Produced in association with the SomaCow Media Network (see 
Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.
PTG Episode 121 is brought to you by the Prime Time Geek Message Board over at SomaCow.net. Yes, our poor, neglected message board is finally getting some love in the form of a new topic asking YOU, our listeners, to suggest which summer TV shows you’d like us to review while our main shows (well, what’s left of them, anyway) are on hiatus. At this point we just want any suggestions, although anything on premium cable channels is off the table. Hey, we admit it, we’re cheap and we don’t pay for the premium channels. For more info and to take part in shaping what we at PTG spend a part of this summer rambling about, head over and make a post!
In this episode we pay tribute to the career of the late Dennis Hopper, in particular talking about his more high-profile roles and his occasional forays into sci-fi movies. Hopper was nothing if not prolific–he loved to work and thus put together a considerable volume of appearances in TV and film, most of which ranged from forgettable to downright weird. In addition to listening to our thoughts on the subject, you might want to check out SCI-FI Wire’s list of his awesome (and awesomely BAD) sci-fi roles, which covers a few we don’t touch on.
In addition, we also say goodbye to animation producer Peter Keefe, who will perhaps be best remembered for giving children of the 80s the gift of Voltron, Defender of the Universe. As a fan of Voltron myself, I spent many a weekday afternoon after school watching Voltron episodes and then singing the theme song for a least an hour afterward, (’cause the darned thing was so heroic and catchy) running around with friends forming the ‘Blazing Sword’ and slicing RoBeasts in half.
As funny as it may be to think I was the only dork doing this, Voltron struck a chord with children all over the world, and along with Robotech is considered one of the trailblazers in terms of leading the way for anime fandom in North America. Voltron itself remains a popular property, and die-hard fans eagerly await a feature film apparently in the works. Personally, I find that prospect just slightly more frightening than a Tobey-Maguire produced Robotech live-action feature, but that’s just me being a cynical adult hoping his childhood memories aren’t sullied by something less than magnificent on the big screen.
Also in this hour, we say good-bye to FlashForward, which ended its one-and-done season last Thursday with a cliffhanger finale full of questions that apparently will never be answered. The only question that matters, though, is would viewers care or not if those questions were never answered, and apparently ABC didn’t think so, and honestly, neither do we. For all the great performances and fine moments of character drama scattered throughout this very uneven season, FlashForward never really got it all together, and never consistently made us care about most of its characters. Taking a four-month break in the middle of the season didn’t help matters much, either. It’s a shame, because on a personal level, I REALLY wanted to like this show and see it succeed, but at the same time, I could never seriously imagine how a second season would have worked. Spend another year investigating and trying to stop a second worldwide blackout? Yeah, that ship had sailed. So bon voyage, Mark and Olivia Benford, Demetri Noh, Lloyd and Dylan Simcoe, Stanford Wedeck and Janis Hawk, Simon Campos, D. Gibbons and Suspect Zero, and all those visions of April 29th, 2010. It was a fun ride, occasionally, but in the end it turned out that the most important people who didn’t have flash-forwards, and thus had no future after April 29th, were the showrunners.
We wrap the hour by reviewing two of last week’s more heralded DC Comics releases, War of the Supermen #4 (Robinson, Barrows), which turned out to be a colossal letdown, and Green Lantern Corps #48 (Bedard, Syaf) which promises VERY good things for the “other” Green Lantern title. Enjoy!
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