On November 9, 1999, Mickey's Once Upon a
Christmas was released direct to video receiving positive reviews from critics
calling it a solid kids' film featuring the Disney characters reenacting
classic Christmas stories. 25 years later, it was gained a dedicated cult
following from the people who grew up with it as a charming Christmas classic.
This is Patricia's first time watching it since she's watching it as part of a
request to review more adaptations of Christmas Every Day based on the 1892
short story by William Dean Howells.
What did she think of the film? How well
does it hold up today? Click the picture down below to watch the video.
Special thanks to Klancy Shriver from On the House Movie
Podcast for the request. Check out his links down below.
Hey everyone. It's been a while. Since our last update, Arun and I got married and we had a wonderful wedding. We had a small private ceremony with family and close friends traveling near and far to see us becoming as one. It was the best day of our lives and we can't wait to start this next chapter.
With that done, I am now in the process of packing all my stuff and planning on moving next month, which is why I haven't posted a video in a while. I know I promised that Good Burger 2 Go video around April and I'm very sorry. I would have posted a lot sooner, but the wedding preparations was a much bigger priority. Plus, the Quiet on Set documentary was out and it would've been a bit awkward to post a review of a book that was a sequel to a film based on a All That skit. Now that some time has passed, when I settle in England, I can finish the video. I do have the script and audio complete, so it's just editing my clips, articles, and book pages together. Thank you for continuing to be patient as I make this big move.
As for podcasts, Arun and I are bringing back In Search of the Crystal Skull after an almost year long hiatus. We have a new themed month focusing on another person: Jim Henson. In honor of the new documentary Jim Henson: Idea Man on Disney+, we'll be looking at his films. There will be two Muppet films, The Dark Crystal, and Labyrinth. Speaking of Muppets, we're putting the Jim Henson Mupcast on hiatus due to a personal family event that happened to Kevin. Hopefully, we'll bring it back soon.
We have a new episode of Casual Chats slated to being posted next month with two special guests promoting their upcoming novel. I can't delve too deep into the matter, but it'll be quite a treat. I want to do a quick plug on the Old School Lane Spotify page. Over the past few months, we have gotten a lot more people tuning in than usual, but they aren't subscribed. In fact, 5 of the top 10 most listened to podcast episodes came out in 2024. If you can, please subscribe to the Old School Lane Spotify page since that's where you can listen to our podcasts first before it goes up on YouTube.
That's it for now. The next time I'll post an update blog, I'll be in the United Kingdom with Arun. Until then, hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Take care.
Normally, I would do a vlog posting what is coming up for Old School Lane, but I don't have the time right now, so I'm posting it as a blog. 2023 was an up and down year for the channel. First, the ups. I had done, not one, but TWO panels. The first was back in May 2023 where I covered the topic "Writing Analytical Essays on Media" at MomoCon in Atlanta, Georgia. Not only was it my first panel ever, but it was my first time at MomoCon. It was one of the biggest conventions I had ever on in my life. I met some amazing people, including people I have been acquainted with like content creators ToonrificTariq, Offbeat Kiki, Harriyana, and Nicktendo. You can check out my videos down below.
The second convention I went to was back in October 2023 where I went to KamiCon HAI (Huntsville Anime Invasion) in Huntsville, Alabama to cover the topic "The Importance of Slice of Life & Coming of Age Animation". It was a much smaller convention, but it was a lot of fun. I sadly didn't record it because my camera was acting up, but it was still a great experience. If you want to see me cover a similar topic, I did on my YouTube channel. Go check it out if you missed it.
Another up for Old School Lane in 2023 was the amount of podcasts we posted. 20 episodes of Casual Chats, an episode of PixMix on Elemental, completing Journey to the Blue Sky looking back at all the Blue Sky Studios movies, visited the Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden, and watched Wonka and the four short films by Wes Anderson for the Roald Dahl Retrospective, watching and covering Season 1 of Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, watching all the DreamWorks Christmas shorts on DreamMinis, In Search of the Crystal Skull on Keanu Reeves Month and The Little Mermaid live action remake, and interviewing Martin and Olivia Olson and Rebecca Rose. If I had to do my top 10 favorite episodes of Casual Chats for 2023, they would be said interviews, the Cartoon Network podcast, The Owl House Season 3 Discussion, the Quest for Camelot podcast, Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Weinerville, My Life as a Teenage Robot, Favorites of the Disney Eras, and Wish. I did a poll about a month ago asking you on what were your favorites and least favorite podcasts of this year. You overwhelmingly chose the Cartoon Network podcast as your favorite and Wish as your least favorite. I was surprised as your dislike of the Wish podcast because Arun and I enjoyed that discussion a lot. But maybe Wish had a bigger fanbase than I thought. If you did enjoy it, go on and enjoy it. You do you.
The virtual reunion livestream of 2023 was the 30th anniversary of Weinerville. Getting Marc and Max Weiner as well as some of the crew who worked on the show was a fun time. They reminisced about writing for the show, doing the puppet work, composing the music, and creating the props. While it didn't generate a large crowd on the livestream compared to previous livestreams, it was still a blast getting together.
Finally, I did four videos this past year. Two of which required months of research to do because there was little to no information on it. The first was A Lookback at the You Don't Know Jack game show. I released it as a part of a tribute for actor Paul Reubens when he passed away last August. While most people did a video tribute on Paul Reubens primarily focusing on his man-child persona Pee-wee Herman, I covered a more obscure role he performed as: a game show host named Troy Stevens. Many people nowadays know about the party game series You Don't Know Jack, but when the game show premiered in 2001, it was a niche game series that hadn't caught on to the mainstream until 10 years later. Thanks to an anonymous source who worked on the game show and the game studio at the time, they answered a lot of questions and corrected some misinformation that was posted on the Internet as legitimate answers. I broke the episode into three sections: the rise, fall and resurgence of Jellyvision Lab, the rise, fall, and resurgence of game shows, and the rise, fall, comeback, fall, comeback, and farewell of Paul Reubens.
The second video was concluding the lookback on Christmas Every Day adaptations by William Dean Howells in the form of the 1986 adaptation of Christmas Every Day that aired on CBS. This is one of the most underrated Christmas specials of all time and it needs more recognition. It's hands down the adaptation that sticks the closest to the original short story while all the modern ones take cues from the 1996 adaptation which ripped off Groundhog's Day. It was animated by a studio in Chicago, produced, written, and voiced by a radio legend, and starring voice actors like said radio legend, Brian Cummings, Edie McClurg, and Miriam Flynn. I had gotten a hold of the people involved in the special and had a lot of questions answered that no one has ever covered. I will be doing a follow up video covering their 2nd animated special The Canterville Ghost on Halloween.
Now, for the downs. As much as I posted a lot of podcasts this year, almost all of them have very low listens and views. In comparison, I did a quick 5 minute video reviewing the Good Burger 2 meal from Arby's and it was double the views of most of the podcasts I posted this past year. When looking at the most successful podcasts I did this year, the highest viewed ones were both the Wartime Era and Favorites of the Disney Eras, the Quest for Camelot podcast, the My Life as a Teenage Robot podcast, the Cartoon Network podcast, and the Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island podcast. The latter was a bonus podcast for Old Spook Lane Creepy Chats on Tim Burton Month and it crushed in viewership generating most listens than the 4 podcast episodes combined. I consider Tim Burton Month a failure and question if I should even bring back Old Spook Lane Creepy Chats this Halloween season. I also consider Keanu Reeves Month on In Search of the Crystal Skull a failure too because all of the episodes with the exception of SpongeBob SquarePants: Sponge on the Run had very low views, especially The Matrix Reloaded episode. But even then, the Sponge on the Run discussion had half the views of the other SpongeBob podcast.
Now for the videos, the Media Hall of Fame video on the As Told by Ginger podcasts was my most successful video this year. Not too much of a surprise since those tend to do well. It might be my last As Told by Ginger video I'll do for a long while. I do recommend checking out the video. Although half of the podcasts are no longer posting new episodes, they're still a good listen.
A Charlie Brown Christmas special was a minor success, but the You Don't Know Jack game show video and Christmas Every Day video were a disaster in viewership. I understand that they're very niche and the latter video was posted a few weeks after Christmas, but I was hoping for at least 1,000 views after all the hard work I put into it. But no, it ended up having slightly more views than my podcast episodes and that is NOT a good thing. The reason I hadn't posted a lot of videos in 2023 was because I had suffered from depression and writer's block. For the life of me, I couldn't write any ideas for videos if my life had depended on it. But when Paul Reubens died, that was when I had to write a special tribute to him in the form of the You Don't Know Jack game show video since I loved his work since I was a kid. But when the video premiered with low views, I had learned that 35% of my subscribers didn't watch it yet and 10% either hated it or thought it was simply okay. It devastated me. The Christmas Every Day special crushed me even more on how much no one tuned into it.
I wish I could dedicate more time to posting videos, I really do. But my priorities have changed a lot since I graduated with my Bachelor's Degree in 2022. I had been working a lot and rarely have time to sit down and write videos. I am getting closer to sorting out the next chapter in my life of being a married woman and sorting out paper work that'll take months to complete. I'm not the same 25-year-old who was unemployed and unsure what was going to happen in my life. I'm now a 37-year-old who has a job, a husband, and responsibilities to take care of. I do have a complete script in hand: my review of the Good Burger 2 Go book. But I'll release it around April when All That celebrates its 30th anniversary. I'm working on a few scripts for the 25th anniversary celebration of Azumanga Daioh and Avatar: The Last Airbender in honor of the Netflix live action series coming out this month. I do have some other ideas in mind for new videos and podcasts, but I'll post it when it's the right time. I don't want to rush into it just for the sake of posting something mediocre and unfulfilling to stay relevant on YouTube or the podcast feed. I want to take my time and post something that I enjoy and hopefully others will too. Now for some, this is content creator suicide, but seeing as how so many people are quitting being full time content creators because they want to live normal lives again and not worry about appealing to the never ending demand of content just to make money and notoriety, I'm okay with this.
Before, I used to be scared when new content creators would come along and post similar things I was covering and getting 10x more views, recognition, and awareness. I wonder on where I went wrong. But now, I realize that I shouldn't compare myself to them. I should be my own person and create something because I enjoy it and I'm happy that I'm sharing something I love to the world. Just because they don't tune into your content right away doesn't mean that they never will. Recently, I've gotten comments from the YouTube channel of people tuning into We're in Between for the first time and that podcast series ended almost 6 years ago. At the end of the day, doing something we're passionate about should be about the art, not the money or fame. Even if you're not recognized for your hard work, at least there's someone out there who appreciates it whether you know it or not. Never give up. Keep trying and you'll succeed at the end in some way. It was thanks to posting my content online that I met Arun in the first place. Now, we're married. I don't need millions of subscribers, tons of sponsorships, or thousands of dollars in one video to feel content. I've made friends, online colleagues, and the love of my life. I'm happy where I am now.
Thanks for reading, everyone. Hope to see you around soon. Take care.
I remember several years ago when Double Dare host Marc Summers was interviewed on the Preston & Steve Show on 93.3 WMMR where he revealed for the first time in public that he had suffered lymphocytic leukemia for several years. "In show business, if you talk about that stuff, it's hard to get hired afterwards. My agent said, 'Well, don't talk about it.' I've sort of compressed this thing and it's made me nuts."
Since then, other celebrities were revealed to be suffering from cancer without letting the public know for similar reasons. Some were able to overcome it like voice actor Rob Paulsen and others had sadly succumb to it like actor Chadwick Boseman. But one I would've never guessed who not only went through cancer secretly, but had succumb to it recently was actor Paul Reubens a.k.a. Pee-wee Herman.
According to his estate, the following statement was posted saying, "Last night we said farewell to Paul Reubens, an iconic American actor, comedian, writer and producer whose beloved character Pee-wee Herman delighted generations of children and adults with his positivity, whimsy and belief in the importance of kindness. Paul bravely and privately fought cancer for years with his trademark tenacity and wit," it continued. "A gifted and prolific talent, he will forever live in the comedy pantheon and in our hearts as a treasured friend and man of remarkable character and generosity of spirit."
Never would I have thought that I would hear such a heartbreaking announcement such as this! Literally, I was getting things ready for my sister's birthday when all of a sudden, this popped up on my social media outlets and I was reacted saying "What?! Are you serious?!" Over the past year, I have had people who I knew and loved pass away from cancer such as my aunt and a few acquaintances from church. Cancer is such a devastating disease that affects your entire body, mind, and emotions. You feel tired, weak, and hopeless. I hope that you or anyone you know never gets sick from cancer. It's not only devastating for you, but for those around you. Now that I think about it, it made so much sense why the Pee-wee's Big Adventure 35th anniversary tour didn't pick up after COVID-19 restrictions were gone or why there were no updates on Pee-wee's Playhouse: The Movie or the dark Pee-wee movie he had been working on for decades. He was very sick and couldn't do it. When I read more about Paul's death, I felt sadness coming into me. I was beyond crushed when people who I grew up with such as Robin Williams, Bob Hoskins, June Foray, and others had passed on. But I was introduced to Paul's work at a very young age which made this death a very hard one. Growing up in the late 80's and 90's, I knew about Pee-wee's Playhouse and Pee-wee's Big Adventure. I heard Paul's voice in many cartoons such as The Nightmare Before Christmas, Chowder, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Tron: Uprising, Adventure Time, and more. When Old School Lane first started in December 2011, I posted my top 10 Pee-wee Herman moments on my tumblr page because I was thrilled he was making a comeback and that became the first post that became viral because Paul himself Tweeted it. In a way, Old School Lane wouldn't have gotten its major start in the first place if it wasn't for Pee-wee Herman. So, if you loved my blog posts, podcasts, videos, and/or livestreams we've been doing for the past 10 years, Paul is partially to be thanked for getting us started.
There was also the time I met him in person at MegaCon 2018 waiting in line for almost an hour just to meet him. I remember talking with two women who were in their 40s wanting to meet Paul because they grew up with Pee-wee's Playhouse. The reason why it took so long was because he was talking to a little girl no older than 6 and answering all her questions. When I finally approached him, I told him thank you for his work and gave him a printout of the Tweet of my blog post. While he didn't remember it, he did sign it for me. I will be forever grateful of that.
The last thing I want to state before I conclude this blog post is the question I asked author and pop culture enthusiast Caseen Gaines about his book Inside Pee-wee's Playhouse way back in 2012.
Patricia- Let’s just say, heaven forbid, Paul Reubens passes away unexpectedly. Do you think that people would finally forget about his indiscretions and focus on his great achievements?
Caseen- I absolutely think so. I mean, Paul Reubens has done an amazing service in this world as Pee-wee Herman. Not only was the character entertaining, but it was inspiring to people like Kevin and a whole slew of other creative types. He has achieved great things and I think a lot of people are being reminded of that with his recent Pee-wee appearances.
Even though Paul had done his fair share of mistakes that had stilted his reputation and career, people still have fond memories of his work and how much of a sweet, kind, and gentle person he was. Craig Bartlett, the creator of Hey Arnold!, actress E.G. Daily, Stephanie Beatriz, Rob Paulsen, Wally Wingert, Lori Alan, Ricki Lake, artist Wayne White, actress and comedian Laraine Newman, animator Jorge Guitierrez, and more have left their condolences to Paul. Pee-wee Herman is currently trending on social media of people posting about their sadness for his passing and their fond memories of his work. Sure, there will be a few people who will always bring up his incidents to give their reasonings on why he shouldn't be easily forgiven, but many people have since moved on. Especially, since there were a slew of other celebrities who have done far, far worse. But I digress.
In closing, I'm going to miss Paul a lot! I will miss Pee-wee a lot! He was funny, quirky, sporadic, creative, and kind. He was one of the people I wanted to have on my podcast for an interview, but now I never will. I remember hearing about one of the last things he was working on was a memoir and a documentary about his life. I look forward to seeing them.
Let me know in the comments below about your fond memories on Paul's work. Thanks for reading and hope to see you at Old School Lane soon.
In June 2005, I remember reading on an article from Game Informer magazine of the reveals from Nintendo's E3 presentation of the games that were going to be coming out on the Wii and DS. There was one game that wasn't showcased, but caught my eye once I saw it: a new 2D Metroid game called Metroid Dread. The 2000's was the best decade for Metroid since the most amount of games were released that were critically acclaimed like the two Game Boy Advanced games Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid Fusion and the 3D 3rd person action adventure game Metroid Prime and its sequel Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. I was more than excited for more Metroid. Over the years, news of Metroid Dread became silent with little to no information on its release date.
But that was fine since there were other games that came out such as Metroid Prime Hunters, Metroid Prime Pinball, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. But then the 2010s appeared and Metroid: Other M was such a polarizing game that it almost killed the franchise for over 6 years. Then, Yoshio Sakamoto, the director and producer of the Metroid games said that Dread was probably not going to be coming out anytime soon. We assumed that Metroid Dread was cancelled and people started calling it Metroid Dead. The first half of the 2010s decade was difficult for Metroid fans.
The later half of the 2010s decade was slightly better. A fan named Milton Guasti aka DoctorM64 released his long passion project AM2R (Another Metroid 2 Remake) a fan remake of Metroid 2: Return of Samus and Nintendo released Metroid Prime Federation Force and its own remake of Metroid 2 called Metroid: Samus Returns on the 3DS. There was even an announcement on E3 2018 that Metroid Prime 4 was coming out. Knowing that Metroid Prime 4 was going to be the next big game, the idea of Metroid Dread ever coming out had left my mind. But then E3 2021 appeared and what I saw was something I never would have thought in a million years: a trailer for Metroid 5 which was Metroid Dread. When I first saw it, I was so excited! It was the first time in many years that I was hyped for a video game to come out. Click here to learn more about my initial thoughts. I had to wait an additional year to play it because I didn't have a Switch at the time. But thanks to Arun Mehta from The Arun Mehta Show, I now have a Nintendo Switch and the first game I bought was Metroid Dread.
Taking place after the events of Metroid Fusion, Samus had received a message from an unknown source that there was an X parasite located at Planet ZDR. The Galactic Federation sent 7 robots called E.M.M.I to capture the X, but it lost communication. Samus lands on ZDR to learn more about the whereabouts of the X and the E.M.M.I., but then sees an adversary she didn't expect: a Chozo soldier named Raven Beak who almost defeated Samus, but an unknown power source from herself activated and she was spared. Things get worse when the E.M.M.I. have been hacked to now attack Samus. Samus, being underpowered to take down both Raven Beak and the E.M.M.I., is told by Adam to escape the planet and head to her ship on the surface of ZDR. So the game is a reverse where Samus is traveling upwards instead of downwards. Without getting into major spoilers because I don't want to ruin it for anyone who want to play this game, what are my thoughts of Metroid Dread as both a fan and someone who has been waiting for this game for over 15 years? The wait was worth it!
The gameplay is classic 2D action/adventure with some exploration just like the other Metroid games, but there are several new additions that make it standout. The introduction of Aeion abilities from Metroid: Samus Returns have returned here in Metroid Dread, but there are some new techniques such as the Phantom Cloak that makes Samus invisible for a short period of time. It's very useful, especially when you're trying to run away and hide from the E.M.M.I. It feels like the proper elevation from Metroid Fusion after Samus is trying to run away from the SA-X. Admittedly, the gameplay of the SA-X is starting to show its age a bit since the segments are planned. If you know what to do, you can easily avoid the SA-X with no issues. There are little to no changes or alterations on its movements or its reactions to when it approaches Samus. But the E.M.M.I. goes on a whole new level. When you enter an E.M.M.I room, you hear the eerie music, you hear the beeps and boops of the E.M.M.I. trying to find you with sensing your movements and hearing your footsteps, and you're trying to find a way out before it finds you before it catches you. There are 7 in total and each one is harder than the last making it a challenge even though you're collecting the items needed to become stronger.
There are different sections of the planet to go around to make it towards the surface and each location is unique with a set of monsters and atmosphere to set it apart. The bosses are also great with its own set of challenges, fighting style, and strategic ways of taking them down. Some of them are the best in the whole series, with the final boss being my favorite of the bunch. The story is fairly simple just like the other Metroid games, but there are a lot of twists and turns that will make you shocked, surprised, yet satisfied if you've been following both the games' and manga's story and lore. But the story doesn't detract from people who have never played a Metroid game. The prologue and several cutscenes gets the plot of the series up to speed, but the gameplay is the most important part of the game and that makes up for it. Samus has never controlled this smooth before: she's fast, agile, and spry. The slide makes moving so much easier, the melee defense move takes down enemies in a pinch, and the wall jump feels so natural. As you get more moves, weapons, and Aeion abilities, Samus slowly becomes an unstoppable beast. I hope that future Metroid games keep this same gameplay style.
If I had to bring up a minor complaint of Metroid Dread, the music left a lot to be desired. Sure, it captures the atmosphere of the locations and moments, but none of it was memorable. Other than the opening prologue which is a remix of the opening theme of Super Metroid and a cutscene featuring a minor side character with a remix of the lower Brinstar theme of Super Metroid, I couldn't recall a song that left an impact on me when playing it. As you know, I love Metroid music. Whenever I'm working on a script for a video and editing it, I listen to songs from Metroid, Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, the Metroid Prime games, and AM2R. Sadly, I won't be adding Dread's soundtrack from my playlist. Another minor complaint I have is that the last chapter of the game felt very short and underdeveloped. I had made it to the surface and picked up the last power up and before I knew it, I was given the option to fight the last boss. I would've liked it if I was there longer or if there was another section of the planet to go to to explore. If you see the map of ZDR, there's an empty space over by the upper right corner. I thought that I was going to be exploring over there, but nothing ever popped up. If Metroid Dread ever has an update such as New Game+ or a patch, I would love either another section or make the last chapter a bit longer. But I doubt it'll happen.
Overall, I love Metroid Dread. It's now in my top 3 favorites in the series. It may have surpassed Metroid Prime as my 2nd favorite. As for topping Super Metroid, that's too early to tell. Super Metroid is not only my favorite in the series, but my favorite game of all time. If you want to learn why, click here. If I was to recommend a Metroid game for a newcomer, Dread would be one of my first choices as a great introduction next to Metroid: Zero Mission. It's fun, fast, and challenging. Currently, Metroid Dread is the best selling Metroid game of the series with almost 3 million copies sold. Hopefully this will show Nintendo that we want more Metroid games. Let's hope and see if Metroid Prime 4 continues this momentum.
That's it for now. Thank you so much for reading, everyone! Let me know in the comments about your experiences in playing Metroid Dread. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon.
In this episode of Casual Chats, Patricia and various special guests reflect on 10 years of Old School Lane, play games, read two rough draft scripts of As Told by Ginger, and look into the future.
Hey everyone, Patricia here. Summer came and went so fast this time around. Now, I'm at the final stretch of school. I'm officially a senior majoring in Broadcast Journalism and minoring in English focusing on Professional Writing. The last time I wrote about my school update, I was minoring in Entrepreneurship, but after a semester of taking accounting and Intro to Entrepreneurship, I felt that it wasn't for me and dropped it. It's crazy to think that I've come so far. This is probably the most cliched line of all time when people say "It only feels it yesterday when I first did *insert event here*), but it's true. It felt like I just did my freshman invocation with my mom whispering to me when we saw students wielding cameras "Someday, you'll be doing that" and the next thing I knew, I'm a senior at a camera recording freshman marching for their invocation. While I'm at the home stretch, this coming school year will be my busiest yet. I have six classes, two internships, and a lot of school activities that I'll be participating in for my fall semester. For my spring semester, I have seven classes and an exit exam I have to pass in order to graduate. So hearing all that, I'm left with some bad news for Old School Lane. I'm going on a slight hiatus...again.
Around the same time last year, I wrote an article looking at how disappointed I was that my podcasts and videos were at an all time low with little growth in subscribers. Now things have gotten slightly better. In the beginning of January, the Old School Lane YouTube channel had hit a milestone achievement with 9,000 subscribers. It's been over a half a year and we only had an additional 800 which means only 200 more and we would reach the milestone of 10,000. That's great and all, but the views have remained somewhat the same. Once again, I wanted to break away from talking about strictly Nickelodeon stuff and delved into topics I've never covered before. The first podcast episode of 2021 was about the comic strip series Calvin & Hobbes alongside Andrew Farago and his wife Shaenon Garrity. The next one after that was about the 2020 Amazon Prime Film Borat: Subsequent Movie Film, the sequel to the 2006 film Borat alongside Arun Mehta from The Arun Mehta Show. The latter was a disaster in views and made me lose some subscribers. It was a very polarizing topic for a lot of people. The third episode was about the 1970's British comedy Faulty Towers again alongside Arun. Views were the same as Borat and losing a subscriber in the process.
Not only were subscribers and views were pretty low, views in premieres were pretty low. The most amount of people that would be tuning into a premiere of a podcast would range from 4-10. The lowest I've received was the repost of The Banter Broadcast episode of the Tron franchise were only 3 people showed up and they dropped after the first 10 minutes. That had crushed me and made the conscious decision to only leave YouTube premieres for videos only.
I had then posted a poll to my listeners on the reason why views were getting low and the majority of them told me that the topic wasn't interesting enough to tune into. After that, I focused on posting something that they would be happy to hear about: animated shows. The most successful podcast episodes I've done this year were the Pokemon anime podcast with Malik and Devonte McLeod, the Invader ZIM podcast with CBJohnny, the Adventure Time podcast with Taylor "Whyboy" Wyatt from ToonGrin, Michael "Fusionater" McKinney, and Paul "Gunterfan1992" Thomas, and The Owl House podcast with Arun, Michael, Paul, my friend Tim from his blog A Look at Disney, and YouTuber Rebecca Rose. I'm glad that they were happy and I'm proud on how it turned out. However, I felt somewhat stuck.
Luckily, I had gotten a hold of some amazing special guests that I've wanted to interview for many years. Voice actors such as Adam Wylie and Spike Spencer, a new interview with Fred Seibert after Kevin and I's first interview with him back in 2012, YouTubers Craig "Stuttering Craig" Skistimas and PokeKellz from The Dex, Hardline and Crush 40 singer Johnny Gioeli, and television writer Martin Olson. It felt great to talk to them about their careers, their triumphs, their projects, and advice for upcoming actors, writers, singers, and content creators. However, views were surprisingly low and no subscribers were gained in any of them. Once again, despite me being proud of the interviews I did, the views didn't reflect on it. Again, I felt stuck.
So, maybe I need a creative break to focus on schooling until I can figure out how to balance what I want to post and what my listeners/viewers want to see to make them happy. I know you want the same old content of me talking about one particular medium of entertainment over and over again, but I can't do that. That's not what Old School Lane was about. It was about covering all kinds of mediums of entertainment: movies, TV shows, video games, anime, and everything else in between. Then there's also the time period that the content came out in that people gravitated to. Most of my listeners/viewers may recall when Kevin and I would cover a lot of stuff from the 80's and 90's. While we do love the shows, movies, video games, etc. that came out around that time, the newer stuff have been amazing. Even some of the much older stuff are too important and classic to ignore. Nostalgia is an ever changing beast and will continue to change and evolve the more that the younger crowd grows older. Being in college again surrounded by 18-22 year olds reminiscing of shows, movies, and video games from the 2000's and 2010's gave me not only a new view of looking back at old times through fresher eyes, but made me feel really old.
Bottom line, I'm happy with the direction that Old School Lane is going in. Of course I would love to post more podcasts and videos. I have a ton of ideas that are constantly swimming in my head. However, my current situation makes it possible to post a lot less than I would like to. Whether you want to join in on my journey or not is up to you. If you don't, that's perfectly fine. If you do, thank you for sticking around this far. I do have some plans for what I want to do for Old School Lane around December since it would've been 10 years since it first started. But we'll wait and see how it turns out. In the meantime, see you around when I have the time to post anything.
Hey everyone, it's been a while. Today is the 9th anniversary of Old School
Lane! Hard to believe that I've been posting content on this blog (and later
YouTube channel and Anchor page) for 9 years. My life is completely different
than it was all those years ago. I was a 25 year old who had no job, no friends,
and no hope that life would get any better. Man, my thought process has
drastically changed since then and I seen life in a more positive light despite
all the horrible things that has happened this year. I want to thank all of you
for your amazing support, especially over the past few days.
It's been a full
year since I posted the older episodes of Casual Chats on Mondays, every episode
of We're in Between on Tuesdays, PixMix on Wednesdays, DreamMachine on
Thursdays, and Old School Lane Interviews on Fridays on the Anchor podcast site.
It's even distributed on other sites such as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google
Podcasts, RadioPublic, Stitcher, Overcast, and Breaker. I would even post
episodes of Nick Jukebox and the Roald Dahl Retrospective every month. Since
then, I have caught up with PixMix and DreamMachine and started posting Arun and
Patricia on Wednesdays. We're almost done with posting up Casual Chats, We're in
Between, and Old School Lane Interviews. I'm thinking by early 2021 we'll be all
caught up. In addition, we had posted new episodes of Casual Chats and Old
School Lane Interviews first on Anchor before uploading it on YouTube. Since
first posting in December 15, 2020, there had been 10,000 plays, over 200 unique
listeners, and listeners from all over the world tuning in from the Philippines,
Australia, the United Kingdom, and many states in the U.S.A. We will continue to
post on Anchor for the foreseeable future.
The Old School Lane YouTube channel
had hit a major milestone of 8,000 subscribers around October when I made the
announcement of the As Told by Ginger 20th Anniversary Reunion
Livestream. But now, it's around over 8,500 subscribers. That would be the
amount of subscribers Old School Lane would get in about 6-8 months. I checked
out why and it's due to the Top 5 Best/Worst Rankin/Bass Christmas Specials
getting a lot more traction than it ever did when I posted it last year to
celebrate the 55th anniversary of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. While a
lot of people disagreed with my list, a lot more other people enjoyed it and
told me what their favorites were which is always great to see. I'm currently editing the video for The Aftermath of Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie which is the 3rd and final part of the series of videos talking about The Pros and Cons of Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie. It's been worked on for a year, especially with the massive changes going on with the management on Nickelodeon and Viacom. Hopefully it'll be out by the end of the year to round things up.
For those who were thinking that the reason I haven't been posting a lot of videos this year was because I had ran out of ideas for content, that's farther from the truth. I have a lot of plans for content for Old School Lane for 2021: new episodes of From Pilot to Final Product, finishing up All That Month, Heroic Gem or Junk, and debuting some new series of videos I've wanted to do for a while. However, I haven't been able to do them due to being incredibly busy with school and major projects. Back around June, I thought that my time was up as a content creator due to my views being the lowest they've ever been. People had been complaining that I hadn't been posting enough videos for their liking. Even the new podcast series Arun and I did together such as In Search of the Crystal Skull and the Roald Dahl Retrospective hadn't gotten a lot of views. But I did the best that I could to not leave you high and dry with no content just because of my busy schedule. With 2020 being a rough year for a lot of people, I continued to follow the reason Old School Lane started off: sharing our love for movies, TV shows, video games, and everything else in between for other people to enjoy and share their fond memories with us. I will continue to do it for as long as I can and I'm not giving up anytime soon. Especially with 2021 being the year that Old School Lane will be celebrating its 10th anniversary. While I don't have a concrete idea of how to celebrate just yet, I will come up with something very special.
That's all for now. There will be a few more episodes of PixMinis to lead up to a new episode of PixMix on Soul, a new episode of DreamMachine talking about The Croods: A New Age, and at least a few more episodes of Casual Chats to round up 2020. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading!
Hey everyone, Patricia here. I just wanted to give an update on everything that has happened over the past month since the last update blog post. Click here to check it out. I've been really busy doing online classes this summer starting off with accounting and beginning Spanish. If I'm not doing that, then I'm helping my school with various media projects or helping my family out. I'm saying this because content has been going pretty slow here for Old School Lane. I haven't been able to post an episode of Old School Lane Reads in weeks, I haven't done a video in 5 months, and I haven't appeared in Live & Wired for almost two months. While I have been posting new episodes of Casual Chats about Father Ted and Scoob! as well as featuring interviews from TV writer Darrell Vickers and Ryan James, Jeff MacIntyre, and Melissa Disney for their online webseries The Quarantine Bunch, my viewers don't really seem to care about most of the content.
When it comes to Old School Lane Reads and the book club, they've reached less than 100 views with people leaving the video less than 5 minutes after it starts. I'm not sure this is what everyone wants despite putting out a poll with the majority of the votes going to Things I Can't Explain. Until I catch up with my reading and the book club with Jim, I'm probably going to put it on hold since pretty much no one is watching.
Here at Old School Lane, we cover various topics from movies, TV shows, video games, and more. Our Roald Dahl Retrospective on James and the Giant Peach and Matilda have done pretty well with views and comments, but Casual Chats has not. The only exception recently was Scoob! with special guests Taylor "Whyboy" Wyatt and Nero Angelus from ToonGrin since Scooby-Doo is a popular franchise and their movie had just came out in streaming services. People seemed to enjoy that podcast even with its 2 hour length.
Overtime, I wanted to cover some more varied shows since I was getting burned out with talking about Nickelodeon or Disney over and over and over again. Plus, I felt that maybe Old School Lane was becoming one-note with its content and maybe I should shake things up a bit with covering shows I never saw before or interview people that I respect that weren't the usual former Nickelodeon star from the 90's. Boy, did that backfire badly.
The Father Ted podcast got the minimum amount of views with people leaving at the 5 minute mark. Comments were low and no subscribers were gained from it.
Then there's the Darrell Vickers interview which got the minimum amount of view with people leaving less than 3 minutes in. There were no comments and no subscribers were gained.
Finally, there's the podcast I posted on YouTube yesterday which was the interview with Ryan James, Jeff MacIntyre, and Melissa Disney on The Quarantine Bunch which got very low views with people leaving 5 minutes in with no subscribers gained. To be fair, it's a fairly new video so maybe things will change, but at this point in time, I doubt it.
My subscriber count has been very slow. I had gained 7,000 subscribers in January with the current subscriber count being 7,550. I gained 550 subscribers in 6 months which is pretty sad. What made me feel even sadder was a comment I received from someone that said "When was the last time you made a video?" even though I've been posting content on YouTube for the past month. Here at Old School Lane we're all about posting things that makes us happy and (hoping) it'll make you happy. I'm sorry that what I've been posting over the next few months hasn't gotten my viewers coming by the droves, but I just wanted to try something new. I have a few more podcasts I've recorded and scripts I've written and after that, I may need to take a quick break to refocus on myself and for Old School Lane. Thank you for those who've been sticking around. Hope to see you around soon. Take care.
Hey everyone, Patricia here. Wow, it's been a while since I've been on this blog site. For those who have followed Old School Lane exclusively on this blog, I have NOT stopped doing online content. Far from it. For those who aren't following me on my other social media, I have been archiving Casual Chats, We're in Between, PixMix, DreamMachine, Old School Lane Interviews, Nick Jukebox, The Roald Dahl Retrospective, and other miscellaneous podcasts on Anchor for the past 5 months. I also upload new episodes of Casual Chats and Old School Lane Interviews on Anchor before going on YouTube. Click on the link here to check it out Anchor or any of the other podcast streaming sites to listen to the classics as well as the new episodes.
Then there's the YouTube channel where my cohosts and I have continued to do podcasts and videos. My most recent uploads were the Casual Chats on A Goofy Movie, An Extremely Goofy Movie, and Father Ted, the premiere of Old School Lane Reads and the Old School Lane Book Club reading Things I Can't Explain: A Clarissa Novel written by Mitchell Kreigman, and Parts 1 and 2 of The Pros and Cons of Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie. If you haven't subscribed yet, please do so. We're almost at 8,000 subscribers. It would be great if we can reach 10,000 subscribers at the end of the year, but 8,000 would be a great feat to reach.
For those who have been following me on my social media, then you've noticed that I haven't been posting online content lately. Well, I've been very preoccupied with many things. First off, I've been taking summer courses online to continue getting my classes done for school so that I can graduate. Second off, I've had a lot of other commitments that has been taking up my time so I haven't been sitting down on my laptop writing or editing audio. Finally, and here's the biggest one, I have had severe technical issues on my laptop where I've been doing my online content over the last few years.
For those who have seen me trying to do a livestream Q&A or livestreaming one of the Jackbox Games, you've noticed major slowdown, crashes, and errors where I had to restart my stream to get things going. Well, everyone, I would like to introduce you to the laptop that I was working with for the last 7 years.
It was barely hanging on by a thread due to the broken screen and loose wiring. Then there's the fact that I live in small town that doesn't have great connection and tends to have severe winds and rains during certain seasons. It tends to chug at a slow rate whenever I turn it on, I have bad video and audio connections whenever I'm on a livestream talking to someone, and sometimes the computer freezes on a certain site. If it wasn't for the fact that it has a touchscreen, the situation would be much, much worse. I'm very thankful it has survived producing over 70 episodes of Casual Chats, every episode of We're in Between, every video I ever posted, all the livestreams, and other miscellaneous content. But it's time to move on.
With my birthday approaching, my wonderful co-host Arun Mehta from The Arun Mehta Show gave me a new laptop that is more powerful than my old one. I'm very thankful for this gift as it'll help me with producing more stuff efficiently as well as other uses. I'm in the process of transferring my files to this new laptop and maybe fixing the screen to put away in case of emergencies.
Another major transition I'm planning on doing is a new website for Old School Lane. I'm very appreciative for what Blogger has done over the past 7 years hosting all my blogs and videos, but again, it's time to move on. More details on the new website will be coming soon.
That's it for now! Thank you so much for being incredibly patient (what else is new?) with me as I transition with new hardware, my online classes, and other endeavors. Hope to see you around soon. Take care.
Hey everyone, Patricia here. It's been a very hectic summer content wise. Arun and I have officially watched every single DreamWorks film on DreamMachine, I've been chipping away with my newest video for All That Month, and had just started a brand new monthly podcast with my former Nickelodeon Slimecast Podcast co-host Zee El looking back on Rugrats from season to season called Rugrats: View from the Crib. There's also some personal struggles, but I'm not going to go into that.
Tomorrow, I'll be going back to school as a sophomore and will be mostly focused on homework and other activities. My first year of school after graduating from college the first time over 10 years ago has been a combination of exciting, grueling, amazing, exhausting, and an eye-opening experience. I have made a lot of friends and had participated in a lot of media gigs for the school. I am at a much better place than I was over a year ago where I was working at a nowhere job feeling depressed and defeated at myself. Watch Should We Say Goodbye to Halcyon Days? to get a bit of an understanding of how lost I was to where I was going to go in my life. Maybe when I turn 40, I could make a sequel of Halcyon Days to where my life would be. I believe I would be a lot more stable and happier once I graduate from school, the relationship with my loved one goes to the next level, and my new goal of becoming healthier by losing weight succeeds. We'll see what happens.
The Old School Lane YouTube channel has reached over 5,200 subscribers, which I cannot thank all of you enough for your amazing support. I know that I promised all of you guys a special prize giveaway when I had reached 5,000. I'm sorry, but I've been severely low on cash lately. But once I save up some money, I will get some very special items for the event. Old School Lane doesn't have any sponsors or are associated with any major company, so any little amount of money I make, I use it to support my family. I wish I could give one of you guys a really awesome prize like a Nintendo Switch, but I can't. Even after doing Old School Lane for almost 8 years, we're still very low on the radar. We've come a very long way from where we first started, but nowhere near at the million subscriber milestone. But I'm hoping that things will pick up real soon.
As for upcoming plans for Old School Lane, Remington Keyes from The Nerd Talk Podcast and I had just posted a new episode of Casual Chats on Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling, the newest Nickelodeon special on Netflix. He and I will cover Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus this weekend and Dora and the Lost City of Gold next weekend.
Arun and I will be doing our top 5 best and worst DreamWorks films, talking about the newest film Abominable, and a few other bonus episodes until we conclude DreamMachine until next year's release of Trolls: World Tour. After that, we'll be planning on doing another podcast series that'll be coming out this September, but it will not be another animation studio. It's going to be looking back on a series of films written by a particular author in honor of a film coming out next year. There's also an in depth analysis video on Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie that I've been hard at work at for almost a year that I hope to have out this October, the premiere ofHeroic Gem or Junk this September (yes, I know that I've been saying that over the past 3 years, but I mean it this time), and something special for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have a lot of plans for Old School Lane, but just not enough time or resources to get it done.
I'm well aware that some people have been fed up with my podcasts and want to see more videos. Some have even moved elsewhere to get what they're looking for, which is completely fair. That's the YouTube game nowadays. If you don't post the content that people want to see on a consistent basis, they leave. My number of views on my podcasts are nowhere compared to the number of views from my videos, unless I cover a popular topic such as I did recently for Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling. I just want to say from the bottom of my heart that I am really sorry. I hope that someday I will make the content you really enjoy watching, but I hope that you'll be a little bit more patient and enjoy the stuff I'm posting now. I'm just as passionate about it and I've had so much fun with my co-hosts talking about all these great topics.
That's all for now. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.
Hey everyone, Patricia here. It's been a very, very long while since I posted something on this blog site. Sorry about that. It's been a hectic summer. But I will update it again soon with some backlog podcasts and videos. In the meantime, I will talk about my experience with my first convention in Alabama called Hamacon. It was a very small convention compared to the massive ones I attended in Florida, but I still had a blast experiencing a group of like minded people gathering together with their love of anime, video games, and comic books. Here are some of the people I met at the con.
Micah Solusod and Apphia Yu.
Micah and Apphia are voice actors who have worked in many anime and video games. Micah is well known for his portrayals as Soul from Soul Eater, Midnight from Black Butler, Gakushu from Assassination Classroom, Tagoma from Dragon Ball Super, Yuri from Yuri on Ice, and many more. Apphia is known for her portrayals as Maki from Dragon Ball Super, Laki from Fairy Tail, Hat Kid from A Hat in Time, and many more. They were really nice and complimented my Azumanga Daioh shirt saying that it was "pretty cool". I had gotten their autographs as well as the first issue of their graphic novel Ties that Bind.
Chuck Huber
Chuck Huber is a voice actor very well known for his roles as Android 17 and Emperor Pilaf in Dragon Ball Z and Super, Hiei from Yu Yu Hakusho, Shou Tucker from Full Metal Alchemist, and many more. I had even got his autograph as Hiei, which was awesome.
Tiffany Grant
Tiffany Grant is a voice actress mostly known as the voice of Asuka from Neon Genesis: Evangelion. However, she has had many other roles such as Misaki in Excel Saga, Marta in Full Metal Alchemist, Nojiko in One Piece, and Kaorin in Azumanga Daioh. She had recognized my shirt and had even autographed my DVD. She was very sweet and talked about her enjoyment of voicing a minor character of my favorite Japanese slice of life anime of all time.
Other fun things I did in the convention was playing Cards Against Humanity with 10 people coming up with hilarious, yet wrong answers to make people uncomfortable yet laugh, a few panels with the voice actors, played a few video games, played some classic arcade games courtesy of Pints & Pixels, and looked at the amazing art work and merchandise available at the artist's alley tables. One of my favorite moments in the convention was seeing a Pikachu parade led by a T-rex. Yes. It's as awesome as it sounds.
Just when I thought that I found a new convention to go to yearly, I had found out that my first Hamacon was going to be my last. The people behind the convention had decided to conclude it due to burnout, being busy with other projects, and more. It's sad because I had a great time despite the convention being small. It's true that there are other conventions around the Alabama area. Too bad that the nearest convention is in Birmingham, which is an hour and a half away from where I live. But that's okay because next year's event, Kami-Con, is the state's biggest convention and has some awesome events and guests. Maybe I'll try again with getting a panel since my last attempt failed. We'll see.
That's it for now. I'll be updating this blog site and announce some new stuff to come. Until then, hope to see you around Old School Lane soon.
