TVSquad

First Kentucky Fried Chicken and now you, Museum of Television and Radio? Oh, why must things change?

Anyway, the Museum of Television of Radio is changing its name, but not to "MTR." No, it will henceforth be known as "Paley Center for Media," which TV trivia-heads will recognize as being named after William S. Paley, who founded CBS and started the museum in 1975 (back then it was called the "Museum of Broadcasting," so it's not like this is the first time the name has changed).

So why the change? It's quite simple: we don't just get our information through TV and radio anymore. We now have this thing called "the internet," not to mention video content through mobile devices.

We all know B.J. Novak as Ryan Howard on The Office (he's also a writer and associate producer on the series). However, long before that, he was sharpening his comedic skills on the unsuspecting patrons of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Give Me My Remote has the scoop, straight from Novak's MySpace: while in high school B.J. and his brother decided to swipe the cassettes used for audio tours at the museum and replace them with their own tour, complete with Chinese music and everything (the tapes were for the Chinese art exhibit). The boys recruited fifteen of their friends to sneakily replace the regular cassettes with the new ones, thus giving museum goers a tour unlike any other.

You can download the Novaks' audio tour via iTunes by clicking here. Trust me, it's worth it. This is one of the funniest things I've heard in a long time.

When the new fall schedules were announced last year, one of the shows that I was most looking forward to, ABC's mystery-drama Traveler, wasn't on the schedule. Which was sort of surprising since it got a lot of positive buzz in the upfront presentation that the network gave. And then we had all of the serialized dramas failing badly (The Nine, Smith, Daybreak, etc) and it seemed like Traveler would never premiere.

But ABC has announced that Traveler will indeed make it's debut on May 30, at 10pm. The number of episodes has been trimmed a little, and it looks like it's going to be one of those shows that will have a definite end, maybe like a long miniseries, so viewers won't feel cheated. Which is good news for TV fans these days, I guess.

Ever the philanthropist, Stephen Colbert is extending a helping hand to the residents of Tuscumbia in Colbert County, Alabama by opening the only museum in the nation dedicated exclusively to celebrating, well, Stephen Colbert (he thinks the county was named after him). Starting November 27 and running throughout the week, The Colbert Report will show behind-the-scenes footage of the struggle to open the Stephen Colbert Museum and Gift Shop, and to thwart the efforts of people who want Colbert County to be remembered for Ivy Green, the birthplace of Helen Keller. Frankly, I'd love to see Colbert play Helen Keller in a production of The Miracle Worker, but that's probably just me.

As long as I'm on the subject of The Colbert Report, does anyone else think that Stephen's show is better than The Daily Show? I still love the Daily Show, and perhaps I'm just becoming too familiar with it, but I find myself more and more preferring Stephen's role playing as an idiot pundit over Jon Stewart's dry wit and occasional self-deprecation. Perhaps it's because Stephen never breaks the fourth wall that is constantly smashed to bits on The Daily Show. I still think there's room for both, but I find myself leaning more and more toward the Colbert Nation.

(S01E01) As I sat watching the premiere episode of Smith, I kept thinking the same thing: after Heist and Hustle and Thief, are people really going to want to watch yet another show about a gang of clever thieves who pull off elaborate robberies?

If it's based on quality, it shouldn't really be a problem. This is a good show. But we all know it's not just based on quality, there are about 9 other things that come into play when people decide to watch or not watch a TV show, and I wonder how viewers will calculate those other things in their head when deciding whether or not to watch it.

For over thirty years, Dina Babbitt, once a teenage girl imprisoned in Auschwitz, has been trying to reclaim paintings she made while in the concentration camp. Josef Mengele, the infamous Nazi doctor, took a liking to Babbitt's artwork and asked her to paint portraits of the gypsies on which he was performing his horrific experiments. It was, in fact, these paintings that kept Babbitt alive. After the war, Babbitt came to California and worked as an animator for both Warner Bros. and Jay Ward Productions. When it was revealed that seven of her Auschwitz paintings were on display at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum in Poland, she tried to get them back, but the museum has consistently refused, claiming the paintings are not personal works of art, but rather documentation of the events that occurred at Auschwitz created under the orders of Dr. Mengele. The artistic community, including former DC Comics artist Joe Kubert, have rallied around Babbitt's cause, as have congresswoman Shelley Berkley, and a former director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. Efforts to help the 83 year old Babbitt reclaim her artwork were stepped up recently due to a heart condition that is threatening her health, though I would assume that if she were to pass away before the issue is resolved her family would continue the fight.

[via Toon Zone]

Regardless of how good Smith is - and I'll say right from the get go that it is good - the big question is, are viewers going to give yet another show about a bunch of clever crooks a chance, after shows like Heist, Thief and Hustle? I'm not convinced they will, but if they base it on quality and entertainment value, Smith should be given a chance.

Hey, did you wake up this morning and find yourself inside the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.? If so, you should stick around because the museum is hosting a Jim Henson retrospective through September 4. You'll be able to check out creatures from as far back as Sam and Friends, the show which would portend the Muppet aesthetic, as well as animatronic creatures from The Dark Crystal. Some of the classic Muppets such as Kermit, Rowlf, Dr. Teeth, and the Swedish Chef, all originally voiced by Jim Henson, will also be on display. Now i just have to try to get out to D.C. before this disappears.

[via Muppet News Flash]

A recent survey conducted by the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum revealed that those surveyed knew more about The Simpsons than they did about the Constitution. When asked, more people could name characters from the show than could name any of the five freedoms upheld by the First Amendment. That would be freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble, freedom of speech, and freedom to petition. Of course, you guys already knew that. My thoughts on this are that such surveys are meaningless. It's not that hard to find people who know more about one thing than something else.