The Point – January 16th, 2009
Battlestar Galactica‘s final ten episodes have begun and Baltar stops in to say farewell, Mike Gold tells us what to watch, DC has the best selling thing in the comic stores plus David & Maddie together again? Can it be true?
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Transcript
Hello, it's Mike Raub. Welcome to The Point where all parts of pop culture come together. Battlestar's Final 10 is set to roll tonight. Baltar is here to say goodbye. Mike Gold tells us what to watch on TV and look at this. David and Maddie together again tell me it's going to happen.
It's Friday, January 16th and we get to The Point right now. Big cracking deal. This is The Point. The Point radio. Get The Point radio. The movie is called Bitch Slap. What movie is that? Well, we teased you about it the other day. It's one featuring a cast that includes Lucy Lawless, Kevin Sorbo, Renee O'Connor, Michael Hirst,
and pretty much a whole bunch of people from those great Hercules and Zeta episodes of the 90s. What's it all about? Well, just ask co-star Amariko Olivia. So it's, you know, three girls in the desert, classic, you know, all scantily clad, hoping, hopefully the audience will find this decently attractive. And the, you know, boobs, guns, lots of skin, sweat, dirt, and the desert and a body in the trunk.
At you wet your appetite and in today's the comma, we'll tell you more about this little movie that should be making an appearance in your theaters sometime in the very near future. It's Friday, February 16th. Here's what we're talking about about culture today. Fox let out a little bit of news at one of their television press conferences earlier in the week. The 100th episode of House is scheduled to air on February 2nd, but Prison Break has been canceled.
It's coming to an end at this, its fourth season, the final episode to be on April 17th. There's a new animated comedy by the guy who did Arrested Development, Mitch Hurwitz. It's called Sit Down, Shut Up, and it premieres on April 19th at 8 30. That's a Sunday night, which means it gets the much coveted spot right after the Simpsons. And by the way, speaking of the Simpsons, can you believe it is their 20th anniversary? Fox launched this week,
the best 20 years ever, which is a worldwide celebration campaign that will conclude on January 14th in 2010, which is actually the 20th anniversary of the series premiere. Fans of the show are invited to unleash your yellow with various initiatives throughout the next year. Get more information at fox.com or at the simpsons.com. Once we get past Watchmen and the Wolverine, a lot of folks are going to be talking about GI Joe with that big screen movie
on the way and a lot of new comics on the way from IDW as well, including next month, GI Joe Origins number one. It's a series that re-envisions the GI Joe team. All for this new generation. Larry Hama, a guy who's been involved with Joe pretty much since the beginning, has an interesting blend of storytelling here. A lot of good things are going to be coming in that one. And then another series in March called GI Joe Cobra. It's a four part mini series as well,
written by Christos Gage and with covers by Howard Chaikin as well. In addition, IDW is going to be launching more comics that lead into the GI Joe live action movie and Deluxe reprints to have some of the old stuff as well. Details to be released from IDW later on in the spring. There's a hopeful little story I never thought we'd be able to report, but they say there's a possibility of a moonlighting reunion. It's been 20 years since the show went off. And
as you recall, there were lots of problems back in the day between Bruce Willis and Sybil Shepherd. But according to New York news columnist, Liz Smith, the two met at a deli in California just a few days ago. They got all nostalgic. They're talking about a reunion, but only if creator Glenn Gordon-Karin can be involved. Everybody's talking about that internet story where Samuel L. Jackson said that he might not be Nick Fury in any of the upcoming Marvel Studios
movies. In fact, he said there might not even be a Nick Fury in those movies. Although I kind of doubt that that decision rests in his hands. Again, the smart money here is that this is just a negotiating point as well. We there's been no official word from Marvel Studios on this. And I wouldn't expect anything until a little later on in the spring. I wonder how a lot of comic retailers felt when they saw the article in USA Today this week saying how much comic book sales had grown
in 2008. I know a lot of guys in stores don't necessarily feel that way, but there is some interesting action here at the end of the year. Might be interesting to check what is selling in the stores right this minute for the first week in January, for example. Here were the biggest graphic novel sellers all around the country. It's starting at number 10 with the all in the next man volume three world tour. Civil War trade paperback from Marvel was at number nine and
number eight, The Walking Dead trade paperback, the first volume at number seven, six and five. The Absolute Sandman volume starting in order with number four, three and one. At number four, the Watchmen trade paperback international edition. Number three, The Watchmen Absolute edition. Number two, The Joker hardcover that came out last month from DC with that great Brian Azarello story in it. And the number one best selling item in the comic stores during the
first two weeks of January, The Watchmen trade paperback. Not a big shock there. Have you heard about the TV Guide mess? Well, first of all, the magazine is in a lot of debt. It sold last year to an equity firm called Obengate for the whopping price of yes, one dollar, even the less than what it costs to get a copy off the newsstands. And now for some reason, they've made some editorial changes that people just can't figure out coming up in a couple of issues. They'll be dropping the
CW and MTV from their listings in TV Guide in the past. I don't think any network that at least was still in business was ever dropped from TV Guide. And the only word that the TV Guide representatives will tell us is the fact that they just didn't have the room for the MTV and CW listings. However, they seem to be able to get my net ion and even the home and garden channel. But now if you want to know what's going on in Smallville, you're going to have to look somewhere else.
And now to protect the rights and lives of people, citizens, right? This is my gold. It used to be whenever you mentioned the word television, there were all those people who would stick their nose up in the air and utter drippingly, oh, I don't watch television. Some of those snobs got one up by the Uber snobs who revealed, oh, I only watch public television. I guess I understand the charm PBS has over the Uber snob. After all,
one could never get enough of those two hour specials about the mating habits of insects. Even back in the days when there were only a half dozen channels, there was always something worthwhile. Many of America's leading dramatists and directors got their start on the boob tube, Rod Serling, Pat Hiyevsky, Gor Vidal, Robert Altman, Sidney Lumet, Sidney Pollock, the list goes on and on. Through the expansion to UHF and later cable television, TV programming opportunities expanded
dramatically. There were several dozen PBS type stations and whereas they have nice, honest commercial breaks, none copy PBS's passion for the perpetual begging for dollars marathon drones. Why are tax dollars go to support this obnoxious waste of bandwidth is beyond me. PBS would provide more hours of programming if they were commercial like the history channels or Discovery. And these channels offer far fewer insect mating specials.
To see this now to commemorate the return of one of the best dramatic series I've ever seen, Damages on FX, starring Glenn Close, William Hurt and Ted Danson in a rare, ongoing dramatic role. The tension in this legal drama is so thick you can cut it with a blackened deck or chainsaw. You don't know who to root for because the characters respond in a human fashion to events they try to control, often unsuccessfully. It's a great show. If you're such a snob that you drown
in the shower, you'll never see this wonderful series. But then again, you're probably not listening to this broadcast either. For the rest of us, if you haven't checked Damages out, you might want to give it a try. This is Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mind. I'm Mike Lowell, On The Point. This is it. The final 10 start right now when Battlestar Galactica premieres tonight on the Sci-Fi channel. It's no shock things are coming to a close. You know, we've
known about it for almost two years now. Still, there's plenty to wonder about starting with why. Yeah, I think the show's been very so I hear costly and expensive to produce with, you know, a very large cast and these incredible sets and visual effects and etc. And like, I think there's been a few people beforehand like, yeah, we love the show. We love it. I don't think we're going to do anything like this show ever again. That's James Callis, Skyis Baltar in the show.
You know, in a story of complex characters, you could say that Baltar may have been the most layered one of all. Even James wasn't sure where he was. And I actually had no idea I'd survive this long. I always thought that, you know, sooner or later I'd be killed off. These four plus seasons have been a wild ride for all of us for both fans and the cast. Everything just gets better, to be honest. So, you know, I love doing the things at the beginning and then a new
challenge is presented to you and that's kind of wonderful. And the last stuff that we've had to do that I can't unfortunately tell you anything about has been a real revolution. And it's one of the best scripts I think I've ever read, whether it's television or film or whatever. It was just the last few scripts of this thing have been amazing. Okay. And you think you know where it's all going. Everything that you thought that you knew about so many people in this in the show
is about to get slightly turned on its head towards the end as well, which is very exciting. So like even at the end, we're kind of pushing the omelet. So the inevitable question for James, what's next? Maybe more science fiction. I think it would be a good idea to avoid that as an actor just for a while. Depending upon the nature of the script or the idea. In fact, it may not be science fiction. It's just like the character that I will be portraying next in whatever I do
should be very different. I think as well because there's a kind of I'm an actor I'm doing it for my living, but also there's you know, you want the audience to appreciate you or like it. There's kind of thing about if I did a science fiction thing, there'd be like half yours going, Oh, yeah, because you know, yeah, well, what else is he going to do? And on that level, I got to think of something very different, but I'm not exactly sure what it is. Just, you know, with so much
passion and all the members of the cast that I've been lucky enough to me, I'm willing to bet that just like us, they'll be hooked into the sci fi channel tonight. I can't wait for you guys. Couple of more quick notes about Battlestar. First of all, very important sci fi has announced his weight that the episode is going to run three and a half minutes longer. So whether or not you grab it tonight, or if you DVR and anytime over the weekend for the repeats, keep in mind it's set
an extra four minutes or so. So you don't miss anything. Meanwhile, the long awaited two day Battlestar prop auction starts this weekend at that city of California. Big item up for grab the red dress worn by six has been talked about for a long time, but there's a whole new bunch of things going up. And there's going to be a lot of new things added next week as well. To get complete information and to keep up on the list of what's being auctioned, you can go to auction network.com
There's also items on eBay. So everybody all around the world has a fair chance. We are 21 days and counting to the big East Coast event. Everybody's talking about, you know, it's a New York Comic Con starts on February the sixth. And one of the big things just like at any convention will be the panels at the show. And there are some huge wins this year, starting out with Marvel Comics out and rolling a whole bunch of different panels
throughout the weekend. One of their earliest wins takes place on Friday at about three o'clock. It is an X-Men panel and it features all the superstars involved with that lineup of books, including executive editor Axel Alonzo, Matt Fraction, CB Sabliski, Marjorie Lou, Peter David, and even Chris Claremont. Lots of interesting things to go on at this panel. Marvel also promises one announcement they say fans will never guess was coming. Again,
that's Friday afternoon at around 3 15 at the show. Boom Studios will be on hand also on Friday at around two for a big panel to talk about some of their exciting new projects. On stage will be Mark Wade, Ross Ritchie, and Chip Mosher. They also say that Mark's going to make an announcement that quote will make your head explode. End quote. Again, that's Boom Studios and a panel at about 2 15 on Friday. Also during the weekend, lots of reminiscing looks back at some old comics,
some old periods of time in comics history and in television history as well. Would you believe it has been just about 10 years? In fact, a little over since the finale of Babylon Five aired on television. Creator J. Michael Zwaczynski is on hand for a special panel on Friday at about 4 45 to look back at Babylon Five, talk about how it began, where it went, and well, maybe some hints about whether we're ever going to see these guys again in the future. Again, the big Babylon Five
reminiscing panel coming up on Friday at 4 45 at the show. You know, we're going to be on hand all weekend long. You can look for us on the floor broadcasting direct from the New York Comic Con as we're proud to be one of the sponsors of this year's show. Don't forget New York Comic Con begins on February 6th and for updated information. And by the way, when we say updated, it's updated just about every day. Check out the website, NewYorkComicCon.com. Friday, January 16th, 2009. But
let's take a step back. The Ford administration proposed a sweeping amnesty program for Vietnam era draft invaders efforts to stay the execution of convicted murderer Gary Gilmour failed for what seemed to be the last time at Watergate. Burglar E. Howard Hunt was said to appear before a parole board. A movie ticket this week got you in to see Stephen King's carry with Sissy Spacek and John Trevolta too. There was the enforcer. There was a gene and Richard Pryor in the silver streak.
Pink Panther strikes again was out and Barbara Streisand and Chris Kristofferson. We're gonna star is born. Later tonight on TV episodes of the Jefferson little house on the prairie. CBS had a premiere of a show called bust and loose and there was one we totally forgot about called all's fair. Top of the list though, of course. Over on the radio was a guy who'd been making hits for about 15 years and along the way would pick
up no less than 22 Grammys and a ton of other awards including an Oscar. Meanwhile this was from his magnum opus an album called songs in the key of life. It's Stevie Wonder and I wish but why you want to get struck down on the side. Another quick step to the left and back again. 1966. A Switzerland ski vacation for former first lady Jackie Kennedy was ruined by the intrusion
of 25 carloads of reporters and a ton of onlookers. Nigerian rebel army troops sees that country's prime minister as well as the capital and the former U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam said that American forces have turned the tide in the war and that the Viet Cong cannot hope to win. In the movies Audrey was in My Fair Lady, Disney gave his that darn cat, Bond was in Thunderball. At the drive-in there was Red Line 7000 and a little movie called Beach Ball with an incredible soundtrack
that had the movie debut of the four seasons. TV tonight it was a Sunday that met my favorite Martian Walt Disney's wonderful world of color. There was Voyage in the Bottom of the Sea, the wackiest ship in the army and the FBI. Tonight's episode the enemy's time machine. Over on the radio we were listening to a band originally called the Mugwumps. They split off one half became the Mamas and the Papas,
the other half dove into the coffee houses to become huge on that circuit. Up front was a singer named John Sebastian. The name of the band was the Lovin' Spoonful of course, top of the chart for you didn't have to be so nice. That puts a wrap on this week. We will be back in just a couple. That would be a Monday, a holiday for some but for a lot of us another week of pop culture to start and between now and then I get
to see a screening of Fanboys and I'm going to share it all with you right here. The Point is produced by Malcontent Media and heard on great websites like ComicMix.com and MichaelDavis.com and you can also get us on iTunes. Just search for the Point Radio. You can let us know what you think anytime by writing me a mic and get the point radio dot com. See you on Monday.
