The final fate of the survivors of the 12 Colonies is a little bit closer. According to Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello, the final ten episodes of Battlestar Galactica will begin airing on Sci Fi on January 16th at 10pm, which, if the episodes are being shown weekly, will put the series final on March 20th. Timing and scheduling, of course, is a little unclear, as Executive Producer Ron Moore has said that the final 10 episodes will run 11 hours in length – or longer, with the series finale running three or more hours. According to the Chicago Tribune’s Maureen Ryan, there will be websiodes in the lead-up to the final episodes.
What to do until then? Last week, NBC/Universal confirmed that Battlestar Galactica Season 4.0 will be released on DVD January 6th, 2009.
According to our staff in the San Francisco area, there was a party for U2’s new album Thursday night in Half Moon Bay, California. One of our staffers was told earlier today that U2 would be at Sam’s Chowder House, a highly-rated restaurant overlooking the Pacific Ocean, for an event tonight. On arriving at the restaurant, security wouldn’t allow our staffer inside. A restaurant employee, though, later told our staffer that there was a party for U2’s new album going on inside. Meanwhile, another staffer called the restaurant and heard loud, U2-sounding music being played in the background while being told there was a private event happening tonight. What we’re not sure of is how many (if any) of the band were in attendance. More to come if we learn anything new….
Update: Bono and Edge were at the party last night, which was hosted by Elevation Partners, and might have doubled as the company’s annual meeting (which has happened in October in past years). @U2 reader Roman G., who also writes for the Contra Costa Times and Oakland Tribune spoke to the restaurant owner, who said, “It was fascinating. It was wild.” Now you know!
Update #2: This article from the Half Moon Bay Review has pictures of Bono and Edge with the restaurant staff, and extra details … including news that Bono and Edge played a couple new songs.
what’s more new york than the f-word? its like the official word of the city! but there’s another f-word that is turning up in popular culture and in real life!
frak is growing into the other f-word. its work safe and it conveys the same meaning. it may even be church safe.
where is it from? its from that show that many have heard about but have not watched, my favorite….battlestar galactica.
here’s how to use it:
here is the history of the word from cnn:
Lee Goldberg thinks Glen A. Larson is a genius, and not because the prolific television writer and producer gave us “Knight Rider” and “B.J. and the Bear.”
It was Larson who first used the faux curse word “frak” in the original “Battlestar Galactica.” The word was mostly overlooked back in the ’70s series but is working its way into popular vocabulary as SciFi’s modern update winds down production.
“All joking aside, say what you will about what you might call the lowbrow nature of many of his shows, he did something truly amazing and subversive, up there with what Steven Bochco gets credit for, with ‘frak,’ ” Goldberg said.
There’s no question what the word stands for and it’s used gleefully, as many as 20 times in some episodes.
“And he was saying it 30 years ago in the original goofy, god-awful ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ ” said Goldberg, a television writer and novelist whose credits include “Monk” and “Diagnosis Murder.”
The word is showing up everywhere — on T-shirts, in sit-coms, best-selling novels and regular conversation.
“I have to start by saying that I’m drinking coffee out of a mug that says ‘frak off’ on the side of it, so much has it seeped into my life,” “Galactica” star Jamie Bamber said.
The word is insinuating its way into popular vocabulary for a simple reason.
You can’t get in trouble. It’s a made-up word.
“It may have been the great George Carlin who talked about these things so cleverly,” Larson said. “He’d say, ‘Mother would say shoot, but she meant … when she reached in and burned her fingers on the crocker.’ And the child says, ‘I know what you meant, Mom.’ ”
The word has slipped the bonds that tethered other pretenders like Mork’s “shazbot” in “Mork & Mindy” or Col. Sherman T. Potter’s “horse hockey” in “M*A*S*H.” Its usage has moved from the small but fervent group of “Galactica” fans into everyday language. It’s shown up in very mainstream shows like “The Office,” “Gossip Girl” and “Scrubs.” One YouTube posting has 2 minutes of sound bites that cover the gamut.
“I’m in my own little cocoon of science fictiondom, but it is certainly used around here and amongst the people I know,” said Irene Gallo, art director at the sci-fi imprint Tor Books, where employees held a “frak party” to watch the season premiere. “It’s sort of a way to be able to use a four-letter word without really getting into any kind of HR trouble or with people you’re really not quite comfortable being yourself with.”
The word has even appeared in the funny pages where Dilbert muttered a disconsolate “frack” — the original spelling before producers of the current show changed it to a four-letter word — after a particularly dumb order from his evil twit of a boss.
“Dilbert” creator Scott Adams calls the word “pure genius.”
“At first I thought ‘frak’ was too contrived and it bothered me to hear it,” Adams said. “Over time it merged in my mind with its coarser cousin and totally worked. The creators ingeniously found a way to make viewers curse in their own heads — you tend to translate the word — and yet the show is not profane.”
Best-selling novelist Robert Crais slips the word into the prologue of his latest Elvis Cole mystery, “Chasing Darkness.” He did it because “Galactica” is his favorite show, like calling out in the wilderness to his fellow fans. But he sees the word popping up everywhere, even among those who have never watched the show.
“It’s viral, it spreads like a virus,” Crais said. “That first wave of people who use it are all fans. They use it because they’re tickled by it and like me they’re paying an homage to the show. When they’re using it, they’re probably doing it with a sly wink. But as it gets heard and people use it, it spreads.”
The re-imagined “Battlestar Galactica” tells the story of the human survivors of a war with a robotic race known as the Cylons. Fewer than 40,000 humans remain in a ragtag fleet being pursued across space by the Cylons, who wiped out the 12 colonies in a surprise nuclear holocaust.
Their destination is the mythical planet Earth, a legend passed down in religious texts. Shooting wrapped in July and the final 10 episodes will appear beginning in January.
Larson, one of television’s most prolific and successful writers, doesn’t much care for the new series. He used “frack” and its cousin “feldergarb” as alternates for curse words because the original “Battlestar” was family friendly and appeared on Sunday nights. The words fit in with his philosophy that while the show was about humans, it shouldn’t have an Earthly feel.
In what he said was his first interview about the series, Larson says there were no red fire extinguishers on his Battlestar Galactica and characters wore original costumes, not suits and ties.
“Our point was to whenever possible make it a departure like you’re visiting somewhere else,” Larson said. “And we did coin certain phrases for use in expletive situations, but we tried to carry that over into a lot of other stuff, even push brooms and the coin of the realm.”
When new series producer Ron Moore first introduced “frak” in early scripts, Bamber said the actors were dubious. But as writers expanded its use, they caught on to the possibilities.
“I mean why are we not offended by ‘frak’ because it means exactly the same thing as the other thing?” said Bamber, who plays fighter pilot-turned-president Lee “Apollo” Adama. “So it raises questions about language and why certain words are offensive. Is it their meaning? … Clearly it’s not their meaning. Clearly it’s literally their sound.”
Co-executive producer and writer Michael Angeli, an Emmy nominee for the episode “Six of One,” said using the word in scripts is satisfying for anyone who’s been censored over the years.
“It’s a great way to do something naughty and get away with it,” Angeli said. “One of the things that television shows do constantly is they battle with Standards and Practices over what can be seen and what can’t be seen, what can be said and what can’t be said.
“A lot of our characters are soldiers. That whole sort of view and that subculture, that’s how they speak. They’re rough and tumble, and they’re bawdy and they swear.”
He said producers have gotten no complaints from SciFi owner NBC Universal or the Federal Communications Commission.
Goldberg believes Larson should get more credit for “frak” and has posted an appreciation on his Web site. He even sought out Larson to let him know how he feels: “I told him, ‘Frak is fraking brilliant, Glen.’ “
this is for harvey fine in celebration of his wedding. i believe in harvey fine.
rejoice! after the stunningly disappointing announcement that the second half of the final season would not air until january 2009…a full six months after the midseason cliffhanger!!!!…the sci fi channel tossed three bones for nerds everywhere!
first, there is a new battlestar series!:caprica…a prequel to the current series..with the premiere coming as early fall 2008! i’m stunned that there is going to be so much more new material from the battlestar folks. here’s the trailer.
second, grace park leaked ahead of time that another battlestar galactica movie ala razor had been greenlit. razor premiered on television first followed by an extended version released on dvd. it has since been confirmed and here are some of the details:
Sci Fi Channel today announced “an all-new Battlestar Galactica special event” (fancy talk for telemovie) that’s set to air in 2009 after the fourth and final season of BSG concludes. Like Razor, a previous Battlestar movie, it will be released on DVD shortly after it airs.
The two-hour flick will be written by Jane Espenson and directed by actor Edward James Olmos, who plays Bill Adama. However, Olmos may only be behind the camera; currently the only cast members announced for the film are Michael Trucco (Sam Anders), Aaron Douglas (Chief Galen Tyrol), and Dean Stockwell (Brother Cavil).
The “event” will take place just before the events of the miniseries that started everything off. According to Sci-Fi, the unnamed movie will show the aftermath of the destruction of Caprica and concentrate on two Cylon agents trying to clean up the mess after human spaceships manage to escape.
finally, sci fi.com has also announced a another set of webisodes that bridge us to the last 10 episodes. two sets of webisodes that bridged season 2 to 3 and season 3 to 4/razor had previously been aired on the website, once a week for 10 weeks. here’s the announcement: “A new series of ten Webisodes will air during the extended hiatus between Season 4.0 and Season 4.5. The two- to three-minute serialized chapters will be available on the official SciFi.com website in the fall of 2008.” and most importantly, note that the first episodes Airs: Wednesday October 1, 2008. the fall is almost here……
there’s only a few shows that we try to keep up with…..one is lost which has been very good this year. the other is battlestar galactica which will start its fourth and final season in a little over a week! its been a year since last year’s finale though a 2 hour movie did come out last thanksgiving.
i won tickets to see it last fall in a theatre…..i went with for profit-stacey without our spouses! we’ll always have razor!
but i’ll be missing the premiere!
i missed the season three premiere too because of the annual vision church retreat! this year, we’ll be in korea….though its rumored to debut on scifi.com before its north american broadcast.
watch this show! borrow our dvds! find them online! if you don’t have that kind of disposable time, you can catch up with all three seasons in this eight minute video. (if you are a convert already, its a great refresher and a lot of fun)
if you’re still sitting on the fence about whether to check it out, you can watch the cast on david letterman telling you the top 10 reasons to watch this season!
