The Half-Hour Toy Commercial, Part 2: More Than Meets the Eye!

The story behind the Transformers begins with with a pair of toylines from Japanese toymaker Takara (also known as Tomy in the US) known as Microman and Diaclone. In 1974 some of the Microman line was licensed by Mego (known to geeks like me for their wide collection of DC and Marvel Super-Hero doll...uh...8-inch action figures) and was marketed as The Micronauts. The Micronauts toyline failed (though the Marvel Comic based on it is quite fondly remembered by many and, like Rom: Spaceknight, outlasted the toy on which it was based) but the technology behind the line was bought by Hasbro who then used it to rebrand it's GI Joe line from the '60's as GI Joe: A Real American Hero. As anyone who was a little boy (or was buying toys for one) in the early '80's knows quite well, GI Joe was a giant success. So much so that Hasbro elected to buy the rights to Takara's Diaclone line as well; Diaclone was a spin-off of Microman, featuring exceptionally tiny Microman figures piloting transformable mecha (designed by future Macross -- known by many in the US as Robotech -- designers Shoji Kawamori and Kazutaka Miyatake). Hasbro decided to follow the same formula that had brought them success with GI Joe; partnering with Marvel Productions and the Griffen-Bacal Advertising agency (which also brought their own animation studio --Sunbow--into the mix) they used a three-pronged marketing strategy which included the toyline, a Marvel comic-book tie-in, and an animated series. Marvel's then-editor in chief, Jim Shooter, developed the basic plot outline--warring robot factions, good Autobots waging their battle to des-troy the e-vil forces of....the Decepticons--and then brought in comics great Dennis O'Neil to create character names and profiles. For whatever reason, Hasbro was unsatisfied with the bulk of what O'Neil turned in and asked for revisions, which O'Neil declined to do (he is, however, credited with having named Optimus Prime). Shooter then brought in Bud Budiansky, who would go on to write the Transformers comic for Marvel, who then proceeded to hammer out the characters and scenarios most of us remember.

The animated series was produced jointly by Marvel Productions and Sunbow Productions, with the bulk of the animation done by Toei (in Japan) and Akom (in Korea). It debuted in America in syndication in September of 1984, with the three-part pilot "More Than Meets the Eye." This was immediately followed by the series. Oh, and in case you're wondering as to why I'm covering Transformers before GI Joe, it's because, while Marvel/Sunbow produced two syndicated GI Joe mini series ("GI Joe: A Real American Hero" --also called "The MASS Device,"-- and "The Revenge of Cobra") in 1983 and '84, the series itself didn't start until 1985, a year after the debut of Transformers. You probably weren't wondering. Oh well...

Suffice to say, Transformers was a big success, not only in the US, but also in Great Britain and Japan. This actually makes discussing the series a little difficult, as, after the US series ended in 1987, Japanese animators Toei produced 5 more Japan-only Transformers series (using the same character designs and plot threads from the original series), and Great Britain had at least one season cobbled together from old animation. What's more, the Transformers has been resurrected a number of times, as Transformers:Beast Wars, Transformers: Armada, and the more recent Transformers: Animated (ick, in my opinion), just to name a few, right up to the most recent version appearing exclusively on The Hub. For the purposes of this article, I will only be discussing what has come to be called Transformers, Generation 1, the series that aired in the US from 1984-87.

This one loomed large in my childhood. The toys were a pure delight; the first one I got was given to me by my dad (not even on my birthday! How about that?) and was one of the smaller plastic Transformers that I now understand were from the Diaclone line (the most famous of these was, of course, Bumblebee, though that wasn't the one I was given). Later I got the Lamborghini, Sunstreak, and was just about as pleased as a nine-year old could be. The cartoon was just icing on the cake; it was on in the early morning, just before I went to school, so I got to watch it while eating breakfast. Let's make no bones about it, it was an adventure series aimed at elementary-school kids, but even so, it had echoes of the epic in it, particularly in the later seasons. The animation was the kind anyone familiar with a Marvel/Sunbow production would expect; occasionally quite good, sometimes a bit sketchy but, somehow, always compelling (Marvel/Sunbow , together or apart, also produced Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, The Hulk, GI Joe, Dungeons and Dragons, and a host of others, just in case you didn't know, and, in the case of Marvel Productions, was the last remnant of the old Termite Terrace that produced all those great Warner Bros. cartoons). There's a definite anime flavor to the animation that's subtle, but easy to catch if you know what to look for. But, as with anything, the appeal was not so much the animation as the characters, and the mythos.

The basic storyline as established for the cartoon was that the Autobots and Decpeticons had for centuries (or perhaps millennia) been fighting for control of their home planet, Cybertron. When energy reserves begin to run low, the Autobots launch a mission, led by their commander Optimus Prime, to search for new resources. Optimus and his crew are pursued by the villianous Megatron and a contingent of Decepticons. Both ships crash-land on a prehistoric Earth and are, for reasons I can't remember, placed in some form of suspension until they awake in our modern era. They take the forms of various vehicles and machines in order to camoflage themselves, and so their conflict continues, with humanity and the Earth now thrown into the mix.

The heart and soul of The Transformers was Optimus Prime, leader of the heroic Autobots. He was pretty much everything any little boy (and probably not a few little girls) might hope to grow up to be: powerful, compassionate, just, intelligent and heroic. And he was a giant robot; I mean, c'mon, who didn't want to be a giant robot? At least once? The characters that surrounded him, except in the VERY beginning, tended to fluctuate; at first you had Ironhide and Doc and Jazz and so forth, but the writers would occasionally haul somebody else in if they could use them to a specific purpose. Bumblebee was always a constant; he was the perenniel "little brother" to the other Autobots, a young soldier, spy and scout with loads of courage and potenetial but little comparative experience (which is funny, since according to the series even the youngest of the Autobots is several million years old). On the opposite side you had the sneering, brutal Megatron and his lieutenants, the ambitious Starscream and the coldly obedient Soundwave. An interesting twist in this series was that the heroes always seemed to be playing catch-up to the villians; the Decepticons controlled Cybertron, where the Autobot resistance had been driven underground, and controlled the "cosmic elevator" (or whatever) that allowed them to get supplies from home. The Autobots allied themselves with humanity, but that ended up doing us more good than it did them. The essential difference between Autobots and Decepticons was not so much that one was good and the other evil as that the Autobots worked to preserve life and sustain themselves while the Decepticons only concern was to sustain themselves and to secure their means of doing so. As time went on we learned more about the history of Cybertron, about how both Autobots and Decpticons had been slaves to the Quintessons (and their respective emblems were slave brands--the Autobots as workers and the Decepticons as soldiers).Ultimately the Decepticons would be driven from Earth, but the Autobots would lose Cybertron to them in the process. Optimus would die and be resurrected; the horrendous Unicron, Devourer of Worlds would show up (he was, I'm not kidding, a truly titanic robot that transformed into a planet--after his destruction in Transformers: The Movie there was a whole storyline where one of the Decepticons was hearing voices telling him to reattach Unicron's head to Cybertron so that Unicron might be reborn...crazy stuff).

The Transformers ran in first-run syndication from 1984 to 1987, for a total of 98 episodes. Transformers:The Movie (the animated one, not the one with Shia LaBoeuf) came out in '86, and is well worth taking a look at (and yes, that's Orson Welles as Unicron, believe it or not). A fine adventure 'toon, all things considered. A good deal of fun.

Next time: GI Joe!

The Half-Hour Toy Commercial, Part 1: In the Beginning...

Okay, because YOU demanded it (well, maybe not): Toy-Based Cartoons: Crap, or Completely Worthless Drek?





Just kidding, folks. This particular post is inspired mostly by irritation; I was tooling around on Cartoon Brew, a site devoted to all things animated, and in one talkback thread a number of commentators were talking smack about the phenomenon of the "half-hour toy commercial," i.e., the animated cartoon based on a toy. If you're like me, some of your fondest cartoon memories stem from such fare, so you can understand if I felt a little miffed by the prevailing attitude. So, I did a little research on the subject and voila, this post is what you get. Don't you feel lucky?





First off, a history lesson. You'd think the "half-hour toy commercial" has existed as long as there's been TV animation, right? Not so. In the mid-sixties, Mattel attempted to produce an animated series based on Hot Wheels, their venerable miniature toy car line. They received the smackdown in no short order from the FCC, who then issued a ruling that said, essentially, that no cartoon (or children's program) was to be based on a toyline, (or existing product, aimed at children) for all the reasons that you might imagine (I haven't been able to discover if this Hot Wheels series was ever actually aired, or if it died in the production stage). Cartoon characters could be used to advertise products, and were (the Flintstones were used to sell cigarettes, Jonny Quest to sell sneakers, etc), but no cartoon could be completely based around a saleable product. This did not cover, for reasons that I've not seen made clear but am grateful for, cartoons based on comic books, or cartoons that themsleves inspired toylines. This ruling held until approximately 1980, when it was significantly amended; the FCC's new policy stated that a cartoon COULD be based on a toy, so long as that toy was not otherwise advertised during the cartoon's commercial slots. This ruling was by no means unchallenged but the floodgates, so to speak, were opened.





At this point you might be asking "So Rob, what was the first cartoon to be based on a toy?" Well, here's where it gets a little hazy. There are cartoons based on product lines that include toys, but are not inspired by toys specifically; there are cartoons that are not based on toys, but clearly hope to inspire them (this coined the term "toyetic" among cartoon producers, to refer to elements of a show that could help to support a toyline, such as special vehicles and whatnot; Thundercats is perhaps the best example of this), and various permutations along those lines. The first cartoon to be based on a licensed product line was American Greeting Card's Strawberry Shortcake. This line began in 1977 and had multiple iterations in the form of cards, toys, games, etc. The cartoon series began in 1980 and as such, technically qualifies as the first "half-hour animated commercial" for anything. Then you have Pac-Man, based on the legendary video game, which premiered in 1982 (and was considered such a hot property at the time that its commercial breaks were double the normal length to accommodate all its advertisers). If you asked most people who care anything about the topic, they'd say the first was probably Filmation's He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, given that it was first a toyline and then a cartoon. Be that as it may, I'm not going to attempt to be exhaustive in my discussion here; there are simply too many series to discuss with any breadth and, to be honest, a lot of them really are pure crap (Rubik the Amazing Cube? Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders? Meh.) In most cases, few even remember the really bad ones, or the equally lame toylines they were based on. I, instead, am going to focus on series I feel were particularly good, particularly important, or ones that, for ephemeral reasons, I just plain liked. It's my post, so I'll talk about what I want. Nnyah!



He-Man and the Masters of the Universe:

-based on the popular sword and sorcery toyline from Mattel. Mattel had originally intended to base a line of toys on Conan the Barbarian, given the resurgence on interest in the character brought about by Marvel Comics’ adaptation and the (then) recent Arnold Schwartzenegger film. Somewhere in production, however, either out of a failure to secure merchandising rights or someone getting the idea that a marauding Nietzschean barbarian probably wasn’t the best model for a line of children’s toys, they came up with Masters of the Universe instead. The backstory they came up with, as detailed in the mini-comics that were included with each figure (beautifully illustrated by Conan veteran Alfredo Alcala) was very reminiscent of Conan’s world, with some science fiction elements thrown in by way of Eternia’s being a post-apocalyptic wasteland with advanced weapons and vehicles as well as magic thrown into the mix. The toys were a big success, so Mattel commissioned Filmation, then a leader in adventure cartoons, to come up with an animated series. Filmation dumped the original premise for the one most of us are familiar with, in which Adam, the prince of Eternia (now more like Flash Gordon’s Mongo –-Flash Gordon, perhaps not coincidentally, being another animated series produced by Filmation—than Conan’s Hyboran age), presented with a magic sword by the mysterious Sorceress of Greyskull which can transform him into He-Man, the “Most Powerful Man in the Universe,” defender of all that is good and true and so forth. His nemesis, the evil Skeletor, plots with his henchmen to conquer Eternia, and also to control the mysterious Castle Greyskull and thus gain, one imagines, absolute power. The premise combines elements of a traditional super-hero scenario with the afore-mentioned Flash Gordon, and bears a more than passing thematic resemblance to another Filmation series, Blackstar, which preceded it by about a year.

I freely admit that I enjoyed He-Man quite a lot when it originally aired in syndication. It was exciting and, as I’ve mentioned in other posts, adventure cartoons have always been something of a rarity. Filmation actually did a lot of great work on this series; the character designs are excellent (and the female characters actually hot, which was a bit of a novelty in 1983, when this series premiered), the backgrounds are detailed and appropriately surreal, and the music is actually quite effective in setting tone and mood. Still, even at the time, I thought the show’s reliance on stock animation was a bit hokey (a lot of character action sequences, clearly rotoscoped, were used repeatedly; this is kind of a hallmark of Filmation productions). Believe it or not, even with the cost-cutting measures of re-used animation and a limited voice cast, He-Man was one of the costliest productions of the ‘80’s because it was entirely produced in the U.S., by union animators, rather than relying on overseas studios. For the time, many of the scripts were groundbreaking, dealing with actual character issues (Adam’s feelings that he can only be of use to anyone through He-Man, Teela’s discovery that she’s an adopted child, Orko’s feeling’s of uselessness, etc.). Looking at it now though, it seems so extraordinarily dated as to make me cringe, especially with the hit-you-over-the head morals tacked on at the end of each episode. He-Man actually pioneered that particular format, one echoed in most toy-based adventure 'toons throughout the ‘80’s. Even though I remember this series fondly, I can’t say it’s one I’d care to see again, even through the rosy spectacles of nostalgia.

He-Man ran in first-run syndication from 1983 to 1985 for a whopping 130 episodes, and it’s spin-off series She-Ra, Princess of Power (1985-87, and introduced in the film The Secret of The Sword, which I am only slightly embarrassed to admit I paid money to see) ran for 77; both episode counts are quite impressive, especially when you consider that a good run for an animated series today is 65 episodes. He-Man was reworked into the almost unrecognizable The New Adventures of He-Man, from French/Canadian animation company DIC, in 1990, and was revived in 2002 as a series, for Cartoon Network, from Mike Young Productions, which more or less faithfully followed the characters and scenarios laid out in the original 'toon.


A few things I didn't know about He-Man, that I learned while doing research for this article: J.Michael Strczynski (creator of Babylon 5) and Paul Dini (one of animation's top writers and one of the guiding lights behind Batman: The Animated Series) were both writers for He-Man, and Bruce Timm (also of Batman: TAS and currently one of the heads of the DC Universe animation wing of WB Animation) was an animator on it; Timm's first published comics work was one of the mini-comics included with a He-Man action figure.

Well, that’s all for now. Join us next time for The Half-Hour Toy Commercial , Part 2: The Transformers!

Gems From the British Broadcasting Corporation

So I’m a fan of the United Kingdom’s version of PBS. In the UK, households that have a television capable of receiving broadcast transmissions are taxed 145.50 pounds (about 235 US dollars) per year. This fee, along with various other private and public revenue streams, provides funding for the largest broadcaster in the world, employing about 23,000 staff members. Some of their episodes get more than 350 million viewers worldwide. There are typically no commercials or advertisements in the original broadcasts in the U.K. I’m going to go over some of the shows I have seen and enjoyed and give a brief review of each. All of the shows I am reviewing are available on Netflix (several are available for instant streaming view). I’ll give my impression of the programs (or programmes as they say across the pond) and hopefully some of my descriptions will make them sound interesting enough for you to check out yourself.

First up is the one I have watched most recently, Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch (nice British name) as Sherlock Holmes and Martin Freeman as Dr. John Watson. It is a retelling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective stories updated and set in contemporary times. The series is only three episodes, ninety minutes each, so really like a series of movies more than a show. Series one is out now on DVD/blu-ray and series two will broadcast in the UK sometime late in 2011, so I look for the U.S. DVD release to be around November of that year as well. The acting by the leads is nothing short of amazing, and part of that is the superb material they were given to work with by the writers. Martin Freeman as Dr. Watson proves that he really can act again after his less-than-stellar turn as Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Fans of the original The Office will recognize him as Tim Canterbury, the show’s straight man. He plays Dr. Watson as a very capable and steely companion to Holmes. Technically speaking he’s the sidekick, but it really plays as more of a partnership. The real pleasure to watch is Cumberbatch’s scene-stealing performance as Holmes. Every move and mannerism exudes the confidence of a man who knows he’s the smartest guy in the room, no matter what room he’s in. On a side note, Freeman will be playing Bilbo Baggins in the upcoming 3-D epic, The Hobbit.

Cumberbatch and Freeman as Holmes and Watson in Sherlock

I have recently started watching Top Gear re-runs on Netflix instant streaming. It started life way back in 1977 as a conventional car magazine show. In 2002 it was relaunched/rebooted and developed into a humorous show in which the hosts bicker cordially about what car is the coolest that week and which one of them is the slowest driver or the most dithering Englishman. Now I’ve only seen a few episodes, but already I am a fan of the show. Not for the witty and insightful reviews on autos, but for the amazing chemistry these fellows on the show have with each other. Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May (a.k.a. Capitan Slow) present cars, do stunts, make short films, and give each other a hard time. Then there is the anonymous professional test track driver they use known only as “The Stig.”

Pictured from left to right: Richard Hammond, Jeremy
Clarkson, James May, and last but not least, “The Stig”

Sounds simple, but when you watch it, it all comes together to give a very satisfying show. To me, the show is most of all funny, but it does have some excitement and “coolness” factor thrown in as well. For instance in the first show I watched, Capitan Slow took a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport to 417.6 kilometers per hour (259.48 miles per hour), the fastest a stock production car has ever been recorded to go. Reading this may not seem very exciting but watching it on the show actually was. The next episode I watched, the gents took a road trip from Miami to New Orleans. The catch was, they wanted to see if they could buy a car for what it would cost to rent one for two weeks, then sell the cars at their destination. So they bought cheap cars (under one thousand dollars each) and went on a road trip. The result was funny, touching, and at one point, quite scary. Redneck hillbillies were scary in Deliverance, and they are scary now.

The Bugatti Veyron and interior (world’s most expensive street
legal car with MSRP of 850,000 pounds or 1.7 million dollars)

In 2004, a programme called Doc Martin was released. The show stars Martin Clunes as a brilliant and highly successful London surgeon who happens to have developed haemophobia. So to avoid encounters with blood, he moves to a Cornish seaside village called Portwenn to be the towns General Practitioner. I am actually reluctant to include this show on this list because it definitely is not for everyone. It is a slow paced dramady that relies, at least in a small way, on the viewer’s ability to understand and enjoy the idiosyncrasies that come with being an Englishman. The location of the fictional town of Portwenn is actually Port Isaac, Cornwall, and it is beautiful. I don’t know if fishing towns like that really exist anymore or if they have modified it for the show, but it really is amazing. I don’t see how places that stunning aren’t overrun with residents…which would spoil some of the splendor. If you enjoy slow, occasionally funny, British drama with stunning seascape backdrops, this show is for you. If not, pretend you missed this last paragraph.

Martin Clunes as Doctor Martin Ellingham
and the sleepy fishing village Port Isaac

“If you want to live, run!”

“Who are you?!”

“I’m The Doctor.”

“Doctor who?”

“Exactly. Now come on!”




Wow. Who doesn’t like the new Doctor Who? I’ll tell you who. People who haven’t seen it. I will tell you right now that if you consider yourself at all a geek and you sit and watch the newer iteration of the series (relaunched in 2005 after a sixteen year hiatus) from the first episode, you will be hooked by episode three. There is a reason that this show has been on the air since 1963. It can be amazing. There is a reason that this show was off the air for sixteen years. It can be abysmal. However, the new series from 2005 onward is genuinely good TV. All the things you remember (or in my case, heard about) that were horrible about the old show are either gone, or made fun of in a tongue-in-cheek, self-referential way. For instance, in the old show, the evil creatures the Daleks were goofy, cheap-looking rolling garbage bins with plungers attached to the sides. There was a joke that to get away from these “scourges of the universe,” you just needed to find some stairs (please see figure 1). Now in the new series, they look…well, pretty much the same, but they do it knowingly, which makes a difference. Hell, they even have the heroes running from one at one point and they come to some stairs. They run up one flight and stop, breathlessly pointing out that they are safe now since it couldn’t come up the stairs. “Ha ha, we can poke fun at ourselves” they seem to be saying…right before the Dalek starts flying. Resume chase.

Left is the old Daleks, middle is the new Daleks…they look
different!...a bit…or not…then figure 1; the comic strip

The actors who have played The Doctor have all been very good in different ways, and his companions have been very good as well. In the first season, his companion is a blonde by the name of Rose Tyler (played well by Billie Piper). She’s one of those girls who when you first see her you think, “yeah she’s pretty I guess.” Then the more you watch her, the hotter she gets, until you wonder, “Why didn’t I notice all those glorious curves before?”

David Tennant as The Doctor with Rose (Billie Piper)
on left and Martha (Freema Agyeman) on right

The current season has a beautiful redheaded Scottish girl named Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) as his companion. This is one of my favorite BBC programmes ever, and I unreservedly recommend it to any geek.

Matt Smith as the current (loveable but geeky looking) Doctor
and his current (smoking hot) companion Amy (Karen Gillan)

The Office. When you speak of it, most of us Yanks think of the Steve Carell vehicle in which he plays Michael Scott, the regional manager of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company (Scranton Branch). But the successful U.S. version is actually based on a successful British version in which David Brent (Ricky Gervais) runs the Slough branch of Wernham Hogg Paper Company.

Gareth, Tim, Oggy, David, and Dawn from 2001’s The Office

Tim Canterbury (again a perfect performance by Martin Freeman) is constantly winding up Gareth Keenan (Mackenzie Crook’s Gareth is as good as and in some ways even better than Rainn Wilson’s Dwight Schrute). I know, I know, this is all old news to everyone not living in a cave for the past 5 years, but how many people here in the States have bothered to watch this original? It consisted of two seasons with six episodes each, then a wrap up Christmas special. I am not going to go into an in-depth review here because I think anyone who enjoys “British” humour should do themselves a favor and watch it. Any review I give would only be me gushing over it some more. By far, it is my favorite show from the BBC, ever. If you are going to watch just one show on this list, for God’s sake, let it be this one. If you watch the entire series from start to finish, you actually get engrossed in these characters lives. The payoff at the end of the Christmas Special episode is one of those perfect moments in TV history…but only if you’ve watched up to that point. For me to tell anymore would be like telling you “Darth Vader is Luke’s father” right before you go see The Empire Strikes Back. This series was superbly written by Ricky Gervais and his frequent collaborator, Stephen Merchant.

David Brent demonstrating his mad dance skill in the Christmas special

Another project by Gervais and Merchant after The Office was Extras, a show about struggling actors working as extras on film sets and in theatre. This show actually aired on HBO in the U.S. shortly after it’s BBC airing as it was co-produced by the BBC and HBO. It also followed the same format of two seasons of six episodes each plus a Christmas special that The Office had followed. This format seems to really speak to me as it is long enough to get the viewer emotionally attached to the characters, but it stops before it becomes wearisome, leaving the viewer wanting more. Extras was also a little more like a traditional sitcom than the previous The Office, which was filmed in a mockumentary style. Each episode had at least one guest star playing themselves…or at least themselves through the veil of parody. For instance, one episode has Patrick Stewart as a guest star. It is kind of well known in the United Kingdom (according to their tabloids) that he tends to date only younger women and only as long as they are young. In the episode, Gervais’ character Andy is trying to get Stewart to read his script he has written. In convincing him to read it, Stewart in turn tells Andy of his own script he’s been working on in which he just gets to run around and beautiful women’s clothes fall off whenever he comes near them. It’s completely absurd and awkward and brilliantly funny when you see it on the screen.

Along with Ricky Gervais and Ashley Jensen, Extras
featured several famous guest appearances

Speaking of Patrick Stewart, in 2006, he played Professor Ian Hood in the series Eleventh Hour. Professor Hood is a Special Advisor to the Joint Sciences Committee in the United Kingdom (no idea if that’s even a real thing). He is basically like the egghead police, tracking down and troubleshooting threats stemming from or targeting “Science” (capitalized and in quotations because it really becomes like a character itself). He is followed around by Rachel Young (played well by Ashley Jensen), who is for all intents and purposes, his bodyguard. Yeah, he’s kind of a weenie, but he comes across as a lovable weenie. While the science in the programme is at times sketchy, overall I found it entertaining. There are only four episodes, ninety minutes each, similar to the format followed by Sherlock. While it’s nowhere near as good as Doctor Who, The Office, or Sherlock, it did serve as an adequate sating to my appetite for British programming. Being a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, it was also nice to see Patrick Stewart back on the small screen again.

Patrick Stewart and Ashley Jensen as Professor Ian Hood
and Special Branch operative Rachel Young

If you are into spy thrillers at all, Spooks is a great drama about MI-5 (in fact, here in the States it was broadcast under the title MI-5 to avoid any potential confusion about ghosts). To give you a bit of background, MI-5 (Military Intelligence, Section 5) is the United Kingdom's counter-intelligence and security agency, working alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI-6). Where MI-6 operates abroad (a la the Central Intelligence Agency in the States), MI-5 operates domestically, mainly concerned with internal security, protecting Brittan's economic interests, and countering terrorism/espionage (a la our Federal Bureau of Investigation). The show has been on for nine seasons, with six to ten hour-long episodes per season. I have only seen the first season and part of the second, but the show is still in production. It is a fast-paced show with plenty of action and adventure. The characters use guns, which if you know anything about British shows, it fairly rare. It is a "post watershed" show, which means it can get pretty intense. It's not always appropriate for younger viewers as the show is somewhat well-known for things like depicting torture, murder, race riots, and killing off of main characters suddenly. I love this show and can't recommend it highly enough.


My next BBC watching project is Wallander, a show adapted from Swedish novelist Henning Mankell’s novels of the same name. The lead is played by Kenneth Branagh (probably the most well known Shakespearian actor/director of modern times) as the eponymous police inspector. I’ve only seen the first episode of the show (another 90 minute movie/3 episode series format), and it was not the best I've seen. The acting was terrific, one would expect nothing less from Branagh, but the pacing was slow. The pacing wasn't necessarily bad, as it was a steady build up to the climax, it was just a slow, steady build up. It held my interest long enough to finish the first episode, but I haven't yet started the next, so that tells you how good it was. If you like slow, methodical dramas that are heavy on character, this is for you. Be warned however that it really is slow. Have I mentioned the slow pace enough? Alright. Moving on.




To sum up, I find that BBC programming can be a very pleasant diversion from the banality of American television. If something is successful here in the United States, it has to have every last drop of profit squeezed from it and what you are left with is often times stagnation. If something is popular, we must keep it going. This can sometimes work to our benefit. I still enjoy The Simpsons. It can also work to our detriment. For instance, the American version of The Office would have had a very nice wrap up if they had ended the show with Jim and Pam’s marriage and the subsequent birth of their daughter. Instead, those events are just another in a long line of “things” that have happened on the show. Continuing the show takes away some of the impact of those events. I still watch the show, and it is still funny, sometimes very funny, but it is no longer fresh. It makes me wonder, “what would happen if the writers of this show starting something new and original?” Since the BBC is a public entity, they do not necessarily sacrifice story for profit. They end a lot of their series’ at the height of their appeal (excepting perhaps Doctor Who, a cultural mainstay), leaving a pleasant memory, making us hungry for more. Then they make something fresh, new and different. I like our television here in the States. I’m just saying we could learn some valuable lessons from our friends across the pond.

Here are some links to relevant clips. First, the clip from Extras with Patrick Stewart. Next is a short preview for Sherlock. Finally, here is a nice clip from The Office that highlights the incredible awkwardness that Gervais can achieve. Hope you all enjoyed the blog. Up next is a retrospective on America's favorite family. See if you can guess who it is. Cheers!

How Can I Convince You to Watch This?

Avatar: The Last Airbender

I recently re-watched the entire run of this show through Netflix instant viewing. Avatar: The Last Airbender, also known as Avatar: The Legend of Aang (not to be confused with the misguided attempt at live-action-adaptation The Last Airbender, by M. Night Shyamalan or Avatar, the 3D epic by James Cameron) had its initial run on Nickelodeon from 2005 to 2008. I watched every episode I could then and I loved it.

For my money, it’s the best animated television show. Ever. Bold statement, eh? Well that’s how this show makes me feel; emboldened. The epic adventures of Aang and “Team Avatar” have made me laugh, gasp, and even shed a few tears (not least of which when the show ended).

“So get on here and write about something you love,” they say. Sounds easy enough, but I now find myself hesitant; afraid I will not be able to give it the treatment it deserves. So after thinking about it for a bit, I’ve decided not to try to give this epic masterpiece a full treatment. That would not only take a lot of time and space, but would deprive those few geeks living in a cave who haven’t seen it the pleasure of discovering this amazing work.

Instead I’m going to give some arguments to support my “best cartoon ever” opinion. Earlier I was reading Rob’s entry on Disney’s Adventures of the Gummi Bears and he mentioned a few of the reasons that show resonated with him. It was well animated for it’s time, it occasionally dealt with adult-themed issues, and it had an actual ending to the storyline. Avatar: The Last Airbender has these things in common with it, and they are equally resonant to me.

It is overall a kids show, but at times had some pretty scary moments. In the episode The Siege of the North, Part 2, Aang finds himself in the spirit world, a parallel plane of existence in the world of Avatar that is home to immortal supernatural entities that embody different aspects of life and nature. While seeking vital information, his path leads him to what looks like a giant dead mangled tree with a hole in the trunk, leading to a cavern inhabited by Koh, the Face Stealer. Geez, just writing about it kind of gives me the shivers. This thing was full on creepy. While approaching the cave, Aang encounters a monkey and when it turns around…Ah! No face! Shit! Yeah, Koh steals people faces and monkey faces? Messed up. He apparently can only steal your face if you show him any emotion. I guess the monkey didn’t have the steely resolve that the Avatar did. Aang does get the information he needs without showing any emotion, but just barely. My daughter became genuinely scared during the episode and we had to take a little break. Of course five minutes later, she was begging to turn it back on, but it was still pretty scary stuff for a kids show. So as my daughter says, “it’s okay to keep watching ‘cause Aang got out just fine.”

Meeting Koh the Face Stealer

That was one of the things that made me love the show. I never expected to see a scary scene in a children’s adventure show. The show tried to be more than “just a kid’s show” throughout its run. It often tried to stir emotions in the viewer (in my case successfully). In the episode The Library, Team Avatar find themselves separated from a kidnapped Appa (Aang’s loyal Sky Bison). As Aang searches for Appa in the subsequent episode The Desert, his frustration builds, culminating in a furious rage-induced Avatar-state. Aang destroys some desert-style sailboats and nearly loses control. Before Katara is able to calm him, you get the distinct feeling that he was about to kill anyone who got between him and his bison. Who hasn’t been frustrated to the point of tears before? If you had the Avatar’s powers, could you turn back when you reached that breaking point? When a kid’s show asks important questions like these, it becomes more compelling.

The Avatar enraged

It wasn’t always rainbows and lollipops for Team Avatar. The hardships faced by the characters give credibility to the story and a more adult feel, sometimes very adult. In fact, at the end of season two, the Fire Nation has conquered the last Earth Kingdom stronghold, Ba Sing Se, and Azula nearly kills Aang dead. And I don’t mean like “Oh I went to the strip club and my wife found out” dead. I mean like “struck-by-lightening-heart-has-stopped-oh-shit-he’s-dead-what-do-we-do-oh-yeah-maybe-this-spirit-water-will-help-last-ditch-effort” dead. We the audience are like, “Wha? The bad guys won? That sucks!” Yeah, there is another chapter to the story, but ending a season on such a down note is definitely not done often in kids programming.

Badass Katara saves Aang

The show also showed the awkward and confusing feelings all teenagers experience with love. In the first season, Sokka falls in love with the northern water tribe princess, Yue. He is tasked with protecting her from harm when the fire nation attacks. The repercussions of the events that follow haunt him throughout the series. In the penultimate series episode The Ember Island Players, he is seen sitting with his current girlfriend, thinking of Princess Yue, and weeping. In the episode The Boiling Rock, Part 2 we see Mai’s love of Zuko make her betray Azula. And lets not forget the burgeoning romance between Aang and Katara.

The show often dealt with the concept of death. At the outset of the show, Katara and Sokka’s mother is dead, Iroh’s son is dead, the Avatar is thought to be dead, hell, the fire nation committed genocide against the Air Nomads! Not to give anything away, but not all the deaths in the series occur off-screen. In the series finale, everyone, and I mean everyone is trying to convince Aang to just kill the Firelord to end the war. The Air Nomads are pacifists and raised Aang to not believe in killing. He searches for an alternate solution, but even when the time has come to face the Firelord, no solution has been found. Aang perseveres and although it isn’t the easiest solution, he finds one that doesn’t involve the death of the Firelord. He showed that even though it may not always be easy, there is always a choice. Now if it were me, I would’ve just killed the bastard. But that’s just me.

The final showdown with the Firelord

The show also tried to evolve their characters over time. The villain from the first season eventually becomes one of the Avatar’s greatest allies. In the pilot episode, we see Katara struggling to barely bend a small amount of water. In the final season, she is one of the most powerful benders in the world. The fat, lazy, tea-swilling Uncle Iroh (my all time favorite character by the way) is gradually shown to be one of the wisest, most caring, and most dangerous characters of the series.

On a side note, Uncle Iroh was voiced in season one and two by the Japanese character actor Mako, who died between seasons two and three. There is an episode called The Tales of Ba Sing Se that is a mostly lighthearted episode filled with mini-stories of the various characters. The Tale of Iroh segment is different though. He is shown preparing for a picnic for a “very special occasion.” We find out toward the end that the special occasion is the birthday of his deceased son. Throughout the segment, you can hear Mako pouring his soul into his voice performance. You can tell he genuinely cared about his art. At the end of this very touching segment, Iroh is singing a hauntingly beautiful song about a little soldier boy, and then this placard appears to end the sequence.

In a two-and-a-half-minute segment, I was made to weep.

Love. Death. Hate. Revenge. Forgiveness. Mercy. All these things were explored in the world of Avatar. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all heady melodrama. In fact, the majority of the show was fairly straightforward kid’s adventure fare with some comedy thrown in. But it had that perfect combination of light-hearted adventure and universal life-lessons that made me love it.

How do you make something you love even better? Share it with someone you love. My four-year-old daughter and I watched it together this time and it was an amazingly fulfilling experience. We watched an episode or two every day after she got home from school. The feelings of excitement and joy I got from watching these adventures of Aang and his friends were amplified by my daughter’s excitement and joy. When she heard the familiar opening sequence playing, she would immediately jump up and pantomime the kung fu actions she saw on screen. Hell, I felt like joining her. She has had dreams about being a water-bender and “all the cool magic stuff you could do” if you were one. If you’ve never seen this show, you should. But even if you have seen it, share Avatar: The Last Airbender with a loved one. You’ll enjoy it more the second time around.

Finally, a few links to videos. The first is of a clip of what may be my favorite moment in the entire run of the show where Team Avatar breaks into the Earth Kingdom palace to speak with the Earth King. Watch how badass the team can be, especially Katara. Love it. The second is a video of my daughter Belle watching the Avatar opening show credits. Cheers.

Game Design 101, er 02 maybe 3 part 1

When the opportunity to write this came up I was unsure how to approach the topic. Do I pawn myself off as an expert and hand down my beliefs on stone tablets or do I stammer through hmmming and hawing. Finally I decided to just explain my thought process on a couple of games I have designed. One of the games, Flapjacks and Sasquatches, is produced and on game store shelves where as the other one is about to , hope hope, be produced.
First let me say I came at these games from different directions and in a round about way. I in my unnerving geekness had wanted to design a game for many years. I had tried out a few ideas in college, where I was the Vice President of my games club, I know I know but some how I still attracted my wife. Any way I had a few concepts and themes I explored. They ranged from rpg's centered on a condemned apocalyptic New York to farming on another planet, I know who would play a game about farming, crazy. All these ideas seemed to fall by the wayside. School demanded more time, my girlfriend became my fiancée, and life progressed ever forward. I continued to write short stories and plan out rpg campaigns that no one would ever play, but game design had dropped into the black hole of lost notebooks and dust covered game bins. I had two awesome kids (three now and all girls Yikes) and really started playing games again. I played Candyland and Shutes and Ladders with my kids and more complex games with friends. My friends and I started having a guys game weekend once a year and I made my return to Gencon. Having delved back into the world of my zit faced childhood I ventured back to game design.
I tried to come up with an original game concept. I looked at dice, cards, this new worker placement stuff I had heard about that all the kids were playing but everything I thought up seemed to just be a revamped something else. So I decided to go from the other side of games the all important Ameritrash concept of theme. I hoped to come up with an awesome theme and encapsulate it so well that everyone would rave about how it was really like farming on another planet. In looking for a theme I saw a messing with sasquatch commercial and thought I want to make a game that has a crazy Sasquatch in it, but where could Sasquatch roam free to cause havoc with the world. That is when it hit me. I don’t know if it was years of Monty Python or a childhood spent vacationing in a cabin in Brainard just miles away from Paul Bunyan Land. Yes all you non Minnesotans there is a Paul Bunyan Land where a 20ft tall Paul talks to you by name as you come through the gate. But either way Lumberjacks were the key.
I am a very visual thinker and so images started flowing into my head and being a gamer I needed to turn all the manliness that is lumberjacking into homophobic childish jokes. It started with an apprentice and me thinking hey how can they lure him away. Well flapjacks would be cool, wow there’s my title but it isn’t funny. I know a fat guy in a bikini standing in a pin up pose. From there I rolled with all the Sasquatch cards hoping to encapsulate the “Messing With Sasquatch” humor but in reverse. Notice in my infinite genius I still didn’t have a game mechanic. That is when I split from one deck to two and decided that I wanted dice rolls in the game. The decision to add dice was for one simple reason, this game is humorous, silly and a very spiteful game and I find dice are the ultimate spite shot to the groin. You can do everything right in a game and end up rolling the critical failure. With that I took it a step further. Yeah I need chops, and misses but how about I add salt to that groin kick and have a way to break your axe.
You may think man he must really like spite games and you would be absolutely right. I love teaching this game because it only takes one or two turns to see spouses turn on each other and kids to get mom and dad (mad gleeful cackle). I know there are those of you who think man this guy deserves to get ripped up on his own game well I did not win one game in the first 40-50 games I played, and my partner loves to tell all people playing the first time that if you play Tree Hugger on me in the first turn you will have good gaming luck the rest of the day.
Now I’d like to say I play tested the hell out of this game, and that I had focus groups and surveys to tell me how great it is. I’d like to but I was blissfully stupid on how to go about game design. The game clicked right away. I ripped it apart doubting myself as others said it was great. I changed more myself then anyone else wanted. Luckily it worked. Every game since this one has not just fallen into place. But I'll save those for part 2
So until next time keep geeking.

"I will NOT be defeated by two children and a handful of mythological bears!"

Okay, you asked for it (well, Ryan asked for it, anyway) so here it is: Rob's review of Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears.

Yeah, that's right. Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears. What's that? Something to say? Got some snarky comments to get off your chest? No? Good.

Gummi Bears began life in 1985 as one of three productions that marked the beginning of Walt Disney Animation Television (the other two being The Wuzzles, which debuted immediately before Gummi Bears on September 14, 1985 -- and which only lasted one season -- and The Fluppy Dogs, which never got past the aired pilot movie). It was created by Jymn Magnon and Art Vitello based on an idea by Michael Eisner (Eisner essentially just came up with the title, which occured to him when his son asked for some Gummy Bears candy). It ran on NBC until 1989, when it moved to ABC for it's final season, paired with Disney's The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. It was later rerun as part of the Disney Afternoon block of programming throughout the early '90's.

To quote Wikipedia :

The series focuses on the escapades of the eponymous "Gummi Bears," anthropomorphic bears who are the last remnants of a once-great civilization of Gummis that fled the land centuries ago when humans, jealous of the advancements and magical skills of the Gummi Bears, forced the species into exile. Now regarded by most of humankind as fairytales, the show's main cast of Gummi Bears (six in number at the outset of the series, increased to seven during the third season) live in the vast subterranean warren of Gummi Glen in the medieval kingdom of Dunwyn.

The Gummis' modern adventures begin when they are discovered by a human boy named Cavin who happens to have a Gummi Medallion, found by his grandfather many years earlier. After he accidentally enters the colony's underground home of Gummi Glen, they capture and interrogate the boy as to how he gained the medallion. During the questioning, Cavin escapes after Tummi inadvertently gives him Gummiberry Juice to drink, but refuses to cause any harm and attempts to befriend the reclusive bears. Impressed by this civilized behavior, they make him swear to keep their confidence and make him a privileged friend of the colony. The medallion magically unlocks the colony's Great Book of Gummi, an essential reference guide to the forgotten knowledge of the Gummi Bears. Inspired by its writings, the colony resolves to rediscover their heritage and help Dunwyn defend against evil. Later, another human from Dunwyn accidentally learns that the Gummi Bears are real: the young daughter of the king, Princess Calla. She also promises to keep the Gummis' existence a secret. In subsequent seasons the Gummis would befriend or be discovered by other friendly humans.

The main antagonist of both Dunwyn and the Gummis is Duke Sigmund Igthorn, a renegade noble with an army of ogres, from the neighboring province of Drekmore. Unfortunately, in stopping Igthorn's attempt to bombard his enemies with a grand catapult, the Gummi Bears alert him to their presence. Igthorn will stop at nothing to discover and exploit their secrets to become invincible and capture Dunwyn Castle. Chief among his primary goals is gaining a reliable supply of the Gummi Bears' vital strategic substance, Gummiberry Juice, a magic potion that endows Gummi Bears with bouncing abilities, but gifts humans or ogres with momentary super-strength as well as other numerous uses, including serving as fuel for machines.

In addition to combating Igthorn's ambition, the Gummis regularly encounter other evil humans and magical beings ranging from wizards to gods, all the while attempting to hide their existence from the world at large. One of the show's main recurring storylines outside the schemes of Igthorn is the mystery of the ancient Gummis, who are now scattered all across the world, but who have left advanced technology behind them

The first thing that stands out about Gummi Bears is it's look. The character designs are very attractive, rounded and expressive in the classic Disney sense. The animation quality is superb, especially for a tv cartoon in the mid '80's; the characters are sharply defined, the animation clean and fluid, no cel is reused (ala: He-Man or anything from the Filmation assembly-line), and the backgrounds are rich and detailed. Seriously, when watching this series, look at the backgrounds. REALLY look at them. It's remarkable the level of detail put into them.

For all the show's visual appeal, however, it was the mythology of the series that really hit home with me. A lost colony of an ancient, advanced race, scattered and hunted, rediscovering their past and trying to forge a future for themselves. In a kid's cartoon. From the '80's. Think about that for a second. It's a remarkably solid fantasy premise. Every season had a few episodes that touched upon the premise; one, during the very first season, is a gem called Zummi Makes it Hot. In this episode, the water at Gummi Glen has abruptly stopped, and the bears must, of course, fix it. One group elects to check the pipes for leaks, while another, using an ancient map found in their Great Book, goes to check for the source of their water. It's an effecting moment when, upon discovering the vast, sophisticated pumping station high in the mountains, the characters stare about themselves in awe, marvelling that their kind could ever have built such a thing. One character turns to another and says, with genuine heartbreak in her voice, "It's terrible what we've forgotten." Can you think of many other cartoons that would have tried to communicate that notion? That cultural achievements, cultural identity, can be lost, and it's terrible when it happens? Heady stuff, when you're 10. Or when you're 40.

Beyond this, the show's a great deal of fun, written with wit and charm (a whole lot of charm, really, which is sadly missing from a lot of cartoons, then and now) and, I've no doubt, a great deal of love on the part of those involved in it's production. The first three seasons are available on DVD from just about any outlet; the series lasted for, I believe, six seasons, so hopefully Disney will get around to releasing the rest of it, one of these days. Another interesting note: Gummi Bears was actually allowed to have an end. It didn't just abruptly stop when it went off the air, it had a multi-part storyline (King Igthorne, it was called) that resolved the various plot threads from throughout the series. How many times have you seen that happen?

Ultimately, Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears is a darned fine 'toon, never anything less than entertaining. Run out and watch it, right now!