In this week's episode of Angry Puppy, Marc and Lee talk about breaking television news, gay sci-fi film fests, Buffy season Eight, the Doctor Who spinoff The Sarah Jane Adventures, and much, much more.

Oh, and they speak Esperanto. Wanna know why? Check it out!

One of our intrepid Blogsketeers, Dan McCallum, has been out in L.A. at the Paley fest for the last week, and this morning sent me the above pic, which nearly brought me to tears.

Last night while I was doing Dan's liveblogging duties, he was off hobnobbing with the cast of the Greatest Teenage Vampire Killer Show in History, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, at their much-anticipated reunion. Dan had actually texted me right as he was sitting down in the audience (to rub it in, the dear) and I replied, "if tom lenk is there pinch his ass for me". 

And whaddaya know!

Yes, that's Dan with Lenk, who of course played troubled, sexually confused teen Andrew on the series (and for anyone just joining the program, you can read up on the lengthy debates about Andrew's sexuality - including a comment from Joss Whedon himself - over yonder). Lenk wasn't on-stage for the reunion as he wasn't a "regular character", which to me is total BS.

Anyway, here are a few more tiddies from Dan about the panel:

Joss said that only once did the network balk at the Willow/Tara lesbian thing and it was over their first kiss.  He told the network he would pack up his office and walk if they wanted it the scene removed and then they tucked their overpaid tails back between their legs an backed down.

As for Buffy's recent Season 8 comic book lesbian tryst, he said it is not some big life altering event, nor is Buffy turning lesbian.  She simply met the right woman and they bonded and they had a lot of free time on their hands.  Sarah Michelle Gellar had no idea Buffy went Sappho until right before walking on stage.  James Marsters almost fell out of his chair at the news when it was brought up during the panel.  It was pretty funny.

Needless to say, I'm greener than Monday's beer about all this. For more updates on Buffy, Pushing Daisies, and other shows, check out Dan's Paley Fest coverage over here.

And here's a fan clip of some of Andrew's greatest moments. God I miss that show...

Geeks, gays, and lotsa folks in between got a real kick in the pants over the weekend when Buffy and Firefly creator Joss Whedon revealed on his fansite that he is in production on a three-part web musical starring none other than out actor Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion. Joss can explain it better than I can:

So.....

The bag is catless.

During the strike I started writing a musical intended as a limited internet series, 3 episodes of approximately 10 minutes each. Writing with me was my brother Jed, his fiancee Maurissa, and my other brother Zack. To my shock and surprise, we finished it. To my greater shock and surprise, we managed (with the help of many people I'll be praising at length soon) to drag it into preproduction (yes, just as DOLLHOUSE was given a start date two months away and all my comics were due.) And today, after a grueling week of writing everything ever while trying to be a producer, I got to start shooting. A musical.

This much I will say: It's the story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he's too shy to talk to. And I'm having the time of my life.

"DOCTOR HORRIBLE'S SING-ALONG BLOG"

Neil Patrick Harris.....as Dr. Horrible

Nathan Fillion..........as Captain Hammer

Felicia Day.............as Penny

And a cast of Dozens!

Coming soon.

I know plenty of gay Buffy fans whose favorite episode was "Once More With Feeling", the legendary all-singing, all-dancing ep. Likewise, NPH is going strong these days, and who isn't itching to see Nathan Fillion sing and dance, possibly even in tights? 

Greetings everyone. This time around it’s Avatar of the Week: “The Old Farts and Buffy Fans” Edition.

First up we have TonyG. He a 40-ish gay married Bostonian of Italian descent. He works for a disability-related nonprofit. Tony is an avid Buffy fan. Willow and Tara are particular favorites of his. No word on whether he’s an old fart too. Probably not since, he’s “been with my man since 1986,” and happily married types are often annoyingly upbeat.

Next up we have Mike, who, like me, really is an old fart — at least he describes himself as such in his bio. This crusty curmudgeon doesn’t give a lot away in his profile, but his recent curmudgeonly comment makes it clear he’s no fan of Will & Grace.

No word on what he thinks of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

This week’s winner? Cinematt01 Like Mike, he’s a Vampire Slayer enthusiast. God, throw a nickel on this site and you’ll hit a Buffy fan. (Myself included). What really caught my eye in Cinematt’s profile however was his listing as one of his favorite books Screening Party by Dennis Hensley. This book is one of my favorites as well. I’m always thrilled to find others who share my appreciation for it — which is rare considering it is out of print, and darn few people have read it. You can still pick up a used copy on Amazon, and I highly recommend it.

Congrats to runners up TonyG & Mike, and a special tip of the hat to this week's winner: Cinematt01

• By now all the 2d6 jokes have been used up:
  It speaks to his influence that a wide variety of sites were saddened to hear of the death of Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax this week. It's difficult to imagine what video games, comics, television or film would be like without the influence of D&D. Where would video games be now if Gygax's prototypical role playing game weren't around to inspire series like Ultima or The Bard's Tale -- or innovative games that mixed the RPG with elements of other types of games like the Grand Theft Auto series? What would our media be like if Gygax's game hadn't inspired an entire generation of nerds to become storytellers? It's hard to imagine what the pop culture landscape would be like today if not for the influence of D&D, a game that's colored the experiences of people who've never been in the same room as a Dungeon Master's Guide.
  
• The postman's a person in you Simberhood, in your Simberhood:
  This week, EA Games put up a teaser site for The Sims 3 and some details about the game have already begun leaking out. How do you top a sequel that added genetics and realistic life spans to Will Wright's dollhouse game? This time Sims will live in a fully seamless neighborhood. Even more interestingly, the need meters have been thrown out, breaking the hunger/bladder/sleep cycle of the game.
  
• Oh, I'll be watching:
  The upcoming Watchmen movie is probably the most scrutinized comic book movie projects, considering how the original comic is so challenging and respected. We got a visual idea of what to expect when pictures of the cast in costume came out this week. Check out a side-by-side comparison with the comic book versions. The Comedian is looking spot-on and I can easily see Jeffrey Dean Morgan in the role, but I wonder if Night Owl looks right in a different side-by-side:

  

  I'm can't tell if they dropped Night Owl's paunchiness or if that picture comes from a deceptive angle. (Not that photographing a dark costume against a dark background is helpful.) Admittedly, taking Patrick Wilson and giving him a costume with a paunch is rather like buying fillet mignon and making hamburgers but that paunch does go far in defining the character. My optimism is holding up, so far.
  

Marc and Lee are back to talk about Blu-ray's victory over HD DVD and using the AppleTV's new features to replace an accidentally erased Lost. They also clarify Neil Gaiman's comments regarding Torchwood and give their impressions of the new episode "Meat". Finally, they review the sci fi/parkour movie District 13 (or at least the actors) and recommend "10 Movies That Deserve a Second Chance".

Check it out after the break!

With Sweeney Todd's taking home a Golden Globe and the commercial success of Hairspray, Dreamgirls and High School Musical we're certainly past the days when the movie musical is considered box office poison.

But as much as I enjoy popping Chicago in the DVD player, I really like it when episodic television takes a musical turn, and lately we've seen some great additions to the genre (along with a few disasters ... yes, we mean you, Viva Laughlin). A good musical number can make an episode especially memorable, as in the following examples ...

30 Rock: "Midnight Train to Georgia"

Last week's 30 Rock (the season finale, unless the writers' strike is resolved soon), ended with a performance of Gladys Knight and the Pips' "Midnight Train to Georgia" inspired by Kenneth Parcell's (Jack McBrayer) deciding to leave New York to return his home in Georgia. The Motown classic is used to express the friendship between Kenneth and Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan), Jenna (Jane Krakowski)'s need to be in the spotlight and the divide splitting Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) and his liberal congresswoman girlfriend C.C. (Edie Falco) apart. The highlight of the number arrives when Tina Fey changes the meaning of "I've got to go" into a cry of "TMI!" Coming from the 30 Rock characters, the meaning of "Midnight Train to Georgia" changes hilariously.
(Thanks to scribegrrrl for finding the video.)

Pushing Daisies: "Hopelessly Devoted to You"

Pushing Daisies' Kristin Chenoweth is well known as a Broadway performer and when her character, Olive Snook, broke into a performance of "Hopelessly Devoted to You" it was an apt marriage of Daisies' fanciful tone and Chenoweth's talents. The original version, from Grease, comes when Sandy realizes how strong her feelings are for Danny, no matter how angry he may make her. On Daisies, however, Olive is fighting her love for Ned, a feeling she hasn't felt free to express honestly.

More recently, Daisies gave us Ellen Greene (who played Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors) singing "Morning Has Broken" as her character breaks out of depression. As with 30 Rock, these moments offer more than a catchy tune: they're a way of expressing where these characters are emotionally in a way that dialogue can't.

X-Play: The Musical

A program consisting of video game reviews shouldn't have much of a shelf life. I mean, who needs to know if The Movies is any good at this point? However, X-Play's snarky, irreverent tone and pop culture references make reruns watchable months and even years afterwards. One of X-Play's more unusual episodes treated viewers to a musical where the devil corrupts hosts Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb with the promise of an X-Play video game (you can watch it here). Spoofing everything from current games to X-Play's own game rating system ("One out of five, it's the only game I know that lowers your sex drive."), the musical has all the smarts and sass you'd expect to hear in an X-Play review.

The AfterElton.com flying monkeys elves are hard at work on our own Holiday Gift Guide (check back next week for some unique picks!), but here's something that just couldn't wait, especially given the avalanche of Cheyenne Jackson mentions we've made on the blog recently.

The humpy crooner has landed the coverman spot on the 2008 G-MAN Caricature Calendar, and proves that he looks just as good in pen-and-ink (under the sure hand of artist Glen Hanson, of course) as he does in the flesh.

You're likely familiar with Hanson's distinctive work from his Chelsea Boys comic strip or various print ads, and his pop-cartoon style lends itself well to the charming assortment of entertainment icons he's chosen for the calendar. Some folks may find it strange that a theater performer like Jackson would rate the cover among icons like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Wonder Woman, and the Sex and the City gals, but I'm not going to complain.

To order a signed copy of the calendar or to see more of Hanson's wonderful work, head on over to his website. 

Whether it’s investigating aliens like Fox Mulder, facing off against demons like the Winchester brothers, or hunting down vampires like Xander Harris, all these guys have one thing in common: they are absolutely drop-dead gorgeous.

And so, to our countdown of the 15 sexiest small screen sci-fi* hunks to ever grace our TV screens. It wasn’t easy to narrow them down, that’s for sure. Oh, and no apologies for the Joss Whedon influence, either!

(*includes science fiction, horror, cult and fantasy TV shows.)

Fox Mulder (played by David Duchovny)

Fox Mulder was a total fox – pardon the pun! Smolderingly smart, moody and mysterious, with a sardonic sense of humor, he’s simply the sexiest FBI agent to ever walk the planet. (Closely followed by Seeley Booth and Dale Cooper!) And who can forget him dripping wet, coming out of the swimming pool in those tiny red Speedos?


Clark Kent (played by Tom Welling)

Tall, dark and handsome, with a body to die for and hair you just want to run your hands through, Smallville's young Clark Kent is a fine figure of the man he’s destined to become. And he’s even sexier when he’s under the influence of Red K. Oh Kal-El, you can save us any day!


Angel (played by David Boreanaz)

Hunky, brooding and yes, dead (or should that be undead?) gorgeous, it wasn’t only a vampire slayer that fell for his devilishly handsome, er, charms. As if Angel wasn’t quite sexy enough for us, Angelus really turned up the heat. Yes, bad boys are far too irresistible for their (and our!) own good.