SCTV's fifth season comes with 33% more content!
SCTV's fifth season (Volume 4) finds the show renewed on NBC and still in the 90-minute format. Three cast members have departed, Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis and Catherine O'Hara-although Catherine makes a memorable return in "The Christmas Show," but Martin Short's star rose in their absence.
His inimitable character Ed Grimley finds his way into many of the sketches.
The Shmenges are back and John Candy introduces Mr. Mambo.
The Volume 4 box set features four Emmy-nominated shows ("Towering Inferno," "Christmas Special," "Midnight Cowboy" and "Sweeps Week") plus Robin Williams as a guest in the "Jane Eyrehead" episode; it also includes musical guests John Mellencamp, Joe Walsh, and Crystal Gayle.
The DVD set will include an extra DVD with three extra episodes, bringing the DVD set total up to 12 episodes - 33% more content at the same price as the first 3 volumes! The set will also come with a collectible set of character trading cards.
As extras, the release will offer Commentary Tracks with Martin Short and Catherine O’Hara, a new Martin Short Interview and a selection of Featurettes called “The Producers: Part 2,” “The Firehall” and “Sammy Maudlin Today.”
The Shout! Factory will release SCTV Volume 4 on September 13.
Live 8 organizer defends lineup for Canadian concert
Canadian Live 8 organizer Michael Cohl shot back Wednesday at critics who are complaining that the lineup for the July 2 concert in Barrie, Ont., is rife with has-beens.
"These are our best artists. It's not all of them, but it's sure a substantial portion of them," the concert promoter said of the bill for the July 2 event, which includes the likes of Bruce Cockburn, Burton Cummings, Gordon Lightfoot and Tom Cochrane.
"These are people who have competed on the world stage successfully," he told the Canadian Press.
Writing in the Toronto Star on Wednesday, pop-music critic Ben Rayner was among those who expressed disappointment with the lineup.
The artists on the bill "have all made a significant dent in the Canadian and international consciousnesses at various points during their careers, but the days of their greatest visibility and popular success are long behind them," Rayner said.
Even a group like Our Lady Peace is "yesterday's news to the kids," he argued.
"Our concert just feels like a lazily programmed, rather half-hearted afterthought," he added, comparing the Canadian concert to the ones being staged at venues around the world on the same day.
Cohl said he had talked to between 50 and 60 acts about appearing at the concert.
"My job is to put together the best cross-section of talent that will draw the best audience both in terms of live, and in terms of the television audience, so that more people will get the message," he said.
He added that he expects there to be "overwhelming demand" when the free tickets for the show become available on Thursday.
Rayner wasn't the only one who used Tuesday's announcement as an opportunity to criticize Live 8.
National Post columnist Bruce Garvey also responded harshly in a front-page column headlined "A rock & roll fantasy."
Garvey noted that the goal of 1985's Live Aid had been to alleviate the famine then raging in Africa. "Well, it didn't. So here we are again, treading the same well-worn trail that leads to nowhere," he wrote.
Calling Geldof a "long-since failed rocker from a one-hit ... bar band called the Boomtown Rats," Garvey told his readers not to "expect Live 8 to make a whit of difference to anyone's life in Africa." He also questioned the wisdom of making the concerts free.
Those comments are in sharp contrast to the optimism that was in evidence on Tuesday among the artists who are slated to appear.
Musicians like Jeremy Taggart, the drummer for Our Lady Peace, said they have high hopes for Live 8.
"If this is done properly and enough awareness is raised, this could change the world," Taggart said.
"As musicians, we're in a unique position where we can raise awareness, perhaps more than just about any other body of people in the world," echoed Great Big Sea's Alan Doyle.
"It allows us to feel like we're contributing to society other than great tunes and great dancing. We have the opportunity to turn people on to great causes," noted Tyler Stewart, a member of Barenaked Ladies.
Stewart also responded Tuesday to one other criticism of the concert: the choice of venue. Barrie is located about one hour north of Toronto along highway 400, the route many Toronto residents take to visit their summer homes.
"Toronto really needs to take a chill pill and just drive up the 400," he said in response to the city's disappointment at losing the concert to Barrie.
"You're going to the cottage anyway. Just stop in at the frigging show."
Disney needn't fear; "Underdog" is here.
The Mouse House and Spyglass Entertainment are putting the final touches on a deal to bring the classic TV cartoon to the bigscreen as a live-action feature.
Disney has high hopes for the property as a possible franchise for its Walt Disney Pictures label.
Spyglass' Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber and Jonathan Glickman are producers on the pic, along with Jay Polstein ("Frida"), who brought them the project.
Spyglass optioned the property from rights holder Classic Media three years ago with a preemptive bid of mid-six figures against north of $2 million (Daily Variety, June 12, 2002).
"Anything where you have a dog in that superhero context, that's appealing on a global basis," Barber said. "Those films do very well, and there's no better brand than Disney for this kind of movie."
Disney and Spyglass have had good results from their joint ventures of late. "The Pacifier" exceeded expectations, while "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" was a solid performer in relation to its costs.
Executive producers on "Underdog" are Classic Media topper Eric Ellenbogen and former Classic veep Bob Higgins, who is now at the Cartoon Network.
Nina Jacobson, Brigham Taylor and Louanne Brickhouse are shepherding the pic for Disney. Erin Stam oversees for Spyglass.
Spyglass hopes to start prep in November and begin shooting in January in Canada, possibly in Vancouver.
The tongue-in-cheek "Underdog" skein, created by Buck Biggers and Chet Stover, made its debut in 1964 on NBC and ran until 1973. The character was an unlikely superhero: a beagle who sheds his milquetoast identity of Shoeshine Boy to become a caped superdog who speaks in rhymed couplets. Wally Cox provided his voice.
Original episodes have been rerun recently on Cartoon. Underdog also is featured in a popular Visa Check Card commercial, appearing opposite an array of Marvel Comics heroes.
In the feature script, by Joe Piscatella and Craig A. Williams, a diminutive hound named Shoeshine gets superpowers after a lab accident. When he's adopted by a 12-year-old boy, the two form a bond around the shared knowledge that Shoeshine is really Underdog.
"We want to keep many elements from the classic cartoon," said Birnbaum, including mad scientist Simon Barsinister and Underdog's love interest, Sweet Polly Purebred.
Unlike "Scooby-Doo," another toon favorite that was made as a live-action feature, this pic will use a real dog for the title role, though with CGI enhancements. Underdog will talk and fly, just as in the cartoon. Spyglass is pondering a nationwide talent search for the next dog star.
Aside from Disney's plans for its new Underdog, Classic Media maintains an aggressive licensing and promotion campaign for the original toon, including a recent NASCAR tie-in and plans for a videogame.
Oscar Rejects Stunt Performers
The men and women who routinely leap from buildings, set themselves on fire, drive automobiles recklessly in dangerous conditions and so on, all for the entertainment of the movie-going public, have been denied their request for a stunt-based Academy Award.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday that its Board of Governors had voted against granting stunt performers a category at the 78th Academy Awards.
"At a time when the Academy is trying to find ways to reduce the numbers of statuettes given out, and looks at categories with an eye more focused on reduction than addition, the board is simply not prepared to institute any new annual awards categories," Academy President Frank Pierson said in a statement Wednesday.
Stunt performers pushed the issue the best way they knew how. Last week, about 75 men and women demonstrated outside Academy headquarters, performing stunts to draw attention to their movement.
"Stunt coordinators are the reason that action sequences come to life on screen," Jack Gill of Stunts Unlimited told Daily Variety last week. "They are responsible for every aspect in the film from the smallest comedic pratfall to the most elaborate 100-vehicle car chase."
Gill has been pushing for a stunt Oscar since 1991. On Wednesday, he expressed his dejection upon learning that the Academy had rejected the request once again.
"I'm disappointed," Gill told the Associated Press. "Everyone believes we should have a category except the board of governors."
Hollywood types such as Screen Actors Guild president Melissa Gilbert, Robert De Niro, Steven Spielberg and Dustin Hoffman had backed the stunt coordinators on their quest.
However, in the past 25 years, the Academy has created only two new award categories: Best Makeup in 1981 and Best Animated Feature in 2000.
In a further movement to pare down the number of little gold men handed out at the awards ceremony, the Academy announced Wednesday that it will determine which producers will be given credit in the Best Picture category and that the number of statuettes handed out in the category would be limited to three.
"What we're doing is further reducing the possibility of someone receiving one of our highest awards without really having done the job of a producer," Pierson said.
For the first time, a limitation was also placed on the number of songwriters that can receive an Oscar in the Best Original Song category. The Academy said that it would normally only award two Oscars in the category, but would reserve the right to award three, should three individuals have contributed equally to the winning song.
The 78th Annual Academy Awards will be held March 5, 2006 at Hollywood's Kodak Theater.