Television
Justice League saves the day in new Target TV spot
Target’s new partnership with Warner Bros. Consumer Products and DC Entertainment received a promotional boost this week with the debut of an animated TV commercial for the retail chain featuring the Justice League. In their New 52 costumes, no less.
Announced last month, the agreement includes an exclusive summer collection of Justice League merchandise — there are more than 50 products, ranging from a Wonder Woman kids’ camp chair to Batman snack cups to inflatable pool toys — as well as other items, such as temporary tattoos and even rocking chairs. Target has a shop on its website devoted to the Justice League products.
In the 30-second TV spot, a woman suddenly realizes she’d forgotten her child’s birthday party, and calls in the Justice League for help with a last-minute shopping spree at Target. Hey, they didn’t have anything more pressing to do. Unfortunately, Batman’s utility belt aside, those costumes don’t leave much room for cash or credit cards …
Joe Quesada learns you don’t mess with Agent Coulson
Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada tweeted the above photo of himself taking a punch to the jaw from Phil Coulson himself, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. star Phil Coulson, writing, “Reminder to self, don’t touch Lola … ever again!”
That’s a reference to a scene from the first trailer for the upcoming ABC action drama in which Coulson cautions a member of the Helicarrier hangar deck crew, “Don’t touch Lola,” his shiny red convertible.
Created by Joss Whedon with Dollhouse veterans Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. also stars Ming-Na as Agent Melina May, Elizabeth Henstridge as Agent Gemma Simmons, Iain De Caestecker as Agent Leo Fitz, Brett Dalton as Agent Grant Ward and Chloe Bennett as Skye. The series will air Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
Bad Lip-Reading takes on ‘The Walking Dead’
The Bad Lip-Reading YouTube channel has blown up over the past couple of years, sending up clips from movies, television shows, music videos and news and sporting events with often-hilarious overdubbing. After targets ranging from Gov. Rick Perry to Beyonce to The Twilight Saga, the anonymous mastermind has now turned to The Walking Dead, AMC’s adaptation of the long-running comic series created by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard.
At more than five and a half minutes, the montage is one of the longer videos — so if you think Bad Lip-Reading is best delivered in small doses, you may want to parcel out your viewing. There are definitely some inspired moments, such as when a walker gnashes her teeth, proclaiming what animals she likes (sharks and skunks, for the record), and, just like the original version of the series, Andrea, is really, really annoying.
Also: Nothing in the entire series is more disturbing than Dale telling Shane, “I know what it takes to make you hot.”
Neil Gaiman, the Cybermen and ‘Doctor Who’s’ comics links
I’ve often heard creators who’ve worked on the comic-book adventures of Doctor Who comment that current showrunner Steven Moffat is somewhat dismissive of the contributions comics have made to the character’s extended canon. That said, last Saturday’s episode featured the recurring series MacGuffin “the Eye of Harmony,” which has Alan Moore to thank for around 50 percent of its backstory.
In his first season in charge, Moffat inserted an episode based upon the Doctor Who Monthly strip “The Lodger” by Gareth Roberts, adapted by Roberts himself. His second season featured the Ray Bradbury and Hugo award-winning “The Doctor’s Wife” written by Neil Gaiman, who’s been known to write a comic or two in his time. He’s returned to the series this season to write “Nightmare in Silver.”
‘Saga’s’ Lying Cat makes her TV debut on ‘Supernatural’
I was only sort of watching Supernatural last night, which explains how I missed that geek-favorite actress Felicia Day wore a T-shirt featuring one of the best new character in recent comics history: Lying Cat from Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Image Comics series Saga. Luckily a tipster at The Mary Sue was far more observant.
According to Day, the shirt was the idea of writer Robbie Thompson, and a particularly inspired one at that, considering her character Charlie Bradbury starts off her reunion with the Winchester brothers with a lie. (In case you’re unfamiliar with Saga, Lying Cat is the enormous feline companion of the bounty hunter The Will who can detect whether anyone around her is being untruthful.)
Now the question is, where can fans get their hands on one of those shirts? Maybe at that weekday comic-book convention in Topeka, Kansas, that Charlie mentioned. Wait, no, that was a lie.
Patton Oswalt pitches insane ‘Star Wars’/Marvel crossover
Fresh from his turn as Penguin in CollegeHumor’s “Badman,” comedian and occasional comics writer Patton Oswalt pays a visit to Pawnee, Indiana, to pitch his idea for the ultimate Star Wars/Marvel Universe crossover.
Oswalt, who appears on Thursday’s episode of Parks and Recreation as a citizen who filibusters a city council vote, was asked by producers to ramble a while about the subject of his choice. What he delivered instead is a remarkable, and wholly improvised, eight-minute proposal for the plot of Star Wars: Episode VII that begins with the resurrection of Boba Fett before incorporating appearances by Spider-Man, Moon Knight, Daredevil, the X-Men, Mister Fantastic and the entire pantheon of Greek gods, and then ending in … exhaustion. Yes, it’s all done in one take.
Watch the full glorious scene below, and see what makes it to television when Parks & Rec airs Thursday at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
Reminder: ‘Wonder Women!’ airs tonight on PBS
As we noted in February, PBS will air Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines tonight as part of its Independent Lens series.
Funded through Kickstarter, the documentary by director Kristy Guevara-Flanagan traces the evolution and legacy of Wonder Woman, from her introduction in 1941 to her role as a feminist icon in the 1970s to her depictions today, and examines how “popular representations of powerful women often reflect society’s anxieties about women’s liberation.” Among those interviewed for the film are Gloria Steinem, Lynda Carter, Lindsay Wagner, Trina Robbins, George Perez, Gail Simone, Danny Fingeroth and Andy Mangels. An interview with Kristy Guevara-Flanagan about “Wonder Women” can be found on CBR.
Wonder Women! premieres tonight at 10 ET/PT on PBS (check your local listings).
Meanwhile, somewhere north of Madison Avenue …
Within days of each other, we’ve had new seasons of Game of Thrones and Mad Men starting, here’s the inevitable mash-up, “Don Stark” by the great PJ McQuade. Don wouldn’t last five minutes in the Night’s Watch, of course. They may be the most stylish men in the Seven Kingdoms, but I couldn’t imagine him ever taking that vow of celibacy.
Your official Robot 6 Wrestlemania predictions
photo by Ryan Penagos
A few years back, to celebrate the WWE’s annual Wrestlemania event, I reached out to several comic folks who I knew were wrestling fans to get their predictions on how the matches would go. It was a lot of fun; so much fun that apparently I let three years go by before doing it again (in my defense, I had a baby somewhere in those three years, so … yeah).
In any event, this year I got my act together enough to reach out to some of my Robot 6 colleagues, as well as several members of the comics community, to once against ask: Rock or Cena? Brock or Triple H? Undertaker or Punk? Scholars or Funk? Our panel shared their thoughts, opinions, hopes and dreams for tomorrow’s big pay-per-view event.
‘The Walking Dead’ survivors face ‘Conan’ in Atlanta
Conan O’Brien’s weeklong visit to Atlanta wouldn’t be complete without a crossover with AMC’s hit adaptation of The Walking Dead, which calls the city home.
The opening monologue of last night’s Conan was interrupted by a frantic Merle Dixon and Carol Peletier (played by Michael Rooker and Melissa McBride), seeking protection from the herd of walkers outside (not zombies, as Merle noted to the talk-show host).
“Please, please, we’re good people,” Carol pleads, clearly not speaking for the elder Dixon brother. Soon, however, they discover what’s inside Atlanta’s Tabernacle may be worse than what lurks outside.
‘Saturday Night Live’ takes aim at ‘The Walking Dead’
If the blockbuster television ratings didn’t already certify The Walking Dead as a pop-culture phenomenon, then a Saturday Night Live parody undoubtedly cements that status.
Over the weekend, NBC’s sketch-comedy show set its sights on the apocalyptic drama with help from host Kevin Hart as Lyle, a survivor who wants nothing more than to join Rick’s group. As they deliberate, Rick is surreptitiously bitten by a walker, exposing some issues within the group.
However, the best part of the two-minute sketch is Nasim Pedrad as a remorseless Carl: “I’m good at killin’, and I feel emotionally fine after I do it!” Watch the video below.
HBO’s ill-fated racetrack drama Luck continues online
Illustration by Jen Ferguson
David Milch’s ironically named drama Luck was anything but fortunate, as HBO canceled the racetrack drama last year, less than two months into its first season, amid criticism surrounding the on-set deaths of three horses. Fans of the critically acclaimed series, which starred Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Farina and Nick Nolte, were left wondering after those nine episodes aired what the future might hold for Ace Bernstein, Gus Demitriou and Lonnie McHinery and the other degenerates at Santa Anita Park. Well, wonder no more.
John Perrotta, a writer and story editor on Luck, is continuing the drama as an online serial at America’s Best Racing illustrated by Jen Ferguson. It’s not really a webcomic, and it’s not really fan fiction, as Perrotta actually helped to create the show. But it is kind of weird and wonderful.
What’s more, we can rest assured that no animals were injured in the making of the story.
Frank Miller returns with director’s cut of Sin City-esque Gucci ad
Frank Miller, from his Gucci Guilty Black commercial
Frank Miller is back behind this camera, this time for the director’s cut of the Sin City-inspired television commercial for the Gucci fragrance Gucci Guilty Black, starring Chris Evans and Evan Rachel Wood, with a cameo by the filmmaker himself.
Wonder Women! documentary to premiere in April on PBS
PBS, which just last month broadcast the superhero-themed episode of Pioneers of Television, in April will turn its attention to the history of DC Comics’ Amazing Amazon with the premiere of Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines.
Airing as part of the Independent Lens series, the Kickstarter-funded documentary by director Kristy Guevara-Flanagan traces the evolution and legacy of Wonder Woman, from her introduction in 1941 to her role as a feminist icon in the 1970s to her depictions today, and examines how “popular representations of powerful women often reflect society’s anxieties about women’s liberation.”
Among those interviewed for the film are Gloria Steinem, Lynda Carter, Lindsay Wagner, Trina Robbins, George Perez, Gail Simone, Danny Fingeroth and Andy Mangels.
“I loved the idea of looking at something as populist as comics to reveal our cultural obsessions, and in particular, how women’s roles have changed over time,” Guevara-Flanagan says in a statement. “The narratives of our most iconic superheroes, told and re-told over decades, boldly outline our shifting values. For some it’s Lara Croft, for others it’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but we all need those iconic heroes that tell us we have the power to slay our dragons and don’t have to wait around to be rescued.”
Wonder Women! premieres on Independent Lens April 15 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on PBS (check local listings).
Goodbye G4 TV, hello Esquire Network
G4 TV, the cable channel that until recently aired the comics-friendly Attack of the Show!, will be rebranded April 22 as Esquire Network.
Today’s official announcement comes less than two months after NBCUniversal and Esquire magazine owner Hearst Corporation closed a deal to move the focus of the network away from young male gamers to “today’s modern men.” G4 pulled the plug in December on its flagship series Attack of the Show! and X-Play, leaving the channel without any original studio programming.
Debuting with the launch of G4 in 2005, Attack of the Show! featured Blair Butler’s “Fresh Ink” segments, which featured comic reviews and occasional publishing announcements from Marvel. The series also broadcast live each year from Comic-Con International.
According to this morning’s announcement, “Esquire Network will expand on G4’s foundation of games, gear and gadgets to reflect the broad range of interests, passions and aspirations that define men today.” While the new channel will tackle gaming and technology, like its namesake magazine, program categories also will include entertainment, travel, food, fashion, women and more with a mixture of scripted and unscripted series, and movies and specials.
Among the shows on the lineup are original series Knife Fight, hosted by Top Chef winner Ilan Hall and executive produced by Drew Barrymore, and The Getaway, executive produced by Anthony Bordain, the return of American Ninja Warrior, and syndicated runs of NBC’s Parks and Recreation and Starz’s Party Down.
