I came across a random picture from “Beetlejuice“, the cartoon spun off from the amazing Tim Burton film, and realized I watched that show every Saturday morning. I don’t even think I liked it at first, but after awhile it was a staple of my television cartoon menu.

In the tv series, Lydia and Beetlejuice are besties who hang out all the time seeing how Lydia is anti-social. She would much rather hang out with the dead than living people. The gothic duo would travel to the “Neitherworld” whenever Lydia had the time. Lydia was such an awesome character in the movie, who wouldn’t want to watch what chick does in animated form? She’s like quintessential anti-social, kinda goth, really smart girl character before MTV gave us my favorite cartoon nihilist, Daria.

“Beetlejuice” ran for four seasons, starting out on ABC for three years and then finishing up on Fox for its last season. If you’re feeling nostalgic for late-eighties/early nineties animation, the Blu-Ray edition of the Beetlejuice dvd contains a few episodes of this series. And if my memory serves me correctly, I think The N airs episodes every blue moon or so. Beware, the cartoon was made for kids, so it’s somewhat lighthearted in comparison to the movie. No word when the actual tv series will be on dvd yet.

I’m a big fan of the animated series, “Home Movies”, so it delights me to no end that they released a special 10th anniversary dvd box set.

This dvd set is all kinds of awesome! It comes with a “Home Movies” clapboard like Brendan, Jason, and Melissa use on the show,  a canvas bag AND a 52 track cd that contains all the original songs from the show. And of course, it includes all four seasons’ original dvd sets with the all the original bonus features and commentary. The “Home Movies” box set costs between $90-129.99, so this may have to wait for christmas time or whenever I get an awesome dvd discount coupon in my inbox.

I am always ready to rant about how much “The Simpsons” sucks now, relative to how great it was during, say, seasons 3 through 8. This stems not from an inherently fickle nature, but from my deep love of this show during the golden (sometimes pronounced “Conan“) years, and genuine grief over the decline in quality as the seasons have dragged on.

To the credit of the current writers and producers, it’s still better than “Two and a Half Men” a lot of other crap that’s passing for comedy, these days.

Tonight they’re airing the 734th “Treehouse of Horror” Halloween special. For some reason, Fox has seemed incapable of airing “The Simpsons” Halloween special within a logical time frame for the last seven years or so, airing it either way too soon or way too late.

But, this is the closest they’ve come in ages, so if you have any pumpkin beer  and tiny candies left, you may as well polish them off tonight at 8pm eastern and pacific. It’ll get you nice and buzzed for “True Blood,” “Dexter” and “Mad Men,” later on.

Yeah guys, let’s get sick!

So, duh, I like cartoons. One of the ones I like is called “American Dad!”

The show is in its fourth season, and I’m delighted to see the show has survived the onslaught of dismissals of it as a “Family Guy” clone, which plagued its maiden season. And second season. And the third…

The similarities are superficial, at best, and are more indicative of of a particular formula upon which Seth MacFarlane likes to base his projects, going all the way back to “The Life of Larry” (look it up), and in the upcoming “Cleveland” (look that up, too). I’m not going to dissect magic recipe at length here, but if you’re not an idiot, you’ve probably already realized that the basic formula is:

Patriarch + Wacky Family + Anthropomorphous Pet(s)/Sidekick(s) = hilarity/$100 million Fox development deal for Seth

At this point, since “Family Guy” has dissolved into a series of disconnected non sequiturs and obscure references. Each episode’s “plot” is a transparent and hackneyed mess meant to justify making said non sequiturs and obscure references, although I will say last week’s “Road to Germany” was refreshingly coherent.

I admit readily that I believe “American Dad!” has proven to be the better of the two shows, as long as we’re comparing the two. I’ve gotten into plenty of bar arguments over this opinion, and I’m sure I’ll have plenty more Friday nights where I debate this issue, punch a cat, and make out with a mailbox.

So, if you wrote off “American Dad!” back when it first began, I recommend you give it another chance. If you’ve never watched it, then give it a first chance. The writers and producers had really caught on to something midway through season 1, and it’s only maintained or improved on the show’s unique sense of humor, since then.

Leave it to me to give the show a great send-up on a night when it’s airing a repeat. “Dad!” will be back next Sunday night on Fox at 9:30, though, with a new episode. And, you can bet I’ll be watching.

In case you haven’t noticed by now, I like a lot of things HBO. If it weren’t for John from Cincinnati a miss or two they’ve had in the past, I could say I like all things HBO.

Anyway, part of my Sunday night lovefest with my TV each week is HBO’s new animated series “The Life and Times of Tim.” Tonight will be the fourth installment of awkward, as this show seems to have an endless supply of inappropriate moments. I’m not in love with the show yet, but each of the previous weeks has been amusing enough to keep me coming back.

The show is about a young guy named Tim, as you may have deduced.  Each week he gets himself into various pickles, and as viewers, our collective schadenfreude is satisfied. To give you a sense of the kind of predicaments Tim gets into, the first cartoon of the series’ premiere episode was called “Angry Unpaid Hooker.” Yup. Quite a pickle, indeed.

For me at least, the humor on “Tim” is such that I recognize that it is funny, and why it’s funny, I’m just not actually laughing aloud at it, aside from the odd snort or chortle. My enthusiasm for this animated series just isn’t all that…animated, I guess, but it is there. And, that’s enough for me to keep tuning in. I’m pretty hard to please when it comes to comedy, so I’m just delighted to have found a new show that doesn’t totally suck. Perhaps you’ll agree “Tim” doesn’t suck, too.

[Picture source: acriticalmoment.com]

“Venture Bros” is a hilarious action comedy spoof of “Johnny Quest” created from the minds of Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer. Cartoon Network just aired its third season on its adult swim programming block.

The show follows the trials and tribulations of Dr. Rusty Venture, a hack scientist still living in the shadow of his genius inventor/astronaut/scientist dad, his bodyguard Brock Sampson - a true killing machine, and his forever young twin sons - Hank and Dean. Each episode the Venture clan finds itself in meandering and sometimes nonsensical adventures as they try fend off the attack’s from Venture’s arch enemy, The Monarch.

And there’s more pop culture references tucked away in each episode than you can shake a stick at!

Fun fact: James Urbaniak, who played the internet cafe owner on “Terminator:The Sarah Connor Chronicles” is the voice of Dr. Venture. You can peruse his thoughts on politics, character acting, and “Venture Bros” at Voucher Ankles.

Doc Hammer on myspace
Venture Bros on adultswim
Youtube video of Monarch and Dr. Girlfriend talking to Venture Bros panel at NY Comic Con

I’ve been subjected to a lot of bad teevee of late, evidenced in yesterday’s tirade about the dearth of American talent, paired with last weekend’s lamentation of how much Beverly Hills 9021-blows. Thus, I’ve armed myself with a box of Shiraz and my personal TV on DVD collection to cleanse my palette of the stale aftertaste of “Baywatch” wash-outs and the world’s oldest teenagers.

To wit, I’m looking forward to firing up the “DVD machine,” as my Aunt Louise called it, and perhaps enjoying some “Clerks: The Animated Series,” to start.

The “Clerks” TV series aired on ABC back in 2000, and Kevin Smith was chillingly accurate in his pre-premiere prediction that ABC would blow the marketing and scheduling, and the show would be canceled within 6 episodes. Smith was so right, in fact, that while six episodes were produced, only half as many ever made it to air. Being the animation fan that I am, and Kevin Smith fan that I used to be, you can imagine my delight when I purchased the DVD and unearthed the three treasures that were the “lost episodes.”

If you have any lingering skepticism, you should be aware that Alec Baldwin voices Leonardo Leonardo in the show, a Mr. Burns type of character, who is hilariously treacherous. As always, you can count on Baldwin’s comedic brilliance in his effortless delivery to make this unsung gem of a series really shine. If only it had come along during the [adult swim] age, then perhaps it would have had a fighting chance of survival. Sigh.

So go buy it on DVD. Or rent it, even. Trust me, it’s worth it. Despite it’s failure on ABC, “Clerks: The Animated Series” is one of the last bastions of Kevin Smith’s pre-suckfest era.

[Picture source: www.dvdtimes.co.uk]

After “Cowboy Bebop”, Shinichirō Watanabe next television series was “Samurai Champloo”. The 26 episodes focused on the misadventures of an unlikely trio: Mugen, the hilarious theif, Jin, the restrained samurai, and the feisty young girl, Fuu. They unite after Fuu rescues Mugen and Jin from execution and she demands they help her find the samurai who smells of sunflowers as her reward.

I saw the Japanese series when it debuted in America in 2005 on Adult Swim. The tone of the series fluctuated between comedy and action, much like “Cowboy Bebop”. However, this time around we get to see the world of the samurai, if said samurai was into hip-hop and likes to get funky all the time.

Check the opening credit sequence below:

If that wets your whistle, buy the “Samurai Champloo” dvds today.

I’m officially adding “Talespin” (1990-1994) to my list of favorite Disney cartoons. I never watched these episodes in order, but if Baloo was on the television set, I was definitely glued to the screen.

“Talespin” follows the adventures of Baloo, the loveable sloth bear pilot of the Sea Duck, his protege, Kit ‘Li’l Britches’ Cloudkicker, and Rebecca Cunningham, the manager of their air delivery company. They make deliveries from their home base in the ficitonal Cape Suzette. Eventually, in almost every episode, Baloo winds up into trouble with either the Air Pirates led by Don Karnage, the Thembrians, or Shere Khan’s gang.

Fueled by nostalgia, I scoured the internets and discovered that two episodes of “Talespin” were actually banned after airing originally on The Disney Channel. What harm could little ol’ Baloo do to impressionable young minds?! Apparently enough to ruffle Disney’s feathers, especially if you have plots involving Thembian terrorist bombs and a not so PC depiction of a Japanese-esque island called Panda-la! It’s speculated that you can see the blacklisted eps in Canada or if Toon Disney accidentally shows them again.

I wouldn’t count on those episodes to be released on dvd. Nevertheless, you can buy “Talespin” Volumes 1 & “Talespin” Volume 2 today for less than $25 bucks. Supposedly, a volume 3 is in the works.

“Home Movies” is a hilarious cartoon about three eight year old kids (Brendan, Melissa, and Jason) who love to remake popular movies with their home video camera. The low-fi spoofs, especially the ones that feature original music by Scab*, are beyond ridiculous with the homemade costumes and props. Brendan is always the director and takes harshly to criticism, despite his young years. Still, my favorite moments in the series are the scenes where I find myself cracking up at Coach McGuirk, the kids’ soccer coach who is one the most immature adults ever put to screen.

Coach McGuirk in his “element”:

Actually, most of the adults on the show are generally acting crazy. Brendan and his friends simply sit back in awe. Brendan’s mom, Paula, is always saying inappropriate things in front the kids about how she really needs to get laid or is fat. Brendan assumes the role of friend or parent and always consoles her. Same thing goes for Melissa’s Dad who is an eccentric single parent. As for Jason’s family, they’re so weird he’s ashamed of them and avoids them at all costs.

Watch random episodes of “Home Movies” on AdultSwim, which airs on Cartoon Network. Or own the gang’s cinematic masterpieces on dvd. Beware, sadly, only the first season was done in squigglevision.

*corrected

Home Movies - Season One