August 15, 2026

Saturday Night Showcase> Hey, Hey, Hey, It’s Fat Albert

I’m posting this one for the historical value…because I really couldn’t get past the first few minutes. No, not because Cosby was involved as narrator, young Bill, and Fat Albert.

Before the two Fat Albert shows we got, Bill Cosby made a NBC special for primetime. Hey, Hey, Hey, It’s Fat Albert only aired twice. Cosby then approached them to make a series that would give life lessons among the comedy. They turned it down, so they and new animation studio Filmation took it to CBS, and Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids was born. The Brown Hornet segments would be added to the revamped The New Fat Albert Show, and years later the show returned in syndication as The Adventures Of Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids with new segment Legal Eagle, and I have trouble believing that those kids would watch a show about an eagle lawyer over a black superhero and his team fighting bad guys in outer space.

I also don’t believe the show would have been popular with this animation and direction. The character models of the five characters that made it to the series–young Bill, his brother Russell, Weird Harold, and Dumb Donald–kind of resemble their show counterparts, and I didn’t stay for the two characters that didn’t make it, Weasel and Nolan, or other show character Rudy. Of course, Cosby already had Albert’s voice down as the show was based on the standup routines he did back then, based on his days growing up in Philadelphia. He later turned to comedy about being a parent, which inspired The Cosby Show. Now he’s in trouble for…let’s just say mistreatment of women because I really don’t want to get into that stuff.

Like I said, this is posted for its historical legacy as recently found media. The show itself looked better and was an important part of many childhoods, but it was just too off for me. Maybe you’ll find it more interesting. Enjoy.

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Posted by on August 15, 2026 in Animation Spotlight, Saturday Night Showcase, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , , , .

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August 15, 2026

BW’s Saturday Article Link> The God Of War On God Of War

Amazon is doing an adaptation of the Norse period of the God Of War video game franchise. Not sure if anyone out there would rather have started with the original Olympian period (might make a good prequel series) but only one producer had any ties to the games, and he wasn’t even the producer of the game, he was a writer. Christopher Judge, who voiced Kratos in the Norse games, discussed his confusion at not hiring the writers of the games to do their adaptation.

This led to That Park Place contributor Martin Montanaro building an article going over how Hollywood thinks they’re better than the mocap suited actors (who can also be their voices) and the writers who made the game popular as they seek to do either a shot-for-shot remake, as Judge notes with The Last Of Us, or an adaptation in name only (I think the next Resident Evil movie falls into that but you’d have to ask someone who likes the game and zombie movies.) He does acknowledge that there may be good reasons with some of the actors going live-action, but he has a good point about not including the writers, which Amazon’s God Of War will not have. I’ll also add if it has to be live-action, but at least the video game is already animated, so it does make it different from just watching the game cutscenes and someone else play the game. Partly.

Posted by on August 15, 2026 in Movie Spotlight, Video Game Spotlight and tagged , , .

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August 14, 2026

Scanning My Collection> My Introduction To Supergirl

With Totally Not James Gunn’s Supergirl movie being a hot mess and failing miserably, I’m only happy enough people with taste still exist in the world. Everything I’ve seen of it tells me nobody understood Kara Zor-El, but that’s been true since the New 52 spelled the end of DC Comics for me, after already having a Death Of DC category due to Dan DiDio’s darkening and destruction of what was my favorite comic universe. The last gasp of the Girl Of Steel I knew was in the internet version of DC’s Super Hero Girls by Shea Fontana. While I’m convinced that Lauren Faust was told to remake My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic rather than revisit her series of Super Best Friends Forever shorts, putting Kara in the “Rainbow Dash” persona rather than “Fluttershy” was a mistake, if she had to go with anything. But I’m getting off topic before I even got on topic.

Like with Starfire and what the aforementioned third full reboot of the DC Universe did to her (a sex fiend with the memory of a goldfish), my first introduction to Supergirl was from a free giveaway comic. I’d later get to see her origins in a black and white reprint collection Superman: From The 30s To The 70s that I used to get from the library constantly along with a counterpart book with Batman. However, while Starfire was trying to get kids off of drugs, Supergirl was a pusher…of computers. The second in a series of Superman comics by Radio Shack, in which DC heroes joined with him and Radio Shack’s original characters Alec & Shanna–the (then) TRS-80 Computer Whiz Kids–Supergirl was listed as a guest-star but is more of the lead heroine. They could have just put her name on the cover instead, like a pro-seat belt comic would years later. So how could an ad comic given away at a now extinct electronics store to push their new computers make me instantly like Superman if he were a girl? No, not puberty. You put the creators who make good superhero comics on the title.

“Couldn’t we just use these kid-sized battlesuits?” “NO, GET ON YOUR 1980S COMPUTER WITH PRE-INTERNET! TRS-80 is our god now!”

Superman” Victory By Computer

DC Comics/Radio Shack (1981)

WRITER: Cary Bates

ARTISTS: Curt Swan & Vince Colletta

This fits into “Scanning My Collection” on a technicality. I had a copy but it was lost years ago. I still have my copy of the first one and the early TRS-80/Tandy Computer Whiz Kids by Archie comics before they started messing with the continuity. As it was the city got renamed maybe twice. I understand not being able to use Metropolis, but it went from Metro City to Coast City to I forget what after. This is also after Alec and Shanna managed to help Superman stop Major Disaster from causing his namesake. We’re getting the broken in Alec, who isn’t such a wise guy. Lucky Kara.

I have reviewed the first comic, and this one“Yesterday’s” Comic> Superman/TRS-80 Computer Whiz Kids #2, for “Yesterday’s” Comic, as well as the final issue that involved Wonder Woman that I’ve never owned. I only put this one together for the buffer after Supergirl’s missteps were being overshadowed by the mixed reaction to Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, but it’s still worth going over why I liked Supergirl so much, because of everything DC Comics and Studios abandoned. I also really liked the first Supergirl movie from the Salkinds that gave us Helen Slater’s better portrayal. I know that’s a minor opinion as well, but that’s hardly a first for me, is it?

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Posted by on August 14, 2026 in DC Spotlight, Scanning My Collection and tagged , , , , , , , , , , .

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August 13, 2026

Has “Girl” Become A Gimmick At DC Studios?

Last night I read an article from Geeks & Gamers about some cancelled projects at DC Studios for theater and HBO Max. In what might be a coincidence after the failure of the Superlessgirl movie, DC apparently dropped the idea of Catwoman and Poison Ivy shows for HBO as well as a movie focused on the James Gunn version of Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller, and a Wonder Woman movie. That’s four female led projects joining the Batgirl movie, which was considered so bad by David Zaslav that deleting it and using it as a tax write-off felt more financially viable.

Personally I would think a Poison Ivy show would be a bad idea. She evolved into an eco-terrorist and I have a feeling they’d try to make a hero out of her. Selina Kyle at least bounces back and forth between hero and villain, kind of like Ric Flair to you wrestling fans out there. Exploring that might prove interesting provided they don’t go the same route as the Haley Berry helmed movie. When you can make straight men uninterested in watching a movie where she’s wearing that outfit, you done messed up. If it wasn’t for animation and the first Snyderverse Wonder Woman, DC Entertainment outside the comics would be 0 for everything as far as good entertainment starring a superheroine. See also Batwoman, Birds Of Prey (the series and the movie), and then look at how lousy Marvel’s track record is as well.

I was going to do a pushback against the commentary I know is coming, that men don’t want to see female heroes. While I have multiple lists denouncing that, just recently posting one about anime heroines, I’m willing to bring up more. It’s not that we don’t want to see women be awesome, it’s that our version of awesome is the same as we want from male characters, just with feminine characteristics and perspectives to set them apart and let them be awesome in their own way. As I was re-reading the article, however, I think there’s a new angle, or at least one rarely asked: has the heroine gone from being cool to a gimmick? Especially in DC, if they DID (and there’s no confirmation, just circumstantial evidence) cancel solo projects because of Supergirl flopping so badly, does that mean they were using a superheroine for the wrong reason?

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Posted by on August 13, 2026 in Movie Spotlight, Streaming Spotlight, Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , , , , .

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August 13, 2026

BW’s Daily Video> Disney Admitted The Truth

Catch more from Snarky Jay on YouTube

Posted by on August 13, 2026 in Movie Spotlight and tagged , , , .

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August 12, 2026

We Don’t Need Another Tennant Doctor

I have nothing against David Tennant personally, outside of that whole “right side of history” nonsense we won’t get into because it doesn’t matter. I’m just stating that this has nothing to do with the actor himself. Any issues I have with the “God Doctor” as I call him due to how he was treated comes from Russell T. Davies and the various writers of BBC Wales and Bad Wolf Productions. So let’s be clear on that; I don’t hate Tennant or his Doctors…and therein is the problem. Doctors. Plural.

At issue is the rumor examined in the following video from YouTube channel WhoCulture, part of the WhatCulture network of channels and website. It may be a rumor that Dean Devlin, the movie director, wants to take over the Doctor Who series. And of course he put out the possibility of bringing back David Tennant. Arguably the most popular Doctor of the New Who era, it makes sense that the belief is bringing back Tennant means bring back audiences. At one point that might have been true. Now? I’m not so sure. I think that Tennant’s “brand” may be a bit weaker than it was, not from his political statements but due to oversaturation as he may be overused by this series.

I feel sorry for Elle Littlechild. This is the second time something like this came up while she was on break. As a commentator myself it is annoying when something cool happens that you want to discuss, but the whole point of taking a vacation is to NOT work, whether you’re getting paid or not. She is, I’m not, but Sean Ferrick of TrekCulture steps in to discuss this news, a possible Devlin-produced TARDIS trip, and a slight sidebar about AI videos. Trust me, it all matters.

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Posted by on August 12, 2026 in Television Spotlight and tagged , , , , , , .

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