Billboardis announcing that punk band Green Day will perform the theme for The Simpsons on the soundtrack for the upcoming movie, which is set to release on July 27.

Also of an interesting note, three individual music companies will have a hand in the distribution of the album.  Warner Bros. Records will release the Green Day single, Fox Music will have the album available for download, and Extreme Music will release 25,000 special pink donut cases to retailers like Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble.

The idea largely was the brainchild of Kraft and composer Hans Zimmer, who scored the film. “Hans has a great relationship with Extreme Music,” Kraft says. “They are known for their creative packaging. The model of handing over a soundtrack or score to a traditional label and then hoping it does well is changing. This is a coordinated marketing effort of behalf of Extreme, the studio and Warner Bros. Records.”

Look for the simultaeous releases of the albums on July 24.

2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee - ABC - 8/7c

Come on…who doesn’t enjoy watching kids sweat it out while trying to spell “appoggiatura” or “Ursprache”?

Pirate Master - CBS - 8/7c

From the creator of Survivor:

Sixteen modern-day pirates live as buccaneers and search for hidden treasure.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - NBC - 10/9c

Jordan experiences an emergency with her pregnancy during the live show. Meanwhile, Tom faces an even larger emergency and Matt’s pill use gets discovered.

A couple of news bits coming from the tech world yesterday.  First, Apple will be releasing an updated version of their newest product, the AppleTV.  When it was originally released in March, the box, which allows the user to view content from iTunes on their HDTV’s, came in only the 40GB model at $299.  The new version will be 160GB for the price of $399. 

Apple also announced yesterday that the AppleTV will soon be adding the ability to surf content from the popular social video site YouTube, bringing internet video directly to your living room.  From the press release:

Thousands of the most current and popular YouTube videos will be available on Apple TV at launch in mid-June, with YouTube adding thousands more each week until the full YouTube catalog is available this fall. With Apple TV’s stunning interface and simple Apple Remote, users can easily navigate through YouTube’s familiar video browsing categories or search for specific videos. YouTube members can also log-in to their YouTube accounts on Apple TV to view and save their favorite videos.

Since this will still be controlled by the Apple remote, I’ll be interested to see how searching is done.  Michael at sister site Apple Gazette will be checking it out, and I’m sure that we’ll get an update from him on that when it goes live in June. 

Not sure how you can possibly wait until February 2008 for your next Lost fix?  Holding your breath for an August release, like in the past, of the DVD box set to tide you over?  Well stop.  Seriously.  You’re turning blue.

Amazon has Lost - The Complete Third Season down for a December 11 release date, for the price of $41.99, discounted down from $59.99.  While that may seem like an excruciatingly long wait, remember that you can stream all of the episodes for free at ABC.com (in HD, even!) through the end of the summer, or you can drop a few bucks and download them off of iTunes.  Plus, a December release would make the perfect stocking stuffer.

Not a lot happening tonight…I have a morbid interest in the new ABC celebrity impersonator show, and I can’t explain it.  I didn’t make it all the way through the ‘Traveler’ pilot yet, so I’ll have to dust up tonight as they bring on the next episode.  In short, it’s an ABC night tonight.

The Next Best Thing: Who is the Greatest Celebrity Impersonator? - ABC - 8/7c

Whoa…I think typing that title alone gave me carpal tunnel.  To go with the long title, ABC has a brief description:

Celebrity impersonators compete for the title and a $100,000 prize.

For some reason, I think I’ll tune in.

Traveler - Pilot/The Retreat - ABC - 9/8c - Back-to-back episodes

If you missed out on the pilot premiere a couple of weeks ago, ABC is re-airing it tonight at 9/8c, followed by the all new episode.  About the new episode, ABC says:

Jay and Tyler seek refuge at Carlton Fog’s private retreat, but soon question whether they are truly safe there. Meanwhile, FBI agents grill Jay’s girlfriend about his whereabouts.

Saw this over at Filmsy…

Over the past five seasons, Family Guy has spoofed Star Wars dozens of times.  When the new season of ‘Family Guy’ kicks off in September, the comedy will devote an entire episode to the sci-fi series.

From Variety:

Lucasfilm has blessed the event, which will have the Griffin family acting out all the key scenes and narrative from “Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope,” the first installment of the franchise…Plot of the episode has the Griffin family stuck at home during a blackout. With no TV to entertain them, Peter decides to tell a story — leading to the “Star Wars” flashback.

The episode will see Peter as Han Solo, Lois as Princess Leia, Stewie as Darth Vader, Brian as Chewbacca, Chris as Luke, creepy old guy Herbert as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Cleveland and Quagmire as R2-D2 and C-3P0.

Love Star Wars.  Love Family Guy.  Can’t wait.

The Peacock has been using the gimmick of super-sized episodes for the past few years…running extended episodes of various series. This tactic has focused mainly on their Thursday night comedy series. Today, the news comes that NBC will do away with that, for the most part, next season. Zap2It reports:

“It was a good idea when we started it. It was very novel. But it’s just not a good idea to have shows starting at 9:23 p.m.,” Manze tells TV Week. “I don’t think anyone here thinks, at this point, super-sizing often is good for the shows. We’re going to do our best to not have to do it next year.”

Now, this could very well have been an issue in years past, when viewers were slaves to the networks’ schedules. But, as more and more viewers begin to use DVRs, I see it becoming less of a problem. Manze cites the use of DVRs as a prevalent reason for the change, going so far as to say, “We’re not only fooling people, we’re fooling TiVos.” But, from what I’ve seen, so long as the DVR has enough notice of the change, there’s never a problem with the 9:23 versus 9:30 battle.

The problem I’ve run into, and ran into a lot this season, and especially on NBC, was shows getting clipped (most noticeably, the “Five Years Gone” episode of ‘Heroes’…my DVR cut off just as Sylar and Peter were about to show down, very aggravating). And this is something that I’ve heard several people complain about. I know that Tivo offers a bit of clipping protection, but a large part of the market doesn’t have that option. I would say that the main problem that NBC needs to focus on is the clipping issue, and then worry about confusing people with super-sized episodes.

We head into the first week of post-season blues, but we’ve still got a couple of finales today to keep us occupied.

House - Human Error - FOX - 9/8c

A Cuban couple, Esteban and his sick wife, Marina Hernandez, are pulled from the ocean during a dangerous rescue at sea while on route to the U.S. on a mission to reach Dr. House. Marina’s medical records from Cuba were lost in the shipwreck, so the team runs a series of tests to determine the extent of her illness. When Marina’s heart stops during a routine cardiac catheterization, the diagnostic mystery deepens. House debates with the team whether it was human error or a still-to-be-determined illness that caused Marina to flat-line, and the team fights to keep Marina alive on a bypass machine long enough for her husband to say goodbye, knowing that nothing short of a miracle can save her. Meanwhile, Foreman prepares for his last day of work at Princeton-Plainsboro, and Chase accuses House of trying to win Foreman over in order to dissuade him from leaving, prompting House to make a very rash decision that affects the whole team.

Boston Legal - Trial of the Century - ABC - 10/9c

Alan Shore and Denny Crane represent two brothers accused of killing their abusive father, and Clarence Bell and Jerry Espenson take on a huge gambling establishment when a woman alleges that her out-of-control gambling debts were the fault of the casino.

I didn’t know for sure if these were going to be continuing over the summer hiatus, but it appears that we’ll continue to have the online novels to give us our weekly Heroes fix.  Joy!

It Takes A Village
Part 1 of 4

Who commands the loyalty of the man known only as “the Haitian”?  Though he partnered for years with Noah Bennet, the man in horn-rimmed glasses, the Haitian turned against him to aid Claire, Bennet’s daughter.  Then, he seemed to betray both to Claire’s grandmother, Angela Petrelli.  Does he take orders from her…or answer ultimately to an even higher power?

This arc covers the backstory of the Haitian.  We begin way back in the episode “Collision”, where Parkman has just been kidnapped.  The Haitian is wiping his memory, and Bennet notes that some of the ones they wipe smile.  In a bit of foreshadowing, he comments that he would be interested to know what it must feel like.  The Haitian tells him what it feels like to take the memories:  “Sometimes it’s like picking flowers just after a spring rain…sometimes, like reaching into the moist soil of freshly dug graves.  Grubs biting at your fingers…”  Nice.  “…Sometimes it’s like dancing…but always, it reminds me of home, and my father.”

With that, we flash back to his village in Haiti.  The land is dying, strangled by the Duvaliers, and people everywhere are starving.  But the people in his village are happy…dancing.  Some believe that it is because of their faith, but he knows that it is because of his father, Guillame, a Houngan, or a priest.  When the Haitian is out with his friends, they are discussing how much they love his father, raving about how he should be the president of Haiti, or even the U.S.  One of the boys says that he has real powers, and that he is special.  Suddenly, a gunshot pierces the air.

The Tonton Macoutes, a gang of thugs under control of Duvalier are back in the village, and are looking for Guillame.  He comes out, ready to stop them with his abilities.  While his power is never clearly defined, it appears that he can impart feelings on others.  This is how he managed to keep his village prosperous.  Now, using this power, he holds off the gang members with feelings of horror.  Everything is going well until the Haitian runs up behind him and yells, “Father!”, distracting him.  One of the men turns and shoots Guillame.  We close with him lying on the ground, looking up at his son and saying “You…what did you do to me?  What did you do?!”

A quick thing to notice about this chapter…around Guillame’s neck he is wearing a pendant which any Heroes fan should recognize.  Also, a little Easter Egg in the Flash version(which I haven’t been including up until now…sorry), features a behind the scenes shot from the filming of the finale.

Check back next week for the next chapter!

Over the weekend, the Official Star Wars Site posted up a look at the forthcoming Star Wars CGI series, taking place between Episodes 2 and 3.

I’m really digging the feel of the clip, with the dark tones, and a lot of the animation, specifically the battles, look really slick.  I’m still not a huge fan of the look of the characters, though.  They look like plastic.  Hopefully there will be some polish in the coming months.

As a Star Wars geek, I have some concerns about the continuity with the established Clone Wars timeline, too.  But for the sake of not losing readers, I won’t go into that.