Tag: tv
Live TV Streaming Guide: Which Services Have the Most Top Channels – CNET
Best Live TV Streaming Service for Cord Cutters in 2023 – CNET
Hulu adds PBS stations to its live TV channel lineup
Hulu is adding a full spate of PBS channels to its Live TV subscription service. This includes a wide variety of local PBS affiliates and PBS Kids offerings, giving viewers the chance to watch stuff like Antiques Roadshow, Frontline, Masterpiece and a whole lot of Ken Burns documentaries.
This is live TV so you’ll be tied to your local affiliate and will have to (gasp) sit down and watch something at the appointed time. Some titles are available on-demand, however, and Hulu+ Live TV offers cloud storage DVR recording options. PBS Kids is also part of this deal, so you can park the little ones in front of the screen to watch Curious George, Arthur, Clifford the Big Red Dog and other anthropomorphic animals. Sesame Street airs on PBS Kids, but only after first running on Warner’s confusingly-named streaming serviceHBO GoHBO Max Max.
Beyond PBS, Hulu+ Live TV is adding the Magnolia Network, a destination for thousands of hours of home improvement and cooking shows like Fixer Upper and Family Restaurant. Additionally, many programs will be available for on-demand viewing, such as Magnolia Table with Joanna Gaines, Maine Cabin Masters, Silos Baking Competition and many more.
PBS arrives on the service “in the coming months,” but Magnolia Network shows up on May 25th. Hulu+ Live TV subscriptions start at $65 each month for an ad-based tier, ballooning up to $80 per month for an ad-free experience with plenty of cloud storage and access to premium channels like ESPN.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/hulu-adds-pbs-stations-to-its-live-tv-channel-lineup-182038607.html?src=rss
TV Trailer: Kirk & Tammy Franklin-Hosted TV One Dating Show ‘The One’ [Watch]
From ‘Melodies From Heaven’ to matches made in heaven, Gospel superstar Kirk Franklin is putting his matchmaking skills to the test courtesy of the forthcoming dating competition show ‘The One.’
Hosted alongside his wife of 27 years, Tammy, the Franklins will share sage words about making romance last a lifetime to a few Atlanta singles looking to find that special someone.
» Read more about: TV Trailer: Kirk & Tammy Franklin-Hosted TV One Dating Show ‘The One’ [Watch] »
The post TV Trailer: Kirk & Tammy Franklin-Hosted TV One Dating Show ‘The One’ [Watch] appeared first on ..::That Grape Juice.net::.. – Thirsty?.
Every Failed Or Lost Star Wars Movie And TV Show Since The Very Beginning
For many years, it seemed like Star Wars just could not fail. Even given the middling responses to the sequel trilogy throughout the 2010s, Star Wars movies have been huge moneymakers for Lucasfilm and, later, Disney. A shift in the last few years in fan sentiment and a rash of canceled projects, though, has shown us that, yes, even the never-repeated cultural juggernaut that is Star Wars can hit rough patches. Looking back throughout the franchise’s history, though, there are a bunch of scrapped projects and a few that are disappointing enough to warrant mention even though they hit the finish line–we’re talking about you, Star Wars Holiday Special.
The following list covers every movie or series that we could find that fits those criteria: the canceled, the failed, and the forgotten Star Wars projects. Some of these projects were deep into development, with dozens of episodes already written when the axe came down. Some were announced to great fanfare, only to disappear from release slates later.
The creators behind these projects include George Lucas himself, Zack Snyder, and even Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige. Check out our list below, which is in no particular order, and decide for yourself if any of these projects rival the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise.
1. Star Wars: Underworld (2005)
Star Wars: Underworld might be the most influential show that never existed. Back in 2005, George Lucas was still in charge of Star Wars and had the idea to bring Star Wars to the small screen as a live-action television show. The project was in development for some time, with over 50 42-minute scripts having been written. According to producer Rick McCallum, the series would “focus on criminal and political power struggles in the ‘period when the Empire is trying to take things over.'”
The series was, as you’d expect, very expensive to make, and that kept it from ever reaching full production. It’s one thing to imagine a story, and another thing entirely to make all the parts needed to bring it to life. “We can’t walk down the street of New York City and start filming. We have to create the world. It’s constant world-building. Every ship, every speeder bike, every bit of costuming, everything has to be created. So it’s a huge expense,” Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy told Vanity Fair last year.
And yet, it helped pave the way for shows to come, like The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan, and the upcoming Ahsoka. Lucas himself said that the StageCraft technology that helped make The Mandalorian possible was exactly what he wanted for the show, and Star Wars creative lead Dave Filoni, responsible for much of the direction of the Star Wars computer-animated series like Clone Wars and Rebels, has said that the scripts for Underworld are mined internally for ideas for future Star Wars material.
2. Star Wars: Detours (2012)
Every big acquisition results in a few casualties. When Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, Star Wars: Detours became one of them. The series, created by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich of Robot Chicken fame, had produced 39 episodes, with another 62 scripts written, when Disney shelved it indefinitely before any of it aired.
The series was to be a parody show in the vein of the creative duo’s other show, but with an eye toward younger audiences. The series was to feature lots of well-known celebrity voices, both from those with previous Star Wars experience and otherwise. Lucas himself was directly involved, even poking fun at himself by providing some voice work for the show. Green has subsequently said that, despite fans calling for release of the finished episodes, there’s no interest within Disney to release the series.
3. Rangers of the New Republic (2020)
Star Wars fans love a story about guys with laser swords and guys with cool warrior helmets, and it’s even better when you can combine them. For years, though, Disney and Lucasfilm have been trying to tell stories about what happens elsewhere in the galaxy. Rangers of the New Republic is one of the more prominent examples. The show was announced back in December 2020. Lucasfilm was pretty cagey about what exactly the show would cover, but there was word that it would star Gina Carano’s character, Cara Dune, from The Mandalorian and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee’s X-Wing pilot, Captain Teva, as it followed the adventures of soldiers defending the New Republic against Imperial remnants.
Lucasfilm has stopped pursuing the show since its announcement, however. While Disney didn’t explicitly say as much, it seems possible that this was due in part to opinions expressed by Gina Carano about transgender people. Disney distanced itself from the actor in 2021 and updated viewers about Cara Dune’s whereabouts in Mandalorian Season 3, with seemingly no plans to revisit the character.
4. Jedi Temple Challenge (2020)
In June 2020, the still fairly fresh Disney+ streaming service was in great need of new content from its biggest licenses. And so Disney did what any company would do with a fun new kids’ show like Jedi Temple Challenge: launch it over on YouTube and not make a single mention of it on Disney+.
Indeed, Jedi Temple Challenge can still be found over on the Star Wars Kids YouTube channel. The show is a Legends of the Hidden Temple-style elimination competition show aimed at kids and kid contestants. Ahmed Best–the voice behind Jar-Jar Binks–played the part of Jedi Master Kelleran Beq for the show, acting as its host alongside his droid assistant AD-3, who was voiced by Mary Holland. Jedi Temple Challenge was received well throughout its 10-episode run. Most Star Wars fans, however, have never heard of the show, and there’s no word of Disney and Lucasfilm looking to make more. The show lives on in Ahmed Best, who reprised his role from the show in a flashback sequence during The Mandalorian Season 3, but that’s the only sign of life from it since.
5. Star Wars Holiday Special (1978)
The Star Wars Holiday Special is one of the worst Star Wars things to ever exist, one of the best-known Star Wars projects outside of the movies, and somehow also an indication of things to come (even if we didn’t know that for 40 years). The 98-minute TV special was lambasted by critics at the time, and decades of chances to reexamine it haven’t done it many favors. The special aired in 1978, between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. In the special, Han and Chewie go to Chewie’s home planet of Kashyyyk to visit his family–wife Malla, son Lumpy, and father Itchy–to celebrate Life Day. The pair is being pursued by Imperial officers, though, and Imperials show up at Chewbacca’s home before he and Han can get there.
The special included celebrity cameos as well as variety and musical acts. Most of the Star Wars cast at least cameoed in the show. While it’s mostly infamous for how silly and cheesy the whole thing is, it also marks the first appearance of Boba Fett and Mandalorian armor in the Star Wars universe. Fett appeared in an animated segment before showing up in Empire Strikes Back in 1980. It’s generally a really weird program; despite being a big Star Wars production, the whole thing is deeply tied to the pop culture of the time, so they would introduce acts and segments by having them appear as holovid transmissions or segments would be labeled as “required viewing for all Imperial officers.”
Between Boba Fett’s appearance and the idea of a huge live-action Star Wars television production, it’s safe to say that while the program itself is not well-liked, it wasn’t devoid of good ideas.
6. Rogue Squadron (2020)
When Star Wars literature became really big in the 1980s and 1990s, Michael Stackpole and Aaron Allston’s X-Wing books were a favorite among fans who were more interested in the military aspects of the franchise than in the Skywalkers and Jedi. The 10 novels followed X-Wing pilots like Wedge Antilles rather than focusing on the more traditional characters. Lucasfilm announced alongside Rangers of the New Republic in 2020 that director Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman) would be making a Rogue Squadron movie for the studio. Plot details are basically non-existent, and it’s unknown whether it would’ve followed Wedge or some other pilots instead. Like Rangers, though, updates on the movie eventually petered out before the movie was shelved.
7. Rebel Moon (2023)
Zack Snyder is most associated with DC superheroes these days, but at one point, he had his eyes set on Star Wars. Sometime between 2005 and 2012–the end of the Prequel trilogy and the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney–Snyder pitched a movie to Lucasfilm that was meant to be a more mature take on the Star Wars universe. The pitch never got traction, though, and Snyder would eventually begin working on it as an original science-fiction movie not connected to Star Wars in any way. That pitch would become the movie that Snyder currently working on, Rebel Moon, which is set to release on December 22, 2023.
8. Obi-Wan (2022)
Films focused on Jedi Masters Obi-Wan and Yoda were being developed at one time, as was a movie based on Jabba the Hutt. While Yoda and Jabba would never get their movies, the Obi-Wan project eventually transformed into the Disney+ series Obi-Wan series that aired in May 2022.
9. Knights of the Old Republic movie
One of the most beloved properties in Star Wars history is the 2003 video game Knights of the Old Republic, which was set thousands of years before the Skywalker Saga and followed an unnamed Jedi hunting a Sith Lord named Darth Revan. In 2019, Kathleen Kennedy confirmed to MTV News that “we are developing something to look at, but right now I have no idea where things might fall.” Shutter Island and Alita: Battle Angel writer Laeta Kalogridis reportedly wrote a script for the first of a potential trilogy, but nothing has been said about the film since.
10. A whole bunch of Star Wars spin-off movies
In 2013, long before JJ Abrams brought the Star Wars universe back to cinemas kicking and screaming with The Force Awakens, Disney was considering a movie focused on Boba Fett set during the original trilogy, with X-Men movie writer Simon Kinberg to pen the script. Fantastic Four director Josh Trank was announced in 2014 to be directing another spin-off but reportedly left the project a year later due to creative differences.
Game of Thrones TV show creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff were going to produce a whole trilogy, as was The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson–both deals have since fallen apart. Director J.D. Dillard and Luke Cage writer Matt Owens were also looking into directing a film set on the Sith planet Exegol, which was seen in The Rise of Skywalker. Finally, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige was reportedly developing a Star Wars film for Lucasfilm–both studios are part of Disney–but Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has since clarified that the film was never in active development.
Every Star Wars Movie and TV Show Ranked, From A New Hope to Andor
We already spend far too much time thinking about Star Wars as it is, and that ratchets up to 11 around May the 4th, a silly pun meme that was turned into a fake holiday devoted to everybody’s favorite space fantasy franchise. Naturally, there’s no better time of year to argue about which pieces of the incredibly expansive Star Wars franchise are the best.
It can certainly be easy to forget the full breadth of the Star Wars franchise, since there are so many old chunks that very few people care about anymore. But since the franchise remains one of the biggest ever, it’s all been preserved and is available on Disney+. Except, of course, the original versions of the original Star Wars trilogy–only the updated, worse versions of those films are available to stream legally.
So if you’ve forgotten what all there is to watch in this franchise, we’ve assembled a ranked list of every Star Wars movie and TV show that’s ever been released, from the ones you know (like the three movie trilogies) to ones you’ve forgotten ever happened (like the Ewoks and Droids cartoons from the 1980s). Except the Lego Star Wars specials. You’re on your own with those.
You’re gonna wanna strap in, because this journey is not going to be a short one.
27. The Ewok Adventures
This pair of TV movies from the 1980s about some kids who get marooned on Endor are quite bad and don’t really fit with the rest of the franchise. These days it just seems weird that these even got made, but that does add some novelty value as a strange vision of what Star Wars might have become had these movies been a success.
25. The Book of Boba Fett
There were a couple decent episodes in that first season (like the one that Boba Fett wasn’t in), but otherwise the Book of Boba Fett was like a vision of what Star Wars would look like on The CW. And that’s not great, Bob.
24. Ewoks
An animated TV show that followed up the live-action Ewok Adventure TV movies, Ewoks was pretty generic and not all that entertaining most of the time. And it’s just so bizarre to see them speaking English. They obviously had to do that–you can’t do an entire show for 6-year-olds in a fake language. But it remains super weird.
23. Droids
It’s better than the Ewoks animated series–though that sentiment may be more a comment on the choice of subject matter than it is on the quality of the show. In other words: I’d rather watch a 1980s children’s TV cartoon about C-3PO and R2-D2 than one about Ewoks. Does that mean Droids was a good show? Not really.
22. The Rise of Skywalker
All three Disney sequels were terrible in their own ways, but Rise of Skywalker managed to achieve a new level of egregious thoughtlessness. We’re talking about a movie where they literally resurrected the Emperor offscreen, after neither of the previous two movies had foreshadowed that in any way. It’s the nadir of Star Wars.
21. Star Wars Holiday Special
A TV special that originally aired during the 1978 holiday season, the Star Wars Holiday Special–in which Han and Chewbacca bring the whole gang back to Chewie’s home planet to celebrate the in-universe Life Day holiday–is a strange and hokey relic of the past that’s impossible to critically evaluate at this point. It may not be “good,” but it remains an adorable and amusing novelty.
20. Solo
Coming off the rather bizarre Clone Wars theatrical movie, I don’t know how high anybody’s hopes were for this computer-animated series back then. But it was surprisingly enjoyable, and it tapped into something very important that the prequel movies had mostly glossed over: how this war led to Anakin’s fall to the dark side. It felt like a necessary piece of the story, which has not really been the case with more recent animated series.
19. Resistance
All the Star Wars animated series are at least partially geared specifically toward children. It’s just the nature of these things. But while shows like Clone Wars and Rebels also have things to offer those of us who aren’t children, Star Wars: Resistance doesn’t, really.
18. The Bad Batch
The most recent animated series is a strange mixed bag. It’s got quite a compelling focus, dealing with rogue clone soldiers trying to make their way through the universe well after the Clone Wars have ended. But, frankly, the animation is obnoxiously stiff, and it’s pretty distracting.
17. Obi-Wan Kenobi
This felt like a show at war with itself. With its overreliance on low-quality CGI, it was impossible to take the Obi-Wan show as seriously as its story wanted us to. Whereas with Andor, the Star Wars-ness of the whole thing took a backseat to the story being told, Obi-Wan Kenobi was more focused on delivering a Star Wars aesthetic that comes with a story attached to it.
16. The Force Awakens
JJ Abrams’ first bad Star Wars movie had the exact opposite problem the prequels had: It nails the aesthetic of Star Wars, but its storytelling is as thoroughly incompetent as it could have been. Remember the rathtar scene? No? That’s what I thought. Yeah, this movie is worse than you think.
15. Rebels
There were times on this animated series where it felt like it was about to move itself beyond its cartoon niche. But there would always be something–like the Inquisitors using their lightsabers as helicopter blades so they could fly–that prevented it from quite getting there.
14. Attack of the Clones
Every scene looks like digital vomit, and it’s so badly edited that it made Natalie Portman seem like she’s bad at acting. In terms of sheer filmmaking craft, it doesn’t get any worse than this.
13. The Last Jedi
Director Rian Johnson managed to put together a Star Wars movie that was full of really cool visuals that felt legitimately like I was seeing something new in Star Wars for the first time in a long time. Unfortunately, the story is nothing more than a subversion of The Force Awakens that is simultaneously remixing The Empire Strikes Back. It’s braindead, and two and a half hours is far too long for a movie that has nothing going for it other than being nice to look at.
12. Revenge of the Sith
It might be that kids today aren’t as alarmed and disgusted by horrendously awful CGI now that movie and TV studios use bad visual effects like a crutch. But for me, it’s hard to find any meaningful drama in the clash between Anakin and Obi-Wan when it’s taking place in a comically abysmal-looking digital lava field.
11. 3D Clone Wars
Coming off the rather bizarre Clone Wars theatrical movie, I don’t know how high anybody’s hopes were for this computer-animated series back then. But it was surprisingly enjoyable, and it tapped into something very important that the prequel movies had mostly glossed over: how this war led to Anakin’s fall to the dark side. It felt like a necessary piece of the story, which has not really been the case with more recent animated series.
10. The Mandalorian
Sometimes, the first live-action Star Wars show takes itself seriously, and when that happens, it’s sublime. But most of the time it’s just a 1990s-quality network adventure show like Hercules or Xena, that’s primarily focused on making references to other Star Wars things. Unfortunately, it’s not the ’90s anymore, so it’s bad that it’s like that.
9. Rogue One
It’s a weird, incoherent, hacked-together piece of nonsense that was primarily advertised with scenes that aren’t in it–such as the one pictured above, which was the centerpiece of the ad campaign even after the movie had been released. There may have been a decent movie in here at some point, but it got lost when they reshot half of it after director Gareth Edwards delivered his first rough cut.
8. The Phantom Menace
It’s hard to tell if it’s actually any better than Attack of the Clone or Revenge of the Sith–it’s got way more Jar Jar, so that’s not a point in its favor unless you’re into that sort of thing. But it’s the only one of those three movies that was shot on film–making it the best by default because it’s the only prequel that managed to mostly match the aesthetic of the rest of the franchise.
7. Tales of the Jedi
An anthology series with half-length, 12-to-15-minute episodes, Tales of the Jedi hits the sweet spot for Star Wars animation with stories that simply don’t have enough time to get bogged down in, well, anything. These episodes get to the point and contain some actual substance that could give you a better understanding of the Star Wars universe.
6. 2D Clone Wars
Genndy Tartakovsky’s original 2D Clone Wars series was made up of bite-sized episodes that now form an oddly structured two-part mini-series on Disney+. And it’s aged surprisingly well in this form–Tartakovsky’s animation style is still a trip, and watching this show all together like this instead of in small chunks is frankly a pretty unique experience for this franchise. There’s nothing else like it under the Star Wars label.
5. Visions
Lucasfilm let a bunch of Japanese animation studios do Star Wars their way–the idea here was for these studios to “reimagine” existing Star Wars ideas and stories in inventive new ways–and it turned out to be the best collection of Star Wars animation ever. There might be a lesson there.
4. Return of the Jedi
Some people think one or more of the prequels is better than Return of the Jedi, and I’m going to very generously say that those people are, at best, misguided. Every Star Wars movie made since 1983 has had at least ten things dumber than Ewoks, and not a single one of them had anything as great as the whole Jabba’s Palace sequence.
3. A New Hope
Being the originator of a franchise as sprawling as Star Wars will inevitably be awkward–nothing about it is that well fleshed out, and stylistically it’s pretty different from any Star Wars stuff of the past decade. But considering how most of the Star Wars franchise has been essentially just ripping this movie off instead of trying to advance the plot in any way–and how truly, deeply good A New Hope is by contrast–the original remains really tough to beat. That said, nearly every change that George Lucas made to this movie from the 1997 Special Edition to the Blu-ray release made it meaningfully worse. It’s a joke that there is no current official release of the original version of this movie.
2. Andor
This Disney+ series is the first live-action Star Wars thing since the original trilogy that’s simply a story being told that happens to be taking place in the Star Wars galaxy. It wasn’t constructed to intrusively remind you in every scene that it’s Star Wars, and it doesn’t feel like the product of an algorithm designed to appeal to Star Wars nerds. That it’s actually great is a really nice bonus.
One note, though: Andor would be behind A New Hope and Return of the Jedi in these rankings if the original cuts of those movies were readily available.
1. The Empire Strikes Back
It’s been the best Star Wars movie since the day it was released in theaters in 1980, and it remains so today because it’s just that well-made. Director Irvin Kirshner is a forgotten figure at this point since everybody associates the originals with Lucas, but credit where it’s due. Kirshner, who also directed the great RoboCop 2, really defined the big screen vibe of Star Wars in a big way with this film.
Google TV slims down and speeds up with recent software updates
Roku touts its new ad products, including an AI that matches campaigns to TV moments
In Roku’s recent quarter, the company posted better-than-expected revenue of $741 million, but worried investors with its warning of an uncertain ad market and declining average revenue per user. Today, at the IAB NewFronts, the streaming media company introduced its latest ad products to potentially help it address the latter, at least. These included new […]
Roku touts its new ad products, including an AI that matches campaigns to TV moments by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch
TV Trailer: BET’s ‘College Hill: Celebrity Edition’ Season 2 [Starring Joseline Hernandez, Tiffany “New York” Pollard, Amber Rose, & More]
After a 14-year rest on the bench, the return of BET’s HBCU-inspired reality show ‘College Hill’ got a celebrity upgrade in 2022 thanks to the big names lining its roster like Big Freedia, Slim Thug, Ray J, NeNe Leakes, and Lamar Odom.
Ready to bounce back for a sophomore season, ‘College Hill: Celebrity Edition’ is set to drop jaws as revealed by its star-studded cast which includes reality TV veterans like Joseline Hernandez and Tiffany “New York” Pollard as well as Iman Shumpert,
The post TV Trailer: BET’s ‘College Hill: Celebrity Edition’ Season 2 [Starring Joseline Hernandez, Tiffany “New York” Pollard, Amber Rose, & More] appeared first on ..::That Grape Juice.net::.. – Thirsty?.