MORNING !
Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up !
It's Saturday morning !
Ugh, Critic, we didn't get much sleep.
Too excited for your bowl of Lucky Frosted Cocoa Trix ?
It's part of a complete breakfast.
From where, Dairy Queen's dumpster ?
Now, don't be like that. I poured you each a bowl
of that last Saturday in preparation for this.
You mean this has been out for a week ?
It helps open up the flavors.
I had a big dinner.
And I'm vegetarian. I'm pretty sure that used to be alive.
Eh, suit yourself.
OK, Critic, can you explain why we're up
at dick o'clock in the morning ?
Ohohohohoho, I forgot that you're at humble age.
You're not aware of the ritual of Saturday morning.
You see, Saturday morning used to be a special time for kids.
We'd often have friends sleep over the night before
and then wake up to the majesty
of television's Saturday morning cartoons,
each one filled with brain-rotting material
coaxing us to buy teeth-rotting material.
Unfortunately, TV did its job too well
and the following generation said,
"Let's just have this shit raise our kids 24/7!"
Thus, every second of every goddamn day
was Saturday morning cartoons
and they got rid of them years later. Society sucks.
OK, we're not 10 years old.
We had Saturday morning cartoons, too.
We're just wondering why we're here
this Saturday morning.
Oh, well, that's because we're paying homage to one of the best in Saturday morning awesomeness, Fox Kids !
In 1990, the then-still young Fox Network aired
its Saturday morning lineup of shows called Fox Kids.
It included bumpers, PSAs, catchy songs, and of course, some of the best kids' shows to ever air on TV.
Eventually branching out to Monday-Friday as well,
Fox Kids lasted 12 years,
an unbelievable run when you consider its counterpart, the Disney Afternoon, lasted only 7 years.
While half of these shows can still be viewed today, some of them have sadly never gotten a DVD release
or were never aired again.
So keep in mind we're not gonna look
at every single show that aired on Fox Kids
because like I said, this is 12 years of material.
We're just gonna look
at the most unique, inspired, and...
memorable parts of the greatest
Saturday morning lineup there was.
So, with our sugar-coated poison in hand...
Younger kids wanting to watch what
the older kids are watching...
Hey, guys !
Can we watch the shows, too ?
And an overprotective parental who thinks
if it's not Sesame Street, it's bad for them...
I'm sorry, kids, but you're too young
to see this kind of stuff.
I'm older than half of them over there !
I hate you ! You're not even my real father !
Kids, are you enjoying Saturday morning ?
Yes, Dad.
That's good. I'm gonna go make
some waffles on the stove just for you.
Do... Do we have a stove ?
Well, we'll figure out how that happened later.
This is Fox Kids !
♫ Sit back, chill out ! ♫
♫ See what all the talk's about ! ♫
♫ Everybody knows it's on Fox ! ♫
"It's on Fox !"
♫ Everybody knows it's on Fox ! ♫
♫ There's Tiny Toons and Dynamo ! ♫
♫ Plucky Duck with his own show ! ♫
What was that ?
It was complicated. We'll get to it when we get to it.
♫ Everybody knows they're on Fox ! ♫
♫ Now Batman's gonna show you ! ♫
♫ He's the greatest superhero ! ♫
♫ Eek the Cat, Taz, and Bobby ! ♫
♫ Super Ted, Tom and Jerry ! ♫
That doesn't rhyme.
Just keep going, just keep going!
♫ They're on Fox ! ♫
♫ Dog City, X-Men, too ! ♫
♫ Merrie Melodies, Beetlejuice ! ♫
♫ Everybody knows ♫
♫ (Everybody knows) ♫
♫ They're on Fox ! ♫
♫ It's on Fox ! ♫
"It's on Fox !"
"It's on Fox !"
♫ It's on Fox ! ♫
"It's on Fox !"
♫ Oh ! ♫
♫ Big surprises, crazy faces ! ♫
♫ Now you know where the cool place is ! ♫
♫ Everybody knows ♫
♫ (Everybody knows) ♫
It's on Fox !
♫ It's on Fox ! ♫
Let's start with one of
their earliest staples, Bobby's World.
Oh, I've seen this. It's like if Calvin and Hobbes
were made by Ned Flanders.
Hey, it's a lot more than that.
Sounds pretty accurate.
Yeah, OK, it's pretty accurate.
Bobby's World was based off of the little boy voice that comedian Howie Mandel did for his popular standup.
♫ If my parrot Fred can't sing... ♫
"I'm gonna kill that one, too !"
That's my name ! Hehehehehehehe !
And because the 90's were a strange time where
crude comedians got kid-friendly shows,
he was given one of his own.
Just look at how awkward he is
in the live action openings.
Hi, everybody, I'm Howie. Welcome to Bobby's World !
And you know what I really hate ?
Of course you don't because you don't know me.
You know what I hate ?
"Germs ! God, I hate germs !"
Though certainly aimed at a younger demographic
than the other Fox Kids shows,
Bobby's World showcased the imagination
of a little boy misinterpreting what adults say.
Either that or he swallowed all of his mother's NyQuil.
Either way, neat.
The characters included Howie as his father
with the Jew-fro rat-tail haircut...
Common ?
the cast of Fargo as his mother...
You need to go upstairs and wash your face and hands before we leave for Aunt Ruth, don't you know.
His older brother representing the 90's
trying to kill the 80's,
and his older sister representing the 80's refusing to die,
along with Uncle Ted to give his obligatory fart joke.
How come you can make bubbles
without putting your face in the water ?
Tell you what, Bobbo,
let's just keep that our little secret, OK ?
POOP !
Bobby had children's fantasies often based on movies
a kid his age wouldn't see yet.
Looks like somebody read the kid-friendly
version of Die Hard.
So was it any good ?
It was...
hypnotizingly unoffensive.
It's for little kids, so it's simple but imaginative.
It even had possibly the first Saturday morning character to get pregnant
and we actually see her progression
throughout the season.
Little touches like that make it stand out just enough.
And I guess kids thought the same thing because
it was suprisingly one of Fox's longest running shows.
Add a catchy-as-hell theme song and you have
a decent start to the Fox Kids lineup.
That's cool and all, but how about
some more violent stuff ?
Well, you're in luck 'cause this network
also had Tom and Jerry !
Yes !
Kids.
I retract that yes.
♫ Talkin' bout the Tom and Jerry Kids ♫
Yeah, another strange trend in kids' shows for a while was just making famous characters younger.
Because if there's anything better than seeing someone brutally dismembered and maimed, it's...
seeing it happen to them as children ?
Finally, somebody gets it !
I have issues.
It was pretty much the same thing as the regular
Tom and Jerry cartoons, except it was done with kids,
so the slapstick wasn't nearly
as violent and therefore, not nearly as funny.
Granted, it had other characters,
too, like Spike and his son Tyke,
Droopy and his son Dripple-
In fact, how are Tom and Jerry younger
if their counterparts are the same age ?
And how is Skyfall a prequel if M is in Goldeneye ?
Also, how did Minions exist with dinosaurs
millions of years ago ?!
This is a road you don't wanna go down.
OK, I'll never bring it up agai-
Ever.
Much like Bobby's World, this was obviously
meant for smaller children,
so it was tamer and more gentle than previous versions.
So not good ?
Yeah.
But for little kids, it gets the job done, I guess.
I mean, it is better than other outings Tom and Jerry have had recently.
NEVER FORGET THOSE FACES !
It lasted a few seasons, though,
so it obviously had its fans.
It's not the cat and mouse team we remember,
but it's not obnoxious, either.
It wasn't harmful enough to be Tom and Jerry,
but it was harmless enough to be
a decent distraction for little kids.
♫ Tom and Jerry Kids ! ♫
♫ The Tom and Jerry Kids New Show ! ♫
But let's get to something more grizzly and adult :
Peter Pan and the Pirates.
Let me explain.
We all know the classic book, play,
Disney film, and childhood scarring,
but few adaptations of Peter Pan ever capture
the darker and surprisingly more adult take
of the original J.M. Berry story than this one.
I know this sounds strange,
but this was actually a really great show.
They were ideas that took concepts from
the original book and pushed them even further.
For example, Peter steals
the Pirates' shadows and what happens ?
They walk upside-down because they've lost
their anchor to the ground.
That's so creatively strange, but it weirdly makes sense.
In another episode, Peter is gone for too long
and forgets about everybody
because he's distracted by Wendy's future
daughter in the real world,
who he brings to Neverland to meet her future mother despite them being the same age.
Bye, Uncle Michael, Uncle John.
Why are you sad ?
Because I learned today that I shall have
to leave Neverland sometime.
But I'm happy, 'cause when I do, I'm going to have
a daughter as wonderful as you.
It's super surreal, but it's also surprisingly adult.
It's kinda like the ending of Return to Neverland,
where young Peter meets older Wendy.
That's a lot of people's favorite part of that movie,
and this show is mostly comprised of scenes like that.
The characters all have fleshed-out personalities
with Peter always hungry for mischief,
the Lost Boys and Pirates
all having distinct character traits,
and in my opinion, the best Captain Hook ever portrayed, played by the only actor who could perfectly portray him.
Literally the first perfect thought that comes
into your head is who plays him.
Tim Curry ?
You're goddamn right, Tim Curry !
If I must die, I will encounter darkness
as a bride and hug it in my arms.
This is the first Captain Hook that has dimension to him.
Yes, he's an angry screamer and a scoundrel, but he prides himself on being a gentleman and a sophisticate.
One minute, he's ready to stab your heart, but the next,
he might let you go if you make him laugh
with a reading of Shakespeare.
Ugh, dear Bard, they give you death by inches.
Oh, Shakespeare, give thanks that you aren't here to witness this atrocity.
He was an egotist, but still valued his bizarre ethics.
It made him both funny and intimidating
at the exact same time.
And nowhere is the series' complexity shown
best than in its series finale,
where Peter decides he does want to grow up,
and he starts to wither away into an old man,
unaware that he's actually taking Neverland with him.
So you could argue Hook was portrayed
even before Hook was doing it.
It's surprisingly intense and unbelievably well done.
It lasted for only one season, but it resulted in a ton
of episodes and had a pretty good life in reruns.
Criminally, though, there is no DVD release of it.
If you're able to find it on YouTube or anywhere else, definitely watch as many of them as you can.
It's a cannonball of imagination waiting for you.
That's all fine and good, but what about the poor people who demanded a series about demonic fruit ?
I had no segue into the show.
♫ Attack of the Killer Tomatoes ! ♫
So, um...
Because we apparently demanded it, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was given its own cartoon series.
Based on the B-movie comedies, it did have some
of the original characters like Igor,
Terra,
that parachute guy,
and even Jon Astin reprising his role as the mad scientist who made the evil vegetables.
Fruit.
It's 2018, nobody uses that term anymore.
It certainly had the strangeness of the films down,
but it didn't have much more beyond that.
The plot is similar to the movies,
in that, a mad scientist wants to take over the world
with the tomatoes and his failed experiments,
Tara and F.T., and Tomato War veteran,
Wilbur, tries to stop them.
He gets help from the main lead, a boy who was not
in the movies, and you can clearly see why.
He's pretty bland and forgettable, and the animation doesn't do him or any of the other characters any favors.
You know you're supposed to stay away from salt !
If someone sees you-
What is up with this girl ?
Is the binary code on her neck being hacked ?
Must blackmail George Clooney with Return of the Killer Tomatoes footage.
Yo, zucchini !
Look at this scene : she has to lean over to talk to F.T., but look how she does it.
It's Igor ! Dr. Gangreen-
What the hell ?
Is this part of the joke, or is it just poorly animated ?
The whole show is kind of like this, leaving you
with no idea what's intentional and what isn't.
Even the dialogue you can't figure out what
they're aware of and what they're not.
Being a luscious, ripe tomato can be hard on a girl.
Whatever you're thinking, erase it from your heads.
I had a line about her being saucy, but never mind.
I guess on a level of bizarre awkwardness,
I can see this entertaining a few,
but for many kids, the most memorable part of the show was the theme song.
But goddamn, that's a catchy theme song.
♫ Attack of the Killer Tomatoes !
Tomatoes ! Tomatoes ! Tomatoes ! ♫
But not all of the Fox Kids shows started off on Fox Kids.
A charming story about a dead man who befriends
an underage girl he was going to marry...
Finally, somebody who gets it !
Do I have to worry about you ?
You might.
Beetlejuice had only the slightest
connection to the movie,
which was surprisingly welcomed as it allowed
for a lot of wild and inventive designs.
Granted, in the movie, everyone in the movie looks
the way they do because they died that way.
Here...
I don't know how the shit they were supposed
to die to look like this.
Tim Burton helped design the show, and it certainly shows in all the strange people and creatures.
It had little in terms of plot, but it had a lot
in terms of visual and gross-out humor.
At a time especially when there wasn't much
in terms of dark or macabre cartoons,
this one gave us a small but still memorable
taste of the enjoyably morbid.
It was a waste of time, but it was a fun waste of time.
But I know what you're thinking: "If Beetlejuice
got a cartoon, why not Little Shop of Horrors ?"
Because no one was thinking that.
Just for that, the plant raps.
NOOOOOO-
- YEEEEEE-
- NOOOOOO-
♫ Little Shop, Little Shop. Take me to the-- ♫
Little Shop is based on the musical interpretation
about the man-eating plant,
except Seymour is now a little boy, the plant raps instead of sings, and absolutely none of it looks completed.
♫ You got boxes on rubber that skid on snow !
If this place weren’t so sorry, it’d be a big joke ! ♫
♫ That's why I'm outta here !
You know what I'm sayin' ? ♫
This looks more like the bumpers you see
before they go to commercial.
You don't give those bumpers enough credit.
The focus of the show is the plant is trying to get Seymour to win the girl and defeat the bully
while also running a plant shop that's constantly
infested with bad musical numbers.
♫ My business is a bust ! ♫
♫ Business, what a joke ! ♫
♫ Shoobie-doo-ba ! ♫
God, I wish this had the original cinematic ending.
Why is he even shocked the plant is talking ?
The flowers act as backup singers all the time.
I'm not even sure the plant is talking,
his lips move so rarely.
C is for commuter train ; many parts are edible.
I guess I can give credit that for a show
that had a budget of monkey feces,
the backgrounds are at least creatively simple.
I mean, I'm sure the layout artist had two minutes
to color these on Mario Paint,
but there is at least a little structure
in between the poorly animated sections.
Oh, God, he's having a stroke...nope, it's just a bad show.
♫ Now something's gone bad, it's a crime and disgrace
You got stones for ground, walls in your face ♫
The writing doesn't make any sense either.
The girl in the show is obsessed with a refrigerator.
I'm going to repeat that.
The girl in the show is obsessed with a refrigerator.
And they never explain why.
It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen !
I think it's really cool.
Women...
Hey, my love of refrigerators
has nothing to do with my gender !
Now, if you'll excuse me.
I love you so much.
Yeah, you're so good to me.
I love you so much.
Clearly, Little Shop of Horrors was ahead of its time.
Like I said, this has little redeeming value, but I'm sorry,
I have to reference a Little Shop of Horrors cartoon show in the 90's where the plant raps.
I know you think it's a crime it exists, but it's an even bigger crime to act like it doesn't exist.
The show lasted only 13 episodes before it was yanked, and you can see why this fertilizer didn't get far.
♫ Word ! Little Shop ! ♫
I'm noticing a pattern of characters that
most likely wouldn't make a good show...
Not making a good show ?
Were there any existing characters that allowed for clever writing or intelligent dialogue ?
Yes, really.
♫ Taz in Taz-Mania !
Down in Taz-Mania ! Come to Taz-Mania ! ♫
Warner Brothers was given the task of turning
one of their most profitable Looney Toons,
the Tasmanian Devil, into a hit show.
How do you do that, though,
when his dialogue is mostly...
Well, they ingeniously make
everyone else very well-spoken,
even to the point of it being ridiculously overwritten.
Accumulate a portfolio, start with a net yield no less
that 36 percent per annum...
There's nothing like a paper in a recliner craft chair
for a man after a tough day of doing
whatever it is I do for a living.
To rekindle the lost flame that connects our souls
with the true harmony of the universe.
Now I am in a quandary.
Technology's the culprit here.
Science be blamed.
Because of this, not only did Taz-Mania
have a distinct sense of humor,
but its writing was surprisingly ahead of its time,
along with other shows like Duckman and Simpsons.
Yes, really.
Based in the land down under where
Wakko Warner sings the theme song...
♫ Welcome to the land that's way under, down under ♫
Taz lives with his talkative family, interacting with his talkative friends
and partaking in the conversations as little as possible.
Much like the other Warner Bros. shows,
there's a lot of fourth wall breaking,
a lot of slapstick and like I said,
surprisingly a lot of talking,
again, from a show
where the main character talks like this.
Though not talked about by many,
Taz-Mania still had an impressive four-year run.
It had good animation, good timing
and actors who had to talk a surprising mouthful
for a show about a Tasmanian Devil.
Ferociously intense, not that he's likely to make much progress, given his choice of methodology.
Got a house to show, a career seminar to attend,
some charity work to do and a dinner party to prepare,
so my schedule's pretty much open.
It's so strange this would be both
as funny and as worthy as it is,
but maybe that's part of a bigger joke in general.
That the most dialogue-focused slapstick
children's show was around this guy.
Shall we pause to consider this irony ?
Maybe later.
Sadly, there's only a few DVD releases of this show ;
it honestly deserves a lot more.
The episodes you can find, though, are a ton of laughs
and had a lot more work put into them
than they probably deserved.
To put it short, Taz-Mania is a heck of a spin.
♫ Come to Taz-Mania ! We mean you ! ♫
Nothing, I'm watching, uh,
Tiny Toons here on Nickelodeon.
Very innocent, wholesome quality.
♫ Wheels on the bus go round and round ♫
♫ Round and round, round and round. ♫
What was that about ?
Oh, Tiny Toons is up next.
But what did that have to do with it ?
Because that scene always bothered me.
It wasn't on Nickelodeon, it was on Fox Kids.
And they didn't do stuff like sing The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round.
It had good writing, it was a good show !
Shame on you, Seinfeld, shame on you !
Oh my God, OK !
I'm sorry, I just...I...
I never had an outlet to talk about that clip
and it always bothered me.
It always bothered me.
They got so many things wrong about that clip.
It was a good, decent show.
It just had been building up for a while.
Critic.
It's-
Critic, it's not your fault.
I know.
It's not your fault.
I know.
It's not your fault.
Don't do this to me, man.
It's not your fault.
Don't do this to me, man ! Not you, not you, man !
It's not your fault.
Stop it, not you !
It's not your fault-
Tiny Toons.
♫ We're tiny ! We're toony ! ♫
♫ We're all a little loony ! ♫
Though having a very successful run in syndication,
Fox Kids bought Tiny Toons
and ran it from its third season on.
It was one of the few shows based on
the younger version of popular characters
that branched out not only to be successful and funny,
but also obtain its own identity over time.
Characters like Elmyra, Montana Max, and Furball
were all very different from their counterparts,
Elmer, Yosemite Sam, and Sylvester.
The nice thing is while in syndication, there was definitely a lean towards being more kid-friendly,
but when it went to Fox, they broke out more of the classic Looney Tunes humor
with celebrity jokes, in-jokes, satire, a Buster
that sounded eerily close to the Cryptkeeper.
Toons from the Crypt !
It played well.
So well that one of their most popular characters,
Plucky Duck, was given his own show that same year.
Yeah, so what was that ?
Its...complicated.
You see, the first episode of the spin-off
was...actually hilarious.
They're acknowledging he's getting his own show,
but he abandons it to try and be Batman
in Tim Burton's next movie.
It's amazing how funny it is.
The violence, the satire, the celebrity in-jokes.
Tim, I should be Catwoman ! You know it !
Look at me ! Roar, roar !
It had a ton of viewers rolling
on the floor with laughter, it was so good !
That sounds great, what happened ?
That was the only new episode !
They weirdly just started showing clips from other
Tiny Toons episodes where Plucky Duck was the focus,
so what was supposed to be The Plucky Duck Show
just became the best of Plucky Duck, a clip show.
Maybe this was filler for a show
they didn't make in time,
maybe they only animated the pilot, but pulled the plug like what they did with The Elmyra Show ?
Whatever they did, it faded quickly,
resulting in only 13 episodes.
Regardless, we still got a pretty funny first episode
and a ton of great material from the original Tiny Toons, giving it a memorable and hilarious run.
♫ It's Tiny Toon Adventures, come and join the fun ! ♫
♫ And now, our song is done ! ♫
But not every show gets the attention it deserves.
I know what you mean.
That masterful work will have its day.
But I was talking about Eek the Cat.
In a world filled with Ren & Stimpy knockoffs,
Eek! The Cat was arguably one of the first.
But just like those other shows, it had a similar style,
but still, its own hilarious identity.
The opening sums it up perfectly :
he has a dream about helping someone,
wakes up to reality, and everything tries to kill him.
That's basically the plot of every episode :
The world is trying to punish him
for all the good deeds he does.
Eek is always kind and optimistic, always helping people no matter what's thrown at him.
It never hurts to help !
And indeed, a lot of strange things are thrown at him.
It's a world where snacks can blow up in your head...
The cereal that pops in your head, not in your hand !
Cuddly bears are greeted with machine guns...
♫ We're the Squishy Bears, and we're right over here- ♫
And Ross Perot was commander-in-chief.
Back when THAT was the craziest person
who could be President.
There was a mean-spirited creativity to it that was held together by just how gentle and helping Eek is.
Hey, no swimming for an hour after you eat,
you don't wanna get a cramp !
No matter what, he always wanted to help,
even if it meant getting pummeled.
Well, at least the beautiful
planet of Earth has been spared
and those bad aliens will never do
such bad things again, and
someone will be here to get me soon,
I'm...I'm just sure of it.
Hell, the biggest curse word
he ever used was "kumbaya".
Kumbaya, wait !
Granted, as the show went on,
they seem to run out of ideas,
so they started putting him in several movie parodies.
They were fine, I guess,
but it was a little odd, even for this show.
To make things even stranger, the timeslot was
suddenly being shared with another show.
Suddenly, it was called Eek! Stravaganza and
half the running time was dedicated to Thunderlizards,
a series about dinosaurs who were trying
to wipe out a new species called Man.
At the moment, there's only two of them,
and they're constantly screwing up trying to evolve.
I invented this. I call it a washing machine.
I figured it out. The fire washes things, okay ? Watch.
These guys are like the prototype
for SpongeBob and Squidward,
except the sexual tension might be
a little greater with them.
When does the hurting stop ?
The show was pretty funny, but not as good as Eek!
Nobody minded too much that
the shows were cut in half,
as we still got our daily dose of strange,
and the show had a good run of five seasons.
Sadly, again, though, there's no DVD release,
hence the watermark.
With the rise of even more surreal humor
and Internet culture,
this really should be more available to the public.
It was mean, violent, cruel, relentless, yet, funny enough, had a good heart at the center of it.
Eek! definitely needs to make a comeback,
and hopefully, somebody out there
can make it happen in the future.
But there's stuff for dog lovers, too.
Jim Henson's Dog City, for example,
lasted for three seasons.
Based on Henson's short film from another TV series,
the show opened in the puppet world
where an animator created a private eye show
about a detective named Ace Hart.
It then jumps into animation, as Ace constantly
battles the gangster Bugsy Vile,
with the help of chief Rosie O'Gravy
and paper pup named Eddie.
As you'd imagine, there's a lot of dog puns in this,
which is usually annoying, but after a while,
there's so many of them,
you're kind of floored so many could exist.
I did some sniffing around trying
to get a leg up in the case.
Pavlov Brand Beef Biscuits !
Bernard St. Bernard.
Shake paws !
Not much bark, but what about her bite ?
Station WFIDO...
Sometimes, he's one table scrap short
of a full doggy bag.
I'm...annoyingly intrigued.
Like many Jim Henson projects,
there's a charm in how kid-friendly it wants to be.
For example, the animator hates violence, so guns
are usually replaced with rolled-up newspapers,
and when guns do eventually make their way in,
he switches it out for a senseless showdown.
It's... kind of adorable.
Diving into unknown waters is senseless,
but is it as senseless as running with scissors ?
I think not !
The strange thing is, Fox would do another
dog detective show called Droopy: Master Detective.
What was up with this concept ?!
They had the same obsession
Disney Afternoon had over ducks !
Did they just think this would be the next big thing ?
Did they even watch this show ?
While Droopy was canned pretty quickly,
Dog City had a pretty decent run.
So, I guess if you're a dog detective person...
I'm a cat detective person myself.
Dog City is cute enough to give a viewing.
You know, Critic, I gotta admit, these shows are fine,
but they're not really mind-blowing.
Yeah, where's the really cool stuff ?
Well, over the next three years,
Fox Kids would have their highlights.
They would give us the most incredible, awesome, badass shows any kid's ever seen at the time !
DAAAAD ! Stop butting in !
I'm just trying to help.
You're embarrassing me
in front of my friends ! Go away !
Okay.
I love you, son.
Love you, too.
I didn't quite hear that.
Love you, too.
I can't hear you !
I love you, too !
Critic loves his dad !
Get out of here, Dad ! You ruin everything !
STOP IT ! I DO NOT ! SHUT UP ! SHUT UP !
I'M SUPPOSED TO BE BADASS !  I'M BADASS ! STOP IT !
STOP IT ! ALL OF YOU ! I HATE YOU ALL !
I'M NEVER HAVING YOU BACK !
OKAY, seriously, stop, stop.
I'm sorry.
So, even though Fox Kids was growing, it still wasn't
the dominant force in Saturday morning or kid shows.
But year 3 is when all that started to change.
Fox Kids expanded from Saturday morning to weekday afternoons, which was a risky and expensive move.
If they wanted kids to constantly be watching, they needed some kick-ass shows to keep them hooked.
Thankfully, they had little gems like this...
and this...
and this.
Now, I've talked to death about these shows in the past,
so I'll do my best to talk about something different
about the impact that they had.
First, Batman: The Animated Series.
After two wonderfully dark Batman movies,
an animated version of the Dark Knight
not only won both kids and adults over,
but it served as a game-changer for Batman in general.
A lot of writers went on to several other
Batman canon projects,
several characters and backstories created for the show made their way to the official Batman lore,
and even to this day, when most people
read Batman comics,
the voices that pop in their heads are always Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill as the Joker.
It's hard to read them without making that connection.
Wherever you go, I'll be right behind you.
A-dee-ba-dee-ba-deep, that's all, folks !
Unlike other kids shows at the time,
Batman took years to develop,
resulting in a unique style not often seen
in many animated series.
The backgrounds always started off on black paper
to keep the dark environment of the show consistent.
The characters and buildings had an Art Deco style
as opposed to pulp comic style like all the other shows.
And the atmosphere in general was more adult,
allowing for quieter moments, slower pacing,
and more realistic acting.
There was no other animated action series
that looked like this at the time.
And now, every animated action series
is trying to look like this.
It walked the perfect tightrope between too playful
and funny between too dark and gritty.
It seemed like it incorporated everything.
It felt true to the comic roots,
worked in the adult side of the movies,
had a good laugh at the campiness of the situations,
and yet somehow also felt like its own unique vision.
It's just as good today as it was when it first premiered, and no other Batman show has ever topped it.
Think about it, after all these years
and all the other incarnations that have come out,
no other show has done Batman as well.
It's just as clear today as it was years ago
why this was a huge game-changer.
But Warner Bros. was breaking new ground
with another game-changer...
What ? I was just talking about Animaniacs.
Oh, I see. You guys think I talked about it too much, huh?
If Animaniacs was a prostitute,
you'd have paid off five of her house loans.
Yeah, what ? Did they save your cat or something ?
No. But through the magic of wishful delusions...
Now they have !
Fine, fine ! I'll keep it short.
Seen as the follow-up to Tiny Toons, Animaniacs was
a variety show that stepped up its game.
Every episode had a plethora of great songs,
memorable characters,
hilarious animation,
but most important of all : brilliant writing.
It was truly the closest we ever came to experience
the fresh comedy of the original Looney Tunes.
They have the great comebacks, the violent slapstick,
the imaginative take on the world
we all wanted to experience.
This must have been similar to when people saw a Bugs Bunny cartoon for the first time on the big screen.
There was just an excitement that
you were gonna see something clever,
funny, and filled with so much energy, they felt alive.
Along with Batman and Tiny Toons, it was one of the few shows that had an entire orchestra providing the music.
And speaking of which, the brilliant songs are still being used by kids today to pass countless school exams.
In fact, they even keep updating the songs
to coincide with the constantly changing world.
In fact, these songs even went on tour,
with songwriter Randy Rogel and actor Rob Paulsen singing their infectious earworms.
They're still that popular.
It seems the show was so popular,
that it's even being rebooted.
In 2020, these characters are coming back to give
their take on modern day insanity.
Imagine the shots they could take
with the Internet, trends, politics.
It's crazy exciting to see where this can go.
Will it be as good as the original ?
I guess only time will tell. But one thing's for sure,
we'll always have these timeless, classic,
hilarious characters to look back on.
♫ Animaniacs ! Those are the facts ! ♫
Now, on to a show I know
I've barely talked about: X-Men !
Will you two knock it off ?!
You knock it off ! You've talked about this show
so many times, there's nothing left to cover !
Oh, yeah ? I bet I can find something new to talk about !
- Prove it !
- Fine !
Apparently, it was the passion project of the head of Fox Kids.
Margaret Loesch, ironically, used to be the head of Marvel television,
producing hit after hit except in one category :
funny enough, the Marvel characters
never caught on in TV.
Every attempt seemed to bomb, including an early version of X-Men where Wolverine was Australian.
Wait, she's not joinin' the X-Men, is she ?
She's just a kid !
That's almost too ironic.
She went from studio to studio trying to get X-Men made, but they all said the same thing :
it was too adult and nobody would watch it.
Margaret then went on to be the president of Fox Kids
and cared so passionately about getting X-Men
a TV series, that she put her job on the line.
They knew if this was gonna be good,
a lot of money had to be thrown at it,
so she took the gamble, but picked the right producers, writers and actors to make it work.
The only downside is, there was not
much time to make it work.
In fact, the tone and animation were so campy
and off-key in the first season,
that they only had two episodes
for the big October premiere,
that being the two-part pilot.
What the hell do you do when you need months
and months to rework your show ?
You present the first two episodes as a preview.
Yeah, it pissed off the advertisers and cost a fortune,
but Margaret and showrunner, Eric Lewald, knew
they had to get this right if they were gonna have a hit.
The preview, thankfully, went over incredibly well
and left people wanting more.
So, after a redo of the show with better animation
and more adult atmosphere,
it finally premiered with
no other new shows being put on.
That's right, because they waited until spring, it got more attention because everything else was reruns.
As you'd imagine, the numbers were through the roof.
X-Men was suddenly Fox's biggest hit.
It represented more than cool heroes with powers,
it grasped the prejudice and torture character arcs,
as well as the all-around badass nature
people loved from the comics.
After being told no over and over from several studios and even ignoring advice from Stan Lee
to make it more kid-friendly, the creators stuck
to their guns and turned in a huge payday.
Much like the X-Men who had to fight for human dignity,
so did the creators who wanted to see
their timeless characters done right.
X-Men would go on for five seasons,
one of Marvel's longest running series.
It launched them into the mainstream more than before, leading to several reboot series,
comic spin-offs and, of course,
a beautifully inconsistent movie franchise.
This was a gamble that paid all the way to the X bank.
So, with those three gigantic hits,
Fox Kids was moving on to their next big-
Um...aren't you forgetting another hit show ?
No. Don't think so.
Yeah, yeah, one that makes like
a butt-ton of money, even today.
No, no, no, there were no other hit shows at that time.
Ahem !
Fine. There might have been another
teeny-insy-winsy hit of a show called...
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
♫ Go, go, Power Rangers ! ♫
It's no secret I never got into this show, even as a kid.
It was just...so dumb
The same time Batman and X-Men were on, we had...
About that double date we talked about !
Yeah !
So dumb !
But, okay, let's talk about it.
Because, on the one hand,
it is a brilliant marketing strategy.
Five teenagers-
With attitude !
...are summoned by Jabba the fuzzy mouth to stop a space witch named Rita
for her crimes of bad lip syncing.
They first do a martial arts fight
against the monster of the week,
and then they grow in size and use giant robots
in a fight against Los Angeles Japanese mountains.
So, yeah, the setup was pretty obvious :
shoot American actors for dirt cheap,
and then cut to Japanese stock footage
from another hit show in Japan.
Power Rangers, of course, turned into a huge hit, which meant as long as they were still making shows in Japan-
Oh, God, they'll never stop !
...they could keep making shows here.
Power Rangers was not only the longest-running
series on Fox Kids, but it surpassed it.
Even after Fox Kids shut down, the show still continues to have an impressively long lasting life.
It had many spin-offs, storylines, reunions, callbacks, and tons of B-movie monsters to fight.
On the one hand, I really wanted to like this show.
Because, hey, martial arts, giant robots, killer monsters, that could be some fun shit.
But...
Guess you finally flipped over me !
So dumb !
It was clearly past my time and not for me,
but that doesn't mean they didn't tap
into something that excited a shit-ton of kids...
And some very disturbed adults years later.
Power Rangers, whether you liked it or not,
was, and still is, an impressive spectacle.
♫ Power Rangers ! ♫
But it wouldn't be the 90s unless
we forcibly had to teach you shit !
♫ Where is Carmen Sandiego ? Carmen Sandiego-- ♫
Thankfully, some shows were better at it than others.
Like Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego ?
♫ Rockapella- ♫
Nope !
This was a different kind of Carmen Sandiego, one that was on a kids' computer game that tried to educate you.
That's exactly what Carmen Sandiego is.
Okay, maybe not that different.
The onscreen player always had to pick
two characters to go after Carmen,
and he always picked the sister
and brother duo, Ivy and Zack.
Oh, God ! Tell me he didn't... ship them ?
It's a kid who's always at his computer!
So probably.
Probably.
Hello, player. Thanks for picking me.
Yeah, that sounds weird.
There's a freaky-ass chief who seemed to be a mix between Max Headroom and the Genie.
Ivy, Ivy, Ivy, you simply must learn to accessorize !
Regrettably so.
And the duo had to chase Carmen around the world
to get back the famous monuments that they'll inevitably home school us about.
Okay, listen up, gumshoes, you'll be heading to Holland !
It's the home of wooden shoes, tulips
and the world-famous windmills !
On the one hand, it doesn't work
as well as the game show,
because the investment came from having to know the information to get further.
Here, the show just kind of comes
to a halt to teach you something.
He used bold colors and violent brushstrokes,
often slashing at the canvas as he painted.
On the other hand, though,
it did have a story to each one,
and Carmen herself was just as stylish and cool
a villain as you would want her to be.
In fact, a lot of the time, she would leave the clues on purpose, because she loved the thrill of the chase.
At first I thought this was kind of lame,
but then the more I thought about it,
how clumsy is Carmen in the other versions
to always leave something behind !
Here, she's at least owning up to her stupidity.
The show lasted a good while with four seasons, and even though the education stuff did feel a little forced,
it was still cool seeing
the queen of thieves do what she does
and I guess help us get a little smarter watching it, too.
It was decent enough for what it was.
♫ Where on Earth can she be ? ♫
Hey, kids !
What's more awkward than movie Spider-Man ?
Other movie Spider-Man ?
Aaaand ?
Cartoon Spider-Man ?
Aaaand ?
Other cartoon Spider-Man ?
YES !
Riding the tails of X-Men, heck,
even doing a crossover with them later,
Spider-Man tried capturing the same complex characters and ideas their other hit Marvel show had.
Did they ?
It’s complicate-
- No ?
- No.
Spider-Man was great if you wanted
the experience of the comic,
but it didn't segue into an emotional TV series.
It might have been surprisingly over-ambitious,
as every second, it's either explaining what's going on,
explaining the emotions,
explaining the inner monologue,
it could never take a break.
Then we have to assemble those of use who are left
and go protect the site of the Doomsday complex.
I feel like I'm witnessing a part of this country's history !
After seeing the beacon, we always assembled here.
I had to crack open a map to remember
where this building was.
How have you been, Madeline ?
Oh, my God, breathe !
You guys are going faster
than the dialogue in The Social Network !
The CG city wasn't a bad idea at the time,
but now, it just sticks out like a sore thumb.
In other instances, the CG background matches
the look of the painted background.
This just looks like he's swinging into a screensaver.
But those are just little details.
Maybe it could still work if the writing was sharp-
Anyway, this lizard thing 
is probably just an urban myth...
Wait a minute ! Looks like I was mythtaken.
But again, to its credit, it did take a lot from the comics, trying to cram in as much as you can in a kid show.
I just think it did it too damn much.
It wasn't Power Rangers silly, but it wasn't X-Men
serious either, it was something in-between.
But it seemed to be enough,
as this Marvel show lasted five seasons,
so I guess it must have made a big connection
with a lot of fans.
And, granted, there were some really cool things to see,
like Tony Jay as the Kingpin,
Mark Hamill as the Hobgoblin,
Not Topher Grace as Venom...
And to think, we thought this would be the greatest Marvel team-up we would ever see on any screen.
Power of lightning, strike again !
Uh, power of web-shooters, get real sticky !
Sure, these days, it sounds a little corny.
Looking back, it's not as bad as I remember,
but its pacing is still way too fast for us
to absorb every adventure.
It's got its fans, though, and I can see why.
It was a huge hit, and anything that makes this a little less awkward must be doing something right.
But for my money,
the best superheroes always shouted-
Oh ! Can I say it ? I've always wanted to say it.
Go ahead.
Fork !
It was one word. It was one goddamn word !
With five letters !
YOU COULDN'T EVEN SAY FIVE LETTERS !!!
This is nice.
While there were comedic takes on superheroes in the past, none were quite as funny or odd as The Tick.
Again, leaning its writings
towards the adults rather than kids,
The Tick told the story of a nigh-invulnerable,
absent-minded superhero
and his voice of reason sidekick, Arthur.
You can't fight evil with a macaroni duck !
I'll be the judge of that.
While the idea for the cult comic went through
several different incarnations in the future,
most people agree this is the one
that was the most faithful to the source.
They did what many superhero parodies do : adding
a big slice of reality to our comic book fantasy,
but the biggest-punching lampoon is just
how many damn superheroes there are.
Particularly now, with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Tick addressed what would happen
if so many of these side characters and spinoffs
really did exist in the same universe.
This is all the superheroes you could find ?
Well, it's such short notice !
These people have lives, too, you know.
Though sometimes, the animation could be a little choppy and the timing a hint off,
The Tick still had original writing
with very enthusiastic characters.
But what really pursued us ?
Where were we really trapped ?
Come on, Arthur, get meta with me !
Tick himself is infectiously positive ; he just loves being the hero, but he never came across as egotistical.
He really believes his corny speeches and one-liners,
thinking they inspire people
just as much as they inspire him.
What pursued us were our own obsessions !
I'm good, you're evil. I'm a woman, you're a man !
What does it all mean ? Nothing.
He never felt cynical or mean-spirited.
He doesn't think much about what he's saying,
but rather the way he's saying it,
to a point where even silverware
can serve as a battle cry.
SPOON !
It had a modest run of three seasons and continued to run in syndication, only increasing its cult following.
Though there would be many
variations on this crazy idea,
by far the one who came the closest in strangeness
and comedy was the one on Fox Kids.
That's cool, but...
Can I have a series based on a book series
where the scariest part was the cover ?
No.
Oh...
But you can have a show that's less scary than
Are You Afraid of the Dark ?
Goosebumps was based on the hugely successful
book series by R.L. Stine.
It was wild, imaginative, and not the least bit scary.
Hey !
You know I'm right. You ALL KNOW I’M RIGHT !!!
When I was younger, I was always pissed off
that all the scary shows I watched were never scary.
Goosebumps, Are You Afraid of the Dark?,
even Tales from the Crypt I never found frightening.
But, as I got older, I realized
that's not really what they were about.
The intent wasn't to scare you,
the intent was to have fun in a classically spooky setup.
One of these episodes is about
a killer sponge, for God's sake !
The hokey acting, the over-the-top writing only add
to the B-movie quality that, honestly,
kinda gets better every time I see it.
That doesn't mean they weren't trying,
it just means it should be enjoyed
on a different level than you might expect.
It's like getting angry if a Scooby-Doo episode isn't scary,
it's just not what you're supposed to be looking for.
Every show had a new monster or a new scenario
that would tie into the characters' persona or fears, similar to The Twilight Zone.
Except, you know, laughably stupid.
It took me a while to warm up to this series, but now,
watching it with the intent of having a good time,
that's exactly what I get out of it :
a good time.
It's one of those kooky kids shows I, weirdly enough,
like even more as an adult than I do as a kid.
Just for entirely different reasons.
Sadly, though, this is when Fox Kids
began their downward spiral.
Aw, geez, how long did they last after that ?
Just a mere six years.
That's... stupid long.
I know, but here's the thing.
Warner Bros. was starting their own network
with their own kids programming called Kids WB,
and when they started up,
guess what they took with them ?
Animaniacs, Looney Tunes, and Batman.
They even did spin-off shows like Superman, Pinky and the Brain
and their own little Japanese import that was dirt cheap to make and would run for years and years.
In fact, even the first Animaniacs episode on Kids WB was a parody of Fox's biggest show, Power Rangers.
Hey, what's wrong with your mouth ?
It's all fuzzy.
Fox would still do well, but this was a big bite for them.
And many of their upcoming shows did well,
but not nearly as well as before.
Another Spielberg show called Toonsylvania tried capturing a darker tone on the Animaniacs formula,
but sadly, the writing wasn't on point,
and it didn't last very long.
I talked in great detail about
Sam and Max in another episode.
It was creative, but a little too unfocused,
earning only one season.
And then, of course, there's this.
That's like summing up the Titanic in one sentence.
I need a full episode to go into what's wrong with that.
Yeah.
Good call.
After that, Fox Kids went the same route Kids WB went :
importing more and more Japanese shows
after seeing not only how easier they are to put out,
but also how cheap they are to do.
And sadly... I stopped watching after that.
If we were gonna go into this in more detail, we would need people that actually grew up watching this.
Okay, go ahead.
Hey, kids, remember this incredible writing ?
That's a lot of fish.
They made a show out of it !
OH, GOD !
Godzilla: The Series was a direct continuation
of the 1998 Godzilla movie.
It featured some actors from the film
lending their voices to reprise their roles.
Including Bart Simpson ?
Thankfully, Matthew Broderick wasn't one of them,
but his character...
What ? Nick...
Nick Tatopoulos.
It's Greek, ha-ha !
...did return.
The only surviving offspring of the Godzilla
that attacked New York in the movie
imprinted onto Nick as its parent, and thus,
they used him as a government sponsored
Pokémon to fight other giant monsters.
That's so stupid, I'm surprised it wasn't in the '98 film.
So am I.
The series was received pretty well
by fans of Godzilla, but honestly,
following the '98 film, there was nowhere to go but up.
We did get some great kaiju fights in the show, though.
So I guess I can look past Godzilla's Dick Tracy chin.
I guess it's better than any of the Power Rangers shows-
And then there's Power Rangers
in Space and Lost Galaxy !
♫ Set controls to outer space, now-- ♫
Power Rangers in Space wrapped up the series' initial run and was supposed to be the series finale.
As we know, that didn't happen.
Much to our regret.
I don't like it back here.
What on the surface seemed like Star Trek Lite
actually became one of the most popular and
well-received seasons in the show's history.
They went much further with character development than they did in most of the previous seasons.
There were decently deep arcs for a kids show that featured the Red Ranger's long lost sister
being brainwashed as the Power Rangers' main enemy,
and even more multidimensional villains.
There's plenty more to talk about with this season,
which finished the Zordon era
and ended up saving the franchise.
But some of you may just know it for their crossover with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Cowabunga... I guess.
Hey, we have a deal :
no Next Mutation unless he's fully being tortured.
It's okay, just the mention of the idea hurts me.
The next season, Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy,
kept the outer space theme,
but began a new phase in the PR legacy.
Starting here, every season introduced
a new cast with new powers, Zords, etc.,
and that became the status quo
for the series moving forward.
Saban's big plan to get this phase going ?
Sword in the Stone in space !
Whoo ?
Actually, this season's pretty good, I enjoyed it quite a bit.
But I know what you're thinking, "Those shows
needed a lot more Ryan Gosling as young Hercules."
It's actually amazing how much we weren't thinking that.
Well, Fox Kids was !
I was thinking that.
Yup. There was a spin-off of the Kevin Sorbo show starring a young Ryan Gosling.
I always speculated this was just another
Goosebumps episode he was in.
It is scary enough.
What else do you need to know about this show ?
Well, I think this clip says it all.
What is a performance that you've given ?
Something that you're insanely proud of ?
My work on Young Hercules.
Really ?
I had a fake tan.
Leather pants.
Was fighting imaginary monsters, they weren't really there, but I was acting like they were there.
My God ! I think we're all in a Goosebumps episode !
We also can't forget about Beast Wars.
This was one of my favorite childhood shows.
It traded in cool cars, trucks and
jets for animals, like rats and ants !
Believe me, it's way cooler than it sounds.
This was my generation's Transformers show,
and I absolutely loved it.
Beast Wars, along with ReBoot,
was among the first all-CG animated series.
The early computerized look
doesn't hold up all that well, but for the time,
it was revolutionary and set the show apart
from most other things on TV.
The stories were great, the characters were great,
it was just a really solid animated series.
That being said,
YOU STAY AWAY FROM THIS, MICHAEL BAY !
YOU HEAR ME ?! DON'T YOU DARE DEFILE
RATTRAP, TIGATRON OR OPTIMUS PRIMAL !
For more on this series, you can check out
my top 5 best episodes, right here on the channel.
If my face isn't on it, I don't watch it.
Like I haven't heard that before.
Beast Machines: Transformers was
the less popular sequel series to Beast Wars.
It took place almost immediately after and was dark, sobering and kind of depressing at times.
You know, for the kids.
The change in tone and design wasn't
something anyone was asking for,
but it did end all the stories that started in Beast Wars
and has gained a small,
dedicated following over the years.
Blah-blah-blah, get to the more hardcore stuff !
Oh, you mean like... Frank Miller ?
YEA- wait, what ?
Yeah, there was a show based on a Frank Miller comic.
♫ Watch the skies, coming at you. A hero-- ♫
Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot was a show based
on a short comic written by Frank Miller.
There really isn't too much crossover
between the show and the comic,
with the show actually being
more fleshed out than the comic.
Is Samuel L. Jackson in a Nazi uniform ?
No.
It's a good start.
Rusty is the most advanced robot ever made, with a complicated A.I. and the ability to feel emotions.
He was meant to be the successor to Big Guy,
an advanced robot that protects Earth.
However, Rusty's emotional circuits and A.I. are young, and he, therefore, acts like a child.
Rusty needs to learn how to be the protector of Earth.
Big Guy is recommissioned so he can teach Rusty.
Big Guy and Rusty was one of the more complex
and mature shows in the year 10 lineup.
It was pretty interesting and unique.
Although it was never my favorite show,
I do remember being engaged by it
and wanting to see what happened next.
♫ The Big Guy and Rusty ! ♫
Well, it's good to know not everything
was a Japanese import-
- And then there was Digimon !
- Yeah, okay.
♫ Digimon. Digital Monsters.
Digimon are the champions. ♫
When Pokémon became a smash hit,
Fox Kids tried to capitalize on that market and
trend by introducing the world of Digimon.
Seven kids at a summer camp are transported
to a digital world, creatively called the "DigiWorld".
There, they discover they are the DigiDestined,
who must save the digital and real world with the help
of their partner digital monsters or "Digimon".
They are also given DigiDevices, which transport them
between the real and digital worlds
and can help their Digimon digivolve into other forms.
Say "digi" again ! I dare ya ! I double dare ya !
Digi.
Now I'm mad !
The show was actually a lot of fun.
Although it never really reached the fever pitch of Pokémon, it was received well by audiences.
Although there was fan demand that the anime
be shown in its entirety as the Fox Kids version
was edited and changed to fit a more humorous tone than the original Japanese show.
And who could ever forget that theme song ?
♫ Digimon. Digital Monsters.
Digimon are the champions. ♫
You know, I just got that damn song out of my head
and you put it right back in there !
Oh, I thought you were still humming, "DuckTales ! Woo-"
Because of Digimon's success,
we also got Monster Rancher.
Another monster show that was meant
to compete with the success of Pokémon.
Monster Rancher was first a video game before
being made into an anime that Fox Kids picked up.
In the game, you used discs to unlock monsters
that the player trains to compete in tournaments.
In the show, a boy named Genki
receives a disc to use while playing.
The disc ends up transporting him to a different world
where monsters are real and created
by scanning stone discs in temples.
Like Digimon, Monster Rancher was edited
to make it more suitable for audiences,
removing more dramatic elements from the series.
I remember loving this show as a kid, but honestly, it was a bit bland and basically an overglorified commercial.
So...an anime ?
Oh, Christ, I hit a nerve.
Fox did give Spider-Man another go
with Spider-Man Unlimited,
a loose sequel to the '94 series, while having
a strange and somewhat confusing plot
that sends Spider-Man to a duplicate world
on the far side of the sun called "Counter-Earth".
Normally, this would be like
a parallel dimension or something,
but apparently, that's not exactly
what Unlimited was going for.
Instead, we got a really weird futuristic planet
for Spider-Man to fight Venom and Carnage on,
while freeing humans from oppression.
Wow, this is making his deal
with the devil almost sound credible.
Due to legal issues, this series couldn't draw
from any of the decades of source material
that came before it or even use the standard
Spider-Man suit for most of its run.
There have been some awesome designs for alternate spider suits made over the years, but a web cape ?
Unique, to say the least.
The opening theme sounds like it's trying to be Batman Beyond, but comes off like its goofy, clubbing cousin.
Like clubbing a seal, I think you mean.
I get that Spider-Man: The Animated Series
is an insanely tough act to follow,
but Spider-Man Unlimited was a mess from the beginning, both behind and on the screen,
that is best skipped over by fans of the web head.
And then there's Angela Anaconda.
♫ My name is Angela, hey, hello, ♫
♫ welcome to my very own show. I'll introduce you-- ♫
Did any of us actually watch this show ?
No !
I can see why !
By year 12, Fox Kids was losing momentum, and pulled back weekday scheduling to only Saturday mornings.
By then, the writing must have been on the wall,
because the following year,
Fox Kids stopped airing programs and never returned.
Though many of these shows would exist in reruns and there's more than enough kid shows everywhere now,
that magic collection of the right talent for the right age group at the right time never seemed as prominent.
Every Saturday morning built
an anticipation like no other.
Every visit home from school
wrapped up excitement every kid could feel.
For a pretty awesome time in our childhoods,
we had a cool clubhouse that lived in our TV.
And they told us great jokes, classic stories,
the latest comics, and even taught us a thing or two.
It was everything you thought of
when you heard the word "Saturday morning".
It was a perfect experience so much of us
were so happy to have.
And we couldn't be more
thankful to the awesome people
who gave us some absolutely wonderful
Saturday mornings on Fox Kids.
Speaking of which, we should probably
start getting ready for bed.
Oh, yeah. I guess we have been watching
well over twelve hours of shows.
So what do we do now ?
Well, protocol says we should be playing
video games past our bedtime....
Laugh and scream at basically nothing...
And have deep philosophical talks
while trying to go to sleep.
Sounds good.
Oh, my God, Duck Season is the best.
Shoot the dog ! Shoot the dog !
Oh, yeah !
Will Smith !
Malcolm ?
Hmm ?
Do you believe in God ?
Believe... or see ?
D-do you see God ?
Well, yeah.
I was thinking about that, and it had me thinking.
What if Bowser's the good guy ?
Wow.
You know, yeah.
And Mario's really the bad guy ?
Exactly.
But is, then... Is Satan Waluigi ?
No.
That's just not true. That's a dirty lie.
Well, if Mario is the bad guy, then Luigi is Satan.
Oh. Wait-
I'm totally lost.
How do we go from God to Bowser ? I missed that.
Video games are...
...our God.
Well...okay.
It's my religion, actually. Thanks.
Yeah. So, like, if video games equal God...
There's all different, you know, denominations...
- Yeah, right, right.
- Like sex...
Like, Tamara believes in
the denomination of...  of PlayStation, but, like,
Walter and I are Nintendo-ites...
So, like, it can be awkward sometimes.
I have a PlayStation, like...
Don't... don't tell Nintendo, but I, like, I have a PlayStation
because, like sometimes, just... Get explore things, man.
Yeah, you gotta do stuff, well, while you're young.
You know what I mean?
I think I'm an atheist, 'cause I have a Dreamcast.
Oh, Dreamcast... Oh, man...
No way.
I started with the Dreamcast, man. It's fine.
Yeah ?
Everything's gonna be okay.
I don't know, man. I don't think my mom's gonna
let me sleep over here anymore.
