Friday, March 09, 2012

Terra Nova cancelled, Tarzan arrested, and other news

Seems like a lot of cool/interesting stuff happened this week. Let's recap.

Terra Nova cancelled



  • FOX announced that there would be no second season for Terra Nova, at least not on their network. The show was a modest ratings success, but not the blockbuster hit it needed to be to justify its expense. It never came together well creatively either. FOX was trying to figure out how to tweak a potential second season, but gave up.

    I'm not a fan of the mediocre relationship drama of the show - especially the way it sidelines the dinosaurs - but my son likes it pretty well and I've heard from other fans who are disappointed by this news. There may be a glimmer of hope for those folks. Though nothing's been signed yet, Netflix is thinking about picking it up.

My new favorite Tarzan movie


MIT Certificates of Piracy


Ron Ely Tarzan series on DVD




Kickstart an ERB documentary


James Cameron's 3D underwater documentary


Tarzan arrested for keeping tigers


  • Steve Sipek (aka Steve Hawkes) starred in a couple of Spanish/Italian Tarzan films in 1969 and 1972. It was during the filming of the second of these, Tarzan and the Brown Prince that something amazing happened. According to The Wild Eye:
  • During the shooting of a scene in which Tarzan had been tied down to be tortured, some spilled fuel ignited. The crew scattered, leaving Sipek tethered to two iron stakes at the centre of the flames. Tied to his arm on the end of a long rope was Sampson, a lion trained to rush to his rescue and rip off the restraints when given the cue.
    “As the fire came towards me, I pulled hard on the rope and Sampson came charging in,” recalls Sipek. “He pulled off the rope and dragged me out and my life changed for ever. I said that if I lived, I would care for any animal that needed me.”
    Sipek kept that promise and opened an animal sanctuary called Jungleworld in Florida. He and his animals were in the news several years ago when one of his tigers escaped and was killed by a wildlife officer. The Daily Mail reports that Florida wildlife officials began looking into Sipek's sanctuary again this past October and after a lengthy investigation determined that Sipek didn't have the proper licenses or training to keep his animals and that the compound was a threat to public safety. He was arrested on misdemeanor charges.

RIP Disney songwriter Robert B Sherman


Lots of cool projects coming



  • David Gallaher and Steve Ellis (High Moon) are trying to Kickstart The Only Living Boy, a four-volume series of 50-page comics "inspired by pulp adventure novels[...]like John Carter, Tarzan, Flash Gordon, Killraven, and the Jungle Book." [Robot 6]
  • Jeff Lemire (Animal ManFrankenstein: Agent of SHADE) will have a new graphic novel in August about an expectant father who encounters something strange deep in the sea. Top Shelf describes The Underwater Welder as "equal parts blue-collar character study and mind-bending science fiction epic."
  • How did I not know about a 380-page graphic novel about a cowgirl who wears a yellow string-bikini? Bikini Cowboy has been out since last fall and I'm just now getting it.

5 comments:

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

Terranova was the best Saturday morning show I have ever seen.

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

No second season? Oh that just means they'll skip ahead to the third.

Only Living Boy: I was thinking more of "Kamandi, starring Arthur from Disney's The Sword in the Stone".
Sounds a project I'd like to be a part of collaborating.

Bikini Cowboy: I'd heard many recommendations, but this Amazon link is the first time I've seen preview pages.

Ken O said...

I missed the news about Sherman passing. Jungle Book is my favorite Disney movie, the music has a lot to do with it.

I gave up on Terra Nova pretty quickly. I thought the first episode set the family up as being selfish and I disliked the father.

And really I was only watching it to see people eaten by dinos. That wasn't happening enough.

Mike D. said...

Being a fan of Tarzan films I sought out these films by Sipek with no luck...but I do remember seeing one when I was younger.

Mike Henry is also one of my favorite Tarzans and I loved his films...I loved the whole James Bond feel in the beginning of one of them...But the Cave scene later on was awesome as he was picking the bad guys off one by one in the shadows and nooks and crannies of the cave....the villain got what he deserved in the end.
I did not care for the Jock Mahoney's but THREE CHALLENGES stands out pretty well in my mind...Woody Strode made a great villain.
I never watched one single episode of Tera Nova...something about it was just uninteresting so I paid it no mind.

Michael May said...

I still need to see the third Mike Henry Tarzan movie. Cannot wait.

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