The 2011 Academy Awards show was not a night to remember. There were no surprises (with Best Director being the only exception) and very little entertainment.

The highlight of the evening were the fantastic opening movie where Anne Hathaway and James Franco travel through through the nominated films, Inception style. The few other highlights were:

• The Best Movie montage
• Anne Hathaway's On My Own song
• Celine Dion's Smile
• The Music Video with  Harry Potter and Twilight
• Billy Crystal and Kirk Douglas

Watch the Oscars 2011 opening movie with Anne Hathaway and James Franco below:



For my recap on the Academy Awards show and the winners, see Oscars 2011: Where Have all the Surprises Gone? Go to Oscars.com to watch the Best Picture montage and the Music Video.What did you think of the Academy Awards this year?

See also: 
Academy Awards MTVU Oscars Contest won by 2 Hofstra Students 
10 Academy Awards Articles to Read to Prepare for Oscars 2011

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and mtvU, MTV's 24-hour college network, yesterday announced that Luz Pena and Philip Robibero from Hofstra University are the Grand Prize winners for the "Oscars Correspondent Contest." As part of their prize, they have earned a spot on the red carpet for the 83rd Academy Awards® arrivals tomorrow, February 27, and will have access to the backstage press rooms and the Governors Ball.

Oscar® coverage from the winning team will be posted on mtvU.com and MTVNews.com the week of February 28. With all this excitement, how will they even be able to find time to write?

"Luz and Philip made a strong impression with the Academy selection panel and the online voters. I know they will represent the college community well," said Academy President Tom Sherak. "They are in for an unforgettable experience – the red carpet at the Oscars is like no place else on earth."

Pena and Robibero beat out teams of college journalists from across the nation to win this opportunity. The Academy and mtvU selected an initial group of ten semifinalists from the contest entries. Those ten semifinalists competed in an online vote, after which the field was narrowed to three.

The three finalist teams were brought to Los Angeles, where they have been covering Academy Awards pre-events, including the Animated Feature Symposium, Foreign Language Film Award Nominees Photo Op, the Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Symposium, and the Governors Ball preview.

The winning team was selected following a second mtvU online poll and an evaluation by the Academy and a panel of entertainment news professionals. The panel was composed of Brooke Anderson, co-host of HLN's "Showbiz Tonight"; Sandy Cohen from the Associated Press; and Adam Weissler from "Extra."

Runners-up Blake Mitchell and David Torcivia from the University of Georgia and Sarah Erickson and Joel Kutz from the University of Southern California earned bleacher seats along the red carpet, where they will watch guest arrivals, and received admission to the 2011 Bleacher Fan Oscar Viewing Party at the historic El Capitan Theatre.

The Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre and televised live on the ABC Television Network at 8:30pm ET. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

See also:  
Watch Oscars 2011 Opening Movie
10 Academy Awards Articles to Read to Prepare for Oscars 2011
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The 2011 Academy Awards air live tomorrow night, Sunday, February 27th, 2011. If you haven't been fully keeping up on the Oscars and want a little more information on the nominees or the show, here are some recent articles that will make you an Academy Awards expert.

1. Video Clips of Nominated pictures, actors, actresses and The Road to the Oscars - Entertainment Weekly

2. Oscar Producers say Show comes with Youthful Edge - Reuters

3. Three Ways to Enhance Your Oscar Viewing Experience - Time:Techland

4. At Oscars, Drama Can Stem From Seating Arrangement - NPR

5. Oscars 2011: Now even the Academy Awards Broadcast has its own Spoilers - Washington Post

6. Black Swan: Analyzing the Mother-Daughter Relationship - Huffington Post

7. Academy Awards: How the Nominations and Voting Work - The Envelope: The Awards Insider

8. Oscars Buzz: And Social Media Monitoring Says the Winner Is... [Infographic] - Wired Epicenter

9. Oscar Passes the Torch to Next Generation - The Vancouver Sun

Oscars 2011: How 'The Social Network' Could Still Win (But Probably Won't) - The Atlantic

Edited to add: I just watched this video of Ellen and Neil Patrick Harris acting out some of the Best Picture Nominees and had to share it:



I will be on Twitter during the Oscars telecast @jenwag57. If you're on Twitter also, let me know, I'd love to chat with you.

See also:  
42 Movies for Teens 2011  
Watch Oscars 2011 Opening Movie
Academy Awards MTVU Oscars Contest won by 2 Hofstra Students
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If you wanted to make a classic rock version of the popular board game Monopoly, could you choose a better band to use than the Grateful Dead? Forgetting their music, which lives on for decades and their legions of fans which keeps on growing, what other band has better art work than the Dead? Thus, the birth of Grateful DeadOlopy.

Creation
Having been somewhat of a Deadhead in my youth (only went to about 8 Dead concerts), I was so excited to see Grateful DeadOpoly at Toy Fair 2011 recently. I met the creator, Debbie Gold, a music insider and Dead confidant. Illustrations for the game were done by Timothy Truman with contributions from Bob Weir and Steve Parish.

The Game
After the really cool artwork, my favorite part of the game was reading the directions. Yes, usually the part you can't wait to get through, these directions are filled with Grateful Dead terminology. The same holds true for the cards on the board, which are now Grateful Dead and Karma cards.

As you go around the board, you land on Grateful Dead albums, not street names. The most expensive spots, or the Boardwalk and Park Place of this game, are American Beauty and Workingman's Dead. I think that is appropriate, don't you? Instead of jail, the corner spots to avoid are "Off the bus" or "The Parking Lot".

I can't wait until my son gets home from college to have a family game night with Grateful DeadOpoly. He became a Grateful Dead fan when he discovered classic rock. Could there be a better game for parents and teens to connect over? Get Grateful DeadOpoly at Amazon for a fantastic gift for Dead fans of any age.

What other classic bands do you think would made good monopoly games?

See also: Album Covers - A Lost Art

Full Disclosure: I received a game for free for review purposes. This did not affect my opinion or review in any way.

See also:  
Nanoblocks for Teenagers and Adults
10 Games for Teens from Toy Fair 2011
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Goalforit.com is a very unique website. It is a program that allows you to set goals for yourself. You can also set up chore charts and behavior charts for your kids, tweens and teens and to-do lists for yourself. And, there is even a social networking component to the site.

Goalforit.com is also extremely easy to use. When creating your charts, you are presented with charts with many common goals, chores or behaviors already filled in. You check the ones you want to keep, and then add in any unique goals, chores or behaviors and you are done. You can choose to get email reminders either daily, weekly, monthly or not at all.

What I love most about Goalforit.com, is that in addition to the Daily Goals Chart and To Do lists that you can set up for yourself, Goalforit.com offers a great Chore Chart and Behavior Chart for your kids. And the creators were savvy enough to make separate charts for children and teenagers. Not only are there different types of chores or behaviors on the tween/teen chart than on the child chart, but they have an altogether different look to them.

The social networking aspect of Goalforit.com can really make the site interesting. First off, you have total control over which of your information you want to be made public or private. You can make friends on the site and message each other and have news of their accomplishments stream into your news feed. Even if you want total privacy, and don't make friends, you can still browse the goals and lists made public by others. This is a great way to discover goals that you might not have even realized you wanted to achieve.

Even if you don't have a family, Goalforit.com is a fun, easy and very useful program to help you achieve your goals. If you do have children, tweens or teenagers, then Goalforit.com is a completely all-inclusive program to help you achieve both personal and family goals. Either way, it is worth a try. Did it forget to mention that Goalforit.com is completely free?

Full Disclosure: I was paid to try Goalforit.com and write a review of it. My opinions are my own.
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If you don't think that education or vocabulary can be fun, then try Knoword. It is a fun, fast-paced game that tests your knowledge of vocabulary. And since your answers aren't spell-checked, spelling is tested also.

The rules of the game are simple. You are given a dictionary definition and the first letter of the word and you must type in the rest, while a timer is going. You keep going until you miss or skip a certain number of words or time runs out. It is incredibly addicting, but so educational, you won't care.

Knoword is great for any age from teenagers on up. It would be fun for teens and parents to take turns playing and compare scores. In addition to vocabulary and spelling, you are also advancing your analytical and typing skills. You can become a member (free, and optional) of Knoword. If you do, you get to have your play ranked against other members and can suggest new words for the game.

If you don't believe that an educational game can be so fun and addictive, go try Knoword now. When you finally come up for air, please come back and comment and let us know what you think of the game.

See also: Education and Technology #140edu Conference Day 2

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Pajama Jeans are becoming part of pop culture. You can't watch TV or spend time on twitter without hearing reference to them (see video below). Since I love to keep up with pop culture, and the idea of wearing a pair of jeans that are both comfortable and look great sounded too good to be true, I decided it was time for me to try out a pair of Pajama Jeans for myself.

I was not expecting to be happy with the results. First of all, I never buy jeans without trying them on first. Here I was picking them out online, with the sizing not very precise - S, M, L, XL, etc. Not numbered sizes that I am used to. When they came, I saw that they were pull on, no zipper or snap. I pulled them on, hoping for the best and walked over to my full length mirror. I looked better in my Pajama Jeans than I ever thought possible.

Not to rely on only my own view, I asked my husband what he thought. When they originally came, he had laughed at the idea of them. However, he told me that he thought I looked better in the Pajama Jeans than any of my regular jeans. And they are as comfortable as sweat pants. You really could hang around the house in them all day, and then go out in them at night.

Pajama Jeans are a great invention and are perfect for me. I work from home and wear sweatpants all day. When I want to run out to do errands, I have to change. Now, with my Pajama Jeans, I won't need to. I am so glad that all the hype about Pajama Jeans finally got me to try a pair. I definitely recommend them.

Watch this video to see some TV talk about Pajama Jeans:


Full Disclosure: I received a free pair of Pajama Jeans for review purposes. This is no way influenced my opinion or review.
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If you carry around an iPhone with a camera included, is there really any reason to also own an actual camera? If your answer is yes, because you think the quality of the photos are better, you  might want to read the new book, Create Great iPhone Photos: apps, Tips, Tricks, and Effects.

I've owned an iPhone for the past couple of years. The quality of the pictures I've taken are all over the board. That is because I never thought of it as quality camera so I never bothered learning how to use it properly. Then I read, Create Great iPhone Photos, and I saw how wrong I'd been.

Written by Allen Hoffman, technology writer and photoblogger, this book is for anyone from new iPhone owners to aspiring photographers. A sample of some of the many things you will learn to do right on your iPhone are:

• Edit photos with apps
• Apply filters and effects
• Manipulate images with photo apps
• Publish and share photos directly from your phone
• Unlock the secrets of the iPhone camera
• Find the best iPhone apps for cropping, contrast and exposure and panoramic photos

New and inexperienced iPhone camera users will get a great deal just out of the first two chapters on "iPhone Camera Essentials" and "Customizing your iPhone Camera". After that comes the chapters on making your photos interesting, special or just plain amazing.

With all the new technology lately, we are carrying around too many gadgets. Why carry any that you don't need. If you own an iPhone, you have a perfectly good camera, as long as you know how to put it to good use. Create Great iPhone Photos: apps, Tips, Tricks, and Effects will help you do just that.

Full Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book to review.

 See also: LiveOn Stores Memories Forever

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The Girl Scout Research Institute put together a joint webinar with Pew Internet on trends in teen communication trends and social website use. The webinar also include's findings on social network site use among teenage girls, from the Girl Scout Research Institute.

Pew Internet/Girl Scout Joint Webinar on Social Media

View more presentations from Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

The webinar was presented by Kristen Purcell and can be found at the Pew Internet & American life Project website. At the Pew Internet website, you can download the above slides as a PowerPoint of PDF. To find more reseach reports, presentations and infographics related to teenagers, go to the Pew Internet Teens page.

Did anything surprise you in these findings?

See also:  
Teens and Technology - Myths vs. Reality 
Common Sense Media Launches 'Do Not Track Kids' Campaign
Misconceptions About Foursquare

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Article first published as Book Review: Final Jeopardy: Man vs. Machine and the Quest to Know Everything by Stephen Baker on Blogcritics.

This is it. IBM's Watson is about to face off against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter on Jeopardy in a man vs. machine showdown airing Monday through Wednesday, February 14-16, 2011. If you would like to read the utterly absorbing and fascinating behind-the-scenes story, then I highly recommend Stephen Baker's new book Final Jeopardy: Man vs. Machine and the Quest to Know Everything.

The previous IBM challenge, when Deep Blue bested chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, was nothing compared to this. Jeopardy is a unique game that requires much more than a knowledge of facts. Final Jeopardy contains many hilarious stories of some of Watson's absurd answers due to misunderstanding the Jeopardy answers.

Final Jeopardy takes the reader on the entire journey, from when IBM came up with the idea to build a computer for a Jeopardy challenge, until the game is played. Readers will learn:

1. The Idea - How IBM came up with the idea for a Jeopardy challenge and what it saw as the biggest challenges and risks.

2. Jeopardy - The history of Jeopardy, its producer and contestants and how the game show wound up with its unique answer/question style.

3. Creation and Education - The creation and education of the Watson computer (originally called Blue J). The education was constant throughout as the team, led by David Ferucci, learned Watson's faults through mock games.

4. Physical Needs - The decisions of how to represent Watson on stage (giving Watson a face) and how it would buzz in (giving Watson a hand).

5. AI - Artificial Intelligence research and how Watson's team dealt with difficult categories of clues.

6. Tournament - How the show was almost called off. Originally Watson was slated to be part of the tournament of champions but so many problems came up that the only way to have a Watson on Jeoparday was to do a separate tournament.

7. Jobs for Watson - What else can Watson do? It would be a waste if Watson was only used for a game show. After this, what can Watson, and its prototypes, do in the real world? Many interesting examples are discussed.

Now that I've read Final Jeopardy, I couldn't imagine watching the tournament without knowing the back story. This book is a must read for fans of Jeopardy or those with a background in computers. However I recommend it to anyone that watches the tournament.

On February 17, 2011, the Final Jeopardy goes on sale in its entirety. Until then, you can purchase the Kindle version of Final Jeopardy: Man vs. Machine and the Quest to Know Everything minus the final chapter "The Game". Then, on the 17th, the final chapter will be sent to you to download.

For more information, see my interview with the author of Final Jeopardy, Stephen Baker. Enjoy the Jeopardy tournament. I for one, can not wait to watch. Who do you think will win? Watson, Rutter or Jennings?


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Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy is a Lifetime movie set to premiere on Monday, February 21, 2011 at 9pm. Whether or not it will air is the big question right now as lawyers for Amanda Knox are trying to prevent it from being shown. From my viewing of the movie and reading about the case online, the movie seemed to seemed to fairly accurately represent the facts and everything on record.

When I sat down to watch the screener of this Lifetime movie, I actually knew nothing about Amanda Knox. I had never read one word about the case. I found the movie, starring Hayden Panettiere (Heroes, I Love You Beth Cooper) to be extremely interesting and very well acted. Marcia Gay Harden (Pollock) co-stars as Amanda's mother.

For those of you who also are not familiar with the case, Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy, is based on the international headline-grabbing story of Amanda Knox, an American exchange student, accused by Italian authorities of brutally killing her roommate.  The movie poses the question of whether Knox, with her boyfriend, actually committed the crime, or was herself a victim.

After watching the movie, I immediately began an online search of the murder and the people involved. I was surprised at how in sync the information was. I came away with the same feelings as to guilt or innocence from the movie as I did to reading everything I could find online. And since the real life case was so mesmerizing, the movie was exciting without the need to embellish.

Immediately after the movie, at 11pm, Lifetime will premiere a documentary, Beyond the headlines: Amanda Knox. Featuring Amanda's parents and friends, as well as investigators, prosecutors and legal scholars, it takes the viewers inside Italy's justice system and what it's like to be locked up and convicted in another country. The documentary will also look at the evidence and allegations and look at what Amanda Knox's role might have been.

Both the movie, Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy and the documentary, Beyond the Headlines: Amanda Knox, will air for the first time on Monday February 21 at 9pm ET. After you watch it, please come back and let us know what you think.

.See also: Five: All Star Cast in Breast Cancer Anthology on Lifetime

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Technology is changing the face of education and video games are leading the way. There has been a great deal of evidence showing that videogame creation has become a powerful learning tool. Gamestar Mechanic, a game-based learning platform that teaches the principles of game design in an engaging and creative environment, taps into the natural passion of youth for playing and making games.

What is Gamestar Mechanic?
Gamestar Mechanic, a product of the non-profit Institute of Play and publisher E-Line Media, launched in November 2010. By using this free website (optional premium membership offered) students develop technological, artistic, cognitive, social and linguistic skills. Game building also provides a powerful motivation for learning critical STEM (Science, Technology,Engineering and Math) skills.

Who is Gamestar Mechanic for?
Gamestar Mechanic was created for 7-14 year olds, however it is usable by almost anyone. In fact, they encourage older siblings or parents to use the website also. Everything has been designed in a very gender neutral way so that the characters, narrative and gameplay will appeal to girls as much as boys.

How does Gamestar Mechanic work?
Players begin by playing a Quest game that helps them learn the principles of game design. Once they reach a certain level of mastery, they can begin designing their own original games. After they've created games they can publish, review and collaborate on games through the share feature.

Gamestar Mechanic hosts monthly game design competitions. In addition to these, many players can also enter two national game design competitions, the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and the National STEM Video Game Challenge.

Gamestar Mechanic is not only used by many families at home. It is also designed for and used by schools, after-school programs, home schools, libraries, community centers, museums and camps. The game is browser based, so no downloads are necessary.
 
You can find out more and see how it works yourself on the Game Mechanic website. There are sections for parents and teachers that answer frequently asked questions. It's time that parents see that both creating and playing video games can be put to good use. See the new book, Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World for reasons why even playing video games have great benefits.

See also:  
LittleBigPlanet 2: Most Creative Video Game For All Ages
Education and Technology #140edu Conference Day 2
Lessons From a Tech Savvy Education Conference 140edu Day 1
Moms Talk Video Games at PopCap Luncheon
Game Design Programs for Teens Create Innovative Learning Experiences 
Online Video Games Can Improve Our World

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Bar Karma is a revolutionary new television series that will be viewable online at Current TV. I previewed the first episode yesterday during Social Media Week, and I couldn't wait to share it because it was both phenomenal and newsworthy. The first episode of Bar Karma will premiere Friday, February 11, 2011 at 10pm ET.

Why newsworthy? Because Bar Karma is the first ever community-based TV series. Anybody, including you, can sign up online to help decide the creative direction of Bar Karma. This is the main reason that Bar Karma is on the Internet and not on network TV. When the creators pitched the show to the networks, they could not conceive of such a thing.

Bar Karma consists of 30-minute episodes very similar in style to The Twilight Zone and raising many of the questions of Lost. In fact, the professional writers on the staff came from shows such as Battlestar Galactica, CSI and Fringe. I was on the edge of my seat the entire show and can't wait to see the next episode.

 "Bar Karma is a half-hour TV show that answers the age-old question: “What would happen if you could change your fate?” Set in a time-traveling bar owned and operated by members of a mysterious organization, the series follows a new bar patron each week as they enter at happy hour and must make life-changing...and possibly world-saving…decisions."

Bar Karma was created and produced by legendary game creator Will Wright (creator of The Sims, Sim City, Spore) and Albie Hecht (Spike TV, Nickelodeon). It stars William Sanderson (“True Blood,” “Lost,” "Deadwood") as James, the 20,000 year-old bartender,  Matthew Humphreys (“Obsessed,” “Big Love,” “The Forgotten”) as bar owner DougJones, and Cassie Howarth (“Deranged High,” “Deathclock”) as the lone waitress, Dayna.

This video will show you more about both Bar Karma the show and the process:


How does the Community work? Creation Studios uses Will Wright's StoryMaker Engine. The producers ask for ideas in the form of challenges. You choose a challenge that interests you and submit or "pitch" your idea. Then, everybody votes on the ideas and the best rise to the top, so even if your pitches are never chosen, or you don't enter any, just by voting you are influencing the show. Fine out more about the Bar Karma pitch process. There is also and iPhone and iPad app that can be used.

Whether you want to contribute or not, I highly recommend watching Bar Karma. The creators said that they wanted to make a TV series with karmic undertones and a lot of mythology, but also make it good TV. In my opinion, they more than succeeded.  Don't forget to go to Current TV to watch Bar Karma on Friday night.

See also:  
Falling Skies Trailer, Comic, Synopsis and More
New ABC Dramas Once Upon a Time and Charlies Angels

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On Thursday, February 10th, 2011, the much anticipated iPhone 4 on Verizon will be available in stores nationwide. Whether you are considering switching now, or this summer when the alleged iPhone 5 is due out, here are some tips to consider before switching wireless providers. These tips are designed to help ensure a smooth transition.

1. If you want to keep and transfer your current phone number to your new device, do not cancel your current service provider just yet: Your current account and phone number MUST be kept active until a Verizon Wireless sales representative transfers your current, active number to your new account during the sales transaction. Once this happens, your former carrier will be notified that your account is now terminated, and your friends, family and business contacts can continue to reach you at the same number they all know

2.  Don’t erase your contacts; keep your contacts in your current phone for easier transfer: Depending on your current device, there are applications and programs available to move your contact information to your new phone wirelessly. For example, if you’re already an iPhone user, your contacts will sync automatically via iTunes.

3.  Turn that old phone into a gift card, or donate it to a great cause: When you’re making a new purchase, you have two great options for that used phone:

·         Take advantage of the Verizon Wireless trade-in program: Regardless of carrier, Verizon Wireless accept all devices and models. You can use the website (www.trade-in.vzw.com) to get an idea of how much your device is worth and receive a Verizon Wireless gift card for its estimated value. For example, a 32GB iPhone 4 in good condition has an appraised value of $285

·         Donate your no-longer-used phone to the Verizon Wireless HopeLine program: HopeLine recycles no-longer-used phones from any carrier and uses the proceeds to provide wireless devices, airtime and grants to local domestic violence shelters. You’ll be helping someone in need and doing your part for the environment

 4.  Pick service plans that best fit your family’s lifestyle: Unlike competitors, Verizon Wireless will offer an unlimited data plan with its iPhone 4 for $29.99/month. You might also want to consider moving your whole family to Verizon Wireless to take advantage of cost-saving Family SharePlans. A Family SharePlan with Friends & Family will shave money off your bill and allow you to pool minutes, texts and more on up to five handsets

Living in New York, where AT&T has very spotty reception, my family is definitely making the switch to Verizon. However, we can't decide whether to make it now, or when the next generation iPhone comes out, most likely in June. What do you think?

See also: 5 Reasons I Love Verizon FiOS

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Did you see the Super Bowl commercial for the upcoming Steven Spielberg series, Terra Nova? It looked like a movie. And it looked exciting. When I saw that Terra Nova is going to be a new TV series, my first thought was, maybe we'll have a new "Lost". If you mix in Jurassic Park, and make it a weekly television series, that might describe what the promo for Terra Nova looked like.

According to Fox, Terra Nova is an epic family adventure. (Which means, great for families to connect). It begins in the year 2149 when the Earth is dying. Scientists discover a portal into primeval history and make a plan to resettle humanity in the past.

The Shannon family is part of the tenth pilgrimage to the first colony of settlers, Terra Nova. Once there, they find that Terra Nova is not as idyllic as it originally seemed. There is danger not only from the man eating dinosaurs, but also from a splinter colony of renegades. Jason O'Mara (Life on Mars) stars as the devoted father with the complicated past.

Watch trailer here:


As far as scheduling, Fox is debuting Terra Nova in the same fashion that it rolled it Glee. Terra Nova will have a special 2-night premiere on Money and Tuesday, May 23 and 24, 2011, just as the 2010-2011 TV season ends. Then, Terra Nova will officially premier in the fall of 2011. The buzz should get everyone talking about Terra Nova all summer. It certainly worked for Glee. 

See also:  
Falling Skies Trailer, Comic, Synopsis and More
New ABC Dramas Once Upon a Time and Charlies Angels

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