This week we learned of the passing of Ken Ober, who died at the very young age of 52. Over the last few years, Ober was a mainstay behind the television cameras, as producer of comedies like Mind of Mencia, and The New Adventures of Old Christine. However, for many of us who grew up in the 1980s, Mr. Ober was much more than that. To us, he was a resident  of 72 Whooping Cough Lane who presided over one of the best television game shows ever.

Yes, Ken Ober was host of MTV’s Remote Control.

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For the past few years both Hulu and YouTube, now the grandparents of video-streaming sites, have been the main source for viewing shows from our childhood. While YouTube offers thousands of these shows, many of them are just clips — some of below-average quality — that rarely quench the viewers’ thirst. Hulu, on the other hand, offers full episodes, but not as much variety.

Recently (within the last year or so), two new video-streaming sites have gone online that cater exclusively to kids and, most importantly, our fat, near-middle-aged selves. For this column I thought I’d take some time and review the content on KidsWB.com and the brand-spanking new Jaroo.com.

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Let’s talk. I know you’re a fan of The Wiggles. Come on, don’t deny it! I know you get up and dance when they sing “Hot Potato,” or “Do the Monkey.” I know that you were just as excited as your kids were when you saw them in concert. And I know that you think that Jeff is cute.

I also know that you haven’t seen them on TV in a while. There’s a good reason for that: they weren’t on TV for a while. It seems that the decade-long agreement between The Wiggles and Disney Studios ended back in the spring. There’s no need to get upset, because Sam, Anthony, Murray, and Jeff have all returned with a new series in a regular time-slot. Read the rest of this entry »

The following post is dedicated to my friend Dan, who decided to post a clip of this show on Facebook and open that portion of my brain that actually remembers this program. I don’t know if I should thank him or curse him for pulling out another repressed memory.

I’m about to talk about a series that, at first, you may not remember. However, as I press along and show a few videos, I’m sure you’re going to slap your heads and exclaim, “Holy Hannah, I remember this show!” Soon enough, the theme music to this program will seep through your brain, opening up passages that you thought closed for decades. It is then that you will either rejoice in the fact that I’m writing about this show, or scream in agony at the fact I made you remember.

And now, let’s talk about Pinwheel. I’ll wait for your rejoicing and screaming. Read the rest of this entry »

An interesting phenomenon is taking place in Hollywood. There are two summer releases connected to extremely popular action figures of the 1980s. The first is the sequel to The Transformers, which premiered earlier in the season. The second, which enters the fray on August 7th, is G.I. Joe. Not the G.I. Joe that featured the Kung-Fu Grip,but the G.I. Joe that faced the international terrorist organization known as Cobra.

While G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra barely resembles the original ’80s cartoon, it does give us a chance to recall the heyday of Duke, Flint, Cobra Commander, Destro, Scarlett, and, my favorite, Shipwreck.

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Voice actors … the unsung heroes of cartoons produced for television. Since the first  Crusader Rabbit aired in 1949, these folks have tirelessly voiced millions of characters, in thousands of cartoons, sometimes doing more than one voice in each cartoon. Yet, unless you stared at the closing credits, you never really knew who these people were.

Still, there are a handful of actors and actresses whose names we do know. Like Mel Blanc, who voiced Bugs, Daffy, Porky, and Barney Rubble. Or Daws Butler and Don Messick, who voiced practically every character in Hanna-Barbera’s library. Or June Foray, who voiced Rocky the Squirrel, among others. 

Then we have Casey Kasem — a man who voiced two of the longest-running characters during the heydays of Saturday morning cartoons. With the recent retirement of Casey from his countdown radio show, I thought I’d take some time to talk about the many cartoon voices he provided over the decades. Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s continue our occasional series on animated robots of the 1980s. In the first part we discussed Challenge of the Gobots, which was a less than stellar example of the transforming robots genre. This time around we’ll talk about the Greatest Robot Cartoon Ever Made! I speak of The Transformers.

You may not believe this, but the original (and greatest) Transformers series premiered twenty-five years ago! No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. It’s been a quarter of a century since you rushed home after school to forego your homework and watch Transformers (as well as G.I. Joe and Voltron) before your folks came home from work. With the current Transformers movie raking in the big bucks at theaters and the 25th anniversary Transformers season 1 DVD set currently available, now is the perfect time to talk about these “Robots in Disguise”. Read the rest of this entry »