Actually, Popeye represented the American ideal of morality as it existed prior to about 1965. Popeye adhered to a strict moral code. He was kind to animals, chivalrous to women, patriotic, respectful to authority, reverent, etc. A true boy scout. He also adhered to the classic American ideal that those who violated this code deserved to get the piss beaten out of them.
It’s also worth noting that Ted Turner owns the rights to all the Popeyes, so they only get shown on his networks.
plnnr - That’s the same coyote, and you’re right about the horse, too. Mr. Peabody cannot leave Sherman unattended for any great length of time or the world will come to an end. I’m not kidding. Watch for when the two are separated at some point. Sherman will immediately gum up the historical situation so badly that even the famous person he’s visiting will be in awe. Peabody always wanders back to find that the Vikings are threatening war on the Chinese on account of Sherman, and they’re visiting Shaka Zulu. If Sherman was alone for fifteen minutes, the Earth would likely explode of its own accord.
Any other questions? I’ve got to sit down for a day and write mine out. It’s going to be a long list.
Shaggy had a girlfriend in one of the episodes? I always heard that Shaggy and Velma were a couple, but nothing much came of it. Fred and Daphne are not officially dating, they are more like ‘friends with benefits’.
City Gent writes:
> Popeye is portrayed as some kind of hero. Yet, he solves
> all his problems by beating the piss out of people. Why
> hasn’t some Parents for Moral TV group seized on that? Is
> it just because TV stations don’t show much Popeye
> anymore?
Look at how common that sort of thing was in older cartoons. Sarge beats up Beatle Bailey, leaving him in biologically impossible shapes. Mr. Dithers beats up Dagwood (and how likely is that anyway, given their supposed respective ages?). All the old Warner Brothers cartoons were full of violence. As Lumpy notes, somewhere around 1965 new cartoons quit using this kind of mock violence.
I have a four-year-old stepson, so I’m becoming quite the authority on Scooby Doo.
Fred and Daphne have something going on. In two Scooby Doo movies recently produced (“Scooby Doo on Zombie Island” and “Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders”) Daphne and Fred both exhibit some jealousy when the other is shown attention from, or shows attention to, an attractive member of the opposite sex. In fact, one of the commercials produced by Cartoon Network that advertised “Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders” shows the Mystery Machine having an accident, and the passengers get tossed about. Fred winds up on top of Daphne. He asks her if she’s okay, and she says “I’m fine, Freddie. I’m … fine.” With a little come-hither smile. He grins like a jack-leg dog. And, as previously mentioned, Velma raises the question in one of those movies: Exactly why does Fred always recommend that the group split up, and he goes off exploring with Daphne? (I realize that usually Velma was part of that triumvirate, but not always.)
Two other points: In the “Alien Invaders” movie, Shaggy and Scooby both fall in love with other characters. Unfortunately, the characters turn out to be aliens (albeit friendly ones) so their hearts are broken. They’re cheered up after a quick threesome with Velma in the back of the Mystery Machine. (The story indicates they were just wrestling her for some Scooby Snax, but come on. Velma sticks her head between the front seats after it’s over, her hair mussed and her glasses hanging askew, and tells Fred and Daphne “That didn’t take long.” Seriously.)
Also, “Zombie Island” is the only Scooby Doo episode I’ve ever seen where the monsters turn out to be real. The zombies really are zombies, but they’re not the main bad guys. No, wait a minute – there’s also “Scooby Doo and the Witch’s Ghost.” Featuring a villain voiced by none other than Tim Curry.
To answer someone else’s question regarding the Mystery Machine and China – I don’t recall them ever going to China. They went to Chinatown in San Francisco in one episode, but maybe I missed one where they actually went to China. They did to go Hawaii, I think – at least, they went to some Polynesian locale. Don’t remember if the MM was in that one, though. That episode sticks out in my mind as one of the few in which we get to see Fred display his patented “slide-step rodeo” dancing technique, in which he waves one hand in the air and shuffles his feet back and forth.
True. The old Popeye cartoons are often shown on the Cartoon Network. Most (if not all) of the old B&W cartoons have been colorized. The same is true for many old B&W Warner Brothers 'toons.
On Pokemon, why do Team Rocket keep battling with the same old Pokemon when they get defeated every single time? I know they have a couple of new ones, but the new ones seem pretty useless. Also, why don’t they show Butch and Cassidy more often? What happened to “The Boss”? And what’s with Professor Oak and Mrs. Ketchum, are they getting cozy or what?
On The Flintstones, the show always closed with Fred closing up for the night. One of the things he does is put the saber-tooth cat (Called “Baby Puss” in the comic books) out. Baby Puss runs back in through the window, opens the front door, puts Fred out, and slams and locks the door. Fred wakes up the whole neighborhood banging on the door and hollering to Wilma. Why doesn’t he go in through the window? Or is he just dumber than a dumb animal?
C’mon, Dougie, this Fred Flintstone we’re talking about. Hell, I bet some of the rocks at his quarry are brighter than he is.
Y’know, Peyote, that certainly IS the impression I have had about Fred Flintstone since about 1961…I guess I shouldn’t be surprised he wouldn’t think of climbing in through the window…hey, maybe Wilma would have to clue him in…
No one here seems to be familiar with Jim’s Journal, by Scott Dikkers, but it’s a comic strip, which started out in the Onion, and is the subject of five collections plus a comprehensive treasury. It takes a while to get into it, but it perfectly captures the '90s slacker ethic. If any of you are familiar with Jim’s Journal, you’ll know what Mr. Rilch and I mean when we ask, as we often have, “Where does Steve work?”
Speaking of the Flintstones…
What happens to all of their appliances when they are not in use? Do they need to feed the elephant that doubles as a shower? Or the bird that is also a record player needle? And how big exactly is their house? On the outside it is a tiny square big enough for one room, on the inside it is a huge.
I have never seen a real duck, or a photograph of one, with Daffy’s coloring–black, with orange beak and feet and a narrow white ring around his neck. Is there any real-life duck so colored–or was Daffy meant by the cartoons’ creators to be unique? (He and his wife and kids, anyway.)
No one has answered The Peyote Coyote’s question:
4.) Who the hell are Waldo, Odlaw and Wilma?
I know the rest of them, sort of, but this is entirely new to me. What cartoon is this???
That’s “Where’s Waldo.”
“Mxyzptlk”, according to DC comics in the mid-60s, was pronounced “Mix-Yez-Pittle-Ick” According to various sources, the name was originally “Mxyzpltk”, but a typesetter messed up (if you can imagine…). Originally he looked like a cartoony big-headed guy, kind of a well-dressed Ziggy, but by the late 1950s he was a white-haired guy in an orange tunic and a purple derby. He always struck me as a pretty stupid character – a way for comic book writers stuck with a deadline to eke out a quick story.
My favorite comment on him was jis own line when they wrapped up the original Superman story continuity in 1986, and Mxyzptlk shows his true appearance: “Did you really think that a multipowered being from another dimension would look like a little man in a derby hat?”
[li]How come Ash and co never recognized Team Rocket?[/li]
[li]Do the Pokemon ever suffocate to death in those little pokeballs? Isn’t this…ah, animal endangerment? Isn’t anyone creeped out by it?[/li]
And some Powerpuff Girl ones…
[li]Why do the Powerpuff girls call their creator “Professor” as opposed to Dad? Or even Daddy? Perhaps Father? They celebrate father’s day for him, they love him to bits and he loves them, but they refer to him as the Professor. <shakes head>[/li]
[li]Why don’t the PPG have noses or ears? Possibly for the same reason their creator has square shaped extremeties.[/li]
[li]How come older kids are put into Pokey Oak’s kindergarden?[/li]
Why do the monsters only ever attack poor Townsville?
No, because nearly all of them were flattered and/or amused by the attention and caricature and parody are protected as “fair use.”
*Originally posted by Zoggie *
[li]How come Ash and co never recognized Team Rocket?[/li]
Because Ash has the brain of a kumquat. Pikachu has more good ideas than he does.
[li]Do the Pokemon ever suffocate to death in those little pokeballs? Isn’t this…ah, animal endangerment? Isn’t anyone creeped out by it?[/li]
You should have it so good. Full service condos in there.
And some Powerpuff Girl ones…
[li]Why do the Powerpuff girls call their creator “Professor” as opposed to Dad? Or even Daddy? Perhaps Father? They celebrate father’s day for him, they love him to bits and he loves them, but they refer to him as the Professor. <shakes head>[/li]
Because he’s not their father. He’s their creator. Since they don’t have creator day they make due.
[li]Why don’t the PPG have noses or ears? Possibly for the same reason their creator has square shaped extremeties.[/li]
Good one. I’ll think on it
[li]How come older kids are put into Pokey Oak’s kindergarden?[/li]
The other schools keep getting crushed by monsters.
[li]Why do the monsters only ever attack poor Townsville?[/li]
Ah that was explained in the episode where the PPG tried to dress up as comic book superheros, aka Liberty Belle, Harmony Bunny, and Mange. When a monster leaves Monster Isle and comes to Townsville he fights the Powerpuff Girls. If you take them on and survive, you return to Monster Isle a hero!
This question was answered in the episode “Super Zeroes”. The girls decide to remake their identities to resemble ones they’ve been reading about in comic-books. Blossom becomes Liberty Belle, something like Wonder Woman (her costume is based on the American flag; she drives a car [which gets stuck in traffic]; she has a “lasso of guilt”); Buttercup becomes “Mange,” a parody of Spawn (she can’t go out in the daytime); and Bubbles dresses like a bunny rabbit character from Japanese manga and gets to the crime scene on a pogo stick (very slowly).
Anyway, a monster attacks Townsville. The mayor calls. The Girls never show up. The monster retreats and then attacks again the next day. The Girls show up too late again, so they decide to sleep in the park so they’ll be ready if the monster returns. The monster attacks a third time, but the Girls’ counter-attack is so feeble, the monster yells, “Hold it!” He then explains that the reason monsters attack Townsville is so they can test themselves against the Girls. If a monster can hold its own against the Girls and return back to Monster Isle, he is a hero to all the other monsters.* He then talks the Girls into returning to their old selves. In gratitude for showing them the error of their ways, the Girls beat the monster senseless. 
I saw the episode just last week.
*Of course, this means that Townsville might be better off if the Girls lived somewhere else…
(Has anyone else seen Samurai Jack yet? It’s pretty cool.)