I'm so excited to find out that A&E has picked up rights to release the Complete Series of Rockne O'Bannon's cult hit, Farscape. The set of all four seasons and hours of bonus features will mark the 10th Anniversary of the show, which debut on the SCI-FI Channel back 1999. This year's Comic-Con International in San Diego will have a panel on Farscape, with actors Ben Browder and Claudia Black, and creator O'Bannon present to discuss their favorite moments and talk about the new DVD release.

The series has previously been released, long before popularity of TV-DVD's took off by ADV, then re-released in volumes (the Starburst editions). But, I myself couldn't afford the $150 the first season sets cost (on sale, nontheless), and the Starburst editions were inconvenient since season sets just work better. Hopefully, A&E is up to the challenge, and won't use the whole double-sided crap that caused problems with the earlier Starburst volumes. More importantly, I hope A&E won't have a jacked-up price, because I'm really looking forward to this release.

Oh, and it's looking at a November release.

News Briefs, Farscape DVD release - SCI-FI WIRE

The CW has announced its Fall Premiere dates. It all kicks off September 8th (a little earlier than most networks, which is about what the network does anyway, kind of a way to get ahead, I guess), with its Tuesday lineup with another primetime soap drama remake of Melrose Place and the sophomore season of the famous zip code, 90210. And the other primetime soapy dramas, Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill, return Sept 14 with switched times from last season (interestingly, what kept One Tree Hill alive was the loyal fan support, oddly, I heard the season finale was a good series finale, and one time in which fans might've been okay for it to not come back. Hmmm). September 16 is a new series by Ashton Kutcher called The Beautiful Life and return of America's Next Top Model (will it please go away).

Okay, the ick stuff is out of the way, now the good stuff.

A new vampire series (based on a book by LJ Smith, that actually came before the Twilight series novels, yet are both teeny by nature), The Vampire Diaries takes over Smallville's powerhouse Thursday 8PM slot, and serve as new lead-in to the sci-fi hit series, Supernatural, coming back for its milestone 5th season (meaning, we'll see episode #100), and possibly last (creator Eric Kripke has previously expressed numerous times he intended the show as a five season gig, which is good because we don't want it to extend too far out like Smallville, but bad because we love the Winchester brothers and all their demonic hunting adventures. Both shows premiere on September 10th.

And that leaves Smallville to return, oddly, much later on September 25th (its new Friday 8PM, so the only returning show to be on a new night), and will pretty much be alone, since after it will be just an encore of Top Model. This is the ninth season of the series, the oldest show on the network in terms of how long its been on, but keep in mind, Hill and Supernatural also came from the WB, and if this is their last seasons (Hill could end, two regulars did leave, so, and it is going on a 7th season, but I don't watch it so, don't really know of any speculations, but I watch a lot of TV, and can figure that it's probably pushing it goin on a seventh), the CW will have nothing left from the WB (this season already done away with whatever UPN shows were left, including Everybody Hate Chris).

CW Schedule (new series)- TV.Com

SCI-FI CW Shows Schedule - SCI-FI WIRE

You can now purchase the new Tantric single, "Mind Control," the title track from their upcoming album, coming out on August 4th, 2009.

Purchase Tantric 'Mind Control'

Almost 4 million viewers (3.7-ish, actually), tuned to the second season premiere of HBO's sexy vampire drama, True Blood. Those numbers may not seem high, but HBO airs the latest episode throughout the week. So the number for the premiere will rise after the week is over. Plus, the show premiered at 1.44 million viewers, and the finale was at 2.4 million viewers. These numbers translate to a million "turned" viewers, thanks to viral videos, tons of press, and the fact that HBO knows how to bring TV viewers classy, quality shows, that don't shy away from anything.

...spoilery...

Let's hope this trend stays (which it should, being I've read the first four books (and the second one twice which is what season two is loosely based on), I can see this now going off and becoming its own thing, and I can't wait to see how the changes play out, and how they handle Maryann (who is quite the mysterious character, and from what I understand, is the maenad from the second book (named Callisto), but already is different and seems to play a much bigger role.) And the new storyline with Lafayette (being his character was the one in Andy's car in the book, so this is definitely a huge shock and game changer).

It's gonna be GOOD!

True Blood Scores Huge Ratings - Buddytv

I definitely want it to reach near six seasons, especially if major events stick for the most part from the books, then a fourth season would be the one to watch (and if you read the books, you'll know why).

And I do, highly recommend the Southern Vampire Series Novels by Charlaine Harris, from which True Blood is based on.

It seems TBS is unable to work the financials to strike a 13-episode deal for the NBC canceled series, My Name is Earl. The comedy is a single-camera comedy, which has higher production value, versus the cheaper production of multi-camera comedies. So, it seems karma wasn't on Earl's side afterall, which is a shame, it was the only comedy I watched on NBC.

To get an idea to the single camera vs multi camera, a single camera setup uses one camera (maybe more if deemed necessary), and requires the camera to be moved and reset for each new angle. Lighting is an issue as well to factor in, and sound. Single-camera is also shot out of order, (focus on one actor for shots 1, 3, 5, etc, then switch to next actor for shots 2, 4, 6, etc), and post-production proceeds in editing the shots together.

Multi-Camera, obviously, is multiple camera running simultaneously, taking in all already positioned angles. There are less resets, meaning less time (and time is money).

Therefore, if Earl could sacrifice its higher production costs for a multi-camera setup, there could have been a chance, but at the cost of the comedy's tone and overall feel, that we already know and love from the four seasons it lasted.

RIP: My Name is Earl