I try not to write about this stuff, because it just makes me mad. In a letter to SAG members last week Doug Allen,the guild’s national executive direction, made the absolutely insane claim that a SAG strike would not “shut down” the industry.

“If the SAG National Board is authorized to call a strike, we all hope a strike will not be necessary,” Allen wrote. “But, if the National Board decides to call one, it will not ‘shut down’ the industry. Why not? Because the national board’s decision would have no effect on work done under the Guild’s other contracts.”

I HATE that they’re putting me on the side of the AMPTP here, but I have to agree with their follow-up statement which read: “Today’s SAG statement suggesting that a SAG strike would not have a devastating impact on our industry, in the midst of the greatest economic turmoil since the Great Depression, simply defies reality,”

I sincerely hope that this crap stops soon – because if we end up losing another season of our favorite shows over a strike – I may just not come back to television.

ABC has released yet another “Lost” promo – and I’m getting more warmed up about the show’s return.

Last season was very well done, and really took the show where it needed to go. It seems like since the creators decided when the show would end they’ve been able to pace things much better, and really bring out the best in the series.

Here’s hoping this season is as good as the last one. We’ll know soon enough. the show returns on January 21st.

“Knight Rider” is coming back in January and things are going to be shaken up a bit as the cast changes and the show is “rebooted” to be more like the original series.

One BIG announcement for “Knight Rider” fans that slipped through the cracks on Christmas day. Peter Cullen, the voice actor who played KARR on the original series (you may also know him as Optimus Prime from Transformers) is returning to voice KARR in the 12th episode of the new show.

The episode description below gives all the details, including some MAJOR SPOILERS about the series. So beware.

TIME TO FIGHT BACK–Sarah (Deanna Russo) is not coping well with her father’s death and decides to leave town. Concerned, Mike (Justin Bruening) goes looking for her and in return gets the answers he has been searching for about his past. Meanwhile, the NSA has decided to dismantle the SSC now that Dr. Graiman (Bruce Davison) is dead and they can then move forward with KITT’s nemesis KARR. With Torres’ (Yancey Arias) permission they take out KITT’s (voiced by Val Kilmer) chip that contains his personality and memories and place it in KARR (voiced by Peter Cullen). Upset by what has happened, Mike, Sarah, Billy (Paul Campbell) and Zoe (Smith Cho) devise a plan to find where KITT has been taken and get him up and running and destroy the evil KARR once and for all.

“Scrubs” is on its way back to the air in January, but the cast and crew of the show have already filmed the finale. So for series creator Bill Lawrence and Zach Braff, the show is over, but there still may be life in the series after they leave.

ABC is keen to continue the series if ratings hold up this year, and a new batch of interns will be appearing on the show and in webisodes during the season. If they are a hit with viewers expect an all-new Scrubs in the fall of 2009.

I honestly can’t believe it’s taken this long…but at the same time, I can’t believe it’s actually happening. VHS tape is officially dead. The last company that was actually buying VHS tapes has ceased, and now there is no market left.

The last film to actually be released on VHS was “A History of Violence” in 2006. Since that time VHS tapes have made their way into bargain bins across the country, but now the man that fills those bins is giving up, and dropping the format all together.

I think i will always love VHS for what it was. In this day of DVRs, digital downloads, DVDs, and Blu-Ray Discs, it’s hard to even look at a VHS and get all the way through it. The quality is just terrible…BUT…I remember very well the VHS collection we had at my house.

I would buy blank tapes and fill them to the brim with recordings of my favorite bits from SNL, MadTV (the early years), and sitcoms galore. I’d record comedy specials on HBO and watch them into the wee hours of the morning. George Carlin came into my life thanks to VHS tape. Godzilla too.

Every crazy bit of entertainment I loved as a kid went through a VHS tape at one point.

In high school I worked at a video store, and DVD came in shortly after I exited. It was one of the best job’s I’ve ever had – and I can still very clearly remember what was like to take a busted VHS tape and perform surgery to move the tape contents to a new case, to make the video playable again.

Even though we’ve had movies recently like “Be Kind, Rewind” that sort of remind us of how interesting and simple VHS was – it’s time has long passed. It’s successor is about to be successed, and whatever is coming after that is on its way to the horizon.

I’m guessing we’ll be watching things digitally in the next few years, and that’s where it will stay, in one form or another, for a very long while. We’ll see though. You never know what’s going to happen next in the world of recordable media – but the grandfather of home movies has passed away, and it’s finally time to lay him to rest.

2008 has been a good year for Tina Fey.

Due largely to the Sarah Palin impressions on SNL which put her in a brighter spotlight than ever before, Tina has reached out to a whole new audience with her comedy.

Tina Fey is no stranger to us, though. We’ve seen her in two feature films, on “30 Rock”, and as one of the lynch pins of “SNL” as both a writer and performer.

Now, the Associated Press has named her “Entertainer of the Year”. (I would quote them – but you know how they feel about that. No sense in getting the blog sued, or deep-linking to one of their own articles, which would help it not only in search results, but also in general traffic. Instead, we’ll just mention them that once, and be done with it).

That’s a pretty high honor in a year when Heath Ledger gave an awe-inspiring performance in “The Dark Knight”, and Robert Downey Jr. redefined what a super hero can be.

Now – if people would just start watching “30 Rock” – everything would be great.

Let me start this by saying that I am a t-shirt designer. I have previous made a nice living working full time as a designer of t-shirts. I am currently making a few extra bucks throwing designs up on CafePress.com – I’m as much of a “professional t-shirt designer” as you’re ever going to meet.

Having said that – I have to say, I find NBC’s latest “contest” to be pretty damn offensive.

The Peacock network wants you to design their next wave of t-shirts based on the hit series “The Office”. Being a fan of the show, my ears perked up at that. I’d LOVE to design t-shirts for “The Office”.

Then I found out what the “prize” is for “winning” this “contest” (notice all the sarcastic “s?). The “winner” gets the following:

Your design will be sold exclusively through The NBC Store!
10 free T-shirts (when produced)
Choice of any three t-shirts from NBCstore.com
Dunderize Your Cube
DM Shot Glass (four pack)
Lunch Bag
Exclusive Dwight Bobblehead Golf Balls (3)
Star Mug Set

Yes – that’s right folks, the BIG prize is a Dunder-Mifflin grab back of crap and the privilege of someone else profiting from your creative work.

Woo-Hoo! Where do I start?

Oh wait – that’s a complete rip-off. See, a good t-shirt design is worth thousands of dollars. It’s worth either a large up-front payment, or a continuing royalty. Offering a prize pack that’s this cheap is just plain insulting.

Now, I’m sure there will be some of you that think I’m over reacting. That’s fine – by all means – spend your time designing “Office” shirts – me? I’ll be over her not being taken advantage of by NBC.

Right before the Christmas break, Warner Bros. Television filed a lawsuit against CBS over unpaid royalties regarding “Two and a Half Men”.

CBS issued a statement saying, “Wow, I wonder what they got the other networks fro Christmas.”

That’s hilarious.

Anyway, there is a long, complicated reasoning, behind the suit, and it’s just about as much fun to read as those little “change your life” pamphlets that various religious organizations place in public bathrooms around the country.

Long story short – WB wants some money – and they’re taking CBS to court over it. Fun.

When do the new episodes start back again?

Entertainment Weekly has posted an exclusive clip from Joss Whedon’s upcoming “Dollhouse” series. The clip didn’t grab me at all (and this is from a guy that is currently re-watching “Buffy”, “Angel”, and “Firefly” at the same time). I’m not terribly excited about the show, BUT I will say that the promo that is embedded above, does make me feel a little better about it.

I’m interested in the show promoed above, but I don’t know how well this is going to work. Joss has been describing the show as kind of heady, and with all networks looking to make budget cuts, I’m betting the kill switch is going to be ready to flick very early in the game here.

I hope that the show does well enough to get some time for Joss to explore what he wants to with this project. I’d love to have another great Whedon produced program on the air – and I certainly hope this one is it.

If it wasn’t sad enough that “The CW” was basically turning into a “Gossip Girl” network, now it looks like their decision to drop the WWE was a HUGE mistake. Upstart network MyNetworkTV is now averaging higher ratings than it is.

“The CW” is what was left after the merger between “UPN” and “The WB”. What it has become, sadly, is not very good. While shows like “Smallville” are great, most of the programming on the network is expensive, and not all that entertaining.

MyNetworkTV, however, runs mostly reality styled shows and wrestling – and spends a fraction of what “The CW” does. Some might say – so what? These two networks are going for completely different demographics.

In some respects, you’re right. However, they are competing for the same number of Independent TV stations out there that need programming – and if MyNetworkTV starts consistently beating “The CW” you’ll start to see more Indy stations turn to the higher rated network…which could leave “The CW” out in the cold.

This is a big deal – and it will be interesting to see where it goes from here.