The Point – January 5th, 2009

We jump into the New Year with our first regular broadcast, covering that New Doctor (“Doctor Twilight”?), What went wrong with The Spirit (Frank Miller liked the voices), What we guarantee will be hot in ’09 and Five cool things in your comic store this week. And that’s just the start!

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Transcript

Hi, it's Mike Raub and welcome to The Point where all parts of pop culture come together. So what happened to the spirit other than that damn dog? And what's going to be big in 2009? Plus there's at least five cool things in the comic book stores this week and stop calling him Dr. Twilight.

He is going to be the new doctor. It's Monday, January 5th, 2009 and we get to The Point right now. This is The Point, The Point radio, get The Point radio. Back to life, back to reality. Back to life, back to reality.

Well this week marks the official back to work in 2009. We put away the ornaments and the wreaths, the funny hats and the confetti. We've celebrated all the lists of the best of the last year. The Tina Fey's and the Dark Nights and everything that we thought was cool in 2008. No more recaps here.

We're looking ahead at five things we think are going to be very important in 2009. At number five, we're excited about mid-season TV. You know, somehow without the pressure of fall premieres, the mid-season always seems to be, well, a little brighter, a little more fun. Maybe it's the hopelessness of having to compete with American Idol that lets the network take

some sometimes suicidal chances. But at any rate, I'm excited. What about the return of Lost, Battlestar, even Diary of a Call Girl? And who knows what the new shows will bring? Number four on our list?

Well, you can hype Watchmen all you want, but if I had just one movie ticket to buy for the year, it would be for Star Trek. Somehow I've got the feeling that J.J. Abrams will be to the Enterprise what Christopher Nolan was to the Batcave. Number three, the upcoming New York Comic Con.

Not quite San Diego and certainly with better hotels. It's getting more and more important every year and it's kind of fun to be a part of seeing it grow. At number two, well, you've heard it before, but we're excited again this year about online comics.

A little more mainstream this year, I think, and a little less indie. That's the way it seems to go. Ace in point, Zuna Comics. I rule the night. Check that out.

At number one in the comic stores, yeah, again, I'm excited about DC. Despite what they did to me with Final Crisis, I'm on the hook again with Flash Rebirth and Geoff Johns' Superman Secret Origin. Come on, they gotta be good. The point.

The spirit. I'm on my way. Rated PG-13. You're not making this easy. Well it didn't quite go as planned.

Opening up on Christmas Day, the spirit didn't make top box office. In fact, it didn't even make top five. It was beaten out by a dog and Adam Sandler and Brad Pitt, Jim Carrey, Will Smith, two cartoon mice, Keanu Reeves, and even Tom Cruise and Hitler. After two weeks, it's grossed a little less than 20 million, a little more than that if

you count the worldwide box office. So what didn't work? Director Frank Miller feels that still he was right on track. I was out to interpret Ives' new creation and to incorporate the two things that Will Ives and I have loved deeply, which were New York City and Beautiful Women.

Frank also feels that one thing that did work in the film were the voices. Well, I'm pretty much an encyclopedia of film noir, so I don't even know where to start except that I was really thrilled with the voices in this movie. Gabriel's voice is straight out of Raymond Chandler. And Eva's voice is, well, Eva's.

And Scarlett's voice is a dream come true. And I guess we put up with Sam. When all was said and done, there were some good things here. Lead actor Gabriel Mach feels the spirit helped further his career. In many ways, every part you get when you audition as an actor has the potential for

breaking through. And I feel like I've gotten a bunch of those in my career. But honestly, this one happens to have the biggest potential, I think, because I'm involved with Frank's vision of the film. And look, there's no greater opportunity out there for a younger actor than to play the

spirit, I think. And I had the best time working on a film. Gay, by the way, will also be in Whiteout whenever we see that. So what's next? Like so many other films of his type, the spirit will gain a little financial ground

on DVD. But I wouldn't leave a space on my shelf for spirit to. All things should be back on schedule in the comic book stores this week. And here are five cool things you need to look for. First of all, from Dark Horse, Buffy the Vampire Slayer number 21.

This is a special issue that begins a number of standalone stories that will eventually all tie into one big story arc. It's written by Buffy Scribe and Jane Espenson, and it features one of my favorite characters from the series, Harmony. There are a couple of different covers on this one as well to look out for.

DC's month-long Faces of Evil begins this week with a couple of different spots, one in Detective Comics number 852, and one in the standalone one-shot Faces of Evil, Solomon Grundy number one. Boys number 26. Do we have to say anything else?

Also from Dynamic Forces, the reimagining of a number of the D-list superheroes from the Golden Age. This time with Death Defying Devil number 2. It's what they have to call Daredevil for obvious reasons. But it's got a cool Alex Ross variant cover if you're looking for that.

And also from Marvel this week, there's a brand new Punisher series starting at number one and it also ties into Dark Reign. Here's some of the hard stuff you're looking for this week. Those are tough to find variant covers and mostly from Marvel. Superhero Squad, the one-shot this week, has a variant cover.

There's a variant for Eternals number 7 this week. There's a second printing variant for X-Men Noir number one and a regular variant for X-Men Noir number two in comic stores this week. It was the first big pop culture blast of 2009 when the BBC announced over the weekend that Matt Smith will take over as the new Doctor Who for the fifth season of the series

beginning in 2010. Smith takes over from David Tennant who will end his role as Doctor Number 10 with the 2009-2010 Christmas Special. So what does all this change mean for Doctor Who? I mean really, I mean you can complicate the ambitions of a show like this or the intention

of a show like this. But really it's about terrific stories. Doctor Who doesn't change with every new executive producer as I've been demonstrated in the past. It doesn't even necessarily change with every star.

Every single episode, every single episode of Doctor Who is different. So you don't have an overall strategy or a particular ambition for the series. He's wrong. You want it to be the best murder mystery ever one week and the best horror movie the next and the best comedy the next.

So he doesn't have one line of approach. His charm is it has, well actually about 14 a year. As executive producer and waiting, Steven Moffat will take over at the same time as Matt Smith in 2010 of the series. So during this year we'll see a four separate Doctor Who specials that will stretch out

between now and the Christmas Special for 2009-2010. So my question is, in those specials will we see some plot threads that will tie over to the new 11th Doctor? You can't really do that initially Doctor. You sort of never do it.

Yeah, I mean you might look as though you're laying in plot lines for the future. But the truth is you're trying to do each story as well as you could possibly do at the time and later you think well that worked. You might go back to it. The thing is you tend to, and Doctor Who is a very good example of this, you tend to

repeat what worked and you don't know what worked until you do it. So if things work then you bring them back. Matt Smith will be the youngest actor to play Doctor Who and again it brings up that inevitable question is there any time during this series that we might see another multi-Doctor storyline? There's no rule against it.

I think there is the one thing to say about multi-Doctor stories is probably eight minutes is a good length for them in truth because ultimately unless you've got a really specifically great idea for the fact that the leading man is split into what could not be up to ten aspects, you have to have a really very good reason to do that otherwise you aren't just splitting the lead.

So there's no rule against it. The rule about that is the same as any other rule. It has to be a terrific story that demands that. There's more ahead in a couple of days about how Moffat plans to lay out the 2010 series and we'll also begin our look at Torchwood which will premiere its shortened season on

the BBC very soon. Here's some of the stuff we're talking about in pop culture today. Can you believe it has been 25 years since the creation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? 2009 is going to be a big year of celebration with a new website launched along with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, totally tubular 25th anniversary sweepstakes.

It's the first of several big contests to be held during the year and you'll see a lot of the turtles and all the big conventions including New York and San Diego. God I love being a turtle! Plus there's a mobile tour of key cities in the very special TMNT party bus. It kicks off in late April from New York City with a full-out booth, interactive museum

and other features as well. I knew I had a no-hitter, every pitcher knows you expect to hit. I never knew it was a perfect game until after the game was over. That's Don Larson, the guy who pitched a perfect game back in 1956 in the World Series between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees and that was a broadcast that kicked off the

MLB network in some 50 million cable and satellite households over the weekend. The first day programming included a rebroadcast of that game as well as other special events. Afro Samurai is back in a new animated sequel to be aired this month. Afro Samurai Resurrection is a two-hour movie. It comes up on the 25th of the month.

That's a Sunday at 10 p.m. Eastern on the Spike TV network. Resurrection features voice talents from Samuel L. Jackson, still the producer of Afro Samurai, Lucy Liu and Mark Hamill too and then later on Resurrection will be aired as a series of four half-hour episodes. That will begin on Friday, January 30th on Spike TV.

The guest list for New York Comic Con continues to grow. Add to the list the guys from Robot Chicken including executive producer Echo Greeter Seth Green. There will be special guests with a special airing and panel of the show and remember New York Comic Con starts on February 6th.

It's a new year and things are rolling on a number of new television projects. AMC has a pilot plan for an unnamed political thriller involving a secret society who will control world politics and an analyst at the National Think Tank who discovers his bosses are not what they seem. Comedy Central has a new six-episode comedy series called Secret Girlfriend.

The format is in the first person making the audience a character in the show. Everyone features two back-to-back, eleven-minute scripted mini-episodes about a playboy, his friends, and the various girlfriends he juggles. Michael Chiklis is still involved at FX on a new series called House of Cards about an investment scheme gone wrong.

Chiklis will not star in the series but he will produce it. And actors Kristen Chedoweth is on NBC's new David E. Kelly legal drama Legally Mad playing a character called Skippy Pylon, a smart bubbly attorney who at times displays moments of psychosis and likes it when people mistake her for a teenager. HBO has two new comedy series coming up including How to Make It in America and Board to Death.

And the cable network also has a new drama called Cocaine Cowboys produced by Jerry Buckheimer and Michael Bay. It's January 5, 2009, first full week of the new year just like it was 18 years ago. That day on the headlines we saw that Panama dictator Manuel Noriega had told a federal judge he was a political prisoner and refused to enter a plea in his drug trial.

Doctors kicked off the new year announcing that low calorie diets, very popular in America, could be fatal. And California police were investigating a doctor who apparently rushed a woman through childbirth on New Year's Eve so the baby could be on TV as the first born of the new decade. In the movies we were seeing the second Back to the Future there was the Wizard, Roseanne

Barr was in She-Devil, Steven Spielberg's slightly forgotten always was on the screen and it was Sly Stallone, Kurt Russell and Cherry Hatcher in Tango and Cash. On TV some of the fledgling cable networks were beginning to plan their own original programming and on Lifetime Blair Brown starred in The Days and Nights of Molly Don. Over on regular TV LA disc jockey Shadow Stevens premiered in the new series, short of the

lived as it was, Max Monroe Loose Cannon plus episodes of Baywatch, Snoops and Full House. The music had been a while since she wore the uniform of an LA Laker cheerleader. She had been a choreographer most of the last decade but it seems like these days she was at the top of the charts with the new number one every week. Long before the oddball days of American Idol it's opposites attract and Paula Abdul.

Meanwhile we kicked back the clock another 19 years to a new year that wasn't quite so shiny. President Nixon began the year admitting to Americans that he had disappointed them in 1970 and promised that he'd achieve peace by 1972. 50's cowboy movie star Audie Murphy was arrested in LA for carrying a blackjack which he claimed

was his American right and a former GI who told a US television audience he had personally killed over a dozen Vietnamese civilians was given immunity in order for him to testify at the trial of the Miele Massacre. In the movies as well we were already apologizing. Ali McGraw in the number one movie of the week that was Love Story.

There was also Song of Norway, There's a Girl in My Soup, Diary of a Mad Housewife and Tora Tora Tora. TV had 60 Minutes running a feature on Jews Behind the Iron Curtain, there were episodes of Green Acres, The Avengers and He-Haw and a premiere of a new series on ABC. Hannibal Hayes and Kid Curry, the two most successful outlaws in the history of the west

and in all the trains and banks they robbed they never shot anyone. This made our two latter day Robin Hoods very popular with everyone but the railroads and the banks. The governor can't come flat out and give you amnesty now. First you gotta prove you deserve it.

So all we have to do is just stay out of trouble till the governor figures we deserve amnesty but in the meantime we'll still be wanted. Well that's true. Till then only you, me and the governor will know about it. It'll be our secret.

I sure wish to go and let a few more people in on our secret. Alias Smith and Jones starring Pete Dole and Ben Murphy. There was even some turmoil in the music world when long time talents Holland, Dozier and Holland had left Motown to establish their own record label. One of the first acts they put together involved Eddie Curtis, Danny Woods and Harrison Kennedy

as their flagship group, the chairman of the board. The group had one gold record right out of the box. This was their second trip to the charts. Here's Payne to the Piper and the chairman of the board. If you dance to the music, don't you know you got to play to the fiber.

Ask your mama if you dance to the music, don't you know you got to play to the fiber. I spent my money only every time. You even told me you had a good time. The night is through and we're all alone. You said it's time but you went home.

You've been winding down and following me. Just like us, must I be? I played the tune you done with me. Now come on girl, be nice to me. If you dance to the music, don't you know you got to play to the fiber.

Ask your mama if you dance to the music, don't you know you got to play to the fiber. Ask your mama if you dance to the music, don't you know you got to play to the fiber. The Point. See you later in the week. GetThePointRadio.com