Forecast Fun

Lynn Collins will take on her first lead role in a major film production when she begins filming “John Carter of Mars” with Taylor Kitsch, Willem Dafoe, Mark Strong, and a well-rounded cast. Collins won the part of Dejah Thoris, the princess of Mars for whom adventurer John Carter (played by Kitsch) crosses whole worlds and conquers entire nations. Really, Carter loves his princess of Mars that much.

The classic story of a Confederate soldier who finds his death in a lonely Arizona cave and his rebirth on the red ochre moss-covered seabed of one of Mars’ ancient dried out oceans was pulp fiction giant Edgar Rice Burroughs’ first story. Originally published as “Under The Moons of Mars” followed by three sequels in 1912, the book was eventually published in a single volume as A Princess of Mars and by that title launched a series of stories featuring John Carter, Dejah Thoris, their children, and various associates.

The fan base for John Carter of Mars is immense, and somewhat aging. Many of these devoted readers first discovered the stories in their early years in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Younger fans do exist but their enthusiasm has not been curried by publishers, who have favored longer, larger books that feature dragons, sex, and complex plots.

Several of the John Carter stories are now in the public domain, including the first one. And that situation has inspired at least one independent studio to release its own “Princess of Mars” movie in December 2009. Traci Lords, who has appeared in a number of weak and low-budget science fiction movies and television shows (following a more colorful career in a different genre), plays Dejah Thoris in the direct-to-DvD production.

Don’t panic. You still have time to brush up on your John Carter of Mars lore if you want to join the fan community on the Web. By the time the Disney/Pixar movie is released in 2012, there should be a frothing frenzy of fannish events and activity.

Nominated for 17 Emmys in its short four-year run, Soap premiered in the Fall of 1977 as one of the most controversial shows in American television history (and all before a single episode ever aired). The show was opposed by many groups who thought its subject matter would be too mature for a prime-time audience. But Soap never overstepped its bounds, and the show became an instant smash hit with its brilliant and satirical spoofs of classic daytime programming. Sporting an all-star cast and talented producers, the show spawned successful spin-off Benson in 1979, a series that launched Robert Guillaume’s career to a whole new level…

The Soap DVD features a number of hilarious episodes including the series premiere in which the audience learns the background of the two differing, yet similar, families. Jessica overhears Chester making plans to meet his mistress just before she meets her own lover, a local tennis pro named Peter. Jessica leaves Peter just before Corinne arrives for a lesson of her own… Meanwhile, the Campbells are beset by a rift between Danny and Burt, and Burt reveals to Mary that his inability to perform in the bedroom is a result of guilt from having killed her first husband… Other notable episodes from Season 1 include Episode 4 in which Jessica and Corrine encounter each other in Peter’s apartment, and Episode 25 in which Charles Lefkowitz (Sorrell Booke of Dukes of Hazzard fame) orders Danny to marry Elaine or else he will kill the entire Campbell family…

Below is a list of episodes included on the Soap (Season 1) DVD:

Episode 1 (Episode 1) Air Date: 09-13-1977
Episode 2 (Episode 2) Air Date: 09-20-1977
Episode 3 (Episode 3) Air Date: 09-27-1977
Episode 4 (Episode 4) Air Date: 10-04-1977
Episode 5 (Episode 5) Air Date: 10-04-1977
Episode 6 (Episode 6) Air Date: 10-25-1977
Episode 7 (Episode 7) Air Date: 11-01-1977
Episode 8 (Episode Air Date: 11-08-1977
Episode 9 (Episode 9) Air Date: 11-15-1977
Episode 10 (Episode 10) Air Date: 11-22-1977
Episode 11 (Episode 11) Air Date: 11-29-1977
Episode 12 (Episode 12) Air Date: 12-06-1977
Episode 13 (Episode 13) Air Date: 12-13-1977
Episode 14 (Episode 14) Air Date: 12-27-1977
Episode 15 (Episode 15) Air Date: 01-03-1978
Episode 16 (Episode 16) Air Date: 01-10-1978
Episode 17 (Episode 17) Air Date: 01-17-1978
Episode 18 (Episode 18) Air Date: 01-24-1978
Episode 19 (Episode 19) Air Date: 02-07-1978
Episode 20 (Episode 20) Air Date: 02-14-1978
Episode 21 (Episode 21) Air Date: 02-21-1978
Episode 22 (Episode 22) Air Date: 02-28-1978
Episode 23 (Episode 23) Air Date: 03-14-1978
Episode 24 (Episode 24) Air Date: 03-21-1978
Episode 25 (Episode 25) Air Date: 03-28-1978

About the Author

Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of the Soap (DVD).

Cartoons may or may not have been made just for kids, but one thing is for certain. Cartoons have made an everlasting impression on all people both young and old. Some cartoons fade into obscurity quickly while others stand the test of time. We’re going to be starting a series of some of the most famous and arguably most important cartoons of all time.

Bugs Bunny has been a cartoon character seen not only on the cartoons but in commercials for a number of products. Bugs has become a household name and an American institution.

Bugs Bunny was originally created in 1939, but it wasn’t until 1940 when he took on a new voice in the person of Mel Blanc that Bugs became the character that we have grown to love. The truth is, nobody really knows who created Bugs Bunny. Speculation is that he was created by a number of people. Bugs did go on to become the first Warner Brothers cartoon and to this day, still the most popular. Speculation is that the character of Bugs Bunny was created to mimic the real life person of Groucho Marx. This may or may not be true, but there is a definite similarity between the two.

Bugs was a rather devilish character. He’d always manage to get everyone around him into all kinds of trouble while avoiding the same. He was the cartoon character’s con man and escape artist. No matter how tough a spot he was in he always found a way out of it. Kind of like a Superman without the super powers.

And oh, the targets of his conniving. Bugs had a host of characters to play off, all of which were just as important in cementing the Bugs Bunny legacy as Bugs himself.

Probably the most famous and the one who Bugs got the best of was Elmer Fudd. Poor Elmer. All this man wanted to do was hunt, as he would say, “wabbits”. Mel Blanc brought such wonderful life to this character with his garbled speech and dumb sound. Fudd was indeed what we call “bumfuzzled” or simply confused. No matter what trap he set for Bugs, the rascally rabbit was always able to weasel his way out of it.

Then there was Daffy Duck. Daffy was the wise guy kid and class clown who you both hated and loved in high school. Poor Daffy was also many times the victim of Bugs’ schemes. In one very memorable cartoon, Fudd was hunting rabbits and while Bugs and Daffy were together, Bugs managed to convince poor old Elmer that it was duck season. So instead of shooting Bugs, he’d shoot Daffy. And of course the head would go spinning around until he was looking behind him. A real person would have been dead. But these characters just kept coming back again and again.

Not all of the Bugs Bunny, or what was known as the Loony Toons cartoons, revolved around Bugs. There of course was the classic matchups of Tweety and Sylvester, and Road Runner and Wyle E. Coyote. To see each of these duos try to out fox each other alone was worth the price of admission.

Books could be written about these and so many other Bugs Bunny characters. If you haven’t seen the cartoons then do yourself a favor and pick up a DVD from Amazon or wherever you can get a hold of one. The resulting hours of laughter will be more than worth the price.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Cartoons