Nostalgia Colored Glasses

[Oznogrd]

So...I had an idea and i ended up writing up a whole blog for another site (that i won't post here but it gave me the idea for this)

Do you ever think back remembering how much you loved a show and then when you see it again it absolutely blows? Or exactly the opposite: You remember liking it so you check it out again and its just as good if not even better than before. Its an interesting phenomenon. Came up with a small list of my Fails and Wins...not going into too epic detail here: if you want more details on my reasonings just ask.

Fail that requires the 3rd party facepalm combined with the Picard/Riker Dual facepalm and to be conveyed
-Saved By the Bell
-Full House
-He-Man
-Captain Planet
-Space Ghost Coast to Coast/Cartoon Planet
-Spider-Man the Animated Series
-Cartoon All Stars to the Rescue
-Super Mario Bros Super Show
-Real Ghostbusters

Still Here After All These Years
-The Adventures of Pete & Pete
-Animaniacs
-Dinosaurs
-Dexters Laboratory
-Rocky and Bullwinkle
-Married...With Children

[benji]

Does it have to be shows?

-Captain Planet

Look at it this way, it's a bunch of kids who get high on drugs and imagine their own "superhero" and that the planet is talking to them while carrying out eco-terrorism on a bunch of peoples private property.

-Spider-Man the Animated Series

If you're talking about the FOX series from the 1990s then there's no way it was win before, it was always insane for being a kids show. Spider-Man couldn't punch anyone despite everyone wanting to kill him and the plots were constantly depressing. Everyone he knows either dies, goes insane or is otherwise cut out of his life, he spends an entire season mutating into a monster, then the next two seasons being emotionally and physically beaten by everything in sight, he gets Mary Jane back from the dead just for it to be revealed she's a clone made out of water so SHE CAN DIE AGAIN, all while Madame Web is fucking with him all over the place, he gets sent to an alien planet where he's way out of his depth, and THEN REALITY FALLS APART before he saves it just to go back to his horrible real life.

AND THEN THE SERIES ENDS.

Even at the time I was like "wtf are they going to do to make things worse for Peter" every episode.

The X-Men series wasn't much better because it took events that happened years apart in the comics and adapted them in such a way that, for example the entire Phoenix/Dark Phoenix Saga takes place over two months, it's just endless harrowing events where people are getting killed left and right. Hell, the series opens with Morph dying almost instantly.

The animation/sound styles just exaggerated things as well. At least in my opinion.

[Lamrock]

That Spider Man series sounds fucking great.

[shadowgrin]

It was. Used to watch it every Saturday, same with the X-Men and Captain Planet.

Fail?:
Happy Days
Keenan and Kel
Tonight Show with Jay Leno. (No broadcasts of Letterman or Conan in here then)
Super Friends
X-Men
Captain Planet
Spider-Man
Ultraman and other Japanese kids show (that Americans eventually remade like the Power Rangers)

Win:
Pinky and the Brain
Dexter's Laboratory

That's all I can think of for now.

[benji]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man_(1994_TV_series)#Censorship

Fox Broadcasting Standards.

[J@3]

Fail:

Happy Days
Biker Mice From Mars
Samurai Pizza Cats
Power Rangers
Captain Planet
Keenan and Kel (good one)
Super Ted
Mr Squiggle
Animaniacs

Win:

Ren & Stimpy
Around The Twist
Goosebumps
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
He-Man
Ahhhh! Real Monsters
Rocko's Modern Life
Pinky & The Brain
Transformers (cartoon)
X-Men
Anything Batman related

[Oznogrd]

Does it have to be shows?

Doesnt have to be shows but i figured if i included movies and other forms of media the list would be endless on the fail scale.

If you're talking about the FOX series from the 1990s then there's no way it was win before...

Well i thought it was, I was 6. Been watching it on disney xd...its horrid. for all the reasons you listed.

The animation/sound styles just exaggerated things as well. At least in my opinion.

Yeah i think i didn't care how bad the animation/voice acting was when i was little and now when i watch it its truly painful.

[Andrew]

Win/Fail is a bit too broad for me, so I'll go with some slightly different categories.

Criticism is justified, but I'd still defend...to a point

- Captain Planet
- Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue (the drug awareness special from 1990 or thereabouts)
- Super Mario Bros Super Show (including the Legend of Zelda cartoon)
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Captain N: The Game Master

The Nostalgia Critic has covered all of these and frankly, Doug hit the mark on all of them. However, I think to a certain extent we're so keen to discard the nostalgic glasses that we heap a bit too much criticism on them or at least dismiss the idea that there was absolutely nothing good about them. The latter three weren't completely awful given the target audience, though again, the criticism is justified; the drug awareness special is a product of the subject matter, I don't think you can write a story about drugs aimed at children without a certain element of scare tactics and being preachy, if nothing else it had good intentions; Captain Planet also had good intentions, some of the action sequences are kind of cool but yes, preachy, simplistic, broken and distorted morals/lessons and what kind of lame power is heart anyway?

Doesn't hold up quite as well, but still has merit

- Ren & Stimpy

Yeah, I know a lot of people would disagree there, but for me it hasn't aged well. Of course, part of it could be due to the discovery that John Kricfalusi is an utter douchebag and the wretched "adult party" revival, but I think it gets a bit too much credit. Fantastic animation, no surprise since John K is an elitist when it comes to those things, but aside from a few memorable moments I'd have to say it's lost a lot of its nostalgic value for me.

Doesn't really hold up at all

- The live action TMNT movies...really, anything TMNT except the 80s cartoon series and a couple of the video games
- Saved by the Bell

Although I'd concede they have their moments, the first live action Turtles movie was alright for the time but the rest...no thanks. Saved by the Bell is now hilarious for all the wrong reasons so it still has entertainment value to some extent, but in an "I'd laugh at the clips on YouTube and NC's review, couldn't watch an episode of it" kind of way.

Still good

- Classic Simpsons (alright, that's kind of a cheat)
- Married...with Children
- Darkwing Duck
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the 80s cartoon series)
- Animaniacs
- Pinky & The Brain
- Classic Looney Tunes shorts
- Tom & Jerry
- Peanuts/Charlie Brown (any of the movies or shorts)

Some of them can be enjoyed in a whole new way as an adult, since you get some of the stuff that went over your head as a kid. Looney Tunes has quite a few good examples of that (Foghorn Leghorn: "Nice girl, but she's like the highway from Dallas to Forth Worth; no curves" or Bugs' several homages to Groucho Marx).

There's a few others that come to mind and many more that I'm sure don't at this juncture, but I couldn't really categorise them at this time.

[J@3]

Doesn't really hold up at all

- The live action TMNT movies...really, anything TMNT except the 80s cartoon series and a couple of the video games

I still love the first TMNT movie, they approached it perfectly. Even now like 20 years later it's still quite dark, kinda like a Batman Begins vibe.

[kibaxx7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man_(1994_TV_series)#Censorship

Fox Broadcasting Standards.

# Spider-Man was not allowed to hit anyone with his fist
# No crashing glass was allowed
# No vampires were allowed on the show
# Spider-Man was not allowed to harm any pigeons when he landed on rooftops

How did they even make a Spider-Man animated series, at all?

[Andrew]

I still love the first TMNT movie, they approached it perfectly. Even now like 20 years later it's still quite dark, kinda like a Batman Begins vibe.

The first one was definitely miles ahead of its sequels, definitely agree there.

[Oznogrd]

but Secret of the Ooze gave us such immortal characters as Tokka and Rahzar!

and of course the greatest hip hop song ever made

phpBB [video]

Add daria to my aged well.. Watched an episode on Logo: as cynical and hilarious as I remember.

[Andrew]

but Secret of the Ooze gave us such immortal characters as Tokka and Rahzar!

And professional wrestler Kevin Nash as Super Shredder!