Episodes
Episode 107 – The Santa Clause Santa Claus and Christmas go hand in hand. Whatever traditions you may have, Santa is pretty ubiquitous during the holidays. But who is he? Some traditions hold that he is Saint Nicholas, the 4th Century Greek Bishop. Others believe him to be Father Christmas from British folklore or Sinterklaas from Dutch stories. Still others claim he is the embodiment of the Germanic god Wodan, who is associated with the Yule Festival. Whatever his origins, he has always...
Published 12/27/18
Published 12/27/18
Episode 106 – How The Grinch Stole Christmas You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch. You really are a heel. You’re as cuddly as a cactus, you’re as charming as an eel, Mr. Grinch. You’re a bad banana with a greasy black peel! The song is a classic. Even if you don’t know the all the lyrics, you know the melody. Dr. Seuss’ classic tale of selfishness, isolation, and redemption is a Christmas favorite for many around the world. What does Christmas mean to you? Does it mean presents? Food? Family? To...
Published 12/13/18
Episode 105 – Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm If you were a child of the 90s, I guaranteed you played Mortal Kombat. The game was a cultural phenomenon. It was in every arcade (when there still were arcades, that is) and often attracted a crowd whenever anyone was playing. But it was just as infamous as it was famous. The gory nature of the game and it’s signature fatalities caused parents groups and community leaders to condemn the game and, in part, lead to the creation of the ESRB,...
Published 11/29/18
The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn’t Thanksgiving is a time to come together as a family to eat and be merry. It’s an American holiday that has its roots in the pilgrim days of the 1600s. In 1972, Hanna-Barbera decided to create a Thanksgiving special that told the story of the first Thanksgiving and the talking squirrel who played an important role in bringing together the pilgrims and the native Americans. From IMDB: A talking squirrel must save the holiday by rescuing a young Pilgrim boy...
Published 11/22/18
Episode 104 – Rambo: The Force of Freedom Show Description There have been a lot of cartoon adaptations of books and movies throughout the years. Often times, those adaptations advance the stories and sometime introduce new characters to the show or book’s mythology. Think about how much was added to the Ghostbustera mythos by the Real Ghostbusters cartoon. Well, sometimes a cartoon adaptation can vary so wildly from the original material that a completely new concept is created. That’s...
Published 11/15/18
Episode 103 – Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos Chuck Norris is a renaissance man. He’s probably most well known as a martial artist and actor. He created his own form of martial arts called Chun Kuk Do and has earned black belts in Tang Soo Do, Taekwondo, Karate, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Judo. He served in the Air Force. He’s also a film producer and writer. He was a big deal in the 80s. Honestly, he was a big deal until fairly recently. The man was a meme, for crying out loud. Chuck Norris...
Published 11/02/18
As a child, I didn’t have a whole lot of exposure to comic books. I was the oldest in my family, so I didn’t have the benefit of an older sibling who could introduce me to them. And, as far as I know, my parents weren’t all that into comics either. I had some nominal exposure to certain properties. I was familiar with the big names like Superman and Batman. Movies had been made about *them*. They were kind of hard to ignore. But, other than those big two, I had no real comic book knowledge or...
Published 10/25/18
Episode 102 – Sabrina the Teenage Witch: The Movie Many of you remember Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina Spellman, and the many adventures she went on over numerous seasons with her 2 quirky aunts and her talking cat bent on world domination. But what you may not remember is that her portrayal of that character started out in a made for TV movie on Showtime. This movie also starred a very young Ryan Reynolds. Yes, that Ryan Reynolds. Yes, we never thought Deadpool could somehow cross streams...
Published 10/18/18
When you hear the name Captain Marvel, what comes to mind? I’m sure most of you would think of the latest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Brie Larson is set to take up the mantle of the cosmic champion March 8, 2019 and, for many, the excitement is palpable. But who is Captain Marvel? Well, the answer to that really depends on whom you ask. And, if they’re a comic book fan, it probably depends on when they started reading comics and, most importantly, whether they’re a Marvel or DC...
Published 10/11/18
Episode 101 – Bride of Boogedy The name Disney is synonymous with a lot of things — magic, princesses, animation, Mickey Mouse — but one thing people don’t usually associate with Disney is horror. Well, maybe not horror per se. Maybe scary is the better word. There aren’t too many scary Disney movies out there. But we found one. If you asked 100 people about the movie we’re about to cover, I would wager 99 of them would say they’ve never heard of it.It is, in fact, the sequel to an...
Published 10/04/18
Batwoman Batwoman is a name few casual comic book fans would recognize. In fact, I would wager most people have no idea who she is and, if they do, they don’t really know much about her other than her association with the Bat Family. That was certainly the case with my wife. She first heard about Batwoman because it was announced recently that Ruby Rose would be playing the caped heroine in an upcoming episode of Arrow. So she asked me about her, and I did what I normally do in these...
Published 09/27/18
Episode 100 – TNMT 2: The Secret of the Ooze The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been a cultural phenomenon since their debut in 1984. What started as a simple drawing of a little turtle wearing a mask with nunchakus strapped to its arms has rown into a media empire complete with comics, multiple TV series, and movie. Fans of this podcast will no doubt recall our fondness for the franchise. Fifty episodes ago, we covered the original Ninja Turtles movies from 1990. Despite the somewhat...
Published 09/20/18
Episode 99 – Legends of the Hidden Temple What kid hasn’t imagined themselves as Indiana Jones? Crossing treacherous rivers in search of treasure. Delving into a long forgotten temple deep in the jungles of South America to find some sacred idol or priceless totem. Solving riddles and pitting your wits against ancient traps and cursed magics. Well, Nickelodeon found the answer to all those questions back in 1993 when they created a game show that would turn teams of adventurers into modern...
Published 09/14/18
Episode 98 – GUTS Have you ever dreamed of dunking a basketball? Hitting a home run? Scoring the game winning goal in soccer match? Coming in first in the 100-yard dash? For some of you, I’m sure these weren’t simply dreams — they were realities. For others, like a lot of kids out there (myself included), these were the most improbable of fantasies. But what if you could? What if you were able to perform athletic feats you’d never believed possible? That was the idea behind a...
Published 09/06/18
Episode 97 – Nick Arcade People have been obsessed with video games since Pong debuted back in 1972. Since that time, video games have crept into our everyday lives in various ways. Several movies have been produced both about video games, like Mario Brothers, Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider, and Warcraft, and featuring characters that play video games, like The Wizard and The Last Starfighter. There have also been tons of TV shows featuring video game characters. But that’s just it. Most...
Published 08/23/18
Episode 96 – Double Dare By the mid 1980s, Nickelodeon was well on its way to becoming the powerhouse of children’s programming we know today. They had already found a winning formula with a schedule full of variety shows and pre-existing animated properties. But in 1986, producers on the channel famous for covering kids in green slime opted to pursue a new kind of show – a game show. Building on America’s love for quiz shows and the success of gross out hit “You Can’t Do That On...
Published 08/16/18
Episode 95 – Clarissa Explains It All Sitcoms are a staple of the television industry. They’ve been extremely popular since at least the 50s. Shows like I Love Lucy, Gilligan’s Island, All In The Family, Taxi, MASH, Three’s Company, Seinfeld and Scrubs, to modern shows like Parks and Recreation, Big Bang Theory, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine have all experienced tons of success. But While the early 90s had plenty of sitcoms for adults, the same couldn’t be said about shows geared towards kids....
Published 08/09/18
Episode 94 – The Adventures of Pete and Pete Imagine it’s 1989 and you’re watching Nickelodeon. You’ve just finished watching an episode of Double Dare and, instead of commercials, you’re treated to a quick scene of a young red headed boy who tells you a story. Sometimes, it’s about how his brother is still frozen from a game of freeze tag the day before. Other times, it’s about what he and his friends would do for a dollar, or about his terrible summer job mowing lawns along Route 34....
Published 07/12/18
Episode 93 – Salute Your Shorts There was a time, not so long ago, when kids were encouraged to spend time outside. In fact, the phenomenon was so common that parents would often send their kids away to summer camps to spend their days swimming, playing baseball, going on hikes, doing arts and crafts, and whatever else the camp counselors could come up with. Personally, I went to several summer camps in my youth, from religious to sports oriented to more outdoor oriented varieties. It...
Published 06/28/18
Episode 92 – Hey Dude Nickelodeon was a wild place in 1989. The channel that began its life as “Pinwheel” in 1977 was the first cable network for children. Originally programmed mostly with variety and game shows geared towards and staring children, not much had changed by the late 80s. In that time, the now rebranded Nickelodeon added some animated series from the UK and Japan and some live action comedy and drama series. Many of these “new” shows had already been on the air for years on...
Published 06/21/18
Episode 91 – Captain N: The Game Master This week we decided to cover Captain N: The Game Master at Sean’s request. We mentioned before how Toyetic some shows were, but this easily has them beat. The protagonist is named “Captain Nintendo”, which can’t be any more of a product placement. This show was quite popular in it’s time, and it’s easy to see why: it hit every mark for any early 90’s kid. But could that just be our nostalgia brain, or was there real truth to that. To be fair, Sean...
Published 06/07/18
Episode 90 – Freakazoid! After covering such an awful show subject last week we felt we needed a palate cleanser. Freakazoid! we are actually the requesters this week, and we couldn’t be happier with our decision. Freakazoid was a sort of accident pet project of Steven Spielberg, Bruce Timm, and Tom Ruegger that was cut far shorter than it should have been. How did such a smart and ingenious show get cancelled after only 2 short seasons? Would this show be successful today? From...
Published 05/31/18
Episode 89 – Street Sharks This week’s “user request” comes from Shawn…thank you, Shawn!? Street Sharks is arguably one of, if not THE most Toyetic animated series we’ve ever watched. Sean argues it is also one of the worst shows we’ve ever watched, while Chris is not so sure. Chris as been hoping to cover this show for over a year and really has been wanting to talk about a pretty big conspiracy around this show. Some of it involving Henry Winkler? I guess you’ll just have to listen and...
Published 05/24/18
Episode 88 – The Little Mermaid The Animated Series This week’s request comes from an unknown listener lost to the mists of time…If you ARE that listener, drop us a line and let us know! The Little Mermaid animated series was a short lived animated series based on the Disney film of the same name. This was a first for Disney, and was quite a big deal at the time. Even leading to animated TV series for other Disney properties. Both of us remember very little of this show, and neither of us...
Published 05/17/18