Apparently all those hours spent in front of my Tina Fey shrine offering gifts to various deities while burning incense have paid off. That’s right folks, Tina Fey is returning to NBC with partner Robert Carlock, and they are bringing a new sitcom with them!
After the end of 30 Rock, which I and many others mourned like it was a family member, there was a lot of question as to what Tina Fey would do next. She has a four-year deal with Universal Television, but what would that end up looking like? Well, now we know the first thing to come out of that deal will be a comedy from former 30 Rock writer-producer Colleen McGuinness.
While the two men on the left are fine gentlemen, ignore them for now. On the right, Colleen McGuinness, Tina Fey, and Robert Carlock
Not much is known about the new comedy except that it will be a “workplace comedy where a young woman in search of reconnecting with her father finds a new home and family on Fire Island.” and Tina Fey and Robert Carlock will be executive producers. The sitcom will be the first project for Tina Fey’s new production company, Little Stranger.
Even though the show is in its earliest stages, just knowing that Tina Fey and company are in some capacity returning to NBC comedy gives us hope for the future. Please don’t let this be another 1600 Penn situation.
I know nothing about football. Seriously. I’ve picked up a couple athlete names over the years, and I can name a bunch of teams (both NFL and CFL) but really, I know nothing about football. Which says a lot about The League, as it has become one of my favorite shows on TV despite my lack of knowledge regarding their favorite sport. Funny is funny, and that’s what makes these following teasers amusing to a guy who barely understands them.
Do I know who these football players are? No. I do know they play football, and are known by the characters of The League, and damn it, that’s good enough for me. So while a lot of my fellow fans mention the appearance of this foozball star here or that foozball star there, I am more than happy to sit back and watch Taco be Taco.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s 9th season is set to premiere September 4th, or about 3 weeks from today. To make people aware of this date, as well as the shows move to new channel FXX (the comedy half of FX’s recent split) they have released some new trailers, and unlike last time, now they are actually showing some footage from the season.
Since Star Wars: Episode VII was announced a few months ago, their has been a number of new Star Wars projects announced, such as the Star Wars: Rebels animated TV series. None of these have been quite as left field as the announcement back in April that Dark Horse will be releasing an 8-issue comic series titled ‘The Star Wars‘, based on George Lucas’ original draft scripts written back in 1974.
The original screenplay had many differences from the final draft that eventually became Star Wars. ‘The Star Wars‘ tells the story of Jedi General Luke Skywalker, who seems to be the only person concerned that The Empire is poised for an attack on the peaceful world of Aquilae. When King Kayos is killed, Jedi in training Annikin Starkiller is ordered to find Princess Leia, while Skywalker sends his only squadron against the Empire’s powerful new battle station! O,h and Han Solo is a massive green alien who artist Mike Mayhew described to the USA Today as a “worldly” and exotic gunslinger who is already a rebel agent and “a very mysterious pirate that lurks in the shadows”. Also, gone are the legendary Lightsabers, instead the Jedi wield lazer-swords which are not too different to the swords that we are used to.
Artwork to ‘The Star Wars #1’ Doug Wheatley Ultravariant cover
You may be forgiven for thinking that Dark Horse is cashing in on the renewed interest in the series, however this project really excites me. Marvel and DC have been producing parallel world storylines for years with their ‘What if…?‘ and ‘Elseworlds‘ comics respectively, and for the most part they give us a great alternative vision of classic characters. I don’t see this as being any different. At the very least it will give Star Wars fans an insight into what George Lucas originally intended. Dark Horse also doesn’t tend to churn out any old stuff just for the sake of cashing in. For the most part their continuation of the Buffy, Firefly, and Angel series’ have been nothing less than superb.
The comics creators are also of high pedigree. The 8 issue series will be written by J. W. Rinzler, executive editor at Lucas books with Lucas’ full blessing on the project.
Writer J.W.Rinzler says on the Dark Horse website:
[box_dark]“While researching in the Lucasfilm Archives I’ve found many treasures—but one which truly astounded me was George’s rough draft for The Star Wars. His first complete imaginings were hallucinating to read—mind blowing,” “While working with George on another book project, I once asked if we could adapt his rough draft. He was hesitant. Years later, with Dark Horse’s invaluable help, we showed him a few drawn and colored pages of what it might look like. He gave us the okay.”[/box_dark]
Artwork will be provided by Mike Mayhew, who has drawn for plenty of well known properties such as Green Arrow, Bionic Man, The Avengers and X-Men.
The first issue will be published on the 4th of September. Dark Horse will have a number of variant covers including one by legendary concept artist Ralph McQuarrie.
Artwork to ‘The Star Wars #2’ Ralph McQuarrie variant cover
Grizzly Bomb 