Sam and Max

I’m sure you have seen some iteration of Sam and Max, be it a game, cartoon, or even a comic, and I am sure this duo can make most anyone laugh with their dark yet smart humor. It takes a unique talent to write something like Sam and Max and that unique talent comes from none other than their creator Steve Purcell, kind of hard to believe he works for Disney and Pixar now especially with what Sam and Max are known for. Sam and Max was the idea of a detective dog and his bunny partner/best pal that is slightly psychotic in nature, how can this not lead to dark comedy, and I love every minute of it.

My first introduction to Sam and Max was that of the cartoon in the nineties called Sam and Max Freelance Police, this series was geared towards children and man was it a barrel of laughs. To this day I know of adults who will still watch this cartoon and laugh as if they were children and this was their the first time watching the show again, proof that good writing and comedy can surpass the ages. The show sadly only lasted one season, but there are a lot of great moments in that season and if you find the DVD box set I recommend picking it up, maybe with enough support these characters may return to another television slot and in my opinion they totally deserve it.

The Sam and Max property still has its many fans though and Tell Tale Games did even release some adventure games starring our heroes, in the same moniker as the Lucas Arts game Sam and Max Hit the Road or Freelance Police (too bad these never got a remake, I know I’d be on that). The Tell Tale games started with the Sam and Max Save the World and this really stuck with the old point and click adventure game formula, I loved it because the characters were back and it had been forever since I played an adventure game so nostalgia really kicked in for me that day. This game was later followed by Sam and Max Beyond Space and Time and then Sam and Max Devils Playhouse, there has even been rumor of a fourth game in the works and I will gladly be watching out for it.

Futurama makes you love the year 3000

One of my favorite shows that started in the 90’s was and still is Futurama. This cartoon follows the exploits of a delivery company in the year 3000, it was created by David X. Cohen and Matt Groening for Fox animation.

Of course this seemed like a great idea, the guys behind the Simpsons have a new cartoon and it sounds like The Simpsons in space, but Futurama is clearly not Simpsons and that’s part of what makes it great, hell the only similar think to The Simpsons in this show was the character designs and even that isn’t 100% as the characters skin pigment is more realistic in this show.

The series originally aired with an episode called “Space Pilot 3000”  In this episode we meet our three main protagonists Phillip J. Fry a guy from the 90s stuck in the future (hey that sounds familiar), Taranga Leela, a cyclops who we are to believe is an alien orphan at first, but later it turns out has a bigger back story that really brings a tear to the eye  and finally Bender Bending Rodriguez a bending unit robot without inhibition, he loves woman, booze, and cigars (a man clearly with the finer tastes). We later of course meet the rest of the crew including Prof. Hubert Farnsworth, Hermes Conrad, Amy Wong, and John Zoidberg .

This show did well for four seasons on FOX and recently re-surged with four movies to create a revival of the series on the network Cartoon Central, since FOX didn’t continue the contract but this didn’t bother me at all, more Futurama is a good thing. One of the reasons I love the show is for the amazing voice talent, these are people that fit the role and make you believe the character and the role they are playing. Time to drop some facts and blow some minds with actors you may or may not know:
1) Fry / Prof. Farnsworth / Zoidberg – All these characters are done by Billy West and he is so talented that he even plays some side characters, like a recurring one known as Zapp Brannigan
2) Leela – voiced by none other than Katey Segal, you may best remember her as the role of Peg in Married with Children but she has proven to be a great voice actor and I would have no other be Leela, they even had an homage to Married with Chidren in an episode called “A Biclops Built for Two” I  recommend looking it up
3)Bender – Played by the talented John Dimaggio, he even plays various other characters in the show. I highly recommend checking his IMDB page it may surprise you how many roles he has played behind the mic.
4)Hermes – is played by Phil Lamar a man who has many voices, even a great early career on Mad TV. One roll of which you may remember him doing the voice for is the Green Lantern John Stewart on Justice League and Justice League Unlimited,  and I know when I read the comics I picture his voice for John Stewart in my mind
5)Amy –  Introducing the talented Lauren Tom probably one of the best Asian voice actors out there, due to the fact that she gets the feel right with and without the accent of how an Asian character should sound and she can still hit the comedic timing while doing it, I know she makes me laugh.

As you  can see with strong voice talent like this, and a creative team as strong as Matt Groening and David  X. Cohen there is nothing but a winning team here. However as fans of the series we get the bonus of the show being geared towards  adults with the joke material  not to mention the animation is top notch and has been great to  watch since day one. If you haven’t started watching Futurama yet I recommend you start and if you have you probably know the reason I made this post to begin Futurama is awesome ,  so as usual I will leave you with a pic from the show and a link to the theme song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8xw9VLiYlU

Guess they’re watching the show too.

Sorry for being gone

Hello 90’s fans, I just wanted to say sorry for not posting as often. The holidays have not been kinds to me and honestly I have been a tad burned as well. Do not worry though I will not let the page die since I do care about the project

I will however be posting once a week since I will be also spending some time to possibly working on a you tube channel as well since this interests me

Seth MacFarlane and his Cartoons

Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show, Three shows created by Seth MacFarlane a talented writer and actor who voices multiple characters in all three series. MacFarlane has proven time and again that he knows what is funny and that he loves his job. Always in character and ready for the audience this man loves the stage and it loves him back. I will be taking time to discuss each show shortly in as much knowledge as I can, Possibly even try to give a recommended episode for the people to see of each respective series.

MacFarlane`s most recognized series has always been Family Guy, a show well worth checking out especially for the early seasons but has recently seemed to gotten a little off track since MacFarlane no longer does the writing for the series. Though Family Guy still has some great moments, it seems to have issues with too many cut away gags sometimes and this can be disappointing. I am a person who loves an enjoyable and funny story,  sadly this seems to have been left behind and replaced with the how many cut away gags can we get in within our half an hour segments. This does not stop an occasional good episode to shine through ever once in awhile though like the recent Christmas special `Road to the North Pole` a truly funny episode centered around the story of Stewie and Brian going to the North Pole to see Santa Claus so Stewie can kill the Claus but things take a great turn in the second part and I will not ruin this awesome special for you since Christmas is close and this is a recommended watch for the Holidays.

Now my favorite show and well worth checking out for its Humor and Stories American Dad, This series rarely has a bad episode in my opinion and it is the funniest of the three because of the unrealistic situations and the liberties that they have with Stan Smith the main character being a C.I,A agent and the way that him and his Wife deal with parenting their children Steve and Haley. This series has had a handful of great episodes and for the Holidays I do recommend you check out all the specials, but the episode I want to put on a must watch is `Stanny Boy and Frantastic`. This episode is centered around the changes Stan and Francine need to make just to get friends and the situations just get more and  more hilarious with each confrontation, I was surprised with the levels reached in this episode alone and I still love to watch this episode on occasion to this day and I still laugh every time.

Finally we will  be discussing The Cleveland Show, this series is the definition of spin off. Cleveland one of Peter`s best friends from the early seasons of Family Guy leaves and gets a new family and television show of his very own. This series knows what it is and it has even made jokes about being the Black Family Guy time and again to prove this fact. I sometimes get a chuckle out of this show but ultimately I found it to be the weakest of the three series. Still it may be your show and I do not want to stop you from enjoying it. Now The recommended episode was tough to decide for me as nothing really stood out in my opinion. Then it came to me `Murray Christmas` an episode where Rallo, the step son of Cleveland is taken down a notch and learns that friendship can indeed be found with the older generation, not to mention there are even some heart warming moments here as well when things start to get serious and the steps taken for the resolution in the end. This may not be the best choice but it was the one that finally stood out to me.

Now I hope you enjoy watching the episodes I do recommend  and that you truly do find the Macfarlane show that suits your style of humor and enjoyment. I know I still love American Dad since the day it started and  I recently just watched a few seasons for nostalgia alone,.

REBOOT!

I hope you remember this gem from the nineties. Seriously I believe this was the first CGI (3D animated) show to ever be on television and it was made by a Canadian company. It followed the exploits of Bob a Guardian and his friends Dot Matrix and Enzo. They would constantly be saving a city called Mainframe from Megabyte and sometimes from his crazy sister Hexadecimal

One of the best ways the series would break things up is by throwing  down a game cube, that’s right Nintedo did not take the name first. The show took place inside of a computer and the main  characters were data, this then means the game cube represents a computer game and the goal of the main characters when in a game was to defeat the player, that’s right us. This is greatly looked into a few times in the series with fourth wall jokes and silly accusations about the computer related items as if it is every day norm for these characters.

The early seasons are very silly and are like an homage to eighties cartoons and then it works itself to a  become a serious television show with wacky jokes. It was one of those great shows that just grew up with its audience, making sure as they got older there was still a reason to be invested into the series. Hell I can still watch an episode of this today and still enjoy myself. This is proven because I recently did watch the entire series again, that children is what we call good writing and sometimes it is all you need

Speaking about writing the series loved to show it’s skill in this feel, especially with the  characters. They evolved and grew with every experience which made you genuinely care for them. This was even better portrayed when  Enzo took over as the Guardian for Mainframe. He was a kid at this time and this just showed a great coming of age story, a character put with responsibility and forced to grow up to serve his people.

Growing up was even addressed in the show as a few of the characters even grew older and love connections were even made to a point where you were cheering for the characters to get together in  the special way the show hinted. Hell even two of the characters were going to get married, until certain events changed things right before the “I dos” Is it just me or does that always happen. Anyway I don’t want to ruin too much for the people who plan to watch this classic again or want to watch it for the first time

I think we will end this blog with the proper thing to say to get ready for the game…. REBOOT!!!