The second episode of Season Three of Slings & Arrows airs on Sundance tonight at 8pm. It will also be repeated throughout the week, in case you have something else you want to watch tonight.

Use the comments section of this post to discuss the episode. Any comments I may have will also be posted in the comments section. Word from Canada is that the major themes for the season will be revealed in this episode.

You can continue to discuss last week’s episode here. Discuss Season 1 here and Season 2 here. Future episodes for Season 3 will be posted as they air on Sundance.

WARNING: Comments may contain further discussion of the show, including potential spoilers. Click through only after viewing the episode. Commenters may discuss this episode as freely as they like, though Canadian readers are asked not to post spoilers for any later episodes.

By the way, did you know that William Hutt (Charles) has been performing at the Stratford Festival in Canada since its very first season in 1953? That’s hot.

I’m off to the baby naming for Lilah, so no time to post anything original this morning. Instead, I leave you with this Animaniacs song about Magellan, that for some reason really cracks me up. Enjoy!

First, read the rules of the game.

This week’s challenge is only the richest person in the whole wide world, but otherwise probably just like you and me, Microsoft macrostar Bill Gates.

I was able to link Bill Gates to Sir Francis Bacon in four degrees, though that shouldn’t stop you from posting a longer response, or looking for a shorter one. Entries will be accepted until midnight on Thursday, March 1.

Good luck!

And congratulations once again to Lee for winning last week’s challenge by linking Master Shake to Sir Francis Bacon in four degrees:

Master Shake > Meatwad > Abraham Lincoln > William Shakespeare > Sir Francis Bacon

Master Shake appears in Aqua Teen Hunger Force with Meatwad, who has the ability to take the shape of a samurai version of Abraham Lincoln, who schooled himself in the works of William Shakespeare, who is believed by some to be Sir Francis Bacon.

I’ve been watching reruns of Homicide: Life on the Street, an excellent police drama about murder detectives in Baltimore that I missed the first time around, except when there were Law & Order crossovers.

I just saw an episode, Shaggy Dog, City Goat, that detailed a freakishly improbable scenario. I accepted the premise at the time, because I was familiar with the story as a real-life occurrence, and I enjoyed the episode a great deal.

After the episode, I was curious to learn more details about the case, and so I did a little Internet research. I learned from Snopes that the story isn’t actually true; it’s just an urban legend. Now I feel like the story line in the Homicide episode is completely unbelievable and not worthy of the show.

It’s an idea that goes back to Aristotle, and it’s nicely summed up by Sam Seaborn in an episode of The West Wing. I’m paraphrasing from memory, but it goes something like this:

Aristotle said that a probable impossibility was preferable to an improbable possibility. The impossible is better than the improbable. He meant that you can have a broomstick sing and dance, but you can’t turn on the radio and hear exactly the news story you were listening for.

That’s about drama, but real life doesn’t have to be believable. Real life doesn’t care whether or not you suspend your disbelief. If something really happens, you have to accept it, no matter how improbable it is. You cannot, on the other hand, accept the impossible. Then, you must seek out alternative explanations or admit you don’t know everything.

What Sam didn’t know was that he was a fictional character in a drama. If he did, his life would make more sense to him at that moment. But this wouldn’t let the writers of The West Wing off the hook for Aristotle’s rule. As it turns out, the confluence of events in that episode were not too improbable to be believed. But I did have that problem with Magnolia, the 1999 film that uses the same story as the Homicide episode as a prelude to the action. It seems to be trying to tell us that since real life doesn’t follow Aristotle’s rule, then the movie doesn’t have to either. But it does, because the rules are different in drama.

So the real question is, am I allowed to retroactively not like an episode I enjoyed watching because of new information that’s come to light? I only accepted the premise because I thought that it really happened. Only real life is allowed to get away with something so bizarre.

Season Three of Slings & Arrows begins on Sundance tonight at 8pm. Use this thread to discuss the episode.

I’m very excited for the new season, which unfortunately will be the last season. Will Geoffrey and Ellen end up together? Who will be the new cast members? What will happen to Oliver? Who will screw with Richard’s head this season? And most importantly, will there actually be a King Lear-based theme song?

Discuss Season 1 here and Season 2 here. Future episodes for Season 3 will be posted as they air on Sundance.

Use the comments section of this post to discuss the first episode of Season Three, “Divided Kingdom.” Any comments I may have will also be posted in the comments section.

WARNING: Comments may contain further discussion of the show, including potential spoilers. Click through only after viewing the episode. Commenters may discuss this episode as freely as they like, though Canadian readers are asked not to post spoilers for any later episodes.

By the way, did you know that Paul Gross (Geoffrey) and Martha Burns (Ellen) are married in real life? That’s hot.

Don’t forget – Sundance is showing all six episodes of Season Two of Slings & Arrows today from 3pm to 8pm. Then, the new season begins at 8pm.

Use the comments section of this post to discuss any aspect of Season Two. You can discuss the Darren Nichols production of Romeo & Juliet, the new internship program, Frog Hammer’s marketing campaign, Ellen’s audit, the main stage production of, um, “Mackers,” or the elementary school version of it.

You can continue to discuss Season One in my earlier post here. And I’ll start putting up a thread to discuss Season Three episodes each Sunday, starting this afternoon.

Here’s a taste of Season Two to hold you over until 3pm.

Blinking electronic signs advertising Aqua Teen Hunger Force recently triggered a terrorism scare in Boston.

Fortunately, the staff of the National Lampoon reacted quickly and professionally, and put together this 24/ATHF mash-up parody before any damage was done:

Another plug for today’s Slings & Arrows marathon at 3pm on Sundance.

Again, this is Must See TV for Shakespeare fans and theatre folk, and well worth the watching for everyone else. It’s hysterically funny, true to life, and really gets at the heart of what it means to be passionate about Shakespeare.

The actors are all top-notch. They’re Canadian, so you might not recognize them, but that just adds to their believability. Fans of Kids in the Hall or Saturday Night Live will be familiar with Mark McKinney. And if you only know Rachel McAdams as The Hot Chick or one of the Mean Girls, then Season One will show you a whole new Rachel McAdams.

Sundance is showing all six episodes of Season One of Slings & Arrows today, Sunday, from 3pm to 8pm. This is the Hamlet season. Just start watching at 3pm, and if you’re not hooked by the end of the theme song, there’s no need to watch any further.

All six episodes of Season Two are availble on Time Warner Cable’s On Demand (under “Free Movies on Demand”), if you have it. This is the Macbeth season.

Season Three starts February 18 at 8pm. This will be the King Lear season. I’m giddy with anticipation in that very special Shakespeare Teacher way.

You can use the comments section of this post to discuss Season One. If there actually turns out to be any interest, I can start putting up a weekly post so we can discuss Season Three.

Ladies and gentlemen, set your TiVos. Sundance is showing all six episodes of Season One of Slings & Arrows this Sunday, February 11, from 3pm to 8pm.

This is absolutely Must See TV for Shakespeare fans or theatre folk, and actually some pretty good viewing for everyone else, too. It’s a 50-minute comedy/drama that follows the various personalities in a fictional Canadian Shakespeare Festival as they put together a production of a play over the course of a six-episode season: Hamlet in Season One, and Macbeth in Season Two. Season Three starts February 18 at 8pm. It looks like they’re going to be doing King Lear.

The show isn’t about the Shakespeare per se, but I have to say that they get the Shakespeare part right. And when Shakespeare is done right…

So check out that marathon on Sunday. You’ll be glad you did.

I was talking to some colleagues about the upcoming Get Smart movie, and I had to be honest. I don’t have very high hopes.

I was a big fan of the television series, and the movie will have a hard time living up to that. I think Steve Carrell and Anne Hathaway are both good casting choices, both for talent and for box office appeal, but without the creative team from the series (Buck Henry, Mel Brooks), I worry that the movie might seem derivative.

It’s not easy to make a good movie from a television series, and it seems like Hollywood doesn’t even try anymore. They just want to hijack the brand identity of a vague, but pleasant memory to create another mediocre blockbuster. Look at all of the terrible TV show-based movies that have come out in the last ten years or so. But people recognize the name, and so they go to see the movie, expecting to relive their memories of watching those shows from long ago.

In some cases, television shows do make good movies. South Park made for a much better movie than anyone had a right to expect. But that was from the same creative team that did the show, so let’s put that aside for a moment. I did enjoy the first Mission: Impossible movie on its own terms, but as an action/adventure movie, not as a faithful adaptation of one of my favorite shows. If you hold it to that standard, the movie failed. The hero wasn’t even part of the original series. The villain was the hero of the original series. What’s up with that? I have to confess that I enjoyed the Brady Bunch Movie a great deal, but that was a parody, so I don’t know if we can count that.

It seems even more difficult to turn a movie into a successful TV series. Of course, M*A*S*H and The Odd Couple come to mind. I’ve never seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but I’ve heard good things.

What makes a successful adaptation from television to movie? Should the goal be to reach out to established fans from a previous generation, or to redefine the essential elements of the original for an audience of a new age? Can a movie that has a beginning, middle, and end, really be extended into a television series without compromising its integrity? Or does the film remain immune to whatever experimentation happens on the small screen?

And some shows that I remember from childhood as being of very high quality are almost unwatchable to me now. If a film were to be made of one of those shows, it might be considered charitable to rework it.

But I digress. On to the Question of the Week:

What, in your opinion, have been successful crossovers between film and television (in either direction), and what lessons do these successes have to teach those who would follow?