Prisoners of Gravity -- 15 years on

Fifteen years ago today, "Evolution," the final episode of Prisoners of Gravity, the wonderful program about science fiction and comic books produced by TVOntario, aired.

PoG starred Rick Green, and was produced by Gregg Thurlbeck and Mark Askwith, ably assisted by Shirley Brady, and I was fortunate enough to be the most frequent guest in the program's history.

The show ran for five seasons and 139 episodes. A brief history of this landmark series and my involvement with it is here.


Pictured: Rick Green (above) and Robert J. Sawyer (below) on Prisoners of Gravity's "Aritifical Intelligence" episode

The Robert J. Sawyer web site

The Paper Chase, Season One!

"I'm arguing for justice, sir ... I'm arguing for people -- for a wholehearted, indivisible commitment to humanity." --James T. Hart

As I said back in December 2008, Shout! Factory is issuing the first season of The Paper Chase on DVD -- and the three-disk set arrived today, via Amazon.ca! All 22 first-season episodes. W00t!

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Rob on Discovery's Daily Planet for Darwin Day

This Thursday, February 12, 2009, is the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, and Discovery Channel Canada is doing a special episode of its nightly science-news program Daily Planet devoted to Darwin Day. The guests are science-fiction writer Robert J. Sawyer (author of Hominids) and paleontologist Peter Ward (co-author of Rare Earth).

Checking my records I see that it's been -- gak! -- almost four years since I've been on Daily Planet (the last time was Tuesday, April 19, 2005, talking with astronomer Seth Shostak and comedian Elvira Kurt about SETI). But, nonetheless, this is my 37th appearance on Daily Planet (or @discovery.ca, as the series was originally known), and my 267th TV appearance to date.

This episode of Daily Planet airs at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time Thursday, 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time Friday, and noon Eastern Time Friday, and will also be online and for sale through the iTunes Store. Daily Planet is hosted by Jay Ingram and Ziya Tong.

Here are some pictures from the shoot, which occurred this morning in my home:

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

Tuesday is RJS Night on Vision TV!

This Tuesday, January 26 -- tomorrow, as I write this -- I'll be featured not once but twice on Canada's Vision TV.

At 10:00 p.m. Eastern time / 7:00 p.m. Pacific, the half-hour documentary Dude, Where's My Flying Car?, heavily featuring Rob, airs as the debut episode of the series I Prophesy.

And, immediately following, at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time / 7:30 p.m. Pacific, the first episode of Supernatural Investigator, the series I'm hosting, airs.

There are repeats twice on Wednesday: see the schedule here.

The trailer for Supernatural Investigator is here.

The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site

The Robman on CBC's The Hour

CBC Television's The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos has posted the clip of me -- Robert J. Sawyer -- talking about the future of transportation which first aired Monday, January 2, 2007.

It's a funny clip in a way. They recorded me in front of a green screen, and then simply keyed in a plain white background (rather than shooting me in front of a white background to begin with). And although it's a canned piece, they played it to The Hour's live studio audience, so it ends up with a silly (but appreciative) laugh track. Anyway, here it is. (3 minutes, 45 seconds)
 

CBC's The Hour features Robert J. Sawyer and Karl Schroeder

CBC Television's The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulous, which airs at 11:00 p.m. local time coast-to-coast in Canada, is doing a three-part series on the future to kick off the new year.

The three segments will air Tuesday, January 2; Wednesday, January 3; and Thursday, January 4. Each segment features a different theme, and a different person making the predictions. One segment is on the future of transportation, and SF writer Robert J. Sawyer is interviewed; another is on the future of warfare and SF writer Karl Schroeder is interviewed; the third is on the future of humanity, and George Dvorsky of the Toronto Transhumanist Association is interviewed. But which segment will air on which night hasn't yet been determined.

The Hour is a national current-affairs show produced by CBC Television in Toronto. The segments in question are produced by Nick McCabe.
 

Robby the Robot guest stars on Stacked

How can you not love this show? The episode I watched today, "Gavin's Pipe Dream," includes an appearance near the end by Robby the Robot (an absolutely spot-on perfect recreation of the robot from Forbidden Planet).

It also has a funny bit in which Christopher Lloyd's ex-NASA-scientist, who never throws out anything that's still good (he has a garage full of Tang), pulls out his cell phone, and it's one of the original, gigantic 1973-vintage Motorola cell phones.

(For another cool Robby the Robot appearance, see this AT&T commercial on YouTube.)
 

Stacked

I've watched three episodes now of Stacked, the short-lived Fox sitcom starring Pamela Anderson as an unlikely bookstore clerk, and, you know what? It's charming, funny, cute, clever, and intelligent.

The show's characters include a failed novelist, and a physics professor (played by Taxi's Christopher Lloyd), and the setting is a lovely little independent bookshop. As someone who writes, and as someone who used to work in a bookstore, I'm actually really enjoying this -- and so is Carolyn, so you can be sure it's not just Pammy that this has going for it.

The creator and head writer is Steven Levitan, who created Just Shoot Me and wrote four episodes of Frasier. The whole series -- the 14 episodes that aired, plus 5 more that never did -- is now out on DVD. Remember, if you dismiss it at a glance, you're simply judging a book by its cover ... and we all know that's not fair. :)