I was at the Salvation Army stores on 16th Street in Sacramento when I found this t-shirt:
If anyone from KFBK remembers what this was all about, I'd like to know. All I know is what is on this t-shirt: in may 1993, then-financial news chief, and now daily talk show host for Fox News Radio, Tom Sullivan went to something called "Dan's Bake Sale" in Fort Collins, Colorado. You notice that Tom autographed the shirt. Here's a closer look:
There's also "pending government approval", too. Who was Dan, and how big was the bake sale, and what was the money from the sale used for? If there's anyone who knows, please write your comments on this blog. Thank you
Like many fans of Joss Whedon, I woke up this morning, still excited about the first promo for the ABC show Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. Mostly, we were really stoked about what could be the catch phrase of the summer: "Don't touch Lola," uttered by the literally indestructible Agent Philip Coulson. How he's indestructible...well, that will be explained sometime, but let's enjoy it.
Then I find out on Facebook that Joss has finally made the plunge into Twitter, the 21st century equivalent of sending telegrams to friends, family or people who you think are just wrong.
According to his page @JossActual, he started his account sometime after 11 PM Pacific Time. His first words:
That's less quirky, but I had to say something about Much Ado About Nothing about to kick off the Seattle International Film Festival. Maybe it will get an award there, or it will rule the world (at least the indie film part).
He sent some tweets before when he used the @MuchAdoMovie Twitter feed just before the movie's premiere during South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. He also wrote a few after that. This may be why he decided to get his own account.
This does not mean I'll be tweeting Joss 7200 times a day. I can be quirky elsewhere, and often. I do think that Joss will get a mountain of thank-you tweets when Much Ado finally gets a regular run next month, and then Comic-Con, and then the TV show. Maybe he'll get comments from readers of his Dark Horse comics. They can do that now.
Joss finally joining Twitter is the nerdy equivalent of Miley Cyrus coming back to Twitter, but over-active Whedon fans should keep the tweeting at a minimum, and make those tweets count. After all, it's all about quality, not quantity. That goes for how many followers you have. He has 67 thousand followers as of Monday afternoon. That will get much bigger, but not in the Kim Kardashian, Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber territory. It'll still be impressive though.
Meanwhile, much of the Whedonverse is already on Twitter, from David Boreanaz and Alyson Hannigan, to Seth Green, Nick Brendon, Tom Lenk, Fran Kranz, Morena Baccarin, Jewel Staite, Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Seam Maher, Alan Tudyk, Camden Toy, Doug Jones, Eliza Dushku, Felicia Day, David Fury, Jane Espenson, Charisma Carpenter, Kristy Swanson, Amber Benson, James Marsters, Tim Minear....nearly everyone.
Sarah Michelle Gellar isn't on Twitter, but that can always change.
As far as connecting with Joss through Twitter, we shouldn't go too far. One big Twitter-lanche, and he might be scared off. Just welcome him, and think of an impressive tweet you can use when the time is right. That's the best way.
When he has a thought that is longer than 140 characters, we head to Whedonesque, like we always do..
While the Oscars will be remembered for the Best Director that didn't get nominated, the Saturn Awards may get some attention between April and June over who will be up for awards.
Unlike the Oscars, the Saturn Awards, run by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films gives genre films their due. In fact, they even let some unexpected movies into the mix. That's due to giving out four different "Best Pictures" for Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Action/Adventure and Horror/Thriller. While some films that the Oscars usually ignore get their due in these awards, other nominees may puzzle some people. A musical? Anne Hathway gets two nominations? What's Robot and Frank or Compliance? (Netflix will answer that question). This is my take on the major movie nominations...
SCIENCE FICTION
The Avengers is nominated along with Cloud Atlas, Chronicle, Hunger Games, Looper and Prometheus. While The Avengers may have the edge because it earned a lot of cash, there may be support for Looper, the first Time Travel Noir film. I'll pick Avengers.
FANTASY
The Hobbit will compete with The Amazing Spider-Man, Life of Pi, Snow White and the Huntsman, Ted and Ruby Sparks. The big support for Hobbit will lead to a big win.
ACTION-ADVENTURE
People are wondering why Les Miserables is nominated. Musicals are not action-packed, although there was some here. However, it'll be a battle between The Dark Knight Rises, Skyfall and Django Unchained, while 007 just coming out on top. Taken 2 and The Bourne Legacy fills out the list
HORROR/THRILLER
The Cabin in the Woods was the ultimate sleeper film because it was on the shelf for years while MGM tried to get its financial house in order. Lionsgate wound up releasing the film and did well. It looks like the favorite here, but the other nominees are surprises: Argo, Zero Dark 30 and The Impossible. Also on the list are Seven Psychopaths and The Woman in Black.
There's also a category for independent films. That is going to be tough, because Compliance (which could be called a thriller and horror film) is up against Killer Joe, Hitchcock, Seeking a Friend at the End of the World, Robot and Frank (which puts new meaning to the term "computer crime"). The Paperboy and Safety Not Guaranteed. Netflix should help me catch up, but Compliance may have an edge because of the subject matter.
Now to acting:
BEST ACTOR
Daniel Craig has the edge for Skyfall, the most successful Bond movie ever, and one that marks a big change in the franchise, too. He'll be challenged by Joseph Gordon-Levitt for Looper and Matthew McConaughey for Killer Joe. The other nominees are Christian Bale (The Dark Knight Rises), Martin Freeman (The Hobbit) and Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables).
BEST ACTRESS
It'll be Katniss vs. Maya this time, but they'll face some interesting competition. Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain are the front runners, with Lawrence in the race for Hunger Games. However, look out for Ann Dowd in Compliance. She may win this award. Also on the list are Zoe Kazan (Ruby Sparks), Helen Mirren (Hitchcock) and Naomi Watts (The Impossible).
SUPPORTING ACTOR
This could be very interesting: Christoph Waltz will still have Oscar momentum thanks to Django Unchained, but Javier Bardem may have a better chance for his role in Skyfall. There's also Gordon-Levitt in Dark Knight Rises, Clark Gregg in The Avengers, Ian McKellen for The Hobbit, and Michael Fassbinder in Prometheus. It'll be Bardem by a handful of voters over Waltz.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway has a good claim here, but not as Fantine. She stole The Dark Knight Rises, but the fact she's also nominated for Les Miserables may hurt her chances. A sleeper choice may be Judi Dench in Skyfall or Gina Gershon for Killer Joe. Also nominated are Charlize Theron for Snow White and the Huntsman and Nicole Kidman for The Paperboy.
Best screenplay will be interesting. Joss Whedon has two nominations, The Avengers and Cabin in the Woods (with Drew Goddard). Quentin Tarantino is also in there for Django Unchained, Tracy Letts for Killer Joe, Martin McDonagh for Seven Psychopaths and David Magee for Life of Pi. Whedon may be able to survive the vote split and win with Drew for Cabin.
Then there's Best Director. Some may wonder why Tarantino isn't in the race, but the choices make sense: Joss for Avengers, Christopher Nolan for Dark Knight Rises, Ang Lee for Life of Pi, Rian Johnson for Looper, Peter Jackson for The Hobbit and William Friedkin for Killer Joe. My preferences are Whedon, Lee and Johnson, but I am not sure. Good thing I have some time before the ballot arrives.
You can look at the entire list of nominees here, and join the Academy to have a say on who should win. Just visit saturnawards.org. Voting starts in April, and the winners will be announced in June.
Since I am at a loss of how to pass the time this afternoon while I am waiting for The Walking Dead, BAFTA Awards and the Grammys, I will write a really cheesy column about how the inventor of Slaying, Vampires with Soul and Big Damn Heroes actually has a big connection with the Academy Awards in two weeks.
Joss Whedon won't be at the Academy Awards next weekend. He'll will be busy in Glasgow and Dublin showing Much Ado About Nothing to the film festivals there. He would belong at the Oscars though, aside from his nomination for a screenplay award for Toy Story in 1995. It's actually because of his connection with what could be the favorite for Best Picture
Joss' biggest connection is Argo, the movie with the Best Director of 2012 (sorry, whoever wins the Oscar). The most obvious one Clea DuVall, who played Cora Lijek, one of the workers from the US Embassy who hid in the Canadian Embassy in Iran in 1979. She also played Marcie Ross, the invisible girl who was gunning for Cordelia in Buffy's first season ("Invisible Girl" or "Out of Sight, Out of Mind"). It would have been great to see what happened to Marcie after the FBI grabbed her. My guess is her invisibility wore off after being away from Sunnydale, but she figured out how to work undercover in other ways. DuVall was an FBI agent in Heroes, so it's plausible.
It doesn't stop there. Keith Szarabajka, who was Angel's nemesis Daniel Holtz, played Adam Engell one of the CIA officials discussing how to get the six Americans out of Iran.
Oh, and Ben Affleck was one of the basketball players in the original Buffy movie. It was when one the players suddenly became a vampire.
Oops, I almost forgot Tom Lenk, who plays a reporter for Variety when they have the table read for the fake movie. He'll be more prominent when Much Ado About Nothing reaches American theaters this summer (aside from SXSW in March).
Yes, Browncoats, Alan Tydyk should be included, too. He is the voice of the Candy King in Wreck-It Ralph, a likely favorite for Best Animated Film
AHHH! I know, Tara fans. Amy Adams was also in the Buffy episode "Family", five years before she earned her first of four Oscar nominations for Junebug. She's in the Supprorting Actress race for The Master (no, not the one who was clobbered a formerly dead Slayer). Sorry about that.
Of course, the Oscars announced the cast of The Avengers will be presenting, while the film is up for the award for Best Visual Effects. You can't ignore a comic book movie that earns as much as the gross national product of a couple of small island nations.
I just wonder if Much Ado About Nothing, which was made at Joss' house in 12 days for the cost of a really long limousine, could get some awards, too. Maybe Joss may find himself in the Independent Spirit Awards in 2014. Wouldn't that be interesting?
I always wanted to know what it was like to help out in a charity screening of something I have on DVD.
Well, since I had a free one-way Southwest trip and lots of points to burn, I decided to do just that. I was security (sort-of) and part of the clean-up crew at the Dr. Horrible screening last weekend at the Barnsdall Gallery Theater. Actually, being a go-fer and spotter for celebrity cars wasn't too bad. I also escorted Shawna Trpcic (designer of clothes for Firefly, Dollhouse and Dr. H) to her seat, and spoke briefly with Greg Aronowitz (propmaster genius), Doug Jones, and Georges Jeanty of Dark Horse Comics. Whedonopolis' video review can be found here. I'd present the whole video, but it's PG-13 in one certain moment. This is the PG version:
Fran Kranz as Walter White, the early years. If Breaking Bad wants a prequel, I think we've found your man. The Whedonopolis link has the complete Fran, you might say. I saw him three times in the lobby and never figured it was him.
These two, though were easy to spot...
Jane Espenson and Cheeks (Brad Bell), the couple who made Husbands the best sitcom TV doesn't air. They showed season 2 on the big screen, and it was a big hit. You don't see Joss Whedon as an actor every day, but after seeing him as a snarky agent that would be a good idea. Jon Cryer, though, is the real star towards the end as the Anderson Cooper-ish talk show host who actually surprises us. To see that show click this Husbands link, plus my review of it.
There was also season five of The Guild, which I enjoyed more with a bigger screen. It included Doug Jones, namely this guy...
Remember, he's part of a classic foreign horror movie that almost won Best Foreign Film at the Oscars (but still picked up a couple). Also, gotta say, they should cast Amy Okuda as a super-heroine somewhere. Someone like Tink could fit into Arrow, for example.
The big event, of course, was Dr. Horrible. A lot of people took pictures of this couple...
That's the look of a girl who is happy an evil doctor game her the keys to a shiny new Australia, although this is also shiny: Australias you can eat!
Looking at it on a big screen for the first time in four years, I actually noticed something I hadn't before. In the tragic but inevitable scene where Penny's about to die after being impaled by collateral damage from the latest Hammer-Horrible tussle, Dr. H tries to help her, but then she says "Captain Hammer will save us". Even in death, Penny has betrayed our poor evil Doctor. THAT is why he embraces evil, folks. He couldn't get the girl no matter what.
Of course, a sequel is still in the works. I wonder if this time Dr. H is so horrible, the Evil League of Evil decides he should be, how you say, expelled quietly but also in a million pieces? Maybe he'll find salvation in an Angelic Penny. Maybe Captain Hammer will have to ask H for (ugh) help. It would be a bit too Megamind-ish, but what the heck? Most likely I'll be surprised if he get an angelic Penny at least. We'll just keep waiting.
Some other sights of the screening:
Greg Aronowitz with the Underwater castle that may or may not be the future of The Game this season on The Guild
An autographed poster that will be sold for charity.
I hear next year Dr. H will be part of a web film fest. No doubt more Guild episodes will be part of it.
I taped Fox's 25th anniversary special for a friend last weekend. After looking at it again, I have to wonder if Fox had trouble trying to fit 25 years of highlights into two hours...because it was worried it wouldn't have enough?
First off, anyone notice that Ryan Seacrest did not mention Fox's first star....Joan Rivers?
That's right. Before Fox even had primetime shows, it had the original Late Show, with Joan Rivers being the latest victim to the Hopeless War against Johnny Carson. Of course, this was before Arsenio Hall used a unique battle strategy....get the younger crowd instead of Johnny's usual audience.
Anyway, here's a clip of Joan in action, from the first show (thanks to YouTube, the online version of the Paley Center)
Then, we had Tracey Ullman. Plenty of clips from The Simpsons, who used to be shown in between her sketches. She even earned the network's first Emmys.
Any segment on her? Nope.
So, here's a clip. Notice Francesca's parents. They're just like Rachel Berry's parents....way before she was born.
Fox was way ahead of their time back then. Why not mention that, Seacrest?
To be fair, here's an early Simpsons sketch...
Lately, TV hasn't taken any time to look back at what it used to be. It wasn't like the 1970's, when the big three actually had big specials to celebrate their anniversaries. It started with NBC's 50th anniversary, where they unveiled a new logo....that they had to replace a few years later. Still, it was a chance to see classic TV from the 1950's, and their two hour event was more interesting that what Fox did. They did it again ten years later, including another new logo. CBS used a whole week to celebrate its 50th anniversary. It meant lots of room for song and dance like this....
Think Jon Hamm could do something like that if and when AMC celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2014? Well, I don't think it remembered its 25th anniversary in 2009. Still, he'd pull it off.
ABC used Laverne and Shirley to start its four-hour 25th anniversary special. It also had musical numbers, and cast reunions, too.
Anyway, those three networks had a big advantage: the 1950's. ABC could bring back clips from Disneyland and American Bandstand. CBS could bring back Lucy and Ed Murrow. NBC had Steve Allen and Sid Caesar..and that's for starters.
Fox probably wishes it had stuff that was just as good as the 1950s. It did, only it was the 1980s, and they skipped right through them. OK, we got 90210 and Cops, but they should have given Ullman her due.
Anyone see Comedy Central's big special celebrating its 20th anniversary?
Of course not. They didn't make one.
MTV did nothing for its 30th anniversary. It left the job to VH1 with a two-hour special. VH1 Classic, a digital channel few people get, had the good sense to at least air 12 hours of the best moments of the channel, including the first hour of the network, complete with original commercials. It would have made more sense to present more of that stuff, and send it some of it over to VH1.
It's as if we don't want to think about the past. How can we face our future grandchildren, and explain why Jersey Shore was ever produced, or Toddlers and Tiaras? How can we explain why networks would rather make spin-offs rather than original shows, while cable gave us Game of Thrones and Mad Men?
I'm just saying that if a network reaches an anniversary, it should make a major effort to look back at what it was, then try to convince us the best is yet to come. Sometimes that turns out to be true. While Comedy Central used to have Bill Maher and MST3K, it has Jon Stewart, Futurama (a TV show FOX conveniently forgot it had) and South Park. It should have had a special to mention that.
Did you know E! is about to reach its 25th anniversary? How about some tributes to Talk Soup? Maybe Greg Kinnear would come back? SyFy is about to reach 20 years old. OK, so it has those movies, but how about a special honoring that milestone, and tie that in with the final episode of Eureka, and new episodes of Warehouse 13? AT least have a shindig at Comic-Con.
Nostalgia sells, guys, especially when it's done well. The Original Three proved that in the 1970s, and Fox should have taken the same approach this year with an anniversary week of some kind.
Maybe the CW can do that when it reaches its 10th anniversary in 2016...as long as it also remembers its past as the WB and UPN.
And yes, that includes the Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer. Good with the bad, guys. It's only fair. At least Fox did that with its special. We have to suffer through When Animals Attack to get to American Idol.
We've been waiting quite some time for Comic-Con IV: A Fan's Hope, the documentary that Morgan Spurlock and Joss Whedon produced. It's supposed to be an inside look at one of the biggest and most popular events anywhere. After seeing it at the Vogue in San Francisco on Easter night, the movie does deliver in some levels. I just wish it was longer. It's just under 90 minutes, but it needed another 15 or 20 minutes. Well, what he couldn't include in the film, it will be in the inevitable DVD. It'll probably be two discs, although three will do, especially the blu-ray version.
So how can you condense 140 thousand fans and four days of Comic-Con 2010 into under 90 minutes? First you have interviews with fans, a lot of them. That produces 700 hours of stuff. I was one of those fans, but I didn't make the cut. I may have had a chance if I was in costume, which I wasn't. I did dress as Dr. Who the 11th last year and will do so again. I just need a fez or something.
The film does have lots of interviews including Joss, Seth Green, Kevin Smith (who plays a part in one of the story lines), Grant Morrison, Kenneth Branagh, and more. It was also the first time I saw Paul Dini's face after knowing his name from the Batman animated series.
To get to the heart of Comic-Con, Spurlock chose several people who have stories that are connected with the event, We have two budding comic book artists who hope to get a foot in the door. We have a couple who met at Comic-Con 2009 who may be taking a big step if all goes well. It also depends on how the guy can get a very special ring for his girl. There's a collector who's there for only one thing: an action figure. There's Holly, a costume designer who hopes her entry in the Masquerade will turn some heads. There's Chuck Rozanski, owner of Mile High Comics, who has personally seen Comic-Con change from a comics-only convention into, as someone once said, Cannes for Nerds. Chuck's hoping to sell an extremely rare comic book that will keep him in business, in case sales aren't that great. They are the best part of the film, especially Chuck and Holly's stories.
We also get to see Stan Lee, and Sylvester Stallone, Angelina Jolie and other movie stars that have basically taken over Comic-Con. We get comments about how the con is now a focus group for upcoming movies, which is true. It was the con that boosted Shaun of the Dead and Inglorious Basterds, but also exposed the weaknesses of films that use entire hotel buildings as billboards. Skyline, anyone? Hollywood taking over Comic-Con through product placement, and even "borrowing" a couple of restaurants to plug shows, would have been a great documentary all by itself. Again, if we had more on that, and contrast that with what Chuck and other comic book mavens think about how they're getting forgotten, it would have been a stronger film. It's certain this will be part of the DVD, and maybe something about how other people have become stars not exactly through major movies or TV, but through indie horror or internet shows (hey there, Felicia).
The people at the Vogue were nice enough to let me sit in with both question and answer sessions with Spurlock. He's a cool guy, and had some interesting comments about movie distribution. He noted that while he was on late-night TV plugging The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (his take on product placement), less than 20 theaters showed his movie on its first day of release. So, he decided with the Comic-Con movie, it would be shown in a few theaters, but also on Amazon, iTunes and on demand. In fact, you can see this movie at home or on your iPad for seven bucks. People at the screening paid $10.50, but that's because they wanted to see it the way their ancestors did....in a big dark room with popcorn and movie trailers. Having Morgan be there to sign autographs and talk about it was a bonus that they, and I, were happy to enjoy. The theater was actually two-third full for both showings, probably because it was Easter weekend. They also got dinged by a less-than-favorable review by the San Francisco Chronicle.
So what was left out of the movie? He talked about a girl who made a living dressed in costume, and how complex her costumes were. There was also a Colombian man who wanted to own his own comic book company, and hoped exposure at Comic-Con would help. He got a booth there, but not a travel visa. His wife had to go on his place, although she was not as involved in the business as he was. Spurlock said he would have had to use voice over to tell the story, and he didn't want to do that because the movie is without narration. He did say their company is still viable, and it's switching to digital comics. In fact, he said that digital comics could be the wave of the future. He also talked about how that infamous stabbing during the Resident Evil panel prevented them from getting a very special romantic moment that was supposed to be one of the big story lines in the movie.
Spurlock also predicted that Comic-Con may be longer, maybe five or six days. That'll be great news to the hotel industry, that's for sure. I expect Petco Park will be the new Hall H, but that's just me.
Spurlock will continue his movie tour to the East Coast this week. His website reveals where he'll be, and how people can host a screening of the movie in their hometown. That should include San Diego because the movie is only available OnDemand at Cox Cable, but it should be in theaters. Heck, it should be at Comic-Con!
