Speed Racer bingo

A while back, I saw the hilarious Scooby Doo bingo card and was inspired to make something similar, so I started working on a Speed Racer version. With the release of the movie tomorrow, I figured it was time to share it.

Note: This bingo card is meant to be used with the original cartoon version of Speed Racer; I'm not sure how well it will work with the upcoming movie. Click to embiggen.

Krofft Supershow

Wow. I just found some videos from the Krofft Supershow, which aired on Saturday mornings when I was a kid. If you're around my age, maybe you'll remember watching Wonderbug, ElectraWoman and DynaGirl, Bigfoot and Wildboy, or Dr. Shrinker (while eating bowls of cereal). I love the maniacal expressions of Dr. Shrinker. Plus, his assistant was played by Billy Barty. Gotta love the Barty.

Alice of Hazzard

This past weekend, I was flipping channels on the boob tube, and I happened upon something weird. It was an episode of Alice in which, apparently, the gals at the diner (and Mel) were trying to avoid being swindled by Boss Hogg from The Dukes of Hazzard. Boss Hogg was there with his white convertible, and Enos in tow, and he was huffing and puffing and sweating as he is wont to do.

I didn't realize that the Boss's reach extended all the way to ... Phoenix, was it? I don't remember this particular adventure. I realize that I could get on the Web and find out everything I could ever want to know about this episode. Probably with nude pictures of Flo.

Yes, I imagine that there's a perfectly reasonable explanation why Hogg and Enos were in Arizona. But I'm not going to look it up. I'm happy to have been surprised by an unexpected television crossover. It made me laugh. Well, it made me sorta smile.

Things are looking up...

...because The Venture Bros has been picked up for a third season! To celebrate, here is a link to a big picture of Brock Samson. Quit screwin' around, Doc, where are the boys?

TV, part 2: The Venture Bros.

I bought a Venture Bros. t-shirt a couple of weeks ago; it's black, with the skull-looking logo in white on the front. I imagine that, from a distance, to the uninformed, it just looks like a skull. I wonder what the normals think when they see it.

I wore it to the grocery store recently, and as I was leaving the checkout, I heard a voice call out, "Go Team Venture!" and I looked over my shoulder to see some dude looking at me, raising his fingers in a "V" sign. That's what kind of show The Venture Bros. is, the kind of show that makes you yell a greeting to a stranger in a grocery store.

The show is currently on hiatus between the second and third seasons. Season 1 is already out on DVD and Season 2 is coming out in April. This is the best animated show I know of, and one of the best comedies in general, animated or not. It's similar in spirit to The Tick, and if you like crazy exaggerated superhero type stories, it'll be right up your alley. The humor is at times slapstick, but other times insanely subtle, and the episodes demand repeat viewings just to be sure that you catch all the jokes and geeky references.

Season 2 ended with a kind of cliffhanger, after Phantom Limb attacked The Monarch at his wedding to Dr. Girlfriend. David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Klaus Nomi were also involved. But don't start watching there, get the first season and then try to catch Season 2 episodes in reruns or on Adult Swim Fix. You'll want to be caught up before the next new episodes start.

Hooray for the DVR

So, I've been away for a few days at a conference (which, incidentally, was a really good one; I'll probably post something to Blern about it). I was a little disappointed on Sunday when I had to catch a flight during the NFL playoffs, but I managed to see the end of the second half of the Bears-Saints game in a bar at the airport, and I got to see a fair amount of the Colts-Pats game once I got to the hotel in Atlanta. My Saints got eliminated. Oh well.

Anyhoo, the real reason I'm posting is to share that the amount of disappointment I felt on Sunday is nothing compared to the geeky glee I'm feeling upon my return home, as a result of all the stuff I've found waiting for me on the DVR. I'm talking about new episodes of 24, Heroes, Battlestar Galactica, and Studio 60! Sweet. I should make some popcorn. :D

TV, part 1: BSG

It's great to have a DVR: it makes television actually watchable. I'm not tied to any broadcast schedule, recording stuff is easy, and I can skip commercials. Bliss.

There's not much going on currently in the way of new shows right now, so I'll take this opportunity to share some of my favorite TV entertainment with you. If you're reading this, and you have any recommendations for shows I might like, feel free to send them my way.

Battlestar Galactica. I'm a science fiction fan, and I just started watching this show a couple of months ago. It's freakin' awesome. I am, of course, talking about the recent "re-imagined" series that airs on the SciFi network and not the series with Lorne Greene from back in the 1970s (although I watched that one too). If you like sci-fi and you haven't been watching this, do yourself a favor and rent the Season 1 DVDs.

The show tells the story of the last remaining members of the human race, around 40,000 people, traveling through space in a fleet of ships, searching for the legendary planet "Earth," all the while being chased and hunted by the robotic Cylons. That's the basic plot, anyway.

What makes the show so good, though, is the intense drama and the relationships between the believable, flawed, sympathetic characters. These people are faced with some crazy desperate situations in which the fate of all of humanity is sometimes at stake. They often have to make some hard choices. Sometimes they make bad choices and have to face the consequences. This ain't Star Trek. Don't expect every problem to be resolved at the end of the hour.

The show in general is really entertaining, but every once in a while, there is a scene that will just blow you away (if you're in touch with your inner sci-fi geek). I’m talking about the kind of stuff that makes you say "Whoa," or "No Way," or "Oh. My. Gods." I'm not gonna share any spoilers. You'll see.

BSG also has numerous strong female characters, which isn’t always the case in sci-fi entertainment. The human President is a woman, and so are several of the primary Cylons (holy crap, Number Six is hot!), and I can't forget Starbuck, a particularly bad-ass human pilot. Sexism doesn’t seem to play much of a role in how people deal with each other in this show. Women can be as tough as men (or tougher).

Overall, BSG gets my highest rating. New Season 3 episodes resume on the SciFi channel on Sunday, January 21. But if you want to enjoy it fully, rent the DVDs and start watching from the beginning. You won’t regret it.