TVSquad

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

• Episode commentary by Seth McFarlane and a bunch of other members of the production team (absent are any of the character voices other than McFarlane himself).
• A twelve minute interview of George Lucas by Seth McFarlene on Star Wars, Family Guy, and a variety of other topics including dating.
• A nineteen minute documentary about how much the creators of Family Guy love Star Wars.
• The original animatics for the episode (includes jokes and animations that didn't make the final cut).
• A Family Guy Star Wars Clip Show (clips from Family Guy episodes which reference Star Wars).
• A generic Family Guy promo for Fox.
  

• Will you watch Star Wars, the TV Show? How about if it doesn't have any of your favorite characters in it?
  
• Guiding Light is about to get a major makeover.
  
• The strike is coming! The strike is coming! Maybe. What you can expect, if it does .
  

According to James Hibberd at TV Week, the team behind the Family Guy Star Wars episode may take a crack at parodying The Empire Strikes Back next year, possibly even having it be an annual event like The Simpsons Halloween specials.

One good thing about parodying Empire is that they can touch on the Han/Leia romance since the roles are played by Peter and Lois Griffin, respectively, who are married on the show. The producers weren't allowed to touch the Luke/Leia kiss because they wanted to play on the incest angle (which would have worked doubly so since Luke was played by Lois' son Chris). This logic may also explain why Princess Leia is played by Lois rather than Meg.

Those crazy kids over at CollegeHumor.com have posted a great mash-up of The Simpsons and Star Wars.

I realize that Simpson/Star Wars parodies have been done to death, but this latest one goes into such detail that it stands head and shoulders above the rest.

Pay special attention to how each Simpson plays a specific Star Wars character and the depiction of specific scenes from different films. I am particulalry fond of Ned Solo and Barney "Chewie" Gumble.

Citing information from "animation insiders," Animation Magazine is reporting that Disney may have its sights set on securing broadcast rights to Clone Wars, the CGI-animated cartoon series based on George Lucas' Star Wars universe (the series would take place between episodes Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith). The series' debut has been set at fall 2008 for some time now, but no official announcement has been made as to which network or cable station would air the series. Rumor has it that both FOX and HBO would also like to broadcast the series.

I told you back in May that The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones might be out on DVD before Christmas -- and it will be.

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Volume One will hit stores on October 23 and will include seven feature-length episodes which follow a young Indiana Jones as he encounters various historical figures and important events from the past. The 12-disc set will also include a whopping thirty-eight documentaries corresponding with the episodes, and interviews with such people as Martin Scorsese, Colin Powell, Deepak Chopra and James Earl Jones. Two more volumes will follow on December 18 and Spring 2008, respectively.

• Charlie Rose: a discussion of Muslims in America
• The Daily Show: Angelina Jolie (repeat)
• The Colbert Report: Toby Keith (repeat)
• The Late Show With David Letterman: Nicole Richie, Artie Lange, and Chrisette Michele (repeat)
• Jay Leno: Jessica Alba, Seth Rogan, and Lucinda Williams (repeat)
• Jimmy Kimmel Live: Kevin Nealon and Dana Gould (repeat)
• Tavis Smiley: Bernie Mac (repeat)
• Late Night With Conan O'Brien: George Lucas, Will Arnett, and Chris Isaak (repeat)
• The Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Wolfgang Puck and Big and Rich
• Last Call With Carson Daly: Harold Perrineau and Bloc Party (repeat)

Boy, howdy! If you don't have the TiVo or DVR (or, for the non-believers, VCR) cleared out by Sunday night you are going to miss a ton of Robot Chicken. In addition to the show's tribute to everything Star Wars premiering on Father's Day evening, the entire Adult Swim schedule will be dedicated to everything Robot Chicken from the beginning of their broadcast schedule till the break of dawn.

It will begin with the 30-minute Star Wars special at 10 pm. The special will then air at the top of each hour until Adult Swim's broadcast day ends at 6 a.m. Monday morning to make room for parent Cartoon Network. At the bottom of each hour Robot Chicken creators Seth Green and Matt Senreich will air their favorite episodes.

USA Today has a nice article about Green, Senreich, and the special they created. In it they talk about what they had to go through to get Star Wars creator George Lucas' blessing to create such a special, and to get Lucas to provide his voice in one of the scenes. I wonder if that blessing also extended to another show that Seth is involved with -- Family Guy. I'm sure it's no coincidence that the FOX animated comedy is doing it's own spoof of Star Wars for next season.

Or is that "Star Wars Robot Chicken?"

Well, whatever, the main site for the upcoming Robot Chicken tribute to all things Star Wars has been updated with a bunch of kick ass new production stills (including images from the upcoming special as well as older images from past Robot Chicken parodies), a brand new trailer, and a hilarious therapist session featuring the man himself, George Lucas. He even talks about that dreaded Star Wars Holiday Special. Talk about opening up old wounds.

Starting today and running throughout the week, CNBC will be looking at how Star Wars has changed the way movies are made and financed (it is a business channel after all). This is all in celebration of the movie's 30th anniversary. Reports will also be shown on the CNBC Web site.

I'll admit that I'm a huge Star Wars nerd, but even I think this is a bit too much. I'll sit down for any special that delves into the making of the trilogy, the technology behind it, the mythology, and all of that cool stuff, but I couldn't care less about box office, financing and merchandising. That's obviously part of the whole package when talking about a huge blockbuster like Star Wars, but none of that stuff mattered to me when I first saw the movie all those years ago. The truth is, even if Star Wars wound up just being some cult movie that only a few people saw, it would still be one of my favorite movies of all time.

I have to ask, is anyone interested in an examination of the financial side of the Star Wars phenomenon? Please comment, I'd love to hear your views on this, too.

Big thanks to my pal Wild Bill for smacking me upside the ol' noggin' about this documentary.

Star Wars was the first movie I remember seeing in the theater, even though I was only seven months old when it was released (I saw it in 1980 when it was re-released to coincide with the release of The Empire Strikes Back).

I'm sure Star Wars fans have know about the History Channel's upcoming Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed for some time now, but if not, here's your heads up: the special airs May 28 at 9:00 p.m., then repeats at one in the morning.

What the hell does Star Wars have to do with history. you ask? Well, that's what this documentary is all about. It will delve into some of the subtle and not-so-subtle mythological and historical parallels that run throughout the original trilogy, including Napoleon, Hitler, King Arthur and Greek legends.

A series of documentaries originally created to coincide with George Lucas' The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones (the title of a VHS version of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles) will be aired on the History Channel sometime next year.

The channel acquired rights to all ninety-four of the educational documentaries through a deal with Lucas. They cover such topics as ballet, Al Capone and slavery.

In an interview with Tosche Station, producer Rick McCallum described the documentaries as a kind of timeline that follow young Indiana as he meets different historical figures. McCallum also said the first set of Young Indiana Jones DVDs could be out before Christmas.

[via Geeks of Doom]