It was big news in the world of daytime when Joseph Mascolo exited Days of Our Lives a few months ago. After all, Mascolo's Stefano Dimera was hailed as the number one villain of all time in daytime by Soap Opera Digest. His return to Days was supposed to be long-term, but it didn't work out that way. In a surprising, some would say typical, soap way, the phoenix will rise again. Stefano Dimera, in the form of Joseph Mascolo, is coming back to Days of Our Lives. His reign of terror will commence once more -- in early August. Meanwhile, the other big time evil-doer on the show, Victor Kiriakis, will become more moderate and good by comparison.
Evil on the soaps is, well, a necessary evil. You can't have characters who are happy and blissful all the time. You need the selfish, the greedy, the vengeful, all those evil types to keep the stories interesting.
Gallery: TVS Soap Report - Evil
In my review of 
Bored on this lazy Sunday? Of course you are, so why not 
Actually, drowning kittens isn't funny at all. Dressing them like pirates is funny, but not drowning them. That's just cruel. What the heck am I talking about? Well, the other night while working on my computer I had an episode of Tom and Jerry that I had Tivoed playing in the background, so I was only sorta paying attention to it. The short was called "Heavenly Puss," some of you may remember it as the one where Tom goes to heaven but can't get in until he gets Jerry to sign a certificate saying he forgives Tom for all the torture Tom put him through. There's a scene where different cats are going past the "ticket taker" to get into heaven, each one having been killed in a funny way (one was flattened by a steamroller, for example). Then, at one point, a wet bag comes bouncing along, and three kittens crawl out. The ticket taker (also a cat, cause this is cat heaven) shakes his head and says sadly, "What some people won't do." 
The new Adult Swim series from SpongeBob SquarePants writer and storyboard artist Aaron Springer, Korgoth of Barbaria, which also features the talents of Bill Wray (Ren and Stimpy, Mad Magazine) and Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack) does not officially debut until September, but last night a sneak peek was shown. Actually, I don't think this is the first time the pilot has been shown, but it was the first time I saw it, and I have to say I thought it was pretty good, especially if you like creative violence.
Here's a piece of advice: don't ever, ever tune into TV Land on a Saturday when you don't have anything planned. If they're playing the right show, you'll get completely sucked in to the point where the sun will go down and you'll have never gotten out of your pajamas.
I was a pretty big fan of the original Transformers cartoon, but never saw the feature film based on the same line of Hasbro toys. The movie has developed an odd kind of cult following, and has even been subtly alluded to in the mainstream in films such as Boogie Nights. It was also the last movie Orson Welles did before his death. The new 20th anniversary DVD set comes out in November, and will include behind-the-scenes footage and other premium content compiled with the help of Transformers fans. According to a plot synopsis, the movie takes place in 2005, twenty years after the TV show, and deals with the struggle between the Autobots and the Decepticons back on their home planet of Cybertron. Also, look for "updated" versions of the original toys around the same time the DVD comes out.
There's a whole sub-genre of sitcoms which I suppose could be called the
"fish out of water" sub-genre. These were sitcoms whose whole comedic premise was based on
taking the main characters out of their element and putting them into an entirely new one with the hope that
comedy would ensue. The 1980s were rife with these types of shows. Some found an audience, such as ALF, and
others, like The Charmings, well, didn't.
I went through a brief professional wrestling phase in junior high. This was when
Hulk Hogan was in his prime and you could also see the likes of Rowdy Roddy Piper, the Iron Sheik, and Hillbilly Jim,
among others. Eventually I got over watching men in tiny pants strutting around the ring and gesticulating, but
professional wrestling kept going on without me, turning into a huge phenomenon and becoming, as one friend of mine put
it, "a male soap opera." 
Whoopi Goldberg will be returning to television for the first time since Whoopi
was on NBC a couple years ago. She'll be guest starring in an episode of Law and Order: Criminal
Intent for May sweeps in a role that will most likely be recurring. Goldberg will play Chelsey Watkins, an
evil foster mother who goes up against Detective Mike Logan, played by Chris Noth. Goldberg seems to be playing this
up, insisting her role will be the baddest ever on Criminal Intent. I assume she means the character will be
bad, not her acting. Though maybe she did mean her acting, and she's going for some kind of award for bad acting. You
never really know, you know? This sounds promising, but Criminal Intent still remains my least favorite series
of the Law and Order franchise.
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