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.
Ali Lohan of E!'s Living Lohan wants to destroy her nonexistent career by starring in the remake of the 1986 movie Troll (the original starred Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Sonny Bono). "How fitting that she already kinda looks like one? Yeah yeah, we're more evil than the creatures she'll fight in the flick, we know," Kate Spencer of VH1.com jokes.
I hope we get to see Ali's audition, rehearsals, shoots, and any other drama that could involve Long Island's resident troll, Dina Lohan, acting like a crazed stage mother.
One of the pioneers on the technical side of the movie and TV industry has died. Stan Winston did makeup and special effects for several TV shows and TV movies over the years, including Amazing Stories, Roots, Manimal, Get Christie Love, and Gargoyles, as well as dozens of classic movies, including Iron Man, all three Terminator films, Edward Scissorhands, The Thing, Pearl Harbor, Batman Returns, The Wiz, Predator, Jurassic Park III, The Relic, Congo, Aliens, Invaders From Mars, Leviathan, Galaxy Quest, and many others. He also directed several movies, including Pumpkinhead and Ghosts, which he also wrote. He also created the costumes for the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978. Winston won several Oscars and other awards for his work.
Winston died of cancer in Los Angeles last night at age 62. He had battled multiple myeloma for several years and died at his home. At the time of his death he was working on the next Terminator sequel, Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins.
Hey everyone! This time we've got something a bit different. We have two signed posters from the new horror anthology on NBC, Fear Itself. The posters are signed by episode writers Dan Knauf, Drew McWeeny, Victor Salva, Jonathan Schach and Scott Swan. Fear Itself premieres this Thursday at 10 PM ET on NBC.
To enter, simply leave a comment below before 5:00PM Eastern, Friday, June 6 simply telling us if you're planning to watch the show. As always, we'll randomly choose two winners amongst the eligible entries. Some other details:
To enter, leave a confirmed comment below stating whether or not you plan to watch Fear Itself on NBC.
The comment must be left before June 6, 2008 at 5:00PM Eastern Time.
You may enter only once.
Two winners will be selected in a random drawing.
Two winners will receive a signed Fear Itself poster (valued at $19.98).
Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
Everyone's got their own idea of what's truly frightening. I'm not talking about people or things who just are scary because they're dangerous or despicable. I mean things that truly keep you awake at night, afraid to turn out the lights. Afraid to be home alone. Afraid to fly on a plane. There are a few characters on television over the years who've stuck out more than others as being truly frightening to a handful of us TV Squadders, and we've put together a list (surprise!) of characters who have haunted us for years. If we're digging up old unforgotten nightmares of your own, well, sorry about that.
The list is numbered, but it doesn't necessarily mean these are ordered. Like I said -- we all have a different definition of what truly frightens us. Make sure you list your own in the comments. Click on a number below to get started. #10#9#8#7#6#5#4#3#2#1
Character: The weeping angels Show: Doctor Who Episode: "Blink"
A more appropriate title for this episode of Doctor Who would have been "Don't Blink", or even "Let's Prevent Annie from Ever Enjoying the Sculpture Garden of Any Museum Ever, Ever Again. Ever."
The weeping angels were a group of statue-like creatures that "killed" their victims by sending them backwards through time to live out their lives before their birth. The angels would freeze into stone if they were seen, but between blinks or in darkness, they could move extremely quickly to their victims. To prevent looking at each other, the angels would shield their eyes, giving the appearance that they were weeping. The heroes of the episode had to avoid the angels by taking the advice of the Doctor and always keeping an eye on the villains, never blinking.
As someone who usually watches horror films, just to supply obnoxious commentary on the bad effects or acting, and is more likely to get queasy at the thought of student loans than blood, I was surprised to find myself silently peering through my fingers, too scared to move, throughout the entire episode. At certain points, I even felt my eyes water a little bit, only to realize that I had stopped blinking several minutes ago. I think I was most impressed that the angels weren't ruined by cheesy effects or bad costumes, which, to be perfectly honest, aren't exactly rare in the world of Doctor Who. Instead, everything was executed in a way that was simple but brilliant. Between the blinks of a lightbulb, the angels would make their way across the room, arms outstretched and vicious teeth bared.
To tell the sad, geeky truth, I've had a few nightmares about Daleks. Yeah, I said it was sad, okay? But there's no doubt that the Daleks are nothing compared to the angels. Look, there's even been a vote on it! The angels beat the Daleks and The Master by a huge percentage to take the top spot as the Scariest Monster of the latest Who series. The numbers don't lie, folks: Angel statues are super-creepy.
And then, as if to guarantee no one could comfortably turn their back on a statue ever again, the episode closed with this warning:
The new channel launches on March 1. Sitcoms Online has the full schedule here. As Kevin pointed out, it's all recycled content, but it's good recycled content (at least to a horror fan like myself), so I'm not complaining. Aside from the TV series, the new channel will also feature movies like The Shining, Psycho, Cat's Eye, The Andromeda Strain, and some of those great Abbot and Costello Meet [Blank] flicks.
One final thought: No Tales From the Darkside? What's up with that nonsense?
Last month, I started taking a course in basic video techniques. The first day of class, the professor gave us a large packet on all the number one no-no's of amateur filmmaking. The next evening, I happened upon a few episodes of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and suddenly, I saw everything in that twenty-four page packet spring to life before my very eyes. The hilariously cheesy effects, poor acting, and continuity so awful that it would have made even Ed Wood weep... Somehow, within six short episodes, this show had done every television "don't".
The Sci Fi chanel has their hands full this year, with a ton of original programming coming down the pipeline, which can probably be attributed to what I'm calling the Battlestar Galactica effect. That's a whole different channel from what debuted in 1992 as a place for Paramount and Universal to recycle old material.
Helping to buoy up the 400 hours will be Sci Fi Saturday: The Most Dangerous Night on Television, which debuts an original movie every Saturday. They showed us a couple of teasers, which actually pretty slick.
We're live at the Television Critic's Association 2007, sitting in on the NBC/Universal morning presentation. One little tidbit they've just dropped is that they will be launching a new channel on DIRECTV called Chiller. It will focus on horror and sci-fi, and feature series like Tales from the Crypt and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, as well as movies like The Shining, Blade Runner, and Psycho.
While the channel is tailor-made for horror fans, they are just using this new channel to recycle old content, and it would be nice to see an original show or two. I can already smell a "Who Wants to be a Serial Killer?" reality show to fit with the Fangoria crowd.
I've never been a huge fan of author Bret Easton Ellis' work, but there's no denying that his cocaine and greed-fueled tomes Less Than Zero and American Psycho are key to understanding the "greed is good" 80s. Ellis is back to help us define another decade - this time with the help of Showtime. The network has teamed up with Ellis to create a "horror-tinged" soap. Called The Canyons, the show focuses on a group of 20- and 30-somethings in Los Angeles dealing with career and relationship issues. The twist is that their "fears and anxieties manifest themselves as monsters and apparitions, which may or may not be real." Sounds like a half a dozen Buffy episodes.
Rumors about Steven Spielberg helming an adaptation of The Talisman, the novel by Stephen King and Peter Straub, have been circulating for almost as long as the book itself has been in print, almost three decades. Last year reports began to pop up again that a film adaptation was in the works, but still nothing. Now, however, it's official: Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy will be executive producing the six-hour adaptation for DreamWorks Television, set to air on TNT in the summer of 2008. Ehren Krueger (Arlington Road, The Ring, The Brothers Grimm) is penning the script.
The novel focuses on Jack Sawyer, a young boy who sets out on a quest to find the titular talisman, a magic artifact that may save his mother, who is dying of cancer. Jack flips back and forth between parallel worlds, his own reality and another called "the Territories." This novel, along with its sequel, 2001's Black House, also ties into King's seven-part Dark Tower series, as does a large portion of his other works.
(S01E06) Well, didn't I make a big mistake in sitting down to watch the latest episode of Torchwood all by myself, late in the evening?
Why didn't I just wait until my wife was ready to watch it with me, so that she could reassure me that the doors and windows rattling around the house was just the wind playing tricks on my mind?
But no, I just had to sit and watch it all by myself. I was too impatient.
(S01E05) Dexter finds that a semi end of the world would actually be better for him, being the only person left on the planet, not having to hide anymore. But wouldn't that leave him kinda bored? I mean, he'd have nobody left to kill.
That's right, Fuse TV will be presenting the Chainsaw Awards on October 22 at 9:30 pm. Who will take home the trophy this year? Will it be the Partner K950 gas-powered chainsaw with decompression valve for easy pull starting? Or what about the eighteen-inch Homelite chainsaw with automatic chain brake, which has lost out for the past five years to the fourteen-inch Remington electric chainsaw? I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm excited to find out which of th--
Hang on, someone just tapped me on the shoulder and told me the Chainsaw Awards is actually a special from Fuse and Fangoria honoring horror movies. I guess that's cool, too. Categories include "Killer Movie," "Looks That Kill," and "Best Butcher." Sounds like a fun-filled night of blood and gore. I'm looking forward to it. The awards have been handed out since 1992, but this marks the first time they've been televised.
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. 
Ali Lohan of E!'s 
One of the pioneers on the technical side of the movie and TV industry has died. Stan Winston did makeup and special effects for several TV shows and TV movies over the years, including Amazing Stories, Roots, Manimal, Get Christie Love, and Gargoyles, as well as dozens of classic movies, including Iron Man, all three Terminator films, Edward Scissorhands, The Thing, Pearl Harbor, Batman Returns, The Wiz, Predator, Jurassic Park III, The Relic, Congo, Aliens, Invaders From Mars, Leviathan, Galaxy Quest, and many others. He also directed several movies, including Pumpkinhead and Ghosts, which he also wrote. He also created the costumes for the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978. Winston won several Oscars and other awards for his work.
Hey everyone! This time we've got something a bit different. We have two signed posters from the new horror anthology on NBC, Fear Itself. The posters are signed by episode writers Dan Knauf, Drew McWeeny, Victor Salva, Jonathan Schach and Scott Swan. Fear Itself premieres this Thursday at 10 PM ET on NBC.
Everyone's got their own idea of what's truly frightening. I'm not talking about people or things who just are scary because they're dangerous or despicable. I mean things that truly keep you awake at night, afraid to turn out the lights. Afraid to be home alone. Afraid to fly on a plane. There are a few characters on television over the years who've stuck out more than others as being truly frightening to a handful of us TV Squadders, and we've put together a list (surprise!) of characters who have haunted us for years. If we're digging up old unforgotten nightmares of your own, well, sorry about that.
Character: The weeping angels
Not long ago Kevin
Last month, I started taking a course in basic video techniques. The first day of class, the professor gave us a large packet on all the number one no-no's of amateur filmmaking. The next evening, I happened upon a few episodes of
The Sci Fi chanel has their hands full this year, with a ton of original programming coming down the pipeline, which can probably be attributed to what I'm calling the Battlestar Galactica effect. That's a whole different channel from what debuted in 1992 as a place for Paramount and Universal to recycle old material.
We're live at the 
I've never been a huge fan of author Bret Easton Ellis' work, but there's no denying that his cocaine and greed-fueled tomes Less Than Zero and American Psycho are key to understanding the "greed is good" 80s. Ellis is back to help us define another decade - this time with the help of Showtime. The 
Rumors about Steven Spielberg helming an adaptation of The Talisman, the novel by Stephen King and Peter Straub, have been circulating for almost as long as the book itself has been in print, almost three decades. Last year 
(S01E06) Well, didn't I make a big mistake in sitting down to watch the latest episode of Torchwood all by myself, late in the evening?
That's right, Fuse TV will be presenting the Chainsaw Awards on October 22 at 9:30 pm. Who will take home the trophy this year? Will it be the Partner K950 gas-powered chainsaw with decompression valve for easy pull starting? Or what about the eighteen-inch Homelite chainsaw with automatic chain brake, which has lost out for the past five years to the fourteen-inch Remington electric chainsaw? I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm excited to find out which of th--
The Cheers episode Ken Levine's still writing in his head
Giveaway Tuesday: Fastlane - The Complete Series
Giveaway Monday: The X-Files: Revelations on DVD
