After watching the first episode of The Vampire Diaries on The CW, I thought, “Wow, this is a complete knock-off of Twilight.” But then some of my vampire-savvy friends told me that L.J. Smith’s The Vampire Diaries was actually written way before Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. So if there’s any knocking off going on, then Twilight is a knock-off of The Vampire Diaries. Or who knows, maybe they’re all knock-offs of Dracula.

However it shakes out, it’s not hard to see the similarities between The Vampire Diaries and Twilight (both of which I love). Here are a few that jumped out at me with all the aggression of a hungry vampire….

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve seen a lot of movies. I’ve also watched my share of television. So, why not combine the two into one weekly column. Movies and TV, or TV and movies. To quote Forrest Gump, they go “together like peas and carrots.” Ah, that Gump was a sage. An idiot, but a sage nonetheless. Anyway, “TV in the Movies” is a damn fine idea. I take zero credit for it; I’m too busy trying to convince Amy Adams I’m the guy for her (it’s not going well). The idea germinated in the savvy minds of Keith and Deb. I’ll try not to screw it up, but I can’t make any promises.

Enough of my exposition. Let’s talk vampires. Since the silent film era, the vampire genre has been a staple in the entertainment biz. Max Schreck, Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi and Christoper Lee each wore fangs proudly from the 1920s through the 1970s. Not to be outdone, Dark Shadows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Ultraviolet have carried the torch for vampires on the small screen since the late ’60s.

Read the rest of this entry »