Category: tv

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Video: My Little Pony’s tribute to A New Hope

This morning’s new episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic featured a fairly blatant take on the throne room scene from Star Wars. I admit to generally being more of the jaded eye-rolling type when it comes to this sort of thing, but this one took me completely off guard. (There’s something delightfully ironic about it ending a story featuring a villain voiced by a Star Trek guy.) I’m totally taking this as a personal shoutout, reality of production schedules be damned.

Thanks to Dan Wallace, for finding this comparison!

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True confession: I love My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

While some Star Wars fans have eating up The Clone Wars with a spoon, I have been getting into other children’s shows. For the first couple seasons it was Avatar: The Last Airbender, but now I have (accidently) fallen into another children’s show, one even less excusable than the truly excellent Avatar.

It’s My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Now, I grew up during the first flourishing of the My Little Pony toys in the 80’s, and I had a bunch of the things. Those ponies are long gone, and I only remember one of them (because I lost her while on vacation.) But somehow I ended sucked up into this show, and next thing I know I’m subscribing to fan blogs, registering on forums, and buying tiny plastic toys.

I’m not alone: Friendship is Magic has a flourishing adult fanbase, including a surprising number of male fans, who call themselves bronies. (They are, if nothing else, an interesting counterpoint to the case of Katie the Star Wars Girl.) It gets a little ridiculous, but it’s fun. (Plus, the second season of the show – which is easy to find on Youtube – began Saturday morning.)

And then there’s the pony generator. Starting with a Mara pony last night, I’ve created a few Star Wars ones, and I’ll post the codes in the comments if you want to tweak from there.

Really, this all could have been avoided if Legend of Korra hadn’t been delayed…

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Dinklage wins Emmy for Game of Thrones

The Emmys were fairly predictable tonight, at least as far as the lone genre entry went… Mad Men beat out Game of Thrones for Best Drama series, but the fantasy series did get one major award: Peter Dinklage for supporting actor in a drama! And he thanked his dog-sitter in the acceptance speech. Nice.

Game of Thrones did win a Creative Arts Emmy last week for Main Title Design.

(Also very touching: The Best Comedy Actresses.)

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William Shatner: Star Wars is “derivative” of Trek

Apples and oranges? Pot calling the kettle black? Space western vs. space opera? TV budget vs. film budget? There’s no denying that Star Wars is derivative of many things, but Trek doesn’t even makes the top ten.

Still, you can’t really blame the guy for being partisan to his own franchise. (Or wanting Kirk to run off with Leia)

EDIT: And speaking of derivative, Heilemann  has something of a point about Trek and Forbidden Planet.

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And the rest: Wonder Woman, BSG: Blood and Chrome, Angel, and Damon Lindelof loves Raiders

Wonder Woman: Erika Peterman demands a Wonder Woman movie on the CNN Geek Out! blog. The co-founder of Girls-Gone-Geek.com addresses different theories as to why we haven’t gotten one yet: lack of a good story? Finding the right costume? Having an action movie led by a female? Casting for the perfect Princess Diana of the Amazons?

Battlestar Galactica: There’s talk that the upcoming BSG prequel series, Blood and Chrome, may end up a web series instead of airing on Syfy. Because they need more airtime for paranormal researching wrestlers. Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome focuses on a young William Adama during the first Cylon war.

Comics: Angel, the vampire with a soul, returns to Dark Horse Comics with this week’s release of Angel & Faith #1. For the past few years, while Dark Horse and Joss Whedon had been busy with Buffy Season Eight, IDW Comics and Joss Whedon had been publishing stories in the Angel franchise, including Angel: After the Fall and several Spike arcs. Now the Buffyverse is re-united back under Dark Horse as Angel and Faith team up to fight evil after the tumultuous events of Season Eight.

Raiders of the Lost Ark:Damon Lindelof (of Lost and 2009’s Star Trek) writes a love letter to the perfect movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and describes when he last peed in his pants.

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New Star Trek TV idea generates buzz

The Star Trek franchise has been off the television air since 2005. (Dang, really?) After a few ideas that seem to have died on the vine, there’s a producer developing a new Star Trek series for television that is at least talking a good talk by showing up at the annual Creation Star Trek Las Vegas Convention to pitch his idea to the fans.

David Foster (of 1947 Entertainment and not music-producer fame)  is proposing a series set post-Voyager. And we have the “younger and edgier” line, but combined with staying true to Gene’s vision.

He does have experience working the fan base, having gotten folks worked up about his project with Richard Hatch on his Battlestar Galactica reboot trailer. But there doesn’t seem to be much beyond that on his resume.

Still. Stranger things have happened. If he manages to hook up with a seasoned Hollywood commodity, enthusiasm could get Star Trek back on the air. (Maybe?)

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Back on TV this weekend: Doctor Who, The Venture Brothers special

Just a reminder that Doctor Who returns this Saturday, with a look at a classic time travel trope in ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’. This start to the second half of the season is followed by the last ‘Doctor Who: Best of’ show: ‘Best of the Companions’. Check out this exclusive sneak peek of the new episode, or, if you’re not caught up on Series 6 yet, BBC America will be doing a marathon of the first half of the series before the new episode at 9 PM.

Also, in news that may only be exciting to Dunc and myself, The Venture Brothers returns on midnight on Sunday, August 28 with a special mockumentary on Hank’s band: From the Ladle to the Grave: The Shallow Gravy Story. The new 15-minute episode follows a VB marathon starting at 9:30 on [adult swim]. Crave more gravy? Get more info on Shallow Gravy EP from Amazon and iTunes. Go Team Venture!

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On TV: Warehouse 13, Leverage renewed, new Thrones characters, and more

Fresh off the heels of killing, renewing, and really killing Eureka, SyFy has renewed its most watched series, Warehouse 13 for a fourth season in 2012. Entertainment Weekly discusses Syfy’s image post-Eureka, and announced a fifth season of Leverage on TNT. Also not axed yet: Syfy had to quash rumors that its new superhuman show, Alphas, had been canned.

Can’t wait for the next season of Game of Thrones? Check out these three new character castings on Blastr. Or check out this tribute video: (Warning: NSFW!)

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SyFy cancels Eureka, plays bait-and-switch

After Twitter exploded with rage that Eureka was being cancelled last week, The Wrestling Channel SyFy announced that they were giving them six episodes to wrap up the series, next year. Apparently, they have now changed their minds.

Wil Wheaton, who has been playing the hilariously petty Dr. Parrish on the show, wrote up his reaction on his blog. And here’s a round-up of the fan and cast reactions.

After the way they played Stargate fans, you’d think SyFy would have learned how to better break up with a show.