Showing posts with label Homage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homage. Show all posts

The Psych Cast Teases Tonight's Big Clue Tribute: It's an Homage... in the 100th Episode... with Lots of Guest-stars, Three Different Endings, and More

Shawn and Gus did it, in the billiard room, with the jerk chicken nachos!

Actually, the Psych partners are the only houseguests who AREN'T suspected of murder in tonight's episode, "100 Clues." The highly anticipated homage to the 1985 cult classic film Clue also marks the detective comedy's 100th episode—and I was on set for the corresponding celebration (pineapple cake = yum).

Joining the cast and crew for a toast to Psych were Clue actors Christopher Lloyd, Lesley Ann Warren, and Martin Mull, along with Garrett Morris, Tears for Fears' Curt Smith, and Steve Valentine, all of whom guest-star in the milestone episode.  

"It's a beast of an homage—even bigger than we thought it was going to be when we took it on," James Roday said between scenes. "But I've been astounded at how well [it's] going."

"We're nailing Clue, but it still feels like a show. It's pretty special. The sets are ridiculous, and it's so crazy when you get to watch these reunions that happen on our shows. Christopher Lloyd and Leslie Ann Warren haven't seen each other since Clue wrapped in 1985."

Back to the Future's Lloyd was especially surprised to see his old co-stars.

"I barely knew that it was a  takeoff on Clue," he admitted, telling Warren and Mull: "When I got here, I'm looking at a call sheet and discovered that you both were cast members. I was blown away—I just couldn't believe it."

"You know, it helps to read the script," cracked Mull.

Although the alums aren't reprising their Clue roles, "some of the energy feels very akin to what it was like on Clue," Warren said. "A lot of the mob scenes, running here, running there, running here, running there… I think they've captured the essence of whatever it was we did."

Clue has taken on its own life, like Rocky Horror Picture Show," she added. "I'll go into a restaurant and some 20-year-old server will come up to me and recite all these lines."

"It was not a hit movie at the time," grumbled funnyman Mull. "No, it has to take 40 years and be a cult [classic]."

Just like the original movie, "100 Clues" has three possible endings featuring three different killers. Psych fans will determine the outcome of the episode, voting for the suspects on USAnetwork.com or Twitter via special hashtags. And since USA is conducting separate votes for the East Coast and West Coast airings, viewers might see a different outcome.

"We never knew, during the course of shooting, who the killer was," Mull revealed about the original film, which was shot in sequence. "We didn't know if we were guilty or not!"

"Working with these actors has been unbelievably great," raved DulĂ© Hill, who's now reached the 100-episode mark twice (his first TV series, The West Wing, filmed 154 episodes). "It's just been a good time. You couldn't ask for a better way to reach 100 episodes."

Even creator Steve Franks was giddy about the special guests. Producer Kelly Kulchak dished, "The greatest thing about Steve is he walks onto his own set, and he's a fan! [He said], 'Oh my God. I can't believe we're going to get to meet Christopher Lloyd.'"

Maggie Lawson was similarly impressed.

"It's special to get such a dope cast," she said.  "It's wild though… we all herd around in a pack."

"Everybody's in every scene," agreed Tim Omundson, who also loves the "meta" aspect of the opening flashback. "We're riffing on our own show." 

Curt Smith, who returns as musician Curt Smith in the episode, told me with a laugh, "It's a big stretch for me." And, spoiler alert: He's not one of the murder victims. "Otherwise they wouldn't be able to bring me back [after this]. Officially now I'm a recurring character."

Of the overall experience, "It was an honor," the 1980s MTV staple said, quipping: "An honor to come all the way up here to be shot and mauled by a panther." (That's him sprawled—but not dead—on the couch below. And no, he's not dead.)

"We loved the idea of doing a drawing room mystery with three separate endings, [but] it was a massive undertaking," Franks said. "Thank God we didn't do it last year, because I don't think we would have had the running start that we would have needed just to make all of the things happen."

As for Psych's long run, Hill marveled: "I'm in awe of the whole journey. I thought that you couldn't really top the West Wing experience, [but] this has been just as fulfilling, in a whole different way…I didn't really realize that the show would have this kind of life, and have this kind of a fan base. It's thrilling."

The show will even feature special opening credits for the occasion that honor the original board game:

"100 Clues" airs tonight at 10pm on USA. To choose your ending, visit Psych's official website or vote on Twitter using hashtags for each culprit (#PsychButlerDDit, #PsychGroupieDDit, #PsychManagerDDit, #PsychAuthorDDit and #PsychHostDDit).


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Young Justice "Runaways" Review: A Super Homage and a Not-so-twisty Twist

Young Justice S02E14: "Runaways"

So, what do you all want to discuss first? The Super Friends character homages or that Green Beetle was exactly what we suspected him of being all along? Let's do the runaway Super Friends characters first since, well, what more can we say about Green Beetle other than, "What a non-twist!"

For those of you who may not know, and it's reasonable if you don't, Super Friends was a Hanna-Barbera series about a Justice League-esque group (Superman, Batman and Robin, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman) that went through a couple of different iterations between 1973 and 1986. The show had different tones and goals across those iterations. The first season was big on the kid-friendly public service announcements ("Saving energy is important, children!") and barely had recognizable DC villains at all. The second season saw the introduction of Black Vulcan, Samurai, El Dorado, and Apache Chief to give the series a little diversity.

The Super Friends series is sort of maligned due to its overly earnest moralizing and silly adventuring, but it's an important part of DC media history, and "Runaways" paid homage to the characters I just mentioned. Virgil stood in for Black Vulcan, what with their similar uses of electricity-based powers; the Japanese girl, Sam (short for Asami), was our Samurai, and used an energy-projection ability to travel in a way that Samurai used a tornado to travel; Eduardo borrowed El Dorado's teleportation abilities; and Tye Longshadow's giant astral manifestations harkened back to Apache Chief's ability to grow in size. The coloring of the youngsters' clothes even mirrored that of their 1970s counterparts.

So I rather enjoyed both the character nods to an older piece of DC animated history and where they fit into the story. Virgil, Sam, Tye, and Eduardo have been background players since the Reach's abduction of them, and having them do something, even if it was a very half-assed runaway plot, provided a welcome change of pace from the larger plot of the show. Their characterization suffered due to our lack of experience with them, but that's pretty much par for the course for the second season of Young Justice.

As a result, their recruitment by Lex, foreshadowed in the most obvious way possible a couple of weeks ago, didn't fill me with worry or dread like it probably should have. It just feels like more plotting and conniving. That being said, I really want to buy into the idea that Lex is beginning to work against the Reach, since one of my biggest problems with the Light and the Reach's union has always been that I find it difficult to believe that villains with big agendas and egos—like Vandal Savage, Lex Luthor, and Ra's al Ghul—would sacrifice those things for the Reach's plans. So if the villains have turned against their alien masters, that's a bit interesting. If this is just some con to get the kids on board, I'm less engaged.

But I guess we should talk about the Blue Beetle thing, eh? Turned out that Green Beetle's little reconfiguring of the scarab last week is indeed spurring on the end of the world, as he actually allowed the scarab to take control of Jaime. It's for the best that we were let in on the cause of Jaime's overly violent behavior as opposed to having it strung out for a few episodes since, well, we all already saw this coming a mile away. A surprise of some sort would've been nice, but we'll just have to wait and see how this contributes to the show's endgame.

DC Nation Short: Another installment of the Lightning and Thunder shorts. I liked the family vibe the short played up, particularly the "Black Lightning as a single parent" aspect, but it was also one of those shorts that felt like everything would play better even as an 11-minute version.

– Justice League Unlimited had a similar sort of plot with the Super Friends characters in the episode "Ultimatum," though they excluded El Dorado in favor of the more recognizable Wonder Twins. If you haven't seen the episode, I'd advise against it until Young Justice finishes. Their arc on this series may mirror the plot of that episode.

– I had completely forgotten about Red Volcano, and what Red Volcano even looked like. In my defense, he hasn't appeared on the show since Oct. 21, 2011.

– "Except you're flying around free as a... beetle."

– "Where's Amazo's head?!" I'm going to start shouting that at the office.

– I kept waiting for Green Beetle to transform into the Earth-16 Ma'alefa'ak, the big nemesis of the Martian Manhunter, in that last scene, but I'm starting to think he's just a Martian with a scarab. Ah, well.


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