William Shatner is not one to rest on his laurels. Since his first roles in Canada (his home), old Bill has constantly worked, whether it be on Star Trek, T.J. Hooker, Boston Legal, various TV and movie roles, books, commercials, and numerous convention appearances. In other words, anything for a buck.
Now that Boston Legal has come to an end, Shatner is working on something else. This time for the good old Interweb. Think Sopranos parody, Hollywood, and YouTube.
The project is The Gavones. Airing exclusively on YouTube, the animated series centers around Don Salmonella Gavone (voiced by William Shatner) and his Hollywood-based, Sopranos-like family. All that Don Salmonella wants to do is to chose a rightful heir from his quartet of sons. Unfortunately, all of his sons are, for lack of a better word, idiots. So, Don Salmonella gives them an ultimatum: cast their sister in a blockbuster Hollywood movie, or be removed from the competition. Of course, hilarity ensues.
The pilot episode, which introduces the Salmonella clan, is directed by William Shatner himself and is voiced by Shatner and members of his own family. Of course, I’m sure you groan and think Star Trek V: The Crappy One when you see the words ‘William Shatner’ and ‘directed’ in the same sentence. Yet, the first episode of The Gavones isn’t bad. Shatner and his gang do well voicing the characters, which are quite broad, and the concept is amusing. As Don Salmonella, Shatner does a good job of playing the raspy, elder head of a crime family.
Shatner has some big plans for The Gavones, which will run for 6-7 episodes. In a recent interview, the actor said that Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and Martin Scorsese could be making voice appearances on the series. While this would be a great snag for the webseries, it seems like the standard bluster we have all come to love about Shatner. I think fans would rather catch a new episode of the series. Especially since the pilot premiered about two months ago and the plans were to air a new episode twice a month.
It looks like that hasn’t happened and I hope it doesn’t mean the end of the series. Frankly, anything with Bill Shatner in it is okay in my book. Except for those Priceline commercials. Can’t stand those.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh5ZPuJT52E
Clacked by Richard Keller 
on Jul 23, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
Blah. I could live if never see the sequel.