Episode 10- Garfield in Disguise aka Garfield's Halloween Adventure

It's still Halloween season so our spooktacular celebration of Halloween continues with Garfield's Halloween special "Garfield in Disguise" aka "Garfield's Halloween Adventure" aka "Garfield Meets the Harlem Globetrotters."  

Our discussion (for some reason) begins and ends with ABC TV's "The Middle" but also how terrifying this special actually was to a five year old kid (extremely), the delightful sounds of Lou Rawls (or possibly Dr. John, one of them), the surprisingly violent ways Garfield captures lasagna, some general hatred of 90s ska as a genre, and of course we debate the worst kinds of candies to get on Halloween. 

Join us won't you? Enjoy it, we spookily dare you!

Listen on iTunes, Stitcher or right here.

Sell me lies, sell me sweet little lies.

I’ve worked in the children’s media industry as a researcher and consultant for almost a decade and one of the most interesting lessons I've learned is people who advertise to kids don’t always care about kids. It’s not that people hate kids, I’m sure the CEO of Acme Toys would try to save a drowning eight-year-old but when it comes to things like advertising and accurate representations of a company’s product, then that CEO couldn’t give a fudge about sugar as to whether that eight-year-old is getting a fair deal. 

Unfortunately, when I’m part of project where I know that the product being advertised is an exaggerated version of what the real product is, I get super unhappy because I remember what it felt like to get ripped off and it sucked. The process went something like this:

1. Save up/beg for money
2. Wait for months.
3. Annoy parent/caregiver to the point of hatred as to when I could be driven to Toys R Us.
4. Make Oregon-Trail-like-journey to store.
5. Make Oregon-Trail-like-journey home (length of trip was doubled due to the anxiety brought on by mom not driving home fast enough).
6. Using product for first time.
7. Feelings of but no words for sensation of getting dicked over.
8. Begin saving money for next product.

I try to explain this experience to people who hire me and sometimes I’m effective in causing some type of change in their strategy and other times I’m not. It's uphill battle for sure but what keeps me inspired to fight on are those burning memories of getting super hosed by the ad man and wanting to prevent that for the next child. 

Episode 9- Pac-Man

It's Halloween season, which means only one thing- it's mid- to late- October!

In honor of the season, we watched the Halloween episode of Pac-Man which had the segments "Pacula" and "Trick or Chomp."

In this episode, we compare Andrea to Vincent D'Nofrio in Full Metal Jacket, we name-check some listerners, and discuss the seasonally-appropriate horror of what Lark Voorhies has turned herself into, our collective regret that "Pacula" was not a Pac-pun of "Scott Bakula," the no-doubt excitement of Pac-Wars, which is the Pac-World's Star Wars, with realistic Galaga-type action and the appeal of the baby-holding-ovaries scene in Devil's Advocate over the appeal of this cartoon we watched. Also, Mort Fisherman, our esteemed and mysterious booking agent, secured an interview with Inky, one of the ghosts from Pac-Man's rogues' gallery.

Enjoy this spook-erific episode. You could do us a favor of subscribing and maybe telling a friend, why not?

Listen on iTunes, Stitcher or right here.

Episode 8- Captain N: The Gamemaster

We're back with a new episode. It is the very first episode that features fewer than the full lineup of Deathgrippers. But Sean, Andrea and Giancarlo do tell you where Tim is. He's not dead, that much this podcast description can tell you.

In today's episode, we watched the pilot episode of "Captian N: The Gamemaster," which is either a big Nintendo ad, possibly Nintendo's attempt to remake "The Big Chill" with its characters or maybe even Joseph Campbell's response to Star Wars. We explore all of the possibilities! You'll also hear all about the buxom King Hippo, the incredibly annoying portrayal of some Nintendo B-listers, the only slightly less annoying cartoon trope of the villain raising his voice to impersonate the heroine to throw off the hero and the hero buying it, and most amazing of all, Andrea's amazing impression of the amazing Levi Stubbs. And of course, our booking agent, Mort Fisherman, landed us Megaman for the interview segment.

Listen here or head to iTunes to listen/download/subscribe (you should really subscribe)! Enjoy! Also, please tell, like, one other person about us! We'll love you all the more for it.