TVSquad

New Zealand's fourth most popular five minute podcast about TV Squad returns! As always, you can either listen to it right in your browser or subscribe to it via iTunes and bring the dulcet tones of my voice with you on the subway. I can't think of anything better than hearing me talk about Ashton Kutcher's possible exposure to Hep A while being stabbed to death by one of the Shower Posse.

Discussed in today's episode:

• Bob Sassone and Tex Avery show us what the future of TV will look like.
• It turns out that Hepatitis A feels the same way about Ashton Kutcher as the rest of us do.
• Allison Waldman and CBS give Trekkers something to go nerd-crazy about.
• Apparently, Maya Rudolph has one fan.
• Jay Black pimps for Jay Black (and also speaks about Jay Black in the third person)

(Music provided courtesy of Kevin MacLeud.)

You've probably heard or read stories in the past of how real life can break into shows like Law & Order, Homicide: Life on the Street, and Rescue Me. What usually happens is some type of real emergency occurs while the actors are filming a made-up one for the television viewers. Or, someone will come up to an actor who portrays some kind of 'First Response' character on a show and demand that they arrest a neighbor or help them get their pet down from a tree.

Another example of this type of incident recently occurred with the cast of The Shield. This time, though, their interaction with real life was closer and a bit frightening.

This Tuesday, February 6 at 10 p.m., HBO will air a documentary that attempts to chronicle the history of gangs and gang violence in Los Angeles. Bastards of the Party, directed by former gang member Cle "Bone" Sloan, pinpoints the origin of gang formations as far back as the 1940s, when blacks began moving from the south into mostly white areas of Los Angeles, a fact unknown to many who assumed it was the turbulent '60s and '70s that gave rise to the gang culture. Of course, that era will also be chronicled in the documentary, along with the escalation in violence that continued throughout the '80s and '90s.

Sloan, who now works in the film business, became a member of the Bloods at the age of 12 and learned about the history of the gangs from older gang members, and also read about that history while in jail. This isn't the first documentary to cover this subject, and it certainly won't be the last, but what will make it worth checking out is seeing it through the eyes of someone who actually lived it.