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While thinking about spinoffs I like the other day, I thought of many that were just terrible or unnecessary. So here is a list of some of the ones I don't like and why.
– Joey (Spinoff of 'Friends')- The premise is that you take the least interesting character on 'Friends' and give him his own show. No thank you. I would have watched 'Phoebe' or 'Chandler' though.
– Enos (spinoff of 'The Dukes of Hazzard')- Say what you will about 'The Dukes of Hazzard' but it was a big part of my childhood viewing and I liked it. The spinoff (starring Deputy Enos) was a bad idea.
– Mayberry RFD (spinoff of 'The Andy Griffith Show')- The bad spin-off. 'Andy Griffith' also spawned a GOOD spinoff 'Gomer Pyle, USMC'
– Three's A Crowd (spinoff of 'Three's Company')- The rare spinoff featuring the main character of a show after his supporting cast leaves. It wasn't good despite the presence of John Ritter.
– Crusade (spinoff of 'Babylon 5')- In my opinion, 'Babylon 5' was genius and ended too soon. The immediately spun off a show in the same universe starring Gary Cole but I didn't like it. It was more like 'Star Trek' (a ship and a crew type show) and didn't capture the things that made me love 'Babylon 5'

I was reading through one of my Savage Dragon books today and I got to thinking about indy comics and some of the characters I love. So here are my top 5 favorite non-Marvel, non-DC characters. This is leaving out titles from Marvel and DC imprints (which forces me to not list great characters like Kick-Ass, Preacher, Spider Jerusalem and Elijah Snow).
5.- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- Ah, the Ninja Turtles. The success story of the indy comics scene began as just a cool, weird comic.
4.- Invincible- The other great series by 'The Walking Dead' genius Robert Kirkman
3.- Christian Walker (from Powers)- A detective working superhero cases. But more than that really…
2.- Judge Dredd- A great character from across the pond. Really the face of a whole 1980's-90's underground comics movement.
1.- The Savage Dragon- Erik Larsen's Dragon makes me laugh but more importantly he pays homage to the entire history of comics while Larsen proves month-in and out what makes comics fun.

Today I was thinking about Seth Myers, the SNL cast member who recently hosted the White House Correspondent's Dinner. He's a decent Weekend Update anchor (though I preferred him with Amy Poehler) and reportedly a huge comic book fan (which makes him A-OK in my book). But seeing as how Weekend Update is the only bit that has been on every episode of SNL for the last century (or so it seems), I thought I would rundown the best WU anchors ever.
5) Chevy Chase- The original. The guy was a genius in the spot.
4) Colin Quinn- Got a bad rap. But Quinn's style of humor played well into the Weekend Update. Very underrated.
3) Dennis Miller- His whole act seems to be a Weekend Update turned up to 15 on the dial.
2) Norm MacDonald- And here was the conflict. My #2 and #1 are soooo close. To this day, I love Norm MacDonald in the way that female liberal arts majors love Emile Bronte.
1) Kevin Nealon- Nealon wins only by virtue of how strange his update would get sometimes. Nealon had good delivery but he shined when he would veer into more abstract areas. And to this very day, I giggle when thinking about how Ike Turner (played by Tim Meadows) made Nealon his new Tina.

So I am going to see Thor on Friday and I can't wait. It's getting great advance reviews. I figured it would. Kenneth Branagh is a very talented director and actor and Marvel scoring him to bring Thor to the screen was a MAJOR coup. In many ways the saga of the Gods of Asgard is similar to the Shakespearean material Branagh has spent so much of his career on. I mean, at it's heart it is the story of a headstrong prince being taught humility by his father while being plotted against by his conniving half-brother. They are bringing Thor to Earth for part of this film, which makes sense as they are bringing Thor into the Avengers movie currently in the works. This is great because it gives us Natalie Portman, who is great. Not to mention Clark Gregg as Agent Coulson, the SHIELD agent from the Iron Man movies.
I cannot wait!

I was thinking today, whenever they make a food I really, really love they eventually stop making it. Here are some cases:
– Pepperidge Farm Croissant Pizza-When I was a kid my mom used to buy these all the time. A personal sized square pizza that tasted as if the goddess Aphrodite herself come down and… well, let's just say they were good.
– Kaberry Kaboom- A Ben and Jerry's ice cream with Pop Rocks in them.
-Oreo O's Cereal- Very delicious cereal. I would wrestle a bull one-handed to get some more of these.
– Surge- A sort of Mountain Dew/energy drink hybrid. I was probably the only person on Earth who liked it. I strongly suspect that 'Slurm' from 'Futurama' was based on it.