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Escobarbarian posted:There’s a part of me that wants to watch through all the Comedy Central Futurama before the new stuff drops but also a bigger part of me that remembers why I stopped in the first place that is aware it won’t be a worthwhile use of my time For a while, all the episodes from final couple seasons were on youtube in their entirety. I'd watched every single one as they aired but would constantly find episodes on youtube I had absolutely no memory of. They were just that forgettable  I have the original series on DVD and have probably watched them all ten times each. Mostly just for the commentary which was always great. Those DVDs remain the gold standard for creator and actor commentary for me. An incredible mix of informative and funny. Megillah Gorilla fucked around with this message at 17:20 on Jun 3, 2023 |
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Jun 3, 2023 17:17
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Megillah Gorilla posted:I have the original series on DVD and have probably watched them all ten times each. Mostly just for the commentary which was always great. Those DVDs remain the gold standard for creator and actor commentary for me. An incredible mix of informative and funny. Mine was the commentary from the six episode Clerks cartoon, which is still Kevin Smith's best work probably because he's bouncing off very talented people. It went deep into why the series failed and why NBC bought a show they didn't actually want.
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Jun 3, 2023 18:52
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I was not allowed to watch The Simpsons when I was a kid. Well, not entirely true - I have a very clear memory of all three TVs in our house being tuned in for "Bart The Genius" on its initial airing. It was on in the living room, the den, my parents' bedroom. But then Bart trying to photograph his own butt in "Homer's Night Out" a few weeks later was some kind of breaking point for my mom and it was banned after that. (I also wasn't allowed to watch R-rated movies or play M-rated games until I hit 17. A year later and my mom's asking if my 11 year old brother can borrow my copy of GTA3 when I go back to college for the end of the semester. Her entire parenting style changed in like a 6-month interim.)Megillah Gorilla posted:I have the original series on DVD and have probably watched them all ten times each. Mostly just for the commentary which was always great. Those DVDs remain the gold standard for creator and actor commentary for me. An incredible mix of informative and funny. I used to have the Futurama DVDs with commentary going on a constant loop. My favorite exchange involved either Groening or David X. Cohen asking Billy West "I've always wondered, what would the Professor's voice sound like sped up?" Billy comes back with a pretty lengthy bit about how it's dependent on the tech you use; dialogue editing software had recently introduced the ability to automatically identify and remove pauses to compress dialogue without distortion, etc. A pause, and then the producer says "...okay, but what if I'm using the Billy West Machine," and Billy finally gets it and belts out a zippy, high-pitched "Good news, everyone!" Dawgstar posted:Mine was the commentary from the six episode Clerks cartoon, which is still Kevin Smith's best work probably because he's bouncing off very talented people. It went deep into why the series failed and why NBC bought a show they didn't actually want. I should give those another listen, that was another one that was in frequent rotation back in the day. Those commentaries had a good energy of a creative team commiserating about how the project had failed while also being very happy to have the opportunity to celebrate the handful of episodes they were actually allowed to produce.
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Jun 3, 2023 19:39
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JethroMcB posted:I should give those another listen, that was another one that was in frequent rotation back in the day. Those commentaries had a good energy of a creative team commiserating about how the project had failed while also being very happy to have the opportunity to celebrate the handful of episodes they were actually allowed to produce. Yeah, they all knew they were onto something and had done really good work. Some bits that I recall off the top of my head was the Korean animation studio being difficult to work with, possibly due to the language barrier, speculation that the network bought the show only because it was in that weird period where everybody was trying to have 'adult' animation, Kevin lamenting that he should have gone with UPN because they would have at least given him more episodes and Dave Mandel in frustration finally asking somebody from NBC - like the legal or accounting department - why on earth they picked the show up when NBC didn't seem to like it or want and the guy genuinely goes "I don't know."
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Jun 3, 2023 19:56
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Happy Landfill posted:Funny enough it was the opposite for me; despite my mom not letting me watch MTV when I was a teenager she had no problem letting me watch the Simpsons during the height of it's popularity/culture war when I was only sing digits. It was one of six betamax tapes that I watched with some regularity and those episodes are burned in my brain (Herb comes to live with the family, Apu comes to live with the family, and Lisa joins the hockey team). Watching those episodes as an adult is insane because SO much went over my head. Except for, "hey, no eating in the tank!" "go to hell", that was funny even to four year old me See, my parents didn't really like me watching The Simpsons as a kid, but also didn't actively forbid me from watching it. It probably helped that I was a very sensitive child and every time I tried to watch the show as a kid I always ended up watching the worst episodes to show to a kid... See, the first time I saw it I would have been 5 or 6, and was being babysat by my older cousins. They ended up putting on Brother From The Same Planet whose first act features an infamously bizarre and horrifying sequence where Bart imagines Homer's skin melting off...That kept me away from the show for a good few years. Then, when I was 7 or 8 I started hanging out with a kid on my block who was a couple years older than me who was a big fan of the show and ended up watching a few episodes with him. This was right around the time seasons 5 and 6 were originally airing, so I ended up catching some actual classic episodes like The Last Temptation of Homer, Rosebud and Bart of Darkness that were a little over my head but didn't send me running in terror...Then I ended up watching Treehosue of Horror VI and the scene where Willy gets burned alive into a spooky, evil skeleton frightened me away once again. I would finally, FINALLY end up getting into the show proper when I was about 11 or 12 and the first 8-9 seasons were airing in reruns on the Canadian cable TV channel Teletoon and that was when the series really clicked for me and I very quickly caught up on all the seasons I'd missed up until that point...Which basically ended up being all the agreed-upon "golden age" episodes which was a real bonus!
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Jun 3, 2023 20:41
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Dawgstar posted:Mine was the commentary from the six episode Clerks cartoon, which is still Kevin Smith's best work probably because he's bouncing off very talented people. It went deep into why the series failed and why NBC bought a show they didn't actually want. I loved those and have probably listened to them at least a few times. All the little things they wanted to make as running jokes, and never got to do.
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Jun 3, 2023 23:51
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The_Doctor posted:I loved those and have probably listened to them at least a few times. All the little things they wanted to make as running jokes, and never got to do. I can't forget the broad plot outlines they give for Season 2 episodes they had in development. Dante and Randall inexplicably get a kid sidekick; Jay is recruited by a boy band and goes on tour, while Silent Bob starts working at Qwik Stop and effortlessly turns it into a wildly successful business; a Single White Female parody where Randall somehow comes into possession of KITT from Knight Rider and nobody notices that he is soon replaced by a talking car; "The Aladdin Parody" where they planned to have Ben Affleck guest star as "The King of Canada". Dawgstar posted:speculation that the network bought the show only because it was in that weird period where everybody was trying to have 'adult' animation I mean, that's exactly what it was. King of the Hill, Futurama and Family Guy all performed very well for Fox (KotH in particular was a huge ratings draw in its first season, before dipping and plateauing.) South Park had just turned Comedy Central from a second-tier cable channel to a ratings leader in the span of a year. The WB and UPN had both invested heavily in adult animation to try and replicate how The Simpsons had propelled Fox to success. So then NBC and ABC looked at the market and both decided they should take a stab at it as well. (I don't recall CBS running any primetime animation in that era...I think they'd learned their lessons from the failure of Fish Police and Family Dog a few years earlier.) Clerks was on ABC, and their only stab at animation around that time (Though Touchstone/Disney was producing The PJs for Fox.) NBC, though, went relatively heavy on animation and had British import Stressed Eric - which was redubbed so that Eric was now an American working in London, for some reason - God, the Devil and Bob, which was an immediate failure after a bunch of Utah/Bible Belt affiliates refused to air it because it tripped their "BLASPHEMY" alarms, and Sammy, which was effectively cancelled as soon as God, the Devil and Bob flopped and saw two episodes burned off in late summer 2000 out of contractual obligation (Despite having its entire 13-episode season fully completed. It vanished entirely until somebody involved with the production finally leaked it to Youtube last year.) And then of course they took another stab at it with Father of the Pride a few years later...
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Jun 4, 2023 02:05
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Don't forget how The Critic was on ABC before getting booted to Fox and then canceled because an incoming exec didn't like it.
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Jun 4, 2023 03:16
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It stinks!
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Jun 4, 2023 03:56
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JethroMcB posted:I can't forget the broad plot outlines they give for Season 2 episodes they had in development. Dante and Randall inexplicably get a kid sidekick; Jay is recruited by a boy band and goes on tour, while Silent Bob starts working at Qwik Stop and effortlessly turns it into a wildly successful business; a Single White Female parody where Randall somehow comes into possession of KITT from Knight Rider and nobody notices that he is soon replaced by a talking car; "The Aladdin Parody" where they planned to have Ben Affleck guest star as "The King of Canada". And let's not forget this was also the era where MTV was constantly rolling out new adult animated series only to cancel them after a single season. I swear, when I was in high school after 10:00 PM Teletoon's programming block was 90% composed of MTV cartoons that only lasted for a single season. Which reminds me: I've been getting some weird nostalgia for the late 90s-early 2000s era when a batch of new networks sprang up on Canadian cable TV and they would just fill in airtime with whatever weird, forgotten shows they could get their hands on.
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Jun 4, 2023 05:37
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Neeksy posted:Don't forget how The Critic was on ABC before getting booted to Fox and then canceled because an incoming exec didn't like it. The Critic was the very tail end of the original post-Simpsons animated boom, squeaking in because it came with the benefit of "Wait, guys who had significant production roles on The Simpsons are behind this one!" It was ABC's second attempt at a primetime animated show after Capitol Critters, the series that starts with a plucky young mouse's entire family being gassed to death by an exterminator, so he...goes to Washington to get involved in tepid early 90's political comedy. NBC was the only of the Big 3 networks that didn't try to capture the animated zeitgeist in that era, which is maybe why they tried so hard in the early 00's. KingKalamari posted:And let's not forget this was also the era where MTV was constantly rolling out new adult animated series only to cancel them after a single season. I swear, when I was in high school after 10:00 PM Teletoon's programming block was 90% composed of MTV cartoons that only lasted for a single season. Beavis and Butt-head worked, Daria worked, there's no way Spy Groove can miss! 90's kids are gonna LOVE Super Adventure Team! I have my DVD of Downtown around here somewhere. Chris Prynoski sold it through his Blogspot page for years; the disclaimer was that you were buying a "collectible promotional item" and you definitely weren't buying a copy of the show Downtown. MTV/Viacom owned the distribution rights to the show, after all!
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Jun 4, 2023 05:56
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I remember liking how Downtown looked, but not the writing, but these are extremely vague memories from, like, middle and high school.
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Jun 4, 2023 07:32
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KingKalamari posted:And let's not forget this was also the era where MTV was constantly rolling out new adult animated series only to cancel them after a single season. I swear, when I was in high school after 10:00 PM Teletoon's programming block was 90% composed of MTV cartoons that only lasted for a single season. Back in the early Aughts Comedy Central tried to compete with the emerging powerhouse of Adult Swim's Sunday Block. They played a block that consisted of things like Gary and Mike and Duckman, but the one show they recycled from MTV was Undergrads, which IMO is one of the best depictions of college life on television in that time period. The show still holds up, too. I mention this because my downloads of Undergrads are all Canadian in origin, having been shown on Teletoon according to the credit liner cards or whatever you call them.
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Jun 4, 2023 14:05
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I remember when The Critic first premiered, there was a promo of Jay saying “it’s from the same people who made The Simpsons. Only this time, they’re sober!” And I was like … that’s supposed to be a plus? 
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Jun 4, 2023 14:42
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Downtown is one of the better one-season wonders. I'd put it juuuust below Mission Hill. Fun fact: it contains the first ever joke in a TV show poking fun at furries!
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Jun 4, 2023 16:23
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The Critic I recall was another one with a lot of fun commentary tracks but for whatever reason Lovitz couldn't be there, but it was okay because they did have Maurice LaMarche who had decades of stories.
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Jun 4, 2023 17:04
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To this day, I'll still hold The Critic as one of the funniest animated series alongside Futurama, Mission Hill, and early Simpsons (and no surprise at the creative connections between them).
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Jun 4, 2023 18:08
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Critic is honestly one of my favorite series. While yeah they do quite a bit hahah he's fat jokes, it's still a hilarious rear end show. I still quote from time to time. Arnold is not coming because YOU made him cry.
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Jun 4, 2023 18:56
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Shindragon posted:Critic is honestly one of my favorite series. While yeah they do quite a bit hahah he's fat jokes, it's still a hilarious rear end show. They only do that with Jay anyways. There's a whole episode about Marty accepting being overweight and being happy about it.
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Jun 4, 2023 19:02
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mutantIke posted:Downtown is one of the better one-season wonders. I'd put it juuuust below Mission Hill. Fun fact: it contains the first ever joke in a TV show poking fun at furries! Downtown got us Megas XLR, so it's great just for that alone.
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Jun 4, 2023 19:20
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Shindragon posted:Critic is honestly one of my favorite series. While yeah they do quite a bit hahah he's fat jokes, it's still a hilarious rear end show. The entire “Penguins can’t fly!” sequence is so brilliantly stupid.
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Jun 4, 2023 19:46
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mycomancy posted:Back in the early Aughts Comedy Central tried to compete with the emerging powerhouse of Adult Swim's Sunday Block. They played a block that consisted of things like Gary and Mike and Duckman, but the one show they recycled from MTV was Undergrads, which IMO is one of the best depictions of college life on television in that time period. The show still holds up, too. Undergrads was such a good show that died before its time. I still laugh at the exaggerated frat boy stereotype Rocko(?) not knowing what water is. I also have never gone to college but even I could tell it felt real. Edit: gently caress it, here's the clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfPvZgLoHt0 Edit 2: I forgot about this gag 
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Jun 4, 2023 20:20
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Boogaloo Shrimp posted:The entire “Penguins can’t fly!” sequence is so brilliantly stupid. It almost provided us this and god knows the internet loves using it lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVXJmfd3cmg
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Jun 4, 2023 23:43
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limp_cheese posted:Undergrads was such a good show that died before its time. I still laugh at the exaggerated frat boy stereotype Rocko(?) not knowing what water is. The soundtrack is also on loving point.
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Jun 4, 2023 23:53
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I live in a college town, and a few years back there were a bunch of "Undergrads: The Movie - Back it on Kickstarter!" stickers plastered on lightpoles and street signs around my office. I had the terrifying realization that the incoming freshman class at that time was probably a year old when the series originally ran. I aged 2 decades in an instant.Xelkelvos posted:To this day, I'll still hold The Critic as one of the funniest animated series alongside Futurama, Mission Hill, and early Simpsons (and no surprise at the creative connections between them). Is a lot of The Critic just Mad Magazine-style zings at early 90's Hollywood/specific movies? Yeah. But they're really good Mad Magazine-style zings.
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Jun 5, 2023 01:32
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ALL HAIL DUKE, DUKE IS LIFE. ALL HAIL DUKE, DUKE IS LIFE. ALL HAI-KRUNCH POP SNAP
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Jun 5, 2023 01:48
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SolarFire2 posted:Downtown got us Megas XLR, so it's great just for that alone. Sometimes I look up the Megas XLR theme just to make sure I didn't make up a show made entirely for me, right down to Bruce Campbell as MODOK.
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Jun 5, 2023 03:29
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Neeksy posted:ALL HAIL DUKE, DUKE IS LIFE. ALL HAIL DUKE, DUKE IS LIFE. ALL HAI-KRUNCH POP SNAP What a Duke-tastrophe
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Jun 5, 2023 05:48
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buy my book
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Jun 5, 2023 05:55
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it stinks
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Jun 5, 2023 08:56
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https://youtu.be/nI9uUv6AdoY Lois looks like Luz. P excited about this tho. Feels like forever since a Superman animated series.
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Jun 5, 2023 17:34
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Shindragon posted:https://youtu.be/nI9uUv6AdoY I am still amazed that this show is actually going to exist, because "A Superman show that just focuses on Lois, Clark and Jimmy being normal reporters for the Daily Planet" is a show I've been semi-jokingly pitching in discussion forums for years before this was announced. I really hope this thing is successful and spawns more episodes, and I really hope they lean into the more recent characterization of Jimmy Olsen just being an inexplicable magnet for weirdness even outside of his connection to Superman. Like, jimmy Olsen has just randomly been running into robots and talking apes and getting nonsense super powers for a couple of days since he was kid and it's not that his life is weird because he's Superman's best friend, he's Superman's best friend because his life is weird.
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Jun 5, 2023 18:29
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“Character cursed to live in especially interesting times, but just for them” is one of my favorite tropes. EG- Ciaphas Cain, noted scumbag coward and simultaneously the most and least lucky individual in the whole of the 40k mythos.
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Jun 5, 2023 19:24
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We've got our wrap party on the 23rd!  I've got high hopes for the show. I've never been a huge Superman fan since I kinda hate the "icon representing all [x]" type of character, but the writers did a great job of humanizing the cast. Kinda Mob Psycho 100 in terms of emotion. And Jimmy is a very good boy and he wears a letterman at one point that we're all trying to get made into a crew jacket because despite being a dork, the lad knows drip.
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Jun 5, 2023 19:46
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Congrats to you and the crew, Das Boo! 
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Jun 5, 2023 20:21
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Thank ya! It was a real good crew- Jake picked a lot of us back up after Pantheon wrapped. There is definitely a Furby in one of the BGs as a holdover running gag we had on Pantheon. Oh, and Titmouse is shopping that show. Still not comfortable naming names, but the distributor that's interested is a much better fit than fuckin' AMC+.
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Jun 5, 2023 20:40
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Looking forward to Superman and keeping my fingers crossed for Pantheon!!! I want to see how that continues real bad
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Jun 5, 2023 20:45
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Das Boo posted:Thank ya! It was a real good crew- Jake picked a lot of us back up after Pantheon wrapped. There is definitely a Furby in one of the BGs as a holdover running gag we had on Pantheon. Oh good, hopefully someone picks it up. I’d be interested to see where they take the story after how the first season wrapped up.
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Jun 5, 2023 22:17
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Das Boo posted:I've got high hopes for the show. I've never been a huge Superman fan since I kinda hate the "icon representing all [x]" type of character, but the writers did a great job of humanizing the cast. Kinda Mob Psycho 100 in terms of emotion. I'm not much of a superman fan either; he tends to be a very static character, not really going through any arcs or changing personally while zany stuff happens in his vicinity. Which actually makes stories focusing on his supporting cast that much more interesting. A lot of the best Superman stories end up pushing him into the background (which he's not the only superhero who can end up being more of a static background piece for other characters play out their stories around, but it happens with him more often than others). Although I think my favorite interpretation of that tendency is that Superman is actually more of an introvert, just a quiet guy who doesn't really want much attention, and the bumbling awkward Clark Kent is more true to the character than the Superman front.
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Jun 6, 2023 03:41
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SlothfulCobra posted:Although I think my favorite interpretation of that tendency is that Superman is actually more of an introvert, just a quiet guy who doesn't really want much attention, and the bumbling awkward Clark Kent is more true to the character than the Superman front. One of my favorite episodes of the old Superman animated series from the 90s was one where Superman's trying to save an innocent man on death row by actually doing investigative reporting and the real killer blows up a car with him in it. He obviously survives but everybody thinks Clark Kent died, so he goes to his parents' and his dad suggests "well he just can't be Clark anymore" and Superman responds "But I am Clark." It's an important part of the character that while he might exaggerate his awkward tendencies to not give away his identity, Superman is a character he puts on and Clark Kent is the real guy, not the other way around. (It also has a great all-time dark ending for a kids' show where after Clark comes up with a way for "Clark Kent" to have survived, the real killer is caught and the innocent man is freed, the mob guy who planted the bomb is caught and questioning how he could have survived, then figures out "He's Superman!" while he's in the gas chamber 2 seconds before they throw the switch and execute him)
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Jun 6, 2023 05:55
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