On second thought I think I had that plush, I don't know where he is
Hey, I just posted this in My video game figure topic a couple days ago and I thought I'd repost it here and continue this topic I don't want to steal your thunder, I'll never be able to do that with this topic PB
OK, here is My next entry which it really is such a sweet bonus! It's My Super Mario Bros. Super Show!: Mario Meets Koopzilla on VHS! Once again, My Grandma got it for Me when I was at school via their nice Scholastic catalog (I got some really good things then so school wasn't as bad as it could've been, actually come to think of, there was actually some fun times to be honest and really that is no joke) in 1990! It's so pathetic the show only ran 1 season, I mean get outta here & get real, I loved that Capt. Lou Albano was Mario. This VHS is one of My most prized in My entire VHS collection and this Koopzilla episode is My favorite of the whole series! Here a couple special pics I took of it
As a treat, here is the entire episode from YouTube!
As a special bonus that has nothing to do with this particular episode, here is WWF/WWE Hall of Famer, the late great "Rowdy" Roddy Piper I loved the reunion he had with Albano...gosh he was great then and I miss him a lot
So there it is, I hope you enjoyed this PB
The Past isn't a Wilderness of Horrors - We Grow Old Because We Stop Playing - DTA - If it's been done in a movie, then most likely it's already been done in Real Life - ALWAYS Watch the Skies - Question Everything, FTW! = Me + Various <-->
I know everyone has been waiting with bated breath checking hourly to see, did he post cartoon #36 yet? Did he? Well, fear not faithful readers because away...we...go...
As a kid, I hated the Rubik's Cube. As an adult, I still do. Stupid little puzzle. Rubik's Cube was created by Ernő Rubik who worked at the Department of Interior Design at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest. Rumored to have been created as a teaching tool, his actual purpose was solving the structural problems of moving parts independently without the entire mechanism falling apart. But after he scrambled the cube he realized he had created a puzzle and applied for a patent for the design of his "Magic Cube" in 1975 but the cube wouldn't appear in the west until 1980
By 1981 the puzzle became so popular that it's estimated 200 million were sold worldwide from 1981-1983. If you're like me, dumb, you could probably only get one or two sides to line up properly and got bored with the damn thing and started peeling the stickers off and putting them back so each side had one color and when you realized that was dumb and you weren't fooling anyone because the stickers got more dog-eared than a Playboy Magazine in a treehouse clubhouse so you threw the abominable magic cube at your little brother--before appearing in stores, a lighter version of The Rubik's Cube was created, thus making it less of an ideal projectile, but still decent if you landed a corner.
Hulk smash stupid puny cube.
"They'll make a cartoon of just about anything!"--some parent, September 17th, 1983.
Rubik's, the Amazing Cube is what happens when cartoons about popular toys is stretched to it's inevitable limit. You see, Rubik is a magical creature, that when put into his solved form grows a head and appendages. Not much is ever explained beyond that because this show was destined to last only one season of 13 episodes, but we know Rubik fell off the stagecoach of an evil magician who apparently still rides around on a horse drawn stagecoach in 1983. Really? Does he roam the countryside actually sawing people in half and making little brothers disappear? Did George Hodel do magic? He's clearly evil, you see, because he has a beard with no mustache. Never trust a guy with a fuzzy chinstrap. I don't know, maybe he's an evil Amish magician?
For the record, I don't even have a little brother so not sure why I'm so fixated on inflicting punishment upon him.
So ol' Rubik literally just fell off the wagon (glug! glug!) into the awaiting arms of the Rodriquez kids, whom he would aid in solving everyday problems like bullying and saving the homes of orphans from greedy capitalists who want to build a mall or parking lot or something. That must've been a pretty popular 80's story because I remember an episode of Alvin and The Chipmunks, The A-Team, and Quantum Leap having similar plots, I guess ol' Joe McCarthy didn't weed out all Hollywood commies.
The theme song was done by Puerto Rican boy band, Menudo, but it's pre-Ricky Martin version so nobody really cares or remembers them.
And, you wouldn't know it because his voice is sped up to add a level of cuteness to it, but can you tell who does the voice of Rubik?
Rubok is just a smashup of popular characters of the day anyway, so why not take Horshack, toss in some Yoda and the Smurfs, mix in a little ET, shake and poor out a steaming pile of two legged animated crap. I get it, you want to sell toys you make commercials and cartoons. As we discussed before, Ronald Reagan and the FCC deregulated advertising to children so the floodgates of toy producers getting commercials and cartoons in front of children exploded. This of course was all fought against by ACT (Action For Children’s Television) a grassroots group that sought to improve educational programming for children in the 70's. They even paid for studies on psychology of advertising to children. And you know what they discovered?
Their findings? Children, especially younger ones, cannot differentiate between a cartoon and a commercial. Advertisers, including toy and junk food manufacturers, knew this. No kidding. They had to pay for studies on this? Newsflash: kids like crap. If you flash it in their face, they'll want it. Kids are the ultimate impulse buyer. Duh. But c'mon, give kids more credit then that, "they can't differentiate between commercials and a cartoon"? I refuse to believe even kids in the 70's were that stupid but then I stop and think about the age of people currently running the country and maybe they aren't far off. So what's it all about?
Reagan's philosophy stated that the market should dictate what's successful. If kids want it, give it to them. And boy did they ever in the 80s. But is there a limit? I get it, GI Joe? Yeah, we can make a cartoon out of that. Transforming robots? Let's start drawing! But who thought a cartoon about a puzzle block would be a good idea?
Was Rubik the worst cartoon of the 1980s? Probably not. Sadly, the 90s updated reboot using a more modern toy only lasted one episode.
To the best of my miniscule research, there isn't a DVD collection of the show, but you know what does exist? My son bought a Rubik's from a Walgreens when we were on vacation in August, and to our surprise he was quite adept at solving. Only he really wasn't.
That's right Steven, or is it Stefon, there is an app for that. You just take a picture of each of the six sides and the app will tell you step by step how to solve the puzzle, Vanna.
See, that's how it starts. First your phone can solve a Rubik's Cube and next thing you know it's taking over the satellites and sending robot Conan back in time to kill Linda Hamilton. Well, if it isn't too much to ask while he's back there do you suppose he could take out the creators of this show before it debuted?
What the hell is even going on there?
Indeed, fake Johnny, indeed. Finally, a Rubik's Cube I can handle.
"Somewhere in a lonely hotel room, there's a guy starting to realize that eternal fate has turned its back on him. It's 2 AM."
Well, the first 18 cartoons covered 6 pages in this thread, the next 18 covered 16 pages so I guess the discussion picked up a little (unlikely) or my submissions got really long (definitely). Maybe I'll keep going anyway or give up.
"Somewhere in a lonely hotel room, there's a guy starting to realize that eternal fate has turned its back on him. It's 2 AM."
I know everyone's been waiting to see the next lineup, no rhyme or reason on what I've selected, just all on a whim of whatever sounded familiar or forgettable...
Why do I still do this?
37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52
"Somewhere in a lonely hotel room, there's a guy starting to realize that eternal fate has turned its back on him. It's 2 AM."
Great stuff again on both of 'em, amazing how you put it all together, there's. to much to talk about but it's all good Something you ended it the way you did, I took pics of all of My Go-Bots and Rock Lords a couple months or so back, just haven't hot to posting them yet but soon
The Past isn't a Wilderness of Horrors - We Grow Old Because We Stop Playing - DTA - If it's been done in a movie, then most likely it's already been done in Real Life - ALWAYS Watch the Skies - Question Everything, FTW! = Me + Various <-->
I had a couple Gobots as a kid, but not many. The show wasn't on regularly around here but on the NYC channel, so I saw it infrequently. Tried putting in a few monster cartoons to hopefully get to before Halloween. Fingers crossed.
"Somewhere in a lonely hotel room, there's a guy starting to realize that eternal fate has turned its back on him. It's 2 AM."
If there's one thing we've learned from previous Hanna-Barbera cartoons is that once H & B find a successful formula they're not ashamed to take that formula copy it over and over again until you get a grainy Xerox copy that looks awful in comparison to the original success. In 1960 they struck gold with a cartoon about a modern stone age family, transporting modern conveniences into a caveman world with The Flinstones. Well, since that was so successful they took the modern family and flung them into the far future with The Jetsons. With such success, they made a third run at the theme starting on September 9, 1972 with cartoon #37...
When in Rome come and meet the Roman Holidays who are all introduced within the intro. The Holidays lived in the Venus DeMillo Arms Apartments under the watchful eye of the landlord, Mr. Evictus--that's a play on words, Virgil.
No,not you, Soul Train Jones. I'm talking about the ancient Roman poet, author of the Aeneid, and much later on, Dante's guide through Hell, Publius Vergilius Maro. So you'll notice many characters on The Roman Holidays would take modern names and words and simply add an "ia" or "us" at the end to Latinize them. So Augustus "Gus" Holiday worked at the Forum Construction Company for Mr. Tycoonius, and Hap's girlfriend had the very 70's Latin name of Groovia. All of this took place in approximately 63 AD in the time of Nero.
I said Nero, not De Niro, Bob, though all of Nero's murdering of family members was thankfully left off screen. Interestingly enough, 63 AD is one year before the Great Fire that reportedly burned for over a week and destroyed three of fourteen Roman districts and severely damaged seven more from which the expression that Nero "fiddled while Rome burned" derived, which is curious considering the fiddle wasn't invented until the 11th century. Suetonius and Cassius Dio alleged that Nero sang the "Sack of Ilium" in stage costume while the city burned. Tacitus wrote that some ancient accounts described the fire as an accident, while others had claimed that it was a plot of Nero. Tacitus is the only surviving source which does not blame Nero for starting the fire; he says he is "unsure". Pliny the Elder, Suetonius and Cassius Dio all wrote that Nero was responsible for the fire. Pliny the Elder? Personally, I prefer Pitt the Elder, but don't tell Barney.
According to Tacitus, Nero was in Antium during the fire. Upon hearing news of the fire, Nero returned to Rome to organize a relief effort, providing for the removal of bodies and debris, which he paid for from his own funds. After the fire Rome started a new urban development with houses better spaced out and built of brick (to stave off the Big bad Wolf). I'm not certain how long it took to rebuild Rome, but I'm betting it wasn't rebuilt in a day.
Aio! Tough crowd.
Evictus is always trying to catch the Holidays housing their pet lion, Brutus, so he can...well...evict them ("Mr. Evictus will evict us", Gus would say). Brutus is clearly a progenitor of Hanna-Barbera character, Snagglepuss, or an ancestor even, as both were voiced by Daws Butler and sounded an awful lot like Wizard of Oz actor Bert Lahr, so much so that Lahr once sued over a Kellog's commercial because the use of Snagglepuss might lead to people to believe Lahr had endorsed the product, and who would want to endorse something as controversial as cereal? (Would that make him an attempted cereal killer? --don't thumb me, Commodus!)
This lead to Daws Butler being one of the few voice actors to receive on screen credit for their commercial voice work. No word on whether the lawsuit told Kellog's to "put 'em up'.
Similar to The Flinstones and The Jetsons, The Roman Holidays used a lot of sight gags relevant to the era for laughs such as TV channels and credit cards using Roman Numerals, but missed opportunities to mine humorous Roman activities such as the persecution of Christians and crucifixions.
The Roman Holidays boasted an impressive cast including seasoned voiced actor Daws Butler, Stanley Livingston, I presume you might know from My Three Sons, Janet Waldo, who also voiced Judy Jetson, Josie of the Pussycats, Penelope Pitstop, and Princess from Battle of the Planets. The voice of Evictus was provided by none other than famous actor/comedian Dom DeLuise.
While The Roman Holidays didn't really break any new ground, and only lasted, like a lot of cartoons, one 13 episode season, it would later re-air as part of the USA Cartoon Express from where I first saw many older cartoons. It did, like many Hanna-Barbera cartoons of that era, have a brief Gold Key comics run of four issues.
Ah, quis custodiet ipsos custodes, Evictus?
Isn't Latin fun?
lorem Greendale, tu iam acceptae! The complete series of The Roman Holidays is available on DVD if this long soliloquy has piuqed anyone's interest. Speaking of long soliloquys, how about that one from famous Roman, Marc Antony. No, not the I Need to Know guy, but...
Oh those zany Romans. C'mon, take a stab at it....when in Rome...
Teehee, stab. Get it? Beware the jokes of me.
Congrats to 90 year old William Shatner for making it to the Final Frontier. No, he didn't die, he went in to space today thus officially now when he sings that he's a rock-et man, it'll be true.
Larga vida, William Shatner!
"Somewhere in a lonely hotel room, there's a guy starting to realize that eternal fate has turned its back on him. It's 2 AM."
The Past isn't a Wilderness of Horrors - We Grow Old Because We Stop Playing - DTA - If it's been done in a movie, then most likely it's already been done in Real Life - ALWAYS Watch the Skies - Question Everything, FTW! = Me + Various <-->
Thanks, I honestly wasn't sure where I was going to go with The Roman Holidays but once I started writing it just drove itself. I should have the next couple up faster as I want to get to them before Halloween.
"Somewhere in a lonely hotel room, there's a guy starting to realize that eternal fate has turned its back on him. It's 2 AM."
I don't want to steal your thunder, I'll never be able to do that with this topic PB 
I loved the reunion he had with Albano...gosh he was great then and I miss him a lot 
Something you ended it the way you did, I took pics of all of My Go-Bots and Rock Lords a couple months or so back, just haven't hot to posting them yet but soon 
