My oldest has really been getting into Harry Potter lately. It's a fun thing to watch happen and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't becoming a little re-obsessed myself.
My favorite part of the whole series has to be the rich and colorful characters that fill out the background.
Here are a really small (and very random) few.
Bluey is one of the greatest children's shows OF ALL TIME!
That's not a hot take. It's just a fact.
I’ve been noticing a small resurgence of ALF in pop culture lately and I said to myself, “Self, you need to KablamaSlam this noise!”
The Premise: Everyone’s favorite sitcom alien puppet Gordon Shumway recounts his past adventures with family and friends on his home planet of Melmac.
It’s the ‘80s, and a guy named Paul Fusco annoys people at a party with his alien puppet that he apparently brought. Yeah. He’s that guy. Fusco pitches a concept for a sitcom based on the puppet to NBC president Brandon Tartikoff and it’s green-lit! Tartikoff is Mr. Must See TV and oversaw such hits as Golden Girls, Cheers, Seinfeld… so the guy apparently knew what he was doing. I mean, he obviously did because ALF was a hit and, like I said, we’re still talking about it to this day!
As with several things in the 1980s, ALF was quickly adapted into a Saturday morning cartoon show. Every episode of ALF: The Animated Series would have live-action puppet ALF (or Gordon) bookending each adventure. This meant less time spent animating and thus cheaper production. When I say “cheap” though, I certainly don’t mean in terms of quality! I personally thought the animation was incredible!
Again… this was the ‘80s, and just as animated spinoffs were commonplace, toy lines based on cartoons were even more so. Boy, did I love me some ALF toys! This is sort of a sidebar, I suppose, but we all have those “toys that made us” and for whatever reason, these were some of mine! Skip, Augie, Rick, Neep! I loved them all!
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| How bout a docuseries on these, Netflix?! |
During the show’s final season, another spinoff was created. ALF Tales ran alongside ALF: The Animated Series and featured a very Gordonesque spin on classic stories in the public domain, such as Robin Hood and Cinderella, and would feature the Animated Series characters in different roles. I didn’t like this show as much and remember wondering how the people on Melmac had all of the exact same fairy tales as us on Earth. I was probably taking it a little too serious, I suppose. That was a thing I did.
That’s a thing I do!
The thing that made this show great was the same thing that worked for the original sitcom. This character is straight up timeless. When Fusco originally pitched ALF, producers scoffed at first. “Jim Henson corners the market on puppets. Why are we wasting our time with this guy?” I assume they said. Their minds changed almost instantly after seeing Fusco’s performance, however. ALF is brazened, yet lovable, with a sarcastic wit that I’ve revered ever since I was as a kid.
All of this to say: Be the guy who brings the annoying alien puppet to a party.
The Big G turns 52 today! Seems like an odd milestone to celebrate but whatever. I'm down.
Today is Donald Duck's birthday, so that would mean that it's his twin sister Della's birthday as well, right?
No is the answer. Because they're cartoons and that's not how it works.
I felt like making another video. This won't become a regular thing... or, I don't know... maybe it will.
A couple of years ago, I wrote this post about our visit to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. Although we were able to go twice in one year, there was a pandemic going on and getting reservations to Oga's Cantina didn't work out.
This year, however, we went to Disneyland and were finally able to partake in some beverages from that beloved galaxy far, far away. And since this is Star Wars Day, what better time to issue an addendum to my previous post.
Oga's Cantina
You can't think of Star Wars and not think of the cantina. Different iterations have popped up in several of the Star Wars films and I wouldn't be surprised if, when conceptualizing a Star Wars themed land, the cantina was at the top of the list.
I ordered the Jabba Juice. When the waiter delivered it, he pointed to the worrt over the bar and implied that the boba pearls in my drink were actually its eggs, and that he wouldn't swallow them whole if he were me. I probably had the nerdiest grin that place had ever seen... and that's really saying something.
The drinks were great but the atmosphere, of course, is what it's all about! This might be the most immersive part of the full immersion experience that Galaxy Edge promises... in my opinion, at least. DJ Rex live on the ones and twos only a few feet away from me almost brought a tear to my eye. I love all of the clanking and hissing of Star Wars-esque junk. They even had the assassin droid heads as drink dispensers! That's just like in the movie!!!
Again. The nerdiest grin that place has ever seen!
The only thing I could think of to make it better would be if an alien character or two would stroll through from time-to-time. I mean... How cool would that be?! It is a pretty cramped space, though. Such close quarters might not seem very practical as far as theme parks go, but it does add to that dive bar on a remote outpost aesthetic and that's really what this is all about, right? I wasn't complaining.
