G4 Rewind

Press release time!

Los Angeles, CA, January 14, 2009 - G4 has tapped Billy Berghammer to serve as Director of Gaming Editorial, G4TV.com to lead the network's non-linear and multiplatform gaming strategy and collaborate with the gaming community on behalf of the network. Berghammer joins G4 with more than a decade of gaming industry experience, including serving as Managing Editor of Game Informer Online. The announcement was made today by Joshua Krane, Senior Vice President, Interactive and New Media, G4.

Prior to joining G4, Berghammer served as Managing Editor of Game Informer Online for five years. In this role, Berghammer traveled the globe covering the videogame industry, redesigned the publication's web site multiple times and was an official E3 judge for the Game Critics Awards. Prior to Game Informer Online, Berghammer created and ran Planet GameCube, a popular Nintendo-specific videogame web site.

I can remember visiting Planet GameCube on a daily basis during the Dolphin/GameCube years, probably one of the best Nintendo gaming sites of it's time. Game Informer isn't a half bad read either.

-KnuxSonic

Looks like G4tv.com and it's forums will soon see another makeover. This was posted to the G4orums:

Very shortly, the G4 Online Community will undergo a huge overhaul. We will call it "The G4 Community Reboot." We will be rolling out these new community features in phases, along with a new version of our web site at G4tv.com. Phase one is happening now, and includes NEW forum software (powered by vBulletin). Later phases will introduce all-new features that will allow you to create your own content right here in the spotlight of G4. This will include the ability to create your own blogs, upload videos and photos, organize into user groups and will give you each your own profile page on G4tv.com. Additionally your user profile & avatar will follow your interactions throughout G4tv.com including comments in our blogs, on videos, etc... There are also some cool, new, unique features of the new G4tv.com community system that will allow you as users to have more influence over what is seen on G4 and give our community a higher profile on the network overall. We are soon going to be counting on user-generated content from all of you to help us create a new, interactive G4 Community that is beyond anything that has ever been realized, powered by a quickly rising television network!

While remodels of the site are nothing new, it appears this time it will be more than just a fresh look. Looking forward to yet another place to blog...

-KnuxSonic

Incase you're living under a rock or perhaps INSIDE ONE, CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, kicked off today in fabulous Las Vegas, albeit without Bill Gates.

G4, just like in years past, will be doing live coverage from the show floor. I could give you all the details but their press release does it much better, so here you go:

LOS ANGELES, January 5, 2009 - With approximately 300 new exhibitors and 2,400 returning, the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the largest consumer technology convention in the world, will feature more products than ever before. Once again G4, the authority on all things tech, will take viewers inside the massive event for two nights of live coverage. "Attack of the Show" hosts Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn will lead a team of correspondents to cover every corner of the show floor where the world's top technology companies will unveil their latest innovations, showcase cutting-edge electronics, launch ground-breaking new products and make announcements about next-generation consumer technology. Additionally, with the economy on everyone's mind, G4 will advise viewers on which products and technologies are worth investing in as well as name the best buys for those on a budget. "G4 Presents CES 2009" premieres live Thursday, January 8 from 6-9 pm ET/PT. The network's extensive coverage continues live on Friday, January 9, from 6-9 pm ET/PT, with even more from the show.

· G4 iPhone/ Android-specific websites

Gee golly that's a long one. If you read all of it, good job. In related news the last relevant year of MacWorld has brought us absolutely nothing of interest except higher and lower priced iTunes songs. WTG Apple, I was really looking forward to my iPhone Nano Pro Aluminum but I guess I'll have to settle with the $2,000 disposable laptop.

-KnuxSonic

G4 announced the promotion of Adam Sessler to "Editor-in-Chief" of G4 Games Content today. I'm not sure exactly how this will effect G4, but Sessler will of course stay on as co-host of X-Play.

The press release reads:

Los Angeles, CA. December 17, 2008 - "X-Play" host and one of the most respected names in videogame journalism, Adam Sessler, has been promoted to Editor-in-Chief, G4 Games Content. In his new role, Sessler will oversee editorial content for "X-Play," the most watched videogame show on television, as well as all gaming content for the network. Sessler will continue to serve as host of "X-Play," along with Morgan Webb. The announcement was made today by Neal Tiles, President, G4.

"Adam is an incredible resource and has helped position G4 and "X-Play" as the center of the gaming universe," said Neal Tiles, President G4 TV. "We are lucky to have an industry expert with his experience, wisdom and passion, as well as his strong relationships throughout the gaming community, leading our team."

Perhaps this will mean MORE "G4 Games Content" in the future? I can hope right?

-KnuxSonic

(Yes that is Sean Baby kissing Adam Sessler.)

Starting December 8th, it looks like G4 is resurrecting Cheat! as a full half-hour show rather than the short segment in X-Play it had been downgraded to.

A sharp eye in the G4 forums found the new episode listings on G4's site and the new episodes were confirmed by G4MetalHead (a G4 employee) on the forums. His post follows.

"I can honestly tell you it is true and not a tease. We are currently preparing a number of new episodes and indeed, the schedule is accurate.

We are putting together this completely new viewer requested segment for this run of the show. I will tease you a bit and say we have fulfilled requests for help with LittleBigPlanet Geometry Wars 2 and Gears of War 2."

The last time a full-episode of Cheat! was produced was back in April of 2007. The new episodes will presumably still be hosted by Kristin Holt (who now goes by Kristin Adams).

-KnuxSonic

In a rather shocking announcement, DirecTV (who owns/operates the Championship Gaming Series) announced they were axing the CGS effective immediately.

This hits close to home for two reasons, in that not only was G4 television the championship rounds of the tournaments, but the CGS also employed the beloved ex-G4 host/prez Scot Rubin who only took up a job there a few months ago.

Below is the statement from the CGS website:

AN IDEA WHOSE TIME CAME TOO EARLY

Sincerely,
The CGS team

Does this mean once again the revival of Rubin's All Games show?

Source: 1up.com
-KnuxSonic

Since it's pretty rare that G4 mentions the existence of TechTV, I felt obligated to post this Sessler's Soapbox that has almost 5 full seconds of TechTV reminiscing! Enjoy!

As I previously posted, G4 (and specifically Kevin Pereira) were working on a new pilot of which we knew nothing about.

Thankfully, Alison Haislip has spilled the beans on her video blog and revealed that the pilot, called "Shenanigans" is "about proving viral videos wrong, kind of like Mythbusters for viral videos."

I'm still wondering exactly what that means, but this will be the first new show produced by G4 since Hurl and appears the to be the first new show to be produced in-studio since AOTS. It was however, just a pilot, so who knows if or when this will see the light of day.

Alison Haislip's Blog

-KnuxSonic

Does Attack of the Show's mainstay man have a second love?

Some spying on his Twitter and flickr accounts shows SOMETHING is in the works in PereiraTown, however the details are extremely sketchy.

Here's a few quotes from his Twitter postings:

Just discovered my "business" side/personality. It's dull, and uninspired. Damn. I've got to fix that asap.

Shooting the pilot. Sinuses clogged. Having a heart attack and nervous breakdown simultaneously. Good times.

And here's some flickr pics of said pilot:

Definitely looks like some type of game show. Yes, Alex Albrecht is apparently helping out as well.

Very interesting, indeed.

-KnuxSonic

Yesterday was the first of the month, which means G4's monthly Open Source featuring Q&A's with network president Neal Tiles was posted.

This month he talks G4's policies regarding posting content online, the new "Human Wrecking Balls" show, a vague vision of G4's future, the possibility of new episodes of Cheat! in 2009 and we discover finally discover that Neal uses Firefox over IE.

You can check out the full article at http://www.g4tv.com/opensource.aspx

-KnuxSonic

When it launched in 2002, G4 commissioned a music company called Screaming Tongues Music to write music for their ads, intros, bumpers and credits, some of which were incredibly catchy.

For some time I've been trying to track down those tunes and as it turns out Screaming Tongues is still around and producing music and they have been nice enough to send along some full-length tracks from their archives!

Check out the 5 tracks below and see if you can recognize them, we're not sure if any of them were used on-air (there were around 80 tracks created for G4) but they all sound like G4 2002...

Beating My Own Score
I Call the Shots
Making My Move
Scratch My Back, I Scratch You
Every Winner's Dream

You can check out Screaming Tongues' Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/screamingtonguesmusic or check out their other band, JOE K'S KID at http://www.myspace.com/joeksid

Hopefully, more to come!

-KnuxSonic

A rather bizzare rumor popped up on the VG Chartz gaming forum which stated the following:

"September 25th 7pm EST. Microsoft will start a five hour countdown to relaunch their console. Yes that is right nothing short of a relaunch is acceptable. At the end of the five hours your console will update to the new interface with full functionality. To promote this most historic event with a full fledged media blitz. Microsoft has gone so far as to rent television space as in rent a channel. For those five hours G4 television will cover the event exclusively with live coverage. For those with Live they will be able to download or stream the channel."

G4 Rewind faithful will immediately realize at least the last part of this rumor is impossible, due to G4's contracts with cable/satellite companies that doesn't let them stream exclusive content online if it's also airing on the network.

To further squash the rumor, G4's The Feed has also posted the story claiming that it's entirely false.

So there you go, do you really think anyone could "rent out" G4 anyway? I guess the Nintendo DS launch might have been something similar to that...

-KnuxSonic

It's the first of the month, which means bills are due.

Oh and Open Source, with G4 President Neal Tiles! This month is a little bittersweet, as Neal announces the end of the G4 Rewind Summer block, but the door isn't closed, as G4 Rewind will continue on as a 90 minute block in the mornings, but only of semi-current G4 shows Cheat! and GameMakers. Tiles does mention the block could have some specials and change-ups though. I'll be commenting more in a later post.

The other big bomb is that X-Play will be expanding once again and will run for an hour every week day... temporary in December. If the trial run goes well, they may expand the show permanently.

There was also some LOST 2.0 details, apparently the on-screen chat has been redesigned to be less obtrusive and G4 HD will not include in-house shows until 2009.

As I said earlier, I'll be making an editorial post tomorrow about G4 Rewind, but thanks to all who made the block possible, especially all of you that woke up early, dragged yourself out of bed, skipped classes/work or set your DVR's to watch. This is far from the end!

Click here to read the entire Open Source post.

-KnuxSonic

Both of these stories are are a little late being posted but I figured some may not have seen the news yet.

#1 - Comcast has announced that all of it's networks will be going HD December 8th of this year including G4!

#2 - Mel Brooks' highly belated cartoon adaption of Spaceballs will FINALLY arrive this fall. G4 will be airing a behind the scenes look at the series Sunday, September 21st at 5PM EST.

-KnuxSonic

Incase you've gotten out of routine or have school/work, tomorrow G4 Rewind will be airing the final episode of G4TV.com (titled "Goodbye") which features lots of retrospectives and a full crew/cast sendoff to song written for G4TV.com by Johnathan Mann (Mario Opera, X-Play Musical).

-KnuxSonic

A few weeks back we reported on some exciting news that Greedy Production's Electric Playground was becoming a daily show, followed by the depressingly sad news that the show would not air in the USA for now and we would have to make due with clips from G4 USA's site.

Today, forum member IrishCommander brought us some good news, in that the Electronic Playground's site has been remodeled and includes FULL STREAMING EPISODES!

The new format is very similar to the old weekly EP format, however it now includes comic/movie news. Sadly, still no Tallarico.

Check out the episodes on EP's site, elecplay.com!

-KnuxSonic

G4 has announced a new show to debut this fall, called "Human Wrecking Balls," about two brothers who destroy things, using only their bare hands.

I'm not saying anything... I'm not saying anything... I'm not saying anything...

From the post on TheFeed:

The Pumphreys are strategic in their passion for dismantling things. For each challenge, they join forces with a team of experts in material science and engineering to review the object of their destruction from every possible angle before taking it apart, using physics and know-how to determine the most effective approach. The duo also enjoys a little friendly competition throughout the challenges such as who can break out of a jail cell the fastest and which Pumphrey makes a better bouncer based on who can most successfully destroy a bar.

I will not judge something before I see it, I will not judge something before I see it... I will not...

Click here to see the full article.

-KnuxSonic

G4 has announced X-Play will join AOTS, The Block (did they ever finish airing that?) and Code Monkeys on the Xbox Live Marketplace in the form of a best-of episode that will drop once a week.

You expect the episodes to be stripped of all Wii and PS3 content, though, as I doubt Microsoft would approve of news/reviews from "heathen" systems appearing on their online service.

Check out the full press release, by clicking the link below.

-KnuxSonic

Continue reading "X-Play now on Xbox Live" »

Some hap-hap-happenings are going on in the world of G4-fandom, if there is such a thing. Let's start with forum member Onoma digging up G4's ratings report.

Out of 65 million subscribers G4...
-Averages 98,000 viewers throughout the day
-Averages 124,000 viewers during prime time

While that sounds pretty bad, it's not the worst. Out of the 70 cable networks in this ratings report, G4 ranked #50.

The other quasi-big story, is that of G4 president Neal Tiles actually CALLING an angry forum user and explaining to them why G4 is the way it is. Neal explained, basically, the same thing he posted months ago during his original Open Source post, which is that G4's gaming shows need to see higher ratings before they can spend more money on more of them. Neal also posted most of what they talked about on the forums. You can read through the whole post, but here's the big details:

-Judgment Day was eliminated partly due to it's similarities to X-Play
-One of the hosts of G4TV.com admitted that the show lasted longer than they expected, ratings were apparently very low and production was expensive
-X-Play was changed because it wasn't getting as much growth as the rest of the network, since the switch X-Play's ratings have gone up 20%
-In the past 3 years, G4's ratings have doubled, while their subscriber base (homes they're in) has only gone up 15%

There's lots of other stuff that's been restated from before, about how COPS/Cheaters allow funding for the likes of X-Play/AOTS and how forum posts do not have more power than ratings, but it's a good read nonetheless.

The biggest point that Neal makes is that if gamers want more gaming TV content, then it is in their best interest to support the gaming content that is currently on G4. In my own opinion, the problem is that most gamers already have negative ideas about G4 ("The channel that killed TechTV," "The gaming channel that shows COPS all day," "They canceled my favorite shows," "They ruined the Halo 3 trailer," etc.) and trying to get everyone to shake those preconceived notions is going to be difficult. Not impossible, but difficult.

The best way to help out? Tell your friends about X-Play, AOTS and G4 Rewind. Post bulletins on your Myspaces, notes on your Facebooks and Twitter about it. Tell people what time those shows are on (9AM for Rewind, 7PM-8:30PM for AOTS & X-Play) and give them a reason to watch. Maybe X-Play showed a cool demo or maybe AOTS is giving away some schwag. You know your friends best, so have it appeal to them. Vote with your remotes, that's the only way we're going to make some headway.

-KnuxSonic

I received some good news from G4 today, in that G4 Rewind's expiration date of August has been extended to at least September. G4 is also working on clearing some more episodes to air during the block.

Thank you all getting up early and watching, we really appreciate it and I hope you'll keep on watching throughout the rest of the summer and into the fall! Don't forget to join us in chat, at chat.g4tv.com!

-KnuxSonic

While I haven't noticed any press release or mention of it on G4's site, it looks like G4 has picked up a few new shows from overseas.

The Peter Serafinowicz Show - A sort of sketch comedy show which originally airs on the BBC.
Freaky - A paranormal children's show from New Zealand, described as "The Twilight Zone" for kids.

Strangely enough, these are airing on Sunday, August 3rd at 12:30AM, not part of Duty Free TV, it appears. Super Big Product Fun Show is also making a return after they air.

Thanks to Rewind forum member mplante for his supreme schedule digging skills.

-KnuxSonic

While we all recover from our E3 Comas, some may need to catch up what they missed. Both G4 and GameTrailers TV will be airing more E3 coverage over the weekend.

GameTrailers TV E3 Special - Saturday @ 12AM EST
GTTV goes one-on-one with Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime, Sony's Jack Tretton, and Microsoft's John Schappert straight from E3 2008 to find out the big three's big plans for the coming year. Plus, Amanda MacKay takes viewers down to the showroom floor for up-close looks at this year's hottest titles.

All of that and more is heading your way at the special time of midnight on SPIKE, but if you miss the show on-air you can also catch it online and in high-definition anytime at GameTrailers.com and on Xbox Live Marketplace.

G4 - E3 '08 Live Marathon - Saturday @ 9AM EST
Catch an unprecedented 8 hours of (previously) live coverage from all three days on the show floor at E3 2008. Hands on demos, interviews, trailers and floor reports included from highly anticipated games such as Resident Evil 5, Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Mirror's Edge, inFamous, Resistance 2 and more!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I need to lay down for awhile.

-KnuxSonic

In case you were too wrapped up in E3 to notice, G4 aired the first of four 90 minute Championship Gaming Series specials today, which featured the Carolina Core taking the North American title. Core will go on to the international finals, starting Saturday.

Here's the schedule for the next three specials:

World Quarterfinals - Saturday 7/19 @ 10PM EST
World Semifinals - Saturday 7/26 @ 10PM EST
World Final - Saturday 8/2 @ 10PM EST

If you're a fan of Arena or sports or video games in general, check them out.

www.theCGS.com
g4tv.com/CGS

-KnuxSonic

In case you are living under a rock, I'd like to kindly remind you that next week is E3, the expo formerly known for being totally awesome but now more known for being... totally okay.

G4, as always, is covering the event in grand fashion, including live commercial free feeds of Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo's press conferences as well as over 17 hours of live coverage from the show floor. All the press cons will also be streamed online for those who don't have G4 or won't be near a TV.

You can view the entire E3 08 schedule here.

What games are you looking forward too? Personally, I can't wait to see Beyond Good & Evil 2, Mirror's Edge, UNO: Armageddon Edition and The Oranger Box.

-KnuxSonic

Neal Tiles posted the following in the G4 forums regarding the block's ratings:

One month into G4 Rewind and I would say ratings results are mostly strong. Among Men 18-34, the demo we care most about, the Rewind block's gains are pacing ahead of the gains the network is experiencing on a total day basis. However, the other area that we concentrate on, Households or total viewers, is not doing as well... we're seeing a decline for the Rewind block here while the network overall has seen growth among total viewers, but the male 18-34 demo is what we look at first, and that's up, so that's great to see. The show we are most intrigued by is "Blister" which has posted some very strong numbers.

So it sounds pretty good, folks, thanks for everyone who is watching and I encourage everyone to continue watching as well... but BLISTER?! I had no idea everyone else shared my love for Bill Sindelar!

Thanks to forum user MeanBob for posting this.

-KnuxSonic

AOTS has seen a few changes over the past few weeks, most notably their own robots, which debuted today on the show. The robots are part of a set refresh and were custom made for the show by Hollywood special effect artists and feature in-chest monitors and ...beer taps. The robots are fully functional and can talk and move.

The four robots will join Olivia Munn and her human counterpart Kevin Pereira bringing the robot-to-human ratio to a dangerous 5 to 1.

Sadly, the introduction of these bots means the removal of my personal favorite set piece, the monitor heads, which were a staple of AOTS for over 2 years. eBay anyone?

For pictures of the new 'bots, click here.

-KnuxSonic

It's the first of the month, which means two things. Bills are due and G4 prez Neal Tiles has posted his monthly Q&A "Open Source."

This month, Neal talks E3 coverage, explains why G4 can't be streamed online, the lack of comedy on X-Play, why HURL isn't necessarily about hurling and more.

You can read the full post here.

-KnuxSonic

The second Virtual Audience for G4 Rewind will be THURSDAY, JUNE 26TH at 6PM PST!

All you need is a webcam and a mic to participate! To join in, go to www.stickam.com/xplay and sign in with your stickam account!

-KnuxSonic

As the 2008 presidential race heats up, so does G-Phoria which returns for it's 6th year this August. The once glamor and glitz stage show, now no-BS X-Play special is changing a few things this year, namely early voting.

Because 2008 was such a huge year for great games, G4 is having voters narrow down the list from 12 Game of the Year entries to 6. Voting for this special GOTY primary runs from today until mid-July.

Games up for GOTY are:
Bioshock
Halo 3
The Orange Box
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Super Mario Galaxy
Assassin's Creed
Rock Band
Mass Effect
Super Smash Bros Brawl
God of War: Chains of Olympus
Grand Theft Auto 4
Metal Gear Solid 4

You are all voting for Bioshock, right? If so, then click here to go to the voting page, then click on Bioshock. If you're voting for any other game, you can do so by clicking the red X on the top right of your screen, then unplug your computer.

-KnuxSonic

A bit belated, but Electric Playground host Victor Lucas has posted on the official EP message boards that a "huge announcement" concerning the next season of EP is coming soon.

Let the speculation begin! Could EP be returning to the US airwaves? Tommy Tallarico returns as co-host? G4 Rewind is placing it's bets on EP going HD. G4 President Neal Tiles mentioned in an Open Source post that EP would soon be going HD on G4tv.com. If you remember, another recent Greedy Productions show (The Lab with Leo) was filmed in HD, perhaps that equipment is going to have a new home on the Electric Playground?

Stay tuned...

Source: http://bb.elecplay.com/viewtopic.php?t=10734

-KnuxSonic

So I was practicing my vomiting skills today, in preparation for the launch of the hotly-anticipated "Hurl" when I noticed an email from G4 in my inbox. Could this be it? My invitation to compete in Hurl? My (next) 15 mintues of fame?! I quickly put down my 14LB burrito and wiped the dripping grease off my fingers to check the email, only to realize it was nothing of the sort. How disappointing! It was just some announcement for a video game show or something... I guess I'll fill you in since the burrito is now cold.

G4 and the Championship Gaming Series (CGS) inked a deal today to air four 90 minute specials covering the "only worldwide professional video game league."

"By bringing Championship Gaming Series to the network, we are giving our audience the rare opportunity to watch some of the world's best gamers in action. The competition is certain to appeal to our viewers," said Neal Tiles, President, G4.

"CGS programming will debut July 16 on G4 with the league's 2008 North America playoffs. The network will air four 90-minute episodes in total: the 2008 North America Final on Wed., July 16 at 9 p.m. ET/PT; 2008 World Final Quarterfinals matches on Sat., July 19 at 10 p.m. ET/PT; 2008 World Final Semifinals matches on Sat., July 26 at 10 p.m. ET/PT; and the 2008 World Final Championship Match on Saturday, August 2 at 10 p.m. ET/PT."

Sounds kinda weird... a show about video games? Gimmie a break! THIS IS A NEW LOW FOR G4! HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO US! I'M WRITING A ONLINE PETITION TO STOP THIS, WHO IS WITH ME?!?!

Ugh, well... I guess it's okay, as long as it doesn't cut into my COPS and Cheaters marathons.

The full press release is posted after the jump.

-KnuxSonic
Seriously though, this is awesome.

Continue reading "Championship Gaming Series comes to G4" »

We're almost 2 weeks through G4 Rewind, so here's some info about how it's doing and what's coming up:

-Ratings are good, keep them up!
-July will bring some E3 flavored Rewinding
-The blurring seen in some episodes of X-Play and other shows has been explained
-Scot Rubin and Lee Reherman's interviews should be popping up soon
-The next Virtual Audience will most likely be Tuesday, June 17th!
-We're giving away some webcams and DVDs, you have until the 15th to enter! Details!

That's all for now, keep on watchin' and don't forget to join us in chat, bright & early!

-KnuxSonic

Those of you that are distraught over Anime Unleashed not making the G4 Rewind cut can take some satisfaction in a new column at G4, apparently called "G4 Rewind Anime Style" which reviews classic anime and manga.

The column is running all month and the first issue is up below.

G4 Rewind Anime Style presents: "Fushigi Yuugi"

-KnuxSonic

So this is a semi-official poll so please vote! If you have comments, please post them in the comments section of this post! Thanks.

-KnuxSonic

G4 has opened up a forum for discussion of G4 Rewind, at http://forums.g4tv.com/forum.jspa?forumID=133. This is a good place to provide feedback on the block.

You can also chat about G4 Rewind in our own forums as well.

-KnuxSonic

G4 announced today that they have reached an agreement with Microsoft to begin posting full-length episodes on the service starting with a special sneak preview of Code Monkeys Season 2. The only other shows to be added so far are The Block and Attack of the Show.

Full press release is after the jump.

-KnuxSonic

Continue reading "About Time: G4 comes to Xbox Live Marketplace" »

G4 has begun promoting their summer lineup which is shaping up pretty nicely, with just one exception.

King of Kong - A good gaming movie? Could this be for real?! - June 1st @ 5PM EST
Code Monkeys Season 2 - G4's first animation effort is back for it's sophomore year - June 1st @ 7PM EST
Hurl - Finally, a show bulimics can rally behind. No, seriously, WHY? - Coming in July
X-Play/AOTS - Coverage of E3, Leipzig, Comic-Con, PAX and TGS throughout the summer

And of course there's G4 Rewind in there, I shouldn't have to tell you this, June 2nd, M-F, 9AM to Noon... blah blah, if you haven't memorized that by now, please send me your home address so I may personally throw a bag of ice through your window.

-KnuxSonic

While the actual block doesn't begin for another few weeks, taping for the Virtual Audience segment of G4 Rewind will start Tuesday, May 20th at 9PM EST.

Even if you don't have a webcam or mic, you can still join in on the chat at the link below.

Click here to join the Virtual Audience!

-KnuxSonic

Okay so I figured I'll post a week recap of X-Play then a preview of tonights GTTV. Sounds fair, amirite? BTW, there is no X-Play tonight, due to NinjaFest 2, so yeah.

X-Play Recap - Monday thru Friday @ 8PM EST on G4TV:

-Cliff y B Interview on Gears of War 2
-All Access: Mirror's Edge
-Wii Fit Review
-The Agency Exclusive Trailer

GameTrailers TV - Saturday at 1AM EST on SpikeTV:

Turn out the lights and hide the children as GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley takes you inside EA Redwood Shores for an in-depth look at the upcoming sci-fi thriller Dead Space. See a brand new trailer for the game and witness never-before-seen footage as we shed some light on the zero-G environments, brutal weapons and horrific enemies that lurk around every corner (did we mention that it was bloody?).

Plus, we debut the world’s first game play trailer from the highly anticipated Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Amanda MacKay buckles up for a real life drifting session with the team behind GRID and Daniel Kayser goes one-on-one with NFL legend and Madden NFL 09 cover athlete Brett Favre.

Thanks to G4's Kristina Levsky and GTTV's Jeremy Hoffmann for sending these in.

After years of secrecy, Portal creator/writer/star Dave Meinstein has finally shed some light on his new project called "Cereal Heroes," a action/comedy animated movie set to release in 2010. Here's the summary from Forbes:

"The story follows the adventures of cartoon cereal-box-mascots who are mistakenly brought to life when a plan to replace the world's fallen superheroes with characters from comic books goes awry. These unlikely "Cereal Heroes" with ridiculous powers soon find themselves alone and on the run in an unfamiliar world that only they can save from certain destruction."

While it may not be Portal: The Movie, it certainly sounds like it has some elements that Portal fans loved (quirky humor, odd characters, etc.). The article also has a little writeup on Dave and Portal:

"Writer David Meinstein optioned the property to Fable Works in 2007 and is writing the screenplay. Meinstein is best known for his work as writer and producer of the fan-favorite G4 Television program, "Portal.""

Major congrats to Dave on hitting it big!

-KnuxSonic

SOURCE: http://www.forbes.com/businesswire/feeds/businesswire/2008/05/12/businesswire20080512005786r1.html

Who accidentally mixed tech in my G4? I don't know who it was, but the new G4 Tech News Countdown is a new entry in G4's growing online lineup that counts down the five top technology-related stories of the week. It's hosted by Alison Haislip, who's been filling in on The Feed for some time. While it's not exactly the second coming of TechTV, It does have that flavor in there. Let's hope this makes it to TV in some form as well. New episodes are posted every Friday.

-KnuxSonic

I'm going to try and post more details on what X-Play is airing, since we give GTTV the same treatment, maybe not a daily entry, perhaps a "week ahead" entry in the future.

X-Play - Friday @ 8PM EST on G4TV

You asked for it, and we've got it! You wanted to see more on the hottest games and so we're bringing you encore presentations of our Summer Games Preview coverage for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for the Wii, as well as SOCOM: Confrontation. Also, we'll have all the latest gaming news with our Gaming Update, and we'll explore the most anticipated games of the summer in our Virtual Audience.

GameTrailers TV - Saturday @ 1AM EST on Spike TV

GameTrailers TV with Geoff Keighley is the ultimate guide to the world of videogames. Each week the show delivers unprecedented access to the gaming industry's most anticipated titles and hottest events. Join Geoff Keighley, Amanda MacKay and Daniel Kayser as GTTV travels around the world to bring you the latest game reviews and previews, world exclusive trailers and hard-hitting interviews with the biggest names in the industry. From Gears of War 2 and Super Smash Bros Brawl to Resistance 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV, viewers can count on timely, in-depth coverage of the biggest Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, PC and handheld games along with behind-the-scenes access to huge industry events such as Tokyo Game Show, E3, PAX, GDC, Comic Con and more!

-KnuxSonic

In case you didn't read the news today on G4tv.com, G4 has announced a new summer block to air every weekday which will consist of nothing but classic G4 shows! This is HUGE news for us as fans, but even bigger in that we have a chance to show G4 what we really loved about G4 of yore and perhaps even impact future programming.

Seeing as this is a block for the fans, it's also going to be BY the fans as G4 is also teaming up with myself and G4 Rewind to host the block, which will air starting June 2nd from 9AM to Noon. This means I'll be working directly with G4 on the block as well as helping with Video Viewer Mail and the Virtual Audience segments.

Over the years I've been following G4, I've posted a lot of negative things about how the network was run... and I'm not retracting any those now that I'm working there, but I will say that this is a great, positive step for G4. What other TV network would give up an entire block of programing to the fans? I certainly can't think of any. I'll be posting more details as they come out, but join the discussion now either in our forums or G4's. As I said, this is a block about the fans so we want and NEED your input!

Thanks to everyone who's supported G4 Rewind over the past 3 years and I'd like to welcome all the new people who are probably visiting for the first time! Here's to a great nostalgia-filled summer!

-Brian Maupin (AKA KnuxSonic)

G4 Rewind @ G4tv.com
Open Source entry on G4 Rewind

AOTS fans can now froth over full episodes of Attack of the Show which are now up on iTunes for $1.99 a piece. Not sure how many people are going to buy a season pass at that price seeing as there are 10 episodes a week, but perhaps if you were looking to own your favorite episode it's not a bad deal.

Perhaps we could see some other shows on G4 popping up on iTunes as well?

More unused ads have been unearthed by forum unmoderator Mecha, this time they're hot chicks in space, with lots of retro and Nintendo references thrown in. Think Star Trek, mixed with disco, mixed with acid. Why they weren't used, we don't know, maybe because they don't air Star Trek anymore? Maybe they thought it was going to better than it was?

-KS

It's that time of year! Incase you forgot, like most of us, G4 launched April 24th 2002! ...or was it April 30th, 2002? We're not exactly sure but it was right around now, so of course I had to bust out the obligatory embarrassing G4 Birthday Music Video.

Now. Who brought cake?

-KS

The annual X-Play Summer Games preview is back next week for a week long affair. This includes Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Lego Indy Jones, Ninja Gaiden 2, Soul Caliber IV, MGS4, Wii Fit and my own personal high anticipated game, the only game with a digital Bull Murray, Ghostbusters: The Videogame.

X-Play will also be airing exclusive GTA IV live footage over the weekend (Sunday to be exact) for those of you that are already packing to camp out for the game.

Check the full press release after the jump.

-KS

Continue reading "X-Play Summer Games Preview + GTA IV" »

Today on X-Play (Friday, April 18th) @ 8PM EST:

-Iron Man Exclusive Hands On
-Face Time w/ Jens ‘Lil Evil’ Pulver
-Mass Effect Sketch
-Gaming Update, Chat, Video Viewer Mail, Virtual Audience and the rest of the regular segments

BTW, Iron Man fans, you can download the demo off of Xbox Live TODAY! It will be interesting to see if Sega has put out their first decent game in 5 years or once again totally murdered our childhoods.

-KS

This is a bit late but G4's online show "Freestyle 101" has been nominated for a Webby come this May. Fresh Ink and Geek Out also have specific episodes that are "honorees."

From the release:

Freestyle 101" is G4tv's weekly
multi-platform, nerd-chic hip hop series where today's top MCs step into the studio to rap about videogames and chat about the art of the rhyme. The show regularly features freestyles and exclusive interviews from both well-known artists such as Fat Joe, Ice T and Del the Funky Homosapien, as well as underground stars like Papoose, Joell Ortiz, Ali Vegas and Murs, and can be found online at ww.g4tv.com/freestyle101.

Sorry, Casey fans, MMO Report didn't get any lovin' this time, maybe next year?

You can read the full release after the jump.

-KS

Continue reading "G4's Freestyle 101, Fresh Ink, Geek Out up for Webby" »

Everyone's favorite CEO at G4 has posted a second wave of Q's followed by his A's. There's lots of stuff brought up but the HIGHLIGHT is a the question we at G4 Rewind have been salviating over for years now: Will G4 ever air classic shows?

"These shows weren’t rating well when they where brand new episodes covering recently released games from that year, so the likelihood of them rating now is small. However, these suggestions have caused us to look at deploying a “classic G4” block of past shows that we still have rights to use…some shows were not owned by us (i.e. Judgment Day ) and, therefore, we don’t have the rights to them anymore, while other shows (i.e. some older episodes of X-Play or TSS or original Icons) have footage in them that we no longer have permission to air. Regardless, we are looking at this idea as a block, likely in the weekday mornings, that could begin as early as June 1…so stay tuned."

So that's a yes! Sort of! Maybe. Kinda? Cross your fingers, maybe we'll get lucky.

For the rest of the article move your mouse to this sentence here and then press down and release upon your mouse's left-click button.

Thanks once again to forum member Tiki for posting this.

-KnuxSonic

Poor Leo Laporte can't get a break. Leo announced on his blog a few days ago that The Lab with Leo has officially been can'd by G4TechTV Canada due to sagging ratings. The show still has episodes backlogged which will continue to air until May, but afterwards don't except anymore.

Laporte goes on to rave about his new TWiT plan which includes live video feeds. We'd love to say he's on to bigger and better things, but it sounds like the Laporte era has already seen it's peak.

-KnuxSonic

This editorial is in response to Neal Tides' "Open Source" article.

After reading G4TV CEO Neal Tiles' (incredibly long) explanation to the community regarding G4's format change I can officially say I've given up the fight, one that most people gave up LONG ago, one that I probably should have given up with them. Gaming TV is dead. Technology TV is dead. G4 aien't going back. Their ratings are improving as they change and that's enough for them to rule out EVER going back.

It's probably an understatement to say that I've been very critical of the way G4 has been handled over the past few years but I'm going to have to agree with most of what Mr. Tiles has written. Whether we like it or not, G4 isn't a not-for-profit network and has to make money. When Tiles was brought on to replace Charles Hirschhorn, G4 was in more homes than ever, but their viewership wasn't spiking to match. Tiles could have done one of two things. He could have stuck with gaming TV and hoped the gaming crowd suddenly discovered G4 and came en masse or he could have changed the network's game plan in hopes of attracting new viewers.

Sure, Neal could have stayed with the 24/7 tech/gaming model and maybe it could have worked out, but he inherited a BROKEN network. The TechTV merger was handled terribly and ended up splintering their core audience and giving everyone a generally sour taste in their mouths after seeing layoffs, cancellations and general chaos. The gaming community already had a very negative view of G4, so to hope that they'd suddenly decide G4 was cool was a stretch, to say the least. Who can we blame for this? Comcast? Hirschhorn? Sindelar? Who knows, but Tiles was brought in to clean up the mess.

Continue reading "Editorial: Breaking Up is Hard to Do" »

Awhile back we told you about G4's OpenSource, a Q&A session between G4 viewers and G4's CEO, Neal Tiles. Well the first wave of questions are in, including one from myself, but they all pretty much asked the same thing: Why is G4 giving up on 24/7 tech and gaming?

The answer is long and complicated, but here's some excerpts from Mr. Tiles' response.

"Let me preface all of my comments on these types of questions by saying that G4, and TechTV before it, has never been watched more than it is right now…since shifting away from an "all videogame" format…the network has realized huge ratings gains and web, VOD and podcasting traffic."

"So while G4 has changed a lot…unfortunately we are not able to be a 24/7 all gaming channel anymore…But, I’d like to point out that we still have far more videogame programming each and every day than any other network…"

Tiles makes quite a speech, you can read it all at the link below, but basically the entire point is this: Videogame/Technology television playing 24/7 was not profitable. G4 had to broaden itself in order to appeal to more viewers and in order to continue to stay in business. This meant getting COPS (which is still the highest rated show on G4), Cheaters, JKX and so on in order to fund shows like AOTS and X-Play.

You can read my response here or read Neal's full post here.

-KnuxSonic

USA Today posted a lengthy article about G4. Lots of things were mentioned so here's the rundown.

New Shows:
-"Hurl," an eating competition show will premiere over the summer and will gorge contestants on food then put them in theme park-esque spinning rides. The last person to throw up is the winner. I'm not even kidding you.
-Space Balls: The Animated Series, after being in development hell for a year or so will finally premiere this summer.
-Lost will being airing in the fall (as previously announced) from the beginning.

What's G4?
Only 53% of people who have G4 on their cable system know it exists. While G4 is now in 63 MILLION homes, the network only averages 138,000 viewers during their prime time lineups. An analyst suggests G4 may have trouble getting cable providers to renew contracts unless they increase their brand awareness.

No One Watches Video Game Shows...
A suit mentions that gaming TV was a flawed idea because gamers were doing the gaming themselves and going online for gaming content.

...but We'll Keep Airing New Ones
G4 countered their own "moving away from gaming" sediment by announcing they would continue to cater to their "core" audience by continuing to cover E3, Comic-Con and CES as well as air some new gaming content. Yeah, I know, WTF? They'll be airing King of Kong, a movie about the Donkey Kong world record holder over the summer.

Imports Ahoy
Finally, Tides goes on about how foreign TV is an untapped market. "There's so much great television content in native languages around the world, and no one in the USA is going after it. The network is heavily influenced by Japanese culture, (which is) setting so many trends, in video games, electronics, animation. Their TV is insane." So, expect more imports. USA Today does give G4 kudos for not overdubbing the shows like Spike.

Thanks to G4 Rewind Forum member Tiki for posting this.

Source: USA Today

-KnuxSonic

Hobos, potheads, dudes who live with their parents and listen to Dave Matthews all day have reason to be excited, as G4 is once again bringing the retard's holiday to the masses. That's right, 4/20 is back on G4, once again. You too can feel genuinely retarded by watching Attack of the Show LIVE (pre-taped) from Jamaica, Code Monkeys returns with a 4/20 special and if that's not enough to lower your IQ, G4 is finally bringing back the fabled The Block Season 2 to premiere on 4/20.

Oh boy, are you excited? I sure am!

Seriously, though. Just unplug your TV's that day. Your brain will thank you.

-KnuxSonic

G4 is working with Gotcast to find girl gamers to appear regularly on the network. Anyone can enter (as long as you're a chick) and users vote on their favorites, with the top 10 girls getting their portfolio sent to G4 casting.

Seems like a good idea, especially if they're replacing Olivia Munn, depending on who gets chosen. If you'd like to vote and hopefully help G4 find someone who isn't a teleprompter slave, head on over to this page here and vote (registration required).

-KnuxSonic

In yet another new G4 programming block (The G-Spot, Barbed Wire Biscuit, Midnight Spank) in recent years, Duty Free TV premieres tonight (2/4) at 8:30pm ET/PT, with the highly popular (according to G4) Ninja Warrior, and two new Japanese import shows, Unbeatable Banzuke, and Super Big Product Fun Show. Hit up the press release for all the details, but here's a short sampling of what you will see:

Unbeatable Banzuke
• Hand Walk – competitors combine incredible strength and balance to traverse an entire obstacle course on their hands, navigating steep stairs, moving ramps and bridges.
• Giant Ball – challengers climb on top of a huge red ball and use the orb to cross a circuitous multilevel course.
• Super Rider – a fast-paced test of bike-riding skill demands that competitors navigate an obstacle course of giant cabling spools, two story drops and three-inch rails.

Super Big Product Fun Show
• Skull Sucker – drains unwanted fluid from the brain.
• Razor Burner – removes unsightly hair with explosives.
• Junk Trunks – special male enhancement pants.
• Fisterine Party Poppers – breath mint loaded with gun powder.
• Dr. Degloves Genital Wart Wipes – that burning sensation means it’s working.

G4's "Duty Free TV" Block of International Programming Premieres With Two Outrageous New Series

SpikeTV's new "GameTrailers TV" will begin airing January 25th, hosted by Geoff Keighley (surprise, surprise) and former Pulse host Amanda McKay (SURPRISE, SURPRISE!). The show looks basically like what they've been doing on GameTrailers.com, but with some more production value. Think Cinematech but with commentary. GameHead will presumably end.

-KnuxSonic

G4 has teamed up with World of Wonder Productions, the company that originally produced Wired for Sex for TechTV back in 2003, to produce a second season of Wired for Sex.

Wired for Sex, which started airing again back in December 2006 on G4, started again with new episodes in late December 2007. The new episodes look to formally start airing on January 27th at 11pm ET/PT although right now there seems to be conflicting scheduling info on G4's and WOW's Wired for Sex websites.

I was beginning to wonder why G4 kept airing Wired for Sex, but if the show was shown popular on Fridays at 12am, why the new Sunday at 11pm slot? Anyway, enjoy this bit of news, you WFS fans (there has to be for this show to be brought back).

Rumor had it that G4 was going to focus on making X-Play it's main "video gaming show" and it looks like reports have proven true.

Today G4 announced that X-Play will be revamped in January to include more gaming content than just reviews. The new X-Play will take over Cheat! and include it's segments, hosted by Kristin Holt. It will also feature interviews, expanded gaming news, on-air viewer "gaming challenges" and segments from G4's online series "The MMO Report."

While that's all good and well, this really just a glorified consolidation of G4's gaming content into one half-hour show. Do you remember when G4 had 5 shows doing what the new X-Play is supposed to do? Do you think the new X-Play is going to be able to cover all the gaming news, add in cheats, an interview, an MMO Report clip, reviews AND their skits and be able to do it in-depth? We'll see.

There IS some good news in the press release (which you can read after the jump). Adam Sessler has been named G4's managing editor, which may or may not cut down on reviews of US Weekly magazines on AOTS.

-KnuxSonic

Continue reading "Pulse + Cheat! + Portal = ...X-Play 3.0?" »

Sorry to get you worked up, Diane Mizota fans, but it's not the Filter we love, it's the demoralized, unashamed, VH1 Filter of it's last season, except now it's hosted by Olivia Munn and in bite-sized G-Spot segments.

The premiere episode is online at g4tv.com/filter.

I apologize on behalf of G4 for further destroying their previously relevant content.

-KnuxSonic

G4's Free Stuff returns this Christmas with a SIX HOUR SPECIAL. Yes, you can feverishly enter in codes and whine about not winning anything on CHRISTMAS this year, after you open all your presents and discover that Santa hates you.

The pre-recorded special airs starting at 3PM EST/PST.

AOTS headmaster Kevin Pereira joined G4 viewers in IRC chat tonight for a Q&A session and took a quick moment to reminisce about G4 days of yore. Here's some of the highlights:

On being on Arena & TSS vs AOTS:
"I hated Arena. Wouldn't go back to that for the life of me. I miss TSS as a show (I was a huge fan back in the TTV days) -- but TSS and AOTS are two completely different beasts. The biggest mistake/hurdle was trying to transition that show into AOTS -- it just couldn't work. Two different shows entirely. But now, I think it's clear that they're different entities, and certain chapters are over.In hindsite, a lot of trouble could have been avoided had the show gone dark for a while and relaunched without trying to cater to both audiences. But, win some lose some... it is what it is. And I'm happy with the show we've got now."

On how he got with G4:
"Long story short -- Had a personal website back in the day (PointlessAudio.com) which became LickMySweaty.com (a site about games/tech/hacking/etc). Some people were fans, years later they started G4 and asked me to move to LA to get balance bars and coffee. That brings us to now, sorta."


On working on G4TV.com and his G4 days of yore:
"I do remember those days. And lining up callers (read: friends of mine faking their names) for G4Tv.com ;) I miss chatting on IRC all the time. But all of the REALLY good Hentai Fserves are offline, so there's no point...

I also chat with Sarah Lane and some of the old Screen Savers crew (most of 'em up in SF at Rev3). I miss that girl something fierce. She was so much fun to work with, let alone hang out with outside of the studio."

So there's most of the relevant parts to G4R. Interesting info all around! We were just starting to wonder where Tina went (she hasn't posted on on10 since August) so now we know!

Next week is the Olivia Munn chat, but who cares about that?

After months of anticipation, EP is FINALLY back online at http://www.g4tv.com/electricplayground/!!! The website looks really slick, although we were hoping for full episodes it looks like it's just clipped up episodes instead.

-KnuxSonic

One of the few things G4 fans have had to look forward to the past few months is the return of The Electric Playground. A few weeks ago we reported that EP would arrive in October, now it's even closer to reality as G4 is advertising that the show will return this week. In addition to being on G4tv.com, EP will be available in G4's other faucets including podcasts, On Demand and through G4 Mobile but NOT on G4TV itself. Why, we don't know but hopefully if EP does will it will "graduate" back to the airwaves.

So far there's nothing on the site, but we'll let you know when it gets posted.

THIS is what G4 was hyping us for? THIS is the biggest announcement in network history? According to Variety.com, G4 and sister network Mojo (WTF is that?) have acquired the rights to second run episodes of NBC's Heroes. Here's some quotes:

Male-centric cablers G4 and Mojo are no longer holding out for "Heroes."

"AOTS" host Kevin Pereira and contributor Blair Butler will host "The Post Show," which will include guests, live polling, webcam interviews with fans and other interactive elements.

So there you have it, get ready for a total rampage of Heroes ads and non-stop hyping, G4 style. There is one tiny little nugget in here of goodness, as they mentioned G4 has the rights to air this on their website... so maybe that G4 Online channel is still coming.

EDIT: This was confirmed today on AOTS, there is no online channel, the only announcement they had was Heroes. G4 fails it long, G4 fails it hard.

Full Article:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117973840.html?categoryid=14&cs=1&nid=2565

Thanks to forum member rayjay238O for finding this.

-KnuxSonic

Proving that he hasn't been watered down by the likes of E! and Ryan Seacrest, AOTS host Kevin Pereira has redesigned his website/blog. Looks much better than previously and it looks like he might start posting more often as well.

kevinpereira.com

-KnuxSonic

In a case of epic fail, instead of announcing their much hyped big mystery announcement today on Attack of the Show, G4 instead announced that... they had no announcement. Yes, it seems whatever they were going to say isn't ready yet, due to legal reasons so we don't know exactly when they'll announce it.

G4 Rewind is pretty sure it's some form of the fabled online archive we've been waiting on for well over a year now that would host full episodes of G4 shows including new episodes Electric Playground, Happy Tree Friends and reran episodes of current G4 shows AOTS and X-Play and POSSIBLY older shows like Portal, which has been "in progress" forever. It's possible that third party shows (COPS, Ninja Warrior, Cheaters, etc.) are the "legal reasons" that are holding this back.

However that's all just speculation. We'll keep you posted if G4 ever decides to let the cat out of the bag.

-KnuxSonic

G4 is touting the biggest announcement in the channel's history will be made this Thursday at 7:20pm EST. The current winning guess is that the channel is going HD, but if that's the biggest announcement in G4 history, than that's pretty lame. We'll keep you updated if we hear anything worth posting.

-KnuxSonic

While G4 said EP would be back in the Summer, it's made a slight slip to October, according to G4 web admin "thedude" in a post in the EP Forums. Here's the short but sweet news.

"EP will be back in October on G4tv.com

This is official, you can bank on it."

KnuxSonic puts money against it. Just in case.

-KnuxSonic

Announced today on Attack of the Show, Wil O'Neal, former CNET writer and AOTS's tech reviewer is moving back to San Fransisco to be with his family and is leaving the show after this week. It was mentioned that he'd return and visit occasionally, probably about as much as Kevin Rose visits the show after he claimed he would.

Will G4 replace O'Neil or simply finally put the nail in the coffin on their spotty tech segments?

-KnuxSonic

Edit: It's O'Neal. ;)
_proscribed

Courtesy ScrewAttack.com

Gaming site Screw Attack has posted an 11-minute interview with X-Play host Adam Sessler. They talk G4, games, Olivia Munn and chest hair, not in that particular order.

-KnuxSonic

G4/Attack of the Show will air a FIVE HOUR special the day before the launch of Halo 3, September 24th. Isn't that more than they did for E3? Also, it looks like AOTS will be skipping the Tokyo Game Show this year, but X-Play will be there on September 25th.

Also, the G4 Forums upgrade has been pushed back to the 28th for quality control. Woo. In addition, the G4 web team tweaked the main page of g4tv.com just a little bit, so it's more organized and is a little easier to find some of the newer features that have popped up on the site in the last few months (Freestyle 101, Fresh Ink Online, etc.). Online episodes of The Electric Playground, Happy Tree Friends (although the removal of the "Coming Soon" banner from the HTF site could indicate that project has been shelved), as well as Portal have yet to be seen but stay tuned to G4 Rewind as always for the latest.

-KnuxSonic

After five months of suffering through glitches and bugs caused by a bad software upgrade, G4 forum users will hopefully see relief this week as G4 will be changing away from FuseTalk forum software to Jive. All forum usernamers, join dates, post counts and actual posts should survive the transition.

G4 also added Fresh Ink with Blair Butler to their online podcast portfolio this week, but still no signs of EP or Happy Tree Friends.

-KnuxSonic

From G4 Week Newsletter:

Code Monkeys is America's favorite cartoon program, and its creator, Adam de la Pena, wants to talk to you! So gather your inane interrogatives (or, if you prefer to ask intelligent questions...ok, sure...bring those too) and drop in! Wednesday’s episode starts at 9PM ET and the chat starts at 9:30PM ET.

Surprise! This is probably the first host/creator chat since 2005.

X-Play's Morgan Webb has a new show... but you won't be seeing it on G4's airwaves or website or any TV for that matter. She's opened up her own website with a daily 5 minute webcast covering the day's tech news. It's surprising that G4 is allowing her to do it, as it's actually competition. Currently it updates Monday-Thursday, check it out at:

http://www.webbalert.com/

-KnuxSonic

Old news, I know, but you can listen to Kevin Pereira on the Adam Carolla Show via the links below. They mostly talk about the iPhone, cell phones in general, TiVO and they call G4 "The Thinking Man's Spike TV." Kudos the guy that called in and said Olivia was hot, I'm glad I'm not the biggest loser on the planet, yet.

Clip 1
Clip 2

-KnuxSonic

What have they done? E3 is over and gamers everywhere sigh a collective "meh" as the convention was a shadow of it's former self. While most journalists agreed it was much easier to navigate, few agreed it was "better." No megatons, no killer apps... really just a bunch of pretty decent games.

As for G4, they even packed it up early and went back to the studio on day 3. Their coverage made E3 LOOK much better than it actually was, even being called out by their own Victor Lucas in "The Loop." Engadget also reported that G4's booth space was probably larger than Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft's space combined. And with many games being spread out over half a dozen hotels being shown in tiny rooms on tiny screens, who can really get all that excited?

As for their coverage, it was about as decent as you could expect. I know a lot of people are giving them flack for airing ads, especially during the press conferences, but honestly, we're lucky they even AIRED them. E3 is probably their highest (or WAS) ratings period of the year and for them NOT to air ads would be financially outrageous. I was pretty miffed that they didn't even bother to stick around for day 3, but from what I hear, there wasn't much else to see. The Stickam reactions were a nice nod to the community, but generally watered down and low quality.

For the upside for G4, Chris Gore flexed his gaming muscle with his reports, Joel Gourdin is (hopefully) slowly ousting Layla Kayleigh, Geoff Keighley returns to the network and G4 announced Electric Playground would be back.

As for next year, let's hope E3 returns to it's roots, or doesn't return at all.

-KnuxSonic

Hot out of E3, G4 has announced that Electric Playground, which was dropped from G4 over a year ago, will be returning this summer, but ONLY to G4tv.com.

Not sure if this is due to some agreement with another network (See: G4 Canada) or if G4 just doesn't want to air it on the network, but regardless, it's great to see G4 bringing gaming back. More details as they arrive.

-KnuxSonic

Yeah you read that right, G4 seems to be quietly airing the premiere of the latest Harry Potter movie's red carpet premiere on Monday at 8PM EST. You can only find it in their schedule, I haven't seen any ads or anything for it, strangely enough (maybe I just missed them) but for the few of you that love T&A, Harry Potter, COPS reruns and the occasional video game, I'm sure you're just jumping for joy right about now. I'm not sure why it's on the down-low, maybe G4 is a little ashamed of this themselves?

Here's the official text:
"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" Presented by G4
From the red-carpet premiere. Includes behind the scenes footage, interviews with author J.K. Rowling and the cast in London, plus exclusive clips of the film.

For those of you that just don't care, here's Emma Watson already starting on her future alcohol dependency problem.

-KnuxSonic

After a very short stint, G4's ambassador to the fans is already moving on to "another project on another network" and will be replaced by SOMEONE, however we don't know her name yet, only this photo from a random AOTS clip.

Seems a little strange that it was such a short stint but let's hope G4 continues this program.

-KnuxSonic

Proscribed's Update: The "mystery chick" is Dana Vinson, who's been working in G4's web team for the last year or so. Mystery solved. :P

Min-E3 kicks off next week and while it will undoubtedly be the lamest E3 ever, G4 is easing the pain and will air Microsoft's, Nintendo's and Sony's traditional opening day press conferences LIVE! No more buffering and rebuffering tiny, low resolution streams off of GameSpot or IGN. In all G4 is doing about 17 hours of coverage, which is pretty good considering that's about how many square feet the convention is.

July 10th:
9PM: E3 Preview
11PM: Microsoft Press Conference

July 11:
12PM: Sony Press Conference
2PM: Nintendo Press Conference
6PM: AOTS @ E3 Live

July 12th & 13th:
6PM: AOTS @ E3 Live

Please support gaming on G4 and watch, especially these live events that are going to be on mid-day when no one's watching and which will probably have to be commercial free. G4techTV Canada will be airing G4's live feed so you Canadian viewers can tune in as well.

-KnuxSonic

G4 has a struck a deal with Break.com to post an early screening of the first episode of Code Monkeys, set to begin airing July 11th at 9pm on G4 with back to back episodes. The Code Monkeys website has also launched, but right now many of the features are "coming soon" but check back closer to the premiere to watch videos, get downloads, and participate in live chat, among other site features.

After viewing the pilot, I can't really give a definite good or bad review, rather it was full of funny bits and bits where it fell flat on it's face. There were lots of little inside jokes that gamers would get, but then lots of humor that seemed like it was targeted to half-baked college dropouts (OMG DRUG REFERENCES!).

We'll have to see a few more episodes, but at least the animation looks really good and stays true to the 8-bit style.

Click the jump to view the first episode.

-KnuxSonic

Continue reading "Code Monkeys Update: premiere info, website launched, view entire 1st episode" »

The studio that brought us The Electric Playground and Judgement Day has won what is possibly the first Emmy for gaming TV. Even more suprising is that G4 broke the "never-mention-a-cancelled-show" tradition and posted this story on The Feed:

Perhaps you know Victor Lucas. He's been all over G4 since the days of TechTV, what with Judgement Day and Electric Playground. Heck, he's so much family around here that they should name a wing of the G4 complex after him. Anyway, Lucas' Greedy Productions have won an Emmy for producing GameTap News, which they produce for Turner's GameTap.

We couldn't be prouder. Congratulations, Victor, and Greedy!

W2G Greedy. G4... how about making amends and picking these shows back up?

-KnuxSonic

A few months ago G4 rolled out it's new look and slogan, TV that's Plugged In, but ever wondered what went into the redesign process? Broadcast Newsroom has posted an interview with Onesize and yU+Co, two design companies that collaborated on the new design. Interestingly enough, the package was created so that G4 could customize ads themselves rather than having to use the firm every time they needed a new bumper or intro.

Also, Onesize has posted their G4 reel with all types of ads and bumpers from the network, some we haven't even seen yet (or maybe they got cut?), an alternate (better looking, less cluttered) version of The Feed and more. All around interesting stuff.

-KnuxSonic

X-Play, basically G4's only video game show that has a regular production schedule and the last surviving TechTV program, is getting the 2.0 treatment that Star Trek, Star Trek: TNG, and Cops have already received. Starting June 25th at 8pm, new X-Play premiere episodes will feature the usual host of 2.0 crap, such as chat (which has already been going for the last few months), trivia, and more.

Note: Witty accompaniment image will come later. Just think X-Play, and 2.0 slapped on. No really, go ahead.

Continue reading "It was bound to happen: X-Play goes 2.0" »

G4techTV Canada just keeps making us wish we lived in Canada more and more. They're adding more shows over the summer including Gamer.TV, CNET TV, A Gamer's Guide to..., When Games Attack, Major League Gaming Series, The IT Crowd as well as Code Monkeys and new episodes of Torrent. You can read more here in their press release.

Seriously, G4, take some notes, this is how gaming/tech TV is done. Most of these shows aren't even made in-house at G4techTV, keeping the cost low and the viewers happy.

-KnuxSonic

In an unsurprising twist, the G4 Forums are completely unusable as of 5PM EST yesterday due to server errors like the one above. Yet another problem in the bug-infested G4 message boards that continue to plague it's users with errors since the FuseTalk system was updated way back in April. G4 Forumers are still without the ability to even use customizable avatars and, oh yeah, the ability to even post anything at this point.

What's the cause of this? Terrible product? Lazy web team? Too much coding and not enough staff? Answers A and C? Who knows, but I don't see how G4 can continue on with Fusetalk for much longer. G4 Rewind is officially jumping on the "Switch" bandwagon, even at the loss to our post counts and join dates.

Get well soon G4orums!

UPDATE: The forums are back online, apparently they installed another new version sent to them from FuseTalk meant to fix some bugs. Cysurflex, a web admin has posted a new thread to report existing bugs including the avatar problem which still isn't fixed. FuseTalk reps will be reading the thread. Click there for that topic.

-KnuxSonic

G4 has begun deleting videos posted on YouTube by G4 Rewind, thus far we've gotten 5 take down notices. We're not sure if this means G4 is coming for us next or not, but so far we have never received anything from G4.

As of now, we won't be posting any new videos on YouTube for the time being, we'll keep you updated if anything else happens, but isn't it kind of ironic that a station that "borrows" so many videos from YouTube is now attacking it?

-KnuxSonic

Free Stuff has expanded once again, it will be airing at 6:30PM and 10PM EST/PST, live, both coasts, etc. Some scrutiny has arisen over Free Stuff being taped, being rigged etc.

G4 damage controller Kevin Rubio has confirmed that certain segments of Free Stuff are taped (Llyod, Zack segments) the show is indeed live, but with a 2 minute delay. Also for those of you having problems entering, according to G4's rules, any item that has technical difficulties is to have it's winner picked from the working codes. Whether or not G4 is going per their own rules, we don't know, but this is what SHOULD be happening.

A few weeks ago we reported AOTS was interested in more viewer input. Today G4 took this a step further and hired Kevin Rubio to be an ambassador of sorts to the fans. From his post on the AOTS forums:

I'm "inbetween jobs" at the moment, G4 has graciously offered to pay me
to do what I would normally do anyway - sit at the computer, surf
the net, and talk on chat boards, or more specifically, talk with
the AOTS crowd and kind of give you a behind the scens look as to
what goes on around here.

Over the next month, I'll be heading up a little experiment
-opening up the doors to AOTS and intoducing you to the people
who run the show, both behind the scenes and in front of
the camera.

He's already posted an "Ask AOTS" thread where he's already consistently posting answers. Major kudos to G4 and to Kevin for doing this. Another mark in the "Good Idea" catagory.

-KnuxSonic

If you've been watching G4 the past 6 months you've been seeing ads from a company called "Gameavision," what appears to be a retro gaming studio producing Atari 2600 style games combined with the violent tendencies of the modern era, is actually a fictional company created by G4 to hype Code Monkeys.

G4 even created a website for Gameavision with demos and a developer blog. Presumably the characters in the Code Monkeys series will work for the company. G4 even aired a Cheat! G-Spot segment with tips on various Gameavision games.

Bravo G4, those are some really believable ads, I was actually looking forward to "Crosswalk" and "Barfight," here's to hoping those games actually come out and that Code Monkeys is successful.

-KnuxSonic

G4's new Saturday rerun festival of all the week's AOTSes features webcam commentary from Olivia and Kevin during the intro and outro's of each episodes. While I've never been fond of giant blocks of shows, it's a good time to catch any episodes you missed and the commentary, while short, is pretty cool.

How long until AOTS 2.0?

This is very old news, but if you've never seen it, it's new to you!

Way WAY back in 2004, Tommy Tallerico and Victor Lucas created "GameCaster" which was supposed to be a way to ESPN-ize major league gaming through use of special in-game cameras, in-studio crowds and professional announcers. The show hasn't really made it off the ground but it has aired a few specials on Gameplay HD (Dish Network, VOOM) including a Battlefield 2142 tournament back in September of 2006.

Who other to host the event than former G4TV.com host Tina Wood (and investor/POD Singer Sonny Sandoval)! While you can't see it without Gameplay HD, there is a trailer up on the website. The show looks like Arena but with much higher production values, it's a shame G4 didn't pick up on this show, claiming to be a video game network and not cashing in on major leaguing gaming is a head scratcher. Usually G4 is the FIRST to cash in on "the next hottest thing."

-KnuxSonic

According to the latest G4 promos, Free Stuff, which as the name implies, basically gives away free (mainly tech) stuff, is returning to G4's schedule, EVERY WEEKNIGHT at 10pm ET & PT starting June 4th . Who knows how long they'll run this thing (the site says it's summer only special) but stay tuned to the Free Stuff website and G4 for the latest. And of course, if anything new breaks, we'll try to be the first to bring to it to you.

In other news, straight from the halls of G4's WTF Dept* comes: COPS 2.0
Yes you read clearly, from the same department that brought you The Man Show, G4 is "2.0izing" the infamous police reality show, as G4 calls it. The G4 Cops website tells us a bit more, stating that Cops 2.0 will air every weeknight at 6pm ET starting May 29th, and will have many of the same features from Star Trek 2.0 and Star Trek: TNG 2.0, such as live chat, but new items like "expert commentary" and "iWitness accounts" (Sweet, iWitness. I like your trendiness, G4). To me this just looks like another way for G4 to milk the most it can out of the $16 million it paid to accquire the sydication rights to Cops. At least they didn't wait a year after its initial premiere to slap the 2.0 on it like they did with ST: TNG

Added Bonus: Cops Memorial Day marathon on May 28th starting at 12pm ET. This is G4's homage to G-Day, to any of those who remember that day...right...

*It cannot be confirmed if such a department exists at G4. Considering the recent consolidation of G4 into the E! Network's offices, this department may have been laid off.

Gavin Purcell (AOTS Producer, 4 year G4 vet) has posted on the Attack of the Show forums that he would like suggestions on how to revive the G4 Forums. After many users suggested better user interaction and host participation, Gavin replied with the following:

"Thanks for this everyone.

-Gavin"

I have to give props to Purcell for coming to the community for answers, few shows out there would do this for their viewers and this is EXACTLY what my editorial yesterday was talking about. While I can't agree with Gavin that AOTS is in it's top form right now, I commend him for giving the viewers a voice. The mini-bombshell in this post is that User Created is returning to AOTS, many users vocalized that they would like to see it return.

File this one in the "Steps Forward" department.

-KnuxSonic

Much to our dismay, G4 is doing another season of Street Fury. This is from their newsletter:

Hey Street Fury fans! Big C is busy shooting new epsiodes for ya, including footage from dope trips to Amsterdam and Guam, so stay tuned for new times and dates.

They're also cross-promoting their web show, Freestyle 101, which is about freestyleing hip hop/rap. Further proof that G4 continues to go after that huge "geeks that love hip-hop and racing" market, I'm sure that's a winner.

-KnuxSonic

AOTS will be in pre-recorded rerun phase again next week according to the AOTS Newsletter. They'll be airing a normal show on Monday (most likely prerecorded), Tuesday will be best of "In Your Pants" (see: Worst AOTS Segment ever), Wednesday is a look back at AOTS in Tokyo, Thursday is best of AOTS sketches. Friday is not listed for some reason.

So enjoy another week of mash ups as AOTS migrates.

-KnuxSonic

The exodus has begun. As previously reported... dozens of times... G4 has begun it's long journey from Santa Monica all the way to LA in their new home at E! studios. Kevin Pereira posted the above picture of the set deconstruction and promises to try and post some pictures of the new studio.

Today's AOTS appears to be pre-recorded with quasi-live updates on The Feed.

Just to reaffirm what's going on with G4 for those of you that are still confused:

-G4 is not owned by E! now, it's still owned by Comcast
-G4 shows will not appear on E!, they're only sharing studio/office space with E!
-No on-air personalities are going away that we know of

-KnuxSonic

Today is G4's FIFTH, that's 5th, birthday. Almost forgot, thanks to _proscribed for pointing it out.

So, celebrate by watching some oldies. While you're at it, brush up on your G4 history (it's pretty accurate) at Wikipedia.

-KnuxSonic

The new embodiment of Call for Help has launched on G4techTV Canada and the How-To Channel in AU. For all of us that don't live in those two countries, someone has uploaded the first 9 minutes on YouTube, it's certainly a little different but still a lot of the same. FYI, Chris Prillo and Cat Schwartz appear in this episode as well.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JITETtCw3Gc

It appears that AOTS will be in "best of" mode next week according to the G4 schedule.

http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/schedule/index.html

It looks like Monday will be a repeat or continuation of the Amsterdam saga, Tuesday actually looks to be new... with Wednesday and Thursday and Friday being best-of's.

More than likely this is due to the studio move we've rambling about forever.

-KnuxSonic

Everyone goes gaga for the videos but remember still pictures? Well people still take those and a source sent in some flickr pics from G4. Specifically these look to be from p0lar's (see: former producer at G4) last day and some others mixed in as well. Looks like they have fun, there's a running prank through one of the albums and you might even recognize a few people. Here's the links:

http://flickr.com/photos/7541308@N02/sets/

And there's also a G4 photobooth with pictures from various people:

http://flickr.com/photos/flickrbooth/

-KnuxSonic

Mr. Pereira has posted more info on his MySpace about his whereabouts:

To put the MySpace and Message board rumors to rest:

See you all very soon, thanks for the messages, and I assure you I miss you all more than you claim to miss me! :)

So the studios WERE supposed to be moving this week as we originally reported. No idea if/when it will happen now.

-KnuxSonic

Destructoid (who's editors often appear on The Loop) got a tip from employees a few hours ago that the G4 offices/studios were evacuated due to a bomb threat.

The G4 production offices at 12312 Olympic Blvd. were evacuated this morning in response to the discovery of a suspicious device within the building and authorities were immediately called on site. After investigating the situation and taking all safety precautions, it was determined to be a non-threatening device and employees were safe to return to the building.

Police searched the building and apparently found nothing, so it was most likely a hoax. No idea if this will effect production of today's shows.

UPDATE: Destructoid has discovered that the supposed bomb was actually a prop bomb owned by G4. A case of mistaken identity or did someone want a 3 hour lunch break?

Source: Destructoid

-KnuxSonic

While we're left to wallow in guest hosts that. talk. like. they're. reading. from. a. poorly. written. cue. card., Kevin Pereira is in, you guessed it, Hawaii.

He's updated his moblog with some pictures/videos from the Haleakala Crater.

While vacationing in Hawaii is probably a lot better than hosting a live TV show 5 days a week, we hope the Captain returns soon, as we can only take so much Supertroopers hosts before we start stabbing people.

-KnuxSonic

Way way back last year Dave announced that episodes of G4 classic "Portal" would soon be availiable on G4's site for download. In October, there was a computer crash and lots of progress was apparently lost on the project.

Fast forward 6 months and we are still without any of these videos. Gringo, a member of the G4 webteam mentioned months ago that he was working on them, albeit very slowly. Dave has finally updated us via his forums on the matter.

First of all, I’d like to apologize to everyone for the horrible delay. If I had to do it over, I would have never made the announcement so soon. I get so many e-mails asking about Portal DVD’s that I really just wanted to share some good news.

-Dave

Just as we had suspected, Portal videos are on the backburner for now. Hopefully after G4 is settled down in their new homes they'll take a look at them again.

-KnuxSonic

Two tidbits for y'alls.

1 - AOTS host, Kevin Pereira, will be absent next week, he's taking a week off for personal reasons. G4 Rewind will be camping outside his apartment to get the inside scoop, be sure to join us next week for "ImmyWatch 2007." No word on who will guest host. Supertroopers stars will guest host... next week.... um... yeah. WTF?

2 - The G4 move into E! studios looks like it will actually take place over next weekend, probably about the time as the 4/20 Specials. Also, no word on if AOTS & X-Play will be in reruns the following week or what. We'll probably find out next Thursday.

That's it. Go Away.

-KnuxSonic

First your laptop, then your cell phone, now G4 has created a portal for your Wii.

By visiting g4tv.com/wii you can get a mini-version of G4's real site. This includes a real-time The Feed ticker, access to all G4's videos as they're posted, photos and info on what's on G4 now.

Now if I could only FIND a Wii.

-KnuxSonic

The new season of EP starts today... on G4TechTV Canada. Still no word on if ANY of the Greedy Production shows (Reviews on the Run, EP, The Lab) will ever reach the USA, but those of you in Canada will be getting all three this month.

We'll let you know if we ever hear anything about the US of A but right now it's not looking good.

-KnuxSonic

The Lab has wrapped on 4 episodes and will be premiering on G4TechTV Canada and the HowTo channel in Australia on April 23rd.

Judging from their Flikr account, Chris Pirillo, Cat Schwartz and other Laporte continuity memers like Steve Gibson and Andy Kauffman were all present at the proposed "mini-TechTV reunion."

You can view the show's intro on their website as well as download some Lab wallpaper.

-KnuxSonic

In the absence of hosts Kevin Pereira and Oliva Munn, X-Play hosts Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb will host Attack of the Show tonight (Thursday), live. Pereira and Munn are, apparently already in Amsterdam according to Immy's post on the G-Forums.

Also, G4 website admin CySurflex has announced that G4's forums will see an upgrade shortly, which will include a number of new features but will notably end support for custom avatars, at least until they can figure out a way to re-enable them.

-KnuxSonic

G4TV.com has launched a new webshow called "Freestyle" which allows hip-hop amateurs and pros to tell their story and rap about whatever they feel like.

Honestly though... who really cares? Unless you're really into rap, I'm guessing you'll pass on this and if you are, you'd probably get your freestyle fix on some other hip-hop centric outlet like BET or MTV. Once again, G4 has no idea who it's catering to and no idea what they want.

-KnuxSonic

Just when you thought things were looking up...

The G4 Network, which is based around technology and gaming programming and has been gaining steam in attracting the 18-49 male demographic, will be producing a pilot for a potential Lucha Libre series titled "Viva La Lucha" this Friday 3/30 in Tijuana, Mexico. The idea is to produce a Lucha Libre product aimed for an English speaking television audience.

The one hour pilot will feature several names on top including Juventud Guerrera, Nicho El Millionaro (Psicosis, last seen in WWE), L.A. Park (the original La Parka, who no longer maintains the right to that name), and Rey Mysterio Sr. There are a number of Tijuana area regulars and California indy talents also scheduled for the taping, including several that were involved in MTV Wrestling Society X like Human Tornado, as well as a few names from Mike Quackenbush's CHIKARA promotion in Pennsylvania. Chavo Guerrero Sr. and Larry Rivera (A California-based announcer best known for some funny work in XPW) handling the commentary.

http://pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.asp?id=23626&p=1

Thanks to AdamFsh6 for the tip.

_proscribed

*Note: Since the source's website has popups galore, I've pasted the entire article after the cut. Click "Continue reading..." to do so.

Continue reading "G4 wrestles with the idea of... well, wrestling" »

Get ready for a week of medicority as AOTS will be guest hosted all week long as Kevin and Olivia go "on assignment" elsewhere. Yeah okay.

Zach Selwyn is a lucky guy. This week, Mr. Selwyn will be hosting Attack of the Show! with a bevy of hot hotties the likes of which the small screen has never seen before.

On Monday: prepare to meet the real LonelyGirl15 --Jessica Rose is making the jump from YouTube star to TV host! Tuesday brings Missy Peregrym who you know from Heroes. Rachel Specter is on hand for humpday, and while you may not know the name, she's the woman from the RGX ad who wants to smell you from this... close. Thursday's Attack will be hosted by Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb in a piece of G4 crossover madness, and we're bringing it all back home on Friday, when The Feed's own Layla Kayleigh hosts the show with Zach.

Update 4/3: Looks like Missy has pulled out as Layla is now hosting today with Zach.

Sounds like a week to miss if you ask me. Seriously, do you honestly think the chick from the deodorant ads knows anything about Xbox 360 or the new iPod? I doubt it. Thursday's show with Webb & Sessler should be good, but otherwise, G4 Rewind recommends to check out some Fresh Prince reruns instead this week.

-KnuxSonic

Not only does former Blister host Bill Sindelar apparently read G4 Rewind, he also knows our email and dropped us a line:

"Just wanted you guys to be the first to know, seeing as you're the old-schoolers. I'll be back on G4 in July in a new series "MyShow TV" (dunno if that name is final yet) which will basically be a half hour long mash up of viewer submitted bits, stunts, sketches and other outrageous or funny videos from the community. I like to think of it as the "America's Funniest Videos" for guys and gamers. I'll be serving as the host for the in between segments and maybe I'll even throw in a few Blister jokes for those of you that remember. Hope you guys enjoy it, see you this summer."

I ALMOST deleted this thinking it was spam (the subject line was "Guess who") but the return address was from billsindelar.com. It looks like it will basically be like AOTS' "YouTube Star of the Week" but probably apart from YouTube to keep away from legal issues?

Look for the official announcement from G4 sometime this week! Good luck Mr. S!

-KnuxSonic

Continue reading "Exclusive: Bill Sindelar to Return to G4" »

Free Stuff, Part 2? Well, it looks like it. This once "one time event" seems like it's making a comeback. Looking at the Free Stuff website, G4 will be holding another Free Stuff event again on Friday, April 6th at 10pm ET AND 10pm PT. In response to the overwhelming reaction from the first Free Stuff event, G4's learned from its mistakes and "upgraded" their hardware to cope with the likely increase in traffic to its website. Hopefully everyone will have a fair chance now, including those who griped about the fact that the previous Free Stuff aired at 4:30pm PT, a time when many are still at work.

So go ahead, the cat's out of the bag, and get ready for the next Free Stuff. It's happening next week so get ready to win, win, win. Or atleast, I hope I win. ;)

Leave us your feedback in the Comments section or in the Forums. (Free registration required to post).

Thanks to Graham Brunk for the tip.

_proscribed

The Lab with Leo's site is now live at www.labwithleo.com. Right now it's just a production blog with a submission form on how to appear on the show and links to production members' blogs as well. There's also a link to the show's setcam but it appears to be offline or not working yet.

-KnuxSonic

Update: Since this entry has been posted, G4 has decided to change its schedule again. Click here to read more.

In spite of the shakeups regarding the G4 offices and potential layoffs, programming initiatives seem to be moving ahead as usual as G4 has decided to bring back import shows Brainiac and Ninja Warrior for all new seasons, the latter for a whopping total of 16 (seasons, that is)! The large amount can be attributed to the fact that the Ninja Warrior competiton has been running for several years now in Japan so there's quite the amount of backlog episodes not shown in the US. According to G4 Press Releases, the new seasons of both shows will premiere on March 19th, 2007, with Ninja Warrior running weekdays at 6:30pm ET with a same day repeat at 10:30pm ET, while new episodes of Brainiac will premiere during its former time slot of Mondays at Midnight (Tuesday mornings at 12am ET) during the Midnight Spank late-night block. According to G4's schedule, reruns of the previous seasons of Brainiac will continue to air weekdays at 9am ET. Also, Ninja Warrior will continue to air Tuesdays at Midnight (Wednesdays at 12am ET) during Midnight Spank.

Continue reading "G4 renews Brainiac and Ninja Warrior; shuffles its schedule | Updated 3/19" »

G4TechTV Canada's "The Lab with Leo Laporte" is looking to launch this April... you can check out some behind the scenes photos on the show's flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/labwithleo/

On a recent episode of TWiT, Laporte mentioned they were trying to do a TechTV reunion on the first episode. Cat Schwartz, Chris Pirillo, Kevin Rose, and Patrick Norton are mentioned to possibly attend.

UPDATE: Due to the large amount of interest in this story, I've clipped out the segment where the reunion was talked about. Digg users, stick around. Feel free to discuss this story in the Comments section or in the Forums. (Free registration required to post).

-KnuxSonic

G4's newsletter has spilled the beans on the "Free $tuff" promotion/show we reported on earlier. It appears it's going to be a one-time experiment where they'll review various gadgets then give them away, through some type of online component (the ad mentions to "keep your laptop handy"). They'll air it this Friday at 7:30 PM EST. Prizes include camcorders, Nintendo Wii, and PS3 right now but they also mention artwork, clothing and other various gadgets.

Read up more on it here.

This sounds similar to TBS's Midnight Madness, which was really a money making scheme where viewers texted, called in and went online to appear on a gameshow and were charged per call/text, but the ad mentions nothing of phone use. Maybe it's a moving sale of sorts? Or maybe G4 is just feeling really nice?

Discuss the Free Stuff you want in the Comments section or in the Forums. (Registration required).

-G4 Rewind

Mecha, our flamboyant reporter from Canada is once again dropping the megatonz. He has given us confirmation that G4 Studios in Santa Monica, CA will be closing as of April 15th and many employees will be laid off, especially those in production. The remaining operations will be merged into E!'s studios in Los Angeles, CA.

Former G4 hosts Laura Foy & Scot Rubin confirmed this, once again, on the All Games Interactive netcast. I've clipped the part of the show where they talk about it. You can catch the whole interview starting at timestamp 1:36:49 on the Feb. 23 2007 show of AGI.

What does this mean for production of all G4's shows? At the very least, expect new sets, but more drastic changes are surely coming. We'll report more as we hear it, but get ready for another round of major changes, perhaps more so than ever before.

Feel free to discuss this news in the Comments section or in the Forums. (Registration required).

UPDATE: According to Capt. Immy himself (aka Kevin Pereira): As of right now, it means a new set. That's about it. Oh, that, and I'll be delivering Seacrest's morning coffee.

Soy-Chai-Latte. For the record.

You can also follow other G4 viewer's feedback at the G4 Forums (Registration required).

Mega G4 fanboi Mecha sent/clipped a few G4 interviews from Scot Rubin's All Games Interactive so here they are.

Interview #1 with Gringo - The real meat starts about half way through the episode; Gringo works on the G4 web team. During the interview, he mentions that he is still working on getting episodes of Portal on the web, however the delay is due to the fact that it's mostly a side project. They touch on a lot of general G4 history and even more All Games history. Gringo also states that Jim Downs left on his own accord, reasons not stated.

Interview #2 with Cory Rouse of Cheat! - Lots of little trivia, the original list of show names, reasons behind the Pringles branding & more.

All of this is culled from All Games.

Feel free to discuss this news in the Comments section or in the Forums. (Registration required).

-G4 Rewind

G4 has an ad for a new show on their site called "Free Stuff" which says it will give away gadgets they review live, Fridays at 7:30PM EST. However clicking on the ad gives you an error.

So how do you win? Through the chat room? Through call ins? Random drawing? We'll let you know when we know.

Update: You can read more about Free Stuff by clicking here.

Feel free to discuss this news in the Comments section or in the Forums. (Registration required).

Submitted by Mecha

-G4 Rewind

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G4 has updated its graphics package for the third time since 2005 (see new logo above), adopted a new slogan, TV That's Plugged In (alternated with "sub slogan" Stay Plugged In), launched G4 Mobile, which allows the ability to watch G4 shows on your phone, and has also inked a deal with BitTorrent Inc. to legally distribute many of its current and past shows for about $2 a pop on BitTorrent.com

What this all really means, we dunno yet.

Has anyone bought any shows off of G4's mobile service or through BitTorrent.com? Tell us how it went in the Comments section or in the Forums. (Registration required).

-G4 Rewind

It was announced today on Attack of the Show that long time AOTS producer Scott Moschella (hailing back from the TechTV Call for Help days as an intern and also having a spot on the crew of The Screen Savers), well known for his role as "Jimmy the Geek", is leaving the show. As of writing, it's not exactly known why he is leaving or what he is pursuing, but everyone at G4 Rewind would like to wish him the best of luck in whatever he decides to do.

Wish Scott the best of luck in the Comments section or in the Forums. (Registration required).

You can keep up with him at PlasticBugs.com

_proscribed

Jim Downs, producer of Attack of the Show, former host of Pulse, former co-host on the All Games Network and countless other roles has either left or been fired from G4 according to the latest episode (EP84) of Kevin Rose's Diggnation podcast. Skip to the last 3 minutes of the show to hear the clip.

Jim Downs was largely responsible for the last leg of The Screen Savers (after Alex Albrecht, Yoshi etc. were laid off), and the transition to Attack of the Show. Jim Downs is also credited by former host of Arena Wil Wheaton as being the biggest douche ever and the main reason he left network.

Longtime TechTV and TSS member Josh Brentano and Gavin Purcell move up in Jim Down's place.

Feel free to discuss this news in the Comments section or in the Forums. (Registration required).

UPDATE: According to G4 web team member Gringo in a recent interview on Allgames, Jim Downs left under his own power.

-Knuxsonic

G4 has posted almost the entire X-Play musical online cut up in bite sized chunks.

http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/features/54444/XPlay_The_Musical.html

In my opinion, this is a high watermark for G4 production. The sets, the songs, the costumes, even the extras all are very well done. Sure it may be gimmicky, but it doesn't really take itself seriously, so lighten up. Webb and Sessler actually sound pretty good, kudos to everyone that worked on it, it turned out great.

Now before you go off and running and saying "AOTS is teh canceled!!11", it isn't, and neither is any other major G4 program. Earlier this month, G4 started to pull many of the smaller shows off the schedule. The list below names the shows dropped:

-Action Blast! (essentially Paid Programming, but it was listed as a G4 program)
-Happy Tree Friends
-(G4's) Late Night Peepshow
-Filter
-Ed the Sock's Night Party
Also, in December, G4 dropped:
-Banzai
-Game Makers
-Electric Playground

Eight shows, none of G4's flagship programming. This mainly affects the Midnight Spank late night block, as three of its programs were pulled and the majority of their time slots replaced with Cheaters or The Block reruns.

It's also surprising to see Filter dropped again but it could be on hiatus as there were only 13 or so episodes this season and there's only so much you can rerun them (The same can also go for Banzai which also only had a limited amount of episodes.). As always, stayed tuned to G4 Rewind for any updates.

As before, feel free to discuss this news in the Comments section or in the Forums. (Registration required).

_proscribed

Continue reading "G4 dumps a slew of shows" »

Yes! It's finally happened, a new G4 show that is a) not a castoff from another network and b) about something we all care about!

From the Feed:
Code Monkeys is an innovative animated comedy from Adam de la Pena, the creator of Minoriteam and a writer on The Man Show and The Jimmy Kimmel Show, that tells the stories of old-school game coders Dave and Jerry, whose wacky, surreal adventures are told through Super Nintendo style videogame art.

14 episodes. This Spring. ABOUT. EFFING. TIME.
Finally a step forward for G4.

Feel free to discuss this news in the Comments section or in the Forums. (Registration required).

-KnuxSonic

Once again, the Canadians get all the good stuff.

From the EP/RotR/JD host Victor Lucas:

We have just closed a deal with Rogers and G4TechTV Canada to sign The Electric Playground and Reviews on the Run to them exclusively for the next two years with options for more. This means starting tomorrow our shows will be broadcast exclusively on G4TechTV Canada and (then additionally on other Rogers owned outlets--TBA).

So does this mean we'll see Reviews on the Run and EP on G4? Probably not, seeing as G4TV in the USA is not owned or even part-owned by Rogers. But that's not all!

As part of our arrangement with Rogers/G4TechTV Canada, our company will also be the new production comany [sic] behind Call For Help and Torrent. We'll be making some tweaks to those shows but they'll remain as rich with great information as they already are but now we'll produce the shows out Vancouver and Greedy's HQ.

They go on to say that Call for Help will INDEED be renamed. If any deal in America is announced, we'll let you know, but for now it looks like this is only for our increasingly lucky neighbors to the north.

Source: EP Forums

According to a G4 staffer, she and presumably the entire G4 acquisitions staff has been laid off. Apparently the network has no funds for acquisitions left for 2007 and thus the editing staff is no longer needed.

Is this good or bad? Does this means there won't be anymore random shows appearing on the network and that they'll have to rely on in-house stuff more? Or does it simply mean they'll have to borrow more money from Uncle Comcast to fund that next season of World's Wildest Police Chases? Or could it be another sign of the eventual collapse of G4? OR could it mean we're speculating bastards that have no idea what we're talking about?

Yes.

Thanks to forum member FFanatic for the story.

-KnuxSonic

While schedules are preliminary, it looks like G4 is dropping The Electric Playground from their schedule. According to Zap2it.com, EP will not being continuing with its 10:30am ET/PT timeslot in the new year. The last airing of EP will be Episode #1628 on Friday, December 29th, 2006, at 10:30am ET/PT. Another airing of Cinematech will take the place of EP.

Continue reading "G4 to drop Electric Playground" »

In some late news from our neighbors to the north, G4TechTV Canada is apparently laying off the Call for Help staff in Toronto and outsourcing production of future seasons to Greedy Productions in Vancouver. Greedy is the same production house responsible for Electric Playground, Judgment Day and Reviews on the Run. The show may be renamed and it may be retool for American audiences, but details are still sparse. The current crew will continue filming through January.

Thanks to G4R forum member rayjay2380 for the heads up.

-KnuxSonic

Comcast has decided to let E! network manage G4.

http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=10889

Basically, the network has a new CEO. What he plans on doing though is still up in the air, the article says they might move out of the G4 studios due to how expensive they are, however they are using all the space they have, so maybe not.

G4's website refutes the "Death of G4" spin that some websites have given this move, explaining that it's no more than an administrative move. Some layoffs are possible where jobs overlap.

However if there is one bad thing to be taken from this, it's this quote from the new CEO.

"I do agree with the vision of going after young men more than just going after gaming," Mr. Harbert said. "Gaming has been demonstrated as being too narrow."

The slow painful decline of gaming TV continues after these messages.

The next show in the ever-growing G4 shopping list is Arrested Development. Cancelled by Fox last winter, despite numerous awards, fantastic reviews and a cult following, Arrested Development will begin airing in October on G4.

G-Phoria is also back, this year with a more patriotic theme, you can vote now on best games of the year and watch the special August 8th at 6PM EST.

Since the last update, G4 has also started airing "Outrageous Behavior Caught on Tape" and Arena has finally been dropped from the current lineup.

Icons has split into two shows now it seems. All the previous episodes of Icons, relating to video games, are now titled "Game Makers," (how long did it take to come up with that one?) and the current Icons will restart with episode 1 on J.J. Abrams and future episodes focused on pop-culture rather than video games.

Gag.

Thanks to forum member grahambrunk for digging this up.

According to Beth Ostrovsky, host of Spike TV's Casino Cinema and Howard Stern's girlfriend, she will be hosting the new season of Filter this summer. G4's Myspace has also posted that Filter, AOTS, Icons and G4TV.com (the website not the show, sorry Thug/T-Dub fans) will relaunch around E3. AOTS will relaunch on May 15th after E3 coverage and will include new interactive features including video chat and SMS messages.

While the news did come on April Fools Day, a joke, this is not. AOTS's Sarah Lane and Brendan Moran have gotten engadged and will set off on a 13-month world tour of sorts as a honey moon. Thus they will leave AOTS and two new replacements have already been found, however not announced. You can read more at her blog, http://sarahlane.typepad.com

Thanks to a reader for pointing this out.

When G4 begins airing Star Trek: The Original Series this April, viewers will be able to apperently interact with the show via chat, onscreen facts and some sort of "stock market" trading system called the "Spock Market."

For more: http://www.g4tv.com/trek20/index.html

This is old news to most, but G4 has picked up Conan O'Brien dropout "Triumph the Insult Comic Dog" and FOX/Comedy Central abondonee "Banzai". Both will begin airing in March. This continues the current G4 trend of increasing focus on outsourced content.

To our knowledge right now, the only shows that are still being produced in-house at G4 are Attack of the Show, Icons, Cinematech and X-Play. Icons, at last check, was still set to begin it's new season this Spring (but with a broader focus on content), as will The Electric Playground. Cheat!'s status is still TBD.

The removal of the slogan "Videogame TV" is nearly complete, only left in a few spots on the website (the title of the main site page) and on older ads on the network. Still no date on when/if the network will be relaunched (for the 4th time). Also no word on the status of G-Phoria 2006, or if such a thing will exist.

Lastly most of the web team has left/laid off as evident with the increasing lack of updates to the site and forums. The_D, Chickytown and countless other longtime G4 webteam employees have quietly exited. The AOTS blog, however, is still being frequently updated.

More news as it breaks!

X-Play has aired their "Best Games of 2005" series and below are the winners.

Action\Adventure: Resident Evil 4
RPG: Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2
Platformer: Sly 3: Honor Among Theives
Online: Battlefield 2
Shooter: Battlefield 2
Fighting: Dead of Alive 4
Sports: MVP Baseball 2005
Original: Psychonauts
Racing: Mario Kart DS

Overall: Resident Evil 4

Thanks to forum member "FFanatic" for posting the winners list.