One of this season’s best television shows that you aren’t watching is having a marathon Halloween night on FX. Offering the perfect chance to check out (and get caught up on) American Horror Story, FX will rerun the first four episodes making for the perfect Halloween night and setting up for the conclusion of the 2-part episode titled Halloween on it’s regular night, Wednesday, November 2.

American Horror Story is a violent, erotically charged horror story about a troubled family in a haunted L.A. mansion, from producers Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk (Nip/Tuck, Glee). The Harmons are a textbook dysfunctional family who have moved cross-country from Boston trying to get their lives back in order. The house that they move into unknowingly is the epicenter of a murderous history and a variety of twisted and frightening creatures. As Ben (Dylan McDermott) and his wife Vivien (Connie Britton) realize that something is very wrong with their home, stranger and stranger events take place that convinces them to move out.

Since debuting on FX October 5th, the show has gotten serious buzz and has seen steady growth in the ratings. I’ll warn you now, the pilot episode is anything but lukewarm and the rest of the episodes will have you hooked and ready for Wednesday night’s episode which guest stars Zachary Quinto (Star Trek, Heroes) and leave you asking a ton of questions. I’m not going to serve up any spoilers for the show, just know that American Horror Story is a truly brilliant and chilling show that plays just as many head games with you, the audience, as the spooks play games with the Harmons.

The show also stars Denis O’Hare, Jessica Lange, Taissa Farmiga and Evan Peters to round out the cast and each character is just as bizarre and messed up as the undead denizens of the house. Get more information about American Horror Story by visiting their website now and then tune in to the Halloween marathon starting at 10pm EST to try and solve the mysteries of the Murder House.

Following Top Model on premiere night is the brand new series Hellcats — a new drama centering around college cheerleading  starring Alyson Michalka and Ashley Tisdale (High School Musical 3). Sept. 9 sees the season’s other new release with the action show Nikita –  a reboot of the cult classic French film (and 1997 tv series) La Femme Nikita and stars Maggie Q (Mission: Impossible III, Live Free or Die Hard) cast as a new iteration of Nikita going rogue against the association she works for — the CIA.

Dramas 90210, Gossip Girl, Life Unexpected, The Vampire Diaries and One Tree Hill make network returns and Sept. 24 rounds out the new season with a 10th (and final) season of Smallville and the surprising 6th season of runaway hit Supernatural.

ABC Network rolls out their Fall 2010-11 season with a new cycle of Dancing With The Stars and a 3rd season of the detective drama Castle (starring Nathan Fillion) all starting on Sept. 20.

The month of September also sees the return of ABC mainstays Grey’s Anatomy, Extreme Makeover,  and Brothers & Sisters. Desperate Housewives gets a new resident on Wisteria as Ugly Betty star Vanessa Williams moves in for the show’s 7th season. Notable newcomers this season include the drama No Ordinary Family starring Michael Chiklis (The Shield, Fantastic 4), the ultra-reality show My Generation and homicide drama Detroit 1-8-7 while comedies Cougar Town (starrring Courteney Cox) and Modern Family begin their sophomore seasons on the network. ABC is also home to Saturday Night Football (actually premiering Sept. 4 at 8 p.m. ET).

ABC flexes a very strong lineup as it sees off Lost, Ugly Betty, Better Off Ted, FlashForward, and former NBC transplant show Scrubs. The CW takes the safer route as it says goodbye to only The Tyra Banks Show, Beautiful Life, and Melrose Place.

Rock-em-sock-em robots. Hugh Jackman will be in it too.

Also: Tune in to CBS’ Medium this Friday night. Robert Roach‘s comics, Menthu and The Roach, can be seen in a scene taking place in a comic shop!

…for something called EPIX TV. No, I’ve never heard of it either.

Year: 2009
Running Time: 482 Minutes
Rated: Not Rated
SRP: $ 59.99
Studio(s): 20th Century Fox
Release Date: January 12, 2010

Film/Feature: C+

The first 12 seasons of the Simpsons crawled out on DVD with phenomenal extras and are great archive editions of probably the best years of the show, but they’ve always been behind in getting them out as compared to what the current season is on television. For the 20th season, Fox oddly rushed out this set on DVD and for the first time, blu-ray bypassing those in between. The episodes are as follows.

Disc 1
Sex, Pies and Idiot Scraps
Lost Verizon
Double, Double, Boy in Trouble
Treehouse of Horror XIX
Dangerous Curves
Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words
Mypods and Boomsticks
The Burns and the Bees
Lisa the Drama Queen

Disc 2
Take My Life, Please
How the Test Was Won
No Loan Again, Naturally
Gone Maggie Gone
In the Name of the Grandfather
Wedding for Disaster
Eeny Teeny Mata, Moe
The Good, the Sad and the Drugly
Father Knows Worst
Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D’oh
Four Great Women and a Manicure
Coming to Homerica

After twenty years, I have to admit that the well hasn’t run dry, but the water doesn’t taste as fresh as it used to be. There are some episodes where I found myself going an entire segment without laughing or even forcing a laugh out because I still enjoy this world. I’ve always attributed the golden years of the Simpsons as seasons 4-10, and the quality slowly grades down from there. It’s the episodes with a strong central focus that’s carried throughout the entire show that leaves the best impression. But after that golden era of the Simpsons, the show seemed to take on a formula of putting the three most unrelated stories and find a way to string them together, oh and let’s see just how dumb Homer can be, what cause will Lisa take on or what threat does Marge and Homer have in their marriage. It’s gotten to the point where the only must-see show is the annual Treehouse of Horror episode.

Every now and then they do hit a nerve or two that are timely like taking on all of the DaVinci Code-like puzzle films in “Gone Maggie Gone,” satirizing Apple nation “Mypods and Boomsticks,” and taking the kids out of Springfield elementary and placing them in “Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D’oh.” “How the Test Was Won” is another stand out episode that reminds longtime viewers that this show can still put it all together. For a show where the characters never age, never develop or barely remember what happened to them prior, The Simpsons require no cliff notes and after 20 seasons, that’s a good thing; but like a long running game show, you still find ways to enjoy it despite a change in host, some modification of the games and change of the set, and most times forget it’s still on.

I agree, Bart, but this blu-ray set could use some more work.

Video: C+
For the first time, the Simpsons television series was put on blu-ray and I figured that it would be a something to make note of, but I didn’t expect this at all. The episodes are split into two discs featuring a 1080p AVC-encoded transfer. The first disc shows the episodes in 1.33:1, while the second disc of episodes are in 1.78:1 widescreen. The split signifies the change in broadcast when the original broadcast went high definition in the middle of the season. The result is two entirely different viewing experiences. The full frame episodes have noticeable banding and aliasing, wonky contrast, and lacks the crispness seen with other cel-animated features on blu-ray. The episodes in widescreen appear to be closer to what you’d expect when you watch the Simpsons on HD TV when it airs on Fox. Colors stand out more and the subtle changes in tints of color for shading is more prevalent. I have no idea why this season was put together the way it was, but it comes off as lazy in my opinion. I’d expect something like this on the first season, but the 20th?

Audio: B
The Simpsons have always been designed as a standard television show in stereo 5.1 English DTS-HD Master Audio track. There is rarely a peep that will come out of your surround channels as almost everything comes from your center and front channels. There’s nothing really to complain about, but those are the facts. The dialogue comes in clear and that’s the biggest hurdle for this show. The rear activity, and sound movement is so unspectacular, keeping it at a 2.0 Stereo mix would have been better. Maybe then there would be more room for some extras (see below). Other audio selections include: French, Spanish, Portuguese 5.1 Dolby Digital tracks and subtitles are available in English SDH and Spanish.

Extras: D-
Audio Commentary by _____ Wait, what? No audio commentaries? You can’t put audio commentaries on every season box set, rush this one out on blu-ray and DVD, skip over eight other seasons and give a poor effort on the extras department. Seriously, this a bad move that I don’t think will make any Simpsons diehard thrilled.

The one lone (snicker) extra is a Teaser for Morgan Spurlock 20th Anniversary Simpsons Documentary Special HD (4:00) which aired prior to the release of this box set. The teaser is great, it’s wonderful, it makes you want to see this special, which Spurlock looks to be an intense fan, but I’ll be reserved to hunt for this online. Would it have burdened Fox to put the darn special on this box set? There’s not much else to take its space.

If there’s one thing you can expect out of a Simpsons box set, it’s the extras, and this has all the signs of rushing out a product, (especially with the inconsistent aspect ratios) and not making it as good as it can possibly be before sending it out.

Overall Shock Value: C
I never thought I’d ever give a Simpsons season set such a low grade but as much of a fan as I was of the first 15 years of the show, my interest has waned, and if I catch episodes at their original air date, it’s by pure luck. It doesn’t nearly have the magic and fun it once had, but it’s still better than 75% of what’s on television. I was curious to see if the format change to blu-ray would make any difference but unlike Family Guy’s Something Something Something Dark Side, the Simpsons looked quite ordinary on high definition. Add the lazy effort on the extras and you have a Rental at best.

It’s a video interview.

“…147 is the taxi driver of The Village. He’s the first person that Jim Caviezel’s Six makes contact with, and through the episodes they befriend each other and build up a close friendship that has major effects on both of them. When you first meet 147, he is utterly content with his life in The Village. Then he meets Six, who is utterly discontent with his survival in The Village and his forced imprisonment, and together they have an effect on each other, which leads to some high drama and major changes in both their lives.”

Lennie James

SWEET.

“Imagine this. At a time of political turmoil, a charismatic, telegenic new leader arrives virtually out of nowhere. He offers a message of hope and reconciliation based on compromise and promises to marshal technology for a better future that will include universal health care… So, does that sound like anyone you know? Oh, wait — did I mention the leader is secretly a totalitarian space lizard who’s come here to eat us?”

The premise would definitely work well for a series.

“Because it’s not just the black women. In fact, that’s the mildest part of my problems with race on the show. Because, for better or worse, it’s difficult to mess up the portrayals of a demographic you have excised from the world of your characters.

“Black men, on the other hand? Well, that’s where I really hit some brambles.”

“Only Sesame Street and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood have had longer PBS kidvid careers. In 26 years, Reading Rainbow won 24 national Emmys, including 10 for best children’s series.”

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a RR playlist @ YouTube (which includes an episode that goes behind the scenes of Star Trek: TNG)

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I wish I could say I watched this show as a kid but if I did I don’t recall. I was more into The Electric Company and Zoom. From the videos that I’ve seen this week, though, it looks like it was a lot of fun, and my man LeVar looked like he had a great time doing it. (With the mustache he kinda looks like Robert Townsend.)

Anybody have any memories of the show they wanna share?

Also: Ernie Hudson joins the cast of Heroes.

Mayhem

IMDB page for Tyrese Gibson

Tyrese Gibson fan site

Amazon link to buy Transformers 2-disc special edition DVD

We finally get to see if it’s worth all the hype this week.

Luke Cage Noir #1 (of 4)

Shawn Martinbrough website

Amazon link to buy How to Draw Noir Comics by Martinbrough

A Luke Cage “Elseworlds” story set in 1920s Harlem, illustrated by Martinbrough.

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Also this week:

Buffy TVS #27. Pencils by Jeanty.

Astro City: The Dark Age Book Three #4 (of 4)

Final Crisis: Revelations HC

Black Panther #7. Co-written by Reggie Hudlin.

War Machine #8

Political Power: Colin Powell

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Later this month, the first ever Onyx Comic Con will take place in Atlanta, on August 15 with a pre-show gathering on the 14. It’s patterned very much like ECBACC, and indeed, many ECBACC regulars are heading down for this event, including Mshindo Kuumba, Eric Battle, Dawud Anyabwile, Ashley Woods, and more. The official blog has more info, as does the thread at the Black Superhero forums.

This page has a bunch of podcasts from this year’s Comic-Con, including the Dwayne McDuffie panel and the Black Panel.

Another Riddick movie is not out of the question, according to the director.

Here’s an interview with True Blood star Nelsan Ellis.

July 31st @ 12:40AM

TV Provider: Coaxial Cable TV
TV Channel: i2TV
City: WATERFORD, TOWNVILLE, CAMBRIDGE SPRINGS, SAEGERTOWN, CRANESVILLE, VENANGO, EDINBORO, MC KEAN
State: PA

TV Provider: NPG Cable
TV Channel: i2TV
City: SAINT JOSEPH
State: MO

TV Provider: SureWest
TV Channel: i2TV
City: LOOMIS, CARMICHAEL, CITRUS HEIGHTS, GRANITE BAY, ROSEVILLE, ELK GROVE, ROCKLIN, ANTELOPE, SACRAMENTO, MCCLELLAN, LINCOLN
State: CA

highlights and pictures from the panel

The Black Panel discussion @ the Hudlin Entertainment forums

…

…

“Revenge Of The Fallen

Plus: SLJ is attached to a potential series based on an Image comic.