ABC’s hit sitcom will return for its third season on February 14, following an unprecedented, nationwide promotional campaign. Cougar Town, a half-hour comedy starring Courteney Cox (Friends, Scream), follows Jules Cobb (Cox) and her close circle of friends as they attempt to navigate their way through parenthood, marriage, dating and work.

The series has been off the air in the U.S. since last May after ABC opted against giving the show a spot on its fall schedule, offering only vague assertions that it would return at some point at ‘midseason‘. However, the series’ cast and crew have turned to social media in an effort to maintain public interest and to engage with their fan base in a face-to-face manner.

The main feature of their promotional campaign has been Cougar Town viewing parties, which have been in operation across the U.S. for several weeks now as cast and crew members travelled to various cities to interact with fans, offer special screenings of new episodes, take part in Q&A sessions, and to counteract any waning interest as a result of ABC’s delay in confirming a return date for the series, which had previously been airing alongside the network’s Emmy award-winning series Modern Family.

In a further effort to reignite the old and spark some new interest, series star Courteney Cox joined Twitter in January of this year and has since amassed over 90,000 followers. Cox has sent out over 1,000 tweets, the majority of which have sought to publicise the show and to offer Cougar Town fans exclusive behind-the-scenes footage.

As recently as Wednesday February 8, Cox was overseeing a competition to reward 50 fans with bottles of wine – in partnership with THECULTWINE.COM - provided that fans show proof of their age and make a pledge to watch Cougar Town on Tuesday February 14 at 8:30pm.

This is not the first time that cast-members involved with the series have reached out as a way of rewarding and strengthening their audience’s support. In an April 2011 episode, one character read out a telephone number which viewers could in turn call. If they got through, they could speak to actors, writers, and various others involved with the series.

These tactics have all been designed to keep Cougar Town on the public radar in spite of its middling ratings, with several fans going so far as to display billboards in support of the show during television coverage of this year’s Super Bowl, in the hopes of winning a walk-on role from the producers.

Show-runner Bill Lawrence recently expressed his frustration over the ‘flawed system‘ which monitors television ratings and which will ultimately determine the future of his series beyond this season, explaining that the primary hope of his self-funded campaigning is for:

a Nielsen family [to] … want to keep show alive. Ruining it for the masses or encouraging them to watch on their computer doesn’t matter until the system changes.

While there have been instances in the past of grass-roots campaigns being organised to combat network decisions – for example when Jericho fans persuaded CBS to reverse the series’ cancellation in 2007 – the involvement of the Cougar Town cast in this campaign has been particularly note-worthy, as has the fact the majority of their events have been planned entirely through the use of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

The true impact of Lawrence’s, Cox’s, the audience’s and others’ efforts to promote Cougar Town will be made apparent in the coming weeks when the series returns to ABC’s schedule and everyone involved attempts to lure, and hopefully increase, their 7.3 million weekly viewers from last season.

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In our age, the difference between real and virtual life is often blurred — but while technology does not replace what makes us human beings; when we use it, it tend to add value to our sense of self-being. Professor Robert Dunbar of Oxford University spoke about a predefined number of 150; this is the average number designed for human beings’ capacity of close friends.

Whether you know it or not, 150 is the number of friends we can actually call friends and it is a number which is dependent on our neocortical area. 150 are those with whom we are not just saying hello or sharing jobs, but those of whom we can ask for help or share deep details of our lives. They are the ones we can distribute time and energy to, without handling it as a burden or a cost of opportunity.

Those 150 people are the average the human brain can manage. The number can vary between 100 and 230, and only the extent of our brain capacity or of our available time would let us deal with more friends, as Robert Dunbar delicately describes in interviews and in his writings. The number is not equivalent to our Facebook friends though.

Professor Dunbar explains that a human touch, a real one, is worth a thousand words and until technology can simulate virtual touch, we still have to put a line between Facebook friends and ‘real’ friends. Facebook statistics shows that the average number of friends for the average Facebook user is 130.

It seems that, although many of us live in a virtual world for more than half of our daily lives, we seem to remain in touch with reality, or maybe our brain obliges us to. We might declare 500 virtual friends because we work ourselves into a world where we are obliged to keep track with hundreds of people, but our real life is limited to the 150 number in practice.

Technology and the social networks are only tools that extend our capability to work beyond the limit. Our brain and cognitive capacity is adapted to and confirmed by the 150 number — even while we become addicted to globalization through technology. The development makes us more intelligent and more evolved as human beings.

We have to manage our time according to the technological progress, and meanwhile, we have to shape our relationships in the same pace. Life is defined by numbers. Dunbar, as well as Fibonacci, puts our lives in numbers. Instinctively we feel these numbers; our brain is limited to them, even though sometimes technology, globalization and life by itself show us that limits and numbers can be recreated.

In this way, technology brings added value to what human capacity cannot handle at this point.

The article Our Brain Limits Our Friendships, Technology Mediates It appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Ernie and Bert will not be getting married, as Sesame Street denied the petition calling for the marriage once again. There is no doubt they will not get romantically involved to each other or anyone else.

This demand has become a big bomb on the internet in the last few years. Sesame Street denied it and issued this statement on their Facebook page.

Sesame Street keeps trying to convince the audience that Bert and Ernie are just best friends. They developed such characters to teach preschoolers that people can be close friends even they are very different from themselves. These characters have feelings and many human traits but they do not have a sexual orientation

Bloggers are looking for Sesame Street to accept a relationship between Bert and Ernie. In June 2010, after a suspicious tweet sent from the Sesame Street Twitter account from Bert saying that his Mohawk was more “mo” tan “hawk,” Sesame street fans tried to convince other bloggers that was a sort of coded acknowledgment of their relationship.

“We’ve always reached out to a variety of actors and athletes and celebrities to appear on the show, and our programming has always appealed to adults as much as children,” Sesame Street said.

Gay marriage became legal in New York last June; therefore the numbers of states in America legalizing gay marriage are increasing.  That also explains why over 900 people online think the two puppets should get married.

Lair Scott started the petition, sending a letter to the makers of Sesame Street.

“In this horrific age of LGBT kids taking their own lives, they need to know that they ARE BEAUTIFUL and their lives are worth living,” Lair Scott said. He asks for tolerance and kindness. He wants to let every kid know that no matter what they will be beautiful in any way and suicide is not the escape from any bully.

He claims to make bullies know that homophobia will be never okay. He thinks letting Bert and Ernie get married won’t be disrespectful or cruel. “Let us teach tolerance of those that are different. Let Sesame Street and PBS Kids be a big part in saving many worthy lives,” he said.

This petition follows the message of the “It Gets Better” project founded in 2010 following the suicides of a number of young gay men. There have been a lot of different reactions. New York Daily News said in an editorial:

“Folks who want a gay marriage for Bert and Ernie of ‘Sesame Street’ need to get over themselves,” they explained that young children from 2 to 4 don’t need to get involved in passions of adults.

Twitter is still buzzing with reactions. Even though  many are encouraging the dream wedding, others are laughing about it and claiming other famous characters to be first, such Batman and Robin or Yogi Bear and Boo Boo.

Sesame Street started in 1969 and since then they have taken on difficult issues and topics to educate young children, such as divorce, racism, and real life disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the 9-11.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/waltherfamily/

The article Bert & Ernie will Stay Single in Sesame Street appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

Music is a stimulus that acts on the physical and corporal equilibrium. Is it possible to use certain music to decrease stress in order to favor concentration, imagination and also play as a stimulant role in the right hemisphere? Music takes you to another mind state, it could also remind you of your childhood, feelings or things that you have sometimes lived.

That is why it is completely unavoidable not to remember music themes of your favorites TV shows.

Here at Toonari Post we want to introduce you the 10 songs that became famous from being featuring in TV.

Stick around and share your thoughts!

Who wouldn’t remember Ross, Chandler, Phoebe, Monica, Rachel and Joey? And who wouldn’t remember the main music theme of “Friends”?
That’s why The Rembrandts with their song are the one on the top 10 list.
[Youtube link: Friends music theme http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9Nc0FAk74c]

This guitar sound takes us to Sacred Heart Hospital, with Dr. Jonathan Michael “J.D.” Dorian, Dr. Chris Turk and Elliot Reid in “Scrubs”.
Lazlo Bane is responsible for this beautiful theme, “Superman”. Don’t miss it.
[Youtube link: Superman - Lazlo Bane http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMV8L8Jl-cw]

Vampire geeks would definitely recognize this Jace Everett theme: Bad Things. This is the main theme of “True Blood”, one incredible and successful HBO series that takes place in one little Luisiana town.
[Youtube link: Jace Everett - Bad Things http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxINMuOgAu8&feature=related]

HBO and “How To Make It in America” is the next one. Aloe Blacc composed “I Need A Dollar” for the opening sequence. This rapper, singer and producer created a track that fits perfectly with the show.
[Youtube link: I need a dollar - Aloe Blacc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_9aaotk3PU ]

Going back to the 90′s, what do you think when you imagine a “typical” Texan family? Would Hank, Peggy and Bobby came to your mind? If it does, you would be familiarized with “Yahoos and Triangles” of The Refreshments.
[Youtube link: Yahoo and triangles - The Refreshments http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbnzBO6odgw]

In 2009, NCB started broadcasting “Community”, a series of college students in Denver, Colorado. The 88 made several songs that have appeared in numerous TV shows. In this case, “At least it was here” is one of theme.
[Youtube link: At least it was here - the 88 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEGbjR1Y9Qo]

Tom Waits. That’s the name of this songwriter who created “Way Down in the Hole” for The Wire, another HBO’s success. Drug dealing is the main topic in it, giving a realistic point of view of Baltimore’s lifestyle. A fact made clear once you remember the opening sequence of the piece.
[Youtube link: Way down in the hole - Tom Waits http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1ABR4UpDSU]

“Superhero”, is a good theme name for Entourage. This series tells of young Vince’s life as an actor in Hollywood and his friends in the city. ”Jane’s Addiction” features their third album “Strays” which includes this theme that is well recognized in the opening sequence.
[Youtube link: Superhero - Jane's Addiction http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ0sV4s-jzA]

Let’s take a look to 1966.

NBC broadcasted The Monkees, an American sitcom that follows the adventures of four young men trying to make a name for themselves as rock ‘n roll singers. Written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Heart, this song takes the TV show’s name and becomes the main theme of it. Take a look if you don’t already know it.
[Youtube link: The Monkees - The Monkees http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWea5rB7XlY ]

If we came back to our decade, we cannot leave behind this American television comedy created by Jenji Kohan: Weeds. ”Little boxes” is the theme that deserves a special recognition in our list. This theme, written by Malvina Reynolds was used in season one. In season two and three, several artists such as Elvis Costello, Linkin Park among others made covers for each episode of the show. We show you the original theme.
[Youtube link: Little boxes - Malvina Reynolds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7Ys9RkvxgI ]

This is just a sample of how music can impact an audience and even pass into television history pages.

Do you agree with this top 10 list? We are pleased to know of what other theme you would add to the list.

Don’t be shy!

The article A Theme Tune State of Mind: Top 10 TV Music appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.