D’oh! Playmates announces the end of the World of Springfield Simpsons figure line, which should mean more petty cash-in-hand and shelf space in these parts.
Category: Television
Gnome Run.
Slate‘s Seth Stevenson weighs in on Travelocity and pilfered gnomes.
Miller’s Crossing.
Not that this is really news to anyone, but Dennis Miller freely admits he won’t ever badmouth Bush on his new CNBC show. Well, if that’s the case, as I said before, Sayonara, cha-cha.
Harvey and the Moff.
In a bizarre conflation of sinister intergalactic bureaucrats, Wayne Pygram, a.k.a. Farscape‘s Scorpius, is cast as Grand Moff Tarkin (well, more than likely) in Episode III. There’s also some goofy rumor going around that Peter “Chewbacca” Mayhew has been signed for four SW films. Sheah. Update: On a semi-related Star Wars note, check out this tricked-up “H-Wing” Civic del Sol (More here.)…now here’s a guy who’d be into a third SW trilogy.
Movin’ On Up.
MoveOn.org chooses the winners of the “Bush in 30 Seconds” contest, and the top vote-getter is a surprisingly subdued piece on the effects of the deficit. (My friend Seth, who’s commandeered Ad Report Card over at Slate, posted his take here.) Good choice, I’d say, although I do like the Animated Ad as well.
Adam Schiff and the Dubya Dip.
Slate evaluates the Law and Order crew as economic poster-children. I’ll vote for the candidate who can promise us a Claire Kincaid economy.
Coming Up Aces.
With Celebrity Poker Showdown beginning tonight, CNN examines the recent rise in televised card games. Hey, I’m all for it.
Raise Ya a J-Lo.
They announced it a few months ago, but I only saw the ad for Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown yesterday. December 2nd, baby…I’m so there.
Unscripted K-os?
Max of Lots of Co. points the way to this intriguing article on the pitfalls that have befallen K Street. I finally saw a few episodes at a friend’s house and, while James and Mary came off well, I thought the show suffered from a few strategic errors. For one, as this story points out, the only people who will recognize (or will care about) all the uncredited cameos are the same ones who’ll realize how ultimately fake the show is. For another, the show’s greatest strength was that it seemed news-dependent, but…if you have no news for a few weeks, trouble ensues. (Hence, the not-very-engaging personal subplots that have taken over.) Still, I think there’s definite potential for a show like K St.…perhaps Soderbergh & co. should try a second run a little closer to election time, if HBO wills it.
Return of the Crichton?
Are the Moya crew on their way back from oblivion? Rumors abounded yesterday that Farscape had been picked up for a 4-6 episode mini-season to finish the story, but then today’s abruptly-called Henson press conference was cancelled. What the frell is going over there? Update: Crichton lives!