Ubalblog

[  Mood: Angry ]
[  Currently: Watching My son play ]
So Amazon thinks that books with GLBTQ content are "adult" and must be deranked to make their search results more family friendly.

Really?

Heather has Two Mommies (which was deranked but is now back) is too adult?

Really?

All I Could Bare – a memoir about being a stripper in gay clubs in Washington D.C. was deranked in February, but How to Make Love Like a Porn Star by Jenna Jameson was not. Heck they even let you look inside her book where she mentions showing her boobs to a tatoo artist when she was sixteen. There’s good wholesome, family friendly literature. I think I will read that to my son tomorrow night. (And bestiality has not been deranked. Excellent! I can buy Daddy Left Mommy for a Sheep for the boy).

Amazon initially told a young adult author that this policy was to make their searches more family friendly. Now they are saying it is a glitch and are denying that a hacker is responsible. Notice that they are not dealing with their earlier excuse. Nor are they dealing with the fact that this has been going on since February. Rumours are also swirling that this is an experiment that blew up in their face.

So what is Amazon’s real issue? Over reacting do gooders? Conservative whack jobs? Owners of an easily hackable database? Just plain incompetent?

The Internet will be the judge. Until then, enjoy the below.

Amazon rank.

[  Mood: Sleepy ]
Season 2 brought a lot of changes to seaQuest. Even though the ratings were good, NBC wanted more. To that end, Patrick Hasburgh was brought on to revamp the series. What resulted was a purging of older characters who were all replaced by, younger, sexier actors. Some turned out to be decent actors and were accepted by the fans. Others were just cute faces and becamed villified by the fans. Viewership would begin to dwindle in season two as plots became campy, b-grade sci-fi rip-offs and seaQuest became an industry wide joke.

seaQuest – Where Are They Now? – The Replacement Fillers

Michael DeLuise
The second son of Dom DeLuise and Carol Arthur, Michael was born into acting. He had his first role at ten and continued to land series roles and re-occuring guest stars until he was cast as Seaman Tony Piccolo in the second season of seaQuest. Piccolo was a navy enlisted man convicted of striking a superior officer. As part of an early release program, he agreed to have artificial gills implanted. Rebellious, he tried to escape when he was initially posted to seaQuest. He quickly replaced Krieg as the big brother/role model/best friend to Lucas, with whom he bunked. In the third season, Piccolo became a favourite of new captain Oliver Hudson. He was promoted to Warrant Officer and qualified for subfighter pilot training.

Since seaQuest, Michael has been busy. He stepped out directly from cancellation into the role of Andy Sipowicz Jr. in NYPD Blue. He also starred in the short lived Broklyn South. From there he has runs on Gilmore Girls as well as guest spots on Lost, Stargate and CSI:NY. He has also directed and produced a comedy called Between the Sheets.

Peter DeLuise
Peter came to seaQuest off his breakout role in 21 Jump Street. Playing Officer Doug Penhall brought Peter to the locker doors of the world. Including mine. Being the eldest son of Dom DeLuise and Carol Arthur, Peter was also exposed to Hollywood very young. As Dagwood, Peter played a Genetically Engineered Life Form, or GELF. As a prototype, Dagwood had some flaws that made him not what the customer ordered. Due to that, he ended up as a janitor in the UEO. After saving O’Neil’s life, he was invited to stay on seaQuest.

Since cancellation, Peter has kept busy with acting, getting guest spots in a variety of series. He has also taken a turn at directing, working in a bunch of Vancouver based shows. But it is in the various Stargate series that he has made his mark. Director, writer and producer, guest star, he has done it all. So much so that he is kind of a legend in Stargate fandom. Series producer, Joseph Mallozi called him “the walking Stargate omnipedia”.

Edward Kerr
While he had done a couple of made for TV movies, seaQuest was Edward (sometimes known as Ed) Kerr’s breakout role. As Lt. James Brody, he lead the security detail on the sub. A man’s man, he could fight, drink and charm with the best of them. He was also meant to be a sex symbol, someone the ladies could sigh about. Rumours swirled that Kerr was also not happy with the direction the series was taking, and asked to have his character killed off in the third season. The producers obliged, killin his character off midway through season 3.

Since his turn as Brody, Kerr has done quite well for himself on TV. In addition to his many, many guest spots, he had a lead in the short-run David Kelly series Snoops. Kerr also ended up in Legalese with James Garner. Finally, he has ended up in the Marco Sanchez produced video Ambition to Meaning: Finding Your Life’s Purpose along with other seaQuest alum, Don Franklin and Michael DeLuise.

[  Mood: Silly ]
[  Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
Canadian Doctor Who fans!!!

Space has picked up series 5 of Doctor Who.

This means, that unless the parent network of CTV does something amazing, it will not be shown in HD.

No, I am not dead. I have been busy with the ramp up to work, the podcast and my writing.

I am still working on the seaQuest, where are they now entries. The next installment should be out this week.

But until then, I had to share, especially given that Joe and hold that Soaps are Urban Fantasy:

What Daytime Soaps Taught Us (Well, Besides Sex)

[  Mood: Happy ]
[  Currently: Watching Dollhouse ]
Note: This entry was completely ready to go Friday when the computer crashed. Since then, I have been super busy, hense the delay.

SeaQuest – Where Are They Now? Season 1 – The Survivors

Not all of the actors found themselves out of a job at the end of season one. Along with Scheider and Brandis, the gentlemen below managed to make it to the vastly revamped second season.

Don Franklin
A classically trained dancer, Franklin had already had small screen success with Young Riders. He turned down the role of Walker’s sidekick in Walker, Texas Ranger to do seaQuest. As the sub’s XO Commander Jonathan Ford, Franklin played a man who was a talented young many who was on his way up. Always taking courses, it was clear from the show that Ford was a leader. In the third season, with the sub returning from an alien planet, Ford found his career stalled as he had been away from Earth ten years. In addition, his captain was now the hard-assed Hudson who was less than supportive. Along with Raimi and Brandis, Franklin would appear in every episode of the series.

After seaQuest, Franklin landed starring roles in the mini-series Asteroid and the series Seven Days. He has gone one to guest starring in a variety of network shows, including reoccuring spots in NCIS and Daybreak.

Ted Rami
Raimi was the second person cast for the pilot, after Scheider. As the ship’s communication officer Lt. (j.g.) Tim O’Neill, Raimi quickly became a fan favourite. O’Neill was fluent in least a dozen languages, and could adequately speak several more. It was also hinted that he might be psychic when Darwin the Doolphin was able to communicate with him.

With the last name of Raimi, Ted has been anything but unemployed. As Sam’s younger brother, he has found employment in Xena, as Joxer the Mighty, and in the Spiderman movies. He has also had many guest starring roles in series such as CSI:Miami and Supernatural.

Marco Sanchez
Sanchez’s big break came with his role on seaQuest. As Sensor Chief Miguel Ortiz, Sanchez quickly became a fan favourite. This was due, in part, to the friendship between O’Neill and Ortiz. Unfortunately, he did not survive the second revamping of the series at the end of the second season.

Since his time on seaQuest, Sanchez has done well for himself. He landed a reoccuring role in Walker, Texas Ranger which then turned into the spin-off series, Sons of Thunder. Since that was cancelled, he has continued to work with many guest starring roles, including Dollhouse and The Mentalist.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[  Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
I have updated the first two entries with pictures and will be working on the next one today.

[  Mood: Happy ]
seaQuest Actors: Where Are They Now – Season 1 – the Purged

At the end of season 1, Patrick Hasburgh, famous for 21 Jump Street and Aspen Extreme, was brought in to make it into the ratings juggernaut that NBC wanted. To do that, most of the characters over the age of 30 were purged from the show in order to make room for a younger, sexier crew. These are the actors that lost their jobs due to the decisions.

John D’Aquino
D’Aquino played the beloved comedy relief of Lt. Benjamin Krieg. The ship’s supply officer, he was also the ship’s black marketeer. Frequently, Krieg would act as a big brother to Lucas. Best caracter episode was "The Treasure of Tonga Trench" where Krieg corned the market on a new glowing jewel that turned out to be fish poop.

Since seaQuest, D’Aquino as continued to work on television, with roles in a variety of failed shows, plus many, many guest spots. He can currently be seen in Dysney’s "Corey in the House" where he plays President Richard Martinez. (Who also made an appearance in Hannah Montana. OMG!)

Stacey Haiduk
Haiduk played the ships engineer Lt. Cmdr. Katherine Hitchcock. Hitchcock was the ex-wife or Krieg, and got to manipulate the probes via some gloves. And have sexual tension with Krieg and Ford.

Haiduk has continued to work in TV with key roles in Kindred and All My Children. She also had reoccuring roles in Heroes, Prison Break and Melrose Place, plus oodles of guest stars.

Stephanie Beacham
Beacham came to seaQuest with star power close to that of Scheider. She had been acting for many years, most notibly in Dynasty and its spin-off The Colbys. Many Trek fans will remember her as Coumtess Bartholomew in the Next Gen episode "Ship in a Bottle". In seaQuest, she was Dr. Kristin Westphalen, the ship’s medical officer and chief scientist. She was also Bridger’s love interest.

Since seaQuest, Beacham has kept busy with acting jobs on both sides of the pond, most notibly a three year stint on the UK show Bad Girls. And at an age when most women have litterally disappeared from the acting scene, she will be playing the other woman, interfering in the Ken and Deidre relationship no less, in an upcoming Coronation Street plot. The ITV soap is the longest running TV show in the world.

Next time: Season 1 – the Survivors

P.S. – Unreality published a similar article today about Firefly. Are they riding my coattails? Or is it that thing that happens when two unrelated people, in two different places come up with the same idea at the same time because of what is happening in the culture? (There’s a long word to describe that but I can remember it right now and nither can Google.)

[  Mood: Distorted ]
A recent email on a mailing list asked what Ed Kerr, one of the seaQuest was upto now. After I went off to find that answer, I got to thinking about the rest of the actors from that series.

So I present to you:

seaQuest Actors: Where Are They Now – Season 1 – the RIPs

Season one was the best season of seaQuest. Based on science, the series explored what would happen in the near future, as the oceans were increasingly explored and colonized to access their rich resources. Yes, some of the plots were stilted and dull, but remember Next Gen or B5 in the first season? Snoring!

Roy Schieder
Giant of the screen, Roy Schieder played Captain Nathan Bridger, the main character of the season. He was the designer of the sub and would be tricked into becoming its captain. Roy asked to be released from the show at the end of the campier season 2. He would make a couple of guest appearances in season 3, but his loss was mourned by the fans.

Already nominated for two Oscars, Roy would go on to act in many movies and take on many guest spots in the years following the end of the show. He would also return to the theatre. Roy died of cancer February 10, 2008. He is survived by his wife Brenda and and their two children, plus a child from a previous marriage.

Royce D. Applegate
Royce played Chief Manilow Crocker, one of the most beloved characters of the series. The senior NCO of the boat, Crocker was the old salt of the boat and was respected by all. His character was lost as part of the end of season one purge as incoming producer Patrick Hasburgh wanted to "young up" the cast.

Royce would go on to get rolls in movies like Oh Brother! Where Art Though? and Gods and Generals, in addition to making the guest star rounds. (Interestingly enough, he was a guest star in the CSI pilot). Tragically, Royce died in a New Year’s Day housefire in 2003.

Jonathan Brandis
The breakout star of the series, Jonathan Brandis had a long career before seaQuest, including Ladybugs and Sidekicks. Playing the role of teen genius Lucas Wolenczak, Brandis became a teen heart-throb. Originally envisioned as Bridger’s surrogate son, the Wolenczak role grew in importance as NBC sought to translate his popularity into ratings. This meant that Brandis would appear in every episode of the series.

Like many a child actor before him, Brandis found it difficult to build a career post seaQuest. His career seemed to stall. He did get some roles in independent films and made for TV movies, he even auditioned for Anikan Skywalker. His struggles caught up with him as he became depressed and alegedly began to abuse alcohol and drugs. He hung himself in his apartment on November 12, 2003.

Next time! Season 1 continued!

[  Mood: Very Sad ]
[ Currently: Breastfeeding My Son ]
I did not make the short list.

Sad, but not surprised.

[  Mood: Happy ]
[  Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
This did not get up Friday due to a variety of factors. So in time for Monday, here is Fun Stuff and Oddities

Return to Sender
Funny.

But How Do I Get It Out?
The irony in this is hillarious.

Too Much Fun
There are no words.

Swiss Pot Farmers Busted Via Google Earth
The eye in the sky is everywhere.

Hershey Bar Pan
I want this.

Obama Etch-A-Sketch
Very cool.

What Will Replace The Internet?
Very interesting article.

Clint Eastwood: The Musical
Yup. The musical.