Are we giving these folks too much publicity by posting these ongoing covers?

Or is it just fun for everyone?

If you have been missing Lost this last couple weeks, well, no new episodes, but this might tide you over for a day or so. The Helper Monkey was on wrestling historian Karl Stern’s podcast today to discuss the season finale, the show as a whole, the greatness of John Locke and Benjamin Linus, the not-so-greatness of Jack Shephard and more.

You can download it here.

Probably due to all THE BEAT’s responsibilities during MoCCA week (picking out karaoke songs?), she hasn’t had the chance yet to post the trailer for AMC’s remake of THE PRISONER. Well, here it is.

Will there be graphic novels in 2100? Well, the year, we don’t know…the special which airs on ABC tonight…definitely! According to an email from Joe Infurnari:

Tonight at 9pm EST, ABC will air a two-hour news special titled, Earth 2100. What’s exciting about it is that it uses animated ‘graphic novel elements’ to put a human face on it’s dire predictions for the future of our civilization and planet. These animated segments feature the illustrations of Tim Hamilton (Fahrenheit 451), Leland Purvis (Vox, Pubo), George O’Connor (Journey Into Mohawk Country, Kapow!) and myself (the Process, The Transmigration of ULTRA-lad!) and were co-written by Josh Neufeld (A.D. New Orleans after the Deluge)!

More info:
Yahoo Preview.

Official web site

… then what do you think about his new assistant?

According to the BBC website, the new companion for Doctor # 11 Matt Smith will be 21-year-old Karen Gillan.

The actress has already appeared in the series, playing a soothsayer in a Series Four episode set during the Pompeii/Vesuvius disaster.

Well, so much for all the talk about a possible return of Sally Sparrow, the spunky heroine from the episode BLINK written by new head honcho Steven Moffat.

I had been hoping for the intriguing dynamic of young Doctor/older female companion with Moffat casting longtime collaborator Gina Bellman, who worked with Moffat on both COUPLING and JECKYLL. It’s possibly her commitments to the TNT show LEVERAGE may have prevented her from taking the part. Or I’m just wacky for this suggestion.

As someone clinging to the “In Moffat We Trust” mantra, I’ll wait and see how this young pairing works. That said, wouldn’t it be great if they finally introduced a third companion to the TARDIS during the show’s revival (not counting semi-regulars like Mickey or Rose’s Mum) and it was someone totally opposite this younger demographic? You know, like Bernard Cribbin as Wilf?

Posted by Mark Coale

We’re told that Emmanuel Guibert and THE PHOTOGRAPHER will be featured on tonight’s Rachel Maddow Show on MSBNC, which runs at 9 pm EDT.

Maddow is known to be a graphic novel reader. Guibert is an award winning cartoonist whose work defines the potential of the medium. So it should be a good segment!

Michael Kupperman’s pilot for Snake ‘n’ Bacon airs tonight on Adult Swim at 12:45 am. That’s technically MONDAY, but we call it SUNDAY NIGHT. It’s followed by The Mighty Boosh, so for 45 minutes, at least, you can pretend that you live in an odder, funnier world.

Remember, the world will NEVER BE THE SAME.

Due to an unexpected situation arising tonight, no Lost running diary.

Feel free to use this space as a discussion place for tonight’s episode.

posted by Mark Coale

HOORAY~!

A Faraday Episode.

Your running diary of tonight’s episode after the jump.

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We have failed to properly mark the passing of Bea Arthur, but must now remedy that. As our pal Zena pointed out, there are now as many surviving Golden Girls as Beatles. As we probably noted when Estelle Getty passed away, our step-dad produced Golden Girls for a few years, so we know all about that and still have our Golden Girls cast jacket, even if it is too hot to ever wear it again.

Arthur, always a fierce, witty presence, made her great contribution to nerd culture playing the manager of the Cantina in the Star Wars Holiday Special. You can see her crooning, serving up drinks, dealing with Rodians AND Harvey Corman in the above clip. It’s pretty amazing.

As you watch it, you realize there was never a character in the whole Star Wars canon any tougher than Bea Arthur. RIP.

It’s the Hurley and Miles buddy picture. More after the jump.

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Real time diary this week.

This week is all about Mr. Benjamin Linus. Huzzah.

more after the break.

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[Note: Due to a new work schedule, I was unable to watch this week’s episode of Lost in time to write the regular Day After column. We’ll cut and paste it in here sometime Thursday after getting caught up. For now, Let’s just call this an Open Thread.]

Is this another week where a below average episode (read: one starring Kate) is saved by the last five minutes? Discuss.

The Cartoon Network held its upfronts the other day — you can read the PR here – but like most cable channels, the name of the channel is becoming less and less accurate. Broadcasting & Cable assesses the changes:

Cartoon Network is boosting its live action fare and expanding into unscripted alternative programming in an attempt to woo a slightly older (and potentially more profitable) new crowd.

“Just like the boy that wakes up one day and starts to sound different, our voice is changing too,” said Stu Snyder president and COO of Turner Broadcasting’s Animation, Young Adults and Kids Media division.

Upcoming shows include a live action show about kids working with a demolition expert to blow things up, a show about teenagers asking silly questions, and various other sorts of quiz shows, viral videos and the like.

But there will be SOME cartoons — Genndy Tartakovsky has a new show , and more Ben 10 spin-offs and Scooby Doo movies are in the works. Tartakovsky’s show is called Sym-Bionic Titan, and it’s “an exciting hybrid of high school drama and giant robot battles.”

GIANT ROBOT BATTLES! Back in the olden days, that’s as exciting as it got! Kids didn’t need any fancy demolition quiz videos!

The Cartoon Brew comment section on the announcements has a “spirited discussion” of the announcements.

If you watched last week’s episode, you know where this is going. So let’s get right to it.

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Well, we got some answers tonight. There can probably never be enough answers given to satisfy some of the nerds out there watching, but we will always take what Lindelof and Cuse will give us on any given week.

Let’s discuss those after the jump.

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It’s not quite Jon Stewart/Jim Cramer…but it should be fun. Colbert previously dissed The Graveyard Book, Gaiman’s best selling, Newbery Award winning book, but given Colbert’s not-so-secret nerd leanings, maybe it was all just a trick to meet Neil Gaiman.

Technorati Tags: Neil Gaiman

The SciFi Channel is changing its name to the Syfy Channel so they won’t seem so geeky.

“The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular,” said TV historian Tim Brooks, who helped launch Sci Fi Channel when he worked at USA Network. Mr. Brooks said that when people who say they don’t like science fiction enjoy a film like “Star Wars,” they don’t think it’s science fiction; they think it’s a good movie. “We spent a lot of time in the ’90s trying to distance the network from science fiction, which is largely why it’s called Sci Fi,” Mr. Brooks said. “It’s somewhat cooler and better than the name ‘Science Fiction.’ But even the name Sci Fi is limiting.”

The channel hopes the change will appeal to viewers who don’t much care for sci-fi, like, say, women. Personally, we think rebranding it as The Mansquito Channel is the way to go, but no one ever listens to us.

§ Fresh off whupping WATCHMEN, the RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN remake helmer is signing on for a comic book movie himself. Director Andy Fickman has signed up for Marc Bernardin, Adam Freeman, and Nima Sorat’s MONSTER ATTACK NETWORK, published by AIT/Planet Lar. The film is set at Disney.

New characters. Births. Deaths. Time travel. Dharma Merlot. Beards (or lack thereof).

All can be found in tonight’s episode, “La Fleur,” but what people should really want to talk about is ….
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I think, given the events of tonight’s show, I have finally found a way to encapsulate the Benjamin Linus vs. Charles Widmore struggle.

More after the jump.
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Let’s get this out of the way. I missed the original airing of 316 tonight and am playing catch-up like the little tomato in Mia Wallace’s joke. To get tonight’s column done in the most expeditious way possible, it’s another “real time diary.” I hear this week’s show is a doozy, so let’s get on with it.

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Looks like the episode title, “This Place is Death,” was no idle threat.

Discussion of death, life and everything after the jump. SPOILERS AHOY.

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The Hollywood Reporter reports that ABC has ordered a pilot based on NO HEROICS, the British sitcom about a bunch of third-rate, misfit superheroes with horrible love lives, and the supers-only bar they hang out at. The show will be written by Yank Jeff Greenstein and the original show creator, Drew Pearce, who apparently reads this blog every now and then.

The UK version is out on DVD for all you all-region peeps, and thanks to Mr. Pearce, we got to sample the show*, which, like many Britcoms, puts its hapless cast into worse and worse social situations where not all their powers can save them. The UK show was quite funny, and featured a zillion in-jokes for anyone who actually reads comics, as well as a dark view of the social pecking order among the long underwear set. Hopefully a Stateside version can retain both elements.

(* This show was reviewed from an advance DVD sent by the production company that arrived while we were out of town, so we had, like three notices stuck to the door, and since it was an international package, it had to come via FedEx. Because it was the final attempt, we had to go all the way to the FedEx depot up on Madison to pick it up in person which was a little bit of a hassle, but the nice man from the production office emailed to make sure we got it.)

Is it just me, or do Jack and Kate become more unlikeable every episode where they are spotlighted?

Let’s talk about them and some swerves from “The Little Prince” after the jump. There will be SPOILERS, so if you don’t want to know what happened tonight or you live some place where they don’t show the episode Wednesday night, read at your own peril. Thanks.

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The Beat is so behind the times, we completely missed the announcement that Adult Swim would be playing one of our favorite cult BritComs, the highly droll LOOK AROUND YOU. A take off on 70s kids science shows, 8 slim episodes — each only 10 minutes long — captures slow moving lab assistants taking on the wonders of maths, sulphur and ghosts, among other topics, armed only with a pencil to poke, stir or point, and experiments that remake the law of physics. (6 more half hour shows were made but we haven’t seen them.)

Previously, we thought LOOK AROUND YOU fans were a conspicuously tiny tribe, but it seems there are more, including folks at Adult Swim! And for all of you, this AV club interview with creators Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz , will be a big treat:

Robert Popper and Peter Serafinowicz’s short-lived comedy series Look Around You debuted on the BBC in 2002; the first season consisted of a mere eight 10-minute segments spoofing the classroom educational films Popper and Serafinowicz watched as kids in the late ’70s and early ’80s. But those super-short episodes, exploring topics like “Maths” and “Sulphur,” garnered the BAFTA nominees a cult following, including comedy notables ranging from Tim and Eric to Matt Groening. Popper and Serafinowicz—part of the Brit comedy circle that includes Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright—later adjusted the format for the show’s second and final season.

The duo is apparently now engaged in this, but we need a lot of spare time to explore its ramifications.

And yes, Serafinowitz’s nerd burden is being the voice of Darth Maul’s one and only line in PHANTOM MENACE.