TVSquad

Adam Finley
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Disney Channel's popular High School Musical series of TV movies will hit theaters for its third installment, but don't expect a Halloween-themed movie as reported earlier. According to TV Guide, the Halloween idea was scrapped and instead the feature film will focus on senior year and the lives of students Sharplay, Troy, Gabriella, Ryan, Chad and Taylor.

The first High School Movie hit the Disney Channel in January of last year and was a gigantic success. The second installment, aptly tilted High School Musical 2, debuted on the channel this month. The TV movies also inspired a professional touring stage production that launched this year. There is no word yet on when the third installment would hit theaters, and none of the actors involved with the TV movie have signed on for the movie just yet.

Actors Donal Logue and Eliza Dushku, along with writer/producer David Hemingson, recently signed on for new network projects.

Logue stars in FOX's Barry Sonnefeld-directed comedy pilot, Hackett, as a "bad-boy literary luminary" who goes from teaching at Yale to teaching at a public school in Ohio. The pilot also stars Rachel Boston (American Dreams) and Morgan Murphy. Logue was last seen on ABC's short-lived The Knights of Prosperity. Sonnefeld will work on Hackett, as well as direct episodes of Pushing Daisies, a new series for ABC premiering Wednesdays this fall.

In addition to a recent contract signed by South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker than will have us enjoying South Park episodes through at least 2011, fans will soon have an online destination through which to enjoy (legal) South Park material.

The New York Times article doesn't go into a lot of detail about what sort of material will be available at this new destination, though fans should recognize the URL: SouthParkStudios.com, which has been the official site for the series for quite some time now. The article does mention the possibility of "new applications" for the characters (whatever that means) and new concepts that could evolve into brand new comedy projects. There was no mention of streaming full episodes, though, which I'm sure is what fans want most of all.

Satire is a tricky sword to wield, and BET's current efforts to call attention to some of the less-favorable aspects of current black culture are proof of that. First, there was We Got to Do Better (formerly Hot Ghetto Mess), a series whose pilot episode was so schizophrenic I actually developed twelve different personalities while watching it. Never have I seen a TV series struggling so hard to figure out its own identity.

All of the press that came out before it read that the series would use amateur footage of people acting untoward as a means to show how we need to improve (the clips show people of all races), but the first episode kept jumping back and forth between straight satire and host Charlie Murphy sincerely pleading to the audience to improve themselves. Imagine Stephen Colbert dropping his facade every two minutes to say, "this is a joke" -- that's what watching We Got to Do Better was like.

Did you know a person can be funny on television and the internet? It's true. Here's a few examples:

First, comedians Jim Norton (Lucky Louie, Tough Crowd) and Jim Florentine (Crank Yankers, Meet the Creeps) have a new series on Super Deluxe where they give super-brief commentaries on current events. The clips are not safe for work, or for most living creatures, but if you don't mind crude humor and lots of cussing, then check it out.

Here's some cool news for any Star Trek fans who have been enjoying the new digitally remastered Star Trek episodes currently airing in syndication:

CBS will re-air "new" digitally-cleaned-up episodes of the original Star Trek series starting next month. Forty episodes will be shown in total, starting September 15, 2007 and ending August 2, 2008. You'll have to check your listings to see what time they're airing, though it'll be either on a Saturday or Sunday.

Here's some animation news from the last few days:

First, both Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake are coming back to television as part of a new Saturday morning animation block on CBS called KEWLopolis. Care Bears: Adventures in Care-A-Lot and Strawberry Shortcake join brand new series Sushi Pack and Dino Squad. Returning shows include Cake, Horseland, Sabrina and Trollz.

Tom Ruegger and Nicholas Hollander (Tiny Toons, Animaniacs) are behind Sushi Pack, about a gang of crime-fighting sushi. The characters are vaguely fish-like, which is odd since "sushi" refers to rice, and not fish. I guess animated rice isn't that interesting.

Sheesh, I guess I haven't checked out Muppet News Flash in awhile, and wound up missing out on some cool Muppet news.

First, a Fraggle Rock album will hit stores in October. There's pretty much zero information on Fraggle Rockin', except that it will contain music from the series. Amazon doesn't even have an album image. Did I mention it's a three-disc set? That's all kinds of awesome.

I'm going to file this under "Rumor" for now, since none of the major outlets appear to have anything on it, but some of the more gossipy sites are reporting the same story that actor Nicolas Cage is considering the role of Thomas Sullivan Magnum, IV in an upcoming film version of the popular '80s dramedy Magnum P.I. Tom Selleck, of course, played Magnum in the original series, and has said in several interviews he wanted to play the character in the film version.

Some have argued Selleck's too old to play the part, and that's true, he is too old to play a young Magnum, but with "senior citizens" such as Bruce Willis and Harrison Ford coming back to play roles from their more youthful days, I don't think Selleck returning as an older, seasoned Magnum is a terrible idea for a feature film.

G.I. Joe is just one of many adaptations of '80s toys/animated series that have been on deck for the last few years. There was of course Transformers, followed by rumors of bigscreen versions of He-Man and Thundercats. Now, however, the live-action G.I. Joe movie is official.

Writer/director Stephen Sommers (The Mummy) will helm the project, which will envision the G.I. Joe team as an international collaboration of military forces battling the evil Cobra, as opposed to the America-centric gang most of us remember from the '80s cartoon. Fans can also expect favorites like Duke, Snake Eyes, Scarlett, Destro and Cobra Commander in this new flick. The movie could hit theaters by summer of 2009.