TVSquad

Not too long ago I told you about a very cool (and very disturbing) video that showed what Homer Simpson would look like if her were an actual person. The video shows a normal-looking man slowly morphing into a Homeresque manifestation. The New Age music only adds to the surreal, nightmarish quality of it.

Well, Adnan Saleem, the person who created the video, sent us a note to let us know he's also done the same for Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie. Watch as the line between comedy and complete, unholy terror is slowly erased before your eyes. And I mean that as a compliment, these videos are really cool, but c'mon, they're also really creepy, which is the point, I think.

The image on the right is another creation of Adnan's. It's Snowball II, of course.

Check out the videos here.

Since I write about the TV industry, it's impossible for me to avoid this whole "Paris Hilton prison thing" no matter how hard I try.

According to a recent report, Hilton is "distraught" about serving her sentence. I'm not quite sure why that's news. It seems to me that every single person ever sentenced to prison was probably pretty upset about it. If the headline had read, "Paris Hilton Thrilled About Going to Prison," that would be something worth reading, I would imagine. I'd certainly stop and pick up that issue in the checkout lane.

If you live in the Boston area and were afraid you might miss out on the premiere of Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, you can rest easy. Despite Mayor Thomas M. Menino asking theaters not to screen the movie after the publicity stunt turned "bomb" scare that resulted in Turner paying two million in damages to the city, and the resignation of the head of Cartoon Network, local theaters have decided to go ahead and show the movie anyway.

I've been to a handful of comedy shows in my life, and I can't say I've ever seen a bona fide heckler. I have seen people who want to converse with the comedian during their set, which is probably just as annoying.

However, hecklers aren't only found in the back of comedy clubs. They've gotten under the skin of everyone from movie directors to sports figures to politicians, and the anonymity of the Web has allowed for even more of them to pop up on messageboards and forums to let everyone know just who sucks and who sucks even more. If there were a way to make money from telling creative people you don't like them and that they should die, we'd have a lot more millionaires.

Via Boing Boing comes this lengthy essay from Michael Schmitz that looks at Human Computer Interaction in both movies and television. Some of the technology explored in this essay comes from shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation, Futurama, Star Trek: Enterprise, and an old German series called Raumschiff Orion.

Schmitz's essay looks at the technology used in these series and compares them to similar technology in the real world. The essay is a bit heavy, but I think sci fi nerds will appreciate it. All true science fiction is grounded somewhat in real science, and this essay delves into that world quite extensively and shows how often modern technology began as a fictional concept before we were finally able to catch up and make it a reality. For example, the "Wil Wheaton" in the picture on the right is now a real person. I know, it's spooky.

I really wanted to like this show, but I couldn't even make it through the first episode. Although, to be honest, the only thing that made me want to check it out was knowing that Penn Jillette was hosting it. I've been a fan of Jillette's for years, both solo and as one-half of Penn and Teller, but watching Identity was like listening to paint dry -- not watching paint dry, listening to it dry, which is much more boring.

Since networks don't make decisions based on my personal preferences, Identity will be returning to NBC Fridays in March. The first new episode will air at 9:00 p.m. on March 16, and will then slide into its regular timeslot beginning March 23 at 8:00 p.m.

Okay readers, should I have given the show more of a chance? Is it actually better than I thought it was? I'll admit I might not have been in the right mood when I watched it. Perhaps I had just been shot down by a girl at the bar, or maybe I ate some bad ham. If you think it deserves a second look, here's your chance to convince me.

Tonight starting at 8:00pm, the Discovery Channel will look fifty years into the future with a three-part series called 2057. The series will mix speculation from leading scientists with dramatic storytelling to try and envision how our world will change over the next few decades. One of the questions, of course, is whether or not we'll have flying cars, and more importantly, will Martian hookers be both plentiful and affordable? Okay, the second one is my own personal preference, but I think it's worth looking into.

The first part of the series, "The Body" airs at 8:00pm and looks at modern technology and what it holds for human health and longevity in the future: things like robotic surgery and custom-built organs. At 9:00pm, "The City," the second part in the series, will look at advances in robotics, automobiles and surveillance systems. Finally, at 10:00pm, "The World" will examine how technology will help transfer more information even faster than before, and the possibilities of space travel for average folks like us.

You can watch clips from the series here.

Here's a word of advice: if you want to create a dating show with physically disfigured people, and you want it taken seriously, don't title your show Monster Love. The folks behind the new reality series in the Netherlands at least figured that much out and changed the title to Love at Second Sight. The show is set to debut on February 20 and broadcaster SBS 6 is looking for people with visible handicaps to be part of the series.

This is such a load of crap.

CBS is launching a new campaign through YouTube called "15 Seconds" in which users can upload a fifteen second personal message that might possibly be shown on the CBS television network. That's nice and all, except for YouTube's dumb rule about not being able to use nudity or profanity. That might be fine for some people, but nudity and profanity is the only way I know how to express myself. Just the other day I walked into the local supermarket with my pants around my ankles and screamed, "where are the damn apples?"

Anyway, CBS will pick five videos from the YouTube site to be posted on CBS.com, and at least one video from that group will be selected for broadcast on CBS for every television quarter. The first video will be played during CBS' pre-game coverage of Super Bowl XLI on February 4.