Author goldstar

TV Special Tonight!: Yogi’s First Christmas

goldstar 6 Comments

It’s December, and that means that it’s time to settle in front of the boob tube and be bombarded with the usual array of unrelenting Christmas themed TV specials. All of the classics that you know and love that the networks run every year. So to mark this occasion, today we’re going to focus on a Christmas special that ran for a couple of years in syndication and was then largely forgotten: a slice of 1980s cheese titled Yogi’s First Christmas.

Holiday cheer…we’re full of it!

Yogi’s First Christmas is a 1980 holiday-themed television film first aired on November 21, 1980, and produced by Hanna-Barbera. Throughout the 1980s it was offered to U.S. television networks broken up as a one-week strip syndicated program, generally showing the week of Christmas, one episode per day for four days, although I originally saw it in it’s full 2 hour version, again in syndication. Not to be confused with Casper’s First Christmas, which is a half hour H-B special that aired on NBC in 1979.

Wait…Casper and Hairy Scary have never heard of Christmas? When did these guys die, anyway? Yeah, they’re ghosts, but they’re not aliens. They should at least know of the holiday, even if they don’t celebrate it. OK, I’ll save that kind of nitpicking for Talkin’ Nerdy. Back to the show…

We begin with Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Augie Doggie and Doggy Daddy traveling in a snowmobile while singing the song “Comin’ Up Christmastime”(which is one of 2 songs that were previously performed on Casper’s First Christmas). They’re on their way to Jellystone Lodge (why not?) to celebrate the holiday. Yogi and Boo-Boo are usually hibernating during the Christmas season, even though both characters were wide awake to celebrate the holidays in Casper’s First Christmas just a year earlier. Contradict yourselves much? It’s probably best to just consider these H-B specials as each being in their own separate continuity, like the Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z movies. Anyway, Yogi and Boo-Boo are soon awakened by the rest of the gang, which also includes Ranger Smith, hotel manager Mr. Dingwell and Otto the chef. The gang is obsessed with keeping the lodge’s owner, one Sophie Throckmorton, happy so that she won’t close down the lodge, which has become unpopular due to activity caused by Herman the Hermit, a grumpy Christmas-hating hermit who just wants to be left alone, that is when he isn’t prospectin’ fer gold and shooing revenuers off’n his property. Mrs. Throckmorton has arrived to the lodge with her nephew Snively, a rotten brat with a voice that sounds like he’s been gargling with gravel. Seriously, who names their kid Snively? Unless his parents want him to become a horse opera villain. Snively perpetually has his shorts in a bunch because he hates all things associated with Christmas. Yeah, you get the week off from school and a pile of toys for doing nothing. Christmas sucks if you’re a kid.

Snively: Look at me! I wear long pants indoors but change into shorts when I go out in the snow because I make no sense!

Yogi and Boo Boo are put to work as employees of the lodge. Yogi is first ordered to operate the snowplow, to which he saves Mrs. Throckmorton on the road from an avalanche caused by Herman. Later, Yogi is working as a bellboy, where he is tasked by Ranger Smith to stay on Mrs. Throckmorton’s good side. Though Snively tries to embarrass Yogi with his pranks, Yogi comes out on top.

Also, during a lodge scene, Boo-Boo sings the “Hope” song, which was previously used in A Christmas Story. No, not the movie starring Peter Billingsley, but a 1972 animated special with the same title.

7d-sleepy

“Wow. And they say I’m lazy!”

In another attempt to degrade Yogi, Snively tricks him into entering a figure skating contest, which Snively is also a participant. Although Snively earns high marks, Mrs. Throckmorton covertly wishes Snively would lose in order to tame his poor attitude. Yogi, the last contestant, manages to impress the judges well enough to earn the highest marks and win. Snively is a sore loser and enraged that Yogi beat him at his own game, but his aunt Sophie says that Yogi won fair and square and losing is a lesson of life. Fed up with Snively’s antics, Yogi gets revenge on him during an ice fishing contest, with Mrs. Throckmorton agreeing that he needed to be taught a lesson. Furious, Snively runs away and meets up with Herman, and the two team up to ruin Christmas, when they proceed to sing a song about how they’re “mean, sour, nasty and cruel”, a song that would later be re-used, rewritten slightly and sung by Gargamel in an episode of Smurfs.

Snively: Yeah! Let’s go ruin Christmas!
Herman: Hang on a sec. There’s a tick in my beard and I wanna save that bad boy fer desert!

Cindy Bear also awakens from her hibernation, to help Yogi out (due to her love and concern for him). There’s a running joke within the special of Cindy trying to get Yogi under the mistletoe so that she can give him a smooch. She explains her desire to Boo-Boo and then…this happens.

Ah, there’s a little something for the furries.

Yogi's First Christmas - Cindy Bear

BOM-CHIKKA-WOW-WOW!
 
That bit almost cost them their G rating. Is this a Christmas special or Showgirls? If Cindy starts doing a striptease, I’m leaving.
Back to the plot.  The tag team of Herman the Hermit and Snively set out to ruin Christmas, but Yogi, through a combination of wit and dumb luck, thwarts them every time. Back at the lodge, Mrs. Throckmorton forbids her nephew Snively from attending the gang’s tree trimming party (Gee, I wonder why). Snively is distraught. (Am I supposed to be feeling sorry for this little snot right now? ‘Cause I don’t. Montana Max is cuddlier than this kid!) But instead of Snively getting the ass whuppin’ that he’s been asking for since this thing started, he instead is invited by Herman to join him outside of the lodge in the freezing cold for some vittles and roadkill (Now that’s good eatin’!).
Meanwhile, The gang is celebrating their tree trimming party where they sing “Making A Big To-Do”, the other song that was re-used from Casper’s First Christmas. You gotta love Hanna Barbera; those guys were recycling before it was fashionable.
Yogi dresses up in a Santa Claus suit and plans to surprise the lodge guests, but his plans take a surprising turn when the real Santa shows up and makes the scene before Yogi does.

“Yeah, I can’t believe I showed up for this thing either!”

Hands up. Who saw that coming?
Yogi, Santa and company spot Herman and Snively freezing outside, but instead of throwing rotten fruit at them, they instead invite the 2 of them inside to celebrate Christmas, where both of them have a profound change of heart and spirit. Santa even gives Herman a present. So, Herman has hated Christmas with a burning passion for years, possibly decades, and he changes his tune almost instantly?
“Can you say ‘plot contrivance’, boys and girls? I knew that  you could.”
 
Anyway, Herman would later re-join society and find some people with similar beleifs, and fashion sense.
Duck Dynasty
Oh, and Cindy gets her kiss from Yogi also, by the way.
BOM-CHIKKA-WOW-WOW!
 
Santa gives Yogi a basket full of food, however, Yogi has fallen asleep. Prompting Snively say “Good night, you ol’ fuzzball. You’re some terrific character.”

Shut up, Snively!

Santa then says that Yogi and Boo Boo can have the basket when they wake up in the spring. With that, the partiers return Yogi, Boo Boo and Cindy to their caves for the rest of their hibernation. Shlock a doodle doo.
**********************************************************
So that’s Yogi’s First Christmas. It could have been better, but it could have been worse. if you want to check it out, it’s floating around on YouTube. The special is also available on DVD and VHS, although personally, I suggest renting it first. But what do others think?
“Yeah, listen, Teddy Ruxpin. Stick to swiping picnic baskets and leave the “holly-jolly” stuff to the experts! Me and Rudolph, we are Christmas! Represent!”

Ad Nausea: Slimer Toothpaste

goldstar 1 Comment

Cartoon characters schilling consumer products is nothing new in the industry, and The Real Ghostbusters, the 1986 to 1991 Saturday morning cartoon series based on the 1994 hit movie was no exception. When going through the archives, I came across this commercial for a product called Slimer Toothpaste. It even boasts an appearance by the green ghost himself, but only Slimer. Come now, you weren’t expecting any of the Ghostbusters themselves to appear in this, did you? They’d want money, especially Peter. Apparently, it was toothpaste that came in 2 flavors: grape and bubble gum. I never saw this stuff being sold anywhere, but it’s not the strangest idea I’ve ever heard. It still sounds better than OJ orange flavored cereal or Cap’n Crunch’s Punch Crunch. That stuff was straight up nasty! Anyway, here’s the commercial:


Check out Slimer’s facial expression when he and the kids are about to brush. Dude looks lobotomized. He was probably so blitzed out on Ecto Cooler that he doesn’t even remember shooting that ad. Anyway, is it just me, or is the mom in this ad kind of hot?

OK…It must just be me, then. Moving on. Given the time frame of this commercial. It’s possible that this ad served as a precursor to the season of the Real Ghostbusters Saturday morning cartoon when the shows’ producers decided to have Slimer star in his own solo segments and even put the character’s name over the title.
Anyone remember this?

Yeah, that’s pretty much my thoughts on that season also.

Nerdvana: My Ever Changing Moods by The Style Council

goldstar Leave a comment

On this edition of Nerdvana, I’m going to share with you another one of the songs that I’ve been grooving with. This is one that I first heard in 1984 on the late TBS 6 hour music video block titled Night Tracks, basically TBS’ answer to MTV (You know this was back in the 1980s, because MTV was showing music videos back then. This was back when the ‘M’ in MTV stood for “music” instead of “mediocre”). What I find interesting about this song is that it’s lyrics are about dealing with problems and inner conflicts, yet it’s sang in such a bright, upbeat tone. Now, whenever I’m going through some sort of creative headache or conflict, this song goes through my brain. Here’s “My Ever Changing Moods” by The Style Council. Enjoy.

Talkin’ Nerdy: Monster High Finds It’s Inner Witch

goldstar 3 Comments

This is a follow-up to a rebuttal of a review that was written last October. For those who read Monster Mash: A Rebuttal, we noted that witches are one monster archetype that’s frequently left out of monster mashes, and that Mattel’s Monster High doll franchise lacked a witch student. Well, this year, it seems that Mattel has set out to fix this problem. Earlier this year, Mattel introduced a new character to the MH doll line: one Casta Fierce.

One of the mysteries of the universe: Why are green chicks usually hot?

We say, it’s about friggin’ time. If MH is going to have a steampunk robot and a mermaid (who aren’t even monsters) as characters in it’s franchise, you have to have at least 1 witch.

“Witches are awesome, baby! And you know it! We’re green, we’re keen, get used to it! (OK, not all witches are green, but you get the general idea).”
**************************************

Here’s the character profile from the Monster High Wiki:

Casta Fierce is a 2014-introduced and all-around character. She is a witch, specifically the daughter of Circe, and the leadsinger of The Spells. Aside from Casta, The Spells consist of three girls who are uniquely immune to Casta’s magic. Like her mother, Casta can turn anyone into any animal, but she has limited control over her powers. One misspoken word or unfortunately phrased sentence is enough to turn anyone hearing it into the matching animal. This has put a damper on her singing career, but Casta and her band keep making music as they look for solutions. Casta is a close friend of Catty Noir, a colleague of hers.

The daughter of Circe? Casta could have been the daughter of Baba Yaga, but Baba is already a character in Ever After High, and I suppose that Mattel wants to keep those 2 worlds separate.

Fun Fact:  The name Casta Fierce is inspired by Sasha Fierce, an on-stage alter ego of Beyoncé. Her hair is even styled the same way as Beyoncé’s was in the videoclip of “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)”, which is a song released as part of the I Am…Sasha Fierce album.

The Beyonce thing won’t become dated in a few years at all. Interesting, although personally I think that naming the character Casta Spell would have been funnier.

Nerdvana: The Four Freedoms Plaza

goldstar 2 Comments

On this segment of Nerdvana, I’ll be talking about one of my all time favorite fictional home bases, the Fantastic Four’s current digs, the Four Freedoms Plaza.

It looks like a big number 4! That’s all, no more. Now that’s numerical!
*********************************

When I was a kid, I used to fantasize about living in a luxury shopping mall that was closed to the public (Hey, give me a break. I was seven!), but now, I think I’d prefer to live in a dwelling like this one. The Four Freedoms Plaza served as the Fantastic Four’s replacement headquarters after their original dwelling, the Baxter Building, was destroyed by Kristoff Vernard, the adoptive son of Doctor Doom.

Doctor-Doom

“Kristoff had a perfectly good reason for destroying that building! They wanted a background check and a drug test?? Preposterous!”

***********************************************

The building’s outer walls and windows are constructed of advanced carbon-fiber composites, said to be nearly comparable in strength to diamond. Numerous small tubes run throughout the sections of the building occupied by the Fantastic Four, enabling Mister Fantastic to easily stretch to any floor or area. One elevator shaft has been deliberately left empty, to facilitate the Human Torch’s rapid flight to and from the upper floors. There are a set of “breakaway points” above the 50th and 70th stories with built-in explosive charges, designed to separate the upper floors from the civilian-occupied lower floors, should anyone try to lift the building into orbit.

Reed Richards

“We’re prepared for super villain attacks, inter dimensional portals opening up in sub space and alien invasions, but when Ben discovers that we’re all out of Twinkies, now that’s an emergency!”

 

The title of the building comes from a Franklin D. Roosevelt speech urging the Congress of the United States to enter World War II. In it Roosevelt outlined the four freedoms the world would enjoy if it united together to defeat the Axis Power:

  1. Freedom of speech
  2. Freedom of worship
  3. Freedom from want
  4. Freedom from fear

Of the 100 story building:

  • Floors 1 through 50 belong to the former tenants of the Baxter Building (e.g. Quasar).
  • Floors 51-70 are “buffer floors”, where the tenants do not have 99 year leases. Reed has left this space available in case the team expands or grows and needs more space.
  • Floors 71-100 serve as the headquarters for the team. The layout of the floors is essentially the same as that of the Baxter Building.
  • Floor 71 is a reception area where the team’s robot Roberta acts as both a receptionist and a guardian for the rest of the building.
  • Floor 72 acts as an inn where guests of the team can stay. Two suites maintained solely for aquatic visitors (such as Atlanteans) are accessible from pool entrances. These pools can also be used as aquatic conference rooms, and each suite has a different type of water: one fresh water and one salt water. A watertight elevator connects these suites with the river access tunnel on Sublevel 5.
  • Floors 73-75 are the team’s living quarters. Besides the four members of the team the floor also accommodated Alicia Masters (later revealed to be the Skrull Lyja), Crystal, Ms. Marvel II, Wyatt Wingfoot, and She-Hulk among others. There was also a kitchen, pantry, spa, two gyms (one for normal strength levels, the other for super-strong users), a large library, and a computerized classroom.
  • Floors 76 and 77 function as the team’s command center. Meeting rooms, communications stations, links to Starcore and other astronomical organizations, and a computerized medical station are here.
  • Floors 78-80 are storage for miscellaneous supplies. These floors serve as future expansion space and as a buffer in case of a disaster in Reed’s laboratory. Alicia claimed a section of 78 as a studio for the times she stayed in the building.
  • Floors 81-99 act as Reed’s laboratory and storage for his equipment. There is an identical workstation on each floor, enabling Reed to work on any floor. The workstation consists of computer terminals, communications console, and mechanical fabricators. None of these workstations is located overhead any other workstation and no three of them are in a straight line. This minimizes the risk of several stations being destroyed in a battle. The workstations were linked to each other and to a similar console in the Richards’s home.
  • Floors 90 and 91 contains the Negative Zone Portal. The Portal is in a heavily armored room with walls of strongly reinforced material.
  • Floors 98 and 99 serve as warehouse and machine shops. They support the hangar on 100 and act as a buffer to absorb damage from possible hangar disasters. Fuel tanks for the FF’s vehicles are on 99.
  • Floor 100 is the FF’s hangar. It fills the space under the four immense fours that top the building.
“I’ve been known to crash at the Four Freedoms Plaza on one or more occasions. I’ve also smashed the place a couple of times. I have anger issues.”
 
I feel I should give honorable mention to Marvel Universe’s Helicarrier. the reason why I didn’t mention it here is because the Helicarrier, while undoubtedly awesome, serves as an HQ. It’s a base of operation, not living quarters, but hey, the Helicarrier freakin’ flies!
iron_man_3

“You know, I had Stark Industries design my own Helicarrier. It was red and gold. My colors. Yeah, it was damaged by the Red Hulk, but I just built another one. It’s good to be rich.”


Ultimate-Fantastic-Four-Movie-Cast-2015-570x320

“Come visit the spacious, luxurious Four Freedoms Plaza today! No weirdos, please.”