Fun Friday: "Let It Go," 80s-TV Style

Sometimes I wonder who has time on their hands to find clips and edit them into such things, but then I remember the kinds of things I did when I was 14-15. Granted, the internet was much younger then, but I spent hours upon hours building fan pages for Gummi Bears, Labyrinth, and other popular culture topics I can't even remember anymore. Of course, this was all on one of those AOL Hometown pages that bit the dust back in 2008, but, alongside SimTower, it was what I did for fun, backed up on 3.5" disks.

Digression aside, Jim Cliff has posted a video on YouTube with 60+ clips of 80s television shows spliced together to make out the lyrics to Frozen's "Let it Go." (a song which will, apparently, never actually go away.) It's done pretty well, and I laughed at multiple points, so thought you might get a kick out of it, too.
I'm not going to list all of the series I noticed, but keep an eye out for some greatness like Three's Company, Saved by the Bell, Cheers, ALF, Perfect Strangers, the original Beauty and the Beast, Knight Rider, Who's the Boss, The Cosby Show, The Wonder Years, DuckTales, M*A*S*H, Roseanne, and Dallas. Do you have favorite parts in this mash-up?

10 Strange Ideas for Animated Shows

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

Last Christmas I received a Punky Brewster DVD set. I haven't opened it, which is atypical of me. I generally spend a good chunk of January (and sometimes part of February) watching TV-on-DVD sets that I acquire of the holidays. And, while I did watch Punky Brewster a lot when I was in middle school, I'm not a giant fan of the live show. However, I always adored the animated show! It was a Saturday morning fixture when I was very young, and I had Punky Brewster sneakers when I was in kindergarten. In fact, I wasn't aware that the cartoon was a spin-off of the sitcom for a good decade. And, that's what sparked today's post... what other live-action shows have tried animated spin-offs... but more particularly, what strange ideas have there been?

In looking into this, I discovered that there have been a lot of primetime shows that tried to go the cartoon route. I found a lot that made some sense to me (The Addams Family or the Sabrina the Teenage Witch incarnations, for instance), but others seem so unlikely that I thought I'd share. I'm especially interested to find out if anyone has ever seen any of these wacky incarnations (which I haven't really ordered, though I do believe that I might have saved the best for last!)!


- I knew that ALF had ALF Tales. And I had a coloring book to reflect the latter. However, apparently that was the second animation attempt... the first was Alf: The Animated Series. Who knew? It looks kinda like your typical late 80s/early 90s cartoon, though.

- When you think of family shows, none really come to my mind as screaming for an animated trial. However, The Brady Kids is out there. Looks like they sang. and had sidekicks... two panda bears and a bird! here's a clip. 

- I didn't know Gilligan's Island had any animated spin-offs, but apparently they had TWO! One in the 1970s (The New Adventures of Gilligan) and one in the 1980s (Gilligan's Planet). (Links give you the theme songs to each.)

- Bewitched had Tabitha & Adam and the Clown Family. really. Apparently, Darren's sister is a clown, and her whole family is in the circus. This cartoon has Tabitha & Adam hanging out with their cousins and stuff. I could only find a single clip, in which Tabitha and Adam do not seem to appear.

- Apparently The Dukes of Hazzard had The Dukes, not only is that really old, I also don't really care for that show. It amuses me particularly because I didn't feel that the original was aimed at children... so is the cartoon supposed to?

- Who here has heard of The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang? Not me, that's for sure. This one actually sounds particularly interesting because of the focus it places on the Fonz. But, as the theme song states, the premise is that they're in a spaceship traveling through time. o.O

- Speaking of the Fonz, apparently there was also a Laverne & Shirley with the Fonz. Um, what??!?!? Similarly, there's also a Laverne & Shirley in the Army, which was before the other cartoon. (Okay, upon a tiny bit of research, it appears that Laverne & Shirley was a spin-off from Happy Days to begin with, so now the Fonzie thing makes sense, LoL.) This proves it was real. LoL.

- Apparently, Lassie made a go of the animation world as well. No offense to the dog, but I think that Chip and Dale made better "Rescue Rangers" than Lassie.

- I Dream of Jeannie had Jeannie, which, although I didn't know about, completely makes sense, given the opening to the original. However, after I saw the opening, I'm not convinced that this was anything other than completely ridiculous!

- Um. This one makes me laugh. Partridge Family 2200 AD. hmmm... odd. that's the best word I have for that. And, it seems awfulllllllllly close to The Jetsons, LoL.

And, theoretically, Muppet Babies may have seemed like a strange direction for The Muppet Show to head toward, but I thought it was fabulous and not peculiar at all... so while it might deserve to be placed under the heading of "strange idea for an animated show," I am going to refrain from doing so. But what are your thoughts? Where would you place that cartoon spin-off, or others for that matter? And have you seen any episodes of the shows I mentioned above? Or are you just as shocked as I am to find out that they're out there?!?

Favorite Episodes: ALF

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

ALF is kinda iconic in that if you've seen it, you're not going to confuse it with any other show, ever. And if you haven't seen it, you can probably at least pick out the little critter out of a lineup. I wrote about the history and background of the show last July, so you can head over and read that entry if you need a refresher on the characters or the general themes. That post also covers the sad history of the show's ending. At that point, only the first three episodes were on Hulu, but in the meantime, the fourth season has been posted, and I saw the rest of the series. Here, we have my top picks from each of the seasons.

Season 1: "Baby, You Can Drive My Car" (S01E10) Lynn wants a car, but the Tanners can't afford it, partly because of the money it costs to repair the garage after ALF's crash landing. Lynn wants to get a job to save money, but has issues balancing school and work. So, ALF buys a Ferrari for Lynn by selling parts of his spaceship for money. But, it doesn't last long after he takes it for a spin.


Season 2: "Some Enchanted Evening" (S02E06) It's Halloween and ALF wants to go trick-or-treating, but Willie won't let him. So ALF makes a costume party happen, and he's a popular guest, thanks to his (natural) costume. Willie is afraid that ALF will ruin his chances at a promotion.


Season 3: "Suspicious Minds" (S03E15) ALF reads a book about the conspiracy that Elvis is alive, and thinks the new guy in the neighborhood Elvis. He is obsessed with getting to the bottom of it, so he sneaks into the guy's house.


Season 4: "Baby, Come Back" (S04E01) ALF begs to be allowed to babysit Eric, but Kate is reluctant to allow him. But, when she has to leave for work and nobody else is available, she allows ALF to be in charge of him. WHen he goes to dispose of a dirty diaper, Lynn and Brian get home and take Eric with them, but ALF doesn't hear them. Poor ALF then thinks he lost the baby, and he and Willie are freaked until Kate comes home and reveals what happened.

When it comes to alien tv shows...

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

... ALF was one of my favorites, second only to Third Rock from the Sun. I did enjoy some Lloyd in Space, some Jetsons, Futurama, and of course, Mork & Mindy (I'm not a fan, but Roswell, X-Files, and Smallville definitely qualify, too!). And that's before you consider characters with alien-like powers, that list goes on and on.

ALF stood for "Alien Life Form" and was the nickname that the Tanners (of Riverside, although I always thought they were in San Diego, not to be confused with the Tanners of San Francisco) gave to Gordon Shumway, who crashed his spacecraft into their garage. The Tanner family consisted of Social Worker Willie, Real Estate Agent Kate, late-teen Lynn, and elementary-schooler Brian. They had a cat named Lucky, and later a baby named Eric. They had nosy neighbors, but they were really more kooky than dangerous. Extended family members also came by from time to time, and it was quite humorous to watch ALF interact with Kate's mother.

Plots were more about culture shock than anything else. ALF often got bored with the everyday life on Earth, and spiced things up... generally by ringing up large bills of damage or consumer goods (or food, since he was often insatiable). In fact, he costs the Tanners so much money that Lynn has to live at home for college instead of going to her first choice. He had a longing to eat cat during the first three seasons, and would often mistake how valuable things are, basing his assumption off of Melmac's values. The show had little educational value, unless you understood the space and radio references that were made here and there. While it was definitely a comedy, the humor wasn't as entertaining as ALF's face contorting to mimic various emotions.

Filming ALF was apparently grueling. It would routinely take 20-25 hours to film one 30-minute episode. The floor was full of trap doors for ALF's puppeteers, and there were three different people making it all happen just for the one character. With the alien getting all the good lines, the actors weren't all pleased, and when taping finally ended, there were very few goodbyes even said. Speaking of the problems on-set were difficult, since the idea of ALF truly being an alien was propagated by everyone... even his appearances on other shows (notably on Conan, ALF would not be on if his puppeteers weren't completely hidden from cameras AND the audience).

The show ran on Monday nights for the most part, but some later episode ran on weekend nights. The show was canceled on a cliffhanger episode, which was only partially resolved six years later in the TV-movie Project ALF. I say "partially" because it didn't feature any of the Tanners, and it got some basic facts wrong (like ALF having seven stomachs instead of eight). Ergo, the funny show was canceled too soon, and the writers knew it. The show was on the chopping block as the end of season 4 was being taped, and the writers added the cliffhanger in a last-ditch attempt to get the show renewed, but to no avail. The show is available on DVD, but many viewers are upset with the out-of-order episodes and other problems. The first three seasons are on Hulu.