The Brothers Grunt review

There was more to MTV than just music. For the sake of appealing further to youth culture, we got a glut of cartoons that were either objectively good, or flawed but at the very least bearable to watch.

MTV was where many creators got their start, Mark Hentemann of Bordertown fame(?) got his start with 3 South, minding whatever work he did for Family Guy either before or after, John R. Dilworth's work appeared three times in different animation showcases on the network, Lord and Miller got their start with the beloved Clone High, Chris Prynoski before Megas XLR got his start with Downtown, the creators of Golan the Insatiable got their start with DJ and the Fro (plus some crappy Comedy Central show.) and Danny Antonucci got his start... continue on.

Background

Before creating what many consider to be the greatest cartoon of all time, one so great I actually managed to get back into it even after I said I hated it for some reason, Antonucci was just an independent animator. Around that point he created content for commercials like Foot Locker and Converse, even creating Lupo the Butcher for that purpose, who landed in the latter spot as well as two MTV bumps. Structured like that for the sake of flow.

Because his style fit the nature MTV was going for at the time, Antonucci had MTV down for some further contributions, notably another bumper which centered on three grotesque albinos taking a shit. We're adults here, we gotta look at something like that objectively, I mean they heavily imply that's what happened, see for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrXbZMNVb8k

Apparently either the bumper was that popular or Antonucci seized an opportunity to get into the television business, and that bumper became the basis for a cartoon series, The Brothers Grunt. Even in its prime, the show wasn't that warmly received. It came out during the heyday of Beavis and Butthead's popularity.

A scheduling practice led to both shows alternating timeslots on a particular day, and think of it like this, people came to MTV for music and Beavis and Butthead, no exceptions. I'd say it was all because of the network underestimating the popularity of their staple at the time, or because of indirect exploitation of a slot people would be tuned into, only to get this.

People were dumb enough to call this a rip-off of Aaaah! Real Monsters, something the creator of it rejected. Thank you Garbor Csupo, mad respect.

Plot (or something)

The idea behind this is that there is a civilization of humanoid creatures called grunts (basically pale veiny things wearing underwear), and one who is identified as the chosen one, Perry, winds up fleeing for civilization, with five others (Frank, Bing, Sammy, Tony and Dean) setting out to find him.

Now keep in mind, the plot isn't so much an important detail, rather a suggestion for why anything is happening. To best sum up this show, it's a bunch of surrealistic non-sequiturs. Surrealism is cool... if done properly. Here it feels like stuff happens just for the sake of it happening. While Perry is seen, it's rare for the other grunts to see him and try to get him back, so while the overarching story is wasted, it isn't in a way that it feels painful.

Gotta admit something, I had seen the show online a long time ago, and only got back into it now, somehow I was able to guess the names of the significant characters quite easily. They certainly look visibly distinguishable, so let's have a little fun trying to single out their personalities.

Bing seems to be the ladies man, based on his build and most visual gags, then apparently he died and went to hell. Tony seems to be the most interested in finding Perry, but is also the most neurotic, Dean is the well meaning of the grunts, so I believe, I have only seen Frank once so I assume he and Sammy are more into the human world than the task at hand.

This was with a paltry amount of episodes I managed to catch, so I may be missing something.

Then there's the gross out factor. Beyond the appearance of the grunts, there are plenty of moments furthering it like drinking sweat and some other things I don't remember too well. If I had to say anything nice, it wasn't as forced as Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon, not to mention this didn't have any expectancies to uphold to start with.

But let's put it into a different context. This came out in 1995, around that time Beavis and Butthead was in its prime, and we also got shows like The Head, Æon Flux and The Maxx. Each show had a stable story structure, the latter three were dark action shows. While this can at least stand out in terms of visuals and structure, it wasn't anything to write home about all things considered.

But honestly, I don't think there could've been anything done about it. I'd say knock the Perry details and just have it be a surrealistic anthology program, but perhaps try to provide bigger meaning to most of the segments for the sake of a purpose. Our imaginations can only go so far on fumes, and I feel the biggest sin this show had was a lack of true purpose.

Style

Ed, Edd n' Eddy is perhaps best known as one of the last shows to make use of cel animation. Here, it seems like they went for the more traditional route (at least based on what I could tell.) The overall design takes what should be a surrealistic world and somehow makes it mundane. This is the norm for the show, so at best you just have some ugly guys dinking around a world full of stupid people, along with whatever shenanigans are going on.

It worked better in Ed, Edd n' Eddy because it was technically more grounded, and the more surrealistic aspects always came out of nowhere. Here, anything is possible and the mystique is missing in action. The grunts can be summed up as those lazy bums who like cheese and martinis.

Overall

Antonucci had agreed this was a failure, but not like something he wished never happened. In a way I can see what he means. It helped to get his company out there, this was the first production of a.k.a. Cartoon, and thanks to some further experience with television production, got the confidence to do Ed, Edd n' Eddy later down the line.

Hard to believe Danny did that mostly out of spite, but hey, when we do something we hate, we get the provocative to try and make it bearable for us to do, and we wind up not only making it good for us, but something enjoyable for the public. Funny how that was malice-based, but this was not, for the sake of irony.

Honestly, even before then MTV cartoons had class, so this would've been easily cast aside regardless. Where does this even fit in the world of the youth of the 90s? It's already so surrealistic that not even weed could make it interesting. It's safe to say this is technically MTV's worst animated series, no cartoon since has ever come close to dethroning it.

If you're curious, it's best seen piece by piece, each segment is only a little above four minutes, take it or leave it.

Work It review

 I'd like to consider myself very open-minded, given what I had either defended or wasn't as harsh to. Though I'm more than willing to spite mainstream pop culture beliefs, sometimes I gotta bite the pill.

So...

History

Work It was a sitcom that reared its head onto screens in 2012... for a week. Yep, it's another one of those two-episode deals. Similar to Danny and Sammy, a complete season was produced, but ratings would determine where a show would drop off. Ordinarily, two episodes are aired per contractual obligation, or maybe to give networks more time to fill the void that would be left.

The show was created by Ted Cohen and Andrew Reich, none of them had done much of note, though they both worked together on Friends years prior. This show bit it for a reason I won't get into just yet, and it wasn't just ratings.

I don't know any of the actors who appeared on here, and I had watched television a lot at this point, I mean then again my only windows to television at this point were Nicktoons Network, TBS and MTV.

While it bit it in the United States, New Zealand seemed to be more tolerant and burned off every episode in record time in 2013.

Plot

Pop quiz, what do you do if you're a guy hit by the job recession of the current year? You dress as a woman to potentially take work elsewhere.

If you had any doubt that LGBT representation was a product of the Trump era, this show got heat for making fun of transsexuals by having men dress in drag. And that's the schtick of the entire show, two former General Motors workers dress as women to land jobs at a pharmaceutical joint.

But for me, it's not so much the offensive factor, but the fact that the show is so painfully unfunny that I can't help but focus on the more offensive aspects, they had the most substance. Not a single joke or funny line was found in the one episode I saw of the show, and this was one that made it to US airwaves.

Story behind that is that one of the guys lands a date with a doctor due to a desperate attempt at selling a new asthma medicine, the other gets jealous due to him being a major salesman at his old job. That's it. It's sorta like The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer, I'm less offended over the offensive premise and more over how they do so little with it.

This is as short as the show's run.

Conclusion

This show is simply unfunny, as someone who watched various other forgettable sitcoms, I can say with confidence this is the worst sitcom I have ever seen, just for the fact it had nothing for me to hold on to, not even being outrageous enough for a novel factor. It doesn't help that I recognize none of the actors here for the sake of getting exposed to more I like.

That just leaves one question, is this worse than The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer? Honestly, yeah. Somehow this has even less effort than that show, I mean it tried to be funny, here, nothing even gave me the idea of something being remotely funny.

I wish I had seen this sooner. Also fun fact, apparently this is so bad that even the lost media community don't care for it.

Anyone who wishes to defend this to spite the more toxic factions of the LGBT community, don't, this show just isn't worth it.

Good Vibes review

 People say MTV died the day music stopped being the center of it. I mean what does it even stand for, Music Television? Like what does that even mean amirite? Personally, MTV's decline was slow but blatant, but there was one aspect that kept me and most others tuned in, the cartoons.

Even in its prime, MTV were all about animation, kicking it off with the beloved animation showcase Liquid Television, which gave life to the cultural phenomenon Beavis and Butthead and the equally kick-ass Æon Flux. MTV was where most creators got their start, Mark Hentemann, before Bordertown, created 3-South in 2002. Chris Prynoski before Megas XLR created Downtown in 1999. Danny Antonucci, before Ed, Edd n' Eddy, created The Brothers Grunt in 1995, which industry professionals like himself and Gabor Csupo of Rugrats fame stuck up for, so maybe the viewers are wrong.

Beyond that, we had many a good show, Daria, Clone High, Undergrads, a SpiderMan cartoon even and I think it was called Spy Groove the other. If you're not just in it for music, you had your fix on animation until a little into the mid-2000s. Beyond some forgettable toons that aired on MTV2, one of which being an adaptation of Friday, at the very least MTV's cartoons ended on a high note.

So for a good few years, MTV became Sketch Comedy and Reality Shows and sometimes Music Television, but perhaps to help get back some viewers, especially with social media's continuous rise, they decided to revive Beavis and Butthead. Before the advent of diversity for the hell of it, this revival managed to stay true to the spirit of the original show. That, along with Daria still receiving daytime reruns helped MTV to greenlight another show that wound up in their pipeline.

History

Good Vibes was initially pitched to Fox in 2009, but ultimately passed on. I have an idea for two reasons why that happened, but I'm sure most of you could guess. The show was created by David Gordon Green, who had also directed films like Pineapple Express and the 2018 reboot of Halloween, which turned out to be pretty good. I know, shocking.

This was one of many solo efforts by Tom Werner, formerly part of The Carsey Werner Company. Given his pedigree, Carsey was the better half, all of his productions bit it after a season or so, he helped The Conners (unless it was because of ancestry, I'd say they were desperate to get Roseanne off), and some third thing.

The show was co-developed by Tom Brady, oh excuse me, not the quarterback as the vanity logo at the end would have you believe. He seems to be more interesting credit wise, having produced two Rob Schneider movies, being a consulting producer on some episodes of Home Improvement, executive producing a TV stint starring two of Louis C.K.'s most prominent accusers and Adam Sandler sorta proteges Dana Goodman and Julia Wolov. Unfortunately he also produced some episodes of The Critic...

This show had always followed Beavis and Butthead in initial broadcasts, which is a smart idea. People are usually in for the after, never the before. Ratings would ultimately kill the show, but it seems the writers followed an underrated principle, treat every season finale like it's your series finale.

The Show

When it comes to MTV's shows, the draw isn't original ideas, a lot of their shows typically appeal to teenagers and twenty-somethings, hence why so many of them are set at college, high school or the city. MTV would get by through how well the characters are written and this show... does. It does, it has decent characters, so engagement is there.

Characters

This is more of a character driven show, just them going about their days in a possibly fake California town, and thankfully the characters are sober behind the wheel.

It's important, especially since this show follows a lovable loser (itself a common but not overbearing cliche), the fat, not to be forgotten, Jersey-transplant Mondo Brando. But perhaps as an advantage, since he is one of the mains the writers took the most time to flesh him out. Others are able to stand on their own and work well with one another.

Only detail that kinda bugs me a bit is that two characters have siblings either younger or older, and they all have the same class. This refers to supporting protagonist Woody against his eldest sister Milan, as well as supporting recurring character Gina and her psychotic brother Wadska.

Woody is one of those outsider new-age types, but one thing I gotta give this show for is that it helps to justify his views. His parents have no redeeming qualities, and they make it clear you don't have to root for them. Unlike most shows where they accidentally give the antagonists a leg up, this is more cut and dry, and a statement on how wealth and materialism can corrupt families. They mention this point blank by the way.

So how bad is his sister? Well, she is a play on the archetypical bitch ever present in many MTV reality shows, but she is surprisingly likable. Best way to explain her is that she is one who has her priorities straight. She is mostly wrapped up in her lavish lifestyle, but shreds of her past self still linger.

On the priorities, one time she had Mondo co star on an episode of her reality show, not because she wanted to use him, but because of an off-the-cuff joke he got voted into it. She made it clear she didn't want him around, it's better to be your bitchy self then to use someone as a means to an end.

Another plus to her, she enjoys a friendly rivalry with Gina, spurred by her getting with the resident bully. He dated Milan but broke up with her on a big scale, and perhaps not seeing how he could get with someone as unpopular as Gina, held it against her since. Even then, both are on good speaking terms at the very least in spite of contrasting attitudes. Hell, during one time they were forced to camp on an island, she didn't complain about the lack of utilities, ire was just focused on the small feud between her and Gina, and she sacked up to help her when she needed it, something carried to the end of her plot.

Plus she invited Gina to her birthday and is honest about having breast implants. She is the most likable mean bitch I've ever encountered. It can be done.

Speaking of Gina, she is the typical love interest of the hapless loser type. She is mostly bland, but where she rises above helps keep her likable. She held a steady relationship with that aforementioned bully in spite of various ups and downs, you'd wonder how someone as nice as her would put up with the exact opposite, but was also willing to give Mondo a chance and by the end of it, they get together. Based on instant results on a dA search, it seems she is a top 3 kind of character, the ones who consider those kinds of girls hot.

I'd think she'd be beaten out by Babs, the obligatory milf who looks the part for sure, but manages to incorporate elements of a caring mom as well. I won't spoil the surprise, everything else is out the window.

Ms. Teets is basically Daria who had grown to regret her cynical teen years, eaten her way to obesity, desires that sweet cock and teaches sex-ed. Her schtick is a bit more basic compared to the others, but she is bearable enough to not overstay her welcome. Think Quagmire but never foresaking her character to validate a collective of viewers' hatred for one other character.

The aforementioned bully, Turk, can be considered a dealbreaker, whether you like him or not depends on whether or not you find his dialog funny. I mean I guess he has a good reason to frequently target Mondo given a very bad first impression, Mondo manages to come out mostly on top in those situations. However, there is another plus, he is played by Jake Busey, a good go-to for an expressively deep voice.

Wadska is another dealbreaker. On one hand the hyperactive conspiracy theorist is already quite predictable and cut and dry, but the writing manages to work to his benefit. You can never tell what he'd do for the day. One thing I noticed is some interesting progression between him and the two leads. Overtime, they become more comfortable bringing Wadska along, if not guiding them to their next adventure.

Not to mention, they even made a background character interesting. One character, Dee Dee Spears, take a wild guess who they're referencing, is an easily identifiable character, due to the fact that she's pregnant. The fact she played a major role in an episode caught me by surprise, and she is a decent character, handling the troubles of teen pregnancy realistically before finally giving birth, and as a cherry on the proverbial cake, the father of her child becomes committed to being a father.

Overall, this shows how great a show can be with well written characters and their respective dimensions.

The Show

While the characters are fun and likable, the humor is more or less hit and miss. The show pokes fun at pop culture... from the time. Beavis and Butthead did this too during their revival, I can't say either is better than the other at it, it's really only bad if it defines the entire show. If I had to say anything nice about it, they don't always call attention to most of these, Milan did a Lady Gaga reference with a meat dress but never addressed it for example.

They did direct parodies of Mama Mia! and The Hangover, but were different enough to stand on their own for outsiders, and once more drove the point on how good the characters are. Somehow I was able to understand nearly every reference the show threw at me, I mean same for Neighbors from Hell, god I have a lot of weird shows I'd consider nostalgic.

I mean, okay, surfing is also a fairly big element to this as well, not foregone, but not as commonly exploited, maybe two or so episodes.

At the very least, this was different enough to stand on its own on MTV.

There is one problem though, they aired the episodes out of production order, which is a big deal given that there is a slight arc and an obvious conclusion. If you wanna enjoy the show proper, watch the episodes in this order: 1, 4, 6, 2, 10, 7, 5, 3, 12, 11, 9 and finally 8. You're welcome in advance.

Animation

The animation was produced at Six Point Harness. Prior to this they produced some MTV2 cartoon. The show is basically a hybrid between The Simpsons and Family Guy, most of its design for the former and most of the edge factor from the latter, and just enough to stand out on its own.

The overall animation, best way to explain, it's kinda like Bob's Burgers or Brickleberry, it's not traditional but sure moves like it is.

Overall

MTV may still have some cartoons, probably, but until I'm told otherwise, this is one of the last great MTV cartoons out there. It has a vibe that takes you back to at least as far as the late-90s. It's a fun enjoyable show that at least stands on its own in terms of structure and characterization. I don't know what compelled me to watch MTV at that point, maybe my sister, but I'm glad I at least dropped off before things got worse.

Top 7 Personal Worst Shows

As long as everyone is allowed to express their true opinions, these kinds of lists would never die out. I have a high tolerance for shit, but even I have a limit, plot thickens, true believer.

As a personal rule, I have to have seen at least one episode of the show's covered. If it didn't inspire interest for me to see more, it would say a lot. Okay what more could I say? Only thing new here is the shows featured.

Let's get it on

#7: Family Dog

What's worse? A show based on an adult book series with fish puns, or a collaboration between major directors and writers of respected shows that turns out to just be a pitiful sitcom. If you chose the latter, tell me what people see in Saberspark.

Family Dog was one of three animated sitcoms made to cash in on the success of The Simpsons back in the 90s. While Fish Police and Capitol Critters strayed from the concept of The Simpsons at the very least, this seemed closer to it. ABC did it once while CBS wound up doing it twice and NBC were wise to wait (and pass on a pilot sent at that time)

Ironically, this originated from an animated short that aired on Amazing Anthologies on NBC, and the bigger irony is that this predated The Simpsons by a few months. With Steven Speilberg and Tim Burton helming a series adaptation, one fresh off of Animaniacs and bringing on writers from it, this looked to be a hell of a contender.

And that fantasy died as quickly as the show did.

It seems people only liked the original short for the novelty of it being on a predominately live-action series. What's left of it is, and I can't believe I have to stoop to this, mean-spirited. I care little for the family, even the dog, and they share my feelings on the latter for the most part.

The first episode I saw had the dog suffer through thirst throughout the episode, nothing else of interest happened. I zoned out with another and all I got from it was a sentient fart (a female dog was just walking and a purple vapor emerged from around her ass.)

There may be something I'm missing, but a big reason I'm talking about it here is the fact that Saberspark wussed out on discussing it proper, and said it had good animation. It didn't, it was sent to Canada.

#6: The Loud House/Casagrandes

Next up is a tie. Interchangeability can be both a blessing and a curse.

You know the score with most networks, if something turns out to be good, it's bound to get cancelled right away (at least a majority of the time.) Some say it's astounding The Loud House was an exception to the rule, I say otherwise. If the movie is anything to go by, The Loud House is less of a show, and more of a brand.

The more I thought about it, the show uses archetypes because they're easy to execute, it uses toilet humor because it's easy to execute, it uses flash, basic designs, and possibly more, all for the sake of putting out a show that the network can easily dish out content for. It's a big reason why it's so easy to replicate, and why Nickelodeon is pushing it as hard as they do. They're not in for creativity, they're in it for that marketing moola.

With that in mind, the show got old for me relatively quickly after that, not even the earlier seasons were that good since I wound up skipping most episodes based on the prospect alone. It seems Lincoln sacrifices more for himself than his sisters do, it gets kinda repetitive and it seems they're only thankful because he gets them what they want. Not to mention, no one sister loves Lincoln more than the other, it's less of eleven different characters and more of a hive.

Perverts flock to this for the harem aspect apparently.

The Casagrandes endorses the brand theory. It's basically the Loud equivalent to The Cleveland Show. Both shows are spin-offs, they came out while their respective shows are still running, they star the minority characters from the original shows, they're animated the exact same way and only play out with minor differences.

The way I see it, The Casagrandes is more bang for Nick's buck, I was not interested in seeing more of it. Nor do I have much more to say. Go figure.

#5: Girlstuff/Boystuff

This is frankly one of the ugliest cartoons I have ever seen. It defies stylistic choice, hardly even fitting with the tone it's going for. It's basically Doug on acid, thanks to it also featuring fantasy sequences, but this also features every obnoxious transition it knows.

The show itself is a bare basic early-teen show, and obnoxiously so. It checks every box on a list of teen cliches, to the point I'm beginning to think they based their characters solely on surveys or stereotypes. Though it seems they focus much too heavily on the positives of it, the only opposites being minor issues at best.

If you want a Canadian series that focuses on teen drama, just watch Degrassi. By the time 6Teen came out two years after this show, it became obsolete, if people ever saw it.

#4

Here's the first and only live action show. It was hard for me to narrow down since I have seen plenty of infamous sitcoms. I made it through whatever episodes of Pauly Shore's sitcom were available, and I can say it does capture Shore's comedic essence to the last decimal. Jenny McCarthy would've been fun to address, had her sitcom not struck a decent balance between fast comedy and likablity.

Daniel Stern's Danny was non-innovative, but also very easy to sit through, and I do like the single-camera aspect. Baby Bob was CBS' most unique sitcoms in terms of those gimmick-based, even if the generic sitcom bug bled through a bit. Emeril clearly had someone well out of his element, but even critics agreed it got better toward the end. Guys Like Us actually turned out to be decent, even if this helped get Dan Schneider into creating shows that would turn out to be annoying later down the line. Shoot me.

Come to Papa was tolerable, and I got some context toward that one lone clip that surfaced years ago, and DiResta felt like a bootleg Jim Belushi Show a few years in advance, and only ranked higher than reruns on PAX. That was barely edged out by...

The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer

One of two UPN sitcoms to be deemed problematic by black activist groups, but even Homeboys from Outer Space can just be considered a crap sitcom. The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer is infamous for being a light-hearted take on the Civil War era, which had slavery. It's not here because it was offensive, but because it just wasn't funny and did very little unique with its premise.

It's a bare basic sitcom that happens to be set in a certain period. It says nothing, it does very little, it's edge for the sake of edge. I'm glad standards got to this more than Homeboys, priorities were put in the right area.

I give this the amount of nothing it gave its plot.

#3: Queer Duck

Let's be real, this aged poorly. I'd like to consider myself on the up and up when it comes to the LGBT, I just hate how people marginalize them through hollow representation and the more militant members of the bunch. I hate homophobic humor just for it being incredibly unfunny.

Viewing this show with a modern scope, it's a mess. It's going on about gay pride, but portraying it through the scope of a gay stereotype. I've seen about 5 to 6 episodes and wound up getting tired of it soon after. It feels like a PSA, warning people about what would happen if you give a homosexual an inch.

I'm beginning to question if Mike Reiss holds any homophobic beliefs himself, and views gays lowly enough to portray them as obnoxious dolts. How has cancellation not got close to him yet? Be sure to ask Ru Paul how they felt about this show and if it fits the standards set these days (they did the theme song)

I'm just saying, send Queer Duck to the Westboro Baptist Church and they can turn him into their own Pepe the Frog.

#2: This Just In

So uh, here's the thing... I fucking hate Steve Marmel.

If you saw this show and Marmel's Twitter feed, you'd have no idea they were by the same guy. This Just In is a more obscure in this, it was released at the tail-end of an animation block ran by Spike TV (which also gave us Ren and Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon.) You're probably thinking this show tackles the fucken ugly reds, but no, Marmel is a fucken ugly red in this.

Before the Trump era, Marmel declared himself a raging moderate, and had no trouble portraying a republican in this show. Seeing the jokes presented, you'd be amazed at how on the ball he was with many of them. However, owing to his developing liberal views, the jokes prove to be incredibly annoying and repetitive, plus if you're not political you'd find yourself out of the loop on many of them.

This is higher on the list because the more I think about it, the more disgusted I become of it. I was gonna watch two other episodes out of three, but I wound up backing out of it. For perspective, I have seen every episode of Adult Party Cartoon and only hated one episode out of it, I was willing to watch six episodes of it, but I can't even see two more of this.

This Just In is an example of how obnoxious political humor could be, and is not fun if you don't know half of what's discussed. If you're a Republican and enjoy this, you're probably an extremist.

I feel the need to talk about Marmel because this was something he had direct involvement in, and because of people gravitating to him after Butch Hartman turned out to be a piece of shit. Marmel is not better, he just isn't as bad. He is an example of an obnoxious political dolt and would probably reject his fans for not thinking like he does.

He can make any political side look bad, so please, feel free to remind him of that time he acted like the kind of person he'd beat with a stick.

#1

This may or may not come as a surprise to more seasoned readers, but let me put it into perspective. I have seen a lot of crappy shows that slipped through the cracks of time, but even then I can get the gist behind them, I can see them as a misguided blight by someone who didn't know any better. What really boils me is a soulless show that goes by a genre that people flock to often blindly, one that actually deserves more scorn than it already got.

No show I have covered since came close to dethroning it, so the subjective and objective worst show on this list is...

MP4ORCE: Beyond Real

This is the kind of show that'd turn you off from the action genre in general, if not break the stigma that it's mostly flawless. It's proof that even a show that takes itself seriously can still be incredibly stupid. Also I really hope the guy who created Angry Beavers wasn't actually involved in this beyond the concept.

Any negative suspicions you have for the show, whether or not it involves a marketing push, can be confirmed just through a look alone. They made no effort with the writing, okay maybe just enough to get things moving, too bad the dialog is so rigid that it's as if the writers on here never saw another kid since they looked in the mirror years ago.

This is also further on the list because the creator turned out to be a piece of shit. The main creator of this was Michael Hefferon, and while he helped produced at least one underrated show, Mission Odyssey, he seemed to love the concept he made here so much, he did it again twelve years later with ReBoot: The Guardian Code, long story short, it sucked, is impossible to not deem a Code Lyoko knock, and he seemed to have a clear hatred for the older fans.

And this is coming from someone who hates fans in general. This is a viewer zone goddamnit.

I hate to toot my own horn, but it seems beyond a brief mention in a review of Guardian Code and a review by an unknown personality, nobody seems to really know about this show. But they should. Check out my review, MP4ORCE Revisited for the definitive version and get a crash course on why this show is so bad.

Danny review

 The more I think about it, Joe Pesci was lucky in the long run.

Daniel Stern will forever be known as that Wet Bandit from the Home Alone movies.... and the adult Kevin Arnold from The Wonder Years... and those two City Slickers movies. Okay, he had some decent luck. Hell, I wish he would've tried more voice acting, he killed it as Dilbert and it's a pity that and one small role in Hey Arnold! are all he ever did.

While he is capable in any acting role, he really has no true set personality, something that is a necessity in something like a dedicated sitcom, which even Pauly Shore managed to get down as it captured the personality he was known for. The only reason you even know about this sitcom is probably the fact you read me talking about it.

Background

Danny was a sitcom vehicle Stern took part in in 2001 for CBS. It was initially promoted under the titles Community Center (which only works if you take out one of the two words), and American Wreck. They took on the always generic (name)y approach, as if they knew people would use American Wreck for a number of scathing jokes in negative reviews.

The show aired on Fridays, and if you know television you'd know that slot is a death trap and is notable.... for being one of the first shows of its season to get cancelled. It wasn't over anything controversial, it was all just ratings.

Along with Stern, the show was co-produced by Mindy Schultheis. She is perhaps best known for creating Reba, which debuted eight days after Danny first hit the scene, and if When Women Kill is anything to go by, she had been going strong since.

Among the stars I recognize and feel like bringing up, co-staring along with Danny is Julia McIlvaine, who you may recognize as June from KaBlam!

Premise

The key to a sitcom with a clear node to its star comedian is an established personality. Stern in terms of character is perhaps best identified for his Marv character, to the extent Bushwhacked was meant to be a standalone film based on said character, though in spite of that being abandoned, we still got more of the same.

Danny is a community center director who puts up with his family and life.... that's really it. It's a basic sitcom formula, something that is usually saved by the personality of the leads, but we got nothing of it. We have the basic conventions of a CBS sitcom, the dad lives with the main family (though Robert Prosky here is a bit more grounded than Peter Boyle or Jerry Stiller for the sake of distinction), those mostly snarky kids, anything else different is sorta like The Loud House, it's expected and even a cliche in itself in most cases.

At this point, this was the prime era for Everybody Loves Raymond, King of Queens, Yes Dear and That's Life, if CBS wasn't the old people's network, it was the middle American sitcom network (plus Survivor), and this was no exception to the rule. Zaniness was a big part of Stern's acting, but even that is a sitcom cliche in its own right. 

I think the only thing that I kinda liked was a gag where the typical uppity financial manager brought a packed lunch in his briefcase. I was close to assuming that guy was played by Jon Polito, since he and Stern both appeared in Bushwhacked, but it was actually Ian Gomez, first I heard of him.

Any conflict between the characters is typically the point of a plot, otherwise it's non-existent. Things manage to go well enough to not be entirely disturbed, all is hunky-dory in the world of Daniel Stern. Best thing I could say is that it's a less obnoxiously campy Full House, which is a pretty big compliment if you want to believe it or not.

As bad as Baby Bob was considered (basically a sitcom adaptation of old Free Internet commercials), that was actually more unique by default compared to other CBS sitcoms. It seems those viewed lowly managed to do something to stand out, even if it's just a gimmick.

This, I mean, they execute the cliched elements well enough, at best the biggest strike against this show is a lack of real innovation. This felt like a sitcom thought up on the spot in order to fill the schedule. CBS' best shows from this time were still on the air, so they could afford a dent like this. It wasn't even a career killer for anyone, as mentioned before at least one producer went on to find success with Reba and continued with even more to this day.

Overall

There're two separate accounts for how long this show lasted, with the final guesses being between two and five, out of a nine episode order. Only the first episode had ever surfaced, but descriptions for all of them can be found in an entry on Forgotten Laughs: An Episode Guide to 150 TV Sitcoms You Probably Never Saw if you're curious.

Danny is one of the more generic sitcoms in a gradually growing fold, but surprisingly it was actually pretty easy to sit through. It managed to get the crop of cliches done just right, it's actually kind of a plus that they didn't just make Danny do Marv again (and if The Wonder Years is anything to go by he was able to fit into the family sitcom fold pretty well) and the characters did play well enough off of each other.

The biggest draw is that Daniel Stern has no true identity beyond Marv and hardly did much to break that mold (and by that I mean make something entirely new), and the show really had no staying power, all things considered.

This is far from the worst sitcom I've ever seen, if anything, each CBS sitcom I've seen were the better offerings I got. The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer did nothing with a controversial premise, DiResta tried to be different but was a generic sitcom through and through (being the lowest rated show of the year is a hell of a lot worse than being the first show to be cancelled in a certain season)

UPN had worse sitcoms, but it was UPN were Daniel Stern managed to get another better known role to his name. Which is better in that regard... is nothing I have to answer because UPN was where Dan Schneider got his start as a sitcom creator. No joke.

This Just In review

 Did you know that Steve Marmel, former Butch Hartman protege and apparently the one who made Danny Phantom so great made his own cartoon show? If you read my Spike Animation retrospective you'd know about it by now, but that was just by one episode.

I would've talked about this sooner but a Coppola had to intervene.

A lot of people hate Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon. That show was my first introduction to Ren and Stimpy, then again it was only through commercials, and I did see an episode of the original show for a complete introduction on the characters. A key reason Adult Party Cartoon sucked was because it, like many adult cartoons, tries desperately to appeal to the adult demographic. It worked in the original because the writers had to work around the censors, leading to risque jokes we'd pick up on later down the line; APC was stripped of it.

I have to bring up Adult Party Cartoon because in spite of how bad it was, it wasn't the sour note that killed the block, or maybe it just wasn't the last original Spike animated show. Not to mention the worst episode of APC didn't even make it to air, hell, the show wasn't good but not as bad as many a goober would lead you to believe.

And that show

This Just In was created by Steve Marmel, a man who has assisted Butch Hartman on the likes of Fairly Odd Parents and Danny Phantom. People say Marmel was the man who made Danny Phantom amazing and well... I wouldn't know, because nowadays I hate that show and Fairly Odd Parents.

I'd respect Marmel more, had it not been for the fact he is so political. It isn't just that he makes it clear what side he supports, but that it encompasses his entire Twitter, down to his banner. He isn't even doing anything of note these days to circumvent that. Hell, Danny Antonucci's political views I can forgive since it comes with the territory in Canada.

I bring up Marmel political views not because I want to smear this guy (okay maybe a little), but because politics was a focal point to this incredibly obscure show from 2004, and it wasn't liberal.

This Just In was produced for Spike TV's animation block in 2004, and wound up being the last new show to come out on it. Klasky-Csupo's Immigrants was in the pipeline but was passed over due to Spike closing the block by then. But don't fret, you can see every episode through a glorified compilation (and P.S., they made Duckman and the first three seasons of The Simpsons), back off kids who whine about an adult KC cartoon.

Marmel these days is staunchly anti-Trump, but this show features a different side to him. Marmel was always liberal, but back then he was more moderate and was able to poke fun at either side. It was a big contrast to where he is now, wanna know how? He voices a republican character in this, who happens to be the protagonist.

Somewhere down the line, Marmel turned from a moderate to a feverent convert. He is to politics what Steve Drain is to religion, becoming the worst of their respective paths while not having a big connection to begin with, though to be fair, their conversion is the kind that's fueled by a repressed corresponding feeling, like they needed validation and to see if they were right to feel this way.

Either that or Marmel's afraid of getting cancelled so is building a blue wall around him to avoid that and potentially convert crazed cartoon enthusiasts to his way of thinking. He really looks like that creepy uncle who's adamant on keeping of age girls from going into his basement.

Along with Marmel, the show was co-created by Kevin Kay, who was the president of Spike TV at the time. I'd call this corporate, given that a president would act as an executive producer while the other Spike shows were created by individuals outside the network.

So what did we get out of presidential supervision and a creator with a pedigree? Four episodes. I mean to be fair the block would be over short after. Unfortunately, one episode remains missing and it's unknown if it'll ever see the light of day, thanks to what I assume to be a lack of promotion. Given Marmel's hardcore conversion, I doubt he'd be willing to let resurface that he once played a sympathetic republican. At least Sammy's slowly starting to resurface so I don't have to wish this would've been lost forever in its place.

If I had to guess what the first episode entailed, it would probably be about the car accident involving senator Ted Kennedy in 1969. Given the show's political slant and the prevalence of what the title was, I'd have to assume... the worst.

Animation

The show was produced with flash animation. There was a point to this however, like South Park, the more limited animation format meant they could get episodes out faster, while the political topics they cover were still relevant.

It does stand out on its own art wise, but looks the cheapest amongst the four that aired. Stripperella and Adult Party Cartoon utilized expressive digital animation, the former looking absolutely gorgeous and fitting for the idea of a superhero who works at a strip club, the latter selling the disturbing nature of the show.

This and Gary the Rat were the only flash cartoons ever produced for Spike, and while I didn't expect it for Gary, it has a nice stylized look and feel to it and fit the nature the show was going for. This Just In somehow feels cheaper than you'd expect, even if it's by design. It really gives me Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi vibes in terms of a retro feel but very similar cheap movement. Funny how both came out around the same year.

Of the four, this show is the least aesthetically pleasing by far. I will say this though, if Steve Marmel designed the characters I can say he's still a better artist than Butch Hartman.

The Show

For a lack of an episode that would probably make it clear who the characters are and what they stand for, I won't get the complete context to the characters, if the first episode even did that. From what I can find, the show centers on Brian Newport, a conservative reporter going about his daily life and dealing with issues relating to a relevant political issue, like the Iraq war and female representation (really dropped the ball on that one)

Okay, so Brian Newport is the conservative side of politics, while a bartender, Sami, is a representation of socio-liberalism. Everyone else just so happens to be in the fold. Some political jokes are very straight-forward; so a Saudi-Arabian woman takes part in a game show and wants to solve the puzzle. Do the math. Also Homeland Security are dicks to non-whites, 

There are some allegories that you have to understand the context behind them. When it comes to obscure references, making them doesn't automatically make your show smart, it'd leave most viewers confused over something you found funny that others won't get without an idea for its reason for being. This is Elephant Man in a sports car-tier. Though to be fair, their jokes aren't proceeded by over-long setups which are ruined once you can piece together the homage or joke.

It's a problem because the gags are played as if we know what the punchline is or what event it's referencing. It's all about luck in understanding what the gags are, what I'm picking up on here is that women have bad taste in terms of shows, and The View sucked as far back as 2004 evidentially. Otherwise, it goes for the sarcastic "Shit you never heard of/forgot about" deal, which by then was starting to become predictable. Quick question, did anyone on The View sound like Elmer Fudd? Or what were they going for here?

One thing I find kinda funny, Marmel voices Brian Newport (to reiterate, the republican mouthpiece), and he throws in a stab at Hillary Clinton. Given the fact that Trump ran against Clinton in 2016 and that's where his anti-Trump hysteria began, I'd be a fool to not bring this up.

Political humor works best for the sake of taking stabs. For the most part it feels like the show plays these incredibly straight. I'll give it this, in a world where politics play a huge role everywhere, boy was this ahead of the curve. Good thing this was during the Bush administration, too bad John Kerry was such a douche.

What I get from this is that each episode is dedicated to showing the worst of one aspect of socio-political deals, and needless to say it got old fast; bonus points if Sex and the City, WE TV, Lifetime and Joan of Arcadia are thrown in, with one of them stated to be empowering. There is hardly any middle ground. If I had to guess, this was a prediction to how far women's rights would be run through the wringer and tainted by those who ruin the prospect by pushing further than necessary, ironically coming from someone from... well, who's Steve Marmel.

The point behind the episode I'm going by here is that the owner of a bar is brought in for questioning by Homeland Security (referring to the terrorism scare of that time and overlooking actual terrorists) and the bar is taken over by the hyper feminist Sami. There is also a gag where one guy is wed to an abusive woman... who happens to be asian. No statement on the race but that combined with the topic the episode addresses is worth bringing up for the sake of addressing the constant hammering.

I could base my whole review around one episode.

Only thing interesting about it is the references to TV networks long gone or in their prime. I think Marmel really hated PAX, why devote close to a minute of taking stabs at mormons? I'm just asking a question, okay fine pretend I am offended, sorry I bruised your ego by saying something wasn't funny. All I could get out of this is potentially finding references I could understand.

We got plenty of celebrity satirization here, but they feel kinda weak, all things considered. South Park, while venemous in many areas, had class, and built off of the over the top connotations of many celebrity parodies. Here, they just boil it down to the worst of everyone and go off of that full stop. The only parody that was interesting was their take on Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's voice is modeled after Jorgen Von Strangle, who if you forgot already is from a show Steve Marmel worked on.

Now let's address the elephant in the room, we have a republican-leaning man who makes it clear where he stands politically... who's name happens to be Brian. Now look, I'm no fan of what happened to Brian Griffin, I just wish he had better critics than Quagmire. I bring this up because, aside from the exact first names and focus on politics, both shows happen to have sociopaths that have black hair and love beating the shit out of people they don't necessarily like.

Okay I'm gonna level with you, this is going off of one episode. The humor is bound to be the same for the others, and I don't have the confidence to see more, at least not yet. I'm just finding it ironic that we're getting stabs at toxic feminism, CNN, Al Sharpton, Michael Moore, The View and countless others from someone like Steve Marmel. He knew. He dropped the ball, and when it all turned out to be true he shit his pants and pulled a 180 so hard I hoped he didn't twist his ankle because then he wouldn't do anything else related to his main profession.

Overall

I've been sitting on this for quite a while. This felt more like a back-burner deal, but going into it was not rewarding at all. Political humor is only funny for whatever side is getting made fun of, everyone else out of the loop will have a worse time. They make it very clear what side they're pushing against, it's all one extreme after the other and default sympathy. I had only seen one episode out of three available and I feel like I got the gist of it within half of the runtime.

Blasphemous as it is for me to say, watching all of Ren and Stimpy: Adult Party Cartoon was a more fulfilling experience, for one it's just fundamentally flawed and didn't lose sight of what it once was, it was just more blunt and desperate to push the adult element.

I will admit, it's refreshing to see stabs at things that have only become a problem in recent years, this show was way ahead of its time in that regard, but again it's ironic this came from a man who would openly condemn this kind of creation these days. With that in mind it's one of the most depressing things to think about, and almost on par with Steve Drain and the Westboro Baptist Church, a fervent conversion build on basically nothing and both becoming complete assholes.

If you're political and want to take a break from sniffing the farts in the room you're in, there's some variation to be enjoyed. Otherwise the humor would wear thing. If you're non-partisan, well, not understanding the jokes here would be a hell of a dealbreaker.

I will try to check out the other two episodes and if anything comes of them, I will report back.

Camp Lazlo review

Rocko's Modern Life stands the test of time as one of the best classic Nicktoons ever, being one of many kids cartoons to incorporate more adult elements in a way we can pick up on them when we get older. While it wasn't the first ever, it was one of the first to truly make an impact.

Camp Lazlo is basically the exact opposite, when you get older, you stray ever further from this show, and with Joe Murray's line of programs it's like he's Benjamin Button.

Background

This was Joe Murray's second major cartoon series. Similar principle to Rocko's Modern Life, we have SpongeBob alumni and Carlos Alazraqui, Tom Kenny and Doug Lawrence are in it. This was around Cartoon Network's more forgettable era. When it comes to the City era, people only remember the city, and hardly the show's involved with it.

Here's a little interesting fact, apparently Danny Antonucci pitched Ed, Edd n' Eddy to Nickelodeon initially, but didn't want to sell as they'd take grander creative control, likely to make it more bog standard to kids. It makes sense when you find the contrast between this and Rocko. It's almost as if they wanted their own Rocko but assumed they can get an artist to draw something, only to follow a very cryptic set of instructions.

I remember watching the show a lot as a kid, while Foster's was the very first show I started to hate, it took a little while longer with this, though later on it was left on thin ice, for reasons that will be discussed where its suitable. 

So, the show

Basically going to summer camp and whatever oddities are thrown in the way, plus some gags. That isn't some cheap summary, a lot of these are bubble plots, only things notable are most characters and whatever oddities occur for the day.

Beyond some good jokes here and there, the only thing I find interesting is that they're one of the few shows to acknowledge how useless most characters are, though to be fair they do this more than once. Many of the characters stick to a key personality with very little divergence outside of getting the plot going, even harkening back to the days of yawn. Edward's the rude one with a soft side.

Now look, it's been ages since I've seen the show, but I'd like to say I remember a substantial amount of it, and it's not good enough for me to wanna dig it up again. I am aware that Heffer cameoed in the finale, but I never saw it, and the show wore so thin for me I have no confidence in it.

I'm going by the characters here because they were the biggest stand-out for me in the show, otherwise the plots wouldn't look out of place on a classic nicktoon (or past era Cartoon Network show), and because one character killed the show for me. The only character I ever really liked was Raj, and that's because in spite of being the middle ground one he tends to have some bad judgement here and there, he makes it work, that's all I have to say.

So why is one character such a detriment to me and how bad are they? Well, it requires no introduction if you hate the main character, i.e., who you'd see a stark majority of the time. Lazlo is basically the warped lovechild of Rocko Rama and Charlotte from Making Fiends, in terms of a Carlos Alazraqui character with a dementedly cheery demeanor.

Lazlo isn't always the focus, just a stark bulk for many of the episodes, any instances where he breaks from this are either for the sake of a plot or so minor you wouldn't be tarred for not acknowledging it. In an era where toxic positivity is a thing, Lazlo's overt optimism didn't really age all that well, for most people anyhow. His constant positivity serves as a benefit, a key to victory, everything always seems to go super for him, at least a lot of the time.

Be happy all the time, be ignorant to why someone can feel down, they're just jealous property, repress those negative feelings, keep away from your old school unless your store doesn't sell guns.

I don't want to knock him for being happy all the time, which is why I did it just now, but here it feels hollow. His happiness is always played as beneficial, it's always the mean cynic that portrayed in the worst light, or dim enough to become the butt of the joke. For some he can be very unlikable. He represents child naivety, an antithesis to Rocko's Modern Life, worth bringing up for an obviously backwards progression on Joe Murray's part, but rather than seeing where it could truly go wrong, it's seen as invincibility. When you pick up on who gets it in the end, every episode becomes a draw, especially if you don't like anyone else.

A positive character can work if it's done right. Harkening back to Rocko, he was a huge thorn in the side of Ed Bighead, whether he intended to be or not. But in other episodes we see Rocko face equal measures of disrespect, and even Ed got even with him sometimes. Lumpus was the scoutmaster, Ed was just a neighbor who hated Rocko for whatever reason. It gets worse on Lazlo's part when you force someone to be happy in a way they don't want to be, especially for your own reasons.

Outside of that, Milo Murphy works as a positive character because unlike Lazlo, he is more self-aware and he's basically finding a brighter side to a jinx that actually has some major ramifications, he's used to it, and it isn't a problem to his friends. Hell, the demented chill Charlotte from Making Fiends has works for the dark comedic aspect of her show. She is the antithesis to Vendetta and shows how good can evil just the same.

If I had to guess what they were going for in Camp Lazlo is to just be happy, it's one of those bubble shows, what happens in one episode stays in that episode for the most part. Maybe Cartoon Network really assumed SpongeBob would've ended in 2004, so decided to get their own SpongeBob by whatever means. Keyword is maybe, as in just a crazy theory and not a rip-off allegation, people take that way too personally these days, isn't that right fans of The Mighty B?

Sure, you probably would've enjoyed it when you were younger, and ripe for who the show aimed for, but as you get older or if you find it hard to make friends, you find yourself relating to the people who get the short end the most often. The only way to get by is to fold and be like them, not yourself, because no one would give you a chance to let it out. Soon enough, people can feel entitled when they act on your behalf and when you reject the things they do you never even wanted, suddenly you're the asshole in that situation.

Other than that plots for many of the episodes were otherwise forgettable or just watered down in comparison to what you may see in Rocko.

Overall

Camp Lazlo is an example of a contemporary show you feel you'd become too old for. The worst thing you can do when it comes to cartoon is act like an entitled schmuck and blind yourself to more logical details just to simp for a creator who you pretend you've known for years but don't even know what he smelled like.

Every show has an appeal, whether or not you could relate to most characters as an adult and relive some good memories. Here it feels like the show is telling you that your life is gonna suck when you get older and more cynical, how dare you not be optimistic. Just the fact that was my biggest takeaway shows how uninteresting the show was in hindsight.

It seems even Joe didn't like the show much in hindsight, sure Camp Kidney appeared as a cameo shot, but Lazlo was a no-show. Or copyright, yeah probably.