geekosystem

Today is Carl Sagan's birthday, which, if there were any justice in the world, would be celebrated in the fashion we've become accustomed to for nerds of note -- with a Google Doodle commemorating the day that one of the world's best and brightest science celebrities was expelled from the womb. As there is clearly no justice in the world, though, Sagan's birthday was overlooked by Google's legions of doodlers, who were no doubt exhausted by celebrating Bram Stoker's big 165 yesterday. I don't think we need to tell you why this is clearly unacceptable.

Fox has given the greenlight for a reboot of Carl Sagan's iconic TV series Cosmos, to be hosted by famous and well-respected astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. The show will be produced by none other than Seth MacFarlane. Yes, Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy will be the mind behind a 13-part docu-series to air in primetime as a successor to Sagan's original Emmy and Peabody Award winning series. For Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey, MacFarlane will be working with Sagan's original collaborators from the Cosmos: A Personal Voyage series that ran on PBS in 1980. These collaborators include Sagan's widow writer and producer Ann Druyan, and astrophysicist Steven Soter. The National Geographic Channel will co-produce Cosmos and will air a same-night encore of the episodes after they air on Fox. The program is expected to air in 2013, which is around the same time that Fox plans to launch MacFarlane's take on the Hanna-Barbera classic, The Flintstones.