DiResta review

What do you get when you cross a comedian who's getting his own TV show with a network that has become infamous for various low-quality sitcoms? You'd probably be asking who John DiResta is before you answer the other question.

UPN will go down in history as the biggest supplier of some of the worst sitcoms ever made. As UPN wasn't as big as, say, NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, even The WB when they're at their best, the network didn't uphold the same standards you'd expect. For the sake of finding a hit, they'd let people pitch just about anything. Did you know it was on UPN Dan Schneider created his first show? Seriously.

Aside from that we have various other sitcoms you had no idea existed. Let's see, Homeboys from Outer Space? Enough said. The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer? I couldn't even make it through one episode. Shasta McNasty? Well if you have the stomach for nu metal and live action cartoons you could make it through like I did. The Twilight Zone? Well it's no longer the worst adaptation, thanks a lot Jordan Peele.

At large, the only good thing about UPN was Dilbert, too bad at one point it was sandwiched between Shasta and today's subject. Between this and Shasta, at least the latter tried to be unique.

This was the television debut of comedian John DiResta, never heard of him? Neither did I. Beyond roles in Rules of Engagement and the two Miss Congeniality films, DiResta never really used much of his acting chops. He had mostly appeared in some reality shows alongside his brother Jimmy. He had the worst luck out of many celebrities who appear in sitcoms.

For perspective, Tom Papa had a sitcom that bombed after four episodes, and he's due for a movie this year. Hell, even though Emeril sucked, at least the eponymous star had a good fallback, though it seems to have killed its producer.

It seemed UPN had fair hopes for this show, it bled into promos with Dilbert and was even referenced through Guys Like Us (that Schneider-com), and true to their hopes, it was the lowest rated show of 1998. Not one of, THE lowest rated shows of 1998. The only things lower on that list were stuff from PAX's schedule (PAX was the predecessor to Ion Television), for perspective, PAX was more of an alternative to the raunchier side of primetime, and chances are those programs were reruns more than anything else. As something competing for primetime, DiResta is the bottom.

Here're the ratings for that year to give you an idea: https://nielsen_ratings.tripod.com/nielsen1.htm

As of now a bulk of the series (a 15 episode season) is lost. Hell, I wrote the show's page on the LostMediaWiki, save for one which was put up by YouTuber Panama Mike. Seeing it, no wonder it didn't catch on.

The Show

It's funny how Pauly Shore had the most realistic portrayal of himself in a sitcom about himself.

John DiResta is a transit cop in, take a wild guess? No seriously. New York. He's one of those atypical lawless schmoes who hurl one-liners and has to put up with his wife, annoying daughter and transexual baby boy.

Wow, this show wouldn't make it nowadays. They have a son named Dakota who dresses like a girl. They play it as an unfortunate gag for the record. This day and age it wouldn't fly, just saying.

Tell me if you heard these before, dad tries to pay for an expensive school membership fee, dad has to work late leading to problems, hard-ass boss, basically a chunk of the alphabet soup we call common. But any common premise could work with the right execution.

For a lack of a better word, this show is as by the numbers as you could imagine. It feels like King of Queens without any bite to it, and that show came out a month before DiResta.

Overall, already?

There isn't much that could be said about this show, which is why I tend to steer clear of sitcoms unless they're infamous enough to inspire interest.

This is a basic sitcom premise stripped down to its framework. It does little with the transit cop edge (feels like any other workplace comedy), I couldn't care less about the characters, and frankly I took nothing much away from this show. 

You know, it's telling how a show that rates so lowly could kill anyone's aspirations, especially since DiResta lacks a true identity. If you squint hard enough he can be passed off as Emeril.

Emeril supposedly got better as it went on, Come to Papa was better than what the one clip led people to believe, Shasta McNasty was wild and could be fun for people in the mood for that kind of stuff, The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer was apparently good enough to be referenced in Clerks: The Animated Series, Homeboys from Outer Space, I dunno, Baby Bob, a good concept with execution good enough to help me make it through the one episode I saw, Pauly, surprisingly managed to make it through the two episodes that are still available.

Either make do with a gimmick or give it your all with what you have. Otherwise you're left with nothing. UPN was a hive for garbage sitcoms, and I didn't need RowdyCMoore to tell me that.

All else I can say is that several years from now... John will kill himself.

Come to Papa review

In most of my reviews of obscure sitcoms nobody gives a crap about, I mentioned Come to Papa, a show that was supposedly incredibly bad, not to mention lost for several years. I used it as an idea that this would've been worse than some other sitcom I reviewed, I mean I don't know, when was the last time I ever talked about a sitcom?

Since then, half of the show's broadcast episodes had been found, one of which is on YouTube while the other is on MEGA. I'd like to give a shoutout to Panama Mike for uploading the first episode, thank you for helping us get an idea what many of these old sitcoms were like (and for saving the first episode of Pauly which I covered ages ago)

When it comes to sitcoms, they're more of the same, which is why I refrained from covering them unless they did something unique or are notable for the wrong reasons.

Background

Come to Papa was a star vehicle for comedian Tom Papa, who was fresh off of Saturday Night Live. The show debuted in 2004 and lasted for four episodes, because people absolutely hated it. People claimed it wasn't funny... and that was about it.

It got to a point where the show actually became lost, with the only evidence of it ever existing being a resume clip for Stacey Scowley. The out of context clip had molded everyone's opinion on the show based on available footage, and admittedly, it set my expectations very low. While I was looking up an episode of DiResta for my LostMediaWiki article on it, I found an episode of Pauly in my recommendations, and clicking on it, I found an episode of this show.

Is it as unfunny as they say?

The show centers on Tom Papa (as Tom Papa), using yourself as your own character doesn't bode well for me, if you frame your plot as an idealistic life (or you're so wasteful you try to cultivate your own little world.), but that's just me. Papa works as a writer for a newspaper in New Jersey, ran by Steve Carrell, pre-The Office, but more on that later.

The idea behind this is that Papa wants to break into more comedic writing, but is stuck at his work until he can find a breakthrough. With a limited premise, the sky's the limit, so points for not making shit complicated.

For the episode, Papa decides to write a commercial for a crazy car salesman, and the conflict comes when the latter accidentally burns down his business, but wants to take the fault to preserve his insane status. Fair enough, didn't run into that as much. I don't ordinarily laugh during sitcoms, but I actually managed to make it through the entire episode. It may not be funny, but it was watchable.

One thing I find neat about the show is how it handles transitions, it cuts to a pencil drawing Papa made detailing the context of what happened then and what would go on next. It gives the show a little extra character to it.

Now let's address the clip that gave any indication of this episode existing, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsKaFbs6698

In this, with a lack of context we have an unfunny show. But here's the context behind that. In the opening, Papa was sent to get coffee, but was half-awake and clumsily handed over money to the baristas. The baristas assume Tom was retarded, something that carries over the next few times they come by. This wasn't foregone, as it allowed Tom to get out of a court hearing regarding the salesman.

With context, we at least get justification for the laugh track, it brings the episode up from garbage to otherwise okay.

Another thing I like, while Carrell's better as Michael Scott, I did enjoy those bits on how he desperately wanted a cup of black coffee (relatable), and it seemed the world was against him as his servings included milk. The payoff was a coffee machine that did the same thing.

On the other hand, there was a gag involving a mailman who kept going in the house which had no payoff aside from something rather vague. I'm leaving it as indeterminate until I'm certain he's a recurring character.

Overall

While this sitcom isn't really a head-turner, it's better than what people may lead you to believe. It's harmless, better than other sitcoms I've seen, though I feel it was for the best it was canned early. If it had gone on, Steve Carrell wouldn't have been able to do The Office, and as James Spader proved, without Michael Scott, you have nothing.

If anything, Tom Papa had a better chance than John DiResta.

Why I Don't Like Danny Phantom (Addendum)

This wasn't brought up, but on the off-chance it does I feel I need to address it. What I'm expecting

"You just name-dropped some shows that had romance play a decent part in them, comparable to Star Vs. and Danny Phantom starting out."

And if so, okay, you got me there. For the sake of clarity, I'm gonna put reasons why I used those shows as examples against Danny Phantom.

The Loud House

It had Luna and Sam, plus Clyde's dads. One of them was eased into proper while the other just exists, which is a common trend for many male on male gay relationships in cartoons, the most complex they go is just a spark forming from the get-go. Okay that's the thing for female on female too, but for Luna and Sam, they obviously hung out a lot before then, so it had time to develop.

But at large, as The Loud House is more of a character-focused comedic affair, and Sam doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd send Luna to a life-changing demise.

That was my main focus when I made that analogy. On Lincoln and Ronnie Anne, they appealed to both sides by having RA beat Lincoln up after he tries to re-coup her supposed feelings at the advice of his sisters, the kiss supposedly getting a spark going, then things occurred naturally from there.

Gravity Falls

Dipper just has a young boy crush on Wendy, the two cops' relationship are played for comedy (at least that's how it went on at first), and Mabel unleashing Weirdmageddon had less to do with a date driving her to do it out of selfish desire, but Mabel did it by her own desire as her world crumbled around her, being manipulated by someone under the guise of one she knew and trusted.

ChalkZone

Rudy Tabootie and Penny Sanchez are established as liking each other a lot from the get-go, not counting the pilot shorts. From Rudy being incredibly interested in Penny right from her first appearance, to Penny going along with Rudy on whatever he does and the two playing off one another like good friends should, it works better than "Whoops, I changed your life forever, Imma go be myself, you gunna meet me in bed boo?"

Hey Arnold!

At best it was just playing off the "They're mean because they like you spiel.", at the very least they made it abundantly clear, but otherwise Helga and Arnold tolerated their own company from then. Funnily, Helga's expectations for their relationship was more realistic than Arnold's (surprisingly). Same principle as The Loud House, it's a character-driven comedy and the romantic spiel is just how life goes.

Ed, Edd n' Eddy

Enough said, romance plays no major part of it unless it's the point of an episode or a quick gag, and the Eds don't wind up with the Kankers by the end of it so that's one big bullet dodged.

Magical Girl Friendship Squad

Okay I threw that in to see if people would notice. This show fits what I like for more progressive shows. To have them be original ideas and from the start. If Daisy and Alex became a couple it wouldn't necessarily be out of place, they do work together and hang out together the most often.

Invader Zim

Enough said. ZaDr is a product of the darker side of the fandom, i.e., not part of the actual show proper.

Twelve Forever

If you'd call me on the namedrop, you'd say "You favorited a piece of Twelve Forever art that had Reggie and her girl crush Connelly on it. To that I say... I never made it that far. I just wanted to watch one episode to see if it'd inspire me to check more of the show out.

For context, the protagonist Reggie meets and develops a crush on a girl named Connelly, who holds a similar imagination to the former. Due to the show getting cut off so soon due to, you know, it was just something that was mostly explored but never fully solidified.

It's especially interesting since this show was co-helmed by a transsexual, the fact that we were eased into LGBT aspects by someone who would likely push for much grander representation is commendable.

But overall, it's a crush that could've been more, and Reggie didn't unintentionally seek to change Connelly's life forever.

So Overall

Hope this gives you a good idea on why I listed those shows as being better at handling romance than I felt Danny Phantom did.

Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi vs. My Life As a Teenage Robot

 Two shows from the early to mid 2000s, two shows I used to watch and kinda like as a kid, two shows I dislike to varying degrees. With my questionable perspective on media, which of these shows would I pick of the two?

Pre-game

Now it may be weird that I'm comparing two entirely different shows, but, here's why. They both starred Janice Kawaye, had an anime influence and came out and lasted the same amount of years, plus they were very popular in their heyday to the same extent. Huh, guess they are kinda alike.

While I made it clear I don't like hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi anymore, I never gave my perspective on MLAATR. On that, I feel the show flawed in some areas, I don't like the main protagonist very much (then again I don't like teenagers very much), but the show at large nowadays to me is... okay, I may not go back to watch it for obvious reasons, but at the very least I'm glad fans of this show didn't attack Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones for also having a robotic protagonist.

(full disclosure, while MLAATR's pilot debuted a year before Whatever's, the latter came first as a full series while MLAATR came a year after, though Whatever was already defined while MLAATR was still finding its footing. For preventative measures, Yakkity Yak had a robot girl character appear occasionally, and her first appearance also predated MLAATR's show. If there's one negative aspect to the fandom, it isn't brainless rip-off allegations, otherwise they'd contend with comparisons to an anime that had a unique style.)

Overall Tone

While MLAATR has a high action direction, at large it's a slice of life affair with sci-fi elements, references to old-timey cartoons like Felix the Cat and the like, even down to the art direction, more on that later. Any transitions to either tone are either infrequent as each episode is seemingly in its own world beyond Jenny's interactions with most of her enemies, but otherwise, there is a decent build-up to the more action-oriented portions.

Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi seems to take a lot of notes from the golden age of cartoons. It's light hearted, but as a result it feels rather predictable. They hardly break from the tone, and all I get from it is a headache whenever a certain character comes by.

MLAATR had it so that whenever a tonal shift happened, it wouldn't feel out of place, meaning that the writers had it in their ability to do some truly compelling stuff. If you can make any tone work with a show, you have talent. Hi Hi's stagnation with its carefree tone makes it feel like one of those low-budget cash grabs, which is ironic since its production company would help work on a Puss n' Boots and Kung Fu Panda mockbuster, with GAIAM, Goodtimes Entertainment's successor.

Round one goes to MLAATR.

Style and Animation

Both shows seemingly have an anime aesthetic, or at least one of them should.

MLAATR is unique by default compared to other anime-influenced shows. The show used an anime style comparable to Astro Boy, and as mentioned before, had a more retro aesthetic. It looks unique for all the right reasons, and as Astro Boy was more action oriented, the look suits the tone of the show (and mends with Rob Renzetti's general art style.)

I mentioned this in my review of the show, but for the sake of consistency, here we go again.

Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi is rooted in Japanese pop culture, it is based on a Japanese band, is set in Japan, etc. etc., so, you'd expect the art style to fit with the aesthetic, and it doesn't. The characters are drawn to resemble a vague sum up of what anime characters look like, and that's just going by the mains, the remainder look like UPA rejects so consistency isn't a card in this show's deck.

You may say MLAATR is equally inconsistent, but then again I never saw much of Astro Boy in terms of full episodes, and each style mends well together.

So you know who winds this, MLAATR

Use of Janice Kawaye

The big comparison between both shows is that they feature this actress.

Jenny is otherwise bland to me, but not incredibly unlikable. She technically made the Crust Cousins her enemy, but at the very least it wasn't as dire as what Sam did to Danny Fenton, but maybe it's her attitude that rubs me the wrong way, who knows? I can at least say her naivety is better handled than Starfire in Teen Titans.

So uh... here's the thing. I fucking hate Ami.

Ami's the nicey nice one in this, and the more I thought about her, it went from annoying to outright insufferable. It feels like the world bends to her will in order for things to end her way, her level of selflessness would lead her to give away their tour bus if she felt up for it. Mabel is terrible? You haven't looked that deep.

You know the drill, MLAATR.

Use of Villains

There is one aspect that kinda got to me on MLAATR, the Cluster struck me as a stalkerish group, especially their queen. If the show was a bit more off the wall, I imagine Jenny would sue her just to get her off her back for a while, then be forced to work with her when a grander threat comes their way (maybe that doofus that got Jenny's parts separated from her that one time), and (I think it's Nexxus) would work with Jenny to get some dignity back.

There's no recurring antagonist in this, just the douche of the day, and they're all, at large, typical big bads associated with the theme of each episode. 

However, for MLAATR, had it gone on it would've done a rather unforgivable sin, turning a good character evil. I have a huge hangup with this, it's why I hate Archie Sonic (one of many reasons), it felt like a desperate attempt at keeping things fresh, so for that I'm happy the show ended when it did. For the record, the one that'd become evil was this goth robot that people like because she's goth, she appeared in that one episode where Jenny joined a trio of superheroes.

It's a slaughter, MLAATR.

Chance for Redemption

Any potential interest in Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi had wained over the years. I only watched it because nothing better was on, and it didn't strike me as very good. The sentiment could be made for other Cartoon Network show from this time, yes, even Foster's had soured for me over the years, or maybe I just don't like Craig McCracken for some reason. This, My Gym Partner's a Monkey, Camp Lazlo, these have held up poorly.

As for MLAATR... I actually enjoyed this growing up, and saw a good deal of episodes. I don't recall anyone in particular ruining this show for me, and since it's not used as a soapbox against a remake, worse fans exist for worse shows, nothing's really holding me back from giving this show another go. I mean, just as long as there aren't any idiots accusing Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones of ripping it off. I've yet to see anyone be that protective of MLAATR.

So MLAATR Wins

You could say this was all done so I can shit on Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi some more, and you'd be right. However, I mainly wanted to do this so I can get my perspective on MLAATR out there. Now yes, fans have a big impact on how I view a show, I'd see these kinds of people when I look up videos or fanart, and when that strike is made, I see more negative impacts of the show in question.

At worst, these guys may just fetishize most character, and until this show gets a remake people would whine about, this show hadn't been tainted.

Episode Review: Battle of the Band

 I don't love Jimmy Neutron. I fucking love Jimmy Neutron. I loved the movie, I watched the hell out of the show in its heyday, even now I go back to binge select episodes, get sick of it, then come back months later to start anew.

If I had to pick, I'd say my favorite season was the second, followed by the third and then the first. The latter is the weakest for me, as it had fewer episodes I wanted to go back to, it was when Cindy and Libby were a bit more annoying, and it was really around the next two seasons the show found its footing. Plus, as always, the stiffs always surface and they came from that season.

I was caught between Battle of the Band and See Jimmy Run, but I can sum up that with this statement:

It felt like a hollow conclusion, Cindy still won the race and the punishment didn't fit the crime in my opinion.

So this.

The Episode

In ten words or less: Rushed, missed opportunities, underwhelming ending, Green Day.

One of the biggest problems with the episode, and many of the earlier season one episodes is that there's so little to say about them. The only episodes I found interesting from them beyond the specials were When Pants Attack, Sleepless in Retroville and Ultra Sheen.

To sum up, a talent show comes up, the boys feel overwhelmed by Cindy and Libby, Jimmy creates instruments that immediately generate catchy beats, as far as I can get without ruining the impact. I've rarely seen band-centered episodes that've gone anywhere, just four are exceptions.

Deep Cuts from The Loud House because there was more to it than what the band was going through, Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? Which explored the climate of 80s culture and garage bands, and focused more on how the band built themselves up and focused on all but practicing. Kappa Mikey, along with its unique humor had an original spin, where the band just performed songs to a ringtone. Then Lizzie, If the Skin Fits, which gave another side, namely the management side and how far one would go for them.

Okay that was just a plug for a web cartoon nobody gives a crap about now, but go check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqnTcuytnps&list=PLMdKMaqxA078dj3ddICOpVqMRK7yZZRDp&index=4

The show wears the Beatle allegories on the sleeve, from Carl's look toward the end of the episode to the fact the title-card is set in the same typeface as the band's.

But how do things fall apart. I'll give you a few seconds. No seriously, don't scroll beyond this point, go to another tab, check your notifications, get a snack or a drink, I'll give you time to figure it out if you never saw the episode before.

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So, did you guess that the fame goes to their head? If so, to that I say, no shit.

This is a predictable turnout even by Jimmy Neutron standards, and that show was known for going above and beyond. It felt like the writers were having a dry-spell at this point, it didn't have the same spirit as other Jimmy Neutron episodes, and yeah, it felt rushed.

Wanna know how it ends? The boys can't go on as they tossed their instruments, they lose to Cindy and Libby who were annoying at the start, and the only reason the boys lost was because Carl's snot bubble exploded. It was very unsatisfying, and See Jimmy Run felt clunky at best, to sum up how I feel about that episode since I don't want to go back to it.

As for that Green Day quip, the instrumental the boys play is based on the song Warning.

Conclusion

I'd say this is to Jimmy Neutron what Hail to the Chief was to Fairly Odd Parents, a forced conflict against an otherwise hollow episode with an unsatisfactory conclusion. My point to this was to find the weakest episode of the show, and I can say with certainty, this and See Jimmy Run may very well be one of those.

Why I Don't Hate Twelve Forever

 Note to self, never include a divisive show in a poll.

So, what could be said about Twelve Forever? It was a show that aired for one season on Netflix, and it was ran by a whackjob.

It's only right to get this out of the way. But first we need history. I remember watching the pilot for Infinity Train, well before everyone ruined it for me. I caught a pilot for another show, Twelve Forever, in the recommendations, and while the remainder is history with Infinity Train, production had gone underway for Twelve Forever.

Twelve Forever was created by Julia Vickerman, who had involvement with Cartoon Network as far as Clarence and The Powerpuff Girls, and I so wish it was the Craig McCracken run of the original show because it deserves it. Powerpuff Girls is cancer, Animaniacs is diabetes.

For whatever reason, Cartoon Network passed on the pilot, and it wound up getting sold to Netflix and received an overhaul. Another character who appeared in the pilot was written out due to his rampant whiteness, and replacing Cartoon Network was management firm The Cartel (who aside from this primarily does TV movies for the likes of Hallmark and Lifetime), and PUNY, who are best known for producing the trans-influenced Danger and Eggs for Amazon.

I bring that up because sexuality was a focal point to the show, according to co-producer Shadi Petosky, who called it a "gay coming of age story", more on that later.

But you can't bring up Twelve Forever without bringing up Vickerman, who through a pedophiliac Tumblr post (and summing it up as such until she acted.), basically nuked her credibility, leaving the show on an indefinite hiatus, which at this point is a fancy term for cancelled. Funny thing is, Chris Savino got axed from The Loud House and it's still going, while this isn't. This is a rare time where male privilege can be used credibly, and why am I saying that?

So with that, one question remains. Does this mean the show has been tainted beyond repair? Well it depends on your point of view. I checked out one episode just to get an idea what the trouble was, and, I was interested in more, though whether or not I have time is still up in the air.

Ease of Separation

The extent of Vickerman's contributions is characters and writing the stories. Other than that she doesn't voice the main character, so it's fairly easy to separate the character from the creator. Not to mention as far as I've seen, it's all just about a girl's adventure in a world born through her own imagination. I saw the first episode after knowing of Vickerman's disgusting acts, and it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the first episode.

Though near as I could tell, Vickerman is just a creep and a potential danger, so maybe that's why the offset isn't as strong. Probably why Savino didn't ruin The Loud House because his acts was mostly the climate for work environments back then, and maybe why Skylar Page's departure from Clarence didn't lead to an immediate cancellation. I'd say it's picky thinking, but something tells me Page and Savino focused entirely on people their age.

If there was an episode where Reggie's mom was creeping on a 14 year old, could you let me know?

I like the premise

The idea of kids being reluctant to abandon what they grew up with had been done plenty of times before, but repetitive ideas can be saved by good execution.

First up, this isn't set in California or New York, thank you for picking a setting outside of those done and demolished states (this is supposedly set in Iowa.)

The show features a mix of real world scenarios and a fantasy setting. Each are kept to their ideal domains (the later for Endless, the other for the real world), in a way, this can conceivably be seen as how a child deals with angst of growing up and the worlds they can come up with. Anything that comes out makes sense because I can imagine for how ludicrous they are, a child could've easily made them up.

The characters are otherwise realistic, namely Reggie's family and her awkward best friend, well, that's as much as I've seen of them.

Portrayal of LGBT

My hangup with LGBT/left-leaning insertion lies heavily with how they fit in with the show they go with. The third revival of The Twilight Zone sucks because it's incredibly obvious for example. I can forgive any show with those things so long as it was there from the start.

At some point, Reggie develops a crush on a classmate. Romantic feelings could be had when you're young, Reggie is at the final checkpoint of childhood, and since her sexuality was ambiguous to this point, this is welcome and can be worked on naturally. Plus beforehand there was an implied romance between two male figures.

Point is, have it from the start, or make it your own thing. Well save for Steven Universe which at best is just a hollow shell that never was anything to begin with. Connie's mom was cool though.

This is a better version of Adventure Time

I mentioned this in a tweet, some of you already know I hate Adventure Time, so now it's time to tell you why I feel this way.

I just feel Twelve Forever did the real child in a fantasy setting better than Adventure Time ever could.

The world is powered by a child's imagination where anything is possible in Twelve Forever. Shit happens in Adventure Time. Twelve Forever has a more appealing art style. Adventure Time looks as though the artists drew the characters in a hurry with their eyes closed, held together by elevator pitches they call scripts.

"You are only saying that because you hate the fans of Adventure Time and Twelve Forever has a dormant fanbase at this point" -Everybody, most definitely.

I gotta be careful with what I say with this show, given what led to its end. Maybe I just hate slow establishments, whereas with Twelve Forever we get an idea from the get-go and more and more slowly builds up, whereas Adventure Time is a lot slower and for the most part they expect you to take everything at face value, plus it had no idea what it wanted to be at times (the tone was all over the place until they decided to go the mostly action route by the end of it.), while Twelve Forever felt a bit more grounded tonally.

Overall

Honestly the right thing to do was have the show go on without Vickerman. The Loud House and Clarence went on without Savino and Page, and the show had another producer who could've taken on the role of show runner. Petosky had no other projects running at this point, and many of what happened occurred on her watch.

I'm all for her being gone, there should be no excuse for pedophilia whether it's committed or expressed, but as far as I know, it wasn't done in this show.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to wait for MisAnthroPony to call me a pedophile for liking this show, provided he doesn't kill me for saying Animaniacs is shit.

Top 6 Twisted Cartoon Nightmares

Nightmares. They are the bane of our psyches, but at the same time they're interesting. Nightmares are born from what we fear most in life, whether it was something recent or whatever. When it comes to cartoons, animators have a bit more leeway, just do something twisted that'd leave an impact, while staying within standards.

So for this list, I'm gonna go over some nightmare scenes in cartoons I feel were well done. This doesn't count dark turns in otherwise straight-forward scenes (with one exception), and I'm not including anything from Powerpuff Girls, they were just being selfish in that episode.

Also, spoiler alert.

6. Doug: Nightmare on Jumbo Street

Putting this lower on the list because it was given away at the start of it. This is one of two nightmares had by Doug Funnie in this episode, this being the second. This had stuck in my head for years, which is more than enough for me.

In this nightmare, after fleeing from the cinema, Doug finds the environment getting more and more twisted, especially in his house with no one around. When he finds Porkchop, things get more twisted, mixed with cartoony antics, but even then the execution saves this.

5. The Loud House: A Tale of Two Tables

And yes, I'm putting The Loud House on this list. This show did have a nightmare sequence. Not like the previous one, the idea this is a nightmare is eased into, it's a build-up which is... okay it's not the best, but it does make fair use of the show's animation (you can do very little with Flash), and I like it for its surrealistic charm.

I just wish the fandom wasn't so braindead.

4. Ed, Edd n' Eddy: Rock-A-Bye Ed

Picking this over The Eds Are Coming because it works in a different way. This nightmare happens at the start of the episode, and it gives a nice glimpse into Ed's mind and the impact Sarah has on his life. The visuals sell this, and the Jonny 2x4 imagery helps to set up the twist that comes after.

It's Ed, Edd n' Eddy's usual brand of humor that holds a certain level of complexity that shows how dire Ed's home life is.

3. Rugrats: Pickles Vs. Pickles

Rugrats is already infamous for a number of twisted nightmare sequences. Ironically, I thought Rugrats was for preschoolers (and if you saw the seasons after the second movie, you'd believe so too.), so I wasn't prepared for the insanity of the previous ones. Name em, Big Baby, dust bunnies, evil Santa, I'm neither Tommy nor Stu, living germs, etc. Though there is one episode that seems to fall off of everyone's radar.

Pickles Vs. Pickles is just as scary as the other episodes, if not just as unique. This is a more realistic nightmare, compared to the others and it's a slow burn. Drew dreams that Angelica takes him and Charlotte to court after he sends her to her room without dessert for not eating her vegetables. The judge takes Angelica's side almost too easily (and by the way, the judge is modeled after Thurgood Marshall, I have a feeling they've seen something we don't know about.)

The build-up is both over the top and natural, with Angelica winning the case and Drew getting sent to prison.

Now, along with the slow build, this is scary because we get a glimpse into why Drew often spoils Angelica and how she turned out the way she did. Not to mention with confirmation she planned this all along, it sells that point even further. Ironically, he wasn't as harsh to her compared to the last time he punished her and he was fine.

You can fuck up an office and punish your child for it, but dessert is serious biz.

2. Hey Arnold!: Sid and Germs

One of the biggest takeaways I had from Hey Arnold! was its nightmare sequences. They did not hold back for a lot of these, even with the littlest of effort, they get the job done and leave off with a good screamer. It was hard to pick what I considered to be the best Hey Arnold! nightmare, Arnold Visits Arnie was already known well enough, I think BlameItOnJorge already talked about "What did I tell you Shortman?" but I found one.

Sid and Germs still got me even after my latest viewing. I think it perfectly reflects how cold, restraining and dark life is through the eyes of a germaphobe, combined with how Sid's social life was falling apart at this point. The dilemma for each was well represented in this nightmare.

1. The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: Tickle Me Mandy

It's safe to say The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy started out much differently than what we'd get later on. Then again this was during the show's prototypical period, and the show's main style would slowly come through by the start of the official run.

Dream a Little Dream was obviously a Fantasia parody, for the most part I think. Though it seems some people forgot about, or tried to anyways, one certain episode.

Tickle Me Mandy seemed simple enough, Grim conjures a playmate for Billy that he couldn't decide if he wanted or not. At best, New Mandy was just bratty, obsessive at worst, but to Billy, she was his worst nightmare, at least according to the one he had.

The atmosphere, suspense and lack of music help sell this nightmare. Not to mention, they actually did a jumpscare proper, just having that stinger a bit off from when we see that gritty Billy face helps keep this from looking cliche. It's just vivid imagery that gives a glimpse into Billy's mind.

But just see for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPzJopR7qnw