From: kmeyer@unf6.unf.edu (Karl Meyers)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.tiny-toon
Subject: Toon TV/Grandma's Dead  (*SPOILERS!!*)
Keywords: Tiny Toon Adventures Third Season
Date: 11 Nov 92 15:50:46 GMT
Organization: University of North Florida, Jacksonville

SPOLIER WARNING!  If you don't wanna read this, junk the article now!
If you haven't seen the last two episodes (shame on you!), I'm gonna more-
or-less give 'em away...






TOON TV (#180)

This was a fun episode, very much in spirit with its predecessor, TINY TOONS
MUSIC TELEVISION, without rehashing the original.  Animation overall was 
almost (almost, mind you) TMS quality (although where do those backgrounds
during the tag scenes come from?), and the songs...well, the speak for
themselves...

* "It's In His Kiss" - featuring Buster and Babs, with Babs "singing" this one.
(BTW, it's the original song, not Cher's version).  This short singlehandedly
nails : "Bride of Frankenstein", "King Kong" (watch Babsie's hair in this
segment - she starts blonde and suddenly becomes brunette), "Superman (I)"
(the "Can You Read My Mind" sequences, except SuperBuster doesn't quite 
catch Babsie Lane...*ouch!*), "The Little Mermaid" (unmercilessly!!!), and
"Phantom of the Opera" (with a shot at Pres. and Mrs. Bush throw in for good
measure at the end).  Shirley and Fifi are "singing" backup.

* "Arcade Game Blues" (or some junk) - Fowlmouth (o.s.) and Plucky do the
vocals set to parts of the Nutcracker Suite.  And anyone who's played major
amounts of video games (listening, Rob?  :) can feel for Plucky.  Wasn't this
the one that was supposed to been done partially with an Amiga 3000?  I
couldn't see any computer-aided rendering or such in it.

* "Nothing Comes Close to You" - "Skinhead O'Connell" (b/k/a Shirley the Loon)
trashes and bashes the Sinead O'Conner original...in all of 10-15 seconds.
Which, considering the original was such trash to begin with, is pretty good.
:) :)  Well done here.

* "The Name Game" - Elmyra does the bulk of the singing, with the others 
singing backup.  We get another "Star Wars" parody, and Ralf (from BUSTER
BUNNY BUNCH - hey, when is Babs gonna get an episode named after her?!? :)
makes his reappearence (ears and all), and gets a simular reaction as before.
Silliness *AND* continuity.  I love it!  :)

* "Toon Out, Toon In" - A new song/rap by "Vanilla Lice" (voiced by Rob
Paulsen).  Would you believe a musical primer to the *entire series*?!?  
Everyone cameos, with Plucky, Elmyra, and Gogo sneaking in their own lyrics.
Nicely done.   What happens to Vanilla at the end is a excellent touch, too
(I'd love to do that to the original...).

* "Do You Love Me?" Buster and Babs again, this time with Buster singing this
'50's classic...as loud as he can, and usually in Babsie's ears.  OUCH!  I 
wonder if this is his revenge for PROM-ISE HER ANYTHING?  :)  They do make up
at the end, of course, but inbetween the start and end it's pure lunacy. 
The "translation for the Terminally Unhip" and "MAKE IT STOP!" shots were
good, too.  (I'd love a screen grab of them dancing at the end, personally.)

* "Yakity Yak" - I remember laughing my tail off when I saw this one on TPDS
("Arcade Game Blues" popped up there as well), and it's still silly.  Plucky
and Mr. Hitcher (from HISMV) strike again!  The yaks were sorta overkill at
times, but a little overkill never hurt anyone.  :)  BTW, was that Hamton or
Porky chasing the runaway washing machine?

Overall, on the Meyers Scale of 1 (Ex-squeeze Me?) to 5 (Most Excellent), I
gave this episode a 4.75 out of 5.  TMS animation would have probably put
it over the magical 5 rating.  As Synth would say, a Must-See Episode(tm). :)


GRANDMA'S DEAD (#185)

When I saw who was staring in the full-lenghter, I went "AAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHH!
NO!  NO!  NOT ELMYRA'S FAMILY!  ANYONE BUT THEM!  MAKE IT STOP!  MAKE IT
STOP!"  I mean, TAKE ELMYRA PLEASE was such a dog in my opinion (it's the
only episode so are I've given a 1 rating to, it's so bad), I figured this 
one would follow suit.

Actually, upon watching it, it's not that bad.  It's not that good, either.
The mix-up was kinda new (and considering Elmyra's speech patterns, it's
understandable to see how that happened), and the "Brady Bunch" and "Rear
Window" gags were OK (Plucky, of course, did the "Rear Window" one much
better in PSYCHIC FUN-OMENON DAY), but overall the episode left me with a
feeling of "so what?".

This was obviously another episode of the aborted "Elmyra's Family" series,
and if you take the two episodes together, you can see why.  I'm not fond
of Elmyra as it is; a whole series featuring her?  YUCH!

Furrball and Byron make cameos, which could be considered the best parts of
the episode.  :)  Also, what is Elmyra doing in "Harvey Kurtzman Elementary"?
Must've flunked outta Acme Loo.  :) (Another element that makes me think 
this was another episode/pilot for "Elmyra's Family".)

Overall MS rating: 2.25 out of 5.  Glad Wang did this one; it would have
been a waste of TMS's abilities.  :)


While I have your attention, I heard that TTA is going six times a week.
Does that mean that (just as I figured) Plucky couldn't carry his own show?
(Unrelated tidbit: I've heard that Fox is bringing in MIGHTY MOUSE: THE 
NEW ADVENTURES to replace X-MEN.  Poetic justice?  You decide.  :)

We now return to your regularly scheduled alt.tv.tiny-toon... :)

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Karl F. Meyers			University of North Florida, Jacksonville
Internet : kmeyer@unf6.unf.edu	         GEnie : K.MEYERS2
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Disclaimer : Ridicule is the burden of genius. 
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"Toon Out! / Toon In! / Toon About! / Toons are in!" 
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