john hawks weblog

paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

Coming attractions

Sat, 2007-03-03 15:51 -- John Hawks

This has got to have more potential than that movie, Homo erectus:

March 3, 2007 -- ABC is turning the Geico caveman ads into a half-hour sitcom.

"Cavemen" will revolve around three pre-historic men who must battle prejudice as they attempt to live as normal thirtysomethings in modern Atlanta.

Various smart-aleck remarks:

In their defamation lawsuit, the cavemen retain Denny Crane.

BRUNO TONIOLI: "That tango WAS A LATIN PLEISTOCENE DREAM!"

I can't wait to see how they react to typing 4,8, 15, 16, 23, 42 again and again...

IZZIE: (fighting back tears) "We tried, but there just aren't any matching donors for a new caveman heart..."

Next week, in a touching episode of Ugly Betty...

Three words: Caveman Wife Swap...

Meanwhile, further down in the story:

Few TV shows have come out of the commercial sphere, but it's not without precedence: The 2002 CBS comedy "Baby Bob" revolved around a talking baby character that was first seen in a series of dot.com ads.

I've got to figure it's a bad thing if your Variety story mentions the words, "Baby Bob".

Neandertals

For years, I've worked on their bones. Now I'm working on their genes. Read more about the science studying these ancient people.

Denisova

From a finger bone of an ancient human came the record of a completely unexpected population. My lab is working on the science of the Denisova genome.

Acceleration

The advent of agriculture caused natural selection to speed up greatly in humans. We're uncovering some of the ways that populations have rapidly changed during the last 10,000 years.

Malapa

Just outside Johannesburg, the Malapa site is producing some of the most exciting finds in human evolution. This site is the headquarters of the Malapa Soft Tissue Project.