A comment I left over at ChuckVision: Six Teeth of Terror in response to their short discussion on television shows we all know/love/hate.

Technically, Firefly didn’t get even a full season. Only 14 episodes were shot and of those only 12 ever aired. Fortunately, the poo-heads decided include the “extra” episodes on the DVDs.

Also, why no mention of NBC’s hit series Heroes!?!? Or This Old House?!?!? Or A New Yankee Workshop?!?!? What kind of craptacular list is this?

And if you’ve not seen enough of the new Doctor Who to judge how good it is; well they’ve got it over at Netflix. I hear that those nasty internet pirates also put it online and people all over the world have been downloading/watching it.

Aeon Flux was some really twisted shit animation which never seemed to explain anything but was still entertaining to me when it originally aired on MTV.

ALF was a show I liked as a kid and now I wonder what kind of damage it did to my brain.

American Idol is a show that I depise but my wife loves. So I either get to listen to horrible singing or flee the room.

Boston Legal, at least the bits with James Spader and William Shatner, is fuckin’ hilarious.

Charmed started off interesting and then turned into a Gilmore Girls with magic. *belch*

Commander in Chief was fun to watch, but then they did their mid-season break and I lost interest. I wonder if it’s even still on the air?

Cowboy Bebop is a fabulous anime. We might even have a copy around (I’d have to check) to lend you; if you like. It’s got a similar western-in-space feeling to it like Firefly but also with a healthy dash of blues/jazz.

CSI: NY had the disadvantage of coming out after the networks had started beating the concept to death, but has more (in #s and quality) interesting characters than the original CSI.

Gundam Wing is crap. If you want a good anime series set in the Gundam universe, you want to watch Gundum 0083: Stardust Memories.

Lost is another show that I caught some of and liked but after their mid-season break, I found no desire to go back and watch more of it.

MacGyver is another favorite from my younger years.

Monk: Since we don’t get the USA network, I’ve seen this show like 4-5 times. However everytime I’ve seen it; it’s been really good.

NCIS is my favorite of the current crop of crime scene investigation shows. That wacky cast is what keeps me coming back week after week. 🙂

Quantum Leap is a show I remember watching and enjoying when I was younger. But that’s about all I remember about it now, still I think I’d like to revisit the show and watch it again.

Star Trek: Meh.

Star Trek: The Next Generation was a regular feature in our house when I was growing up.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Watched some of it, kind of liked it but never got attached.

Stargate Atlantis comes in again as a show I like to watch because I like the wacky characters.

Stargate SG-1 is the older sibling to Stargate Atlantis and seems to be tired & boring in comparison.

The Avengers, particularly the episodes with Diana Rigg as Emma Peel, was fabulous! Well worth the $$$ to get the box set!

The Mythbusters is a show that actually makes me think I should up my cable subscription to get more channels so I can watch it. Too bad I’m too cheap to do it for 1 show.

Twin Peaks was lovely in a severely twisted sort of way. A total cult classic.

I noticed this over on Boing Boing:

URGENT: Call your Senator RIGHT NOW or live with the goddamned Broadcast Flag forever!
Danny sez,

We’ve heard rumors that the Broadcast Flag that Cory, the EFF, and a coalition of pressure groups have fought so hard against (and beat in the courts) will be sneaked back via an amendment to the giant Senate Appropriations Bill in a sub-committee at 2PM EST on Tuesday 21st. This week is Hollywood’s last chance to ram the flag past Congress, and they’re working hard to get it under the radar.

There’s no time to write letters or start a media campaign…

Be sure to let your senator know you oppose this fair-use killer! If you’re not sure the best way to contact your senator; then check out this EFF Action Alert for more details.

Update 2005-06-22: For those of you who are unfamiliar with what the Broadcast Flag is…

A broadcast flag is a set of status bits (or “flags”) sent in the data stream of a digital television program that indicates whether or not it can be recorded, or if there are any restrictions on recorded content. Possible restrictions include inability to save a digital program to a hard disk or other non-volatile storage, inability to make secondary copies of recorded content (in order to share or archive), forceful reduction of quality when recording (such as reducing high-definition video to the resolution of standard TVs), and inability to skip over commercials.

Taken from Wikipedia.

I’m a bit of an anime fan. I’ve bought many a VHS tape, Laser Disc and DVD in my time and I plan to buy many more… unless the anime studios shutdown the fansubbers. For those of you who might not be familiar with the world of fansubs; here’s the definition of a fansub from Wikipedia:

Fansub – short for “fan subtitled”; a copy of a foreign movie or television show (most often anime) which has been subtitled by “fans” into their native language. This has been done to provide shows that would otherwise be unavailable in one’s native language, but with the growth in the popularity of anime, fansubs’ purpose has expanded to include programs that would be commercially unviable (I.e. older or niche appeal market titles.) in one’s country or simply to reduce the amount of time one would wait to see a particular program. Also, many American anime viewers feel there is too much censorship of anime broadcast on TV, especially in scenes related to nudity, which is common in Japan (even in children’s shows) but is typically considered inappropriate in the United States.

I mostly get my fansubs from online sources via BitTorrent1. This allows me to:

  • Judge if a series will be worth the money to buy once a U.S. distributer starts selling it here.
  • See some of those niche shows that no distributer will bring over.

Given that I quite often am not fond of the “mainstream” anime that is brought over and that my budget is limited; being able to view the series completely via fansubs is a vital part of my process for deciding what series I will buy. If the anime studios force the fansubbers to stop their work; then I’ll be forced to spend my money elsewhere. Harsh, but I’ve already bought my share of crappy anime and I’m not willing to shell out ~$20/disc in the hopes that a given series won’t suck.

Oh and in case you were curious, this article over on C|Net prompted my post.

1 If you’re interested in more info on this; leave a comment and I’ll see about writing something up.

THE creator of silly walks, empty cheese shops and an excruciating hotelier called Basil is pioneering a new form of entertainment. John Cleese can now be found performing at his ranch in California via his website which charges $50 a year (£27) for the privilege.

Fed up with television executives and studios, the star of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers set up the website last month as a vehicle for his humour and personal philosophy. Cleese is promising to update the site every day with new sketches, pictures of his home life and biographical information.

To read the complete article, visit Times Online.

Or just tell those blighters to sod off and head directly to theJohnCleese.com.

Kudos to Pukka for the link.

Today is November 2nd and that makes it the day that America goes to the polls to pick our leader for the next 4 years. As an American citizen, I’ve already cast my vote and I’m hope all my fellow Americans will do so too. If you’re still thinking about not voting, take a look at this article. Below are some quotes from the article:

3. Because you’ll make your sixth-grade social studies teacher happy.

7. Because there are no television sets in the voting booth, which means the odds are great you will not hear the phrase, “. . . and I approved this message.”

14. Because even if it’s only an illusion to think you are making your voice heard, that’s still better than knowing with absolute certainty that you remained silent.

20. Because of United Airlines Flight 93. An amazing thing happened on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, on that hijacked airplane. The 33 passengers knew, from cell phone calls to loved ones, that two other hijacked planes had struck the World Trade Center. Unless they acted, they realized that they, too, were doomed. And do you know what those strangers did?
From the 9/11 report: “According to one call, they voted on whether to rush the terrorists in an attempt to retake the plane. They decided, and acted.”
What a remarkable act. With their lives at stake, with their country facing peril, these 33 men and women of diverse backgrounds did a most American thing: They took a vote. They decided to rush the cockpit. And a plane that might have destroyed the White House or U.S. Capitol crashed instead in a Pennsylvania field.
Why vote? Choose your reason.
Honoring their sacrifice will do just fine.

Oh and just for the record I voted for Kerry, via absentee ballot weeks ago.