He'll pop right in just when you need him most

[austin_dern]

Oh, wow.

I mentioned the recent release of Jabberjaw through Warner Archives, burning discs on demand as people demand, just in case someone ever does. Apparently somebody at Warner Archive is going for the stoned-Gen-Xer demographic which has been ill-served ever since Cartoon Network gave up on their eye-bleed TV Friday overnight schedules. (When the night starts with The Gary Coleman Show and deteriorates you know you're in for a wild ride.)

But available for burning on demand at $30 per set are --- and I can't tell you how much I'm ironically quivering at this --- now available The Funky Phantom, Thundarr the Barbarian, Speed Buggy, Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch, Josie and the Pussycats In Outer Space (which was one of my favorite cartoons when I was six even though I could not rationalize how they could possibly be in our solar system --- as they several times claimed to be --- and not find Earth; I was also quite bothered by the mass ratio of their zippy little rocket), and Goober and the Ghost Chasers.. No sane person needs any of these shows and yet I'm tempted.

They also have some cartoons where Hanna-Barbera was actually trying, Swat Kats and The Pirates Of Dark Water particularly, but who cares about them? What has me all mildly a-squee is that they carry The Dukes, the somehow not technically redundant transformation of The Dukes Of Hazzard into a dopey Saturday morning cartoon. That listing warns, cryptically, that the ``autographed copies'' are sold out, which I see how ... huh?

Clearly, though, it's only a matter of weeks until we have the release of Rubik The Amazing Cube, Turbo Teen, Pandamonium, and the Pac-Man/Little Rascals/Richie Rich Hour. Sadly, Gilligan's Planet is probably going to take longer to escape.

PS to porsupah: Warner Archive has Earth II, the 1971 action-free adventures of a low-earth-orbiting city in space starring Gary Lockwood as a plank of wood. I can finally give up trying to find my videotape of this distinctly made-for-TV movie/pilot!

Trivia: Containerized cargo company Sea-Land service had only one class of vessels --- and that only three hulls --- constructed from the keel up in a United States shipyard (in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin). Source: Box Boats: How Container Ships Changed The World, Brian J Cudahy.

Currently Reading: A Plague Of Change, L Warren Douglas.

Comments

[captpackrat.livejournal.com]

RTV has been running Fat Albert, Ghostbusters (the Filmation version), the Archies, BraveStarr, He-Man, She-Ra, Mr. Magoo, Dick Tracy, and Tales of the Wizard of Oz, if you happen to have an antenna and a local affiliate.

Thanks to Amazon's recent decision to offer free streaming of certain movies and TV shows for Prime members, I've been able to watch a few episodes of the Secrets of Isis. I didn't notice whether or not they had Shazam!

Two shows I wouldn't mind seeing, though not necessarily paying for, are Ulysses 31 and Blackstar. I don't recall ever seeing Ulysses 31, but the opening theme on YouTube looks interesting. I can only vaguely remember watching Blackstar. It was a prototype for He-Man and only lasted a handful of episodes before disappearing.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'd heard about RTV, and even looked into it when I thought the cable box in my room had died for good. I know why, even: apparently some of them were running the Totally Tooned In syndicated show that compiles Columbia Studios cartoons. Those are very interesting since they're Golden Age of Cartooning cartoons that nobody's seen. (I saw them in Singapore; until this RTV thing they never got aired in the United States.) /p>

I have some vague memories of Blackstar, but better ones of seeing advertisements for it in the backs of comic books that listed the various Saturday morning schedules.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Personally I'm hoping for Kwicky Koala. The Burn-on-demand thing is an interesting notion; it really seems like they've digitzed this all for Hulu or Netflix, and oh, why don't we sell a few hard copies too to the dozens of people who might actually want this show?

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

It doesn't look like Kwicky Koala is on the roster right now, or at least it hasn't been mentioned by Wikipedia yet. But the burn-on-demand really is a fantastic option. I haven't bought any myself yet but there are a fair number of movies and TV shows that ought to be available and yet, yeah, really don't deserve the shelf space in stores that could otherwise go to Pink Lady and Jeff.