SCULLY DUGGERY

scullyNot content with ruining America’s Favorite Family, former Simpsons showrunner Mike Scully returned to television in 2003 with The Pitts, a horrible abortion of a live-action sitcom that lasted four weeks, and all was right with the universe. Now, there are talks of revitalizing that show, only this time as a cartoon, because the Fox Network is in dire need of another cartoon sitcom about a wacky family. [Hollywood Reporter]

WAGON TRAIN, WEB-WATCH

wagon trainEveryone knows that one of the major causes of the writers’ strike was the fact that writers were not being compensated for profits made from online distribution. Rather than waiting to see how negotiations would turn out, News Corp. and NBC Universal launched the private beta of their YouTube rival Hulu at the end of October (I didn’t get my invite until like a few days ago, so whatever). Hulu features clips and full episodes of all your favorite Fox and NBC shows, including The Simpsons, with some fairly annoying ads for the upcoming movie Hitman built in. It’s actually a nice, clean interface, and you actually the option to turn on subtitles. As of right now, the Simpsons category only has full episodes from Season 19, as well as some 60-odd clips from Seasons 1 – 7, some of which are just couch gags.

So while you’re waiting for the strike to end, you can just sit back, relax, and enjoy all your favorite Fox/NBC-owned content, with the knowledge that none of that ad money is going to the writers. [Hulu]

WAGON TRAIN

Here in Canada, on a Canadian channel called NewsWorld, [writer] Joel Cohen appeared live via satelitte to discuss the current strike. In it, he said there’s only enough new episodes lined up for the rest of the year, after that, that’s it.

He also said that when the writers do eventually return, there will be such a backlog that there won’t be any new episodes until this time next year which is November 2008.

What will become of ANIMATION DOMINATION??? [Some Guy On A Message Board]

WAGON TRAIN

Along with at least 100 other showrunners, Matt Groening and James L. Brooks joined in solidarity with the WGA strike, signing a pledge and vowing that they “will do no writing” until a deal is made. Wait, they still work on the show? [WGA.org]