Today Beyond the Background tracks down the ghastly duo from 1985’s The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, Bogel and Weerd.
FTR, Bogel is the short, round one, and Weerd is the one with the stylin’ Bob Marley style sheet dreads.
These goofy ghosts were itching to open the Chest of Demons, which housed thirteen of the most terrifying and powerful ghosts and demons ever to walk the face of the Earth. They were unable to open the chest (as it could only be opened by the living) but were able to trick Scooby-Doo and Shaggy into opening it. The ghosts could only be returned to the chest by those who originally set them free; thus, the Mystery, Inc. gang (sans Fred and Velma, who were undergoing “contractual negotiations” at the time) embarked on a worldwide quest to recapture them before they wreak irreversible havoc upon the world. Throughout the ordeal, Weerd and Bogel served as incompetent henchmen to which ever monster was released from the chest.
Here’s what some of these legendary ghouls had to say about Bogel and Weerd:
Dark Magician Maldor the Malevolent: “Calling these 2 dumb would be an insult to dumb people everywhere.”
The ruler of the Mirror Realm Mirror Demon: “Their faces were the only things that made me wish mirrors had never been invented.”
Zomba, the Zombie Demon who imprisoned her victims in TV Shows: “They were more tedious than reruns.”
Demon Witch Marcella: “They smelled like armpit hair and cheeseburger meat.”
Professor Phantazmo, The Ringleader of a Circus of Horrors: “They made lousy henchmen. But they could do a surprisingly good soft-shoe routine!”
After 11 of the 13 ghosts were imprisoned back inside the chest (the other 2 escaped to the Nether Realm where they were later caught and arrested for scalping tickets to the Mortal Kombat tournament) and the 13 Ghosts quest ended, we know what became of the other 13 Ghosts stars: renowned warlock Vincent Van Ghoul went on to star in horror movies…
“They said I had a knock for inspiring terror and the macabre. Of course, what I really want to do is direct.”
…And juvenile scam-artist and opportunist Flim-Flam is currently doing 25 to Life…
“Eh, jail’s not so bad.” I got me a nice racket sneaking in exotic candy bars from the outside, and every Wednesday we get to go to the park to pick up litter. Of course here it’s shiv or be shivved!”
…But whatever became of Weerd and Bogel? After failing to unleash the 13 Ghosts onto the world, Weerd hatched a diabolical plan which he called “The Diabolical Plan”. (Naming stuff was never his strong suit.) He used his knowledge of black magic to open a portal to the Dark Dimension, and the 2 of them planned to summon forth an army of ghosts to take over the planet, with themselves as leaders. (Bogel was especially looking forward to enforcing the daily fried chicken feedings and foot rubs.) Unfortunately, Weerd made a tactical error: he chose to open this portal in New York City (he chose there because it was a vastly populated melting pot of the world), and after a brief dust-up with the city’s local paranormal authorities, they were never heard from again.
Winston: “Hey, were just doing our jobs. They were planning to spread dark ectoplasm all over our favorite taco joint!”
Peter: “Yeah, we scientists/heroes gotta pay the bills too. Proton packs don’t pay for themselves, ya know!”
Egon: “If it’s any consolation, they’ll contribute to the progression of paranormal science. Yeah, those 2 should dissect nicely.”
Ray: “Hey, act surprised! You know busting makes us feel good. It’s in our theme song, for cryin’ out loud!”
Remember this past Christmas, when Cartoon Network temporarily extended its’ children’s programming an extra hour? We all thought the Stuart Snyder, the man in charge of CN, had finally seen the light and was making a genuine effort to bridge the disconnect he has with CN’s audience. Well, it turns out….
Yeah, I hope you enjoyed that bone you got tossed, ’cause that’s gonna be it for a while. This week Snyder announced that starting March 31st, CN’s Adult Swim block will be expanded yet another hour, beginning at 8 P.M. Viewers’ reaction was swift and concise:
The irony here is so delicious that it must be fattening. We all thought that after December, Cartoon Network would be GAINING an hour of programming back, but it turns out CN will be LOSING another hour. Call it Jetix Disease.
For those who don’t know, Jetix was a programming block of new and original shows (mostly action cartoons) which was implemented onto Toon Disney in 2004. In short order, the Jetix shows began scoring higher ratings than anything on Toon Disney (largely because the Jetix shows were new and the rest of TD’s schedule consisted of canceled reruns tying into TD’s nostalgia channel theme), and as a result, Jetix gradually began taking up more and more air space, spreading across the channel like some sort of virus, to the point where 85% of the channel’s programming was Jetix shows and Toon Disney seemed like a tiny block on the Jetix channel, leading the Mouse House to rebrand the entire channel as Disney X-D. It’s looking like Adult Swim is the new Jetix.
Why is Snyder doing this? According to the man himself, it’s because 6-14 year old boys are watching less TV and spending more time online, and he wants expand Adult Swim to garnish more appeal for young adults. OK, 2 things: one, I think it’s truly sad that 6-14 year old boys are the only audience Snyder cares about (talk about a 1-track mind) and two, he doesn’t think that CN’s current hits Adventure Time and Regular Show, both of which have proven to have crossover appeal to young adults, fit the bill at 8 P.M.?
I admit that my opinion isn’t an unbiased one, as I’m not the biggest Adult Swim fan there is. I’m not even a medium-sized fan. Aside from The Venture Brothers, The Boondocks and China, IL., I don’t watch anything on Adult Swim. I don’t even think AS should be on 7 days a week, since the current block is not only a dismal shadow of its’ former self but it barely has enough shows to stretch across 9 hours, forget giving them a 10th, but that’s just me. If we were going to to get decent shows like Home Movies, Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, The Oblongs, Mission Hill, Daria, Dilbert, Duckman and Liquid Television (BTW, I know some of these shows would never air on a Turner owned station, but I mean shows of this nature) during the 8 P.M. hour, then I probably wouldn’t mind this so much, since I only watch a show or 2 on CN right now anyway, but you and I know what this extra hour will contain: more FOX Animation Domination leftovers. Another hour of King of the Hill and American Dad reruns. Yay. Some are hoping that AS’ new hour will consist of an expanded Toonami, but since viewers would actually enjoy that, it’s most likely not going to happen.
(Some of the DC Nation shows would’ve also been choice to see at 8 P.M., but sadly, thanks to more CN mismanagement, DC Nation is a joke now, showing nothing but–gag!–Teen Titans Go! and filler material.)
Ironically, the 1 channel that may actually benefit from Snyder’s dumb-assery is CN’s less popular little sister, Boomerang. In the midst of all of this, Boomerang is apparently going to be remade into an ad-supported kids and family channel said to consist of both classic and contemporary cartoons. Da Boom has already began airing corporate sponsored ads. That description sounds like they’re planning to make Boomerang into a Hub Network type of channel, the prospects of which are making my mouth water. The only hiccup here is that the presence of ad support means that the channel will now depend on ratings to survive, and this will inevitably lead to the addition of new and original programming; not surprisingly, many retro fans fear that this will mean that the classic cartoons are going to be shown a lot less love, and sadly, that is a likely prospect. However, we have to keep in mind that that if things were to stay as they are now on Boomerang, we’d only ever see the same 10 to 20 episodes of the same 4 or 5 Hanna-Barbera shows aired over and over again. Forgoing this for the relaunch of Boomerang into a potentially fresh, diverse and awesome network is a sacrifice worth making in my opinion. I hope that the classic cartoons have a place somewhere on this new channel, because based on what I’m hearing this new Boom has the potential to be a mix of Hub Network and the Powerhouse era CN, and that could be great if The Powers That Be don’t drop the ball on it.
We asked Snyder himself to comment on his mode of thinking, and here’s what he had to say:
Let’s face it, unless you live in the West Coast, it does. It’s bitterly cold, there’s snow, ice and slush on the ground, the trees are all bare, no birds or insects, all around there’s an atmosphere of emptiness, bitterness and death, winter is like living in an Ingmar Bergman film. It’s really easy to fall into a depressive funk this time of year, so as we enter February, arguably the most annoying and tedious but thankfully short month of winter (it’s also the month of our birthday–Feb. 5th–remember, cash is the gift that keeps on giving!), we at Twinsanity offer a way to get through the drudgery of winter: we invite you to Have a Laugh! They say that laughter is the best medicine (actually, it’s penicillin, but penicillin isn’t very funny), and like most techno-geeks, when we need to find something cheery to brighten our day, we look to the internet. Assembled for your pleasure are some of our favorite funny internet videos.
First, a local spot that’s too good to be true:
“Free parking in the rear”. That had to have been deliberate.
Next, a Merrie Melody from Cartoon Network’s The Looney Tunes Show, entitled “Chickenhawk”. It’s the classic Foghorn Leghorn/Henery Hawk confrontation, but done as a hip-hop/soul ballad. Much of TLTS was hit or miss, but this segment leaves me laughing every time.
Next, another local ad, this time for Pizza ‘N’ Go Pizzeria.
Hilarious! That rump shake at the end gets me every time! Except that now I’ll be chanting “Makin’ the pizza, makin’ the pizza” for the rest of the day.
This commercial is delightfully weird. It’s for Starburst Berries & Cream.
And here’s some funny bits from The Aquabats Super Show.
Next, a favorite Snickers commercial of ours:
Don’t you hate it when former NBA stars just walk up and randomly dunk on you?
Next, a bit of an oldie by internet standards, but still funny. What if someone turned Watchmen into a Saturday morning cartoon?
Next, another local spot, this one from our home town of Baltimore, MD:
Little bit o’ trivia: ‘Bishop Barry’ is the brother of one of our father’s former co-workers, so we actually know this guy in a roundabout way.
Next, let’s funky with a pet store in San Pablo, CA:
Well, now I know where to go if I ever desire a pet scorp-e-ON.
Next, 2 local plumbing commercials that’ll ensure you’ll never look at one of our founding fathers or Tommy Tutone the same way ever again:
Hm. Didn’t know he could fly. That’s something they glossed over in history class.
Finally, a favorite video game spot from a while back. I won’t spoil it for you, just give it a watch. Enjoy!
It’s time for another installment of Beyond the Background, where the lesser known, less celebrated, discarded and ignored characters finally get their moment in the spotlight.
Remember Space Goofs? For the uninformed, Space Goofs (also known as Home to Rent in the UK, Les Zinzins de l’espace in France and Quebec, Ein Heim für Aliens in Germany and Stupid Invaders internationally) was a French/German/American animated series produced by Gaumont Multimedia, and Xilam for France 3 that first aired in 1997. It also debuted at the same year in Germany on ProSieben. It also aired in Quebec, on Télétoon. In the UK, the 1st season premiered on Channel 4 under the name Home to Rent and the 2nd season premiered under its original moniker on Nicktoons UK on 5 November 2005 at 9:30 a.m. It also aired as part of the Fox Kids lineup on Fox in the United States.
The premise was simple: 5 colorful, silly looking aliens from the planet Zigma B crash into an asteroid while on an intergalactic picnic and crash land on Earth, where they take up residence in an empty house for rent. The aliens have two goals: Return to their home planet and chase away anybody who tries to move into the house, and wackiness ensued. The 5 E.T.s consisted of Etno Polino, Bud Budiovitch, Candy Caramella, Gorgious Klatoo and the subject of today’s article, Stereo Monovici.
He’s 2, 2, 2 Goofs in 1!
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The show’s theme song was performed by rock legend Iggy Pop. Now, there’s some musical cred.
Each Space Goof had his own unique color and personality: purple alien Etno was the leader and brains of the team, a scientific genius who invented useful devices (you could tell he was really smart because he spoke with a James Mason sound-alike voice which was provided by Maurice “The Brain” LaMarche), orange alien Bud was the glassy-eyed, brain-addled TV addict, fat blue alien Gorgious (named after his penchant for gorging himself, not for his looks) was the loud, loutish, bullying, obnoxious glutton (sort of an interplanetary Eric Cartman), polka-dotted apron wearing green alien Candy was the prim, fussy, prissy, uptight neat-freak in touch with his feminine side, typically dressing up as a woman when the Goofs needed to go in disguise (Fun Trivia Fact: In the Latin American version of the show which aired on Jetix, Candy’s gender was switched to female). Stereo, the red alien, was the bookworm of the house, burying himself in books and boning up on facts, mainly dropping tons of useless information. Oh, and also he had 2 heads, which often argued with one another. The show ran for 2 seasons.
Afterward, the Fab Four and a Half appeared in an adventure game called Stupid Invaders (I love that title!), produced by Ubisoft, and more recently plans for a Stupid Invaders movie were announced. So far, all we’ve gotten of this movie is this trailer:
Did anyone notice something missing from that trailer? Something slightly askew? A missing component? Where was Stereo?? It seems that he/they was/were discarded by the show’s producers. Some theorized that Stereo was dropped because kids found him/them too scary. That was just a rumor, of course. Stereo is not scary, THIS is scary:
No, the real reason for Stereo’s absence was because Stereo was removed from season two of the show because several viewers and even Xilam Studios described him as “a very weak character” and Stereo was removed from the series altogether in season two. Now, as a double-bodied oddity myself (I’m a twin, for those who don’t know), that burns my ass. Stereo was no weaker than any of the other characters on the show; trying to imagine Space Goofs/Stupid Invaders without “him” is like trying to imagine the Beatles without Ringo. Sure, Ringo has become famous for being the butt of jokes (including his own), but even if he was “just the drummer”, he’s still a Beatle, darn it, and you can’t imagine the band without him. Stereo’s the same way; “weak character” or not, he/they is/are still a Space Goof, he/they have been with the show since day 1, and with 1 Goof (or 2, depending on how one counts Stereo) missing it’s just not the same. Hopefully, whenever this movie gets made, the producers will listen to fans’ requests and bring Stereo back.
In the meantime, when asked about Stereo’s deletion, the other Space Goofs claim that while Stereo wouldn’t mind being reinstated, he’s not too upset about it, in fact, he’s found a new sense of inner peace and serenity ever since the ‘big event’. You see, after years of bickering, Stereo has finally found his “One”, and has recently joined in civil union…with himself.
Today on Player Two Start, we pay tribute to Capcom’s much admired crossover fighter, X-Men VS Street Fighter.
Let’s take a little trip down Memory Lane. The year was 1996. One afternoon our younger brother Chaz (also known as CJP from the Otaku Gamer Spot–there, I plugged your site, bro, don’t say we never did anything for ya!) came home from school and informed us that a friend of his had told him that there was a new arcade game out in which the X-Men took on the characters from Street Fighter II. Naturally, we assumed he was pulling our collective legs, but after he loosened the snow tire chains from our ankles, a few days later we all headed out to the news/magazine stand at our local mall, and sho’ ’nuff, there was an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly (this was back when there still were monthly game magazines, in the days B.I.–Before Internet) confirming that X-Men VS Street Fighter did indeed exist. One day, we’ve gotta pay our bro the 5 bucks we owe him. It’ll happen one day…..
And cue the eye-popping intro:
For the uninformed, X-Men VS Street Fighter was originally released as a coin-operated arcade game in 1996. It is Capcom’s third fighting game to feature Marvel Comics characters (the previous 2 being X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes, which Jason already covered in the very first Videots) and the first game to match them against their own, with characters from Marvel’s X-Men franchise being matched against the cast from the Street Fighter series. It was the first game to blend a tag team style of combat with the Street Fighter gameplay, as well as incorporating elements from Capcom’s previous Marvel-themed fighting games. The teams’ respective rosters went thusly:
Street Fighter: Akuma, Cammy, Charlie, Chun-Li, Dhalsim, Ken Masters, M. Bison, Ryu, Zangief
(I was a little disappointed that the my 2 favorite X-Men at the time, Jean Grey and Beast, were left out, but they at least appeared in various spots in the game: Jean was seen and mentioned briefly in Chun-Li’s ending, and Beast could be spotted in one of the backgrounds, sitting next to Blanka by a campfire. EDIT: That visual was actually from Marvel Super Heroes VS Street Fighter, the sequel.)
The plot (this game had a plot?) was that Ryu, during his travels, crosses paths with Cyclops and the X-Men, who show interest in Ryu’s power. When Apocalypse appears, stronger than ever before, Ryu’s friends and the X-Men band together to combat Apocalypse, some for the purpose of saving the world, and some for their own evil agendas.
This game came hot off the heels of the Street Fighter Zero/Alpha series, so the SF characters were all in their Alpha forms, as evidenced by the big ‘Z’ which slammed across the screen whenever a Street Fighter scored the winning blow (clean up your minds!), as opposed to the big ‘X’ which would clunk on to the screen if the final victor was an X-Men character. Of course we all know that the Street Fighters wouldn’t stand a chance in a real battle against superpowered mutants, so to even the odds, all the SF characters’ attacks were buffed out, meaning Ryu was tossing fireballs the size and length of bullet trains. This game marks the first appearance of the “Shadaloo” depiction of Cammy, who would reappear in the console versions of Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold, as well as in Street Fighter Alpha 3. Speaking of costumes, like many people around my generation, my first ever real exposure to X-Men was the 90’s Fox Kids cartoon; I knew of the comics, but never really read them thoroughly, so at the time I didn’t realize that Sabretooth was wearing a costume; I thought all that fur and shaggy hide was actually his body!
“Ya mean you thought I was walking’ around naked this whole time? Dude! I’m a bloodthirsty amoral sociopath, but even I got principles!”
X-Men vs. Street Fighter uses a system similar to the style developed in Marvel Super Heroes, and adds the tag team gameplay feature. Instead of the usual best-two-out-of-three round format, the game’s matches consist of two-on-two battles between tag teams. The player controls one character at a time, while the other awaits off-screen. The starting character can tag the waiting one in at any time by hitting the Hard Punch and Hard Kick buttons, which activates the “Variable Attack”; the tag partner will jump in with an attack and taunt briefly. During their taunt, they are vulnerable to counterattack. The dormant character will able to recover a portion of their vitality, while the current character is fighting. If one character loses all of their vitality, then the tag partner will automatically come to play. A match is over when both members of a team are defeated or if the timer on the match clock reaches zero.
There are other ways to bring the character’s partner in; the “Variable Counter”, which replaces the Infinity Counter of Marvel Super Heroes, breaks the player’s guard to bring the teammate in with a counterattack at the cost of a level of super meter. Also, the “Variable Combination” is a two-character Hyper Combo (the super moves featured in the game) which costs two levels, and will switch the player’s current character as long as neither character gets hit during their Hyper Combos.
In 1998, the game got a home console port for the PS1, which was just called the PlayStation at the time since there weren’t any others, but the PS version received mixed to negative reaction from fans, due to several frames of animation being cut, making the characters’ movements a tad choppy, slowdowns during the special moves that made the game essentially unplayable and worst of all, NO TAG-TEAMING! For the reason why, I refer you to our resident Tech Guy, Mr. Edgar Eaglebeak:
“Well, you see, the original PlayStation, or PS1 for you laymen, was a disc-based console. As such, the console’s RAM, or Random Access Memory, was significantly lower than that of the arcade cabinet. Every frame of animation of each character: their punches, kicks, supers, win/loss animations, what have you, needed to be stored onto the consoles discs and hard drive, and consequently loaded onto the game’s engine. However, the PS1 only had enough memory to store all of the animations for 2 characters to be on the screen at the same time, but as a 2-on-2 tag-team based combat title, X-Men VS Street Fighter required for there to be full animations for 4 characters at a time. So Joe Gamer would have had to choose between waiting long loading times each and every time they switched characters or simply contending with no tag-teaming in the main battle mode. Sony chose the second option. Instead, the PS version used a traditional best-two-of-three round setup in a similar manner to Rival Schools: United By Fate, with the player’s chosen partner only emerging on screen briefly as a ‘striker’, if you will, for Super attacks. However, it was possible to have a tag-team match through two-player “Crossover Mode”, provided that each player used a clone of their opponent as their partner. For example, if the player was controlling Ryu and his opponent was Wolverine, then the player’s partner would have to be Wolverine and the opponent’s partner would have to be Ryu. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must finish downloading the unreleased script for Man of Steel 2 from the internet and then resume my training for World of Warcraft. I’m a Level 42 Paladin!”
The was also a Sega Saturn version of the game, which was able to incorporate tag-teaming, since it was a cartridge based console, but I didn’t own a Sega Saturn nor did I know anybody who did, so I never got to play that version.
Apocalypse was the final boss of the game and lacked a tag partner. (No surprises there; the dude was freakin’ HUGE! Why would he need a partner?) After defeating him, the character that defeated Apocalypse was forced to fight his or her teammate (the game would not accept new challengers at that time). Once the CPU-controlled teammate was defeated, the game would show the player-controlled character’s ending. Or you could just view them here:
Ah, the 90’s cheese. I could listen to that hammy Kraftwerk synthesizer all night!
(But Ryu really thought he could just walk back to Earth from the moon? OK.)
So, hats off to X-Men VS Street Fighter. This game started the aeon flux of Capcom crossover titles (affectionately referred to as the ‘Capcom VS’ series) such as Marvel Super Heroes VS Street Fighter, Marvel VS Capcoms 1-3, Capcom VS SNKs 1 and 2, SNK VS Capcoms 1 and 2, Tatsunoku VS Capcom and others, but X-Men VS Street Fighter will always hold a special place in my heart since it was the first, and since I was huge mutant freak at the time. I’m still a mutant freak, but not as big an X-Men fan as I was back in the day. For making many peoples’ fanboy and fangirl fatasies come true and allowing me to assemble my awesome killer tag-team of Rogue and Storm to lay waste to my opponents, we at Twinsanity salute you.
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