Digital Streaming Trends and TV Show Revivals

On this episode of Altered Geek, I'll be talking

about some studios that are launching their own

digital interactive services. I'll be also talking

about something that happened with Walmart and

the SNES Classic, as well as some television

show reboots. All this and more on Altered Geek.

Oh jeez Welcome back to Altered Geek after the

episode 200 debut of episode 201 is here and

with it a new format. In addition to that I'll

be releasing two episodes a week for the duration

of this podcast and unless something changes

I'll be releasing every Wednesday and Friday.

So the Wednesday show will be as I mentioned

in 200 the shorter show where I kind of cover

everything in about a 30 minute time block and

in Fridays I will be doing the hour or more show.

So let's get right on to it with the geek history

lesson of the day. And first up on that geek

history lesson is National Day Calendar. I am

going to be doing these on occasion on the Wednesday

shows and possibly on the Friday show, depending.

So today, August 16th, is National Tele -Joke

Day, National Rum Day, National Airborne Day,

and National Roller Coaster Day. Only two of

these would I actually observe, and that would

be National Tele -Joke Day and National Roller

Coaster Day. I am not very good at telling jokes

unless they're spur -of -the -moment, and it's

something I catch on a sarcastic irony type of

conversation. And the roller coaster thing, I

haven't been on a roller coaster in probably...

It's getting close to about five years now. It

was about the last time I went to Cedar Point,

just before my son, my oldest, was born. And

I don't think I'd ever go back. more so because

I just I don't I don't like waiting in lines

all day for I mean you pay like $80 per person

and then you wait practically all day to get

on like four rides maybe five depending on the

day you go and to me that's just not worth the

money like it's They're fun, but not for the

amount you pay. I'd rather go to a water park

where I can get the most bang for my buck. So

that's going to be a regular segment. And then

of course, also of note, in 1988, IBM introduces

a software for artificial intelligence. In 1989,

a solar flare from the sun creates a geomagnetic

storm that affects microchips, leading to a halt

of all trading on Toronto's stock market. In

1930, the first color -sound cartoon called Fiddlesticks

is made by UBI Works. In 1953, a channel in Shreveport,

Texas, Arcana, LA, aka NBC begins. In 1967, in

Florence, Alabama, PBS begins broadcasting. And

in 1973, the fifth San Diego Comic -Con International

opens at Sheraton Hotel, Harbor Island. In addition

to that, the first Internet Explorer on August

16th, 1995 is introduced by Microsoft, which

at the time was a modified version of Spyglass's

Mosaic. which Microsoft had licensed. Later,

when Microsoft began including Internet Explorer

for free with Windows, BuyGlass sued Microsoft

for not paying what they thought were the proper

royalties, Microsoft settled for $8 million.

And it was garbage. Which Internet Explorer still

is. So yeah, that's this day in history. So hopefully

you guys enjoyed that segment, and I'll be back

after a quick break. So as I stated at the start

of the show, there will be some new digital interactive

services. Among them are IDW Entertainment, which

is the independent content studio. A division

of IDW Media Holdings has launched the IDW Digital

Studios aimed at content development, production,

distribution, and engagement with a primary focus

on building franchises. Which is kind of interesting

because they hold the rights to Ninja Turtles

and Transformers at the moment as well as I think

GI Joe which it would be interesting to see them

head up a New animation studio with that in regard

Because they're they're on -demand entertainment

is for geek culture as they're putting it in

their their their release and Their other properties

which they own are Winona Earp and Lock and Key

franchises, and they're hoping to build a content

portfolio which will tap into the fan base of

18 to 49 year olds, which are already familiar

with IDW's brands. That could be a really interesting

concept. It's kind of funny because about every

company now is able to pretty much come up with

their own streaming or digital network channel,

as it were, to house their own content, essentially

eliminating the need for cable television on

every spectrum there is. And this would be a

welcome change, at least for the animation side,

because while I've enjoyed the Transformers and

GIGO stuff that's come out in recent years, and

I know that they're not specifically stating

that in this particular announcement, but I foresee

this coming at some point, being that Hasbro

has close ties with them for a lot of their franchise

content. I would be interested in seeing what

they come up with because we've had Sunbow, we've

had a couple other companies take the rights

to various 80s properties that were starting

out as toys. I think that with the aesthetics

that IDW has, I think that they could work in

today. Honestly, I would love to see things get

taken away from Cartoon Network because they...

Kind of horrendous on a lot of their their marketing

deals and as far as how some of their shows are

handled Which has led to numerous reboots of

80s properties getting canceled within a season

or two At a very unfortunate demise Usually because

they put him on a death slot and it just kind

of kills the show But in addition to that, Sony

Pictures and TV networks to acquire a majority

stake in Funimation, which I know this is a little

bit dated, but I find it interesting that Sony

is increasing its footprint in animation, especially

the anime space, and apparently they paid 143

million for 95 % of the Japanese animation distributor

Funimation, which has properties such as Dragon

Ball Z, which I am very familiar with. Cowboy

Bebop, One Piece, My Hero Academia, and Attack

on Titan. Apparently, Funimation's CEO will retain

a minority stake in the business and remain in

his post. That's kind of huge news. I think it's

more so because Sony has this issue with getting

franchises to live, more or less, and they need

those tent poles. if they can acquire them, which

is what Disney's done, essentially, and that's

why they're doing so well, is because they've

acquired these tent poles, because a lot of their

content got stale, and it really wasn't doing

much for them, especially looking at pirates

or John... Carter I think something like that

I I can't remember if it flopped anyway, and

then they tried to do the long -ranger and it

flopped So I mean them getting Star Wars and

in Marvel. It's kind of just Elevated them and

so I feel like Sony feels this is that same scenario

here plus almost every studio and anymore has

to own something that has to do with animation

anime or children's programming so I Don't know

kudos to them On another side note, Netflix and

Disney are kind of in their own little battle,

as it were, because Disney is planning on starting

their own streaming service with all of their

content. So it remains to be seen how long Netflix

will get to hold onto the Marvel content, but

it's saying that at this point, Netflix still

holds rights to stream Disney films like the

Avengers, but they could also change. especially

since Netflix has had the majority of Disney's

most successful content over the past few years,

whether it be from ABC or from Disney Channel,

Disney XD, Marvel films. So it kind of remains

to be seen what they'll do, but... Bob Iger,

the CEO of Disney, has basically announced that

he's pulling all his content from Netflix and

starting their own thing. So, worst case scenario,

there's no more Marvel superheroes, Star Wars

films, Indiana Jones or live action remakes of

Disney classics on Netflix. But that just kind

of opens up the door for Netflix to kind of shoehorn

its own new content in and create their own stuff.

Which... Again has turned out pretty well for

Netflix in this regard, but I don't know if there's

enough on Netflix to where I would physically

keep it If this happened Because a lot of Disney's

content is stuff that I would watch anyway. I

mean, yes, they have You know the CW they have

DC stuff. They have Stuff like that, but Warner

Brothers is also gonna be starting their own

as well. So it I feel like Netflix is getting

squeezed out of the market because these big

studios are discovering that Netflix isn't just

a distribution platform anymore, they're also

a publisher of content and where there's money

in that department, they're going to kind of

shoehorn their own content and not have to deal

with the middleman, as it were, and get to keep

all of the profits and charge what they want

for their own service. So again, it's kind of

turning into an a la carte type style menu with

all of these companies, such as NBC, Warner Brothers,

Disney, CBS, HBO, they're all having their own

pay service. I just don't know... It kind of

makes it more difficult, in a sense, because

then you have to pick and choose which ones you

want. So, like, if you had an aggregator like

Netflix or Hulu, who had a majority of this content

as well, it kind of gives another avenue for

those that don't want to spend the extra. But

that's, again, their way of weaseling more money

out of people, and, you know, it's the capitalistic

approach, which, you know, if they're gonna do

it, it kind of makes sense. But I'm honestly

a little bit... interested in this I don't know

what I would pay or how this would all play out

when Netflix loses all of these types of content

from all these different studios what service

I would go with I think I'd have to weigh it

and figure out which had the majority of the

content I want to pay for or or pick the a la

carte of the ones that such as like Warner Brothers

or in Disney and just get those or Or sign up

for something like Netflix where I'll get more

original stuff on it. I don't know. What are

you guys thoughts on it? I'm kind of curious

about it So just leave the comments in the episode

post or hit me up on Twitter at altered geek

or at SCP 21 which is my personal handle on Twitter

You can also get a hold of the show in another

way Which is you can interact with the show using

the hashtag What's geeky to you? Originally I

had a different hashtag that I was using on episode

200 and it was what's exciting to you and I didn't

realize the word sex was in the middle of it

and so I had to remove it because I was like

I just if I start using this I just foresee big

problems later so I change it to what's geeky

to you because there's no mistaking that So yeah,

just hit up the show either use the hashtag or

the the Twitter handles that's probably the best

way to get a hold of me and the show and in honestly,

I would love to hear the feedback for the next

episode and and get more of Your feedback is

topics I would love to have topics of what's

geeky to you at the moment Because honestly I

I can geek out about just about anything whether

it's tech games TV movies History It's it's really

just all over the place. I love podcasting. I

love graphics. It's It's kind of a grab bag of

everything So I'll be back after a quick break

with a little bit about television show reboots.

We'll be back after this. And we're back. So,

Transformers Titans Return series is a follow

-up to the Combiner Wars done by Machinima. And

in that one, they used a lot of YouTubers, fans

of Transformers and whatnot to kind of keep the

cost lower. Now that they found out it was a

success, they've come out with the second part

of the Prime Wars trilogy, which is Titan's Return.

And in Titan's Return, they cast Peter Cullen,

who has been the resident Optimus Prime since

the 80s incarnation and the films, to reprise

his role as Optimus Prime. following his last

outing with Transformers Prime and Transformers

Robots in Disguise, replacing John Bailey, who

is the kind of go -to Optimus Prime when Peter

Cullen's not around. They've reprised Judd Nelson

as Rodimus Prime, or Hot Rod. First time he's

done that since... The funny thing is Variety

actually quotes this as... Basically his first

outing since the 1980s animated film But that's

not entirely true. He did reprise his role as

Rodimus Prime in the 2007 series Transformers

animated or Somewhere in there transformers.

I can't remember what year it came out, but it

may have been 2009 I don't I'm not sure but it

he did reprise his role in the third season of

that briefly So the show will also feature Will

Wheaton as Perceptor, which is interesting, Star

Trek alumni there. It's also going to feature

Michael Dorn, who played Worf in Star Trek, as

Fortress Maximus, Nolan North as Metroplex, Frank

Todaro as Emissary, or no, Jason David Frank

as Emissary, I'm sorry. who was famous for the

green, white, red, black rangers on various incarnations

of Power Rangers. So those new cast members will

be joining returning talent from the Combiner

Wars, including Abby Trott, voice of Windblade,

Jason Mardochia as Megatron, who's actually really

good at playing the Mark Hamill Joker on YouTube.

Frank Todaro, who I've worked with in Transformers

fan dubs on TFCOG in the past, is reprising Starscream.

Lana McKissick, Mistress of Flame, and Dashie

Games as Menasaur. I have no idea who those last

two people are. So, in addition, Machinima and

Hasbro have added other YouTube influencers to

the cast in a bid to lure the Digital Stars fans

to Titan's return, including... Matt Pat, creator

of the YouTube channels Game Theorist and Film

Theorist. Rob Dyke, a YouTube influencer known

for Seriously Strange. And Tey Zande, who is

best known for his viral video Chocolate Rain.

That is so old. But it's interesting regardless.

So Titan's Return will be interesting because

it's not the combiners. It's Fortress Maximus,

Trypticon, Metroplex. who are these giant freaking

robots. So yeah, I'm kind of interested for this

when it comes back, more so because of who's

in it than anything else. But yeah, regardless,

it's gonna be cool. I think it'll be better now

that they've got some of the original voice cast,

but that remains to be seen. So Deadpool is going

to be getting its own animated series as well,

which would be really different from the movies

FX CEO says He's gonna be making his own animated

series, which is kind of cool FX Will be carrying

the show So it's gonna have a very different

tone than the Deadpool movie but it's Yeah, I'm

not really sure What they're planning on doing

but Donald and Steven Glover are going to be

doing this show But apparently it's going to

have It's been picked up as a series it's going

to have possibly a May release next year and

It's supposed to have a 10 episode order for

its first season and Donald Stephen Glover will

serve as showrunners writers and executive producers

while Marvel's Jeff Loeb and Jim Corey will be

executive producers and it's still entitled as

a series but being produced by Marvel Television

in association with FX Productions and ABC Signature

Studios for FFX or FXX So that'll be a little

interesting when that comes back. There's also

talks that Lost might be getting a revival reboot

But none of the characters will return I honestly

could care less about this. I didn't watch it

when it was this big raving thing on television

and honestly a lot of the shows when they're

huge and they're being raved over, such as Breaking

Bad, Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, Lost is no

exception. A lot of them that they make out to

be these like... Huge series dramas I just I

don't gravitate towards even you know like Game

of Thrones a lot of these like I kind of skip

over them they don't interest me I'm more of

a fan of the superheroes slash comedies slash

Family drama comedy type things like in a sense

when I say that there's really only one in that

category and that was Last Man Standing and that's

gone so now it's like Captain Can Wait but uh

regardless I don't know if I would care if it's

gonna come back but should the series come back

it's it's probably going to have a a new writer

Damon Lindloff admitted that uh Return to the

Island of Mystery drama was only a matter of

time though he hopes the original characters

are nowhere to be found so There's that little

bit of tidbit of rumor mill in kind of a soft

reboot of Kevin Can Wait. They kind of pulled

the same way that they did with Last Man Standing.

They skip ahead about a year and then they change

things up. So Kevin Can Wait decided to kill

off his TV wife to make room for Leia Romini,

who was Kevin James' co -star in King of Queens.

So they fired the wife, Erin Hayes, at the end

of the last season, killing her character off,

and they'll fast forward nine months when it

returns. So they're doing it because they're

going to make Lea Romini a permanent star of

the show. because of the the chemistry between

the two of them in the last two episodes of the

last season and So they're basically reuniting

the King of Queens permanently and yeah so should

be a series regular next season and They're saying

that he's not going to be morphing into the King

of Queens and It's only a matter of time before

they do it I I actually think they're gonna go

that route they're gonna kind of try and bring

that back to some extent, even if it's in an

evolved state, I could see that happening. And

this has kind of been reported all over the place,

the Munsters reboot in the works at NBC, although

it remains to be seen what they do with it. I

did see the 2012 reboot, Mockingbird Lane, which

really wasn't that bad for a reboot, but... I'm

not really sure what they're gonna do on this.

I thought the last one was pretty good, and then

they had a previous reboot before that called

The Munsters Today, which ran from 88 to 91.

Again, I'm still more interested in the Jetsons

thing than I am this, but I know that The Munsters

had a decent fan base, and I remember watching

that with my mom when I was growing up too, so

it's interesting. Another series that has been

talked about that people are clamoring to be

revived is Batman Beyond. With the recent return

with Batman and Harley Quinn in the Bruce Timm

style DC animated universe film where Kevin Conroy

and Lauren Lester reprise Batman and Nightwing

respectively. Two of the people that I've actually

gotten to interview, which is awesome, Lauren

Lester twice, Kevin Conroy once, both guys are

class acts, nice guys, very awesome. But yeah,

the last time we really got anything from Batman

Beyond was Justice League Unlimited and Batman

Beyond the Show, which between the two it ended

99 to 2006 with them combined. So it ended 15

years ago and even Will Friedle who played Terry

McGinnis Batman is like heck yeah, bring it back

But they had unfinished storylines, which is

a lot of the speculation of why they should bring

it back They didn't explain what happened to

Dick Grayson Robin two -faced penguin riddler

a lot of the Batman they have in a series of

rogues galleries that they could have reprised

or brought back because they did they did tie

up things with with Apolog and Justice League

Unlimited, but there's a lot of space in between

that could have been filled in Because it kind

of jumps 20 years or so But you get Ra's al Ghul,

Talia, you get the Joker, you get Mr. Freeze,

you get Bane Who kind of came in there, but you

get other characters that don't really get much

more Filling you don't get what happened to Derek

Powers' Blight. You don't get what happened to

Ink, Stalker, Spellbinder, Kirari later. There's

a lot of comic adaptation stuff that they could

add in from the various reboots. You could do

Justice League Beyond. A lot of these ideas that

I'm seeing are actually pretty cool and interesting.

And then there could also be a lot of the...

The expanding the DCAU and then you know, of

course you could rejuvenate Batman And kind of

kind of have this this new Batman animated series

that we would be able to kind of Rep her, you

know our teeth around and kind of be able to

have something that's worth watching again, because

the last show we got was Beware the Batman and

it didn't really do all that well. It was an

interesting take and it was CG and I liked where

they were going with it, but it died after two

seasons, which was unfortunate. And at least

Batman V .I. got three and it got a lot of reprisal

and Justice League Unlimited and in its own Return

of the Joker film. So what do you guys thoughts

on that as well? There's not really a lot of

other reboot news. The only interesting thing

I find is that Walmart cancelled every single

SNES pre -order at the end of last month. They

notated that, unfortunately due to a technical

glitch, that page for it, which launched at this

point. It was like at the tail end of last month,

which I wonder if they've corrected it by now,

but they they confirmed that it was for an October

6th arrival date, and it seemed promising, but

then they started backpedaling. Yeah, and then

they said that later in July, the end of July,

they had a statement clarifying that all pre

-orders were canceled, which is kind of sick.

But if you want another retro console, there's

also the Atari and Sega Genesis flashback consoles,

which are going to be out September as well.

So I was more of a Sega fan, so I would be more

apt to do that. But an SNES classic is just as

tempting because I enjoy the SNES. That and the

Sega Genesis were kind of my go -tos at the time.

That being said, until next time, get altered,

get geeky with the Altergeeks. Catch you later.