Seriously. Watch it for Marley Shelton!

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I'd be proudest dad in the world if I knew my future son was fapping to Wendy Peffercorn.

That, and he preferred to watch the Holy Trilogy over LOTR.

mmhm, Winnie Cooper.
Danica McKellar turned out okay, too.

Huh, interesting episode. Hadn't ever even heard of Fraggle Rock, never watched Muppets or Sesame Street. I'm getting the feeling this is a generational thing (I'm guessing you guys grew up in the 80s), since I wouldn't have really been watching TV a lot till the mid-90s, so I'm guessing most of these weren't airing regularly on TV anymore at that point (well, Sesame Street has been around forever, but I had outgrown it by the time I started watching TV).

So for me it'd be more Looney Tunes and Nickelodeon cartoons (and maybe Power Rangers, I vaguely remember that still being a thing when I was a kid).

There is also an availability divide. Our house did not have cable until both us kids were in college. Thus, no nick, no disney channel. We DID get Fraggle Rock, as it was a HBO and CBC coproduction and thus was available on Canadian TV. Other than that, if it wasn't syndicated or on a broadcast network, we didn't see it. We got a VCR in the mid-80's, when both of us were in high school.

My father used to tell the story of how, when Sesame Street started, one of his fellow teachers refused to let his own kids watch it because it had Black kids playing with the Whites. Dad had his own issues, but he took it as a point of pride that he wasn't THAT bad!

I don't know whether or not Carl Sagan's old "Cosmos" program was palatable to other little kids, but I ate it up when I was 9 or 10. It was the only programming I saw that discussed the universe--like, the whole universe--and I was fascinated. Even if it might not have been a kids' show in the strict sense, and even if I didn't understand every concept, I was glued to it. I think it had a lot to do with Sagan himself, with his weird delivery and obvious enthusiasm he was a lot like a cartoon character.

Hey, I've only listened to half the episode, as that's how long it took to walk back from the car repair place. This year's inspection will only cost me $600

Tee hee! Travelling Matt

One of RObotech's oddest legacies is that the US company that distributed it here, Harmony Gold, still has it's offices on the Sunset Strip here in Hollywood.  They have a very nice screening room that they rent out all the time for premiere's, SAG, and DGA screenings.  You always here of screenings at the Harmony GOld theater, but most don't realize what Harmony Gold does mostly.

Yeah, their existence appears to stem mostly from exploiting Robotech and trying to get money from Macross derivatives they have no rights or connection to by bullying small companies; a court in Japan ruled about 10 years ago that the company HG bought the worldwide distribution rights from don't own the intellectual property, so they don't either. HG's response? Essentially, 'we're Americans not Japanese'.

However, they've gone much further than simply believing they own the entire franchise and blocking the sale of Macross goods, they have actually trademarked "Macross" in certain countries (including the US and UK), which in my mind turns them from being pricks to outright fuckers. Why are they allowed to continue? It's a mystery, but one assumes Big West simply doesn't see the value in foreign markets as good enough to warrant the inevitably costly legal battle and until they sort that out they'll never do business with HG. And why should they? This is a company that even tried to trademark Macross in Japan!

On a lighter note, I've just started watching the new version of Space Battleship Yamato and I'm enjoying it immensely.

I did say "tends" I haven't paid much attention to the new stuff coming from them, mostly because I'm not really hooked into the anime scene anymore. If you haven't seen Whispers of the Heart, though, go do so. Best movie about a John Denver song ever! (the dub is great, but they had to make some changes to get the entire idea of the movie to work. They also changed a line at the end so as not to promote marriage between middle schoolers )

Last edited by Invid (2013-12-04 20:49:11)

Well, it is a Japanese movie, so no one cares whether you're living in sin or not.
But really, making a decision to marry someone when you're 14 is pretty stupid, even if you aren't Romeo and Juliet.

I've seen all of Studio Ghibli's feature-length films (including the God-awful Tales from Earthsea), and probably most of their shorts and OVAs. I haven't voluntarily watched a dub of anything in at least the past 14 or 15 years, but luckily for me, all of the Japanese DVD-releases of Ghibli movies come with an English subtitle track. Whisper of the Heart is my absolute favorite. The death of the director, Yoshifumi Kondo, was a huge blow for the Studio as he was incredibly talented and basically Miyazaki and Takahata's chosen successor (Miyazaki did the screenplay for Whisper).

If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend The Cat Returns, which is a spin-off of Whisper of the Heart. It's the only film they've ever released that feels like Ghibli but that also feels like a modern film rather than a quaint/nostalgic/reverent look back at an earlier time. There's a youthful energy to it that none of the Studio's other movies have. It works with the thread topic, too, because the main character is in high school and the story is pretty accessible for younger kids.