Mad Men, Season 25

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, after seventeen long months in the wilderness; Mad Men is returning to our television sets. Yes, we are just four short days away from the start of the series’ fifth season and I could not be more excited. Unfortunately, no preview footage of the season premier has been released yet, but thanks to Bland Hack Pictures we have a preview of what the series will look like in 20 years. Yes, it’s Mad Men in 1985! Watch as a 60 year old Don navigates the era of Tab, Reagan and Mary Lou Retton. Of course, Joan, Peggy and Pete are still around at the totally 80s version of Sterling Cooper. Check it out, and learn all about Peggy Olsen’s appreciation of the Bangles.

Mister Rogers Learns To Breakdance

Fred Rogers, everyone’s favorite tv neighbor and kindly grandfather figure would have turned 84 tomorrow. So, to preemptively celebrate his birthday we’ve got a clip of his learning the basics of breakdancing from a young neighbor. Now, unfortunately this segment doesn’t feature the besweatered tv legend spinning on his head or listening to “Rapper’s Delight,” but it does feature the next best thing: Mister Rodgers doing the moonwalk–which looks exactly like what you’d expect Mister Rogers moonwalking to look like.

James Earl Jones’ ABCs

During last night’s Academy Awards telecast, cinema legend James Earl Jones was honored  with an honorary Oscar. So, in tribute to one of Hollywood’s most famous voices, we’ve pulled out this clip of Jones reciting the alphabet on an early episode of Sesame Street. Enjoy as a young Darth Vader carefully enunciates each letter.

And here’s a bonus clip of Jones counting to ten.

Oscar Gold

Well, yesterday saw the announcement of the Academy Award nominations and there’s already a bit of a backlash against the Best Picture nomination for Post-9/11 drama Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close. In fact, with only a 48% “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s the worst reviewed picture of the last ten years to receive a Best Picture nomination. Some critics have accused this movie of being exploitive, cloying and “a naked ploy for an Oscar.”

So, in the spirit of this blatant (and frighteningly successful) piece of Oscar bait, here’s Seth McFarlane’s take on the kind of movie designed especially for Oscar gold, as featured on American Dad. Seriously, if this were real it would certainly be a winning card in  “Oscar nomination bingo.”

Breaking Bad Valentine’s Day Cards

Well folks, we’re just a little over a month until Valentine’s Day arrives with its candy hearts, greeting cards and the like. So, to get you in the spirit, the wonderful Beth at the “Butthorn” tumblr has created a set of unique Valentine’s cards based on that most romantic of television shows, Breaking Bad. The initial batch includes loving phrases from the likes of Jesse Pinkman (at right), Walter White, Walter Jr. and Hector Salamanca. I’m sure we all know someone who will be delighted to receive one of these delightful cards.

Beth says she’s working on a second batch, which will include the best attorney in the world; Saul Goodman, but in the mean time check out the other cards here.

The Anchorman Prank

A key moment in Will Ferrell’s comedic masterpiece Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy comes when it is revealed that newsman Burgundy will say anything that he reads on the teleprompter. This makes for a pretty funny scene, but surely no real news anchor would blindly read something off the teleprompter, right? Right? Well, a few of the staffers at Green Bay, Wisconsin’s NBC26 decided to put a line from Anchorman in the telepromter script and see whether the local news anchor would say it. Watch the results of this experiment here, and be glad that they didn’t make the news guy say “Fuck you, San Diego.”

Don Cherry’s Piano Desk

If you’re one of our Canadian readers, (We have those right?) you’re undoubtedly familiar with CBC’s  program Hockey Night In Canada and it’s (in)famous host Don Cherry. Cherry, a former hockey coach, is now a broadcaster and hockey commentator who has become just as famous for his sometimes controversial opinions and oft insane outfits. Suffice to say, Cherry’s a little eccentric. So, in tribute to one of Cherry’s more interesting mannerism, youtube user RBFlicks remixed video of Cherry to make his hand gestures make a little more sense.

The Sith Who Stole Christmas

Really, the stories of the Grinch and Darth Vader are all about redemption. The Grinch gives up his Grinchy ways and learns the meaning of Christmas, Darth Vader betrays the Emperor and liberates the galaxy.  As these two tales explore similar themes, it was only a matter of before someone combined How The Grinch Stole Christmas with Darth Vader’s Star Wars journey. Youtuber OneMinuteGalactica  has taken clips of Darth Vader and synched them with Boris Karloff’s Grinch narration and Thurl Ravenscroft’s legendary rendition of “You’re A Mean One, Mister Grinch” to give a slightly different take on the tale of the Grinch and the Whos.

Terry Gilliam’s “The Christmas Card”

Prior to the formation of the Monty Python troupe, members Eric Idle; Terry Jones and Michael Palin were involved with a British children’s show called Do Not Adjust Your Set. The show was full of proto-Python surreal comedy and towards the end of the series run, a young unknown American animator, and future Python, Terry Gilliam was brought on board to add bizarre animated sequences. These sequences are similar in style to the ones Gilliam would do as a member of the Pythons.

The most famous of these animated bits was one titled “The Christmas Card.” This bit features classic Christmas cards running amok with hilarity ensuing. Gilliam would later reuse a few ideas from this sequence for the Monty Python’s Flying Circus tv show.

Ned Flanders Breaks Bad (Again)

A few months ago we featured a video which mixed Bryan Cranston’s Walter White of Breaking Bad with legendary Simpsons neighbor Ned Flanders. Well, it turns out that the creator of that video wasn’t the only person to think of blending those two characters, as just yesterday Youtube user samuelk202 released this amazing video which takes the White/Flanders concept and really runs with it. The casting of this thing is pretty perfect: In addition to Walter becoming Flanders, Jesse Pinkman becomes Bart, Saul Goodman is perfectly reimagined as Lionel Hutz and Tuco appears as a surprise guest.The fact that a recent Simpsons episode features Homer accidentally going to a meth lab really elps this video.

Warning: If you’re still catching up on Breaking Bad and you haven’t finished season 2, this video contains a few spoiler allusions.