Overview fortelevision

Move it, Football head!

Hey Arnold! has been airing on TV recently and they’ve got me glued to the monitor watching it -- hook, line, and sinker.  The last time I watched that show was waaaay back when it originally aired.  I loved it back then, and still love it today.  I’ve actually come to appreciate the show even more now with an adult perspective.

First off, hats off to Jim Lang for an incredible soundtrack!  Mostly incorporating jazz, a genre of music you wouldn’t expect to fit well with a cartoon for kids, actually does really well and gives the show a unique vibe compared to other cartoons at the time when it aired.  Sure, there was a mix of tracks that heavily used synthesizers (and a lot of slide whistles), but those were pretty good, too.  Here’s a short list of songs I found online as samples for you to listen to.

• Ending Theme (Stompin-Jim Lang)
• Groove Remote (LockJaw)
• Operation Ruthless End
• Home Wit Jerome
• La Femme Helga
• Dangerous Lumber

But what I was really impressed with was the background art.  Since the show takes place in a large city, it primarily includes urban settings such as skyscrapers, streets, sidewalks, highways, and buildings of all shapes and architectural designs.  I don’t know the art style, but backgrounds look like they are colored in with pencils.  This is easily seen with the night sky or a rounded corner like a bus seat.  Check out the image below of what has to be the best background shot.

Well, actually it’s a still shot that is shown for about 5 seconds before the episode ends, but look at it!  The red building the image is focused on is the Sunset Arms boarding house where Arnold lives with his grandparents.  The drawing also includes the neighborhood so you can see the surrounding buildings, the highway, and Mr. Green’s butcher shop.  It’s a beautiful image because of the angle of the shot and it occurring at sunset.  Because of these, you get great light and shadowing contrasts and the angle allows you to see the rooftops, the overall shape of each building, and the street.  Lots of details are in this drawing and I love it!

The image could have been better, but I had to take the screenshot on my phone instead of my laptop as Apple has decided to prevent users from taking screenshots of the QuickTime player on the desktop when copyrighted materials are playing.  I understand taking precautions for ripping video, but to take a screenshot?  Come on!

In addition, the stories are well written and do include moral values.  But what I didn’t expect was the show to have a few endings that were a bit on the depressing side.  I guess it’s to show how a decision can have a bad result and you just have to live with the consequences of your actions, but hey that’s life, right?

The show is also jammed packed with characters, so the focus can be pointed at different groups like the residence in the boarding house or someone at Arnold’s school.  This keeps the show fresh with scenarios so every episode is different and never feels the same as another episode.  In fact, Hey Arnold! contains 100 episodes, and to me, every episode is great.  Craig Bartlett created an incredible show and kudos to Nickelodeon for greenlighting it.

Most epic binge-watch ever

FXX is currently playing a marathon of The Simpsons.  What’s so epic, you ask?  Oh, nothing.  Just showing every episode ever made, is all!  That’s 552 episodes spanning across a period of 12 days!!!!  Ay Caramba!

The marathon started Thursday morning and I watched a great deal of it since Thursday afternoon.  The TV was basically fixed on FXX all weekend long.  They're showing them in order and currently on, as of Monday morning, season 9.  Today will be my last day watching this marathon as that is when I feel the show stared to drop in quality.  To be exact, in my own opinion, seasons 1-8 are gold.  Season 9 is okay, but you can tell the writing was changing for the worst; and every season after that is…well, poop.

Actually, here’s an interesting article from The Verge where they believe the show ‘jumped the shark’ and when Home turned from a “hapless father with a good heart” to a “caricature of a moron.”  I agree with the author’s theory.

I do applaud FXX for showing the episodes in their entirety.  Every episode seemed to have at least one scene that has been ripped out for syndication broadcasting, so every episode during this marathon included a nugget of content of what seems new to me because I haven’t seen those clips since they originally aired them.  FXX does get a mild jeering too as they changed the aspect ratio of the older episodes from 4:3 to 16:9 by zooming and cropping.  Anyone who doesn’t play back films in their native aspect ratios are monsters imo.  Okay, old man rant is complete.

Sigma 6

In addition to Batman Beyond from a few posts back, another action show aired just before it.  I originally wrote it off, but after watching a few episodes I was hooked.  G.I. Joe: Sigma 6 is not your daddy’s G.I. Joe T.V. show from the ‘80s. Nay, it’s a modern revision of the series with an essence of what was hot at the time.

Based on what I’ve read, Hasbro was rebooting the G.I. Joe franchise in the mid 2000s.  In addition to the toys, a new animated series would launch to help sell the toys.  This would be Sigma 6.

The series was created by the Japanese animation studio Gonzo, so the show has the anime style to it.  The show includes characters such as Duke, Scarlett, Snake Eyes, Heavy Duty, Tunnel Rat, and Long Range.  Other characters include Kamakura and Jinx as Snake Eyes’ apprentices.

The series started as two direct to DVD movie called G.I. Joe: Spy Troops and G.I. Joe: Valor vs. Venom.  I haven’t seen them, but would like to because the television series references some events that happened in these movies.

The show lasted two seasons with a total of 26 episodes.  It basically includes what you’d want in an action show; that is if you don’t mind some of the anime type scenes and scenarios the characters sometimes find themselves in.  If this show were to ever come out on DVD as a complete series, I’d get it.

Bento-rama

I get channel NHK World in my region and I admit to watching a lot of it.  It includes many different kinds of programs that focus on Japan and how people their live their lives.  Some shows are documentaries, some are towards the arts, some on technology, food and dining, and many more.  The show I’m currently interested in the most is one called Lunch ON!  As you’d expect from that title, it’s all about lunches.  Here’s the official description from the NHK website: “Lunch ON! offers insights into working people of all kinds, by looking at their lunch. Discover what they eat as they strive to reach new heights!”

Normally a four segment show, they travel all around Japan, following busy business men, factory workers, fresh-out-of-college workers to see where they go to eat and what they like to eat.  They also go into restaurant kitchens and see what chefs cook and what they too eat for lunch.  It’s a fun show and approved by yours truly.  One interesting fact I noticed: a lot of Japanese like to eat spaghetti.  Go figure!

Shriek

The Hub Network recently played the entire series of Batman Beyond.  It was aired during the perfect time when I was eating breakfast, so I had time to watch it.  I really haven't watched the show since it originally aired on Kids’ WB back around the turn of the millennium.  This is a fantastic show to watch if you’re a fan of the latest Batman film trilogy, or just a fan of Batman in general because of its plot, characters, and the villains Batman will encounter.  Speaking of which, my favorite bad dude is one named Shriek from the episode with the same name.

"Shriek" is the tenth episode of the first season and it introduces this new supervillain to the Batman franchise.  The episode begins with Derek Powers -- he’s the top man who runs Wayne-Powers (Wayne Enterprises after it merged with Powers Technology) -- is sitting in a chair in the dark.  He hears a voice say, “It’s a neglected sense: hearing.  And it shouldn’t be because all too ofter our first warning of danger is sound.”  Powers gets up from the chair and is walking around in he dark.  He’s spooked out because he hears the sounds of a tiger growling but doesn’t know where its coming from.  Then he sees a light speeding towards him.  He hears the sound of a train whistle and yells out, “Shreeve!”

16-bit Seinfeld - The Tenth Strip

This will be the final strip for this Seinfeld comic/video game series thing.  Hope y’all enjoyed it.