The Final Episode #143: Radio Active (1998 - 2001)

 

I like to keep a balance of writing when I feel like it but also keeping this blog updated with content. So far in March I've only posted 6 times. However one of those times was a HUGE ASS POST that involved me re-watching or watching about twenty movies. So it took a while. I have several Final Episode posts ready to do, and a few Comic Reviews before we go back to NES games. I'm sure that portnoyd will have fun talking about this stuff. We are getting close to #150 Final Episodes done. It's a weird little segment here on this blog that I do enjoy. It's fun to go over how shows ended in the EPISODIC ERA of TV.  No matter what it's always kinda fun to see that, even if the episode is like City Guys level of not giving a shit anymore. If you told me 5 years ago that my blog would have 500+ posts with me still wanting to talk about things and actually putting some effort into it I would have called you a giant goober and went back to being angry about a You Tube video made by that moron the Critical Drinker (or Nerdrotic, or HeelVsBabyface.... I don't think you should watch these guys portnoyd. Not that you would). I am legit very happy about the content I put out even if It's still not perfect in any way but I don't let that bother me anymore really. I just realize that it sounds good in my head but when it gets onto the internet it becomes a jumbled mess of shit. That's just how it goes.

So what is Radio Active? Radio Active is a show that yes I have covered before but never in enough detail. Going through my older reviews gave me a lot of shows that I want to discuss again in a different manner or way or redo entirely. Alongside stuff I mentioned I would do but never did. I have a lot of stuff to do and I hope that I can get through at least half of them this year. I said I was going to make this year MY year and I really finally fucking mean that. So uh, I guess I will finally actually answer the question of what is Radio Active? It's a Canadian teen sitcom that aired on YTV. It was about a bunch of teenagers that have a radio station in their high school. They must go to a pretty good school. My school you literally had to go walk around to find a toilet stall that had doors and if someone was using one of the door stalls man you hoped you didn't shit yer pants. So they very much go to a school better than Gonzaga was in like 2002.  Gonzaga sounds like the species Gonzo the Muppet would be a part of. GONZO THE GONZAGA! I like it. Gonzo rules.

Radio Active was the English language version of a French Canadian show I never watched because I lived in Newfoundland and spoke about three words of French. I seriously do not know how I finished French Class the one time I took it in the Fifth Grade. Way to throw children into FIFTH GRADE FRENCH when they never did it before! What kinda shit was going on there? Anyway it is French Comedy so uh, it's not very good. That is something I mentioned in my TV REVIEW post series that I gave up instead of TV YOU FORGOT ABOUT. Anyway this was a show YTV would air and I would avoid. I've kinda grown weirdly fond of these Canadian shows that I would have avoided like twenty eight years ago but something about them is kinda nostalgic, even if they aren't very good. Some are enjoyable but not many. Will I like Radio Active's Final Episode????? CHECK OUT THE NEXT PARAGRAPH TO SEE WHAT I THINK!!!

 The Final Episode was entitled "For Whom the Bell Curve Tolls" and was directed by Francois Jobin. He directed every single episode. Also directed for RADIO ENTER which this show was based on. Woo. The episode was written by Shane Simmons. This guy wrote for all kinds of stuff but the only things I know were Fries With that and Student Bodies. This episode aired in 2001 when I think I might still have been watching Pokemon? I know that I was heavy into talking about NES games and calling Loogaroo a BOOGAROO. I also would rent too many 80s slasher movies. Man video rental stores ruled. I think I might have seen half an episode of this show as a kid and wrote it off as not very good. Seeing as it was Canadian Content it lasted on YTV for another four years. Just reruns. Of Giancarlo Caltabiano for four long years.

 Wow this episode starts up being taped off some kind of very old Tivo kinda thing. It was taped in 2003. I did not think I would ever become nostalgic for that age but I am. I really am. I could have conquered the world had I done what I should have in 2003. Well probably not I do know one thing. I probably would not be talking about Radio Active today. Can't cry over spilt milk. Ain't getting a do-over to go back to any point in my life. Uh, so let's talk about the show, a character I am going to call Dumb Guy is blowing on a book hoping to make the pages go up?!?? this pisses off the girl next to him whom I will call SHITTY BITCH. He tries speed reading but only remembers one word a page. He then tries to find out if they made books on tape. he finds BARRY WHITE READS THE DIRTY BITS OF D.H. Someone. I don't care. It did remind me of Barry White's smooth black man voice which is always awesome.

So he leaves and SHITTY BITCH really should just write his half of the paper. It would be much easier. If this is what happens I will probably just laugh. I CAN READ THIS SHIT LIKE A BOOK NOW. That's my superpower. They wouldn't even let me in the Legion of Substitute Heroes.  So we go to the actual radio station and ANNOYING ASSHOLE is complaining about his grades. he needs an A+ to stay on in the radio station. BLACK GIRL tells us this episode will be about WORRYING ABOUT GRADES. THE WEIRDO (played by Gincarlo Caltabiano) does a first. he actually make me smirk. Not a smile. Not a guffaw or a laugh or anything but a smirk. Good job! So THE TEACHER comes in and gives out their report cards. I guess this will be about something else. I thought they wouldn't get their grades until the end and WACKY HIJINX would happen in between. I guess I can't read this shit like a book. You got me this time Shane Simmons!!

 You know I'm gonna come out nad say this that I am 100% fucking on cloud fucking nine over the fact that this episode will probably not conclude with a dance. Do you know how hard it is to find a teen sitcom that does not end on a WILD AND WACKY DANCE. It's not the same thing that I saw in every other damn teen sitcom I talked about. At least I hope it isn't. Anyway. the ANNOYING ASSHOLE gets all Cs. My Parents would have taken me out to a damn fine restaurant if I got all Cs! It would show that I was improving in Math! AND PROBABLY EVERYTHING ELSE. I don't have any old report cards to look at. Actually I might but I don't really want to. Not for this show. Sorry. Anyway it turns out that everyone has to get a C average and seeing as THE DUMB GUY is going to get everyone thrown out and the EVIL TEACHER gets to use the Radio for uh....nefarious purposes?  Yeah, let's go with that.

 DUMB GUY gets EVIL TEACHER to let him take MAKE UP tests because he was winning Baseball, Football, Basketball and some other sport I didn't hear and I don't care enough to go back. So he can bring his average up to a C. OH NO she says yes but he's going to have to give up being on FOUR SPORTS TEAMS. What kind of school had FOUR SPORTS going at the same time? I believe my High School Gonzaga had a team called THE VIKINGS. For Football? I dunno this sounds weird. Port? Did your high school have TOO MANY TEAMS? Anyway it's sports or Radio Active!!! what will Dumb Guy pick!!!

They do a bunch of unfunny shit in an attempt to help DUMB GUY learn his classes. This somehow makes him smart and then they don't like it?!? You know this idea might work if uh, you let him take the tests and he passes them and then you realize you don't like SMART GUY. You don't have these guys try to stupidify him until the end of the damn episode. what the hell? He get hit in the head with a puck?! I think I was completely correct at fifteen/sixteen years old to completely dismiss this PILE OF SHIT as a PILE OF SHIT.  Oh yeah the MAKE UP EXAM is happening now! OH SHIT.  Oh. He literally just smacks himself in the head and gets to being SMART GUY again. This is literal nonsense. YOU SEE THE QUALITY OF CANADIAN PROGRAMMING. He gets C plus average. WOOHOO.

 Hooray. I do not want you to think I hate all of Canadian programming. I really do know there are talented Canadians out there. I like The Raccoons. I like The Smoggies. Even Yvon of the Yukon kinda grew on me. It's just a lot of shows were cheap, weird or just TEMU AMERICAN SHOW. This show is just Saved by the Bell in a Radio Station. I'll give it this, the actors are at least trying harder than City Guys or Hang Time or California Dreams. However at this point I'm just wondering if Saved by the Bell even was entertaining. How could it literally be the only TEEN SITCOM from the 1990s SPANNING TWO COUNTRIES that was any good? How? I seriously don't know

FINAL THOUGHTS: This show was not very good. It was clearly cheaply made and was just a drab ripoff of something more popular. I'm dreading re-watching Student Bodies because while I did  in fact really like that show as a kid seeing Radio Active and Fries With That? and having them be really bad does kinda worry me. However Student Bodies won't be done for some time now. We are going to talk about something vastly different next time.