Now this is some smart stuff: Jeff and Patrick at CollegeHumor have dug through the last forty years of television to bring us twelve of the most mysterious TV characters — people you hear about but never see. From the eponymous director of Charlie’s Angels to the Nanny on Muppet Babies (!!), they range from children’s shows where they don’t want to bombard the viewers with extra characters, all the way up to tongue-in-cheek gimmicks. My favorites (biased because of my age, of course): Dr. Claw, Inspector Gadget By remaining hidden in the shadows, Dr. Claw became one of animation’s most mysterious and intriguing villains. So you can imagine how upset Jean Chalopin, Andy Heyward, and Peter Sauder (the creators of Inspector Gadget, duh) must have been when someone at the action figure factory decided he could define what Dr. Claw looks like. The beautiful women and insane power Chalopin, Heyward, and Sauder were no doubt awarded for giving the world...

While shooting commences on Greg Mottola’s Paul, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the cast has created a behind-the-scenes production blog for fans called What is Paul?. Paul stars Pegg and Frost as geeks en route from Britain to Comic-Con — the road-trip style of the movie allows for a variety of cameos, including a recently-signed Seth Rogen. What is Paul? will allow fans to follow along as the cast and crew shoots in the New Mexico desert, uses stop-motion to depict the aliens that Pegg and Frost encounter on the way, cracks jokes, and films cameos by Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, and Bill Hader. [Via Topology, What is Paul?] [Image source: Collider]

Joel Keller at TV Squad reports that Jon and Kate Gosselin have gone into a self-induced “media blackout” while they sort through divorce proceedings. Well, finally. But why didn’t you do this when you first started having problems, instead of griping to People about your marital issues so that millions could look upon your sad mug and read all the gory details? Honestly, considering what I’ve learned about how reality fame has changed Kate in the past two years, I’ll be surprised if she keeps herself out of the limelight. Keller brings up a demographic to be let down, a group I hadn’t even considered: the kids who watch Jon & Kate Plus Eight. When I would talk with my friends about the show pre-separation announcement, it was about the weird dynamic between the husband and wife; we didn’t think about the kids at all. But of course a solid chunk of the viewers must be children tuning in to see how other kids live — and to watch a...