TVSquad

You'll note that I didn't call it a "Muppet short film," because there are no Muppets to be found in the eight-minute short below. It does, however, feature a young Jim Henson. The short, called Time Piece, was nominated for an Oscar in 1966.

Something tells me I would have appreciated this short more when I was in college. Back then I lived for surreal, nonsensical stuff like this: tearing it apart, trying to figure out what it all means. I'd borrow films like this and Un Chien Andalou from the college media center and revel in how different it all was.

You think you're so great, don't you? Yeah, I'm talking to you. You there with your non-rotting skin and your oh-so-civilized way of not eating the flesh and organs of the living. Maybe it's time you stepped out of your comfort zone and learned a little about your fellow man (or, more precisely, your walking dead man).

Ed Helms (The Daily Show, The Office) tries to put a human face on the zombie by showing us that the living dead are not that different than us. They have jobs, friends, play the guitar, absent-mindedly pick decaying flesh from their faces -- well, I guess there are some differences.

At any rate, if you want a good laugh, and also maybe even get grossed out a little, the video is below.

No, it's not from Matt or Trey. This animated short, called "Out There," was drawn and animated by Ryan Quincy, South Park's Lead Technical/Animation Supervisor. It's an interesting piece, to say the least. I guess you could call it a weird tale about how your first love can send you skidding off your life path and heading in a whole new direction whether you like it or not. Or, perhaps it's meant as a lesson on class division in a land occupied by weird little monsters. It could also be a metaphor for something. I don't know for what, but I'm sure if we thought really hard we could come up with something. Whatever it is, I just like it because it's unique. Check it out after the jump.

[via Cold, Hard Flash]

According to the contract Rosie O'Donnell signed when she was chosen to take over Merideth Viera's spot on The View, she will not be able to cut her hair while on the show. If you're wondering what the length of her hair has to do with her ability to perform her hosting duties, well, you can keep wondering because it really has nothing to do with them at all. Apparently they just want to maintain a certain aesthetic on the show, and the chopped look she once sported toward the end of her syndicated talk show's run isn't what ABC executives are looking for. I guess if you're going to yak for an hour about nothing you need to look as glamorous as possible to distract from the fact you're not actually saying anything.

[via Best Week Ever]

Yesterday as I was getting ready to Tivo the Ricky Gervais episode of The Simpsons, I started to think about whether something like this had been done before, where an actor not associated with a cartoon was brought in to contribute to an episode. While I'm sure there's many, the only one I could think of was the Looney Tunes' short "The Mouse That Jack Built" which featured Jack Benny and his fellow stars from his famous radio and television program playing themselves as mice. The result was a hilarious short about Jack and his friends going out to eat at the Kit Kat Club, which turns out to be an actual cat. In the end, we're treated to a live-action shot of the real Jack Benny waking up from his nightmare, only to see the two mice from his dream crawl from his cat's mouth and scurry into a mousehole. Benny didn't write the episode, but by bringing in new voice actors with a more cerebral and less "cartoony" approach to humor, it resulted in one of the more unique Warner Bros. animated shorts when mixed with the slapstick and sadism for which these cartoons had become famous. Also, it should be noted that Mel Blanc, who voiced ninety-nine percent of the Looney Tunes characters, was also a regular on the Jack Benny Program, so maybe ol' Jack didn't need much convincing to appear in animated form. Rumor has it he asked for no money, just a copy of the cartoon. Oh yeah, and just to bring it full circle, the foppish shop owner on The Simpsons who says, "Yeeeeeesss???" is based on a character on Jack Benny's show. It's like a big ol' Mobius strip o' comedy.

So, my fellow cartoon-lovin' peeps, can you think of any other cartoons to turn themselves over to "new management" if only for one episode?

Sitcoms Online seems to be the only blog with any information about it, but Nick at Nite is planning to air a new sitcom starting in April. The new show, called At the Poocharelli's, will be slightly shorter than most sitcoms, and by "slightly shorter" I mean each episode is only ninety seconds long. The show, which revolves around a family of dogs, will air at exactly 9:57 p.m., following new episodes of Search for America's Funniest Moms II. The first episode airs on April 11.

There are varying degrees of "geek" it would seem. There are people like myself whose brain is packed with some of the most useless, trivial knowledge of comic strips and pre-WW II era animation, and then there are those who surpass my meager geek knowledge by leaps and bounds. Welcome to Eltingville was an animated series that celebrated the uber-geek, and it was damn funny. It's just too bad the show only lasted one episode when it aired as part of Adult Swim. I guess that means the word "series" doesn't really apply, but let's move on.