Pop Culture Will Eat Itself » Flashback

Apatow Crew Making New Muppets Movie

Sean — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 02:39:49 +0000

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

Will Arnett Replaced as KITT

Sean — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:42:49 +0000

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.

RIP Evel Knievel

Sean — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 04:10:41 +0000

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:

Vin Diesel Teaches You To Break Dance

Sean — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 03:27:10 +0000

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…

Happy Birthday Bob Ross!

Sean — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 03:26:13 +0000

“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.

If you want to celebrate Bob’s birthday you can:

check out Bob’s biography
learn how paint like Bob (in Photoshop at least)
take a quiz about Bob on his official site
Listen to Patton Oswalt’s take on him (Patton and I are from Sterling, VA, where Bob’s offices were!)
Patton Oswalt - The Magic Of Oil Painting
read Bob’s obituary from the NY Times

Or check out a full episode of his show, The Joy of Painting:

Full-Sized Transformer

Sean — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 02:12:50 +0000

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

Run DMC on Reading Rainbow

Sean — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 03:01:44 +0000

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

American Gladiators Coming To NBC

Sean — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 03:21:06 +0000

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

THEY’RE MAKING A VOLTRON MOVIE!!!

Sean — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:55:27 +0000

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

Carlton Teaches You To Breakdance

Sean — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 04:02:09 +0000

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…