thundarr and night court

A post from Mark Evanier about the release of Thundarr the Barbarian on DVD caught my interest this morning. Not just because of the Saturday morning memories it dredged up, but also due to all the details he posted about just who worked on that show. Go check it out, I bet you’ll be surprised.

It also reminded me about the Warner Archive DVDs, Warner Brothers “print”-on-demand DVD store for older shows and movies. Since I last checked it out, they’ve also added a (Windows only) download option. In perusing the site I found some other interesting titles:
Pirates of Dark Water
Penn and Teller Get Killed
The Bad Seed
The Rain People
The Rounders (One of my grandfather’s most used quotes is from this movie, “Whatever suits you just tickles me plumb to death.”)
Night Court Season Four

That last one brings up some mixed emotions. I’m glad it’s available, but annoyed that they’ve bumped the series from regular DVD releases available everywhere to the Archive store. Especially as, with season four, Roz is now on the show so it’s finally up to the full cast that most people remember and would probably sell better. At least it is available though. Now if Sony would just release Lawrence of Arabia on blu-ray…

The full almost 700 title Warner Archive DVD list can be seen here and the over 500 title download list is here.

laughing

I’ve pointed you towards awesome writer John Rogers before. He used to do stand up comedy (after getting a degree in physics) and it turns out one of his old bits is online. Quite funny stuff.

If you missed the first season of his show Leverage, find it and watch it and then watch the next season as it comes out. It’s like the A-Team crossbred with Hustle and a dash of Burn Notice.

i’m jack valenti’s ghost and these are my cheeks

Freakzoid. DVD. ‘Bout damn time.

struck companies

Here’s a handy list of struck companies so you can boycott any content released by them digitally.

Don’t buy their content off of iTunes or Amazon or any other site.
Don’t watch their streamed movies or TV shows from Netflix, NBC Direct, Hulu, Joost, et al.

When anyone redistributes a movie without the studios getting a cut, they call it piracy.  When the studios do it, they call it promotional.

how you can support the wga (and strike updates)

Here’s how I suggest you can show support (and please spread this idea around):

Boycott any studio produced content on new media. Don’t buy movies or shows off of iTunes or Amazon. Don’t watch streaming episodes or movies off network sites or Netflix or any other service.

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John Rogers, as always, has one of the best posts explaining the whole strike situation. It’s lengthy, but well worth a full read.

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Poor, poor Steve Carrell. Due to a bad case of enlarged balls, he is unable to do any filming for The Office.

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While eight episodes of the new Terminator series have been shot, only the pilot has been completed and show runner Josh Friedman is not crossing the picket line to do any work on it.

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Show runners Shonda Rhimes of Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice along with Shawn Ryan of The Shield and The Unit are also not doing any work on their shows either. For Shawn Ryan that means missing out on the filming of the series finale of The Shield and, if the strike lasts long enough (which certainly looks to be the case), missing out on the wrap party.

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For regular updates, I suggest keeping up with United Hollywood, Ken Levine, and Mark Evanier.

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Oh, and it turns out I was wrong the other day. The average WGA writer does not make as much as a teacher. Average yearly pay is actually only $5,000.