Tickle-U Revisited

 Please note: This is a remake of an old retrospective I made. The old retrospective is currently outdated, has factual errors and more footage of the shows featured had surfaced. This will hopefully remedy the issues the old post had.

Cartoon Network has always had a mixed record when it comes to their programing blocks. There're some great ones for sure, but others, I mean you get the idea, I'm not gonna complain about CN Real, I already get the idea, it was an attempt at getting the audiences Nickelodeon and Disney Channel did, nothing more, nothing less.

But with the advent of streaming services and parents being too lazy to watch their own flesh and blood, dedicated blocks were made. Enter Cartoonito, the second attempt by Cartoon Network to make a preschool block, bringing the world such classics as Caillou and Little Ellen.

Yeah, second. I doubt I'm the first to really talk about this block, but I was there when it happened, so cut me a break. I watched Cartoon Network a lot back in the mid-2000s, and it was in that time Tickle U hit the scene. So because there wasn't anything else in particular that I wanted to watch, and since it happened to air from 9 to 11-

I swear these schedule organizers have a sick sense of humor.

It would've made up my mornings and afternoon. Should go without saying, but Tickle U, while not a catastrophic failure, certainly didn't catch on. Now I get it, Cartoon Network competed with Nickelodeon and naturally they would try and get in on their markets, it should go without saying, but this was Cartoon Network's attempt at their own Nick Jr, and they either failed because of low show real estate, or people would tune out for a lack of interest.

One up for the World Wide Day of Play as they didn't expect kids to even be tuned in.

Now I know you're thinking, oh wow, a grown ass man is gonna rage over baby shows, how original and cringe. I'm not gonna rage, I'm just gonna go over the shows the block had, any memories I had of them, and determine their worth. Right now.

Little Robots

Tickle U's roster consisted of international acquisitions. The block came out around the time American dubs of British cartoons were common place. As a result, dubs were produced for a majority of the programs Tickle U acquired.

Little Robots was a production of Cosgrove Hall Films, a company that was involved with a hell of a lot in the UK, including Count Duckula, Danger Mouse, Postman Pat and if they had their way, one of the first Nicktoons still lost to this day.

British preschool cartoons tend to be slower paced than others. They're not inherently educational, rather just innocent little endeavors, though to be fair it's not just a British thing, as stuff like Oswald and Maggie and the Ferocious Beast exist. I remember watching one episode of it, it being the show's second episode The Sound of Music. For better or worse, the original episode and its American dub are accessible, and as far as I know it's as direct of a translation as it can be.

View this from the perspective of having to watch this with someone younger than you, in a sea of obnoxiously educational and babyish shows, you could use a break every once in a while. Shows like this you can watch and take the edge off so to speak. Stuff like this is innocent enough to leave your kids well enough alone with, and you'd be able to sit and enjoy it.

Think Bob the Builder, but having more British wit, and with British writing you often get the best dialog as they tend to have different standards compared to American shows.

Yoko! Jakamoto! Toto! 

Now, take the element of dialog, and get rid of it, and you're left with Yoko! Jakamoto! Toto!. There's honestly little that can be said about it. It's about three animals going about their days, and can only communicate by saying their names. If there was anything more it flew right over my head.

I'll give it this, it looks visually distinctive, I forgot about what happens in the show but I certainly can't forget what it looked like. Now come on, I get it, when making shows for preschoolers not everything has to have AAA+ writing skillz or some shit, and while this did get awards, I question how much staying power this actually had, and if people had spoken highly of it, I question if they only cared about the animation.

Gordon the Garden Gnome

Either I haven't seen it or I have no memory of this whatsoever. I'm able to remember everything else about the block but not this, so chances are I stopped watching when this either came on or was added to the rotation.

Harry and his Bucketful of Dinosaurs

So here's an interesting one. A show produced in the UK, but recorded in Canada, initially. When I first discussed this show, all I had access to was the show's British dub, and given that a majority of the shows on Tickle U had American dubs produced I figured we had a similar situation. But it turns out the Canadian dub had came first, with the British dub coming out later.

I'm gonna hone in on the Canadian cast because there is a lot I can say about them. When it comes to Canadian voice actors you'd be surprised to know where you heard them previously, and that's if you can figure it out. Recording took place in Toronto clearly. The show starred Andrew Chalmers, a child turned teen actor who had surprisingly steered clear of controversy, that or he's the Canadian Erik Per Sullivan and lacks that big of a papertrail.

There's Jamie Watson, who was in quite a lot but some may know him as Ron the Rent-a-Cop from 6Teen, speaking of which, Nikki's actress Stacey DePass was also in this. We have Susan Roman, who has stuck with Sailor Moon dubs as Sailor Jupiter longer than anyone else, I mean until Viz Media got in on future dubs, but apparently she was also in Rock n' Rule, main character mind you, and Heavy Metal (then again Roger Bumpass was also in that), among many other familiar shows.

There's also Ellen Ray Hennessy, who I recognize as Grandma from Pelswick, but she also played Clarissa in the 90s adaptation of Goosebumps' Be Careful What You Wish For. Finally we have Bryn McAuley, who I'd like to dub the Canadian Kath Soucie, because she is practically everywhere, even in projects where you wouldn't expect to see her. Either she's eager for a paycheck or she is that damn popular. If you wanna know what I mean on that, she was in Angela Anaconda, and she was the only recognizable actress in the 2000s adaptation of For Better or For Worse, which housed actors that were otherwise non-union or non traditional.

Pointless trivia aside, let's actually get into the show.

When it comes to Canadian shows, they're not usually overtly educational. They're a bit like the UK's preschool show, without the snark that's usually associated with them. If you want a show to compare it to you can use Maggie and the Ferocious Beast as an example, but compared to it, stuff does happen with some stakes, and the schtick behind this show is morality tales.

Episodes tend to follow the same format, Harry bemoans something happening in the real world, he has the ability to travel to Dino World, he finds a way around his real world problems and he sees first hand the consequences behind them, lesson learned. There is some variation every now and then, but they do well with what they have. It's not in your face, characters aren't necessarily naggy and the only one who comes close to that role, Patsy, is typically brushed off.

Patsy's the worrywart, Sid is the genius, Steggy's the timid one, Trike is the dummy, Pterence is the short and in the way, and Taury is the defacto leader and boisterous, and the fact that I haven't seen this show in a while and can remember their quirks off the top of my head is a plus, I guess.

This show does have some unique elements, or at least those not tried as often. For one, the dinos are sedentary throughout, they're toys Harry owns. For another, it's not this big secret Harry can jump into his bucket and into Dino World. You may say his mother, his grandmother and sister are letting him thrive with his imagination, but that's not the case. Harry's friend Charlie, or Charley, or the female, has traveled into Dino World previously. Hell, his grandmother knows and has even gone in there once. For all the magical world shows that have people keep them under ropes, it's kinda refreshing to know it's something of an open secret.

That aside, the show is pretty straightforward, it doesn't beat you over the head with lessons, obnoxious songs are either rare to hardly present, it's certainly easy to get through this if you have to babysit, I'd say it's a win.

Last thing I wanna bring up is that the animation was produced by Collingwood O'Hare, who also produced Gordon the Garden Gnome, but they've done other stuff too like Captain Star and The Secret Show, where unfortunately the most popular video on it was done by Jordan "Fears change and possibly the gym" Fringe.

Gerald McBoing Boing

Welcome to the first show on the list to not be an import from the UK. This is a modern reboot of the UPA cartoon series, and if that prospect frightens you, get the fuck off of my blog you weirdo. But to be serious, this is a fairly faithful recreation, with some additions, those being that Gerald now has two friends, Jacob and Janine, and a dog named Burp. All the same, Gerald communicates using sound effects, though it seems they really honed in on the Boing aspect, as that's his usual speaking voice here.

This series is also not particularly educational, so it errs more to, once more, Maggie and the Ferocious Beast in terms of it just being a chill little series. Then again you could argue that the series is teaching kids about sounds and what they're associated with.

The show takes to a simple format. In between segments you get a sound check, where animals or things make noises, sometimes making the wrong ones and by the end you get a recap, you get what are dubbed real world segments where Gerald goes about his life, either messing around or helping out and finally, there're storybook segments where Gerald and company are thrown into different roles relating to famous tales, told in rhyme as though it were expected.

Gerald McBoing Boing is a very simple series, for better or worse, non offensive, but has very little to talk about. Otherwise it's a fairly faithful redo, right down to the art direction. UPA were known for their simplistic art style, flat backgrounds and artifacts and some other stuff. The animation was produced by Mercury Filmworks and they do some pretty good work... so good I can't really peg them to much aside from doing work on Rockett's First Dance, no you don't know what that is.

Well... it's not that great. While the animation is good and certainly tries to capture the feel of UPA, and they get some aspects down like the art direction and simple backgrounds, there're some things that feel off when you run it and one of the UPA toons side by side. I'm not referring to technical aspects here, rather how close it resembles what it's based off of. I guess since this is technically 2D computer animation the environments had to be made to better support the character models, I get that, and once more it's not bad.

But if you want my honest opinion, 2002's Yakkity Yak got the UPA style down a bit better, and it seems that show was produced with similar sensibilities to what Gerald McBoing Boing had.

One last thing to go over is that this show had a pretty light voice cast. Glenn Barna played Gerald, and by that he just played the sound effects wherever they needed. He's not credited on IMDb, even outside of the cast sections. That, aside from Stacey DePass appearing in a few episodes, we have Patrick McKenna as the dad, who had appeared in Forever Knight, The Red Green Show, Stargate SG-1, live action aside, I know he played Nester in Scardey Squirrel, a cartoon that people hate for no reason apparently.

"Oh it's Canadian and therefore it sucks for some reason."

There's Jo Vannicola, who mostly had live action roles in stuff like Night Heat, My Secret Identity and Degrassi, but they also appeared in The Stalking of Laurie Show, a movie I saw when I watched Lifetime Movie Network for some reason. One other interesting thing about that is that it featured an appearance by Rel Hunt, who lent his voice to a character in Static Shock then fucked back to Australia. Jo had come out as non-binary recently as well.

We also have Linda Ballenytne, another frequent name, playing Percy in Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Magnolia in George and the Jungle: The Bastardized Edition, more spefically the second season of a series that is also hated for no reason, only because they moved voice acting from Vancouver to Toronto.

Then there's Samantha Weinstein, who got her start on The Red Green Show, all else I know her from was Swarmed, a Sci-Fi Channel original movie, I basically summed it up. And unfortunately, she passed away over three months ago as of this writing, rest in peace.

Firehouse Tales

Another first, this was a series produced in the United States, but sent to Canada for voice work, more on that later.

This series seems to have a similar aesthetic to Harry and his Bucketful of Dinosaurs... ' non overtly educational elements but getting by with morality tales, but this time, there's narration. To keep it simple, we have three simple leads, Red, the generic opportunistic one, Petrol, the Irish coward and Crabby, do I seriously need to explain what he's all about?

It's once more nothing too special, but as long as it's... I dunno, functional? Bearable? Cute? Nothing that will cause the firery pits of hell to erupt, and nothing to renew dwindling faith in humanity... there's honestly little I can say about the episode structures, so here's everything else.

The show's animation is quite interesting. It's 2D in terms of environments, set pieces and characters, but with 3D vehicles. Admittedly, the 3D and 2D elements mesh quite well. Compared to other shows discussed this seemed to be the most experimental of the bunch.

Onto voice acting, and this is gonna be a big one. Recording took place in Vancouver, land of childhoods. Red was played by Jesse Moss, the brother of Teegan Moss. He had prevalent roles in live action from stuff like The Dead Zone, The Outer Limits, apparently he had a role in Nickelodeon's Spectacular, a film covered by MrNostalgia, who indirectly gave me a shout and who I helped make a review of School Gyrls possible... Okay he was also in Are You Afraid of the Dark and had his start with some Jetlag cartoons.

Michael Adamthwaite played Namor in Fantastic Four World's Greatest Heroes and appeared in Final Destination 5, then had the audacity to appear in War for the Planet of the Apes, and there's one way I can sum that up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE09vstk2Ok&t=12s

Richard Ian Cox played the titular character in Being Ian, among many other familiar roles, but some may know him as Lofty in that Bob the Builder reboot people don't particularly enjoy.

Dave "Squatch" Ward played Aldo in Sitting Ducks, which may've also been on Cartoon Network at some point, and we even got Cathy Weseluck, Spike the Dragon from Friendship is Magic. All else I can mention is Ellen Kennedy who appeared in the Jetlag version of Cinderella, because Jesse Moss was also in that.

Now, I had said that I saw a lot of this series when it was new. Well apparently the series is either lost or inaccessible, at least in English. Only two episodes are available to watch, at least for free. Either nobody knew this show existed or nobody bothered to record much of it.

But who knows? Maybe we'll see them again one day, it took a long time but we got those twilight-era Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids episodes... until they inevitably dropped off.

And now for some weird tangents.

One thing you may notice is that the anthropomorphic vehicles are designed similarly those in Pixar's cars. Obviously this series came first, and the aesthetic has existed for anthro cars for years. Hell, I have an old Tonka toy from 2000 that has Cars aesthetics.

And I have a feeling that's why Pixar never cracked down on any similar contemporaries. BigFoot Presents... Meteor and the Mighty Monster Trucks, plug for an old ass review I did years ago, is another show with a similar style, and I've never seen any legal action held against them, because if they did it'd send a dangerous precedent.

Why the hell did I go on this tangent lest I wanted to silence that one smart ass who'd call this a rip-off...

Okay, on this, I actually remember watching this a hell of a lot back when it was on, and I don't remember this being part of the Tickle U block. Apparently Cartoon Network used to run preschool type shows in early morning slots after Tickle U bit the dust. Krypto the Superdog went through a similar situation, it was around this time frame we got to see the reboot of Mr. Men and Little Miss, or The Mr. Men Show, and apparently they aired the Land Before Time TV series around the same time, and I never watched it, either it came on too early or even the network didn't care enough to see it survive.

If you haven't guessed, I'm stalling.

Peppa Pig

Hrereforders shudder in fear... Caddicarus is from Hereford, for Tickle U was where Peppa Pig was unleashed upon an unsuspecting American populace... well... sorta.

As mentioned before, most of Tickle U's shows were given American dubs and Peppa Pig was no exception. The series' English dub has become a popular subject when it came to lost media, and years of searching yielded only one episode, but hey, better than nothing. Apparently the dub was performed in Florida, just wanted to share that.

And yes I have seen Peppa Pig on Tickle U, and it more or less faded from my consciousness until one day I saw my baby cousin watch it on Nick Jr... speaking of.

Peppa Pig is one of many rare examples of shows that've been aired on competing networks, Doug doesn't count as its Nickelodeon and Disney counterparts are considerably different enough to be their own things. Now, it's not entirely odd, given that this is a British cartoon and thus it all depends on what American network would bid for it. Then there's the matter of Cartoon Network airing a dubbed version and Nick Jr. airing the original versions.

Do I really need to talk about this show? Everyone knows what Peppa Pig is for better or worse. If this isn't enough for you and you still don't know, watch Caddicarus.

A Bonus

This will denote one show that came out on Cartoon Network long after Tickle U got canned, because I don't know where else I can talk about this. I would talk about stuff like Baby Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry Kids, but those were not necessarily original shows, just airing in reruns at that point.

Okay enough of the delays.

Ellen's Acres

What the hell is this? I ask not in a negative light, but because of how much of an oddity it was. I have no memory of ever seeing this, lest I stopped watching Cartoon Network in the morning. But what makes this interesting is that it was created by the guy behind Kappa Mikey.

Now, Larry Schwartz's business model centered on making programs on an otherwise light budget, to wit, using Flash and Maya. Not to say it was terrible, Kappa Mikey was a blast and Speed Racer: The Next Generation was decent; Just Stop talked shit about it, and yet he was dumb enough to be friends with DaftPina. His opinion on anything is meaningless.

Okay to make this quick, the theme of this series is imagination. I mean, it could be good, it could be bad, but I didn't really get that far. This series is unique, in that Ellen here reads out the credits. Does it add anything? Not really. I'll say this, Ellen in this is immediately superior to Little Ellen, which was ironically also on a Cartoon Network owned block, or just on a Cartoon Network anything.

The reason I'm talking about it is just to show you it exists. It's especially odd as Schwartz was primarily associated with Nicktoons Network and 4Kids Entertainment. This was one of two things Schwartz made for Cartoon Network, the other being Wulin Warriors, a story I had told ages ago but just know it was a disaster that died after two episodes, either that or Pilli is a national treasure on par with Godzilla.

As far as voice actors go, this was the only thing Emily Cuarro did, she played the title character, but even she has more notability than Amy Casanova, no you don't know who that is but it's connected to Schwartz. We do have one notable actor in this. Marc Thompson turned up in some 4Kids dubs, even played Casey Jones in the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, but also lent his voice to characters in Daria.

Carrie Keranen played Mitsuki on Kappa Mikey and some characters on TMNT 2k3 along with work for 4Kids and NYAV Post, whom Schwartz used for his shows, and also turned up on Miraculous Lady Bug... condolences.

Then there's Vibe Jones, one of many aliases for Shannon Conley. She had a role in Kappa Mikey, but also As Told by Ginger and she even appeared in Ratatoing, but to be fair so did everyone else in her union. Right now she's too busy covering Led Zepplin songs to preoccupy herself much with voice acting.

Final Thoughts

I can see what Cartoon Network were going for here, but honestly it felt like this block was doomed from the start. Cartoon Network has always had a mixed track record when it comes to programing blocks, exceptions apply. I think the problem is that most of the shows made for the block were pretty unremarkable. The network just sought to get whatever they could to fill a two hour slot, not to say that's a bad thing, Nick Jr. has done the same thing to decent success, but I think the network would've benefited from some original productions, or bringing over something popular, they lacked a killer app, so to speak.

I mean, this wasn't even the first time they tried their hand at preschool shows, years ago they made Big Bag, why not try and bring that back? Somehow?

It's clear Cartoon Network were just trying to get their own Nick Jr., there wasn't a lack of effort, and yet this felt cynical by comparison. The shows were fine, but there was little room for the block to occur.

Years later, Cartoon Network would launch Cartoonito, and in the era of streaming, a dedicated block of programs seems like less of a sink because they don't necessarily have to worry about schedules, well, sorta I don't give enough of a shit to check the network itself.

All I have left to say is... Tickle U occurred between 9 to 11.

Worst CatDog Episode (according to fans)?

CatDog has its fans, and has its haters. It's an acquired taste, but it has plenty of redeeming qualities to justify itself. Through all the turmoil and disadvantage, Cat and Dog care for each other as brothers would, the jokes are hilarious and it's a pretty even playing field between them and the Greasers. It's sorta like a heavier version of Peanuts where Charlie Brown is always down on his luck and that just makes the viewer like him more because yeah, they can relate sometimes and life throws them one too many foul balls, it's why I like this, even Ed, Edd n' Eddy and Johnny Bravo. Otherwise, they're not the sum of their parts and actually have some depth to them, depth that's all but non-existent in shit like The Loud House.

But don't get me wrong, there're some episodes that even when justified can underwhelm, at worst annoy the viewer. It's not a CatDog standard, it's an everyone standard, and it won't be of any consequence to the rest of the series. I've rarely seen anyone single out any particular CatDog episode for being the worst, beyond some comments left on episode articles on the show's wiki, and it's between Trespassing and Back to School on what's the most hated.

Back to School

The episode was written by Steven Banks, who would go on to write episodes for The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius. His CatDog episodes tend to feature the best sight gags and jokes, and even when things go wrong it can be forgiven for being entertaining at least, but if you want my opinion, the best writer for CatDog was Andrew Gottlieb, that is, if you want episodes where things either end happily for Cat or not as bad, and I'm only saying this because he managed to maintain an otherwise spotless writing record for the show, a rare feat.

He also wrote CatDogula, which was also co-written by Steven Banks, I just wanted to point out that coincidence before I got into the episode proper.

The problems with this episode can be broken down into two details, how Cat's treated, and inconsistency. Before I get into the latter, I need to better explain Cat's treatment as it seems to be a standard for a lot of episodes.

Now, CatDog is a kids cartoon first and foremost, and thus most episodes would try and teach a lesson or something. It felt like the case for Cat in earlier episodes as he tends to do something out of selfishness and would thus pay the price by the end. In other episodes, Cat manages to get what he wants, but something has to ruin it, having its cake and eating it too. Something has to cancel out, show a character is in the wrong or it could just subvert expectations or show that maybe what looks to be the right path isn't.

And it isn't just CatDog that tends to throw out these unfair circumstances, most shows need something to help get the episode to end in a way they consider to make sense. For instance, Ed, Edd n' Eddy's first season tended to use the Kankers as a means of stopping Eddy's plans when nothing, or no one else would. By the next few seasons the Kankers were reduced to either a minor nuisance or just attacking when provoked or approached... then the fifth season reduced everyone to the sum of their parts and somehow got worse.

Other times, misfortune happens for the sake of it, they didn't ask for it, they just happened to be the unfortunate one to be at the right place at the wrong time, such as in Flea or Die. A point of comparison is Johnny Bravo, where most of the time he is the main player in a strange scenario, and usually his doofiness and womanizing tends to annoy or provoke those who're around. They demonstrate Johnny lacks any common sense and thus he'd be prone to trouble. There's a reason for everything, even if it doesn't seem as obvious, and when you come to that you can understand why these things happen to CatDog.

Okay, with the schtick behind CatDog explained, I think that would give you an idea on Cat's treatment, onto the plot.

This is what I'd like to call a diploma episode, characters either go back to school or attempt to get their degree. It's a fairly common concept and I can understand CatDog giving it a whirl, but there is one problem... Cat is the one who has to get his diploma. The problem is that it looks like Cat had already got his diploma, and I don't just mean based on the intro, in a scene from Remain Seated where Cat's life flashes before his eyes, we see him at a graduation ceremony of some kind.

And to add insult to injury, Steven Banks also wrote that episode. I mean I don't know what goes on behind the scenes, maybe the network wanted one and Steven was the first to offer. But yeah, it makes very little sense for Cat to get his diploma again, the rest of the episode just goes through taking the piss out of Cat, in other words a typical episode, in the nicest way possible, and as customary of episodes from this season, Cat accomplishes what he wants to do and something goes wrong, in this case, Cat losing his girl Sally, not to be confused with Sally from It's a Jungle in Here, but to be fair Steven didn't write that episode so how could he have known? And Dog's happy about it for some reason, like I get Cat trying to pass off Dog's high school stuff as his own, but it wasn't even a point. Maybe if it was a twist that Cat had taken credit for Dog's accomplishments or Cat did in fact flunk while Dog passed it'd make sense, but no, it's weird.

Could it be different?

They could've easily had Dog need to get his high school diploma, there is a premise there. Dog would've likely struggled in class and became the class clown to cope, putting popularity over having the will to pass. That would show as both had to go back to high school to get their degree, Dog would slip into old habits while Cat had to relive humiliating moments during their school days, and in order to impress the Greasers' nephews, Dog would wind up bullying Cat, only to learn his lesson by the end and soon Dog would trade his work with Bartholomew (Lube's nephew) to get his diploma, but if you really wanna throw in a typical Cat ending, have it where Dog winds up getting with Sally, and Sally gets pranked by Squeak (Shriek's niece). Cat would take one of Dog's accolades and both would get into an argument over who it should belong to.

Final Thoughts

What makes this episode the worst for me is how broken it feels. I'm not gonna assume the writers see their own work, or perhaps they operate entirely in a bubble, but it becomes harder to believe when you see glaring contradictions, especially from the same writer. I'm no advocate for air tight continuity, I mean Revenge of the Flying Dutchman doesn't make my blood boil, and I don't give a shit about SpongeBob in general, but this just felt very off. Was Cat being a graduate not specified in the show's bible? Did they scramble for ideas and had to bite a bullet?

The broken nature of this episode is what sets it lower for me. On Trespassing, another lesser episode apparently, for me it all depends on where the character is left off. At the end of that episode, Cat isn't outright miserable, at most realizing how bad things got and became hysterical, almost like he stopped caring and believes things can not get worse.

But in spite of that, this episode didn't piss me off the most. Had it not been for the elements previously discussed, I'd say the one episode of CatDog I hate is Climb Every CatDog because of its forced unhappy end, like they needed desperately to ensure Cat didn't get his happy end, like maybe we saw it coming, but the overall end just felt like a slap to the face. And yes, something like Mush Dog Mush had a similar bad end, but Cat had been running Dog into the ground with training so you can consider it karma. What kind of karma applies to that episode? I'll never know.

The reason Climb Every CatDog isn't being discussed is because it pissed me off, it didn't piss everyone off enough to get singled out, so there you go.

On this, I get it, it's almost a right of passage for a show to have characters going back to school in some capacity, or showcase how bad high school was, but there was a better way to go about it.

Primos, According to Me

 So yeah, Disney's Primos has been trashed to hell and back, I know, I had given my piece on it, but thanks to the algorithm it's back in my mind and it got me thinking, how could this show improve from the intro alone, and what could the series be like in a way that can gradually win back some good faith?

The Intro

Let's make it simple since a lot of people had not only made their suggestions, but even went as far as incorporating them. You may've guessed this already, but the Spanish phrases and stereotypes, whether perceived or legit, have got to go. The devil's advocate in me suggests that these perceived stereotypes were not intended or the creator incorporated them based on her memories, but not everyone would get that, there's always a risk to consider, especially when such implications lie on harsh stereotypes associated with the nationality, race, what have you presented.

But, there could be a fix to this. If it is made clear that Tater, the main character, is learning her language as she went along, the theme song would gradually improve in grammar until toward the end she sings in fluent Spanish.

People have already made suggestions for changing the names from what would be nicknames at best to the oldest stereotypical names in the book, and that also goes for the location's titles. Why pay tribute to a disaster that causes more destruction than good, lest you're saying the worst of society lives there and that's an absolutely terrible mistake to make, and I wouldn't be surprised if the creator chose that because the name sounded cool. So let's go with the popular suggestion people have made, Unidad Heights, as the theme is around a big family united as one.

There is the implication of a stereotype surrounding a big family living under one roof, Casagrandes got away with this, at least I think they did, so the fact that they're cousins seems a little less bad, but I could be way, way wrong.

The Show in Theory

We don't exactly know what they're going for in this show, but I have a couple of ideas on how it can be interesting.

Having been separated from her culture practically her whole life, Tater wants desperately to live as a free agent. Most shows tend to have her be the 1% in a group that's well against what the protagonist wants, so as a bit of subversion, there'll be as many people who want Tater to hone in on her culture as there are people who wants to integrate into other cultures, try new things, and even the former can get in on it just to try and enjoy life.

It's sorta like an antithesis to The Loud House, as Lincoln is typically the odd one out while his siblings are practically a hive. Some siblings will actually seek to work with Tater on whatever she has planned, others may just mess with her, and she doesn't necessarily have to go into things alone and feel like the odd one out, because we've had that enough times already.

I'd say Tater won't be a birth name, rather a nickname, and her actual name is a byproduct of either her father or mother wanting to try out other cultures. Definitely hone in on the nickname aspect because it's far less questionable than what the others got, and those names have got to be changed.

Either her mother or father would be a stickler for their own culture, or open to trying elements of other ones, finding reasons in favor of or against them, and one may help drive Tater to be who she is.

On Tater herself, I envision her to be a dork with high ambitions but not enough skill to pull them off. She likes to write in her journal and daydream, she often tends to make the wrong decisions but when the chips are down she accepts where she went wrong, though sometimes she needs a few extra nudges just to ensure she gets back on the right path.

On the other characters, this'll apply to those I actually remember, which may basically say some need to be cut.

Scooter seems like the sport enthusiast of the family, so as a contrast he is actually academically well off, respectful and just likes to have fun within reason. He's a goof, but that's because he likes to laugh, have fun and see others do the same.

Gordita, or as I think she should be called Gabriella, she looks like she's gonna be the smart one. Ax that because it looks too obvious. I envision Gabriella as a girl who's into chemistry, magic and fantasy, but is also something of a troublemaker who tends to bug her other cousins. She has better self awareness than most nerds like it, and is also fairly confident in herself to actually snap back at people that tease her.

Then there's... fat girl with purple sweater and unibrow. I have a bad feeling on what she'd be like in the show, and I may go for something obvious.. but, she can be the friendliest cousin of them all. Not having to be concerned with popularity or looks, she would see people as they're intended to be and would thus be able to read intentions better than others, to the point of conflict of interest, though sometimes this can work against her as she'd get the wrong idea or just assume people may be bad when they're actually trying to be better.

All I got left on the other cousins is the cheerleaders, and my best idea is that they're a hyper bunch who became cheerleaders to better channel their energy. They're typically the most active.

That's it on characters

Theme

On the surface this looks to be a mix between Casagrandes and Doug, and perhaps they can lean into themes present in previous Disney cartoons like Pepper Ann, Doug, maybe even a bit of Gravity Falls and Phineas and Ferb. Focus on an awkward girl trying to get through life and feeling pressured to stand out while coming to terms with a loss of her grip on her heritage, and learning to accept and incorporate her roots while not letting them define her solely. She would think she should be better than everyone else, but she can be happy just living her best life.

As a little risk, perhaps have the sky be orange early on, and as Tater gets to better grips with her roots, the sky gradually becomes more blue as she comes up in her world.

While her cousins may be an obstacle, they won't be a total nuisance, and they can be their own people who happen to share the same house.

Promote Latin music through song numbers, maybe perhaps incorporate some weird elements to keep people on their toes and not stagnate.

But I believe the biggest thing this show could use is leaning in on over the top fantasy sequences, you can go far with them with the right effort. Tempting fate, but if you want an idea on how the fantasy sequences can go, refer to this video, I'm aware it's a Cosby cartoon, but this had the misfortune of having fantasy sequences that would better demonstrate things, I'm sorry in advance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Md5DizmN9c

Final Thoughts

To sum up ideas on how this show could work.

• Tweak the title, perhaps call it Primos.
• Make it a point that Tater can't speak Spanish properly and the series would show her attempting to work on it, with later episodes showing her progress. For instance, in the intro early on she'd say Oye, when later on, she'd say Oigan.
• Change the names of a majority of the characters.
• Get rid of any aspects that may be deemed stereotypical in the worst way.
• Rename the town it's taking place in.
• Lean in on fantasy sequences.
• Place emphasis on character development and cultural education, though not to an over the top degree.
• Either cut down on the cousins or work on making them their own people, perhaps break stereotypes, do what The Loud House couldn't.
• And possibly more.

I hope this won't cause more trouble than the trailer did.

Picking up the Pieces

 So I've been gone for a while, well, gone is a stretch. Sometimes I post stuff ordinarily intended for other websites because I'd get more engagement, but things have been kinda rough. I had initially sought to move to Tumblr, but I got absolutely no meaningful engagement, just pornbots and... yeah, far from friendly most of the time.

Because my reviews rarely see much interest as people had moved away from written content, I figured hey, if it's not gonna stop me from writing, I may as well do it on something I made from the ground up. Blogger had made it much easier for me to make this page feel like something of my own creation, that is, customization up the ass. Any new written posts will be made here and on deviantArt and right now I had tweaked the page a bit to make it look better, adding more HTML embeds, putting in footer images, moving stuff on the right around, and making the top bar look more full.

Here's hoping I'll be here longterm.

Fatherhood re-re-revisited

 So yeah, I can’t believe I’m revisiting this show yet again. For context, I talked about this obscure animated series, Fatherhood, long ago. I posted reviews on different sites, one of which, is now lost forever. I had revisited this show multiple times based on the amount of episodes that were initially available.

To wit, the first time, all I had to go off of was an episode I purchased from Apple TV years ago. The second time, one episode was posted on YouTube from a home recording, with another one following suit. It ranged from negative to somewhat neutral to sum those up.

However, since then, every episode is now available on YouTube, but the uploader butchered them considerably, okay, a stretch, but whatever. So I checked out a couple of episodes, more than I expected, and now that I have access to the episodes for free, a revisit is in order.

Background

Fatherhood was the first original animated series made for Nick at Nite, released in 2004. The series was created by Bill Cosby... who had previously wrapped on Little Bill for Nick Jr., alongside longtime collaborator Charles Kipps. This was based on a book Cosby wrote in the mid-80s. It related to parenting, so I imagine most tips or anecdotes were adapted into episodes.

That aside, beyond creating and writing the episodes, Cosby honestly has little presence in this series, and that's something I want to bring up right away because I have to. You can never see things the same way when you realize the creators of them are terrible people, Cosby withstanding. But, you can see past that if the creator has enough distance from a project.

For instance, Cosby doesn't play the main character, and the main character isn't Bill Cosby, and that has a bigger impact than you think. It's a reason why I like Twelve Forever in spite of the creator of that being a degenerate. While she created and wrote the episodes, that was about it. She didn't voice the main character, I hope you get the picture.

Now, when shows involving Cosby were purged during the allegations, this was no exception. While it hasn't been rerun since it concluded, its first season was put out on DVD and the entire series was available for streaming on Amazon, but it got taken off, and then put back on again. That aside, I mentioned this was available on Apple TV, and to this day it still is.

On the show's cast, we have those who've popped up on The Cosby Show. Blair Underwood appeared in two episodes of The Cosby Show, and to demonstrate his tendency to rub elbows with problematic black celebrities, he was involved in at least one Tyler Perry production. Sabrina Le Beauf is known for not having any relation to Shia Le Beauf, as well as playing Sondra Huxtable in The Cosby Show, had one appearance in 2000's Cosby, and like many celebrities you see once or twice, she appeared in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Fatherhood was her last role until 2009 with an obscure film.

Giovonnie Samuels was a series regular on All That, and while she didn't fling with Cosby, she did fling with a B-list Tyler Perry, Byron Allen, in one of his scam- series Mr. Box Office. Marc John Jeffries was in a lot of stuff I remember watching, like The Haunted Mansion, Spider-Man 2, Finding Nemo. Jamai Fisher is active, but the only thing I know about that she was in was an episode of The Boondocks.

The show also had a few known actors in it too, Don Knotts, Bumper Robinson, Jim Belushi, among others, even Ron Glass, who you may recognize as Detective Ron Harris on Barney Miller... okay he was also Randy Carmichael on Rugrats. As another connection, this series had Ruby Dee. She would also appear as Alice the Great in Little Bill, so along with union actors, Cosby would take advantage of actors he had worked with previously.

That aside, while Cosby had allegations going back years, they didn't have the traction they did back then. Ergo, Fatherhood was released and unceremoniously canned after two seasons. Whether or not Nick at Nite programs compete with others or the block gets the views necessary, it's down to network support, and it could only go so far.

But now for the grand thesis. Perhaps the most obscure Bill Cosby cartoon, does it hold up over the scrutiny Cosby has against him? Is it any good? Let's find out.

Premise

As this is based on a parenting book, the crux of this show lies on family oriented lessons, which seems basic on its own, but let me tell you this. This is actually an adult animated series, and for one it is quite restrained, and hence to many a breath of fresh air.

A lot of what I learned came from the episodes, otherwise not stated on a bare bones Wikipedia article. Arthur Bindlebeep is a high school teacher residing in Massachusetts, which I need to specify since Pennsylvania is where Cosby is from, hence another disconnect. While a generally smart and connected man, he is far from perfect and tends to cause as much trouble as he holds his children to, hence him having to learn a few lessons from them.

His wife Norma otherwise acts as a foil. Any times she gets to shine are in episodes that directly focus on her, otherwise while she does bounce off everyone well, on her own she isn't very interesting, she is an educated woman who didn't have the misfortune of being in a troubled marriage with a brown skin bald dude from Law and Order.

The kids fit the roles of archetypical ones. While it makes sense when trying to deal with parenting, as a series it only works if the characters are written well, and, they kinda are I'll admit. Angie is the typically teenage brat, but she demonstrates love and commitment for her family. She's at least not obnoxiously annoying, can be reasonable and though she has teen needs her heart is in the right place.

Roy is the middle child, though he's mischievous, he is also shown to be somewhat intelligent, higher above, and willing to lend a hand when needed. Katherine is the youngest child, and while she can be annoying at times, she does have some mature wit and is bearable to deal with. They all drive the point home on familial harmony, but at least they're easy to deal with.

The humor is consistent, lighthearted and moral centric, though around the second season they started to place a heavier emphasis on comedy, while maintaining some of its initial elements. Honestly it's for the better, as I came back to season 2 episodes more often than the first. An otherwise simplistic premise can be forgiven if the story is enjoyable, like Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken, and that has otherwise been a key component to Cosby's schtick, enduring characters and enjoyable stories, otherwise tainted by his sins.

Also that aside apparently in his heyday he was a huge perfectionist, wanted to share that for no reason.

The show also made use of fantasy sequences, sorta like Doug, and I bring that show up because that and this are similar in terms of a more casual presentation, though I'd be lying if I said Fatherhood's fantasies weren't the high point of this series.

A simple series may have little to really talk about, here we are now. Fatherhood is a pretty innocent show, based on the few episodes I've seen of it, there is little in it that I'd consider destructive, though as a consequence, as an adult animated series it is so lacking when it comes to adult cartoon tropes that you'd wonder if this was even made for adults in the first place. Apparently this also aired on Nickelodeon outside of the Nick at Nite block, but I can't confirm this.

Fatherhood deals with moral lessons, those of which would be applicable to children, it has very little for adults on the surface. Okay that's a stretch, this is intended to teach the parents how to deal with their kids, which, points for doing something different, but I question the staying power this would've had, then I remember this only had two seasons. 

Animation

If the plot is not interesting enough for you, the animation certainly is. At least during the first season, the show made use of both 2D animation and cel-shaded 3D animation, the former being the standard, and the latter used for environments and certain panning shots. They mesh well enough together, but it's not exactly subtle, and I feel it was done for the hell of it.

It reminds me of another 2D show that made use of 3D environments, Free For All, aka the only good cartoon Showtime ever did. I guess for better or worse the 3D elements were restrained, otherwise it would lead to some more unique results. By the second season, the 3D effects were cut back considerably, lest the budget was also cut back.

The characters appear to have an oil-paint type look, with a focus on high-contrast colors, but otherwise limited environments, also one of two cartoons to feature characters with blue hair, Mission Hill too. Certainly stands out from other shows at least in terms of design, and that seems to be a standard for Cosby cartoons, each of them found a way to stand out or be experimental, and yet I keep coming back to the fact that it's Bill Cosby's work.

Final Thoughts

Okay, now that I've seen more episodes of this show, I can conclude that while this show isn't remarkable, it isn't that bad either. It wanted to provide lessons to parents about how to deal with their children and it feels like they have, but you can only go so far with a concept like that. Honestly, it feels like the reason Cosby had this sent to Nickelodeon was because he couldn't get this anywhere else, either that or this was a Wacky Delly deal where they wanted one more show before they'd let him go.

The show is unique on the surface in terms of how it plays out and what it's trying to do, and in a sea of edgy adult cartoons this is far more conservative, not in a modern conservative way, I mean in the sense of the word. It could've been a home run, but then again with how times had changed I'd imagine this show would've been blasted for basically operating in a bubble outside of current events. Even for its time, the show basically strayed from major issues, on one hand allowing this to not be dated, on the other making me question if they'd have the capacity to handle relevant topics.

What I'm trying to says is, maybe there's a reason people forgot this existed. Hell, the only reason I know about it was because I actually remember watching the show when it was new, and it stuck in my mind for whatever reason, maybe it was the fantasy sequence in the first that I first thought was Arthur going through childhood trauma, but that wasn't the case.

Fatherhood was too simple for its own good, and maybe by this point if the allegations didn't kill him, maybe his brand of humor did. Even more, Cosby's lack of involvement beyond creating and writing the episodes means that this show would even be spared of Cosby jokes, not one person was offered mysterious pills.

But speaking of Cosby, as mentioned before this series was pulled from one of the two avenues where it was available for streaming along with other Cosby programs, that was the most attention it ever got.

That's just my opinion, let's see if others could get in on this. Cosby's heart is still beating, so he could start trending any moment now. Someone get this show to... I dunno, Bradley Smith? Maybe if I ever win another Patreon raffle on Media Memento's server I can pitch this as a video topic.

The forgotten Bill Cosby cartoon

Is the first Nick at Nite cartoon any good?