Attention Deficit Delirium

Party on, Bender!
Futurama TM and © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
All Rights Reserved.

Thankfully Futurama has been given a second shot at weekly series life, and because it already amassed a sizable collection of episodes with its previous five seasons (if you include those four recent feature-length movies), the mirthful, animated sci-fi spectacle celebrates its 100th episode tonight. It also happens to be the sixth season finale. Having caught some of the new episodes already, it’s obvious that the writers still have fresh ideas, whether parodying the cult of Apple (if that’s how you view it) or hypothesizing how outer space cats were actually the aliens that brought advanced technology to mankind (hey, it could have happened).

Here are two sneak peeks at tonight’s episode, which airs tonight at 10 PM EST on Comedy Central and includes a great cameo by Devo. And here’s to 100 more!



No longer The Man, Ben Linus works for him.
(Photo Credit: © ABC Studios. All Rights Reserved.)

Lost fans have been debating the series finale from this past May; many praising and many lamenting the way it all wrapped up. But the story is not over as a 12-minute epilogue will be included in both the Season 6 and Series Box Set releases coming out on August 24th.

While I was unsatisfied with how many of the plot points were not resolved, I was also very moved by the ending. But I had said before the finale aired that even if it was terrible, I still would have enjoyed the ride that I took with the show because I loved the characters. And you know what? I still do.

For those of you anxious to get more Lost and Ben Linus, here is a preview of that final chapter (courtesy of my Disney peeps), which takes place at the Dharma Logistics Warehouse in Guam. Yes, Guam.





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The book that inspired the Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman TV series.

Will TV on DVD wonders ever cease? For the first time ever, all five seasons of The Six Million Dollar Man are coming to DVD in one package, a massive 40-disc set scheduled for a November 2010 release from Time Life, who have put out complete runs of Get Smart and The Man From U.N.C.L.E.. Reportedly the Seventies sci-fi series has never fully been released on any home video format ever, and it is the fourth most requested unreleased show at TVShowsonDVD.com.

In addition to the complete series run, The Six Million Dollar Man: The Complete Series box will also include the three pilot movies (The Six Million Dollar Man, Wine, Women and War, Solid Gold Kidnapping), the three made-for-TV reunion movies (The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, Bionic Showdown and Bionic Ever After?), the never-before-released cross-over episodes with The Bionic Woman and over fifteen additional hours of new bonus features including all-new cast and crew interviews, including star Lee Majors and Richard Anderson.

“As the show that introduced me to TV audiences the world over, I have a fond place in my heart for The Six Million Dollar Man,” says Majors. “And over the past several years, the one question I get asked most is ‘when will it be available on DVD?’ So, I’m truly excited to be involved in bringing the series to a new generation of fans.”

A major hit in the Seventies that was inspired by the novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin, the sci-fi series focused on Colonel Steve Austin, an astronaut whose life is saved after a deadly crash by rebuilding his body with “cybernetic technology” that turned him into the world’s first bionic man. Of course, the payback is that he ends up working for the government agency called OSI (Office of Scientific Intelligence) in the name of national security. His boss is Oscar Goldman (Anderson), and they work together to protect America from various threats. Beyond all the marketing crossovers, the show spawned a female version (The Bionic Woman with Lindsay Wagner), which had a short-lived revival on NBC in 2007. Many children of the Seventies fondly remember this sci-fi series, and even if you’re too young to even know anything about either series, their famous bionic sounds have been used in various sendups since.





“We couldn’t be more excited to have the opportunity to deliver such a long-awaited classic to DVD for the first time,” says Jeff Peisch, head of Time Life’s video division. “We have a long history of reverential treatment towards the packaging of cult classic TV, and we now have the technology and capability to build a better DVD set. Better…stronger…faster. Actually, we’re pulling out all the stops for The Six Million Dollar Man, making sure that it’s both a completist’s dream set and the perfect DVD homage to an unreleased classic.”

Watch the show intro here.



Woo-hoo! We're back! How you like us now?
Image © 2010 20th Century Fox Film Corporation.

Futurama returned in regular series (not movie) form tonight for the first time in seven years. Comedy Central aired two new episodes: The first was about Professor Farnsworth bringing the crew back to life after a horrible spaceship crash plus the perceived death of Leela. The second found Leela and Zapp Brannigan flying into space to battle and save the Earth from the Death Sphere; ultimately crash landing on a planet where they could possibly become the new Adam and Eve (shudder) in the wake of human annihilation. The verdict? ADD decided to skip the play by play and pick out some thoughts from the Twitterverse to see what Futurama fans are saying about this double dose of new stories. I personally enjoyed them — the snarky, witty humor is still there, the rich pop culture references still abound and the characters remain their lovable selves — but I get the sense the writers are warming up again after having been in a (sort of) deep freeze, even though they did four Futurama movies recently. The first two episodes were pretty good, but I suspect they will get better.

Here are what some of the fans had to say, in 140 characters or less:



@tlarn: My thoughts on the new Futurama? Definitely feels like the writers have more freedom, so it’ll be interesting what they’ll do now.

@mynameisdunn: Futurama I give you 3 stars good to be back not that great of episodes

@talkingorange: Futurama has still got it again. Welcome back #Futurama

@Dammit10586: I have seen the new #Futurama. It’s…you know…almost there.

@sky7285: Cute !!! Love the new season ##futurama

@nitroslick: This episode is satirizing STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE and the Bible. Nice one, Groening! #Futurama #DavidXCohen

@SteveStreza: New Futurama was excellent. 8/10. It was the necessary bridge episode between the movies and the new series.

[more quotes below]

The star crossing lovers are back.
Image © 2010 20th Century Fox Film Corporation.

@ajhan: They just didn’t feel like Futurama to me. The characters seemed like pale imitations of themselves.

@phillryu: Premiere ep of futurama since cancellation is hilarious so far! much better than the movies

@AndyRea: AAAGHHHHH HEAVYHANDED FUTURAMA I DIDN’T WANT YOU BACK I WANTED IRREVERENT FUTURAMA

@danfaust: The first seven minutes of FUTURAMA was funnier than the last three seasons of FAMILY GUY. #science

@jetskvetch: New #Futurama is getting all Blade Runner on us now. Loving it.

@sagefreehaven: Well, #Futurama is back and better than ever. This bodes well for the summer.

@meganphosho: I forgot how much I enjoyed Futurama.