Casting the Justice League

As successful as the Avengers was, DC Comics (and parent Warner Bros) are desperate to get a Justice League movie off the ground. Unfortunately, for every step forward they make (The Dark Knight) they take a step back (Green Lantern). High, high hopes have been put on this summer's Man of Steel, and Henry Cavill (Superman) is signed on for a JL movie. Warner Bros is including Christopher Nolan in the planning, though that has been seen as an attempt to get Christian Bale to come back as Batman.

Frankly, I think they should hold out there and do a World's Finest movie before continuing on, but that's not how Marvel did it, so neither will DC. The next problem, then, is what to do about Green Lantern. On the positive side, there are a couple different Earth-based Green Lanterns, and a JL movie could use any of them. Hitfix has a gallery of suggestions, the best of which is Idris Elba as John Stewart, though his part in the next Thor movie may exclude him from consideration. Maybe Jason Clarke as Guy Gardner?

I may spend too much brainpower on these things.

I Can't Go On Forever, And I Don't Really Want To Try

Alex Trebek has been hosting Jeopardy! since 1984, and it only makes sense that at some point he would be interested in not hosting Jeopardy!. Trebek has made clear that time will be 2016, when his latest contract with Sony expires.

But there's money to be made with Jeopardy!, so the search has begun for someone to play Ryan Seacrest to Trebek's Dick Clark. The New York Post says the front runner is Matt Lauer, whose contract on Today will be over by then. I imagine the contestant interviews being five minutes of Lauer saying, "Wow, you're smart," over and over.

A better choice would be Anderson Cooper, who the Post says is runner-up. Not mentioned? Ken Jennings, who would be the obvious choice in my mind. When you win 74 straight, you inherit the Chocolate Factory, pure and simple.

Back When Jack Donaghy Ran The Network...

It's hard to pick just one quote out of this New York Times article on how bad things are at NBC right now. Here are two that I had to read a couple times to make sure I read that correctly:

Nothing NBC has put on in prime time has matched even the appeal of the “Talking Dead,” a show with people simply discussing “The Walking Dead.” That show managed a 2.2 rating in the 18-49 audience. NBC’s best prime-time number for the month has been a 2.1.
 

And:

Remarkably, the best-rated show on NBC all month has been “Saturday Night Live,” which produced two original versions in February, both times hitting a 2.3 rating, topping everything else on the network.

What I'm surprised they haven't tried yet are bringing back old casts for reunion specials- or better yet, short runs of new episodes, like Arrested Development is doing. Tell me that there's not enough money to get the six Friends back together for a month, or that Bill Cosby & Phylicia Rashad couldn't visit the grandkids, or Ted Danson doesn't want to...

 

Eating Good In Our Neighborhood

Let's call this out on the carpet- if you're eating at Applebee's on a Friday night (or worse, on Valentine's Day), it's not because you think they have the best cheese quesadilla in the tri-state region. The constant barrage of commercials they show make even the broccoli look tasty, and that slowly seeps into your brain.

Cheyenne has a pitiful self-image when it comes to restaurants. We say there is no good place to go eat, and if you're only eating at the airport foot court that is Dell Range, you're right.

To help contradict that, here's a list of Cheyenne's home-grown restaurants.