TVSquad

Despite what Best Week Ever says, Grindhouse co-director Robert Rodriguez is not directing a live-action version of the popular Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Jetsons. He was, however, shown the script and says he might be interested in it. This is just one of many projects being offered to him, so it remains to be seen if we'll be seeing a Rodriguez-directed film with the likes of George, Jane, Judy, Elroy, Astro, Rosie, Mr. Spacely, Mr. Cogswell and Orbity, the Scrappy-Doo of the Jetson's universe (and I liked both characters, I'm just saying they were polarizing).

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.

Tonight at 8pm on PBS, NOVA scienceNow will look at a competition to build an "elevator to space." Participants will compete to see whose prototype can go the highest, and the winner takes home a $150,000 prize. The episode will also focus on scientific research surrounding the carbon nanotube, a stronger-than-steel material that just might be used to create the cable for a real "space elevator" in the future. It would be awesome if such a thing were constructed in my lifetime, though with my luck I'd be stuck on this lengthy elevator ride with some guy who just polished off a beef and bean burrito.

Other segments from the episode will include research into "longevity genes" and how they may hold the secret to living longer; using satellites to uncover Mayan ruins; and studies in "Quorum Sensing," the way bacteria communicates.

(S10E12)

Mrs. Garrison: Pound my monkey hole, Richard!

I figured Matt and Trey would at least lean toward the side of evolution in this episode, and they did, but it was really about how we tend to oversimplify things. Mr. Garrison reluctantly teaches evolution, telling the kids they're basically all "retarded fish squirrels," the product of a millenia's worth of inter-species butt sex. Later, author and atheist Richard Dawkins automatically turns Garrison into an atheist by telling him that a flying spaghetti monster is as likely to exist as God because you can't disprove either.

(S06E19)

Marge: FOX turned into a hardcore sex channel so gradually I never noticed.

Following an episode I wasn't that thrilled with comes another that's filed in my brain under "Meh." Episodes that show the family in the future always turn me off, and I'm not sure exactly why that is. Maybe I'm just not willing to accept Bart and Lisa as young adults and Homer and Marge as an old couple.

This episode begins with the family at a carnival, and Lisa wanders into a tent featuring bizarre animals, such as a chicken wearing a rainbow wig, a one-headed dog, and an esquilax, a horse with the head of a rabbit, and the body of a rabbit. The rabbit --sorry, esquilax-- escapes, and Lisa chases after it, winding up in a tent with a fortune teller. The first tarot card she places down is the Death card, which frightens Lisa, but the Death card is actually good, it's the Happy Squirrel card she needs to be concerned about.