CBS has decided people love TV … and they love video games … so they should mix them!

Licensed properties have been a staple of the video game industry since its inception. Sometimes the games work, but most often they don’t. It’s hard to capture the essence of another medium in a video game, but this isn’t stopping television network CBS from licensing a truck load of shows into video games for 2010.

Worth Playing has the synopsis for each of the upcoming games … my thoughts after each one …

AVAILABLE 2010:

The Amazing Race (Ludia Inc.)
Get ready for around-the-world competition with the video game based on the eight-time Emmy® award-winning television series The Amazing Race where team players split up in pairs for a remarkable journey across exotic locations in a race against time. Players will face frantic challenges and tasks as they navigate through detours, roadblocks and other unpredictable game elements from the show. Working together strategically throughout the game is essential as each team tries to discover hidden clues that are crucial to getting them to the Pit Stop first – and one step closer to ultimate victory at the check-in mat. This video game will be launched throughout North America across multiple platforms in tandem with the show’s 16th season.

Sean’s thoughts: I love the Amazing Race, like crazy love.  I dream of going on the show constantly (mainly with The Diabolical Miss M as my team mate … whom I imagine I would carry in my pocket due to our size differences), but the idea of playing it on a game console?  Um … I guess it could be somewhat challenging?  Maybe something on the Wii where you would have to be physically involved?

Survivor (Mindscape)
This game is perfect for any fan of the show Survivor. Players will be able to live like the contestants on Survivor. With challenges such as fishing, collecting food and participating in Immunity challenges, players will compete to outwit, outlast and outplay in order to be crowned the ultimate sole Survivor. Available on Wii & Nintendo DS platforms.

Sean’s thoughts: This is a horrible idea.  90% of Survivor is the conditions you live in, you will never be able to capture that in a satisfying manner on a video game screen.

AVAILABLE FOR HOLIDAY 2010:

Diagnosis Murder (Merscom)
Available in early 2010, this is an adventure game where the player must find different items in a scene to use as clues in order to solve the mystery. Available for the PC/Mac, this video game will be sold on most casual gaming websites and at major retailers.

Sean’s thoughts: … this show has been off the air for almost 9 years.  Who in the world is the target demographic for this title?  My 88-year-old grandmother?

Criminal Minds (Legacy Interactive)
In the Criminal Minds game, players will be able to take on the role of different members of Behavioral Analysis Unit to solve a series of five shocking crimes. In order to track down the killers and solve each case, players will need to examine crime scenes for clues, interview witnesses and suspects, analyze evidence and build a profile based on real-life criminal profiling techniques. The videogame is slated to launch in the fourth quarter of 2010 on the PC.

Sean’s thoughts:  I’m going to guess the already released CSI games must be doing well …

Ghost Whisperer (Legacy Interactive)
Debuting in early 2010. Ghost Whisperer will be the first-ever video game based on the hit series. Written by Emmy Award-winning television writer Lance Gentile, the PC game calls for players to embark on the adventure of helping the recently departed move on to the afterlife and providing closure to loved ones left behind.

Sean’s thoughts: Having never watched the show, I’m guess it’s going to involve talking … a lot of talking.

The Hollywood Squares (Ludia, Inc.)
This timeless TV game show experience comes to fans everywhere on the platform of their choice. The Hollywood Squares game will feature all the favorite elements of the show as played on television, as two contestants play head-to-head in a bid to win money and prizes. Nine open-faced cubes make up the tic-tac-toe style “board” for the game which are occupied by celebrities/TV personalities. The stars are asked questions and players judge whether their answers are true or false, all the while incorporating outrageous “zingers” and “bluffs” to fuel the fun. Each correct answer earns the player a square on the board, and the first player to mark three squares in a row wins the game. Additionally, the game will incorporate bonus video of the funniest moments from the TV show. The North America-wide exclusive deal will result in games across major platforms including PC/Mac, consoles, iPhone™ and iPod® touch. The first of The Hollywood Squares games is slated for release in 2010.

Sean’s thoughts: Eh, I actually kind of enjoy The Price Is Right on my iPod Touch.

I guess there is a market for everything these days.  I don’t personally see myself buying any of these except maybe the Amazing Race, and I would need to see a lot of really good reviews for it before I would, but obviously someone has convinced all of these companies there is a market for these.  Wish I knew … I have a bridge I would love to sell them …

Day man
Fighter of the Night man
Champion of the sun
You’re a master of karate and friendship…for everyone
Day man, day man
Uhh ahhahh
Fighter of the Night man
Uhh ahhahh
Champion of the sun
Uhh ahhahh
Master of karate and friendship…for everyone
Day man, day man
Uhh ahhahh
Fighter of the Night man
Champion of the sun

For some reason I had never seen the appeal of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia when I saw the commercials.  I skipped it for four seasons and then I spent an evening in a cigar bar in Boston this past August.

The Diabolical Miss M had been trying to convince me to try the show for ages, but I just kept blowing it off.  Well, as I sat in a cigar bar with her she ended up spending about a 1/2 hour acting out entire scenes from the show to try to convince me I needed to try it.  I finally relented and ordered the DVDs, and now I can say I am caught up to the most current episode in the fifth season which is currently airing.  So, thanks M … for sucking me into another television series.

Basically the show revolves around three childhood friends that co-own a dive bar, with the fraternal twin sister of one of them working as a waitress.  In the second season the twins’ father, played by Danny DeVito, joined the series.

While the concept sounds simple, what you don’t know until you dive into the series is that these people are, to quote Waitress, “are the worst people in the world!”  There really are no words to describe just how horrible they are.  It isn’t as if they set out to do bad things, they are just so insanely selfish and inconsiderate that they destroy the lives of every one that comes into contact with them (except for one woman named Artemis who seems to somehow escape their orbit unscathed every time she interacts with them).

While the concept doesn’t sound that funny, and there are some misfiring episodes, the series is amazingly funny, awkward, uncomfortable … and yet you can’t stop watching.  You are blown away by how these guys — the show was created by the three main actors Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton and Charlie Day — continually come up with these scenarios that have the crew at Paddy’s Bar walk away obliviously that they have yet again somehow messed up someone’s life.

Is the show for everyone?  No, not even close, but I do think you should give it a chance as you may be surprised by it as I was.  I honestly didn’t expect to like it, but I have burned through all of the episodes, and now find myself quoting episodes on a regular basis … although most of them are highly inappropriate for this blog …

If you’re looking for a new show to watch, something to catch up on during the winter months, give it a shot, I think you may be pleasantly surprised.  (and, yes, a begrudging ‘thank you’ to M for introducing me to the show … although I should have made her act out even more scenes)

Those song lyrics at the beginning of the post come from a song Charlie and Dennis write called “Day Man” which has become a bit of a running joke in the series.  You can watch the clip below of the original time the joke appeared.

It seems we are about to do the Dollhouse Cancellation Tango again.

Dollhouse is off the air for most of October as Fox airs the baseball post season games, but commercials had promised it would return in November with new episodes.  Well, Michael Ausiello of Entertainment Weekly learned today that the show has been pulled from the November sweeps period, and that it will probably burn off its remaining episodes by showing back-to-back episodes on Friday nights in December.

This does not bode well for the series continuing past its current 13 episode order for the second season.

I think the problem is multi-faceted in what has gone wrong with this show:

Fox messed with season 1 too much

Joss Whedon, creator of the series, told the press prior to season 2 beginning that Fox had promised to remain more removed from the series this season.  It was thanks to them that season 1 turned into a “costume of the week” show, showing Echo, played by series star Eliza Dushku, in as many male fantasy outfits and scenarios as they could conceivably fit in.  (Any one remember the odd segment of her in a Domanatrix outfit as she returned from an engagement?)

This severely delayed development of the over arching plots, and made the show feel like it crawled before it ever took its first tentative steps at moving the bigger story forward.

Nielsen ratings are horribly broken

Nielsen ratings for this season have been abysmal, but they do not take in to account DVR recordings or online viewing.  When the DVR numbers came out, Eliza Dusku mentioned on her Twitter account that the ratings for the season premiere jumped 50%.  That still didn’t make it a hit show, but it certainly looked better than the awful numbers that were initially released.

God bless her, but Eliza Dushku can’t carry a series

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Ms. Dushku, but she does not have the acting chops to carry a primetime series on her acting talents.  She is a supporting actress and isn’t cut out for the lead.  Throw rocks at me if you must, but I am just not impressed by her in this role.  I love the premise of the series, I enjoy a lot of the supporting cast, but she is just not my cup of tea when it comes to a leading lady in a series.

Honestly, I think we should be thankful we got any portion of a second season, but I think this is it this time folks, I think we can put Dollhouse in the history books after December.

What is it about October and anniversaries?

Monty Python’s 40th anniversary was this month, as was Saturday Night Live’s 35th anniversary, and now we have the 30th anniversary of the end of what some consider the all time best British sitcom, Fawlty Towers.

If you have never heard of this series, you are really missing out.  In 1975 John Cleese of Monty Python fame, and his then wife, Connie Booth, wrote a series about a poorly managed sea-side hotel in Torquay.  The series revolved around Basil Fawlty, played by Cleese, and his inept attempts at running a high-end hotel.  Beyond his own shortcomings, he is also hampered by his over bearing wife, Sybil Fawlty (Prunella Scales), Polly (Connie Booth) the maid that dreams of a better life and Manuel (Andrew Sachs) the bell hop/waiter from Spain who speaks very little English.

The second season didn’t appear until 1979, a full four years after the first, and it ended up being the last, ending on Oct. 25th, 1979.

Although the series only ran for 12 episodes, it has not stopped numerous attempts being made at launching a version in the United States, and all of them have failed in disaster: Two of them never made it past pilot, and the third, named Payne, did make it to air, but was quickly canceled.

So, why mark the end of the series as opposed to its launch?  Well, I got an email from the BBC America PR department informing me of the new DVD set coming out today for the series that has been digitally remastered, features commentary tracks from Mr. Cleese on every episode, new interviews with John Cleese, Connie Booth, Andrew Sachs and Prunella Scales, outtakes and more.  Basically it sounds like a killer set, and even though I already own the set, I am tempted to buy it just for the Cleese commentary tracks.

If you haven’t ever treated yourself to this gem of a series, now seems like a better time than ever.

With all of that being said … why should you go out and buy a copy of the DVD set when I can just give you one?  Yes, that’s right folks, the kind folks over at the BBC have teamed up with me to give away not just one of these fantastic sets, but TWO!  (You can only win one … stop being greedy!  Someone else gets the second one!)  These sets have a suggested retail price of $49.98, but you can get one completely free courtesy of SeanPAune.com and the BBC!

So, how do you win one of these sets?  Well, it’s a two step process, but fun!

Step 1

Make a video of yourself reenacting your favorite Basil Fawlty moment from the series.  Beat on a car with a tree branch … tell people not to mention the war … hang a moose head on the wall, if Basil did it in the series, you can reenact it!  (It is not required to dress like Basil, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt either)

Then post the video to YouTube with the following in the info section:

Entry for the SeanPAune.com and BBC America Fawlty Towers DVD set giveaway

And make sure to tag them with SeanPAune.com, BBC America and Fawlty Towers.

Step 2

Come back to this post and leave a comment with a link to your video so everyone can enjoy it.  I will also create a playlist with all of the videos so everyone can easily browse them.

I will choose the two best videos posted by 11:59 PM CST on Friday Nov. 6th and will then contact the winners for their mailing addresses  shortly after that.  I will also post the winning videos on this site to share with more of the world.

The Small Print

Contest is limited to residents of the United States and its territories.  Only one entry per person.  Void where prohibited by law.  Have fun!

Want in on even more Fawlty Towers fun?  Join the Facebook Fan Page for the series, or follow them on Twitter @FawltyTowersDVD for the latest news surrounding the 30th Anniversary where you can use the #fawltytowers hashtag.  And if you just can’t wait, and need to have the DVD set immediately, you can always head over to the BBC America Shop and purchase one, but where’s the fun in getting one of these sets the same way anyone else can?

THIS CONTEST IS OVER

The Batman was yet another series based on the Caped Crusader, but how does it measure up against other animated efforts to bring him to the small screen?

Following up on my overviews of Batman: The Animated Series and Batman Beyond comes the early 21st century animated version of Batman, a series simply entitled The Batman.

Running from September 11, 2004 to March 8, 2008 on the Kids WB animation block for five seasons, The Batman was faithful to the source material while also finding a way to do a  re-imagninaing of the character all at the same time.

Confused?  Don’t worry, so was I.

While the series kept the basics of Bruce Wayne being Batman and Alfred as his butler, pretty much everything else was turned topsy-turvey by this series: The Joker was a barefooted wild man, the Riddler had numerous henchmen and a different origin, Clayface was a police detective that was a childhood friend of Bruce and so on.  There were also changes such as Batgirl appearing on the scene before Robin which threw me for a total loop as that is so outside of the normal timeline.

The animation style took some getting used to (example to the right), since I had come to love the slickness and stylized versions in Batman: The Animated Series and Batman Beyond, this was by fat the most “cartoony” looking.  Does it mean it was bad?  Of course not, just had more of a “kid friendly” vibe to it, which is why I think a lot of people skipped it.

Of all the animated Batman series of the past two decades (not counting Brave & The Bold since I have seen a whopping one episode), this was my least favorite, but that isn’t to say it was bad, it was just the most inconsistent.  Characters came and went with no real rhyme or reason (Det. Yin had a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of season 2, and then we never saw her again, although she was mentioned in a “future” episode as being the new police commissioner), continuity seemed secondary and in general the writing was very uneven.  It was still watchable despite these nitpicks, but if you have to pick just one series to watch, I think it will always be Batman: The Animated Series coming out on top.

Disclosure: Hey, FTC, no one gave me a flippin’ thing to write this up, and I paid for the DVDs out of my own pocket.  To my readers, if you have no idea what I’m talking about, you can read about it here.

If this rant sounds familiar, it’s because it is.

Last December I ranted about how Sunday football games were constantly throwing CBS’ Sunday night programming into chaos.  At that time I was complaining about a 32 minute delay to the evening’s programs, but that was nothing compared to tonight’s whopping 71 minute delay.  Thank you New York Jets and Buffalo Bills for throwing the game into overtime and then changing possession 500 times!

So,CBS has opted to play 60 Minutes in its entirety, meaning that Amazing Race, the show I’m waiting on, will not start until 8:11 my time.  Well, my TiVo still shows it as airing from 7 – 8, and that is when it will record, leaving me without one second of the show.

Well, I’m lucky in that I also get West coast channels, so I can still catch the show at its specified time, but since I wrote the original rant, I have learned of something that exists that would fix all of this.  Apparently there are signals that channels can send out in some countries and tell the DVRs that a show is running late and it will shift the schedule on your DVR for you automatically.  So say a show is starting 5 minutes late, the network sends out a signal and your DVR will change the settings from 7 – 8 to 7:05 – 8:05.

Why don’t we have this here?  I can’t imagine it is the complicated to do, and the technology already exists, so why isn’t it here?  Instead, people that watch any show on Sunday night on CBS are totally hosed if they set their DVRs and left their houses for the evening.  DVRs are now accounting for approximately 39 percent of all television viewing, so shouldn’t a bit more concern be given to making sure they record at the right time?

I really wish DVD releases would just stick with a design through a logical stopping point.

I just picked up Saturday Night Live season 4 on sale, and while moving all of my TV show DVD sets to a new shelving unit, I popped it in its rightful place next to Saturday Night Live season 3 … and immediately cursed.

When I had received the set from Amazon I thought something felt “off” about it, and I was right.  Not only is the package of a cheaper material, it’s shorter.  I can understand wanting to save money, but couldn’t you have waited until a more logical changing point like season 6 (no original cast members remained after season 5)?

Other series have done this to me over the years, and it has always been annoying.  You like some uniformity to your sets, you like them to look like they belong together, but then they change up the appearance with no rhyme or reason, and you’re stuck.  The worst case of this was when the X-Files went from their original “fat packs” to the “slim packs” in the later seasons.  They were so radically different that it made them difficult to store together at all, let alone look nice.

So, feel free to change packaging when there is a major shift in the show, like when Simpsons season 1 – 5 had one look, and with season 6 they went on to another design.  That was fine, that made sense, this just seems random, and an obvious grab to save a few cents at the expense of the consumer who pays the same price for each season, and now has a totally random looking shelf.

Think about these things video companies, it will make your customers feel a lot less slighted.

(And, yes, I am aware only season 1 is unwrapped … I’m getting to the others eventually.)

On October 11th, 1975, American late night television changed forever.

35 years ago today, the very first episode of Saturday Night Live aired from studio 8H in 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the same studio the show continues to broadcast from.  During the first season the show was called NBC’s Saturday Night due to a conflict with a sports show on ABC at the time named Saturday Night Live.

The format of the first episode was different as George Carlin was the host, but only appeared on stage to do stand up, never appearing in an actual sketch, of which there was very few.  The episode also featured two musical guests that week, Billy Preston and Janis Ian.  This particular episode was rerun on June 28, 2008 to commemorate the passing of Mr. Carlin, and after having watched it that night, and on DVD, I am honestly shocked the show ever survived.  It was so rough compared to later seasons, but there was no denying that the original cast (Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman. Gilda Radner, George Coe and Michael O’Donoghue) were all talented, but I don’t think anyone knew just how talented.

It’s interesting to compare the impact of SNL on comedy to Monty Python’s 40th Anniversary, which happened earlier this week. Although only 5 years separate the two series, people can quote every sketch from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and with SNL, people only remember the players, and really none of the skits from that first season.  I remember a few of them such as the very first sketch of Belushi trying to learn English and saying, “I would like … to buy … a wol-ver-ine”, and the Bees showed up a few times, but that season was so rough that very people remember it.

The show has certainly had its ups and downs over the years (the 1985-1986 eleventh season was a complete train wreck), it has continued to deliver quality comedy now for 35 years.  How much longer can it go?  Who knows, but I know I will continue to watch it though until the end.

***MAJOR SPOILERS***

Continue Reading ->

Scripting for the Arrested Development has officially begun.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Arrested Development series creator Mitch Hurwitz and co-executive producer James Vallely havebegun writing the script for the long delayed movie.  Mr. Hurwitz has said in the past that this  wouldn’t happen until all of the main cast had agreed to return, so this seems to confirm that everyone is finally in place.

Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, David Cross, Will Arnett, Alia Shawkat, Portia de Rossi and Jeffrey Tambor all appear ready to return, and filming is expected to start in the spring of 2010.  Scheduling may be the only problem as Arnett is preparing a new series for Fox, Bateman is committed to Hancock 2 (blech … this sequel didn’t need to happen) and Cera has multiple upcoming projects.

No release date has been mentioned as of yet, but if the spring filming date does happen, a late 2010/early 2011 release date seems likely.

I leave you with one of my absolute favorite jokes from the series.

The person behind the now infamous Erin Andrews peephole video has not only been discovered, but he is now in custody.

Back in July of this year, controversy erupted over the Erin Andrews peephole video that revolved around a popular female ESPN correspondent being filmed naked in her hotel room through a peephole.  At the time there was no indication of who had shot the video, but authorities did begin looking into it.

CNN is reporting that 48-year-old Michael David Barrett was arrested yesterday at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Il on a charge of interstate stalking.  It seems Mr. Barrett followed Ms. Andrews to at least two different hotels, and at a hotel in Nashville, TN he checked in after her and requested a room adjacent to hers.  It appears that this is where the video was shot through an altered peep hole.

It seems Mr. Barrett had originally intended to sell the multi-part video to celebrity gossip site TMZ.com, and in the end it was employees of that very site that assisted in tracking down the man.

If convicted of the charge, Mr. Barrett faces up to five years in a federal prison.

There is no word of any comment from Ms. Andrews.

It would seem that David Letterman has done some “creepy things”, and much to his chagrin, someone knew about it.

On last night’s episode of Late Show with David Letterman, Mr. Letterman revealed that he had been the target of an extortion attempt by someone who was later revealed to be Joe Halderman, a producer on the CBS series 48 Hours.   Mr. Halderman had attempted to blackmail Mr. Letterman for $2 million dollars over evidence had of the late night talk show host having affairs with staff members of his series.  Mr. Halderman threatened to write a screenplay and book about the evidence he had, and even after asking for the $2 million, he did not guarantee that he would no go forward with this projects.

Mr. Letterman worked with his attorney and the New York City prosecutor’s office to gather evidence about the case, and after three meetings with the gentleman, Mr. Letterman did give Mr. Halderman a fake check for the $2 million.  Yesterday morning Mr. Letterman went before a grand jury to testify in the case, and Mr. Halderman was arrested later in the day.

During the course of telling this story, Mr. Letterman did not allude to when these affairs with staff took place, but he did use several plurals that insinuated that there had been more than one.

In March of this year, Mr. Letterman married Regina Lasko with whom has been dating since 1986, and they have a 5-year-old son, Harry, together.

Mr. Letterman ended the story by saying these would be his only comments on the situation, which is not unusual as he is a notoriously private individual.

UPDATE: RadarOnline has learned that Joe Halderman lived with with one of the women that David Letterman had his affair with.  The New York Daily News was able to dig up that Halderman once lived with Letterman’s assistant, Stephanie Birkitt.  The affair is said to have ended six years ago, before Mr. Letterman had his son Harry, or married his wife.  He was, however, living with her at the time.  Ms. Birkitt is still employed by Mr. Letterman.

All of this is supposition at this time as to if it was Ms. Birkitt, but the evidence seems fairly strong.