This might be the best internet video I’ve seen all week. The only way to make it better would be to add Shari Lewis and Neil DeGrasse Tyson. (Look, he hosted four seasons of Nova Science Now, and that’s enough of a technicality to get some diversity up in this lineup.)

(via Topless Robot.)

Wonder Women! The Untold Story of American Superheroines is a meditation on the history of the female hero in modern American culture told through the changing interpretation and representation of the character of Wonder Woman, and if that doesn’t already sucker you in to watching it, then maybe the fact that it’s being lauded from all corners, including the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in the Media, will.

It’s an independent documentary film, so screenings in your area might have been thin on the ground. The good news is the movie has become part of PBS’ Indepedent Lens series, which runs a new independent film every Monday night. Wonder Women! airs tonight at 10 pm, though you probably want to check your local PBS listings. Afterwards, if you just can’t get enough of discussion about female characters and gender representation in media, you might want to check out this panel discussion that followed a screening of the film in Los Angeles a few weeks ago. It included folks from the Geena Davis Institute, the LA Times, and our contributing writer Zoe Chevat. An upcoming Wonder Women! panel in New York will feature yours truly, so stay tuned for info on that as well!

PBS’s Off Book series has done a really interesting job of taking a look at some of the new communities and new ideas about community that have arisen with the internet. Today, they’re talking about webcomics, and while no eight minute video could possibly cover the entire breadth of the webcomics community, this is a good introduction to the way webcomics are becoming a new and powerful distribution and creation model for the comics industry. Also, it’s got Christina Xu of Breadpig and Lucy Knisley of Stop Paying Attention!

(via Laughing Squid.)

60 Minutes reporter Steve Kroft learned the hard way not to question Dame Maggie Smith. Which is problematic considering they were conducting an interview. Watch as she reveals she’s never actually watched the popular British drama she stars in and Kroft’s attempt to almost scold her on it. BIG mistake.

(via BBC America)

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This week’s edition of Comic Book Resources’ The Line It Is Drawn features comic book characters getting all romantic with each other. This Deadpool and Harley Quinn piece is by Marco D’Alfonso; you can check out the others here.

Watch Superheroes on PBS. See more from Pioneers of Television.

I’m a low-level documentary-a-holic (shut up, it’s a thing), and when the documentaries are geeky it’s even better. And yeah, this episode of PBS’s Pioneers of Television, about the superhero shows of the ’60s, ’70s, and ’80s, is narrated by Ryan Seacrest. But I can let that slide if I’m watching Lynda Carter, Julie Newmar, Adam West, Burt Ward, Lou Ferrigno and more talk about the history of superheroes on TV for an hour.

(via: ComicsBeat)

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Will Sesame Street ever stop being awesome? We think not. Especially because you know their target audience won’t exactly get this or appreciate Muppet Carson nearly as much as we do. I can hear the staff meeting now: “Should we do a Downton Abbey spoof? They are on the same network as us, after all.” “I don’t know, it might go over kids’ heads.” “Screw it, this is gonna be great.” At least we all learned an important lesson about gravity.

(via Sesame Street Tumblr)

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If you were annoyed at having to wait three months for Downton Abbey Season 3 to hit PBS, you’re going to love this news. Apple is set to offer the final three episodes of the season before they air. Could this work for other shows?

The United States had to wait what felt like an excruciatingly long time to see Season 3 of Downton Abbey but boy, did we show up in style. The English drama not only had a record number of viewers on PBS, it demolished last season’s premiere, and it was second only to CBS in its time slot for the night. 

Dame Maggie Smith is superb in any role but we take particular joy in watching her as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey. She delivers her lines with such class and whit you can’t be bothered with the fact that she’s usually talking smack about someone. Regardless, here are a few of her best one-liners (there are so many more) from Seasons 1 and 2.

(NowThis News via Buzzfeed)

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