TVSquad

In a story that is chock full of cool, ComicMix reports that XBox Live is putting Voltron, Defender of the Universe episodes online. They have every episode from the first two seasons available to watch. The very first episode, "Space Explorers Captured" is available for free. All the others cost approximately $2 each.

Being a child of the 80's, I remember Voltron pretty well. It involved a princess in a castle on an alien world and these five robot lions (piloted by five humans) joined together to form a giant robot that beat the crap out of other giant robots (which they called ro-beasts). The best part of the show was Voltron's finishing move, the Blazing Sword. Whenever he pulled out his Blazing Sword, you knew the fight was over. Given the phallic imagery of his weapon of choice, you knew who they were marketing to.

I'm sure if I watched it today, I probably wouldn't be as impressed with the show as I was back then. For a nostalgia trip, it might be worth checking out the first episode.

Do you like trailers? Does the idea of a quick wrap up of what you missed in previous episodes make sense to you? Are you a fan of clip shows, i.e. an episode devoted to highlights from past shows? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you're likely going to be really happy about this: Eyelab has been re-editing programming into mini-versions of CBS shows for distribution online. TV Squad had a report about this a while back, but now it's fully operational. Take a look at this Real Hollywood Story/The New Adventures of Old Christine mini, which is posted after the jump.

Hey football fans, how about games streamed directly to your computer?

Yeah, well, don't get too excited yet, cause it'll cost you. The streaming is part of DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket Package, so unless you already have that, you're out of luck. And, if you do have the $269 Sunday Ticket package, upgrading to the SuperFan package that includes the online streaming will cost an additional $99. Also, it only works with Windows XP and Vista and Internet Explorer.

Now how do you feel?

Jay Mohr, comedian and sports fan, will be providing twenty-minute video segments for FoxSports.com this month. The series, called The Alternative With Jay Mohr, will mix remote segments, monologues and comedic sketches. Mohr will also pen a weekly column for the sports site.

Sports fans shouldn't be too surprised to see Mohr in this capacity. The comedian/actor, who currently appears on CBS' Ghost Whisperer, hasn't exactly hidden his love of sports, having appeared as a guest host on Jim Rome's Sirius Satellite Radio program, not to mention frequent appearances on The Best Damn Sports Show Period and NFL Sunday Morning.

Here's some good news for fans of The Young and the Restless, As the World Turns and Guiding Light: CBS is now streaming full episodes on its site. New episodes will hit the Web every day at 6:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., but only for one week.

I predict that bored office workers who never cared about these soaps before will feel compelled to watch them online, resulting in a whole new breed of soap fanatics. I see five men stuffed into one cubicle, each one holding a box of Kleenex and snacking on Pringles as they become more and more engrossed in the storyline. Productivity will plummet, and companies around the United States will be forced to shut down, resulting in massive layoffs and rioting in the streets. I guess what I'm saying is that CBS will destroy us all with this new venture. Or maybe I'm overreacting.

I'm sitting here watching Robot Chicken Star Wars online with video commentary from creators Seth Green and Matt Senreich, and in the opening sequence Green explains how the animators actual animated a real AT-AT toy to duplicate the Imperial Walker scene from The Empire Strikes Back. Green mistakenly refers to it as a Hasbro toy, but as all Star Wars fans know, it was Kenner that made the toys, not Hasbro.

Of course, the fact that I would even know that makes me exactly the sort of Star Wars geek the folks at Robot Chicken were aiming for. I hate to admit I wasn't as floored by the special as I was hoping, and somewhat disappointed to see sequences reused from past episodes, but it was clear, based on the special; the interludes with Green, Senreich and Breckin Meyer; and the aforementioned commentary, that these guys really love Star Wars, and that alone made it worthwhile.

[via Pop Candy]

Comedy Central's election coverage, "InDecision [insert year]" began, if I recall correctly, before The Daily Show ever hit the airwaves. Of course, it seemed perfectly reasonable that Jon Stewart and the gang would take the reins, and they did. They took those reins like you wouldn't believe. Boy howdy hoo.

So anyway, now Comedy Central has launched a companion site for InDecision 2008, which is scheduled to launch Wednesday, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The article also reads that the election spoofery began in 1992 and was always associated with The Daily Show, which I find hard to believe since The Daily Show began in 1996.

Also, you can go to the site now (http://www.indecision2008.com/index.jhtml), and I must say, for not having launched there's a lot of stuff there. There's clips from The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and Lil' Bush, and some funny blog entries: did you know Ron Paul is more popular than iPhones and crotches? He is.

We've been telling you about NBC Universal and News Corp's new YouTube-esque video service for awhile now, and today The Hollywood Reporter has news that the service has added the following channels to its lineup:

• Fuel TV
• Sundance Channel
• Oxygen
• Speed

Or is that "Star Wars Robot Chicken?"

Well, whatever, the main site for the upcoming Robot Chicken tribute to all things Star Wars has been updated with a bunch of kick ass new production stills (including images from the upcoming special as well as older images from past Robot Chicken parodies), a brand new trailer, and a hilarious therapist session featuring the man himself, George Lucas. He even talks about that dreaded Star Wars Holiday Special. Talk about opening up old wounds.

TNT and TBS will offer all seven of their original summer series for free online. New episodes will appear on Turner websites about about 3 am the morning following their debut, and the episodes will be available for viewing for about a month each.

Believe it or not, Turner is one of the first cable networks to do the streaming episodes thing, following in the footsteps of the big four networks, ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX. Last summer, only ABC Family offered its original programming for free online. Other networks, such as FX, Sci Fi, USA, and E! have streamed occasional episodes (mostly premieres and finales) but not entire seasons. As Broadcasting and Cable points out, it's probably because the cable networks can't demand a ton of money from carriers if their content is also available for free online.

Beginning next month, The Closer, Heartland, Saving Grace, and The Company will be on TNT.tv, while House of Payne, The Bill Engvall Show, My Boys, and The Frank Show will be on TBS.com. Episodes of The Closer, Bill Engvall, My Boys and The Frank Show will also be available on iTunes.

I don't watch game shows, except for Jeopardy. I actually consider Jeopardy more of a quiz show because it requires some actual intelligence in order to win. That's not to say guessing the price of a bag of sponges or calling out one of the letters of the alphabet doesn't require a certain level of intelligence. I'm sure Wheel of Fortune has to weed out a lot of unqualified candidates:

M.C.: Okay, Steve, pick a letter.

Steve: Abraham Lincoln!

Each year, television production studios send out oodles (that's the word I use when I don't have an exact figure) of DVDs to voters for Emmy awards. This year, CBS Paramount Television went green with its Emmy campaign. It's all explained on this website, but CBS has essentially decided to save the planet by not creating a bunch of DVDs that will just go in the trash and has, instead, directed voters to watch episodes online.

That means we can watch 'em, too.

Go here to check out which episodes of CBS Paramount (different from the CBS network) were submitted for Emmy consideration. The online video quality looks and sounds great. Among the contenders are a CSI episode with Liev Schreiber, Criminal Minds with James van der Beek, and an episode of Jericho, which the CBS network recently canceled.

In 2005, a series called Gay Robot, based on a track from an Adam Sandler comedy album, was pitched to Comedy Central. The titular character was voiced by comedian Nick Swardson and the series was produced, in part, by Swardson and Sandler.

Comedy Central passed on the pilot, but new scuttlebutt has it that the series may see the light of day after all, but as an animated series rather than a live-action one. There hasn't been any official announcement in regards to this, so we'll just have to wait and see.

This week, TCM.com, the site for Turner Classic Movies, launched a cool little video site called the Media Room that features a bunch of movie trailers and clips from its library of classic films.

On occasion however, you will be able to watch select feature-length films. Currently, you can see Living on Love starring James Dunn and Whitney Bourne. Other films will follow, including Rafter Romance, A Man to Remember and Double Harness.

I think this is a really cool idea, especially for folks who might not be familiar with some of these old movies. This new site gives people a chance to watch trailers and clips and get an idea of what the movie is about so they can decide whether or not they'd like to see it. There are always trailers and clips available for current releases, but not as many for older flicks. I myself have already been checking out the clips for Tod Browning's Mark of the Vampire, a movie I'm curious about since one of Browning's other films, Freaks, is probably one of my top ten favorite movies of all time.

[via Hollywood Reporter]

At least, it will be starting on July 1.

Pipeline, CNN's broadband site that was launched in 2005 under a subscription model, include four live streams plus archived video footage. According to The Hollywood Reporter, CNN never talked about how many people actually subscribed to the service, but I must say this seems like a good choice for CNN, considering how the majority of online content, news and otherwise, is offered for free and supported by advertising. If you charge, folks will simply go somewhere that doesn't.

In addition, CNN will also be redesigning the site for its relaunch.

So there you have it, news junkies: now you can have CNN playing on your computer, FOX News on the TV, NPR on the radio, ABC News on your iPod, and your butler reading you the New York Times all at once. It'll be like getting shot in the face with a machine gun of information. Yee ha.