=-=-=-=-= Society of the Rusting TARDIS Newsletter (#79, 01/12/98) -=-=-=-=-=

>>> Items of interest to British media fans and Seattle-area residents, <<<
>>> and whatever else I feel like spewing about. You have been warned. <<<

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For those of you who have teased me about the endless series of barebones
newsletters, well, you can be quiet now. (Until next time, anyway.) I've
been migrating to my new computer, actually using Netscape to organize my
mail, and probably most importantly, I spent many hours trapped on a plane
with only my computer for company. (In fact, that's where I'm writing this
intro.) Now all I have to do is migrate the mailing list itself, and update
the FAQ, and I'll be just about caught up.

Note: The BBC's latest time travelling series, "Crime Traveller" starts it's
run at this week's video meeting. See the scedule below for details.

And now, in the immortal words of ELO, "Here is the news..."

On tap this time:
Quick news items
Animator Flushed Over "South Park"
Upcoming SotRT events

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Subject: Quick news items

Sound bites:

The upcoming Spice Girls movie "Spiceworld" includes appearances by
Bob Geldof, Richard E. Grant, Bob Hoskins, Mark McKinney, Roger Moore
(apparently in a Bond spoof), and George Wendt. And remember, it was
written by Jennifer Saunders. Hmmm...what a dilemma - it's kind of
like if the Beatles came to town with Hitler playing bass.

Rowan Atkinson reportedly has decided to do a Blackadder film. It is
tentatively planed for a 1999 release, and Richard Curtis is on board
as writer. No word on casting or whether Ben Elton will also write.
Atkinson still says there will not be another tv series.

Included in this year's batch of BBC Christmas specials:
"Ballykissangel", "Merry Mind the Buzzcocks", a new "Vicar of Dibley",
"Harry Enfield and Christmas Chums", "One Foot in the Grave", "Men
Behaving Badly" (the British one, of course), and "Two Fat Ladies
Christmas".

The third series of "Game On" started January 2nd on BBC2.

In case you missed it, the UK now has a fifth broadcast tv channel,
imaginatively named "Channel 5". Here's a sample of the top-quality
fare it provides: Dec 21, 5:30 - "Behind the Scenes of Spiceworld, the
Movie".

Gordon Brittas (Chris Barrie) has a new BBC1 series - "Get Fit With
Brittas". This is a comedy of sorts, being written by the folks who
did "Brittas Empire", but involving fitness bits with celebrities
(e.g., he goes cycling with Leslie Ash of "Men Behaving Badly").

Seen that BMW commercial for "Tomorrow Never Dies"? In front of a
bank of monitors showing scenes from the movie is Norman Lovett ("Red
Dwarf's" Holly) silently listening to headphones.

Paula Yates, former girlfriend of Michael Hutchence has been all over
the news. Her father was not her mother's husband, but rather
television presenter Hughie Green. Her mother, Helene Bosnan, had
denied the claim made by a friend of Green's at his funeral in May and
Yates had taken DNA tests to try to prove it was not true. Yates had
thought her father was Jess Yates, a presenter of religious television
programs, who died four years ago. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=6412256-5e4

The BBC declared December 5th "Red Hair Day", featuring as many
red-headed presenters (and red-themed programmes) as possible during
their daytime scheduling.

The most intense series ever to air on American TV, "Profit", is now
running on BBC2.

Local news:

January 24th is the semi-annual KBTC "Doctor Who"/"EastEnders"/BritCom
marathon. I don't know the actual agenda yet (after all, I just have
to stand in front of the camera and look stupid). Current plans call
for the station to start airing "Monty Python" and Neil Gaiman's
"Neverwhere" in the near future. Tune in, pledge early, and pledge
often. And if you can come down and answer phones for part of the
day, let me know.

Miscellany:

Those of you enjoying "Brass Eye" at the video meetings (or "The Day
Today" a couple of years back) may want to check out some web pages
dedicated to creator/host Christopher Morris:

http://www.koekie.org.uk
http://www.rethink.demon.co.uk

Well, it's a little late for Christmas, but how about a Tardis watch
with a Tardis that appears and disappears on the dial twice a minute?
Check out <www.aquajaneiro.mcmail.com> for details

What you missed by not living in the UK, part #13: "Clive Barker's A-Z
of Horror", January 2nd on BBC2.

This Thanksgiving the Christian churches in Salem, MA invited local
witches to attend a combined Christian/Pagan Thanksgiving service.

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Subject: Animator Flushed Over "South Park"

By Ray Richmond

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - As the warped animated series "South Park" was
smashing another ratings record at Comedy Central last week, a cartoon
producer in the audience was crying foul.

John Kricfalusi, creator of the divertingly offbeat "The Ren & Stimpy
Show" for Nickelodeon, was upset because he felt Wednesday's
Yule-themed episode ripped off his idea of turning a piece of human
excrement into a singing, dancing character.

The episode revolved around an animated piece of feces named
Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo, a conventionally shaped, though
decidedly animated, character bedecked in holiday threads, who
alternately entertains and smears people around him with goo.

Kricfalusi believes that Mr. Hankey was directly inspired by his own
similar creation, Nutty the Friendly Dump, who is prominently featured
in a cartoon short that debuted on his own Web site on Oct. 15 and, he
asserts, had been featured in various print publications "for years"
prior to that.

"I didn't invent dumps or farts, but in the context that I use them
in, I did invent them," Kricfalusi said. "The talking, singing dump
was invented by me. And now these guys are gonna get rich off of it."

Responding to Kricfalusi's charge, Comedy Central spokesman Tony Fox
called the claim of rip-off "ludicrous," saying that neither of "South
Park's" chief creator/producers, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, had ever
even visited the Spumco Web site.

"The fact is that Mr. Hankey is a character created by Trey's dad 25
years ago when Trey was being potty-trained," Fox said.

The "South Park" episode obliterated Comedy Central's highest-ever
audience level, pulling down a staggering 5.4 rating from Nielsen
(which translates to more than 4.5 million viewers). That is more
than seven times Comedy Central's primetime average.

The ratings performance busts the previous Comedy Central mark of 4.8
set on Nov. 19 by the premiere of the "South Park" Thanksgiving-themed
episode, which had broken the 3.8 established on Oct. 29 by the South
Park ode to Halloween.

Comedy Central also boasted Thursday that the Wednesday episode was
seen in one of every 11 households in the network's nearly 46
million-home universe. And it snared a 51 share of the males aged
18-24 demographic in Comedy Central households.

Reuters/Variety

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Subject: Upcoming SotRT events

Jan 14, 6:30: Video night Round Table Pizza, 5111 25th Ave. NE, Seattle
Jan 20, 7:00: Social Yankee Diner, 4010 196th SW, Lynnwood
Jan 28, 6:30: Video night Round Table Pizza, 5111 25th Ave. NE, Seattle
Feb 03, 7:00: Social Round Table Pizza, 5111 25th Ave. NE, Seattle

Currently planned for the next video night (January 14th):

BRASS EYE
Episode 2
(The man behind "The Day Today" returns in a news parody so vicious
and over-the-top Channel 4 initially refused to air it)

EVEN FURTHER ABROAD
Episode 2 - "Caravans"
(Documentary comedy - Jonathan Meades is back, and he's still
dancing about architecture)

CRIME TRAVELLER
Episode 1 - "Jeff Slade and the Loop of Infinity"
(Time-travelling police drama starring actors you may know better as
Kochanski and David Wicks)

HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU
Series 9, Episode 8
(Satirical current-events game show)

GOODNIGHT SWEETHEART
Series 4, Episode 6 - "How Long Has This Been Going On?"
(Time-travelling romantic comedy)

GAME ON
Series 2, Episode 5 - "Tangerine Candyfloss and Herne Bay Rock"
(Charmingly rude 20-something sitcom)

Coming soon: More of the above.

See you on Wednesday.

"The city slept. Men slept. Women slept. Children
slept. Dogs and Cats slept."
--"March of the Robots", Leo Brett (a.k.a.
Robert Lionel Fanthorpe)

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The standard disclaimers apply to everything here except this statement.
Contents Copyright 1997, Hand of Onan Enterprises, unless otherwise noted.
To subscribe/unsubscribe to this list, send mail to "onan@eskimo.com".
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jeff Electrons: onan@eskimo.com
stout Molecules: Seattle, WA Life before death - why wait?

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