BIG NEWS ON THE DVD FRONT

HEY GUYS...

BIG NEWS. SO BIG I'M LOCKING DOWN MY CAPS.

AS MANY OF YOU KNOW, THE FIRST SEASON OF GARGOYLES IS BEING RELEASED THIS YEAR ON DVD TO COINCIDE WITH THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SERIES.

I'VE JUST BEEN INFORMED THAT DISNEY IS SENDING A VIDEO CREW TO THE GATHERING OF THE GARGOYLES, OUR ANNUAL CONVENTION, TO TAPE THE FANS, GUESTS, EVENTS, ETC. FOR THE EXTRAS SECTION OF THE DVD.

THAT MEANS IF YOU ATTEND THE CONVENTION THIS AUGUST 6-8 IN MONTREAL, YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO ACTUALLY BE ON THE DVD. LET THAT SINK IN FOR A SECOND.

IF YOU'RE ALREADY SIGNED UP, GREAT. BUT IF NOT -- WELL -- WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!!!!

CHECK OUT THE CON'S WEBSITE AT:

http://www.gatheringofthegargoyles.com/

DON'T MISS THIS GATHERING!!!!!!!!

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SECOND & THIRD BASE?

The following RANT is somewhat ADULT. You've been warned.

There are two prime time television series that I'm fond of that I'm annoyed with for a very specific reason.

One is GILMORE GIRLS. The other is JOAN OF ARCADIA.

Last week, on Joan of Arcadia, 16-year-old Joan nearly decided to lose her virginity with Adam.

Last week on on Gilmore Girls, 19-year-old Rory lost her virginity with Dean.

In both cases, it's not the losing or not losing that bothers me.

It's just that in both cases, we've more or less been witness to these girls sexual awakening. And I've never gotten any indication that either girl has done anything beyond kissing, that neither guy has ever gotten past what we used to call first base.

One of my biggest pet peeves about television is that second & third base (including anything and everything in between kissing and sexual intercourse) do not exist. Oral sex? Doesn't exist. Touching and/or nudity without intercourse? Doesn't exist.

I don't need to see it. (Not that I'd object, but this isn't about me being a pervert for once.) But I would think that two shows as smartly-written as Gilmore & Joan should be able to find a way to suggest that such "intermediate steps" DO exist. I mean if they can talk about full-on intercourse, why can't they talk about things that are safer, younger, more exploratory, with FEWER consequences.

I feel it's TERRIBLY irresponsible to teach kids and teens that there's no way to express themselves sexually, once they've gotten past a kiss, except by going all the way. By hitting home runs, by scoring, so to speak.

Look, when I was a teen, there was a LONG, LONG gap between my first kiss and my first time engaging in sexual intercourse. There was a pretty substantial gap between my first kiss with the girl that I would end up losing my virginity to and the actual act of losing said virginity. In fact, in every relationship I ever had, up to and including my wife, kissing was a prelude to touching, etc., which was in turn a prelude to "making love"... assuming the relationship lasted that long.

The frustrating truth is that I really like both Gilmore Girls and Joan of Arcadia. I even really liked the episodes that are currently annoying me. But I'm still waiting for someone to brave the taboo and bring back second and third base.

PROPS TO "THE WONDER YEARS" for the only example of Second Base on a Prime Time series that I recall. But what was that -- ten years ago? Has there been no progress since?

A Farewell to Joss...

Let me get this out of the way first:

I love the television work of Joss Whedon.

Love Buffy.

Love Angel.

Love Firefly. (I'm very much looking forward to Serenity too.)

I am stunned that after eight years (thirteen seasons worth of television) that I won't be able to get new episodes of a Joss Whedon series next year.

Yes, they claim they'll bring back Buffy or Angel or both in t.v. movies. But frankly, I don't want to get my hopes up too high.

This season of Angel was brilliant in episode after episode. The insane Slayer. The Angel muppet. The return of Cordelia. The return of Conner.

And last night's finale... was stunning.

---SPOILERS---

The really smart thing was what they left out -- ironically, mostly action. I mean face it, do we really need to SEE Gunn take out six vamps? Do we really need to see Illyria take out four demons in a car? Do we really need to see Spike take on a cult? (Well, actually it might have been fun to get a little more of this -- what with his Lone Wolf & Cub dilemma of fighting while holding a baby.)

Harmony was a bit weak, i.e. I don't mind that she betrayed Angel or that Angel knew she would, but how did she know anything to betray him with. And I've never understood the transition between the Lyndsey who left L.A. at the end of season two and the Lyndsey who came back midway through season five. Why was he suddenly Angel's enemy again? It was cool that Lorne shot him, but I have to admit I wasn't sure if it was justified. Didn't he deserve a chance at redemption? And what was the deal with Eve at the end?

But that's quibbling.

Wesley had a decent death. And an even better end. The Illyria stuff was all great.

And of course, the final final ending, with the four warriors against the horde and Angel's last line, "Personally, I'd like to
slay a dragon." was just brilliant.

This was, in my opinion, much superior to the Buffy series finale. Both had the problem of only having one hour to stuff a ton of content in. But again, Angel was much smarter about what it LEFT OUT. Buffy's finale just seemed VERY rushed to me. Anya's death barely registered, even with Xander. And did the First get any comeuppance at all?

And sure, I'll admit that the last couple seasons of Buffy suffered from a real one-step-forward-two-steps-back-then-the-SAME-step-forward syndrome.

But all these negatives are quibbling based largely on the superior quality of Joss' series in general.

How did this happen? (Not the great work. But the absense of it next year.)

Just a couple years ago, I was in Whedon heaven. Buffy. Angel. Firefly. And any minute the Buffy Animated Series (which I was SO dying to work on, but couldn't even get my foot in the door) and Ripper. How did five series (four set in the Buffyverse) drop down to zero in just 18 months?

Yes, thank god for Serenity, which is in production.

But whether he likes the grind or not, Joss was born for Series TV not one-shot movies.

I'm really going to miss him.

Guess it's time to buy the DVDs.

Congratulations, Monique!

Went to a wedding today.

My good friend Monique Beatty married Tim Eldred.

Monique, as some of you may know, was my assistant and a script coordinator during the Gargoyles years. She was literally invaluable to me then, keeping my schedule (known then as "Greg's Nefarious Plan to Take Over the World") and keeping me on track. Among other things, she offered tremendous moral support. She's now a Line Producer at Nick. Tim is a story board and comic book artist.

They are both, great, great people. And I am so happy for them.

It was also nice to see Deirdra, Shan and Kevin at the wedding.

A recommendation...

FIREFLY THE SERIES ON DVD

I watched it over the last week, and it's so great. Most of you know, I'm a big Joss Whedon fan anyway. But seeing all 15 hours of Firefly in order was just great.

I despair for television when a series like that doesn't find an audience. It's easy to blame Fox for the haphazard way they aired the eps. No surprise, the series is MUCH stronger aired in order. But I watched it when it was on (missing only one episode) and even out of order, the series was so amazingly great.

Where was the audience?

The good news is that Joss is making "Serenity", a movie that picks up 6 months after the last episode of Firefly with all of the original cast.

I don't know how they justify making this movie, if they couldn't justify giving the series a chance, but I'm not complaining.

Still, I wonder: WHERE WAS THE AUDIENCE?

Star Sighting &tc...

I just saw wecently wed Wesley & Willow walking arm-in-arm down Wittle Santa Monica Blvd. It was pretty cute...

Have I mentioned this before?:

I think one (though certainly not the only) visceral appeals of the E-Street Band is its archetypal relationship to Robin Hood & his Merry Men.

Bruce Springsteen = Robin Hood (complete with a "rob-from-the-rich-and-give-to-the-poor" mentality)
Miami Steve Van Zandt = Will Scarlett
Max Weinberg = Friar Tuck
Patti Scialfa = Maid Marion

and of course

The Big Man, Clarence Clemons = Little John

I'm not sure which of the following is Alan a Dale...

Garry Tallent, Roy Bittan, Danny Federici or Nils Lofgren.

(The truth is Bruce/Robin is his own Alan, I guess.)

When it comes down to it, I don't know the names of enough Merry Men to make every parallel work. But I'm sure you can see the connections.

Discuss.

Spalding & Paul

We lost two greats yesterday.

Actually, we lost Spalding Gray over a month ago, we just hadn't confirmed the loss until yesterday.

I was (and continue to be) a huge Spalding Gray fan. His acting was decent, fun. But his monologues were always brilliant. I remember once laughing so hard at "Gray's Anatomy" during the Indian Sweatlodge riff that I thought I was going to die of asphyxiation. Everyone should rent his seminal "Swimming to Cambodia". Everyone. Then move on to "Monster in a Box" or some of his other great filmed monologues. They're amazing. But nothing like seeing him live. He will be missed.

As will Paul Winfield, a truly amazing actor. I met him twice when he came in to perform the roll of blind novelist "Jeffrey MacClain Robbins" on GARGOYLES. It was a joy to watch Paul and Ed Asner play off each other. Winfield brought tremendous dignity and humanity to Robbins. And he helped us tell our tale of literacy without making it too preachy. I still remember fondly the following exchange when Hudson is amazed at how Robbins can find Macbeth's address in the phone book.

Hudson: Magic book.
Robbins: Aren't they all?

Simple, but mighty.

Spalding, man... Paul... You left us too soon.

More rambles on Angel...

Well, I'm glad I chose to trust them Angel writers. I thought last night's episode of Angel, with the new Illyria/Fred was another extremely powerful and well done hour of television.

It was a nice variation on a theme in that Illyria ISN'T going to be the big villain for the season. She's now just another lost soul. An ancient demon who has to start over.

I do have a couple quibbles:

I wasn't fond of the artificial way they wrote Lorne out of the episode until the montage at the end. It just seemed like they felt they were too crowded to give his character any screen time.

It bothered me that no one could acknowledge that what was happening to Gun was an exact parallel to what happened to Wes when he stole Connor, because no one remembers Connor. That whole nobody-remembers-Connor thing still strikes me as only a step above the Bobby-Ewing-reappearing-in-the-shower/it-was-all-a-dream ploy on Dallas. But the Connor thing is more a fault of LAST season (which had its share of problems) as opposed to this season.

So I'm very optimistic that Angel will continue to be brilliant throughout its final year.

Death of Fred - SPOILERS

Last night, I finally got around to watching last week's Death of Fred episode on Angel.

Very powerful, very powerful stuff.

And yet....

You see, I'm conflicted, because Angel's writers have certainly earned my trust this year with powerful episodes, including:

--The Death of Cordelia (one of the best hours of tv and endings that I've ever seen)
--The lunatic Slayer (another great, great ending)
--Angel's turned into a puppet

But I'm a little tired of the "One of our regulars goes bad" storylines. Hell, Smallville, which I don't watch because it sucks, seems (judging by their commercials) to do this every week.

And Buffy/Angel has had it's fair share of the same thing. Just last season they did evil Cordelia and the return of Angelus. (Plus there's Angelus' original appearance in Buffy Season 2, Dark Willow and various episodic evil versions of everyone from Xander to Anya.)

So I'm just not looking forward to seeing another evil version of one of their characters. Been there. Done that. If this is Angel's last season -- as it reportedly is, then I'd have liked to push a different way. Lyndsay and the Senior Partners, for example.

But on the other hand, how can I not trust Joss and the Angel writing staff. This season has been jam-packed with amazing episodes, and last night was no exception.

So I'll just cross my fingers, and in any case, try not to weep as the last of Joss' amazing series goes off the air.

OSCAR HINDSIGHT

Back in January, I listed my choices for the Oscars -- hampered by how few movies I had seen. I made a point of saying that these were preferences, not predictions.

But just for fun, let's you and I revisit my choices and see how I did.

Again, keep in mind that I wouldn't allow myself to pick anything from a film I hadn't seen. And since I hadn't seen MOST of the nominated films, that left me with few choices in many categories.

PICTURE:
GW: THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING
WINNER: LOTR: ROTK
Comment: No-brainer. I'm 1 for 1.

ACTOR:
GW: Johnny Depp
WINNER: Sean Penn
Comment: Didn't see Mystic River. Have no doubt that Penn was probably great. But I still feel that the academy does not appreciate comedy and a win for either Depp or Murray would have been nice to see. I'm 1 for 2.

ACTRESS:
GW: Keisha Castle-Hughes
WINNER: Charlize Theron
Comment: Everyone tells me she was amazing, but I never saw Monster. In fact, Keisha was the only nominated performance I saw. This is no big surprise. I'm 1 for 3.

SUPPORTING ACTOR:
GW: Alec Baldwin
Winner: Tim Robbins.
Comment: I liked Robbins speech. Again, I didn't see his performance. I'm sure he was great. But I know Baldwin was great. I'm sinking here at 1 for 4.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
GW: No pick.
WINNER: Renée Zellweger
Comment: Didn't see ANY of the nominated performances. I'm 1 for 5.

DIRECTOR:
GW: Peter Jackson
WINNER: Peter Jackson.
Comment: I pretty much stuck with the ROTK horse and scored well, obviously. I'm 2 for 6.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
GW: Walsh, Boyens, Jackson
Winner: Ditto
Comment: I'm 3 for 7.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
GW: Coppola
Winner: Coppola
Comment: I'm 4 for 8. Batting 500 now after the acting awards decimated me.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
GW: no pick
Winner: The Barbarian Invasions
Comment: I'm 4 for 9.

ANIMATED FEATURE:
GW: Finding Nemo
Winner: Finding Nemo
Comment: I'm 5 for 10.

ART DIRECTION:
GW: ROTK
Winner: ROTK
Comment: I'm 6 for 11.

SOUND MIXING:
GW: ROTK
Winner: ROTK
Comment: I'm 7 for 12.

CINEMATOGRAPHY:
GW: Master & Commander
Winner: M&C
Comment: Hey I even won in a tech category where ROTK wasn't nominated. I'm 8 for 13.

SOUND EDITING:
GW: Pirates
Winner: M&C
Comment: Oh, well. I'm 8 for 14.

ORIGINAL SCORE:
GW: Shore
Winner: Shore
Comment: Duh. I'm 9 for 15.

ORIGINAL SONG:
GW: Into the West
Winner: Into the West
Comment: Okay, now I've heard all five songs. Sting's song seemed really great. But at the time I'd ONLY heard Into the West. I liked it, so I picked it and it won. I'm 10 for 16.

Documentary Feature:
GW: no pick
Winner: The Fog of War
Comment: I'm 10 for 17.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT:
GW: No pick.
Winner: Cherno0byl Heart.
Comment: I'm 10 for 18.

FILM EDITING:
GW: ROTK
WINNER: ROTK
Comment: I'm 11 for 19.

MAKEUP
GW: ROTK
WINNER: ROTK
COmment: I'm 12 for 20.

COSTUME:
GW: ROTK
WINNER: ROTK
COMMENT: I'm 13 for 21.

ANIMATED SHORT:
GW: no pick
winner: Harvie Krumpet
Comment: I wonder now if I did see that Ice Age short somewhere. Like on the DVD maybe? Doesn't matter. I know a lot of people were routing for Roy to win. Wonder what he would have said? High road or low road? Anyway, I'm 13 for 22.

LIVE ACTION SHORT:
GW: Two Soldiers
Winner: Two Soldiers
Comment: I think this was the single award that I had the most invested in. Turns out it was favored. I had no idea. It was the only short I had seen, but I went out of my way to see it because "Two Soldiers" by William Faulkner is my all-time favorite short story ever. The movie isn't quite as good as the story, but it definitely does it justice. I was so happy when it won. And I'm 14 for 23.

VISUAL EFFECTS:
GW: ROTK
WINNER: ROTK
Comment: Final tally: 15 for 24.

Eleven of those fifteen were the ROTK sweep. The other four were for Two Soldiers, Nemo, Translation's script and M&C's Cinematography.

Of the nine I missed, five were in categories I made no pick whatsoever, per my self-imposed rules. One of those five plus three other misses were in acting categories, where I hadn't seen the winning performances, so couldn't vote for them. That means that the only category where I feel I really "guessed" wrong was in Sound Editing where I went with Pirates over M&C.

Not too shabby.