Special TV-Garfield TV Specials

So as I talked about before, June will be Garfield’s 40th anniversary. Since I talked about the comic strip last time, what to discuss this time? How about all the TV specials? Truth is I have hardly discussed them, and to be even more honest I barely remember them! Mostly because, I was not a fan of them (holiday one’s aside). They just never grabbed me, and in fact I remember the books these specials were adapted into more than the shows themselves. I think I had most of them. They were mostly in the 80’s and I never understood why they stopped. Though I supposed you could argue the Saturday Morning Cartoon had something to do with that. Still that’s eleven specials over ten years, pretty good! Man, I miss the days when the networks would put an animated special on just because.

Now since others smarter and wiser than I have done thorough retrospectives on these, this not going to be a thorough overview. Just quickly go over the premise and what I thought of it. They’re all on YouTube so feel free to hunt them down and check them out!








Plot:When Garfield and Odie are caught by a dog catcher, Garfield escapes. But Odie doesn’t. Does Garfield decide to go back for him? Of course he does and just in time to find out Odie is to be put down (you read that right).

Comments:This is the first special aired, and you can tell because the voices aren’t the same. Well ok it is Lorenzo Music doing Garfield, but Jon is a different actor. Also the designs are clearly early 80’s Garfield. Right away we have Lou Rawls who did songs for all of these. Also doing some voices an singing is Desirée Goyette. Man do we need talk about her! But first, what did I think of this? It feels like a Garfield strip animated into a TV show so it’s good. It hits all the notes a Garfield story should, and has a plot which is not overwhelming like some others will be. But the big thing with this is the scene where Odie is dragged away to be euthanized. This is THE SADDEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN. Not helped with Desiree’s haunting vocals singing over the scene. Goyette should be much more well respected than she is, not only does she sing in every one of these specials but she’s done some great voice over work. Not only did she do the voice of Nermal but her voice made the character click and become popular. So does Garfield save Odie? Of course! Thankfully the cell opens at the right moment allowing Garfield to escape and rescue Odie at the same time.

Just a quick unrelated nitpick, It’s a common thing in animation but I hate it when people call the pound on pets who are lawfully owned. That just drives me crazy. And why was Odie being put down so fast?

Grade-B, Good start except for the padding (yeah Rawls is awesome and a legend but what do those songs really ad? I wish he had just done the openings)

Five Favorite Commercial Gimmicks

I’ve talked a lot about commercials, and when you watch commercials for as long as I have you notice certain things. Some of just tricks that the advertisers use to make their product more appealing, and others are just plain gimmicks which have no place in reality but damn it looks so cool!


Here are five tricks advertisers use that I can’t help but chuckle at.

That works fast!!
I always roll my eyes at medicine commercials that show a person suffering from some malady. And then they get handed some medicine. The scene changes, and suddenly the person is saying they feel great. Um, am I really supposed to believe this ad? Obviously the actor just changed his tone and he was never sick.

I love this one, are we supposed to believe they really waited nine hours and had the lady come all the way back to film her feeling better? The nine hours later is about as reliable as a Frank Miller time stamp, I mean you can slap any time on there what difference does it make?

Top 5 Favorite Kenner Toy Lines

           

When you’re a kid you don’t care who is making the cool toys, you just play with them and love them. As I am older now I can’t believe how much I loved Kenner. They sold the best stuff! They were a small Cincinnati company that made Play Doh and Easy Bake Ovens. They came into popularity when they claimed the license to make toys based on a little sci fi movie in 1977 that no one else wanted. But we’ll get back to that. I had tons of there stuff. For instance one of my favorite toys ever (that I wish I still had) was a talking Knight Rider car. Guess who made that?

But that’s not all, here are the five best toy lines from Kenner that I loved as a kid.






#5.M.A.S.K.

Last year I mentioned the TV show and how it was pretty cool, even if it’s been forgotten these days. Usually its the show that get us into the toys but here it was the opposite. The vehicles were the best, being combination vehicles, two in one. For instance my favorite was Condor, a motorcycle which could also be a helicopter. Or Thunderhawk which was a red Chevrolet Camaro, which can transform into a gull-winged fighter jet. And while I never really understood what the Mask’s were supposed to do, they made the otherwise boring action figures look pretty darn cool.

A Look at Disney Anthology TV Openings

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I couldn’t come up with any anniversaries this year. Then I realized it was Garfield’s 40th. And then I realized it was Superman’s 80th. And hey guess who else has a birthday this year? Yes there’s yet another one later this year for a certain little mouse. Makes you wonder how much attention I pay to things when three icons I love have birthday’s this year and I didn’t realize it.

 

To be fair there is time for Mickey since he debuted November 18th, 1928. So consider this the start of a special celebration for my favorite little mouse. In that spirit,  I decided to finally do an idea I have wanted to do for a long time, but never quite came together. If there is one thing Disney used to do with their anthology TV shows was have wonderful openings that got your attention and got you excited. This was back when they had special shows rather than just owning everything.

Now I am not including any of the specific shows, just the anthology shows which would feature other shows, cartoons, and old movies (and the occasional brand new stuff). There are others who are more qualified to give a specific history of these, this is just for good fun. And they aren’t all great, like that awful World of Color opening (it’s in color we get it! Is that all we get for an hour? Color)? Or NBC's "Wonderful World" opening which felt rushed and half assed.



Good Morning Mickey
Ok, picture it. The year was around 1986. It’s early in the morning, you’re trying to get ready for school, so you put the Disney Channel on. And what do you see?

Yeah for what was just a collection of old cartoons this opening was so bright and upbeat in the morning that it kind of helped me to have a great day.

Five “Death of Superman” Stories

 

So as I’ve talked about a million times, The Death of Superman was part of an awesome storyline that I still love. The amazing thing was that not only did the death stick (for a time) but it wasn’t brought on by magic or Kryptonite. It was Superman literally fighting the monster to death! Nice to see the creators fight convention though you could argue that is even more preposterous.

Now of course, killing of Superman wasn’t THAT radical an idea. It’s been done before. What made this one work was the direction they took it. But I thought it would be fun today to talk about the other times in comics when Superman “died”. Now often it doesn’t get past a cover gag like these images :

Other times, the story will literally kill him. Only to either have it be undone or make it an “imaginary” story. But it seems real as we get a funeral and the works.

Here are five times Superman literally kicked the bucket (or at least seemed to).





Superman #149

I read this in the “Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told” trade and I have no idea why its there. Ok, let me start at the beginning. Back in the olden days DC would have “imaginary stories” where the creators did what they wanted with no ties to continuity. Sort of the precursor to Elseworld’s. In this Luthor appears to reform, until he double crosses Superman and literally kills him. We see him turn green from kryptonite poisoning and DIE. Man was this a depressing read! Of course it was fake, and written by Jerry Siegel himself so make of that what you will. Elsworld’s stories are famous for killing off as many regular characters they can, and Superman has died in lots of them from “Earth’s End” to “Kingdom”.

Top 5 Favorite Cartoon Mom’s

A looong time ago I listed my five favorite sitcom mothers. But of course mother’s are not specific to sitcom. What about animated shows? So in honor of Mother’s Day, here are my top five animated mother’s. One rule, they have to be TV animated Mom’s.

#5.Jane Jetson

Jane is a perfect “Donna Reed” style mom and that’s why she is on the top of the list. There isn’t anything “realistic” about her. She basically keeps house and takes care of the house. That doesn’t mean she’s a bad mom, by no means, but she’s also a little to perfect. Except for her driving skills which in today’s world seems a tad sexist.

Underrated Trek:Who Mourns for Adonais? (TOS)

Welcome back to Underrated Trek, where I take a special look at Star Trek episodes that I love…which may not be the most popular or even liked by most.Today we’re going back to the original series for an episode that I’ve wanted to talk about for a long time. And it’s one I’ve seen a million times even though it may not be the most popular or even liked by most. Hey….

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This is another episode, like “Defiant”, that I mentioned on a list of honorable mentions for the top 50 episodes of all time. As I said there it came at the point in Trek when every episode was great. So when you get Doomsday Machine, Amok Time, Journey to Babel and Mirror, Mirror it’s easy to forget this one. So what makes it so great? It’s thought provoking and I love watching it.  Let’s discuss:

 

Top 5 Superman Reveals His Identity to Lois Scenes

I talked a few weeks ago about how cool it the first time we see the reveal of a hero in a movie. But another cool thing is when we see the hero finally reveal his identity to a loved one. Of course no one owns this more than Superman!

Hard to believe that in the old days Lois Lane was just a nuisance. She was either trying to prove Clark’s secret or sabotage is attempts with other women. And somehow she had her own solo series for 100 issues, figure that one out! It wasn’t until the early 90’s she finally learned the secret (and I never loved how it was done) but it took and Lois became such a better character for me once she knew. Not only did we lose the “Superman tricking her” stuff but she become a source for Clark to confide in and talk to. Nor to mention helping once in awhile! Until The New 52…but that’s getting off topic.

So since they did it in the comics most TV and movies Lois usually does find out the secret and the reactions tend to range from shock to outrage to just plain thrilled. Here are my five favorite “Superman tells Lois” scenes. I had wanted to do more than five but there aren’t as many out there as you’d think.

#5.Superman:Doomsday
So I rented this out of curiosity, and man did I hate it. This was clearly the Animated Series version of The Death and Return of Superman and the plot was lame. I also hated that here, Lois was in love with Superman first and had no idea he was Clark. Yeah, that’s not how it’s supposed to work he is supposed to earn her love as Clark first. Anyway, the one moment I liked was the end when Superman finally drops the act. Lois gets it, and runs into his arms. By the way Anne Heche as Lois? Just no.