TV fans are used to having special effects in TV shows, but the scenes where special effects or a green screen/Chromakey are used are usually easy to spot, or at least we look at them and say "I bet that was camera trickery or green screen." This video shows that Chromakey is used in almost all TV shows, even ones you wouldn't expect.

This is rather eye-opening. The next time I see the camera go from David Letterman to Paul Shaffer on 'The Late Show' I'm going to yell at my TV, "green screen!"

[via Boing Boing]

This is pretty cool, especially since you don't usually get to see or read about stuff like this until you're watching a featurette on a DVD set.

For those that didn't catch last night's episode of Rescue Me ("Disease," S05E12), the opening scene featured a very cool fire sequence in which Tommy, Franco, Black Shawn, and Mike had to escape a burning apartment hallway. The entire sequence was eerily cut to the high-pitched vocals of Duffy and her song "Syrup & Honey," but what came across as most impressive was how real it all looked.

Looks like even a successful show can be canceled after a few years. ITV's Primeval (shown on BBC America on Saturday nights and on The Sci-Fi Channel) has been canceled after three seasons. The show was actually successful and well-liked and there's going to be a big-screen version too (and probably a U.S. version), but it was too expensive to produce.

Are you going to miss this show, or was three seasons enough?

One of the pioneers on the technical side of the movie and TV industry has died. Stan Winston did makeup and special effects for several TV shows and TV movies over the years, including Amazing Stories, Roots, Manimal, Get Christie Love, and Gargoyles, as well as dozens of classic movies, including Iron Man, all three Terminator films, Edward Scissorhands, The Thing, Pearl Harbor, Batman Returns, The Wiz, Predator, Jurassic Park III, The Relic, Congo, Aliens, Invaders From Mars, Leviathan, Galaxy Quest, and many others. He also directed several movies, including Pumpkinhead and Ghosts, which he also wrote. He also created the costumes for the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978. Winston won several Oscars and other awards for his work.

Winston died of cancer in Los Angeles last night at age 62. He had battled multiple myeloma for several years and died at his home. At the time of his death he was working on the next Terminator sequel, Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins.

Finally, the moment you've all been waiting for is here -- we're now ready to announce the winners of the first annual TV Squad Awards!

During our call for nominations we received hundreds of comments for potential nominees, all of which were discussed among the TV Squad team before reaching our final list for each award. Once the nominees were announced, the votes poured in for the Readers' Choice award in each category -- thousands of votes when all totaled.

We hope you enjoyed these awards as much as we have. Being as this is only the first year for these awards, there may be tweaks to be made with the categories, so don't be surprised to see some additions or subtractions next year. Let us know what you liked or didn't like. And now, without further ado, follow below for each award's winner announcement page.

I hate it when a network, a star, or a producer refers to a TV show that "looks like a movie." Is this supposed to impress me? I don't really care if a TV show "looks like a movie," because I look for the actual content of the show (writing, stars, direction, etc) before I look at how it looks. Give me a good script that looks terrible and I'll take it over a formula show that looks fantastic any day.

Take Smith. The network (and more than a few TV critics and fans) kept saying it looked like watching a movie only on our TV sets. Um, yeah, only I think what people meant by this is that the cinematography in the pilot was good and it had some good explosions. Not a terrible show, but really, that's what it came down to.

Last night, Stephen Colbert finally announced the winner of his Green Screen Challenge (which was not a contest). The competition had finally boiled down to two finalists... Bonnie R. and some random guy named George L.

Yes. Yes. George freakin' Lucas made an appearance on the show to present his green screen entry. The man whipped out the big guns from LucasFilm and created a hilarious clip... complete with Jar Jar Binks interaction! I can safely say that's the first time I've ever laughed at Jar Jar.

The news service over at Sci Fi channel has an interview with Loni Peristere, visual-effects supervisor for Serenity, who reveals how to find the easter egg on the DVD. Here's how:

• In the main menu, highlight 'Play'
• Press left on your remote
• A marker on the right side of the menu will highlight
• Press enter

[Via Pop Candy]