The Loud House: Season 2: Change of Heart /Making The Grade

Nickelodeon 

       We've done  a couple season 1 episodes halves of the Loud House  (which you can read here) so, It's time to do a couple season 2 episodes halves.  First there is a  rule that I didn't do in the first one for a good reason.   Since , season 2 has a few specials ( 2 holiday episodes and an hour long episode)  those wouldn't be counted for this. We'll maybe touch on the holiday specials around their respective holidays. 

     Like the last  TLH post we did it randomly in our episode picks so no bias in my picks  and makes it fun to go at  it raw.

         This is funny, the way the randomizer did it , this episode airs after the the other episode we are going to talk about.   This episode is the first half of episode 44 in the series over all. It aired on July 26th 2017.  Part of week of new episodes.

   
    Background of  the series and specifically the character Clyde.  Clyde has a thing for Lincoln's older sister Lori, he even the does the anime nose bleed thing around her. (gross) This episode starts with Clyde nose bleeding on Lori's shoes. (again ,gross)  It gives us a montage of Clyde doing that or the other thing he does where he's a robot and "system overloads" and still messes up her shoes with food. Lori , of course, is annoyed by this.  Clyde says he wants to act normal when  he's around Lori.


   Lincoln decides to get Leni, the 2nd oldest sister, to help with this situation. Lori sees Clyde and Leni hanging out with each other and she thinks that he's falling for  Leni. (I wonder what will happen) Lori's assumption makes her happy that maybe he's not interested in her anymore.   Lori then remembers the nice things Clyde did for her over time and this make her want to Clyde back. (what?)  Clyde  doing Leni's tips makes Lori think that he's not interested in her anymore.  Lori then over hears Clyde complementing Leni. (Who happens to be dressed like Lori at the time)

Clyde seems like he won the lottery but worried about the taxes

     Lori then decides to dress up to Leni. (If this was a different show  this would get dark)  Then she realizes  she doesn't need to do this  (very quickly too)  as Clyde comes over to try out the things he learned on Lori. Lori tells him that he's a special guy , but he nose bleeds on her shoes and passes out.  Lincoln explains the things she misheard and saw, then Clyde wakes up sees Lori and Leni (still dressed up like Lori) does his system overload thing and his nose bleed and leaves the house.

 more after the jump

The Loud House : Season 1 : Along Came a Sister/ Butterfly Effect

Nickelodeon 

      If you remember my "Arthur" lookbacks for the 20th anniversary, you know the structure of those where by random use I took an episode half from two seasons and did a look at them. Well we are doing the same here , but with a little difference. Since "The Loud House" hasn' t been on the air for 20 years (as of this writing) and only has so far 3 seasons (third just started in January)  we are going to look at two episodes from one season, in this case season 1.   So again this are random picks that  I used site to pick for me.  I had no say in which episodes would make it to this lucky lottery.

     Wait , what is the Loud House?
 
            The Loud House is an animated series about a family called the Louds  (they live in a house) they are an interesting family because the middle child. Lincoln is the only boy out of  11 kids. (Steady show) Episodes are about the characters and what ever antics bring them in a day.  This is the simplest description but the one that makes the most sense.

       For reference the sisters' names are in order of age  : Lori, Leni, Luan, Lynn Jr. (Lincoln goes between these two)  Lucy, Lana, Lola (Lana and Lola are twins) , Lisa, and Lilly.


     Season 1 premiered in 2016 on Nickelodeon it has 26 episodes (or 52 half episodes / 11 minutes )  All the episodes ran in 2016.

    Along Came a Sister   first aired on May 4th 2016 as part of a week of premieres when the show first started.   So let's take a look at the episode.   (finally , after all your yapping up there)

 

          The episode starts with Lincoln getting to watch the class spider for the weekend, he really wanted to watch it.  Lincoln takes Frank , the spider, home  and Clyde , Lincoln's best friend,  tells him that Leni , the second oldest sister, would be terrified of the spider.  Lincoln likes plans (he's the plan man) and sneaks into the house with Frank easily. He makes it to his room but we need something to happen let's see.... oh hey Lana.  Lana comes into the room to borrow something and she sees the spider and she's excited by it ,Lola and Lisa also get enamored  by our eight legged friend. (he's our friend? I don't know him)   The other sisters that aren't Leni finally all crowd in impressed by the spider repeatedly asking if Leni has seen it.   

Hey! You are breaking like 30 fire codes! / Copyright Viacom 

      Leni doesn't see it because the others did a good job at blocking the cage (container).  Frank gets out of the cage (they called it cage, leave me alone)  and so the mission is to find ole Frank before Leni does.  After trying to evade the non Leni sisters  they eventually figure out why he's acting weird after he tells them.  They join in the mission to find Frank. 

needed picture of the spider 

No they aren't disappointed by her smoothie./Copyright Viacom 

      Frank falls into Leni's cup and now she reacts to what their worries were by screaming then spraying bug spray. Poor Ole Frank is  dead.  (cries)  So the Loud siblings that aren't Leni  have a funeral. Leni overhears Lincoln defending her in the death of the spider.  Cliff the cat  coughs up a hairball that looks like the dead Frank, and they add 2+2 and well that's not Frank.  (Frank lives!)  Their father is heard screaming because spider. (He has a fear of them too)   He calls  the world's fastest exterminator ever. (Like one that is just to eager to kill) 

He seems a little too into his job/copyright Viacom

      The Louds find ways to stop exterminator while, Lincoln goes and looks for Frank.  When it looks like it's all over, there's a savior! Leni!  Leni saves Frank from the death and the kill happy exterminator leaves.  Lisa (the smartest sister)  then remarks it's strange that a girl spider is named Frank , Lincoln is surprised by that. (Hey Frank is a great girl name,)  Also Frank is pregnant.  Episode ends with Frank's babies scaring Leni. 

more after the jump 

Those PSA Episodes: Gone Wrong : Hey Kids , There are too many of you, so stop it!

PSA 
 
         You know some shows  were made to be your PSA show , like the whole show.  So that brings us to something that has been talked about by other people before, but hey we are talking about it.

                Our Show : Captain Planet
             What are they trying to tell the audience: There's too many People on Earth in 1991.


    Also fun fact : Captain Planet has two episodes about Population control! (why did we put an exclamation mark there?)

    We are looking at season 1 episode called  "Population Bomb"

          The episode starts with the Planeteers  or Kwame to me exact complaining that a city is crowded. (Which is like complaining that water is wet.)  Now a building is collapsing and they combine their powers to call Captain Planet.   He makes bad puns  and sticks the broken building piece back in.   So they have a theory on what caused this building to start breaking, there are too many people. (Forget building codes not being followed or not being checked, there are too many people instead.) The spirit of the Earth also hammers in that yes there too many people on Earth.  Linka says that everyone should have fewer children.  Gi, says that some countries "recommend" having no more than  two children.   Yes , recommend. (That's a weird way to spell force)  Wheeler says  no one can tell him how many children he can have!  ( Because of course )

   In fact, I'll start fight now! (Copyright Time Warner) 

            There was strange  awkward pause too.  Wheeler is now wind surfing and Gi tells him to watch out for a storm  and he goes eh I do what I want to do.  The storm gets bad and he ends up getting pushed into Island and gets hit in the head with his  wind board.( Guess that's the term) He says  a city and the Island is filled with rat people , who are rat sized.  They knock him out and his magic ring doesn't work because plot needs it not to work.   He meets a doctor named Piebald who stop the machine that was going to make Wheeler in to rat people chow.   Oh sorry they are mice-people, why are they mice because of  Nuclear stuff. The island is called  Miceland. (less decpetive than Greenland)    Back to our PSA message part of the show. Doctor Piebald tells him that they were simple happy folks and the island was full of food  then the mice reproduced like ummm mice.


        Apparently, the mice people built cities and cars  and things got worse and all the non mice animals were eaten or drove unto the sea. (What?)  They also tried to fish in the sea while also dumping their garbage in the sea.  The mice people keep reproducing anyway.  He once tried to tell the people that they can't keep having babies. ( Woah)  The mouse government didn't like this so he was taken away  and forced to work where  he is now not seeing his wife and child.

Stop having children! Vote for me! / Copyright Time Warner

      The mouse general finds out that there are other humans out there. Skipping unnecessary stuff.   The mouse general takes a giant net and captures  Linka and Kwame.  How do the mice have a a human sized net?  (Nobody knows)  They want the humans  to feed the mice people.  The doctor frees Wheeler.   Who does what can be done, grabs one of the army mice and threatens him.  (I am giant human, fear me!)  Again though, couldn't he just step on the mice army.   The other two are woken up  in their new spot.  Here's something , they wanted the humans for food I thought, then  why are they saying slaves?  The mice are confused, don't they need food and the humans could be ground up as food , so why make them slaves, instead of just chopping them up and getting on with grabbing more humans?   When one of the mice introduces Wheeler to their people he does mention that this would be their door to food, land, and slaves. I guess that answers none of questions.

Out of context shot/ copyright Time Warner

     The reason why Wheeler doesn't go crazy and just step on the mice all Godzilla style?  Well that's because he's trying to help Piebald.  The mice plan is to take over the Island the planeteers have.  Wheeler decides to just take Piebald run off with him while the people go crazy and riot.    Wheeler finds Piebald's wife and kid and leaves him there with them, then goes all King Kong on buildings.  Skipping stuff again.  Wheeler's ring works again  because plot and he saves  Kwame and Linka, and they unite their powers for Captain Planet. (lazy)

         C.P takes out the  mice army very easily. (duh)  More bad puns.  Wheeler gets shot by a giant beam and this causes an earthquake, and Wheeler goes to save Piebald and his family. Piebald says to Wheeler don't let this happen to you (don't let the government cause an earthquake and wipe out it's own people in the quest for hairless creatures?) don't let there more people than their world can hold.  Oh what?  This was a dream? That renders the whole episode moot.

    So episodes end with this Planeteer alert PSA thing, and it asks do you know there 5 Billion people on Earth. (hmm so this episode is a little old.)  I could count that against this episode, but that's unfair. Their message to their audience is when you have  a family : keep it small.

         Ummm, hey 8 year olds watching our show, yeah you!  There's too many people so don't have alot of children.
                 Jimmy about 25 years later: Sorry honey, but we can't have a third child.
                 Jimmy's wife: Why not?
                 Jimmy:  Because of something I saw 25 years ago.

   Let's rewind to  that part where Gi says the 2 child "recommendation" that some governments have. 
             3rd child watching the show starts crying.
             Parents walk in the room: What's wrong?
             3rd child : I'm a drain on society, I'm talking all the resources.
            Parents:  Who told you that?
            3rd :    Captain Planet.
            Parents:  Curse you Ted Turner! (Wave fists in their air  in anger)

 Alright , Jan, Peter, Marcia, and Bobby , you are cut from the bunch, can only have 2 children. 

Eight is too dang much... 

           My silly point is that this is a children's show  where children are the target audience so woah you are making this kind of awkward.    Now  this show had different information on things than we do now , so I am not going to fault it for being worried about there being more people before even more people appeared on Earth.   That'd be like attacking a show from 1955 for not  thinking people will get to be on the moon.   Again, back to that recommendation line  that was a stupid thing to say episode and you should be ashamed of that.  One country (you know)  used to have a policy where they told people are only allowed one child (which I am glad that  they didn't say 1 child , that would make more the children watching feel bad. ) and their birth rate already was falling so  when you have more older people and less younger people  umm oops.  And these "recommendations" weren't done because they cared about the Earth.

         Did it do it's PSA message clearly?  Sigh* Yes, it gave it's message  clearly with some entertainment value  trying to hammer in  it's message that there are too many people on Earth and this causes a fight for resources.  Either that, or this episode actually worked and we are living in the world post this episode that had an affect.
 
           Was it a good PSA?  No,  like anything it has to know it's audience and the audience of this show was primarily children  and it's not even the whole telling children not have so many children when they grow up thing, it's more a hey if you are in a big family or a family with more than 2 kids, you are hurting the Earth and are bad people.  Again, possibly unintentional but they should have thought that over a little.   Factually, families in the western/developed  countries have less kids than those who aren't so the message kind of loses it there.  Between 1960 to now, the average amount of kids an American family would have is three.  Yes some have more, some have enough for TLC and UP network reality series, but they aren't the average. (If it was TLC would have had a show with that strange family with only 4 kids) (Joke: Why is Ted Turner telling people to have less kids, wouldn't he want people to have more so they can grow up watching Ted Turner's TV channels, with more watching TNT than ever before?)

      Strangely,  of the two episodes in this series about over population, (what the?)  this one is the better of the two. That's a strange statement to say.

       
     
 

     

The Lookback: Those Freaky McGuires

The Flashback Disney 

     Since it's Friday the 13th (unless you aren't reading this on Friday the 13th , that's fine too.)  so the last one we looked at 1995 Disney TV movie remake of "Freaky Friday" you can read that here. So I think Disney really loves the idea of body swaps more than anyone else , even their TV series got into the fun , this time I head to one example from the great Disney Chanel Original series , "Lizzie McGuire"

      Silly personal story time : I remember when Disney Channel was first running these episodes they had a vote thing where you could vote for which Lizzie McGuire episode you wanted to air new first, and I was really hoping that one would.

            This episode is called "Those Freaky McGuires" get it?   It aired on TV on June 28th 2002 and was part of this series season 2.
 
    So the episode starts with Lizzie looking at shirt and seeing that it has her animated thoughts says it has last week's pizza stain.  Then she notices a lot of her shirts are messy and she blames her brother Matt and they squabble. (Which was kind of normal for this series)   In  a body swap movie or episode you have to set up the characters before they swap. Since this is a series that hopefully you've been watching  for sometime (they hope) that you should know the characters' personalities so that when the swap happens the fun comes from trying to see the characters try to be the other person.   Anyway, they swap bodies. (Also Lizzie's cartoon thought thing will be with her in Matt's body , so sadly no animated Matt.)

Ghost Swap/ Copyright Disney 

     After the theme song they are still screaming  in the surprise of being switched.   They try to figure how they switch back but we  have 20 minutes to go so no switch back.  Matt and Lizzie do the next best step : try to fake sick. (That doesn't even work)    They decide not to tell their parents because who believe them?

    Since this is a sitcom , the comedy comes from seeing two characters we know having to act like each other.  So Seeing 'Lizzie' be goofy  and 'Matt' being serious is fun. So Matt (we are going to call the characters by who they switched with so scenes with the Lizzie body we'll call Matt for now ,and vice-versa)  goes to school and Lizzie's friends Miranda and Gordo are surprised to see how she is dressed. Lizzie is dressed way out of normal for Matt and his friends tell that he put soap bubbles in the fountain. (Matt is  known as prankster.) Lizzie is surprised and knows that Matt didn't do it.

I dress the same way?  / Copyright Disney 

       Matt apparently gets along very well with Lizzie's crush , Ethan Kraft, and it's working out.  When Kate , the mean girl, confronts Matt  instead of  acting like Lizzie would  he knows how to handle her. Kate does get back but she doesn't know she's messing with Matt.  Meanwhile , Lizzie is upset she gets detention.  She tells Matt's friends Lanny and Melina  that she and Matt have switched bodies and those two believe it.

I believe it! /Copyright Disney 

     Matt warns Kate that's he's going to get back at her and does with a prank.   So Lizzie investigates who put the soap in the fountain.    Kate is upset that she's covered in chili. No one believes  her that Lizzie could have done that.  Back to the soap foot prints and apparently a boy named Clark Benson put soap in the fountain because he a grudge that Matt kept sneezing in his pudding. (gross)  Lizzie makes a promise that Matt won't ever do it again. 

So How was your day?/ Copyright Disney 

      School's over.  Matt tells Lizzie that she should be  more vicious with Kate. Lizzie tells  Matt that he has to stop sneezing in Clark's pudding.  Then it's sleep time they have a hard time resting but then guess what?  They switch back!   They do this thing were they won't ever acknowledge this happened.

      This episode didn't have the characters learn too much it's more a fun episode of what would happen if they switched bodies.  It does bring nice moments of Lizzie caring about her brother even though they fight they care about each other.  The good thing about having contrasting characters swap  bodies is that it's funny to see the characters not being their normal selves.  So Lizzie who is normally nervous around Ethan and Kate being more confident and Matt who's out going and the prankster being more reserved  is a fun touch.

   Tune in next time when we believe we have  a picture prefect plan.

   

CW Summer premieres announced

The CW   Summer TV 

     The CW  has released their summer programming premiere dates.  Returning for the summer Who's  Line is it Anyway?, My Last Days, Penn and Teller :Fool us,  and Masters of Illusion.  Summer also includes two new drama series :  The Outpost  and Burden of Truth.  Also, the season finale dates of   SuperGirl  and Life Sentence 

        Here are the dates  all times ET 

    Friday, May 25th
    8PM     My Last Days (Season Premiere)
    9PM    Life Sentence  (New Episode)
 
   Monday, June 4th
   8PM         SuperGirl (New Episode)
   9PM        Whose Line is it Anyway? (Cycle Premiere)
   9:30PM     Whose Line is it Anyway? (New Episode)

   Friday, June 15th
   8PM  TBD 
   9PM   Life Sentence (Season Finale)
 
    Monday, June 18th
    8PM   SuperGirl (season Finale)
    9PM    Whose Line is it Anyway (new episode)
    9:30     Whose Line is it Anyway  (encore episode)
 
    Monday, June 25th
    8PM   Penn & Teller : Fool US (Cycle premiere)
    9PM    Whose Line is it Anyway?  (New Episode )
    9:30     Whose Line is it Anyway?  (encore episode)
 
   Friday, June 29th
   8PM       Masters of Illusion (Cycle premiere)
   8:30PM  Masters of Illusion  (New Episode)
    9PM        Penn & Teller : Fool Us (Encore Episode)

  Tuesday, July 10th
  8PM  The Outpost (Series Premiere )
  9PM  The 100  (New Episode)

   Wednesday, July 11th
   8PM   Burden of Truth (Series Premiere)
   9PM    The Originals    (New Episode)

Press release after the jump

The Lookback : Alice in Wonderland with a really long title

The Flashback 


       This fits in to like 4 categories for us here : 1 ) it's Hanna-Barbera 2) It's kind of obscure 3) It's a cartoon (we seem to fall into animated television here)  4 ) It's random. What we are looking at this time is  Alice in Wonderland (don't grown , it's not the Disney movie, look we said H&B and we meant it). To be exact this is called :  " Alice in Wonderland (or What’s a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?) " it came out in 1966 , it's 48.5 minutes of  TV movie fun.

  Hanna-Barbera  found all stars for this movie as well, we have Sammy Davis Jr,  Don Messick,  Zsa Zsa Gabor , Mel Blanc (as Barney Rubble,  wait what?)  there's  Alan Reed as  Fred Flintstone (what?) .  And many more.

      So um let's get started... Of course the movie starts with Alice  and she has a dog named Fluff  playing in some 60's suburban neighborhood.  She has a book report on Alice in Wonderland to do, so this movie is not Alice in Wonderland it's some other Alice. Well. no wonder the title still makes no sense.  Not Alice , Alice's father tells her that she has to do her book report and that means no television. (Better finish it before 8, or no My 3 Sons)  Alice gets tripped by her dog and  she gets mad and throws  it to him to get him out of the room and it goes through the TV.   The ball is somehow absorbed into a portal through the TV ,then Fluff follows after the  ball into the TV.  Alice tries to see if Fluff really went into the TV and she ends up going through the TV.

Some people get way into TV/Copyright H/B

     First there's  a rabbit that she meets who is a bit off, then eventually after playing a bunch random games with her , he says he's in a hurry.  Alice also  needs help because she is gigantic so he gives her a cinnamon cake that can make her taller or smaller. (We used his rhyme because it works)  This movie is a musical as well , but they restrained themselves  until about 6 minutes in , when the rabbit sings that life is a game.  The rabbit remembers he's in a hurry and tells Alice to wizard of oz this movie and follow the un winding road.  (That rabbit didn't get the Beatles song right.) In fact even he says that they could have gotten a yellow brick road. (Confusing)

Closed Tuesdays /Copyright H/B

       The road appears out of nowhere and picks her up and she slides all the way to a sign that says "Welcome to Wonderland" ( North Dakota , not Wonderland , Ohio)  The Cheshire cat  (voiced by Sammy  Davis Jr.) shows us up  and says he knows where Fluff has gone. He didn't mean the dog so that was unhelpful.  He also says he's not a Cheshire cat. (Don't tell that credits that)   This means it is song time , name dropping the 2nd part of the title , What's  a nice kid like you doing in a place like this?
         

     The rabbit shows up with her dog, but he used her dog as a frame of reference to find her dog, she tries to tell him that dog his her dog  but he doesn't listen.  There's  tea party (woo hoo) coming up and the rabbit said he would be there.  The mad hatter is there  and he apparently knows everything about Alice. (which is strange, run Alice run!)  Him and his buddies are of no help and they disappear.   Alice hears a voice and it's Fred Flintstone who is attached to Barney Rubble as a two headed caterpillar.  (This sentence beats Alf goes to a strip club in oddest sentence I've ever wrote on this site)  Fred and Barney  get a song about them not being split up.  Otherwise Fred and Barney were no help. (Wilma!)

I don't wanna know what happened/ Copyright H/B 

         

       Alice hears a dog barking.(Maybe it's Fluff, who knows?) Yes she's back with Fluff until a knight scares him away.  He says he's a K-Night.. (playing the greatest hits on K-NIGHT 104.5)  The knight is a little sad , so this gives Alice a chance to have a song. (Forget the dog , I have  a song to do!)  The knight seems cheered up and he runs off without helping either.  The Rabbit is back and Alice chases after him. It's time to meet the queen. She gets a ride with the king who is driving a train to the queen's croquet game.  The game makes as much sense as anything else in this movie.  Queen Zsa Zsa Gabor makes Alice the tart girl to give tarts to the players, but then she says Alice should be thrown in jail. (Queen Zsa Zsa Gabor is ruthless)  Alice wanted a trial and it's what you expect.

Darling/ Copyright H/B

       Alice gets thrown in jail for 99 years but does reunite with Fluff. (so win!?)  Also Humpty ...sorry Humphrey Dumpty  is in jail.   Alice misses home so she gets to sing another song about her house. (That's what we needed)  Then the escape because Humpty-Humphrey had the key.  The guards and Queen Zsa Zsa chase her.  Alice makes it back, but the movie makes it look like a dream but then  we see everyone from Wonderland and they brought back Fluff.

I don't know what's going on/ copyright H/B 

    That's our lookback , tune in next time when we find out we can crawl into our TV but we eneded up in Springfield. 

 

The Look back: The Easter Bunny is Comin' to Town.

Easter The Flashback

          It is that time of year again and we have found another Easter special to cover here, which is good because these are far and few between.   This is one is special it has everything it's also a sequel in  away  to a Christmas special, so that even gives us more a reason to cover this.

     "The Easter Bunny is Coming' to Town" is  a stop motion special from Rankin Bass , yes that Rankin Bass ,  that came out in 1977 on the ABC network. Now how  is this special kind of a sequel?  Well S.D Kluger voiced by Fred Astraire is back he was the mailman on "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town".  This is the 3rd special for Easter by Rankin Bass as well.  Now let's start.

        So it starts like "Santa Claus' is Comin' to Town" with a news report  and  stock pictures leading to our stop motion world. (Darn it , there's a talking train, I quit)   S.D Kluger talks to the kids there waiting at the train station he's moved up he now delivers mail by train. (I want the special where he travels by plane.)   Apparently. the Easter Bunny gets mail, and some of the letters are questions about Easter Bunny and Easter questions because why not?  S.D is going to tell us about the Easter Bunny.    We also get a song!  Finally, an Easter song.

He's the magic mail man/ Copyright Rankin Bass

       This special has  the Rankin Bass standbys with the music being done by Maury Laws ,while Bass provides the lyrics to the songs. Romeo Muller is the writer.    There was a village called Kidville , because no one but children lived there. (I have like  9 questions)   S.D also lived in Kidville the town mail carrier. (I have 11 questions)  All the children are orphans who decided to just live there. (I have 12 questions) There was  a giant bear named Gadzooks (That's how I am going to spell it) who was a jerk and steal toys on Christmas, Halloween pumpkins , and Birthday cakes.

On wedding days, he steals the brides! /Copyright Rankin-Bass 

      They find a baby bunny ( redundant?) and the kids give him the name Sunny because he apparently likes the sun.  And this was Easter Morning.  Sunny grew up in the town and it's a year later. He wants the town to expand and thinks they should  distribute their wares around the  world.  (Darn Rabbits coming into villages and telling them to join the global economy... what?) One idea is to deliver eggs because they had the best eggs.  What comes first the chicken or the egg? That requires a song. This special answers that question,  the chicken came first and don't you defy the singing chickens!   (We write odd sentences on this blog.)
                               

Can't argue with them/ Copyright Rankin Bass 

      Sunny decides to boil their eggs to send the eggs so they don't break.  So he sets out and runs into Hallelujah H. Jones, a man who tells him a place called Town. (That's his name?  And Town called town)   He runs into Gadzooks because of course.   Sunny runs without the eggs to Town.  Which is an awful place everyone wears the same clothes and pretty flowers are outlawed.
              Prisoner 1: What are you in for?
              Prisoner 2: I had some carnations.
              Prisoner 1: Woah you're evil, stay away from me!
      Also in Town , children are against the law. ( I have 15 questions)  When a child is born there the whole family has to move away. (Glad they aren't taken out , umm then back to 12 questions)   The king named Bruce  the frail, is only 7 and his aunt , Lilly,  is the real power. (Even her face is painted evil)  Bruce doesn't want to be king and be a normal kid. (I have 15 questions again)

They also banned rabbits. so you better run/ copyright Rankin Bass

He's also un happy with how heavy this crown is/Copyright Rankin Bass 

          Hallelujah decides to tell the people in Kidville to dye the eggs so the bear wouldn't want them. Gadzooks grabs Sunny by the ears (which isn't very nice)  and Sunny hopes that the bear is stupid not to know they are eggs.  It works and he runs.   Sunny gives the guards of Town an Easter Egg. Song time! This song is called Someone's Gotta be First.  Sunny gives  Town's townspeople (sigh)  eggs.   Even king Bruce got an egg. ( I have a 16th question)  Bruce decides to call Sunny the Easter Bunny and what he says goes. (Well except the whole Aunt thing) Sunny teaches the king how to eat an Easter egg. (gotta keep that run time up)   That song from before continues for a second.  Aunt Lilly is mad that they aren't beans. (What she works for the Big Bean)  She kicks out Sunny, and she forces Bruce to to ban Easter eggs. (Lady is no fun)   Sunny decides that maybe he should bring an Easter bean. And thus Jelly Beans were created! (Sorry William Schrafft)
                                 

   And thus the assembly line was created/ Rankin Bass

    Gadzooks  decides to throw the basket full of colored eggs because he still thinks they are rocks,  but this did create a new tradition : hiding Easter Eggs. (Somehow they didn't crack)   So the kids think of a  plan, they made him a new suit. (He mean because he was naked?) That works!  This is why you get Easter Outfits, because bears.  (I have 17 questions)  Song time! They also find him a lady bear ,during the song. (The first dating service)
                     

Fashionable / Copyright Rankin Bass

     The  people of Town love the eggs and jelly beans.  Aunt Lilly once again isn't happy because is she ever? ( I like the music as her background music in this scene though)  This special progresses through a lot of Easters and nobody ages, woah.  Since Lily sent her guards out to stop them from sending eggs and Easter cheer so Sunny's plan was to roll the eggs to trip them, thus creating Easter Egg rolling. (yay?)   He also apparently created first chocolate Easter Bunny.  People in Town got new Easter outfits and held yes, the first Easter parade.  The Easter Bunny got Bruce some stuffed toys, and yes, the first Easter toys.  He convinces Bruce to allow him to him and his friends pass through as much as possible.  Bruce tries but couldn't must the power to stop Aunt Lily. She gives them the power do anything to stop Sunny.
                           

Kill them! Woah, I didn't sign up for this. /Copyright Rankin Bass 

         Hallelujah  calls his Hobo-gang to build a rail-road. (What?)  So Sunny and the chickens have to go find a train and trains are sentient in this world (because that' what I need) and they don't want to it because sentient trains are a bad idea people wake up! (cut after a break , he's sorry about that end)  The train that you see at the beginning  is now having his origin story explained. Chugs is lonely and rusted ,so he has the blues. This means a song.  They give him a job and not rusted anymore.

He has the yellows, now/ Copyright Rankin Bass 

            Aunt Lilly wants them to stop the train at all costs.  I think this special is also incorporating "The Little Engine that could" as well.  ( Gotta keep that run time)  Another song time but can't be mad at it, it's a Fred Astaire singing. Aunt Lily chases her guards because she has time for that.   Our Heroes make it over the mountain to umm Town. (I have 18 questions) Lilly turns she can't stop Easter.  Bruce decides not banish  (or kill her)  instead he gives her a flower (guess what kind?)  and this makes her remember something and she cries. Yes ,it's an Easter Lily. (Best redemption story ever!)   Ok Fred Astaire play us out!
\

no comment, just sweet/ Copyright Rankin Bass 

Thanks Fred ! /Copyright Rankin Bass 

     
         There is a lot of similarity in the story structure of this special and of "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" (hope not the same Town as Town). That goes beyond the opening news thing. Our main character was left somehow in some random place.  Both have  a contrasting town in Santa there's Sombertown which was depicted as grey and well somber compared to Kris Kringle and Kringles part of the world and here we get a dour town. Both have a leader who wants to keep things gray and un happy.  Both have a something to overcome in the middle either the Winter Warlock or  Gadzooks. They serve as our secondary villains who later turn to our hero's sides after being shown some kindness they needed.  We also get an ally in our towns either Jessica, the school teacher -turned Chris' wife,  or King Bruce, the kid who just wants to be kid but his aunt uses him to pass her agenda.    We also get  their take on the traditions of Easter much like why Santa does what he does on Christmas.   The one change from this and Santa is that Aunt Lilly, unlike Burger Meister Meisterburger, does get a redemption of her character mostly through  that our main characters don't take malice on her and take pity and give her a gift out of love and caring no matter what she tried to do before.

       
         On the music.  I don't know if it's because I've watched "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" so much that I know the songs so much to say if this special had heavily catchy songs or not.  I do love that track they played in some of the Aunt Lilly scenes it was like  evil disco somehow.   Since there's no hook song  like R and B did in the Christmas specials where they at least used one famous Christmas song in their specials, but still making original songs.  Here they had to even create an Easter song ,which isn't bad.

     The Dvd cut is very nice and crisp as it should be, but Rankin Bass over time did better better on stop motion animation and this has some very work.  The colors are greatly balanced here as Easter is a colorful spring holiday it really felt like Easter. 

    I missed an opportunity last year, by not talking about this special in it's 40th anniversary year. (Shame on  me)   It's sadly not really re aired on TV anymore , though unless ABC surprises me this year,  neither is It's the Easter Beagle , Charlie Brown. (And that's freakin' Charlie Brown)   You can get it on DVD.

   That's our lookback, Happy Easter! Tune in Next time when we wonder there's no Rankin Bass special for Valentine's Day . and we wonder this in April.

     

FOX Summer Premiere dates

Fox  Summer TV 

     Fox's summer premiere have been released.  The summer includes the return of summer series  "Beat Shazam", "Leave Connection", "Masterchef",  and "So You Think You can Dance".   They also have a new series "Gordon Ramsay's  24 Hours to Hell and Back". 

      Here are the  dates

   Monday, May 21
   8PMET   2018  Miss USA

    Tuesday, May 29
    8PMET   Beat Shazam (Season Premiere)
    9PMET   Love Connection ( Season Premiere)

   Wednesdays, May 30
    8-10PMET  Masterchef (Season Premiere)

   Monday, June 4
   8PM ET  So You Think You Can Dance  (Season Premiere)

Wednesday June 6
 8-10PMET  Masterchef ( 2 Hour new episode)

Wednesday , June 13
 8PMET Masterchef  (Time Period premire)
9PMET   Gordon Ramsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back  (series premiere)


Press Release after the jump