Torchwood: Earth Go Boom!

Torchwood, the Dr. Who spinoff, is coming to America. Will it be good or bad for the series? I can't say. But it doesn't look too good for Planet Earth:

While I have been a Dr. Who fan, I never got into Torchwood much. But Captain Jack is back, so I may have to check this out.

Pit Stop Mug

It's not as if CBS needs me to promote their shows or help sell their stuff... but The Amazing Race is my second favorite reality TV show, and this is a sweet mug...

The Amazing Race Pit Stop Mug

Lost: the Map

Lost, the ABC TV series about a mysterious island and the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, has its final episode on Sunday. [No spoilers here]

Dedicated fans at The Lost Map blog have carefully noted the location of important events on their replica of the island map found with the character, Rousseau.



However, the folks at The Joy of Tech comic have created a map/chart that accurately measures my interest in the series. (I couldn't care enough get past the first season.)



HT to Scott "Henry Miller" Morris

Springfield Subway

Yet another piece of the geography of The Simpsons' mysterious Springfield was revealed last Sunday. In "Postcards From The Wedge", Bart discovers their town's long forgotten subway system:



The Simpsons' Springfield previously on Cartophilia:

Simpsons 20th Anniversary

More Springfield, USA

Lost Maps

Fans of the ABC television program, Lost, are excited that the final season has begun. Maybe... just maybe they'll finally get some answers... I tried to watch a bit of the show in the first season but generally couldn't bring myself to care.

However, just any other fantasy world (see Lord of the Rings, etc.), Lost fans enjoy creating maps:



The folks at io9.com have pulled together a collection of Lost maps and diagrams, including "Inside the Hatch" and a transit map!:



No spoilers here... My prediction: The series will end as equally satisfying as the finale of The Sopranos.

Via The Map Room

#550

More Springfield, USA

An update to my post about yesterday's 20th Anniversary of the Simpsons.

Cartofan Dan sent me two screen captures that depict a rare map of Springfield on the show. Both are on the wall at Chief Wiggums' Police Department Headquarters:





I had challenged Dan to find some screenshots for me, and he delivered. From Dan:

I did a quick search and found a couple screenshots that show the map shown in the police station in the show (found on the great Simpsons fan website lardlad.com), and also included a map of ancient Constantinople, though these are considerably easier to find and I'm sure you've seen much better.

As for the Springfield- Constantinople connection, Springfield is shown with the very distinct shape of Constantinople's walls and Golden Horn shoreline, and the red line on the Springfield map that seems to be a highway corresponds nicely to the Mese! The Simpsons has always shown a pleasant awareness of history, and I do know many of its writers studied history in their college careers, so this may have been deliberate. If not, it's a nice coincidence.

Thanks, Dan!

Simpsons 20th Anniversary

Twenty years ago tomorrow (Dec 17), The Simpsons graduated from a short animated bit on The Tracey Ullman Show to their own series on the fledgling Fox network. Since then, Matt Groening's dysfunctional family has become a pop culture icon.



Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson all live in the elusive town of Springfield. Where is Springfield? Scholars have studied this question for years, to no avail. However, the geography of Springfield itself has been carefully charted by Jerry Lerma and Terry Hogan in their Interactive Map of Springfield





Meanwhile, while searching for Simpsons related maps, I found this very strange Simpsons map of Europe: