More to Say: More on "It was My Best Birthday Ever , Charlie Brown"

The Flashback 

 
    Since we are on somewhat of a break with Peanuts specials , I thought it would be good to something a little different.  I've been doing this since 2015 ,I've looked a lot of non-holiday Peanuts specials.   The tones and  lengths of them have changed over some time it might be good to look at some of my early ones and see if any thing can be expanded or changed.

     The second Peanuts review ever we've done was on "It Was My Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown."   There were a few reasons I started the lookbacks on Peanuts specials , one was because it was the 65th anniversary  in 2015 , the other was an opportunity to maybe catch some I've not gotten to see before. This was one of those that I hadn't seen before the lookback at all. The background information on this special and the 1990's specials over all is that  after  "It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown" aired  CBS , the home of Peanuts specials kind of gave up having anymore new ones. As mentioned in my "It's Spring Training , Charlie Brown"  that was meant to be on CBS but was part of cancelation after 1992 and didn't make it to TV until 1998.   This specia came out on VHS (direct to video) release in 1997, one of the last specials over seen and worked on by Charles Schulz.

    This was also the first special to be worked on with the process of digital ink which you can kind of tell compared to the old fully hand drawn style of the past specials.

   In my look back I didn't breeze through the opening or take out anything .

This special is about Linus , he does a lot of roller skating  which leads him to girl ( of course )  named Mimi.

    The thing is this special starts with a scene of Linus just roller skating with some music backing it. A lot of Peanuts specials  do have filler  but, this one felt excessive to a point.  I did skip one thing, it also had Snoopy trying to go up a skate ramp without skates.  But if you were to skip everything upto the the title cards at 1:50 past, you'd miss nothing in this special.  In fact, after the title cards there's more Linus skating. That lasts  a minute.     Then the rest is Linus goes to a birthday party , there are other characters there too and he gets down tonight (or shakes his groove thing, pick whatever song you want.) .   Going by the title of the special you would think that this was the birthday party in the title well, nope.  It's 2 minutes of just partying and barely any dialogue. Well it is more filler.  There's  scene where  Sally and Charlie Brown talk about the party then it goes back to more Linus skating.  It's recycled footage from earlier too.    The space between 0:00 and 7:25 (except for the title cards  and credits from 1:50 to 2:30 in)  was pretty much what could be classed as filler.

He's a dance machine/ Copyright Peanuts

    This was the 2nd Peanuts special to use the aira,  "O Mio Babbino Caro", the other was "She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown" where Peppermint Patty uses it as her ice skating song.   This time it's a girl named Mimi who is singing it and it is so beautiful to Linus that he stops skating, walks into a garden just to find the siren who has this voice. (the siren part is the only joke in that sentence)  The voice of Mimi is also the voice of Lucy in this special.

  If  are one of those people who look at animation deeply , you will notice an error since before Linus was wearing roller skates, then he takes them off and you his red socks ( I thought he'd be a Rangers fan) then when he's helping Mimi he has his normal shoes on.  Later the shoes are gone again when are drinking lemonade together on a bench.

    Linus is so in love with the girl he blushes heavily and helps her garden while staring at her.  Linus mentions he was coming home from a birthday party (yeah we know) and Mimi says she loves birthday parties.

                                             

       It happens  that Mimi is visiting for a birthday party, she loves Birthday parties.  so conveniently his birthday is  in a couple days  (Hmmm Linus)   so he invites her. The special continues where  Linus hears her amazing singing in his head  for awhile. (He's high on love , or the inspiration for the Kylie Minogue song)

     Linus has really fallen smitten with this girl her song plays either in his head or she's singing again  both ways he's in love.  The animation to speak up again, when he for example, is skating back home seems to be more traditional looking than what we saw at the beginning.  Linus tells his best friend, Charlie Brown, about his new love because that's what best friends do.   This special gives us the funniest facial expression I've seen on Linus ever.

        There are some normal Peanuts antics  in this special like Snoopy and Woodstock scenes.  For the party Linus waits for his girl of the hour to come.  They also got the rights to sing Happy Birthday in the special (since it wasn't public domain or whatever was going on yet)

     This is a Peanuts special where you could skip the first 7 minutes and not miss anything  does kind of seem they needed to fill the whole 24 minutes but didn't have enough story for the 24 so they maybe had enough for the 16 to 17.  It's plot we do get isn't bad it's simple story  with some enjoyment to it.  I don't recommend it  to someone who hasn't seen a Peanuts special as the first one to see or for someone who is to recommend as the first one to see it might make it harder to get into the other specials.

Nice retro car

   This special isn't on DVD, it's on VHS  though if you buy it used on somewhere, or watch online. It hasn't aired on television though ironically, ABC could use it as a filler special when they add more time to a special to air the whole special without editing it , but they still  need commercials. They could air this with the 7 minutes cut out of it as a back half special to fill in hour.  (That's kind of a joke there) 


       To give it a rating out of 10  it gets a 7.2/10 it's not a bad special but the filler does bog it down.

  Might do more of this ,we'll see.


 

The Flashback : Stickin' Around

Joshuaonline Canada   The Flashback  Animation 

        This time we  look at  another animated series because that's something we do here.  Our story involves CBS, Canada, and Fox Kids, but also an interesting 90's animated series that maybe doesn't get talked about much.

      Nelvana

You may remember their logo and bear. 

       Nelvana , you may remember from watching television in the late 80's and 90's, is a Canadian animation company  now currently owned by Corus.  They are the company that made the series we are talking about today. 

     "Stickin' Around" premiered on CBS as 1 minute shorts to air when CBS didn't want to look to commercial during their children's shows. (the C in CBS stands for commercial, not really)  These appeared in 1994. (It even made the Chicago Tribune) 

                         

                              

                                         

             In Canada, YTV decided it was good enough to be a series and that premiered in 1996. It also appeared on UK television , Australian television , and of course American. It aired on Fox Kids for about a year ,but it didn't do well for FOX Kids or they just didn't care. America did the get rest of the show without Fox Kids' strange edits on the digital network . Qubo like 20 years later. 

       We are here to talk about the show. Like all TV shows before the networks thought screw long themes or any at all ,we have stuff to sell, it has  a theme.  

     
  One thing you might notice if you haven't heard of or seen this series before, is the animation. The intro would really shows what this show is in it's 60 seconds.


        Why yes, they are stick figures.   The series 'stars' Stacy Stickler (get it stick?) and her best friend, Bradley (he gets no last name)  they are 9 year olds with big imaginations.

   Let's look at little at the first episode.
        Bradley has his Dad's camera and he and Stacy decide to make a movie there's a neighbor girl named  Polly who is introduced in a strange way.
 

   See the dog we circled? That's not the show's animation style , that dog is dead , don't tell Polly that. 

      Polly  and her  dead dog , Pepperoni get to be part of the movie. (He's not not dead!)  An average episode shows imagination scenes. Also, the show's backgrounds fit the style of the show as well, if the stick drawings are like a child's drawings the backgrounds are flat and simple giving it a fitting style.  

It also lets them use random backgrounds like this just for fun. /Copyright Nelvana

  

  Back to the plot : With all the running all the characters end up lost down town. There are two more male characters and also a living dog. After they run around screaming from different things , Stacy looks at the recorded footage to figure out how they got downtown in the first place.  Also Stacy also caught a robbery on film.   They do make it home and they don't win a sadder version of "America's Funniest Home Videos" but the police to give them award catching the robbery on video.  (Crime does pay - just not those who rob)   

more after the jump 

ABC cancels "The Chew"

Daytime TV News ABC 

    The daytime food based talk show that replaced  ."All My Children" in 2011 , "The Chew" has been canceled and will be replaced by a new hour of "Good Morning America" airing at the same current time as "The Chew".   1pm/12c    This is not an instant change as "The Chew" will still run through the summer and ABC has not given a date for when "Good Morning America" will expand.

     This is "GMA's" second bought with being on in the afternoon , there was the short-lived "Good Afternoon America" which was a tempoary replacement for "The Revolution" which ran for 6 months in 2012 after replacing "One Life to Live".  There's also, as of this writing,  it's unknown who will be hosting the program.
   

EXCITING NEWS JUST IN: In September @GMA will add a third hour of TV beginning at 1pm ET/12pm CT/PT: https://t.co/yvXAOIPxbj pic.twitter.com/fUgJ7LO5eg

— Good Morning America (@GMA) May 23, 2018

    Recently, "The Chew" had a controversy with former  co-host and chef, "Mario Batali" left the show back in November 2017 due to sexual harassment allegations   and  as of this week is facing investigations for sexual assault. 

  press release after the jump

The Last Episode : Newhart Wipes Your Mind

The Flashback  Essays 

        Newhart was a funny series with it's strong cast of  strange characters and the main characters of Dick Loudon (played by Bob Newhart) and his wife Joanna (played by Mary Frann). Where most of the time it was Dick trying to contend with oddness around him.  The series ran on CBS from 1982 to 1990 .

  So spoilers ahead.

     How do you end Newhart?

             The last episode starts with the people of this unnamed town in Vermont (we don't have enough sitcoms taking place in Vermont) having a unnamed town meeting.  Talking about important issues like the town fish.  The Stratford inn the place that the Loudons run is turning 200 years old.  The episode starts like a normal "Newhart" episode.  Then a Japanese Business man (because late 1980's early 1990's) says that he wants to buy the town and turn it into a golf course. (because of course?)  So we are doing a save the town episode?  Nope, he offers a million per home and they are all in , except one. Guess who?  Yep Dick Loudon.  So that's gonna stop it from happening?  Ha ha ! No they are willing to build their course around the inn.

   Everyone leaves the town but Dick and Joanna.  But first we get the townspeople going fiddler on the roof on us.  It cuts to five years later where it's a golf course now except the Stratford Inn. This finale has everything.   Dick and Joanna have tried to make the best of it but, Dick does want to sell now. The business man refuses because of Dick's pride.  Stephanie and Michael return with their older daughter.   So does George the handyman. And some of the other old townspeople.  Apparently, they all want to live in Sratford. They argue and not listen to Dick so he decides to leave and gets hit in the head with a golf ball and falls down.

  Now the famous finale part.  The show returns to a familiar set to that of the bedroom of the Bob Newhart show.  With Bob Newhart being  Dr. Bob Hartley, with  and the his wife,Emily, in that series (played by  Suzanne Pleshette )  saying he had a crazy dream.

      The finale is famous for that ending. Kind of interesting way to end a series kind of like a fellow made MTM (Mary Tyler Moore studio) series that had a twist at the end.    Does make it a remember able finale.  I will start with everything before the famous scene.  The whole episode goes all in with the strange like above the normal episodes. They were giving something special with this episode  and yet it doesn't seem so out of place from the series.  The last episode still has great comedy and  even skipped anything that would make a dramatic finale to more serious they went straight for the comedy.  It's a good trick when they started with  wonder if this finale is going to be the characters trying stop the purchase , or maybe Dick changes their minds and they all gather saying how great the town they live is or something.  It could have gone the way of Dick deciding to sell and either that's how it ends (many finales have )  or Dick plans to sell when everyone then changes their minds.     Instead , it's just used as away to put Dick in another strange situation.  The golf ball  thing was great at foreshadowing and how eventually he gets hit in the head with a golf ball.

   I think it's a good finale. It's a show that didn't take itself to seriously had well written comedy and was fun and knew how to go out. 

 That's it for now on our series finales ,we may return in the future. (This isn't our series finale)

  Tune in next time when we wake up.

The Last Episode : Sabrina Teenage Witch : End With Tying One Last Loose Swing

The Flashback Essays 

         "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" the series that ran from 1996 to 2003 ,  actually has two finales.  ABC ran the series from 1996 to 2000 and they ended it with that episode where spoiler?  Harvey finds out that she is a witch.  The WB network decided that Sabrina was right thing for their channel and picked up the show and there it aired for 3 more seasons.  What I am going to talk about is the finale from the final season.

   The finale is chosen because  I am a fan of the series  personally and it's an example of a finale that has a big two part story and ties up something that was arc in the series.

   "Sabrina The Teenage" finale  aired on the WB network on April 24th, 2003 as a two part episode   called "What a Witch Wants" and "Soul Mates".

       Spoilers ahead. (Warning)

    Background first: In this season , Sabrina and her college friends  have moved into the house together , the aunts have left.  To a point there's been an arc where Sabrina was dating a man named Aaron and they plan to get married which leads us to the episode  "What a Witch Wants". 

           What a Witch wants is Sabrina going out for her bachelorette party and that episode focuses on her and friends proving they they have a strong friendship.  So the episode I am more going to focus on is the last last episode "Soul Mates"  It's now Sabrina's wedding day and she has little cold feet, and since this show's humor sometimes goes into the literal humor , she has ice blocks on her feet. (get it?)   Salem tells her that there's a reason this happened. (need to turn the AC down a bit there)

     Also for a series finale they brought back some of the show's  past stars like her cousin Amanda (played by  Melissa Joan Hart's real life sister) , her mom , which is big because of the show's lore of she not being able to see her mom.  Her Aunt Hilda returns (Caroline Rhea). Her father, also makes another appearance.  Sadly, Aunt Zelda doesn't make a reappearance.  (in human form)  Amanda ,who is also a witch finds Harvey to get him to come to the wedding.   Doubt appears yes in literal form and tells her that there's doubt around and gives her Aaron's soul stone and  tells her that she doubts that they are soul mates.

       Sabrina searches for her soul stone at the North Star and wants to see if her stone matches with Aaron.  Do they match?  Well no.  The Wedding eventually starts after some snags ,but she's having some doubt still so it gets stalled again. Her aunt and mother tells here that everything is not against the wedding , she is so she tries again to get married. At the vows she stops again and tells Aaron that she doesn't want to get married to him after all. (Not getting that deposit back)  She leaves the church were she sees Harvey with  a soul stone of his own.   They kiss and ride off on his motorcycle. The two stones fall on the ground and they match.  Guess what they did something for those who've been watching the show since the start, the 12:36 time where she and Harvey first met.

   One thing about the show is that Harvey and Sabrina seem to be a big thing of the series. This finale kind of finishes where these characters who seemed to made for each other end up together.  Much of the series showed us how much they cared for each other even when they broke up so, it doesn't feel as some sort of weird  they did that because they were a couple once and so stick them together. In fact , it felt more that way with Sabrina and Aaron in the last few episodes of the season that he kind of just shows up in the series and then they announce to get married.

  Is it a good finale?  Yes, it gives us a good wrap up of the series with most of the characters that were big on the show a chance to return. (-3 pts for no Aunt Zelda) It gives its fans a satisfaction that yeah it's over but it ended in away that would make him feel it ended on a good note.  It gives us a little drama too, where we honestly don't know how it ends until it ends.
 
   Next time, a series finale that takes a whole show and makes you go WHAT?


Tune in  next time when we find soul stones and start a dating service.

TVLookFall2018: 2017-18 Review , 2018-19 Preview

TVLOOKFALL2018 

     Trying something different for the TV upfront week. A look at what's happened and review of  what's  to come.

 ABC
      One thing ABC changed in the 2017-18 TV season was Sunday and trying to figure out what to do with it.  So they've gone with more reality/game/variety programming instead of drama, except in the last hour slot.  A Change for the next season is instead they've gone with no drama on Sunday at all and focused on the other mode that worked for them.  "American Idol" gave them a saving hope for Sundays and they've expanded on that with "Dancing With the Stars : Juniors" (kind of joining NBC on the kid train.) 
       A.B.C  = All Big Comedy ?   ABC has in recent years been focused on comedy  where  2/3rd of Tuesday and Wednesday are comedy series.  Meaning 4 hours a week of their schedule are devoted to comedy.  They had Friday nights  but had to move a drama off Sunday , "Once Upon a Time" and Friday was there.  Read why "Last Man Standing" and "Dr.Ken" ended.    In the next season they are replacing the long running "The Middle" (which was part of ABC's double down on comedy) and replacing a show they tried but they felt didn't work. read: "Alex Inc."  Friday gets comedy again with long runners , "Fresh off the Boat", and "Speechless".   They like to use strong comedy as a launch pad for new series.  The series that followed "Modern Family", the series that followed "The Middle" for example.   "The Goldbergs" and "Black-ish" say hello.   The new seasons of "Roseanne" is their well high rated series , and so of course use that as a lead series.   "The Kids Are Alright" gets that honor.   "Black-ish" isn't being used as  a launch pad this season because the series following it proved it's chance already. "Splitting Up Together".    Wednesday has it's lead comedies of "The Goldbergs" and "Modern Family".  A returning series takes the slot after The Goldbergs - "American Housewife" , while after 'Modern' is a new series so, once again being used as a  launch pad.  "Modern Family" isn't getting younger.   Also Brad Garrett is back on network TV.

   Tuesday 10/9c.  ABC has had a hard time with that slot , so there is once again a new drama in that slot.  "The Rookie"  Question is  will this be a charm for them?

   The Good Doctor,  sometimes a series takes off  and this was one of them , so of course ABC wasn't going to mess with that even keeping it in its slot of  Mondays 10/9c.

Shondaland continues.   "Grey Anatomy"  keeps on going and Thursdays still have Shondaland series. This year they've gone with a spin-off of 'Grey' but with fire fighters. "Station 19"  while "How to Get Away with Murder" finishes up the night as per tradition.  There's only 1 other series left from her company that's "For the People" , which ABC renewed," look for that at mid-season.  Since Shonda Rhimes has made a deal with Netflix , that is the last new series for ABC better hold on tight.

     For the most part ABC kept it the same and focused on what's reliable and what works for them.


More after the jump

Upfront 2018: The CW

The CW  Upfronts  TVLookFall2018 

 
   The CW has released their fall schedule.  We have the details here.

• Sundays are back for the CW almost 10 years after they gave up on the night. It's not as long as they used to do but it's there.  
• With an extra night they've made some moves. "Supergirl" moves to Sundays with the remake of  "Charmed" coming on after it. 
• "Arrow" moves to Mondays at 9/8c with "D.C's Legends of Tomorrow" taking the slot before it. 
• "iZombie" , "Crazy Ex Girlfriend", and "Jane the Virgin" are ending after their seasons wrap up
• Midseason: "The 100", "iZombie", "In the Dark", "Roswell, New Mexico" 

    Here's the schedule , all times ET,  new shows highlighted in Blue 

Monday

8pm  DC's Legends of Tomorrow  

9pm   Arrow (New Time Slot)       

Tuesday

8pm   The Flash                              

9pm   Black Lightning                 

Wednesday

8pm  Riverdale                              

9pm  All American 

Thursday

8pm Supernatural 

9pm  Legacies 

Friday

8pm  Dynasty 

9pm Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (new time slot) 

Sunday 

8pm  Supergirl (new time slot) 

9pm  Charmed  

Press release after the Jump

Upfront 2018 : CBS

CBS Upfront TVLookFall2018  

   
   CBS has released their fall schedule.   Here are some details

• On Mondays they have cut back on comedy by an hour and adding in drama instead
• Mondays start with two new comedies , followed by the remake of "Magnum P.I" and a new time night for "Bull" 
• "Murphy Brown" comes on after Mom on Thursdays 
•  This is the first year in a few where CBS won't have Thursday Night Football
• Midseason : "The Code", "Elementary", "Fam" , "Instinct", "Life in Pieces," "Man With a Plan", "The Red Line" , "The Amazing Race", "Blood & Treasure" , "Big Brother". "Big Brother Celebrity Edition". 

Now here's the schedule , all times ET,  new series highlighted in blue

Monday 

8PM  The Neighborhod

8:30   Happy Together 

9PM   Magnum P.I 

10PM  Bull (new time slot) 

Tuesday 

8PM NCIS

9PM  FBI

10PM NCIS :New Orleans 

Wednesday 

8PM  Survivor 

9PM  SEAL Team 

10PM Criminal Minds  

Thursday

8PM  The Big Bang Theory 

8:30   Young Sheldon 

9PM   Mom 

9:30pm Murphy Brown  (revival season) 

10pm     S.W.A.T 

Friday

8PM MacGyver 

9PM  Hawaii Five-O

10PM  Blue Bloods 

Saturday

8PM  Crimetime Saturday

9PM Crimetime Saturday

10PM 48 Hours 

Sunday

7PM 60 Minutes 

8PM  God Friended Me 

9PM  NCIS: Los Angeles 

10PM  Madam Secretary 

Press release after the jump