A Golden Age of Superhero TV/Movies

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If you are a fan of superheros, man is it a great time to believe alive. Over the past decade, we have seen some of the best superhero movies ever made be released. Batman Begins, Iron Man, The Avengers, The Dark Knight, etc.

And the superhero films just keep on coming. About a week ago, Warner Bros. and DC entertainment announced their superhero movie slate for the next six years. They are as follows:

2016
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice
The Suicide Squad

2017
Wonder Woman
Justice League Part 1

2018
The Flash
Aquaman

2019
Shazam
Justice League Part 2

2020
Cyborg
Green Lantern

And the crazy part...the above list doesn't even include the Marvel film slate which will include: Captain America 3, Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange, and Avengers 3. Plus you have Agents of Shield on ABC.  That's something like 4 superhero movies per year for the next six years, and a superhero show on every major TV broadcast network. (CBS ordered a Supergirl pilot, NBC has Constantine, ABC Agents of Sheild, The CW has Arrow and Flash, and Fox has Gotham.)

On a little bit of a side note, DC has some absolutely fantastic superhero TV shows on including The Flash and Arrow. I highly recommend you start watching these two shows immediately. With all of these superhero shows out there, I wonder if the bottom will drop out and when? Will the general public at some point get tired of seeing caped crusaders coming to save the day?? I for one will not. For my entire life I have loved superhero movies, and as long as the quality is there, I will continue to be a fan of this current golden age of superhero movies and TV shows.

P.S. As I was writing this blog entry, The Avengers: Age if Ultron teaser trailer was just released. It looks bad ass!!!

The Cable Cutting Revolution is Beginning

This past week, in my humble opinion, was a historic week for television. Both CBS and HBO announced their own streaming serves. CBS All Access launched this week, and for $5.99 a month you will have complete access to current shows, such as The Big Bang Theory, the ability to stream a CBS affiliated station live,and watch classics such as Star Trek. Don't get me wrong, very big news in regards to CBS. However a large amount of their older content is already on Netflix, or another streaming platform. (The selling point of this new service will be access to The Big Bang Theory.)

But the bigger news has to be HBO's announcement of a streaming service that will not require a cable or satellite subscription. This is mind blowing to me!!! For years, cable and satellite companies have been set up as an all or nothing system, where customers bought channels that they may not have wanted or watched. This very well could be the beginning of an "a la cart" system where individuals will be able to purchase the channels that they want.

I'm very interested how the cable and satellite provides will react once this new HBO platform is launched. For decades HBO has been one of the primary features that have convinced customers to sign up for cable.  If this goes through, you will be able to get HBO without such an expensive cable bill along with it.

I want to do more research on this, and possibly write out a longer piece with a little bit more background and content.

The First Saturday Morning without Cartoons On

All children of the 80s/90s will remember this graphic

This past weekend was the first weekend, possibly in fifty years, where there were no Saturday morning cartoons on any of the major broadcast networks. (CBS, NBC, ABC, CW, etc.) Being a child of the 80s and 90s, I couldn't wait for Saturday morning to arrive.

Basically because I could watch cartoons for hours. The likes of Garfield and Friends, Looney Tunes, The Real Ghostbusters, and Tales from the Cryptkeeper graced my television screen every Saturday.

For a long way, it was this stretch of cartoons, which truly made the weekend, the weekend. It's gave the weekend its feel. Gizmodo has a great article discussing this change in television programming, and they do an excellent job discussing it.

Even though television is becoming more on-demand because of Netflix, Hulu Plus, etc, and kids are able to watch cartoons whenever they want, I'm still a little sad. There's something about destination television that helps create a community amongst viewers. For generations of Americans, Saturday morning cartoons will always hold a special place in their hearts.