Top 5 Nerd News Items

1. Futurama is coming back:

“When we brought back Family Guy several years ago, everyone said that it was a once in a lifetime thing—that canceled series stay canceled and cannot be revived,” the executives said in a joint statement. “But Futurama was another series that fans simply demanded we bring back, and we couldn’t have been happier when Matt and David agreed that there were many more stories yet to tell.”

If they waited much longer they would’ve had to change the name to Presentama. See, it’s funny because it took them a long time to bring it back …

2. Felicia Day + Project Natal + YouTube = @@@@@@@@@@%$%@%value undefined



3. Will somebody just direct the Alien prequel already? Jeez, never mind I’ll do it. I’ll have Bishop infected with an alien, and it comes all cyborg or something. Then it travels back in time and kills the guy who was going to make Aliens v. Predator. Gotta protect the brand.

4. The high concept-est Penny Arcade ever. I listened to the podcast and still don’t really get it.

5. A useful aggregation of striking E3 trailers. Most of which will turn out to have been better than the actual game. Don’t know why they skipped this one though:

Supposedly they actually had to execute that stuff in-game.

Related Topics: News
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  • Kemper

    It has been a long time since Futurama was cancelled. Why, you could have created and aired an entire critically acclaimed series of a sci-fi drama since Fox canned Futurama. And had time to watch it all on DVD…

  • http://youtube.com/churchhatestucker Church

    The first run of Futurama ended in 2003. You know what premiered in 2003?
    .
    I bet you do.
    .
    C’mon, you can say it…

  • vastwastelander

    Felicia Day will be mine . . . oh yes, she WILL be mine . . .
    .
    Sorry, was that creepy?

  • Lev Grossman

    I just want you all to know that I am personally acquainted with the dude who inaugurated the whole giving me s— about BSG meme and he is very pleased w/ himself.

  • vastwastelander

    Lev,
    Why not just admit that BSG is one of the coolest sci-fi shows ever made, whether you mean it or not? Wouldn’t it just be easier to give in? All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again . . .

  • http://youtube.com/churchhatestucker Church

    @Leverus Waitaminute, so it wasn’t me? Was it Kemper? Anon76? Lostepic?
    .
    Oh crap, I’m going to have to dig through months of this blog to find out, aren’t I?
    .
    Touché, sir.

  • Dave

    @Lev – I could have sworn it was Church, but maybe he’s the one who most enthusiastically embraced it.

  • Dave

    http://nerdworld.blogs.time.com/2009/03/31/obligatory-star-trek-on-family-guy-post/#comments

    Here’s the earliest dump-on-Lev-over-BSG post I can find. No one particularly says, “Hey, let’s all bug Lev until he gives in and watches BSG!” (Though, oddly, I seem to recall a post like that being made sometime.) Anon76 brought it up first in that post, but there were a few swings taken.

    I still maintain that Lev could consider watching BSG a work activity and be done with the series in 2 weeks.

  • Kemper

    It’s not me. So I assume it was anon76 who made the comment that started the avalanche?

  • Kemper

    Wait a second. anon76 posted something about being in Seattle and wanting to meet Lev when he was out there. So my guess is byron12. In the library. With the candlestick….

  • Kemper

    More evidence that byron12 is the culprit. There’s like 3 posts during the infancy of the BSG uprising where he’s stirring the pot.
    .
    http://nerdworld.blogs.time.com/2009/04/06/two-quick-notes-penny-arcade-mini-sydney/#comments

  • http://www.simonvinkenoog.nl/beeld/Yogi%20-%20Annelies%20Rigter.jpg yogi

    You know Lev let that little info slip out to increase his hit count for his old posts. Well played, you can now go to your TIME editors and get your raise.

  • Dave

    I’m also leaning towards byron12, though a small part of me wishes I had an impersonator somewhere.

  • http://youtube.com/churchhatestucker Church

    Interesting. Looks like this is the post where Lev outed himself:
    http://nerdworld.blogs.time.com/2009/03/02/dollhouse-its-not-that-bad/
    .
    And it passed without much comment until the 03/31 post that Dave linked to above. Which makes it appear to be something that stewed in anon76′s black heart for about a month.

  • byron12

    I’m still here, dammit, and I am still waiting for Lev to put down the Jane Austen, get his butt of his fancy new chair, and spend some time in actual nerd-world, which, I think we all can agree, includes frakking Caprica and environs!

    My humble question remains, sir: what is your opinion, as a leading nerd critic, on one of the burning questions of our time — is BSG a sci-fi classic, or is it not? An opinion, I might insist, that would have to be informed by watching the frakking show!

    I expect expertise, self-sacrifice, and total immersion from my free media! And I am not afraid to speak out when I don’t get it! I’m just fed up and I am not gonna take it anymore!

    However, I did love the D+D animation this week. Really great. Thanks for that. And I am frankly enthused for new Futuramas. So its not all dark. Just mostly.

  • Kemper

    I’m actually kind of PO’d about this. Looking at the old posts, it’s pretty obvious that byron12 played us to further his own agenda. After the first one that Dave posted, he did this:
    .
    http://nerdworld.blogs.time.com/2009/03/31/confessions-of-an-ishoot-addict/#comments
    .
    Then the one I posted earlier. So he was managed to launch this campaign without telling us that he actually knows Lev, and then he disappeared to let us continue all the heavy lifting. And Lev let us go on for months without telling us that it was a gag by a friend.
    .
    I feel cheap and used. I bid you good day, sir…. I said GOOD DAY.

  • dennitzio

    I had a Muffit action figure. It was so cute. It looked funny when its head was upside down. Muffit became a victim of Raideen’s wrath.

  • Cliff

    What don’t you get about the Penny Arcade? It’s Boy Scouts in a fantasy world. The end.

  • alaskanturkey

    Do skinjobs have impenetrable skintanium armour?

  • http://youtube.com/churchhatestucker Church

    @16 Kemper, byron12 definitely helped, but anon76 mentioned it first, and Dave was on it about as quickly as byron was. If it is byron12 who’s claiming credit, he’s overreaching.

  • lostepic

    In order for something to be a sci-fi classic, time is needed.
    .
    BSG is one of, at least, the greatest Sci-Fi shows but more time is needed to truly label it a classic so that we may better consider the socio-political/religious themes and elements and to allow all those themes and nuances to set in. Not too mention some of the faux pas that even Moore admitted of doing. However, the show did recover from the certain mistakes it made and improved upon it, the ending put to the side, regardless of your personal view on the crappy or enlightened ending we received, which I have still yet to see the show overall is indeed revolutionary in Sci-Fi story telling.
    .
    Yes the D&D animation was great as was the D&D themed Futurama DVD. Yeah for the return of obscure scientific references show. I love a show that can make me feel smart and dumb at the same time by make references, that I know and ones I am ignorant of, in the same breath.
    .
    “For all any of you know I am masquerading as bryon12 playing all of you.” I was going to say that, but alas the real bryon12 spoke before I could.

  • lostepic

    I would have to say that if this was started by Lev, via a friend, then this would have to be a great social example of blogs and threads. Remember the game of “Phone” back in elementary/primary school, classic example.

  • lostepic

    @Church: The post you cited. I took Lev’s comment to mean he doesn’t have time to watch a lot which leads to the cons of being a critic/reviewer. You can’t always enjoy the shows/films/books etc… You normally would. I could be wrong but that is what I gathered and then a commentator jumped on it and hounded and hounded Lev for not watching BSG. If its justified admonishment then lets slander him for the Lost. Because in the same blog he stated he outsourced reviews for Lost as well. And my opinion, Lost is plan fantastic, yes it’s had its mistakes like any series, but its just plain fantastic.
    .
    Note: I don’t really recommended tar and feathering Lev, just a little dry sarcasm.

  • lostepic

    In other recent BSG news,

  • lostepic

    I just read that there is talk of a Battlestar Galactica movie. However, it will not be apart of the most recent vision or the original. Still centered on the characters and humans fleeing cylons in search of the mythic Earth. Look there is usually a rule with stuff like this. You cant remake something so soon after one was made. Incredible Hulk was an exception but even that I thought it was too early, even though I thought Incredible Hulk was leagues better than Lee’s Hulk.

  • anon76

    Black heart seems a bit strong- I’d go with incredulous. Between 3/3 and 3/31 the final five episodes of BSG aired, and there I was reading nerd world the whole time. After every post I’d think to myself “Lev gets more excited about *this* than BSG?” Family Guy finally made me snap.
    For the record, I’ve never met Lev (he never replied to my Seattle invite), but I am mighty pleased with the continued hounding. Never f*ck with nerds- we’ll make your life miserable. I’m guessing Lev was mistaken about who started this, but if someone out there is copping my incredibly original handle, they will be sorry (see previous sentence).

  • http://youtube.com/churchhatestucker Church

    @26 anon76 ‘black heart’ said with pure admiration. ;)

  • anon76

    All is forgiven as long as you continue the relentless hounding!

  • joethefinancier

    Guys, enough about the BSG.

    Lev clearly does not want to educate himself in the finer points of nerdhood. Can we please talk about how incredibly attractive Felicia Day is? I thought she was great in Dr. Horrible, but having her bounce around to Project Natal is new level of hotness.

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