Into the Twilight : A Modern Era

Reviews  The Twilight Zone 

    [Spoilers- Duh] [Also : Our bad humor is presented in this article] 

           In 1959 the series, "The Twilight Zone" first premiered on CBS (so this is the 60th year) and ran until 1964.  On this blog we've covered episodes from the first and 2nd remakes from the 80's and early 2000's.   This year (2019) a third revival has premiered on CBS' streaming service (that most still won't be getting because why?)  On April 1st, they released the first two episodes called "The Comedian" and  "Nightmare at 30,000 Feet".  That second title sounds like a remake of "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" from the original series.   

        "The Comedian" 

            Oh dang, the show is rated TV MA, what the heck? why?  Run children run, you can't read this post!  That's a first, never expected a TV MA rating for the Twilight Zone, that's like turning on Lassie and getting a TV 14 rating. Sorry, back on track. 

            The episode starts with , are we watching CNN why am I am I hearing politics? Oh it's a comedian, I think.  (That would be the title sir) He doesn't seem to be getting roaring laughs. (It wasn't really funny.)  The Comedian man  wants his comedy to be more thoughtful , or to make people think. Oh that's why it's TV-MA , language (what is this Shotime?).  He meets man who gives him advice for a better comedy thing.  

    Later on Samir goes on again and more 2nd Amendment talk but, then he tries the advice of be more personal. People start laughing.   Going of the rails here, I will say the camera work is pretty nice it does have a cinematic feel to it.  The man goes home and notices that the dog is missing  and his girlfriend says they don't even have a dog.   10 Minutes in Jordan Peele , who is the producer of this remake , does the Rod Sterling thing of introducing our story. (Took them 10 minutes then?) The Intro starts with a modern feeling because modern. Which it is a nice intro so, it gets some points. 

    So Samir brings his girlfriend's nephew, Devon, with him to another comedy show. (Hey, This is TV MA, no kids!) He starts with his politics thing again and the room is deader than (I don't want to finish that). He starts making jokes about the guy before him and gets laughs. That man doesn't exist anymore and the bus stop wasn't crashed into anymore.  

      Samir starts using his new powers to eliminate people from existence. These are people he has decided shouldn't exist because of his judgement, we are getting all "Death Note" on us.  It seems his mind has gone warped  He tries again in an act with but it has no name so it doesn't work so he starts talking about his girlfriend's mentor and the laughs return. Because, he got rid of the professor his girlfriend, Rena, is not a lawyer anymore and works as a waitress. (oops)  She also ends up breaking it off with him 

             At the end, Samir seems too have lost it just naming off people making them not exist anymore.  Rena comes into the club and starts booing and she goes off on him and this causes him to talk about himself.  This causes himself to no longer exist. 

    

   I looked at this episode on Youtube  released by CBS themselves and they didn't release the other episode for free, This means that I don't have access to the 2nd episode that seems to be a remake of an original series episode.  (Maybe one day.)

    It was a 55 minute episode  so, even longer than it would have been if it ran on CBS. The episode did have a slow pace to it because of the length of time.  The episode plot and working was very much the feeling of a classic Twilight Zone episode it hit all those marks very well. For, it the episode was somewhat jarring because I wasn't expecting an episode of a show called "The Twilight Zone" to have strong  language it shocks me because of the show. If this was a different show title or something it might be less jarring to me personally. That doesn't detract from the show though. It being somewhat shorter would have been a little better.  I mentioned this above, it's well done in camera work and art design. 

   If you want to see this episode it's on Youtube currently (not sure how long) but it's here for now. 

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19GO8-Rrn0g 

Tune in next time, when wonder something something. 

It's a Lookback ,Charlie Brown : It's your First Kiss,Charlie Brown

Peanuts The Flashback 

              We wrap up our look at non-holiday specials from the 1970's yes, this is final non-holiday lookback of Peanuts specials from the 1970's since we didn't go in chronological order. This is one is a controversial special and  I'll get to that in this look.

    "It's Your First Kiss" premiered on October 24th 1977 on guess where? (C B S!)   For a note about most of the Peanuts series  the Little Red Haired Girl didn't really have a name or a look in any of the comics. The reader would never see what she looked like.  Now, Schulz did have a design for her in the 1950's but, never used it and really he is later said the reason was because he didn't  think there was a look to satisfy the readers.   Though, it would be been interesting to have her be built up by Charlie Brown so much and think she is the most beautiful girl in the world and see her  and not look much different to any other peanuts character would have been amazing.

              The little red haired girl  in the specials took a different note - she was seen.  Though not a real consistent look besides that she has red hair.    Personally, I like  the design in "The Peanuts Movie"; the most.

 copyright Blue Sky which is owned by Disney by this point probably I don't even know anymore please help me! 

   Also, her name wasn't really in the comic strips so some specials and the 2015 movie gave her the name Heather, which is fine or something. 

          Anyway, this special was the first special to show her in face, she had been mentioned in past specials but not seen before. The first to use the name too.   So, after all that let's start. 

     

            It starts with Woodstock using Snoopy as a helicopter because  Peanuts doesn't have any logic to it, if you think it does then you are in the wrong world.   Just like what kind of elementary school has a homecoming?  Anyway the town is is having a homecoming parade , Charlie Brown and Linus and some others are escorts. (don't think that way) The homecoming queen is  Heather. (I'm glad I don't have to the other name this time)  Charlie Brown will be her date and also will get to kiss her. (this town has interesting customs) 

    For those that don't  know homecoming involves football, again I'm not sure why an elementary school's football thing is such a big affair when it's usually a high school thing but this might not be  a very good special either.  (Didn't you just say that the dog became a helicopter for a while?)  For 1977 this special is advanced having two girls on football team (Lucy and Peppermint Patty) good work special.  Even the crowd is children and Snoopy of course, is the ref. ( We are now taking calls , Delaware Hello. Hey yes, first time caller long time show watcher, I have a Peanuts theory.  Yes sir, what is it?  I think all the adults are dead and Snoopy is the supreme leader which is why he takes all things you see adults doing. Thanks caller, this gag is over now)    Meanwhile, Lucy decides not to take this football game seriously and decides that  the best way to start the game is to do the football gag with Charlie Brown. and both teams pile on top of  flopped over Charlie Brown. He crawls out and gets some boos because these people must be stupid and not able comprehend what just happened.  Or this might not be a very good special.  (Kansas Hello.  Hey yeah, I think Lucy is a --, thanks caller we don't wanna have to use the 7 second delay again) 

         More football action because football football.  Now there's a chance for Charlie Brown to be hero and get the extra point. Again, Lucy is  there and guess what she does with the football? So yes, she moves the ball away during the game that's supposed be serious game not her and Charlie Brown faffing around in the park and does this because reasons. (Indiana Hello.  Yeah, I think Lucy Van Pelt is worst person ever!  I'm glad you didn't try to swear! %#@! You.  Mean!)   Charlie Brown flies and lands on the other football players. (Pause!) 

Gotta love how causal this team dresses/Copyright Peanuts 

     

       Hello, I'm Bret Baxter here to tell you a fun fact!  At about 7:41 into this special you will notice that Peppermint Patty was possessed  by the devil where she starts speaking in tongues.  This is not actually, her being possessed by the devil it also not your VCR or DVD player being possessed either , it is instead an edit.  In the original clip Peppermint Patty speaks like a normal human being  as shown here :

            

     So yes, you don't need to call an exorcist   but instead... (Hey! Who are you?) I'm trying to tell the people about -- (Get out!)  

    More after the jump

Scooby Doo 50: What's New Scooby Doo?

Scooby Doo 50 

      Preface : We continue a look at "Scooby Doo" related media for the 50th anniversary of the mystery solving great dane.  This is part of our Scooby Doo 50. 

             In 1969 Scooby Doo first appeared on our screens with the famous series called "Scooby Doo Where are You?" that aired on CBS  it was a big hit  that made CBS want more and made a series called "The New Scooby Doo Movies" in 1972. Then ABC had Scooby programming  and Scooby ran with out maybe a year with out a new something between 1975 and 1991.  The other market that happened for Scooby was syndication. It aired on TBS, USA Network,  and more. I've talked about Scooby Doo movie specials from the  Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 series. 

   Meanwhile, Ted Turner was taking over the world and bought up Hanna-Barbera in the early 1990's and at this point he made Scooby-Doo exclusive to his networks (TNT,TBS, and some new network called Cartoon Network).  If any exposure to Scooby Doo 90's kids would get it would be thanks to the Turner networks.   Before this point it did seem Scooby's popularity had waned and people had grown tired of it, this was the case seen before back during the let's add more Scrappy to boost the franchise phase.    Ted Turner had seemed to get tired of running the world and sold his stuff to Time Warner in 1996  and Hanna-Barbera ended up  being part of Warner Brothers animation. Reruns of the different Scooby-Doo series and movies aired on Cartoon Network. 

   With this new found popularity maybe it was time to have some new Scooby media.  From 1998 they made new direct to video movies that also aired on Cartoon Network.  Even a live action movie came out in 2001.  Over this time though, something hadn't been done, a Scooby Doo TV series.  This brings us to the 2002 series "What's new Scooby Doo?" 

          "What's new Scooby Doo" came out in September of 2002 airing on Cartoon Network and on broadcast TV with Kids WB.  The concept of the series was  a short of back to basics for the franchise after years of different gimmicks ,characters being side-lined, and etc maybe it was time to just try something new but familiar.  "What's New Scooby Doo?"  brings us back the concept that started Scooby Doo in the first place "Scooby Doo, Where are you?".  It's also the first series, that wasn't "A Pup Named Scooby Doo" to bring back  Velma and Fred.   It takes place in our modern (2002) times. 

       The voice cast was Frank Welker , who has been the voice of Fred since the start, had the return of Casey Kasem as Shaggy. Also Frank Welker is the voice of Scooby due to the death of Don Messick in 1997. Grey DeLisle was the voice of Daphne  and Mindy Chon is Velma. The series returns us back to random person in a mask format compared to them trying "hey the monsters are real now!"

      The Theme song is just as catchy as the original 

   The theme was done by a Canadian rock band called, Simple Plan,  which you call maybe a n alt-rock group with some emo added in for fun.  They even guest started in an episode and some of their songs ended up in the chase scenes.


  more after the jump

The Lookback: Two of a Kind and Little bit of T.G.I.F

Sitcoms  The Flashback

       It's time for us to get back into another bread and butter topic but something we've not touched in sometime-- A Short lived sitcom. There's a context to this sitcom that we must explain.

       First  let's talk about T..G.I.F on ABC. The block is well know for giving hit series from "Full House", "Family Matters", "Sabrina the Teenage Witch", "Boy Meets World", and more.  It was a highly successful block for ABC  who has thought to even bring it back twice. The original block was doing very well until about 1997-98 season this is where things took a turn.  Rewind back to 1996, ast this point TGIF had removed two veteran shows from focus to add in series to refresh the line up a little, this brings us "Sabrina the Teenage Witch"  It fit with new owner, Disney, idea to give the line up from a family show block to a more teen block.  Also Clueless  but that died. (We may talk about that one day)  This change allowed to end two series "Step by Step", and "Family Matters" which were going down in the ratings (with age) canceled.  These shows didn't want die so easily and another network had their eye on them ,CBS. (Yes I did that pun and don't feel ashamed about it.)

           Back to 1997, CBS had launched a new block to compete with a slightly weakened T.G.I.F with the CBS block party.  Which,also allowed "Family Matters" and "Step By Step " to continue to live.  To be fair, the Block party did hurt T.G.I.F but it was more like a double sided sword where they stabbed T.G.I.F and let some blood out and slowly died while the block party got injured more and died after year.   T.G.I.F had tried the whole "hey this show works for us, so let's make more of that" with "You Wish" (one day will cover that maybe) and "Teen Angel"  to work on Sabrina's supernatural greatness, these shows failed and T.G.I.F for rest of the season was 2 shows.

   To 1998.  Where they kind of lost it , but we may have to talk more about T.G.I.F later.   In 1998 they had tried a new show with some star power , The Olsen Twins.  If you don't know this, the Olsen twins were big in the 1990's they starred on "Full House" and then branched off into movies, and specials, and series to the point of over exposure.  ABC had thought that maybe bringing them back to TV on their network would help  so much faith in this program they put it as the launch show at 8pm/7c.  Leading into vetrans, Boy Meets World, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch.  This brings us to our topic  "Two of a Kind".

            More after the jump because we went long here.

Garfield: Garfield on the Town

 The Flashback Garfield

     We are back to writing about Garfield, everyone's favorite lasagna eating cat, and another TV special. Since this is how this blog rolls, we aren't doing them in order and already did the last special , now it's time for the 2nd special "Garfield on the Town".  "Garfield on the Town" has a "Peanuts" connection (this happens alot) with Lee Mendelson and Bill Melendez  were producers for it though you won't get any Peanuts character style this time. Of course Phil Roman directed it.  It was originally aired on CBS on October 28th 1983.   It won a prime time Emmy in 1984 beating "A Disney Christmas Gift", "It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown", and "The Smurfic games". Being the first ,but not last Garfield special to win an Emmy.  Alright let's start.


     

            Garfield doesn't want to get out of bed and walk on the cold floor (we are all like Garfield)  , then Garfield and we get a theme song by Lou Rawls.  Odie and Garfield mess up the house and Jon scolds them and especially points out Garfield saying that the cat is being hyperactive.  So, Vet time. (eek) Garfield accidentally falls  out of the car and Jon apparently doesn't notice. (He's a bright bulb)  Garfield walks  around town (roll credits?)  and gets told by lady cats to buzz off. Meanwhile, Jon calls the pet hospital  to see if Garfield ended up there after all.


       Garfield wonders the back alleys and runs into a cat with a gold tooth (I don't know) and they start a cat rumble ( I think , it's more West Side Story cat rumbling). He thinks he won but then there are more alley cats. (more Alley cats in the alley, I'm surprised) Garfield runs while the horde of cats chase him and he finds an old run down building to run inside.  Then he meets a cat, that turns out to be his mother.

awww/ Copyright Jim Davis 

    It's the next morning and his mother tells him that used to be a kitchen of the Italian restaurant where he grew up.   The special gives us a back story into how Garfield likes lasagna and other Italian food  which is a nice touch.  His mother shows him his family or cousins. They are "mousers", cats who eat mice  which Garfield doesn't like personally.  Anyway, those Alley cats from earlier show up and his family decide to fight the gang of cats and an old fashioned rumble starts and they win!  His family decides he should go home because he's not suited to this life and he bids his mother a farewell.

awww 2 / Copyright Jim Davis 

        Just by timing somehow, Garfield finds Jon driving by  and chases the car then Odie notices and everyone is reunited.
 
    Another fun fact: This special was the only Garfield special co-written by  Lorenzo Music (the voice of Garfield) the other writer being "Garfield" creator , Jim Davis.
   It's  simple special but one with a lot of heart , I can see why it won an Emmy. It has touching moments between Garfield and his mother and the end with Garfield, Jon, and Odie. The music in the special is wonderful with the final song enough to bring some tears. I think it's fine special and can see why it's a Garfield classic.  Give this one a watch.

A DCOM that's on the Brink.

Disney Channel  The Lookback 

    We dip back into Disney Channel Originals movies with a look at the 1998 movie , "Brink!"  It starts Erik von Deeten who we have run into before on this blog when we talked about "Christmas Everyday" and will run into again in the future because that's how our word works.  (We also ran into him when we talked about "So Weird")

         So, this is our look at the 1998 Disney Channel , wait we are repeating ourselves, on the with the movie!

          Erik plays our main character named Andy or Brink! (roll credits?) and he's on a hurry while his friends wonder why he's taking so long. They want to go to the beach and since they missed the bus and buses apparently take for ever on weekends they skate there.  Also it's nice to have a Fastball song in Disney Channel movie, remember Fastball?  They make it to the skate park and skate. "Brink"and his friends, Peter, Jordy, and Gabriella, are not just your average in-line skaters they call themselves soul skaters (that means they also sing R&B) meaning they don't do it for the money they do it for the fun. ( I Wonder what might happen in this movie later?)  There's another group of skaters who are called Team X-Bladz (woah starting with an X and ending with Z this is peak 90's Extereme!)  led by a boy named Val who also has surfer hair because California.  They are the antagonists to this movie because that's what we need.
             

 Well I can't make the Rocket power joke since this came out first/ Copyright Disney 

         If you don't understand skating lingo or if you do you might not understand half things said in this movie. (Kind of joking)  I didn't know bladers and skateboarders didn't get along.  Brink tricks some skateboarders to bother the X-Bladerz. Now, it's the first day of school (also this movie gave the line :why can't we be Mormons?)   The X-Bladerz get back at them at school for the incident the day before and now they continue the  back by putting worms in Val's sandwich. (mmm worms)  Val decides to challenge them skate race at school which is against the rules. (What could go wrong?)  Andy (we are going to interchange with the Brink name a lot) accepts because of course he does.  Does give us nice racing action though, so I'll allow it.
               

ACTION! /Copyright Disney

        Andy stops the race to help one of the X-bladerz who gets injured which is nice of him. He ends up being suspended.  His father plays the role of the guy who just doesn't understand his teenage son. (that's fun)  Also, the family is having some money woahs because the father, Ralph, got hurt and hasn't been able to work. Brink overhears his parent's talking about it. Val and his people minus Boomer, the boy who got hurt before, talk to the soul skaters about an open slot they have for a competition. The soul skaters laugh but Val says he wouldn't pick any of them anyway.  Val says it's great being a sponsored skater.
                     

nice car/ Copyright Disney 

     
       Now, Brink may have taken  hearing the word "money" as a sticking point because he goes to secretly audition for the X-Bladz open slot.   They do add him to the team and he doesn't want anybody to tell that he's part of their team and he's only there until Boomer is back on his feet.( Now I wonder if this goes wrong, well you know it will.)  He's now a sponsored skater. Brink tells his family that he wants to work  and talks about sponsored skating but Ralph doesn't take to the idea because it's skating. Guess what he's going to keep a secret from his family then?

          copyright Disney 

         Brink's double life starts as he  starts training with the X-Bladerz  and then spending time with his group too.  Ralph doesn't make it better because he got Brink a job working at a dog grooming because of course and doesn't like skating.   We get a montage of the stressful day Brink expreinces done to the song , "Give" by the The Suicide Machines. (This movie is getting into the alt-rock hard)   It's to play everyone's favorite game:  Guess what goes wrong?!  Yes! Brink's friends find out that he is the new X-Bladz member.

The shade make him more sun safe/ Copyright Disney

more after the jump

Scooby Doo 50 : Finally, They Caught the 13th Ghost

Scooby Doo 

       Scooby Doo celebrates it's 50 year this year. This series began with "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" that aried on CBS in 1969 then it exploded in popularity that it later received more series and later movies. Toys and prodcuts were made and sold well, it became big.   Hanna-Barbera  even tried copying themselves with making shows that kind of copied the formula of Scooby Doo.   The characters have had a long lasting effect in our media so here at Joshuaonline, we are going to be taking a look each month at a piece of Scooby-Doo media in commemoration.

   
            Back in 1985 it's December  and a couple of children (let's say a boy and girl) are watching the final episode of "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo" and not knowing it was the last episode.

       Almost 34 Years later :  Warner Brothers Animation releases "Scooby Doo and The Curse of The 13th Ghost"   finally a finale.

           Personal story time: I grew up watching my Scooby Doo Media on Cartoon Network (and possibly TNT)  and remember watching the 13 th Ghost of Scooby Doo , swearing they did catch all 13, even thinking with 13 episodes they did catch them all but nope.  (Pokemon Fail) I do love that series though.

        The 13th Ghosts of Scooby Doo was the 7th series and to explain it  in short talk.  Scooby Doo had  kind of fallen out of popularity by the 1980's the series had been seen as kind of predictable and over saturated.  That did stop them from making Scooby Doo series instead they tried new things like adding Scrappy , removing everyone that wasn't Shaggy (don't do the joke , don't do the joke) and Scooby.  They did add Daphne back to the series for the 6th series "The New Scooby and Scrappy Show" in 1983.   So this series has All those plus a boy named Flim-Flam (why would you name your child that?).  Anyway, this series decided to something different to make Scooby Doo hip! fresh! amazing! new! wow! to the audience. This time the ghosts are real! (I may use this line again)

       For you Scrappy haters out there (mean), this is the last series with him in it.  The series ran from 1985 for 3 months on CBS  worked on by the man who created the 90's animation hits "Animanics, Tiny Toon Adventures, and Pinky and The Brain" ,  Tom Ruegger.   (He also created Histera! which needs to be loved you!)   So, 33 years later , Warner Bros , who now was the rights to Scooby announced they were going to release a new movie that will finally wrap up the 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo.


     Our fake children are now in their 40's  are jumping with joy.  Let's begin.  After the Jump because we talked too much.

The Lookback: My Smurfy Valentine

The Flashback Valentine's Day 

       I think this is the first time I've done something Smurfs related (though I may be off) but I think it's time both ways.  There is a Valentine's Day episode of the 1980's TV series called "The Smurfs" that ran from 1981-1989 on NBC (in the United States). This is the 4th Smurfs special that came out over all related to the 1980's series and it aired on February 13th, 1983.

Let's take a look at this special. 

          So the smurfs like Valentines' Day because of course they do and Cupid is real because of course he is.  friendship.   Smurfette wants to have a true Valentine love and asks Cupid like Santa, to grant her wish.  Gargamel is continuing his plans to capture smurfs because that's what he does.  Since this show is called "Smurfs" you know he can't kill the smurfs (until the series finale I guess then have at it)  they play a prank on him with an exploding valentine.  Cupid tries to make Garagamel fall in love (with whom?)  but he says that Garg's heart is hard and only someone like him would make him fall in live. (Lady Garagamel?)  G-mel finds  Smurffette's letter to Cupid and is going to use that to his advance.   Anyway a witch named Chlorhydris is looking for a cat ,but needs a cat to fulfill a prophecy.  She already knows Garagamel has a cat.

meow/ Copyright H&B 

    Smurfette gets a letter back from her "true love" ( gee, I wonder who could have sent that) and it says get ready in 1 hour and meet him.  When she does and gets captured by Garagamel because of course.  It's not just an average Valentine's day there's also a total eclipse of the sun that is going to happen. (Turn around bright eyes)  That fits in with the witch, Chlorhydris, plans too.  The other smurfs figure out Smurfette was taken by Garagamel. Meanwhile, the witch lady wants Gargamel's cat, Azrael, and is offering gold  and since he likes gold he doesn't mind the offer.

I'm Cupid/ Copyright H&B 

    Guess what his cat is the right cat (who knew?!)  Also Garagamel doesn't get his gold and thrown into the a dungeon with the cats the witch rejected. Her wish is to make a world without love. (woah no love. Garagamel gets out and wants to stop the witch and make a wish to have the smurfs.  Smurfette runs into Cupid and tells him what Chlorhydris wants to do with her wish.  He reunites her with the other smurfs and they work to stop the plan.
           

aww tru love/ Copyright H&B 

          The eclipse starts and cupid stops the plan by making Chlorhydris and Garagmel fall in love and Smurfette makes a wish to have everybody go back to where they belong.

True love/ Copyright H&B 

           It's smurfy fun of a special. I think  it's interesting to show Valentine's day more than just romantic love. I think it's kind of clunky because it felt they like mashed up some plots together and made the special. I thought it was going to be Garagmel was trying his normal get the smurfs plot then it turned into here's a witch she wants to get rid of love.  Random eclipse going on there , it kind of works out in the end though.   

  That does it from us tune in next time we wonder What is love? Baby Don't Hurt me because what is love anyway?