reruns

Starting November 27 and airing through December 1, you'll be able to catch reruns of VH1's Pop Up Video on VH1 Classic, one of the last remaining "music" networks that actually show videos on a semi-regular basis. If you're a pop culture and trivia nut like me, you probably loved Pop Up Video, a series that would showcase videos both new and old, complete with facts about the song, artist or video itself that would pop onto the screen throughout the video. The series was a font of useless knowledge and loads of fun until it ventured away from videos and began to give the same pop-up treatment to commercials and other non-musical things. I can't speak for everyone, but I'm not all that interested in knowing the inner workings of an OxyClean commercial.

The Pop Up Video repeats will air every night at 8:00 and 8:30 pm. If you've been meaning to bone up on your knowledge of Journey and Tina Turner, this is your chance.

I just got off the phone with Dino Stamatopoulos, creator of Moral Orel (look for the interview soon), and since I just finished talking with someone for over an hour about animation and comedy I thought I would indulge myself with a kind of "fantasy post" I've been wanting to do for a long time.

Below you will find a schedule that shows how I would program Adult Swim if it were its own twenty-four hour network. I guess the time zone would be CST, since I live in Minnesota, but don't worry about that, it's just for fun.

Who happy?

Me happy.

Cartoon Planet, a personal favorite of mine, is being re-aired during Adult Swim. The series was a spin-off of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and was geared towards a younger crowd but still maintained the surreality and goofiness of the original. Space Ghost hosted the show with his sidekicks/enemies Zorak and Brak. Of course, the show airs at 5:30 a.m., but hey, that's why God invented the DVR*, right? Cartoons from Bugs Bunny and Popeye and the like would be shown between segments featuring songs, poems, and other assorted nonsense from Space Ghost and his pals.

*Matthew 13:5: "And so it was in the town of Bethlehem the Angel Gabriel did descend from heaven with DVRs for all the people, for they had crops to tend to, but none could stand to miss the Lakers game, and were low of spirit."

A brand new season of Monk kicks off on July 7 at 9 p.m., but before that you can catch a Fourth of July marathon which kicks off in the wee hours of the morning on July 4 and runs until 11 p.m. Now while all those losers are out burning their hands on charcoal grills and eating questionable potato salad you can rest comfortably in your home with the air conditioner on. Or, alternatively, you can tape all the episodes and actually get the heck out of the house and socialize with other human beings. You know, if you're into that kind of thing. The first episodes of the new season guest stars Stanley Tucci. I'll be covering the episodes for you once again, too.

No, they aren't.

Actually, those three words were going to be my entire post, but my bosses insists my posts be longer than that, so I'll explain why I brought the question up in the first place. Newsarama reports that reruns of the series, about a family who have been mutated by industrial waste from the rich folk who live in the hills above them, has actually been doing quite well in the ratings. The series began on the WB and was later "rescued" by Adult Swim (much like Mission Hill, Baby Blues and Home Movies) which aired reruns of the show starting in 2002. Adult Swim took the show off the schedule but recently brought it back (it's also on TBS). As it turns out, ratings suggest that the teenagers love it, and some speculate it may be because they just didn't have a taste for such a show when they were younger. Does this mean the show might pull a Family Guy and go back into production? Well, that would be nice, but right now that's merely a pipe dream for us fans. Also, and no offense to teenagers, as I used to be one from the ages of 13 to 24, but they tend to be a fickle bunch, and just because they happen to dig the show now doesn't mean they won't lose interest in it, either. Ultimately, I don't see the show coming back, but hey, if the youngins are into this show, I say more power to them.

Thanks to Alex for the tip.

(S06E03) The Simpsons has done more than a few clip shows in its almost two decades of existence, and while these looks back at past episodes usually tend to be the least favorite among fans for obvious reasons, I will say that at least the episodes are framed in such a way as to still make them worth watching. Besides, you get to see some great scenes from past episodes. It's like a slideshow that's not quite so boring, you know?