Think Tank Express: Lucas with the lid off: Lakefront plan derails

Special interest group hijacks and derails plan – a situation we’re all too familiar with in the media business The Lakefront project Star Wars creator George Lucas wanted to build has been zapped by something more sinister than Darth Vader: An organization who claims they serve the “public interest”. On Tuesday, Lucas was dealt a blow to build his new […]

San Diego Comic-Con gears up

SyFy to broadcast from Comic-Con; new SVOD platform with Lionsgate ramps up The last few years, television coverage from San Diego’s Comic-Con has been hard to come by. But this year, that’s going to change. Recently, SyFy announced it would be broadcasting live from the 47th annual pop culture celebration, which runs from July 21-24. The cable net coverage titled Syfy […]

“X-Files” return does it for Fox

    Strong football numbers power X-Files return (Editor’s Note: Contains spoilers.) The Truth is still out there. The X-Files‘ return Sunday night was as good as gold as the return of the Emmy-winning 1993-2002 series paid dividends for Fox. According to Nielsen, the “10th season premiere” of the series starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson scored a 15.1 household […]

Welcome Back: MST3K to return

Thanks to Kickstarter, a cult classic rises again In this era of reboots and revivals comes an unlikely name surfacing: Mystery Science Theater 3000. And so it shall be done. Thanks to a Kickstarter campaign, the movie mocking series Mystery Science Theater 3000 – or MST3K, for short, is indeed coming back with fourteen new episodes – thanks to a […]

“Star Trek” returns – for a price

                The legendary series returns to the airwaves – but on CBS’ SVOD service The Starship Enterprise is back in business. But if want you get on board, it’s going to cost you. CBS announced Monday it was rebooting Star Trek, which would be the seventh television incarnation of the franchise. But there […]

Comic-Con: “Heroes: Reborn” takes center stage

NBC’s relaunch of the 2006-10 series is massive – and actually impressive It was back in 2006 when a 73-minute pilot called Heroes was screened at the San Diego Comic-Con. The episode blew fans away as the success of the screening burned up the Internet (and this was when Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube were in their infancy.) Anticipation was built […]

Comic-Con Notepad: It’s A Marvel (or a DC)

  Attendees were still jackin’ it in San Diego as the 2015 Comic-Con extravaganza continued with more costumes, more cosplay (whatever that is), and more panels of your favorite TV shows, movies, and comics. More highlights: – Even though Marvel Studios’ film studios sat out Comic-Con, its television division held plenty of panels – including Marvel Television Presents on Friday, with […]

Leonard Nimoy dies

The entertainment world is mourning the loss of Leonard Nimoy, who passed away Friday morning at the age of 83 from complications due from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, attributed to years of smoking, a habit he gave up three decades ago. Nimoy was best known for playing Lt. Spock on the TV series Star Trek and the numerous movies spun […]

TCA Summer Press Tour: CW, Showtime’s turn

Friday was two other CBS Corp. other properties presenting their wares at the tour: co-owned CW and premium channel Showtime. CW –Executive session : Mark Pedowitz addressed the critics and looked a happy man: despite a rocky future ahead (a possible Tribune defection and the future of co-owner Time Warner) – his network was up 14 percent in total viewers and […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Sports-talk war escalates with Finfer defection

* The first shot has been fired in the Chicago’s new sports-talk wars: Robert Feder reports that Tribune’s new Game has stolen Ben Finfer away from CBS’ The Score (WSCR), where he’ll serve as producer – but also as show host, being paired with David Kaplan at Noon and then joins Alex Quigley and Howard Griffith from 1-3 p.m. Finfer […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: Alternative rock returns to 101.1

It’s official: the alternative rock format, which vanished from the 101.1 frequency in 2011 after Merlin Media took over, returned Friday morning at 9 a.m. prompt, simulcasting sister station WKQX/87.7 FM for a period of 30-45 days.  The move came a week after Cumulus announced it was taking over operations of three Merlin Media stations in Chicago. According to Radio […]

T Dog’s Grab Bag: CW showing signs of life, while Fox ebbs

Also: MST3K, Wild Chicago holding fan events in Chicago this weekend  The latest items in the Grab Bag: – Once left for dead, it looks like there is signs of life at The CW: Three of their freshman dramas – Vampire Diaries‘ spinoff The Originals, The Tomorrow People, and Reign have all been picked up for the full season. The […]

Marvel hooks up with Netflix

In a sign where online video distributors are ramping up their original programming slates, Marvel Entertainment announced Thursday it is pairing up with Netflix to launch four new serialized series beginning in 2015, with thirteen episodes each, scheduled for “multiple years. ” First on tap is Daredevil, followed by series based on Marvel Comics characters Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, and […]

Comic-Con, Day 3: Superstar Superhero Crossover Saturday

If you thought The Simpsons-Family Guy crossover event announced last Thursday wasn’t going to be trumped… well, two of the world’s prominent superheroes said “we’ll see about that.” In a stunning development, DC Comics and Warner Bros. announced on Saturday it is teaming up Batman and Superman in a yet-to-be-titled epic blockbluster slated for release in 2015. So far, Henry […]

Richard Matheson dies

Acclaimed science-fiction writer Richard Matheson died last week, according to a statement his family released via a protected Facebook account. Matheson was known for many short stories, including I Am Legend, which was adapted into several screenplays over the years (the latest version starred Will Smith.) In TV circles, Matheson wrote several episodes of the first Twilight Zone. Among the […]