TVSquad

Cartoon Network's Star Wars: The Clone Wars just might be the best action/adventure show on television. Come to think of it, it might be the only true action/adventure show on television.

But, as the show ramps up the action content and significantly sweetens its visuals, its increased intensity might be driving away some younger viewers.

As The Clone Wars moves through its second season, the war is growing -- both in scope and violence. Viewers are seeing more dead Clonetroopers, more crashed vehicles and more beloved characters in deadly jeopardy.

Its ratings continue to cruise in hyperspace (especially for males), but I wonder if the darker tones of season two could drive younger kids and their parents away from the show.

Controversy raged last weekend as fans and media types reacted to a new DirecTV ad using the late Chris Farley in scenes from Tommy Boy. Now, some aggressive YouTubers are taking their shot at offending some people (with DirecTV execs at the top of the list).

The original ad featured a live action David Spade discussing DirecTV against Farley's antics from Tommy Boy. While Spade insisted Farley wouldn't mind, a lot of his fans took offense to using a dead man to hawk a product.

But the video below, from a YouTube page, The Landline, lights up the satellite TV provider with an edgy send-up of the "dead talk cash" stunt with faked DirecTV ads featuring a pseudo Heath Ledger, John F. Kennedy, and someone else you'll recognize.

There's a conspiracy theory floating around that this is actually clever viral marketing from DirecTV itself -- since no publicity is bad publicity. But, if that were true, and word really got out, it'd be "deadly" to the company's business.

Rosie O'Donnell reminds me of a sexually transmitted disease.

I might have enjoyed my first experience that brought me in contact with her. But she's grown painfully irritating over the years, and I can't seem to get rid of her now. No matter what happens, she just keeps coming back to irritate me further -- leaving me to wonder what ever led me to welcome her irritation in the first place.

When O'Donnell proved too annoying even for The View, and then flamed out on her disastrous one-off variety show, I thought we'd seen the last of her. But it looks like we'll at least "hear" from her again, as she's moved away from the TV talk circuit and taken a gig hosting her own satellite radio talk show on Sirius XM.

When watching any nature special from PBS or the BBC featuring dangerous wild animals photographed at reasonably close range, how often do you stop and consider the very real danger men and women are in while getting that footage?

That danger proved deadly this past weekend when a rampaging African elephant trampled and killed a British tour guide (Anton Turner, 38) who was trying to protect a group of children visiting Tanzania.

The kids were in Africa serving as TV hosts for the CBBC (BBC's children's channel) show, Serious Explorers. Seven children were planning to follow the steps of Victorian explorer Dr. David Livingston.

Reports say, when the elephant charged a group of the CBBC kids, Turner challenged the elephant and attempted to shoot his rifle at the animal. But, he was unable to open fire in time and was trampled. Turner leaves behind a pregnant wife.

On TV, Dr. Drew Pinsky saves people from drugs and sex. But, the Celebrity Rehab host came out of the stands at California high school football game last weekend to save the life of a dying player.

Pinsky was watching his son Doug play football at Pasadena Polytechnic when a Poly player took a shot to the head. I played football for years, and these things happen. There's no indication that malice was involved in the related hit.

The injured player, Jackson Allan, came off the field and headed to the bench to talk to his coaching staff and teammates. But, as is often the case with concussions and other head injuries, the brain can be deceptive. The condition quickly grew more serious, and paramedics were called.

But, Pinsky got there first to find Allan in a coma -- no longer breathing.

I try to cover professional wrestling here on TV Squad only when something happens that hints at a ratings spike, a celebrity tie-in or a television publicity war. Today, we have news that could score a pin on all three fronts, "Brother!"

Hulk Hogan (in yellow, right), the 80s legend that put WWF WWE on the mat map, announced this week that he's returning to the squared circle and joining the ranks of Spike TV's TNA Wrestling. It's a big step up in exposure for the Florida-based promotion as it struggles to pull away a little market share away from Vince McMahon's Connecticut Death Grip.

While the WWE has either live or taped shows on various cable outlets Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights (with occasional weekend specials on NBC), TNA has used the last couple of years to build an ever-growing following in Spike's Thursday night schedule.

Fox will use football this Sunday to help tall, blue aliens take over our televisions.

On November 1, Fox is shooting for the "world's biggest live trailer viewing" when it airs the new preview of James Cameron's Avatar live on TV and in the Dallas Cowboys' home park on the world's largest video display -- the Cowboy Stadium's Diamond Vision Screen before the Lone Star State's heroes take on the Seattle Seahawks.

A Fox press release explains that the Fox Sports NFL Sunday pregame show will present the new trailer live on the network. Meanwhile, those Cowboy fans still sober enough at noon to enjoy the brief glimpse of the sci-fi epic will take it in on a screen larger than some Far Eastern countries.

Putting the TV network's football viewing figures to work is the kind of bold step Fox needs to take to publicize Cameron's $300 million dollar movie. Though obviously ambitious and technically groundbreaking, special previews of the 3D fantasy flick left some viewers less than thrilled. While the film will be 3D in theaters, the trailer will stick to a simpler 2D TV image for the big event.

The Goode Family -- the Mike Judge show ABC did everything it could to kill -- has a new home at Comedy Central.

According to Daily Variety, the cable network will air all 13 episodes of the animated comedy that ABC canceled last summer. That's good news for fans of a show ABC buried in its line-up -- moving it around like a pea under a nutshell until it finally put the Goodes out of their misery.

At the time, the show was embraced by fans of Beavis & Butthead and King of the Hill as a worthy sardonic successor to Judge's animated quiver. But, critics often attacked its mockery of political correctness and progressive politics. Some pundits went so far as claiming such a show was inappropriate in the era of Obama.

In other words, it's only censorship when your side is the one being silenced.

If you're a fan of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and you want to know what happened between Season One and the now-running Season Two, you're going to need a video game system.

The story in the new game, Star Wars: The Clone Wars - "Republic Heroes" bridges the gap between the show's first two runs, as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker and their loyal Clone Trooper comrades take on a new Separatist enemy packing a freshly polished doomsday weapon.

Available for PS3, Nintendo Wii or Xbox 360, "Republic Heroes" lets you play as a Jedi Knight or as a Clone Trooper -- depending on where you are in the game and what choices you make as a player.

The new Columbia Pictures disaster epic, 2012, proposes what many New Age folk believe is inevitable. The Roland Emmerich movie looks ahead to December 21, 2012 as the end of the world because the Mayan Calendar cycle ends on that day.

So, the cinematic seas rise, and the ground shakes -- sending scores of mid-range stars scrambling for their lives. Syfy previews both the movie and its long-held cataclysm theory on a new special, 2012: Startling New Secrets. Premiering Sunday, November 8 at 9 p.m., the two-hour show "delves into the Mayan Mystery surrounding 2012."

I'm going out on a limb here and predicting the show will fail to ask the obvious question: If the Mayans were so adept at looking centuries into the future to predict the end of the world, why weren't they clairvoyant enough to foresee the end of their long-extinct civilization and prevent its collapse?