But First These Messages: Peanuts Edition

Peanuts 

          Combining two things we do on this blog into one subject is our goal today. Yes, we are taking our commercials strand "But First The Messages" and our talk of "Peanuts" and combining them into one thing.  Also the format for this post is going to be a little different to a normal "But First These Messages" post  but only a little!  It's still a loose history since there so much that we might not do until another post or something.

    Before "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and actually this helped open the door for Peanuts characters to appear in specials in the future, and what I am talking about are the Ford Motor Company days.

                  Ford in 1959 had gotten the license to use Peanuts characters in their ads introducing a classic person to the world of Peanuts on television, Bill Melendez , who was working at Playhouse Pictures, who worked with Ford in advertising.

  

     The first commercial has Charlie Brown handing out chocolate cigars  because Ford has a new car and sure why not?  In our modern sad times, if someone even made a candy like this their would be like 98 Hot Takes on awful websites about how this is bad or something.  (Sorry ranting here)  It's limited in animation but still pretty impressive to see the characters in action and talk.  Yes, they were animated in color for the 7 people* with color television in 1959. (* we mean it wasn't a high number)
 
 It's also a reference to the 1959 strips from when Sally  was born and CB was giving out chocolate cigars

From May 30th  1959 

    Later on the Peanuts sell us the 1960 Ford Falcon. They sold them so well I just bought 20! 

       

     It's 2 minutes long so buckle up!

   

        I like how in these ads they interact with the narrator there's a classic charm there.

Woah, I'll buy 20 more cars 

more after the jump, I wish we had a sponsor

The Loud House: Season 1: Dance, Dance, Resolution/ A Fair to Remember

The Loud House  Nickelodeon 

  Previously on the Loud House:  Lincoln learns the true meaning of magic, what? Read the past episode here, now on to episode 22.

 Episode 22A:  Dance, Dance, Resolution 

            It starts at school and we see that Lincoln has other friends all with red hair (finally some good progress in media)  and they want ladies to ask them something, I don't know because we just kind of walked into this. (The same thing they ask every night, to take over the world!)  Ah! It's a Sadie Hawkins dance, for those don't know, that's where the ladies ask the guys to dance.

      Divergent Fun fact Time      This post is diverting here for a second, fun fact time! (Loud noises)  Sadie Hawkins dance idea comes from the comic strip  "Li'l Abner" as Sadie Hawins is a character in said comic. She was 35 years and un married. ( This is the 1930's so, you do what you want with that) and her father was worried that she would never leave the house so he gets all the un married men to do a foot race ,the twist being the losers would have to marry Sadie. Anyway the other spinsters think this was a good idea and every year they want to do it, if they caught a bacheolor and dragged him (ouch) kicking and screaming across the finish line before sundown then they must wed.

        Back to the Episode Time      Anyway, so the boys hope to be dragged screaming into marriage, no wait.  Re-checks notes.Oh, they hope to be asked by a girl for the dance, since it's the Sadie Hawkins dance meaning  the girls asks the boys. Fun fact about that, (stop we did this).   Lincoln is hiding from Ronnie Anne because he doesn't want her to ask him to the dance. (Now why you may ask, dear Jimmy)  He doesn't want to go because there's 2 for 1 thing at the arcade and he doesn't want to miss that. ( I understand, Lincoln).

            Lincoln comes home and his sisters have nothing better to do but stand behind the door for how long were they there lurking and waiting?  (This is me being silly) They want to know if Ronnie Anne asked him to the dance and he tells them that she didn't ask him but, not telling them the truth.  Gee, I wonder what happens next.    Luan, Lynn, Lucy, and Luna all know 10-11 year old girls (yes?) to help Lincoln out and bring him to the dance. Which, is quite sweet seeing the sisters do this.  He tells them the truth about the arcade and really he should have told them in the first place, but hten we would have no plot and I wouldn't be writing about this episode right now and everything would not EXIST. (cool off and come back in the next paragraph, seesh)

          Now, they make him go to the dance since they don't want their friends  to be sad and now Lincoln has to take out for 4 girls (dang Lincoln, has the ladies).  Lincoln also doesn't want Ronnie Anne to see him at the dance because he doesn't want to hurt her feelings.  This episode also heads to standard sitcom stock plot number 93 , the person trying to be with more than one person at the same time plot. Let's see how this goes.   Lincoln's  4 friends don't have dates well I'm sad now. ( Someone, take Zach out please)   Clyde is busy helping Lincoln do his thing.  There's a girl named Tabby  who is Luna's friend and yes, she does like music and talk British. (How did that happen?)  Giggles (I hope that's nickname or she should sue her parents) is Luan's friend from clown school who seems committed to the act.  Lucy's friend is Haiku who oh yeah , is like Lucy.  Polly who is Lynn's Roller Berby mate, and yeah.   I like how the episode flows with the Lincoln and the 4th girls working out pretty well.

          Clyde almost dies from the heights he is in. Ronnie Anne, what are you doing here!  Yep, Ronnie Anne shows and now Lincoln has to figure this out.  So, he asks his friends to help out and dance with the other girls while he hides from Ronnie Anne.  I do like how they used that random detail of a raffle as a way to drive the plot and this is where Ronnie Anne finds out that Lincoln is at the dance.  But first, the other girls  find out that Lincoln with the others but they are happy because they like Lincoln's friends.

    He finds out that Ronnie Anne wasn't going to ask him to the dance because she wanted to go to that arcade thing. 

    This episode uses the standard sitcom plots and gives them their own twists , the plot itself is tightly done and nothing is out of place or hanged on too long.  I think it's a strong episode and one of the best for the season 10/10.

  more after the Jump
 

The Loud House : Season 1: The Loudest Yard/ Raw Deal

The Loud House Nickelodeon

   Previously, The Loud House episode we have that here, now to episode 21.

Episode 21A: The Loudest Yard 

         For some reason this episode has Rita wanting Lincoln to be more active in exercise, why?  Plot reasons?  When he doesn't really do anything , she makes him join a football team. Because , plot.   Anyway, he tries to get out of it and asks Lola to maim him but he gets scared and causes Lola to crash  her car. (This needs context) Lynn sees them "wrestling" and learns that Lincoln is joining a football team so she trains him.  So we do get some good Lincoln and Lynn interaction.  Since this blog has covered almost every Peanuts special, and has focus on the Peanuts we see that Peanuts reference and give it an automatic +1 pts for that. (So it's guaranteed to not get a 0/10).

 
            Anyway, there's a couple of football  players from the other team who apparently too old, had a growth spurt in a strange way, or a steroid scandal they want to use the park where Lynn and Lincoln were practicing.  When Lynn stands up to their taunts it gives Lincoln an idea, to have her pretend to be him on the team.  She agrees.   Now , I being of sound mind and you being of sound mind would know how this already ends up before  even watching rest of the episode.  Especially, would this show have been allowed to have an episode where the characters do this and get away with it?  No way!


        Is this bad for the episode?  Well, maybe. The thing is if you know that the plan is going to end up with people finding out about the switch, are you invested in the story it's showing for the rest of the episode?  In some cases, this works because the journey of seeing what happens is enjoyable in it's own self.  In my opinion, there's not much journey to enjoy with the way the went with the premise.    I do have question of how someone who is known and explicitly says in this very episode isn't very good at sports is some how doing great at football without anyone thinking  hmmmmmmmmmm. Or wondering why Lynn is never present at the football games. 


     I do like that the coach  liked how Lynn played and wants her on the team for the next year, since she hurt her ankle in this episode which leads to our reveal of the scheme.  If it stopped there, I'd give it a 6/10 +1/10 for the Peanuts thing but the ending goes with something that bugs me personally. Lincoln ends up playing football to make sure the team does well again, keeping this episode at 7/10  but, they decided to write it where oh he does this thing where he accidentally touchdowns in the wrong post so he loses. That could happen but what was the point for the story?  I give it 5/10 keeping the 1pt bonus so 6/10.

       PS: I do like they are accurate with Lincoln scoring a safety, though.

 More after jump

Scooby Doo 50: Scappy-Mania

Scooby Doo 50 

          In the late 70's audiences may have been tired of "Scooby Doo" , the original series came out in 1969 and  the company that made the show decided the best thing to do with success was .... make shows like it and more Scooby Doo.   With the ratings needing a boost they did what  many shows have done, add a new character.

           There are people who criticize a show with a formula because it has a formula, that's slightly unfair, having a formula isn't a bad thing it's the execution of the formula and the story around it that makes it work. Scooby , of course, had one and it worked for the show , but after a while it did grow a little boring and idea starved. 

     So in 1979,  Hanna and Barbera being the  geniuses they were introduced a new Scooby series, that being "Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo"




    The intro of the series tells you everything you need to know about how this series was going to be  in full. Remember Freddy, Velma, and Daphne? Well, are of no use so, they are background characters , Shaggy still has some use but this series is all about Scrappy and Scooby.  Now, to be fair the most popular character of Scooby-Doo would be Scooby, then maybe Shaggy as they seemed to be the only characters with at least some personalities to them.  Could the writing people have done a better job at making them characters ? Yes, but this is 1979 and networks don't care. 

    The format had stayed there with them going somewhere and ending up finding a mystery , it's a guy in a mask, but now we have Scrappy to be the more rambunctious ready to go and fight. character. If the goal was to save the series, well it did, it worked.

   "Scooby" wasn't high brow cartoon, it wasn't what Disney makes for TV today like "Gravity Falls"or Cartoon Network does with "Gumball" it's not about cleaver writing , deep lore, or whatever it's a fun little series that had a premise and got far with it.  This series lasted the standard +3  with 16 episodes. 

     At the time, Scrappy proved be a great character for the show, and gave it something that the audience at the time wanted.  Diverting but using an analogy, do you remember that segment from one of "The Simpsons" halloween episodes where there's a  monkey paw that grants wishes and they make a joke about the over saturation of "The Simpsons", especially Bart? That's what happened here it's like if the people at Nick decided the best part of "Spongebob" was Gary and made him the main focus of the show and got rid of everyone else but Spongebob and Gary. 

    In 1980 season, that's what they did : Fred, Velma, and Daphne would be kicked the curb. The was a new format focused more on comedy and put into shorter bites inside of one episode stories.  They had 3 seven-minutes shorts instead. 

       This was featured part of another thing Hanna and Barbera liked doing at the time: package shows in this case the "The Richie Rich and Scooby Doo Show"  Where they aired the 3 Scooby shorts intertwined with three Richie Rich shorts.  So now it was Shaggy with the Mystery Machine , then Scooby and Scrappy with him. This would be the first Scooby series where they had more real life spooks instead of person in costume, again cutting down on the time with more on running scenes and goofiness.

   The shorts lasted up to 99 shorts. In 1983, they let Scooby Doo be a stand alone series again and brought back Daphne. This series was "The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show".   They also brought back the classic mystery solving with the guise of Shaggy and Daphne being reporters for a teen magazine.  They didn't go back to one story per episdode, the went with two eleven minute stories.  In season 2, we found out that  Fred and Velma weren't killed off by the revenge of one of the people they exposed because they show up as "guest stars" in a few episodes.

More after the jump

The Loud House Season 1: Roughin' It / The Waiting Game

The Loud House   Nickelodeon

         Previously, our past post here.  Now on to episode  20.

 Episode 20 A : Roughin' It 

                 Lincoln is feeling a lot less manly in this episode and decides to feel more manly again he has to go camping. With Clyde.   At the start of the episode there's a montage  that will come into play into the episode later. I like how they did that.  Lincoln and Clyde attempt do EXTREME (not 90's EXTREME) camping to get that manly feeling back again.  (It's like a lovin' feeling , maybe) 

       The fun of the episode at first, is seeing how they do this camping.   I'm taking off .5 pts for the farting too much because I'm a tough judge.  Anyway, when things go wrong in the episode , the next day, when they are floated down the river because they camped in spot they weren't supposed to have camp.    That montage at the beginning comes into play when Lincoln uses different things he learned from his sisters to help him in the woods.

    There's not much I can say about what goes on in the episode, except that it is a very enjoyable episode, I like the jokes and gags it has and the message  the Lincoln learns that being with his sisters is valuable and doesn't make him less "manly"  It's a really good episode I give it 9.5/10.


       More after the Jump

The Loud House Season 1: Lincoln Loud: Girl Guru/ Come Sale Away

The Loud House  Nickelodeon 

         Previous episode talked about here.   Now on to Episode 19

               Episode 19A : Lincoln Loud: Girl Guru 

                      In this episode Lincoln, a boy who lives with 10 different girls with ten different personalities thinks that other girls have the same personalities.  It starts with Lincoln and Clyde starting a business for a class assignment and they start with trying to sell chocolate pie.  (Apparently, this show thinks everyone likes Chocolate pie  and attacks those not in the chocolate pie cult, we must stop this, it goes up far people ,far!)  There is no chocolate to be had so, instead of fruit they decide to use salt and vinegar.  (So they go from chocolate , skip almost any fruit a pie can be and use chip flavors? What?)   

     That fails because , duh?  They attempt a couple more businesses that luckily weren't too big to fail.  Lincoln gives Liam a little girl advice telling him that girls do like chocolate. (to be fair, who doesn't?)  Which starts the main plot of this episode.  Liam returns and says that the advice worked.  Lincoln ends up becoming the Girl Guru. (Roll credits)   Side Line: I do like that Lincoln uses his experiences with his sisters as a guide for his advice, even if we the audience can maybe figure this might not go well. It gives us a good insight into the sisters and also, how much Lincoln really does know about them.    Though, he really shouldn't have used anything Lynn does as advice?   Also, using Lisa as a basis only works with people who would already like science stuff.  Like I said, Lincoln this might not work out for you.  

           Time to play : "Let's watch this all collapse!" Since it fails the boys try to hide as they worry.  I will  add this episode does have some good comedy  to it  and really makes it not boring or awful. When they make it to the Loud House (Roll credits twice) the girls find out that it was dumb that Lincoln used his knowledge of the sisters to do a guru thing.  He learned the obvious. 

           Remember the salt and vinegar pies ? They come in to play to let peop(le who were mad at Lincoln for bad advice to throw them at Lincoln. (Not sure, that salt and vinegar in the face is a good idea but alright.)     

            Not a bad episode, it's enjoyable and funny. While, you can maybe see Lincoln's  plan back firing from the start it does a good job that shows he didn't mean any ill-intent and the people mad him have a reason to be  mad.  The ending is good as well as it works out for everyone in a creative way.      I give it 7.5/10.

        More after the Jump

The Loud House: Season 1: April Fools Rules/ Cereal Offender

The Loud House   Nickelodeon 


       There's really no way for me jazz up saying hey look here there's where you can see the previous episode here.   Anyway, we continue with season 1 and this time episode 18.

 Episode 18 A  : April Fools Rules 

       It's kind of how "The Simpsons" does a Halloween special every year, this show , at least for season 1-3, has a April Fools' Day themed episode. Forget the timeline of the show somehow having 3 April Fools' Day episodes happen because that's too much thing ,and join us on the journey of the one that started it all.

        Luan Loud has been show in the episodes before this one to be the comedic sister and also a slight prankster. This episode shows she takes pranks and  knocks the level up to 11, screw it , 12, 15, over 9000!.     She also uses her pun powers at a heightened sense of ability no average human could do. 

        The others are preparing for April Fools' Day by bubble wrapping themselves, having a bunker, etc. Lincoln's plan is to stay in his room that whole day.  I love how the episode sets up the tension and fear really well. Ronnie exists and she texts Lincoln that she's coming over the next day, THAT DAY,  to bring a present. (Lincoln really should have been suspicious of that timing, darn sweet trusting Lincoln)   He tries to convince Luan to stop the prank thing  but she says no.

      Plan B, Lincoln tries to stop Luan from doing the pranking thing so, they get her while she's a sleep and lock her in a cage. (Yes, of course)  Now the other Louds make bad crate puns. Apparently, Luan can rip through metal and got of the cage.( Help!)   Lincoln gets the idea to run through all the pranks Luan set up to make sure that Ronnie Anne won't be get pranked.    The pranks are interesting use of the medium , animation, because they are over the top (Would make Home Alone blush) and rather genius.

    Leni follows Luan's signs that say the kitchen is outside where and was never seen again.   Clyde uses his Lori obsession powers to get take the pranks for Lincoln in her and Leni's room.  Ronnie Anne shows up and also I'm shocked , Luan invited Ronnie Anne over to make sure he would get pranked.  (Darn sweet, naive Lincoln)   She also a pie (not sure where she stored it  because we didn't see her walking up to the house with it but, alright)  but instead of pieing Lincoln she gives ot Luan instead.  They go out for milkshakes.  Meanwhile, rest of the family has to go find Leni and Luan does more one prank and pun.

          A fun episode that uses the medium of this show well, also showing us the interesting abilities of Luan and honestly, her knowledge of how Lincoln would react is well done.  There's nothing in the pepisode that makes it feel too uncomfortable to uneasy to watch and it has some great pranks.  It's a 9/10 episode indeed.

 More after the Jump

The Loud House : Season 1: House Music/ A Novel Idea

The Loud House  Nickelodeon 


 Previously episode 16 you can read that here. Now Here's episode 17.

  Episode 17a : House Music 

          Luna likes music as this show has shown through the series, now they've decided to give an episode with more a focus on here. (Woah,not focused on Lincoln? I'm scared)   There's a family talent event that evening and Louds  end up doing some music stuff.  Luna tells her family the best thing to do when doing music, is to have fun. (Pay attention to that)  The father, Lynn Sr, tells the family about his being kicked out of a band because of his obsession of cowbell so, the family let him join the fun too.

     They practice but Luna seems to get a call from her favorite artist, Mick Swagger, is going to be the fair  looking for talent. (Yeah, sure that makes sense) Luna then changes her mind on having fun because she wants to impress Swagger. So, she gets mad and fires her dad from the band.  Then, the rest of the family kick her out of their band.  She goes on to try and work on her own.

       She ends up at dinner trying to figure out a song and runs into an old man. (Gee, I wonder the old man is, it's not like he's Mick Swagger in disguise.) She tells him her problem and he pretends not being Swagger and reminds her about having fun. (She also eats his food)

     So now, Luna runs back to her family and to have fun.  The family does let her back in and she reconciles  with Lynn Sr. and lets him back in the band.  (He really needs new pants) They have fun at the fair and Luna meets Mick Swagger for real.

      This episode gives us some great Luna development  and apparently some background story for Lynn Sr. It has some funny moments as well. I think it's 9.7/10 (I was going to make it higher but, not enough cowbell)

 More after the Jump