Christmas TV Giveaway

Joanna Wilson is having an awesome giveaway at her Christmas TV History blog.

Check it out HERE!

Reason #2 Why I Love TV

For my second post in this not-so-regular feature here, I am going back in time.




Reason #2 Why I Love TV: General Hospital.

This is better categorized as a "Why I USED to Love TV".


See, I was a GH fan for decades, from the mid/late 70s up until the early 2000's. I watched through a lot of ups and downs. But in the early part of the previous decade, the show lost its focus.


No longer did history, long-term characters and family matter. Instead, it was all about the mob. Granted, this was interesting. At first. But the show became all-mob, all-the-time. And to make matters worse, death became a quick-hit story plot device instead of something that mattered.


Long-term, important characters were killed off, either for monetary reasons or for supposed story advancement. But all that ended up happening (besides saving money in the budget, I suppose) was a bitter distancing of long-time fans.


After too much bloodshed and character assassination, I gave up. The show - whether it was the writers, producers, whomever - no longer cared about the fans who had been around so long. Budget took priority. The "hot" mob took center stage,  apparently permanently. And I, sadly, said adios.


But now I have read that the long-time head writer of the show was dumped and replaced with someone else. For the first time in a very long time, there is new blood in the writing room. I gave thought to revisiting the show I had watched so long. But, still I hesitated.


Then I started to read a few fan reviews. They seemed positive. Also, a long-time character (Dr. Monica Quartermaine) was being brought back. Things seem to be looking positive.


Of course, this comes at a time when it may just be too little, too late for the show. Daytime soaps are falling left and right, including the other two ABC shows, All My Children (off the air in September) and One Life to Live (off the air in January 2012.) There has been news that those shows will be moving online, in some format. And there are also rumblings that GH is poised for a similar fate, if and when it leaves the broadcast airwaves. Seems like a last-ditch way to try and hold on to the shows. But for some fans, better that than nothing at all.


All of that doom-and-gloom aside, we have DVR'd the last two episodes of GH. Will it be the show I remember? Probably not. But I am willing to give it a try, at least for old time's sake.


Maybe it will be like catching up with an old friend.  Hopefully it won't just be to say one final good-bye.

Winnie the Pooh - Best Line

Roo had the best line in the new Winnie the Pooh movie:



Just great!

Cooking Hitchcock

Shall we?




Designed and produced by Felix Meyer, Pascal Monaco and Torsten Strer.

via Neatorama

The Browncoat Anthem

Thanks to Topless Robot

Mashup or THE Mashup?

This is just pure genius:



Thanks to The Retroist

Christmas in July: My Guest Post

Head on over to Christmas TV Companion
where I have a guest post for the Christmas in July month!

I wrote a little piece about The X-Files episode "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas".

Check it out!

Like No One is Following...

I reblogged this pic over at my tumblr site (Another Cup of... Caffeinated Joe),
but thought it was worth sharing here, as well:

Obviously made about Twitter, it also works for blogging, whether here or at tumblr.
Do it for yourself, not for the follows or the comments or the reblogs.
Gotta enjoy it yourself or really, what's the point?

Christmas in July

Over at Joanna Wilson's great Christmas TV History blog this month
you will find a celebration of Christmas in July!

Not only will she have posts on Christmas entertainment from the 1990s, she will also have a Blogfest giveaway and is featuring a book sale with her two great reads
Tis the Season TV and The Christmas TV Companion!

I am doing a guest post at some point during the month,
so head on over to get in on the fun!

DC Comics Relaunch

Geeks of Doom posted the following industry video from DC Comics:



Granted, this is PRO-relaunch all the way, because it IS from the company itself. But I am just as excited as these bigwigs at the company are.

Some fans - heck, A LOT of fans - are up in arms over this relaunch, reboot, renumbering. They don't want to "lose" their DCU or the characters they love. But I have been reading the awesome book "DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual Chronicle" and it has helped me see that this is not the first time DC has redone things. It may be the first time they have done it so blatantly, with a total restart all at once, but DC has had many incarnations.

Maybe this is so different because fans are now so connected, with the internet, and can be a united, vocal voice. But should DC just stay the course and hope for the best? No. They need to do whatever it takes to survive as a company. That's just common sense. And they have always done that. Heck, look back to the 70s and the "DC Implosion".

This relaunch could end up crashing and burning, but I hope it succeeds. I hope this is the beginning of a great, new age for the company and that, one day, in a revised and updated version of "DC Comics Year by Year", my grandkids are reading about this new start and all that came after.

For more on the relaunch, and a gallery of the #1 issue covers,
check out DC Universe: The Source

Cover to Aquaman #1