While most of us are still railing after the Conan/NBC/Leno debacle, plans are still underway for Leno’s return to the illustrious Tonight Show host position on March 1st. However, not all is smooth sailing with the show. Word is coming in that band leader Kevin Eubanks, who served as Leno’s “number 1″ for a massive 17 years, will be leaving the show along with announcer John Melendez.

Eubanks originally planned to remain on as Leno’s bandleader when he returned to the Tonight Show, but it looks like he’s now having a change of heart. From Variety:

Eubanks is said to be interested in returning to touring and working out a flexible schedule with the “Tonight Show.” Whether that means he’ll leave for good — or take lengthy leaves of absence, as Conan O’Brien band leader Max Weinberg did to tour with Bruce Springsteen — has not yet been worked out, NBC insiders said.

Eubanks joined the “Tonight Show” band in 1992, and replaced Branford Marsalis as band leader in 1995. When Leno moved to “The Jay Leno Show,” Eubanks became the leader of the renamed “Primetime Band.”

NBC has not yet looked for Eubanks’ replacement. (An online rumor that Hootie and the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker would replace him was quickly shot down by all involved.) As for Melendez, he took on a behind-the-scenes role as writer, and will continue that position.

I guess it’s only natural that one of the most successful podcasts out there (and if that sounds like a dubious distinction, the BBC reported that in 2006 The Ricky Gervais Show podcast had received a staggering 8,000,000 downloads) would get its own show…though for reasons I’ll go into in a bit, I’m not entirely sure why.

The new HBO show, which premieres February 19^th but is currently available for free download on iTunes, features flash animations of Office and Extras creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant antagonizing their co-host Karl Pilkington for his inane and often outlandish beliefs.

Episode #1 opens with Gervais and Merchant systematically debunking Pilkington’s assertion that technology reached its peak sometime around the turn of the 19^th Century. “What about planes?” Merchant counters, “they let you go on holiday all over the world.” “No,” Pilkington shoots back, “because you go to places where if you don’t get a shot beforehand, you can die.”

Next Pilkington proposes a biological “advance” that would allow older women to have children the moment they died. “Who would take care of them?” Merchant usefully asks.

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This week on The Flickcast Chris and Matt work alone and without a net covering all kinds of new topics including Toy Fair 2010, the box office success of Valentine’s Day and The Wolfman and new adaptation announcements such as Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein and Dracula (aka Vlad the Impaler). They also discuss the oddness and length of recent movie titles, the Avatar prequel novel, the potential endings for ABC’s Lost and who rules Bartertown.

They both also made some good picks again this week incuding Matt’s pick of Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant and Chris’ pick of the Martin Scorsese gangster classic Goodfellas, featuring Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

This week in New York City, the annual Toy Fair convention hits the Jacob Javits Center and thousands of new and popular toys and toy properties are shown off. There were, of course, some less-than-interesting booths, but we know what you want to see, so we went straight to the newest lines of toys and statues based on some of the upcoming movie and TV properties.

Obviously, Toy Story 3 had a huge presence at the show, given the fact that it’s the best hybrid of toys and film out there today. Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland had some great new figures of the whacked out Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. LEGO stepped up their game with some brand new LEGO Star Wars playsets, including a great “Luke on Hoth” scene.

Diamond was also in attendence with some great new Ghostbusters products, including a new Ghostbusters replica sign for those hardcore fans. Finally, there were some great new 12-inch figures for the upcoming Jonah Hex film, including our first look at John Malkovich from the film.

Check out our Movie Toys picture gallery from the show after the jump, and be sure to check back in tomorrow to see what else we’ve got to show you from this year’s Toy Fair.

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Funny Or Die is one of those websites that brings wasting time on the internet, and our favorite comedians together. Originally created by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, the minds behind Anchorman, Step Brothers, and Taladega Nights, the site was meant as a place for comedians to come together and contribute for the masses.

The site has had such contributors as Zach Galifiniakis, Judd Apatow, Ed Helms, Don Cheadle, Tim Meadows, James Franco, Aziz Ansari, Tom Lennon, and countless others. HBO finally caught wind of the site’s growing popularity and have put together a weekly anthology collection, which premieres this week.

The show will have some of our favorite bits, such as Drunk History, Just 3 Boyz, Hold Up, Between 2 Ferns, and many more. The first episode hits this Friday, February 19th at midnight, and looks to be a good one.

Check out an exclusive new preview of the coming episodes after the jump, and be sure to keep it here for all the updates we can bring you on HBO’s Funny or Die Presents.

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UPDATE: Apparently, the image wasn’t supposed to be let out of the proverbial bag yet so at the request of Summit Entertainment, we’ve taken it down. But fear not, we’ll be back with it, and more, when we can.

Over at FearNet they’ve got the first pic of Bryce Dallas Howard as the vampire Victoria in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. She takes over the role occupied by Rachelle Lefevre in the first two films.

In this new pic, it looks like Howard is looking to sink her teeth into Robert Pattinson’s Edward and have him for a nice snack. Edward, obviously, doesn’t look to happy about it.

According to the site:

The new image shows Victoria (Howard) with her hands around Edward’s (Pattinson) head, preparing to kill him the old-fashioned way: by tearing his head clean off. Victoria’s boy-toy Riley (Xavier Samuel) is also present, restraining Edward who kneels in pain.

Twilight devotees will notice that nothing exactly like this happens in the book, although Edward does face off with the vengeful Victoria in the snow, so it seems as though screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg has taken some creative liberties to raise the stakes in the third, and more suspenseful, film installment.

Well, there you go. For more pics from the upcoming film, head on over to Screencrave and also check back right here for further updates on Eclipse as we get them. In the meantime, click through to see the full image.

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Though the holiday may have come and gone, we still managed to get our hands on a special Valentine’s Day PSA from Rob Corddry and Craig Robinson, two stars of the upcoming comedy Hot Tub Time Machine.

In the clip, the two comedians explain that Hot Tub Time Machine is rated R, and exactly why it was given that rating. It should be stated that this clip has some super NSFW language in it, which only makes it that much better.

Hot Tub Time Machine hits theaters on March 26th and it stars John Cusack, Sex Drive’s Clark Duke, The Daily Show’s Rob Corddry, and The Office’s Craig Robinson.

Check out the clip after the jump, and be sure to keep it here for more goodies as the release date for Hot Tub Time Machine approaches.

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With President’s Day weekend behind us it’s now time to think about some late Valentine’s Day presents. In case you want to pick up something extra for your valentine or you completely forgot to get something at all, a great movie on Blu-ray or DVD makes a perfect gift. Fortunately, there’s some new ones coming out this week just in time.

Among this week’s selection we’re interested in are new to Blu-ray movies such as Law Abiding Citizen, Halo Legends, the Dirty Harry Collection, Contempt, Akira Kurosawa’s Ran and debut of TV series Barnaby Jones and the latest installment of Cannon. Also, Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (pictured above with Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro) gets the 20th Anniversary treatment with a new Blu-ray release.

Movies

Black Dynamite ~ Michael Jai White (Blu-ray and DVD)

Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever ~ Michael Bowen, Rider Strong (Blu-ray and DVD)

Contempt ~ Brigitte Bardot, Jack Palance, Fritz Lang (Blu-ray)

Dirty Harry Collection (Dirty Harry / Magnum Force / The Enforcer / Sudden Impact / The Dead Pool) ~ Clint Eastwood (Blu-ray and DVD)

Goodfellas (20th Anniversary Edition) ~ Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci (Blu-ray)

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Today, the mobile phone landscape has changed quite a bit because soon you’ll be able to make calls via Skype using your Verizon Wireless cell phone. The two companies announced their “strategic relationship” at the 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The new Skype mobile product enhances Verizon Wireless’ smartphones for users who have data plans by offering a new way to call around the globe, while also giving hundreds of millions of Skype users around the world the opportunity to communicate with friends, family and business colleagues in the United States using Verizon Wireless.

Here are the highlights of this new partnership:

• Users with a data plan can make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any Skype user around the world.

• Calls to international phone numbers, if made through Skype mobile, will be at the Skype Out calling rate.

• Users can send and receive instant messages to other Skype users and remain connected to see friends’ online statuses.

The rollout for Skype mobile will comprehensive and coming to existing phones like the BlackBerry Storm, the Storm 2, the BlackBerry Curve, the BlackBerry Tour, the Motorola DROID, the HTC DROID ERIS and the Motorola DEVOUR.

If you have one of those phones and a 3G data plan, you’ll be able to start using Skype mobile when it goes live in March. See AT&T, that wasn’t so hard.

I’d just like to begin this review by pointing out that close to 50% of the audience for the latest Wolverine film was women. Yes….women. Why may you ask? Was it because of the brilliant action scenes in which Wolvie slowly walked away from an explosion that would normally kill a human being very quickly? No.

Was it because adding a fan-favorite character like Cyclops, who in the normal Marvel-verse would not have been born yet, but due to the need to add as many discernible characters as possible was thrown into the mix? No.

The answer is Hugh Jackman looks damn fine without his shirt on and women crave a alpha male who can kill any of your ex-boyfriends lickety-split but would rather spend time by the fire listening to your day. What does this all have to do with Wolverine Weapon X #10 you ask?

The answer (the final answer) is Marvel every once in awhile sticks behind their writers and their crazy hatched plans to write an issue about…..oh no….gasp…characterization and relationships.

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Some early renewals for some popular shows over on the CW have just come in. The network has given the green light for new seasons of Supernatural, Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, 90201 and America’s Next Top Model.

No word on any other renewals of yet for shows we’re interested in, like Smallville, but with these early ones announced, it’s only a matter of time before we hear about more. The Supernatural and Vampire Diaries renewals weren’t completely unexpected as they’ve been doing well in the ratings, but for some reason I thought Top Model was on its last legs. Oh well, another season of beautiful models doing photo shoots in skimpy outfits can’t be all bad, right?

Here’s all the info from the CW about these renewals from their official press release:

THE CW ANNOUNCES EARLY PICKUPS FOR FIVE SERIES

Freshman Hit “The Vampire Diaries,” “Gossip Girl,” “90210,” “Supernatural” and “America’s Next Top Model” To Return Next Season

February 16, 2010 (Burbank, California) ─ The CW Network has given early pickups to five series for next season, including four signature dramas and the reality hit AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL. All five shows will return in Fall 2010.

The series receiving early renewals include this season’s breakout hit THE VAMPIRE DIARIES, The CW’s most-watched show (4.6 million viewers) and the network’s number one show among adults 18-34 (2.5/8). THE VAMPIRE DIARIES premiere generated the largest audience in network history for a series debut (5.7 million total viewers). THE VAMPIRE DIARIES has improved The CW’s performance Thursday at 8:00 p.m. by 114% among women 18-34 this season.

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While most of our favorite shows on NBC are on hold for something called “curling,” other networks are rolling along with their original programming. With that in mind, we get a bit of fan service as Michael Emerson, better known as Lost‘s Ben Linus, made a special appearance on last week’s The Soup.

Many fans across the country got to drop a jaw as the mysterious villain popped by to question the logistics of last week’s 24 in which Jack Bauer defies the laws of pain and reality once again. Emerson, who isn’t as creepy in real life as his Lost-counterpart seems to be every week.

According to ABC’s publicity, tonight’s episode is said to be a Locke-centric story, as “Locke goes in search of help to further his cause.” Not a surprise that they don’t give much more than that.

Check out the clip after the jump, and be sure to catch tonight’s episode of Lost entitled “The Substitute” on ABC at 9pm/8pm Central.

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