cult classic British mini-series. It also spawned a big budget Hollywood remake that shall not been mentioned again in this post, so there.
In honor of this momentous day for sci-fi humor geekdom, here is the iconic opening of the original BBC mini-series originally aired in 1981. Pour yourself a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster and enjoy.
If you happen to be house shopping in the Brantford, Ontario area of Canada -- and if you're a British sci-fi fan -- I've found the perfect ivy-covered drive-by cutie for you.
Many sci-fi fans wonder what classic Doctor Who might look like if the BBC bosses of the '70s and '80s could have budgeted more than £6 per episode for visual effects.
Do Daleks wear jingle bells? Probably not. But the creator of Doctor Who's deadliest enemies is in stateside toy stores to celebrate the holiday season with the human species he's tried to kill off more than once.
Oprah Winfrey is all over the news these days as she fires up her new network and considers moving her talk show from Chicago to Los Angeles.
Think of the most popular American daytime soap. Then, multiply that by a factor of 10. That's the ongoing craze known as the BBC's immortal EastEnders. Premiering in 1985, the working-class melodrama remains one of the U.K.'s highest-rated series.
When I was a kid, I remember seeing episodes of a couple of strange British shows on my local PBS affiliate in Rochester, NY. I never caught them regularly, not even sure when they aired, but I remember one of them was a peculiar little period piece with some funny gags, and a storyline I never completely grasped. 
Given the level of Python geekery out there, I'm not sure any Monty Python sketch is truly obscure. But there are plenty of gems past the more celebrated Fish-Slapping, Dead Parrot, and Argument Clinic sketches you see most often. 
Before Speed Racer offered an anime slant to Saturday morning cartoons in the 1970s, and before G-Force or Voltron made kids rush home from school in the 1980s, there was Astro Boy.
The founding members of one of the most groundbreaking comedy troupes and TV shows of all time are reuniting this week. And you're invited. 
That's a Kakapo over there. It's an endangered species of flightless parrot. We'll get to him in a second. But I wanted to point out that this is, in fact, the first time a Kakapo has appeared at TV Squad.
Andy Richter: The TV Squad Interview
Have any questions for Vik Sahay of Chuck? Ask them here!
Mike Henry and Daryl Hall on a Cleveland Show Thanksgiving
