The new episode, airing 7 PM EST on Cartoon Network, is entitled “The Shrieking Madness.” And it guest stars Harlan Ellison in the role he was born to play: “Harlan Ellison.” Who, as it turns out, is Velma’s favorite author. Plus so far I’ve counted one “Galaxy Quest” in-joke.
If you are somehow missing it, it’s repeated at 9:30 PM tonight and at 10:30 AM tomorrow.
PAD
Originally published February 4, 1994, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1055
I have absolutely no idea where this is a nationwide problem or not.
I suddenly noticed that my kids don’t have “Current Events” homework anymore. That, indeed, Current Events seems to have vanished from the local curriculum.
You remember Current Events. Once a week–sometimes every day, if you had a particularly aggressive and socially conscious teacher–you were supposed to flip through the newspaper and clip out an article about what was going on in the world.
Remember when I was furious because Cablevision and ABC had a falling out and we wound up going to a hotel so we could watch the Oscars?
Well, the latest round is Fox pulling its line-up of programming because Cablevision didn’t want to increase their payout to Fox from $70 million to $150 million.
This time, though, I couldn’t care less.
The programs I actually watch on Fox are easily available through the Internet. It’s one less show (“Glee”) to be pitted against “Tower Prep” in this media market. Being a Mets fan, I absolutely don’t give a crap about the baseball post season, and if I’m inclined to watch football for some unknown reason, there’s plenty of other avenues for it. And best of all, it makes it less convenient for the conservatives to watch their beloved Fox News.
So I really don’t give a dámņ how long this particular outage continues.
PAD
A terrific new live action series by Paul Dini called “Tower Prep” will be debuting this Tuesday on Cartoon Network. To give it the ten word pitch, it’s like “The Prisoner” but in high school. In the interests of full disclosure, Paul’s a friend and he showed me the pilot months ago; that doesn’t detract from my belief that it’s a high quality family program that deserves a wide audience.
However that’s going to be a chore. It has quite possibly THE worst time slot they could have given it: 8 PM EST. For viewers interested in high school dramas, that puts it against “Glee.” For audiences who want a show featuring people with unusual abilities and an enigmatic back story, there’s “No Ordinary Family.” Between that and the minimal-to-nonexistent push the series has been getting ( there was virtually no “Tower Prep” presence at San Diego and zero at New York, even though the show was debuting the following week) getting viewers is going to be a tough slog.
But if you want to take a shot at sampling it before it gets exiled to its formidable time slot, it’s airing tonight, Saturday, at 9 PM EST. So give it a watch…while you can.
PAD
Originally published January 28, 1994, in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1054
Many moons ago, the folks at Warners Animation decided that they were going to produce a straight-to-video movie version of the popular Batman: The Animated Series. And then, somewhere along the way, they must have figured: What the hëll. Let’s put a few bucks into it and release it theatrically.
Thus we have Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, a sort of mixed breed, mixed bag of a film.
The Good: My table in Artist’s Alley was well positioned and I had a chance to see lots of folks who frequent this site, not to mention a number of old friends and even some REALLY old friends. The separate signings that I had were well attended, although I hold no illusions that people were lining up to see me (at the Evil Ink table, they were there for Claudio Sanchez; at my two Marvel signings, they were there for Chris Claremont at the first one and for the Romitas at the second.) But, hey, a line’s a line. And I particularly had a good time on the “Epic Mickey” panel. I decided to have some fun at the beginning by abruptly saying, “I want to do something,” and I watched the Disney reps in the front row blanch as they obviously thought, “Oh God, what’s he going to say, what’s he going to do?” And then I led the crowd in a rendition of the “Mickey Mouse Club” theme song, and the Disney reps promptly relaxed and even sang along. Also had a chance to actually play the game at a display, and it totally rocked. Gonna have to buy a Wii.
The Bad: The lack of names on the badges prompted me to be mistaken for other various comics creators. Also, thanks to construction in the Javits, Artists Alley was at the opposite end of the building from panels, which meant that any panel appearance necessitated making my way through about five blocks worth of crowds. Also Artists Alley was set up at the one section of the Javits Center that had no restrooms; they were at the opposite end of the room. Furthermore people were consistently given misinformation by the information people, including telling them that my signing at Evil Ink on Saturday was 5 PM (it was 3 PM; it was 5 PM on Friday) and being utterly unable to tell fans where my table was situated.
The Ugly: It’s generally good form to send folks home on an upbeat note. To signal the end of the Comic Con in San Diego, they blink the lights and an announcer gently says that the party’s over. Not New York. They signaled the end of the convention by blaring a horn over the PA system that’s identical to the sirens from German police cars. Between that and the guys in colored shirts trying to herd us, my racial memory kicked in and I started looking around fearfully for the railroad cars to transport us to the camps. So they might want to come up with something more soothing next year…like an air raid siren.
PAD
I’ve written three episodes of “Ben 10: Ultimate Alien,” and the first of them will be airing this Friday, October 15, at 7:30 PM EST on Cartoon Network. Title is “Reflected Glory.” Be sure to tune in.
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PAD
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