Someone working for The WB is really smart. I just got this week's copy of Entertainment Weekly in the mail, and there's an ad for a new WB show coming this fall called "Jack and Bobby," about two brothers. In 2041, one of them will be President. Now, they're in high school. Anyway. The ad has a tear-out folder with a DVD of the entire first episode. I'm about 12 minutes in. It's pretty good. I'm interested. This is really, really smart. Because there's a pretty good chance I wouldn't be watching The WB on September 12th at 9pm, to catch the first episode of this show, because, really, even though the premise sounds OK, why would I make it a point to watch it? But you give me a DVD of the episode, and, hey, it's Saturday afternoon, what else am I doing, it's a cool gimmick, I'll gladly give it a shot. And, more important, it's good. It's compelling. I like it. So maybe I'll actually seek out episode 2. Without the DVD: I'm probably not a viewer, even if the show turns out to be awesome. With the DVD: at least you've given the show a chance to hook me. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. But I think this is a really smart thing to have done. Probably crazy-expensive, compared to normal stuff like just the ad. But I think it's going to prove worth it. Very very cool. Whoever came up with this idea should be running the network. Just my opinion.

UPDATE: 25 minutes in. This is a cool, cool show. Assuming this is in the newsstand copies, not just the subscriber copies (page 39, if you're checking), I think it's worth the price of the magazine alone.