Here, at last, are the “lost” Halloween episodes of PTG, recorded on October 31st, but only now available for the first time anywhere!

We’re following up on our interview with Maggie Bridger back in Episode 109 about the “Legendary” Tribute to Chloe Sullivan. Maggie emailed last night to inform us that the “Legendary” commercial now has an official air date! “Legendary” will air on KTLA in Los Angeles this Friday, May 14th, 2010. There’s a fantastic write-up about the project over at the Superman Homepage–check it out by clicking HERE.

What’s interesting here, and what we here at PTG would love to help with in any way we can, is getting the commercial aired in other markets outside of Los Angeles. We’ll keep providing updates on the project as we get them–speaking selfishly, of course we’d love to see the commercial air in the Orlando TV market sometime soon. For now, we send a heartfelt “Congratulations!” to Maggie, Liz de Razzo, and everyone involved in the “Legendary” project, as well as our hope for their continued success!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 109 is brought to you by Legendary. During this hour we were honored to have on the show Maggie Bridger of the Legendary project to talk about the Chloe Sullivan/Allison Mack tribute commercial that that group is working to get on the air in the Los Angeles TV market in just a few short weeks, during May sweeps. For a quick, behind-the-scenes peek at the commercial, check out the video below:

Legendary: A Chloe Sullivan Appreciation Project from Legendary on Vimeo.

In addition to discussing the work of her group during the interview, Ms. Bridger took time to talk about the charity efforts of other Smallville-related fan groups and projects, such as Sweet and Operation Truth and Justice, to benefit the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, the official charity of Smallville. It’s a great interview with valuable information for other fan-groups who might wish to pay tribute to their favorite shows, characters, or actors, or who might wish to get involved in charity work, and we thank Ms. Bridger once again for taking the time to talk to us. Please do head over to the Legendary website to read all about their group and their efforts to honor Ms. Mack and her unforgettable work on Smallville these past nine seasons.

Also in this very-TV-centric episode we cover yet another untimely demise on 24, the season finale of Human Target, in which we finally get to see the oft-hinted at mission that set “Christopher Chance” upon his current path, and of course Smallville, which features the return of Brian Austin Green as John Corben/Metallo. Enjoy!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

NOTE: The original first segment in this hour of PTG went unrecorded on Saturday due to “operator error” (translation: I forgot to hit “record.”) and thus had to rerecorded Sunday morning. Apologies for the difference in sound quality between that portion of the episode and the rest. It stands as a testament to why I continue to produce this program at SomaCow rather than on my own.

PTG Episode 106 is brought to you by the Orange County Regional History Center. I spent a good part of last Saturday morning at the “Cosmic Comic Connection” put on by the folks at the History Center, and it was a lot of fun. I could only stay until just after noon, and the event ran until 4PM, so I hope the rest of the afternoon went well for them, and I hope some of you PTG fans local to Orlando got out there to enjoy the festivities. We’ve posted our pictures from the event over at our Facebook Fan Page, so check them out! One last round of thanks to Paul Wenglowsky, Curator of Education for the History Center and the organizer of event, and to Jennifer Cipolla, Marketing Manager for the History Center, for their time and generosity over the past week. We look forward to helping promote the next big event coming up for the History Center, “Galactic Encounter Day”, coming up in May.

Lots of good stuff in this hour: first and foremost, CONGRATULATIONS to Betty Walker, the winner of the $10 gift certificate to Heroes Landing as part of our Facebook Fan Page promotion that ran the past two weeks! We drew Betty’s name from the pool of fans #92-106 during this hour, and we hope she enjoys her prize. Keep downloading and listening to PTG as we hope to have other drawings and giveaways in the near future–this one was definitely a success for us, as the number of fans continued to grow even once we’d hit our goal of 106 fans before the April 10th show. If you’re not a fan yet, head over to our page and become one now!

Also in this hour, we cover the comic book retail industry’s braced reaction to Apple’s release of the iPad, which at last brings to gadget geeks and tech aficionados a way to download and read digital comics in a way that approximates reading a print comic book, i.e., full pages of illustration and text all displayed vertically and all at once. Many in the industry fear that it’s the beginning of the end for the specialty comic book store, but some, like Comixology CEO David Sternberger and Coliseum of Comics owner Phil Boyle, believe quite the opposite. We focus on the positives in this episode, the possibilities for comic book retailers to increase traffic thanks to the iPad and iPad apps, provided that comic book publishers do their part to create incentive for digital readers to WANT to head over to their local store once they finish reading a book they just downloaded. How do they do that, you ask? Well, that’s the big question, isn’t it?

We wrap up this episode by discussing the version of “Clash of the Titans” fans may never see, as described in an article by Chud.com’s Devin Faraci. Plus, the “Smallville Smackdown” returns as we review last Friday’s new episode “Checkmate.” Enjoy!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 94 is brought to you by Flash Gordon. Yes, I’m pimping that movie once again because … well, do I really NEED an excuse to pimp that movie? I don’t think so. Folks out there reading this who enjoy that movie, I’m sure you’ll agree one big reason WHY you enjoy it is because of the Queen soundtrack. It’s epic, ubergeek kind of stuff, the immortal “Flash … AHHH!!” in the main theme, the synthesizer-rich music score, all of it. So when you hear someone talking about rebooting or remaking “Flash Gordon” and taking all the camp out of it, taking away the Queen music, if you’re anything like me, it makes you want to slap your forehead and say, “Hello? Sci-Fi Channel? Two years ago? Didn’t finish a season?!” Lots of campy sci-fi from the 70s and 80s have gotten 21st Century makeovers in the past few years, and certainly some of them NEEDED those makeovers to make them viable again as marketable entertainment. A few weeks ago we reported on French director Pierre Morel’s (Taken, From Paris With Love) desire to remake “Dune”, and we implored him to make something that wouldn’t end up having “cult favorite” status. With Flash Gordon, however, I took the opposite stance, as you’ll hear in the podcast. I WANT my Flash Gordon campy and I WANT it with the Queen music, end of story. Who’s with me on this? Yup, I knew it. EVERYONE.

Also in this episode, we discuss the major comics industry headline of the week, DC Entertainment announcing their superstar executive management team consisting of now co-publishers Dan Didio and Jim Lee, and Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns. The short term effect of this management reshuffling, you ask? A sigh of relief and a surge of excitement among DC’s fanbase is what I’d wager. After all, arguably the most well-known and popular comic book artist these past two decades, along with one of the industry’s most bankable writers being placed in positions of ultimate authority within the evolving hierarchy of DC Entertainment has got to ease the fears of many who wondered what would come of Warner Bros. restructuring of DC to bring it more in line with the filmmaking division. The long term effects, of course, remain to be seen. We wrap the hour by reviewing last week’s big Blackest Night titles–including Green Lantern #51, Green Lantern Corps #45, and Blackest Night: The Flash #3–and last week’s episode of Smallville, entitled “Persuasion.” Yeah, it’s this year’s Valentine’s Day episode, and it was AWFUL, so of course it’s a fun review. Enjoy!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 93 is brought to you by Florida Battle Con. Actually, it isn’t, since we don’t know the organizers of Florida Battle Con and they certainly haven’t asked us to promote their show in any “official” capacity, but we’re happy to promote them in an unofficial one. This is certainly one of more intriguing and ambitious convention concepts to hit Orlando, at least that I’ve seen. The Man from Slacker and the Man and I spend a good bit of this hour talking about what we know about Florida Battle Con and what we could find on its website, and any convention that promises to mingle comic book, sci-fi, tattoo, and muscle car aficionados along with independent band fans and groupies will certainly deliver a weekend of memorable entertainment. Florida Battle Con is in May, and we’ll bring you more information about it as it gets closer. Just one more busy weekend on the convention calendar for yours truly. Good times!

Also in this episode, The Man and I discuss the season finale of Heroes and weigh in on the chances of it returning for a fifth season, the relative strengths and weaknesses of “24” Day 8, and Smalliville’s take on comic book conventions in its most recent episode, “Warrior.” (yes, we talk about Serinda Swan’s return appearance as Zatanna in the episode, as well) It’s another fun hour, so I hope you enjoy. AND don’t forget, we have more guests coming to sit in on the show this week:

Carin and Ryan from the Talk Nerdy Show will in during this Saturday night’s broadcast to talk about reaction to their first episode and what we can expect from Episode 2, which will be posted on Sunday, February 21st. If you haven’t already, be sure to head over to their site and watch Episode 1–it’s funny and it’s got ME in it. What else could you ask for?

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 71 is brought to you by the Fanboy/Fangirl Cultural Revolution. So did you happen to catch that lil’ vampire flick that opened in theaters last week at midnight, The Twilight Saga: New Moon? Well, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com, chances are pretty good that you did. Talk about blowing away expectations.

The latest film adaptation of Stephanie Meyer’s runaway best-seller novel series/cultural phenomenon shattered box office records, recording the third-largest opening in history by taking in $142.8 million–only The Dark Knight and Spider-Man 3 have notched bigger opening weekends. Can we now say, without a shadow of a doubt, that the revolution is in full swing, and that fanboys AND fangirls are taking over mainstream media, when the top three biggest box-office openings of ALL TIME feature characters from superhero or fantasy genres? I think its safe to say that we’re getting there, and Hollywood will keep helping us on that journey as long as we keep showing up in droves to see stuff like this. The record-breaking midnight and opening day box-office receipts ($26.3 and $72.7 million, respectively) alone send a strong message to the film studios: Give us geeks what we want, and we WILL pay money to see it, even in a down economy!

So in this episode we bring you OUR take on the film version of New Moon, and yes, taking into account what I personally thought were the goals of the studio and the production, I’d say the film is a tremendous success. Personally, I do have some reservations about the less-than-explicit messages target audiences might be taking away from the film’s stories and themes, but that’s a separate issue entirely. More on that in the podcast, of course. We start the hour by talking about the issue I brought up in the last blog post, the ‘Cult of Negativity‘, and some reactions I got to the strong words I put out there for folks to digest. Wrapping up the hour we have a review of the last new episode of Smallville we’ll see this year, “Pandora”, which brings to a close the ongoing storyline with Lois’ fragmented memories of her trip into the future during last season’s finale. Hope you enjoy!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com

PTG Episode 69 is brought to you by acceptance, the last of the 5 stages of grief, as described by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her 1969 book, On Death and Dying. Originally put forth as a theory on the emotional journey human beings experience in face of death or terminal illness, Kübler-Ross later applied the stages to any form of great personal loss, and since then the model has been referenced in a number of different social contexts. It first came to my attention in (of course) a comic book series, Marvel Comics‘ “Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America“, written by Jeph Loeb in five issues/chapters, each one exploring one of the five stages as the heroes of the Marvel Universe came to grips with the fact that Cap had died in the aftermath of the Superhero Civil War. Acceptance is on my mind this week because it’s pretty much where I am in terms of my feelings about the inevitable end of Dollhouse. After all, I’ve been through the other stages: Denial (”It won’t happen again. Everything’s going to be fine, it’s going to really take off this season, and it won’t get canceled.”), Anger (”Damn you, FOX! How could you do this to Whedon AGAIN? Putting them on Friday night, it’s all YOUR fault the Nielsen numbers are horrible!”), Bargaining (”Just let them finish a full second season! The numbers WILL go up!”), and Depression (”What’s the point in even being a fan of anything? If it’s good, they always just take it away!”) have all been a part of my experience with this show since the second season began so inauspiciously, and especially over the past weekend. But now it’s time for Acceptance-there’s no point in yelling about it or fighting it anymore, so let’s just look forward to the time we have left and the good things yet to come before the end, and there really is so much good coming, starting next month. I hope all you Dollhouse fans out there who shared my disappointment last week have come to similar conclusions-its time to focus on the positive, and the fact that now Joss Whedon will have time to bring to the web what many have long been clamoring for: Dr. Horrible 2!

In Episode 69, however, I was still in the midst of my anger, so we start with a “fuming” segment about the bad news but also talk about the good things to come in December and January on Dollhouse. A clarification is necessary about my comments, though: at one point I refer to the decisions FOX makes regarding Whedon-created shows as “something that seems to happen every few years”, when in fact it’s only happened once before, with Firefly. It HAS, however, happened to other Whedon-series alums Eliza Dushku (Tru Calling) and Nathan Fillion (Drive), so it’s easy to think it seems to “regularly” happen to Whedon-created properties. Yup, I misspoke–happens often when I rant, but of course if you’ve been listening to this program throughout the past year, you know that happens from time to time.

Also in this episode, Mad Mario, Destroyer of Worlds, calls in to talk cool stuff in the PS3 world. We break down the new Netflix streaming feature available to PS3 users, as well as talk the merits of two new game releases, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Dragon Age: Origins. Finally, in the Smallville Smackdown segment, we take a look at “Idol”, last week’s new episode that introduces the Wonder Twins, Zan and Jayna, into the Smallville world (it’s not as bad as it sounds). Enjoy!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 67, our first in the SomaCow Media Network’s new Studio G, is brought to you by geek rock. Once again we have to say ‘thank you’ to the Lakeland-based geek rock band Sci-Fried for sharing their artistry with us-you’ll hear clips of selections from their debut album, “Geeks Unite!”, all throughout this episode and Episode 68, available for download later this week. To learn more about Sci-Fried and purchase either “Geeks Unite!” or their second album, “Ramming Speed”, head over to SciFriedband.com, or look them up on MySpace or Facebook. Sci-Fried is just one of an ever-growing number of geek rock and nerdcore hip-hop artists rising up and celebrating pop culture in their often self-published music all over the country. During the podcast we spend a bit of time talking about nerdcore in particular, with artists like mc chris and MC Frontalot in the forefront, but the phenomenon we were really describing, the rise of bands and artists who craft their music around geek/nerd-themed lyrics, is of course one that includes geek rock, as well. Alas, I freely confess I have a lot to learn about the genres as a whole, and I rely heavily on EricathePimp’s input, but it’s a fun little chat that leads to, of all things, talking about Bruce Lee movies and the immortal 80s film classic The Last Dragon. Are you going to listen? SHO’NUFF!

Also in this episode we bring you our review of The Men Who Stare at Goats, one of two new movies to hit cineplexes last weekend. You’ll have to listen to the podcast to get our thoughts about that movie; as for the other new movie, The Box, starring Cameron Diaz and former X-Men star James Marsden and written and directed by Donnie Darko creator Richard Kelly, well, I wanted to see it, but apparently it’s getting panned across the board in terms of critical and popular reaction. In fact, in response to the great number of people reporting that the film is a tremendous waste of time and money (47% rotten so far over at RottenTomatoes.com), the folks over at SciFiWire.com posted an article last week entitled The 7-minute YouTube version of The Box that’s worth watching. Regardless of whether or not I would agree with their stance on “The Box”, I DO agree that this short film (which the creators insist was NOT, in fact, inspired by the same short story by Twilight Zone writer Richard Matheson, “Button, Button”, that inspired “The Box”) IS definitely worth watching. Take a look:

What do you think? Look forward to your comments!

Originally posted at PrimeTimeGeek.com.

PTG Episode 66 is brought to you by the art and craft of creative writing. Once upon a time, in really what seems like a lifetime ago, I was a writer, or at least I aspired to be one. I went to school to learn how to write well, successfully obtained degrees in Creative Writing, and have even taught others what I learned in terms of the craft of Creative Writing. But I longer consider myself a “writer” for the simple fact that writers WRITE. They can’t help themselves but to write. They feel compelled at some point, at some moment during each and every day to put their thoughts, imaginings, ravings, and wild flights of fancy to print (or, in our technological day and age, to pixel). There’s a hunger, a need, to produce the written word that consumes writers and drives them to spend a great deal of time alone, away from the distractions of the outside world, hunched over a computer screen that slowly causing them to go blind, hashing away at stories, poems, essays, or if they are truly ambitious, novels. Alas, never once in my scholarly pursuit of writing did I feel this compulsion my mentors and friends often described–to be honest, I chose writing as my scholarly track because people said I was good at it, and it came rather naturally to me. I wrote for the approval of my peers, my teachers, and my mentors. When I finished the final drafts of stories, there was very little sense of accomplishment or joy, but rather a profound sense of relief that an assignment was out of the way and I could focus on something else. I’ve often thought that perhaps later in life, when I’ve lived and experienced more, and had something of value to say about it all that I might feel that compulsion, and that I might return to writing and do it for the RIGHT reasons. But until then, if indeed that time ever comes, I can only stand up, cheer for, and admire those lionhearted souls who, regardless of skill or talent, face the emotional abyss that is the blank page at the start of every single writing day and conquer it by filling it with words, words, words. They are truly heroic in their own way–in my mind, they’re as heroic as the characters they write about, if they are so inclined to write in genres featuring heroes and villains. Their praises can never be sung enough, especially if they toil in anonymity because their work has yet to see the light of mass print.

Why am I talking about this? Well, because during Episode 66 we spent quite a bit of time talking about National Novel Writing Month, or “NaNoWriMo”, as it is now known all over the world. NaNoWriMo is the ultimate challenge for writers of all levels of skill, no matter where in their careers they might be: Produce 50,000 words within the month of November, roughly 1,600 words per day. Those words can be the sum total of a complete novel, or the first 50,000 words of a longer piece. Spend the entire year planning, plotting, strategizing how your novel will fall into place if you wish, but put no words to paper or screen until 12:01AM November 1st. It requires the utmost discipline to keep a steady pace, for not only must you produce, but you must turn off your “inner editor”, the voice in your head that causes you to backspace and rewrite the same sentence half a dozen times until you’re happy with the utterance, only to repeat the same procedure with the next sentence. Time management is just as important as inspiration when it comes to NaNoWriMo, and it’s a constraint that cause many who undertake the challenge to not reach the finish line when the end of the month rolls around. Having known several people who have successfully risen to the task of NaNoWriMo, I know its rigors, its headaches, its tremendous potential for that sense of achievement that comes from knowing you’ve succeeded where so many others have failed, and I always tip my cap to those who go for it year after year. The competition itself continues to grow year after year, and is in itself an amazing story. To learn more about it, head over to nanowrimo.org, and to those of you who are already underway with this year’s competition, best of luck!

In addition to all the NaNoWriMo talk, in this, our LONGEST hour ever (no joke-1 hour 12 mins … yes, I know an hour can only ever be 60 mins. You know what I mean, smartass.), we bring you Flash reviews of last week’s Heroes and FlashForward episodes, as well as a Top Comic Picks segment focused on DC Entertainment’s “Big Three”, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, who were all featured in new books last week. Hope you enjoy, and while you’re listening, don’t forget to head over to the Orlando Sentinel’s Orbbies competition page and get in your daily vote for PTG! We need every vote we can get to win this thing!