(S07E01) "Larger point: listeners ain't gonna know until they've already paid for the album!" - Shake

Those words, spoken by Master Shake, while recording his Christmas album with Meatwad, were intended to be a jab at consumers -- our Christmas album sucks but you won't figure that out until we have your money. On the contrary, the album (aptly titled "Have Yourself a Meaty Little Christmas") is an absolute goldmine of comical music hits for fans of the show.

However, last night's companion episode was anything but that. Paling in comparison to classic ATHF X-mas fare (like "Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past From the Future"), "A PE Christmas" could have truly captilized on the idea of Shake making Christmas music, but instead never took the idea far enough.

Adult Swim has been pretty mum on what to expect in this Sunday night's Aqua Teen Hunger Force Christmas special (it airs at 11:45 p.m. ET) but most speculation has suggested that it will have something to do with the recently released Aqua Teen Hunger Force Christmas album. Looks like that's the case based on the below video clip -- Master Shake and Meatwad are in the recording studio, trying their best to spice up a not-so-familiar holiday classic.

While the episode (it's entitled "A PE Christmas") kicks off the series' seventh season, we won't get any more new episodes until the beginning of February 2010. So take it all in while you can -- it's not everyday that you get to hear about Jesus, Krypton, The Wrath of Khan, and Ricardo Montalbán all in the same Christmas carol.



[via Aqua Teen Central]

I have to admit I haven't seen any of Total Drama Action. It's a show I often include in my What's On Tonight picks, but I just haven't caught up with it yet. From this recap/preview below, it looks like fun, sort of a weird Cartoon Network version of Survivor, with a few other reality shows mixed in too. The season finale airs this Thursday at 9PM.

No Generation X'er can forget the monochrome colors and compromising frame rate of 1970s Hanna-Barbera animation. Take that unmistakable style and some autumnal inking, and you've got The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn't.

Boomerang is reaching into the Hanna-Barbera archives to bring back this all-but-forgotten TV special from the 1970s. You can catch it at 10 a.m. and at 7 p.m. (ET).

According to a network release, The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn't "chronicles one dangerously fateful day for Johnny Cooke, a young Pilgrim, and Little Bear, an Indian boy, who are discovered missing. The first Thanksgiving feast cannot start without them, and when their friend Jeremy Squirrel hears they are in peril he goes on a daring rescue mission."

Former 'Late Night' hosts and current competitors David Letterman and Conan O'Brien now have something else in common: Chris Elliott.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Elliott, who got his break as a recurring guest star on 'Late Night with David Letterman' and went on to co-star with Letterman in 'Cabin Boy', will be playing the lead role in an upcoming live-action comedy pilot produced by O'Brien's Conaco Productions. Titled 'Eagleheart', the show will focus on the misadventures of a one-time action star, played by Elliott, who uses his role on the hit series 'Eagleheart' to push his conservative political agenda, bringing him in conflict with network executives.

Chris Elliott is quite possibly the most famous person few people have heard of. His early '90s sitcom Get A Life is a classic and he's had runs on TV shows like Late Night With David Letterman and Everybody Loves Raymond as well as some memorable movie cameos. And now he's in a new TV show.

It's called Eagleheart and it's about an over-the-hill action star who uses his television show of the same name "as a soapbox for his right-wing politics and conservative paranoia". He'll likely be more carictaure than character. Is the character based on Chuck Norris, I wonder?

It is produced by Conan O'Brien's production company. Conan actually co-created a pilot with similar themes (an over-the-hill star trying to remain relevant) in the early 90's called Lookwell starring Adam West.

It's got the right star and the concept certainly sounds amusing. But did it have to be Cartoon Network? Isn't the word "cartoon" in the network's title? Yet another example of channel drift.

Cartoon Network is getting deeper into the live action series game.

Yes, I know that's like Fox Sports getting into the daytime soap opera business, but you can't get too upset about the network inappropriate name game. Remember when Bravo was the fine arts network? I rest my case.

As for Cartoon Network's new non-animated shows, a release from the network says Tower Prep and Unnatural History are headed our way in January, 2010.

According to the network, Tower Prep is "an action thriller telling the story of rebellious teen, Ian (Drew Van Acker), who wakes up one morning to find himself trapped at a mysterious prep school." In other words, it's a teenage remake of The Prisoner -- the original 1960s version -- or "Jim Henson's The Prisoner Babies."

Cartoon Network's Star Wars: The Clone Wars just might be the best action/adventure show on television. Come to think of it, it might be the only true action/adventure show on television.

But, as the show ramps up the action content and significantly sweetens its visuals, its increased intensity might be driving away some younger viewers.

As The Clone Wars moves through its second season, the war is growing -- both in scope and violence. Viewers are seeing more dead Clonetroopers, more crashed vehicles and more beloved characters in deadly jeopardy.

Its ratings continue to cruise in hyperspace (especially for males), but I wonder if the darker tones of season two could drive younger kids and their parents away from the show.

The Cartoon Network is getting in on the action -- live action, that is.

The network has just picked up its first-ever live-action series -- 'Tower Prep' and 'Unnatural History' -- with production expected to begin in January, according to Variety.

Starring Drew Van Acker, 'Tower Prep' will tell the story of a teen who winds up at a mysterious school for students with unique potential. In 'Unnatural History,' a worldly student (Kevin G. Schmidt) and his smart alec cousin (Jordan Gavaris) find that D.C.'s National Museum of Natural History holds more mystery than history (bring on the 'Night at the Museum' crossover episode).

The Cartoon Network is stepping away from cartoons yet again. This time they're creating a new reality show in which scrawny teenaged boys ages 13 to 16 will be put through high-tech training an effort to stop them from being bullied or to get back property that has been borrowed and not returned. The series will be called Going Commando. Insert joke here.

I'm somewhat ambivalent on this show. On one hand, teaching kids problem-solving skills is a great idea. On the other hand, the show should also teach the kids the discipline needed to use their knowledge for good rather than evil (perhaps the show could be sponsored by Google?).

I'm sure many of us nerdy types were bullied in our youth and would have enjoyed the use of "night vision, hydro reconnaissance or rappelling" in an effort to fix the problem or at least make it go away. So what do you think? Is this program a good idea or a disaster waiting to happen?

This is a rather interesting video. It's a stop-motion depiction of The Flintstones, from the 2001 Cartoon Network movie Flintstones on the Rocks. Specifically, it's a dream sequence that features Fred Flintstone bowling and saving another woman (not Wilma). All the Flintstones sounds are here, all made to look like one of those holiday specials we see every year. Love the music too.

[via Boing Boing]

Neil Patrick Harris is the It Boy of television right now. He can really do no wrong, whether it's on How I Met Your Mother or hosting the Emmys, he's come a long way since Doogie Howser, M.D.

Tonight he plays a villain, the Music Meister, on Batman: The Brave and the Bold (Cartoon Network, 7:30). He even gets to sing, and the song is actually catchy.

Why is everyone in the geekosphere floating on clouds of bliss today? Because last night was the season 4 premiere of 'The Venture Brothers' on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.

Aside from the consensus on Twitter and elsewhere that the adventure/comic book parody series (think 'Jonny Quest' on acid) is up to its usual standards of inventive ridiculousness and nerd-culture savvy, there's also a tangle of new plot and character complications to keep fans buzzing until next Sunday's episode. Here's a crib sheet to help you catch up ...

Lucasfilm's Star Wars: The Clone Wars might just be the beat best action and adventure show on television.

Admittedly, there isn't a ton of competition as action shows are few and far between on TV these days. They're expensive to produce in live action, so reality TV, detective shows and "chick-flick" dramas drive network schedules. Since the Star Wars universe exists only in the imaginations of George Lucas and his team encamped north of the Golden Gate bridge, The Clone Wars has more room to play affordably.

The second season of The Clone Wars launches this Friday on Cartoon Network. To build some force behind the premiere, LucasFilm Animation hosted a press event at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County. Munching on Wookie-Cookies (as all of the catering was Star-themed) and rubbing elbows with costumed Clone Troopers and bounty hunters, show creators and cast members mingled with reporters in an enthusiastic, nerd-friendly atmosphere.

It was mentioned a few months ago that some of the folks behind Robot Chicken (including Seth Green) are making a new Adult Swim series called Titan Maximum, which is basically a Voltron parody. I didn't realize when I first heard of this project that there was also a little Thunderbirds in the mix as well. And quite probably some Team America: World Police.

It's too early to tell, but based on the preview, the show certainly looks funny. Unlike Robot Chicken, this show will likely have things like plots and regular characters (the nerd kid from Robot Chicken doesn't count). In that sense, it's more a parody in the vein of The Venture Brothers.