TVSquad

Well, the big news to come out of the Wizard's First Rule panel was that the series is not going to be called Wizard's First Rule. The new title is Legend of the Seeker. Why? Well, according to panelists and author Terry Goodkind the name change was made to focus on the hero of the book itself rather than the main book of the series.

A few other tidbits from the panel and press event can be found after the jump.

This fan post from Oh No They Didn't! contains two super-sneaky clips of new songs from Flight of the Conchords' recent Milwaukee tour stop. The audio isn't top-notch, obviously, what with all the audience laughter, echo-y acoustics, and the overwhelming roar of girls everywhere doing that thing where they take off their bra under their shirt and then fling it on the stage. Chick magnets, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement are. Anyway, we still have a long while to wait before their self-titled HBO show returns for a second season. Perhaps we can give a listen to this new material and start thinking about what January 2009 will bring.

Is that a throne Rob Thomas is sitting on? Seems like he's quickly becoming King of TV! The prolific scribe is quite literally sitting in the catbird seat. ABC has just greenlit another Rob Thomas pilot, that's his third -- but who's counting? It follows ABC's resurrection of Cupid and a Beverly Hills, 90210 spinoff for the CW. The latest Rob Thomas opus is an import based on the New Zealand TV series Outrageous Fortune.

Outrageous Fortune is a one-hour dramedy is about a family of criminals. When the father is jailed for four years, the matriarch declares that it's time for the family to go straight. Thomas has written the pilot and will act as executive producer, along with John Barnett, Michael Larkin, Michael Goldstein, Bruce Cervi and John Lansing.

And now, an item from our 'Duh! It's kinda obvious' department . . .

A new, long-term study conducted by the University of Otago in New Zealand says that watching more than two hours of television early in life can lead to attention problems later in adolescence. Symptoms of the attention problems included short attention span, poor concentration and being easily distracted. Um, sorry, what was I saying? Oh look, a pretty flower!

Over the past few weeks, my quiet adoration for Flight of the Conchords and their HBO show has quickly spiraled into something dangerously close to rabid fanaticism. This transformation is marked by my sudden desire -- nay, my sudden need -- to listen to and watch all that the boys have ever done, and then take screencaptures of everything and then use those screencaptures in Photoshop to make little 100 x 100 avatars so that I can share my love with other fans on Flight of the Conchords forums and message boards. However, I'm glad to say that I'm not quite there yet, because my self-control has helped me contain my creepiness to a certain extent. That said, I do have a PSD file of screencaptures of the last episode on my Desktop right now. I'm just saying.

Okay, enough story time, because I have some good stuff to share...

Try this experiment: mention The Simpsons anywhere and see how long it takes for someone to say, "Oh, right, The Simpsons, yeah, they were good for the first ten seasons, but after that, they just got SO UNFUNNY! I don't know why people watch anymore!"

Since Fox decided to release a Simpsons movie (apparently under the radar -- I mean if you're going to release a movie, you should at least market it! you know?), I've been hearing that sentiment approximately once every thirty-four seconds. It annoys me every time I hear it, but it wasn't until today that I realized exactly why this was so.

It's because the people expressing it are confusing their ignorant negativity for intelligent commentary.

Warwick Light, the marketing boss at Sony's New Zealand division tells The Press that the PlayStation3 that the company hopes to release a digital television tuner for the gaming console next year.

That would essentially let you turn your PS3 into a digital video recorder. The system already has the key components including a hard drive, graphics processor, Blu-Ray/DVD support, and networking capabilities.

The key word in Light's comments is "hopes." As in "hopes to release." That's not quite as firm as "plans." So we won't know for certain whether Sony will release a digital tuner and PVR software in New Zealand for a while. And we also don't know if there are any plans to launch a similar device/service in the US. But aside from the fact that a PS3 has a relatively small hard drive for recording HDTV, there's no reason the equipment couldn't handle standard or high definition television capabilities with a USB tuner.

[via Kotaku]

My absolute, hands-down favorite new show of this summer is HBO's Flight of the Conchords. The show stars Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement as stranger versions of themselves, musicians from New Zealand trying to make it in big, bag America, with little to no help from their pathetic manager, Murray (the extremely funny Kiwi comic Rhys Darby). But did you know that before the Flight of the Conchords show, there was a Flight of the Conchords band? Well, you probably already knew that, but I wanted to take a moment and marvel at the comedic beauty that is the Bret and Jemaine duo.

"Kiwi the People": New Zealand has outlawed some forms of political satire, so Jon took it upon himself to grab some footage of the Kiwi government and work some magic. And by "work some magic", I mean "make fart noises". I did enjoy the very serious asides about New Zealand's background, though. So I guess it really is more than the filming location of Lord of the Rings! WOW.

"Long-Distance Velocipede Bulletin": With controversy being such a natural part of the sporting world, even the Tour de France is not immune. I love that the "taunting Lance Armstrong" line garnered boos. Everyone loves that Armstrong guy. I mean, if Jon had said that line about a Republican congressman or something, people would have been laughing. But Armstrong is off-limits.

Recently John Cleese performed in the New Zealand city of Palmerston North and he found the crowd there less than welcoming. So much so, that in an interview afterwards he took a couple of shots at the city by saying it was the suicide capital of the country. In retaliation, residents of Palmerston North have erected a sign in front of a landfill that says Mt. Cleese.

Let's all pause while we enjoy the hilarity.

As a comedian, I have done way too many shows that I was unhappy with. Most of the time, I will take the blame for the bad show or just chalk it up to some unavoidable occurrence. However, every once in a while, I am forced to point the finger at the audience. Now, when I do it, it's generally in the privacy of my car on the way home with no one else in attendance. John Cleese, being the legend that he is, took a different tactic.

Had I known that television shows were just going to premiere all their pilots online well before their air dates, I wouldn't have had to move all the way to Los Angeles for the insider privilege. But, we, the internet savvy, are being rewarded for our pop culture geekitude with such treats as HBO's online premiere of Flight of the Conchords over a month before its broadcast on June 17th at 10:30PM. You can watch New Zealand's "fourth most popular folk parody duo" in their stateside series debut on the show's MySpace site or, starting Monday, at HBO.com.

The billboard advertisements for Showtime's Weeds are driving stoners crazy in New Zealand. The billboards are three dimensional, with giant bags of pot bulging off of them. New Zealanders keep stealing the "pot" from the billboards, so the advertising company set up security cameras to catch the thieves in the act. At least one stoner takes a tumble while trying to score some major weed. It's just the latest in Weeds' creative promotion campaigns that have included brownies, scratch-and-sniff pot fliers, and the tagline, "Putting herbs in the suburbs".

Security camera video is after the jump.

[Via Defamer]

Kim Cattrall is going to play her Samantha character from Sex and the City until she dies, isn't she?

Nissan has pulled a new advertisement starring Kim Cattrall from New Zealand television, following complaints about its content. In the ad, Cattrall makes all sorts of sexually suggestive comments about the new Nissan Tiida, saying thinks like "It's so big!" and "That great body and the way you moved it." While the New Zealand censors approved of the ad, the public did not.