Remember a while back when Stephen Colbert wanted you to go to Wikipedia and actually edit things on his page? Well, he's at it again. He wants fans to go to the conservative site Conservapedia and add him as a character in the Bible! Look at the note that the site has:

Special message to the Colbert show watchers: do yourselves a favor and watch less television. Colbert and his advertisers want to make money off you, but you can accomplish some good instead by unplugging the TV. You could even pick up a Bible.

Just because there's a writers strike doesn't mean the networks aren't buying new shows!

Just before the strike announcement, NBC made a deal for a new drama titled Kings, which is described as "a contemporary soap loosely based on the story of King David, the Biblical king of Israel." There's really something funny about that description.

Here's a few specials airing over the next few days for you science and history types:

Tonight at 8:00 p.m., Crash Science: Trains premieres on the National Geographic Channel. The special looks at how scientists have made trains safer.

On May 6 at 10:0 p.m., the National Geographic Channel delves into new evidence regarding King David and King Solomon in Lost Kings of the Bible. Did they really exist, or is it just mythology? I'm sure I don't know, but I'm a firm believer in David's anti-giant policy.

This is the 27th in my twelve-part series where my friends (that's you) and I (that's also you, but in this case: me) try to learn all we can about a subject by turning to that great teaching tool known as television.

Many people will tell you that whether or not a person ultimately believes in a supreme being is a matter of personal choice, hopefully arrived at through study and reflection. This is not true: both atheism and religion are based on cheese, and which of the following items most interests a person, this:

This is the first in a 376-part series* in which I try to better myself, and in turn better the rest of you, by turning to the font of information known as television, courtesy of this other font of information known as the internet.

It is my belief that everything we need to know can be learned from television. We have relied too heavily on books for too long, and it's time we stopped reading and started accepting everything TV tells us.

Today, let us all learn about Christianity, one of the three Abrahamic religions along with Judaism and Islam:

Here's a few shows coming down the pike from PBS and National Geographic:

Tonight at 9 p.m. (but check listings) on PBS, "Hijacked" will be shown on American Experience. The film tells the story of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine whose members hijacked four commercial aircraft and commandeered a fifth in 1970 to attract attention to their cause. Six hundred people were taken hostage, four planes were blown up, but no one was killed. The documentary will explore both the parallels and differences between terrorism then and now.

It's rare that I see biblical history covered on television in a way I like. Not having a vested interest in the Bible, I prefer an objective approach, but too often such documentaries put heavy focus on the supernatural aspect and are rife with interviews with experts who are only interested in proselytizing.

Of course, faith and a belief in a higher power are important to any religious belief system, so such an approach can't be discarded entirely, but I'm one who just wants the information so I can sort it all out on my own. I'll watch a documentary to get information; I'll go to church to be preached to.

So what is it about William Shatner? Is he cool because he doesn't know how uncool he is? Is he cool because he knows he's uncool? Has he found some way to straddle the line between lame and cool, thus remaining an enigma that will confound us for all time? Whatever it is, no one else has that "Shatner thing" that ol' Bill brings to all his projects.

On a video interview on his Web site ShatnerVision, Shatner mentioned he was trying to sell a recording of himself narrating the Book of Exodus backed by a full symphony and three-hundred and fifty singers. Well, he said it was a "revised version" of Exodus, which is good because I imagine sitting through a verbatim reading of that particular Book would be quite an endurance test.

Shatner recorded the reading with the Arkansas Symphony in 2005, and according to the Symphony's Web site, the CD will be released sometime this year.

Actor Drake Hogestyn, who plays 'John Black' on Days of our Lives and has perfected the 'smells a fart'-style of acting,had his very own real-life soap opera drama on New Year's Eve. He and his family were in the backyard of their California home when a deranged fan burst in with a bible, claiming he was going to exorcise the devil from Hogestyn. The man, Carl Raymond Cheney, obviously thought that Hogestyn was his alter-ego. He made reference to some older episodes of Days and claimed he could cast the devil from Hogestyn. (I don't keep up with Days, but I thought it was Marlena who was possessed by the devil)

Court records show that Cheney chased Hogestyn's daughter and pushed his wife before Hogestyn grabbed the man by the hair, swung him around and punched him in the chin. It was probably better than any action sequence that has ever aired on Days of our Lives. Hogestyn and his son subdued the psychotic fan with duct tape until police arrived.

I always considered myself a pretty strict Darwinist, but I have to admit, Ricky Gervais, best known for The Office and Extras, does offer a compelling argument for Creationism. The clip after the jump is from Gervais' 2003 stage show Animals, in which he lectures in his own dry British way about the animal kingdom and whatever else pops into his head. It's not like watching a stand-up comedian, per se, but it's very funny, nonetheless. In fact, I'm fairly certain Gervais has said on more than one occasion that he doesn't consider himself a stand-up comedian. Either way, he's on a stage and people are laughing, so why split hairs? You can also buy the DVD with the entire show, but only if you live in the UK. Take that, Americans. Anyway, enjoy the clip, and then watch the second part of it here.

(S17E21)

Ned: We want you to teach alternative theories to Darwinian evolution.

Skinner: You mean Lamarckian evolution?

Last night The Simpsons took on creationism versus evolution, pitting Lisa against the rest of the town. This isn't the first time the show has tackled the issue of science and religion, most notably in the "Lisa the Skeptic" episode in which the supposed skeleton of a dead angel is found. Last night's episode had some good moments, but it did feel like they were treading upon somewhat familiar ground and not saying anything especially new.

I went through a brief professional wrestling phase in junior high. This was when Hulk Hogan was in his prime and you could also see the likes of Rowdy Roddy Piper, the Iron Sheik, and Hillbilly Jim, among others. Eventually I got over watching men in tiny pants strutting around the ring and gesticulating, but professional wrestling kept going on without me, turning into a huge phenomenon and becoming, as one friend of mine put it, "a male soap opera."

He's right. The storylines have become more complex, and sometimes downright silly. This time, however, Vince McMahon may have topped himself. On April 30, during the WWE pay-per-view special "Backlash," Mr. McMahon will wrestle God. Wrestling fans already know that this is the culmination of an ongoing storyline which involved the sinister McMahon getting beat by Shawn Michaels, a born again Christian. I don't have pay-per-view, so I won't be able to watch, but here's what God had to say:

These people are starting to make Christians look like they don't have a sense of humor. The same group that yelled and screamed about The Book of Daniel's pill-popping priest who conversed with Jesus is now hollering about Will and Grace. It's not the homosexual characters on the show that they're taking issue with, or the constant feeling-up of characters, or the references to alcoholism and pill-popping. They're all upset over the plans for a Britney Spears cameo in which she plays a Christian chef. They don't like that her character has a cooking segment called Cruci-fixins. The group, called The American Family Association, accuses NBC of mocking Christ's crucifixion and says the network will "further denegrate Christianity" by airing the episode the night before Good Friday. On its website, this group is urging NBC affiliates to boycott the episode, just like it got some affiliates to do for Daniel. NBC has already started back-peddling, saying that the episode isn't even written yet so the name of the cooking segment isn't exactly set in stone.

God, I'd love to see NBC stick to its guns and stay with Cruci-fixins. That's funny, y'all. Plus, it'll probably help the floundering show's ratings as it ends its run on NBC this spring.