The Final Episode #74: Silverhawks (1986)

 

I know I said I was going to stay in the 1960s and discuss a few shows from that era, but just as I was about to watch the Final Episode of Green Acres (and a few others because I've never seen much of that show) it turned out that I did not have access to it like I thought. It took the wind out of my sails. I was going to talk about another cartoon and another live action show. To show that the 1960s had some good programming for all. Just because I like you guys I will not leave you shrouded in mystery. The other two shows I would have talked about would have been Underdog, a show I loved as a child and The Dick Van Dyke Show because I like ottomans. They will get their day being discussed but it won't be now because I'm pissed at myself for not making sure I had the show I wanted to talk about. I also couldn't just download it because I now have no room on my computer OR external drives. I'm glad you all sat here and listened to that boring explanation.

I went back to what I know which is 80s and 90s cartoons. They are like comfort food to me you know. Always feel good after watching some goofy nonsense. I decided to go with Rankin/Bass' second 1980s cartoon after ThunderCats which would be SilverHawks. I did that because I had never to the best of my knowledge ever seen this show before. So you know what that means. It means an extra paragraph or two where I poorly discuss a few other episodes I watched because why not? That's the way it works around here. You get extra content for those shows because why not. It's not like it's hard to get me to babble on about something unimportant like SilverHawks. 

So this show was about a group of heroes named Silverhawks led by Commander Stargazer who is my favorite trope of all time. You know the ANGRY police boss who's always like "AHH I'M 4 DAYS TILL RETIREMENT DAMNIT" and "GIVE ME YOUR BADGE THOMPSON!!" but secretly cares about his officers. Yeah, that's the kinda guy he is. Toned down a bit for a children's cartoon but I still love that silly trope no matter how many times I see it, and since I watch quite a number of action movies I end up seeing it alot. Their's a good amount of Silverhawks too. An A-Team and A B-team. Some of the ones I saw in the episodes today were Condor and Hotwings. I like the both of them quite a bit. Hotwings was a cool ass magician dude. Oh and the Silverhawks are half human and half cyborg hawks because that's fucking cool. They also have some half robot half hawks to accompy them because hawks are cool dude!

They fight Mon*Star (because he's a monster and they fight in the stars! See! it works!)  and his Mob of villains. Mon*Star has a transformation sequence AND was voiced by the same guy who voiced Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living. He already has a quintillion dollars but he wants to steal more because he's an asshole. I still like him better than living billionaires like Jeff Bezos though. He also has a giant ship that has squid tentacles on the front. That's pretty fucking badass actually. Anyway I like Mon*Star and the several bad guys I got to see in the several episodes I watched. I'm now going to change directions a little bit and talk about the voice cast. We get several people from Thundercats like Larry Kenny, Peter Newman, Earl Hammond and Maggie Wheeler who apparently appeared on Friends and Seinfeld and a ton of other 90s shows. Weird. We also get Adolph Caeser who did trailers for such films as Dawn of the Dead and Blacula. I would have mentioned him anyway because that is a great name he has and should be discussed forever more. Sadly he passed away in 1986 and his character was replaced by Doug Pries. Doug is great because I get to mention the TV show Doug which annoys portnoyd so very much! He voiced several charcters on that show!

Anyway let's get into discussing the first three episodes I watched. The first one involved Mon*Star Mob trying to steal an entire Prison Planet called Penal Planet. It was fine. Not my favorite of the three but still had enough entertainment value that I wasn't running to check what some dumb jerk on twitter had said about something even more unimportant than this blog. I think they are all getting ready to be angry at the new Ghostbusters movie. I don't know why I talk about them here at all. I don't even know why I get on twitter anymore. I think it's just to annoy portnoyd at this point. The second episode involved a new villain called The Rattler a giant space snake guy. It was pretty great. I liked how they made the Yes-Man character, the sniveling toady to Mon*Star the Rattler's nephew and how he stood up for his uncle. It was neat. I mean I'm sure Mon*Star fucking beat the shit out of Yes-Man after everyone left but it's good stick up for family. The Third episode was my favorite where the reoccuring comedy relief character Zeek the Beak gets the magical powers of Hotwings and causes a big ruckus. It was fun and I love the design of Zeek the Beak. He's an green alien duck with the hair of Larry from the Three Stooges. I also have that hair when I let mine grow out. It's pretty great.

The Final Episode was called Airshow and appeared on our beautiful television screens for the first time on December 5th, 1986. I am so glad it didn't end up being a Christmas Special and all that like several other shows did. I'm going to have to find all the shows that ended on a Christmas special before Christmas. Anyway The Final Episode starts off with the Silverhawks practicing the Airshow they plan to pull off for Bedlama's Independence Day that only happens every 50 years. So it's gotta be a good one! They do some pretty nifty stunts and then go back to Hawk Haven, where they live. We then go to Mon*STAR who apparently does not like Bedlama. So he decides to get Mo-Lec-U-Lar and Hardware to get rid of the Silverhawk's ship and have Mo-Lec-U-Lar change into it because he's got shapeshifting powers and a great design. 

So we then see Hardware use some of the gizmos and gadgets he has to get into Hawk Haven without being detected and Mo-Lec-U-Lar and him just shove the other ship right out the door. Into space. Wild. Anyway, Mo-Lec-U-Lar changes into the the Silverhawks ship and no one knows anything! The Silverhawks, all of them, even Commander Stargazer show up just to shown up by Mon*STAR and pretty much every member of his gang. I think my favorite is the robot guy with the Poker themed outfit named Pokerface, but they are all pretty much great. Anyway Mo-Lec-U-Lar takes all of the Silverhawks in the ship and just flies off with them giggling to themselves. They wonder what's happening but I do think they should have been able to hear those giggles. Yes, I expect everyone even the people who have passed away since 1986 to come back and fix this very minor error. Anyway the Silverhawks that are remaining except for Commander Stargazer who is a damn badass even though he doesn't have any kind of Silverhawk armor get pretty much wrecked by Mon*STAR's mob. 

However all is not lost, Mo-Lec-U-Lar strands the Silverhawks in space but that doesn't stop them from saving themselves or giving up. They find those rascals Zeek and Seymour. Seymour has a Space Taxi and I wonder if he ever runs into Space Cabbie from the DC Universe. I hope he does because I like weird crossovers like that. Zeek and Seymour were going to go space fishing instead of the Independence Day despite the fact that Zeek wanted to stay and make money. Anyway they Save the Silverhawks who go back and do what they are best at, which is beat some sweet Mon*STAR Mob ass!

Commander Stargazer gets Mon*STAR to shoot up his own gang members while trying to hit him. Commander Stargazer rules. Bluegrass the musician of the group stops Melodia and Yes-Man, while Commander Stargazer and Quicksilver take on Mon*STAR and blow up his Sky-Runner. You know the Squid tentacles. Apparently the Sky-Runner itself is a giant squid with some fancy shit on top of it. This show is wild and I love it. I was like so baffled for a second when I saw Mon*STAR fly off. It's great. The show ends with everyone at Commander Stargazer's office talking about how they failed to do their original Airshow but still put on a great show for the people of Bedlama. I don't know how any of them saw it but if they did yeah it was a pretty great show!

The show ends not with a PSA like in every other 80s cartoon but with Space Trivia. Quicksilver I think is quizzing the Copper Kid a weird alien kid that only speaks in whistles and shit about Space. I think this is actually a neat little change of pace from the well meaning but definetly cheesy as hell now as an adult PSAs that every show ended with. Some neat stuff for the kids to learn and done in a way that doesn't make them feel bored. I dunno. I would have been into it had I seen this show as a kid. That's where the second of Rankin/Bass' shows end. The last show they did was called The Comic Strip and had four shows within it. You will just have to wait to find out about that series when I cover it. 

FINAL VERDICT: Not as good as the Thundercats ending but it's still a pretty solid way to end a 80s cartoon. You get all of the heroes and a good chunk of the villains fighting each other and you get to see the comedic relief goofball characters help out. I always like when that happens. It's still a pretty solid Final Episode and a good way to end the show. I'm glad I finally decided to do this show and I had a bunch of fun tonight. 

Comic Review #56: The Hellfire Gala (2021)

 

Alright some things off the start here. Yeah I'm still gonna talk about the remaining two DC Annuals from the 1990s. Well the remaining two I want to talk about. Then we are going to take a little break from annuals and after that break talk about a few Marvel did in the 1990s. Wouldn't that be fun? Also yes I will get back to the Final Episode soon, but I also kind of want to get the numbers of these two columns to match. I dunno. I like Synergy.  Also I felt like talking about this X-Men story that got a lot of heat from Twitter dummies. Yes I will be mentioning those lovely rascals known as Comicsgate again BUT I will also be yelling at some weirdo liberals who make the left wing look terrible. And discussion of a pretty great little comic. Since this is a pretty new era of the X-Men and some people are like me and like to have a big ol' pile of comics to read (I let weeks upon weeks of comics I get to pile up) I will mention that I will be spoiling this story like I usually do with any other comic I review. It's just most of those comics are old to very old. You had decades to read them.

Anyway I think I have to sum up the newest era of the X-Men as quick as possible. The X-Men are now living on Krakoa (yes the mutant island from Giant Size X-Men #1). It's become a Mutant nation and they are trying to get in good with the U.N. They have several new laws for the nation. Krakoa can even make drugs that cure any aliment that man can have. Just about everyone who is a mutant is allowed on the island no matter who they are. They can even get ressurected if they are a mutant. It's a very unique time for Marvel's merry mutants and I seriously can not get enough of it. People can complain about how many X-Men titles are being put out now (It's like 12 or so now lol) but I don't really care as I'm enjoying them all at least enough to keep buying them.

Now Emma Frost of the Hellfire Club wants to have a gala to show off the new X-Men team and also try to get in good with many many nations and stuff like that. This is where Comicsgate comes in, you see Comicsgate thinks that nothing happens but people drinking tea and loving each other throughout all comics these days. They've been lied to by weirdos on YouTube because uh, things happen. They think the comics are woke and they were very mad about this comic because the X-Men decided to look pretty for a gala with elegant and over the top costumes. They can be as mad as they want but I just want them all to go the fuck away from YouTube so I can watch things related to nerdy shit without getting their stupid videos recommended to me. One this works in canon because Emma Frost is the kind of lady that wants to look good and WANTS YOU TO LOOK GOOD AT HER PARTY. you don't come in looking like a damn unshaven hobo at a party of hers. Also two this is a comic book where people already dress in brightly colored over the top costumes. Why not have a little bit of fun with that and the whole gala thing.

Now let's discuss some of the things that happened in these comics: 1.) A group of ambassadors from Terra Verda. Beast who is now a completely insane shithead and not a goof ball (which I can't say I'm a big fan of honestly but characters change sometimes?) pretty much due to some wild comic book nonsense mind controls the ambassadors and main government of this place. Emma Frost finds out and that's not good. She gets this mutant named Sage to turn off the mind control. This of course causes the Terra Verdaeans to turn into crazy plant creatures because it's a comic book. This story is pretty enjoyable but sadly it also involves fucking Deadpool so it can't be perfect.

Another thing that happened is them terraforming Mars and turning it into a planet for the mutants of another island called Akkrao or something like that. I'd get into their whole story but it's pretty convoluted (I mean this is X-Men after all) and I'll probably save that for another time. Oh and Storm is now the leader of Mars, cuz Storm is cool as hell. This has also pissed off several heroes and people like Henry Peter Gyrich is talking them into doing some awful shit. That is not a scene you want to see. No one should be talking to Henry Peter Gyrich, damnit. 

Now you are probably wondering where is the whole yelling at left wingers comes in. Well here it is. Get ready to label me a hardcore conservative now because that's how it works. In X-Factor there was an ungoing mystery about what happened to Prodigy a year before. This issue is where we find out that he was murdered by a racist white man. This got some people on twitter so angry because Leah Williams is a white person and can't write black pain. Yeah, I'm sorry but white people can write black people and there wasn't a damn racist thing in this comic book. Yeah I want more diversity and stuff but I'm sorry sometimes awful shit happens to superheroes. Yeah black people should get to write comics about whatever characters they want but there was not a single iota of racism or bigotry within this comic book. I swear to Christ by the way they were acting I would have expected to see some scene that would make Lucio Fulci squirm but there's nothing there. People are stupid and I hate them. Pigeonholing black people into just writing black people is what made Christopher Priest leave comics for quite some time and that's a fucking shame.

Oh and another thing that happened is that the Scarlet Witch ended up dead. (That also caused them to call Leah Williams anti-romanian and that get her some death threats. Not cool jerks.) and this will lead into the Trial of Magneto. Apparently they retconned Scarlet Witch from being a mutant AND Magnetos daughter because of the movies and what shitty company owned the movie rights to something. I should write a rant about how I'm tired of comic book movies and tv shows putting up the prices up because OH MAN THEY WER EIN THE MOVIE MAN!!!!! I really should do that.

FINAL VERDICT: So yeah, I had a great time reading this story and I want to see where these stories go. I'm very intrigued by whats going to happen. I really like this era of X-Men and I'm really for what will happen next. Maybe I'll even review a new comic without bringing up comicsgate or twitter or any of these smelly turds.

Comic Review #55: Superboy Annual #2 (1995)

 

I did say that I wouldn't talk about Superman or Batman but I didn't say I wouldn't talk about one of the side characters! Ha! No seriously I looked at the list of comics that didn't feature Batman or Superman through the Year One lists and this honestly looked like it was the best of the lot. So I went with this one. Seriously though when you take out the Batman comics and the Superman comics there were only like 5 or 6 annuals. None of the descriptions from the wikia sounded that interesting and I saw this story had some things in it that I like so that's pretty much why I picked this one.

Superboy as a concept goes allllllllll the way back to the 1940s. 1949 I believe. So the tail end of the 1940s. That Superboy was just the stories of the young Superman. Not a totally different character. for about 36 years until 1985 they made like fifty seven trillion Superboy stories. He had his own series AND he was in Adventure Comics. After Crisis of Infinite Earths, the continuty changed to make it so that Superman had never been a Superboy. This kinda messed up the Legion of Super-Heroes but I'll get into that more whenever I cover a Legion story. However during the story The Death and Return of Superman we got a new Superboy a clone of Superman. He has the DNA of Superman and another character that was a mystery for a while. We will find out that in this issue!!

This comic was written by the married (at the time) team of Karl and Barbera Kesel. This I think is the second time I've talked about a lady creator on this blog! Well third because Power Pack had two lady creators! I don't really have much to say except that I really do enjoy the few stories I've read by her. I've also enjoyed the few stories of Karl Kesel. They are very talented people. It's just superhero comics are kind of a sausage fest and it's interesting to see when the ladies pop up. There are a good number of them but the dudes way outweigh them by like 20 times. I wish I had more to say about their stories and them as people but I can't really find much information about them. Unlike say Steve Ditko or Jack Kirby or that STANLEY LEE feller. Anyway these are two talented people and I wish I knew more about them so that this paragraph wouldn't be so terrible.

This comic starts out with Superboy flying with another kid. This kid turns out to be a Make A Wish kid but they have a different name for it in the comic. Superboy picks up his girlfriend Tana, a reporter who was in the middle of a live broadcast. I bet that made her boss very happy. Anyway she realizes something about Superboy but that will just have to wait. Superboy goes back to his house and his little puppy dog Krypto. Krypto was something they got rid of in the Crisis story because it was too silly to have 8,000 survivors of Krypton. Still they end up bringing all of them back because people love those characters. I mean they still haven't brought back the PRANKSTER OF KRYPTON but I guess I'm the only one who cares about that character.

Dubbliex an alien friend of Superboy is in telepathic discussion with Guardian when something happened. Dubbliex tells Superboy this and they go to Project Cadmus. Guardian was a golden age hero that they brought back for this era of Superman comics. This also brings back the Newsboy Legion created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon in the 1940s. Guardian was a part of that comic so why not have some clones of the Newsboy Legion running around this place too. These characters are very amusing and I enjoy the ridiculous kid gangs that Jack Kirby loved making. I've even talked about one of them before! Anyway they find a bunch of Superboy clones. The ones that didn't work before this one. These clones are pretty fun looking. I want stories with all of them. They are in those cool ass stasis pods you see in like every sci fi story ever. 

Of course there's a problem and one of the Superboy clones escape. The one that looks just like Superboy. If you know Superman you know where this is going. It happens to be BIZZARO SUPERBOY. I love Bizzaro but he was another concept that they very rarely used during this era. It was also a special surprise when they went with Bizzaro. He's not as ridiculous as he was in the Silver and Bronze Age but he's still undeniably the Bizzaro we know and love. He and Superboy have a fight to prove who the real deal is, until Superboy tricks him into helping him save the Guardian, The Newsboy Legion, this Apokolips lady that Superboy wants to kiss despite still having a girlfriend and a weird Jack Kirby like creature called Angry Charlie. Superboy and Dubbliex save them all and Bizzaro Superboy ends up getting hurt during the fracas.  Superboy finally finds out that his clone father was Paul Westfield, the jerk who ran Project Cadmus. I don't know what happened to the character but I think he died. This would be retconned to be LEX LUTHOR as the clone father. 

Superboy ends up talking to Superman about his clone father not being a great guy. This is a great little discussion and Superman helps Superboy feel better about all of this. Superboy goes home to find a SURPRISE PARTY waiting for him. It must be hard to surprise Superboy due to X-Ray vision and Superpowers and all that but these people found a way. It's a really nice way to end this great little comic book. I totally want to check out more issues of this series. Another series to add to the giant list of comic series I want to read. 

FINAL VERDICT: A very fun enjoyable comic that keeps the characters story going WHILE returning to his roots. I don't know how the rest of the Year One comics from 1995 work out but this is the best of the three I've read! This version of Superboy is a very fun character and I can't wait to read more of his adventures!

Comic Review #54: Batman Annual #18 (1994)

 

I think the freedom of the Comic Review is what I like the most. I am completely free to discuss anything and everything under the banner of comics. It could be a comic strip. from a different country. made for the internet. Super indepentant or mainstream. Whatever the hell tickles my fancy. There are even some blogs where people talk about just one character and I don't work like that. I like to jump around all over the place and talk about comic books. I can go back as far as I want or talk about stuff coming out this week. Whatever pleases me at the moment of discussion is what I can and will talk about. I do have a list of characters from Marvel and DC that I would like to get too, among the other non-superhero comics they used to produce. I mean everyone's waiting for me to discuss Weird War Tales and Jonah Hex and House of Mystery and I promise you I will get to them unless I get to depressed to discuss anything.

Anyway with that messy pile of shit that I will generously call a introduction to Comic Review #54 over with I think we shall discuss is an Elseworlds tale that took place in all of the Annuals of every comic DC was producing I think in the year of our lord 1994. I liked that DC tried stuff like that in the Annuals of the 1990s. One year was Elseworlds, another year was YEAR ONE stories, another year was Legends of Pulp Heroes in which the stories were written like a pulp story of the 1920s and 1930s. Another year was Legends of Dead Earth which took place thousands of years after the earth died. I wasn't planning on it but I think that I will look at each and every one of these years by talking about at least one comic from them. I think that will be fun and I hope you all join me.

As I said the year of 1994 was Elseworlds themed. Elseworlds are pretty much DC Comic's What If. I had an on going article series before the Comic Review where I would just talk about Elseworlds and What Ifs. I've talked about several of them but I honestly believe they deserve a re-review in my longer more thoughtful style. Like put a bit more than a paragraph out there to discuss these comics. Most of the ones I read I had fun reading even if there were some flaws. Most of the time DC comics Elseworlds were like What if Character X was THIS? like What if Batman was Elliott Ness of the Untouchables. I'm honestly not sure what I like more What If or Elseworlds. I genuninely think both are pretty fun reads for the most part so I guess you'll see more discussion of Elseworlds along with the other many things I've promised. I need to keep a report of the things I say I'll get too.

Batman Annual #18 was written by Doug Moench. Doug wrote horror stories for Warren Magazines. You know Creepy and Eerie in the 1970s. Then he got a job at Marvel writing Shang Chi, Werewolf By Night, Moon Knight (which he co-created with Don Perlin) and he wrote many Batman comics. He was the main writer of Batman AND Detective Comics for a good part of the 1980s. I want to say from 1982 to at least 1986. He also came BACK to write the main Batman series for a good chunk of the 1990s. I want to say from like 1993 to 1997. I really enjoy Doug's stories so you'll see me discuss a good amount of them. The artist of this issue was Frederico Cueva and I'm very dissapointed in the internet nerds because they haven't found every issue he's drawn and every bit of information that you can find about him because I love this guys art. I cannot wait to see if I come across more of this. The main cover was done by Mike Mignola and his art is very unique but I like it. He's probably most well known for creating Hellboy, so he's doing good for himself.

Batman Annual #18 is TWO stories in one. Both alternating from each other in chapter form. The first chapter takes place during the days of Leonardo Di Vinci and people who would pay him for arts and stuff. They have a son and you can easily tell where this story is going if you know a single thing about Batman. This kids parents are fucked and well they get stabbed (remember this is like 1482 or some shit) by a crazy looking bastard. We then go to the present where Batman and Comminisher Gordon are talking to each other about the theft of the painting of Mona Lisa. Batman tells the Comminisher to tell the guy whos working for the Louvre to expect a meeting in an hour. We then go back to the past to see the original real deal Mona Lisa is being painted. Well what happens is that she gets kidnapped. So It's up to the kid from the beginning named Tomas to become the Batman of 1503. He uses Leonardo Di Vinci's specs to become the Batman!

In the present the Batman has figured out that it was an inside job and the criminal doesn't know anything about it. He does find out there's something covering a part of the painting after making sure it wasn't a fake. It was covered up in something called Pimento. I don't know about you but that sounds like a killer name for a Italian meat sauce. 1503 Batman needs wings to get to the tower that Mona Lisa's being held in. I love how the art just feels right for both of these stories. I hope to find more of this guys stuff. Anyway the 1503 Batman saves the day just as today's Batman is getting ready to beat ass. Which he does without breaking a sweat. He brings the painting to Comminisher Gordon and mentions about the Pimento  that was put on the painting. They figure the Louvre won't mess with the Mona Lisa no matter what.

We go back to 1503 again to find out that Mona Lisa was smiling about the baby she's gonna have. The baby she made with LEONARDO DI VINCI. Man Leonardo is big pimpin in this story. I wonder if there's any historical fact here or is it just Moench having fun. I dunno. I'm too lazy to look that up. We also find out that Tomas had covered up the 1503 Batman from the painting. Which makes the painting much less cool in my mind but works better for serious art. I guess. I'd have Batman in all of those paintings in the Louvre. or any art museum.

FINAL VERDICT: I enjoyed this story. It was action packed, the characters were fun. Great art. Just a really fun story. I always enjoyed the back and forth thing many comic stories do. It's not one of the greatest Elseworlds stories but it's still worth the $3 you'll find it for at the comic store and I do say you should pick it up. Next time we will talk about one of the Year One Annuals. I don't know what character but I'll make sure it's someone other than Batman. Let's make it someone different for the next four reviews!

The Final Episode #73: Speed Racer (1967 - 1968)

 

Well, I've decided for two reasons to stay in the 1960s for a little while with this series of blog posts or columns or whatever the hell you call these things. The first reason is I don't want Clutch Cargo to be the last thing from the 1960s I discuss. Who knows what could happen. I could just abandon this blog like I abandoned every other website and blog I have in the past. Not that it's very likely as it's the only thing I'm enjoying internet wise these days, but who knows. Anyway the second reason is that I want to discuss more things from the 1960s and 1970s because I have nostalgia for those decades despite not living in them. It's weird but kids from the 1980s and 1990s would end up with some nostalgia for those decades because of reruns of tv shows from those eras. I mean reruns is how I was introduced to Speed Racer, today's show of choice.

Speed Racer will be the second anime series I've discussed on this blog. I'm amazed it wasn't Sailor Moon or Dragon Ball Z but it's kinda hard to find the original dubs of those shows and those would be the one I would want to discuss as a Final Episode. Those are the versions of the shows I'm nostalgic for. You could throw a stone from google search and find a torrent of Sailor Moon Subtitled. It's not hard. Hell you could throw a stone from google and find the weird Live Action Sailor Moon show that I'll probably talk about too. I'm just amazed those were the first two I picked. I guess it's because they were easily located. I could have told you all that in one sentence but I decided on giving you an entire paragraph of bullshit. You're welcome.

Speed Racer is from the Land of the Rising Sun, also known as Japan. Japan is an interesting country that I would like to visit. They got some really beautiful looking countryside over there. Anyway in the 1960s a man named Tatsuo Yoshida created MachGoGoGo (he also created Gatchaman which became Battle of the Planets over here) which would become Speed Racer when brought over to America. The Manga lasted for 2 volumes and those are some big volumes. I got some Mangas and they stuff those comics to the BRIM. Sadly Tatsuo Yoshida died of liver cancer at age 45 in 1977. His company would go on to create Macross which became RoboTech. I think I can say this guy is a manga and anime pioneer.

The anime was put out in 1967 while the manga was still running. The show ran for 52 episodes and ended on March 31st, 1968. Peter Fernandez did the voice and apparently wrote the American dialogue if the credits at the end of the episode is the truth. He was also a voice director on things like Infra-Man (an insane movie that everyone should see) and Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, another show I've discussed for your enjoyment.  Corinne Orr voiced Trixie and Spritle and also the Snuggle bear from the fabric softener company. She is Jewish. No joke that's exactly how the Wikipedia article I'm taking all this information is written. They just mention her religion totally randomly right after saying she voiced Snuggle. Jack Curtis directed a movie I'm surprised I haven't seen called The Flesh Eaters (1964) and did voices for Kimba the White Lion and Godzilla Vs. Mothra. Sadly he died of pneumonia because he was allergic to penicillin the only cure at the time. 

The Final Episode was a two parter! My favorite kind of Final Episode because I get to blather on and on about stuff. I like hearing my self speak because no one else wants to hear it. Anyway uh on to cheerier news this is one of the BEST Final Episodes ever. Maybe even top 10. So the Final Episode was called The Race Around The World (Part 1 and Part 2) and hoo boy doggy we got some crazy shit to discuss with you fine folks today. So get on your butts and let's get going. The episode starts with a crazy ass billionaire starting a race around the world, you'll have to use boats and cars that can ride on ice and all kinds of shit. He is giving up a trophy and a mountain of gold. Oh and you get to marry his daughter because you know why not. His name is Karat Goldminer and I think that's what I'm going to change my name too.  Either that or Ulysses Solomon Archer. 

So his daughter Lovelace Goldminer finds out she's to be wed to whatever gross weirdo wins the race and she's not into that AT ALL. I don't blame her. So she pretends to be a boy and enter the race. I don't know why she had to pretend to be a boy to enter the race because there were no rules that she couldnt enter as a girl. Maybe she has some gender identity issues she has to figure out.  So we go to a place where the race drivers are waiting and then two racers talk about how they are going to cheat which is a very intelligent thing to do. Just state those plans out there in the wild. Anyway this pisses off Speed Racer and he and the other Racer I'm gonna just call Lyle get into a fight. Speed Racer clearly kicks his ass. Then it's race day and we run into My Uncle Johnny Pops Racer.  

The race starts and it's pretty easy going for the racers with not much happening until they change to boats. Of course Spritle and Chim Chim, the two "kawaii" characters that every anime ever made needs to have sneak onto the wrong boat. Speed Racer gets into Boat 5 and Spritle and Chim Chim (who if you forgot or don't know is a monkey. I should have mentioned that) get into the boat with Lovelace. So Lovelace ends up getting into an accident with corals and messing up her ship. Speed Racer comes to help and she's refusing even though there are sharks around there. So Speed Racer just jumps into the ocean and fights the Shark with a small ass pen knife. Speed Racer is a fucking badass and you are all fucking wimps. I'm including myself in the wimp category.

So Lovelace and the old guy she hangs out with just swim off to an island to wait for someone else to come by who stole another boat for them. They all end up in the Amazon and she doesn't even bother helping Speed Racer with some alligators. Of course Speed Racer probably fucked up that Gator easily but we don't get to see him do it. That's a shame. I didn't know Speed Racer beat so much ass. Now they are all in planes and Scrunge and Lyle the cheating pilots have this giant razor blade in their damn plane and they go around cutting planes up causing them to crash. Speed Racer messes up their razor blade but these cheaters won't let that mess up their planes. They popped out a damn giant metal rope or something out of the back of their plane and they fuck up Speed Racer's shit. This is just where part 1 ends. 

So Speed and Sparky, the mechanic got out of the plane at the right time and now we are in the damn north pole because why not. They get into snuggly snowsuits and drive this weird van thing that has some weird shit on the bottom making it possible to ride on the ice. So they start to catch up. Never count Speed Racer out of a race. Even if you knocked him out of the damn sky. So Lovelace and the old guy fall down a ice hole and Speed Racer has to get them out. However Spritle and Chim Chim were down there first because I'm pretty sure Pops and Mom Racer do not like them and hope they die from these dangerous stunts. I don't blame them either. I do like the hats they were though. Chim Chim finds out she's a she and tries to tell Speed but Speed just pulls down the top of his hat not wanting to listen to someone with a dumb name like Spritle. 

We end up seeing them again in Africa. Flippin Africa! The Sahara, of all places in Africa. A damn sand tornado pops up and picks up all the cars. Lyle and Scrunge are the first to get out of the sand and then it's Lovelace and Speed.  They pretty much bypass Europe and don't show us any of it but they make up for it for when they get to Russia we get some nice looking Tetris Buildings. I call them Tetris Buildings because they are the kinda buildings that appeared on the front cover to Tengen Tetris for the NES. I remember the days when that was the big game you had to get to be a big and cool NES collector. Anyway in Soviet Russia gas runs out of car! Ha ha. You know I had to make a bad joke like that.

But seriously that's what happens Lovelace runs out of gas and Speed Racer gives them his leftover gas because Speed Racer wants to beat her fair and square. However this nice gesture makes it impossible for Speed Racer and Sparky to win because THEY run out of gas, however Speed Racer's brother  MYSTERIOUS RACER X shows up and scolds Speed Racer for caring about other racers when it's the race he should care about. He says that the best thing would be for him to lose, however he leaves some gas behind because he's kind of a weird dickhead that MYSTERIOUS RACER X. However the boat leaving for Japan with the LAST two racers (which you know happen to be the racers I've been talking about the entire time) is almost out of the dock so Speed Racer does the weird Jump thing the Mach Five can do and well gets on the bus. 

Scrunge and Lyle get their comeuppance and crash off the side of the road. Sparky says they won't be racing any time soon. and yeah they won't be doing that BECAUSE THEY ARE FUCKIN DEAD, SPARKY. I guess Speed finally took Racer X's halfassed words to heart and he doesn't even bother to go look. He of course gets past Lovelace Goldminer but at the end of the race he says he doesn't want the gold or Lovelace. He just wanted to prove how great he was. Speed Racer is kinda egotistical. I'll let it slide because he also FOUGHT A SHARK.

Lovelace and her father come to terms about what happened. They have a parade where you see everyone from the main cast plus Lovelace and her dad. Sadly we don't know what happened to her old man friend. We then see Racer X talk about he's actually SPEED RACERS LONG LOST OLDER BROTHER. HOLY MOLY! and he says he's proud of him and then we see Speed Racer say to Sparky there's more races to be won and the FINAL EPISODE ends. 

FINAL VERDICT: This was a terrific last episode. I had an incredible amount of fun. This show is cheesier than the pizza I was eating while watching it. I really want to check out the manga but the last time it was released in America was 2008 and I think those go for like 134090423940 dollars on ebay and amazon now. A shame because I would have reviewed it for this blog and who wouldn't want to see that?

The Final Episode #72: Clutch Cargo (1959 - 1960)

Well, I've actually been wondering what show to do for this installment for a few days honestly. It's kinda hard to pick a big show for like number 72. I was going to talk about Chipmunks Go the Movies, A retooling of the Chipmunks series that I feel is different enough to discuss THAT Final Episode too. but I dunno. I kinda want to start doing shows in order.  The problem with that is that the regular Chipmunks not-spoofing movie series ended with a Christmas Episode. That makes the fourth show that ended with a Christmas special. I'm not tackling Christmas stuff until at least late November. Just like I'm not tackling any more of the spooky shows until late September. You just gotta wait to see how I feel about this stuff. I promise I will make it slightly better than the mediocre stuff I pump out now. I figure Halloween and Christmas deserve that much at least.

So I decided to just go with a random request that I had for a show from my pal Sean. I chose his pick Clutch Cargo because I felt it would be an interesting show to finally watch and talk about. I was right, mostly. This is going to be me bitching because this cartoon is fucking terrible and is without a doubt not only the worst Final Episode but the worst TV show I've talked about for this little blog. Hell it might be the worst thing I've talked about for this blog. I really really really did not enjoy my time with Clutch Cargo and I will not be returning to view any more. 

I champion a lot of stuff that gets slack from people. I really do. It might be nostalgia for some of it but at least Filmation and Hanna-Barbera had charm. This has nothing. Clutch Cargo was created by Clark Haas, a dude who apparently was a jet pilot before making this show. He also worked with Hanna-Barbera. I don't know if I want to watch those Hanna-Barbera shows now. Yes this is how much I did not like this show, it's making me question watching Speed Buggy. Not even portnoyd could do that! The other big name of Cambria Productions was Edwin Gillette. He created something called Syncro-Vox which could superimpose peoples lips on an image. That's all I knew about this show before I watched it. I just knew  that the lip thing looked creepy as fuck. It looks even worse when you see the lips move. I do not like it.

Cambria Productions did a few other shows with Syncro-Vox, like Space Angel, Captain Fathom, or The New 3 Stooges.  I know I usually go "Yeah I'll talk about them too" but this is going to be the one case where I go "Hell fucking no, I'm not watching anything else from Cambria Productions" Fuck that shit right in the asshole. I did think some of the people who worked on these series to be interesting. One of them was Emil Sitka. A guy who appeared in like a shit ton of Three Stooges shorts. Another person was Hal Smith who was probably most well known as the drunk guy on The Andy Griffith Show. The last person was Margaret Kelly a lady who voiced Tinkerbell in the original Peter Pan. 

Clutch Cargo is the adventures of well Clutch Cargo and his ward Spinner and Weiner dog Paddlefoot. I did say the word adventures in that first sentence but they really aren't. This is the cheapest animation I've ever seen and I can't believe anyone was ever entertained by this crapola. The characters barely move and when they talk you see actual lips move around. I can't explain why but man it gives me the heaves. I am not a fan of this. They had 52 episodes that were taken into five segments. the first four segments would end on a cliffhanger and the fifth one would end the story. So I guess we can finally get on in with the actual discussion of this Final Episode.

The Final Episode was called "Big X" and it starts with a professor at a astrological building of sorts. You know the ones with a big telescope. I don't know the name of this building and I do not care enough to look it up for this awful, awful show. The professor has this beard that looks like it was filled in with MS paint despite the fact MS Paint wouldn't exist for like another 25 years after this episode came out. The Professor Man calls Clutch Cargo to come to visit him and shows him the Big X which is going to crash into the moon. If this show had an animation budget over 32 cents this might have been fun or exciting but it doesn't so we are bored. They realize they need a rocket and they have to run off to Professor #2 whom I will call Shitty Ginger Beard Professor. 

Shitty Ginger Beard Professor creates Rockets and sends them off into the incredible coldness of Outer Space. You think he'd be working with NASA or the Russians or hell maybe someone else but nope. Rocket building and sending them into space is a one man job I guess.  He sends off a rocket into space as Clutch Cargo and the gang are screaming for him to not do that. I think this is where episode 2 ended but watching this 20 minute cartoon sent me into a place where time had no meaning and I was very frightened by that fact. So they find another one of his rockets that's kinda shitty but they have to stop the Big X from crashing into the Moon. 

The Shitty Rocket had a rocky lift off but it works they are going into space WHILE the Shitty Ginger Beard Professor works on fixing the rocket with some science gizmos they will need to do something about Big X. They get to the moon pretty fucking quickly even for a cartoon and oh shit they are now in between Big X (which is a Comet and not actually a big version of the letter X which really annoys me. At least put in a silly joke about it actually be a letter damnit) Now some nonsense about the positive ions the rocket puts out is bringing the comet after them. So they try to go faster but the rocket blows up and the Shitty Ginger Beard Professor tells them that he can put up some shitty science gizmo that will stop the comet. I think, I was seeing images from the past all around me as this show was so boring and not entertaining that I was being sent through history. It was scary and I don't want to do it again, but I think Clutch Cargo is the secret to time travel.

They stop the comet and then they jump on the comet and find out that it's a musical meteorite. They then decide to bring the comet back to earth and they do. No problems there because they couldn't have a problem because they didn't have the damn animation budget. Oh and the episode was almost over. It ends with Paddlefoot dancing on the Meteor. I don't know how he got up there because I was being sent forward in time at a incredible rate. I'm serious the sheer dullness of this show is the secret to traveling through time. Scientists need to study this show!

FINAL VERDICT: You can't do much with the animation budget they had for this show. So I'm amazed they got anything out, however this show was not amusing with there being one joke at the end of the cartoon and the animation is so poor and cheap that you can't even do an adventure. You really don't need to see this show unless you want to travel throughout time. Yes I will beat that joke to death.

Comic Review #53: Spider Man #96-97, Spectacular Spider Man #262-263, Amazing Spider-Man #440-441, Sensational Spider-Man #32-33 (The Gathering of Five, The Final Chapter)

 

Our Little lookback at the comics I owned as a kid has ended. I mean our first lookback. I'm sure I will be looking at many comics I had as a kid and will probably mention that in the article. I enjoyed the last few Comic Reviews quite a bit. It was a bit of nostalgic fun, but now it's time to get back to comics I haven't read before or I hear are weird/stupid or both! Anyway I felt the best way I could end this little retrospective was to talk about the dumbest fucking comic book story I have ever read. It's not only stupid it's so full of "fuck you we don't care we want to get to the new thing that we think we will make money because despite making great stories we are still a company first and foremost" from Marvel I've ever seen.

I believe this stupid story has so many problems but I will bring them up while I go over the story. First this is Spider-Man mixed in mystical power stones. Spider-Man and mystical stuff unless Dr. Strange comes along for the ride very rarely works. Yeah there's that one silver age story about the magical youth tablets that's alot of fun to read. I'm sure there are a few others but whenever I see mystical stuff and Spider-Man and I don't see Dr. Strange joining in my butthole clenches up and that's never a good thing. So there's a mystical doohickey with 5 pieces that will give people stuff like immortality, death, madness, power and knowledge. Woohoo. 

Norman Osborn wants these because he craves power and while that is true he does crave power, I just don't believe he'd willingly go insane or die for it. I mean he's already a little out of his mind already but the man wants to be around to enjoy this power and he won't be willing to mess that up. I dunno but this part of the story already doesn't feel right to me. Feels forced. It'll get worse. So in the Gathering of Five we find the five people willing to join the whole thing. A bad guy named Override that is so memorable and beloved that Google was trying to tell me that I was thinking of Overdrive another Spider-Man bad guy. Madame Web a character that really should have been hanging out with Dr. Strange and not Spider-Man.  Mattie Franklin a Spider-Woman character that I also forgot about but I'll tell you all about some guy Batman fought for one issue in 1972. Oh and some guy named Maxwell that Norman Osborn knows. That's it. 

The Gathering Of Five is just them getting the pieces for the Final Chapter. Madame Web's chapter literally has her telling Spider-Man how hard this journey will be and then in the next page he's got the piece and is giving it to her. Yes we do not see that hard journey to find the piece. That's so fucking lazy it's unforgivable. Yeah I know you were betting the bank on John Byrne making you super rich on Spider-Man but don't shit out on these last stories for volume one of all of the damn Spider-Man comics. Two of which had been running for decades. I just want some fun comic books not fucking nonsense garbage.

Now all the pieces are put together and we get to see what people got. Or what they think they got. I'll just spoil it now because I don't care. Norman Osborn thinks he gets power but he really got madness. Wonderful huh? I don't really care what the rest of the people got because I don't really care about them as characters. Maybe if a mystical character like Madame Web was placed in the right comic book like Dr. Strange instead of Spider-Man. Oh and another character named Allison Morgran who worked with Norman Osborn has been found by Robbie Robertson and she wants to see Peter Parker. She was seen throughout the last two years because in the final issue of  the Clone Saga, Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson Parker lost their baby. We saw Allison walk out of the hospital with a small package that could hold a baby. She would be seen around cribs and stuff. She had a fucking baby and that was the plot people wanted resolved not what will happen.

What happens is what makes me so mad about this stupid garbage story. It brings back Aunt May. Yeah, the Aunt May who had a great sendoff in Amazing Spider-Man #400. A really beautiful sad little story. It was a classic comic book that shouldn't have been undone so that we can bring back a character that had outgrown the need to be. Like at one point even into the early 90s you were like "oh shit Aunt May had a heart attack what will happen!" but she was seen less and less and they weren't relying on that story as much. So they got rid of her. I guess John Byrne wanted a really back to basics kinda approach which he really loves.  It turns out that a actress died that Norman Osborn used some DNA shit to fiddle with to make her look like Aunt May. I'll let that part pass because well it's a comic book and that kinda stuff works out fine. However when the hell did this happen? Like when did the switch happen. Aunt May passes out around issue 386 or something and is then put in the hospital. More importantly Aunt May is a person Peter Parker knows better than anyone and this actress was THAT good to fool him? Yeah I don't buy that.

Another thing that makes me so mad about this comic is that how the Final two chapters work. So Spider-Man brings Aunt May to Reed Richards who tells him she's the real deal AND tells him she's got a thing in her brain that Norman Osborn put there. He goes to Norman Osborn to try to fight him. Norman Osborn tells him that its a trigger that will start up these DNA bombs he has placed everywhere so he can turn peoples DNA into what he wants it to be. This is just dumb as fuck man. The second to last chapter looks like Spider-Man was gonna be blown the fuck up by Norman Osborn just to have the last issue find out that he'd had gotten madness from the Gathering of Five. Spider-Man then goes to hold up a building and after he gets it up goes IM DONE BEING SPIDER-MAN BECAUSE YOUR ALL MEAN. no seriously this shit comes out of nowhere and is dumb because we all know that he will become Spider-Man again but this is the laziest way that story has ever been done.  It really felt like it was pulled out of their ass and not well set up. You can do a story from different angles but you gotta fucking try.

FINAL VERDICT: My least favorite Spider-Man story that I've read. I have not read One More Day. It didn't lead to better things. John Byrne and Howard Mackie who seems to be the guy John Byrne tells what to write because he's not in the mood to write made Vol. 2 of Spider-Man some awful shit that no Spider-Man fan has every said a positive thing about (that I've seen). They end up killing off Mary Jane Watson Parker and I don't even think I bothered to read these stories until recently. I must have been at Allan's Video deciding what stuff to rent or at home because my parents finally let me stay home. I dunno but I gave up on comics for about 4 or 5 years until 2003. I don't know what's gonna be reviewed next but it won't be as lazy or as stupid as these comic books.

Comic Review #52: Sonic the Hedgehog #47 - 50 (1996 - 1997)

 

So how do I start this one, well the early 1990s had two consoles that fought it out for dominancy in America. the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo. They were both very popular and many children got into silly fights over which was better. I didn't because I thought both were great. I had a Super Nintendo which I traded for a puppy dog that my mom let run away ONE DAY LATER. I would get another one a few years later thankfully. I would take loan of my uncle's Sega Genesis all the time. It was great. It had Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and Sonic and Knuckles on it! I also watched both Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons but if you asked me anything about them today I would just shrug and say I watched them but I sure don't remember shit about them. 

I do however remember Sonic the Hedgehog comic books. They came out in 1993 and were based around the Saturday Morning Sonic cartoon with the freedom fighters and evil robotic overlord Dr. Robotnik (I refuse to call him Eggman because that's a dumb name). These comics would always show up at Sobeys, a chain of Supermarkets in Newfoundland and I think all of Canada. I'm not sure. This isn't a blog about Sobey's damnit. Sobey's would have a rack of comics in the back and several comics in the magazine area. The magazine area comics were like Scooby Doo or Sonic. The ones in the back were like X-Men and that. Those were the first place I'd go to when we'd go there. Unless I was lucky enough to get to go to K-Mart or Allan's Video. Then I'd just put the comic in the cart and hope my mom just bought it. She usually put it back.

I did get two parts of this whole story. I honestly believe it was parts 2 and 3. Parts of 3 I definitely remembered. Since it was a four part story I felt like I had to discuss the ENTIRE thing. It's a fucking doozy though. So buckle up  buckaroos! EndGame (hey just like Marvel!) was a story by Ken Penders. I don't know anything about this guy really except that he sued Archie over Sonic comics. I think because of that Sonic ended  up going to IDW and removing all of those wonderful characters like the Walrus and the robotic Rabbit. Also that Rabbit is who the furries should be lusting over instead of boring ass Lola Bunny. That's right furries I'M CALLING YOU OUT. 

This story starts with the Freedom Fighters trying to take Robotnik down. But with the help of a TRAITOR (a wolf jerk I don't remember at all. I wonder how many Sonic Comics I even read as a kid?) and a robotic Sonic head that he gets a poor cat lady named Hershey to wear and she thinks shes cutting away a rope with Snivley on it. However it's fucking PRINCESS SALLY. the character the furries DO go wild over. The rabbit is also better than her! THATS RIGHT I'M CALLING YOU ALL OUT YOU BASTARDS! Uh anyway Sonic doesn't even realize he's been framed for her death because he was fighting Robotnik (or trying too. the cheap fucker runs away!) and wasn't there to get to the helicopter when they all ran off because Sally was still alive at the time.

Sonic is then arrested and put on trial and sent to the DEVIL'S GULAG. The prison bus sending him there crashes and he escapes. That French Fox and the Bunny find out about the shitty wolf traitor and PUTS THEM IN A PRISON called downunda. I get it. Haha. Good one Kenny! Anyway A skunk man named St. John put a tracking beacon in Sonic's cuffs and they fight in the cave until Sonic pulls a The Fugitive with Harrison Ford jump out of the cliff. I'm pretty sure that's what they were going for. That was a good movie. Sonic then pulls some dirt outta his shoe and RUNS ON THE DIRT before it even falls away. I mean until he runs into the ground. It's a weird scene. He meets up with a Dragon and they escape to Knuckles island and St. John shows up. It's a three way fight! Which seems to end very quickly in issue #50. Kind of a letdown really. 

Sonic then takes down Robotnik's plan of turning everyone in the Freedom Fighers village into a damn robot. Is Dr. Robotnik a robosexual? So he's got this fancy doohickey to do that. What he doesn't know is that his nephew Snivley (you know that small nerdy guy who did everything for him in the cartoon? Yeah that's him) messed with it. So when he and Sonic are fighting he dissappears in a giant black hole (except it's white with pink around the sides) and that's the end of Robotnik. At least for a little while. The Freedom Fighters are all safe and sound. It also turns out that Sally was just in a coma and the Duck Doctor lied that she died. He had too because his family was in danger.

FINAL VERDICT: I had a bit of fun re-reading this but I kinda wish the story was a little longer and we had time to do a bigger fight between those three and that there wasn't a big "oh shit I forgot to mention these things in the story so I need a recap time". anyway, not too bad but I definitely liked it better when I was 11.

The Final Episode #71: SuperTed (1983 - 1986)

 

I think my favorite thing about this blog is the fact that I can discuss whatever silly television program I want, as long as it HAD a Final Episode. To me it doesn't matter as long as it ended. 8 episodes, or 800. If I can see the Final Episode so I can talk about it then it's all that matters. I enjoy talking about shows that didn't last long, and ones that went on far too long. I enjoy talking about the mainstream and popular and the weird stuff that has made you go "Was that a real thing I saw on the Disney Channel in 1986 or was I just hallucinating?" I bring you good news people who were children in 1986 that had the Disney Channel you were not hallucinating! SuperTed is a real thing. And it's not too bad either!

SuperTed for the many many masses that do not know about it was created by Mike Young, a British American animator who lived in Wales. One of those wild Welshmen. He created SuperTed as a way to help his son go to sleep in the dark in 1978. He then made around 100 books involving SuperTed between than and 1990. He then got to work with Disney for the original SuperTed and Hanna-Barbera for the second series The Further Adventures of SuperTed. I will totally watch that if I can find it, because I like to talk about Hanna-Barbera which I always enjoy. Since this is not only a show that I've never seen before it's also a show that's like 6 or 7 minutes long. I guess it aired in between shows. This won't be the only show that was like that either. We got at least two others. It's also not the only cartoon from Britain that we get to talk about either! Isn't that all so exciting??

The main plot of SuperTed was a Teddy Bear got thrown away like a piece of rubbish. I laugh at how the guy says rubbish every time. Did I write up this entire post just to talk about how funny I think a British man saying rubbish is? Yes. yes I did. Well then a Spotty Man finds him. A Spotty Man is an alien with spots. He brings him to life and then brings him to Mother Nature who gives him super powers. He fights a texan named  Texas Pete, a fat man named Bulk and a very very flamboyantly gay skeleton named.......Skeleton. These three are the best part of the cartoon. The show I must say was actually really well animated. Very nice and fluid stuff. The voice acting was done by a guy who was in some Carry On movies, the dad of the girl who was turned into a giant blueberry in Willy Wonka and a woman who was in Dr. Who. Don't count that Dr. Who thing as being a big thing because everyone in Britain has to star on Dr. Who. It's like a rite of passage.

So like usual when it's a show that I've never seen before I watch a few episodes and discuss those few episodes with you. The first one involves Texas Pete, Skeleton and Bulk going to Hong Kong to steal from a bank. The bank that's right next to the restaurant that SuperTed and The Spotty Man are eating a nice meal of Chinese food. The Spotty Man can't use chopsticks. I don't think I could use Chopsticks either. I'll use a fork dangit! Anyway what I think is supposed to be a Chinese person comes to SuperTed and The Spotty Man who end up in the room just as the wall blows up because Bulk was a moron and put the exploding mud stuff he had on the wrong wall. They don't realize this and steal some rice and run off. SuperTed pulls off his fur to reveal his SuperTed costume and I'm just wondering does he have fur on under the SuperTed costume? Does he put on more fur to disguise himself? Why am I overthinking this nonsense? Anyway they follow the rice that broke out of one bag and fight the bad guys in a place that sells vases and nothing but vases. It's probably called Vases R Us. I'm surprised I can write this much about a 7 minute cartoon. They stop the villains and The Spotty Man bitches at SuperTed about how he made a mess but got mad at him for being clumsy earlier. The Spotty Man is a whiny fuck but he's not wrong about this. SuperTed is kind of a jerk.

The Second Episode I watched was called Spotty and the Indians. Spotty is flying from Space to meet up with SuperTed who is in his super hideout in some undisclosed place. He crashes in the american west circa 1887. I really don't know when this show takes place but I think I'm overanalyzing a silly cartoon made for silly children. Spotty crashes and meets an Indian guy with spots. Texas Pete wants Buffalo Steak and yes the Buffalo has spots too. It's a spot filled episode! SuperTed comes to the rescue just to get stuck under the unconscious buffalo. He can't move him but he does wake him up. SuperTed has a weird power set for a Super Hero. They still beat Texas Pete and the other assholes. 

The Final Episode was called SuperTed and the Rattlesnake. It opens up with Texas Pete getting angry at Skeleton and Bulk and telling them in nicer terms to fuck off up a rope. They leave him and decide to steal him a rattlesnake as a present. SuperTed is at his SPACE STATION when he gets the right of way to go after the rattlesnake. The rattlesnake escape from the bad guys just to do one silly gag with a lady wearing it on her arms like one of those mink stoles or some shit. The snake is found by the bad guys and SuperTed and Spotty chase after them. Texas Pete loves the Rattlesnake but hates that they brought SuperTed to him so he ties the Rattlesnake up to try to keep SuperTed and Spotty from escaping but it really does nothing. Spotty tries to use a rocket to catch Texas Pete but he just shoves a trash can on his head. Then he pulls back a clothesline which ends up with SuperTed in a dress. Then he tries to escape completely forgot about the trash can and goes OH MY GOD WHATS THAT and Spotty crashes into him. They all end up in jail including the missing Rattlesnake who Pete lovingly puts up to his face. I think Pete and that  Rattlesnake are gonna fuck.

FINAL VERDICT: An entertaining enough little show. I would have left it on for the 7 minutes it ran between shows instead of seeing what was on another channel, which is a big thing because you ALWAYS wanted to see if something better was on another channel during the beginning of one show and the ending of another. This would probably have ended up on early in the morning here, alongside the other 7 minute shows like Ovide Video or Sharkey and George. I have the Sharkey and George theme song stuck in my head for the past 30 years and It will not leave!

Comic Review #51: Simpsons Comics #38 (1998)

 

Man this let's look at comic books I owned as a kid thing has been a lot of fun. I plan to discuss a few more and then we will be going back to regular comics I haven't read yet thing. Anyway I recently got an insane amount of comic books from my pal Sean. Some of them were comics I had as a kid. I am now reunited with Simpsons Comics #38. Isn't that great? I think it is because this comic was a lot of fun. I was also reunited with another weird comic that I can't wait to talk about but man I gotta tease it first to bring up excitement. I also have several weird comics that I can't wait to get to review. Holy moly they will be something else.

The Simpsons was probably the most popular tv show on the planet during the 1990s. I've been wanting to talk about it for awhile but didn't know how. I can't do the Final Episode because the show is still running into season 32 or whatever. I can't talk about it in a TV review because I've kinda given up on that column. I might bring it back as a place to talk about the many reboots. That would be fun. Anyway I would also have to watch some new episodes of the show and I really don't want to do that. This show went from the funniest thing on television to the least. Yes, I'd rather watch a marathon of The Big Bang Theory and Tim and Eric before I'd watch a new Simpsons episode. The show somehow gets worse and worse. It's baffling. It really doesn't feel like the same show anymore. After 32 years you really have used up every single plotline. I'm surprised the comic book was still running until the 2010s. I would also flip through issues when out supermarket shopping in the 2000s and the comic was funnier than the show! I don't know why they didn't bring the writers of the comic over!

The Simpsons Comics was put out by Bongo Comics. They would also put out Futurama comics. It was owned by Matt Groening and Steve and Cindy Vance. It closed down in around 2014 I want to say. Simpsons Comics almost ran for 300 issues. Isn't that wild? I loved The Simpsons and Simpsons Comics. I had at least 6 or 7 of the Simpsons Comics trade paperbacks. I don't know what happened to them but they were awesome. The series started in 1992. I'm going to talk about an issue from 1998. Which is around Season 9 or 10. People argue if Season 9 should be in the Golden Years and I will say yes if only for The City of New York Vs. Homer Simpson. That episode is a classic. It actually was before Season 10 if I think correctly and man that's a lopsided season. You still had some good episodes but you had some of the worst. 

This comic was written by Billy Rubinstein and drawn by Phil Ortiz. I've never heard of these guys before but Billy created an amusing story and Phil draws all the Simpsons characters very well. So that's pretty much I can add for this paragraph. I don't even think this can even be called a paragraph due to how short it is. Sorry guys but there's not an insane amount of information out there about you guys!

This issue starts up with Lenny, Carl, Homer and some other guy at the plant all discussing donuts. It then turns to Smithers and he sees that the plant is spending 200,000 dollars on donuts. He goes to Mr. Burns and we get some amusing jokes about how he cuts costs. He and Smithers goes on a ride in a nice little chair behind a secret door to the scientists room. Burns has to sit on Smithers lap and holy shit the look on Smithers face is hilarious. They get to the scientists room and he explains how he's creating some addictive donuts to sell. He also stops letting the workers eat free donuts. Homer and the rest freak out and realize that the Kwik-E-Mart donuts are not the same so they take a pay decrease to get donuts. 

Marge then finds out that everyone is making less money thanks to the donuts. The Kwik E Mart, Church, Leftorium, everyone is making less money due to Mr. Burns so they start protesting. Fat Tony and the Mob find out about the addictive donuts and want in on this so they go to Mr. Burns. In the end we end up in court to find out about the donuts. Mr. Burns gets the scientist to pretty much lie and say the donuts are fine and since he's boring everyone they think he must be right. Even Lisa doesn't want to listen to this boring nerd shit! 

They bribe everyone in the court with the donuts and well they get what they want. They even run over the guy who owns Lard Lad right in the middle of him saying he's going to expose what's actually in these donuts. Well with a big wagon thing of Donuts. It still shuts him up. In the end worker production goes DOWN because everyone's too fat to do anything because of the donuts. So this causes Mr. Burns to get rid of the donuts. Nothing can hurt his precious Power Plant. Everything is back to normal and this ending is kinda hilariously abrupt honestly. All the Power Planet employees get a fat substitute that gives them bad breath. Also apparently makes rapid weight loss because everyone loses the weight from the donuts pretty damn quickly.

FINAL VERDICT: I think the ending is a little abrupt but it still works for the character of Mr. Burns.  The most important thing is that the vast majority of gags in this comic are very amusing and enjoyable. I like the two headed Goat that Mr. Burns has due to nuclear radiation. Poor thing has to eat the radiation.

The Final Episode #70: Beetlejuice: The Animated Series (1989 - 1991)

 

 One of my favorite things from the 1980s was the fact that they took PG-13 and R rated movies and went HMMM how do we get money from children with these? Oh I know! Let's turn fucking RoboCop into a cartoon! I know Beetlejuice was PG and I watched it as a kid but it was the 1980s. PG movies shouldn't have been turned into cartoons either! Beetlejuice admittedly works pretty well as a cartoon because the movie was already was a fucked up live action cartoon anyway. It's just another reason why the 1980s were probably the greatest decade we ever got to enjoy. I wish I got to enjoy more of it first hand.. What a time to be alive.

Beetlejuice was a Tim Burton movie made in 1988. It made more money than anyone thought possible. It was about a lunatic ghost named Beetlejuice played perfectly by Michael Keaton. Some people who died at this house want him to get the people living the hell out of there. It was creative and wild and had tons of cursing. It was perfect for Saturday Morning! I miss when Tim Burton gave a shit about making a good movie. Those were the days weren't they people? In 1989 Tim Burton, Nelvana (remember them from like 5 or so posts ago? Well they did this show too!) and the Geffen Film Company all worked together to make this cartoon.

The cartoon was well different from the movie despite I and many other kids having seen the movie at an age way too young to see a movie like that because it was the pre-internet era and we didn't have 1,000 and 12 people telling us the right way to live our lives. Our parents just didn't want to listen to the recap of the TMNT episode they already had to watch with us because we had one television so they put this movie on to shut us up. Anyway Beetlejuice is a prankster in this series and Lydia is his best pal. The two places episodes usually took place in where Peaceful Pines where Lydia lived with her parents or Neitherworld (a renamed Afterlife) where all kinds of weirdo creatures lived. Like a french skeleton and a hairy monster! And a tap dancing Spider. It was fun damnit.

I've also got to talk about the cast for this one because it's a doozy. It has John Stockton who was Beastly from The Care Bear Family in it! It had a character from the 1979 teen super camp movie Meatballs in it! It had Sailor Jupiter in it! It had Allyson Court, you know Jubilee from the X-Men and Loonette the Clown for people in the Great White North! One of Tara Strong's first roles was this show! And Ron Rubin who voiced Artemis in the DiC Sailor Moon dub which I really want to do a Final Episode of but can't find the dub version.  He was also on shows like C.O.P.S. and Stickin Around. Also according to Wikipedia he went to Chris Kraft's wedding was covered in Elephant dung and stranded in Botswana. Oh and all his stuff was stolen. And it took him a few years to get back to America. And when he got back to America he ended up being hospitalized for 18 months. Now that's a story I need every bit of information about to be told to my ears.

I loved the movie and this show as a child. It was a good thing too because thanks to Nelvana's involvement this show got rerun for so long. I remember it being on NTV in the early morning hours. It was worth getting up to see because it was a damn hoot and a half. I also recently found out that they created a Talking Beetlejuice Doll. I totally have to own that. I'm a very serious almost 36 year old man.

The Final Episode was called "Not so Peaceful Pines" and came to us on December 6th, 1991. I'm surprised it wasn't a Christmas episode and that I'd have to put it off for a few months because as I have mentioned before there are three shows that end on a Christmas episode. I would like for you all to try and guess which three! It'll be fun! It aired on Fox Kids and was the 94th episode. The first three seasons were on ABC and it was only like 27 or 28 episodes. The fourth season was like FUCK THAT and pulled 65 episodes out for us all to enjoy! The Final Episode starts up with Beetlejuice wanting to go to bed after a hard days work of being an asshole. He needs his beauty sleep. However he is woken up from his slumber by a rock band from the real world.

He goes outside and is threatened by the hairy monster with a cowboy hat that was called The Monster From Across the Street. He has a dog named Poopie. I like him, he reminds me of Gossamer from the Looney Tunes cartoons. Anyway Beetlejuice runs off because he was threatened with getting his ears washed. Beetlejuice enjoys waxy ears damnit. He goes to find Lydia in the real world which is also where the loud ass music is coming from. Beetlejuice at first wants to go join the party but after seeing the Mayor get thrown right into a trash can. Beetlejuice and Lydia go to help him.

The Mayor must not realize that he can get the police to shut the party down so he offers anyone who can stop the party money to do so, so Beetlejuice always wanting money so he can buy more ear wax or something takes the Mayor up on his offer and even gets him to sign a slime contract. I think it would have been weirdly amusing if Beetlejuice ended up taking the Mayor to court. No what happens is that Beetlejuice actually clears the Party out incredibly quickly and the Mayor says it wouldn't be fiscally conservative to give him any money for such a quick job. Beetlejuice is so pissed he makes a pun about being torn up and well turns into two Beetlejuices. His good half and his bad half. 

Bad Beetlejuice wants to wreck the shit out of the town while Good Beetlejuice pretty much does nothing because he's a wimp. They try all kinds of stuff until they decide to go to the Nietherworld to find Dr. Zigmund Void. I'm pretty amazed they decided to make this guy an character that apparently appeared in several episodes. What a weird world. Anyway this guy looks like Sigmund Freud and he has a big crack in his head. Bad Beetlejuice and Good Beetlejuice get into a fight and Zigmund Void gives him shock treatment by dropping a fucking telephone pole on his head. It ends up giving him lightning powers because well it's a cartoon and he decides to go back to the mayor and fuck HIS shit up.

He shoves the mayor into a ballot box and then Lydia gets the bright idea of doing word association. They start changing into different things while Lydia says words in a funny accent. They get them by having Good Beetlejuice turn into a pin and Bad Beetlejuice turn into a stripe. He is now the whole Beetlejuice again! He is told by Lydia that he has to clean up the entire mess Bad Beetlejuice made. He then makes a joke about having a splitting head ache which causes his head to turn into Bad Beetlejuice and Good Beetlejuice. 

FINAL VERDICT: A weird ending to a weird show. I had a lot of fun watching this Final Episode and laughed at so very many corny jokes. I think shows like this is where my love of corny jokes and puns come from. I had a great time rewatching this show and I'm glad I finally got to it.

Comic Review #50: The Uncanny X-Men #183 (1984)

 We are still on the Let's Review Comics from my Youth kick so I knew I had to try to do something big for the #50. I've been meaning to talk about any X-Men comic from the 1980s because they were always a solid good time (for the most part). I know some people say the stopped being good in 1987 or 1981 or whenever. That's Facebook comic group talk. You always have to be like NUH UH MAN (insert thing whatever) STOPPED BEING GOOD IN (insert year here). I think it's funny because there are great X-Men comics happening now. There are great comics happening now. Not only from Marvel but other companies too. They didn't just stop being good in some random year. Yeah I've pretty much stopped reading comments on those groups and just look at the cool art and comics people post. 

I was also not happy with the only X-Men comic I'd had reviewed was really bad, right near the end of Chris Claremont's run. When Bob Harras was letting Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld and other idiots tell the stories they wanted and have Claremont and Louise Simonson write them. Jim Lee is a fine artist but he sucks shit as a writer/creator. No one cared about WildStorm or WildCATS until people like Warren Ellis or Alan Moore wrote for them. Don't you dare post saying you loved Wildstorm and WildCATS portnoyd. I will fucking punch you in the balls if you do and Rob Liefeld was terrible. Just terrible. I've talked about how I don't like 1990s X-Men all that much even after Jim and Rob fuck off to Image Comics, I'm not about to say the entire decade sucked or that there wasn't anything to enjoy. I'm sure I'll find something that I like during the 1990s X-Men. I am still curious about some 1990s stuff from some of titles that weren't X-Men or Uncanny X-Men. 

I was not happy because that story stunk and The X-Men were one of my favorite comics as a kid and I still love them today. It was because of the 1990s show but like most issues I got were from the Second Page Bookstore. This issue however was a bit different. Pretty much every year until 2000 my parents, sister and I would go to a small town in Newfoundland called Lewisporte. It was a nice town and I enjoyed being there a lot. We'd go to visit family. At one time there was a Shoppers Drug Mart there and in the basement of the store was a video store and a book store and a big old bookcase with comics on it. It was weird to see a staircase there in the middle of the store. Sadly it seems that the staircase is gone. The bookstore had a Spaceballs book! By Jovial Bob Stine! That's right! How cool is that? The Video Store was closed. I found a copy of this comic and some others. I sadly don't have this comic any more as water ruined it. My original copy I mean. I got a nice and snazzy looking upgrade. Anyway there are my memories of this comic. I read it a billion times as a child and it was great. I'm still mad that I couldn't get that Spaceballs book!

This comic was written by Chris Claremont. The man who really brought the X-Men to super popularity. The X-Men was cancelled at one time. Well not really cancelled, they were just doing reprints and sometimes some crossovers. From like 1970 to 1975. In 1975 they put out Giant Size X-Men #1 and it changed history. Len Wein did Giant Size X-Men #1 and I think issues 94 and 95. Then came in Chris Claremont because Len Wein already had two comics to write already. I also think he might have been Editor in Chief at this time. Marvel Comics had like 23 Editor in Chiefs during the 1970s. Chris was great and one of my favorite writer guys. Not just for X-Men but for Iron Fist and his Marvel Team Up issues. John Romita Jr did the art and I love it. This was during his time when he was mostly doing similar work to his father. I like this stuff better than his new stuff but I do like his newer blocky look. Especially when the inking is done by Al Williamson.

This comic starts out with Kitty Pryde and Colossus sitting on the top of a mountain. Colossus is telling Kitty Pryde about the woman he met during his and the X-Men time on Battleworld in Secret Wars. I will talk about Secret Wars in its own piece so I won't go any farther about what it really is. Since Kitty Pryde and Colossus were dating up to this point it's kinda important to tell her all this. (It's kinda weird to see their relationship now because one is 14 and one was 18 when they started meeting. Also Colossus says he's almost 20 in this issue, shouldn't that have made Kitty 16? Age is weird in Comic books.) Kitty leaves and when she finally gets home cries her eyes out while Lockjaw (her pet dragon) and Illyana (Colossus sister and New Mutant Magik). Storm also wishes that Colossus had DIED in one of her thought balloons. Better him die and not break Kitty's heart in this way. Just break her heart in a different way. Still cold Storm! Kitty even leaves to go see her dad! 

Wolverine however is gonna do something about it because Wolverine doesn't like seeing people he cares about hurt. So he brings Colossus to a bar but before he can leave Nightcrawler pops into the car (before like thinking WOLVERINE YOU SAID YOU'D WAIT FOR ME, man Wolverine was an asshole) They all end up at a bar and Wolverine tries to show Colossus how Kitty feels but Colossus ends up getting in a bar brawl (and tearing the entire damn bar down!) with The Juggernaut. This is one of THE best one on one fights in comic book history. If you disagree you can bugger off this blog right now. Jerks. Anyway The Juggernaut beats him and gives Wolverine a huge bit of money to give to the owner to put the bar back together. I guess Juggernaut likes this bar. 

Colossus then goes on about how they are a team and he could have used their help just for Wolverine to mention how Kitty Pryde almost gave herself to the Morlocks (a group of really ugly ass mutants that have to live in the sewers) to save him and all she got was he heart pulled out of her chest and used as toilet paper. Wolverine talks to Nightcrawler about how Colossus didnt care about Kitty's feelings and Wolverine doesn't respect that kinda shit, bro! It ends with a mutant named Selene sucking the lifeforce out of a homeless man. He's a damn skeleton now man! That's some dark shit! I didn't get that Selene issue until like 15 years later. So I might talk about it but who knows.

FINAL VERDICT: GREAT comic. a great fight. great character development. Just totally fun to read. I recommend this to all! Colossus is a jerk.

The Final Episode #69: The Nanny (1993 - 1999)

 

At first I was thinking of trying to find some erotic show for the 69th episode of this series. I then ran into a few problems, first I didn't really have a great selection. The only show I could really think of was the Red Shoe Diaries. The second problem is it's hard to talk about what is literally a few very soft core erotic scenes. That show was like 30 minutes. It did not have the chance to get as ridiculous as some Shannon Tweed erotic thrillers did (hi FM!). The joke of LOL ITS THE SEXUAL NUMBER and I was doing an erotic show because It would kinda work as a joke. I then gave up on the entire idea because it was a lot easier to just talk about another sitcom.

I don't know why I chose the Nanny of all the sitcoms I could, but I knew I had to get to it sooner or later because I do want to see if I can poorly discuss as many television shows from the past as I can. I didn't want to get to this show because as a kid I thought it was the worst television show of all time. It was also something I would tell people as an adult. The thing is I don't even know if I had seen an entire episode of this show, I just thought her voice was too annoying. The weird thing is that her voice is honestly not that bad. I mean yeah it's nasally and annoying but it's not ear bleeding as I thought. I decided to watch several episodes because I think I may have watched one episode as an adult. What I found out is that little claw has terrible taste if this is the worst show ever made. This is honestly actually a hoot and the episodes were very fun and enjoyable to watch.

So I guess this is another SUPER GIANT SIZED ISSUE of the Final Episode as we talk about some other episodes too. The first episode involved the Teenage girl that Fran is the Nanny of wanting to date a 25 year old man. This is not good for Maxwell Sheffield. Maxwell is the perfect rich person name isn't it? Maxwell doesn't want his 17 year old daughter dating someone in his twenties which is uh the right thing. The Nanny wants to get some sexy times with the 25 year old's friend. This show is very horny. In the end they let her go on a date and they find out that they don't really have anything in common. 25 year old guy didn't even know the Saved by the Bell kids went to College! Personally I'm with the kid I certainly wouldn't date anyone who didn't know that. 

The second episode involves a man Fran dated dying and also some plot about Maxwell not being willing to say he loves her (This show was a whole do they do they not love each other kinda thing) Not exactly rocket science as a plot but I think it might have been the funniest episode of the 6 I watched. The third episode was about a incompetent bank robber well robbing a bank that Fran and her mother were at. Pretty good too. I like the fact that it seems that the relationship between Fran and Maxwell grows over time. It's very nicely done. 

The Final Episode took place in the 6th season and was the 145th and 146th episode. I'm glad they ended it here because in the 5th season, Maxwell and Fran got married. That threw out the whole WILL THEY WONT THEY thing. When the whole main plot of your show no matter what it is kinda gets wrapped up you really shouldn't keep going even if it's still amusing and popular. So they ended it. They ended this starting with something I miss so much. PREVIOUSLY ON! yes! A narrator tells us about all the stuff that happened in episodes before this one. Maxwell ends up becoming a producer for sitcoms based on one of his plays and they move to Beverly Hills.  Niles the Butler wants to marry C.C. who was someone who wanted to marry Maxwell before he married Fran. Kinda like a third wheel to the WILL THEY WON'T THEY thing. The thing is they would always snipe at each other and do shitty things to each other. She ends up laughing in his face. One of the kids wants to get married (and apparently does). One doesn't want to go to college. Fran is also pregnant. Niles the Butler and C.C. end up in bed together! So that's all the stuff you need to know the ending.

The Final Episode was called The Finale and came to us on May 12, 1999. This is clearly intended to be the finale but yet several episodes appeared after this one. This has actually happened before with A Different World which was clearly supposed to be the Finale had several episodes come on after it. When an episode is clearly meant to be the finale I review that. It feels weird not too, but CBS messed up and showed it early. The Final Episode of this show is a two parter and is kind of amazing actually. You know some sitcoms end with the cast moving into a different house. Some end with a baby. Some end with someone getting married. The Nanny does all three of those damn stories! I gotta give ya credit, let's do it all is a sitcom ending I haven't seen yet.

So the Final Episode is a two parter and the first part ends off with Fran feeling ugly because she's gained weight due to being pregnant. Maxwell decides to do a anniversary party to help her feel better. Niles the Butler asks C.C. to marry him again and while she does want too she's still worried about it. She runs off. Fran goes after her and they find themselves in a elevator that stops. I was thinking this was gonna be all taking place in an the elevator but nope. They get them out when Niles the Butler uses his superhuman powers to open the elevator doors to get them out of there, after C.C. says that she will marry him. They end up going to the hospital because Fran ended up going into labor in the elevator.

At the Hospital C.C. talks to a doctor about her vomiting, she thinks it's just nerves about marrying Niles but you'll see. C.C. talks to Fran again and says that she doesn't want to get married without everyone there. So in the next scene everyone is in Doctor gear and she's getting married to Niles. The Doctor comes in and tells C.C. she is pregnant. She and Niles faint. Fran ends up giving birth to a boy and a girl. It's a very sweet scene. It's then when we move to an airport where two of the three children are moving to Paris. Fran does not want this to happen. This kinda feels like "yeah we gotta do something with the kids, eh move em to Paris I guess" and then it goes to the house one last time. All empty. She picks up the case she was using when she first came to the Sheffield house in an attempt to sell makeup. We are then shown a little montage of clips and Fran leaves the house. She comes back to let her grandma out of the closet because her grandma is old and doddering. Her actor is also only 5 years older than her daughter on the show. Wild. We then leave with everyone going to Beverly Hills.

FINAL VERDICT: I actually liked the idea of doing all the usual sitcom endings at once, it just feels a little muddled at times. Like they didn't know what to do with the kids so they had them go to Paris. I dunno, maybe that was mentioned in other episodes in season 6 but it seems like it was a last minute thought. Still not bad, enjoyable enough way to end a tv comedy. I'm glad I did this instead of Red Shoe Diaries.