Random Asides

Why? BECAUSE I CAN.

It’s been a slow weekend here on Skepchick, but there will be big skeptical news and fun tomorrow, promise! In the meantime, I give you this dramatic kitty:

Rebecca Watson

Rebecca is a writer, speaker, YouTube personality, and unrepentant science nerd. In addition to founding and continuing to run Skepchick, she hosts Quiz-o-Tron, a monthly science-themed quiz show and podcast that pits comedians against nerds. There is an asteroid named in her honor. Twitter @rebeccawatson Mastodon mstdn.social/@rebeccawatson Instagram @actuallyrebeccawatson TikTok @actuallyrebeccawatson YouTube @rebeccawatson BlueSky @rebeccawatson.bsky.social

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23 Comments

  1. Just looked at the Twitter thingy, and read your post about Bat Manuel. I just finished watching the first disc of The Tick, and I got a chuckle out of your observation. Sadly, it was almost as amusing as the six episodes i watched.

  2. LBB: I was just thinking that I’d like to get my hands on the entire cartoon series on DVD, but I only see seasons 1 & 2 on Amazon and I could’ve sworn there was a 3rd, AND it sounds like there are episodes missing from those. So I’m conflicted on whether or not I want to drop the $50.

    And in case I change it, the Twitter LBB is referring to is:

    rebeccawatson realized that the mayor in The Dark Knight was Bat-Manuel! <3 Now I'll HAVE to see it again.

  3. Yeah. Three seasons, and the DvDs are missing episodes. Something to do with copyright ownership conflicts or something. A lot of TV shows have issues like that, but I can’t wrap my brain around it. how in the universe does one person own the rights to a single episode, but the studio has the rights to the rest of the season? Someone made a stupid mistake somewhere for something like that to happen.

  4. KITTY!!!!! I honestly went searching on youtube for similar videos… and you should really watch the Dramatic Lemur one.

  5. You guys, I have five very dramatic kittens that need good homes!! Does anyone know of anyone in the So.Cal area who could give one or more of these guys a good home/foster home?

    kthxbye

  6. Spoon. Did anyone else notice that there is a senator as a bit player in Dark Knight. I was watching the flick and I’m like “Hey I think I know that guy, isn’t he a senator. I had to stay through all of the credits to see if I was right. It was Senator Patrick Leahy. I missed Bat Manuel.

  7. Which skepchick poster was writing the sunday monster posts. Man I loved those. I went to net flix and found like a hundred old monster flicks. I can’t wait for Billy the Kid vs. Dracula and Jesse James meets Frankensteins Daughter. I was like shit 7 when I saw those.

  8. how in the universe does one person own the rights to a single episode, but the studio has the rights to the rest of the season? Someone made a stupid mistake somewhere for something like that to happen.

    A lot of these issues occurred because, prior to cheap DVD players, nobody ever expected TV shows to be something that consumers would want to own. Rights to use any content that had to be licensed were negotiated for broadcast, and maybe for reruns, but not for consumer purchase.

    Once TV series started getting put on DVD, the producers of the shows found themselves having to negotiate new contracts for this material with the copyright holders. WKRP IN Cincinatti was held in limbo for years, and finally released without a lot of the original music, because the studios that hold the copyrights to the recordings wanted a metric crapload of money to allow the songs to appear on the DVDs.

    I’m speculating here, but if there were characters created for the comic books, they might have been owned by the publisher. A lot of comic book work happens that way. Even though the author or artist creates a character, the copyright is owned by the publisher, unless rights for the creator are specifically contracted.

    If the publisher owns rights to the characters, and licensed them for use in the cartoon, they may have asked for too big a fee to license them again for the DVDs. In that case, the producers would have had to choose between no DVDs, or lopping out episodes.

    I’d be curious if someone has the DVDs, if they could identify the missing episodes and which, if any, characters were removed from the series because those episodes weren’t included. In other news, I think this is my longest comment evar.

  9. Oh, and I forgot to say one thing. The cartoon ruled. The live action series seriously drooled.

  10. Episode #11 is missing from season one. The Mole Men are the only characters which don’t also appear in other episodes, and they don’t appear in any other format, either. In the UK release, episode #11 is included, however, so if you can get your hands on that version (and have the right regional DVD player), you’re golden. Good luck with that, by the way.

  11. LBB, I respectfully disagree. I think the cartoon was fantastic. I think the live action series was fantistic for different reasons and the comic book was transcendent.

  12. Rebecca you could consider renting the DVD’s and then copying them. it would be cheaper than $50. Now I want to change my name to the “Mad bomber what bombs at midnight.”

  13. Is this about the time I wrote fuck a few times when I found out that “Curiosity aroused” wasn’t picked up.

  14. Cute cat. Looks like a Scottish Fold, which seem to be oddly popular in Japan.

    Rebecca, are you aware that Nestor Carbonell (AKA Mayor of Gotham, AKA Bat-Manuel) is ALSO a recurring character on LOST? He portrays the enigmatic Richard Alpert, after the real name of Tim Leary’s buddy Ram Dass. So if you have to see Batman again… I think you’ll also have to watch LOST! :-P

    The best part of being an addict is spreading your addiction around…

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