Prime Time Geek

 

 PTG Episode 23 Hour 1: Worst. Idea. Ever [59:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (42)

Hour 1 of Prime Time Geek Episode 23 is brought to you by T-Shirt Hell. Yes, we’ve followed the example of our network’s flagship program, SomaCow, and become a an affiliate of T-shirt Hell, and Lords help us. Is T-Shirt Hell over-the-top? Absolutely. Tasteless and crass? Depends on who you ask, but yeah, pretty much. Lots of fun to browse? I think so, but you be the judge. Head over to tshirthell.com by clicking on the new button in the sidebar right underneath the Bad Apple Comics logo and have fun. I mean, honestly, why not?

Biggest story of the week for us geeks has to be the news that Fran Rubel Kazui, the director of the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer feature film starring Kristy Swanson and Luke Perry from 1992, along with her husband and their production company Kazui Productions, is developing a Buffy feature film without the participation of Joss Whedon . It simply has to be the WORST bad idea in the history of bad ideas, at least in the realm of television and movies. Whedon CREATED this character–it was his script that Kazui purchased, thus purchasing the rights that she and Kazui Productions still control. Apparently, in this post-Twilight, vampire-teen-romance-is-hot-again climate the Kazuis want to take those rights for a spin again and make another pile of money without having to share with Whedon.

Yup. Worst. Idea. Ever.

(Odd bit of trivia: In addition to her credits as an executive producer on Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel, Fran Rubel Kazui has one other film producer credit to her name: Orgazmo, the notorious send-up of the porn industry by the creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Yup, definitely someone the Whedonites should trust to reboot their beloved favorite franchise.)

The other big news item in Hour 1 got a whole lot less press, but it’s certainly eyebrow raising, or at least it should be. The firing of Dwayne McDuffie from Justice League of America due to McDuffie’s responses to fans over the past two years on DC Comics‘ own message boards, first reported by Matt Brady of Newsarama.com and confirmed by McDuffie on his own message board, should be infuriating to fans of ALL comics, not just fans of DC Comics or fans of McDuffie’s own work. It just doesn’t seem right to me that a man should be fired for speaking his mind honestly and with candor to literate fans who want intelligent answers to their legitimate questions. Justice League of America has not been the strongest title in DC’s stable since its return in 2006-that’s no secret. Fans WANT to like the title, but when it consistently falls short of expectations, then of course fans in this day and age of message boards, blogs, emails and electronic access are going to ask questions. Now unless McDuffie signed some sort of non-disclosure clause in his contract to write JLA for DC and thus violated the clause with his responses to fans, then to fire him for playing straight with the folks buying the books is simply criminal.