's World of Ideas: EntertainmentMajor geographical error on common gag in many cartoons
Rooting for the Bad Guys
Cartoon Network playing live action; Boomerang playing new shows
Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies
Filmation, the much maligned staple of Saturday Morning TV
•The Daffy/Porky—Groovie Goolies pairup (with full synopsis)
Battle of the GHOSTBUSTERS! ("Real" vs "Original")
Tad Ghostal goes Postal!
NY/LA: Mirror TV markets?; Ch. 1
PacCube
Rap; Where did it go wrong; and reaction to Diallo
Major geographical error on common gag in many cartoons
I have NEVER seen it pointed out anywhere. I one day realized it myself several years ago!
In cartoon logic, we commonly see that if you dig strait down (presumably from the USA), and go through the center of the earth, you come out in China. This goes all the way back to the golden age of theatrical cartoons.
Of course, it is recognized, if you go down from the Western hemisphere, you'll come out in the Eastern hemisphere. What's forgotten is the north-south direction! USA and China are both on the northern hemisphere! If the west becomes east, how do they figure the opposite of the north remains in the north? If the earth was a cylinder, that would hold true. But since the earth is close to a sphere, the diametric opposite of the north will be in the southern hemisphere. (Unless you travel at a northerly angle. Yet one Roadrunner cartoon employing this gag clearly showed the coyote falling through the molten core at the very center of the earth!)
So if you go straight down through the center of the earth from the USA, you would come up in the Indian Ocean to the west of Australia. Of course, that wouldn't work in the gags, because then the person falling through would come out under water, or water would spring out of the hole dug on this side. the diametric opposite from China would be in the waters off of South America.
Has anyone even gone for a job, like in a dept. store, and a questionnaire asks you if you've ever rooted for the bad guys in a story? (And hooked up to a lie detector, yet!) My first job that I got on my own, at the old Alexander's Dept. Store flagship in Manhattan (next to Bloomingdale's, and where the Bloomberg Tower is now) had this. It was a pretty lenient and easy company to work for, and I could understand why they would want to test your honesty like that, but I always thought that was unfair, because it doesn't give you a chance to explain why.
So in a ToonZone discussion on the Herculoids being too "strong"; I sat down and thought about what makes me root for either the good guys or bad guys.
It depends on the personalities and strength of both sides. Hapless and/or "mad" villains easily wiped out by the heroes (Frankenstein Jr. & the Impossibles, Jonny Quest, Underdog, the live action James Bond inspiring many of these shows in the 60's etc), or who always have bad fortune; I feel sorry for. Little pest characters (mice, etc) or "goody-goody" types as heroes who are given this almost invincible power, I generally dislike. Powerpuff Girls is an example of both, but it was done really well, however, and their flaws are often spotlighted. One episode, where Buttercup was knocking out everyone's teeth for money from the tooth fairy; several of the villains were allowed to beat the mess out of her at the end, and her tooth fairy money pay the new dental bill! Princess, while truly evil, I felt sorry for, because she did have this desire to be a Powerpuff Girl, and I know how it feels to really want something like that and be snubbed; and while telling her why she can't be one, they basically gloated and laughed "because we're good and you're a brat"; basically in the "goody two shoes" mode again. Their all time low point was beating up a happy clown, who was changed into an evil mime when his color was bleached away. Even though he apparently couldn't help it, and was happy and thanked the girls for restoring him to his good self again. They accepted the thanks, and then proceded to beat him to a pulp practically and threw him into jail! (Wouldn't that count as "temporary insanity" or something?) I'm not the only one who thought that was messed up, as this actually became entered as a possible "jumptheshark" moment for the girls!
Then, you had Popeye's 20th Anniversary, where Bluto is there applauding him along with everyone else in the tribute dinner, and what does Popeye do but play films of him defeating Bluto! So when Bluto gets mad and fights him, of course, he is "in the wrong", and Popeye gets to eat his spinach and beats him up again. You wonder what these storymen are thinking! Likewise for the final Sniffles film "Hush My Mouse", where a particularly aggressive Edward G. Robinson cat is bullying a diner owner for mouse knuckles. A bulldog soon threatens the bully, and you think 'good for him, now let's see how he likes it'; but when the ensuing brawl takes a pause, you see both the dog and Robincat beating up on the diner owner. (and the punchline being "instead of mouse knuckles, he needs brass knuckles"). Chuck Jones (who directed this) seemed to have a strange sense of justice at times. He had a whole film about Elmer getting punched out by a hotel guest because of Daffy's noise. Daffy then calls him "noisy" when he crashes into something as a result! And don't even get me started on that Three Bears series of his! Friz Freleng eventually became just as bad. Like "Bugsy and Mugsy" where Bugs gets revenge on Rocky and Mugsy for disturbing him by making it look like Mugsy is attacking Rocky in his sleep, so that Rocky beats on the clueless Mugsy. This was actually a plot he reused from an earlier Sylvester cartoon with a mouse and a bulldog. But at least in the end of that one, the mouse who caused the trouble got conked with an object pulled by the magnet he was using to frame Sylvester with. In this one, it ends with Rocky thinking Mugsy gave away their hiding place with bright signs (again done by Bugs), and beating on the begging Mugsy. Why is this funny? Rocky was the real "bad guy", while Mugsy was too dumb to even fill the role of Sylvester or the Coyote against the good guy! (In only one case; Prince Varmint/Violent, the hapless flunky gets even with his abusive boss by defecting to the "good guys" side. But then Yosemite Sam always was so hapless himself with his beasts of burden (whom he's always trying to get to "whoa!"), so you feel more sorry for him than for the elephant. Why couldn't Freleng/Foster have had Mugsy turn good against Rocky like that?
But that shows the pattern I noticed of newer WB cartoons having more "unfair" ends compared to earlier ones. Many old ones did not even have "win/lose" endings, but simply a funny punchline.
One thing I liked about earlier Looney Tunes is that they were more focused on the wackiness of Avery and Clampett. Once they left, it was Jones and Freleng who took over in having the most creative influence, and their philosophy seemed to revolve around "bad guys need to be pummeled repeatedly no matter how hapless they are" (or at least self-defeated by unexplained mishaps in the plans). Hence the formulaic rut the later LT/MM series fell into sparked off by the success of their Roadrunner and Sylvester & Tweety formats. Even Daffy ended up becoming a hapless stooge for Bugs Bunny, and later, Speedy Gonzales. And you wonder why Sylvester, starting out as a stronger sounding character (especially in Life With Feathers and Kitty Kornered) couldn't fight back sometimes. Like all the abuse he took from both Hector the dog and a rooster in "Fowl Weather", even complying in pretending to be Tweety to save the dog from Granny's wrath if Tweety was harmed. In stories like this and Pappy's Puppy, you wonder why he doesn't just run away. Then, all the animals in "Tweet Zoo" and "Tweety's Circus". If Tweety could outsmart him, despite his size and strength, why couldn't he outsmart these other characters? In D'Fightin' Ones, Sylvester does try to fight back sometimes, but is not consistent enough. If the dog is so much stronger with his fist, then Sylvester should have picked up some heavy object and knocked him out with it. That's what Tweety used to do! (One reason I like Tom & Jerry so much better. Tom would sometimes strike back at the dog. But like "Pappy's Puppy", in the similar "That's My Pup", he was stupid to not run away. Like you're going to allow these dogs to raise a second generation of dog to bark or bite on you?)
However, some villains truly are unpitiably evil, (and often manage to escape) and give the heroes a serious run for their money. But some hereoes are just too invincible!
The Herculoids, with that rhino thing, the flying dragon, and if nothing else, the blobs, always end up almost invincible, and their opponents don't stand a chance. A few villains did put up a good fight, but then the blobs always got free, helped the others, and that was it. The Impossibles as well. The bad guy having caught two of them, always appears to shoot all of the clones of Multi Man, but always misses "the original one", who then frees the others and captures the bad guy.
Others like this include Atom Ant, Mighty Mouse, Powerpuff Girls, Winnie Witch, Popeye once he eats his spinach, and the cartoon PacMan once he eats his power pellots. (It was never that easy to defeat the ghostmonsters in the game!) Then you have Precious Pup, whose own goodness/badness is ambiguous at times, yet nevertheless always comes out on top. Richie Rich who has no purpose in life except to protect his ridiculous wealth.
Compare all of this to the Superfriends with the Legion of Doom, who come up with all sorts of truly ingenious, but desperately evil plots, such as going back in time and erasing a few of the Superfriends, the noxium crystal that instantly kills them, and they actually thought they had successfully used it on them; and other times, trapping them in a storybook of doom or a black hole where they would be sealed in forever. Then, they usually get away in the end! You don't feel sorry for them at all. Even most of their earlier villains, many of them the "misguided scientists using evil means for a noble ideal" were almost the same way. Space Ghost, Dino Boy, Birdman, Galaxy Trio, Mightor, the Fantastic Four (from the HB series) and even Samson & Goliath also faced formidable enemies who came close to finishing them off. On the other hand, Shazzan, the genie from this HB series of adventures, would at times appear to be defeated, but it would be basically fake. He always suddenly, effortlessly comes out of whatever trap he was in and finishes off the bad guy; never coming close to being defeated at all. The same pretty much with the Moby Dick adaptation apart of the same series.
Likewise, I always wanted to see truly powerful and elusive characters like Darkseid (later Superfriends) the Claw (Inspector Gadget), Skeletor (He-Man), Prime Evil (original Ghostbusters), etc. caught. But those never were! Most Scooby villains I don't pity either, after seeing the extensive ghost, monster and other getups they went through such lengths to pull off, just to steal something; and a few would have hurt the gang in the process. A notable example was the villain in the Sandy Duncan episode, who was deemed to be "well meaning" and and not even arrested, but instead promised an acting job in the studio after such attempted crimes as kidnapping and rigging a heavy object to fall on somebody! The one I felt the most sorry for was the culprit in the Scooby and Scrappy "Neon Phantom of the Roller Disco" episode where the guy is only trying to scare the disco away to prevent it from expanding and tearing down his house next door. Shaggy then mockingly jokes "But now, you'll have to move anyway: to a place with bars on the window!" I do not even remember him even doing anything dangerous to anyone, or trying to steal something not his. Just flashing in a ridiculous lit up ghost suit. Why does he go to jail, but Duncan's "Jeckyll and Hyde" gets away with much worse?
I always felt sorry for Dastardly and Muttley whose plots always backfire, but not the Really Rottens (Laffalympics) who are very slick, and caught only because of the secret cameras (and still allowed to win three times in the second season, while Dastardly and Muttley never won).
Then of course, there are most of the classic cartoon bad guys, usually cats and other predators, especially on the Looney Tunes, after they found their "winning formula" in the Sylvester & Tweety and Roadrunner chase formats.
Cartoon Network playing live action? Boomerang playing new shows? What's going on?
Seeing the Cartoon Network Goosebumps promotional recently, plus several other live action shows and movies in recent years, there has been an uproar among cartoon fans on the Toon Zone forum. Meanwhile, "retro"-oriented sister station Boomerang gets all of this new stuff, like What's New Scooby Doo, and (gasp!) Baby Looney Tunes (Which many of us did not like at all, as the "younger versions of cartoon stars" fad was 20 years ago, and Looney Tunes' entry in that phenomenon was Tiny Toons —which we are not seeing at all, now! It was Muppet Babies that started that, and this new one was a clear ripoff of that show). The new Scooby was only about two years old when it moved from CN to BOOM, and Baby Looney Tunes was started on BOOM right after its debut on CN, along with a new Gerald McBoingboing series and some others, in some new young kids block called "Tickle U". For a while, it was feared Boomerang would be replaced by a new channel for young kids. Now, all of the new Justice League shows come to BOOM as soon as they finish runs on CN. Boomerang has become the dumping ground for these "inbetween" shows that are now not new or popular enough to remain on CN, but are by no means "classic cartoons" that are "coming back to you" (Boomerang's slogan). (—And as CN replaces them with stuff that are not even cartoons!) I was happy to see Boomerang, which ended with 80's programs, finally move into the 90's, as the early 90's was still apart of the traditional Saturday morning experience, though that was the very end of it as cable stations like CN rendered it obsolete. It is nice to see Dexter and Johnny Bravo again, and to me they have become sort of "new classics", though some other people think they are too new.
My first suggestion to others on the board has been that they should reopen TBS and TNT to kids' programming blocks, and then move both of the new cartoons bumped from CN as well as any live action shows, over there. It was always nice having TBS and TNT in addition to CN. They were staples of early cable cartoon watching. You could catch Looney Tunes several times a day back in the day. Then all of a sudden both stations dropped cartoons for good.
It seems Cartoon Network wants to be like Nickelodeon. A kids' channel not specifically for cartoons. They are probably doing all of this to compete with them. Probably Noggin, Disney, etc. as well. So another idea is to just swap the programming of CN and Boomerang; or swap the names of the current stations, since one is already set on basic cable and the other is not.
So The current Boomerang would become Cartoon Network (not CN2 as people used to suggest, as it would now not be necessary), and then what is now CN would be given a new name. Perhaps it could be the Kids WB Network since that is being retired.
The gain is that the channel called "Cartoon Network" would thus have Boomerang's current programming, and would be just like CN was 10 years ago, in its heyday, with its mix of classic cartoons, and newer stuff (which many of us miss). They could then even bring back more of the classic promos from then! (Boo Boo Baba Dee Dee, Cartoon Network Rap, etc). It would not matter how new the programs sent over were anymore. So while at it, they could send the next batch of Cartoon Cartoons over (such as Power Puff Girls, also Ed, Edd & Eddy, Cartoon Planet, early Space Ghost Coast to Coast before it became more adult oriented, etc.) "Boomerang" could go back to being a programming block, just like it originally was when CN first began! The other channel would have CN's current lineup, with the live action shows and movies, the new stuff (I don't even follow all of that stuff, but their mainstays, such as Foster's Home, Adult Swim etc).
It obviously seems the "CN-new cartoons; Boomerang-classic cartoons" format is not working for them the way they wish. So perhaps it is time to revamp the whole thing. It is certainly better than having these programs that do not fit either network's intended theme.
The Entire Looney Tunes Library in one pot now? The quest for the ultimate Bugs Bunny Show
When Turner Broadcasting was bought out by Time Warner, and the pre-and post-48 Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies libraries were finally merged; I was hoping there would be a new Network program to replace ABC's "Bugs and Tweety Show" (the last of a long line of network WB cartoon shows beginning with the original Bugs Bunny Show, and continuing through such 70's mainstays as CBS' Bugs Bunny-Roadrunner Show). One thing about the network shows, you may have noticed, is that they always had the newer cartoons from the series. You never saw the really old stuff like the first Bugs Bunny cartoon and other early ones where he had a more "rabbity" face; the ones immediately following with the fat Elmer, the handful of older Tweety's that did not have Sylvester, that Pepe LePew where he chased a dog instead of a cat, the ones with the turtle or gremlin who actually get the best of Bugs Bunny! You always had to watch the syndicated Bugs Bunny shows to get those. The WB library had been divided between "pre-1948" and "post-1948". The line falls right in between the release of "Haredevil Hare" (the first with Marvin Martian, with a different voice, and ending with Bugs Bunny hanging off of a moon that had been blasted into a "crescent" shape), on 7-24-48, and "You Were Never Duckier", pairing Daffy with Henery Hawk, on 8-7-48. (That seemed to be a big division point in Hollywood filmography. The MGM's were also divided there, and while the Tom & Jerry's were all shown together (both on network and syndication), the pre-48 Droopy's, Barney Bears, etc. would only resurface on cable years later. It had something to do with some law that was passed that year regarding theaters and ownership of films, or something like that).
The pre-48's LT/MM's had been sold off to "Associated Artists Productions" (aap) whose familar screen was tagged to the beginnings of many of the older films. AAP was eventually bought out by Turner (joining the MGM's), and these provided his TBS, TNT and Cartoon Network with their Looney Tunes.
One group of post 48's was on the network shows, and others were also included in syndicated packages. Channel 5 here in NY would show both pre and post mixed together, but channel 2 on Saturday morning (and earlier, and later again, channel 7) only had post 48's. Nickelodeon, FOX and finally the new WB Network would pick up the post-48's not on the big networks. NBC also had some of them for its Daffy Duck shows in the late 70's/early 80's. (A few of these cartoons would be passed around between the syndicated packages, and the various big network shows, but ABC or CBS always had the most popular films, such as the Sylvester & Tweety's, Roadrunners, Yosemite Sam, and classics such as "Rabbit of Seville" and "What's Opera Doc".
The only exceptions to the pre/post '48 line were the Black and White Looney Tunes (From the first, "Sinkin in the Bathtub", and all the other "Bosko" cartoons, and most of the 1930's Porky Pigs), which were kept under WB ownership, and thus with the post-48's. These also were never on the network shows, but were apart of post-48 syndicated packages, and finally ending up on Nick. (Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were originally separate series; with LT featuring the longer running stars, and MM having more Disney-esque stars at first, and then becoming mostly miscellaneous musicals. Later, stars such as Bugs Bunny ended up on the MM series, though Porky and Daffy remained mostly LT. MM's went color first in 1934, but LT's remained B/W until 1942. Afterward, the distinction between them completely vanished, and it seems like the remaining films with any star, were randomly assigned as "LT" or "MM"). You can get the entire history of this, with all of the network programs and syndicated/cable packages and every short aired in each, respectively, at Looney Tunes on Television!)
The CBS, NBC and ABC shows always had new title screens made; instead of running each film's individual opening sequence with all its credits. (Syndicated and later cable shows would of course play the whole opening and closing sequences). The last seasons of the Bugs and Tweety show came up with these nice new title screens that ran part of the original "Looney Tunes" theme, and this new background showing Bugs Bunny inside the "WB concentric circles" which moves from right to left over a ribbon over with the episode name appearing on the ribbon to the right, as he tips his hat. You can see an animated example of this here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYBxsqXlixo. Meanwhile, the WB network's show used only the original title screen of the episode, without the LT or MM card and credits sequence. (Originally, Nick omitted the LT/MM card as well, but later added the full sequence). After the merger, pre-48's began to be added to WB's rotation. (And 3-22-97, the first post-48's appeared on Cartoon Network). Many pre-48's (and a few early post-48's) were what were known as "Blue Ribbon" prints, where the original title screen had been eliminated and replaced with plain text over a "blue ribbon" in the background. So the WB show replaced this with a scene from the film with the title text of the Blue Ribbon screen lifted off and placed on the new background. Like for the Daffy film "Book Review", you'll see the shelves of books from the beginning scene, with the title in the same font (and MISspelling; it was originally "RevUE") printed over it. That was a good idea for a replacement of the missing original titles! Meanwhile, we are entering the age of the Internet as this is going on, and I find this shot of the original title of The Wild Hare (Bugs Bunny's debut film, and one of the Blue Ribbon titles). Also, word of remastering of the old films, and restoration of the Blue Ribbon film original titles began surfacing. So hoping WB would soon create a revamped LT/MM show in the vein of Bugs Bunny Roadrunner or Bugs & Tweety, but now including the pre-48's, I came up with the idea of reusing the Bugs & Tweety screens, but with a small inset of the original title screen in the area where the episode name was. So I scanned a picture I had printed out of a B & T title, and then pasted the Wild Hare title over it to illustrate my idea. One option was for the small inset to then expand and fill the screen. And whichever Blue Ribbons whose titles were not restored for whatever reason, would continue to use the makeshift title screens from the previous WB network shows. (Another idea is to use the film's publicity cards; many of which can be found in the LT/MM tribute books by Beck & Friewald and others).
Of course, a new, revamped network show never came to be. In fact, with the entire 1000* film library available to both Kids WB and the Turner Networks after Nick and ABC's contracts eventually ran out, WB's show disappeared for good, and Turner networks' showings of Bugs and Daffy (once 2 hours on Cartoon Network, plus airings on TBS and TNT) dwindled down, and eventually fizzled out to almost nothing. (Both WB and Cartoon Network were too much into their new shows such as Cartoon Cartoons or anime such as Pokemon! Tiny Toons, Animaniacs and the other Amblin shows also had a flash in the pan appearance there following the merger, but were given poor exposure, and Spielberg somehow had enough control over them to have them yanked off and placed back on Nick where they eventually fell back into limbo anyway. Why a producer still had that much control of property he only leased from WB (not owned); I've always questioned, and nobody seems to know).
Now even the pre/post 48 division has resurfaced, because Time Warner treats Turner as still a separate company and makes it PAY to air WB property! So the few times the new Boomerang channel airs LT/MM, it is all pre-48's again. (Thankfully, DVD releases, which are all by WB, continue to mix both periods. Previously with VHS, they had been separate). I'm hoping WB will not start farming the post-48's out to others again, like was done with the Amblin shows (Pinky and the Brain and one or two others now on Toon Disney). Rumors of this are now beginning to surface.
So is Time Warner/Turner a mixture of iron and clay or something? If they ever split, which I would not be surprised since there is such lack of "synergy", I hope they would just do a swap, with the pre-48 WB cartoons going to Time Warner to join the rest of the LT/MM library, in exchange for the pre-1992 DC or "Justice-League" (e.g. "Superfriends", etc) staying with Turner, to be with the rest of the Hanna-Barbera type animation. I wish they would do this now, even if they don't split; if they are going to consider farming stuff out to other networks. (What will happen if Boomerang gets tired of paying to air the Superfriends? Will that be pulled and shopped off to someone else as well?) If one of those libraries has to be divided again; I say the JLA, because the WB-produced post-92's are as different as night and day from the more "cartooney" pre-92 stuff.
*Also, of particular trivial interest, on this page Looney Tunes Cartoon Checklist, I had copied the list from 1930 through the six 1969 films, pasted it to a Word Perfect document and then placed the years on the same line as the first film of each year (good to keep to know when each year begins). I turned on the program's line count, which numbered all of the lines. (Had to make sure no years were still filling any line by themselves, and that each line has only one title in it; that no lines of text have been erased, or doubled up, etc. Also stopped at "Injun Trouble". The list continues on with more recent stuff I am not counting).
I found that there are EXACTLY 1000 releases, from the very first Looney Tune, "Sinkin' in the Bathtub" (10-30), to the final "Injun Trouble" (9-20-69). This is the original run of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series by the Warner Brothers studio. After that, beginning with "the Duxorcist", is the late '80's revival, which aimed to capture the sound of the classic series (with reused Carl Stalling/Milt Franklin score), but was still cut off from the original run by two decades. Also not included are special films along the way (Private Snafu, The Door, etc), but the 1968 LT-MM "neutral" "Cartoon Special" Norman Normal is included, as it was basically apart of the regular run films (it used to play on Nick, but for some reason never turned up on Turner). There were also made for TV shorts, two from 1965, and the rest from late 70's TV specials (Bugs Bunny's Christmas Carol, etc), that were eventually mixed in with the other post-48 films on LT/MM shows, but are not included here.
I had posted this on the Termite Terrace and other cartoon boards. I'm surprised Mr. Cooke himself never caught this amazing coincidence of such a round figure for the series run! I now have made my own version of the checklist, and using HTML's handy "ordered list" ‹ol› feature; they are automatically numbered, so you can see for yourself. Also included are the directors, starring cartoon characters, and some other notes. It continues into the post-1969 productions, and special and miscellaneous shorts, along the way.
Looney Tunes-Merrie Melodies filmography
The Real Ghostbusters meet the [Original] Ghostbusters
Cartoon fans from two decades ago may remember a pair of competing shows bearing the same name: Ghostbusters. One based on the popular movie, and another (with a gorilla as the pet mascot sidekick instead of Slimer the tamed ghost) that appeared to be "fake", and trying to draw upon the popularity of the movie. Making it worse, this version was by Filmation, which as we see in Filmation, the much maligned staple of Saturday Morning TV, would be widely disdained as a "hack" studio. But actually, theirs with the gorilla, was the original; based on a live action show the studio had done 11 years earlier, featuring the same gorilla character and the cartoon version human characters' fathers. I had remembered sometime in the late 70's, still having a 1975 New York Times TV listings (when it was still a folding broadsheet pullout, instead of the modern "booklet" TV magazines the newspapers all use now), and seeing a show called "Ghost Busters" on Channel 2 (CBS). I wondered what that show was like, as I did not remember it, being that I was into animated stuff like Scooby (the original and best "ghost busting" series), and did not pay attention to live action shows, beyond Krofft back then. (I can remember my mother asking me that same year, "Why don't you watch Shazam-Isis?", instead of whatever animated junk I was watching at the time. this was another Filmation live action show. What she saw in that one particularly, I do not know, though it was more popular, and I think won awards, so maybe that was it).
In the 80's, during the uproar against so many cartoons by then being based on toys, Lou Scheimer was on Nightline being grilled by Peggy Charren (The ACT lady who always complained about anything and everything regarding cartoons), about his hit toy-based show He-Man. (Which I found ironic, as that was Filmation's only toy based concept, while other upstart studios such as DiC, Marvel Productions and even Ruby-Spears were the ones thriving almost entirely off of toy and game characters!) So on the defensive, he listed his studio's accomplishments, including the live action shows among which was Ghost Busters. "So that was by them too!", I thought. This was still before the movie came out, which was the following year. When it did; I was surprised, at how much a blatant copy of Scheimer's concept it was. Not just the name, but the logo had a ghost in a circle, like the original (only now the circle was made into a red "No Smoking" style 'slash through' symbol). I had heard about the legal action, following. Also, I right away noticed that the ghost looked like one of the evil ghosts from the old Casper cartoons, with the head coming to a crimped point (like the "corner" of a typical linen item). I think I remember hearing that Harvey Comics was in on the legal action as well. So it seemed Columbia Pictures was "biting" (to borrow from hip hop) left and right, here. Yet, still, they seemed to "win" this, having to change only the name of the DiC produced cartoon series based on the movie that would debut at the same time as as the Filmation version; the former enjoying much popularity on Network TV, and the latter in syndication; Filmation seemingly banished from Network TV by then, and basically on its way out.
I would never have settled on "the Real Ghostbusters". That was misleading, as that was the copy! And people did and do continue to think that was the "real" one, and the other, the "fake". And instead of producing a new cartoon based on the original; I would have just repackaged the original series, to show once and for all who copied who!
Anyway, after Filmation fizzles out, and the remaining studios put together a collaborative special entitled "Cartoon AllStars To the Rescue" (in which Slimer made an appearance!) I had thought wouldn't it have been nice if Filmation had, or if its successors (ParaFrance, who released and rereleased Filmation's "Happily Ever After" years after the studio closed) would have made a deal with Columbia and DiC and do a "Battle of the Ghostbusters", basically paralleling the real life battle in animation, with both Ghostbusters teams realizing that they must work together instead of fighting against each other over who are the real Ghostbusters. Sort of a "burying of the hatchet", like the modern teamup of rapper KRS One with DJ Marley Marl, whom KRS started and built his whole career up dissing.
Enter the internet age, and sure enough; I find that a fanfic has done just that! (I tried to add the link to it, on the big fansite Ghostbusters.net, to the Wikipedia article on "Filmation's Ghostbusters", but it was eventually removed). It is a very good, and relatively short story actually pairing both teams, and fictionally resolving the whole issue!
The way the story goes; Prime Evil, the boss ghost of the OGB series (a rehash of Skeletor from He-Man, basically), having found out about the RGB's containment unit, travels to New York City with his band of ghosts to set the trapped ghosts free, and recruit them in taking over the world. The OGB's are informed of his trip (but the reason for it is not known to them) by Futura, their sorceress from the future, and together, they all head there after him (The OGB's seem to be based on the West Coast, but their Ghost Buggy flies them across quickly). Meanwhile, the RGB's get the call for the ghosts, who are now grouping in a nearby alley. Soon, both GB gangs bump into and clash with each other trying to fight the ghosts with their different ghost zappers (shooting each other, basically), and eventually introduce themselves, and naturally begin arguing over the name, of course.
[Partial SPOILERS on origin of conflict, and plot development!]:
They then learn of their common origin! The group leaders come to remember each other from grade school where they were friends, doing paranormal research together, and their fathers had started the "Ghost Buster" business together, (and neither of them copyrighted the name, so they were all truly "Ghostbusters"!) Then both gangs finally stop chatting and team up against the real enemies— the ghosts! Prime Evil is even given an RGB style ectoplasmic energy "class" measurement: class 8! (this from the RGB's Tobin's Spirit book which lists every ghost in existence). Members of the two different groups pair up with each other when they split up, each guarding a successive level of the RGB firehouse, leading to the basement where the containment unit is located. The plot thickens as Prime Evil eventually captures Slimer and attempts to make him his slave!
It was very good, and the characters blended together really well, even down to the flirtatious bantering of one of the RGB's with Futura —(one of those typical attractive Filmation vixens). This guy really understood the characters of both series, resulting in a very natural feeling teamup. Here is a sample of the dialogue between both teams:
"If Prime Evil has been your nemesis for years, why would he come to New York and bother us?" asked Ray.
"Ray, what do we have in our basement?" Egon replied.
Ray answered, "the containment unit."
"What do we store in the containment unit?"
"Ghosts."
"And what does Prime Evil control, Ray?"
"Ghosts."
Winston interrupted, "now put two and two together."
"Oh my, you don't mean!" Ray said in a worried manner.
"Exactly," said Egon.
"What are you talking about?" asked Eddie. "You store ghosts? All we do is zap them to another dimension."
"When we catch ghosts, we encase them in Ghost Traps and then load them into our storage unit," said Ray.
"Well, if it's ghosts you have caught, Prime Evil wants, we'd better get there before he strikes." [said Jake]
"I'd hate to see another explosion like the one that stupid Peck did to us years ago," sighed Peter.
They should really make this into a movie or special! The owners of Filmation properties should get together with Columbia, and do it. It seems there are still [Real] Ghostbusters based new cartoon series coming out every few seasons, so it is still popular enough that this would sell! Perhaps a new series with both would come of it and be good as well!
Here's another idea I had. I would love to see a similar setup done with Ed, Edd & Eddy. Call it "Edtoon Planet"! Eddy, the frustrated leader would fill Space Ghost's role as the frustrated host, with the similarly cynical Kevin in Zorak's place. Couldn't you just imagine big, doofy Ed singing all of Brak's silly songs, such as "What Day is It?", and "I Love Beans"? Those three characters would fit perfectly. Brainy Edd could be the technician (Moltar, though he was usually on Coast to Coast, not Cartoon Planet). He could also be Lokar, who also appeared occasionally on Coast to Coast, and was changed into this bookish type character, almost like Edd. I could see Sarah filling in Zorak's place on some songs such as "What Day is It" instead of Kevin. ("...is it Monday? No!, Tuesday? NO!...", etc.) Maybe the others could be the "Council of Doom"? Eddy would then get to "zap" Kevin with something. Perhaps those water shooters Edd designed for a battle with the Kankers, once. That would be good!
Other media company switch: create "mirror image channel markets": NY-LA
Growing up watching TV, and realizing most of it is from Hollywood, California (the LA area); and also seeing that TV channels were different in different cities (like Springfield, MA or the Connecticut channels that were printed in hollow channel bullets in NYC TV guides), I realized that our three network stations were "flagships", whose call letters were the actual three letter network initials themselves. WABC, WNBC, WCBS. Other places had the three networks of course, but the call letters were anonymous, basically, and you could not tell the network by them. (the channels were also different, even if it was a market that had the same channel assignments as New York. They alternate, as to avoid conflicts, so Connecticut/Rhode Island, and Philadelphia will have 3, 6, 8, 10 and 12, but Boston and Baltimore/Washington will have 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 like NY).
I also begin seeing that while all of our call letters began with "W", out west, they began with "K". (From seeing news footage on one of the stations, from its "sister station" out there, showing its call letters. The dividing line between W and K territory is basically the Mississippi River, with some exceptions on both sides). So I suspected there would also be a set of "K" flagships for the three networks, and the most likely place would be "Hollywood" or the LA market. So I asked our block's resident "celebrity", a member of the Persuasions doo-wop group, who of course had been all around the country; what LA's TV was like. He said it had the same channels as NY, and the networks even matched. (2)-CBS; (4)-NBC, and (7)-ABC. I soon have another acquaintance who was visiting both Compton and Oakland, to bring me back TV Guides from those two markets (LA and San Francisco). While now, the call letters of the "big three" network flagships were the same; only differentiated by W or K as the first letter . In 1980, when I got the TV Guides, the CBS for some reason was different: KNXT instead of KCBS. The latter was a radio station elsewhere. This was "corrected" a few years later (like by the time I finally got to Cali myself). But it's PBS, and the predecessors of today's so-called "little three" networks that were all mixed up. In New York, it was (5)-DuMont->Metromedia->FOX, (9)-RKO->->UPN-> My Network; (11)-Tribune/INN/OPT->WB->CW. DuMont was once a "big" fourth network, but then fell out of the race, kept its own flagship stations in the big markets, but became mostly a loose independent service rather than a network, and then changed its name to Metromedia, which is what I grew up with. Metromedia's signature program was the Merv Griffin Show along with Wonderama. Nearly three decades later, the Metromedia core of stations was then changed back into a network, and called FOX, and has now ironically grown back into a fourth "big" network; coming full circle! The second "loose syndicated" "network" comprised the Tribune owned stations, with WGN in Chicago as the flagship. Sister station WPIX here in NY would also launch an "Independent Network News" for national distribution, and there would also be an "Operation Prime Time" syndication package, which would include the popular music show Solid Gold, and some made for TV movies, such as Yogi's First Christmas, and the Pam Dawber film "the Girl, the Gold Watch and Everything", mentioned in the discussion below on time travel. These stations later became the basis of the WB Network, which more recently was partially bought by CBS and changed into "the CW".
But back in the "independent" days of these stations, in other cities that were big enough to have independent stations, you would often see one station that had programming similar to NY's channel 5, and another, that had programming similar to 11. (though not always perfectly followed, of course). Probably using the same syndication packages, they were already like "little networks"! RKO was the next "proto-network" after Metromedia and Tribune. It only had its two flagship independent stations in NY and LA. The rest of the stations it owned were "big" network affiliates. If there was a third independent station in another city, it would often be in some respects similar to our 9 (WOR). 9 was a channel I almost never watched, as it for some reason had no cartoons in the 70's, until the late 80's. (It once had them in the 60's, though, though I don't remember that). It instead had its old movies and drama shows, Romper Room, the only kids programming, the Joe Franklin show late night, Knicks, Nets, Islanders, Rangers and Mets games, and then, who could forget, the strictly adult Benny Hill! Rerun network sitcoms were later added, like 5 and 11 had. Other cities with three independents would also have this other station that, while not owned by RKO, still had no cartoons, and showed mostly old movies and shows, and such. Or, sometimes it would be a religious station. So that was sort of like a third "independent network". (Sometimes a third station would be more like the other two. 38-WSBK in Boston was an example, with 56 Tribune-like, and 25 Metromedia-like. These stations did in fact become, respectively, UPN, WB/CW and FOX; though when UPN was replaced by MYN, 38 turned it down and went back to independant, while a newer station; New Hampsire-based ch.50 picked up MYN. Some places like Dallas even had a fourth major independant!)
Lastly, there was PBS, which was a full fledged national "network", but was public TV, and educational, so not usually classified with the other three.
So while 9 in LA was the RKO outfit (KHJ), matching NY, 5 and 11 were reversed, and with an additional twist: 11 (KTTV) was Metromedia, and "Tribune" seemed to be split among both 5 (KTLA) and 13 (KCOP). The main PBS was on 28. I forget which shows were on which, but in the 1980 TV guide, I remember 5 as having no cartoons (in addition to 9), but it did have OPT. (In fact, OPT was by Paramount Television, who owned the station. Even though I include this syndicated package as part of a precursor to WB, it quite technically was more of a predecessor to UPN! Paramount was trying to create a network back then anchored by a new Star Trek series (like the later UPN) which was replaced by the movie, and this probably would have ended up on the Tribune stations such as WPIX; instead of on 9). Paramount had once had a small network decades earlier, also loosely involved with NY's ch5).
13 had INN, but it moved to 5 when it was purchased by Tribune in 1985. So the ch11-like cartoons were also on 13. Then, entering the "little network" age, it gets worse. 11 becomes FOX, of course, and 5 becomes WB. After the breakup of RKO, the 9's in both markets went separate ways, changing hands several times. In NY, it was bought by Chris Craft, and became the sixth network, UPN. But in LA, Chris Craft had all along owned 13, which then became UPN! 9 eventually ends up with CBS and becomes a second CBS station of sorts. When CBS acquired UPN through its merger with Viacom, people wondered if its owned & operated 9 might be converted to UPN, but they wanted to keep their own program format on it.
Of course, CBS eventually decides to merge UPN with WB and change it into CW. Meanwhile, Chris Craft had been bought out by FOX, who would then create a second network, "MY-N", for its new stations. Funny how in this age of relaxed FCC regulations, while a big established network would obviously have the clout to expand to a second network, FOX, which started out as a new little network, would quickly rise up and be right next to CBS in owning a second network! Channel 9 here in NY had basically lost all of its own identity. For a time, its network was owned by channel 2, while the station itself was owned by channel 5. Now, it is entirely FOX O&O, like 5!
BTW, the grabbing of the NFC games from CBS, was the singular event that propelled FOX to the status of being a big network. You don't really hear this pointed out anywhere; but I clearly saw the connection. This caused a chain reaction, as CBS suffered, then stations dropped it for FOX, with some markets like Atlanta having CBS end up on UHF! But CBS manages to wrest the AFC games from NBC, and now NBC suffered. Why WB and UPN when independently owned by the powerful Time Warner and Viacom empires before the mergers didn't try to follow suit by grabbing NFL games (such as Monday Night Football, which recently moved from ABC), I don't know. Now, they'll NEVER get NFL and other programs that make a big network, as their parent networks will keep all that stuff for themselves.
So I always wished they would swap those channels, and it would create a "flagship" image: CBS2, NBC4, FOX5, ABC7, MY9, CW11, and PBS13. (I also wish someone would buy MYN from FOX, and CBS' shares in CW, and the two networks continue to grow). I say change the LA market to be like NY, because while most of the production may be in LA, NY is where the broadcast system is generally structured from. Like the headquarters of the big three have always been here, and our channels always stayed the same (Another point, KTTV, was originally the CBS station, while DuMont was on 2! They switched in 1951). Besides, "FOX5 (foxfive)" has a nicer "corporate" ring to it than "FOX11 (foxeleven)". I guess that is not important enough for them. Just funny now CBS, NBC and ABC thought it worthwhile to have the same channels in both leading markets. (ABC's circle "7" logo is identical in NY, LA and Chicago, and the "CBS2" logo's are similar). To me, it would just make an interesting symmetry. This page: http://www.r-vcr.com/~television/TV/TV11.htm says that KTLA-5 could have become DuMont, and Wikipedia says it actually carried its programming 1947–48! The old Paramount Television Network owned KTLA and had stock in some DuMont stations like in NY. KTLA was even considered a DuMont O&O by the FCC! It truly would have been a sister station to WNYW-5, formerly WNEW. Both were similar in carrying the WB cartoons syndication packages decades ago).
Also, PBS not using it's own initials in its call letters in the two markets. In NY, it's WNET ("NET" was the previous network initials, National Educational Television), and in LA, KCET (California Educational TV). WPBS is way upstate in Watertown, NY, and KPBS in in San Diego. These are both "border-town" markets, and from what I read, that is so people picking up the signal from across the border can see those stations as "representative" of PBS.
Now in the San Francisco TV Guide, KPIX, which sounds like it might be WPIX's west coast counterpart, I find is channel 5, and the CBS station! (Now O&O)
The only western "CW11" is KSTW, Seattle. It had long been independent, but then became CBS after the NFL shuffle, and then became CBS-owned and eventually UPN. However, in the WB-UPN merger, it was one of the stations CBS decided to convert to CW (where it was usually the WB affiliate that adopted the new network). KNTV-11 in San Jose, after being a supplementary ABC afiliate, also seemed to be on the road to becoming WB at one point (airing the kids block "Kids WB"), but when NBC station KRON-4 was dropped by the network, it picked up 11 and eventually bought it.
Cognitive Confessions:Why do I care about this? What difference does it make?: |
Another TV anomaly I found interesting was Whatever happened to Channel 1? Believe it or not, there once was one, and the station that became Channel 4 (WNBC) here was originally on it! Springfield, MA was the next market going in that direction to have one. (The market is so small, it doesn't have any other VHF stations!) Here is an article on K/W Call Letters.
This is an idea for a truly 3 D Pac Man game I came up with. I had followed all of the Pacman series games from the beginning, including dozens of bootleg "hack" games which altered the mazes. I was particularly impressed by PacMania, a game that added a third dimension by taking 2D mazes and adding vertical relief to them. (though it was incredibly hard: the arcade machines used a stiff Atari joystick —the old distributor Midway with the easier joysticks was dropped because of its unauthorized clones Ms. Pacman, Pacman Plus and Jr. Pacman; so the game wasn't as popular as the others). This limited new dimension was used for jumping capability. You could now jump over the monsters. But you have to watch the spacing of them, and they usually bunch up in a way where it is hard to jump through them. Also, in later boards, two new monsters: Funky (green) and Spunky (steel blue gray) can also jump! Funky you can only jump over if you time it right, but Spunky jumps so high you can never get over him. Anyway, after this, there was the Namco Museum "PacMan Arrangement", which also added vertical relief (but without the jumping, unless you get a special "rabbit" pill that allows you to jump to a spot else where on the board. Pinky can gain this power as well). Finally, "PacMan VR" which my wife and I played in a fancy Times Square arcade once, where you put on virtual reality goggles and actually walk through the maze! So all of this got me interested in the idea of a TRUE 3D maze, where you move freely in all three dimensions. I had to come up with a system to control it, and then I drew this crude model the best I could.
Details:
I believe that games have become advanced enough to have a truly 3D maze, where the maze passages run not only left-right, up and down, but also back and forth; like taking the Pacmania or Pacman Arrangement mazes, and adding vertical passages and a whole new dimension of maze above them.
Just as the original game had four monsters that begin by patroling each of the four corners of the square maze before they come after you; this one would have a total of eight, for each of the corners of the cube. In addition to the original Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde; I would add Sue (purple) Tim (gold) Funky (green) and Spunky (gray). They would face the actual direction they are moving, like in Pacmania. They would start from a cubic pen in the middle. Scores would be 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, and I guess the remaining two could be 7650 (from Pacmania, except that that game for some reason skipped 6400). 7650 is basically a numerical representation of the name "Namco". You can see this on the Wikipedia article on Namco. The last one would be 9180 (7650 + 1530 which is 7650÷5).
One main issue is how to show a 3D maze looking through the cube, with walls and stuff in the front blocking those in the rear. I was planning to make an MSPaint model of it to send to Namco, but it would be hard to draw. For one thing, it would return to the hollow, unfilled blue outline of the original game. It would have to be arranged in a way that you could see between the passages in front, to see the back clearly. I was also thinking of maybe a pipe maze, similar to the ones in World 7 of Super Mario Bros 3, or the ones that used to be in kiddie indoor playgrounds; only they would be transparent, of course, since the dots, and in fact all of the gameplay would be within them. So for now; I just show the dots, to give an idea of the basic concept.
The final issue would be the controls. Where the 2D games only needed a standard joystick for right/left and one perpendicular dimension (whether it was up/down, or back/forth, depending on how the maze or screen was aligned). With this, you would have both of those dimensions plus one more, perpendicular to both. Once again, it is not like what we usually think of a 3D game, where you are basically walking on the ground in a 2D motion, but have limited motion in the 3rd, such as climbing or jumping. This would be a floating open air world where you would have full use of all three dimensions.
I originally conceived of this as an arcade game, but still had to think of how it would be adapted to home consoles. You would need a joystick that could represent the additional new directions in addition to left right, to and fro. If you could have a joystick where you could pull up and down on it, perhaps. But that would be hard when moving in the other directions at the same time. So it may end up being a combination of joystick or pad and buttons. Or perhaps one of those trigger joysticks, with two trigger buttons, representing up and down. Maybe one you can twist, with clockwise/counterclockwise somehow representing the new dimension. That would basically be working somewhat like an airplane controller.
For now, the one I'm going with the most, is a vertical "trigger" that slides up and down the shaft of the joystick, as shown in the image. That would seem to be the easiest to manufacture, and control.
I e-mailed the suggestion to NamcoBandaigames, and didn't get an answer. When I figured I better send a hard copy via snail mail just in case, it was returned, saying they don't accept game ideas. I also wanted to run it and a bunch of ideas (Mario) to Nintendo, and their website says right off the bat that they don't accept ideas. They encouraged you to join their forums instead, which I did, and ran the idea across there, even entered it into a game idea contest they had.
So now; I have to figure out how to get this idea to Namco. I guess they only want agents from professional game developers? I know they can't handle the volume of suggestions gamers would send in, but sometimes, it sounds like it has become some sort of class separation or something! "We don't deal with 'the little people'!"
While we're adding dimensions, why stop there? How about a 4D game? "How?" you may think. To get a workable simulation of 4D in a game, you could start with something simple, like a platformer such as Mario, or perhaps something with limited space like a fighting game. It would be 3D, but you could use size to represent the fourth dimension. You would start with a base scale size representing location in the 3D hyperplane. As soon as you move out ot 3D, the figure would become transparent or abstract. Moving one direction in 4D, it would become smaller. Moving the other direction, it would become larger. You could also use color tinting. In 3D, it would be normal colors. One direction, it would become bluer, and the other direction it would become redder.
So in either case, like if you were attacking another character, if you are the same size or color, even if both are not in the 3D space, you know you would be able to make the attack, or be attacked. If not the same size or color, you would "miss" and pass right through each other. We would also find a way to represent "turning" to face along the 4D axis, so if you were standing in what looks like the same spot as the opponent, you could make your attack in the direction of 4D.
So you would have a set of four playable coordinates. A pair of joysticks could represent two dimensions each. (I'm thinking of arcade games, for home platfrms, the controls would have to be worked out). Wonder why none of the game manufacturers have thought of this yet.
Use both the size and color, you could even have 5D! Perhaps jaded fighting game masters would find all new challenges in stuff like these. To most others, it would probably be way too complicated.
see also
Super Mario
Filmation, the much maligned staple of Saturday Morning TV
TONTO: Unique musical production style
Rap: Where Did We Go Wrong?