Flashback

This guy is directing a
Muppet movie…

The motley crew that revolves around Judd Apatow is set to take on their next challenge: a new Muppet movie. Jason Segal, who played one of Seth Rogan’s friends in Apatow’s Knocked Up, and is the lead in the upcoming Forgetting Sarah Marshall, is set to direct a new episode in the Muppets canon.

Segal promises that the movie will be closer to The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper than Muppets in The Old West or Muppets from Space. He plans to bring back the Muppet tradition of lots of cameos, with Apatow regulars Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill, and Paul Rudd already on board. No estimate on a release date yet, as Segal has another project ahead of it on his schedule.

Via MTV

File under “BOOOOOOOOO”….

Apparently the fact that Will Arnett does commercials for GM means he can’t be the voice of the new Mustang-powered KITT. Arnett bowed out of the role citing a conflict of interest. So who replaces him? Iceman himself, Val Kilmer. I’m sure Kilmer will do a very professional job as KITT, but I was really looking forward to what the former Gob Bluth could bring.

This bad news of course comes on the heels of the news that an Arrested Development movie is in the works.

Evel Knievel, the only daredevil to transcend sideshow spectacle and penetrate the national consciousness, has died at age 69. Probably best know for his spectacular successes and failure on Wide World of Sports, Knievel never failed to entertain. Check out some of his best and worst performances:

First it was Alfonso Ribeiro. Now it’s Vin Diesel. Apparently break dancing videos were HUGE back in the day, because both of them made videos to teach you how to be the hippest of hoppers. Looking back on this it’s hard to believe anyone actually thought this was cool…

“We don’t make mistakes here, we just have happy accidents. We want happy, happy paintings. If you want sad things, watch the news. Everything is possible here. This is your little universe.”

These are the immortal words of Bob Ross, the ultra-mellow painter whose happy little trees and puffy little clouds actually made PBS fun to watch. Bob died in 1995, but if he was alive today would have been his 65th birthday. Many people retire at 65, but something tells me Bob would have kept on painting, and kept on encouraging others to do the same.
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Three Chinese dudes who have too much time on their hands have paid homage to Michael Bay’s uber-craptacular film adaptation of Transformers by building a full-sized Citroen Transformer. It doesn’t actually transform or anything, and it cost $8,000 to build. So really it’s just a statue. Bo-ring! Call me when it transforms…

More photos and info at Weird Asian News

UPDATE: There’s another one in West Hollywood

Remember Reading Rainbow? It was the show where LeVar Burton tried to convince you to read, WHILE YOU WERE WATCHING TV. Yeah, not a great concept. But this clip is great. It’s rap pioneers Run DMC on the show, rapping for reading:

Via BoingBoing

NBC is bringing the 90’s classic American Gladiators back to TV. The network has picked it up for at least six episodes, starting in the middle of the TV season. The show will be the same basic format as the original, but with updated events.

I for one think this kicks ass. I caught a couple of the original episodes on ESPN Classic a while back and I was amazed how much fun the show was, even though it’s been almost 20 years since it debuted. It really took me back to my childhood.

Variety has the full scoop

Another of my favorite childhood toys/cartoons is coming to the big screen. This time, on the heels of the shitefest that was Transformers, it’s another group of transforming robots, Voltron. No word yet on whether it’s going to be the spaceship version or the far superior lion version, but Voltron: Defender of the Universe is due out sometime in 2008.

Hopefully they’ll keep the “Let’s fight this bad guy as separate robots! Uh oh, we’re getting our ass kicked, better form Voltron. Now let’s chop the bad guy in half with a giant laser sword. Yay!” story line. This is going to be awesome! Unless they hire Michael Bay…

More details at The Game Gods

Alfonso Ribeiro, best known as Will Smith’s dorky cousin Carlton on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, pitches his instructional breakdancing book in this vintage YouTube gem. That’s right, an instructional breakdancing book. A book. Not a video. A book. Because 9 out of 10 experts agree that the most effective way to learn how to dance is from a book. Luckily the book also comes with a breaking board, a rap sheet, an instruction poster, AND “the right kind of music, Rap Attack” (actually BOTH volumes of Rap Attack). Oddly enough Tom Jones isn’t included on Rap Attack…

This is one of the scariest things I’ve seen in a long time. Michelle Ivey may be the biggest TMNT fan on the planet. She’s taken out loans to buy paraphernalia, including $3,800 for two masks from the movie. She follows a TMNT diet (strange pizza every day). She took karate lessons to fight like the turtles. Oh how I hope she’s single!

Ah, GI Joe. One of the most enduring toys of my childhood. Other lines of toys came and went, but the Joes and Legos stayed interesting through them all. I had a metric shitload of Joes and Joe-related-paraphernalia, and I loved every bit of it. Looking back on it though, some of it was really, really lame. So let’s count it down:
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The venerable 80s TV show Growing Pains is coming to Nickelodeon’s Nick at Nite, starting January 21st. This is good because if there’s one thing Nickelodeon needs it’s more Boner…

They just don’t make commercials like this one anymore. It’s a Toys R Us commercial from 1985-ish has all the things we love about 80s commercials: cheesy voice over, bad acting, and even worse special effects. But it does bring a little tear of nostalgia to my eye. Check it out:

We live in an instant gratification society, only modern technology and the internet can bring you grainy footage of the execution of Saddam Hussein on YouTube mere hours after the event has occurred. While we here at PCWEI applaud and love modern techology it IS important to remember a time (what like 10 yrs ago?) when a photograph wasn’t something digital. When a picture could capture a moment in time and be left to the interpretation of the individual viewer. In some ways the photograph is the original “pop culture event”. Afterall a picture is worth a thousand words, and stands the test of time. The latest thing on YouTube will be a faint memory to most in a few days (for some a few hours), but pictures are almost timeless.

I mean who hasn’t seen this photograph at least once in their lifetime (if not every day at school!)

So in a little bit of a flashback here I direct you to neatorama.com which posted a wonderful article to be featured in the upcoming Mental Floss Magazine. The article chronicles the “13 Photographs that Changed the World” and while it’s a pretty good list there are some interesting choices. The “Big ones” are present on the list, such as the crash of the Hindenburg, the Gettysburg Battlefield by Mathew Brady (the first battlefield photographer), the execution of a VietCong soilder a South Vietnamese General by and of course a selection by Ansel Adams. While it’s hard to argue with most of the list there are some interesting omissions in my opinion. (For the published list and photos click here)

Here are a few pictures that I’m surprised didn’t make the cut:

1.Marines raising the flag at Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima Island (Feb. 1945). Shot by AP Photographer Joe Rosenthal, this photo not only won him the Pulitzer Prize but is also probably the most famous picture from World War II.

2.Perhaps the most famous picture taken during the Vietnam War this photo taken by AP photographer Huyng Cong “Nick” Ut in June of 1972 showed the horror and agony of young Vietnamese children after accidentally being napalmed.

3. Maybe not worthy of the “Top 13″ list, but certainly an icon of the times. President Nixon’s famous “V for Victory wave” was documented many, many times to the point that the “Victory Wave” personifies the Nixon presidency about as much as his “I am not a crook” speech.

4. Though a very recent picture the raising of the American flag at Ground Zero shortly after the events of 09-11-2001 has certainly been burned into the minds of anyone who lived through that day directly or indirectly, which is probably our entire audience here at PCWEI.

5. And finally perhaps the most important picture in the history of Pop Culture. This single moment captured for eternity calls to mind the famous meetings of other greats in history. Ceasar & Cleopatra, Catherine the Great & her horse, Moses & God, and of course When Harry Met Sally all come to mind. But really does it get any better than President Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon & Elvis “The King” Presley in 1972??? I think not……

Pop Culture at it’s finest…..

By the way if you dig Ansel Adams check out this site, or the excellent National Archives site

via B4NG

Ah, the 70s. A magical time. We had dangerous toys, coked-out music videos, and bad clothes.

Things weren’t all bad though. The 70s did bring us glorious TV. Question: What 1978 holiday special featured Bea Arthur, Harvey Korman, AND Jefferson Starship. Well, the Stars Wars Holiday special of course! (The Star Wars geeks in the audience will want to note that the cartoon in this special marks the first appearance of Boba Fett). Without further ado:

Part I:

Part II:

CityRag has compiled a list of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of All Time. The beautiful thing is that they’re all available on-line. Just reading the list brings back memories. Who doesn’t remember “What’s Opera Doc?” (The Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd epic set to Wagner). Or Steamboat Willie, the first Mickey Mouse cartoon with synchronized sound? Or, as presented the below, in the tradition of Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein, the immortal, the beloved, the epic……

Bambi Meets Godzilla

Nice job CityRag. Via BoingBoing

Ok, so everyone’s heard William Shatner’s immortal cover of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds“. Now someone has created a psychedelic music video for it. With Lucille Ball and the rest of the cast of I Love Lucy. And The Peanuts. Damn, you gotta love YouTube…

Thank’s to Leah for the tip.

These things pretty much kept me alive for a year in middle school.



Note the “Artificially Flavored” disclaimer on the wrapper. Good thing that was there. Wouldn’t want kids to think they were flavored with actual mutant turtle.

These things had a lot going for them:

• They were a tie-in to a very hot commodity. TMNT was HUGE in 1990.
• They were filled with pudding. Not just pudding in fact, but Puddin’ Power!
• They came with trading cards. You can probably send your kids through college if you have a full set of them
• They were sold in our school’s cafeteria. Hmmm….wonder where my taste for junk food came from…

Sadly they don’t make these anymore. Haven’t for years. Another part of my childhood gone forever…

A site out of the Netherlands has instructions for every Lego set ever made! I can’t even begin to explain the waves of nostalgia that came back to me when I saw this. I have to believe almost every kid that grew up in the 80s playing with Legos. So my little Lego man hat’s off to you, anonymous Dutch dudes!