What is a hero?

You hear a lot of talk these days about heroes, about people who go above and beyond to make the world a better place. I ask you to watch this clip and ask yourself "Is this man a hero?"



Yes. Yes he is. The greatest hero who ever lived.

Buy my comics, make me rich: CATWOMAN 64 ... and CATWOMAN: THE REPLACEMENTS

I hope you saved up a few extra pennies this week, CATWOMAN fans, because not only is the new issue out, but there's a trade collection on the shelves, too.

CATWOMAN 64 continues the three-part story "The Paperweight," with Selina using all the thievery skills at her disposal to swipe a cheap snowglobe. Well, there's slightly more to it than that, including the fact that the 'globe is deep inside LexCorp HQ. Without revealing too much, I will say that she does get the 'globe this issue. She does not, however, get out.

By the way, if you like Adam Hughes' cover to this issue -- and why shouldn't you? -- you can download it as desktop wallpaper here. It's what I used as the topper to this entry.

CATWOMAN: THE REPLACEMENTS collects the six-part post ONE YEAR LATER storyline where we learned that (a) Selina had a new baby, and (b) Holly had taken her place in the costume. It's all here, plus Film Freak, the Bradley boys, Wildcat, Angle Man, Green Lantern and Batman carrying a teddy bear. And it's named after my second favorite band* of all time. What more could you want in a comic book collection?

As always, if you have any comments, questions, etc, bring 'em around here.


* My favorite band

Jerry Lewis alert!

Over at his excellent Greenbriar Picture Shows blog, John McElwee continues his look back at various versions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with an article about THE NUTTY PROFESSOR, Jerry's own excursion into the genre. (It's under the Abbott and Costello material.) Like many people, John's not a big fan of the Jer, but even he admits PROFESSOR is a truly great film. Naturally, I agree.

Besides a nice bit about how Jerry's hopelessly out-of-touch ideas actually made NUTTY PROFESSOR a better, more timeless movie, the article also reprints some rare ads for the film. The one above ran on the back of Famous Monsters of Filmland, maybe the only major studio movie to be advertised in that legendary mag. John also dug up NUTTY-themed ads with Jerry selling Planters (cause he's nutty, get it?) and Royal Crown Cola, plus one of leading lady Stella Stevens hawking Coppertone (hubba hubba).

Even if you're not the Jerry Lewis fan I am -- and I realize few of you are -- I'd advise checking out Greenbriar Picture Shows. There's always something interesting going on over there, and even if you're a longtime movie fan, you're bound to see some bit of film history you never even knew existed. (Like here, for instance, is a look at the publicity for one of my favorite old movies, THE BIG CLOCK.)

So long, STUDIO 60

As TV Squad points out, there's a decent chance that tonight's episode of STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP might be the last. Back in September, I went on record as thinking STUDIO 60 could be the best show of the season. (I've since found another favorite). But now that I've seen every episode -- maybe every episode ever -- I have mixed feelings. For neatness' sake, I'll split them into two lists, starting with the complaints. And yes, they're the same complaints every other complainer is still watching the show has made ...

Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford in a scene from the STUDIO 60 pilot, when the show seemed to have limitless potential. Hey, at least the set is really nice, right?

DISLIKE

1. There's not enough backstage stuff about the show within the show. I was hoping this would be like the book LIVE FROM NEW YORK with the names changed and less Adam Sandler. Instead, we've had very little. A glimpse of an unfunny sketch here, a brief scene of a rehearsal there. How about an episode taking us though one week in the life of the show? Hell, you've already got that clock in Matt's office to use as a transitional device. (I do like the clock.) I wouldn't even mind a whole episode set solely in the writers' room. In the right hands, that could be something great. Think about the two classic behind-the-scenes-of-a-TV-show TV shows, THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW and THE LARRY SANDERS SHOW. They both spent plenty of time on the actual process of getting a show on the air, and were brilliant because of that (and, admittedly, other reasons). Instead, STUDIO 60 spends all its airtime on something else...

2. Too much attention paid to relationships I don't care about. Everyone bitches about the Matt-Harriet love story -- and they're right. It's not compelling, mostly because I'm constantly thinking how Matt should move on to someone funny, personable, likeable, sexy -- anything! If you ask me, as a guy who watches a hell of a lot of movies, for an onscreen romance to work (regardless of the size of the screen), the guys in the audience have to fall in love -- just a tiny bit -- with the females in that fictional relationship. (The guys they just have to identify with, and that's usually a given.) I, on the other hand, can't stand the Harriet character. It has nothing to do with her being a born again Christian (though it doesn't help). It has everything to do with her being a terribly written character. It's like Aaron Sorkin is in love with her and just assumed everyone else would be, so he didn't bother to put any of that into the script. I'm not crazy about the whole Danny-Jordan love story, but mostly because it takes time away from the backstage stuff. The one romance I would like to see more of is the Rob Corddry's kid brother-Dawn from the British OFFICE love story. Them, I like!

3. The show within the show. As everyone points out, it's not funny. Well, except for that sketch where Santa stumbled into TO CATCH A PREDATOR. That was funny. Not as funny as the real show, but not bad. Even if the sketches were outrageously bad, it might make STUDIO 60 fun as a spoof of SNL. But no, thanks to Sorkin's earnestness, every sketch has to be either completely forgettable or something pretentious and important, like that Gilbert and Sullivan monstrosity that ran early in the season. What the hell was that all about?

LIKE

1. The cast. And this is a bit of a surprise. I'd soured on FRIENDS years ago, including Matthew Perry's tired Chandler schtick. I was never a big fan of Bradley Whitford on THE WEST WING. I hated anything even associated with THIRTYSOMETHING (no, I refuse to write it in lowercase), so that cut out Timothy Busfield. I had avoided THE WHOLE NINE YARDS (see above, i.e., Matthew Perry), so that leaves out Amanda Peet. And I never liked Steven Weber since he played the dumb brother on WINGS. In other words, I hated virtually everyone on the show. And now, to my own astonishment, I like just about all of 'em. Perry and Whitford are very good, Busfield is even better, Peet is less annoying with each episode and, maybe the biggest shocker of all, Weber is excellent at playing a corporate asshole with a soul. D.L. Hughley and Nate Corddry are very likeable (lets see more of them), and even the late additions -- the aforementioned Lucy Davis (Dawn from THE OFFICE) and Mark McKinney (from KIDS IN THE HALL and SNL, very good at the drama stuff) have been strong. The only exception -- and admittedly, it's a big one -- is Sarah Paulson as the aforementioned Harriet. Not sure if it's the writing or the acting -- probably a combination of both -- but I don't like her. I've liked Paulson fine in other things, like DEADWOOD and THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE, but not here.

2. The sense of history. I enjoy the fact that that STUDIO 60 (the show within the show) has the sort of iconic status that SNL has, and though it revolved around the much-loathed Matt-Harriet love story, I liked the peek into the past last week's episode offered. How about some more? Any (fictional) STUDIO 60 cast members who went onto big things? Faded into obscurity? O.D-ed? Let's hear about them.

3. The set. OK, here's where we can all agree. Whether you hate the characters, hate the scripts or just plain hate the show, you have to admit STUDIO 60 has one of the all-time great TV sets. I'd kill to work in an office like Matt's, overlooking the stage, and all those hallways, basements and catwalks are tailor made for Sorkin's patented walk-and-talk conversations.

So if STUDIO 60 does, in fact, die a sad and ignominious death after Monday's ep, I probably won't shed any tears. Great premise, so-so execution. It never really lived up to the promise of that pilot ep that got me so jazzed in the first place. That had a sense of urgency and drama I really hoped would carry through the season (or seasons -- boy, we were all hopeful then), but STUDIO 60 just got bogged down in boring storylines and less-than-compelling characters. Strangely enough, the show I was prepared to hate and thought would be a pale imitation, 30 ROCK, is now one of my favorites. It's funny -- hilarious even -- and it spends almost all its time focusing on the people working on the show. Sure, Alec Baldwin deserves a lot of the credit, but every cast member does a fine job and Tina Fey brings it all together.

So don't weep for the end of STUDIO 60. Just tune in to 30 ROCK instead, and you'll have a half hour to spare. Might I suggest using that half hour to watch THE KNIGHTS OF PROSPERITY over on ABC?

That, no kidding, is the best new show of the season.

OK, here's one more reason to hate Dane Cook

About a month ago, I wrote a short post about my accidental glimpsing of an unfunny Dane Cook joke involving a reincarnated atheist, an axe-wielding Dane and a Bible manufacturing process. Hilarious, eh? The crowd thought so, I didn't, and as I criticized Mr. Cook's lack of comedy prowess, I mentioned the oft-repeated tale that he swiped jokes from less popular but more funny comedian Louis CK. A Cook fan promptly commented that I didn't know what I was talking about ...

Au contraire, mon ami. This RADAR article charts the joke theft of a number of comedians, including Mr. Cook. Here's a 2005 quote from Louis CK himself about the situation: "Okay, this kid is stealing from me. And making lots of money. Three bits on one CD." Can't get much clearer than that.

Along with Dane Cook, the same article also implicates Robin Williams and Carlos Mencia. If I were a comedian myself, I might try to tell some joke about those three walking into a bar, but the trouble is, absolutely nothing funny would happen.

By the way, here's yet another reason to hate Dane Cook -- that stupid "super finger" gesture he came up with. Need one more? How about this -- on his MySpace page, he lists his age as 99 years old! Comedy!

Farewell to an old friend, welcome to a new one

It's always sad when a friend dies, especially when that friend has become a member of the family and even moreso when death comes after a long, lingering illness.

I had a friend die last week. My friend put up a valiant fight and even tricked me into thinking he'd beaten the disease a couple of times, but in the end, it just wasn't meant to be. He finally passed away sometime Thursday night, Feb. 1, and we finally said goodbye on Monday. It was a quiet, private service on a cold snowy night. A friend and I acted as pallbearers, lugging his suprisingly heavy frame down the to the curb. Sometime Tuesday morning, the garbagemen came and took my friend away, but I couldn't bear to watch.

My friend was a 32-inch Toshiba set I got roughly a decade ago to go with my equally brand-new DVD player. That player gave up the ghost years ago, but my friend 'Shiba lived a rich, full life. I'd known him longer than I've been married, lived in my house or been a father. I've lugged him up and down stairs, and it wasn't easy, but my friend always gave more than he got. Together, we watched the last episodes of SEINFELD, LARRY SANDERS and NYPD BLUE. We watched the the first episodes of SURVIVOR, LOST and CSI. We watched the millennium arrive and the Twin Towers fall. One day, almost exactly seven years ago, we even watched TV for an entire 24 hours together for a newspaper story.

Good times, good times.

But in the end, as his picture tube succumbed to whatever it is picture tubes succumb to, the image got more and more horizontal. It was like watching everything in Cinerama, except it wasn't really in Cinerama. It was the slow march toward death.

But life goes on, and I've invited a new friend to move in with us. Though he's bigger than ol' 'Shiba, he's lighter and thinner -- and he hails from the same country. He's due to arrive next week...


I think we're going to get along just fine.