May 19, 2020 3:31:42 GMT Baker said:

EDIT

Of course 🤯 liked this post. :lol:

Have you been able to find any record of the show? It sounds amazing and I want to get an episode under my belt so I can better understand your expert's guide.

May 16, 2020 6:17:16 GMT Big Pete said:

"A Fairy Tale"?

Not even Google has heard of this show. Is this an elaborate fan fic? Is this one of those creepy pasta situations? I'm going to need some kind of verification.  

May 19, 2020 12:47:43 GMT Big Pete said:

Have you been able to find any record of the show? It sounds amazing and I want to get an episode under my belt so I can better understand your expert's guide.

At long last the moment of truth is here. Without further ado I present to you DEFINITIVE PROOF that A Fairy Tale is a real thing....




Swerve! I made the entire thing up. Be back later to explain. 

JR: Aw, son of a bitch!

Baker-man, you draw excellent ponies!

And just like that Ness can never be doubted ever again!

Coming Clean: The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But The Truth (Part One)

DISCLAIMER: I want to begin by stating every single cartoon mentioned before A Fairy Tale is 100% real. Everything in this post will also be the straight truth aside from the names of 2 real life people I have decided to slightly alter in order to protect the innocent.

@ness jokingly(?) doubting the existence of all those cartoons is what gave me the idea to resurrect this prank in the first place. I say "resurrect" only because this idea of memeing a fictional thing into reality is something I have dabbled with before, dating all the way back to 1998. As you might expect given the source, my original "A Fairy Tale" was a wrestler....

Bob Boone and the Origin of Prank

Bob Boone (Sr.) was just one of many fictional wrestlers I created for my action figure leagues. I won't delve into his backstory too much, but you can read about him here pwcom.proboards.com/thread/1485/action-figure-leagues if you are so inclined under the section titled "The Ballad of Bob Boone Jr."

Our story begins in the AOL Wrestling Chat Room circa 1998. People there were always going on about how great Indie Wrestler X, Japanese Wrestler Y, and Olde School Wrestler Z were. Then, more often than not, they'd admit they never actually saw these people wrestle before. Look, I'm a bit of prankster by nature, and seeing all these people talking out their asses is what originally inspired my idea to meme Bob Boone into reality. Whenever a list of great old school wrestlers came up, I'd slip Bob Boone's name in between Flair, Funk & Lawler. If people questioned it, I'd give them his elaborate backstory. Then I let my AOL clique, the Wrestling Knowledge Organization, in on the joke to add veracity to my claims. The idea was if we hyped this guy enough, people would start mentioning him in much the same way they did with the aforementioned Wrestlers X, Y, and Z. Before long, it would hopefully snowball into A Thing. I was doing it for the lulz as the kids used to say. In all honesty, we probably only did this for like 3 days before reverting back to our usual modus operandi of writing our newsletter and pestering people to read it.

I resurrected the idea of memeing Bob Boone into reality a few other times over the years, including quite possibly during my early days right here on PW. I mentioned being something of a prankster by nature. But I can also be lazy, and I'm quick to move on to the next thing if people don't take the bait. Now if I had been smart, or just cared a little more, I would have created a Bob Boone Wikipedia page and mentioned his name on multiple wrestling forums under many different user names. Not too many all at once, mind you. That would have created too much attention. I would have been found out and exposed in no time at all. But just a few here and there, planting seeds to create search results hits and get people thinking. Maybe I would have also brought in a few trusted associates to help me in this plot. 

Bob Boone Resurrected In Cartoon Form

The storytelling was the easy part (more on that in a bit). The hard part was coming up with an excuse for why my fictional cartoon would yield no search results. So I devised the most generic title I could think of to muddle up search results and concocted an elaborate backstory to give it an aura of verisimilitude. A Fairy Tale was supposed to be super obscure. That was the only way I could ever hope to get away with it. I know from personal experience that people are lazy by nature and usually won't bother combing through search results for too long. Then I came up with the idea of writing about an ancient Geocites page I once stumbled upon to again add veracity to my claims.

It was only intended to go on for a day or so. I was going to come clean once more people started questioning it. But Big Pete was the only one. He questioned it after my very first Fairy Tale post. I'd have gotten away with it too if it weren't for that meddling Pete! But this also leads me to believe he was my only reader. YOU BASTARDS! 

The Backstory to the Fictional Story

This was the easy and fun part. Look, I'm pretty good at stories. All I need is a decent idea and they end up practically writing themselves.

The idea for my oddball fairy tale dates back to 2016 when I worked for a dying company that at least had the decency to inform us they were going out of business some 2 or 3 months before the end finally came so we could look for new jobs. I was one of the lucky ones who found a new job almost immediately. But the dying company offered a payout to those who stayed until the bitter end. So I chose to stay because it was easy work. The  big shots, many of whom were pissed about losing their longtime jobs, had thrown in the towel and just didn't care anymore. Supervision ranged from limited to non-existent. Plus they were very liberal with overtime if you wanted it. Basically they were cool with draining the company of every single penny FARTHING it had left. All this made it probably the easiest 2 or 3 months of work I ever had.

I had only been there a little over a year and the entire time had worked with a girl we'll call Nadia to protect the innocent. OK, she was like 28 or something, which is hardly "a girl," but that's still younger than me, so whatever. We hadn't been particularly close up to this point. But we clicked now that we worked together all the time, where we spent the bulk of those final days goofing off while on the clock. She was very much the Angie of 2016. The 3rd member of our little clique was this hilarious, feisty older woman we'll call Susan. But she doesn't really feature into this story. 

Anyway, Nadia was appalled that I had never played the game MASH en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MASH_(game). Which I think is popular with middle school girls? I forget the exact details, but a game of MASH lead to me concocting a story on the spot. And that's where the idea for A Fairy Tale first came to fruition.

Pretty soon my stories became our big thing to keep us amused. I'd devise these elaborate stories on the spot while "working." Occasionally Nadia would come up with an idea of her own, but it was 90% me. Most of them were honestly just stuff I ripped off from other sources. Many more involved thinly veiled parodies of our coworkers. "Write it down! Write it down!" Nadia would always say. I did. Eventually. But just a little. For I made the boneheaded decision to write in Ye Olde English style of Howard Pyle www.gutenberg.org/files/10148/10148-h/10148-h.htm#2H_4_2 which made things much more complicated than they need be. Plus they were never as good in written form as they were verbally. The stories were mostly wholesome G Rated fare, but then I'd slip in some dark humor, ultraviolence, and out of place sexual references for comedic effect since that stuff didn't "belong" in these stories. One of my little tricks was to come up with these when Nadia was drinking so she'd start laughing and the drink would come out of her nose   I am such a jerk! Anyway, I cut most of the sexual/violent stuff out in the cartoon version (though I just couldn't resist cutting out the glorious name "Sexred" and then I came up with "Big Sex" and "Little Sex" on the spot), again for truthiness reasons. Not that there was much anyway. The original versions were like 95% G Rated. Nadia usually did the artwork while I was spinning my yarns. 

On Ponies MINIATURE HORSES

Sorry to burst your bubble 🤯 but I did not draw those ponies MINIATURE HORSES. I suck at drawing outside of sketching some quality camels way back in the 4th grade. Those drawings were all Nadia. You can even see her initials on one of them! She was very good. I also had a Venerable Bede drawing once upon a time but I couldn't find it the other day  On our last day working together she gave me a few drawings while I gave her copies of two stories I had written- The Ballad of By-Tor (Redbrock in this version) and Lil Sebastian and The Field of Farthings (Little Cornelius and The Elysium Field in this version). We hung out at her place a few times. One time she forced me to watch one of those shitty new Star Wars movies. Another time we watched Exosquad Season 1! And another time she got me to watch some anime she likes (I could see Ness being a Nadia fan). Avatar or something like that? I wasn't really paying much attention tbh. Anyway, we still keep in touch about once a month via text. 

Characters. Plot. Inspirations.

*Either later tonight or tomorrow.

A Fairy Tale: Characters. Inspirations. Plot.

I'm on a roll and I just can't stop. Now the original idea came from goofing around at work with "Nadia" but a lot of the stuff I came up with then was recycled from even earlier. I also made use of stuff from tv, books, and even music. Here's a look at everything I can cover until I finally get tired and go to sleep.

Vance & Andy- The time traveling metal detectorists from our own era were inspired by Lance & Andy from the glorious BBC 4 sitcom Detectorists which aired here on PBS in the bizarre timeslot of 2 pm on Tuesday afternoons. Detectorists was my favorite show in 2015-16 and likely one of my Top 5 favorite shows of all time. Though I'll be the first to admit it's not for everybody. Definitely one of those love/hate deals where you either get it or you don't. "Wait? It's supposed to be a comedy? Why isn't it funny?- My Mom and "Susan." They were late additions to A Fairy Tale mainly for exposition reasons. But then I came up with an awesome idea involving their metal detectors/"dowsing rods" that I have only hinted at thus far.

King Sexred and Son- King Sexred was a real life King of the East Saxons who reigned some time in the 600s if I remember correctly. I first learned about this awesomely named fellow via Detectorists. Pretty sure he had a son and heir in the original version, but he wasn't called Sexred II/Little Sex back then. I came up with the Big Sex/Little Sex thing on the spot and decided to keep it for the lulz.

The Venerable Bede- A famous real life person who is a saint in the Catholic Church and considered "The Father of English History." I think he lived in the 700s. He was a holdover from the original version of the story who was mentioned a few times in Detectorists. Most notably when Lance uttered the immortal line "Venerable Bede....full of shit" which is probably the single greatest line in television history. Not because Bede was necessarily full of shit, but because it’s hilarious. I came up with his "Obi Wan, but goofy" character when telling the original stories. Venerable Bede was one of my two favorite characters and he was over like rover with the masses, many of whom would pop their heads in for a minute to hear my tales, only to soon leave shaking those very heads when they didn't get it. But even they got a kick out of The Venerable One and his trademark “parting words of wisdom” gimmick. 

Queen/Princess Aledra- My 3rd favorite character. In both versions of the story she was an intentionally over the top Mary Sue, not unlike Shawn Michaels in my New Generation Wrestling fanfic. She's the picture perfect princess/beautiful badass. Not to mention nearly as Venerable as Bede and as adorable as Little Cornelius. Her name comes from the gimmick name/alter ego of my smoking hot 7th grade girlfriend. (Miss you, Chrissy! ) My gimmick name? Garth. As in Wayne's World. I was clearly punching above my weight.

Sir Redbrock- Originally By-Tor: Knight of Darkness, Centurion of Evil, Devil's Prince from the classic Rush song By-Tor and the Snow Dog. But I figured my cover would be blown if Shootist happened to read this, so I changed his name to Redbrock, which was the name of the top villain from those silly stuffed animal "quests" I used to play with my brother growing up. Redbrock was basically our version of the classic Devil. In the original version, By-Tor/Redbrock was heavily inspired by Gregor Clegane from the Game of Thrones books and occasionally engaged in acts of R Rated ultraviolence for shock value in order to break up the G Rated monotony, though I dropped the ultraviolenxe in this version for cartoon authenticity reasons. Him getting "powered up" in this version was a blatant ripoff of Wrath-Amon from Conan.

Little Cornelius- Originally Lil Sebastian from Parks & Recreation in a 99% ripoff, the only difference being he was somehow even more wholesome in this version. Easily the most over character in both versions. I changed his name because my cover would definitely be blown if any of you were Parks & Rec fans. In fact, if you look closely at the pics I posted yesterday, you can see I wrote "Cornelius" on a separate sheet of paper and used it to cover the "Sebastian"   I also did the same with "Baker" to cover up my mysterious real name. My favorite thing about those drawings? If you look very closely you will see the grass is covered in farthings! The whole "Lil Sebastian/Cornelius likes the dull shine of farthings" is one of my absolute favorite things in these stories.

Happy Jack- Originally Crazy Jack named after an absolute legend I worked with from 2001-2005" who was also known to "Susan. The character version's "Lord of the Hedges" nickname was a real thing dating back to the original Jack! My friends and I would hang out in the parking lot before work wearing our kewl leather jackets and smoking our kewl cigarettes like we were Greasers in The Outsiders when Crazy Jack would just magically appear out of the hedges. This really happened! Hence his "Lord of the Hedges" nickname. Real Jack was an 80s rocker 4 life who liked telling the story of the time he saw Ozzy live in 1980 or so. I once ended up at his house while drunk and looked through his epic record collection. Which included the mighty Europe!

Sir Robert Boone- I just HAD to slip in a thinly veiled version of Bob Boone to pay homage to the originator of internet pranks. He was not in the original stories. But I have a MAJOR and EPIC swerve in store for him in this one.....should I happen to get that far. 

Brother Brutus- Filler character who literally only existed so I could be cheeky. Brother Brutus=Brother Bruti=Major hint that this whole thing is a work!

Alexander- A necessary character, but not a very interesting one. Never took the time to give him much of a personality. But I suppose even that fits his whole "puppet" gimmick. His name is a pseudo-snob reference chosen for authenticity reasons.

Sir Raoul- A last minute addition because I wanted a clueless putz character for Aledra to play off. Plus him being Alexander's bff at least gave Alex a thing. His name comes from a funny phrase I heard (invented?) as a kid. 

Brother Claudius- Originally Brother Nero. The Broken Matt stuff was big when I came up with the original stories*.Obviously changed it because that would have given the whole game away. His character is basically just a generic evil wizard. Was probably inspired at least a little bit by Qyburn from the Game of the Thrones books.

*Luckily "Nadia" wasn't familiar with any of the "real" versions of these characters, be it Lil Sebastian, By-Tor, or anybody from wrestling or Detectorists.

King Roland/Sir Oliver/Brother Claudius/Lady Melissa/Gilbert/Hubert- Deep cut literary snob references for added aura of verisimilitude. It’s just the sort of thing a particularly pretentious cartoon writer would do. Roland & Oliver are like the Batman & Robin of French history/mythology. Claudius is a semi-famous character from Ancient Rome + the book & miniseries I, Claudius. Melissa is a character from Italian (by way of France) mythology. Gilbert & Hubert are fictional archers- Gilbert from the Howard Pyle Robin Hood book I mentioned earlier, which just so happened to be my favorite tome in 6th or 7th grade, and Hubert from Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. 

Mouse de la Mieux- Another major villain my brother and I came up with for our goofy games when we were young. We would put together this Map of the USA puzzle. Then "Mouse de la Mieux" would drop "atomic bombs" on it in the form of thrown ping pong balls   WTF! We were WEIRD. I think the first time we did this New Mexico was the last state standing. So Mouse de la Mieux hailed from Albuquerque, NM from that moment on. I actually have an epic swerve or two left involving the Mouse should I decide to continue with this story. 

Druid Dorcas the Wood Witch- Hadn't gotten this far yet but this was my character based on "Nadia." She's a major swerve in both versions of the story....should I happen to get that far this time around. Her awesome name comes from another British show I watched in the early-mid 2010s.

Yo 🤯 . If little PI is a boy you should name him Claude. If female, go with Dorcas. I know it sounds dorky at first, but it grows on you over time. Trust me! The first time I ever read the name "Dorcas Chase" I laughed and laughed and laughed until I cried. But now I think it's really the only acceptable name for a girl. 

Bazooka, Bouzouki, and Dartmouth- Hadn't gotten to them yet either, but they're more characters based on the silly games my brother and I used to play growing up.

Tom & Dick: The Brothers Brownie- OK, so when I was young I had this goofy idea that Cincinnati Reds pitcher Tom Browning lived like a mile away from us. Or maybe it started as yet another prank at my brother's expense, but I started to believe it myself? Anyway, Tom Browning had two sons in my diseased mind- Tom & Dick. Only somehow "Browning" morphed into "Brownie." In the original version they were called "Long Tom" and "Little Dick" but I had already used the Big Sex/Little Sex joke in this one and to do basically the same gimmick twice in one story would be total hack work. So I went in "The Inventor of Brownies" direction instead. Wise decision, Baker-man. *Barry Horowitz back pat*

D'oh. I forgot to include Seashore The Magician, who was another character from those silly games my brother and I played in our youth. Maybe if I continue with this....

The Plot- I'd estimate only about 25% of it dates back to the original stories in 2016. The outline was already there with the East & West Saxons. Sexred and Aledra. Bede, Cornelius, and his Field of Farthings. By-Tor and His Wizard. But the actual plot was vague at best. I basically came up with the whole story while day dreaming through two mornings of work last week. I guess some things never change   I'd basically come up with one neat idea (Bede Stones!) and things would just snowball from there (You'll see!).

*Well, that about wraps up the backstory portion of the world's greatest fictional cartoon. I have one definitive "Episode" left in my head and an enough ideas to easily get through 2 or 3 more. Maybe I'll continue? Maybe I won't? And maybe I'll have this moved over to fan fic where it belongs now that my ruse has been revealed?

Regardless of where I go from here one thing has been proven beyond the shadow of a doubt....

They’ll never stop The Baker
Have no fears, I’ve got stories for years.
Big Pete becomes a robot.
Or 🤯 has a baby.
How ‘bout @ness ies crazy wedding?
And something happens and do do do do.
Have no fears. I’ve got stories for years.

Baker-man absolutely should've been a cartoon showrunner in the 80s/90s. He'd be a hundred-thousandaire by now! Maybe even a million, depending on royalty deal structures and nostalgia half life.

It's only going to be a matter of time before Bake is diving headfirst into his pool of Hulu Bux. He seriously had me going and thought maybe he'd mixed it up with King Arthur and the Knights of Justice. Except on his version he was watching, they changed a few plot points and mixed a few characters up. Hey! It happens, one of the earliest Dragon Ball dubs changed all the names, Goku went by Zero for lord knows what reason.

Alright I think it's time to talk about the cartoon that changed the landscape forever and created a divide between generations.

It was crazy how quickly the fad swept America and the rest of the world. For years, reporters would come back from Japan after covering a big event and would always touch on this weird Pokemon craze and be at a loss to explain it's appeal.

Then in September of '98, a few weeks before the games would be released, Pokemon made it's debut and little by little infested pop culture until it became inescapable.

There was nothing like it. With so many cartoons, you could make the comparison to some classic show but there was nothing like Pokemon in the west. Essentially, it was an adventure show where this unlikely hero builds up a team of monsters and faces off against the greatest trainers in the land. While that is going on, these two Boris and Natascha types are constantly stirring up trouble in each episode and they've got to put a stop to it.

You would watch the show to see who would get added to the team and who would transform into a stronger monster. You'd also watch to see which monsters would find another calling and leave. Finally you'd watch the battles like you would a Pro Wrestling match and see our guy inch his way to the championship.

Don't have time to sit through 82 episodes? I've got you.

Ash wants to be the very best, like no one ever was. He has to travel the land far and wide to collect the 8 gym badges to qualify for the Indigo Plateau aka the Regional Tournament. To help him on his journey Professor Oak gives him Pikachu this insulent stubborn creature that shocks everyone. Have you seen Lilo and Stitch? How To Train Your Dragon? Similar idea, but when Pikachu nearly dies in the first episode they get along great. Pikachu works out, gets a tan and only uses his shock powers to keep Boris, Natasha and their talking cat at bay.

In the games, you earn badges by exploiting weaknesses and training monsters. In the cartoon, Ash earns badges either through sheer luck or because he saves their headquarters from our aforementioned villains. For instance, Ash earns his first badge because Pikachu activates the water sprinklers and water happens to be this one monsters weakness. In another, Ash wins a badge by making this Twilight Zone esque girl laugh.

Over the course of 63 episodes, Ash earns all 8 gym badges and builds his squad. It consists of:

Pikachu - The lovable mascot who can summon thunderbolts like Zeus and usually does so against Boris and Natasha.

Bulbasaur - A dino with a big plant growing out of it's back, uses it's vines to extend and grab hold/whip enemies

Squirtle - A turtle that blows water like projectiles

Charizard - A dragon that does whatever it feels like doing

Pidgeotto - A bird that scouts and blows gusts of wind when necessary. Usually works in tandem with Pikachu if Boris and Natasha are running away

Tauros - A non-descript bull. Ash caught an entire herd of them in an episode that never made it to air in the States. The first time we ever see them is in the Regionals.

Muk - Slimer 2.0. It's pretty useless and you only see it when Ash calls up Oak for sage advice.

Kingler - Giant crab with a big crab fist. Started off useless but came good in the Regionals.

Ash makes it to the fifth round where he comes up against his doppleganger and loses because Charizard decides to embarrass Ash on the grandest stage. It was such a gut punch and while it was hinted at, you never thought they'd go through with it.

Ash learns he has to improve as a trainer and that he has to search farther and wider to become the best like no one ever was! New game releases meant more monsters, meant more gym leaders, meant more zany Boris and Natascha schemes to foil.

Now that didn't take up all 82 episodes of run-time. A lot of episodes are one offs where they encounter a Pokemon, learn about it's personality, deal with a Boris and Natascha scheme and go about their journey. That's basically every episode bar 60 of them, but we didn't know that at the time! Episodes would vary in quality, depending on how interesting the monsters and characters were. Psyduck, Jigglypuff and Farfetch'd in particular were great monsters that would appear from time to time and would actually make you think you're watching an A+ cartoon.

Plus, there were some banned episodes. I'm sure you heard of the episode that hospitilised hundreds if not thousands of Japanese kids? Yep, this show didn't mess around.

I watched it until the end of the next saga which wasn't based on any of the video games but followed a similar premise of collecting badges and qualifying for the regional tournament. Except this time, Ash actually won and Pikachu beat a dragon (okay, it looks like Barney the Dinosaur, but it was a Dragon!) to clutch it at the death.

Then the next video game came out, they had Ash basically release his entire team (bar Pikachu) and start over, which is when I bowed out.

There was nothing like Pokemon when it released and while it had it's moments, it wore out it's welcome pretty quick. It was huge in Australia in 1999 before it mellowed out and everyone moved onto their own interests. The show is still going and Ash finally won a major regional after a 1080 episodes. In truth, it was a B- cartoon, but it would go onto inspire Digimon and Monster Rancher, two genuinely great monster shows I'll touch on soon enough.

A couple of final points.

Ash did have two human companions in Misty and Brock. Misty is this fiery red-head who may have a crush on Ash while Brock is this Pepe Le Pew type constantly hitting on women. He got banned during the filler saga for being an Asian stereotype, but got brought back because the replacement was like a desperate Step-Dad at Christmas.

The show had a rap songs it'd play through out to kill time and sell you on monsters.

We could recite this all back in the day. :lol:

Pokemon changed my life in ways I can't describe. There was life before it and life after it, two completely separate chapters. Games, TV, cards... the phenomenon changed who I was from that day forward. I think I was in 7th grade when it took off and seemed like a great age to be. I did get a sense of internal beef of the MTG guys as we started to encroach on their territory playing on the lunchroom tables either with our decks of LINKED gameboy devices. It showed what would happen going forward. No longer could I ever just dip my toes into an interest, I had to dive head-first and swallow 30 gallons of bleach infested water.

I am fascinated by all this Pokemon posting. What came first- show, games, or cards? Wait, there were cards, right?
*Never mind. I just reread Pete's post and saw the show came out a few weeks before the games. But what about cards? Did they exist? I thought they had cards.

My 90s wrestling fan cousin was an early days Pokemon fan. I'm guessing this was around 98-99. I thought Pokemon started sooner. Maybe 96 or 97. Anyway, I remember my cousin drawing some of the characters back in the day.

This was the extent of my Pokemon knowledge before today....

There's this guy named Ash who has to catch them all. Why, I did not know. I thought he trained them to....fight? Maybe? Pikachu, Bulbasaur, and Mewtwo, were the 3 Pokemon I knew of. I once knew a 4th but forgot. I think it was Charizard. I know Pikachu is famous. Bulbasaur & Charizard (who sounds like a jerk) were on Ash's squad. So I assume they're famous too. But what about Mewtwo? Is he (she?) a main event level Pokemon or strictly jobber material? And what exactly is a Pokemon? I take it they're animals of some sort, but they don't look quite like Earth animals. Are they....aliens? Mutants? Mythological-style beasts? Pete calls them monsters in his post. Are they typical "evil" monsters who need to be tamed by Ash, or the sort of cute and cuddly monsters which only exist in cartoons?

*I haven't forgotten about this thread. Just taking a break. At some point I'll be back to cover Exosquad or maybe expand on The Greatest Show That Never Actually Existed.

My exposure was game - show - cards.

Started seeing Gameboys in real numbers in school and found out why - red and blue. Started seeing the show in relation and eventually people exposed me to the card aspect. By time I got to the trading card aspect it exploded and was everywhere. Even got scammed by a bunch of little kids by being tricked into giving them my Dugtrio for basically nothing. I now know what boomers who fall for gift card scams feel like when told the truth.

I am fascinated by all this Pokemon posting. What came first- show, games, or cards? Wait, there were cards, right?

Originally Nintendo of Japan released Pokemon Red & Green in February of '96, the trading cards came out in October of '96 and the anime came out in April of '97.

That was jumbled up in America. The anime came out several weeks before the game boy games and the trading card game didn't come out until January and even then only received a major release in March of '99.

The trading cards were huge. Supply could not keep up with demand and every birthday party from 1999-2000 was spent watching kids no matter which gender cracking open packs. It was the source of a lot of playground drama, with kids constantly stealing or exploiting kids half their age into dumb deals. Nobody I knew actually played the game, they just liked to 'collect them all' with Charizard being the most coveted card.

The TCG was so popular, Nintendo released a Game Boy spin-off game dedicated to it which was actually really good for what it was and that's how I learned how to play. Unfortunately they only released two games, with the sequel never making it's way out of Japan.

There's this guy named Ash who has to catch them all. Why, I did not know. I thought he trained them to....fight? Maybe? Pikachu, Bulbasaur, and Mewtwo, were the 3 Pokemon I knew of. I once knew a 4th but forgot. I think it was Charizard. I know Pikachu is famous. Bulbasaur & Charizard (who sounds like a jerk) were on Ash's squad. So I assume they're famous too. But what about Mewtwo?

That's Ash's core squad so you're not missing out on much. Charizard's selfish behaviour is actually a mechanic from the game that discourages you from making un-even trades, so you don't trade a level 5 monster for a level 100 and just destroy everything in the game. Furthermore, Charizard's rapid evolution references a mechanic where traded Pokemon (in this case adopted) gain double the experience to encourage trading. Supposedly Charizard redeems himself later in the show but I'm not overly familiar. I believe he basically carries the team through one of the Regional Tournaments, even against monsters it's weak against before succumbing to some piece of bad luck.

Mewtwo is the Unicron of the series, it's so powerful it had an entire movie dedicated to it. In the games, Mewtwo is the secret post-game monster and it's extremely difficult to catch ordinarily. Most people save their 100% capture rate ball for it.

And what exactly is a Pokemon? I take it they're animals of some sort, but they don't look quite like Earth animals. Are they....aliens? Mutants? Mythological-style beasts? Pete calls them monsters in his post. Are they typical "evil" monsters who need to be tamed by Ash, or the sort of cute and cuddly monsters which only exist in cartoons?

It's all the above. In one of the episodes we learned that one of the species came from the moon while Mewtwo was this man-made experiment gone awry. It's called Mewtwo, because the scientists have no imagination and named it after their original experiment Mew. Mew is the yin to Mewtwo's yang and in the movie, it appears to talk Mewtwo out of it's plan to replace all the Pokemon with evil clones.

Otherwise they're just highly evolved forms of animals. Supposedly they didn't destroy the entire ecosystem since everyone still eats regular food but you rarely see normal animals on the show. In the show, a lot of wild Pokemon keep to themselves with only certain breeds being dangerous. The games are similar to Dragon Quest where you're constantly being thrown into battles, except you can capture your enemies and they'll obey you.

Another point I forgot is that they would use the cartoon to preview new Pokemon and mechanics in upcoming games. In the very first episode, we're introduced to a legendary rainbow bird called Ho-Oh who you couldn't catch until Gold and Silver came out in 2000. We also found out about other mechanics like Pokemon laying eggs and how to hatch them.

Ah yes the legendary Charizard. Local kid got one in a booster pack, but sadly some no good street toughs took it from him before he ever had a chance to leave the comic shop. You talk about your first responders. Your Shad Gaspards. Your 9/11 Firefighters. Where were they then?

May 26, 2020 22:36:29 GMT @ness said:

Ah yes the legendary Charizard. Local kid got one in a booster pack, but sadly some no good street toughs took it from him before he ever had a chance to leave the comic shop. You talk about your first responders. Your Shad Gaspards. Your 9/11 Firefighters. Where were they then?

lol Is this true? If so, you guys weren't kidding about the intensity of Pokemon collecting. 

What was the deal with that Pokemon game on phones a few years back? My co-creator on A Fairy Tale was always playing it and I'd see people wandering aimlessly throughout my neighborhood whilst looking at their phones and assumed they were playing the game as well. This was right before I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to a 21st Century phone. So 2016ish. 

May 26, 2020 23:21:18 GMT Baker said:

May 26, 2020 22:36:29 GMT @ness said:

Ah yes the legendary Charizard. Local kid got one in a booster pack, but sadly some no good street toughs took it from him before he ever had a chance to leave the comic shop. You talk about your first responders. Your Shad Gaspards. Your 9/11 Firefighters. Where were they then?

lol Is this true? If so, you guys weren't kidding about the intensity of Pokemon collecting. 

What was the deal with that Pokemon game on phones a few years back? My co-creator on A Fairy Tale was always playing it and I'd see people wandering aimlessly throughout my neighborhood whilst looking at their phones and assumed they were playing the game as well. This was right before I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to a 21st Century phone. So 2016ish. 

Pokemon IRL. Apparently the game had them appear in random places (i.e. a Pikachu in the bra section of Walmart) and you could catch them like the game.

Why isn't the Bobby World's talk happening in here?

:ugh:

Quoted all the Bobby's World posts (with a tiny bit of Life With Louie) to appease 🤯. I don't want him leaving again. Not even for a day. 

May 27, 2020 0:07:34 GMT @ness said:

May 26, 2020 23:52:38 GMT Baker said:

🤯 not being here for a day or two was just weird. I felt lost. I imagine we all felt lost. It was not dissimilar to that episode of cartoon classic Life With Louie where the loud, mean character lost her voice and couldn't yell at anyone. Everybody was so taken aback by this shocking turn of events that the whole town went crazy. Man, I really need to cover Life With Louie in the cartoon thread one of these days. 5th best non-prime time cartoon of all time.

How ya feel about Bobby's World?

May 27, 2020 1:11:46 GMT @ness said:

May 27, 2020 1:05:13 GMT Baker said:

Know of it. But never watched it 

My lone Bobby's World story comes from an overplayed commercial where his name- Bobby Generic- was written out on a piece of paper or something. I must not have known the word "generic," or seen it written down before, because I pronounced it "JEN-err-ic" in my head and thought it a weird name. Then at some point I came across the word in school or something and was like "That's Bobby's name from Bobby's World! OH! je-NAIR-ic. NOW I get it." 

That's it. That's my Bobby's World story.

I remember of it as a kid and watching it tons, but have no real memories other than the post-show chats with Howie in those weird toon/real person Roger Rabbit segments. Along with the planes trains and automobile song. Was hoping you could tickle the nostalgic center with a post. I'd ask Big Pete but can't imagine this was big outside the US.

May 27, 2020 1:17:13 GMT 🤯 said:

Holy shit.

I loved Bobby's World as a kid, and consequently Howie Mandel.

I had no idea until Baker -man's post just now that their Generic surname was the word Generic. I just assumed they were Polish this whole time.

Gonna have to file a cease and decist letter to the owners as those posts are now property of PW News.

Nobody knew what they were getting into with Pokemon Go. It was all a part of Nintendo's plan to join the mobile market and Go was presented as Red and Blue, but in real life. It was every kid's reality and it brought a lot of folks together to relieve their youth.

When the app launched, you couldn't actually access it because of the demand. When they stablised the servers, it just whipped everyone into gear and like the original games, there was a lot of tips and tricks.

Pokemon are more likely to spawn in highly populated areas, so everyone would congregate to spawn more monsters. Usually fans would talk about 'nests' and would search high and low where certain Pokemon would spawn. You'd usually come across a dozen or so, but a lot of the really popular ones were hard to come by, so a lot of rumours would be circulating in each city where certain types would spawn.

It was huge for about two months, then the zeitgeist moved on. It was an inevitability, but the popular opinion was that the game was incredibly half-baked and there wasn't a lot to do.

The game consisted of:

- Starring at your phone to see which Pokemon are available
- Tapping a Pokemon and being sent to a mini-game where you throw Pokeballs to try and capture the Pokemon. There is a timing mechanic that makes each attempt more likely.
- You catch as many Pokemon as possible so you can evolve your monsters. For instance you have to catch 30 Bulbasaurs to evolve it to it's highest transformation
- Pokeballs are finite. The only way to re-stock is either through real world currency or visiting popular landmarks known as PokeStops where you're randomly handed out items.
- You could receive Poke Eggs from PokeStops which you could hatch after walking several miles with the app open. These would have rarer Pokemon and usually grant you a bunch of PokeCandies to evolve your monster with.
- With your party, you can battle gym leaders and take over their headquarters. You then skip to a mini-game where you try to exploit weaknesses and spam attacks with. It played nothing like the traditional Dragon Warrior style combat from the games.

For a few weeks, fans were just wrapping their heads around the mechanics and how to 'get good'. There were a lot of rumours about what you could do with the game, a lot of them got debunked and fans moved on once it became clear that new content wasn't going to arrive anytime soon.

I think now they've introduced a ton of mechanics like training, raid battles and trading but I stopped following it. There was a time where it was trending all over YouTube and you'd see videos get a million views in a day. One of them was actually a local so it was pretty cool to see how big it was in my neck of the woods. I never went to any raids, but I did have a couple of hikes where I took the phone with me.

As far as Bobby's World...



This was the first time I was made aware of it. When I went on my trip down memory lane, it was largely an early morning 5:30am show you might catch but it was far from a premiere cartoon. Maybe it was when it first came to Australia, but by 93-94, it was pretty tough to come by. I don't think it even made it onto cable. If it did, it would have been very early Nickolodeon and I was too busy watching Secrets of the Hidden Temple to notice.

One cartoon I keep forgetting but was reminded of was because of Little Richard's passing is the Magic School Bus.



One of the better theme songs for sure, the show itself was pretty watchable. I don't think I could marathon it, but for edutainment it was fun. It also received a boost from it's video game adaptation boost which was THE game back in primary. Mario Teaches Typing and The Magic School Explores the Solar System were the two draws during every lunch-time.

But yeah Bobby's World and Louie? I get the impression it's one of those shows that's much bigger in US Pop Culture, but never quite made it big in other parts of the world.

The Magic School Bus is another show I'm aware of but never watched. It was after my time. I always lump it in with Arthur due to both shows airing on the same network (PBS). Chances are they probably ran back to back.

Yesterday I discovered Bobby's World was on for a whopping 8 years. It was also fairly well known, though I never watched it. I don't think Life With Louie was anywhere near as popular, though it was big with me and a few members of my clique. I watched it mainly in 95-96 when it was a part of this GOAT level Saturday morning/early afternoon tv block...

11:00 Life With Louie
Noon WWF Superstars
1:00 WCW Worldwide
2:00 The Joy of Painting With Bob Ross

My old man was even a Life With Louie fan. Louie's own old man, the legendary Andy Anderson, was the big draw here. That guy.... :lol:  Sadly I cannot find a single Andy Anderson tribute video on the entire internet. The whole of humanity has let me down.

The show itself was more similar to King of the Hill than anything else in that it featured normal(ish) people in what would typically be normal situations that tended to go abnormally wrong. 

I will cover it more in depth after I finally get around to writing about Exosquad. 

After weeks of teasing I am finally ready to deliver the main event. Tonight it begins. If PW's Favorite Wrestler Countdown is put on hold for a while, then so be it. 

One reason for the delay was I didn't even know where to start with Exosquad. And if I did begin, would I ever be able to stop? Not bloody likely.

For Exosquad stands alone- Far above and beyond even such gems as Duck Tales, Peter Pan, Conan, and Life With Louie. It was playing chess while other cartoons, even the good ones, were still playing checkers. Exosquad is truly the colossus of cartoonery. It wasn't just the greatest cartoon of its era. Nor is it merely the greatest non-prime time cartoon I ever saw. It was one of the best shows (if not THE best) on tv, period. To this day I would probably rate it in my Top 10 favorite tv shows of all time.

A page or two back I posted videos of the Season 1 & 2 intros + 3 positive show reviews. To further prove to Doubting @ness that this cult classic is not just another figment of my overactive imagination, they also had....

Toys, which were awesome.



And a video game, which was considerably less awesome.



If you still doubt me you can read about it at....

IMDB: 8.4/10 www.imdb.com/title/tt0106842/
Rotten Tomatoes: 100% www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/exosquad
TV.com 8.6/10 www.tv.com/shows/exosquad/

Or check out its Wikipedia page en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exosquad featuring this Reception....

The critical reception of Exosquad was generally positive, as it was described as "no ordinary cartoon",[10] "truly a superb piece of work",[13] "a kind of show that [one]’ll never forget",[15] and "one of the greatest anime epics ever made".[8] Phil Summers of Shamoozal.com commented that while "the early 90s wasn't exactly the best time for cartoons", Exosquad was "one of the most underrated cartoon series of all time". Summers spoke highly of its "serious, ongoing storyline", complimenting the maturity of raised themes, and denoted the decision to cancel it despite the rising popularity as "weird".[15] Likewise, Thomas Wheeler of MasterCollector.com described the abrupt ending as "a VERY frustrating cliff-hanger".[13] Both Summers and Wheeler praised the quality of the toy line that accompanied the series.[13][15] TG Moses of Evabeast.com pointed out that the two main strengths of Exosquad are its "phenomenal" story and its characters. Like Phil Summers, he complimented the mature themes (such as racism, religion, and politics), calling the show "thought provoking and inspiring" with "an incredible amount of depth" in it. Moses specifically praised the characterization of the Neosapien characters, which avoided "absolute good and evil" designations, and voice acting in the show, wherein he perceived it "better than everyone else".[8] Both Will Meugniot and Michael Edens commented that Exosquad was the best show they have worked on.[4]

Whoa.

100% on RT.

Definitely need to check our (or revisit if I used to watch and just don't remember).

May 27, 2020 17:24:15 GMT 🤯 said:

Whoa.

100% on RT.

Definitely need to check our (or revisit if I used to watch and just don't remember).

Weird that the hype isn't coming from RT.

Checked out (partial) a random Bobby's World episode on Youtube. The opening song, while seemingly very long, hit all the right feels for me. I recall bits and pieces of every part. One thing that sticks out to me... is that fucking voice. Like, I don't get how I ever got through an episode of this shit. Bobby I can't handle this.

Exosquad: An Introduction



From Left To Right: Wolf Bronski, Rita Torres, Maggie Weston, JT Marsh, Alec DeLeon, Marsala

Where do I even begin in writing about the GOAT? Well, I suppose I should first explain the premise. Exosquad is a space opera which takes place in the future- 22nd Century, to be precise. At the time (mid 90s) "It's kinda like Star Wars, but better." was my go to line. I have since seen other people compare it to the anime Gundam, which I'm pretty sure I watched once or twice in the early 2000s on the Cartoon Network, but remember nothing about. So I can't say whether or not that is an accurate comparison.

The entire 52 episode series revolves around a Great War featuring the humans (called 'Terrans' in the show and from here on out) against the Neo Sapiens, who were a 'superior' species developed by the Terrans to serve as their slaves as they "terraformed" (made livable) the other planets in our solar system. But to say Exosquad was just about "a Terran vs. Neo Sapien Space War" would be like saying Game of Thrones was just about a few guys who wanted to become king. It is so much more. 

To quote one of those reviews, Exosquad really was like no cartoon (or really no show, period) I had ever seen before. It had far more depth and better, more complex storytelling. Some of the "good guys" were assholes. Some of the "bad guys" were among the most noble characters in the entire series (THRAX!  ). The "bad guys" quite often "won" an episode, or sometimes even multiple episodes in a row. Hell, the entire first season was pretty much The Bad Guys Triumphant. There was constant in-fighting on both sides. There was also a band of unpredictable tweeners in the Pirate Clans who sided with The Terrans but were also literally criminals who had their own agenda. Actually, EVERYBODY in this show had their own agenda. Both All 3 sides featured more defectors, traitors, and spies than I can even remember. And the cool thing is every character had different motivations for doing what they did. There were also many, many characters. Far too many for the casual viewer to keep up with. This show was all about shades of gray. Hell, even the backstory was more complex than the main storyline of pretty much every other cartoon show I had ever seen up to that point. And people died! Lots of them! Including the good guys! Including a good guy MAIN CHARACTER! Now none of this stuff probably seems all that shocking today. But you have to understand this sort of thing just didn't happen on cartoons tv shows back in the mid 90s. The death of that main character is honestly one of the most memorable moments in tv history for me (and apparently most of the other people who watched this show). It's also real easy to see things from the Neos perspective. I mean, they WERE slaves. I suppose I should explain this real quick....

Like 100 years before the show begins, humans used genetic engineering to create a new race of human(oid creatures) called Neo Sapiens- literally "New Species." They're big blue guys who are like 8 feet tall. The Neos were bred to be bigger, stronger, and smarter than humans. They could survive in the harsh climate of other planets. The humans used them as slaves to "terraform" (make livable) the other planets. Now HOW they did this was never really explained, but it doesn't really matter for the purpose of our story. After 50 years or so, the Neos rebelled against their terran masters. This lead to what became known as "The First Neo Sapien War."  

The Neos were bred to be smarter than humans, and they were....but only in a way. Their one fatal flaw is a lack of adaptability. It's kind of hard to explain, but it's definitely a thing. Humans are better when it comes to adapting to new scenarios. Anyway, the humans were losing until they came up with this new "exo" technology which allowed them to better navigate space. And they eventually won the war. 

BUT! The Neos were freed from slavery, given the entire planet of Mars, and also given political representation. So they actually came out of it pretty strong even in defeat. And this is just the BACKSTORY. AND I didn't even cover the most important part of the backstory as it relates to the current storyline. It is not yet time for that.

Exosquad was on a whole different level than everything I had seen that came before it. Exosquad featuring the GOAT cartoon villain in the genocidal megalomaniac Phaeton, who was basically Hitler In Space, was just the cherry on top. 

*Jeez. There was SO MUCH happening in these 52 episodes that I feel like it will take me entire weeks of writing to do it justice. Basically, I tried downplaying the greatness of Conan, Peter Pan, and other cartoons I liked so people didn't get their hopes too high. I mean, they were good shows, but they were "good for cartoons." I will not downplay anything about Exosquad. The hype is real. There is no over exaggerating here.

Also, it turns out some of those links in a previous post were only scores for the first season. The first season was just a table setter for the far superior second season. So those high scores are actually lower than what they probably should be.

Exosquad was LOVED by the people who watched it. The problem is not many people did for reasons I will get into later. But in one of those reviews I posted last week, the guy gets downright giddy when he says "this show changed my life." Can relate! Once before I mentioned how if things had turned out just a little differently I'd have spent the last 7 years writing Exosquad fanfic rather than posting on a wrestling forum. 

Exosquad was specifically created to be "The American Anime." Now I didn't know this at the time, and it would have meant nothing to me even if I had. Anime was still a very cultish, fringe thing in those days. I mean, even more than Exosquad! My only exposure to anime came from these bizarre late night infomercials that aired on UHF stations after midnight. I remember a show called Akira being heavily featured in these infomercials. Given the late night timeslot, and general weirdness of it all, it was the sort of thing I half thought I had imagined or dreamed until I came across it a second time. I also remember a big push to make Sailor Moon a thing but I don't think that ever really got over here. Or if it did, nobody in my neck of the woods watched it. And that might have been after Exosquad anyway.

The average Exosquad episode featured macchiavellian politics, racism from both sides, a turncoat, spy, or two, constant infighting among members of the same team, FAKE NEWS propagandists like that jerk Amanda Conners, space battles with entire ships being destroyed as thousands died, genetic engineering, even more genetic manipulation, a mad scientist or two, and Phaeton casually launching people into the sun after claiming they were "only" going to be put into concentration camps. Yeah, it was that kind of show. Also, remind me to tell you about the ONE time Phaeton was happy. Which was probably the single greatest moment in a show filled with great moments.

Honestly, the "darkness" of this show might be one of the reasons why it failed to get over with the masses (more on that later). While it looked all bright and cartoony with lots of pretty colors and THOSE HAIRSTYLES~! this show was so, so dark. There wasn't much humor, and almost all of what little humor there was came from one character- the legendary belching, badass, blowhard- Wolf Bronski. It could also be pretty damn pretentious at times- like when the writers expected their kiddie audience to know Latin.   This happened! I mean, you'd get it if you paid attention, and I was a teenager at the time who got it because I paid entirely too much attention, but some 8 year old kid just wanting to watch a kewl show with space battles isn't going to understand what "speranza" means. 

In The Beginning

After all that hype you are no doubt thinking this was a hit from Day One. WRONG! It may have taken me as long as 20 months to get into Exosquad. For the longest time I just dismissed it as "That stupid space show with the weird Blue Guys." The big cartoon draw in those days was still Conan. Exosquad came on after Captain Planet, which came on after Conan. So my brother and I were usually getting antsy to do something else by the time the Big Blue Guys came on.

Exosquad began airing in September 1993. I didn't get hooked until approximately June 1995. The episode in question was either the one where they encounter a mad terran scientist (Dr. Ketzer) genetic engineering things in The Amazon as mad scientists are wont to do, or the one with the monstrous Neo Lords(!) debuting in Australia. Anyway, I remember mentioning it later that morning at Courtball to my friend Original Baker. Turns out he was a HUGE Exosquad smark and there was no turning back after his breathless hype job. I was hooked. 

Yeah, there's going to be lots of Storytiming in this Exosquad lovefest, too. If Demon Semen had lasted beyond our one live show, and I had started taking it just a little seriously, I would have inevitably paid homage to  Brian Adams' Summer of '69 with my own Summer of '95. Those were the Glory Days, folks. And my 3 great loves during that GOAT summer with all my cool new friends were Exosquad, Wrestling, and Courtball. I am not exaggerating when I say no fewer than 9 of us were HOOKED on Exosquad by the end of that summer. Like you have no idea...

I actually might create a separate thread just for Exosquad/Storytime chatter. 

Next Time: Characters? Plot? Toys? Episodes? The Video Game? More Storytime? Who knows! This could go in any one of a hundred different directions. But have no fears, I've got stories for years.

Just for the heck of it, I shall leave you with a pic of Phaeton getting trolled, only because the EPIC Phaeton tribute that was up on Youtube got pulled a few years back by stupid copyright enforcers. Sad.

Fucking hell Bobby's World is taking over my Youtube feed.

Scrolling through random episodes there's A LOT I remember. A lot of Nessisms probably stem from the Uncle, including how Canadians are. The way the Mom talks (doncha know) and other stuff is just so familiar. Also he has some big ass feet.

And now I'm going down an early 2000s rabbit hole with Kim Possible. I'm going in a completely opposite time direction from Baker.

May 29, 2020 0:40:55 GMT @ness said:

Fucking hell Bobby's World is taking over my Youtube feed.

Scrolling through random episodes there's A LOT I remember. A lot of Nessisms probably stem from the Uncle, including how Canadians are. The way the Mom talks (doncha know) and other stuff is just so familiar. Also he has some big ass feet.

Can relate. Until the last few days I hadn't realized how many Bakerisms I borrowed/stole from Life With Louie. Took a few from Exosquad as well. 

May 29, 2020 1:04:38 GMT @ness said:

And now I'm going down an early 2000s rabbit hole with Kim Possible. I'm going in a completely opposite time direction from Baker .

I know nothing of this Kim Possible.

Yet forward is the only way I move in the cartoon thread. It just takes me forever to get there. At some point (likely 2021 given my slow pace) I'll cover the early 2000s in cartooning, though it's likely to just be a bunch of "X was C Show filler until the nightly DBZ main event." 

Are you guys ready for a Baker level Kim Possible post? Because that's what's likely going down.