tv series

ABC Family’s hit reality show ‘Wife Swap‘ is currently casting for it’s fifth season and they’re looking for a great family that loves collecting unique items. Naturally, they reached out to Collectors’ Quest!

The show casts from a wide array of families from all different walks of life who would like the opportunity to educate the viewing audience about their particular parenting philosophy, their beliefs and their way of life.

The premise of Wife Swap is simple: for seven days, two wives from two different families with very different values exchange husbands, children and lives (but not bedrooms) to discover what it’s like to live a different family’s life. It’s an interesting social experiment and a great way to see your family in a whole new light. It is shot as a documentary series, so NO scripts and no set. It’s just one camera that is documenting your life.

‘Wife Swap’ looks for a two-parent home with at least one child between the ages of 6 and 17 living at home full time.

If you are interested, please contact Matthew McLaughlin at matthew.mclaughlin@castingrdf.com ASAP and tell him a little about your family. Make sure you tell him you heard about it on Collectors’ Quest.

Good Luck!

‘Swamp Thing’ is a name that’s almost as well known as your average Batman or Human Torch, but makes surprisingly few cultural or comic appearances for his notoriety. What you might not know is that Swamp Thing isn’t just some movie monster anti-hero concocted for terror – he’s a legitimate DC Comics hero, and was a comic book star for many years before ever becoming a movie, a TV show, a thankfully short-lived cartoon and a line of action figures. He’s hung out with Batman, and he’s probably one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. When you’re made of trees, you pretty much have to be.

After hearing that Swamp Thing’s 1990 live-action show would finally be coming to DVD, I had high hopes for something outright bizarre and hypnotic, and I wasn’t even remotely disappointed. I have been assaulted on all fronts with bizarre. The cartoon show’s opening theme alone left a disfiguring scar across my psyche.

Shout! Factory, purveyors of many great TV shows on DVD, have released the first two seasons in a handsomely packaged 4-DVD set. That’s 22 half-hour format episodes, running at about nine hours total, with additional interview material with Dick Durock, the actor who portrays Swamp Thing, and Len Wein, the original comic author. Both are two well-chosen and relevant personalities to interview, as opposed to say, the little blonde kid who ties up the screen for 95% of every episode… but we’ll get to that. Dick Durock also happens to be the same actor who portrayed Swampy in the two cinematic releases that preceded this, because if you’re going to get a guy to reprise a role, make sure it’s the guy under 3 inches of rubber mask that barely speaks. Regardless, he makes a good, stoic Swamp Thing.

The entire show dives right into post-movie continuity, and doesn’t bother to explain that this ‘Swamp Thing’ is actually Dr. Alec Holland, a good-natured scientist who fled into the swamp near his lab when an experiment blew up in his face. Because exploding experiments will always, always give you superpowers, the mysterious swamp matter somehow merged with the good Doctor, and while disfigured and green and slimy, he was still alive and could now communicate fluently, and often control, the natural elements around him. Other explanations of Swamp Thing are far more complicated, but this is the simple (?) reality that this series is predicated upon. There, I’ve just done all of the work for you.

Here are a few important things that I learned from watching the Swamp Thing TV series.

1) It’s perfectly safe to just wander aimlessly for walks in the swamp. Kids do it, elderly women do it, and honestly, you’re living near a swamp. There’s nothing else to do, and nothing there could possibly ever hurt you. This is evidenced by people doing JUST THAT in every episode, repeatedly. Alligators are just a rural myth.

2) When you see an 8-foot tall, shambling mass of wet weeds and muck and eyes in the shape of a terrifying human, treat him like you would treat some jerk in a mildly offensive t-shirt. Do not ever express fear or disbelief. Suitable substitutions for any kind of caution might be ‘immediate kinship’, ‘acting like you just found that pack of hot dogs that you thought you ate in the back of the fridge (and subsequently discovering that they’re still edible)’, or ‘indifference’. Swamp people seem to remain unfazed in all possible circumstances.

3) Don’t combine falcons and science, because you’ll end up with a whiny bird-man with one giant bear arm that doesn’t get wet when he swims, who also can’t perform CPR properly, but what do you expect? He’s a bird man.

4) If you find a small heap of junk in the swamp, it’s safe to think, immediately, that something is hidden in there, so dig around! And if you DO find something in the swamp that you lost there 20 years ago, just kinda look at it and smile and leave it there, because it’s just a clumsy metaphor.

The list goes on, and that’s only culled from the first three episodes. Between the sheer emotionless of ‘Jim’, Swamp Thing’s schoolboy friend (who never seems to go to school), the pure evil and pure hair of Dr. Anton Arcane, and the whole ‘Another Fine Mess You’re Gotten Us Into’ mentality, taken way, way too seriously, I actually couldn’t wait to take my lunch break so I could come home and watch another episode. It might present itself as a situation where you need to suspend your disbelief for maximum enjoyment, but it becomes pretty clear that you’ll need to suspend it from a gallows to even swallow one second of the totally out-there series, and in this way, it is glorious. Will Dr. Arcane bring another working girl back to his cave, or will he force his way upon her in a circus trailer this time? Will the episode end without really resolving anything? Will the overly-articulate and world-weary blonde kid ever show an emotion besides ‘whatever’? I bet that you know the beautiful answers.

I count it as a star among my B-movie style DVDs, a great evening’s entertainment among trusted friends, and absolutely worth a purchase. Fans of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, or anyone who likes to play MST3K will have a field day. Plus, I’d like to remind you, he hangs out with Batman.

I’m in love.

While they’re not due out until May of 2008, Mezco (one of my favorite companies for many, many reasons) has released press images from their upcoming series of action figures, based on the Emmy Award-winning show Heroes – which I love, no matter what any entitled internet nerd message board says. The writers may be on strike, but my loyalty is strong, for now.

Mezco’s figural output is very diverse, ranging from horror to cartoon to classic movie properties, and their figures from the first Hellboy movie were some of the best character likenesses I’d ever seen. This, paired with great quality control and excellent articulation, makes Mezco one of the quieter companies to watch. While the license to make Heroes figures was long-rumored to to have shifted between McFarlane Toys and NECA, both great companies in different ways, I’m pleased that Mezco ultimately landed it.

One might ask, “Why do we need action figures from a show that really doesn’t have THAT much action?” Historically, that’s not such a bad question, especially when the show in question is complex, episodic, and on in prime time. McFarlane’s Lost figures went unsold in many areas, and eventually hit discount aisles before fans of the show expressed any interest. At this time, the line is barely making it through a second series, leaving the cast woefully incomplete. Lost viewers as a whole, it would seem, just aren’t toy buyers. McFarlane released a scene-specific statue or two from 24, and China-based Hot Toys made a few 1/6th scale figures based on Prison Break – all very specialty market items, produced in relatively low quantities. Mezco is hoping that Heroes’ decidedly more nerdy audience IS of the toy-buying ilk – which I’m also hoping, because I don’t intend on collecting a toy line that dies halfway through again, leaving families and teams incomplete. You burned me, Adult Swim figures, and I’ve never recovered.

The first line of Heroes figures will have five characters. Because they’re regular people who change clothes and get haircuts, there’s no ONE outfit that suits them best and makes them more recognizable (something which is a lot more obvious when dealing with costumed heroes or cartoons) – but Mezco does a pretty good job making them all unique in their personality-appropriate clothing. And satisfying their messenger bag fetish by giving them to three of the male characters, and nary a purse to the one female. And non-viewers? Beware of spoilers below.

We have Peter Petrelli, the mimic who absorbs and retains the powers of anyone around him, whether he likes it or not (or is even aware of it), as well as stealing the hearts and underpants of just about every female viewer. Peter is seen with his first season bangs. There will also be a second version of him, exclusive to retailers who order from previews Magazine, which will include a base to make him appear to be flying.

We have Hiro Nakamura, the Japanese sci-fi and comic nerd who can move through space and time, his altruistic motives sculpted gracefully by the comic heroes that he admires. And yet, despite what the uninformed media might imply about comic book readers, his attitudes towards women are completely healthy.

There’s also Claire Bennet (later, Butler), whose blood has powers that can almost instantly heal herself and others. While she’s rarely seen in her cheerleader outfit, the whole ’save the cheerleader, save the world’ thing was too pervasive to ignore.

Next is doctor Mohinder Suresh, who has no obvious powers of his own, but (usually) works towards the preservation and privacy of these people with special powers, with or without the aid of The Corporation, whose secretive motives keep him guessing.

Finally, there’s the series villain, Sylar (aka Gabriel Grey), who eats the brains of anyone whose powers he wants. He’s unrepentantly selfish and creepy, barely sympathetic, and we all love him. Again, he’s sculpted in an outfit that we rarely see him in, but is darkly appropriate to his character.

The first series lacks everyone’s favorite Noah Bennet, Hiro’s friend Ando, Matt Parkman, Isaac Mendez, Mr. Linderman, Nathan Petrelli, The Haitian, Adam, or even Mr. Muggles, so it’s vital that the line sells well, else we’ll never get the rest of these important characters. Being such a character-driven story, it would be a shame to miss out on any. Each figure in the line comes with a handful of accessories, as well as small reproductions of the paintings that played vital clues in the show.

As far as the character likenesses are concerned, fans have already expressed displeasure at some of the unusual appearances. We can tell who they’re supposed to be, but they’re not really floored by the accuracy. Others have commented that they appear to be half-realistic, and half-Tim Sale – the comic artist who provided and lot of the art for the show, as well as the clue-paintings. Sale’s artwork has been made into figures before, in DC Direct’s Batman : Long Halloween and Dark Victory series, and a Batman Black and White statue as well, and it’s true enough that these figures bear some of the same telltale angles. And yes, Mezco has also shown a proclivity towards some very interpretive figures.

Will this public outcry cause Mezco to revisit the figures before the scheduled release date? Will they settle on one style or another, instead of this odd hybrid? Will I buy them anyhow? I think we all know the answer to that last one. Come May, keep an eye out at your local FYE, Spencer Gifts, or comic shop, where these are most likely to pop up.

==============

Gotta Collect? Then You Gotta Connect – Join our Collectors’ Community!