This is what happens when you ask a sitcom to document themselves. IGN is trying something very very cool with a very very cool show. It’s so cool, in fact, that it doesn’t deserve to be hidden in a Link Dump entry here.

Over the next few months, we’ll be peering into every nook and cranny, from the writer’s room to the prop department, and bringing you insight into what it takes to pull a sitcom together, both in front of and behind the camera. In true Scrubs fashion, though, we’ve unleashed mini-cams to the cast and crew, allowing them to document the process in however manner they see fit – with a lot of weird and wonderful digressions along the way (would you expect anything else from these people?).

* The Baylon 5 script books website is now up and running. The first book is up for sale. Subsequent volumes will come every few weeks. It appears that they’re doing this “print on demand” style through CafePress. It’ll be interesting to see what the print quality on these puppies is, because the amount of new material JMS is packing into them is astounding. (Check out the FAQ page for some funny business, too.)

* Coolest time/date tracker ever. Or, at least, it’s the simplest and coolest.

* Possible DREW CAREY DVD release?

* One of the more convoluted histories of a modern TV series I’ve ever read: DaVinci’s City Hall. Pay special attention to the third paragraph.

* Didja getcher tickets yet? Huh? Didja? How could you miss the opportunity to cruise with Greg Evigan and his fan club? And here’s a quick test of your age/genre fandom: When I first mentioned his name, did you think B.J. and the Bear? My Two Dads? Or TekWar?

* Adam believes he’s tracked down the LOST island he found last week. Don’t worry — this won’t constitute a single spoiler.

* Now you can convert your TiVoed shows to iPod Video format. Tres cool.

* On-line pumpkin carving. (Found on ME’s site.)

* Pencil carving. It’s clearly the hobby for the mentally deranged who would kick any of our butts at OPERATION.

* The legendary Foo Camp this year took some pictures of balloons popping. They must be seen to be believed.

* There have been some complaints recently that Apple updates their iPod lineup too often. Those complaints usually miss the point that there’s different iPods for different users. A Nano user isn’t necessarily a video iPod user. And the video iPod user isn’t the kind to necessarily want to primarily use a Shuffle. Saying that Apple updates the lineup every three months is just warping statistics to fit a poor argument. So it is perhaps not surprising that the Shuffle is still selling well, despite the rollout of the Nano and an even better video iPod than ever before.

* One convoluted way to rip tapes or records into your computer.

* Another optical illustion: Mr. Angry and Mrs. Calm

* ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Project Blog. They’re busy scanning in lots of old movie reels and supporting art. If you’re near Hollywood and want to volunteer some time, they’d love to have you. There’s some screen grabs from a digitization of “Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs” on their front page now.

So, last night’s episode was adventurous and exciting, eh? We had big happenings in this episode, the kind we could only talk about behind spoiler walls a mile high. Since I have the capability of using a jumpcut thing here now, I shall. SPOILERS to follow that, though.

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(That subject header sounds like a FIGHT CLUB reference, doesn’t it?)

Howard Stern is set to be replaced in numberous markets by JACK FM.

The JACK station in NYC that replaced the favored CBS oldies station is having serious ratings problems. It’s the lowest rated station in the latest ratings book. Station owners are saying that it’s going to take time for the station to catch on.

I think they’re wrong.

It’s not that the JACK format won’t work, but that it needs to be tweaked. There’s no community surrounding JACK the way there is with other stations. With no DJs and no personalities, where’s the hook for people? Why wouldn’t they just listen to their own iPods?

Right now, a JACK station is just a fancy hard drive with a few extra songs above and beyond what the Top 40 and Adult Contemporary stations have to offer.

I hadn’t listened to my favored local AC station (WPLJ 95.5 NYC) in about six months. Recently, I flipped it back on in the mornings to see what’s changed. While the catalog of older songs seems to have expanded slightly, the bulk of the songs they play that are more recent haven’t changed a bit. It’s still the same middling fare from all the soundalike bands of the past year or two. It’s like they shifted a bit to compete with JACK, but then lost their nerve to the record companies trying to promote their latest manufactured hit singles. When I listen to the new O.A.R. CD and here a half dozen songs tailor made for radio stations — but never on any of them — it gets a bit frustrating.

I’m rambling. What JACK FM needs is a greater hook than just a few liners proclaiming that they have no DJs and are playing music randomly. We all know their play list isn’t random. It just happens to include a broader variety of music and, thus, more songs. JACK FM needs DJs, but not like the other stations have. They need DJs to introduce and backtrack songs. How annoying is it to hear a song, forget who sang it, and never find out because the radio station refuses to mention the artist or song title. We’re all driven to Google with a remembered lyric and a hope that it comes up in a search. We don’t need wacky DJ stunts. We don’t need long news or weather breaks - some basic information, and straight to more music.

If you want to capture the iPod generation, make everything snappy, but give us the information we want. And if you really want the iPod generation, get a podcaster or five to do it. The other thing I think a lot of people are sick of is the superslick DJs with their perfect voices and obnoxious hooks.

So, JACK FM, if you’re reading this: My e-mail address is augiedb (at) gmail.com. Drop me a line. ;-)

* Just be quiet, already. Modern life is too noisy, filled with too many gadgets that beep, chirp, and annoy my ear.

* LOST fans: Plug the numbers into Google Maps and what pops up? A small island in the South Pacific. (Thanks, Adam.)

* Whatever happened to Beez McKeever? (AUGH! That font! My eyes! MY EYES!)

Two links shamelessly stolen from originally spotted on Kottke.org:

* Remember that list of the 40 best magazine covers of all time? Here’s some commentary on them, with some valid criticism, some snark, and lots of historical context.

* The Bank of America is offering a program called Keep the Change. Every time you use their debit card, they’ll round up the purchase price to the next dollar and deposit that change into your savings account. For a limited time, they’ll match your contributions through the plan. Brilliant.

One blogger has compiled a list of the most significant science fiction films of all time. As Darren Barefoot notes, it’s missing a couple doozies like DARK CITY, but it’s otherwise a decent list. I’ll be highlighting the movies I’ve seen after the break.

I don’t normally do lists like these, but since I discovered the part of WordPress that lets me hide things behind a break, I’m desperate to do use it.

Commence with the meme!

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Time to celebrate? Still based on anonymous sources, but this is the first hopeful sign in a long time of DVD watching. . .

* Why do jeans makers put sizes on men’s jeans on the label outside? I don’t get it. Are we supposed to be proud of our sizes? Or are we supposed to be aloof enough and “manly” enough that we just don’t care if the rest of the world knows or not?

* ROCKSTAR: INXS’ Jordis Unga is signed to Epic Records and will release her first album in the spring. Rumor is that the show’s “House Band” will be backing her up. (Thanks, Rob.)

* Optical illusion. I might have linked to this before, but it’s still pretty cool.

* Muppet Reality Show. I might need to blog this one religiously. No mention on the revived “The Muppet Show” they were supposed to be doing for FOX next fall, though.

* The Shat had a kidney stone. He showed Regis. Further proof that The Shat is The Man.

* More new “Whose Line” episodes in November.

* Homer Simpson: Man of the Decade.

* Baby cages! (Yes, this is a humor site, not a real one. Don’t start writing angry letters.)

* Microsoft has a new command line. This might just be the first new interesting development out of Redmond in years.

* Let’s take a look at the 25 Top TiVoed shows again. These are shows with Season Passes. I’m down to five of the top ten series, and nine of the top 25.

* San Francisco modeled in Jell-O. Another reason to love the ‘net.

* Nobody’s gonna mess with this pilot. (Via)

It’s the biggest release list I’ve ever seen, and I’ve followed these things obsessively for quite a while now.

Sit back and enjoy, or go to TVShowsonDVD.com and DVDJournal.com for the complete lists. In fact, please do so. There are some titles I know you’re all going to add in the comments section below, but I just can’t discuss them all this week. I’d be here all day typing if I did.

TV Shows of interest:

Alias, Season 4
American Gothic, The Complete Series
The Captain and Tennille: Ultimate Collection

I had to throw that one in for a good laugh.

Danger Mouse, Seasons 3 & 4 Set
Point Pleasant, The Complete Series

That one includes five episodes never aired on FOX, which also promise a satisfying finish to the series.

ABBA: The Movie (1977)

I’m still waiting for THIRD EYE BLIND: The Movie.

The Breakdance Kid (2004)
Disco Pigs (2005)

Tell me these two are related in some way. Please?

The Emperor’s New Groove: The New Groove Edition (2000)

They gave up on creative names at Disney, didn’t they?

Tarzan: Special Edition (2-disc set) (1999)

No, that was last week. I know that for a fact.

Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005)

“Fully loaded” describes the average Friday night for Lindsay Lohan, too.

House of Wax (widescreen) (2005)

Gotta love a movie so confident in its ability to entertain an audience that it relied on a “Die, Paris, Die” marketing campaign to sell it.

The Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Vol. 3 (4-disc set)

The release of the week. “Duck! Rabbit! Duck!” (with commentary), “Robin Hood Daffy” (with commentary), “Rocket Squad” (with Paul Dini commentary), “Super Rabbit”, “Odor-able Kitty”, “Rabbit Punch”, and “To Beep or Not To Beep” are all included. Honestly, this isn’t the most exciting of the three volumes, but there’s still plenty of classic animation in there to justify its price ten times over.

Click on the link for the full list of features.

Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection - Volume 2

Includes “The Bowling Alley-Cat”, “Mouse in Manhattan”, “The Night Before Christmas”, and more.

Sadly, they’re still editing out voices in this set. Stupid stupid stupid. And the set is introduced by Whoopi Goldberg. How necessary was that? Perhaps if they weren’t editing out the potentially-offensive voice work, I’d be OK with her introducing the set and explaining it. But I don’t think that’s what’s happening here, either. ::sigh::

Also, the set is very badly timed. You don’t want to release this the same week as the Looney Tunes set - Bugs always wins. I’m sure it’ll be a good Christmas present type set, though.

My Little Pony: A Very Minty Christmas

I can’t skip this release this week after fawning over THE CARE BEARS last week, can I? OK, so I could. Too late now, though.

Single White Female 2: The Psycho (2005)

Was this trip really necessary? (Sorry, I’m in full fledged 1940s Warner Bros. mode now.)

Titanic: Special Edition (3-disc set) (1997)

Go ahead and laugh - I like the movie. And the original DVD release was a real stinker. It’s about time they made up for it, even if they cut out the last disc in Region 1 that Region 2 will be getting. ::sigh::

The Wizard of Oz: Special Edition (2-disc set) (1939)

Enjoy. I don’t need to ever see it again after seeing it once too often in my childhood.

There’s more stuff out next week, including the “special” edition of OFFICE SPACE, which at least promises an anamorphic print if not much in the way of special material. THE WAR OF THE WORLDS is also out, as is STAR WARS III.

It’s the new QUEEN AND COUNTRY novel from Greg Rucka.

I read the last one, A GENTLEMAN’S GAME, over the summer on a couple of flights and enjoyed the heck out of it. And, of course, there’s a whole series of graphic novels you might be interested in. I reviewed all of them last year.

If you’re not into British spy stuff, I’d also recommend the Atticus Kodiak series of novels that Rucka did first. The sixth book in that series, PATRIOT ACTS, is due next fall.

(Thanks to Randy Lander for the reminder.)

This deserves a separate post of its own:

TVShowsonDVD.com has a list of the songs on the ROCKSTAR: INXS DVD. This is a greatest hits compilation, but there aren’t too many more I’d like to see. Sure, Marty’s “Trees” would sure be nice, but I’m guessing there’s a rights issue there or something. At least we get Marty’s “Wish You Were Here” and Jordis’ “Man Who Sold the World” and Ty’s “No Woman No Cry” and Suzie’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” plus a selection of INXS tunes. And more. Click through for the whole list.

It’ll be out on December 6th, and fairly cheaply at that.

Due to some technical issues with the computer, I’m not going to be able to pump out the podcasts tonight. Look for them, instead, tomorrow night. Sorry for the delay.

In the meantime, the blog entry with this week’s DVD releases — and there are just about five million of them this week — will be up later this morning.