TVSquad

Dear Stephen,

I was going to start this letter by telling you how much of a fan I am of you and your show. But I'm sure you already know that, right? You probably cannot conceive of a TV viewer who doesn't like your show, so my love of everything you do probably comes as no surprise to you. But last night you did something that hurt me and several of my friends deeply.

You made a joke about the Gorton's fisherman being kidnapped and said that he was in Maine. He's not, he's in Massachusetts. I should know because I grew up a mile from Gorton's and devoured their fish sticks every week (now with crispier breading!).

For a few months now, we've been telling you about how 16 towns of Springfield across the United States are all competing to host the premiere of The Simpsons Movie. The cities have been sending their videos to 20th Century Fox to show why they're the real Springfield.

The city of Springfield, Oregon, for example, did a Bill Kurtis-style investigative report on where the real Springfield is and determined it was in Oregon. There was even a cameo by Tony Hawk! The city of Springfield, Massachusetts had a similar premise, but with higher production quality. Theirs includes a message from Sen. Ted Kennedy.

You can see all the videos here, where USA Today is hosting a vote from now through July 9th on which Springfield deserves the premiere. The website doesn't say whether our voting will actually determine the premiere location, though.

Hey, kiddies, ever dream that Constantine Maroulis or Kellie Pickler were your summer camp counselors? Those dreams may be closer to reality than you think, now that the ever-popular American Idol is taking its brand to summer camp. No, this isn't a Reality TV show (although I think that might work), or a movie (that's been done). It's an actual performing arts summer camp geared towards 12-to15-year-olds who dream of becoming the next Fantasia, Kelly Clarkson, or Taylor Hicks.

A total of 700 teens will be accepted into this year's inaugural "Idol Camp" which will take place in Massachusetts over four 10-day sessions.

So I watched the TV coverage all day long of the Boston "bombs" that turned out to be electronic devices promoting Cartoon Network's Aqua Teen Hunger Force. And I think it was screwed up on every angle (media, Turner Broadcasting), but the people who deserve the least amount of second guessing from us are the Boston police and city officials.

I mean, they were doing their job. We can't expect every police officer, every city official, every politician, to be hip to what ATHF is. And even if they were, so what? A bomb can't be placed in something with a wacky cartoon character on it? Yeah, they were up for a couple of weeks, but in this day and age you can't be too careful, especially since these things were put in some really odd public places.

Well, this is bizarre. If you've been watching Boston news all day today (and the cable networks), you've heard about the hoax bombs that have been planted around the city. Now WBZ Channel 4 in the city is reporting that the devices have a connection to Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Take a look at one of the devices in the pic at right. Looks like one of the mooninites from the show. Turner has just released a statement apologizing, that it was a marketing campaign. It was a campaign with magnetic electronic lights for Adult Swim and the show! The devices have been up for a few weeks but people didn't notice them until today (or at least they didn't report them as being something serious).

I did notice that ATHF has an episode at midnight tonight, and the movie opens on March 23. Wow. This is going to bring viral marketing to the mainstream, eh?

Aaron Martin, head writer for Degrassi: The Next Generation, has created and will executive produce a new series about college life for The N called The Best Years. An appropriate title if I do say so myself, because I think for many of us college was a really great time. I know when it came time for me to graduate they had to drag me kicking and screaming off the campus: "No! I still have so much to learn! So many items I've yet to turn into a bong!"

The drama focuses on freshman Samantha Best, a product of the foster care system who looks forward to a new start at Charles University in Massachusetts. The cast of both Canadian and American actors includes a rich socialite from the Midwest, a star basketball player and a famous child actor who leaves Hollywood to attend the university. Thirteen episodes are set to air next summer.

Scott Grimes is actually one of the few famous people I can say I knew somewhat well at one time. Back sometime around 5th grade or so, Scott was in my class in a small grammar school in Dracut, Massachusetts. I remember his first forays into the acting world, as he sang and performed well beyond a young kid's talents in school plays, then public television talent shows and eventually commercials. I remember at one point, he'd gotten a gig with a popular (at the time) toy car company, and how jealous we were that they gave him a bunch of the cars for doing the commercial. Times sure have changed for Mr. Grimes since those days.