Warren the Ape (MTV2: premiered Saturday, June 19, 2010, 9:00 PM ET) has the misfortune to be on MTV2 in Canada.  You either have to be on MuchMusic or MTV to catch this country’s basic-cable audience.  The Hard Times of RJ Berger is the priority import, so Warren the Ape is shunted to a digital cable channel.

Warren the Ape deserves better.  This is one of the few intelligent shows MTV has greenlit in years.  MTV used to pull this stuff out of its collective butt in the 1990s and early 2000s – Beavis and Butt-head, Liquid Television, The Maxx, Daria, The Sifl and Olly Show, Clone High, even The Head and Undergrads.  I don’t want to know how MTV got from this to Jersey Shore.

Yeah, fuck you, I sound old.  If you haven’t seen The Maxx, you wouldn’t understand.

Greg the Bunny (voice of Dan Milano) appears in the screener I received from CTVglobemedia.  Without revealing too much about “Abstinence,” which aired in America on Monday, June 21, Warren Demontague (Milano) tries to get eternal naïf Greg laid.  Warren is not to have sex for a month as per Dr. Drew Pinsky’s recommendation.  This proves to be the eternal struggle for Warren, so he tries to imprint Greg with a Warren-esque libido.

Greg acts like a typical comic book nerd, which isn’t quite the characterization I remember from the Fox and IFC shows.  Warren is still Warren on this show, all abruptness and lechery.  Greg the Bunny fans should feel right at home with Warren the Ape.

Warren the Ape isn’t as funny as the Fox version of Greg the Bunny, but that’s due more to MTV than anything else.  Greg the Bunny accommodated Eugene Levy and Seth Green.  Warren the Ape has to work in Dr. Drew.  I don’t care who hates Levy and/or Green.  From them to Dr. Drew is a quality drop.

Luckily, Drew is a peripheral figure.  Warren can obviously carry the show, as his personality traits are recognizably human.  Warren has problems, and he deals with them in the worst ways possible.  He’s still an ape puppet wearing a football helmet, so he gets away with his crapulence.

Warren the Ape parodies celebrity rehab shows, yet doesn’t feel like a rehash of past mockumentaries.  This is a good thing.  WtA feels like a rehash of Fox’s Greg the Bunny, which is a better thing.  Somehow, Warren the Ape maintains Greg the Bunny‘s ability to derive great comedy from social mores, which I don’t expect from any post-Clone High MTV show.

I’ll be honest.  I was expecting the worst from Warren the Ape.  Greg the Bunny is so good that a berth on MTV smacks of illogic, especially given that network’s love for cloning jackass and The Real World.  I wasn’t expecting the best possible outcome for WtA.  If MTV can’t kill Greg the Bunny, nothing can.

American ratings for Warren the Ape are anemic so far.  Great.  It’s 2002 all over again.  WtA‘s too well-written for it to go down this way, but MTV is usually where intelligent humour goes to die – Human Giant notwithstanding.

Here’s a clip from “Abstinence” where Warren attempts to play Dungeons and Dragons.  Not surprisingly, he’s not very good at it.  Watch out for the fat kid summoning the ghouls of…whatever the hell he yells.  He’s summoning ghouls.  That’s all you need to know.

As mentioned at TVShowsonDVD.com on June 11, 2010, Puppets Who Kill will be releasing a thirteen-episode compilation of its third and fourth seasons, possibly on August 1, 2010.  News of this compilation comes from John Pattison of PWK Productions.

John Pattison claims that Laffstock.com will distribute the discs.  Kerry Kupecz, executive director of sales and marketing for VSC, hasn’t confirmed this.  In fact, she wasn’t even aware of this release until I mentioned it to her on June 24, 2010.  VSC owns Laffstock.com.

Pattison mentions in a June 25 e-mail that PWK Productions hadn’t yet directly spoken to Kupecz, but that Laffstock.com is the distributor.  Pattison has been mentioning the possibility of a new PWK set since March 31, 2010, going so far as to list the thirteen episodes included on the third/fourth-season compilation.

In any case, PWK Productions will be self-releasing this set.  Release dates for the compilation are subject to change.

I’m surprised it’s taken until 2010 for a new Puppets Who Kill DVD release.  I would carp at the idea of a compilation, except that the TV-on-DVD climate isn’t what it was five years ago.  Puppets Who Kill hasn’t aired new episodes on The Comedy Network since 2006, which doesn’t help.

I guess Puppets Who Kill is trying for a comeback, with a movie version “in development.”  I hate to quote “in development,” but I’d like to see more proof that this film could exist in the future.

Granted, Ed the Sock and Warren the Ape came back this year.  Foul-mouthed puppets have a surprisingly long shelf life.  Sid the rabbit recently debuted on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and he’s an instant classic.  You just know Sid’s going to have a long run with dialogue like this:

Addendum (July 8, 2010) | VSC has set the street date for the new Puppets Who Kill compilation.  September 21, 2010 is when the title will hit stores and online outlets.

Special features include commentary tracks from John Pattison, director Shawn Alex Thompson, and puppeteers Jim Rankin, Bruce Hunter and Bob Martin.  The customary “and MORE…” is also featured.

Point of clarification: Laffstock.com is not the distributor of PWK DVDs.  VSC is the distributor.  Laffstock.com is an online store which sells comedy titles released/distributed by VSC.

Amazon.ca doesn’t have a listing for the new Puppets Who Kill compilation yet.  I’ll update this post when it does.

Alliance Home Entertainment is continuing its TV-on-DVD clusterbombing, as mentioned here and here.  The titles being monetized for late June-August 2010:

Andromeda: Season 2 (August 10, 2010)
BeastMaster: Season 2 (August 24, 2010)
Earth: Final Conflict: Season 1 (June 29, 2010) | Season 2 (July 27, 2010)
Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town: Complete Series (August 3, 2010)
Lexx: Season 2 (July 20, 2010) | Season 3 (August 24, 2010)
Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal: Season 2 (August 10, 2010)
TekWar: Complete Series (August 31, 2010)
The Outer Limits (1995): Season 4 (July 6, 2010) | Season 5 (August 3, 2010)
White Fang: Complete Series (August 17, 2010)

Amazon.ca is very spotty with its updates.  Admittedly, I use its affiliates program to drum up sales, which is why pieces like this exist.  The entries are still shambolic.  Items listed “the outer limits ssn 5″ or “Lexx S3″ are not uncommon.  An Amazon offshoot should not be that unprofessional.

TekWar‘s release date has been pushed back three times by now.  It was initially set to come out June 13.  August 3 and August 10 release dates will not be met.  I wonder what’s causing the delays, since it’s been mentioned that this set will not include the made-for-TV films.

One thing Alliance Home Entertainment needs to do is revisit TV-on-DVD sets its predecessor company, Alliance Atlantis, abandoned.  Cold Squad and Traders are two such titles, abandoned after their first seasons.  AA sat too long on Da Vinci’s Inquest, a title Acorn Media has since capitalized on.

I actually can’t believe Alliance Home Entertainment is as active as it is right now.  That’s good.  While the company isn’t perfect, this situation is a lot better than when AHE quietly released the odd Trailer Park Boys season and a few other titles.  I’m in awe that it’s keeping to its clusterbomb title strategy.  I question why shows like White Fang, but the good with the bad.

I mentioned the Canadian version of TV Land in my piece about travel + escape earlier this month.  Well, CTVglobemedia has done something about TV Land.  Starting August 2, 2010, TV Land will be rebranded Comedy Gold.

Comedy Gold will focus on sitcoms from the 1970s to the 1990s…which somehow includes SCTV.  Don’t ask me to figure that one out.  Comedy Gold’s inaugural lineup also includes The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Bob Newhart Show, Newhart, Murphy Brown and Night Court.

I can understand TV Land Canada’s rebranding to Comedy Gold.  Originally a Craig Media entity, TV Land Canada was absorbed by both CHUM Limited and CTVglobemedia.  It serves little purpose as part of the CTVgm stable, considering it’s a digital cable channel set up to air reruns.  Why license the TV Land name from MTV Networks?  It’s easier and cheaper to refit the channel as a Comedy Network spinoff.

Fitting Canadian content onto this channel is going to be tough.  Canada has shit all in the way of “classic sitcoms.”  There’s King of Kensington, The Newsroom and…what, exactly?  Hangin’ In?  Twitch City?  Maniac Mansion?  Flappers?!

I hope Comedy Gold includes a few Canadian sketch comedy shows.  You Can’t Do That on Television and Whatever Turns You On deserve a reairing.  Kids in the Hall and CODCO haven’t been on The Comedy Network in a while.  I also hope Comedy Gold airs the 30/90/45-minute SCTVs in full, instead of the thirty-minute cutdowns TCN strip-aired to death back in the late 1990s-early 2000s.

Comedy Gold could be good if CTVglobemedia gives the channel some attention.  The channel could be The Comedy Network’s non-trashy little brother.  Having said that, I expect Royal Canadian Air Farce reruns within a year.

In 2005, I called Comedy Inc. (CTV: fifth season premiered Saturday, June 12, 10:30 PM ET/PT) “relatively decent.”  In 2010, I recant that statement entirely.  I should have actually watched more than an episode or two of the show back in 2005, but URBMN wasn’t a television site back then.  That Comedy Inc. is still an ongoing concern amazes me.

Why does Comedy Inc. continue to be renewed when there is such passionate hatred for it?  Its cheapness doesn’t explain a five-season run.  History Bites is similarly cheap, and attracts its fair share of hate.  History Bites also has fans, since that show doesn’t talk down to its audience.

Comedy Inc. can make decent comedians like Winston Spear and Gavin Stephens look like they’re shit.  This isn’t very hard to do, as the show is made up of stand-up comedians performing sketch comedy.  Why is the show formatted this way when the format has never worked?  Even after five seasons, Comedy Inc. suffers from terrible timing.

The fifth-season premiere of Comedy Inc. is more of the same from this show.  The sketches are all obvious and/or rely on shock humour.  The comics overplay their roles.  Three sketches are the exact same “psychiatrist talks to animals” gag, with no variation.

The laugh track is pasted on, making the sketches seem even worse than they already are.  If you’ve seen Comedy Inc., you know how this show plays on television, and I feel for you.

Also, what is with that overbearing laugh track?!  It’s used on both Comedy Inc. and Comedy Now!  A 2010 show shouldn’t look and sound like a second-generation dupe of Royal Canadian Air Farce circa 1995.

I blame Sandra Faire for this show.  She’s the executive producer of both this and Comedy Now!  Ivan Fecan is president and CEO of CTVglobemedia.  Faire and Fecan are married.  It doesn’t take a genius to see the conflict of interest.  Even if Fecan and Faire keep business and personal relations separate, Faire doesn’t improve the quality of her shows.

The premiere episode of Comedy Inc.‘s fifth season has a 2008 copyright.  That’s never a good sign.  I guess CTV wants shot of Comedy Inc. once and for all.  Why even air the season, in that case?  Burn it off on Star! or something.  Don’t air Comedy Inc. on CTV, where people will watch it.

Comedy Inc. is the closest thing to welfare Canadian television offers.  I honestly hope this is the show’s final season.  If Comedy Inc. makes it to a sixth season, then there is no hope for the industry.

As mentioned on APTN’s Twitter account, Blackstone will receive an eight-episode season.

Neither APTN nor Prairie Dog Film & Television have officially announced the series order, aside from APTN’s Twitter post.  No time or date has been set for Blackstone‘s series premiere.

Blackstone was one of the potential series in APTN’s Pick a Pilot project.  In my opinion, it is the best pilot to come out of that project.

Blackstone‘s pilot has good dramatic tension and incites controversy.  I’ve wanted for this show to become a series since it first aired.  Blackstone focuses on political corruption at a First Nations reserve, which is a tough subject to handle without being alarmist or heavy-handed.

I hope Blackstone isn’t watered-down from its pilot.  I’m honestly looking forward to it more than any other Canadian drama of 2010-11.  Blackstone has the potential to really mean something.

Addendum (July 12, 2010) | The media release for Blackstone, which has just been released, states that the show will air on both APTN and Showcase come “early 2011.”  No word on whether Blackstone will be simulcast.

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Wolf Canyon‘s fate is less clear than Blackstone‘s.  According to Wolf Canyon co-creator and writer Tim Stubinski, APTN has passed on Wolf Canyon as the sole first broadcaster of the series.

This doesn’t mean Wolf Canyon is dead.  Tricon Films and Television currently distributes the property, and is trying to sell other broadcasters on its merits.

APTN might air Wolf Canyon in a shared-first-window or second-window capacity.  In layman’s terms, APTN will team up with another network/cable channel or air Wolf Canyon secondhand.  Stubinski chalks this decision to “economics.”

Wolf Canyon made a killing at the 2010 Leo Awards.  The show won five of seven Leos, winning in every category it was nominated in.  The Leos apply to shows and films shot in British Columbia.

I’m sure Wolf Canyon will find another broadcaster.  Kevin Sorbo has his fans, while the Leos help the show’s cause.  WC even has a respectable rating on IMDb.  This show will find a home.

Keep in mind, Blackstone hit big at the 2010 Rosie Awards, winning in five categories.  The Rosies are to Alberta what the Leos are to British Columbia.  Whatever APTN’s doing, it’s working.