Once Upon a Geek

Presenting comic book advertisements for the 1980 Saturday morning cartoons!  Here we have ads from ABC, NBC, and CBS.

If I had to declare a winner for me personally in 1980, I guess it would have been ABC.  I was a big fan of Super Friends and Thundarr the Barbarian, and a moderate fan of Plastic Man and Happy Days Gang.  Conversely, Scooby-Doo had pretty much buried itself with Scrappy-Doo and no longer held any interest for me.  I’d say NBC was close on the heels of ABC in 1980 with winners like Godzilla/Dinomutt Hour, Space Ghost and Herculoids.  About the only time I’d switch over to watch CBS in 1980 was for Drak Pack and the Tarzan/Lone Ranger Adventure Hour. Interesting that NBC had Daffy Duck and CBS had the Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show.  I didn’t realize they split the Looney Toons characters up for these purposes.

I have fond memories as a child watching shows like Looney Toons, Scooby-Doo, Popeye, and Tom & Jerry.  Yet I watched them on weekday afternoons rather than Saturday mornings.  For me, Saturday morning cartoons were reserved for new and exciting adventures, not cartoons I could watch any day after school.  I guess I was a bit of a Saturday morning snob.

If you enjoy these, check out the Saturday morning cartoon ads I’ve run previously from 1983 and 1985.  The 1985 post also includes some of my general commentary about Saturday morning cartoons and what the current generation of kids are missing.

I am SO ready for the new Doctor Who season to start.  Doctor Who season 5 opens with “The Eleventh Hour” by Steven Moffat and is set to premiere on BBC One in the UK and BBC America on April 5th.  BBC has released a brilliant new teaser trailer for season 5 featuring Matt Smith as the Doctor and Karen Gillan as Amy Pond.  Check it out!

This video will be running in 3-D in the UK before the new Alice in Wonderland film. I can’t confirm it, but I get the sense this video was created specifically as a trailer, rather than as footage from upcoming episodes.  I hope that is the case as I appreciate the efforts from the BBC to create a real buzz for new Who Matt Smith.  I love everything about this trailer, from the music, to the swirling stars, to the action, to the Doctor and Amy’s interaction.  This trailer has really provided me with a lot of confidence in the new season. I just can’t wait!

Hold on tight.  Geronimo!

Here are some cool Doctor Who related items I’ve come across in the past week.  Be warned, these contain SPOILERS for The End of Time.

• Check out the Doctor’s and the Master’s Facebook pages. Hilarious!

• io9 contemplates some of the lingering questions from The End of Time.
• RTD reveals the answer to one of the questions.
• io9 dissects the Matt Smith season five trailer shot by shot.  Some good insight here.
• Finally, the BBC has released a new promotional of Matt Smith as the Doctor.

If you’ve never seen it, you should try watching The IT Crowd.  It’s a British sitcom about nerds that is really funny. The series is set in the offices of Reynholm Industries, a fictional British corporation in central London. It focuses on the shenanigans of the three-person IT support team located in a dingy, untidy and unkempt basement.  Two of the IT guys are stereotypical nerds, while their boss Jen is a corporate climber who has no clue about technology.

I was first exposed to this series at Dragon*Con during the Nuts on the Road: Gonzo Sound & Vision film fest (presented by NeedCoffee.com and Quickstop Entertainment).  At the time I had no idea where it came from or the premise, but I laughed my butt off.  Make no mistake, this is not high-brow intellectual comedy.  It’s definitely a formula sitcom (laugh track, bad sets, corny jokes, etc), but it’s really enjoyable (especially for people like ourselves).

There was only 18 episodes made across three seasons.  It doesn’t seem likely they’ll make any more, but you can find the older episodes online or through Netflix.  Below you’ll find the entire first episode (running time 23 minutes 28 seconds).

If you can’t see the embedded video above, please click here.

Chuck season 3 starts this Sunday, January 10, on NBC!  It kicks off with a two-hour premiere from 9pm-11pm EST, then will return to it’s usual Monday 8pm time slot.  I can’t wait!  It’s been a long road getting here, but we’re finally in store for some Chuck-tacular adventure!  Below is an extended season 3 preview (running time 5:56) to help get you in the mood.

If you can’t see the embedded video above, please click here.

Let’s face it, we’ve all had them before… New Doctor Jitters.  I don’t think there has ever been a name given to this condition, but now we have a label for it – New Doctor Jitters.  When the Doctor regenerates, we find ourselves skeptical after seeing those first few moments featuring the new actor.  It’s only natural.  We’re wrapped up in our emotions as we say goodbye to an actor we’ve come to accept as the Doctor, and then in the middle of that emotional turmoil his replacement appears.  It’s so jarring to switch from a sad departure to a grand entrance.  It’s difficult to accept someone new while we’re still reeling from the departure of the previous actor.

I remember my reaction when Tom Baker regenerated at the end of Logopolis.  After transforming from Tom Baker into Peter Davison, the new Doctor sat up and the episode ended.  That’s all we got until the first episode of Castrovalva.  It didn’t matter.  In those few seconds of screen time I had already decided that I hated Peter Davison as the Doctor.  I couldn’t stand him.  There was no way I was ever going to accept this new guy as the Doctor.  Forget it.  No way.  No how.  … Well, that opinion changed after seeing Castrovalva.  I eventually realized I didn’t have an issue with Peter Davison, I was just unhappy that Tom Baker was leaving and wasn’t ready for some new actor to take over.  In fact, Peter Davison quickly became my favorite Doctor and remained so until David Tennant came along.   It just goes to show that it’s not fair to judge a new Doctor on his first appearance.  9 times out of 10 we end up loving each and every Doctor after just a few episodes (sorry Colin, but you’re brilliant in the Big Finish audio adventures).

I think it’s reasonable to be nervous or skeptical.  However, some people have already passed judgment on Matt Smith.  They’ve decided they don’t like him based upon what they’ve seen so far.  They say his hair is too crazy.  He’s too young.  His chin is huge and his eyes are sunken.  He uses his hands too much.  If we actually had a TARDIS, we could go back in time four years and hear those same people talk about David Tennant after The Parting of the Ways but before The Christmas Invasion.  They said his hair was too crazy.  He was too young.  He was too pale and thin.  He was too geeky to be a hero.  Sounds kinda familiar doesn’t it?  Gotta admit, Tennant’s first few lines didn’t exactly fill us with confidence. “Hello.  Okay… New teeth. That’s weird.  So where was I?  Oh that’s right, Barcelona!”  Those lines were no indication of how amazing he was going to be as the Doctor.  As another example, just imagine being a Doctor Who fan in 1974 after getting your first glimpse of Tom Baker in costume.  The scarf, the big smiling teeth, googley eyes, and crazy hair. Those fans were probably convinced Tom Baker was going to be terrible.  So again, it’s not fair to judge a new Doctor before he’s had a chance to really play the part. Who knows, maybe Matt Smith will be the best Doctor ever!

I watched The End of Time Part Two with my ten-year-old step son.  When the credits started to roll, he turned to me and said excitedly, “This new Doctor is going to be fun!”  I think my step-son’s got the right attitude.

Sure I’ve got New Doctor Jitters, but I’m also eager for the next season to begin.  I’m ready to jump in with both feet.  Geronimo!

If you can’t see the embedded video above, please click here.

I’ve been watching the second season of Eureka on DVD recently.  This series is really so much fun!  I especially like that the whole family can enjoy it.

If you’ve never seen the series, it’s really fun and worth checking out. It’s sort of popcorn-Sci-Fi, or a gateway drug to real Science Fiction. Even my non-geek wife enjoys the show. It’s about a high tech community located in the Pacific Northwest that is inhabited entirely by brilliant scientists working on new scientific advancements for the United States government that frequently go disastrously awry. While there is a great cast, the main protagonist is Sheriff Jack Carter. Carter, a former U.S. Marshal that reluctantly took the position of Sheriff, serves as the “regular guy” on the show so that we the viewers can connect. He is consistently dumbfounded by the wonders Eureka produces, as well as their propensity to produce things that often threaten the entire town, if not the world.

Here is one of my favorite commercials for the show.  And no, it’s not normally a musical.

If you can’t see the embedded video above, please click here.

Here are the first three minutes of Doctor Who: The End  of Time Part One.  While I’m not looking forward to David Tennant’s departure, I’m am looking forward to this story and what lies ahead for Matt Smith.  This episode airs in England on December 25, and on BBC America on December 26.

If you can’t see the embedded video above, click here.

Additionally, the BBC just finished broadcasting the animated Doctor Who: Dreamland story which you can probably find on the internet (if you know where to look).  Finally, here is a good article listing five lessons we hope Russell T Davie’s has learned from his past Doctor Who epics.

The TV show Family Guy is doing another Star Wars parody.  This time out it’s The Empire Strikes Back that gets the Seth MacFarlane treatment.  The hour-long episode is titled, “Something, Something, Something, Dark Side” and will be available on DVD and Blu-Ray on December 22 prior to being aired on television.   This is a follow-up to the Family Guy spoof of A New Hope entitled, “Blue Harvest”.  There are already plans for a parody of Return of the Jedi entitled, “We Have A Bad Feeling About This”.

Below you will find the hilarious trailer for “Something, Something, Something, Dark Side”.  Not only is this a spoof of The Empire Strikes Back film, it’s also a spoof of the original trailer for the film.  Watch the Family Guy trailer below, then watch the original Empire trailer (further below).  The Family Guy trailer is patterned after the Empire trailer.

Click here if you can’t see the embedded trailer above of Family Guy’s “Something, Something, Something, Dark Side”.

Click here if you can’t see the embedded trailer above of The Empire Strikes Back.

Did ya notice the horrible voice-over guy in the Empire Strikes Back trailer… yeah, that’s Harrison Ford.  Don’t believe me, go back and listen again.  He might be able to make the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs, but he sure can’t do a voice-over.

My thanks to Ed from The Unique Geek for directing me to the Family Guy trailer.

Here are some sweatpants I picked up back in 1995.  I really like the novelty of having “Property of Starfleet Academy Athletic Department” printed on them.  Most people don’t even notice what is printed on the sweatpants because so many schools print “Property of … Athletic Department” on their clothes.   Also, if you enjoy Starfleet Academy stuff, then dig up back issues of Marvel’s Star Trek Starfleet Academy comic book series from 1996-1998.  It was very enjoyable!

Here is a close up of the logo.

I’m such a dorky Trekker.