Tooned In — page 2

Welcome to, I dunno, That’s Sports Entertoonment Golden Retriever!  (We’re in the symbols instead of numbers era, like the 2010s WrestleManias, as promised…)

This week, the rest of the then-Big Three celebrated their Saturday Morning lineup’s 40th anniversaries on this past Sunday, September 14th:

I can’t remember which Sports Entertoonment this is.  Maybe I should just use random symbols like the 2010s WrestleManias.  

Happy Saturday!  I’m taking a rest from Transformer ads and instead looking at its 80s rival, or to some, their “bastard siblings.”   For the record, growing up, I didn’t hate the Gobots and actually had them alongside their better-known/more fondly remembered brethren.  Of course, I usually singled out the characters seen on Challenge of the Gobots, but regardless, it was just more transforming robots for me to collect and I didn’t want to pick one or the other.

This compilation is just six minutes long instead of the hour I was culling the TF commercials from.  Always in the Cybertronians’ shadow, huh?

Watch along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inXdX6UydUE 

So I totally undersold the addition of Linus the Lionhearted to MeTV Toons.  There is a good reason why it hasn’t been seen much since its original broadcast, because the show was apparently made of nothing but Post cereal mascots of the time.  Including one still in use to this day: Sugar Bear of Golden Crisp commercials.  There’s also a problematic Asian caricature among said characters, which didn’t help matters any.  See also: 1990 when local stations tried to run the UPA Dick Tracy cartoons to cash in on the Warren Beatty movie, Joe Jitsu and all.  That…didn’t last long.  Or stopped awhile, then returned suspiciously with 50 percent less shorts.  

I’m figuring we’re either going to get “best of” Linus packages as such, with as few problem characters as possible.  Would explain why it was Sundays only.   That or Me is going to go all out, which will either be fine, or may result in another series being Bullwinkled off the station because they underestimated the rights issues and more.  Time will tell. 

But back where we left off with the Transformers commercials.  About 15 minutes into this link, we had arrived at 1986, and the third line of figures.  We start out by meeting… 

September for MeTV Toons just got a bit more interesting.  We know that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles begins that month, but they’re bringing along…STAR TREK: THE ANIMATED SERIES for weekends.  I did not have that on my Bingo Card.  I’m guessing it’s Paramount or CBS or whoever now (also who you have to go through to get TMNT), but it being Filmation piques my interest.  It’s probably just the IP override that allowed Warner to release the DC Filmation shows, though.   But also on weekends…we have a deep Hanna-Barbera cut in Where’s Huddles, and an understated entry in Linus the Lionhearted, which apparently has not been seen in reruns at all.  

Now, as promised, we’re returning to the world of advertising, and with commercials that are… more than meets the eye.  And for toys for which we almost got a dandy little Saturday Morning cartoon on CBS  but fortunately got a more epic syndicated series.  

Post-vacation, I had a few ad break ideas to use for the column (debated between Masters of the Universe or Transformers toy compilations), but I received some BREAKING NEWS at the beginning of the week.  Over on Bluesky,  I was made aware of a series of demo tapes posted by Ken Plume, the tracks of which revealed possible theme songs for the then-upcoming Chip ‘n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers.  Well, you just knew I was going to be all over this one, and having just dabbled elsewhere into music-listening posts, I figured, why not?

(Five years ago, I wrote a series of random musings on The Raccoons.  For the specials segment, I had help from two other fellow fans.  Quick and easy content while I’m on vacation…)

(Originally posted some time in 2021)

I’ve just restarted watching my DVDs of recordings of The Raccoons, which I received from a friend who got them from off-CBC rerun recordings.  As we’ve talked here and there about the show, I am letting you all in on the fun too!  

Happy Fantastic Four weekend!  Let’s celebrate with one more dive into the F4 Animated Universe, and perhaps the most offbeat one of them all.  Yes, moreso than HERBIE the Robot joining the Richardses and The Thing the year prior (and I am still contractually obliged to remind you that this was NOT because kids were setting themselves on fire to be like the Human Torch).  We are back to Hanna-Barbera, and this late ‘70s offering that features the solo adventures of everyone’s favorite ever-lovin’ blue-eyed rock monster.  Sound interesting, right?  

Wellllll…

Happy Saturday Morning!

I did my Own the Snydies duty this week and finally saw Superman.  Basically, it tries to be a James Gunn movie AND a Superman movie all in one.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  Without getting spoiler-heavy, I will say tres disappointed by the post-credits…well, l’ll put it this way: me am not sad that someone wasn’t teased coming off of his fate in the film.   No future world building moments hinted at too.  But I’ll mention that the Justice Leag, er, Gang stole the show and they’d totally fit in a Gunn project given more misfits and B-team heroes.  Yeah, yeah, that’s what they had Suicide Squad for, though.

Well onto referencing the other big superhero movie moment this summer.

As promised, we also have a compilation from The All-New Super Friends Hour of the crafts and magic tricks the Justice League showed us.  Get your construction paper and household items ready!

Well we’re fresh off of this weekend, when we celebrated…well…um, Ray Combs’ Family Feud premiered the fourth back in 1988, that’s something I can still be happy about.  Oh wait, I have to remember when Richard Dawson was brought back and Ray’s life went to crap.

For this review, we’re going back to the All-New Super Friends Hour from 1977, where the Wonder Twins first appear, we get a load more heroes dropping in, and we learn a little about health, safety, and amateur magic.  Today’s episode is the second of two starring an actual DC villain in the main adventure.

In the preview segment, the narrator promises that the Wonder Twins will use their “special powers” to save a couple girls from becoming Flotsam and Jetsam.  You mean Ursula the Sea Witch is going to use her body language and steal their voices too?

Oh what the hey, the whole Patreon thing isn’t going anywhere, so may as well start to share some “new” content here.  

Unfortunately, no Magic, Crafts, nor the Decoders in this set of videos.  But as far as I know, they’re still out there too and are on my radar.  (And in fact, I have the comp of those at the ready and will review them as well, as soon as I can!)  

This week is the one year anniversary of MeTV Toons.  So naturally, I’ll celebrate by….finally reviewing Yo, Yogi!  

That’s Sports Entertoonment Revenge Tour

Happy Saturday Morning!  And okay, okay, in honor of that, I’ll do that one Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n’ Wrestling segment I excluded last time, plus I have some extra stuff for fans of a certain cult wrestling movie of the ‘80s that we enjoyed on HBO back in the day.  Everything is available on YouTube (if you know where to look…)  

It’s That’s Sports Entertoonment V…

The Mario Bros….EXPLODE! 

Live from Mr. Black Plaza, it’s That’s Sports Entertoonment IV!  Hopefully I don’t spend four hours explaining this cartoon.  Bob Uecker and Vanna White showing up would have been nice, though. And now I realize I missed the chance to make a comment about Meltzer under-stating the number of reads That’s Sports Entertoonment 3 got.  Though unlike WrestleMania III, I probably could use the heavy papering.

Anyway, Scott, as he mentioned before, has plenty to do already, and I’m not sure how much more Hulkamania he can take.  So of course, when it’s animated, I’m more than willing to help.   Well, then, it’s time for a LONG look into… a cult classic?  A guilty pleasure?

So, as we all know, 40 years ago the World Wrestling Federation was on a wave of momentum with the national expansion, culminating in the first WrestleMania.  They got to this point by combining their own superstars led by Hulk Hogan – yes, he once had a positive effect on the business and its fans – and those of pop culture, especially with ‘80s icons such as Cyndi Lauper and Mr. T.  This pushed the WWF into the mainstream, which also included a couple specials on MTV.  This close relationship with the world of pop music gave birth to the “Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Connection.”

(unless you believe in the Hal Needham Universe, in which case it would be former music manager Harry Smilac, his tag team of Quick Rick and Tonga Tom, and the band Kick that started the movement…)