Weekendering: The Weekenders: Season 3: Episode 10: Celebrity

The Weekenders Disney 

    Previously,  I have an experiment and if you didn't read the last episodes this your chance [here] 

   

Episode 10:  Celebrity 

        This episode is a two-parter, interesting. Also, we used to be a real country where you could bonk your TV when a problem happened. The gang is watching an episode of the in universe favorite show Teen Canyon. Tish introduces this episode and takes us back two months to an episode of the show being taped in their town.  They were watching it happen and also funny that the actor forces the people on the show to figure out a reason why he has his shirt off, he really wants people to see his abs. 

    They need a kid for the show and they have chosen  Tish.  I'm going to assume a show production couldn't just grab a random kid to be in their show without some paper work or something, but I guess we need to hurry up a bit. I also like that Carver is annoyed that Tish was called cute one. (we Tino fans were robbed)   Tish didn't really say anything and they dubbed over her with some weird  speech, I'm sure that's how kids talk, they say "ever so" right? right? (I don't know)  Carver is ever so not jealous. 

           Then back to the present and they've watched the episode.  Tish starts to get phone calls where other kids have seen the show and other people who ask if she can do something for them. Tish starts to think of herself as a star. Hmm I wonder if it will get to her head? That's usually how these things go. The next day, small town so the press is following Tish around because small town.  An old lady asks Tish to sign her teeth,  and the Pizza place has gone Tish themed. Tish is feeling overwhelmed.  She's even gotten her own TV show special about her. (Things need to calm down) 

            So this episode could have easily just got Tish getting a big ego because of the fame , but they went a different route and probably something better with Carver than him just seething for the whole thing.  He tells her that she's being a celebrity wrong. Like being nice (and following people on Twitter?)  and he says he going to teach her how to be one. Lor and Tino have seen the script already and know things are going to go wrong.  

Weekendering: The Weekenders: Season 3: Episode 9: The Tao of Bluke/An Experimental Weekend

The Weekenders Disney 

        Previously, Lor needs a Tutor, but we learned something instead [Here]  

Episode 9a: The Tao of Bluke 

            This episode decides to jump right into Saturday (can they do that?) and also Bluke is hanging out with the group (can they do that?).  The first minute of this episode is already winning by how it's going.  Tino can't catch us up on what's going on so he brings an a professional announcer , voiced by Jeff Bennett, to catch us up to speed. Then the episode rewinds to Friday. (Can they do that?) The group was at helpers helping the helpless to win a prize of a pool table.  They have to find 7 clues (Blue's Clues?) and bring them back and that will help them win.  Also use of the term Generation Z back in 2001, we're zooming. 

            In a twist, Bluke has been added to their team  and that's why he's hanging out with the friends.  The group is worried that he'll drag them down and they'll lose. Tino says they will not and they will help him out and the announcer is knocked out.  Their working with Bluke seems to be going not very well. There's a plan B, one of them is going to have to keep Bluke distracted for Sunday  and that ends up being Lor. 

         But first, Tino's Mom time!( YEAY)  She says that sometimes people will surprise you , if you let them. (She's just handing out the moral of the episode)  Lor is with Bluke helping him pick out overalls. The other three get to work on clues. (I've got my handy dandy notebook out)   I think there's a hard time finding one clue.  Bluke and Lor now having matching overalls. Which is fun.  They meet up with the other three. He reads the hard to solve clue and he found the 2nd clue, and the 3rd one, and the rest of them.

            The winners of the pool table isn't our Weekender group, but they pizza. He says it was good they didn't win because it's hard to split a pool table 5 ways, a pizza is easy. (He's right) The answer was fine.  Tino let's Bluke break the 4th wall, but that goes somewhere else. 

       This was a really fun story, like really fun. Bluke gets a nice spotlight and  he makes for an interesting side character. He's kind hearted and quirky but not in a way that seems annoying or over the top,  it's nice.  Tino's Mom does give the moral away a little too early here too early, but it is nice to see how he surprises by finding the clues by hearing the clues and seeing how he figures them out.   I also like how the episode has fun with the format of the show and the announcer part was fun.  This was a warm episode like Bluke and there's a lot to enjoy here, the funny moments worked well  and everything was well done. 9/10.  

More after the jump 

Oh Yeah! Cartoons : #36: Hobart

Nickelodeon 

Previously, too age old enemies  continue their fight [here] 

#36.1  Hobart: The Weedkeeper

Season 1, Episode 3c

        Hobart  is another two short series, so I will be covering both in this post.  This also happens to be another  Bill Burnett affair this time co-made with Greg Emison whom you also will remember worked together in  Jelly's Day   . So these two seem to be pitching machines. (Can they play for the Rockies?) Anyway, let's start with "Hobart: The WeedKeeper" 

                 Hobart is voiced by John Kassir who has a very long list of voicing credits He was the voice of the Cryptkeeper in the HBO series. For Nickelodeon he was Winston on "As Told by Ginger", Ray on "Rocket Power" and again he does alot.  

             Hobart is going to his girlfriend, Okra's, place to give her a puppy as a gift. So that she won't have to walk her toaster anymore. If that doesn't tell you what kind of short you're getting then nothing else will. Also, Hobart does kind of look like an adult Eugene from "Hey Arnold". He tries to put a ribbon the pup, but the dog wants to play and then flushes himself down the toilet. Then Hobart jumps down to help save the dog.  

            We meet the weedkeeper and who really wants a puppy and guess what falls on him? (a hamster?)  The puppy falls down on him  and he's happy, but then  Hobart falls on him.  They get into a fight over the puppy as he gets away. This cause the two of them to go on the chase.  

  

             The Weedkeeper has some interesting tools  and ends up being able to cage the puppy but has to work to capture the dog, but Hobart stops him and ends up chasing the dog.   Eventually he's able to give his girlfriend the puppy and she punctuates  the ending asking where do you put the toast. 

 More after the jump 

Oh Yeah! Cartoons! #35: Cat & Milk-Man

Nickelodeon 

         Previously, a company that gets it's kicks from taking down villains [here] 

#35 Cat & Milk-Man

Season 1, Episode 2c

            Cat and Milk-Man is a short created by Miles Thompson.  We've covered another work by him in Oh Yeah! Cartoons before.  This would be the first short that he did that came out for this series. 

        This one goes for a classic cartoon thing of having two different things against each other like Bugs vs. Daffy,   Tom vs. Jerry, etc. so is cat vs. a milk man fitting and interesting?   I do have to knock something off with this short, as yeah cats shouldn't be drinking milk, especially cow's milk. It's some weird thing that seem/s/ed to exist in cartoons especially.  I will not be taking it to seriously here though , just like to point that out at times when I need too.  

            Anyway, a cat who I guess is called Cat is looking for food in a trash can and throws a lid that causes a milkman who I guess is called Milk-Man to crash.  The cat sees the milk and wants some but the Milk-Man  doesn't want to give him any.  He goes on his route and gets loved on by an old lady and leaves, but Cat shows up to take her milk and he helps her.  Again I think most of this could be avoided if he gave the cat some milk. (He doesn't negotiate with terrorists) 

   

             He goes to the next house and give a military man some milk and Cat shows up again and the cat makes the man mad because he caused him to wet the flag.  You can guess where this cartoon short goes where it's pretty much Milk-Man does his thing, Cat shows up to try and take the milk and things go south.    Eventually, Cat takes Milk-Man's truck. and more chaos ensues. 

              Milk-Man gets squished and ends up in the hospital, and apparently his mother's name is Mrs. Milk-Man (family name power) and she's told he might not make it.  He runs away when he sees the cat though, because sure. 

             Very simple mostly goofy cartoon where most of the action is gag based and pretty much at Tom and Jerry like action of two characters going head to head to fight each other.   Though, the idea of him getting crushed and injured  was the darkest part but ends with him being able to run in a full body cast, so the short knows what humor it wants.  You can tell by the animation style and story that it was inspired by old time cartoons, there's even a Popeye like reference, but kind of constrained by it being 1998 and can't go as off the wall as it could have with some violence or something.   I do like the animation style and character designs are nice, 

         Do I think this could have been a full series, not for 1990's early 2000's. I think the full gag type cartoons were kind of not in the wanting at the time and I think in this mode it would have had a harder time.  I can see why a network didn't pick this up. This doesn't mean I think it's bad, because it could have been a series of shorts and would have worked, but it was just not the right time period.  

  That's it for now, tune in next time when ... why is there cat pointing a...  

Valentine's Day: I love the Chipmunks Valentine Special

Valentine's Day 

            No, that's not me saying I love this special, that's the name of the special. I Love The Chipmunks Valentine Special first aired on NBC on February 12, 1984 in primetime. (That means it was lucky)  This is during the era of the big 80's series had just started and this was the second ever special. 

            It starts with the Chipettes, the girl chipmunk characters created in the 1983 series.  It stars in their very nice tree house with the girls making valentines for the respective chipmunk boy the like.  Eleanor made Theodore a whole dang cake.  Britney wonders why Alivn hasn't called her for the Valentine's Day dance. (drama reasons, duh?)  

             It goes to the boys where it's Simon and Theodore making Valentines for the girls but stop when Alvin shows up because he doesn't like the holiday apparently. (Good thing it's not Christmas that's how you get visited by three ghosts.) I don't know how old he's supposed to be but apparently he had a bad experience on the date and that's why he doesn't like it.  He won't ask Brittney because he thinks she might reject him. ( Which going by 2 minutes earlier, she wouldn't but hey we need a story here. ) 

        Britney is apparently popular and all the boys want her, lots of human boys, but we don't ask questions  because that would be alot.  She really wants Alvin to ask her out, but he's not doing it. The other boys tell him that she wants him to ask her out. (Alvin is  a blockhead)  Alvin calls Britney but hangs up, so Simon and Theodore work to get him out there. 

            They try a tape to work on his mind when he's sleep. I forgot the chipmunks were also a music thing so yeah there's a song. Alvin is riding as the lone ranger like figure and goes to find Brittney and ask her to the dance, but she didn't know who it was.  This plan is not going well when Alvin wakes up from his sleep walking he's going to be confused.  

Chipmunk afterhours didn't work as a show 

            Awake Alvin hopes that asking  Brittney out will go well. Theodore and Simon are sure that she'll say yes.  We saw that she will not since she is going out Captain Chipmunk, which again the name he gave during his sleepwalking thing.  Funny enough,  Captain Chipmunk doesn't show up. 

         So Alvin brings a fake girl and  Brittney brings Jeanette dressed as Captain Chipmunk.  Alvin's date pops when a ribbon is put  on her and Alvin and Simon find out that Jeanette was playing Captain Chipmunk. (That's rough buddy) Alvin and Brittney aren't having a good night.  They have a song together where they give up on love. 

Your date is a bit off there, Alvin. 

  

             During sleep, Alvin accidently hits the tape player with the tape still in it this causes him to sleep walk again and become Captain Chipmunk and the special gets to reuse audio and stuff again.  This time Alvin is awoken by water and eventually realizes he's Captain Chipmunk. (I'm shocked)  He rides the horse to see Brittney and set things straight and causes window damage. 

         When she insults Alvin, he decides not tell her and will just go as Captain Chipmunk. He decides to be a not very good date the decides to leave early.  Then he hears Brittney crying about she wished she'd gone out  with Alvin.  (There's alot of drama going on here. He shows up as himself and dances with her. They make it as king and queen of the dance.   One more song. 

            I can't say this special wasn't entertaining, it was simple but alright. There's a charm to the normally confident Alvin being nervous about asking for a date.   The sleep walking stuff was fun to how it was played with where Alvin became a guy who is confident tor ride a horse to see Brittney. I enjoyed the Alvin and Brittney song the most of the songs in this special, though the Captain Chipmunk song was nice.

           Also it is fun to see Brittney and Alvin's dynamic. Of course they were characters made to be girl chipmunks  to complement the boys and they paired them off for such, but there isn't a blandness to them and do provide their own characterization. It's funny when Brittney does find out that Alvin was Captain Chipmunk.  This one is alright for Valentine's Day.  

            That's it for now, tune in next time when we make figure out who this masked person who comes by every night is. 

            

One Shot Posts: Future-Worm!

Disney 

             I kind of wonder how Disney XD will be seen in the future, it was Disney's attempt at making a male focused network, because of Disney Channel ending up on female skew, then they changed things to focus on animation, then gave up. I liked the network; it was always
more interesting than its sister Disney branded Channel to me.   

          With all that, it might be remembered for Gravity Falls, which is where that show was moved and had sucess with it. It was the home of a many of 2010's Disney Television animated shows that weren't for preschoolers that is. 

      I'm going to talk about a gem of a show for our One-Shot Posts this "Future-Worm!" 

      
    "Future-Worm!" was a Disney XD original animated series that premiered as shorts in 2015, then the full series started on August 1, 2016. Which is important for the fact that the show was running at peak Disney XD is your Disney Channel for animation (and still boys getting a spot too).  

       "Future-Worm!" was created by Ryan Quincy who worked on South Park and later crated a show for IFC called "Out There" (not be confused with any non 2013 non IFC series of the same name). Like this show, Out There was also animated, but that was going for more an adult audience, whilst I will say this was for a younger/child audience that doesn't mean it feels limited by that.  

        The basic premise of the show is a boy named Danny Douglas, has invited a time traveling lunch box and meets worm named Future Worm (very easy name) with great titanium reinforced abs (which we have to mention by law) and they go on adventures. 

       Danny is voiced by Andy Milonakis which is the most interesting and yet perfect casting choice for a character.  Future-Worm or Fyootch is voiced by James Adomian who brings a great voice that makes the worm sound like a gruff action character, which is great for our titanium abs, with bullet proof beard and a photo receptor visor. They are our main characters.   

                                 

          This show has 21 episodes as half hours (with ads) and most of the episodes are broken up into 3 segments , instead of the traditional 11 minute segments or a full 22 minute thing. This allows the show to vary the lengths of segments usually at 11 minutes, 7 minutes and 3 minutes.  Minus the final episode which does a full 22 minute single story. 

         Most of the time the segments are un related to each other and do their own different stories.  That doesn't mean the show is fully self contained stories, it does reward you for watching episodes and remembering things when you watch a different episode, calling back to certain things and details. This also pays off in the finale, as a reward for watching the series.    

  

           The first segment, "Long Live Captain Cakerz!" introduces some stuff that appears in the show like seeing the stake-based superhero show. (That's one of the weirdest thing I've mentioned.)  We also meet Danny's parents for a bit, they aren't big in this yet. We (because they already know) also meet a girl named Bug (voiced by Jessica DiCicco, which is ironic, she once voiced an actual bug in a cartoon). Bug's interesting it seems they are friends but not close and she wanted to go with them in the lunchbox, but they leave her. The plot is about  Danny wanting his favorite cereal, and wondering where all the boxes went. This is simple premise, but the fun part of the show is to see how it accelerates into madness. 

          There are some other hallmarks and long running gags, I'm not going to mention them all, but they are fun.  Anyway, madness, gloop aliens have taken over the world apparently, so the simple plot of using time travel to get cereal turned into aliens taking over the world, they shot the cereal into the sun. Then Neil deGrasse Tyson shows up (voiced by Neil deGrasse Tyson)  that's also something that will be said more than once for this show.  Neil knows Future-Worm because sure, and he explains the aliens are made of sour milk and good thing Danny has hidden the cereal in the backyard to fight them.  I love how this escalated. 

        The 2nd segment , "Healin' Touch with Dr. D" is shorter story where Danny has brain freeze and Fyootch brings him to a TV doctor in the year 3000 and the doctor happens to be a T-rex.  That all I'm going to say, because I do want you to watch the show. I will say, it uses it shorter time to give a story without feeling to bogged down.  

      The final segment, of episode 1 is "Terrible Tuber Trouble". Fun fact: this episode has Justin Roiland voicing a character, ironic to those who call this a "Rick and Morty" for kids or family or whatever.  The show takes a simple idea, having to make the parents dinner to cash in a coupon, and having something accurate in a strange way. 

More after the Jump 

The Brady Buch: Kiss the Boy and Make him ill? (Never Too Young)

The Brady Bunch 

      Back to The Brady Bunch and an episode you won't find streaming (as of this writing) and that's from season 5, it's the 4th episode "Never Too Young".  

          I may have stated this before, but if not, Bobby is my favorite of the Brady kids, always has been, though I can say Alice was best character overall.  I say this because this episode centers around him and  since this is season 5 that means it's the final season. I will say I do think that the final season does have alot of weaker episodes, they kind of feel they were felling crunched to write things for this show. This is the season they had a backdoor pilot  for a spinoff and the controversial addition of Oliver, which I'll get to in the future. [ I hope.]    

  

         This also means the series has gone long enough to the point where Bobby would be close to the age Peter's character was in the series when it started.  That means that maybe he might be getting close to be interested in girls, the fun way. Greg and Peter are going to meet up with girls and don't want to play basketball with Bobby. (Though when Greg and Peter get married, they'll be more interested in basketball, laugh track)  Bobby even says he'd rather kiss a basketball or catcher's mitt "...than any dumb ole' girl." I wonder what's going to happen in this episode. 

                Then a girl named Millicent shows up.  She's played by Melissa Sue Anderson, whom you may know from "Little House on the Prairie" if you don't know her from "Little House on the Prairie" then ok then. (Are you sure?) This actually would be a year before that series even started and she'd only a role on Bewitched   which (not witch) ended a few weeks after her episode aired.   Here though she's Cindy's friend mostly as a reason to have her randomly show up , I guess.  She's not come to see Cindy, she's come to see Bobby. (who isn't Cindy) She then kisses him to thank him.  Get it? He'd rather kiss anything than a girl then a girl comes and kisses him, laugh you! 

I'm not a basketball/ Copyright Paramount 

           Bobby sees fireworks, which I think is the show saying that this wasn't just a ewww a kiss this oh boy a kiss! (science!)  He wants her to promise that she'll never tell anyone she kissed him. Cindy knows because Cindy has been established to be a snoop and eavesdropper.  Bobby is caught up in the kiss and caught up in the skyrockets of love. (that should be a song) 

             There is a side plot with the parents doing a 20's dance thing  seems the kids are going to be part it too. (Fun fact the 20's in distance of time here is like the 1970's in 2020's in time, be scared!) The parents are concerned that Bobby seems to be in a daze about the kiss. What was in that kiss?  I do  hope that this episode isn't [currently] streaming because of the use of the hit 1928 song "I Wanna Be Loved by You"  even though they were covering it and not using the exact song. Either way, as of 2024 the song is public domain so.. what was I doing again? 

          I thought Greg going to see a girl? Why is he... anyway Cindy decides that likes to tell people secrets and finds her siblings to tell them she has a secret.   (She knows where Jimmy Hoffa is buried?) Bobby is having love visions of him kissing Millicent and then practicing kissing in the mirror.  Bobby goes to Cindy to find out what the secret is about?  She plays a game to stretch out the time a bit and  he figures out she knows about the kiss. He begs to her to keep the secret. 

I want your soul/ Copyright Paramount 

            The other siblings show up to find out what the secret is.  So what does she do? A) Tell them.  B) Makes up a secret C)  Doesn't tell them   D) Bobby tells them.  Well...  you have time.   The answer is C) doesn't tell them and tells them she never had one. 

            Bobby goes to his father about the facets of kissing. He wonders what the skyrockets mean. It fun to see that Bobby still goes with kissing then eventually equals marriage. (Well it does, what are you saying?)  With some fatherly advice he goes to see her and see if another kiss would cause sky rockets in flight.  (Thinkin' of hers been workin' up his appetite)  He geos to her and kisses her but oops we have news. (good news?)  no, bad news! 

Door to door sales boys really needed to calm down/ Copyright Paramount 

        Millicent says that he shouldn't have done that why? because she might have the mumps. This is back before a vaccine was readily around or something. Silly 70's. (laugh at them)  That means the rest of the plot is now about Bobby worrying about his family finding out he kissed a girl because of the mumps. He also needs other people to know unless he wants to cause a small pandemic. I'm not using the word correctly, because I don't want to.  

              He decides the best plan is to not tell his family, try to stay away from them and watch them reenact the 1920's. (minus them getting drunk on illegal alcohol) He calls Millicent to see if she is sick so that he be relieved or not, but there won't be any answers until 10 AM, the next day. (on most of these ABC stations)  There's nice to little charm to Mrs. Brady going into the boy's room (Greg had moved the attic, at the end of season 4) and tucking in Peter and Bobby. Though, she won't find Bobby  and gets nervous and calls out to find him.  They do find him since the genius decided to play music while laying in the doghouse.  (They used to have a dog) 

I miss our dog/ Copyright Paramount 

            The episode yadas everything we already knew and cuts to after Bobby explained everything. The real moral of this episode is the mumps are scary.  I do find it funny, in season 1 Mike never had chicken pox, and he also here never had Mumps. Man was avoiding all plagues like a king. He has to wait and the secret gets out.  Anyway, she doesn't have the mumps.   We get a nice a Carol and Mike moment. The 20's dance contest plot seemed to go well too. 

The 1920's?  this is how people dress now/ Copyright Paramount 

          This isn't a weak episode of the show, but not a stand out one either. Or far out, but it's a nice Bobby story about him experiencing his first kiss and feelings around that.  It's fun to see him wondering what's going on and why he feels that way.  There's a nice little charm to him not wanting his family to know either.  The mumps plot then comes in and that's really oddly added in I guess to have it make sure he tells his family that kissed a girl and liked it.  There are other ways he could have tried to hide it and it getting out and seeing the results, but alright.  Funny, enough we never see his brothers' reactions to it.  Cindy deciding to not tell her siblings was a nice thing for her character good to see her reaction and taking some consideration for Bobby there. 

        I do like this episode, myself, whilst not the best episode, it's pretty fun and a good Bobby outing. And with how this season does go weird at times this was still pretty nice episode and still grounded.     

That's it for now, tune in next time when we go back and time and give everyone a mumps vaccine. 

                 

                

        

Weekendering: The Weekenders: Season 3:Episode 8: Careers/ Tutor

The Weekenders  Disney 

 Previously, Lor's the boss [Here] 

Episode 8: Careers 

               It's one of those career episodes that seem to happen in shows but I'm not sure what happened in real life ever. The group has taken a career test to find out what would be good for them. Tish gets librarian which she thinks is not a fit for her at all.  Lor gets experiential physicist, which she finds to be a good fit for her.   Tino gets announcer, which he thinks would be a good fit.  Carver gets gym teacher, advertising executive, or animal trainer.  I like how there's no imagination spot for Carver to think of his life a gym teacher.  

            The others tell him that he doesn't have to do the jobs on the list, but he remarks the tests are destiny.   The next day, Tino pretends to be an announcer and Tish is annoyed about being pointed in the direction of a librarian. Carver tries gym teacher but maybe he won't be good at that.  Next, he tries the advertising  thing.  (Wait, do whales have lips?) 

            I enjoy Tish doing library things but still denying it, Lor doesn't do the best science though. Carver's parts provide the funniest parts of this episode, this episode is very funny. He's going to try the animal trainer thing. The family dog doesn't seem to like Carver. He decides to give up and says he'll be world famous shoe designer. His imagination spot there is funny.  

             Coach Colson shows up and tells them that the tests were suggestions of what jobs could work for them. Lor looked at the wrong column she got more appealing suggestions, Tino finds out his says " except radio or TV" which seems like a rude test.  The coach tells him that he if wants to do TV or radio go for it! Other people show up to say how their tests went  Coach laughs at Carver's test thing at gym teacher. 

        This episode  was fun. I think it had some really funny moments especially with Carver trying ads or Carver's future spot. It was a well paced and pretty interesting episode. There was blend of how they responded to the tests.  Lor thinking it would be fun to be a scientist was nice and then finding out the real careers she really lucked out there too.  Good message too.   8/10. 

More after the jump