thebitterguy

It very much reminds me of a split second bit from the Simpsons. Bart's been taken shopping and, upon noticing a security camera in the change room, writes a sign that reads "Get Bent" which he then shows to the camera.

Two highly armed security guards see him doing that and prepare to respond, but then they notice another girl who is not wearing the same socks she came in with. Rifles loaded, they head out.

And nothing is ever heard from them again.

Over on Mark Evanier's blog (which is such a great read, if only for his tales of the origin of Scrappy Doo) he reminds us that it's been 50 years since George Reeves died.

I remember that and I remember the great sense of shock my friends and I all felt. It wasn't the first time we'd heard a favorite TV person had died. Lou Costello had passed away three months earlier. But Mr. Costello's death was pretty normal and anyway, he wasn't Superman. The death of Superman cried out for twists and turns and a surprise ending...and while you played with all that, it was easy to forget how dreadfully sad it was. There was something about George Reeves on TV...some little twinkle and sense of humor that underscored his acting. When I've interviewed Noel Neill, who played Lois Lane to his Clark and Superman, I always ask her, "Was he has nice a man as it seems to us watching at home?" She always replies, "Even nicer." I think I'd rather remember than than the way it ended.

Reeves tenure as Superman predates... well, it predates me, significantly. I saw a few episodes of the show, but mostly I saw the Superman episode of I Love Lucy. Then there was the Afflect movie from a few years back.

• 20:01 RT @MaxGeiger: We can't pit Bruce Lee against Chuck Norris in our simulator because (and this is seekrit) Bruce Lee IS our simulator. #
• 22:18 #deadliestwarrior "I wanna see what it does to our ARMOUR" is the call of the pussy. #
• 08:53 Re: #deadliestwarrior If you have a neato blinding or otherwise incapacitating weapon? Leave that shit at home. #

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That's my problem, you see. I'm unfamiliar with the canon.

I don't know about the back history of this thing, whether this thing is Tolkien's Middle Earth, Fleming's James Bond, or Doyle's Holmes. So if I see a media iteration, I'll assume that's it. Even if I know there's gaping bloody holes in it, I'm fine as long as that's behind the scenes (or at least out of my eyesight).*

I'm usually not familiar with the genre (any genre), even if I love it. No, seriously, I'm a huge fan of Godzilla and other Kaiju, but the US Remake makes up an unacceptable percentage of my viewing history. Most of my knowledge comes from a magazine article that included an illustration of Big G done by John Severin (IIRC). I love the concept of giant monsters, and remember enough that I know that any Godzilla movie with a baby Godzilla is likely to suck. But I don't know the canon.

I'm married to a Trekkie, but my exposure was mostly through CKWS' Saturday afternoon broadcasts which, and I am serious, seemed to consist almost entirely of reruns of Devil in the Dark**. I read a scattering of the novels (which tended to be about the quality of... Well, Star Trek novels). My first consistent exposure to the franchise was TNG, which I still recognized as being off.

Dr. Who? Look, that just scares me. The Canon on that sucker consists of 40 years of TV, much of it only preserved by monastic scribes while society fell around them.

Marvel Comics of the '80s? Sure, I am familiar with that Canon. Champions? I'm familiar with that Canon, mostly by luck. D&D? Canonical by assimilation. Star Wars? Religiously, up until Zahn's atrocious trilogy, which was easy enough (he said sardonically, drinking a hot chocolate while his lightsaber opened with a snap hiss). But then I schismed.

But mostly? I'm not familiar with the Canon.

That's freeing. I can look at something and not go "But that isn't right". I can judge things on their own merits, as much as I'm able to. Experiencing without the depth of history is a valid experience, just as much as approaching it with a bibliographic knowledge of which side of the aluminum foil was used for the Cybermen costume in which specific episode.

So I don't mind that I am unfamiliar with the canon.

* I suspect this is the same reason people can enjoy the LXG film.

** To this day I cannot recall having seen City on the Edge of Forever in full. Or Amok Time. I'm pretty sure I saw the Gangster one. And the Nazi one. And the Jesus one. And the one with the rabbit and Kirk getting beat up by a drunken Irishman.

Okay, so I'm following Deadliest Warrior enthusiastically, which includes following two of its hosts (Max Geiger and Geoff Desmoulin) on Twitter.

So, I looked at Desmoulin's web page. And holy crap. World class Biathlete, PhD candidate, and an EMT. Canuck. Has worked at a company called Neurostream Technologies, Inc., which is now called Victhom Human Bionics Inc.

Look, he gets zapped with some Gamma Rays, we're looking at a real life Walter Langkowski.

I'm just saying.

Edit: Oh, yeah. His middle name is Thor.

I got to catch up on the first episode, which as Gladiator vs Apache. Amusing show; seriously needs a drinking game. And I need friends, to watch it and play a drinking game with. Sigh.

They've got a Recap show called Deadliest Warrior Aftermath where head geek Max Geiger, the bald guy and some Irishman all field questions from the audience.

And, man, it gets kinda embarrassing. The questioners all seem to be asking the kind of questions that make your eyes roll in your head. When the performer/testers are talking about the stuff in an overly serious sense, it's easier to ignore than when "I<3NINJAZLOL" says it.

Oh, God. Texasninja79 is actually one of the commenters. Niiice.

Ah, well. This week, Pirates vs Knights. They missed the opportunity to do Pirates Vs Ninjas. At least for now.

I didn't see this one, but it's good that someone realized that when you are comparing yourself to another product, you need to sell your advantages.

The PC/Mac commercials do a good job of that. All sorts of neat advantages that the Mac OS has over Windows, delivered by two cute meat puppets. Putting up a big sign that asks people how much they're willing to pay for all that is a smart idea on Microsoft's part.

Way better than those Jerry Seinfeld ads. Whoa.

Freddie Prinze Jr. to star in US version of No Heroics.

For those of you who were not paying attention, No Heroics was a BritCom about four superheroes who were losers of various degrees.

Billy from BSG will play Chillout, a Canadian superhero, who I assume is the US version of The Hotness, which means he will be a total loser.

Prinze will play Ultimatum, the US version of Excelsor.

Red Dwarf coming back.

The new two-part series Red Dwarf: Back to Earth will be followed by a "no holds barred" episode without sets, special effects or autocue.
The weekend will climax with Red Dwarf: the Making of Back to Earth, a behind-the-scenes special from the new episodes.

I have no idea what they mean by a "no holds barred" episode. I am terrified by it, though.

I love how Craig Charles is listed as Coronation Street's Craig Charles.

I think I'm mostly up to date on RD dvds, but I really need to sit down and watch them sometime.

Thanks to Angus for the heads up, though.