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Television Media

The Tick Premieres Tonight on FOX 298

Posted by CmdrTaco from the spooooooooooooon dept.
abde writes "The Tick finally premieres this Thursday on FOX at 7:30 PM CST. Looks like Patrick Warburton finally gets to spread some creamy Justice on our toast!" Here's hoping that this show comes close to it's source materials. It's in a tough time slot, so I really hope it sticks around long enough to find a footing. Good luck to you Ben (I know you're reading!) In other TV news, Salon reviewed The buffy musical which aired on tuesday. Since my local basic cable doesn't provide UPN, I haven't seen it. I've been loving FX syndicating what is easily among my favorite shows: hot chicks, sharp humor, and monster killing. It may be the perfect show. I just wish TV was available via FTP.
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The Tick Premieres Tonight on FOX More

The Tick Premieres Tonight on FOX

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  • Spooooonnn! (Score:1, Interesting)

    by cancrman ( 24472 )
    Hope they include that.

    Pete
  • Roommates are taping this and watching Survivor. Speak of the devil, CBS is really in a prime position, what with the hype about "something unheard of is happening tonight". Me, I'm stuck here for the duration... ...though I still need to see "24".

  • Don't Forget..... (Score:4, Offtopic)

    by jobber-d ( 225767 ) on Thursday November 08, 2001 @05:25PM (#2540097)
    Family Guy is back on the air as well and airs right before The Tick
  • Is the show right before it. Family Guy to me is a hilariously funny show, but i know a lot of people who hate it, and i can see the same type of humor definitly not carrying over into the Tick type of humor, but them maybe they are closer than I think, well to each his own. I will be watching them both and laughing.
    • Family Guy is the sacrificial lamb of a show to go up against the first half hour of Survivor, and Friends, while the Tick goes up against the second half and a Will and Grace episode.

      Fortunately, that's less channel flippin for me cuz I can't stand Family Guy.

  • Buffy Musical (Score:3, Offtopic)

    by cancrman ( 24472 ) on Thursday November 08, 2001 @05:27PM (#2540112) Homepage
    Taco you post a story about Morpheus and then bitch about not being able to get the Buffy Musical. Let's think about that huh?

    I downloaded the entire episode less than an hour after it had aired.

    Not to mention that all of the songs have been mp3ed are on Morpheus too.

    Happy hunting
    • Buffy just jumped the Shark [jumptheshark.com] with that episode. Once a TV show realizes its a TV show, it sucks. The only way the show can ever regain its dignity back is a "All Naked Buffy" episode.
      • Did you just say that to get the Jump the Shark reference in? Seriously. Once they use the phrase on a national TV show (last weeks ED) it is no longer cool to use

        Yea, I'm gonna have to disagree with you on that point. As would all of the people at mightybigtv [mightybigtv.com]. Check it out for all of your Buffy and Enterprise recap needs.

        Pete
        • No, I used the phrase "Jump the Shark" because that has always been the term for describing a TV show that has hit the skids.
          • If you really thought this episode sucked I'll respect your opinion. I think it is probably the second best episode of Buffy ever. Of course last seasons "The Body" takes top honors there.

            "Once More, With Feeling" was probably the most untevision like show I've ever seen on TV. It was ballsy and quite cool.

            Oh yea, I watch a lot of shows that are way worse than ED. Hey, I'm a media planner. It's kind of my job to know whats on.
            • I agree completely. The 85% of it I saw was fantastic. Of course my VCR set to record for one hour failed to get the last 10 minutes, thanks for the warning UPN. Off to Morpheus tonight.


              I'm astounded that it was able to get a PG rating with the Tara-Willow scene.

            • If you really thought this episode sucked I'll respect your opinion. I think it is probably the second best episode of Buffy ever. Of course last seasons "The Body" takes top honors there.

              I think you misspelled "Hush", and it was two seasons ago :-)

              "Once More, With Feeling" was probably the most untevision like show I've ever seen on TV. It was ballsy and quite cool.

              A musical is more untelevision then a show that goes without dialog (or spoken/sung words at least) for 40+ minutes?

              I think Buffy has jumped the shark in that very few of the post-HS episodes have been as good as the pre-HS episodes, but that isn't really fair to the show...I mean it is still far better then most other TV shows. It earned it's #1 spot on my TiVo's Season Pass Manager... (oh, and thanks to TiVo I didn't have to know it would run 10 minutes long...sort of...if I had left it alone I would have gotten the extra 10 minutes, but it wouldn't have quite managed to make the most of the repeat airings; it needs a non-greedy algo to do that, but the simple didn't do too bad, and I got to tweak it)

        • Oh my God! I just realized you just admitted to watching ED!!! Muhahahaha!
      • How insightful. I think I've heard that about 100 times on TV and radio this week. Howard Stern even said it several times. Bleah.

    • Re:Buffy Musical (Score:3, Informative)

      by RedX ( 71326 )
      Don't forget good old Usenet as well, alt.binaries.multimedia, alt.binaries.movies.divx, alt.binaries.vcd for starters all carry TV shows that are kindly encoded and posted.
    • of course tv comes on FTP.. I downloaded buffy on monday, one day before it aired.

  • Some downers, tho (Score:5, Interesting)

    by banuaba ( 308937 ) <drbork@hotmaiEULERl.com minus math_god> on Thursday November 08, 2001 @05:27PM (#2540113)
    Tick won't be able to say "Spoooooon!".
    None of the old villians will be present.

    All because of some fucked up copyright stuff.

    oh, and Speak won't be there, either.

    More information can be found here [msn.com]. (http://slate.msn.com/?id=2058205) for the goat paranoid)

    Even without those things, I'm still excited about dorking out, and I think that putty is an excellent choice for the Tick.

    • Re:Some downers, tho (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Skyshadow ( 508 )
      Despite all that, it's not insurmountable -- it just needs some competent writing.

      I hear that the villain in the pilot is a surplus 1970's Soviet robot programmed to kill Jimmy Carter. I find that concept absolutely hysterical, for some reason. Hopefully, the show will live up to that sort of promise.

    • Not quite (Score:5, Informative)

      by shanek ( 153868 ) on Thursday November 08, 2001 @05:42PM (#2540234) Homepage
      None of the villains from the cartoon series will be there. But Ben Edlund has full rights to the comic book villains, and one of them--The Red Scare--is in tonight's episode! Edlund has also made noises about trying to cast someone for Paul the Samurai. (No word on any ninjas, though. They're my favorites! "We're a hedge. Move along. Nothing to see here.")

      I dunno about the "Spooooon!" battle cry; it just doesn't seem to me that something like that should be copyrightable.
    • Also I noticed watching some kind of "preview" piece the other day:

      - American Maid seems to now be called "Captain Liberty", minus the whole maid theme of course.
      - Die Flaturmouse (sp, I'm sure) was called "Batmanuel" or something equally hideous.

      Not being able to have Chairface Chippendale, Speak, or (dare I say it) The-Midnight-Bomber-What-Bombs-at-Midnight (yeah baby!) is going to suck as well. Doesn't really make sense to me: you can get permission to use The Tick and Arthur, the two biggest characters, but not all the secondary characters?
      • In the cartoon, he was originally going to be called "Batmanuel" but they were worried about being too close to "Batman" so they (I assume Fox) nixed it.

        I think I like Die Flaturmouse (I can't really improve on the spelling, so why try?) better as well, but at least it's meeting his artistic vision!
      • I've seen the premiere (pilot) episode. It stinks on ice.

        Patrick Warburton doesn't have the ability to convey the childlike innocence of The Tick. He's just muscle and bravado. The guy who did the voice of the animated Tick had it all totally down. The Tick is Forrest Gump with superpowers.

        There has NEVER been a decent live-action remake of a cartoon. Never. I think that a live-action Cowboy Bebop could work if someone like Quentin Tarantino directed and he infused it with the same kind of berserk energy he gave "Pulp Fiction." But that's about it. Think about the march of iniquity that has resulted from live-action remakes of cartoons. Rocky And Bullwinkle. The Flintstones. The Flinststones in Viva Rock Vegas. Dudley Do-Right. The list goes on, and on, and on.

        If Fox had any decency they'd buy the original characters from the animated series like American Maid and Sewer Urchin from Haim Saban, and revive the show as it should be...ANIMATED.

        The original animated Tick never had a chance. It was a show for Fox Primetime, not a show to ghettoize on Fox Kids' Network. Ben, if you are reading this, please stop the charade and give this hideous excuse for a show the early death it deserves.

        "This is bad...duh duh definitely bad." -- Sewer Urchin

    • But Batmanuel was a SCREAM. This might be different, but it's going to be funny. The writing seems tight, the actors seem to be having a good time, and the costumes are spot on.

      I will miss Speak, though.
    • unfortunately, the article you pointed to doesn't say any more than you did ... anybody know what issue is behind the sticky legal confliction that would allow the show but not certain key elements such as characters and catch-phrases?

      Even more surprising is that the credits do NOT mention New England Comics [newenglandcomics.com], the creators of the Tick comic that the cartoon series was based on. Christopher Lloyd made a guest appearance on this premiere and also was not in the credits. eech!
      • okay, perhaps I should have dug through the NEC [newenglandcomics.com] website a bit first. There is a page on the TV show [newenglandcomics.com] which links to a statement from Tick creator Ben Edlund [newenglandcomics.com] (who is in the credits while New England Comics is not).

        Regarding the concerns of "Spooon" and certain key characters and copyright issues (as discussed in the above link here [msn.com]), Ben says that "the material from the cartoon series has passed into the ownership of interests outside this current endeavor."

        Note that the statement was written back when the pilot was the only episode filmed and while Fox was still considering the show. The statement clears up a number of issues leaving only the lack of NEC and Christopher Lloyd [imdb.com] in the credits.

  • I'm curious.... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Art_XIV ( 249990 )

    What the heck happened to the cartoon series? Did it just evaporate once it was sold to Comedy Central? I had mere basic cable at that time, so I wouldn't know.

    • Re:I'm curious.... (Score:3, Informative)

      by devphil ( 51341 )


      Got canned after 3 (3? 4? I think 3) seasons. And some of the same writers from the cartoon show are doing the FOX (live-action) version. From what I've heard, lots of what made the cartoon rock are missing in the live-action version.

  • Buffy Musical (Score:5, Funny)

    by Skyshadow ( 508 ) on Thursday November 08, 2001 @05:28PM (#2540120) Homepage
    The Buffy musical was good...
    ...not because the singers were great (they weren't).
    ...not because the songs were all that good (they weren't).
    ...not because the story was shocking/compelling (it wasn't).
    ...not because of the lesbian sex inference (although that was good).

    The Buffy musical was good because it was different than the rest of the bleak, TV wasteland. I'm sure that brief spark of originality will go completely unnoticed, however, so don't worry.

    • I actually thought the songs were pretty good. I did think the story was compelling because they basically opened up a whole basket of worms with the Giles leaving / Tara finding out about Willow / Spike&Buffy Kiss. Not to mention the previews with Giles and Anya kissing. I thought this season was seriously sucking until this ep.

      I highly recommend watching the episode more than once. It's available on morpheus

      Viva La Buffy!

      • Re:Buffy Musical (Score:3, Insightful)

        by IronChef ( 164482 )

        I still like the show, but c'mon; too much kissing, not enough killing. It's Sunnyvale 90210 now.

        IMHO, Angel is a far better show than Buffy at the current time. It's a little too smoochy-face too, but it has this weird charm that Buffy can't match. For me, anyway.
    • I mean, come on, it's not like they show anything. This isn't a pr0n flick, it's a little song-and-dance about two young people (arguably ditzes, but that's besides the point) in love. As such, it's just a sappy chick-flick "Isn't-that-sweet" moment, at least to my mind. And yes, I did watch the show.

      This post is pointlessly offensive; please downmod it accordingly.
  • SPOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    sorry, couldn't resist

  • Ratings Won't Be High (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Angry Black Man ( 533969 ) <vverysmartman@@@hotmail...com> on Thursday November 08, 2001 @05:30PM (#2540140) Homepage
    Unfortunately the ratings will be decimated by Survivor tonight. Fortunately for Fox, there are a lot of hardcore fans and the creator of the show needs a thing or two about sci-fi comedy.

    Here is the main cast list if you're interested...

    David Burke is Arthur
    Liz Vassey is Captain Liberty
    Nestor Carbonell is Batmanuel

    and of course the Tick is played by Warburton (as mentioned in the post).
    • Why do you say that? I mean, it's Survivor: Africa, not Survivor: Afghanistan.

      I was one of the people who watched Survivor a couple of times, and I'm getting pretty bored by it, even if Khaki Man is from Seattle. It was great fun watching the premiere of the film he directed at the Seattle International Film Fest [seattlefilm.com], and I ended up sitting next to him and Monsieur Beneit (sp?) at the awards.

      But let's get real. The Tick is nigh unbeatable in competition with Survivor.

      And that's the unvarnished truth.

      -
    • Why can't I get VHF, damnit (my antenna picks up WB and FOX, nothing else). I would have much rather been watching Survivor than the stupid Tick show. Yeah, I too wish TV was available by FTP (although a streaming multicast protocol would be much better).

  • Will be delayed 1/2 hour (Score:5, Interesting)

    by cancrman ( 24472 ) on Thursday November 08, 2001 @05:30PM (#2540143) Homepage
    The president is speaking tonight. 25 minute speech followed by the standard 5 minute talking head wrap up. Don't know if Fox carries national news in your area but they do in mine (Chicago).

    Now my VCR and Tivo settings are all fucked up.

    Poo.

    Pete
    • And don't forget to play the Bush Press Conference drinking game. You have to drink everytime he says "evil." By the end of the press conference your VCR and Tivo won't be the only things fucked up.

      BTW, two swigs for "evil doers."
  • The Tick Superheros [thetick.ws]

    I hope to God that the Star Trek Enterprise folks supplied some of that Detox Gel so it can be spread all over American Maid! *DROOL*

  • uh.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by dhamsaic ( 410174 ) on Thursday November 08, 2001 @05:31PM (#2540155)
    Looks like Patrick Warburton finally gets to spread some creamy Justice on our toast!"

    I'm not sure I want any of Patrick Warburton's "creamy" stuff on my toast...

  • Source Material and General Musing (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Murdock037 ( 469526 ) <tristranthornNO@SPAMhotmail.com> on Thursday November 08, 2001 @05:33PM (#2540167)
    I can't say I agree with the thought that the new show should be only as good as its original material-- has anybody ever actually read the comics? They just didn't have the spark that the cartoon did.

    Of course, the cartoon was probably what Taco meant, in which case-- oh hell yeah. In no particular order, the new show is going to need a few things to match up with Fox's Saturday-morning masterpiece:

    1. A running gag along the lines of the "CHA" written on the moon, popping up in episodes that have nothing to do with it anyways.

    2. A rehash of "The Tick vs. The Tick" episode-- in which the Tick goes to a superhero bar (complete with Sidekicks' Lounge) and finds that there's another, more psychotic hero that already uses his name.

    3. The Human Bullet: whenever things went wrong in The City, he'd be fired from a cannon in his backyard, only to somehow spend so much time in the air as to always show up late. ("Fire me, boy!"

    It's nice to know that the legal problems aren't completely robbing the show of its charm-- I remember reading something about problems with Die Fledermaus, for example, so it looks like they've replaced him with "Batmanuel." And I think we can all agree that Patrick Warburton is the best choice for the job, judging from his "Seinfeld" work.

    When the show aired, I was young enough to enjoy the cartoon show for what it was, and old enough to still get most of the grown-up jokes. Let's hope the live-action version maintains that delicate balance between smarmy irony and childish charm.

    • Re:Source Material and General Musing (Score:4, Insightful)

      by elmegil ( 12001 ) on Thursday November 08, 2001 @05:57PM (#2540331) Homepage Journal
      has anybody ever actually read the comics? They just didn't have the spark that the cartoon did

      What are you smoking?

      The comics (THE ORIGINAL COMICS) are freaking hilarious. I'm talking about when Edlund was actually the writer, not just the creator. The CHA joke started in the comics. The Tick V. Tick episode was based on a series of the comics. Go back and read issues 1-12 before you dis the comic books again. (You'll note my sig quote here is from issue 1).

      • The only problem with the early comics is that they would take for freaking ever to come out, it seems like there was a time they were trickling out at a pace of one comic per year. (Either that, or my local comic shop had a tar-slow distributor.)

        The problem with the Tick today, is that they've stopped taking all that time, and instead of a new villain each issue that makes you fall out of your chair laughing by mere concept alone, they've turned it into a formula where they just reuse the same characters over and over. It used to be that every story (or story arc as it were) was a new joke on some comic cliche. The first issue was a Superman joke, the next few were about ninjas, Chairface was a from Dick Tracy, that samurai guy was a great take on the Lone Wolf-type samurai character, etc. Take the Red Scare, for example, he was really funny because of his complete irrelevance - in the early 1990 the Soviet Union had recently become an also-ran in the super power race, and so a Soviet Union styled enemy attacking a memorial to the creator of the Dewy Decimal system was a great joke. (The irrelevant attack the irrelevant.)

        That wasn't not the only problem, though. In my mind, the Tick doesn't translate directly to television. The funny part of the Tick was that it was a comic book making fun of comic books. When you make the thing a cartoon, if it was going to remain funny, it needed to become a parody of cartoons. When you just move the stories over from the comics you get a parody of comics in cartoon form... which isn't that great. So, if they miss their mark again, my guess is that it will be because they continue to parody comics but now in Live Action form. In fact, live action is probably the worst medium for the character... how many live action superhero TV shows have their been? Batman, Spiderman, Flash, Hulk... most of them either had an extremely short run or were *cough, Batman* self-parodying.

        Of course, I hope I'm wrong, and the show turns out to be the best thing since the original run.
    • I disagree. The early Tick comics (back when they came out months and months apart) were, IMO, very good. This last year I picked up the Tick Xmas special though, and was sorely disappointed. These Tick comics used to be good I tell you! Where do you think a lot of the gags in the cartoon came from? It looks to me like Edlund isn't doing the comic anymore (so that they can actually get them out in a timely manner) and it's suffered for it.

  • LEXX "Brigadoom" (Score:3, Informative)

    by humberthumbert ( 104950 ) on Thursday November 08, 2001 @05:33PM (#2540169)
    There is a great musical episode of LEXX titled "Brigadoom." The songs are so...elegaic.

    Get the mp3s of the songs here:

    http://lexx.warpedsystems.sk.ca/mp3page.php3

  • Arthur had a better Battle Cry (Score:3, Funny)

    by clandaith ( 187570 ) on Thursday November 08, 2001 @05:33PM (#2540173) Homepage
    "Not in the face! Not in the face!"

  • Favorite Tick Quotes (Score:5, Funny)

    by donutz ( 195717 ) on Thursday November 08, 2001 @05:36PM (#2540195) Homepage Journal
    What's yours?



    Mine would have to be...



    Interviewer: "Can you blow up the Earth?"

    The Tick: "EEGAD! I hope not, that's where I keep all my stuff!"

  • SPOON!!! ...gotta love the Tick's battle cry.

  • Family Guy; Musicals (Score:3, Informative)

    by update() ( 217397 ) on Thursday November 08, 2001 @05:37PM (#2540199) Homepage
    Re Fox tonight: Also, Family Guy is now on Thursday, I believe before The Tick. I was thrilled to see that show come back, but it's been changing nights in a way that left me forgetting to watch.

    Re TV musicals: I get all the Buffy exposure I can handle from AtAT [appleturns.com] and don't bother watching, myself. And Salon's TV critic (last I saw which admittedly was over a year ago) is obsessed with the show in a way that's almost creepy. But the show that has done the most recently with musical numbers and other ideas is Drew Carey. I'm not a huge fan of that either but the musical gimmicks tend to be really good, as are the other stunts. For instance, it's the only TV show to do something interesting with a live broadcast (having improv done during it) instead of it just being an ego thing for the cast.

    Of all the post-Seinfeld comics to drop their act directly into a sitcom, he's the only one to do anything interesting and novel.

    • I just watched the musical Buffy episode - it was okay - and I have to say the salon reviewer's take on Buffy is just bizarre. She seems to be saying Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a masterpiece - it isn't. It's a show that once was semi-decent spoof-action and now is a soap opera with vampires. But even if you disagree with me there, surely you have to concede that the reviewer raving about what a great metaphor willow and what's-her-face's song and dance number was was a bit over the top.

      I dunno, maybe it's me, but I think this lady spent far too long in a visual literacy class. Even a single lecture can scar one for life, believe me.

      "Disinfectant Gel" Note: In the last 15 minutes or so of the buffy musical, Buffy sorta-kinda-almost strips. It's not much, but since I suspect the main demographic of the series is "Teenage girls and horney guys" I thought it was worth pointing out.

      This post IS pointlessly offensive; please downmod it accordingly.

  • actually... (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    TV already is available on FTP.

    How else can i watch Dark Angel?

    "On TV, of course!", I hear you americans scream. Nope. Don't think so, because I happen to live in Norway.

    So, downloading the episodes from FTPs is the only way for me to watch that series.

    So, now you know CmdrTaco. TV is available (in a way) via FTP.

  • Official TICK TV WEBSITE (Score:3, Informative)

    by Eharley ( 214725 ) on Thursday November 08, 2001 @05:37PM (#2540205)
    The official TV Show website is here [sony.com].

    It's got some video clips of the show, stills from the set, and a little background on the characters.

    It looks like the TV show will be borrowing heavily from the cartoon show. I hope that there is some new material besides the cartoon gags. I wouldn't mind seeing some new story lines.
  • The Tick contains Die Fliedermaus still acting like a well equipped batman like cowardly jack ass... and the Carpeted Man becomes a regular. (I love how he narrates his Static Electricity power "If I shuffle my feet...")
  • Isn't this Puddy from Seinfeld? Will he stare off into the distance whenever he hears Desperado?

  • About The Show (Score:4, Insightful)

    by lys1123 ( 461567 ) on Thursday November 08, 2001 @05:43PM (#2540241) Homepage
    As a long time Tick fan I have been eagerly awaiting this show. You can view a few 45 second clips of the show at http://www.spe.sony.com/tv/shows/tick/video.phtml [sony.com].

    The Tick is played by Patrick Warburton, who was "Puddy" (Elaine's Boyfriend) in Seinfeld and Johnny James (Jimmy James's VP) in Newsradio. He also was the voice of Kronk in Emperor's New Groove. An excellent casting choice for what is obviously a hard role to cast.

    Also of note, in addition to The Tick and Arthur are "Captain Liberty" and "Batmanuel". When you see these characters you will probably notice that they greatly resemble American Maid and Die Fledermaus. This is actually due to copyright negotiations (which actually held up the show for some time). The original comic book characters belong to Ben Edlund, but all of the characters that were created for the cartoon are jointly owned by all the groups that produced the cartoon (Fox Children's Network, Saban, Graz and Sunbow). Since Sony (who owns Columbia Tri-Star) could not reach an agreement on who received what proceeds among all the companies they simply replaced the characters.

    • Re:About The Show (Score:3, Informative)

      by greylouser ( 532845 )
      Warburton was also in "The Dish", along with Sam Neil. It's a pretty good movie about an Australian satellite dish broadcasting one of the Apollo missions. Rent it, and watch it after Tick.
  • see rob taco likes buffy lots of geeks love buffy. I do not have a weird obsession watching buffy for three hours on tuesdays (buffy on fx 2, buffy on upn 1)

    btw the musical was just frickin great.
  • I just wish TV was available via FTP.

    It may not be available by FTP, but it will likely be available by NNTP, at least on servers that have good completion and no censorship of binaries groups. This is one series certain to show up on alt.binaries.multimedia, as the animated version of The Tick seems to have been a popular post in recent months. The only reason I never downloaded it myself is because I was getting too much other stuff already. That will have to wait until after I get a terabyte RAID or a DVD-R, if you know what I mean.

  • By far the best episode was where Tick befriends a piece of wood, aptly named "Little Wooden Boy."
    Some quotes:

    "What's this?! It's a little boy's face! Oh, don't worry, little boy, I'll free you from this block of wood!"

    "You know, Little Wooden Boy, the worst sin in the world is disloyalty. You wouldn't lie to me, would you, Little Wooden Boy?"

    This guy likes him even more than me! *shudder* [virginia.edu]

  • OK, but seriously folks, hope everyone watches this, cause only 9 episodes in the can.

    Our local Seattle P-I TV columnist was asking people to watch it, and devoted his entire column to it.

    And, as an aside, Ben Edlund is a great guy.

    -
  • Stop wishing and load up your favorite IRC client. For many months TV show trading channels have been the fastest growing thing on IRC. And yes, the distributors will very often use FTP.

    Your wish is granted.
  • It may not be on. Bush is speaking at 8pm and is expected to talk around 20-25 minutes. Who knows what the news will do afterwards? (At least for those on the east coast)


    Article about it on CNN [cnn.com]

    • But if George wears a blue suit, we might not be able to tell the difference.

      But the Tick doesn't make up his own words. I guess that's it.
      • Establishing shot of AMERICAN FLAG, waving in the breeze.

        Cut to GEORGE W. BUSH, at podium.

        "My fellow Americans,

        I speak to you tonight as the President of the United States. Let me assure you that justice is on our side, and we will prevail. I'm sure millions of viewers out there are just wondering what it's like to wear the tights of justice. Well it's tingly and it's uncomfortable, but it gets the job done and oh, the job of it.

        Over the past several weeks our military forces, along with the military forces of Great Britain and our other allies have been striking Taliban targets inside Afganistan. We have achieved air superiority, and our special forces are moving with impunity in the countryside. I warn you Mr. Bin Laden: don't make us bite you in hard-to-reach places.

        The bravery of our soldiers, sailors and airmen is without question. In addition, American ingenuity, dedication and scientific might have armed our troops with the most technically advanced equipment the world has ever known. We should be proud of our soldiers, and of the job they're doing. We should also be proud of the technicians, engineers and scientists who have provided them with their equipment. However, with that pride comes the realization that not all science is used for good. As we cope with the recent anthrax outbreaks, we find that science is a two-headed beast. One head is nice, it gives us aspirin and other modern conveniences... But the other head of science is bad! Oh, beware the other head of science! It bites!

        I want to assure you, my countrymen, and the citizens of the rest of the world, that we, the American people will not rest until we have found the source of this anthrax, we will not relent until the Taliban have been destroyed, and we will not slumber until Osama Bin Laden has been brought to justice. Our cause is right, and we will prevail.

        And so let me conclude my remarks tonight with this thought: may Evil beware and may Good dress warmly and eat lots of fresh vegetables. Thank you and good night."

        Fade out over footage of USMC BAND playing The Star Spangled Banner.
  • Seriously, a cow that eats humans, with flames coming out of her teats.

    Now if that's not worth watching The Tick for, I don't know what else would be.

    We'll miss American Maid, though ...

    -

  • Preempted (Score:2, Interesting)

    by turd191 ( 531441 )
    Bush is making a speech tonight on national TV.

  • I've seen it! (No spoilers here, read at will) (Score:3, Informative)

    by Gautama ( 153230 ) on Thursday November 08, 2001 @06:36PM (#2540613)
    I have a friend with "connections" who was kind enough to bring his copy of the pilot to a party of mine a few months back.

    I will tell you all now, that it _is_ different from both the comicbook original and the animated series. Both were fun in their day, and both stand on their own merits.

    However this new series is off to a very amusing start. I got quite a few deep laughs out of the humour, and Patrick Warburton's (SP?) delivery of the patented Tick Monologues(Tm) are nothing short of sterling!
    The plot was nothing spectacular, but was very enjoyable. Indeed, if the writers manage to keep this level of quality, it will be a series to watch faithfully!

    On the subject of the new characters: They're different. Get over it. They work in their own way, and can hold their own as supporting characters. (Why does this bring to mind visions of sidekicks like Brazier Boy and Leather Lass?)

    I seem to remember hearing rumours (From my friend with "connections"? I can't remember) that Ben Eglund is part of the creative team on this series. If this is true, it should put to rest any complaints of deviating from the source material.

    I can only hope that this show doesn't get buried in the typical FOX time-slot shuffle.
    • Yeah, I have a friend with similar connections and saw an edit of the pilot well over a year ago. I don't remember many details so I can't spoil anything anyway. But I do remember I thought it was pretty good. Perhaps not good enough to last long, but hopefully longer than "Action!" anyway.

      Things to look for:

      * Watch The Tick's antennae. Very expressive. Good job, FOX!

      * Does Warburton sometimes sound too much like Chris Farley at moments? (No one will ever sound truly like The Tick to me except the guy who did the first few animated seasons...)

      * Pay special attention to the dialogue during the epilogue... I thought it was the funniest part of the show.

      I know I'm posting this with only about a half hour to go for you ESTers out there, but us Left Coasters may not get delayed because of el Generalissimo Busho's speech.
      • First of all, PW had about half the nasal tone as the animated Tick's voice did. But it was nasal on top of a justice-flavored Adam-West-y voice. I thought the voice was much more on the mark of what the "real" Tick would really sound like, should we be unlucky enough to live in a world filled with inept superheroes.

        Watch The Tick's antennae. Very expressive. Good job, FOX!

        Yes, they wouldn't stop wiggling, and it was truely annoying! Which was great, because The Tick is supposed to be annoying like that.

        I do want to know how the mechanism for Arthur's wings worked. They clearly had a real mechanism for folding and unfolding, rather than cheating with CGI. And Batmanuel was great, too. Good stuff. It was worth arriving at Anime Night an hour late.

  • For those of you who will miss the premiere of the Tick live-action, or otherwise are unfortunate enough not to have a station which carries it, you can always find the 1st episode on Gnutella. I had the episode posted "privately" on my web-site for a while, but had to remove it due to space reasons. :-(

  • interview (Score:3, Interesting)

    by geekoid ( 135745 ) <dadinportland@y[ ]o.com ['aho' in gap]> on Thursday November 08, 2001 @08:18PM (#2541148) Homepage Journal
    I would love a /. inerview of Ben edlund(?).
    He has had a much bigger impact a geek culter then Will Wheaton, boy genius.
  • I missed it! I've been waiting for this day for years, AND I MISSED IT!!

    Thankfully, I saw this episode months ago (thank you Gnutella) so nothing completely missed. Next week, however!

    And I want to see Chairface Chippendale!

  • I liked it! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by RyanFenton ( 230700 ) on Thursday November 08, 2001 @09:16PM (#2541381)

    It definetly wasn't as bad as I thought it could be! The intro was slightly lame, as were the intros of "Bat-Manuel" (Die Fleidermaus and "Captain Somethingorother" (American Maid). But the combination of very well implimented special effects and actors who delivered lines in ways that ADDED to the effect the story was trying to tell gave me great hope for this series.

    Oh, and of course the tick isn't saying SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON(!) yet, they haven't gotten to that part - should be fun! It has about the equivalent 'kick' of the original show, with the same number of awkward not-so-funny parts. I'll be watching it whenever it's convenient to catch a show.

    I just hope it can pay for it's budget!

    :^)

    Ryan Fenton
  • Well, they're trying, they're really trying, to capture the spirit of the original comic book. They don't have the right mix yet, and they're trying to do it on the cheap, which won't work. But they're trying. Patrick Warburton, the actor playing The Tick, is doing a good job, but they're directing and scripting him with a bit too much pomposity and a bit too little naive enthusiasm. I can see what they're trying for in the set design, but it's not working yet. There needs to be more cool stuff and jokes in the background (though they get points for the "We Serve Superheroes" sign). The direction needs to be much snappier. The secondary characters are too much one-note jokes right now. The antennas are a nice touch.

    Grade: B-. It actually sucked less than I expected it to, though it wasn't in the same league as, say, Mystery Men. It's definitely not like anything else on TV. I give it six episodes before Fox pulls the plug. Catch it while you can.

  • Okay, I did kind of like Die Fliedermaus in the cartoon, but Batmanuel will be a decent replacement IF:

    he drives a mid-seventies El Camino Lowrider with hydraulic lift and a disco-ball instead of a dome light

    His sidekick's name is "Rueben"

    His secret hideout is in a storm drain under his low-rent apartment, and instead of a butler, he has a "dos equis" drinking uncle Chico that used to be a bullfighter in tijuana

    But of course all this comes from Paul Rodruegez's (SP?) stand up sketch about "Vatoman and Rueben" fighting crime in their "chebby lowrider"

  • ... TV was available via FTP. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Martin S. ( 98249 ) on Friday November 09, 2001 @06:56AM (#2542661) Journal
    I just wish TV was available via FTP.

    Well CmdrTaco, as a famous sycophant once said 'your wish is my command' :)

    This system [kitv.co.uk] (for which I'm the Software Architect) offers interactive digital TV via IP, this case study [broadcastpapers.com]
    reveals all the gory technical details of the disruptive technology [digitaledge.org] that is going to bring Microsoft down, by bringing IP to every home in the developed world in the next five years.

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