Consider, if you will, the dearly departed Michigan J. Frog's network, the WB.

Did you sort of zone out? Me, too. A mere year and a half after the network — in combination with rival UPN — morphed into the CW, the WB is a vague memory. But in its heyday, the network aired some of our favorite soapy series: Charmed, Popular, Roswell, Gilmore Girls, Smallville and … let's see, what am I forgetting? Oh, yeah — a little show about a vampire slayer.

The WB was something of a guilty pleasure for me. I never admitted to watching Felicity or Dawson's Creek, but magically knew every detail of every story arc. … continue reading

A few weeks ago, I blogged about EW.com's list of "50 Actors We'd Watch in Anything," and among the lovely ladies they chose was Rosario Dawson.

As luck would have it, she has a few projects coming up this summer that you can catch her in. Scifi.com recently announced NBC Universal's acquisition of a new web series called Gemini Division that will star Dawson as a New York detective. The series will be comprised of 50 episodes between three and four minutes in length, with a compilation video coming every 10 days to catch any newcomers up on the action.

There's no word yet on how frequently we can expect each webisode, though I would expect it to be fairly frequently if we will need a recap video every week and a half! Here's the series' description from NBC.com:

Rosario Dawson (Sin City) stars as NYPD Homicide cop Sara Marquez in this emotional drama set in a futuristic world. When Sara's fiancé is killed, she discovers a microchip in her engagement ring that sets her on a journey into a biotech underworld filled with genetically fabricated life forms called Simulants. She locates the Gemini Division, who are trying to reclaim all the Simulant chips and eradicate these rogue terrorists. From the producers of the highly-acclaimed Afterworld online series, Gemini Division will engage viewers with a dramatic story with a dash of scifi, as well as a completely immersive and interactive online world filled with bonus content and new mysteries to unravel.

Sadly, it appears as though she will not be playing for our team, due to the whole fiancé plotline, but that most definitely will not keep me from watching. … continue reading

Just in time for the weekend, the fine folks at Gay List Daily alerted us to a great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon: The Minisode Network.

Minisodes, as you probably deduced from the promo screen, are abbreviated episodes of some of the best cheesy shows ever. And the site is more than entertaining — it's enlightening. Say, for example, that you're in deep meditation and you have a vision of angels.

Soon, that lofty vision devolves into thoughts of angels in chains, and you wish you could remember more about that "Angels in Chains" episode of Charlie's Angels. So, you click over to the Minisode Network, and there it is: In six minutes, you see Kelly, Sabrina and Jill get hosed down, meet a very young Kim Basinger and bounce through a meadow in chains. Life is good. … continue reading

I just came across this hilarious parody of the Juno trailer on FunnyOrDie.com. It stars J.K. Simmons, who played the dad in Juno. I can't really do it justice ... just watch.

Happy Purim!

Need something to help you pass the time today or usher in the weekend? Look no further: Hulu.com is here.

The new video site from NBC Universal and News Corp was officially launched last week, and if you haven't checked it out yet, you're missing something marvelous. The TV shows — which are very high quality and mostly full episodes — are from NBC, FOX, and the various affiliated cable networks like Bravo, FX, Sci Fi, Sundance and Oxygen. And the site offers movies, too (yes, full movies). And all of this for free (with occasional commercials). On demand.

Do I sound amazed? I kind of am. Here are some of the things I've been salivating over so far. (One caveat: Hulu.com is only available to U.S. users. Openhulu.com, after it has been updated, will provide access to users outside the U.S.)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Hulu has only Seasons 1 and 2 of Buffy right now, but what a great excuse to revisit the whole series from the beginning.

30 Rock

I can never decide who I love more: Tina Fey or Liz Lemon. Luckily, we don't have to choose.

Picket Fences

I loved this show when it first aired in the late '90s. Hulu has Season 1, including "Sugar & Spice," the episode in which Kimberly (Holly Marie Combs) kisses her friend Lisa (Alexondra Lee). I remember it well! … continue reading

Except for the whole backpedaling on her bisexuality thing, I've always liked Megan Mullally.

Sometimes her over-the-top-ness was too over-the-top, but as Karen Walker, she was the best thing on Will and Grace.

And despite the fact that she was not particularly well known prior to Will and Grace, she did a whole lot of TV and movie work — including a bit part as call girl in Risky Business.

These days, her primary gig is costarring in Young Frankenstein on Broadway. While I don't actually want to see the show, I do kind of want to see her (and Sutton Foster, the other female lead).

But acting is not her only gig. She also sings (and plays “cardboard box, chains in a bowl, plastic egg, [and] moral high ground”) with Megan Mullally & Supreme Music Program.

Here's a clip of them performing Reba McEntire's “Fancy” on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. … continue reading

I’ve often thought that there’s a Ph.D. thesis to be written on the overarching effect of the internet on the gay and lesbian community. On the one hand, there’s the fact that the net potentially exposes the gay user to homophobic hate groups spewing more bile than (hopefully) he or she encounters in the real world on the average day. On the other hand, there are communities like ... well, like AfterEllen.com, which mean that you no longer have to live in a big city or be a bar bunny to gain some sort of feeling of belonging to a lesbian community.

And then there’s the phenomenon of the lesbian (or lesbianish) fan video. Fed up with searching for nonexistent out lesbian characters in TV and film, some people just get hold of a film editing program and create their own story lines and emphases out of the raw material provided by the networks.

Which means if I want to see a video that focuses on the subtexty bits between, say, Serena and Blair on Gossip Girl, then it doesn’t take me very long to find one:

And a well-made one at that. Admittedly, there’s a bit more of Blair rolling around with various interchangeable boys than I need to see, but I think this video does a great job of capturing the fact that the most powerful emotional relationship on the show is really between the two girls. Which makes a nice change after all the shows — from Starsky and Hutch to Nip/Tuck — focused on male pairs who secretly seem to need each other more than they really need the inconsequential women who pass between them.

Then there’s this video centered on Andie (Anne Hathaway) and Miranda (Meryl Streep) from The Devil Wears Prada: … continue reading

Sometimes a website comes along that reminds me what the internet is for. That happened this week when a friend sent me a link to Sleeveface.com. The site defines Sleeveface as "one or more persons obscuring or augmenting any part of their body or bodies with record sleeve(s), causing an illusion."

They should have said "causing an illusion and awesomeness." Because it's so, so good. Here are some of my favorites so far (there are still so many I haven't seen!):

Janis Joplin, by MathiasSchweppes

Peaches, by sophiekingo

Tina Turner (Private Dancer), by See Gee

  … continue reading

Posters for The Sarah Connor Chronicles are all over New York City buses these days. The ominpresence of Lena Headey and her big gun is enough to make you feel like you're living in a futuristic apocalypse. (Frankly, simply walking out the door makes me feel like that, but never mind.)

Well, thanks to the magic of the Interweb, you too can pretend you're in a futuristic apocalypse with Lena. Fox has launched GetTerminated.com, "the site that allows you to become the ultimate terminator." You can upload an image and insert yourself into a scene from the new series.

Here's what happened when I uploaded a picture of Grover from Sesame Street: … continue reading

The ever vigilant folks at Whedonesque alerted us to a very cool promotional calendar from Toronto illustrator Glen Hanson — and it can be yours for the price of postage. You might want to hurry, though. I'd be surprised if he's prepared for the PR this piece is getting, thanks in large part to September's calendar girl.

Hanson has designed characters for shows like Daria and Beetlejuice and illustrates for just about every popular magazine you can name. And some of our favorite celebrities — Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Burnett and Rosie O'Donnell, for instance — have original caricatures that Glen did for them. Oh, and he also co-created the comic strip "Chelsea Boys," a Lambda Literary Award nominee. … continue reading

I have a disclosure to make: “Ace” is not my full name. It's actually “Ace Randy Gal.” I have, however, been known to answer to “Carnage Lady.” And occasionally to “Calendar Gay.”

These monikers are the result of a boring afternoon at work coupled with the The Internet Anagram Server. Put a bunch of word nerds in the same room as an anagram server, and you've got yourself a party! That was eight years or so ago. “Ace” stuck, and the anagram server (plus the less labor-intensive Anagram Genius Server) get revisited from time to time. Recently, I spent some time procrastinating with the servers and had a blast. Because I'm that big a geek. And because I really didn't want to do my work.

I learned that one of my friends is an “Arch Lesbian.” And that an AfterEllen.com staffer could be an “Old Animal.” And that there are no good anagrams for my girlfriend's name. (However, one version of our dog's name comes out to “Destroyer and Might,” which I think he likes.)

But on the celebrity front, the possibilities abound. (For the record, all of the following anagrams come from the Internet Anagram Server, the Anagram Genius Server or the Anagram Genius Archive.)

I began with The L Word, just because.

Kate Moennig, appropriately, is “Token Enigma.” And Erin Daniels is “Ideal Sinner.” (I'm sure my girlfriend thinks so, anyway.) And Jenny Schecter is “Insufferable, dog-killing wack job.” (But that's just commentary, not an anagram.) Mia Kirshner is “Shinier Mark” (but if you misspell “Kirshner” as “Kirschner,” you get “Manic Shirker”!) Jenny Schecter + Sounder = “Jesus! Northern Decency.” Daniela Sea is “A sane ideal.” And, for the record, Bette Porter + Tina Kennard = “Broke, penitent retardant.” … continue reading

Say you went on a Hawaiian vacation with your sweetie to celebrate your recent engagement. And say you got into the water to splash about. And say you then logged on to your computer and found that photos of you splashing about were all over the Internet. And say the things people were saying about how you looked like while splashing about weren’t all that nice. What would you do? Well, if you were Jennifer Love Hewitt, you would blog back.

The Ghost Whisperer star shot back last week at catty comments made about her bikini-clad body. At particular issue was a photo from behind that had some of the literary geniuses of the blogosphere tossing around words like fat and ass. Google it if you must, since I won’t post that shot here, but rest assured she was neither. And after seeing what she looked like from the front, worrying about what she looked like from the back was the last thing on my mind. … continue reading

Back in April, Malinda blogged about lesbian-ish men. And in that case, lesbian-ish was a very good thing. I recently came across another blog that puts a different spin on that idea: Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians. As you can probably guess, it's not exactly a compliment this time.

The blog ranges from the fairly obvious (Bruce Jenner) to the less obvious but pretty amazing (Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits). "Old" doesn't always apply though, if you ask me — Noone looks like a soccer player I knew in college.

This picture of Richard Butler, lead singer of the Psychedelic Furs, made me do a double take. Is it the glasses? The hair? The earring? … continue reading

As I am prone to do, I was wandering around the Web over the weekend and came across a great tool to find out what's playing on TV. No, it's not TV Guide. Although now that I've mentioned TV Guide, I have an excuse to post this.

Best. TV Guide. Cover. Ever. Pictures like that are why I continue to buy TV Guide even though its channel listings are too small to read.

With LocateTV, which launched its public Beta version in October, my aging vision is not a problem. And it's a lot of fun to play with. The site describes itself well:

"The idea behind LocateTV is simple — to let you find TV shows available where you live in the world, be they on broadcast TV, online or on recorded media (DVD, HD-DVD etc)."

You can search by title, actor or category — sort of like TiVo, but free. I was in the mood for Jodie yesterday (as if I'm not always in the mood for Jodie) so I entered "Jodie Foster." Um, I mean I put her name in the search box. Her directorial debut, Little Man Tate, was showing at 3:15 p.m. CST on Encore. … continue reading

In September, Siege gave us the scoop on Quarterlife, a web series from Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick, the creators of My So-Called Life. The series stars Bitsie Tulloch and Michelle Lombardo (Girltrash!) as young artists. It debuted Nov. 11 on MySpace.

I've watched a few episodes, and for the most part I find it witty and endearing. Maybe it's not quite up to Angela Chase standards, but it has its moments. And apparently NBC thinks so too: The network has picked up the series for rebroadcast on TV. Instead of 36 eight-minute episodes (the web format), NBC will air six one-hour episodes beginning in early 2008.

Because I'm not a fan of watching things on my computer, I'm much more likely to see the whole series now. But it's a curious transition: One of the best things about Quarterlife is the associated networking site that allows users to post their own video content and interact with other artists. Will the whole concept lose something in the translation to TV? … continue reading