Pass on by where the discussion of movies, TV shows, video games, and everything in between is non-stop.
Friday, January 9, 2015
Old School Lane Unboxing 1/9/2015
Patricia receives a special gift from someone whom she recently interviewed on Casual Chats and attempts to do her first unboxing video.
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Old School Lane Discussion: Christine Cavanaugh
Happy New Year, everyone! While 2015 with have new content for the blog and YouTube channel, Patricia and Kevin start on a sad note discussing about the late actress Christine Cavanaugh and her iconic characters.
Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: The Weinerville New Year's Special: Lost in the Big Apple
It's 2015. A new year means new content and new reviews. Let's start it off with a New Year's special from Nickelodeon. With that said, it's time to go back into the world of Weinerville.
On January 1, 1996, The Weinerville New Year's Special: Lost in the Big Apple debuted on TV and as of right now, there have been no New Year's special for Nickelodeon shows. The last time I tackled a Weinerville special was a few years ago with the Hanukkah special and if you recall, it's one of the strangest holiday specials I've ever seen. For more details of the special, click here. So, is the New Year's special as weird as the Hanukkah special? How well does it hold up? Let's see and find out.
The story starts off with Marc, Boney, Socko, Pops, Louie, and Captain Bob packing up for a road trip to New York City. While getting ready for the trip, Dottie receives a call from Cocktail Frank saying the bands they hired for the New Year's party have been cancelled and a group of kids are on their way. Dottie calls in Zip to stop them before they leave, but it was too late. Dottie then starts on her quest to let Marc and the gang know about Frank's New Year's Eve party by starting her machine, the A.R.M.S 6000.5. The machine has the power to beam them to any TV so that Dottie can give her message. She first ends up in a TV by a store window. Then she's switched to another TV where two robbers stole from an apartment. She demands them to help her find Marc and the gang and they start dragging it all over the city. Meanwhile, the gang kick Marc out of the van and they separate into various places. Boney wanders around the city, subway, and then dresses like Santa to help a woman receive money for the homeless (but wants to keep it himself), Socko helps a young girl named Jenny play hockey against 4 boys, and Captain Bob entertains a group of kids by the pier. Marc then eventually finds Socko at the toy store and start doing a little shopping.
Meawhile, Dottie is still searching for Marc and the gang, but to no avail. The robbers start getting tired of searching and they return the TV to the apartment they stole it from. She then beams to the large screen at Times Square where the gang eventually see her and head over to the penthouse for the New Year's party. The special concludes with them celebrating New Year's and Boney giving the leftover food to the woman who was raising money to the homeless.
Overall, I have to say that as weird as the Hanukkah special was, at least it had a plot. The plot was practically nonexistent in the New Year's special. There were scenes in the special that showed that there was going to be conflict, but it was pretty much pushed aside. For example, the A.R.M.S 6000.5 can transport her and Zip to any TV, but only until the end they were able to transport to the Times Square screen. Plus, they transported themselves to the party. First of all, why didn't they transport themselves in New York in the first place to look for Marc and the gang? Also, in the beginning, Boney dropped his wallet and it looked like it was going to be some sort of problem in the special. But nope, it was only brought up once at the end when a guest mentioned that he found Boney's wallet and warns him to be careful about losing it. So then what was the point of even showing that scene? It was so unnecessary. While the plot was shoddily written and all over the place with pointless scenes and no direction, the one thing that I can say about it is that it has the classic, corny Weinerville charm that wasn't in the Hanukkah special. It had a lot of cheesy jokes that I couldn't help but laugh at, especially with the Captain Bob segment and the interactions with Dottie and Zip. It felt like I was watching Weinerville.
Overall, if you're a Weinerville fan or a fan of goofy, corny humor, check this special out. If not, then all the flaws I mentioned will distract you from having a good time. This was the only Nickelodeon show to have a New Year's special and I can understand why no one remembers it.
That's all for now. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Happy New Year!
-Patricia
On January 1, 1996, The Weinerville New Year's Special: Lost in the Big Apple debuted on TV and as of right now, there have been no New Year's special for Nickelodeon shows. The last time I tackled a Weinerville special was a few years ago with the Hanukkah special and if you recall, it's one of the strangest holiday specials I've ever seen. For more details of the special, click here. So, is the New Year's special as weird as the Hanukkah special? How well does it hold up? Let's see and find out.
The story starts off with Marc, Boney, Socko, Pops, Louie, and Captain Bob packing up for a road trip to New York City. While getting ready for the trip, Dottie receives a call from Cocktail Frank saying the bands they hired for the New Year's party have been cancelled and a group of kids are on their way. Dottie calls in Zip to stop them before they leave, but it was too late. Dottie then starts on her quest to let Marc and the gang know about Frank's New Year's Eve party by starting her machine, the A.R.M.S 6000.5. The machine has the power to beam them to any TV so that Dottie can give her message. She first ends up in a TV by a store window. Then she's switched to another TV where two robbers stole from an apartment. She demands them to help her find Marc and the gang and they start dragging it all over the city. Meanwhile, the gang kick Marc out of the van and they separate into various places. Boney wanders around the city, subway, and then dresses like Santa to help a woman receive money for the homeless (but wants to keep it himself), Socko helps a young girl named Jenny play hockey against 4 boys, and Captain Bob entertains a group of kids by the pier. Marc then eventually finds Socko at the toy store and start doing a little shopping.
Meawhile, Dottie is still searching for Marc and the gang, but to no avail. The robbers start getting tired of searching and they return the TV to the apartment they stole it from. She then beams to the large screen at Times Square where the gang eventually see her and head over to the penthouse for the New Year's party. The special concludes with them celebrating New Year's and Boney giving the leftover food to the woman who was raising money to the homeless.
Overall, I have to say that as weird as the Hanukkah special was, at least it had a plot. The plot was practically nonexistent in the New Year's special. There were scenes in the special that showed that there was going to be conflict, but it was pretty much pushed aside. For example, the A.R.M.S 6000.5 can transport her and Zip to any TV, but only until the end they were able to transport to the Times Square screen. Plus, they transported themselves to the party. First of all, why didn't they transport themselves in New York in the first place to look for Marc and the gang? Also, in the beginning, Boney dropped his wallet and it looked like it was going to be some sort of problem in the special. But nope, it was only brought up once at the end when a guest mentioned that he found Boney's wallet and warns him to be careful about losing it. So then what was the point of even showing that scene? It was so unnecessary. While the plot was shoddily written and all over the place with pointless scenes and no direction, the one thing that I can say about it is that it has the classic, corny Weinerville charm that wasn't in the Hanukkah special. It had a lot of cheesy jokes that I couldn't help but laugh at, especially with the Captain Bob segment and the interactions with Dottie and Zip. It felt like I was watching Weinerville.
Overall, if you're a Weinerville fan or a fan of goofy, corny humor, check this special out. If not, then all the flaws I mentioned will distract you from having a good time. This was the only Nickelodeon show to have a New Year's special and I can understand why no one remembers it.
That's all for now. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Happy New Year!
-Patricia
Thursday, December 25, 2014
Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: Christmas in Tattertown
This was a review that's way overdue. 2 years ago on my top 12 Nickelodeon Christmas specials, I had mentioned that I was going to be doing a review of Christmas in Tattertown. Now that today's Christmas, it's time to finally take this special on. Back in the late 80's, Nickelodeon was out of its slump of bankruptcy and was gaining its reputation of being the #1 kids' show mostly thanks to You Can't Do That on Television and Double Dare. However, they weren't known for animation at that point since they still acquired their animated shows such as Danger Mouse, Spartacus and the Sun Beneath the Sea, The Mysterious Cities of Gold, and Count Duckula. However, back in 1988, Nickelodeon became interested in creating their own animation. Then came animator Ralph Bakshi making an animated Christmas special titled Christmas in Tattertown as a pilot for an animated series called The Tattertown Tales making it Nickelodeon's first foray of animation. But nowadays, Bakshi owns the rights to Christmas in Tattertown, so Nickelodeon decided to create Nickelodeon's Thanksgiving Fest a year later and called that their first foray into animation. I did a review of that special a few years ago. If you haven't read it yet, click here.
Ralph Bakshi. There's a huge debate on his style of animation and his way of storytelling with his said animation. Some people love and respect his work, while others can't stand it and see it as a huge mindfuck of madness. Despite that, next to Don Bluth, he was one of the biggest innovators of animation during a time in which animation was at its lowest point with creating low budget 30 minute cartoons based on toys, action figures, celebrities, and movies. Marzgurl from Channel Awesome is doing a Ralph Bakshi tribute, so check it out if you're interested.
With that said, how well does Christmas in Tattertown hold up? Let's take a look and find out.
The episode starts with a little girl named Debbie and her two dolls named Dog and Little Miss Muffet. One day, she stumbles upon a mysterious book that sucks her and the dolls into Tattertown, a town that consists of broken and abandoned toys. When Little Miss Muffet discovers that she can move, talk, and feel emotions, she decides to run away from Debbie since she's sick of the constant hugs and changing clothes that she used to get in the real world. Debbie and Dog meet up with a toy named Harvey who breaks his arm while trying to fight a bodyguard. While she fixes his arm, Debbie wonders about what the toys do around Christmas time. Harvey has never heard of Christmas and Debbie was shocked about it since they were toys and they should at least know about it a little. She then explains what Christmas is about briefly while trying to find Muffet.
Meanwhile, Muffet makes it into a warehouse where a bunch of toys are fighting one another. Muffet yells at them stopping them in their tracks stating that he was going to take over Tattertown and the toys that lived there. The current leader of Tattertown, a spider named Sidney, was impressed with Muffet's attitude and brings him over to his lair where his henchmen reside. He calls them a hunk of junk, but sees that he has no other alternatives.
Harvey takes Debbie and Dog to a comic book store where a Jewish evergreen tree called Tannenbaum sells his comics. Debbie sees that he's the perfect tree to use for Christmas and convinces him to do it when she states that there's no competition. A fly, which is Muffet's new henchmen, finds out that Debbie is planning Christmas in Tattertown and let's her know. Muffet is upset about it so she sends two of Sidney' henchmen and find out how Debbie is planning Christmas. They fail at their mission due to one of the henchmen being an happy, optimistic toy who glows when he saw Tannenbaum decorated with an old Christmas reef. They end up with as glowing ornaments for the tree and sent a postcard to Muffet. Muffet becomes even more furious and plans to fool the citizens of Tattertown by disguising herself as Santa and Sidney as a reindeer. Debbie continues to explain what Christmas is all about while Muffet, Sidney, and a fleet of airplanes fly into Tattertown.
While flying in, they bump into Santa Claus and his reindeer. Muffet decides to change plans to take down Santa, but the planes get confused on the plans and end up crashing each other. Santa then leaves and Muffet and Sidney decides to take matters into their own hands. Harvey is excited about the planes crashing into one another, but Debbie ends up disappointed. She then tries one more time to bring the Christmas spirit by playing "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby in a record player. Sidney starts crying and they fall down. The episode concludes with Muffet collecting Christmas presents in jail.
Overall, all I have to say is one question: "What the hell did I just watch?" I mean, the plot was inconsistent and all over the place. It starts with Debbie landing in Tattertown for the supposed first time, but the other toys knew who she was and she wasn't too freaked out about the toys coming to life. Has she been there before? If not, how do the other toys know her name? Also, it seems that Muffet has little to no motivation on what she wants to do. First, she wants to get away from Debbie. Then, she wants to take over Tattertown. Then, she wants to destroy Christmas. What issues did Muffet have with Debbie? What was her backstory? Why did she want to take over Tattertown? What would she gain from taking it over? Why does she want to destroy Christmas? Why does she want to kill Santa? None of this is ever explained and if it was, it was super vague or completely forgotten and pushed aside. Also, it seems the lesson of explaining of what Christmas is so confusing. Harvey claims that none of the other toys know what Christmas is, but at the same time, there's an old Christmas reef, an evergreen tree, a record of "White Christmas", and Santa. Plus, you cannot be serious that not one toy from Tattertown was opened around Christmas time or knew any other toys that was opened around Christmas before they were broken. Plus, Debbie's teaching of Christmas is so poorly taught and has no significance to the plot. It could've taken place in any other holiday and it wouldn't have mattered. "Christmas Who?", you are not.
The animation is erratic and random, but at least it was somewhat creative. It looks average by today's standards, but compared to animation in the 80's, it's of decent quality. The only highlight of the special was Keith David as Miles the saxaphone, but even then he had no purpose other than just narrating because I still didn't know what was going on. In conclusion, it's bizarre, disjointed, insane, and an overall sloppy execution with very little charm. If you're a hard core Nickelodeon fan or if you're a Ralph Bakshi fan, I would check it out to see Nickelodeon's first attempt of animation before the original Nicktoons that would debut in the 90's. All the others should skip it.
That's all for now. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Merry Christmas!
-Patricia
Ralph Bakshi. There's a huge debate on his style of animation and his way of storytelling with his said animation. Some people love and respect his work, while others can't stand it and see it as a huge mindfuck of madness. Despite that, next to Don Bluth, he was one of the biggest innovators of animation during a time in which animation was at its lowest point with creating low budget 30 minute cartoons based on toys, action figures, celebrities, and movies. Marzgurl from Channel Awesome is doing a Ralph Bakshi tribute, so check it out if you're interested.
With that said, how well does Christmas in Tattertown hold up? Let's take a look and find out.
The episode starts with a little girl named Debbie and her two dolls named Dog and Little Miss Muffet. One day, she stumbles upon a mysterious book that sucks her and the dolls into Tattertown, a town that consists of broken and abandoned toys. When Little Miss Muffet discovers that she can move, talk, and feel emotions, she decides to run away from Debbie since she's sick of the constant hugs and changing clothes that she used to get in the real world. Debbie and Dog meet up with a toy named Harvey who breaks his arm while trying to fight a bodyguard. While she fixes his arm, Debbie wonders about what the toys do around Christmas time. Harvey has never heard of Christmas and Debbie was shocked about it since they were toys and they should at least know about it a little. She then explains what Christmas is about briefly while trying to find Muffet.
Meanwhile, Muffet makes it into a warehouse where a bunch of toys are fighting one another. Muffet yells at them stopping them in their tracks stating that he was going to take over Tattertown and the toys that lived there. The current leader of Tattertown, a spider named Sidney, was impressed with Muffet's attitude and brings him over to his lair where his henchmen reside. He calls them a hunk of junk, but sees that he has no other alternatives.
Harvey takes Debbie and Dog to a comic book store where a Jewish evergreen tree called Tannenbaum sells his comics. Debbie sees that he's the perfect tree to use for Christmas and convinces him to do it when she states that there's no competition. A fly, which is Muffet's new henchmen, finds out that Debbie is planning Christmas in Tattertown and let's her know. Muffet is upset about it so she sends two of Sidney' henchmen and find out how Debbie is planning Christmas. They fail at their mission due to one of the henchmen being an happy, optimistic toy who glows when he saw Tannenbaum decorated with an old Christmas reef. They end up with as glowing ornaments for the tree and sent a postcard to Muffet. Muffet becomes even more furious and plans to fool the citizens of Tattertown by disguising herself as Santa and Sidney as a reindeer. Debbie continues to explain what Christmas is all about while Muffet, Sidney, and a fleet of airplanes fly into Tattertown.
While flying in, they bump into Santa Claus and his reindeer. Muffet decides to change plans to take down Santa, but the planes get confused on the plans and end up crashing each other. Santa then leaves and Muffet and Sidney decides to take matters into their own hands. Harvey is excited about the planes crashing into one another, but Debbie ends up disappointed. She then tries one more time to bring the Christmas spirit by playing "White Christmas" by Bing Crosby in a record player. Sidney starts crying and they fall down. The episode concludes with Muffet collecting Christmas presents in jail.
Overall, all I have to say is one question: "What the hell did I just watch?" I mean, the plot was inconsistent and all over the place. It starts with Debbie landing in Tattertown for the supposed first time, but the other toys knew who she was and she wasn't too freaked out about the toys coming to life. Has she been there before? If not, how do the other toys know her name? Also, it seems that Muffet has little to no motivation on what she wants to do. First, she wants to get away from Debbie. Then, she wants to take over Tattertown. Then, she wants to destroy Christmas. What issues did Muffet have with Debbie? What was her backstory? Why did she want to take over Tattertown? What would she gain from taking it over? Why does she want to destroy Christmas? Why does she want to kill Santa? None of this is ever explained and if it was, it was super vague or completely forgotten and pushed aside. Also, it seems the lesson of explaining of what Christmas is so confusing. Harvey claims that none of the other toys know what Christmas is, but at the same time, there's an old Christmas reef, an evergreen tree, a record of "White Christmas", and Santa. Plus, you cannot be serious that not one toy from Tattertown was opened around Christmas time or knew any other toys that was opened around Christmas before they were broken. Plus, Debbie's teaching of Christmas is so poorly taught and has no significance to the plot. It could've taken place in any other holiday and it wouldn't have mattered. "Christmas Who?", you are not.
The animation is erratic and random, but at least it was somewhat creative. It looks average by today's standards, but compared to animation in the 80's, it's of decent quality. The only highlight of the special was Keith David as Miles the saxaphone, but even then he had no purpose other than just narrating because I still didn't know what was going on. In conclusion, it's bizarre, disjointed, insane, and an overall sloppy execution with very little charm. If you're a hard core Nickelodeon fan or if you're a Ralph Bakshi fan, I would check it out to see Nickelodeon's first attempt of animation before the original Nicktoons that would debut in the 90's. All the others should skip it.
That's all for now. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Merry Christmas!
-Patricia
Monday, December 22, 2014
Old School Lane Casual Chats Episode 38: Interview with Janet Varney
In this special episode of Casual Chats, Patricia celebrates the holidays with interviewing JV Club Podcast host, Rifftrax movie riffer, SF Sketchfest co-founder, and the voice of Avatar Korra from Legend of Korra Janet Varney. They discuss about acting, being involved in Dinner & A Movie, Neil's Puppet Dreams, The Legend of Korra, and play a game of m.a.s.h.
Check out Janet's links below
http://janetvarney.com/
https://twitter.com/janetvarney
Check out the JV Club podcast and its links below
http://www.nerdist.com/podcast_channel/the-jv-club-channel/
https://www.facebook.com/jvclub
https://twitter.com/jvclubpodcast
http://instagram.com/thejvclub/
Check out SF Sketchfest's links below
http://sfsketchfest.com/x/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/SF-Sketchfest-the-San-Francisco-Comedy-Festival/14660367666
https://twitter.com/SFSketchfest/
Check out Janet's links below
http://janetvarney.com/
https://twitter.com/janetvarney
Check out the JV Club podcast and its links below
http://www.nerdist.com/podcast_channel/the-jv-club-channel/
https://www.facebook.com/jvclub
https://twitter.com/jvclubpodcast
http://instagram.com/thejvclub/
Check out SF Sketchfest's links below
http://sfsketchfest.com/x/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/SF-Sketchfest-the-San-Francisco-Comedy-Festival/14660367666
https://twitter.com/SFSketchfest/
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Nick Jukebox Episode 13: It's All That and a Bag of Chips
Nick Jukebox is back and just in time for the holidays! In this episode, we celebrate All That's 20th anniversary showcasing some of the songs that were featured from all 10 seasons. Expect to hear songs from Zhane, IMx, and LFO.
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Old School Lane Casual Chats Episode 37: All That
In this episode of Casual Chats, Patricia and new guests Manic Expression member Eli "The Hero of Tomorrow" Stone, For Entertainment Sake co-founder John "Rugrat" Matthew, and recurring guest Tristen Chance discuss on the 1994 Nickelodeon sketch comedy show All That in honor of its 20th anniversary discussing about the skits, cast members, the Good Burger movie, and the controversial revival era.
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