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Saturday morning cartoon spin-offs

Posted in Back to the Future, cartoons, Happy Days, movies, pop culture, TV shows with tags , , , , , on September 21, 2007 by Paxton

Saturday MorningNowadays, when I watch a cartoon, I think, “There’s a 30min commercial for toys…or a video game.” But back when I was a kid, things seemed different. They may not have been different, but it seems to me that I had a larger variety of cartoons to watch. It wasn’t just toy lines and video game sales that seemed to drive the creation of a Saturday morning cartoon, it was how popular the property was. Not just in toy aisles, but on TV or at the movies. The ’70s and ’80s were a boon for TV and movie properties to be translated into cartoon format. Not only that, but popular music groups would be translated into cartoons for kids. Some made the transition naturally, some turned out like, “Wha-huh?”. Regardless of quality, these types of cartoons fascinate me.

Let’s take a look at some of the cartoons that were created from a live-action tv show or movie. This is by no means a comprehensive list, these are just the ones I can remember, but if you have any others that you remember, leave a comment about them.

The DukesThe Dukes – Based on Dukes of Hazard, this cartoon featured the voices of the entire live action show’s cast. In the first season, however, Vance and Coy, two other Duke cousins, were used. Bo and Luke would arrive for the second season (yes, there was a second season). The premise was very similar to Wacky Races in that the Duke Boys were participating in a big car race against their arch foes Boss Hogg and Roscoe P Coltrane for the mortgage on the farm. Check out the intro on YouTube.

Brady KidsThe Brady Kids – Based on the Brady Bunch, this featured the kids (no Mike or Carol) as a touring band a la The Beatles. All the kids lent their voices in season 1 but Barry Williams (Greg) dropped out in season 2. Suprisingly, there was an appearance by Superman, Lois Lane and Wonder Woman in one of the episodes making this series a copyright nightmare for release on DVD.

GilligansGilligan’s Planet – There were actually two Gilligan’s Island cartoons. The first was in 1973, and then this one, in 1982. The Professor managed to build an interstellar rocket that propels our castaways into space to crash land on an uncharted planet. In essence, perpetuating the cycle (Professor, just fix the damn boat!). All the show’s cast lent voices except Tina Louise (Ginger) who was replaced by Dawn Wells (Mary-Ann). Check out the intro on YouTube.

Robonic StoogesThe Robonic Stooges – There was a 3 Stooges cartoon in the ’60s, but the Stooges were re-imagined as bumbling superheroes in this 1978 cartoon. The three stooges all have various bionic enhancements that they use to varying degrees of success to solve crimes. Scripts for this cartoon were written by Moe Howard’s son-in-law.

Super GlobetrottersThe Super Globetrotters – A lot of people know about the Globetrotters’ appearances on Scooby-Doo, and that they had their own show called the Go-Go-Globetrotters. But this beauty debuted in 1979 and was another take on bumbling superheroes like the Robonic Stooges above. Each globetrotter had a weird superpower that helped them solve crimes and rescue people. This was one of my favorites. Check out the intro on YouTube here.

NKOTBNew Kids on the Block – Yes, in 1990, at the height of their popularity, there was a New Kids on the Block cartoon. I remember catching it on tv a few times. Pretty standard stuff. None of the New Kids did the cartoon voices, however they filmed live action intro scenes to be cut into the show. Check out the cheezy ’80s-like intro on YouTube.

Teen WolfTeen Wolf – 1986. This was one of my absolute favorite cartoons while growing up. I loved the original movie this was based on and the cartoon was a lot of fun. None of the movie cast returned for the cartoon but the stories were a lot of fun. It helps that I love almost anything to do with werewolves. Check out the intro on YouTube where Teen Wolf jams to a cassette Walkman!!.

AlfAlf – The voice behind Alf returned for the Animated Series which was a prequel to the tv show. It followed Alf and his friends on Melmac before he would crash land on Earth in the tv series.

BTTFBack to the Future: The Animated Series – 1991. Everyone who reads this blog knows I love Back to the Future. However, I never really could get into this cartoon. I think because the stories/scripts were all over the place made it tough to like. It could also be that I was going to graduate high school right when this came out and I didn’t watch as much cartoons. Christopher Lloyd, Mary Steenburgen and Tom Wilson all returned to their roles of Doc, Clara and Biff, respectively.

BeetlejuiceBeetlejuice – This was actually a very good adaptation of the 1988 Michael Keaton Beetlejuice movie. Premiering in 1989, it followed the many misadventures of Beetlejuice and Lydia Deetz. The premise of the movie was changed slightly as Lydia and Beetlejuice are best friends in the cartoon and the main characters of the Maitlands in the movie don’t even appear. Very funny and very cool character design. Check out the intro on YouTube.

Hulk HoganHulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n Wrestling – Awesome 1985 cartoon featuring many popular WWF wrestling characters. Very good cartoon, with lots of rock, but, ironically, very little (if any) wrestling. None of the wrestlers provided their own voices, but there were live-action segments which featured the real guys. As a matter of fact, Brad Garrett (Robert on Everybody Loves Raymond) would provide the voice for Hulk Hogan. Check out the rockin’ intro with Hulk Hogan walking down the streets of Manhattan.

Brady KidsMr. T – 1983. Seeing Mr. T as the coach of a high school gymnastics team seems perfectly—-wait, Wha-?! See the intro on YouTube.

Brady KidsThe Real Ghostbusters – I talked about this cartoon in an earlier article. Based on the hit 1984 movie, this cartoon, debuting in 1986, would follow the further adventures of the four ghostbusters and would add the help of Slimer, a ghost. None of the movie cast provided voices, however Winston Zedmore was voiced by Arsenio Hall. Going hand-in-hand with this is the Ghost Busters cartoon which was based on the 1960’s tv series.

Did you guys know that, Happy Days, being one of the most popular tv series ever, spun off at least three different shows; Joannie Loves Chachi, Laverne & Shirley and Mork & Mindy. Those are just the live-action shows. It also gave birth to three cartoon shows. Here they are.

The FonzThe Fonz and the Happy Days Gang – 1980. Henry Winkler (Fonz), Ron Howard (Ritchie) and Donny Most (Ralph) all provided their voices for this show. It had a great premise where our 3 heroes were stranded in a time machine with a futuristic chick named Cupcake (really?!) trying to find their way back to 1957. Check out the intro on YouTube.

Laverne & ShirleyLaverne and Shirley in the Army- Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams lended their voices to this 1981 cartoon featuring titular characters Laverne & Shirley and their adventures after having joined the Army. Ron Palillo (Horseshack) provided the voice of their pet pig, Sgt Squealy. They would later be joined by Fonzie and his dog, Mr. Cool, as motor pool mechanics. Check out the intro on YouTube.

Mork and MindyMork & Mindy – In 1982 Robin Williams and Pam Dawber lent their voices to this cartoon about Mork enrolling in high school under orders from Orson.

These are all cartoons I was able to catch on TV a few times while flipping the channels oh those many Saturday mornings ago. Can you imagine studios doing this today? What shows could be made into cartoons? Could 24 or Alias be made into a cartoon? How about Friends or The Office? Seems crazy now, but back then it was commonplace.

There are many other live action shows that were turned into cartoons, can you name a few?

Have a good weekend, everyone.

Some sites that were indispensable to me for research were Wikipedia, IMDb, Big Cartoon Database and Toon Tracker. Check them out for some really cool images and history to some really great cartoon shows.

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Back to the Future Slots & Studio 60 TV Show

Posted in Back to the Future, slot machines, TV, TV shows with tags , , , , , on August 23, 2006 by Paxton

I’ve got two quick notes for everyone:

According to BTTF.com, Las Vegas has just started receiving the new Back to the Future Video Slots. Interesting that my last two articles involved the demise of Back to the Future The Ride and slot machines. It’s like two kids are walking down the street, one carrying the BTTF The Ride article and one carrying the slot machine article. Then, like the old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups commercials, the kids trip, fall into each other and BAM!, everything is all mixed up into something new, different…and DELICIOUS.

Also of note in the above article is that Christopher Lloyd reprised his role of Doc Emmette Brown for the live action segments which were also overseen by writer/director/producer Bob Gale. Click here to see pics of the prototype of the Back to the Future slot machine.

Quick Note #2:

I watched a preview of NBC’s new show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. It’s by Aaron Sorkin who created Sports Night and West Wing. It doesn’t premier until Sept 18, but Netflix is shipping out early preview DVDs as a promotion.

I watched it last night and the show, in a word, is incredible. I didn’t really get into West Wing like I wanted to, but I did love Sorkin’s Sports Night which showed the behind the scenes drama of a sports talk show similar to ESPN SportsCenter. It starred Desperate Housewives’ Felicity Huffman and was fun to watch. Studio 60 is very similar to Sports Night in that it’s behind the scenes of a sketch comedy show similar to Saturday Night Live. Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford play a famous writing duo who are asked back to Studio 60 after being fired because the eccentric show’s creator melted down during a live broadcast. The writing is sharp and funny and the actors are brilliant. I can’t wait until this starts airing during the regular season. I will definitely start watching it.

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In Memorium: Back to the Future The Ride

Posted in Back to the Future, movies, reviews, Universal Studios with tags , , , , on August 11, 2006 by Paxton


It makes me very sad that I have to write this article. I’ve heard rumors for a while, but it was officially announced that Universal Studios Orlando was going to “phase out” the 15 year old ride for something newer, presumably a Simpsons ride.

I have a long history with Back to the Future. I saw it at the theater in 1985 when it was released. I remember my dad checking me out of school to go see an earlier showing (it was still packed). Then when the original was released on VHS, I had my dad (god love him for it) show up at Blockbuster the day it was released to rent it (we copied it). I remember losing my f’n mind when, at the end of the movie on VHS, there appeared the words TO BE CONTINUED… which didn’t appear in the theatrical release. I then eagerly waited the four years it took to release Parts 2 and 3. I bought all the magazines and books I could find. Click here to see my review of the Back to the Future novels. I also had the Back to the Future official movie magazine but it fell apart I read it so much. So, in 1999, when I was assigned to a project in Tampa, FL, I was beside myself thinking that I would be an easy 1 hour drive from Universal Studios Orlando and Back to the Future The Ride. I made several trips to Orlando to visit Universal studios and have ridden The Ride many times since then. I even got to ride it at Universal Studios in Hollywood. Everytime it takes me back to the feeling of watching the movie when I was a kid.

Now it seems that the studio brass feel it’s time to retire the ride. I hate to say it, but I agree. The ride was pretty shabby the last time I rode it. I love going to the ride and seeing the props and enviroments and the atmosphere, but the ride mechanism and IMAX dome screening always makes me motion sick. I would love to see it updated, but with the DVDs released a few years ago and no new movies or TV shows on the horizon, the prospects for the property have pretty much played out. It’s sad to see it go and I’m glad I got to ride it just a few weeks ago as the ride looks to be phased out by October.

Here I am outside the main entrance to The Ride at Universal Studios in Orlando in 1999.

Here I am outside the ride with a Doc Brown impersonator. We are posing in front of an actual Delorean model used in the movie. This is also from 1999 in Orlando.

Fun Back to the Future links:

1. Here is the video footage of Back to the Future The Ride. It’s the video you’d see if you were sitting in the ride, not the video while waiting in line. Very cool.

2. Bloopers from the filming of Back to the Future.

3. Did you know that Eric Stoltz was originally cast as Marty McFly? Roughly 30% of the movie was shot with Stoltz as the lead but the director thought he looked too old and played Marty too straight. Here are some pics of the legendary “Eric Stoltz” footage.

Take care BTTF The Ride, we knew ye well!!

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Movie Novelizations #1: Back to the Future Trilogy

Posted in Back to the Future, books, movies, pop culture, reviews with tags , , , , on April 6, 2006 by Paxton

By the mid ’80s I was 10 years old and I loved to read. Now, I wasn’t reading Tolstoy or Shakespeare, but I was reading nonetheless. Movie novelizations were one thing that really got me interested in reading. I’m not talking about books that “inspired” a movie, or the novel a movie was based on. I’m talking about a novel written AFTER the movie script was written or based on the script of an in-development movie. In the ’80s and ’90s, movie novelizations were everywhere, yet today, they are rare if the movie isn’t based on a comic book. Every awesome genre movie got one. Demolition Man, War Games, the Back to the Future trilogy, the Batman movies, even more recent movies like the 1996 Mission Impossible remake had a movie novel based on its script. There was a WaldenBooks in the Riverchase Galleria many years ago (it’s a clothing store now) that had an entire section of movie novelizations. That’s where I spent most of my time at the mall (when I wasn’t in the mall arcade, Diamond Jim’s). Any movie that I enjoyed at the theater, I’d go pick up the movie novelization. For the most part, I still do it. One thing movie novelizations have going for them is that they are, for the most part, only released in paperback. This makes it extremely portable and easy to read anywhere.

In these books, the movie story was basically the same, but since the book was usually written on an earlier draft of the script, scenes that were cut out of the movie are still in the book. In some of the better novels, you also get inner monologue of the main characters. It gave an entirely new dimension to the story.

Being a pack rat, I still have most of these books. I thought it would be interesting to review some of these novels for you and let you know the good ones and the bad ones and how they compare to the movie they represent. Since I have so many of these books, I’ll only do a few at a time and make this an ongoing series. For a preview of some of the books, see the pic above. I have more, but I need to find them as they are hidden away in cardboard boxes after my move from Birmingham, AL to Jacksonville, FL. The first series of books today will be the books based on one of my favorite series of movies…the Back to the Future trilogy.

These were 3 of my favorite movies when I was a kid. When the first was released in 1985, I saw it in the theater at least 10 times. I was a freak for this movie. I almost died when it took 4 years to release the sequel, Back to the Future Part II. Part II was the first novel I bought of this series (at the aforementioned WaldenBooks). I had no idea the first movie had been released in novel form also. Many years later, after all the Back to the Future movies had been released on video, a “garage sale” store opened up about 20 minutes from my house. Now these places are called antique shops, but originally it was a garage sale store. This place was a goldmine for old books as it had an entire room dedicated to selling them. I can’t even tell you how many books I’ve found in this store. It was here that I stumbled across the paperback for the original Back to the Future. It even had the original sales receipt dated 1985. I was dumbstruck. I read it immediately. I began wondering if Part III had a movie novelization. I searched high and low. This was before the proliferation of the internet and Amazon.com or eBay. If it wasn’t at a local bookstore or at a garage sale or second hand store, you weren’t finding it, my friend.

After over a year of going back to the garage sale store, it finally appeared, like a great desert oasis, Back to the Future Part III: The Novel. It was my Holy Grail and I had found it. Giddy as a schoolgirl, I bought it and began reading it that night.

The books in this series are very true to the movies. You’ll find little tidbits here and there that weren’t in the movie. For instance, the original Back to the Future novel starts with Marty in school instead of in Doc’s lab. Some scenes are longer and some dialogue is slightly different, but overall it’s a really good adaptation of the movies.

Years later, before the garage sale store closed, I did find an alternate cover for Back to the Future Part II, it was white instead of blue, but I thought enough is enough. I believe you can find these on Amazon right now from third party sellers, but I’ll always cherish these books because it took me years to complete the set.

Coming up I’ll have looks at the novels for Clue: The Movie, The original Batman movies, the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies and the X-men movies. If I find my old stash of books, maybe I’ll have some more suprises.

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