Programming Nightmares

Well they've done it again. In their infinite wisdom, the programs at FOX, CW, and NBC have all scheduled genre programming against each other on Friday nights at 9 PM EST. FOX airs the fourth season of Fringe (preempted tonight because of baseball), CW the seventh season of Supernatural, and NBC freshman series Grimm (following a lead-in from the fifth and final season of Chuck). Hopefully, NBC won't cancel Grimm too soon.

Retro TV on DVD--The Mighty Hercules and Drak Pack

For animation junkies and fans of retro TV, two recent releases might be of interest. A single-disc version of the classic 1960s series The Mighty Hercules has been released by Classic Media, while Visual Entertaining Inc. has issued a three-disc set of Drak Pack, a 1980s mash-up of the Universal monsters and The Super Friends. Trailers to both shows are appended below. The DVDs are available for purchase online and at your local retailers.

Remember Jem and the Holograms?

I came across an interesting post on io9.com interviewing Samantha Newark, the actress who voiced series protagonist Jerrica Benton and her alter ego Jem, on the 1980s's animated series Jem (1985-88), which included significant sf elements and is now available on DVD.

For those unfamiliar with the series, here is the opening sequence:

I, Vampire Reborn

DC Comics is re-envisioning vampire Andrew Bennett in the new series I, Vampire as part of the New 52 re-launching of the DC Universe into Andrew Stanton, a radically younger version of the established character. There is an insightful interview with the writer, Joshua Fialkov, at Newsarama.