This isn’t the network I used to watch for a solid three hours every night. This isn’t even the network that I would tune into every now and then and be presently surprised to find something new on. I’m wondering if I’ve changed as I’ve grown older or has the staff of [Adult Swim] transformed over the years? They’ve been on what I view as a juvenile, downward spiral of low budget animation and cheap live action shows for a few years now. I know that money doesn’t make a show necessarily better but can we consistently have animation that doesn’t look like it was drawn by a three year old? Can we not attempt a parodies of old Krofft shows filmed in a garage with a green screen, annoying characters and inane plots? Half of the new shows over the last few years make me wonder if I need to be on something to fully enjoy them. Why? I expect better than internet quality programming on the TV, not worse.

Anime seems to be making up a decreasing percentage of the programming. Recently there’s been lots of old Fox programming like Family Guy and King of the Hill (which I enjoy, thank you) as filler. The days between new Venture Bros., Metalocalypse and Robot Chicken are filled with Xavier: Renegade Angel, Saul of the Mole Men, Fat Guy Stuck in Internet and Squidbillies. Did I forget to mention that flip book animation called 12 Oz. Mouse? Then there’s a whole set of “edgy” and inconsistent shows like Tim & Eric and Superjail that always have to go so over the top. Looking at the overall programming lineup on adultswim.com I guess there’s more good than bad but the bad is just so awful and feels out of place.

I’ve enjoyed a few live action shows like Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place and Look Around You but even then I think they might be better served on other networks. I’m just waiting for them to premier an actual reality show. The fake reality show Delocated feels like a first step to their unstoppable degeneration. If [Adult Swim] wants to continue to diversify themselves into live action programming, shows that are trying to be more cleaver than the writers are capable of being and targeting the apparently easily amused, that’s fine, but at what point do they just devolve into being another MTV?

If you’ve not yet seen the Battlestar Galactica mid-season cliffhanger “Revelations”, you’re missing out. While not the most emotionally moving episode nor the most action packed, it does reveal a lot to the show’s characters as the clandestine final four of five cylons are brought out to the open. The results range from shocking to devastating to the Galactica crew. More importantly, its final minutes hit hard with an unexpected final revelation.

Spoilers after the jump…

Not only does the Galactica fleet learn the location of Earth due to the final four of five and not only does the fleet make it to Earth but we actually get a glimpse of the homeworld in the concluding minutes. To be honest, there was only a couple of ways this could’ve played out: Galactica is taking place in pre-historic times or it’s taking place at some point in the future. Anything else just wouldn’t work. Right now it looks like a “Planet of the Apes” twist has been added as the Galactica and Cylon main characters head down to check out Earth only to be greeted by bombed out rubble and radiation. Zing!

The characters were pretty depressed and quiet in reaction to all this but I wouldn’t have minded someone pounding their fist into the ground crying, “You maniacs! You blew it up!”

Thinking of Planet of the Apes reminds me of Power Records from my childhood. Power Records were great… the 1970s was not the best time for animated superheroes… Super Friends, BatMan and maybe the Fantastic Four with HERBIE. Power Records filled the gap until the 1980s revitalized the genre. Power Records came in both 33RPM records generally standalone and 45RPM records bundled with an original or adapted comic. I had a decent collection of records with representatives of the classics: Six Million Dollar Man, Space: 1999, Star Trek, G.I. Joe, some superheroes and Beneath the Planet of the Apes. I knew the story of Beneath the Planet of the Apes long before I saw the movie. I was a bit disappointed that the movie ended with a fade to white and not with the Earth pulling and Alderaan. The back cover of the Apes series had an ape pointing at the reader like Uncle Sam with the text “Power Books & Records wants you to… Go Ape!” Cute.

I also had The Incredible Hulk at Bay which was okay but actually a little light on the Hulk action. The only thing the Hulk punches is a wall and the main villains end up knocking each other out! A little weak but I guess it needed to send some kind of positive message to kids. The Hulk at Bay story featured The Abomination as one of the villains. Unlike the movie version, the classic comic Abomination was distinctly reptilian, though from the previews it seems like the movie version has its own disturbing features.

Unlike Iron Man, I have mixed feelings from the previews of The Incredible Hulk movie. On one hand, I’m glad that it recalls themes from the TV series and features adversaries from the comic book. On the other hand, the Hulk if fundamentally challenging in the need to balance the tormented Banner with the enraged Hulk. It’s also difficult to make a realistic Hulk: even if the CGI were a real model of what a Hulk would look like, I think the human mind would still reject it at some level from not quite being able to relate such a creature to the real world. In any case there’s little chance I’ll make it to a theater so I’ll have to wait for it to arrive on disc from Netflix.

Seth MacFarlane’s singing sounds better and richer to me than Buddy Hackett’s rendition. (And we know how awful Peter Griffin sounds.) Still he comes across with more feeling. The direction and cinematography in the Music Man is too distant and feels too much like watching the theater production. I know what they were going for back then, showing the complete choreography and letting audiences know that the performers could really perform, letting them feel like they saw the Broadway original. Unfortunately what it has in energy and synchronization it lacks in emotional connection to that song. Maybe it worked better on the big screen in Cinemascope? In any case, I think really great musical numbers should be able to survive out of context from the rest of their shows which the Music Man’s Shipoopi doesn’t do very well. As much as I sometimes dislike Family Guy’s single track mind of harpooning and reeling in of past works to be put on display for a new generation, the show is unmatched in making that approach work.

Compare for yourself. Which do you like better?

The original Music Man 1962 version:

The football themed Family Guy 2006 remake:

At Comic-Con this year, a lot of the Saturday morning joy came flooding back when I attended the Filmation panel. Filmation was the alternative to Disney and WB cartoons through the 70s and early 80s. The animation was relatively cheap and employed frequent stock footage but the action was good and there was a clear moral message in many of the shows and episodes. They had a wide variety of original and licensed IP including Batman, Tarzan, Star Trek, He-Man and She-Ra. What felt really unique for the time was Filmation’s venture beyond animation to create original live-action shows. The Comic-Con Filmation panel gathered together some original cast members from two of the shows, Jason of Star Command and The Secret of Isis, including character actor and recently revitalized horror movie star Sig Haig. Former Filmation head Lou Scheimer was also present.

These Filmation shows were surprisingly big in ambition. Some of the earlier shows like Ark II dealt with scientists trying to rebuild the Earth after environmental ruin. Space Academy and its sequel Jason of Star Command dealt with the growing up in space surrounded by aliens and later more direct evil that needed to be combatted. The pairing of Shazam and The Secrets of Isis provided live action super heroes to the line up. I remember them having pretty decent production values, at least compared with their closest relatives from Krofft like Electra-Woman and Dyna-Girl or Bigfoot and Wildboy. You can compare for yourself at 70s Live Action Kid Vid. The guests at the panel all seemed to have some fond and endearing memories of their work, even if it was just a year or two of their lives. The session went quickly with each panelist telling a quick story and where they are now followed by a few questions from thirty-somethings like me.

Now, how do they hold up today? I’ve not seen most of the shows for a long time. I caught an episode of Shazam last year. My wife was horrified at how bad it was. It was an episode where kids play in a power station and Captain Marvel needs to save them. It was pretty low budget with the powerful hero needing a step ladder to reach the unconnected transmission lines. I’m scared to think that Space Academy and Isis also didn’t age so gracefully. BCI’s Ink & Paint label have been putting out DVD collections for the past year. Maybe I’ll add it to my NetFlix queue and find out.