Look what I found: it's a website about British 80s cartoons. Dare I say that young British kids were exposed to cooler cartoons than we Americans?

And did you know that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are called "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" over there?

I know I'd rather watch Willo the Wisp than the Snorks: "Simple and often bizarre British cartoon featuring the tales within Doyley Woods, told by Willo the Wisp. Each episode featured the fairly Mavis Cruet and her friends Arthur the caterpillar, the Moog the dog, Carwarsh the short-sighted cat, the Beast, and Evil Edna. Each episode lasts rougly 5 minutes."

Whoops, I got so excited reading about "Bod" that I forgot to post the link: http://www.80scartoons.co.uk/

(Edited by smee at 12:28 pm on Jan. 26, 2003)

I bought a set of Ninja Turtle trading cards at a flea market that were from England and on the cover of the box, they are called "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" and Michelangelo has been stripped of his nunchucks, making him the only turtle without a weapon. Now I have to ask, what is England's deal with ninjas and nunchucks?

i believe that "ninja" was replaced because in british/european culture, it's another word for assassin.

i found a great site the other day, it actually has full downloadable episodes of snorks, muppet babies, denver the last dinosaur, the fucking wuzzles!!! count duckula david the gnome and the short-lived mc hammer cartoon and a ton of other really cool stuff. it's british too, actually.
http://www.aowz68.dsl.pipex.com/cartoons/

(Edited by 6969hOoBaInCuBuS420 at 7:41 pm on Jan. 26, 2003)

anyone remember kidd video?

i loved kidd vdieo

holy crap. reading some of the concepts for these cartoons, i agree that america may have gotten jipped (no offense to the gypsies). some of my favorites are "bananaman" and "trap door." but the most hilarious to the point of bordering on scary award goes to "stoppit and tidyup." here's a synopsis:

"Characters: Stoppit, Tidyup, Wash Your Face, Calm Down, Beehave, Beequiet, I Said No, Eat Your Greens, Don't Do That, Go To Bed, Clean Your Teeth, Take Care, Go and Play, Say Please and Thank You, Not Now, Comb Your Hair.
They all live in the land of Do As Your Told, with the Sit Downs, and Naughties (which give you Naughty Pox!). "

thanks for this treat, smee.

holy shit! they have episodes of MASK on this site! my dream has come true......

also on a related subject, the first season of GI Joe is being released on dvd by rhino records in March....now you know, and knowing is half the battle....

(Edited by ray davies at 12:18 am on Jan. 27, 2003)

I remember watching and loving Bananaman when I was little. I don't think I've met a single person (besides my sister who watched it with me) who has ever heard of it. Unless I'm greatly mistaken, it used to come on in the middle of episodes of Pinwheel (one of my favorite childhood shows that, once again, most people give me confused looks about) on Nickelodeon.

we're gonna be rockin', *blah blah bluh blah bluh blah*, from my radio to my video...i liked that weird super mario bros. cartoon too. they showed zelda cartoons occasionally.

Yes Club Mario ruled and I could never wait until Fridays to see the Zelda cartoon. The theme song of that show was a total rip-off of Janet Jackson's "Black Cat" (or perhaps Black Cat was a total rip-off of that show's theme song...). Anyway, those were the days.

GI Joe is on Cartoon Network at 11:30 on weeknights. What a blast. The only downside: no lesson for the idiot kids at the end of the show. I was highly dissappointed since I have worked in "and knowing is half the battle" in daily conversation since high school. I was trying to show my wife that I wasn't fully commitable to the loony bin yet, watching an episode waiting for the dumb ass lesson at the end to no avail. Man, was I pissed.

My favorite lesson has to be these kids playing baseball (do kids even play baseball today?) and they see a downed electric high wire zapping and hissing on the ground (who hasn't see a downed high wire just fall in broad daylight? Happened all the time in my town.) They all go racing over to play with it or something and Roadblock jumps outta the bushes (I still to this day wonder why a heavy machine gunner was hiding in the bushes watching kids play) and tells them how dangerous a livewire was and that they needed to go call an adult (not that he was in "America's Premiere Elite Special Fighting Force" or anything) Of course the kids are most thankful that a member from GI Joe was watching out for them. And they just happened to know his name.

Of course, Cobra was so inept, I guess GI Joe had time to do this stuff.

Duke: Ok guys here's our roster duty for the week

Joe's: Yo Joe!!!

Duke: Flint and Lady Jaye, you'll be disrupting Cobra Commander and Destro's plot to get heavy water, ancient asteroid dust and frozen snow peas to keep them from getting their Destructo-Ray 8000 online. Snakeyes, Deep Six, and Ace, you'll be tailing Zartan and his Australian biker gang in the swamps of Louisiana. Gung-Ho, Road block.... ummm lessee here... ummm well, it looks like Major Bludd and Baroness are on vacation this week.. ummm. Why don't you guys go hide in the bushes and keep kids safe from doing stupid stuff, like playing with downed wires or throwing rocks and rabid raccoons or something...

Joe's: Yo Joe!!!!

We had a whole topic about Pinwheel a while back- with a good link to Pinwheel theme songs:

July 24, 2002

My favorite was the one where the kids were playing hide and seek in a junkyard. They found everyone except one kid. Then they heard muffled screams coming from a nearby refrigerator that someone had thrown out. For some reason, the kids couldn't figure out what to do. (Even as a dumb kid, I would have known to (*gasp*) open the refrigerator!) Fortunately, one of the Joes was combing the junkyard (which is very strange... I would've thought they had plenty of parts with all of the military spending that went on during the 80's). Anyway, he let the kid out and warned the others not to play inside of old appliances... which is a very import lesson that we all should learn.

Wasn't Roadblock the one who rhymed everything he said?

I remember seeing this lesson as a very young child. I also remember going to a park and seeing a kid go into a porta-john. I ran quickly to tell my mom that someone had went into an old fridge. I didn't know at the time the wonders of moblie outhouses. My parents of course had a good laugh at my expense.

Did anyone like that math show on PBS called "Square One"?

yes, i did....it had a very catchy theme song......very educational.

This show was bizarre but entertaining. Mathnet and the Blackstone tricks were cool. There's a website that actually has a week-worth of Mathnet epsidoses for download - I can't remember the address, but how many Square One sites can there be?

every time i turned it on, it seemed, it was the episode where the kid is learning about fractions, so he goes to a pizza restaurant. education ensues. i was also fond of the woman in the rainbow jumpsuit, whatever her name was, and mr. good body.

does anyone remember jem and the holograms? i distinctly remember that "live wire" story from that show, though i can't remember much else. i always thought rio and that black drummer woman were cool because they had purple hair. now that i look back on it, though, i think it was a girls' show.

The G.I.Joe Movie DVD has 25 of those lessons as a special feature. I once watched all 25 lessons back to back and got the equivalent of a K-5 education. Like, did you know that if you want energy and can't decide between a candy bar and an apple, Lifeline will come and bring you an apple! If you ever catch fire in the woods, Spirit (the Native American Joe who wore feathers and had a pet eagle, of course) will come and wrap you in a blanket to smother the flames! I also remember learning that if you see a bottle with a skull & crossbones on it, it's probably not safe to drink...

And the Roadblock quote that I remember..."I don't need to see clear to fracture your rear." I also find it humorous to limp around saying raspily "I was once a man...once a man...!" Geez...the G.I.Joe movie rocked...

The show came on after G.I.Joe on USA's Action Train morning line up (all I remember was a train full of random cartoon characters...) so...I think many of us were sucked into watching Jem...um...yeah....

I remember that show, but I thought that it was Gem. Oh well, I actually have the doll and a tape of some songs in a box at my house. I should look for those.

And, yes, I think it was a girl's show...

Jem... Jem is excitement
Oooooooo Jem... Jem is adventure
Oooooooo Glamor and glitter... fashion and fame!
... JEM!

Yeah, that show was totally for girls, but I was always too late to change it before the theme song came on. And for that reason, it is to this day permanently etched into my hippocampus.

That's right, I said hippocampus.

I believe that the politically correct term is injun.

I remember watching Jem. Her alter-ego was Jerica Benton, who was supposed to be so super rich that she could afford to have a hologram-producing super-computer named Synergy in the basement of her mansion.

Jem and the Holograms were arch-rivals with another band called the Misfits. This makes me wonder which local band is The Features' arch-enemy. Does the management of the Boro have a band?

The Lucky Guns

I think the Del Giovanni Clique would be the Feature's arch enemies. They apparently "slammed" the Features in interviews. Also, the Falling: they don't think the Features are emo enough--Matt doesn't turn his back to the audience and cry.

that's the funniest thing i've read in a while.....damn emo bastards.....

Yeah, that's the truth. I've had to defend the awesomeness of the Features more than once to Tyler, but he just won't hear it. Otherwise, he's a nice guy and I honestly think the falling can at times be an outstanding band. By the way, I think they changed their name to The Black Soul Choir after jumping ship at No Karma.

You seem to have a high opinion of Tyler. If you haven't met him, I'd be happy to introduce you at the next Red Rose show. (It sounds like Smee's already had the pleasure.)

i'll take you up on the offer, mr. carligula.....i'm sure it would be interesting.

(Edited by ray davies at 2:04 am on Jan. 29, 2003)

I was Jem for halloween once.

uh, well, i saw the falling play a show with the gloria record and harmonium at indienet several years ago. that's the only experience i've had with the band, but that was all i needed.

Good. You just might find that (although extremely rare) some people who don't particularly care for the Features can still be really cool.

I agree that they're definitely not for everyone, but I'll also say that they are the single most everchanging band I have ever seen. Not only does the lineup and material constantly change, but so does the attitude. You never know what you're gonna get with these guys. Lately, they've been very punk rock. Tyler sometimes plays solo shows and that's probably how I enjoy his music the most. He's really vocally talented-- he usually just ignores it.

I just assumed that you had met him, Smee, because he works at pretty much all the Red Rose shows.

Shit. I guess, by law, I'm a pussy. The prophecy of all the other kids at school has finally been confirmed.

Truthfully, though, I think it came on before or after a show I really liked...most likely Woody Woodpecker (and Chilly Willy!)