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Kai-Fu Lee defies ban, invites 30 million Weibo followers to join him on Twitter
Think you're brave, internet tough guy? Ex-Google China chief Kai-Fu Lee's been rather outspoken about censorship in his homeland, and as such was banned from Sina and Tencent Weibo for three days, presumably by over-zealous authorities. To keep his followers in the strictly monitored nation up-to-date, the Beijing-based Lee took to Twitter and invited all 30 million of them to join him, which would make him the social network's fourth most-followed user. That's unlikely, of course -- Twitter can be accessed fairly easily despite a ban in the nation, but developing a country-sized following on an illicit site would be a stretch, even for an outspoken pundit.
First seasons go on sale on the PlayStation Store
The US PlayStation Video Store is having its "First Season Summer Sale." From now until September 17th, you'll be able to download episodes from the first season of 30 Rock, Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, Friday Night Lights, Heroes, Psych and The Office for only 99 cents each in SD. (HD episodes are $1.99 each, and will only work on the PS3.)
30 Rock passes along wise Sims parenting advice
Listen. We really wanted to make the focus of this post the humorous nod to EA and Maxis' life-emulator The Sims that was featured on last night's episode of 30 Rock. It's one of our favorite shows, making a reference to one of our most beloved franchises, and ... well, it actually teaches us a valuable lesson about parenting. You can check out Liz Lemon's sagacious suggestion on Hulu (it's around the 1:20 mark).Yes, we'd love to focus on that, but unfortunately, we find it difficult to write about 30 Rock on our humble gaming blog without instead turning your attention to Werewolf Bar Mitzvah. If you've got time to watch both of these clips, please do -- if you only have time for one, it's hard for us to endorse anything except Tracy Jordan's lupine magnum opus.[Via Kotaku]
Steve Jobs impersonators take over NBC on Chuck and 30 Rock
It seems that Hollywood is beginning to miss Steve Jobs almost as much as we are. This is especially true for two of NBC's hit comedy shows; "30 Rock" and "Chuck." Both were new this week and overflowing with appreciation for Stevie J. For most Apple fans it is easy to spot when many TV shows and movies feature Apple gear. The most recent episodes of "30 Rock" and "Chuck," however, go above and beyond featuring a shameless homage to the man himself, Steve Jobs -- in 30 Rock's case, doing a great take on a worldchanging Apple announcement from the not-too-distant past. I won't get into the details of the episodes themselves but I have posted the clips after the break. In case you missed it, both episodes are online over at Hulu. Thanks to everyone who sent this in. [via Gizmodo and Crunchgear]
Screen Grabs: Liz Lemon dons mock turtleneck, invokes Reality Distortion Field to save TGS's budget
Screen Grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dt com. When TGS is faced with budget cuts on 30 Rock, Tina Fey's character Liz Lemon did the only thing she knew to do: appeal to her superiors with a full-on Steve Jobs impression, mock turtleneck and all. Of course, if she was really Steve Jobs, that turtleneck would've fired three writers on the spot and introduced the Tracey Jordan Nano. Check out the three pillars key to her show's success in the gallery and video after the break.
Battlestar Galactica (and other NBC shows) now available on the PlayStation Store
You don't need to read any further. Battlestar Galactica is now available on the PlayStation Store. Each episode will be available in SD and HD, with future episodes arriving on the Store one day after its televised broadcast.Oh, and the video store has also expanded to include other shows and movies from the NBC/Universal line-up, such as The Office, 30 Rock, Heroes, The 40 Year Old Virgin and Milk. SD content can be downloaded to both a PS3 and PSP, while HD content is for the PS3 only.
Oh, the '80s: Alec Baldwin's hard nights ended with ... Galaga
Before he was a thorn in Tina Fey's side as the Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming at GE, Alec Baldwin was something of a sot, spending much of the '80s in a haze of "sex, drugs, booze." And when it came to sobering up, it wasn't coffee that was his drug of choice. It was Galaga, though we imagine blurred vision kept him from ever putting in his initials.Baldwin writes in the book "Moments of Clarity" that evenings of debauchery would often end in a warehouse with him playing the arcade classic into the morning. "This was the only way I could go 'beta' and go into that state I needed to be, where I could calm down and take my mind off everything," recalled the actor, who confessed that God got him sober. And while the 30 Rock star oddly describes the deity as a "65-year-old retired postal worker named Lenny," we still like to think that the Galagans played their part. See how classic arcade games, like Galaga, have been updated for the modern audience:
30 Rock: Tracy Jordan's porno video game sells 61m units
Back in May, we heard 30 Rock character Tracy Jordan was putting the finishing touches on his pornographic video game Goregasm: The Legend of the Dong-Slayer. Since then, according to the 30 Rock season premiere that debuted on Hulu this week, the title has gone on to sell 61 million units. That amounts to an average of approximately 360,947 each day. Comparatively, as of March 2008, Hot Coffee-laden Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has sold just 21.5 million in its then-1,247 day lifetime. At $60 per game (the price according to Jordan), we're looking at $3.66 billion in sales (approx. $217m daily). When reminded that most games are made by a large team of developers and that he can't keep those billions of dollars, Jordan responded, "I don't know, I think I did it alone." No word yet on the inevitable sequel, Goregasm 2: The Dong Slayer Electro-erotic Boogaloo Massacre. Video of Jordan's announcement after the break. Update: Corrected the title of Jordan's game and, subsequently, our prediction for the sequel's title.
How iTunes saved NBC's 'The Office'
Our old friend Dave pointed us to a Newsday article discussing how iTunes essentially took NBC's The Office off the chopping block, where it was headed last year after disappointing Nielsen ratings, and catapulted it to "the Seinfeld of iTunes." If you're not a Seinfeld fan that might be meaningless to you, but trust me when I say It's the BEST, Jerry! The BEST!* Only recently did The Office cede the top spot to Lost as the single most downloaded program weekly, not to mention nabbing an Emmy (well-deserved, IMO) for Best Comedy. Angela Bromstead, president of NBC Universal, which owns and produces The Office had this to say: "I'm not sure that we'd still have the show on the air." The network had only ordered so many episodes, but when it went on iTunes and really started taking off, that gave us another way to see the true potential other than just Nielsen. It just kind of happened at a great time." Of course Nielsen is getting hip to the power of iTunes + iPod itself these days.Newer shows like 30 Rock and Jericho are also expected to be a big iTunes sellers when/if they hit the iTS, despite their currently poor Nielsen showings and may save their respective fates as well.The article goes on to talk about what doesn't sell well on iTunes. "Nielsen hits such as CSI: Miami or NCIS are no-shows in the top 50. The Simpsons? Nada (which is not on iTunes at all... even though Prison Break is a stalwart). What does any of this mean? Who knows - except, perhaps that serials and guy-oriented shows are the biggest beneficiaries of the iTunes effect." Personally I think iTunes is only part of this revolution. The networks themselves are getting smarter about putting their shows online, on their own websites, which may not be as convenient or trendy as iTunes, but it's certainly a start. With all the timeshifting and placeshifting going on these days anyway, Prime Time Television as we have known it for many years is going away sooner rather than later. iTunes is really only the beginning of the revolution. It's not the be all and end all.Thanks, Dave! *It's purely coincidence that I had not one, but two opportunities to reference Seinfeld today. Life is good.
NBC looks to resurrect Must-See TV with all HD lineup
NBC is shuffling its lineup and to make Thursday a "Must-see TV" night again, it is pairing two of our favorite HD comedies My Name is Earl and The Office, with returning -- and now HDTV-ready -- series Scrubs, and new show 30 Rock. There's also some show called E.R. at 10 p.m. but does anyone really watch that anymore? 30 Rock moves to Thursdays beginning November 16th as it joins with Earl and The Office in super-sized 40-minute episodes, but the block trule comes together on the 30th with the arrival of Scrubs in the 9 p.m. slot. That seems like a pretty powerful lineup to us, but it remains to be seen if easter eggs, emo hipster doctors and a british comedy transplant can bring back memories of the Seinfeld / Friends lineup of yesteryear.[Via TV Squad]
