Glen’s Popcorn

It’s been a busy week for entertainment news — so here’s what we covered this episode with links to confirming stories.

• Why are television stations willing to cancel their most praised shows? Perhaps because, as a new study shows, nobody’s watching the commercials. Most of the Emmy nominees are caught on DVR and watched without commercials.
• Speaking of deserving shows, The Big Bang Theory is doing quite well in the ratings, thank you very much.
• General not-nice-guy and rape apologist Tucker Max opened I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell in limited release this past weekend. And by limited we mean “Chicago.” Having failed to sell the film to a foreign distributor, Max is encouraging folks outside the U.S. to pirate the movie. Oh — and, by the way, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell is in the exclusive fraternity of movies that rated “no stars” from the Chicago Tribune.
• Michael Lynne, formerly of New Line Cinema, recommends that independent filmmakers stay independent.
• This is It burns up ticket presales, setting records worldwide. Perhaps because it stars that Michael Jackson fella.
• Barbie is headed for the big screen. For that matter, so is He-Man (again). Toys and boardgames are the new video games. Nobody tell Uwe Boll.
• David Cronenberg’s The Fly will be getting the remake treatment from… David Cronenberg? Huh. That’s a new tactic.
• Katie Couric is paid more in a year than the entire budget of NPR’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Combined. Because, y’know, it’s the U.S. of A, and nothing can be publicly funded.
• Remember J.K. Rowling? Wrote a little series about a boy wizard that got American kids to actually be interested in books? Turns out she was considered for a Presidential Medal of Freedom. The George W. Bush administration decided not to, however, over fears that her books might promote magic and witchcraft.
• In Overtime: We wanted to mention this story — we even titled the show after it — but it slipped out of the regular broadcast. So in the archived show, you can hear us talk about the now infamous video of Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig being interrupted in the middle of a stage performance by a cell phone, as well as Whoopi Goldberg’s response on The View.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Popcorn update without some word on upcoming DVD releases. Next week, you can watch for the releases of:

• The Best of British Comedy: Comedy Trilogy starring folks from those Britcoms that the Yanks like to tune into every now and then on their local PBS station. Also, The Best of British Comedy: Cheers and Tears.
• 6 Teen: Season 1, Volume 1. The original, imaginative, and endearing Canadian teen cartoon comes to DVD.
• Children of the Corn. You know what this movie needed? A SyFy Channel remake. And here it is.
• Also on the remake front, It’s Alive — featuring Bijou Phillips.
• Amy Lynn Best’s meta-horror comedy, Splatter Movie. Featuring friend of the show Elske McCain.
• Fans of The Mary Tyler Moore Show despaired over the announcement that the rest of the series would not be released to DVD — especially since it meant fan fave “Chuckles Bites the Dust” would never get onto the shelves. Well, Season Five is headed to your local video store, featuring the story of the clown’s funeral at long last. In the meantime can somebody remind me what season had the infamous green dress episode? It’s not for me. It’s for a… friend. Yeah. That’s the ticket….
• Christmas specials galore are hitting the shelves. Yup, at the beginning of the month. Halloween will come with plenty of holly and mistletoe in your DVD aisles. But, hey — at least you get another chance to pick up A Charlie Brown Christmas on DVD or Blu-Ray.

And in case you’re interested in the music we played today, here’s our playlist.

• “Feel Like Making Love” by Rochelle House.
• “Bill Waterson” by Lemon Demon (of the Funny Music Project).
• “Pleasures” by Ten Year Vamp.

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