TVSquad

Modern Marvels, the long-running History Channel series that explores all kinds of scientific and technological feats and where they came from, is asking viewers to choose their favorite episodes for a marathon airing July 28 starting at noon (winners will be announced the day before). Viewers can go here and choose their eight favorite episodes from a list of episodes that cover topics such as 80s tech, brewing, horsepower, snackfood and harvesting. The site also features clips from the episodes. Yeah, there's only twenty episodes to choose from, which doesn't seem like much since the series has been on for over ten years, but I don't think fans will complain.

Modern Marvels began in 1994 and is narrated by Max Raphael.

Starting July 30, Modern Marvels will air every weeknight at 8:00 p.m.

They're not actually playing their characters from Reno 911, but actors Tom Lennon and Ben Garrant made a hilarious video for Declare Yourself, a campaign designed to get eighteen-year-olds to vote.

Lennon and Garrant play two older people telling young people that while the entertainment industry cares about their opinions when it comes to music, movies and television, nobody really cares who they vote for when it comes to the presidential election. It's a funny bit of reverse psychology, but I think it might be a little too clever. The sarcastic point they make actually seems valid in many ways. Should you vote for the prez when you know more about Paris Hilton than you do about issues that actual affect you? The answer is no, I probably shouldn't.

Still, I'd like to see more funny videos like this one that encourage kids to vote without endorsing one specific candidate or political party.

Funnyman Graham Norton will be hosting a new reality pilot for Lifetime.

The new show will serve as a kind of popularity contest in which an audience of women vote off one woman at a time from a group of seven as they answer challenges and tackle different challenges. The Hollywood Reporter article doesn't go into much detail than that, so it's hard to say exactly what the hell the point of the show is supposed to be, other than showing women at their most judgmental and catty. Oh yeah, and the show was originally called Judgment Day, which probably isn't a good sign, either.

Norton will still appear in TV in the UK. The Graham Norton Show, his BBC2 series, hits BBC America on June 2. Previously, he hosted So Graham Norton, a Channel 4 series that was adapted into an American version which ran on Comedy Central for a short time.

Comedy Central is gearing up for its second "Comedy Central Test Pilots" competition, a contest that allows amateur comedic filmmakers to create their own series for inclusion on Comedy Central's Motherload broadband site, and for the chance to have their series included on the upcoming late night showcase Web Shows.

Submissions will be accepted starting June 1 through July 10. Last year, a sparsely-animated series called "Awesome Friends" won the competition, which I found somewhat surprising since I didn't find that particular series all that funny. Apparently, though, other people did, which completely challenged my theory that everyone thinks exactly the same way I do. I'm just now coming to terms with this.

Anyway, the first round of winners will be chosen by a panel of judges and shown on both Comedy Central's site and on AtomFilms. The final winner, however, will be decided on by regular ol' online viewers like you and me.

Reality show wunderkind Mark Burnett will be launching a reality series for both television and online audiences that seeks to find one person to serve as the political voice of young America. The series, Independent, will launch sometime early next year on MySpace, and will also be seen on television, though at this stage no network has been found for the series.

I recently linked to a comedic short featuring Will Ferrell and Adam McKay (Anchorman, Talladega Nights). The short comes from FunnyorDie.com, a new comedy video site from Ferrell and McKay's production company, Gary Sanchez Productions.

The short, titled "The Landlord," has received over two million hits, and other vids from established comedians and actors will also begin to pop up on the site. However, most of the videos will be uploaded YouTube-fashion by regular folks like you and me. The main difference between this site and YouTube is that only those videos deemed worthy by other users will survive, and the ones that aren't so funny will be banished to a section of the site known as "the Crypt."

Julia told everyone about the new VH1 series The Department of Acceptable Media starring Jack Black back in November, and now there's a little more information available, such as when the heck the show will debut (March 23). Oh yeah, and it's not called The Department of Acceptable Media, anymore, it's simply called Acceptable TV.

The new series will feature several three-minute shorts in one episode, some created by regular folks like you and me, and some created by Jack Black and pals. Viewers will vote on which shows to dump and which ones to keep. If that sounds an awful lot like the Channel 101 site, that might be because Channel 101 helped create the series.

Shorts that are too hot for TV will made available online, and creators will also get a share of the ad revenue everytime their short is viewed online. You can watch some hysterical promos for the new series here.

[via Lost Remote]

If you click over to Muppets.com, you can vote on which of three covers featuring Miss Piggy will be used for the upcoming Season Two DVD set. There's no official announcement yet on an exact release date for the set, though Muppet News Flash writes that the set should be out in the spring. The second season had some great guest stars, including George Burns, Steve Martin, Milton Berle, Don Knotts, and Peter Sellers. I think a lot of Muppet fans will agree that the show really began to take shape in its second season. As far as the cover art is concerned, despite which one is chosen I wonder if they'll still find a way to use the other two covers somehow. I can't imagine they'd go through the trouble of creating them and not use them all in some fashion.

(S01E06)

Orlando (Jerri's Filipino friend): You should run for Homecoming queen, Jerri.

Jerri: What? Are you joking? I don't think I'm what boys consider a "traditional beauty."

Orlando: In my country you'd be a real queen.

Jerri: Yeah, well, that's because your country is ruled by monkeys.

Orlando: Jerri, that's an ugly thing to say.

Jerri: Jeez, why are you people so sensitive about your resemblance to monkeys? They're adorable!

This episode begins with a game of dodgeball and Jerri having to sit out the game because of uneven teams. Also, it seems her teammates would rather have a slow girl with two broken arms play with them rather than Jerri. Despite not actually playing, Jerri manages to get hit with the ball, prompting Yasmine, a popular girl, to remark that Jerri is probably used to balls smacking against her face.