TVSquad

Cartoon Network and Warner Horizon Television fired up the cameras in Toronto recently on the new live-action pilot, Unnatural History.

While it's easy to ask why another live action show is proceeding on the Cartoon Network, Unnatural History could be fun enough to delay your need for that explanation.

According to a network press release, we're dealing with an "action-packed blend of mystery and martial arts" here. Fortunately, there's no sign of Power Rangers masks or rubber monsters stalking Unnatural History.

When the San Diego Comic-Con opened its doors to allow every corner of television onto their floors, they weren't kidding. After seeing the roster of panels, I'm surprised the original panel from PBS's Washington Week didn't field questions from guys dressed in Transformer cosplay.

Apparently, Warner Brothers set up a panel for just about every television show that have in development including Patricia Heaton's new ABC sitcom The Middle, making it the most "fish out of water" selection for a panel at the geek confab.

And so did the geeks in attendance. The panel only drew around 75 attendees and studio heads ordered Heaton not to introduce the panel because the crowd was too small.

It seems like a no-brainer that television and Comic-Con would go together like peanut butter and jelly. But TV has actually been a bit slow to the game and viewed their presence at Comic-Con as something that goes together like peanut butter and regular butter (trust me, I've tried peanut butter and butter, and it's not good).

This year, studios have recognized the importance of the annual geek con-fab and are presenting more shows and panels than ever before. There is going to be more TV at the Con than you can shake a stick at, so don't forgot your shaking sticks.

Why so many? Variety reports that studios and networks are recognizing the buzz they can generate at the convention through electronic social networking and good ol' word-of-mouth by showcasing and premiering exclusive screenings of their shows.

No, they're not sending nuts, bolts or robot arms to Fox executive's doors. Instead, fans of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles are joining a creative campaign called "Sarah Connor Made Me Do It" to help save the show.

Here's the idea, thought up by our friends at io9.com: TSCC fans are being asked to take photos of themselves posing with products that sponsor the show and posting them on a Flickr group. io9 says they'll make sure Fox and Warner Bros. see the photos and feel the buying power of TSCC fans.

So if you drive a Dodge Ram or love stuffing your face with Whoppers and want to see a third season of TSCC, take a picture and upload it to the group.

The folks at our sister site Cinematical are working hard to give you news and reviews of the best -- and worst -- the silver screen has to offer. Here are some of their latest musings on the latest blockbusters, indies, and everything in between:

• You guys, I cannot take Valkyrie seriously. Seriously, who thought that making a movie in 2008 about Nazis starring Tom Cruise in an eye patch was a good idea? Anyway, Cinematical reviews Valkyrie here.
  
• Don't you love year-end list time? Movies, actors and trends; Cinematical examines the hottest of 2008.
• Okay, don't freak out yet. Warner Bros. is still planning on releasing The Watchmen in March, but a judge has ruled that FOX has at least distribution rights. Read the latest on the battle for Watchmen here.
• If you have to take out classics like Psycho and the original Friday the 13th and only choose movies from 1990 to the present, what would you put as the best horror movies? Cinematical has the top 25.
• Because it's the day after Christmas, I present to you without further comment, drunk Jeff Goldblum. Happy holidays!

When I heard that TMZ had been renewed for two more years, I thought, yeah, I get that. In my neck of the woods, the show airs at 7:30 p.m. every weeknight. Tabloid TV has gotten to the point where it's no longer relegated to a 3 a.m. timeslot. Now it airs at a respectable hour, which has somehow made the show respectable, too.

So what IS it about the rich, famous and screwed-up that we find so fascinating? Other than the fact that it's just plain fun to gawk at these folks, I've come up with a few reasons why TMZ is one of the best things to enter our lives in years:

1. TMZ shows us that even though the rest of us might be struggling out here, we're still way better off than the people on TMZ's radar. That's comforting in a weird way.

Starting this spring, Warner Bros. will only release DVDs high definition DVDs on Blu-ray. That's a lot of DVDs only on Blu-ray for you HD DVD people (although Warner Bros. will continue to release DVDs in both formats until the end of May). Kevin Tsujihara, the President of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, says that the choice to go exclusively Blu-Rray is for the consumers: "Consumers have clearly chosen Blu-ray, and we believe that recognizing this preference is the right step in making this great home entertainment experience accessible to the widest possible audience."

Oh yeah, it's happening.

Following the soon-to-be -released Transformers and the recently-announced He-Man comes yet another afternoon 'toon from my childhood making its way to the silver screen.

This time, it's ThunderCats, an animated series that aired in the 1980s and focused on a group of warriors that looked like a meld of both human and feline. Warner Bros. has optioned a script from Paul Sopocy for the live-action CGI feature-length adaptation.

Ren and Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi is not happy with YouTube. The Spumco founder has been using his blog as a kind of "online classroom" to discuss the history of animation, as well as techniques and craft that were a major part of the "Golden Age" of animation. As a visual aid, he's been posting a lot of clips from YouTube of old Warner Bros. cartoons, but recently received an e-mail from YouTube telling him many of those clips have been taken down due to copyright infringement.

Now, I don't know enough about copyright law to take any definite stance on this, but Kricfalusi's assessment is that he's actually helping to promote these cartoons, and that people who see the crappy versions on YouTube will want to go out and actually purchase the higher quality DVDs. He writes: "While Warner Bros. stops promoting their own great properties by taking the cartoons off of the TV networks, the only way left for young fans to discover these classic films is through YouTube and our fan blogs."