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8/13

We all have our heroes. A hero is someone you can look up to and count on to be there in your darkest times. But what happens when your hero needs a hero? Robin Williams succumed to depression on Monday. In his darkest hour, well, you know. Words cannot express how sad this is for myself and so many other people around the world. From the first time I saw him play Peter Pan, I was hooked. I felt so bad for him not fitting in as an overgrown child, but those other kids didn't know Jack. Even though he's gone, there's no Doubt his Fire will never burn out because people like him never really go away. He left behind so much GOOD and HAPPINESS in this world and will never truly be replaced. He helped make comedy what it is today. Comedy that I, myself, use to help battle my own depression. I'm not going to make this post about me at all, I'm just saying I think I have an idea of what he probably felt that day. I never met him, but I bet he, no.. I KNOW he brought so much joy to everyone in his life. He brought so much joy to everyone in the world who happened to know him as Robin Williams, the actor. The standup comedian. The man trapped in the Jungle for 26 years until someone rolled a 5 or an 8.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a personal note:

Robin, thanks. For everything. You could have kept your gift to yourself, but you didn't. You gave it to the world. You have inspired millions to simply smile. I know I have a gift similar to yours; not nearly on the same level of genius as you, but you know what I mean. I want to share my gift the way you shared yours. I want to entertain people and make them happy. I vow to never give up that dream and maybe one day we can meet and tell jokes to each other. I bet I can make you laugh ;) R.I.P... you're in a much happier place now. God Bless you, Robin.

 

-JB

8/28 - JME Announcement!

I am excited to announce that while I'll be working on my music and podcast, I've added something new to my plate. I will be doing a tribute to my favorite cartoon of all time - Steven Spielberg's: The Animaniacs. Doing a tribute to it means I'll be analyzing every aspect of the show. There's so much to The Animaniacs from the music, the humor, the celebrity spoofs, the different segments, and more! I'll even take an in-depth look at stuff the behind the scenes such as the writers, the animators, the composers and the voice actors. There's much to go over such as the 4 DVD sets, the only Animaniacs movie: Wakko's Wish, video games, plush dolls and much more. I will make a new tab at the top of the site specifically for the tribute so everything's easy to find. I will begin ASAP and I'm very excited to get started. I'm even going to try to get exclusive interviews with people who worked on the show! So stay tuned and hellloooooooooooo nurse! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-JB

 

9/14- Marc Summers Pleads Nickelodeon For Him to Host a Reboot of Double Dare and Nickelodeon's Response

 

On October 6, 1986 (that's roughly 5 months after I was born), the groundbreaking and influential kids' game show simply known as Double Dare debuted on TV hosted by the one and only Marc Summers. For those too young to remember, the game show was about two teams consisting of two kids competing against one another answering questions to get the highest score to go into the Obstacle Course where they would try to win numerous prizes. Marc Summers would then ask a question to one of the teams and if they didn't know the answer, they could dare the other team for double the money. If none of them knew the answer, they would take The Physical Challenge. The Physical Challenge and Obstacle Course were some of the main highlights of the show since it consisted of the craziest, slimest, and messiest games ever! Every kid I knew growing up wanted to be in Double Dare and still do after almost 30 years later. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the main highlight that people still remember fondly to this day is Marc Summers. Marc Summers, alongside assistant Robin Marella and announcer John Harvey, had amazing chemistry, hilarious antics, a charming personality, and a serious, yet playful demeanor that shined whenever he interacted with the contestants, live studio audience, and the viewers who saw it on TV. Even still to this day, no other game show host from Nickelodeon could match Marc's charisma or charm and people still regard him as the best game show host Nickelodeon has ever had. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that we gotten our brief history of Double Dare out of the way, now time for news. Recently, on The Huffington Post, Marc Summers is interested in rebooting Double Dare for a new generation at Nickelodeon.

 

"Here's the deal. I would love to do some form or fashion of it. Let's just say that right now ... the people who run the Nickelodeon network and I don't necessarily see eye to eye," Summers told host Josh Zepps. "I've been trying to make nice to those people, but they refuse to talk to me."I think they think I'm way too old to do it. I still have the energy and I think I could, So I'm putting a call out to the folks at Nick: return the phone calls, have a discussion."

 

To learn more about it, click on the link here. I'm very mixed about this possibility of a supposed reboot to Double Dare. On the one hand, I agree that the only person who I can see host Double Dare is Marc Summers. I don't agree with Nickelodeon saying that he's too old to host the show. Some of the most iconic actors and actresses have kept their roles at their senior years. Fred Rogers from Mister Roger's Neighborhood was 72 years old when he retired from the show. Bob Keeshan was 57 years old when he retired as Captain Kangaroo. So the whole speculation that Marc Summers is too old to host Double Dare is ridiculous. He's been a great host and executive producer at the Food Network shows Unwrapped, Dinner Impossible, Restaurant Impossible, and Rewrapped.  On his spare time, he does Double Dare games for college students and even drunk versions of the game called Dunkle Dare, sometimes alongside Robin and/or Harvey. He may be older, but he hasn't lost his touch.

 

With that said, this isn't the first time that Double Dare has been revived for a new generation. Almost 15 years ago, Double Dare 2000 debuted to gravitate towards the kids who never saw Double Dare the first time. However, it was critically panned by many viewers with it not being as good as the original. Eventually the show was cancelled after a few months due to poor ratings. While Jason Harris was a decent host, he was no Marc Summers. Plus, they added in a new segment called "The Triple Dare Challenge" which makes the Physical Challenge more difficult, yet if it succeeds, the team would get triple the points. This was one of the worst things they added into Double Dare 2000 that was not needed. Other than that, this revival played it way too safe being exactly the same as the original. With that, Double Dare 2000 has pretty much faded into obscurity with the original Double Dare still remembered in fondness. 

 

 

 

 

 

That got me thinking. If Marc Summers plans on rebooting Double Dare, what new things will he add to make the new generation intrigued? My main problem with Double Dare 2000 was that it was the same as the original. I don't think doing the same thing with having Marc Summers back is the answer. Ok, yes, it's what everyone wanted in the first place, but there has to be some new ideas implimented into this reboot to attract the people who didn't grow up with Double Dare. Maybe some new challenges, new questions, new prizes, maybe a celebrity guest here and there, and bringing back Robin and Harvey for a couple of episodes. Knowing Marc, I know he can make it work.

 

Here's the sad and ironic part, a few days after Marc Summers made his plea to no avail, Nickelodeon is planning with the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball team to do a "90's Are All That" tribute at the stadium by having Kel Mitchell do the first pitch and have random spectators compete in a Double Dare game. To know more about this, click on the article here. Nickelodeon hasn't acknowledge Double Dare in a very long time, not even when it celebrated its 25th anniversary a few years ago. It's such a shame. Besides You Can't Do That on Television, Double Dare was the show that put Nickelodeon on the map. It was the very reason why kids tuned into Nickelodeon other than any other channel. It would be nice if the network would acknowledge it as oppose to ignore it and bring it back in some way, shape, or form when they feel like it. Knowing Nickelodeon, they will miss on another good opportunity to bring viewers again and they'll continue to stay in their rut. Marc Summers deserves better than this and I'm glad he has moved on.

 

-PM

 

If you're interested in seeing more of my work, check out my personal blog site at oldschoollane.blogspot.com. 

 

 

 

9/18- Throwback Thursday: Nick Jukebox Episode 1: Pinwheel, Rugrats, and SpongeBob, oh my!

 

We here at For Entertainment's Sake love a lot of things, especially two things: music and Nickelodeon. Two years ago, I decided to put them together inspired by Derek Alexander's RetroBeats and the frustration of the modern pop songs on Nick Radio. With that, Nick Jukebox was born. In the premiere episode of Nick Jukebox, expect songs from Pinwheel, Rugrats, and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. Enjoy!

 

-PM

 

If you want to see more of my work, check out my website at oldschoollane.blogspot.com

9/21- Nickelodeon's Ratings Results In An All Time Low

 

Around a few weeks ago, Nickelodeon received their results on the newest ratings and unfortunately, it does not look good for this network. The newest live action shows that debuted not too long ago such as Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, and Dawn and Dan Schneider's newest program Henry Danger  started with less than 2 million viewers. Shows that are getting new seasons such as The Haunted Hathaways, Awesomeness TV, and The Thundermans are not doing well either gaining at least 1.5 million viewers. Even worse, TMNT, the only good Nicktoon on the air, received a very pitiful 1.3 million viewers after coming back from its brief hiatus when Nickelodeon was promoting the latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie produced by Michael Bay. OVerall, Nickelodeon has gained about 1 million viewers, which cannot compete against The Disney Channel and Adult Swim's ratings of 1.14 million viewers. While Cartoon Network is in third place in ratings with 900,000 views, shows such as Steven Universe and Teen Titans Go!  are the top 10 rated shows with children 2-11. Disney has seven shows at the top 10 run, while Nickelodeon has none. To learn more about this, check out the article right here

 

This isn't the first time that Nickelodeon has dropped in ratings this low. A few years back, Nickelodeon had lost 1/3 of its viewers and had lost its spot as the #1 kid's network after holding that position for over 20 years. Nowadays, the Disney Channel holds this spot as crazy as that may sound. Actually, not really. Disney has been doing very well lately with great shows such as Phineas and Ferb and Gravity Falls. As for Cartoon Network, besides Steven Universe and Teen Titans Go!, they also have the hugely popular Adventure Time, Regular Show, Clarence, The Amazing World of Gumball, and more. Plus, the Hub has My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dan vs., Littlest Pet Shop, and reruns of classic 80's and 90's shows such as Batman: The Animated Series, Animaniacs, Tiny Toon Adventures, and more for nostalgic adults and a new generation of kids who never saw it the first time. From the looks of things, it seems that Nickelodeon has became more irrelevant now that these other channels are sporting these critically acclaimed programs.

 

Nickelodeon has had made numerous mistakes over the years, more recently being taking out The Legend of Korra out of their main lineup due to low ratings and put it on their website. Going back to TMNT, they have already featured the most recent episode on their website before they aired it. Hell, the 2nd season finale was already posted on their website just yesterday. And Nickelodeon is wondering on why TMNT is low on ratings. It's because they already saw it on your website, you incompetant idiots. Why would they bother watching it on TV again? Don't be surprised if Nickelodeon decides to feature Season 3 online because ratings isn't what they expected. Nickelodeon has been on their rut for almost a decade and it seems that they're going to continue going down because they haven't learned their lesson. They've debuted shows that no one likes and no one cares about, their lineup of constant comedy with the same concepts have became redundant, they've kept creators of programs that have been around for so long such as Butch Hartman and Dan Schneider that their ideas are tired and stale, they do Internet fads that will later become outdated in a few years, and their main focus has been litle kids as oppose to a wider audience like they used to back 30 years ago. When Disney and Cartoon Network were on their slumps a few years back, they at least got out of it by releasing shows that didn't dumb down their audience.

 

Nickelodeon hasn't learned that lesson at all and continue to lose more viewers and ratings. If they continue as this rate, Nickelodeon will be no more. As much as I want to see them struggling and eventually crumble and fall due to not listening to the people who have stuck with them since they were children, I have a little bit of hope that Nickelodeon will change. Not much, but a little bit. I know that deep down inside, they will change for the better. Back in the early 80's, Nickelodeon has hugely overshadowed by other networks such as CBS, NBC, and ABC with their acquired programs and has deeply in debt. Then they started again from scratch and became the innovative channel we grew up with in the 80's and 90's. It seems that history is repeating itself again. Let's hope they start again from scratch and rise again, otherwise they'll be a relic in the past. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-PM

 

To know more about my work, check out my personal website oldschoollane.blogspot.com

 

 

 

 

10/11 - Movie Review "Annabelle"

 

Before I get started, I want to apologize for the long absence. Honestly, I'm the flakiest person in the world and I'm lucky enough to have patient people like Douglass and Patricia to bear with me and not get sick of waiting around for new material. Thanks to you two, and thank you to our fans for coming back to check for new content. I promise to do my best to update this site at least once a week! I'm trying, guys!!!!!

 

Anywho, the review. I'll try to be as spoiler-free as I can.

 

As much as I love Nickelodeon, not everything I love in life is based around that. One of my loves is movies. Specifically horror. Annabelle is a movie set before the events that happened in The Conjuring where it focuses primarily on the creepy doll named "Annabelle". This isn't a movie like the Chucky films where the doll becomes possessed and goes around killing people. This is a movie about a demonic spirit latching onto the doll and using it in manipulative ways in order to get what it wants : a human soul. Something that confused me about the movie is they tell us that demons can't latch onto objects because they cannot inhibit the human body. What about possessions? I actually had a whole big paragraph typed out but had to backtrack because that thought crossed my mind and devalidated everything I just typed. Anyway, the demon uses the doll to try to manipulate Mia, the lead female, into giving it her newborn's soul. Without giving anything away, the methods used are very effective and freak the crap out of the viewer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I told a coworker that I was excited about seeing Annabelle he responded "Really?!" like it was a surprise. I don't think people are taking this movie very seriously because it's about a doll. People are very wrong. Annabelle is very effective at creeping you out very thoroughly and it delivers the dreaded 'jump scares' in a tasteful way. The jump scares aren't overdone and I appreciate that. In my opinion, they're mostly what's wrong in a lot of horror films these days. That, and the PG-13 rating.. but that's for another discussion. I think people should give Annabelle a chance. The theatre I was at was packed on a Tuesday night. People of all ages were there from age 5(seriously parents?!) to people well in their 50s. ON A TUESDAY. During the movie, I could tell people were getting restless because 'not enough was happening' like they were expecting countless jump scares and scary stuff to happen the whole movie through. That's another thing I respected from Annabelle - the pacing. One thing James Wan - the producer of Annabelle, the man behind The Conjuring, Saw, and the Insidious films - knows is pacing. Making the jump scares count. Knowing how to build up suspense to really gnaw at the audiences nerves. You know who he reminds me of? Alfred Hitchcock, the master of suspense himself. In my opinion, James Wan is the best person in the horror genre right now. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I give Annabelle a SOLID 8 out of 10. I held back because since it's the inferior the prequel to the perfect 10 out of 10 "The Conjuring". The Conjuring 2 is due out October 23, 2015. Let's cross our fingers James Wan is involved.

 

Annabelle is based on true events dating back to the 1970s. Here's an interesting article I found about the real life Annabelle. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-JB

 

9/25- Throwback Thursday: Nick Jukebox Episode 2: Electric Bugaloo

 

Last week, I posted the very first episode of Nick Jukebox which features songs from classic Nickelodeon from the 70's to the 00's. Now here's episode 2 of Nick Jukebox which features songs from Spartacus and the Sun Beneath the Sea, Clarissa Explains it All, and Taina.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10/16- Old School Lane Casual Chats: The Secret World of Alex Mack

 

Hey guys, sorry I haven't been posting in a while, but I just got back from my trip to NYC to attend Mathew Klickstein's Slimed! book event. I'll post my experience on the event some time this week. With that said, I posted a new episode of my podcast Casual Chats before I left. The topic was The Secret World of Alex Mack in honor of the show's 20th anniversary. Please enjoy the podcast alongside special guest comic book, TV show, and movie reviewer Kat "Comic Uno" West.

 

-PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10-31: Nick Jukebox: Happy Halloweenie

 

Happy Halloween, everyone! In honor for the special occasion, here's an episode of Nick Jukebox that I did last October celebrating Nickelodeon Halloween songs from shows such as Are You Afraid of the Dark?, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-PM

 

11/27: Nick's Thanksgiving Fest Review

Today is Thanksgiving! A time in which we have delicious food surrounded by our families as we talk about everything that we're thankful for. Every year as kids, Nickelodeon would have marathons of our favorite shows that we would tune in and see. Also in the mix would be some of the Thanksgiving specials that they would air. While Thanksgiving specials in general aren't as prominent compared to Halloween or Christmas specials, they still give us that warm feeling inside. Today I'm going to review a very forgotten Nickelodeon Thanksgiving special.  That special was none other than Nickelodeon's Thanksgiving Fest which debuted on November 29, 1989.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around 1989, Nickelodeon was starting to establish itself as the #1 kid's network due to the popularity of Double Dare, Eureeka's Castle, Total Panic, and Hey Dude, but still wouldn't have their own exclusive cartoons until two years later. So before Nickelodeon formed its own identity with their style of cartoons, the animation they were known for was the animation that came from their promos and ads during the shows that were on at the time. In fact, Joey Ahlbum, the main animator behind the iconic "doo-wop" dinos was one of the directors of this special as well as the animator behind the small segmentthat showed during the special. You probably remember about Joey Ahlbum from my review of Standby: Lights, Camera, Action!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, that's right. Nick's Thanksgiving Fest was the very first original animation exclusive to the network. Is this classic special still heartwarming and sincere after over 20 years later or is that the indigestion kicking in? This is Nick's Thanksgiving Fest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


We first cut into a few animated segments consisting of how they made cranberry sauce and trying to interview a wild turkey. Then we cut into our first segment called Thanksgiving Nightmare. It's about a mouse and a cockroach wanting to eat the leftover food left by the family who lives at the house they reside in. When trying to get the leftovers, they bump into each other and start having a war with one another. They band together their friends and fight over to see who would get the leftover feast. All of a sudden, the family cat comes along and disrupts them. The mice and roaches leave a huge mess all over the house until the cat comes and vacuums the mice and roaches in. The leader mouse and roach are left and they work together to free their friends. They succeed and leave the house in a huge mess. The family comes back upset and kicks the cat out of the house. We then cut to the mice and roaches enjoying their food. After this segment, we cut into more animated shorts consisting of a mother rabbit feeding her family, turkeys disguised as meeses, and a hunter looking for his main meal for Thanksgiving.

 

After that, we cut into the second animated segment called Thanksgiving Dreams. It's about a boy, his sister, and his mother going through struggles during the Great Depression. They know that they're not going to get a Thanksgiving feast due to little food in the house. The boy and the sister have a dream about having a Thanksgiving feast before their eyes. They're shrunk down to small size and see with amazement talking, singing, and dancing utensils and food. As time goes on, the boy accidentally knocks over too much yeast onto a bowl of dough and then arises an evil dough monster. The boy tries to fight him off, but he's stuck in the dough. He uses his clever wits and gets himself unstuck and grabs the pepper shaker. The dough monster sneezes and explodes! The boy and the girl wake up to a delicious smell! When they go downstairs, they see a wonderful Thanksgiving feast! The mother claims that it's a miracle and they begin to eat. Then she claims that there's too much pepper in the food. The segment ends with the boy smiling and winking at one of the carrots on his plate whom he saw in his dream. The Thanksgiving special comes to a close with how an astronaut and turkeys celebrate Thanksgiving and an elderly couple finishing their Thanksgiving meal with watching TV.

 

This Thanksgiving special was a classic for many old school Nickelodeon viewers and they would be eager to watch this every year. That is until the 90's came along and Nickelodeon then focused on Thanksgiving with marathons of popular shows and Thanksgiving specials from their own exclusive Nicktoons such as Rocko's Modern Life, Rugrats, Hey Arnold, CatDog, The Wild Thornberrys, and more. Afterwards, this special was scrapped from TV and hugely forgotten except for hardcore Nickelodeon fans.

 

Overall, it was nothing special. While it was trying to create a really good Thanksgiving special, the end result was a bit mediocre and underwhelming. Thanksgiving Nightmare was like a Tom and Jerry ripoff and Thanksgiving Dreams has an inconsistent plot and animation. In one scene, there's no animation movement at all and it's trying to come off as serious and sad. The next scene, the boy and girl shrink and look like they entered in another cartoon entirely. The scene with the dancing food and utensils looks like it came from a 1930's cartoon short. As a Thanksgiving special, you're better off watching the other Nickelodeon Thanksgiving specials which we'll talk about tomorrow.

 

However, as I watched more of this special, I found a certain charm to it that I had not found in any other Nicktoon since. Maybe it was because this special was the first indication of their own work and not relying on acquiring it from another source. Maybe it was the style of animation of the short that would never feature on any of the Nicktoons to come or classic cartoon shorts from the 30's and 40's being the inspiration make it unique. I'm not sure what, but Nick's Thanksgiving Fest started to grow on me the more I watched it.

 

You should check it out due to what this special really was. It was also the starting point for many of the people behind it just as then producer Vanessa Coffey, who would be the vice president of animation for Nickelodeon and was under the direct supervision of Nick exec Herb Scannell who would later go on to become President of the Network after Gerry Laybourne left. In fact, one of the segments that was going to be in Nick's Thanksgiving Fest was about a "group of babies looking at Thanksgiving from their perspective. When Paul Germain (one of the co-creators of Rugrats along with Klasky-Csupo's Gabor Csupo and Arlene Klasky) pitched a show to Vanessa about "talking babies" (irrespective of the Thanksgiving Special), one of the reasons she liked the idea was because of the "Thanksgiving from a baby's perspective" segment that was almost used for the Thanksgiving Special. While Nick's Thanksgiving Fest hasn't aged very well, it's still recommended to check out from how they got started to be where they are today.

 

That's all for now.  Thanks for reading.

 

-PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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