WE, THE GUARDIANS OF THE GENRE, DO VOW TO ABSTAIN FROM ALL THAT IS MUNDANE AND REVEL IN AND GLORIFY ALL OF THE MANY WONDERS THAT COME WITH THE
ACCEPTANCE OF THE GREAT AND GOOD GENRES!
SCIENCE FICTION! FANTASY! HORROR!
Doctor Who fans like me will be watching the first new
episode of Doctor Who tonight, on BBC America at 8pm EST, since last year’s
Christmas Special. This is technically the 6th episode of season 7,
but it is the first episode of The Doctor with his new companion, Clara, so it almost
feels like a new season.
The episode is entitled The Bells of Saint John. It is described
as: The Doctor’s search for Clara Oswald brings him to modern day London, where
Wi-Fi is everywhere. Humanity lives in a Wi-Fi soup, but something dangerous is
lurking in the signals, picking off minds and imprisoning them. As Clara
becomes the target of this insidious menace, the Doctor races to save her and
the world from an ancient enemy.
Watch the BBC America-Exclusive Trailer for the All New
Episodes of DOCTOR WHO *** Premiering SATURDAY MARCH 30 at 8/7c *** Presented
by Supernatural Saturday, only on BBC America.
Immediately followed by the World Premiere of New BBC
AMERICA Original Series ORPHAN BLACK at 9/8c and the new season of BBC AMERICA
Original Series THE NERDIST at 10/9c.
Through all of time and space, the unknown is everywhere.
But sometimes, the universe's greatest mystery is the person right next to
you...
"I look at you every single day and I don't understand
a thing about you."
"You're the Impossible Girl, the only mystery worth
solving..."
In these episodes, The Doctor (MATT SMITH) is joined by his
new companion Clara (JENNA-LOUISE COLEMAN) for the latest set of incredible
adventures through space and time. The duo finds new adversaries and familiar
friends around every corner as they journey from the bottom of the ocean in a
submarine to the center of the TARDIS and beyond. The Cybermen make a
thunderous return and the Ice Warrior arrives in an unexpected place.
In the premiere, a modern-day urban thriller called
"The Bells of Saint John" written by lead writer and executive
producer Steven Moffat (Sherlock) and set in London against the backdrop of new
& old iconic landmarks, a new nemesis - the Spoonheads - battle the Doctor
as he discovers something sinister is lurking in the Wi-Fi.
Long-time readers of this blog know that my first and
forever favorite horror host was and is The Ghoul, who aired here in the Boston
area briefly in 1973. I thought horror hosts had disappeared from the airwaves forever,
but sometime in 1982 local channel 56 – oddly, the station that had aired The
Ghoul – ran then Son of Svengoolie on Saturday afternoons. I watched these
every Saturday until the show was pulled from syndication. While Sven was
different from The Ghoul, he still had many of the elements of horror hosting
that I then – and still do – love! Unfortunately, much like The Ghoul’s brief run,
Son of Svengoolie’s was also terminated all too quickly. The things I remembered
most fondly about then Son of Svengoolie were: his bad puns, the rubber chicken
throwing (usually at him and caused by his bad puns), song parodies based on
the movie’s shown, his constant put-downs of Berwyn (a suburb of Chicago which Sven
harassed much like The Ghoul made fun of Parma) and his then sidekick Tombstone
(a talking skull that floated in mid-air and talked with a vaguely Bronx-sounding
accent). Fortunately for me, Svengoolie (no longer Son of) is airing each
Saturday night on MeTV at 10 pm and he still does almost all the same types of
gags and skits that I loved from his show over thirty years earlier!
Here is Svengoolie’s Wikipedia entry and as far as I can
tell, the information appears to be accurate:
Svengoolie debuted on Screaming Yellow Theater, which aired
on WFLD (Channel 32) from September 18, 1970 until late-summer 1973. Svengoolie
was played in this series by Jerry G. Bishop. In later seasons, Rich Koz—a fan
of the show who used to send in sketch ideas—became one of the show's writers.
On June 16, 1979, Son of Svengoolie debuted on WFLD, with
Koz in the title role. The show also aired briefly on other sister (i.e., Field
Communications-controlled) stations in Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, and
Detroit. This series ran until WFLD (at that time owned by Metromedia) was sold
to Rupert Murdoch's Fox Television Stations Group in 1986 to become a part of
the newly-created Fox network. The new management canceled the show after
deciding it was not an appropriate fit for their new programming direction.
After 334 shows, the final episode aired January 25, 1986. Koz later returned
to WFLD in various capacities, mainly as the host of its Fox Kids Club and The
Koz Zone weekday afternoon children's programming, even appearing as an
announcer on the Fox network's 1988 New Year's Eve broadcast.
The series returned to the air on December 31, 1994 on WCIU
(Channel 26), using just "Svengoolie" as its name; Koz took over the
role of Svengoolie when Bishop told Koz that he "believed he was grown up
enough now to no longer be just the Son." The show opens with a reference
to early radio broadcasting: "Calling all stations, clear the air lanes,
clear all air lanes for the big broadcast." Koz also hosts a weekly Three
Stooges Stooge-a-palooza show on WCIU.
A running gag throughout the series is the repeated
utterance of the word "Berwyn", the name of a Chicago suburb. (This
was a parody of the way "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" and Johnny
Carson would jokingly refer to "Beautiful Downtown Burbank.") Another
recurring gag involves rubber chickens being thrown at Svengoolie after a
cornier-than-usual joke—usually at the end of each episode's closing sketch.
Koz and the show have won numerous regional Emmy awards, and Koz was admitted
to the Emmy "Silver Circle" in 2004 for "outstanding
contributions to Chicago television."
The series also airs on Chicago's WWME-CA
("ME-TV"), Milwaukee stations WBME-CD and WMLW-TV, and occasionally
on WMYS-LP in South Bend, Indiana. All of these stations are owned by Weigel
Broadcasting. Beginning on April 2, 2011, Svengoolie's show also became
available nationally on the Weigel-owned Me-TV network.
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Very much so over the years, with
regards to Sven being Transylvianian, and how. It's pretty much gone straight
into Not Even Bothering with the Accent, he'll start a segment with it or
annunciation a word in it here or there but that's all.
Parody Commercial: Too many examples to count—Svengoolie's
Jr. Grave Robber Kit, Vampire Carpets, Death perfume...
Passing the Torch: In the first episode of Son of
Svengoolie, when the Son pop's out of Bishop's coffin on the old Screaming
Yellow Theater set while Bishop, out of character, provides Opening Narration.
Bishop: Good evening. I'm Jerry G. Bishop, and this is the
famed split-level dungeon studio where many years ago, the legendary
Svengoola—Svengoolie first entered television prominence many years ago....What
if there was the same situation as in the past with Son of Frankenstein, Son of
Dracula, Sanford and Son? Could their exist—somewhere, somehow—a Son of
Svengoolie?
Son of Svengoolie: Hey, dad, can I borrow the key to the
Hearst tonight?
Named for Svengali from Trilby (and the subsequent reuse of
the name as "a person who with evil intent manipulates another into doing
what is desired") along with Ghoul, a common horror trope in its own
right.
BER-WYN? is uttered whenever a city name, or a word that
sounds similar is mentioned. Berwyn is a suburb of Chicago where they have an
annual mushroom parade. Used as a gag similar to Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In's
"beautiful downtown Burbank."
Song Parody: Once an Episode, usually changing the lyrics to
reference that night's movie.
Tombstone's is superimposed onto the screen much more
gracefully today than he was in the old days, appearing much more solid and his
mouth lip-sinks almost fluidly.
Many characters are voiced by Koz, and dubbed in. Zallman T.
Tombstone (a floating skull), Kerwyn (a rubber chicken who helps Sven with the
Mailbag segment), and Durwood (a ventriloquist's dummy) are the three most
often seen Non Human Sidekicks. Also "appearing" Once an Episode is
"the guy behind the door," who interrupts Sven as he's saying his
goodnights at the end of the show to tell him a bad joke. The hand is played by
various people - mostly staffers at the station - but the voiceover is Koz.
Back in the Son of Svengoolie days you couldn't get through
a month without at least one cheap shot at Alan Thicke.
Three Dimensional Episode: when SoS broadcast Revenge of the
Creature in 1983. The effect didn't work well.
Vocal Range Exceeded: Regularly used when musical director
Doug Graves arranges songs for Sven to sing, just a bit higher than Sven can
sing.
The Artifact: Durwood the puppet looks just like Bishop's
Svengoolie. When Koz took over with a different make-up design, Durwood
retained his resemblance to the original and continues to today.
Audience Participation: Faked with using audio clips from
various programs, most commonly Warner Brothers cartoons.
Award Show: Parodied in 1983 with The Worst of Svengoolie,
which highlighted the worst elements of the various films that had been shown
over the years.
When Doug speaks up, it's generally to get a joke in at
Sven's expense.
Everything's Better with Chickens: Rubber chickens make
frequent appearances on the show, especially at the end, when they're launched
at Svengoolie.
Fan Nickname: Sven, short for Svengoolie. "Goolie"
isn't his last name.
Hey, It's That Guy!: Svengoolie devotes one host segment a
week to pointing out the actors' other roles.
Incredibly Lame Pun: Most of the jokes on the program.
Keep Circulating the Tapes: Unlike some horror hosts Sven
doesn't rely strictly on Public Domain films, which makes for a wider variety
of shows available but also makes officially releasing them to home video
virtually impossible. Sven is OK with people trading copies of his old shows,
but do not sell them.
The current Svengoolie started as the Son
of Svengoolie; the original Svengoolie (played by Jerry G. Bishop) aired from
1970-1973 on Screaming Yellow Theater. Son of Svengoolie ran 1979-1986. When
SoS returned to regular broadcasting in 1995 he received the blessing of the
original to just be called "Svengoolie."
Koz's first show ran 1979-1986; his current show started in
1995. That's 27 years on the air, and 42 years overall.
I have been watching Svengoolie on MeTV every Saturday night
since I discovered it on my local cable channel 292. To give you an idea of how
much I love Svengoolie, this is the only program I watch regularly in standard definition!
Since I bought my HD TV several years ago, I stopped watching the non-HD channels,
because they look fuzzy compared to the stunning clarity of the HD channels. I
have already watched some classic – and not so classic – movies on Svengoolie’s
program like: House of Frankenstein 1944, Tarantula 1955, Ssssss 1973, Abbot
and Costello Go to Mars 1953, Duck Soup 1933, Revenge of the Creature 1955, Island
of Lost Souls 1932, Cult of the Cobra 1955, The Black Cat 1933 and The Wolf Man
1941! I have learned that Rich Koz suffered a heart attack November 3, 2012 and
while he is recovering has been running repeats of past shows on METV.
Here is the news report at the time of the incident:
Rich Koz, the Chicago television icon known to generations
of fans as the wise-cracking horror-movie host Svengoolie, is recovering from a
heart attack. Koz, 60, was stricken at his west suburban home Saturday night
and was admitted to a Chicago hospital, where he was being treated Monday. On
his Svengoolie Twitter and Facebook accounts Sunday, the following message was
posted: “After a very busy Halloween holiday season, I’ll be taking a short
reprieve from updating my blog. Daily updates will return soon!” Koz, who has a
history of heart problems, suffered a heart attack in March 2002. He returned
to work two months later after undergoing two angioplasty procedures. “Maybe
it’s a good thing that rubber chickens are cholesterol-free,” he quipped at the
time.
Judging by this report and Ron’s history, he’ll be returning
to the airwaves soon!
Anyone who is interested in finding our more about
Svengoolie, should go to his current web site: http://svengoolie.com
Fringe is science fiction television series that was co-created
by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. It premiered on Fox on
September 9, 2008 and the show's first season ran a total 22 episodes.
Fringe’s first season focused on a team which investigating
bizarre scientific occurrences or a string of fringe science–related incidents
worldwide related to "The Pattern". The team consisted of FBI special
agent Olivia Dunham, scientist Walter Bishop, his son Peter Bishop and others
at the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. It followed a procedural story
structure for most of this first season, only occasionally hinting at the cause
of these “fringe” events.
The show was renewed for a second and third season of 22
episodes each, which aired from September 17, 2009 to May 20, 2010, and
September 23, 2010 to May 6, 2011, respectively. As each season progressed, we
found out what was causing the fringe events and who was behind the cause. The
ties between Walter, Peter and Olivia become even more evident and critical as
these two seasons progressed.
Fringe was officially renewed for a fourth season during the
2011–2012 television season which consisted of 22 episodes. All the plotlines
from seasons one through three really come to a head in season four and the
procedural format is almost completely disposed of.
On April 26, 2012, Fox renewed Fringe for a fifth and final
season, consisting of 13 episodes. It premiered on September 28, 2012. The
fifth and final season of Fringe takes place in a future that is not favorable
to humans. Once again, it is up to Walter, Peter and Olivia to try and set
things right and save the world one more time.
I've been watching Fringe since the first episode and it’s
hard to believe that after four-and-a-half years and 98 episodes, this amazing mind-bending
science fiction series is coming to an end! One thing that Fringe has never
done is let me down in terms of fulfilling character arcs and satisfying story
conclusions, so I am looking forward to the two episode conclusion this Friday
night from 8pm – 10pm EST on Fox.
Here is the trailer for the last two episodes of season five
of Fringe entitled "Liberty" and "An Enemy of Fate":
Nearly every year since 1985, our local UHF TV channel 38
has run a Three Stooges Marathon. This year apparently is no exception. Here is
the article on the marathon from their web site:
Ring in the New Year with five straight hours of
pie-throwing, head-smacking, eye-poking Three Stooges action hosted by Dan and
Dave Andelman!
Classic shorts include A Plumbing We Will Go, Disorder In
The Court, Men In Black, Violence Is The Word For Curly, and many more.
Look for a special midnight music mash-up where the Stooges
meet “Gangnam Style”. Special guests include Karlson & McKenzie from 100.7
WZLX, Mix 104.1′s Karson & Kennedy, Gresh & Zo from 98.5 The Sports
Hub, and 103.3 AMP Radio’s newest DJ Joe Breezy!
Join the annual tradition on myTV38 – starting Monday night
at 8pm!
If you are anywhere in the Boston area, or in the New
England area and have WSBK-TV on your cable or satellite provider, tune into
channel 38 at 8pm tonight and get 5 hours of slapstick silliness from The Three
Stooges!
As I wrote in my post over a year ago, TRAILER TUESDAY!SUPERNATURAL SEASON SEVEN STARTS FRIDAY ON THE CW, I have been a fan of the show since season one, episode one. It’s hard to believe
that tomorrow night is the first episode of season eight and I’m just as
excited to see what the Winchester boys are up to this year as the past seven!
While season seven was far from my favorite, it still had plenty of fun
exciting episodes "The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo" about
a computer hacker named Charlie (guest-starring Felicia Day), and horrific, sad
scary episodes "Death's Door", about the death of my favorite
character Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver).
Season eight starts off a year after the end of season
seven. Here is the official description of season eight:
Sam and dean are reunited after a year apart -- Dean (Jensen
Ackles) re-emerges from Purgatory, but he isn't alone. He heads straight for
Sam (Jared Padalecki), but the reunion isn't exactly what he thought it would
be. Sam drops everything to join his brother, but leaving the life he had grown
to enjoy turns out to be harder than he imagined. Dean and Sam look for Kevin
(guest star Osric Chau) who has managed to escape Crowley's (guest star Mark
Sheppard) grasp, but things come to a head quickly when Kevin tells them what
it is that Crowley wants.
Supernatural has also had great guest spots and season eight
is no exception! This year Amanda Tapping is set to play Naomi, who executive
producer Jeremy Carver describes as "cool and mysterious, part of a new
group of angels we've never seen before." She will make her first appearance
in episode 8 titled "A Little Slice of Kevin” and it has been reported
that she will make additional appearances beyond this episode. As any genre fan
should know, Amanda Tapping is best known for her work in the Stargate
franchise as Samantha Carter, and more recently she starred as Helen Magnus on
Sanctuary.
Another interesting guest star will be Mike Farrell - best
known for his work as Captain B.J. Hunnicutt on M.A.S.H., who will star in
episode 8 as an aging mentalist with a slippery grasp on reality.
Season eight of Supernatural premiers tomorrow
night on the CW network at 9:00 PM EST. Enjoy the trailer for season eight of
Supernatural!
The following is from their about page on their web site:
Discussing the best science fiction and fantasy shows on
television. Each week, Tina, Chris, Jeff, Chuck and special guests discuss the
latest news and happenings in the world of science fiction and fantasy
television, as well as review new episodes of favorite (and hated) shows. From
Lost to Doctor Who to Battlestar Galactica, we look at the latest, greatest and
lamest (we’re looking at you, Ghost Whisperer!) and give an irreverent view of
new TV. Bad TV may be a brain eating monster lurking in the dusty corners of
your living room, but Television Zombies are along for the fight!
Based in Washington, D.C., Tina and Jeff first began
podcasting in 2004 with the awkwardly titled “Restaurant Fuel/I Like
Seamonsters” podcast, which centered around their experiences as expecting
parents of twins. Following the births of their daughters, the pair took an
extended break from podcasting to focus on sleep deprivation and hospital
stays. Now that life has returned to normal, Tina and Jeff resumed podcasting,
joined by their friend Chris who brings an encyclopedian knowledge of nerd
trivia to the proceedings.
Television Zombies begin the podcast with brief
introductions and intermittent anecdotes of their personal lives. At this time,
Chris will also sometimes ask silly questions of Tina and Jeff just to get to
know them better.
The next segment of the podcast is the news. The news
focuses on their favorite Television shows like Game of Thrones, Teen Wolf and
even the occasional non-genre show like Breaking Bad. They don’t just read the news;
they also express their opinions – often humorously – on what they think this
information will mean to the future of the programs.
The bulk of the podcast consists of them “talking about TV.”
They review the most recent episodes of the genre shows that they watched that
week. They go into varying degrees of detail on the episodes, depending on
their enthusiasm for that particular show. They have no compunction of spoiling
the episodes, so make sure you have watched the programs they’re discussing
before listening. They will give a casual grade for each episode on the “A”
for excellent and “F” for failure grading system.
Most episodes also feature an interview with Television
personalities. These interviews go into much more depth than some other
podcasts, as there seems to be no real time constrain on them. Recent
interviews have featured: actors James Urbaniak, Zack Perlman, Ryan Ridley and Eric
Bauza.
They usually finish the podcast by reading emails from
listeners.
I like Television Zombies because of the light tone and
casual atmosphere created by the trio of Tina, Jeff and Chris. These are fans
of the shows they watch, so they tend to emphasis the positives of the programs
and not focus too much on the negative; which I personally like quite a bit.
Like all my favorite podcasts, Television Zombies post episodes on a regular weekly
schedule, which allows them to review all the new programs almost as soon as
they are aired.
Screen Rant Underground has quickly become my “go to” movie
review podcast! It is the weekly podcast of the web site Screen Rant, an
excellent TV and movie news web site in its own right.
Here is what they have to say about their Screen Rant web
site:
Screen Rant had a humble start back in 2003 as a place to
rant about some of the dumber stuff related to the movie industry. Although
there was absolutely no plan to do anything beyond venting to a few online
friends about movies, over the years the site has grown to cover more and more
TV and movie news (and not just the dumb stuff) along with sometimes
controversial movie reviews.
The goal here at
Screen Rant is to cover stories and review movies from a middle ground/average
person perspective. We try to take a common sense approach to movie and TV
news: stepping back and looking at the big picture to determine whether
something is a good idea… or an idiotic one.
Movie reviews are
written from the point of view of “was it a fun/exciting/scary/compelling
movie” instead of from some high-brow, esoteric level that only other movie
critics will relate to. On the other hand a movie has to have more than just
big stars and fantastic special effects to be considered great by the folks at
Screen Rant.
The reason that I like their podcast so much is that their
weekly schedule allows them to keep very current with all the movies that are
released each week. While they don’t review every movie that comes out every
week, they do review every genre movie that is released, which is what is
important to me. There are four regular podcasters on every cast, which gives
you a nice blend of various viewpoints on each film. While Screen Rant
Underground does veer off the topic of films occasionally, they spend the vast
majority of their casts on films and most importantly reviewing the movie of
the week.
Their format opens with the latest movie news. They are very
opinionated about their genre films and TV programs. They once spent twenty
minutes talking about the photograph of the new CW Green Arrow TV show and look
of The Arrow’s costume. Their second segment is Rants and Raves in which each
of the podcasters talks about the films and TV shows that each of the casters
has watched in the week since the last podcast. This segment allows each caster
to “rave” on their favorite TV shows and movies that they may have missed on
its initial theatrical release and “rant” on the ones that they didn’t like.
The third segment is Box Office Battle in which each of casters must pick the
Box Office results for the top five films of following weekend, with the tenth
film as the tie breaker. The winner of each week is allowed to be the last
person to talk about the film reviewed for that week. The final segment is the film
that is reviewed for that week. Each podcaster gives his opinion of the film,
without spoiling specifics of the film. The spoiler segment follows this and
the casters delve deeply into the details of the film reviewed. These segments
can be quite heated – especially when the casters’ opinions differ on a film –
and it is these segments that usually earn their explicit tag on iTunes.
The regular casters include:
Kofi Outlaw who is originally from Philadelphia, PA but now
lives in New York City. Addiction to comic books, movies and a love of writing
sent Kofi to the University of Pittsburgh where he received a dual B.A. in
Writing and Literature with a minor in Film Studies. More recently, Kofi
received his graduate MFA in Writing from The New School. Kofi loves all kinds
of films from brainless blockbusters to fancy art-house pleasers. He says that
nothing really specific makes him geek out all that much.
Robert Keyes (Screen Rant‘s only Canadian writer), started
writing for the site in September 2008. He was offered a writing position based
on his participation on the site as a long-time commenter and story-submitter.
Not long later, Rob became an Editor for the site where he helps publish the
growing number of articles we write. Rob is also the Editor-in-Chief of the
newly launched sister site for Screen Rant, GameRant.com which keeping in the
style of the flagship site, covers video game news/previews/reviews (without
the sugar coating of course). Rob is 24 years old with a Master’s Degree in
Economics. He wishes to eventually mesh his business, computer, economics and
finance backgrounds with his love of the media entertainment industry with
hopes of a career in one of the fields down the road. (So if you work for a
major studio and have an open position – contact him!). Rob is an avid viewer
of all kinds of film and television and is also a big video gamer. Much of his
spare time is spent with friends playing and/or watching sports and all of the
entertainment forms listed above. That is, when he’s not working at his day job
or the two sites.
Ben Kendrick is a graduate of the New School’s Master of
Fine Arts in Creative Writing program, with an emphasis in fiction. Currently,
he’s nearing completion on his novel: How I Saw Myself on America’s Most Wanted
and serves as an editor-at-large for the literary magazine LIT. Ben has been
passionate about movies ever since standing in line for a midnight showing of
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when he was eight. As a result of his
background in creative writing, Ben is drawn to films that make story and
character a priority; however, that never stops him from enjoying a range of
Hollywood offerings – from blockbuster action flicks to campy
so-bad-they’re-good B-movies. He’s also an avid gamer and is a regular
contributor at Screen Rant’s sister site, Game Rant. Visit Ben’s website if for
no other reason than to get a better sense of the conditions under which he was
conceived.
Anthony Ocasio is Screen Rant’s television editor, and gets
yelled at by fans of every television show on the air. It’s not his fault that “your
favorite show is terrible.”
Between the great personalities and their passionate
opinions, Screen Rant Underground makes for a fun and exciting listen. If you
are a movie fan and a genre movie fan in particular, you should definitely give
Screen Rant Underground a listen.
Falling Skies, the science fiction alien invasion drama on
TNT, will be returning for a second season of ten more episodes, starting on
June 17, 2012 at 9:00 PM.
I had some reservations about this show in the early
episodes of season one, but as the show progressed, I grew to enjoy it more and
more. While I still find the main character Tom Mason to be a trifle dull, he
is at least likable and somewhat relatable. I understood his obsession with recovering
his son Ben, but I was glad when that storyline was resolved half-way through
season one. Mason even demonstrated overt affection towards Anne Glass in the
final episode of season one, which was a classic case of
better-late-than-never. I really like Pope, the classic anti-hero of the show,
and I was happy when he gradually integrating himself into The Second by making himself useful
as more than just a good cook. The cliffhanger ending where Mason was taken away
willingly by the aliens was a bit of a drag – especially knowing I was going to
have to wait almost a year before seeing if he would survive the encounter –
but the suspense was somewhat mitigated by
the fact that he is the lead of the program.
Here is a three-and-a-half minute preview of the first
episode of the second season of Falling Skies, which features a fast-paced
battle between members of The Second and the alien Skitters and the alien robot
Mechs! Enjoy!
The following is from their "about the show"
page on their web site:
In this podcast Wendy, Kevin and Brent will talk about
many of the SciFi and genre shows that are currently on TV. We’ll also discuss
good shows from the past as well.
Think of us as the viewer’s digest, tour guides or
sherpas for the genre rather than critics.We’ll always share our honest opinions but we also plan to keep things
fun.
Since everyone has a different viewing pace we’ll
structure our episodes into segments.
The Watercooler segment is where we have some general
non-spoilery discussions about different things going on in the genre and other
topics that we think you’ll find interesting.
The Back Porch is where we kick back and start talking
details about certain shows or topics. This segment could be about any show,
any episode or any plot line. We’ll be sure to tell you which shows we will be
discussing in the show notes on our blog and also in the comments on the MP3
file so you can choose to skip that segment in case you’re not caught up on
that TV show quite yet.
We do weekly Tuner Minutes where the crew comments on
whatever is on their mind and invites listeners to share their thoughts in the
forum or by dropping us a voicemail.
Most weeks we’ll also release a Last Call segment, which
is a place where we just ramble about things we couldn’t fit into the regular
show.
Wendy
Wendy Hembrock, Brent Barrett, and Kevin Bachelder are the
three regular hosts and each of them has enough variations of personal taste that
you get a nice balance of opinions on the various genre shows that are currently
on the air. One of my favorite things about Tuning into SciFi TV is that they
review all the new episodes of each week of Television every week! This is
quite an accomplishment when you think of how many sci-fi, fantasy and horror shows
are currently on broadcast, cable and premium cable TV.
Every regular episode starts with the The Watercooler
segment in which the three hosts review every genre TV show and rate it with a
simple comment of: watch it now, watch it soon, let it sit on the DVR or you
can skip it. They cover all genre programs even including animated programs and
fringe shows like Community. This segment isn’t very useful until you listen to
the podcast for a while and get to know what the personal tastes of each host
are. When you know what shows they love and what type of shows they dislike, then
their simple rating system does help to judge the quality of individual episodes.
One of the running gags of this segment is that Kevin doesn’t watch any
animated shows and Brent and Wendy sometimes act in mock surprise when Kevin
gives his obligatory “Not watching” for shows like Young Justice, Green Lantern
and The Avengers.
Brent
The middle segment of the show is a news piece. This part of
the show is very loose and they not only cover different pieces of news that
have come out in the past week, but they comment on interviews they’ve read, or
other interesting promotional materials for their favorites shows that are currently
airing. This segment also includes listener feedback and Wendy, Kevin and Brent
always comment on the opinions of the listeners. This segment is also very
spoiler sensitive; so whichever host is reading the news always warns the listener
if they think something is spoilerific or not.
Last Call segment is uploaded as a separate episode and with
good reason. They discuss in explicit detail specific episodes. If you haven’t
yet watched the episode of the genre TV show that they are discussing, you don’t
want to listen to Last Call. At the very least you want to skip over the episodes that
they discuss that you haven’t yet seen.
Kevin
If you love genre TV and watch as much of it as I do, you’ll
love Tuning in to SciFi TV. Even if you only watch a few genre shows, Tuning in
to SciFi TV is a good way of learning about shows that you may want to try out.
If you want to go to their web site and check
out some of their podcasts, go to this link: http://tuningintoscifitv.com/
BBC America launched their Supernatural Saturdays a few
years back when they started airing first run episodes of their new series of the
Doctor Who program. It began with re-runs of American TV shows like Battlestar
Galactica, The X-Files and Star Trek: The Next Generation, but soon they began
airing original BBC programs in their place. The first of these was the
supernatural soap opera Being Human – which was popular enough on both sides of
the Atlantic Ocean to have run three seasons and be picked up for a fourth.
Primeval, the sci-fi show with prehistoric creatures aired their first two seasons
next and would later air two more seasons on BBC America. More recently, the
sci-f show Outcasts and the paranormal drama Bedlam have aired on Supernatural
Saturdays.
The latest original BBC program to air on BBC America’s
Supernatural Saturday is The Fades. The Fades, which aired its first season of
six episodes this past September/October on BBC Three, will make its BBC
America debut in January next year.
The Fades is a coming-of-age fantasy drama showcasing the
supernatural skills of a reluctant teenager named Paul (Iain De Caestecker).
His best friend Mac (Daniel Kaluuya) and his therapist, are completely stunned
by the apocalyptic dreams that he’s been having. His twin sister Anna (Lily
Loveless) is also unsympathetic of his socially awkward behavior. As if things
aren’t difficult enough, Paul is seeing the spirits of the dead (known as
Fades) all around him. An embittered Fade finds a way to break the barrier
between the dead and the living, aiming its vengeance at Paul, Mac and their loved
ones. Soon the fate of humanity rests in the hands of the two best friends, who
already have enough trouble getting through the day in one piece, let alone
saving the world.
Writer and creator Jack Thorne says of the show: “What makes
The Fades different is that it is a fantasy show rather than a science fiction
show. It’s about fairly ordinary people, none of these people act or behave
like they’re superheroes. The Fades is about the world itself being an
extraordinary thing and how you battle it. This old school fantasy element
combined with some pretty original characters – I hope is what will make people
want to watch.”
The Fades premieres Saturday, January 14 at 9/8c as part of of BBC America’s Supernatural Saturday. Watch the trailer for The Fades and decide for yourself if
this Saturday Supernatural show is for you!
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