No Picture
Animation

“Family Guy” Season 7 Episode 15 Recap: Three Kings

Peter, seated comfortably in front of the fireplace in a library, announces that this episode will be a retelling of three stories by the greatest author of the last 1,000 years: Stephen King. First up is Stand By Me with narration by Richard Dreyfuss, who’s the voice in Peter’s head. Roy Scheider’s the voice in Joe’s head, and they get into an argument about whether Richard really wants to get together with Roy for drinks to talk about old times, or whether Richard doesn’t want to meet up and is just being a dick about it. We go through the […]

No Picture
Animation

“Family Guy” Season 7 Episode 14 Recap: We Love You, Conrad

Gillian’s getting married, and all the Griffins except Brian are invited, and she wants Peter to give her away. Despite Brian’s insistence that he’s over Gillian, he’s still hurt by being left out, and Stewie suggests that he and Brian have dinner with Gillian and her fiancé. Turns out Derek speaks French (and orange! Mandarin. Mandolin.) and is something like Superman and Mr. Miyagi in one. Worse, Brian follows him to the bathroom and finds that he has no apparent shortcomings at all. Distraught, he gets wrecked at a bar and ends up in bed with Lauren Conrad of MTV’s […]

No Picture
Animation

Hey Kids: Say “Hello” To “Ni Hao, Kai-lan,” Season 2

by Karl J. Paloucek Whether you’re still feeling blown away by the Beijing Olympics’ opening ceremonies, worried about the mounting U.S. debt to China or just like the idea of cute, little characters teaching your child Mandarin, you’ll be happy to know that Nick Jr.’s Ni Hao, Kai-lan is back for Season 2 starting May 11. This season presents new challenges and goals for Kai-lan and her audience. Season 2 brings 20 new half-hour episodes that not only deal with building a basic Mandarin vocabulary, but also engage preschoolers’ increasingly complex emotional issues. In the first week alone, in addition […]

No Picture
Animation

“Family Guy” Season 7 Episode 13 Recap: Stew-Roids

At Joe’s barbecue party, Lois and Bonnie get a little frisky by the pool, Peter comments on the meat while Joe grills it, and Stewie’s off playing with Barbies. When Susie takes one of them, Stewie’s attempt to teach her a lesson just gets him a beat-down. Peter’s humiliated that his son got beaten up by a girl, but when his attempt to man-ify Stewie with insults and Spike TV fail, he takes him to the gym to bulk up. Meanwhile, Meg’s popularity idol Connie has decided that she’s done with popular boys and sets out to date and makeover […]

No Picture
Animation

“Family Guy” Season 7 Episode 12 Recap: 420

While the guys are hanging out at the Drunken Clam, Quagmire calls and tells them to get over to his house right away. Turns out, he’s got a cat named James. And he’s crazy about him. Even after James uses Joe’s leg as a scratching post. Quagmire’s cat fancying gets out of hand, and when he goes to Vermont to buy James a birthday present, the guys decide to sneak into his house and shave the cat. But because they gave the straight razor to Peter, the cat ends up dead and Peter and Brian end up on an inebriated […]

No Picture
Animation

“Star Wars: The Clone Wars” Gets “Decoded”

Coming off of the record-setting first season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Cartoon Network announced today it will premiere Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Decoded, a full slate of 22 enhanced episodes from Season 1 of the CG-animated series from creator George Lucas and Lucasfilm Animation. Using text windows to provide in-the-moment insights into all aspects of the sweeping galactic conflict — from trivia to background on characters and storylines — Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Decoded enhances each episode with exclusive content created by the Lucasfilm Animation talent responsible for the show itself. Star Wars: The Clone Wars: […]

No Picture
Animation

“Simpsons” Leave Their Stamp On The Post Office

By Jeff Pfeiffer Woo-hoo! Starting soon, when you write those letters to Die Hard or another one of your favorite movies, you will be able to use a Simpsons stamp to send them! Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie will be commemorated on official First-Class stamps from the U.S. Postal Service personally designed by Simpsons creator Matt Groening. Out of the 50,000 stamp suggestions the USPS receives each year, about 20 are considered, and obviously FOX’s first family made the final cut at long last. A sneak peek at what the stamps will look like will be made available on […]

No Picture
Animation

Nick Takes A Depp In Bikini Bottom

By RabbitEars For the first of its series of special on-air events during a yearlong celebration of SpongeBob SquarePants‘ 10th anniversary, Nickelodeon brings superstar Johnny Depp on board as a guest voice in the “SpongeBob vs. the Big One” episode, premiering April 17 at 8pm ET.

No Picture
Animation

“Family Guy” Season 7 Episode 11 Recap: Not All Dogs Go To Heaven

In the words of Brian, “Ah, the annual Quahog Star Trek convention — where once a year, sci fi buffs take their lips off the barrel of a loaded gun and spend half a day adjusting their eyes to sunlight.” Since Peter was kicked out of last year’s convention for insulting Shatner, he brings the whole reluctant family this time. Stewie buys blueprints of the transporter, professes his love of Picard over Kirk, and attends the cast Q&A session in which the only questions people ask are about buildup on household sponges, skin conditions, and low pressure in artesian wells. […]

No Picture
Animation

David Goodman Talks About The Upcoming “Star Trek: The Next Generation” Cast Reunion On “Family Guy”

by Sarah Yesterday, showrunner and executive producer David Goodman held a conference call to talk about next week’s episode of Family Guy, called “Not All Dogs Go to Heaven,” which features a reunion of the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. One of the big thrills for Goodman is that he actually gets to be in the episode as a convention-goer who not only gets a scene with Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes, but who also gets into an age-old Trekkie argument about the questionable canon fidelity of the episode “Relics.”