The Tick Premieres Tonight on FOX

abde writes "The Tick finally premieres this Thursday on FOX at 7:30 PM CST. Looks like Patrick Warburton finally gets to spread some creamy Justice on our toast!" Here's hoping that this show comes close to it's source materials. It's in a tough time slot, so I really hope it sticks around long enough to find a footing. Good luck to you Ben (I know you're reading!) In other TV news, Salon reviewed The buffy musical which aired on tuesday. Since my local basic cable doesn't provide UPN, I haven't seen it. I've been loving FX syndicating what is easily among my favorite shows: hot chicks, sharp humor, and monster killing. It may be the perfect show. I just wish TV was available via FTP.

Don't Forget.....

Family Guy is back on the air as well and airs right before The Tick

Buffy Musical

Taco you post a story about Morpheus and then bitch about not being able to get the Buffy Musical. Let's think about that huh?

I downloaded the entire episode less than an hour after it had aired.

Not to mention that all of the songs have been mp3ed are on Morpheus too.

Happy hunting

Some downers, tho

Tick won't be able to say "Spoooooon!".
None of the old villians will be present.

All because of some fucked up copyright stuff.

oh, and Speak won't be there, either.

More information can be found here [msn.com]. (http://slate.msn.com/?id=2058205) for the goat paranoid)

Even without those things, I'm still excited about dorking out, and I think that putty is an excellent choice for the Tick.

Not quite

None of the villains from the cartoon series will be there. But Ben Edlund has full rights to the comic book villains, and one of them--The Red Scare--is in tonight's episode! Edlund has also made noises about trying to cast someone for Paul the Samurai. (No word on any ninjas, though. They're my favorites! "We're a hedge. Move along. Nothing to see here.")

I dunno about the "Spooooon!" battle cry; it just doesn't seem to me that something like that should be copyrightable.

Buffy Musical

The Buffy musical was good...
...not because the singers were great (they weren't).
...not because the songs were all that good (they weren't).
...not because the story was shocking/compelling (it wasn't).
...not because of the lesbian sex inference (although that was good).

The Buffy musical was good because it was different than the rest of the bleak, TV wasteland. I'm sure that brief spark of originality will go completely unnoticed, however, so don't worry.

Ratings Won't Be High

Unfortunately the ratings will be decimated by Survivor tonight. Fortunately for Fox, there are a lot of hardcore fans and the creator of the show needs a thing or two about sci-fi comedy.

Here is the main cast list if you're interested...

David Burke is Arthur
Liz Vassey is Captain Liberty
Nestor Carbonell is Batmanuel

and of course the Tick is played by Warburton (as mentioned in the post).

Will be delayed 1/2 hour

The president is speaking tonight. 25 minute speech followed by the standard 5 minute talking head wrap up. Don't know if Fox carries national news in your area but they do in mine (Chicago).

Now my VCR and Tivo settings are all fucked up.

Poo.

Pete

uh....

Looks like Patrick Warburton finally gets to spread some creamy Justice on our toast!"

I'm not sure I want any of Patrick Warburton's "creamy" stuff on my toast...

Source Material and General Musing

I can't say I agree with the thought that the new show should be only as good as its original material-- has anybody ever actually read the comics? They just didn't have the spark that the cartoon did.

Of course, the cartoon was probably what Taco meant, in which case-- oh hell yeah. In no particular order, the new show is going to need a few things to match up with Fox's Saturday-morning masterpiece:

1. A running gag along the lines of the "CHA" written on the moon, popping up in episodes that have nothing to do with it anyways.

2. A rehash of "The Tick vs. The Tick" episode-- in which the Tick goes to a superhero bar (complete with Sidekicks' Lounge) and finds that there's another, more psychotic hero that already uses his name.

3. The Human Bullet: whenever things went wrong in The City, he'd be fired from a cannon in his backyard, only to somehow spend so much time in the air as to always show up late. ("Fire me, boy!"

It's nice to know that the legal problems aren't completely robbing the show of its charm-- I remember reading something about problems with Die Fledermaus, for example, so it looks like they've replaced him with "Batmanuel." And I think we can all agree that Patrick Warburton is the best choice for the job, judging from his "Seinfeld" work.

When the show aired, I was young enough to enjoy the cartoon show for what it was, and old enough to still get most of the grown-up jokes. Let's hope the live-action version maintains that delicate balance between smarmy irony and childish charm.

Re:Source Material and General Musing

has anybody ever actually read the comics? They just didn't have the spark that the cartoon did

What are you smoking?

The comics (THE ORIGINAL COMICS) are freaking hilarious. I'm talking about when Edlund was actually the writer, not just the creator. The CHA joke started in the comics. The Tick V. Tick episode was based on a series of the comics. Go back and read issues 1-12 before you dis the comic books again. (You'll note my sig quote here is from issue 1).

LEXX "Brigadoom"

There is a great musical episode of LEXX titled "Brigadoom." The songs are so...elegaic.

Get the mp3s of the songs here:

http://lexx.warpedsystems.sk.ca/mp3page.php3

Arthur had a better Battle Cry

"Not in the face! Not in the face!"

Favorite Tick Quotes

What's yours?

Mine would have to be...

Interviewer: "Can you blow up the Earth?"

The Tick: "EEGAD! I hope not, that's where I keep all my stuff!"

Re:Favorite Tick Quotes

Your wave of crime has just crashed upon the shores of justice!

Family Guy; Musicals

Re Fox tonight: Also, Family Guy is now on Thursday, I believe before The Tick. I was thrilled to see that show come back, but it's been changing nights in a way that left me forgetting to watch.

Re TV musicals: I get all the Buffy exposure I can handle from AtAT [appleturns.com] and don't bother watching, myself. And Salon's TV critic (last I saw which admittedly was over a year ago) is obsessed with the show in a way that's almost creepy. But the show that has done the most recently with musical numbers and other ideas is Drew Carey. I'm not a huge fan of that either but the musical gimmicks tend to be really good, as are the other stunts. For instance, it's the only TV show to do something interesting with a live broadcast (having improv done during it) instead of it just being an ego thing for the cast.

Of all the post-Seinfeld comics to drop their act directly into a sitcom, he's the only one to do anything interesting and novel.

Official TICK TV WEBSITE

The official TV Show website is here [sony.com].

It's got some video clips of the show, stills from the set, and a little background on the characters.

It looks like the TV show will be borrowing heavily from the cartoon show. I hope that there is some new material besides the cartoon gags. I wouldn't mind seeing some new story lines.

About The Show

As a long time Tick fan I have been eagerly awaiting this show. You can view a few 45 second clips of the show at http://www.spe.sony.com/tv/shows/tick/video.phtml [sony.com].

The Tick is played by Patrick Warburton, who was "Puddy" (Elaine's Boyfriend) in Seinfeld and Johnny James (Jimmy James's VP) in Newsradio. He also was the voice of Kronk in Emperor's New Groove. An excellent casting choice for what is obviously a hard role to cast.

Also of note, in addition to The Tick and Arthur are "Captain Liberty" and "Batmanuel". When you see these characters you will probably notice that they greatly resemble American Maid and Die Fledermaus. This is actually due to copyright negotiations (which actually held up the show for some time). The original comic book characters belong to Ben Edlund, but all of the characters that were created for the cartoon are jointly owned by all the groups that produced the cartoon (Fox Children's Network, Saban, Graz and Sunbow). Since Sony (who owns Columbia Tri-Star) could not reach an agreement on who received what proceeds among all the companies they simply replaced the characters.

I've seen it! (No spoilers here, read at will)

I have a friend with "connections" who was kind enough to bring his copy of the pilot to a party of mine a few months back.

I will tell you all now, that it _is_ different from both the comicbook original and the animated series. Both were fun in their day, and both stand on their own merits.

However this new series is off to a very amusing start. I got quite a few deep laughs out of the humour, and Patrick Warburton's (SP?) delivery of the patented Tick Monologues(Tm) are nothing short of sterling!
The plot was nothing spectacular, but was very enjoyable. Indeed, if the writers manage to keep this level of quality, it will be a series to watch faithfully!

On the subject of the new characters: They're different. Get over it. They work in their own way, and can hold their own as supporting characters. (Why does this bring to mind visions of sidekicks like Brazier Boy and Leather Lass?)

I seem to remember hearing rumours (From my friend with "connections"? I can't remember) that Ben Eglund is part of the creative team on this series. If this is true, it should put to rest any complaints of deviating from the source material.

I can only hope that this show doesn't get buried in the typical FOX time-slot shuffle.

interview

I would love a /. inerview of Ben edlund(?).
He has had a much bigger impact a geek culter then Will Wheaton, boy genius.

I liked it!

It definetly wasn't as bad as I thought it could be! The intro was slightly lame, as were the intros of "Bat-Manuel" (Die Fleidermaus and "Captain Somethingorother" (American Maid). But the combination of very well implimented special effects and actors who delivered lines in ways that ADDED to the effect the story was trying to tell gave me great hope for this series.

Oh, and of course the tick isn't saying SPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON(!) yet, they haven't gotten to that part - should be fun! It has about the equivalent 'kick' of the original show, with the same number of awkward not-so-funny parts. I'll be watching it whenever it's convenient to catch a show.

I just hope it can pay for it's budget!

:^)

Ryan Fenton

Review of the Pilot: B- (Promising but uneven)

Well, they're trying, they're really trying, to capture the spirit of the original comic book. They don't have the right mix yet, and they're trying to do it on the cheap, which won't work. But they're trying. Patrick Warburton, the actor playing The Tick, is doing a good job, but they're directing and scripting him with a bit too much pomposity and a bit too little naive enthusiasm. I can see what they're trying for in the set design, but it's not working yet. There needs to be more cool stuff and jokes in the background (though they get points for the "We Serve Superheroes" sign). The direction needs to be much snappier. The secondary characters are too much one-note jokes right now. The antennas are a nice touch.

Grade: B-. It actually sucked less than I expected it to, though it wasn't in the same league as, say, Mystery Men. It's definitely not like anything else on TV. I give it six episodes before Fox pulls the plug. Catch it while you can.

... TV was available via FTP.

I just wish TV was available via FTP.

Well CmdrTaco, as a famous sycophant once said 'your wish is my command' :)

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