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Tom Welling

 

Tonight, SMALLVILLE will reach a television milestone and continue on a course to science fiction history!  The very special episode #200, which finished filming in September, will air this evening at 8pm on The CW.  The cast and crew were celebrating this momentous milestone with a party at the end of September in Vancouver, at about the same time when the tenth season was premiering on our screens.  In terms of number of episodes, every set of ’100′ represents approximately five years of imagination, dedication, and hard work.  And all the people involved with the series for the past nine years have definitely earned the right to celebrate.

This tenth season will also be the final one, despite the series continuing to show ongoing viewer support and creative growth.  From an artistic standpoint, having a specific end-date in sight will allow the creative team the opportunity to bring the storylines to a natural close as Clark Kent continues on his path to becoming The Man of Steel.  Ever since the first season in 2001, the producers have declared ‘no tights, no flights!’ referring to their desire to explore the early years of Clark Kent before he becomes the iconic hero known as Superman.  Despite several story directions, which found small loopholes around this decree, even earning the eye-rolling frustration of fans waiting for Clark to don the red and blue suit – or at least to jump a tall building in a single bound – the creative team stayed true to its word.  Until now.  This will be the season that Clark Kent makes the full transformation into Superman and the series is ready to pull out all the stops!

SMALLVILLE is also now set to make sci-fi history.  Up until this year, STARGATE SG1 has been the longest consecutively running live-action Sci-Fi series in North America, having aired 213 episodes.  This accomplishment has earned it a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, and makes it second only to the British DOCTOR WHO in the worldwide standings.  At the point that SMALLVILLE will almost be reaching the end of this tenth and final season, it will air episode #214 and thereby earn its place as the new record-holder.  And that is quite an accomplishment for a science fiction show that has fought against great odds to reach this point.

Episode #200 is titled ‘Homecoming’ and it will contain something for everyone, whether you have watched it faithfully for nine years or tuned out after three.  For viewers who may have lost track of the series, returning to watch this episode will be like a homecoming of their own.  Highlights and pictures, after the jump.

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Hellcats is described by the CW Network as a coming-of-age story about Marti Perkins (Aly Michalka, “The Roommate,” “Bandslam”), a pre-law scholarship student at Lancer University in Memphis, Tennessee. Marti is a hip, edgy townie with working class roots, whose world flips upside down, literally and figuratively, when her scholarship is canceled and her well-meaning but irresponsible mother, Wanda (Gail O’Grady, “NYPD Blue,” “American Dreams”) neglects to inform her.

Broke and out of options, Marti realizes the only way she can stay in school is by resurrecting  her dormant gymnastic skills to win a place on the Hellcats – Lancer’s legendary cheer squad – and the scholarship that comes with it. Along the way she crosses paths with Savannah Monroe (Ashley Tisdale) the upbeat captain of the cheerleading squad.

Based on the book Cheer: Inside the Secret World of College Cheerleaders by journalist Kate Torgovnick, Hellcats is created by Kevin Murphy who also serves as executive producer along with Tom Welling (star of the long running CW hit series Smallville). The series also stars Heather Hemmens, Matt Barr,Robbie Jones and D. B. Woodside.

Hellcats premieres on the CW Network on Wednesday September 8th at 9PM EST. but a few of us reporter types got an advanced screener to take a look at. I was one of them. Before I had received the screener, I had heard about Hellcats and I have to admit it sounded pretty much like every other generic cheerleading dramas/comedies I had seen before. Plus the CW had already spent some time exploring the lives of high school cheerleaders in their long running teen angst series, One Tree Hill. With this in mind I am not afraid to say I was expecting Hellcats to just be more of the same formula. For it to be a yet another cast of ‘pretty people’ twenty something’s playing roles enmeshed in sex soak angst, betrayals and melodrama  interspersed with scenes of fancy dance moves.  After seeing the screener for the pilot episode of Hellcats, titled A World Full of Strangers, I found out I was right about two things: the cast is full of pretty people and the  episode is definitely interspersed with scenes of fancy dance moves. And while this is a fairly generic cheerleading story filled with your requisite cheerleader type storyline characters, Hellcats is not a One Tree Hill clone set on a college campus. I am pleased to say that Hellcats is a really fun, kind of wholesome series that is all about the spirit of competitive cheerleading without all the sappiness or oversexed raunchiness they could have so easily fallen into.

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Grade: B

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SMALLVILLE

The hit CW Network Series Smallville is heading toward the climatic end of it’s 9th season and Clark Kent and the gang have a lot of action coming their way as Smallville S9.22 Salvation is set to air next Friday, May 14th at 8PM EST.

While fans and viewers wait in anticipation to see how it all plays out, the CW Network people has shared some ‘knock your socks off’ advance look artwork with us.

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The original ‘kick ass babe’ and leading lady of action films, Pam Grier is back as Amanda Waller AKA Checkmate and Smallville has her–or does she have them? Guess we’ll have to tune to know for sure which way it is.

One thing I do know for sure right now is that we have some great sneak peek stills from Smallville S9.16 to share with EclipseMagazine readers thanks to the wonderful publicity people over at the CW Network.

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Despite lower rates than last season, The CW has renewed Smallville for a tenth season – tying it with Stargate SG-1 as America’s longest-running sci-fi/fantasy series.

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The news, which is being reported by Brian Hibberd’s Live Feed blog and the folks at Airlock Alpha, is, no doubt, a reward for giving the network a steady presence on the black hole of Friday nights – better known as “date night” – and for being a frequently TiVo’d series.

DC purists will continue to be appalled, while the rest of us are cheered by the news. Plus Tom Welling and Calgary girl Erica Durance work for another year. Sounds like win-win to me.

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SMALLVILLE

Actor Michael Shanks is best known for his role as Dr. Daniel Jackson on the hit Syfy Channel series Stargate SG1, which ended it’s successful ten year run back in 2006. Shanks also reprised this role in two made for DVD Stargate SG1 movies and in guest-starring appearances in the two spin off series, Stargate: Atlantis and Stargate: Universe. Of course this talented and versatile actor has spent time in other roles as well since becoming a fan favorite on Stargate SG1 (so popular in fact that many loyal fans participated in a campaign to bring him back to SG1 after the actor departed the series at the end of season five). Shanks has appeared in guest starring roles on several top rated television series such as 24, CSI: Miami and a very popular recurring guest appearance on Burn Notice as the rogue agent, Victor.

Now Michael Shanks steps into the realm of the superhero as he dons winged armor to become The Hawkman in the upcoming Smallville telemovie, Absolute Justice.

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Available on DVD and Blu_Ray on august 25th, 2009

There’s a new reporter at the Daily Planet: Clark Kent (Tom Welling), who shares a workspace with Lois Lane(Erica Durance). There’s a new hero in Metropolis, too. No one knows who he is. But Jimmy Olsen (Aaron Ashmore) was on the scene of one of the do-gooder’s exploits, and he snapped a blurred photo of the hero in superspeed action: a hero everyone now calls the Red-Blue Blur. All of this pushes the red-jacketed, blue-shirted Clark Kent closer to his Superman destiny in the exciting 22-episode, 6-disc Season 8 of Smallville.

Fans who found season 8 of Smallville to be one of the better ones yet, attributed the better story writing to a lower filming budget, believing that when the series had the big budget, all the writers and producers could think about was how to make cool stuff happen that had no real point behind it. Many viewers felt that the writers in season 8 of Smallville were forced to come up with more complex storylines for the characters instead of substituting whiz, bang special effects. That while it was one of the ‘darkest’ seasons yet of Smallville, it was also more fun

Be that the true reason or not, there were many good character driven stories in season 8 of this long running hit CW series. Character arcs that included Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) taking the marriage plunge with the man fans/viewers had come to know as Jimmy Olsen and the revelation that Davis Bloome (Sam Witwer) is the Kryptonian known as Doomsday whose mission is to kill Clark Kent aka Ka-El of Krypton. Yet two other key events along the way were very polarizing among the fans and sparked the most debate: the return of Lana Lang (Kristin Kreuk) and the death of the man who turned out to not really be THE Jimmy Olsen of the Superman comic book lore, but rather his older brother Henry James Olsen.

Fans and viewers had mixed feelings about the revelation that the Jimmy Olsen introduced in season 6 wasn’t the real deal. Viewers who had fully accepted that this was Jimmy Olsen even though the writers/creators of Smallville were going against the established mytharc of the Superman story  were then disconcerted to have the rug pulled out from under the them in a matter of mere moments. Other fans were delighted to find out that the story would return to it’s home base and Jimmy Olsen would become the much younger character he is originally intended to be.

Love it or hate it, the Jimmy Olsen twist and turns is just one of the reasons why Smallville season 8 is something to put on your DVD ‘must watch list’. Another good reason is the return of Lana Lang.

The complete 8th season of Smallville is now available on DVD and Blu_ray. The 22 episode, 6 disc set is nicely packaged in a solid plastic casing that protects the DVDS but makes it much easier to remove them for viewing. The set includes special features such as extended/deleted scenes and commentaries on two key episodes and a behind the scenes special Smallville’s Doomsday: The Making of a Monster.

And after you are all caught on the exciting events of Smallville season 8, tune into the CW Network beginning on September 25th as Clark Kent takes to the airwaves in season 9 airing in it’s new Friday night time slot at 8PM EST.

Check out this fun sneak peek at what’s in store for Smallville fans and viewers!

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