It's been about ten years now, but when I was a bookseller there were a lot of really great full size collections available as cheap remainders. They may not still be though, and I know some remaindered art books I picked up back then for a pittance are now really expensive in the collector's market. I doubt it's a…

That's what kills me about Watterson—he was fighting the good fight for everyone who draws or values the funnies and then just retired. It's his life and everything but he left a real vaccuum. There are some who still take risks—I'm thinking of Wiley, the guy that does 'Non Sequitor' whose Sunday strips can be…

"Greatest comics creator ever"

Some "Very Special Episodes" for your consideration:
The episode of the Cosby show where they all lipsync to Ray Charles' 'Night Time is the Right Time' and Rudy brings the house down:
http://www.youtube.com/watc… (still makes me laugh—and my god what a fox Lisa Bonet was in her elbow length goves)

(Here we go again) Seinfeld was never as funny or innovative as the common critical reception would have it. It's fine if you like it, but I'm on record that future generations will not treat it so kindly. Just remember what a hit 'Laugh-in' was when it came out.

It's hard to choose a 'Futurama' episode because they are all so good, but none of them really speak to their era in an iconic way. My favorite episode is 'The Deep South' but it's not even typical of the series. 'Jurassic Bark' is a great episode with lots of pathos, but what does it really say about the culture at…

'Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen Acres' is the place to be!

The episode of "Good Times" where James died and Florida went "Damn, damn, daaaamn!"

Grampa Gene never laid a finger on that girl (not like his daughter did to Glenn).

I almost took the usage to task as well, but thought better of it. The prefix meta (and it is a prefix originally) would NOT necessarily refer to things like a movie within a movie, but rather would refer to a movie ABOUT movie making. It's not merely self-referential, but in a sense a re-iterative consideration of…

"Christina Hendricks looks like a Bratz doll"

Geddy Lee: I think that the relative dearth of worthwhile cheerleader movies overall is part of Ebert's joke, but I also think he's including any number of exploitation films like 'Cheerleader Camp', 'Satan's Cheerleaders' and 'Cheerleader Autopsy' and just plain curiosities like 'Pandemonium'. A few other cheerleader…

see also: http://tinyurl.com/yg3lrtw

The show actually was pretty aware of its own absurdity—my exwife used to watch it all the time, and at first I couldn't stand it, but eventually I came to see the way it kids its own formula. For instance, almost every episode hinges on the criminal outing himself by clumsily divulging some bit of knowledge that only…

Wow, you're right—it makes perfect sense that they'd locate their live coverage of last night's events on the same page where they first announced it four days before instead of creating a whole new, easy to find page linked at the top of the list. Whatever was I thinking?

Does anyone remember the Bad News Bears TV show?—with Jack Warden, Tricia Cast and little Corey Feldman and his hilarious catch phrase of "Va-va-va-voom!"

Soccer movies include the very good 'Bend it Like Beckham' and I just saw a preview about 'The Damned United' which is supposed to be quite good.

I "lettered" in Academic Challenge—which was the high school team competition for nerds. I was on the team as the pick up guy top answer all the art, literature, music and pop culture bits while the others did the heavy lifting in math and science. I enjoyed the competition, but the idea that I got a letter for some…

In other news…
The AVClub is aware that the Academy Awards took place last night, right? Did I miss the coverage on some new hidden blog page?

"The 'Citizen Kane' of Cheerleader movies"
That's what Roger Ebert called 'Bring it on'. As a rule, I do not care for sports movies, and not only because sports as a rule don't interest me (even 'Raging Bull' is not so much a movie I like as appreciate) but because they tend to roll in such well-worn ruts. What makes…