Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Want to see 60 years of tv catchphrases in a little over 2 minutes? Sure you do. They did a great job of hitting most of the major ones. Perhaps, “Denny Crane. Denny Crane.” should have been included. Although they weren’t from tv shows, they were tv catchphrases: “Where’s the beef?” and “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” could have also made the cut.
Is Captain Kirk about to get a shave from Floyd the barber in Mayberry?
As unlikely as it sounds, that is actually the building used for Floyd’s Barber Shop in the hit series The Andy Griffith Show! And, no, William Shatner didn’t make a guest appearance as Captain Kirk on The Andy Griffith Show.
But the buildings of Mayberry did!
You see, they were used in two episodes [“Miri” and “The City on the Edge of Forever”] of the original Star Trek series.
If you’re a fan of comic books, Walt Simonson, Charlton Comics, The Twilight Zone or twist endings, then you might get a kick out of this four page story drawn by Walt Simonson back in 1973 for Charlton’s The Twilight Zone #50. The story is called “Nature’s Way” and can be read in its entirety here thanks to the great folks at io9.com.
Hot off the Press Internet: A little over an hour ago, The Hollywood Reporter posted that AMC had renewed The Walking Dead for another full 13 episode season. Here’s why…
The drama series, toplined by Andrew Lincoln, has broken ratings records, with the show reaching more viewers in the 18-49 demo than any other cable TV show. The Walking Dead’s series premiere on Halloween drew 5.3 million total viewers and Sunday’s “gutsy” episode took in 4.7 million — that’s an incredibly high retention of a record rating and surely made this pickup an easy decision for AMC.
Way back in July of 2007, it was announced that Johnny Depp was going to team with Tim Burton for a big screen adaptation of the cult tv classic Dark Shadows. Although over the last 3 1/2 years there’s been some movement, it was pretty much just talk.
That may have changed today, since Slashfilm has posted that filming will begin in April 2011. An April start date sounds good to me… especially since they didn’t specify it would be on the 1st.
Back in September I posted about the dvd release of the 1960’s tv series Thriller. You know, the series that Stephen King called…
“Probably the best horror series ever put on tv.”
My guess is Uncle Stevie’s quote is better known than the series itself. But that doesn’t mean that it ain;t true. Over at Mulholland Books, writer David J. Schow [Internecine], makes a case that King was on point with his assessment of the series. And don’t forget that
Available November 23, 2010, The Expendables will come in two formats: Blu-Ray and DVD. Here are the specs according to IGN Movies:
— “The Expendables: Ultimate Recon Mode” in-movie BonusView
— “Comic Con 2010 Panel”
— Audio Commentary with Sylvester Stallone
— “Inferno” feature-length “making of” documentary
— “From the Ashes” Post Production documentary
— Deleted Scene
— Gag Reel
— Marketing Archive including Trailers and TV spots
— Metamenu Remote and BD Touch enabled
— D-BOX Motion Control Enabled
— Standard Definition DVD Copy of the feature film
— Standard Definition Digital Copy of the feature film
— Audio Commentary with Sylvester Stallone
— “Before the Battle” featurette
— Deleted Scene
— Gag Reel
— Marketing Archive including Trailers and TV spots
I don’t know about you, but I have pre-ordered mine!
It’s no secret that I think that the 1966 Batmobile is a cool car. In fact, I’ve always said that I’d own one if I could. Now I can… well, if I come up with a spare $149,999.00.
Check out this Walking Dead sizzle reel from the fine folks at AMC and you’ll know why Halloween can’t come fast enough for me… and no, it’s not because of all the free candy. [Although that IS a plus.]
Fringe, which is now entering it’s third season is going to make a bold change. The show, which deals with alternate universes and X-Files-like investigations is going to…
…give fans a healthy dose of both universes in which the show now takes place (the producers call them “over here” and “over there”), episodes will alternate between them for the entire third season…
How cool [and daring] is that? Since the alternate universe characters and their motivations are very different from our universe, we’re in for some interesting stories. I can’t wait. [I wonder if my doppelganger feels the same].
I was a fan of Lost in Space. It was a wonderful concept – a family sent on a space mission and thanks to a cowardly stowaway traitor, they get thrown off course and, well, lost in space. The robot was the coolest and I have to admit that I thought Penny was pretty cute too. Plus the dad was the guy who played Zorro!
If you are/were a Lost in Space fan, then you might be interested in some little known facts:
You can learn even more little known Lost in Space facts if you check out this post at Neatorama.
If you’ve read the ZONE for any length of time, then you know about my love of monster movies, drive-in theaters, horror movie hosts like Sammy Terry, as well as scary [well at least they were when I was a kid] tv shows like The Twilight Zone, The Night Gallery, The Outer Limits, and The Invaders.
One show that fits into the horror genre but you’ve never heard me talk is Thriller. Hosted by the legendary, Boris Karloff, Thriller ran for 67 episodes from 1960 to 1962. From all accounts Thriller featured episodes that had some of the best scares and creepy stories that could be found anywhere. Stephen King called it,
“Probably the best horror series ever put on TV.”
Yet, for some reason it never showed up in reruns and only appeared with sporadic episodes on VHS and laser disc. That’s changed now that Thriller -The Complete Series is available on DVD with tons of extras.
If you’re like me, you’re hesitant to plunk down your hard-earned bucks without knowing more. Well, we’re in luck because at A Thriller a Day, one episode of the series is reviewed, you guessed it, each day. Even if I end up not purchasing the series, I’m going to enjoy reading about it. The two guys running the site have a good banter going, they’re refreshingly honest {they’ll call a clunker story, just that] and yet they also have an obvious love for the genre. If I was to make any suggestions to them it would be to change their rating system. Now they rate each episode from one to four Karloffs like this…
Perhaps it would be more horrific if they rated the episodes like this…
Don’t forget to tune in tonight [or at least set your DVR] for tonight’s season three premiere of Sons of Anarchy at 10pm EST on FX.
Although season one of The Walking Dead doesn’t premiere until Halloween night, AMC has announced that a second season, with a full 13 episodes, will begin shooting in February. You can read more about the renewal at CBR.com and where you can also see a larger version of the comic teaser poster.
The official trailer for The Walking Dead hit today. Man, it looks as good as I hoped. I can not wait until the series premiere on Halloween night!
