TVSquad

Okay, okay. It's been a while since we've had a solid update on the Venture Bros. and I suppose we're due for another one. With no new episodes to fill that Venture-shaped void in your hearts, it's cruel to deprive you all of this delicious information. We've got a lot of news to cover, from conventions to soundtracks to Adult Swim super-sneakiness, so let's get started.

All right, best news first: The official premiere date for Season Three is June 1! It has been confirmed by Jackson Publick, so you know it's good. The crew is about to get back to work and start Season Four, which means the wait for a new season won't be quite as painful as usual.

Clone Wars, Secret Saturdays, a teenager with a super watch, and yet another Batman cartoon. These are just some of the items that were announced at the Cartoon Network upfronts this past week. A presentation, mind you, that was attended by one George Lucas.

Lucas was there to promote the CN's pickup of the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which many are expecting big things of. This series, which we told you about way back in May of last year, will continue the adventures of Obi-Wan, Anakin, and many others during the Clone Wars. According to Stuart Snyder, President and COO of Turner Animation, Clone Wars will be a game changer for the network and will be event viewing for kids as well as entire families. "Star Wars: The Clone Wars will be appointment television for everyone in the family", said Snyder

(S05E03) "...and how was your fix? Did you ride the white horse?" - Markula

Wait just a second. Last week was mind-boggling enough, but did we just witness the completion of a trilogy? An actual episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force that required you, the viewer, to have seen the previous two episodes to know what was going on? Inebriated college students around the country are surely cursing at their TVs in an effort to understand why their favorite drunken hobby has suddenly required them to think.

(S05E02) "Sing for him John Kruk!" - Chrysanthemum

Wait a second... I'm going over this whole series in my my mind. Did we just get a continuation of a story line? An actual episode that picked up where last week's installment left off? Is ATHF going serial? This is madness! Sure, there are recurring characters that come back now and then, but there's never been an on-going plot that warrants two whole episodes. The one downside (it's really not all that bad), is that we went another week without Frylock, Shake, and Meatwad. But I'm sure they're having plenty of fun with Marcula's military desert spiders or whatever the hell kidnapped them.

Jackson Publick (a pseudonym for Christopher McCulloch) has released the cast photo for The Venture Brothers Season 3 on his LiveJournal blog. You have to scroll down a little to see it. It has many old characters in it along with many new ones.

A few characters, such as J.J. Venture and Jonas Venture, Sr., appear twice. I don't know what that means, but it does come across as foreshadowing. Clones, perhaps? The Venture Brothers has a history with cloning.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Jeanne Bates: She was best known as Nurse Wills on the 1950s medical series Ben Casey. She appeared on many TV shows over the years, including That 70's Show, Wings, The Young and the Restless, Dallas, Three's Company, Quincy, M.E., Charlie's Angels, The Rockford Files, Cannon, The Saint, Hawaii Five-O, The Twilight Zone, and many others. She also appeared in several movies such as Die Hard 2, Grand Canyon, Eraserhead, the 1943 The Phantom serial, and the 1951 version of Death of a Salesman. She died of cancer at age 89.

What are you going to do? The Office, How I Met Your Mother, and even new shows like Pushing Daisies and Chuck are either out of fresh episodes or quickly running out. Well, you don't need to spend the "strike season" curled up in the corner of your bedroom crying through a pile of TV Guides, remembering the good old days when you didn't already know what was going to happen this week on House.

Television is alive and well, and even growing ... just somewhere else. Want to know what happened to Jack Bauer before Season One of 24? How about Buffy and the Scooby Gang after the series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? More and more shows are expanding their horizons by telling prequels, sequels and even in-between-quels in comic books, or graphic novels.

On November 27, Futurama comes back in a big way with Bender's Big Score, an "epic" film involving all the characters from the show that ran on Fox from 1999-2003. The DVD is the first in a series of four direct-to-DVD releases, which will be edited into 16 episodes that will air on Comedy Central in 2008. Fellow Squadder Brad Trechak gave the disc a positive review last week, which is high praise coming from a big fan of the show as he is.

David X. Cohen, executive producer and show-runner of Futurama, spoke to me via phone last week. We didn't have much time, only about ten minutes or so, so we got down to the nuts and bolts: how the movies will play on Comedy Central, some information on the show's comeback, a quick preview of the next DVD, and how the Fox executives felt about being ground into all-purpose powder.

The Cartoon Network announced today that they've completed work on the first live-action Ben 10 movie, Ben 10: Race Against Time. Directed by Alex Winter (yes, that same Alex Winter of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure fame), the adaptation of the hit kid's animated show stars Graham Philips as Ben, and Lee Majors as his Winnebago-driving Grandpa who accompanies Ben and sister Gwen on their many adventures.

If you're not familiar with Ben 10, then you're probably over the age of 12, don't have kids of your own, and/or aren't a comic-book loving, nerf-toy wielding, anime-watching geek. I probably fall into the latter category, because Ben 10 is one of my favorite animated shows. In fact, should I even be admitting out loud that I dressed up as Ben Tennyson for Halloween last year?

Unfortunately, it's not as a new super-villain on the next season of Venture Bros., although really, somebody should do about getting that put together, don't you think? Instead, Duchovny will be executive producer of a live-action kids show for the network.

Right now, it's just a pilot order, and there's no title yet, but the show will tell the story of a junior high kid from a long line of newsmen who uses the high school A/V club to launch a legitimate citywide news broadcast. Joining Duchovny on the team are Matt Dearborn (Even Stevens), who wrote the pilot, and Robert Mora (Phil of the Future, The Secret Life of Alex Mack).

Here's some animation news from the past week or so:

First, don't forget that Frisky Dingo's second season kicks off on August 26 on Adult Swim at midnight. That's next Sunday.

In a younger vein, kids can look forward to brand new episodes of Danny Phantom starting tomorrow, August 20. New episodes will premiere throughout the week at 4:00 p.m. each day, ending with the hour-long TV movie Phantom Planet at 8:00 p.m. on Friday.

With the theatrical premiere of The Transformers approaching fast, it should come as no surprise that Hasbro and Cartoon Network are developing a brand new animated series featuring the robots in disguise.

Transformers Animated, slated for a January debut, would be the ninth series based on the toys. In this new series, rather than constantly pitting themselves against the Decepticons, the Autobots will instead fight a human enemy. The new series will also NOT be based on the new film version, though obviously the producers are hoping for a hefty boost from the movie to get a new generation interested in the franchise.

You know, it's probably been more than a year since I went to the Homestar Runner website. I used to love watching the adventures of sweet, dopey Homestar, evil genius Strong Bad, and the rest of the crew, especially as a way to distract myself during my IT days. But, for some reason, I just stopped looking for new SB e-mails and other cartoons. And whatever internet buzz the cartoon generated seemed to die down at around the same time.

Which is why I'm surprised to read this article from Wired News: it seems that the Cartoon Network had been in talks with creators Matt and Mike Chapman about a Homestar cartoon that would be added to the Adult Swim lineup. But, interestingly enough, the brothers Chapman decided to turn them down. Yes, folks, you read that correctly.

I'm actually looking forward to summer television this year as a break from all the hype and mania surrounding shows like Lost, 24, and American Idol. I get a little burned out on all the talk as the mainstream media outlets (Today, Good Morning America, all cable news channels) try to get their grubby hands on a fraction of the ratings for each show by covering them... heavily.

This summer, I'm taking it easy. I'm watching a few intense dramas that I enjoy and picking up a few more new programs that look light-hearted. No reality programming here. And, unlike Bob and Jonathan, I don't feel any allegiance to Studio 60. It's just not good.

The Cartoon Network series Ben 10, about a young boy who uses a mysterious device called the Omnitrix to change into different super heroes, is being developed into both a full-length made-for-TV animated movie, and a live-action movie, also presumably for television.

None of the reports from the Cartoon Network upfronts have any details on who will star in the live-action movie, or even what the movie will be about. I myself have never seen the show, though since I tend to spend a lot of time on animation blogs I've heard some good things about it. The show just seemed to be geared towards a much younger crowd, even though I can and have enjoyed cartoons not necessarily intended for grown ups. Do any of you watch it or have kids who watch it? Does a live-action version make sense?