- Score another one for unimaginative, recycled entertainment content. Hollywood is remaking every move made over the past half-century and now television is following suit. “Hawaii Five-O” has already hit the air and had a lackluster first season for CBS, ABC is planning a “new” take on “Charlie’s Angels” for the fall and now “The Flintstones" are heading back to television, by way of "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane. Fox announced the new show Monday, claiming MacFarlane will give a 21st century spin to the classic 1960s animated comedy series about the lives of Fred Flintstone, his wife Wilma, and their neighbors Barney and Betty Rubble. "The very first cartoon character I drew at age two was Fred Flintstone," MacFarlane said in a statement. "So it's appropriate that events have come full circle, allowing me to produce the newest incarnation of this great franchise. Plus, I think America is finally ready for an animated sitcom about a fat, stupid guy with a wife who's too good for him." Hey-oh, Seth, good one. Jokes aside, this is another shining example of the “Why bother to come up with new, original ideas if we can pull some old show, recycle and modernize it and pass it off as new” philosophy. How the series is going to be a modern-day take on the lives of the Flintstones and the Rubbles and do anything other than keep a gimmick going is unfathomable. The story of two hard-working middle-class families living with contemporary conveniences in the dinosaur-era town of Bedrock is the same story no matter when you tell it. Fox Entertainment president Kevin Reilly said it best, declaring the network’s intention to introduce the prehistoric characters to a "whole new generation" as if that somehow makes it less of a blatant rip-off. "Fox has long been home to iconic families like the Simpsons and the Griffins, so I have no doubt that the Flintstones and the Rubbles are going to fit right in on our air," Reilly said. Production on this new gem of the small screen is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2011 and the show is unlikely to air until some time in 2013. "The Flintstones" will be a joint production between 20th Century Fox Television and Warners Bros. Television, the owners of the Hanna-Barbera animated library of shows and characters. The initial (and what should have been the only) animated version of “The Flintstones" first appeared on U.S. television in the 1960s. Numerous television specials, three Hollywood movies and videogames have ensued, but there obviously remains a never-ending line of people looking to cash in on the franchise…………
- Feeding opossums? Seriously? That’s what residents of one Oklahoma City neighborhood are accusing one of their neighbors of doing. Rule No. 1, whether at the zoo or in the wild, is that you do NOT feed the animals. That only encourages them to come back and makes them bolder and more belligerent. Yet one unidentified woman is allegedly doing just that. Her first crime against the neighborhood is an outright refusal to perform any sort of lawn maintenance, which has led to a yard so overgrown with weeds and brush that those weeds and brush are spilling into neighbor Mason Clymer’s yard. According to Clymer, who lives in the 3400 block of Northwest 52nd St., the woman next door’s unkempt yard is now endangering his pets and he doesn’t like it one bit. He says he has called the city multiple times to report the wild weeds, but didn’t consider the problem especially serious until an opossum allegedly ventured from the neighbor’s yard into his own and attacked his black Labrador, Bailey. "It like scratched her eye really bad right here. Then right under her eye and it was swollen," Clymer said. "I see opossums. Opossum and rats, like rats you would expect to see, you hear of stories in sewers, like foot-long rats." He also believes his neighbor is to blame because she has admitted to other resident that she feeds and shelters the opossums. Thomas Irvin lives across the street and claims that the woman who lives in the unkempt house told him she was feeding the opossums. “She said she had one old opossum and little ones and they lived in her garage and she was feeding them dog food," Irvin said. Attempts to contact the woman by a local TV station’s investigate team failed and the worsening situation isn't sitting well with those who live near her. "Everybody has pets but those aren't really pets, you know? They're rodents. I don't understand it," Clymer fumed. "I'm sick of it, you know? It's bringing down our property values. It's hurting my animals which is the main thing, you know? That's my family." City records show that the property owner has been cited by the city numerous times for tall weeds and grass and has paid more than $2,000 in fines because the city has had to come out and mow her property. Color me cynical, but this is a woman who doesn’t seem to care much about her property or those around her…………..
- LeBron James should probably stop talking right now and sit the next few plays out - or at least stop talking to Cleveland or about anything involving the city in any way. Since his ill-fated and ill-advised “The Decision” special on ESPN last summer and knifing the entire city of Cleveland in the back on national television, nothing James has said or done has lessened the sheer hatred for him in the city in which he played for seven years. Many Cavs fans will never stop hating him and thus his apology for “The Decision” that he issued right after his new team, the Miami Heat, dispatched Boston in the second round of the playoffs went over like a giant lead balloon. To Clevelanders, the apology after a huge triumph was like a former boyfriend or girlfriend who broke up with you in humiliating, public fashion coming back a year later with their hot, new significant other and issuing a flimsy apology for how things ended between the two of you. But James wasn’t done talking to C-Town, not by a long stretch. After the Cavs won the top pick in next month’s draft at Tuesday night’s NBA draft lottery, James again tried to get friendly with the city, the team and its fans by saying he’s sure the Cavs and the likely No. 1 pick in next month's draft, Duke's Kyrie Irving will be a good fit for each other. James said he was glad the way the lottery turned out. "I'm happy for the franchise and happy for the fans," James said after the Miami Heat's shootaround Wednesday morning prior to Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Chicago Bulls. "I think it is a good step for them." James has known Irving for the past three years, as the young guard has been a regular at James' summer Nike camps. “If the Cavs pick him it'll be a great pick for them," James said. "He's a true point guard who can score, in this day and age in the NBA it is a point guards' league. If they decided to take him, which it looks like, they'll have a good one." But wait, there’s more: James added some thoughtful exposition on Irving’s role with the franchise he decimated and kicked in the junk on the way out the door. “If it's Kyrie, I don't think you automatically place the franchise tag on him, but he's good enough where, if he continues to work hard, he could be that guy for that team," James stated. "It's a tough situation for anyone to be given the franchise tag coming out of college, but I think he's one of the kids who is up for the challenge." So there you go Cleveland, more happy thoughts from your pal LeBron…………
- Bring it on, Russia. Talk all you want about needing to develop a "significant nuclear potential" if the United States does not convince Moscow its missile defense system isn't aimed at your communist haven, but don’t expect those passive-aggressive threats to back the U.S. down. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made the threat Wednesday and went on to say he is not convinced by American assurances that the proposed Europe-based system is not aimed at Russia. At a rare news conference, Medvedev struck a defiant tone. "There are no other countries apart from Russia which have those capabilities, and they will not have them in the years to come," he said. "If missile defense systems are to be developed -- which would mean the disruption of strategic parity -- the treaty could be suspended or even terminated," he said, referring to the New START accord for which President Barack Obama has campaigned. Medevedev really dialed the situation up a notch by intimating that the entire situation could result in a return to the Cold War, something he characterized as "a very bad scenario." Veiled threats to America and the suggestion that Russia could scrap the arms treaty may have flown well with the communist sycophants Medvedev bounced the idea off of, but Obama and other American officials probably won't receive the threats as warmly. But hey, there could be an agreeable middle ground on all of this, right? Umm, no. Medvedev stated Russia was willing to see the development of a European missile defense shield if it "complies with clear rules." The phrase “with clear rules” basically means, “Do what we want and there will be no problems.” Nice try, Dmitri………..
- May is a big month, health-wise. As prom-goers and anyone planning on hitting the beach this summer knows, May is the optimal time to hit up your local cancer box shop, a.k.a. tanning salon, to get your fake bake on. That means it’s the perfect time to hold Skin Cancer Awareness Month and futilely attempt to convince the superficial fools who pay good money to jam themselves into said cancer boxes that their longtime health and ability to avoid wrinkly, worn-put skin by the time they turn 45 is more important than looking orange enough for the prom or beach. And so the battle rages on between those that want to tan naturally and unnaturally and the agency trying to convince them to exercise caution. The American Cancer Society is fighting the good fight and reminding everyone that at present, about 120,000 new cases of melanoma in the US are diagnosed in a year and that overexposure to harmful UV rays that damage the skin's natural defense and can often lead to increased prevalence of killer melanoma. Tanning lovers are subsequently covering their ears and screaming “LALALALALALALALA!” at the top of their lungs, ignoring the fact that melanoma is the most serious form of skin cancer. If it is not caught early, it can advance and spread to other parts of the body, where it becomes hard to treat and can be fatal. Even though it is not the most common of the skin cancers, it causes the most deaths. Tanning beds have been under heavy scrutiny over the past few months from skin protection agencies and the Food and Drug Administration. These groups continue pointing to numerous studies providing evidence linking indoor tanning bed use to melanoma. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has piled on by suggesting that indoor tanning devices are carcinogenic to humans. Steven Q. Wang, MD, member of The Skin Cancer Foundation's independent Photobiology Committee and Director of Dermatologic Surgery and Dermatology at Memorial Sloan Kettering, Basking Ridge, New Jersey stated: "While the medical community has known anecdotally that indoor tanning is linked with melanoma, it has been difficult to provide the evidence. These new studies show conclusively that indoor tanning bed use can lead to melanoma." At present, tanning beds are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as Class I medical devices, in the same safety category as elastic bandages and tongue depressors. Hopefully that will change soon and the Skin Cancer Foundation is using the month of May to launch a signature drive for a letter to the Surgeon General Benjamin asking her to urge the FDA to enact stricter regulations and more oversight of tanning beds. Or Americans could stop being so damn shallow and realize that dying young or turning into a wrinkled mass of flesh isn't worth a temporary tan. Umm, yeah……there’s definitely a much better chance of the FDA stepping in and forcing a change…………
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