Yikes! We’re in the middle of an all-out media ASSAULT that came out of NOWHERE with the Clerks cartoon here! We didn’t expect things to be this crazy at all, but those View Askew guys really do know how to get the word out there. It’s quite admirable how they’re doing all they can to get word out about the series, especially considering all the trouble it’s given them over the past months. Even though ABC only has 2 episodes on the schedule so far, it certainly seems like Kevin and company are doing all they can to make sure that all 6 of the shows air. Today, we’ve got just a TON of press on the show. If we knew there’d be this much going on, we’d probably had created a subpage for it all! Seems that most of the stuff is pretty much a rehash of stuff we already know, mixed in with some reviews, both positive and negative. There’s also some Clerks related NewsBites and some standard stuff, too. Alright, we’d better get going, since we have a feeling that there’s going to be 10 more articles written on the show before this update’s complete! Here we go:
Archive for May, 2000
Clerks The Cartoon Premieres TONIGHT At 9:30 PM EST ON ABC!!!!
After all the years, today really is a monumentual moment in View Askew history. Tonight, for the first time, View Askew Productions is debuting their first television series on a major network. Sure, while even the most ardent fans have accepted the fact that ABC will likely be burying the show after (hopefully) airing all 6 episodes, everyone’s quite excited about the premiere. General press has been mixed, but fans of the flicks shouldn’t be disappointed. Tonight’s episode is an instant classic that we’re sure will have fans talking.
As always, we urge you, let’s show ABC that they’ve got a gem of a show on their hands! Call your friends, neighbors, and family, and get them to tune in tonight. And if you know someone with a Neilson box, DEFINITELY get them to check out the show at 9:30 tonight…And do the good folks who sponsored the show a favor and buy their products. Show them how much you appreciate it. Enjoy the episode, folks.
Kevin’s CNN Online Chat Transcript HERE!
- We’re happy to present the complete transcript from Kevin’s 1 hour chat last night on CNN Online. Seems they run a pretty tight ship there, the transcript is quite short and mostly full of questions you regulars have probably seen asked and fielded before. Still, it’s a good quick read. Click HERE to check out a text version of the transcript.
More C:TCS Press & Reviews…
- There’s a TON of press on the show hitting the web this week, and we’ve got links to it all. Keep in mind, these aren’t our reviews, just stuff lifted from other sites. Some are negative, some are positive, some are neutral. Some of them, we’ve noticed, aren’t even completely correct in all their statements. But if you’re into reading press on the show, look no further, cuz here’s a ton of it:
Variety (Yahoo) – “Hip ‘Clerks’ hopes to cut some slack” (Mixed/Positive, Spoilers)
Seattle PI – “ABC’s CLERKS: Watch It Disappear (Mixed/Spoilers)
indieWire – “Animated Clerk: Kevin Smith Influences the Masses” (Interview)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – “ABC + politics a bad equation for ‘Clerks’” (Article, EP#4 Spoilers)
Boston Herald (Article)
New York Daily News – “ABC Abused ‘Clerks’ But It Still Isn’t Great”(Mixed/Spoilers)
Daily Radar (Positive/Spoilers)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – “‘Clerks’ on TV is like a second-hand store” (Mixed/Spoilers)
New Jersey Online – “‘Clerks’: No grand opening” (Mixed/Spoilers)
New Jersey Online – “‘Clerks’ has a limited shelf life ” (Mixed/Spoilers) –
Wizard World (Review, Positive)
Seattle PI – “ABC’s CLERKS: Watch It Disappear (Mixed/Spoilers)
indieWire – “Animated Clerk: Kevin Smith Influences the Masses” (Interview)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – “ABC + politics a bad equation for ‘Clerks’” (Article, EP#4 Spoilers)
Boston Herald (Article)
New York Daily News – “ABC Abused ‘Clerks’ But It Still Isn’t Great”(Mixed/Spoilers)
Daily Radar (Positive/Spoilers)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel – “‘Clerks’ on TV is like a second-hand store” (Mixed/Spoilers)
New Jersey Online – “‘Clerks’: No grand opening” (Mixed/Spoilers)
New Jersey Online – “‘Clerks’ has a limited shelf life ” (Mixed/Spoilers) –
Wizard World (Review, Positive)
Boston Herald – (Review, EP#4 Spoilers, Positive)
CLERKS’ IS QUICK STOP INTO THE OVER-THE-COUNTERCULTURE
3 stars out of 4 by Mark A. Perigard – Boston Herald
“America, let’s rise up against our celebrities and make fun of them” -Disclaimer on the first “Clerks” episode.
Dante (Brian O’Halloran) is a 20-something Quick Stop clerk who has to belife’s hack sack. Randal (Jeff Anderson) is his nitwit bud who occasionally works at the next-door video store and who, we learn in a later episode, is flattered that all his ex-girlfriends have become lesbians.Tonight, Randal says he can handle Dante’s job – and promptly fails. “I opened up and everything was fine. Then people started coming and buying things and it was horrible” he moans.
After perpetual loiter Jay (Jason Mewes) takes a fall, Dante is hauled into court for “the trial of the century” with Randal as his defense attorney.The presiding judge? Actor Judge Reinhold. The jury? The NBA All-Star team.
Is this not making sense to you? Aw, go watch “Diagnosis Murder” if you are worried about plot consistency.
Kevin Smith’s animated “Clerks” is pure looniness with a crunchy layer of sweetness at its heart. The stars of the original 1994 indie film are all here, including Smith as Silent Bob. The animation is crisp and the facial expressions alone can be hysterical.
Smith isn’t afraid to make fun of his celebrity buddies – both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck take it on the chin during this limited six-episode run.Celebrity voice cameos include Gwyneth Paltrow, Charles Barkley and Gilbert Gottfried. Alec Baldwin snarls through the role of evil billionaire Leonardo Leonardo.
Sure, some of the topical references seem a bit dated, but ABC did hold the Miramax/Touchstone show at least three months longer than it should have.ABC might not run all the episodes, which would be a shame. Worse, the network is not showing the episodes in order, which ruins at least one running gag, and shows a supporting character before he is properly introduced.
Smith and the audience deserve better.
Clerks CartoonBits™
- Here’s some details on the AOL chat happening tonight, the hour prior to the show’s premiere:
If Clerks was your kind of comedy, be sure to check out our chat with actor-director Kevin Smith. One of Tinseltown’s savviest young showmen, Smith has scored with such diverse hits as Chasing Amy, Mallrats and Dogma. Now he’s returning to his creative roots with a new, animated TV version of the zany project that started it all — Clerks. Ask him all about it (and find out about his recent foray into fatherhood), Wednesday night at 8:30PM ET.
You’ll need to go to keyword “LIVE” to participate in the chat. For those of you who can’t make it, fear not, we’ll have a full transcript for you right here at News Askew.
- ABC may not seem to be supporting the Clerks show TOO much, but they’re trying at least a bit here. Their official website’s got Jay & Bob at the top of the page, though, at presstime, the link doesn’t seem to want to work…
- Kevin appeared on Howard Stern this morning, alas it was too early and we missed the chance to grab audio but luckily Ming was up. You can download the clip right HERE! Anyway, Kev called in around 6:35 and chatted for about 15 minutes. Here’s our scooper’s summary of what went down:
I missed the first 5 minutes but awoke to Kevin talking about the Clerks TV show with Howard. He addressed all of the bad reviews of it saying it got good internet reviews and horrible newspaper reviews. Howard asked Kevin if it was possible that the show sucked, Kevin admitted it might. Then Howard asked about the controversy, Kevin told his story again but then Howard asked about him and Linda. Howard asked Kevin if there was anyone in Hollywood that doesn’t hate him. Kevin then told some of the episodes plot and convinced Howard to watch it. Finally, Howard made Kevin aware that they were going up against the Knicks game.
- And finally, a scan of TV Cable Guide from Syracuse, New York.
View Askew NewsBites™
- Big thanks to John Martin for not only sending us this kickin’ new Mallrats desktop theme, but also letting us know of a new piece of free theme-customizing software out there. Both are now over in our ever-growing Files Askew area.
- Good news for our fans overseas: DOGMA may arrive on video on the 12th of June in the U.K (according to ‘Blockbuster Video’), and not the 27th as previously mentioned.
- We mentioned this before, but didn’t have it in Countdowns yet so we kinda forgot about it by accident – Jason Mewes will be appearing at Dragon Con 2000, a science-fiction convention in Atlanta, GA, from June 29th through July 2nd. No news yet as to what exactly he’s going to be doing there (i.e. panels, signings, whatever). The official site is http://www.dragoncon.org. Check out the “Guests” page or “What’s New” for more information.
- Finally today, a couple vintage shots of Jason Lee. The black and white one was taken by Spike Jonze. By the way, “Kissing A Fool” was on one of the premium channels last night, still a great flick.
Phew! Gotta be in the running for one of the longest, or at least the most complex, updates in News Askew history. Time for a beer! Catch ya later.
Catching Up On Stuff…
Well, I guess it wasn’t the best time for vacation, just a few days before the new series starts and all. Seems that a lot’s been going on. Chris kept things pretty current though, which lightens the workload for today a bit. Still, there’s a TON of press on the Clerks Cartoon Series to talk about today, both positive AND negative (we don’t edit out the bad stuff here, since we know that the show speaks for itself and that you’ll love it). As for the post article yesterday, it does appear that there’s some mistakes in it. Folks just don’t research their stuff as much as they used to, at least in some cases, as you’ll see with some of these upcoming reviews.
Oh, and shame about the Flyers and Lindros, but hey, it was a good run. It rained a LOT at the beach this weekend, too. Bummer. Still had a good time, though. Oh, and before we forget, we’d like to thank ZENtertainment for all the nice Clerks TCS plugs the last couple of weeks. Now, let’s get caught up on the news here:
“Kevin Smith: Angry Young Man” Article…
- Those of you that have been reading up in the summaries and on the main news pages have heard this stuff before, but some may find this interesting. This TV Guide insider article summarizes Kev’s thoughts on a few folks who’ve been giving him troubles lately. Ya gotta admire the guy for speaking his mind, that’s for sure!
Kevin Smith: Angry Young Man
Monday, May 29, 2000
Suggestion for MTV’s Celebrity Deathmatch: Linda Fiorentino vs. Kevin Smith.
“Linda created crisis and trauma and anguish,” Smith says of working with Fiorentino on Dogma. “She created drama while we were making a comedy. She was ticked off that there were other people in the movie who were more famous than she was.”
Smith also claims that Fiorentino bailed on promoting the flick. “She saw the poster and went nuts. They put her head on another body because she never did a photo shoot. The body had more cleavage than she has and she was pissed that nobody approved it with her, so she refused to do any more press. It’s not like we were hinging on all that Fiorentino press — I fought to cast the woman in the movie.”
Perhaps Fiorentino can bond with Disney chief Michael Eisner, who is also on the outspoken director’s hit list. Smith posted a scathing diatribe on his web site when he heard through the grapevine that Eisner “didn’t get” his animated version of Clerks, which premieres Wednesday on ABC, but he’s not scared that his recent comments bashing ABC and Eisner will hurt his career.
“Does he have that much power to kick me out of movies? Maybe out of the Disney family. Am I afraid? No! [I was being] honest. It’s not me screaming for the sake of being a baby. I guess they expected us to take it on the chin. We put a lot of hard work into the show.”
Kevin, tell us how you really feel.
New Reviews/Articles On Clerks TCS (Both Good & Bad)…
- Well, as we mentioned above, seems that a lot of folks are throwing up their reviews of Clerks TCS, and some of them aren’t too nice. Here’s some links to where you can find the things online. We’ll warn you about those that contain spoilers, so read at your own risk. Bear in mind that in just 2 days you can see the show for yourself and be the judge. Seems that only 2 episodes are on the schedule to air, so be sure and urge everyone you know to watch, or those last 4 just may end up only on the video shelves:
GIST — Negative, MAJOR Spoilers
LA TIMES — Neutral, NO Spoilers
There were a few more slams from People and US Magazine (both weekly issues), but we don’t have the text. The new issue of STUFF Magazine with Lucy Lawless on the cover also mentions the show, in a very positive light. It’s a shame to see the show getting some bad press, though response has still been overwhelmingly positive as a whole. Don’t let any of this dissuade you, we dug the show, and know that you will too.
Mewes Interviewed At IFuse.Com!
- The guy’s really popping up everywhere! Here’s another, still rare, sit down with the man they call “Jay”, courtesy of the Ifuse.Com website:
The Mewes Snaganooch! And further meditations from the man behind Jay
By Darcel Rockett
Jason Mewes is the real-life equivalent of Neo from “The Matrix.” Stay with me on this.
The Matrix was all around Neo, an imagined world with rules and ideas shared by similar minds, or in other words, things that people thought were important and defined them.
Mewes, made famous as the fast-talking, jibe-dishing, surly drug dealer/loser Jay from Kevin Smith’s films, is Neo. And our pop culture is … his Matrix.
Mewes and Smith (aka Jay and Silent Bob) have exuded their musings on the world around them in “Dogma,” “Chasing Amy,” “Mallrats” and “Clerks” and have become, through comics and movies and action figures, a part of the very world that they pick apart.
“I don’t think too much about shit like that,” Mewes told us during a lunch date at the Saddle Ranch Restaurant on Sunset Blvd. last week. “I’m just as boring. I hang out with my friends, go out once in a while, read lots of comics, try to get laid as much as I can.”
But he proves his pop messiah status again Wendesday night as the animated “Clerks” series debuts on ABC. (iFUSE got it’s grubby little hands on all six episodes and luuuuvved every slap-happy moment of it.)
Which got us thinking about all this, the Neo/Matrix/pop culture thing, and so we had to go meet the guy.
Decked out in jogging pants, gym shoes and boating hat, Mewes is, in his own right, an icon. He tells it like it is and doesn’t apologize for it. As Jay, he is the smart aleck who somehow blends street savvy with trailer-trash bravado. And with his signature phrase, “Snooch to the nooch,” he has even introduced a new synonym to “just kidding.”
With Mewes, even at lunch, anything goes and usually does. He rides a mechanical bull right after a meal of buffalo wings and spilled drinks. He tries to catch the attention of groups of girls by pressing his face against the restaurant glass and tapping on it.
The same goes for the culture he has infiltrated — everything goes and usually does — which is what makes it work on so many levels. But what makes one into an iconic pop culture god, a character worthy of an action figure? That’s what we wanted to know.
But Jason wasn’t interested in talking about that.
“I ain’t been with a black girl. Black girls don’t like me,” he said instead. “One black girl said she would sleep with me, if I started to doing sit-ups and got a better stomach. She says I’m cute and nice and stuff, but I can’t fuck you with your stomach. It’s got this beer belly.”
From the mouth of Jay. We just put quotations around the words.
“Do you like white guys?” he continued. “What are you attracted to in white guys, I mean sexually?”
Trying to get back on the topic, I posed the question: “Where does Jason Mewes end and Jay begin?”
“I say like 60-70 percent,” he answered. “I’m not as obnoxious as that, I used to be, but now I can’t get away with it.”
A bus passed the restaurant with a poster for Samuel L. Jackson’s “Shaft” on the side. Mewes is mesmerized.
“You’re a big fan of his?”I asked.
He stood up, gave me some hip action and said, “I’m a big fan of the Shaaaft!”
Point taken: As a true pop cultural Neo, he, too, can appreciate other heroes in the same game.
“I want to do more movies, commercials,” said Mewes. “I’d like to do action films. Can you see me as 006 or 009? Snaganooch! I did a Nike commercialbefore. I wouldn’t mind doing another shoe commercial or some kind of kiss-a-little-longer, you know, Big Red stuff.”
But, wait, doesn’t doing that stuff take away from your iconic, legendary status? And make you more of a sell-out?
“No. If I read a script and I like it, I’ll do it. Same with commercials,” he explains. “Four days of work and I make some phat cash.”
And as we all know, phat cash is the key to modern pop culture — heck it’s all cultures. But what are Mewes’ thoughts on the fact that too many things today focus only on the popular? Is there such a thing as too much? There’s got to be more to the world than TV and “Star Wars”?
“You mean like heavy metal culture?” he said. “I’m not sure. What do *you* think about pop culture?”
iFUSE casually reminded Jason that the interview is not about us, but him. This definitive statement still doesn’t dissuade Mewes.
“You wanna do pornos or what?” he asks. “Do you wanna rock the mike?”
Not to be outdone, I tell him about a rumor I heard, about him panhandling in Santa Monica a couple months ago.
“Was this last week? Asking for money? What kind of man will ask you for money, unless it was a quarter for a phone call,” he said. “I don’t ask people for money. I don’t ask people for money unless I know them, but I ain’t screamin’ for money.”
And then, anxious, Jason asked: “Any other questions? I’m gonna go ride the bull. You wanna ride the bull? You want to ride my bull? I don’t want you to have to start fuckin’ chasing the car, saying ‘One more thing, what kind of briefs you wear? Tighty whities or boxers?’ Do you like guys who wear tighty whities? Do they turn you on?”
That said, Mewes went off to play cowboy, leaving us with thoughts on our original question — what makes one an icon of modern culture? As Mewes displayed, maybe it’s the fact that one doesn’t act like he is a pop god.