TVSquad

Marvel comics icon Stan "The Man" Lee will make a cameo appearance on the Monday, February 19th episode of Heroes. Entitled "Unexpected," Lee will play a bus driver who has an encounter with Hiro Nakamura.

Is it because we have proof positive that Masi Oka was once a nerd supreme - works part-time for George Lucas, on the cover of Time circa 1987 as an Asian-American Whiz Kid - that he gets to have all the geek-out encounters on Heroes? His dad is George Takei. He rides the bus with Stan Lee. Anyone want to start making guesses as to what uber-geek chic run-in Hiro will have next? Frank Miller? Alan Moore? The cast of Firefly? Xeni Jardin? He's got an in with Lucas.

The music video for the late Johnny Cash's song "God's Gonna Cut You Down" will debut tomorrow evening on CMT, MTV and VH1. It will first appear during the CMT Top 20 Countdown from 4 pm to 7 pm. Later that evening, it will air on both MTV and VH1 at 11 pm. The video will also debut tomorrow on the Web sites for all the aforementioned channel, as well as on MTVU.com and Urge, MTV's music service.

Several musicians and actors will appear in the video, including Iggy Pop, Chris Rock, Dennis Hopper, Patti Smith, Johnny Depp and the Dixie Chicks. Justin Timberlake helped with the concept of the video, which to me is like having a two year old paint a tribute to Leonardo DaVinci, but whatever. As much as they're hyping this video, I think simply popping in a copy of American V: A Hundred Highways and listening to the track is a better option than watching the video.

However, you should tune into CMT at 8pm tomorrow night to catch a re-airing of Johnny Cash in San Quentin, the 1969 film that covered his famous and controversial performance.

This is one of those "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" type things, but a close friend of mine actually attended college with the grandson of Joseph Barbera, one-half of the famous Hanna-Barbera team who were responsible for most of our childhood memories by creating charcters like Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear, and about fifty gajillion others. Google Video has a seven part interview with Mr. Barbera conducted by Leonard Maltin for the Archive of American Television. The entire interview clocks in at about four hours, and I've been watching little snippets here and there. It's interesting to watch, but I find it's much easier on my eyes if I just let the audio play and do things about the house as I listen to it. At any rate, if you're a fan I encourage you to check it out.

[via Cartoon Brew]

While each of the Looney Tunes characters had their own personality, even those personalities would differ depending on which era the cartoon was made, and who was directing. Porky Pig, for example, was often portrayed as the neurotic foil, but in later cartoons with Daffy Duck he was often the calm voice of reason. Daffy also differed greatly in personality from his early days under the supervision of Bob Clampett when he truly lived up to the name "daffy" to his eventual evolution into the selfish but lovable duck most people know him as today. Trying to keep these two sides of Daffy's psyche in mind, I've come up with five of what I think are his best shorts:

Duck Amuck (1953): "And on this farm he had an igloo...." This was one of my favorite cartoons growing up, and still is today. Daffy finds himself at the mercy of an unseen director who erases and paints in new scenery, erases Daffy himself, and even messes with the music soundtrack and Daffy's own voice. Al the while Daffy tries to reason with him, but to no avail. In the end it's revealed that the man with the magic pencil and paintbrush is actually Bugs Bunny.

Bugs Bunny is by far the most unflappable character in cartoons, an insouciant thorn in the side of anyone who seeks to do him harm, and the only one able to maintain his cool while everyone around him is going insane. I've come up with five of my favorite Bugs Bunny shorts of all time, and it wasn't easy. I managed to pare the list from eleven down to seven, and finally, down to five. Here they are:

What's Opera, Doc? (1957): "Spear and magic helmet?" A later entry into the Looney Tunes library, this has come to be recognized as one of the best animated shorts of all time. The basic plot of Elmer hunting Bugs and Bugs thwarting his every attempt is still evident here, but it's amplified by the great musical score, Maurice Noble's amazing background art, and a tragic love story that's actually rather touching in its own unbalanced way. I also love this exchange between Elmer (as Siegfried) and Bugs (disguised as Siegfried's love interest, Valkyrie Brunhilde):

Elmer: [singing] Oh Brunhilde , you're so lovely.

Bugs: [singing] Yes I know it, I can't help it.