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Wow. Just . . . wow. Too much to process right now. Review at The X Bridge this Monday . . . unless Cristobal forms down in the Carolinas crippling the interweb for yours truly.

Today, nominations for the 60th annual Primetime Academy Awards were made. The complete list can be found here . Among the notable animated highlights, both Star Wars-themed episodes of fan-favorite shows, Fox/[adult swim]'s Family Guy and [adult swim]'s Robot Chicken (I know Cartoon Network are livid about the main network's name is mentioned in the category instead of the block network, but a nomination's a nomination), were nominated for Outstanding Animated Program, but won't compete against each other. Family Guy is nominated in the category for shows an hour or more while Robot Chicken is in the category for shows under an hour. It must give Cartoon Network and TNT a little pause about the Clone Wars series coming next month (plus, the microseries is already a two-time Emmy winner). Also, Justice League: The New Frontier was nominated, which I believe is the first time an on-demand presentation is a nominee. One last note. The Coca-Cola Super Bowl ad with floa...

Today is July 10, 2008. Ten years ago today, I launched The X Bridge. I had uploaded a brand new layout, new articles, new sections, and other newness to the site. BUT, and this is a big but, my site's host, Toon Zone, went down. It's currently undergoing a server move. Still, the principle of Murphy's Law comes into being today. What can go wrong usually does. The only day when it wasn't lightning and pouring down rain was today. The lightning returns later. Oh well. Stuff happens. And there is another day. Still, it's not everyday your webpage turns 10. It's a rarity in this day and age of the blog. To all of you who had been a part of the readership over the last decade, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Check out The X Bridge . . . whenever the server move's complete. I hope you'll enjoy the changes.

George Lucas is a hack who ripped off a lot of stories to make him a multibillionaire and has done a lot to piss off the fans he created over the last decade. You know, the folks that made him a multibillionaire? I'm a fan, yes, but I'm not one of those fans that get orgasmic about everything Star Wars, including the upcoming animated retelling of the Clone Wars. Yes, it's a retelling of the Clone Wars. The Clone Wars was already told in a microseries that aired on Cartoon Network a few years ago that chronicled the closing moments of Episode II and the opening moments of Episode III. The movie and upcoming series is going to delve into some of the story that the microseries couldn't get into. Still, The Clone Wars should make for interesting television, but there's a sense of "been there, done that," and after three "prequel" films, the fans have grown weary of the characters. We know what happened to Anakin Skywalker. We know the Clone Troopers...

You know, people get all over me when I say that Time Warner is THE MOST POORLY RAN ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY IN THE WORLD because, at times, I seem to beat the notion into their heads. While that may be true and the fact that there are a lot of companies with inept executives, no company publicly shows its ineptness more than Time Warner. And no one represents the ineptitude of Time Warner more than its CEO, Jeff Bewkes, a man who is on record of stating that synergy (cooperation between separate units within the same company) is bullscat. Every major decision in the past four years at Time Warner has been largely brainstormed by him and his collective yesmen, from the ouster of Richard Parsons as CEO to the now ill-fated merger of The WB with UPN to the change of direction at Cartoon Network to the downsizing of animation at the company to the combination of "similar" units like Warner Bros. Pictures/New Line Cinema which are very similar companies not really. Recent announceme...

Read something stupid today. I tend to do that a lot these days. I read that Viacom, cable masterminds behind the MTV Networks, BET, and Paramount Pictures, are launching a pay-TV network in fall 2009 along with Lion's Gate Films and MGM. Films from these studios (starting with those distributed by Paramount this year and the newer releases from the other studios next year) will be exclusive to the new unnamed network. Here's why this is stupid to me. You know there's a network named Showtime. It's a premium network that used to be owned by Viacom but now owned by corporate cousin CBS Inc., which used to be known as Viacom. See, the current company called Viacom is a newer company that was formed to concentrate on "core" industries like film and basic cable. The Showtime family of networks was essentially the anti-HBO at launch, picking up rights to films from studios not 100% committed to HBO. Over the years, HBO became the ultimate premium entertainment netw...

Thought I'd try something a little different and a little lighthearted instead of the old gloom and doom ranting I've been doing of late. It's something I talked about on another board, and thought I'd share this theory with you. Everybody knows about The Simpsons' hometown of Springfield, a massive city that's pretty much small town USA. Everybody has their opinions on where Springfield is. Some feel it's in the West. Some feel it's in the middle of the contry. I think that Springfield is in southeastern Virginia collectively called Hampton Roads in the real world. Yes, this is also my homebase at the moment. Why do I believe The Simpsons take place in my part of the world? Let me explain. Springfield is a strong miltary town. There's a shipyard, naval port, and military bases all within the city. In southeastern VA, we have the Norfolk Naval Shipyard (the oldest naval shipyard in the US), the Norfolk Naval Base (the largest naval facility in the wo...

The weather is fidgety, cold one day, hot the next. Flowers and trees are becoming confused. People are wearing brighter colors and showing a little more skin. That could mean only one thing . . . it's almost upfront season! Okay, I know spring is in a couple of days at the time I'm writing this, but people like me (namely TV geeks) are getting ready to see what the networks are planning to offer in the next broadcast season. Considering the current broadcast season was interrupted by a strike that could have been avoided if broadcasters and producers weren't so dang greedy in the first place, next season is all we have to look forward to. But that's just it. Nobody knows what's up. Well, not the regular viewers anyway. For all intents and purposes, for the next couple of months, I'm writing about what I'd like to see come out of the upfronts this year. I'm not totally concerned with the shows coming on next season. Oh, sure, I'll complain, but still...

I saw a news link at Newsarama's blog earlier today that my friends at World's Finest confirmed. Teen Titans: The Judas Contract has been put on hold at Warner Bros. Animation. The reason? Marv Wolfman, creator of what many people call the definitive Teen Titans lineup and the fan-favorite story in question, stated that the reason is Warner Bros. told him that not a lot of people know who the Teen Titans are nor are they really interested in seeing them. Correct me if I'm wrong. I know I was out of it a few times, but wasn't there a wildly popular Teen Titans animated series that just ended a few years ago? Aren't they still airing the series on two outlets in the United States (as of the time of this article, February 28, 2008)? Don't people know who the core of the characters in the story are? I'm sure Warner Bros. did tell Mr. Wolfman that, and this once again proves that Time Warner is THE MOST POORLY RAN ENTERTAINMENT COMPANY ON THE PLANET. Jim has more...

Back when I was 13 years old, Ren and Stimpy premiered. One of the first episodes was "Space Madness," a short that's still recognized as one of the greatest shorts ever made. In the climax of the short, Cadet Stimpy was punished for trying to help Commander Hoek get over his space madness by putting the ever curious cat in charge of guarding the History Eraser Button, a device that nobody knows would happen if pushed. As Ren stated, what could happen is "maybe something bad" or "maybe something good." I think comic editors and writers pushed the History Eraser button one too many times in recent years. The more history is erased and altered, the more the question of "Does continuity matter?" arises. That's bad and good. It's bad because whenever a major story ccompletely alters everything we know about a particular character or universe, it almost makes it seem that the story never happened. I wasn't a DC Fanboy back when the fir...

I've been reading Sitcoms Online's news blog for a number of years, and I love it. It's probably one of the most comprehensive news outlets for all things situation-comedy. At times, however, I feel it's catered to an older set at times, and nothing illustrates that more than Solomon's Weekly Rants . Some are enjoyable, but most tend to be rantings of an out-of-touch guy that pretty much hates television as it is. Before you all go "Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black" on me, I do look at things through all perspectives and can be unbiased on occasion. It's just that the negative, opinionated side of me that gets noticed. Some of Solomon's opinions are grating to the point that it illustrates him as the old man on the porch shooing the kids away with a cane. I'm an old man too (well, if you consider 30 old), and I'm questioning some of his wisdom based on everything he wrote that week. I might actually agree with him on a few p...

I know I'm not a media executive, but I want to know if this thesis is even correct. The CW Television Network hands over control of their Saturday morning lineup to a competing company that already controls a low-rated Saturday morning block. The CW moves its modestly-performing urban comedies to a night that has the worst ratings for the network most likely causing their imminent cancellation as was the case with Reba and 7th Heaven a year ago. The CW is rumored to be cancelling Smallville, which may not be on everybody's must-watch list, but has a significant fan following that kept it around for seven seasons. Even that didn't help Veronica Mars nor Gilmore Girls. And today, The CW announced that they're pulling the plug on their highest-rated series, Friday Night Smackdown. Here's my thesis. The CW wants to shut down operations. That's the only logical reason I could think of for the recent idiotic decisions to come out The CW as of late. The C part of the ...

Whatever happened to reruns? It’s like we have to be bombarded by new episodes on television every week, and if we don’t get repeats, we don’t see our favorite shows. Yes, I know shows are instantly repurposed on cable because that’s where the old media feels the money is. Of course, as the old media migrates to the new media, they’re placing reruns at your fingertips, either “on-demand” or on broadband channels. If you don’t have access to “on-demand” services or broadband access (myself included), you’re scat out of luck. The old media once proclaimed that content is king, which is why they went on a buying spree purchasing smaller and, in rare cases, larger libraries and studios. Instead of Hanna-Barbera, Warner Bros., New Line, and Castle Rock, there is Time Warner. Instead of Greengrass, Disney, Capital Cities/ABC, Miramax, Saban, and PIXAR, there’s The Walt Disney Company. Instead of Jay Ward, Filmation, Rankin-Bass, Big Ideas, and UPA, there is Entertainment Rights. MGM is owned...

I think we're approaching some strange age in the coming months. Over the next 24 months, everything we see and realize as the world will be gone, replaced with something exciting, confusing, and entertaining. Media as the world knows it will be a thing of the past. Television, as we, our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and great-great grandparents knew it, is history in 2009, replaced by some digital device that'll look pretty and add more places for infomercials because network execs are idiots. Well, they are. 98% of entertainment executives are clueless morons trying to find the next great fad rather than creating something that'll last longer than they do. They'll spend and spend, but 98% of what they'll make will end up being not worth making. The traditional studio system is on the outs because those in power are becoming greedy and stupid. And you know what? The producers have nobody to blame but themselves. And the people, their consumers, aren...

I'm writing about a sitcom that hasn't seen the light of day in almost two decades in the US for my first real post in 2008? Yup. I noticed that everybody is reporting that Showtime's popular crime drama Dexter is coming to CBS's strike-ridden lineup (go Writers!) in February. Everybody that reported that are saying that Dexter will be the first premimum cable series to air on broadcast television. And those people are wrong. Although Dexter will be the first premium DRAMA series to air a complete season, the very first premimum cable series to air a complete season on broadcast television was It's Garry Shandling's Show. Like Dexter, the popular sitcom was an original production of Showtime. It premiered in 1986 on the cable network and made its broadcast debut on the young Fox network two years later, where the channel ran four of the five seasons of the series. It left the Sunday night lineup in 1990, just catching up to the Showtime run and right around the ...

According to the currently used calendar in the Western world, it is now 2008. Happy new year, my friends. I'll be back after the Epiphany.