Craig is Back!
After a long stretch of hard work that included live concert appearances around the US (and even one in St. Petersburg in Russia), a week of taping on the streets of Paris (nicely reviewed by 411mania.com), working on screenplays and his regular routine on the Late Late Show in Los Angeles, Craig Ferguson took a well-deserved summer break for the first three weeks of August, spending time with family in Scotland and in California.  Starting Monday, he’s back in the saddle with all-new episodes of the Late Late Show, starting off with his old chum, Hugh Laurie and the charming Saffron Burrows.  While Craig and the LLS team were enjoying their break, plenty of things happened!  Take a look:

Stand Up on Comedy Central and DVD in October!
Craig’s newest stand up comedy special, Does This Need To Be Said? was recorded last November in Nashville.  It debuted in February on the EPIX cable channel and EpixHD.com, and came to Netflix in May.  On October 15th, it will appear for the first time on Comedy Central, giving a whole new audience a chance to set it.  Then, three days later on October 18th, the DVD of the show will finally be released.  The DVD is available for pre-order on Amazon.com.  Also coming soon on DVD are the two “prequel” movies of the BBC series Doc Martin, featuring the character Craig created for his movie Saving Grace.  The RSA’s @Phobos8 tells us that episodes of the show are now available on Hulu.com and  BlogCritics.com has a review.  Meanwhile, Winnie The Pooh featuring Craig as Owl is due to be released in the UK on Monday, August 22nd.  A US/Canada release date has not been set but is expected in November.

Sesame Street
Craig will be among the celebrities making appearances on the new season of the beloved PBS children’s program Sesame Street, reports Entertainment Weekly.  A specific date for Craig’s appearance has not been released but the new season begins September 26th.  Frequent LLS guest Joel McHale will also appear on the show.

Nerdist on BBC America
Earlier this summer, the @Nerdist Chris Hardwick taped a pilot episode of a television version of his podcast for BBC America, including Craig has his first guest.  After several weeks of uncertainty, the network decided to put the show on the air, September 24th at 10pm ET/PT as Chris tweeted:

The Nerdist TV special will premiere Saturday, 9/24, 10/9c on BBC America! Guest is @CraigyFerg! Please watch it! // The @BBCAMERICA Nerdist show is only one episode currently. If enough people watch it, though, we’ll probably get to make more! 9/24, 10/9c

Around the Blogosphere
Lots of news has popped up in the past couple of weeks.  Altering the crowded late night landscape, TBS has canceled the George Lopez Show, which received coverage in Salon.com, the Wall Street Journal.  Questions are being raised in the Wall Street Journal about whether Conan O’Brien‘s show will last.  In an article on moviefone.com about who should host the Oscars, Craig’s name was again mentioned (even though he has said he’s not interested in awards shows).  In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Chris Hardwick says nice things about Craig and talks more about the new show to geeksugar.com.  DailyBlam.com has the poster for the second half of series six of Doctor Who, which begins on Saturday.  Scottish Actors reports that Doctor Who‘s Karen Gillan is getting her own romantic comedy.  And the Philadelphia Inquirer reports on a new book aimed at aspiring comedians.  Among those giving advice in the book is Craig Ferguson.

More On Brave
Disney/Pixar previewed its upcoming animated feature film Brave at its annual fan event.  The film includes the voice talent of Craig Ferguson as Lord MacIntosh.  The folks at HeyUGuys.co.uk saw the presentation and give us their take.  The website io9.com has a very detailed description with some spoilers.  And the site ign.com has a photo of stars Kelly Macdonald and Kevin McKidd at the event.

Tweets Galore
Craig was quiet on the tweety for much of his break but had some fun tweets along the way.  One that we mentioned during the week of the Paris shows praised a British Airways employee and got some media coverage in Scotland’s Daily Record.  Craig tweeted much more, including a fun conversation with @neilhimself about smuggling vegetarian haggis.  He talked about his return to LA:

Ah back in SoCal. You are a great big smoggy crap-heap Los Angeles but at least you are not rioty (today). Big ups to the #riotwombles

He added an observation about parenting:

I reach the evening of each day exhausted, demoralized & covered in vomit & poop. Then I’m expected to deal with the baby. #whineydad.

[stextbox id=”custom”]When “Weird Al” Yankovic issued a challenge: Okay, everybody all at once, yell out the name of your favorite bone! Ready? 1… 2… 3… CLAVICLE!! Craig responded: @alyankovic 1..2..3.. Geoff Peterson![/stextbox]


Craig also drew attention to an illustration from a well-know artist:

“@GreenDayComix: Artist of Ren & Stimpy & SpongeBo, Vincent Waller, drew this picture of you & Geoff! http://t.co/vriFiiL” Aw. That’s nice.

Craig’s assistant Rebecca Tucker used the break to try a hairstyle change:

Things not to do while on hiatus: get impulsive haircut. #imissmyponytail

[stextbox id=”custom”]Grant Imahara, the builder of Geoff Peterson tweeted:Thank you @CraigyFerg and #TheLateLateShow for continuing to be awesome. Wonderful people, every one of them! // Just dropped off a skeleton hand for @CraigyFerg at the @CBS reception desk. Pretty sure I’m on some kind of watchlist now. Geoff tweeted back about the hand repair: @grantimahara Thanks for the hand job, Daddy. Er, the job…you did…on my hand. Awkwaaaard. Grant responded: @GeoffTheRobot Awkward? Not really. I’ve already seen you naked. Oh wait, NOW it’s awkward… And Geoff replied: …in your pants.[/stextbox]

Geoff also tweeted to Craig:

Back to the CBS basement on Monday! I got my steel mohawk waxed just for the occasion. And a cord extension. #code

Meanwhile, Josh Robert Thompson, the voice of Geoff Peterson tweeted to Craig:

@craigyferg See you in the basement on Monday. I vill break you.

More Craig Fun
The RSA’s @Kelly_RSA alerted us to a couple of new tumblr pages, here and here, filled with Craigy goodness.

Do Spoilers Spoil?
We try to avoid giving away spoilers about upcoming episodes of Craig’s shows, giving our readers the choice of whether they’d like to see them.  But the RSA’s @HMSFox sent us an interesting article from TheMarySue.com, about a study the shows spoilers may actually increase fan enjoyment.

The Mythbusters on Craig and Geoff
At ComicCon, members of the Mythbusters cast were interviewed for MTV’s geek blog and talked about Craig Ferguson and Geoff Peterson.  Thanks to the RSA’s @RelukaHaske for the link.

 

Paris Tidbits
The RSA’s @michpammoran posted an mp3 version of the Paris theme song for those who wanted it and @Fergufool edited together Craig’s lunch conversations with French actor Jean Reno into a single clip.  Thanks!  A two-part behind the scenes video from Paris has been getting a lot of views, thanks to @RudyHellio.

Video courtesy: JessGoord

This Week’s Guests
After two weeks  of encore presentations, all-new episodes of the Late Late Show resume on Monday with two of Craig’s favorite guests, actor Hugh Laurie and actress Saffron Burrows.  On Tuesday, watch for comedian Lewis Black and singer/songwriter Amos Lee.  Wednesday’s guests are TV host Regis Philbin and actress Vera Farmiga.  Actor Kunal Nayyar and actress Alice Eve will be in the studio on Thursday.  And on Friday,  Craig welcomes singer/actress Shirley Manson and actor Jerry Ferrara.  And heads up Canada:  The Late Late Show debuts on Global TV Monday at 12:37am ET/PT!

After a two week break of our own, we are back to writing our daily posts here at RSA News.  Did we miss anything over the past couple of weeks?  Please send us a note on our Contact page or tweet us @RSA_News.

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