Jon and Maggie Schaefer-Hames on Cartoon Memories

Hey, this is Greg Berger and you are listening

to the GeekCast Radio Network. Hi, you're listening

to Tooncast. Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond

your wildest imagination. Hello and welcome to

Tooncast. This is episode 249. I'm of course

TFJone Mike and we are continuing on with our

Tooncast origins here. This is their third appearance

on the GeekCast Radio Network Origins series.

They debuted in the Pullbags Comic Origins, they

transformed with us on the Rod Pod Transformers

Origins, and now John and Maggie Schaefer -Hames

are here to talk about cartoons. Woohoo! Yay!

Yay. Thanks for having us, Mike, on this, your

249th episode. The one that people who haven't

listened to in a while will skip over to get

to 250. Yep, absolutely. That's what they do

on Long Brass Crusade to me, and that's what

Mike does. I've come to respect that. I may not

even have a 250th episode. I might just skip

to 251. I don't know. Like the 13th floor and

being John Malkovich. You know what? Every, and

this is a complete tangent folks, but she said

the 13th floor, every floor in the apartment

building that I've, that I live in all five floors,

they all have a two, 13, three, 13, four, 13,

five, 13. And I'm like, really? You really need

a 13 number in your, like, it's so weird to me.

So I'm like, Don't they usually skip that? Like,

don't they usually just go from 12 to 14 because

suppose, you know, 13 unlucky and all that and

whatever. It screws with the mail. That's true.

I mean, as long as, go ahead, Maggie. No, I was

just gonna say that pesky post office. Yes. Thank

God. Flimflam isn't working there. It would be

a 13 ghosts of the mail with a side of scrappy

do. All right. Oh yeah. So the order for this

is Maggie will go first and then John will go.

So I will ask the question. They will tell their

stories each and we will have a blast talking

about cartoons. Yes. Hooray. Did you grow up

watching cartoons? What were some of your earliest

cartoon memories? Oh yeah, I definitely did.

I was a latchkey kid. So I watched a lot of television.

Early ones that I remember watching would have

been like, oh boy, cartoons too. Pokemon was

probably the most influential on me. The Wild

Thornberries I really enjoyed. My mom really

liked Dexter's Laboratory and Johnny Bravo. I

was more of a Nickelodeon kid, but sometimes

I was able to catch things on Cartoon Network

or the Disney Channel. But yeah, Angry Beavers,

I liked them a lot too. Yeah, I watched, I ended

up watching, and Batman, the animated series

too is another big one that I watched when I

was a kid growing up as well. So yeah, absolutely.

A lot of cartoons. Loved them. I was completely

encouraged to watch them. I actually worked with

the girl once who when she was growing up, her

mom didn't let them watch cartoons. She didn't

want her kids to watch things that weren't real.

And she told me, she's like, I don't think I

have an imagination. because I never got to like

watch fantasy stuff when I was a kid and that

just broke a little part of my soul. Yeah. So

I still avidly watch cartoons to keep that alive.

Do you think she realizes that realistic fiction

isn't actually real? I don't know where the line

was drawn. I don't know if fiction was allowed

at all. I don't know. Does she think that Joe

Friday was just this really, really successful

police officer who like closed every case in

a half hour? Or, you know, that turbo boosting

through a wall would really, you know, solve

the world's problems, even though it's fun as

hell. I still remember to this day. when I eventually

saw the, and obviously this is not cartoons at

this point, but it'll come back around to that.

Cause I really think they should do an animated

series for the show. Oh yeah. Because I will

segue into Knight Rider later from a cartoon.

I promise. Good. Cause I remember the very first

time that I heard Peter Cullen as car saying,

I am the Knight automated roving robot car. If

you prefer. I am the prototype of the car of

the future. And I'm like, what is Optimus Prime

doing in this car? When I watched that as an

adult, too, I was like, why is Optimus Prime

so angry? Amazing. His anger grows. It was more

at the time. It was like, is that Venger? Yeah.

What about you, John? What are your earliest

cartoon memories and growing up and watching

cartoons? Oh yeah, I was also a big cartoon watcher

under different circumstances because it was

a different era. For everybody that isn't aware,

I'm older than Maggie is. I grew up in the 80s,

she grew up in the 90s. Everyone's older than

Maggie is. Yes, except for Rhoda. Except for

Rhoda, she's a baby. I grew up watching cartoons

because I grew up in the heyday of Saturday morning

cartoons when they had actually turned the form

of advertising directly to children into an art

form. Thank you, President Reagan. Yeah. We do

talk about that a bit on our show on the first

introduction on our first cartoon show about

it. And it is an interesting bit to study, which

we'll not say way into here. While I was in my

most impressionable, I was watching cartoons

of toys that I could then watch advertising for.

But my first ones I remember watching, Bugs Bunny

and the Road Runner, and later Bugs Bunny and

Tweety Show, was always on when I woke up, because

that was on from like six o 'clock in the morning

until nine. So whenever I stumbled out of bed,

it was Looney Tunes cartoons. Watched that my

mom would watch those with me because she loved

them because they were from when she was a kid

and I found that fascinating as a young child

I grew up other than that my big favorites were

the Smurfs Alvin and the chipmunks and of course

Spider -man and his amazing friends later the

Incredible Hulk and the Amazing Spider -man But

I was I was a fan of almost every single kind

of cartoon that came out when I was a kid Big

Popeye fan. Popeye would get my attention whenever

Popeye was on. That was my favorite one. I think

he kind of got folded in with superheroes with

me. I think because he essentially is one. Just

because I promised I would segue into Knight

Rider for you. There was this completely freakish

show that nobody believes me who hasn't seen

this or heard of it that I tell them about it.

It was called Turbo Teen. Oh, yeah. Which it

was the incredible story of a kid who when who

underwent some sort of comic book radioactive

accident and became one with his with his trans

am. That sounds like a dirty euphemism. Well,

it's really funny to watch in terms of, because

when he gets hot, he turns into a car. And when

he gets cold, he turns back into a human. Now

I am absolutely convinced because of the constant

use of the turbo blast, which you would throw

and then they jump, that this was pitched as

a young Knight Rider show. like they always did

things like that like this was gonna be a young

Michael Knight cartoon and They didn't couldn't

get the rights at the last second or David Hasselhoff

wouldn't sign off on it What so they had to have

a cocaine -fueled weekend and that this was the

compromise they came up with I I don't think

it's a very good compromise because you don't

have the amazing William Daniels Voicing for

the car. Nah, he probably wouldn't have been

able to do the cartoon. So ironically, they probably

would have got like Peter Collin or someone.

That's Mr. Feeney, right? Yep. Yeah. Yeah, Mr.

Feeney. I know him as Dr. Craig. Oh, I know him

as Mr. Feeney from Boy Meets World. I know. Yep.

Yep. First, never knew who he was. I just knew.

I loved the voice of Kit in Knight Rider. And

then obviously, eventually I found out who he

was. And then, you know, he moved on to Mr. Feeny

and he is essentially Mr. Feeny. So, as always.

What cartoons were you watching most as a kid?

Were you a Saturday morning consumer and after

school consumer or both? Oh, probably a bit of

both. Gosh. I know I really when I was little

little I really like spider -man and I don't

know which spider -man that would have been That

would have been if I was like just spider -man.

I think it was called that was the 1990s one.

Yeah The theme song Saturday morning Spider -man.

Yeah, radio Yeah, that's the one But I do recall

watching like a lot of WB like the tiny tunes

I think was on there and I love the Animaniacs

when I was a little kiddo too. But I couldn't

tell you which ones came on after I came home

from school and which ones were on Saturday mornings.

I want to say Saturday I watched WB. Yeah. I

think they had a special lineup on Saturday mornings.

By the time you were watching cartoons, Saturday

morning cartoons were almost dead as a thing.

It wasn't really a thing. There was a lineup

of shows. They changed the laws in the 90s in

terms of that and then companies were just buying

entire networks so they could put out whatever

content they wanted to and didn't have to worry

about. Yeah. There were entire channels that

just played cartoons, so I just watched those.

It was easy. The reason that exists is because

of DuckTales and Disney having to shell out money

to Fox who was making money hand over fist out

of it in syndication, so they created an entire

thing. Well, mine, I was both, I was, as I said,

a Saturday morning cartoon generation. person,

but also that was the era of syndicated TV after

school stuff. And there was always a lovely mix

of them, old Tom and Jerry stuff that they'd

mix in with like Gilligan's Island and be witched.

So it was a fun time to watch are the monkeys

eventually, but cartoon wise, there was more

Popeye. So that was always great. And He -Man.

and the Masters of the Universe, which was the

reason we all were running home from school as

quickly as possible. I did not get to watch my

favorite ones unless I went over to somebody's

house because we didn't have cable or a satellite.

We just had the three, ABC, NBC, CBS, and then

PBS were the only channels we had. So if I wanted

to watch, my three favorites were G .I. Joe,

The Transformers, and Gem. The Hasbro. I'm commercial.

Those were my absolute favorite ones. That entire

universe was great to me. Any opportunity I got

to see those, I was absolutely thrilled. Absolutely.

Yeah. A few of my other friends and I, Amy and

Nicole, and did Heather show up on that show?

I don't remember. Anyway, Amy, Nicole and I,

a number of years ago, actually it was for the

30th anniversary. Oh God. Jem is going to be

40 in 2045 or 2025 I should say. Anyway, we did

a whole Jem podcast and I will, I will say this

till I die. Jem is not just for girls. It's for

boys too. And not in the way that you like it's,

oh my God, Jem, I want to jump her. No, it's

because the way that those shows were written

in the way, like, like John said. GI Joe, Transformers,

Gem, you could also throw in like Mask and Thundercats

and Voltron, like all of those eighties action

shows, even though most of them were for boys,

the girls cartoon, specifically Gem, not necessarily

My Little Pony, but Gem itself didn't just cater

to, it's an action cartoon. That's what it is.

It's for anybody. There was a car chase in almost

every episode. And the Misfits were a badass

bad, like villain team. Well, really it was more

of just Pazazz was kind of the worst. Yeah, but

Pazazz could probably put Megatron in his place

just out of sheer confusion. I would love to

see Pazazz versus Megatron. It must happen. Or

Pazazz joining with Cobra Commander. Or Pazazz

and Starscream. Oh my God. I think I had a nerdgasm

over here. Of course, it could also be Pazazz

with Baroness. Well, speaking of that, we can

plug somebody else's podcast. Yeah, plug away.

Our friend Clinton Robinson does a number of

podcasts. One of them is, what does he call it?

Fan Film Fridays in which he has people come

on and review various fan films and there is

a gem fan film. Yeah. Really good. It is unironically

good. It is like as close to a live action episode

of the Gem cartoon can be. It is worth watching.

It is a genuinely fun time. I think it's called

Truly Outrageous. I think it is just called Truly

Outrageous, but it was quite good. Google that

and watch the thing. We go on forever about our

love for Gem. That's a good time. Absolutely.

Yeah, we did all of the episodes and we covered

the entire comic series on Showtime Synergy.

I love the... I'll have to find that and listen

to them. I love that comic series. Oh, yeah.

I'll send you the links later. All right. What

was your number one favorite cartoon as a kid?

Oh, you're gonna make me choose? Yep. Probably

I'd have to... Oh, boy. I'd have to give it to

Pokemon. Just because I collected the cards,

I went and saw the first movie when it came out

in the States when I was a little baby kiddo.

I had a stuffed Pikachu that I think I got the

same night that I saw the movie, which was good

because I cried twice. One of the worst days

ever was when the Pokemon cards were banned from

school, which happened to millions of children

across the country. Like it wasn't just a me

thing that happened everywhere. Yep. So I would,

I'd have to say. Pokemon for sure. Yeah. Would

have been my favorite there, but there are so

many that I still love. Yeah. I mean, I'm not

saying you can't, I'm just saying what would

be, you know, as a kid, what was your above all

else? Like the one you absolutely had to watch

no matter what. Yep. That would be it. I have

to cheat and say too, because there's no way

I can say one of these without the other, because

they actually both were very much formative to

my you know, becoming a childhood nerd. And that

is Spider -Man and his amazing friends and Dungeons

and Dragons. Really? You can learn a lot about

me just by the fact that these were my two favorite

ones. I went then forward to become a huge comic

book nerd and D &D nerd and never really stopped.

Spidey is still my favorite character and D &D

is still something I play. Very cool, very cool.

What are some other cartoons you like? Do you

have a favorite cartoon genre type? No, I will

watch pretty much anything that's animated. I

really also enjoyed the Fairly Oddparents. Always

makes me laugh. There was a briefly or there

was a brief show on I think it was on Nickelodeon

called As Told by Ginger. And it was, I must

have been like in sixth grade probably, and she

was like a middle school student too. And she

had like crazy red hair and braces and she wrote

in a diary and she and her friends were kind

of the odd ones out. And I immediately, not that

I have red hair, but I do have hair that's out

of control most of the time. It's just that German

heritage, I tell ya. It really resonated with

me. I could really identify with her and the

characters in that show, but I think it was only

on for like two seasons. It wasn't on for very

long and I was really disappointed. I really

liked, as told by Ginger, that was a great one.

Ah, God, there's so many. I mean... I mean, I

was watching the same ones that Maggie was watching

as a kid. I was just older, the ones. And that

was where I really, you know, what I grew up

in the 90s and realized, you mean I can still

watch cartoons when I'm in my 20s? Well, hell

yeah. 30s, 40s? Yeah, but Batman, the animated

series, The Tick. Yeah. I love Johnny Bravo.

I was much more of a Cartoon Network type than

Nickelodeon. Invader Zim though. Invader Zim

grossed me out. Invader Zim and Ren and Stimpy

both had this kind of animation. I had a recurring

nightmare about Ren and Stimpy when I was a kid.

I'm not a Ren and Stimpy fan. I understand completely

why people that like Ren and Stimpy would like

Ren and Stimpy. It just does not push my buttons,

but I know the buttons that are supposed to be

pushed. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. I

apologize. segue. Oh God, but what other ones?

I mean, I mentioned the D &D one, obviously.

Which, I mean, just Uni alone makes that almost

unwatchable, I got to say. Uni, meh. Oh, I see.

Somewhere, Clinton Robinson is sitting at home

drinking a cup of coffee. That gem cup that we

got him for Christmas smashes on the floor. Damn,

though. Clinton is also in our D &D game that

we need to get back to. Yeah, I do like our Clinton.

I mean, the Animaniacs are always going to be

one that... that I'm just trying to think of

ones who's like at this point that the quality

of them really held through because once the

90s hit and it did become less about the selling

of the toys and you know and more and dodging

sensors and they could really put more into you

when you had things like Batman and Superman

animated series and you could really tell compelling

stories you know like that that's where you really

got some good stuff not and you know Disney Old

and new Disney movies, do you have a spot for

that later so I probably shouldn't go too much

into it? Probably, but I mean, the old Disney

movies, the new Disney movies, as a kid for me,

I always felt that whenever I got a Disney movie

in that plastic clamshell case, Oh, yeah, that

was those those old tapes. You know, you had

to grab those while you could before they put

them back in the Disney vault. I remember those.

We had a Winnie the Pooh that was in one of those

big ones. I loved it. Yeah. So, I mean, for me,

when I got those things and when I whatever,

like I didn't know Lady and the Tramp was from.

Whatever, I'm not looking it up. I'm not trying

to be factual here, I'm just saying. I'm sorry,

but even me, when I was a kid, they all came

out in the theaters again. They re -released

them in the 1980s. I saw Lady and the Tramp,

Robin Hood, The Jungle Book. I had no idea that

those movies were as old as they were. I assumed

that they were contemporary to me. That's what

we all did because again, even though they are

the age that they were and the age that they

are now, because Disney was doing their work

coming out of the vault for the new 70th and

a half edition. Let's celebrate Bugs Bunny and

his 51st and a half birthday. He's 51st and a

half. Who cares? All of the cartoons that we

saw in the 80s and the 90s, but specifically

the 80s, like Pink Panther. What I loved about

the Pink Panther show was that you had the Pink

Panther stuff, then you had the Ant and the Aardvark.

The Ant and the Aardvark was some heavy stuff

at times. The Inspector was some quality humor.

Yep, absolutely. I had already... I didn't come

across The Inspector until I had already seen

the Pink Panther movies. That was a fun bit of

retcon thinking in my brain. Oh, so it came from

that. I see. Pink Panther is one that I have

very vague memories of seeing. I have seen the

Peter Sellers movies. I think I've seen some

of the cartoon. I must have at some point. What

I was getting at is Peter Sellers' movie is based

on another, there were a number of spinoffs in

the Pink Panther universe. We were talking about

the Ant and the Armbarque and the Inspector was

one of them. He talked in an outrageous French

accent and all these things. Peter Sellers' character

is based on that. That's cool. That's why it's

called the Pink Panther. Oh, now I want to watch

them again. Yeah, no, the Pink Panther stuff.

Watch, I had that completely in reverse and you're

going to get so many emails. Dear sir, how can

you have such unintelligent and ill -informed

guests as the Schaeffer -Hameses, especially

John? Yes, well, you know, John is old and his

brain doesn't work so well as it used to. Oh,

man. Yeah but no the pink panther stuff was was

always so much fun and so interesting and Popeye

for me still to this day. I mean, do you have

a question later where you ask for your absolute

favorite cartoon of all time? That's what we

just asked you a few minutes ago. Oh, yeah. No,

I mean just single episode. Single episode. No,

no, I don't think I have a question. Well, then

I'll tag on to that and say that Popeye versus

Sinbad the sailor. Yes. Mad with a G. is one

of the greatest feats of animation ever. I mean

that. It's got that rotoscope stuff, and it's

a magical thing to watch. Absolutely. Plus with

Popeye, I love it. Every single episode, you're

like, oh man, he is in a tight spot. How is he

going to, oh yeah, spinach. Why did it have to

be spinach? Why couldn't it have been cucumbers

or something or watermelon or something people

would want to eat? Anyway, they have too much

spinach and they asked the cartoon if they could

do it Seriously How did your cartoon watching

habits change as you grew up and throughout your

life? Hmm kind of hasn't I'll be honest. I Mean,

I guess there was probably a time like in high

school where I wasn't really watching cartoons

as much but when I got back in my 20s and even

to today, I watch cartoons. Like when She -Ra

came out, I thought that was She -Ra and the

Princesses of Power. I thought that was awesome.

There are cartoons that come out now that I'm

more than happy to check out and watch. Yeah.

Absolutely. Before John gives his answer, just

to make sure we're all correct. And no one was

ever going to send me emails anyway, because

I never get any email. The original film series

for Pink Panther started in 63. The first cartoon

was in 1964. So they were, they were... Okay,

so I was... Well, I mean, not really. They're

kind of running concurrent to each other because,

you know, the first film, 63, 64, 68, 75, 76,

78, and then the cartoons are, you know, kind

of the same thing for the 60s. throughout the

70s. And then that's, you know, by 1980, that

was it. Panther and son. Yep. They did that in

the 80s. I remember that was probably the first

time I saw the Pink Panther. And then saw like,

because they had a lot of them on in syndication.

Yep. When I was kid, too. So what about your

cartoon watching history, John? My habit? Yep.

The only thing that's really changed is the medium

in which I watch them. Now it's a lot easier

because I can, with digital content and streaming,

I can pick and choose when I'm watching them

and find things on YouTube that I wouldn't have

had access to. But cartoons are just another

thing I watch, along with everything else. Right.

Absolutely. How often do you go back and rewatch

any of the cartoons you grew up with? I will

sometimes when I get a hankering. A couple times

a year. I might go back and watch like some Batman

the Animated series is one I like to go back

to. Spider -Man as well just it's kind of like

when I've recently watched all the Marvel superhero

movies the MCU movies and I can't watch them

again because it's So I watched some like superhero

themed cartoons and Batman the animated series

has a special place in my heart from my childhood

So yeah, and like sometimes when you're feeling

kind of gloomy and just kind of crappy it's nice

to go back to something Sweet and funny and brightly

colored like it's fun to look at as well as to

watch And the healing power of laughter is not

to be sneezed at so Absolutely, and you say that

the first thing I can think of is Bugs Bunny

It's mechanical so it's mechanical See, I always

forget Looney Tunes when I'm thinking about cartoons.

My great -grandma had some of those old ones.

It was like Cowboys and Indians. The old kind

of racist ones, basically, that I watched. I

must have been very little. Those were weird.

They were weird, but sometimes I forget that

Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are also things that

I can mention. In terms of rewatching, I mean...

Looney Tunes, yes, I've rewatched the ones I

watched as a kid any time I get a chance to,

because they're never not funny, the classic

ones. Yeah, absolutely. Other than that, when

Disney stuff, again, tends to be... The stuff

I will seek out to rewatch if I, but I will have

to be in a particular Disney mood, which, which

is basically me asking myself. So how do you

feel about crying because of descending minor

fifth chords and songs and subject matter, John?

It's not pretty good. Well, we got a series of

Disney movies for you to watch. You can start

with Roger and the 101 Dalmatians. That's never

one I watch. No, I wouldn't. And my nose is froze

and my tail is froze. Oh, it just breaks your

heart. Poor little puppies. Absolutely. Good

thing they made a movie where they sympathize

or a series where they make her sympathetic.

Have you guys seen the 7 -D? No. I don't know

how you're probably going to have to find it

through less legal means or something. I don't

know. Cause for some odd reason it's not on Disney

Plus. I don't know why, but the seven D is basically

the dwarfs without Snow White. Uh, Kevin Michael

Richardson is happy. Maurice LaMarche is grumpy.

Billy West is bashful. Bill Farmer is doc and.

I want to say Dee Bradley Baker is dopey. It's

just hilarious. I just love Maurice LaMarche

as a grumpy dwarf. It's so funny. It really,

really is. Take the brain and just make him just

grumpy. Oh, Billy West is great in anything.

I forgot to mention Futurama, The Simpsons. Yep.

Yeah, there are so many. Yeah, there are. So

many cartoons. Which cartoons from your childhood

have you rewatched as an adult, which ones held

up the best and or worst? Powerpuff Girls is

still a good time. Fairly odd parents I think

does an alright job. I tried rewatching angry

beavers once and it just annoyed me. So I know

I think I might have outgrown that one. You know,

I'd be I would think like, um, oh, was it all

real monsters? That was a fun one too. And I

bet you that one's probably still good. I'd like

to see how Rocco's modern life comes across because

some of those cartoons like you go back and you

watch them and you're like, they let us just

watch this stuff. Really? Okay, all right, because

shows are real different now than they were even

when I was a kid, and that really wasn't that

long ago, but I guess in the grand scheme of

things. Anyways, most of the ones I recently

-ish showed John the pilot to Hey Arnold, which

was a cartoon I really liked as a kid. It was

the first time I saw a truly diverse cast of

kids. It's still predominantly white, but somewhat

diverse. It was the 90s. I know. They were trying.

Kind of. They were trying in a particular way.

Right, yeah. But I was happy to see that, and

that was just the first episode, but I still

really enjoyed it. I love the music in that one,

especially. Yeah, the music in Hey Arnold is

amazing. It is. It's very unique. It's a very

New York, jazzy kind of vibe. And it was such

a different kind of cartoon. I really liked it.

And I think that one still holds up today too.

I liked it. I'm glad you did. I'm glad you did.

Best and worst. Let's see. The Smurfs held up

surprisingly well. For watching a couple of the

more iconic ones that I remember, they do pretty

well as an action thing, as well as, in the similar

vein, Disney's Adventures of the Gummy Bears.

I love that show. It's great. To watch it if

you're in them for that level of just like fantasy

adventure with just a little bit of peril to

worry the kids for a couple of seconds and then

they're okay. You know, that's and not just the

kids either. It was also the gummy bears themselves

because some of the gummy bears were kids like

Sonny and and what's the other kid not Tommy.

Oh, good Lord. The little guy, the... God, I...

Anyway, but like, I mean... Yeah, and it was

just... I just know the song. Just so, so fun.

The Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas special

held up so well that I have included it in my

itinerary of Christmas. cartoons that I watch

every year. Because for worse, that held up the

worst kid video as much as I loved the hell out

of that movie. It's a very weird show. Very weird.

It's a really weird show. And the new Archies

is shockingly bad. And I remember loving that

as a kid just because Archie. but not so good.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I, I don't know. Some

of the ones that I think now at 42 years old,

I really am at the point where I look at the

things that they existed in that time. And I

don't necessarily like the whole thing of does

it hold up today? It was never meant to hold

up in the modern day. It's supposed to live in

like Transformers, G .I. Joe, Mask, Gem, list

all of the eighties action cartoons. They are

specifically for the eighties and they live in

that time. And it's okay to view them as they

are in that time. But yeah, it's like studying

any work of history, really. It's like Shakespeare.

It's like Shakespeare, like reading, like, I

mean, I was minored in history. I read a lot

of, Thomas Jefferson is always the example I

go to. I mean, I've read more Thomas Jefferson

than you, let's say. And the thing is, is that

I can greatly admire and find the man despicable

in equal parts because product of his time, but

that time was pretty damned awful. And so I think

any time that we're mad at how something is back

in the time, what we're mad at is how we were

then. Yeah, absolutely. Cartoons! Yay! Which

cartoons that aired when you were an adult have

you liked the most? As an adult. Rick and Morty.

Bojack Horseman. And not that I've seen all of

either of them, but I've seen a good most of

it and enjoyed both. She -Ra and the Princesses

of Power, I mentioned that. I ultimately liked,

I think, right, the new Kevin Smith He -Man?

Yeah, yeah. I think I liked that. Yeah. When

it came to an end, I was like, you know what?

That was a fun story. They're cartoons. I feel

like I'm going to get done with this and then

I'm going to kick myself and be like, what's

wrong with you? Why didn't you say, ne -ne -ne?

Oh, Bob's Burgers and The Great North. Absolutely

love both of them. Those have definitely come

out since I was an adult and I will actually

go back and watch the Christmas episodes and

Thanksgiving episodes of Bob's Burgers around

the holidays just because there's such a good

time. Yeah, absolutely. I love Bob's obsession

with Thanksgiving. Yeah, actually, so there's

been a number of them that have come out. Some

that were intended for a younger audience, but

I was not going to let that stop me. And some

that were intended for an audience around my

age and I enjoyed them all equally. Absolutely.

Right. Okay. Well, uh, I will also list everyone

that Maggie said, but I've been an adult longer.

So, uh, so just, just a smattering of the highlights

of, uh, I've got to say Futurama, King of the

Hill. Just trying to work out what else in there.

There, there was Mission Hill. Yep. It was a

short -lived show that I really, really got a

kick out of and still liked. The Critic? The

Critic I loved. Yeah, John loved it. The Critic

is a pretty underrated show. There was another

kind of odd one. What else in there? I mean,

Spectacular Spider -Man. in terms of the thing

best theme song best theme song and i'm including

the original one fight me yeah that one was good

um you know batman the animated series superman

the animated series justice league justice league

action oh and uh batman the brave and the bold

yes justice league action batman brave and bold

yeah for me the tick uh I was a kiddo. I love

the tech. Love that show. I'm trying to think

what just recently. Oh, there's a lot of good

stuff recently. I'm amazed at how, and I know

I haven't mentioned all the cartoons that I've

seen. There's one I have in my head right now.

I'm like, you haven't said that one yet. So which

one was it? Oh, that freaking Critical Role one.

Oh, Vox Machina. That was... I mean, the story

behind that, just from them being voice actors

in someone's, well, in Matt Mercer's kitchen

to having a show to be millionaires. Are you

familiar with this at all? Critical role. I've

heard the name, but I don't think I've seen it.

They actually managed to kickstart their D &D

campaign into being animated. Wow. And it worked.

Yeah, it was so good. It really was. It actually

becomes a perfect representation of What D &D

is. Yeah. It's the closest I think they've come.

It was a lot of fun to watch. The Vox Machina

cartoon is great. Yeah. Oh, well thought of John.

Good job. The Justice League action show. Oh

my God. Yeah. Some of Kevin Conroy's best Batman

lines come from Justice League action. He has

a lot of great Batman lines since 1992, but.

Injustice League action one of those very one

of the very first episodes where he interrogates

with he and Superman interrogate dead shot. And

Superman's there should basically reverse the

role. Superman's trying to be the hard bad ass

and throwing chairs and whatever. And then Batman

will just pop up with his like eyebrows sticking

up here. Would you like a donut and some like,

I'm like, Oh my God, this is some of the, it

was, Oh, I love it. I, I just justice league

action. I am the night. Yeah. I am the night.

Quiet. Are you living in your car? 24 hour surveillance.

24 hour surveillance. It's definitely my, it's

definitely my favorite depiction of Firestorm.

Yeah. It's in Justice League action. He is downright

adorable. Yep. So yeah, lots of them. Yeah, absolutely.

All right. So this one's, we, I don't make hate

podcasts, but we talked about all the positives.

We got to talk about the negatives, too. Any

cartoons you hate or have been severely disappointed

by? I mean, probably. The thing is, though, is

that, oh, you know, I did as a child have an

absolute vendetta against Digimon because even

as a child, I knew it was a ripoff of Pokemon

and I was not having any of that. But there were

shows like Catdog. I didn't much care for Cow

and Chicken. I didn't like very much Ed, Ed and

Eddie. I didn't like either. Yeah. And then like

I mentioned before, Ren and Stimpy. I don't necessarily

dislike Ren and Stimpy. It just kind of grosses

me out. Yeah. Sometimes the animation that they

use, but like Space Madness is great. And It's

log, happy, happy, joy, joy. They've got some

very memorable bits, but overall, I did have

a recurring nightmare about them, so mixed feelings

on that front. What about you, John? I'm interested

to know what yours are. I'm trying to think of

any. The ones that you really didn't like? That

I really didn't like. Just the thing is, if you

don't like it, just don't watch it. Yep. It's

easily avoided. Go do something else for 15,

20 minutes. I mean, there's some that looking

back now, I can realize were objective pieces

of crap, like, you know, the Gary Coleman show.

At the time, I thought it was wonderful. Poor

Arnold. Oh, right. Oh, yeah. Poor Arnold. No,

I really can't think of anything and I know there

is one because earlier in the episode I thought

of something That's oh, you know what? I'll go

I'll say it and you can all this you see I'm

trying to get you some emails Here's a character

it's a famous character people like this character

apparently But I just do not see the appeal and

that is Woody Woodpecker in any of the associated

Woodpecker shows, it's not funny. It would be

like if Bugs Bunny were an absolute jerk and

just giggled and attacked people. It's a standard

Bugs Bunny plot. Somebody wanders into Woody

Woodpecker's life and Woody Woodpecker proceeds

to ruin his life. When Bugs Bunny does it, it's

generally ... Bugs is striking back at an affront

to himself rather than Woody's a jerk. The only

reason why I allow Woody Woodpecker is because

it gave us Chilly Willy. There was one episode

of Chilly Willy that was really funny. Yeah,

yeah. I can't remember what it is. Okay, so this

next one is... I got it from the Transformers

Origins thing. So it's basically, growing up,

did you and your friends ever pretend to be the

cartoon characters you saw on TV, say at school

recess or something like that? I knew you were

gonna ask this one, so I was thinking about it

all day. Not TV shows, no. But my cousin and

I did like to play Lion King. It was my favorite.

It still is. Honestly, I'll admit to it. It's

my favorite movie is The Lion King. And she always

had to play a girl. So she was always Nala and

I always had to be Simba, which was fine. I didn't

care. And we would just play like Lion King.

We wouldn't like act out the movie. We would

just pretend to be the lions and have our own

adventure as them, you know? But otherwise...

You were playing D &D before you knew. Basically,

yeah, kind of. It's just, you know, let's pretend

it's the best game ever. Yep. But otherwise,

no, I was kind of an obtuse child. I don't know.

My play was always very abstract. It's about

as close as I can get that I can think of anyways.

I feel like I should ask my mom that question.

She might know. She was autistic because of how

I played. She was a single mom and one and only

child and she doesn't know what's normal and

what's not normal and she was pretty sure I wasn't

normal and she wasn't too far from the truth.

What about you? Did you ever? Yes, constantly.

You would like act out like cartoons cartoons

were a bit we would act out everything see John

had a brother growing up I was an only child

I had a brother growing up and we lived a mile

and a half out of town And so we just my brother

and I who had to entertain ourselves a lot and

so let's pretend was the thing and it was and

Saturdays where the day was all right you kids

who've been watching cartoons all day get the

hell out of the house and so I mean honestly

Saturday morning when they told you to get the

hell out of the house, it was probably after

1130 AM and the cartoons were over. Nobody wanted

to watch what was on NBC at noontime. If you

were a kid in the eighties, I mean, come on.

Yeah. That's what Sean said. Was there anything

that was sadder for a kid was when suddenly you

see the beginning of the wild world of sports

thing coming in. And that means. No more cartoons

And don't get me wrong. I love sports I'm all

about all of the major the the four major Boston,

you know Red Sox Celtics Patriots Bruins I'm

all for that but as a kid when you're watching

cartoons on Saturday morning from like 6 30 a

.m. To 11 30 a .m. Yes, that's a long time to

be sitting in front of a TV, you know consuming

cartoons, but You're expecting Saturday, you

don't have school. What else are you going to

do unless your parents drag you to a flea market

or something? You want to sit there and watch

cartoons all day. And then all of a sudden, Moreno

Boyle comes on with a news story or something.

But yeah, we would get kicked outside. And so

we would have to play whatever. And it was usually

acting out whatever of our favorite Saturday

morning cartoon we just watched. But also, this

happened on the playground too. Saturday morning

cartoons were a huge deal for us. Yeah. I had

a very different experience. Second to fourth

grade especially, these were a big deal. We would

pattern our lives around certain ones. It's adorable.

Because we'd come back to school on Monday and

talk about it and then go out to recess and play

it. Yep. If you hadn't seen the show, You were

lost. Like the time when everybody was playing

Pandemonium. I had no idea what the hell Pandemonium

was. Basically, I watched NBC because it was

the only one that came in. Sometimes CBS came

in, so I got to watch Dungeons and Dragons. I

would get up early enough and turn it on and

just catch the tail end of raccoons. I would

hear Run With Us, which we love so much. We use

it in our show. Oh my God, I didn't mention Captain

Planet. Sorry. God, I loved that when I was a

kid. I was going to go live in her. There were

some big, we actually had like a big series of

playing cartoon campaigns of our own where we

just, you know, it would last for weeks at a

time until we got bored and pick stuff. I'm trying

to remember the big ones, Pac -Man. Somehow became

really popular amongst us kids and we played

Pac -Man for a while. There was a Pac -Man cartoon.

That's another one that didn't hold up. Holy

shit. Yeah, it's very, very weird. Yes. What

else? We played that. My brother and I played

Turbo Team for some damn reason. Oh, the Saturday,

the other Saturday Supercade ones. We played

Frogger and Qbert. I think we played kid video

for a while. Oh, Shazam. Yep. There were three

of us that played Shazam. We were, there was,

or the kids super power hour and with Shazam.

So everybody, so we would play this hodgepodge

of the weird Archie comic knockoffs, you know,

who hosted that show. Yep. And then. Captain

Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., and Mary Marvel.

And I think somebody decided they wanted to be

Batman, and we let them, so. But yeah. I can

relate to Maggie a little bit more than you,

John, because Maggie and I are both only children.

And I have been talking to myself since I learned

to talk because like, yes, I had friends at school

that we would act these things out. But like

Maggie said, if you're at home and you know,

your parents say, okay, go outside and play.

Well, you're going to go outside and play and

you know, whatever you're going to do, you're

going to sit there and talk to yourself and say,

Hey, I used to play with action figures with

myself a lot. Well, yeah, I mean, absolutely.

I mean, you know, my mom didn't want me to have

Barbies, which I understand. I had a lot of stuffed

animals though. I would pretend like I had a

little stuffed, I still have them, a little stuffed

polar bear that my grandma got for me when I

was about two weeks old. And I still have them.

He is 32 years old and still going strong. Um,

and I used to take them outside and pretend to

be like Kelvin and Hobbes and do like a Kelvin

and Hobbes thing, but with my little polar bear,

especially in the winter time when it was snowy,

cause that's where polar bears live, is in the

snow. Um, and I would like make a little fort

under the pine tree in the front yard and play

with my, do that. But yeah, I didn't, and I didn't

have a lot of friends cause I was an awkward,

weird, anxious kid. So it just, I, my formative

years were odd. Just remembered we had it. epic

weeks long play of Robin Hood, the Disney animated

series. And I got to be Robin Hood in that one.

And the girl I had a crush on was made merry.

It was a huge deal among everybody at the time

we were going to get to kiss. But then apparently

teachers got wind of it and we weren't allowed.

Yeah, there's I don't know why I'm not a furry.

I wanna eventually do an episode of the overall

network flagship show, Geekcast Radio, talking

about why we weren't allowed to say or talk about

certain things. Like I've mentioned this recently

on other podcasts. I had said to some, but one

of my friends in third, fourth grade, whatever

it was, that I was gonna go home, listen to some

hard rock and talk to a girl. Teacher got wind

of this and was like, What are you doing listening

to hard rock music and you should be calling

girls. I'm like, what the heck? I didn't get

it at all. Some of the things that we were told

not to do is just really, really strange. In

the eighties specifically, it was really weird.

Well, we were eight, so that's probably the idea.

No, but you're not wrong and there's a lot of...

There were a lot of reasons why this was happening

in the eighties. Yeah. And it's hilariously similar

to the same reason that that that the things

that are happening now seem familiar because

it's because it is. I mean, it hasn't changed

in 40 something years. Sadly. All right. So if

you had to choose and you have to choose, who

is your And I'll be all favorite cartoon character

from any cartoon. If you have a hero and a villain,

you can pick one of each. All right, give me

a minute. I got my hero and my villain. Hang

on, hang on, hang on, hang on. Let John go first.

OK, John, go first. My villain is Venger from

Dungeons and Dragons, ably voiced by Peter Collin.

You know, he's a half demon because he only has

one horn and he's that he's the only actually

objectively awesome thing about the show My hero

is Popeye the sailor Popeye I was thinking about

him a lot today because I know we were gonna

do this show and what it boils down to is that

Popeye the sailor winds up being My favorite

character as a kid And I think it's also it's

because he felt he went into that whole Captain

Billy Batson, Captain Marvel, you know, the transformation

aspect of it. I got a big kick out of and there

was something and I was just I really, really

got into Popeye. So. And as to who would win

in a fight between my hero and my villain, Popeye

would beat the crap out of Venger and it wouldn't

even take a while. I don't know. Doesn't Venger

have Tiamat? No, Tiamat's Venger's enemy, but

Popeye would take on the two of them. Popeye

versus Tiamat. He would probably beat up Tiamat

off -panel as part of a gag. He's ludicrously

powerful. Absolutely. What about you, Maggie?

Who's yours? This feels weird, but I think the

most honest answer for favorite hero of all time

from cartoons is Batman. Every animated version

of Batman I have seen, I have loved. Every live

action version of Batman I have seen. has been

at least somewhat disappointing, varying from

somewhat to incredibly disappointing. And same

for the comic books. And that's just because

this is a character who's been around for 80

plus years now. There's going to be a lot of

crap mixed in with the good, obviously. But the

animated Batman, the animated series, Batman,

the Brave and the Bold, the Batman, I've loved

all of them. In Harley Quinn, Batman's great

in that and Diedre Bader gets to play him again.

That's so funny. It's really funny. It's very

funny. So I would say favorite hero from any

cartoon. It's got to be Batman just because across

multiple cartoons. He's been my favorite. And

he's tied with the tick because how can you not

love the tick? He is so funny. Now the tick versus

Popeye would be a cartoon I would watch because

that would be hilarious. Oh man. Neither of them

would be able to get anywhere on the other one.

Favorite villain though? Yikes. I always have

such a hard time picking a favorite villain.

You can borrow my second choice, which is David

Xanathos. No. Although I forgot also to mention

Guard Girls, which was another show I liked as

a kid. I don't know if I can come up with a favorite

villain. Not because I don't like them, just

it doesn't come as easily to my head, but I mean,

Mark Hamill's Joker. Let's Not Kid Ourselves

is a wonderful villain. And I wish that they

didn't beat us over the head with the Joker stick

every time Batman shows up. He's overused. He's

way too overused. But Mark Hamill's Joker is

an absolute delight. Yeah, absolutely. Can you

imagine if Sherlock Holmes was face matching

wits with Professor Moriarty in every book? Right,

exactly. It's like, don't always use the Daleks.

Let them chill for a little bit. I'm bringing

back. They just look like salt and pepper. Oh,

no the Borg are here. How will they beat them?

I'm probably same way. They always do blow the

cube up. Yeah Save those with the big moments.

Anyways, yeah, I'm glad I came up with an answer

Yeah, Mark Hamill's Joker He's hard to beat because

it's What's amazing about his performance of

the Joker and the iconic level he got is that

he came out the year after Jack Nicholson Won

an Oscar for it and set up fucking precedent

and apparently it's our pardon my French He won

an award for Batman? He won an Oscar for best

supporting actor for playing the Joker. Setting

a precedent so now everybody that plays the damn

Joker, except for Jared Leto, has won an Oscar

for him now. Jared Leto, of course, we're waiting,

will get an Oscar, of course, for Morbius, from

what I hear. He's let you get it posthumously.

I felt like that was a nice decision in the moment.

Yeah. If I'm ranking jokers, it's Hamill at the

top. And then Jack and Heath are kind of tied,

but Jack and Heath are so different in their

performances. And the Heath version for me, and

I've said this on other podcasts in the last

14, 15 years that I've been doing podcasts, but

First time I ever saw Heath Ledger was this Patrick

Verona in 10 things. I hate about you. So, you

know, take that, you know, take that character

and then have him be The first time I saw it

was in the Knight's Tale. Yeah, I mean, that's

what I was going to... You take him from 10 things,

you put him in armor in a Knight's Tale in 2001,

and then seven years later he's the Joker and

he is by far, even though Jack Nicholson's Joker

is amazing and it's awesome and it's very Batman

-ish, by that I mean it... relates to all the

comics that came before it. And it, you know,

it's that creepy kind of Joker vibe like the

comics had and whatever else. But after Hamill

and going to Ledger, like Ledger just put a whole

other spin on the, on the character and Mark

Hamill is the Luke Skywalker as the Joker people.

Like, you know, Mark Hamill got. What I, I don't

think any of them since, you know, him actually

realized he embraced it even more than Nicholson.

The only one who had before him was Cesar Romero.

Yeah. And I really know the most important thing

about the Joker is that he has to be funny. Because

that's the point and the reason that's confusing

to now is because the idea of a clown is So synonymous

with something scary. No that we don't we forget

that in 1939 the idea of a clown killing somebody

Yeah messed up But he has to be funny. His whole

idea is he thinks that Batman gets the joke And

if there isn't a joke Then you he's just a serial

killer and that's that's my issue with his letters

yeah he's a great character but he's just a serial

killer yeah. You know and i mean even some of

the older ones like before hamill some of the

ones that are in the seventies and stuff they

were good like. The ones where joker and the

penguin and whatever else in the old super friend

show they were really good. I mean, you know,

there have been a lot of great jokers, but Hamill,

man, he just, he just takes it home because of

the lines that they give him to say as the character.

May the, I mean, the man has been gone for a

long time, but Lenny Weinribb was the joker in

new adventures of Batman from 1977. Oh, okay.

I remember that was a good voice. The joker voice

that they do, that they do in Batman, Brave and

the Bold is, is a tribute to his. Mark Hamill

has the, Houston, we have a problem in one of

the episodes. And then there's always technical

difficulties. Let's move on. Shall we? I mean,

there's just so many of awesome. Well, did you

see the justice league action one where Mark

Hamill got to. I play every one of his characters.

Yes, I did see that. That was, yeah, including

himself. It was also Mark Hamill himself as well.

Is he? Yeah, that's the whole... Oh yeah. Oh

yeah. And Swamp thing saves them. No, this is

a good sign. If I don't remember things from

Justice League Action that you had said, that

means I can rewatch it. Absolutely. Because I

don't remember apparently, so I can rewatch it.

Yeah. And I want to take this time to finally

thank Twitter and congratulate Mark Hamill for

actually getting his name to be his actual because

he always had Hamill himself for the longest

time. Well, apparently Twitter finally was like,

okay, you can have a verified account that says

at Mark Hamill. So on Twitter now he is at Mark

Hamill, not at Hamill himself. Soon, it will

be Gail Simone. No, apparently it will never

be Gail Simone. We can hope. I don't understand

that at all. Is that why she isn't? Yeah. Yeah,

I don't get it. There's many people with far

less followers. Anyways. She's awesome. She is

the reason I hang out on Twitter still. She is

deeply awesome and a bear. Yep. No, she isn't.

She talked about it today. Oh, wait a minute.

Today is April Fool's. Uh huh. Yep. See? Yeah.

So all of these things we've been saying about

cartoons have been a lie. We actually mean the

opposite. April Fool's. We here at the GeekCast

Radio Network have never done any April Fool's

things. So we, yeah, it's, we've had ideas to

do them. And then we're just like, no, there's,

I mean. Besides, the only really great April

Fool's joke is, you know, Mr. T with, it's April,

fools! So, you know, it is what it is. What are

some other cartoon characters you like? Are there

any you hate? Hate is such a strong word. Oh,

yes, Angelica from Rugrats. There's another one

I forgot to mention. I really disliked her. Oh,

what's her name from? Spider -Man is an interesting

friend. Firestar. Oh, no. No, not Firestar. Nemesis.

The Nemesis. Betty Betsy, something like that.

Oh, crap. What's her name? Oh, anyways, not important.

It's my turn to answer the question. Well done.

You hate it, but she was one you hated. Yeah,

I don't remember her name, though, and I didn't

grow up watching that show. It was way before

I was born. Um, but Angelica on the Rugrats,

loved the Rugrats, really didn't like her. Captain

Planet. Uh, I wanted to go live in the Redwood

forest for a good long time when I was a kid.

I was a big environmentalist, um, as a young

child and Captain Planet was my jam. Um, I liked

Freakazoid. He was fun too. Freakazoid was cool.

I'm like looking at my bookshelf as if that's

gonna give me ideas It's not No First favorites

go I think Pikachu. Yeah, there's always you

can't I mean Pikachu is just kind of a given

and honestly Pikachu is not even my favorite

Pokemon He's just like the most popular one.

Yep, and the other most popular one. Thanks to

that kids WB ad is jigglypuff With Batman singing

the jiggly Oh, that was so creepy Jigglypuff

now still not my favorite Pokemon, but they're

also very adorable. Yeah. Yeah. What about you

John? I Don't know. I think I've mentioned just

in passing and tangents every characters that

are Yeah, there's a lot of other ones I like

oh there's and from Avatar Ang from Avatar I

love, and Sokka, I love the entire cast of Agri.

Secret Tunnel. Secret Tunnel. Love that show

so much. I don't know if I hate, do you mean

like, do I personally hate, or do I just like

love to hate? No, yeah, it's more like, okay,

I hope this doesn't happen, but like. I will

defend scrappy due to my dying breath. I will,

you know, I will kind of sort of say that wheelie

isn't that bad, but most people hate him. Gotcha.

Okay. I understand now. And I remembered snarf

can't can abide that guy. I just just know I'll

also I'll defend Orko. But I also understand

why he's a complete nut. Yeah, I like Uni. So

the Neelix character is what you're asking about.

Yeah, pretty much any character like that. It

was the obnoxious sidekick that somebody insisted

went in. I couldn't stand. The, and I realized

that the whole, anytime there was this character,

and I know this is because of institutionalized

sexism, but the horrible bitchy, sorry for use

of term. It's okay. Woman who hates the female

protagonist in all of the horrible woman ways.

It's like it's the stereotype terrible woman

who hates our stereotypical lovely. Female like

Angelica Jones in a firestar was born. I cannot

remember her name I can't either but I did remember

that I should have given a different answer for

favorite villain and that of course is team rocket

They're the best villains Jesse and faster than

the speed of light. Oh They're so to protect

the world from devastation. They're like the

best villains to love. Oh, I thought you were

gonna do it. Thank you And Meowth too, so you

can't forget him. Alright, did you ever or do

you own anything based on a cartoon? Toys, comics,

DVDs, coloring books, etc. Oh yeah, I have a

Pokemon coloring book. I keep it at work actually,

coloring it between calls sometimes. I'm looking

everywhere and seeing tons of it, so yes. We

have a battle cat, we have a castle gray skull.

Let's see. We have two battle cats. There's a

knitted Pokeball over there. Yeah, I've got my

little knitted Pokeball. Let's see, what else

do we have? Do we have any... Oh, well we do

have the Charlie Brown Christmas, which is the

best Christmas thing ever. It's my favorite.

So we have that on DVD. We must have some. What

do we have down here? I'm going to look. She's

going to look. Snoopy. Grinch stole Christmas.

I'm pulled down. That's not a cartoon. Do we

not? We've got some of the Marvel movies, but

those are an anime. We've got the Lion King because

you can't not have the Lion King. That's about

it for DVDs. We don't have a big DVD collection.

We have a number of tiny little Tiny Smurf figurines.

Oh, yeah. We have a Smurf ornament. I think we've

got some, I think we have some cartoon themed

Christmas ornaments. For sure. I've got Transformers

everywhere. Yeah, we do have a couple of Transformers,

Windblade and Starscream. I didn't grow up to

be the, I never was the geek who like became

a huge collector, but I just always either held

on to a couple of things or bought a few things

here and there and they're scattered about. Yeah.

Yeah. Absolutely. What is your favorite cartoon

theme song? Powerpuff Girls. Disney's Adventures

of the Gummy Bears. I mean, you can't go wrong

with that. Now you're going to get it stuck in

my head. My favorite cartoon theme song is probably

King of the Hill. What? Why? You don't like the

King of the Hill theme? I think it's a fun piece

of music, but I still like Powerpuff Girls better.

Or otherwise, the Futurama theme I really quite

like as well. It's got that bell sound in it,

and that just works for me, apparently, but I

do like the Futurama theme. The Simpsons? I'm

not a big Simpsons fan. I know, but the theme

sounds good. Yeah. I'm as old as the Simpsons.

Like, almost to the month. Stop it, Maggie. You're

making us feel an older because I was 10. He

was as old as Bart. If Bart would have aged in

real time. Yep, Bart would be 42 or 40 something,

whatever. Yeah, something like that. How big

or small is your animation DVD or digital collection?

Are there any series that you own the complete

set of? Well, see, that's the thing is because

of streaming, we don't really have to. So I did

just look through the one little thing of DVDs

that we own. It blows my mind. I used to have

so many DVDs and you just don't need them anymore.

But we do own... We probably will again. Yeah,

we probably will again. There are some like on

DVD that I'd want to collect. I do want to find

as told by Ginger because I think you can only

watch that if you get it on DVD. But we do have

all of the tick on Amazon Prime. We've got...

Yeah, what else did we we own a season of Batman

the animated series I feel. We must have some

others. We don't have much. Yeah, no, because

it's so easy to stream them and we've got Netflix

right now too. And that's a big source of some

of it is so between Hulu, Netflix and Disney

plus like an Amazon Prime, we're pretty well

covered. We've always lived had to live in small

apartments and so yeah. DVDs were one of the

first things to go in terms of decision. For

me, and again, this is more for you guys than

for the audience because they've heard me say

this a million times in 14 years. Back in 2010,

2011, I had this huge two or three different

black DVD storage things that were basically

filled to the brim with stuff. I would just go

over there and look at it and I'm like, I don't

know what I want to watch. And of course, now

we do that with streaming. We look at like, you

know, you make your my list on Netflix or whatever,

and you put all the stuff and it's like, I want

to watch that. I want to watch that. I don't

know what that is and whatever. Uh, since you

guys do have prime, I don't know what the quality

is, but I just searched for, as told by ginger

for Amazon prime, and they didn't have three

seasons of it on here. So yeah. Do you have to

buy it though? Do you have to buy it? I swear

it says, oh, it says zero with a paramount plus.

Let's see. I mean, maybe it's actually on paramount

plus itself. So maybe if you what I don't. I

don't know. I don't know. We are actually contractually

required due to the fact that our podcast plays

on Audible to not say anything bad about Amazon

on, well, on our podcast. Well, you're not on

your podcast, you're on my podcast and I have

no agreement with Amazon. I have nothing new

to say. Yeah, I mean, you know, it is what it

is. Which cartoon or cartoons had the biggest

impact on your life? I think I answered that

one. Batman, the animated series, Pokemon. I

had also put the wild thornberries in there.

That was a great... Tim Curry does a voice. Who

knew? I did because I just said it. But I loved

the idea always of being able to talk to animals.

That's why I wanted to be Jasmine from Aladdin

because she had a big tiger, even though the

tiger didn't talk. Shere Khan talked, but Jasmine

had a tiger who was her friend. But so The Wild

Thornberrys was great because Eliza Thornberry

got to talk to animals and I thought that was

the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Yeah, I think

those are probably top three. John? Beauty and

the Beast. Really? It's not in the theater. And

I was... you know, in my late teens and was going

and I remember going there to the movie and it

was supposed to be something else. And we thought

we were going to watch something else that would

have been more appropriate to what we would have

wanted to watch. And we were so mad that it was

Beauty and the Beast that we just went. So we

went there out of spite because we were going

to hate watch it. And I was absolutely blown

away by what. animation could now do at that

point. And so ever since then, I never, I try

to watch whatever Disney movies in the theater

I can. Awesome, awesome. Yeah, so I have to go

back up a few questions because I apparently

skipped one. Who are some of your favorite cartoon

voices and or voice actors? Well, Kevin Conroy,

for sure, and Billy West is a great one. Mark

Hamill, which we've talked about. I think I'll

stick with those three. Those are the first three

that came to my brain. We'll go with that. Oh,

we can't, but then there's also like Frank Welker

and yeah, I forgot about him. Besides the one

she said, Peter Cullen, Frank Welker, and the

classics, Mel Blanc. All of the Disney folks.

I'm trying to think. I always liked most of the

Disney voices, but half the time I never knew

who they were. Even when the internet started,

you know what I mean? And then we were able to

search for these things and find these things.

I mean, voice actors aren't exactly anonymous

anymore. They used to be 40 years ago. What is

the most money you spent on a cartoon item ever?

This would be a DVD set, a cell, a print, an

art piece or something like that. No, probably

collectively my Pokemon card collection, which

sadly was lost many years ago. Oh no. But I had

a pretty decent collection going of those. One

of my money was my mom's money, but you know,

it still counts. Probably that. I would think,

yeah. Yeah, probably my Pokemon card collection.

I don't... I mean, whatever the cost of the series

of Justice League action that you want there.

I really don't think a lot of money into it,

but when I was a kid, it was definitely that.

Yeah. I mean, the thing is with that question

is like most of the time it's like the 2002 2003

when DVD complete series sets started being this

big thing. Do you have a My Parents Wouldn't

Let Me Watch That Cartoon Story? Nope. No? Mm

-mm. Cool, cool. What is your opinion on cartoon

reboots, and which ones do you think have been

the most successful? She -Ra and the Princesses

of Power was great. They even did an episode

where they do an homage to the old She -Ra. Which

was really cool The My Little Pony friendship

is magic great. It's also a reboot Hasbro seems

to have this town. I didn't roll transformers.

I didn't much care for the attempt at rebooting

the Animaniacs I was with it for a minute and

then they lost me and I just kind of wandered

off and did other things and I didn't go back

to it So that reboot didn't work very well for

me I think that in terms of what I think about

reboots, I think they should be able to try whatever

they decide to try, but there's some that they

shouldn't decide to try. Do whatever you want,

but know what you're trying to do. The Animaniacs

is an example of this. The Animaniacs worked

because they managed to really grab the time

they were in. And when they came to now, they

were still trying to grab now in the way they

did it then, which you can't. The 90s had a very

specific vibe and zeitgeist that was due to a

whole bunch of things that were happening then

that just aren't happening anymore. And you're

not gonna be able to reclaim that just because

of the trappings in the way that you are the

80s. Yeah, so I think 80s properties are better

done, but the 90s Most of those the shows in

the 90s were frankly better So you you can't

like like if you tried to reboot king of the

hill right now. Well, you'd be ruined Unless

unless Mike judge was doing it with very specific

stuff involved, but right For success and failures.

I mean, I've liked every Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtle attempts that I've seen that's been good

stuff Transformers have been pretty good. Yeah,

I mean, I think it's good. If a property was

successful enough to last to interest now, they'll

probably be able to be successfully rebooted.

Yeah, absolutely. Which cartoon series from the

past would you most want to see more of, whether

it be a reboot, live action movie, or any other

form of media? Hmm Jim They tried that it didn't

work. Well, they should try it again They should

they should let different people try it again

and they should try it again Seriously Jim would

be great now. Mm -hmm. I agree Also mask See,

cause the thing is like, normally I would go

with Pokemon, but that's like just ongoing and

generations. It's never stopped. I mean, it's

massive thing. Yeah. I mean, it's again with

the nineties though. Sorry. Just to, just, just

to vibe with that. Most of the stuff from the

nineties were very much what they are. Like how

are you going to reboot? Hey Arnold. Yeah, yeah,

I'm trying to think I like I think I've mentioned

before like all real monsters coming back or

some of the weird ones like Rocco's modern life

would be interesting to see more of but the tick

Which does kind of stick around and it's good

It's had two live actions The Smurfs would actually

probably really benefit from a reboot Cause like

everybody, nobody like hates the Smurfs. Yeah.

For me, it's like, which cartoon would I like

to see more of now? I want the G1 animation style

back. That's what I want. Basically take, take

masters of the universe revelation, take that

style and apply it to transformers. I don't know.

We kind of talked about this a little bit earlier,

and maybe I should move this question up further

in the list, but what is your opinion of the

cartoon sidekick, Snarf, Orko, et cetera? Love

them, hate them, don't care either way. Yeah.

Yeah. No, not at all. Not at all. Do not understand

the need to put those in a cartoon. I mean, I

kind of get it. And like i've said this recently

i said this in the last episode with my last

guest. The thing about scrappy is that scrappy

is the complete opposite of scooby and shaggy

scrappy is trying to help them face their fears.

And scrappy for me in like eighty seven eighty

eight whatever you know. Helped me get over like

bullies and things like that because, you know,

you know, that's what the that's what he was

supposed to do. He was supposed to show you that

you can. You know, do think, you know what I

mean? The puppy power, like all that, like, you

know, it's supposed to uplift kids. It's not.

You know, the thing is that he was ill -advised.

I think it's the problem because he's a puppy.

He shouldn't be actually. Well, Snarf was an

old nursemaid that just caught on people. So

I mean, you know, I actually don't, I don't get

the scrappy hate just because my introductions

is no, I get it. I understand where it comes

from, especially if you watch the original and

then it was there and it was the poochy thing,

but. My first watches of Scooby -Doo were all

mixed up. So Scrappy was there sometimes and

it wasn't sometimes. Yeah. Yeah, that's the thing

with syndication back then is you never knew

if you're going to get Where Are You or Scooby

and Scrappy or Scooby -Doo and whatever kind

of thing. In your opinion, which decade represents

the golden era of cartoons and why? 50s, 60s,

70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s or 2010s? 2000s. Really?

Probably. Yeah, I would think so. Well, I'm kind

of torn. Golden age? No, still though, I like

the more modern style of stories. I mean, this

is a subjective question. I like the more modern

abilities that animation had, the different things

that they were able to do with it and how interesting

things that they could do with the animation

with the colors, the way they made things move.

And again, I just prefer a more, what am I trying

to think of? It's a word, not mature, not complex.

It's an adjective though, it's like those things.

A more... Balanced? Sophisticated. There you

go. Kind of storytelling. Yeah. And that's what

I kind of feel I grew up more with, not like

always, but... Like, I learned about the Macabees.

I learned about Passover from the Rugrats. A

Macababee's gotta be what a Macababee's gotta

be. What? Oh, I don't know. Anyways, that's my

answer. That's as good as an answer as I'm gonna

give. John? The 1990s were the era in which the

animation was able to move past It's earlier

roots for entirely there for children, and then

moved into an era of being able to just be what

it was. It wasn't just for kids and the parent

groups and the advertising nonsense was out,

and it was able to set the base for what has

come since. In this essay, I will... Well, you

did mention cartoons for children So some people

view cartoons as something for children quote

unquote and don't view animation as a serious

form of media that adults should consume Who

should cartoons be made for in your opinion?

Cartoons are for everybody. They've always been

for everybody You know and I think not just about

the TV shows but I think about the animated movies

that I've seen that I've really enjoyed too and

not just Disney, but there's some Like the Miyazaki

movies are beautiful and wonderful stories. And

they could be for literally anybody. And I think

that anything should be for everybody whenever

possible. Yeah. You know, the more the merrier

kind of a thing. Absolutely. Yeah, pretty much

that. Yep. Cartoon is envy for anyone. They're

mostly for kids. I mean, just the standard general.

Baseline is there for kids, but I think that

the best of them are written for the best of

them and there's all sorts written for all sorts

of people the best of them are written for kids

that adults can enjoy Unironically and not just

because they're watching with their kids, you

know Warner Brothers things like that Anybody

that watches him is gonna gonna love them kids

gonna love any cartoon therefore at his core,

you know for kids Absolutely Alright folks, I

keep saying every episode I do I'm gonna get

somebody to do a voiceover for this and I Don't

know. Maybe I'll have John teach me his his robot

trick. We are now entering the cartoon fantasy

land. So these next Four or five six questions.

They're all fictional. So they're not necessarily

real answers or otherwise If you could own any

vehicle featured in a cartoon, which one would

it be? Oh, wow. I mean, the Batmobile seems like

a really obvious choice. But pretty sure there's

some stuff in the updated DuckTales cartoon that

would be very cool to have myself. So like they've

got a submarine, they've got an airplane, I'll

take anything from DuckTales. I'm drawing a complete

blank. Really? I have ADHD and you've given me

any cartoon choice. The Sky Sled, the Wind Raider,

Rhino. Yes, which of those do you choose? I could

pick the kid that turns into a car. Alright,

let's see. I'm going to choose... Hot rod from

the Transformers Because it's a good gig He's

really fast and eventually he will leave the

Autobots and so I will be in a pretty good position

of power It is my car. Yes, you will be in a

prime position to be the best leader You can

at least better than like one that plays basketball

Anyway, you said a prime position. Yes a prime

position. That's right So once it becomes Rodimus.

If you could live in any cartoon world that you

wanted, where would you live? Oh, probably the

Avatar world. I want magic. I don't even care

which one. I just want I want to be any kind

of a bender. I mean post -war, we'll say post

-war. That wasn't so much fun. But yeah, the

Avatar world would be really cool. Dear God,

thinking about that, pretty much any of the shows

I like to watch would be horribly dangerous and

awful to live in. Or My Little Pony? Living in

Equestria? That would be great! That is my answer.

Equestria? Yeah! I will live in Equestria because...

We'll live in Equestria together! ...everything's

gonna be pretty damn keen and sparkly and whatnot,

and if any danger happens, the ponies are gonna

have that shit down. Yep, they got it handled.

Well, that's one hell of a discord. Alright.

Who would be your top three tune pals to join

you and become a quartet? Three cartoon characters.

Oh, hell. Can I just say the three Caballeros?

You'll be a barbershop court. That's funny. All

right. I will. I would like to hang with Alvin

from Alvin and the Chipmunks. You'd be very small.

Surely he only counts as half of one. No, he

counts as one. And damn. Three. Presto from Dungeons

and Dragons. Oh yeah. Good choice. And Firestar

from Spider -Man and his Amazing Friends. I can

see that. We would hang out as a force. There

you go. Occasionally we have to send the other

two off to look for clues. But of course we would

be. Oh boy. Well, this makes this next question

really awkward then. All right. You're not married.

Uh -huh. If you could date any cartoon character,

which one would it be? Can I include anime? Any

animation is animation. I know anime is a whole

specific genre, but cartoons are cartoons. Okay.

So I'm going to say Colonel Mustang from Full

Metal Alchemist. Cheating. How is that cheating?

How is that cheating? Yeah, he's not real and

I think he's hot. Fine. I have the same answer.

I was going to say, I thought your answer was

going to be jam actually. My answer is, um, uh,

this is Firestar from Spider -Man and his amazing

friends. You never get over your. Oh, yeah. You

know what? I'm going to, I'm going to call an

audible and say made Marion and work that out

from Robin Hood and figure that shit out. I also

had a crush on, on Robin Hood, the Fox version,

because how could you not? She's charming and

adorable. Of course you have a crush on her.

My oldest daughter's a furry. She'd be so proud.

I mean, you know. Yeah, I mean, it's just like...

Robin Hood, the Disney version, is just like

Errol Flynn magically appearing in a Bugs Bunny

cartoon. Never fear Robin Hood will soon be here.

Well, where is he? Where the heck is he? You've

been saying this through the whole damn picture.

Where is he? He's over there. Oh Robin Hood Daffy.

Oh, don't get me started. We'll be here all night

with Daffy. Between Robin Hood Daffy and Duckamuck.

Oh my God. Ah, what is the holy grail of cartoon

artifacts, the Sword of Omens, the Matrix of

Leadership, the Power Sword from He -Man? Wow.

A Pokeball. Of course. When I was a little kid,

I had a little notebook that had black paper

in it because I had gel pens, that's right, because

it was the 2000s, and I wrote out like little

formulas for how I thought you could make Pokemon

like with scientific experiments. Really? Hey,

man, if I could chuck a ball and catch an animal

that's going to fight for me, and it stays apparently

fully fed, it's pretty happy in there. Having

my own little Pokeball would be cool as hell.

It does seem a really convenient little kid power

fantasy, doesn't it? Yeah. What was the question?

Seriously, what is the holy grail of cartoon

artifacts? Oh, well, can of Popeye's spinach.

Oh, yeah, that's a good one. I am sensing a pattern

in this. I would save it for just the right moment

and then watch out world. I am sensing a pattern

throughout this entire almost two hour episode

that I did not even see any of this coming. I'm

pretty sure anybody who is a listener to our

things, if you would have asked, which is John's

favorite cartoon character he's going to bring

up, none of them would have guessed by now. That's

what I get for never talking about myself. Well,

you should talk about yourself and talk to yourself

more often. There you go. More often than I do

already? I wasn't talking to you. Next question.

Yes, we are now leaving the cartoon fantasy land,

so we're back to real questions now, folks. Finally,

what is one piece of advice that you'd give the

cartoon fandom in general? That's always the

same. Uh, cartoon fandom. You know, yeah, my

answer, I think, is the same, lighten up. Because

like we said before, or like I had said before,

cartoons are pretty much for everybody, and I

think that they should be. I think if you're

the kind of person that gets upset about cartoons

because they don't fit a certain box that you

have in your head, that's a you problem. Don't

ever be afraid to go back and revisit those cartoons

that you watched when you were a kid that made

you feel good about stuff because it might still

make you feel good about stuff when you're having

a bad day. It's not a cartoon, but one of the

things I always go back to when I'm having a

bad day is Frasier. Which is funny, but it's

one of my favorite TV shows and there's a couple

episodes that I know specifically will cheer

me up or like a certain song. Cartoons do the

same thing and they're fun and they're silly

and oftentimes they're funny and they're serious

ones if you feel like being emotional. Like Neon

Genesis Evangelion, good lord. But yeah, yeah.

So lighten up, enjoy it, quit. Post some opinions

on the internet. I will tag that on and add the

fact that, yes, anyone can watch cartoons, but

the only ones that are allowed to act like children

when they're watching cartoons or talking about

cartoons are children. If you are 40, and a lot

of you on the internet are, you really need to

stop and think about the fact that you're this

concerned about a toy. Or the depiction of a

toy. It's not so accurate. Oh my God. It's the

end of the world. You're 43. Not yet. Soon, but

not yet. I was yelling at my past self. I was

a big jerk at 43. Well, I mean, at 42, you're

the answer to everything, but that only lasts

for a year. I'm so excited for that. I'm looking

forward to it. It was a good year. All right,

folks, that's going to do it for us. Would you

like to be on the Origins episodes here at Tooncast?

Send an email to feedback at dcastradio .com

with the subject line, Tooncast Origins guest

spot. You must have at least one year or more

of podcast experience, have a good microphone,

and... be able to take a Zencast or link on an

actual computer. We will take a quick break and

come back to close the show after this. Hello

all sentient beings. Want the latest on everything

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all are welcome. Triple Takeover Toycast. You

are receiving this transmission from the Rod

Pod. Upload pending. Standby for soundtrack transfer.

I am Maggie. And I am John. And we are trapped,

hurtling through space in a ship shaped like

Rodimus' head. The ship, for reasons we haven't

been able to determine, contains the entire run

of the IDW Transformers Phase 2 comic. which

chronicle the events following the end of the

war between the Autobots and Decepticons. So

we figure we may as well read them all in order

and report our findings to you. Stand by. Stand

by. Upload complete. Now. the Rod Pod. Look for

us at marriedwcomics .libson .com, at iTunes,

at Stitcher, or wherever good podcasts can be

found. So, uh, tell all or one. Tell all or one.

This is getting expensive. Hi, Maggie. What are

you writing? Oh, hi, John. I'm writing down ideas

for a new promo for Married with Comics. I like

our old promo. But the clips from the old promo

are from an episode that's never even aired.

It's lazy podcasting. But we're incredibly lazy

podcasters. And the only thing you've written

down are the words, come up with ideas for the

new promo. Well, I guess we'll just have to fall

back on plan B, then. Uh, B for blackmail professional

podcast guest Tim Price into doing a Mephisto

bit? Exactly. Greetings, internerds. It is I,

Mephisto, ruler of the netherworld. and prince

of all evil. I am taking this time for my evil

machinations to issue a warning to everyone in

Podcastland. Avoid married with comics with John

and Maggie at all costs. They're a despicably

lovable pair of newlyweds who talk about comic

books and other areas of geekdom with enthusiasm

and joy that is anathema to me. Just listen to

them as they paraphrase panels. For those who

don't have the issue, Thor's expression is pretty

much that of anyone who reads this issue once

you're done with it. You, you there, everyone's

sick of this and sick of you. I am warning where

you need to go, which is away from here and away

from this issue. And I do love that first panel.

It's pretty neat. I like it. Batman going swoosh.

Explain exposition. I have no idea what's happening.

In this one, it looks like Superman's tearing

a bridge down. Why is he destroying a bridge?

I think this is part of his eventual reign of

terror. Oh, maybe. And another thing! The bridge!

Screw that! And comment on all their favorite

comics. Everything about this issue is just gollywhackers.

He's causing huge amounts of property damage,

which by the way, at least when the Fantastic

Four does it, they pay the city back. Superman's

not gonna pay anybody back for this. Married

with Comics. Available directly at marriedwcomics

.libson .com on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Podbean,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Or find us

on Facebook or Twitter by searching for Married

with Comics Podcast. We've got everything you

need. Any minute now, Brainiac will explode.

And guess what? You're going with him. No, Darkseid.

To get off this rock, you'll have to go through

me. You really are a glutton for punishment.

Time and again I've beaten you, humbled you.

What makes you think today's outcome will be

any different? Because this time, I won't stop

until you're just... Greasy smear on my fist.

All right, Toonsters, we are back. John or Maggie,

do you have any final words before I run through

the closing? Thanks for having us back. It was

a good time. I like talking about cartoons. They're

one of my favorite things and it's just kind

of fun to go down, you know, memory road and

think about the cartoons that meant a lot to

me when I was a kid. And it was a good time.

Absolutely, John. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for having

us talking about cartoons and death and getting

blindsided by questions and realizing how much

I love Popeye were all things I wanted to do

today. Yeah, I feel like certain outtakes folks

are gonna be at the beginning of this show and

it's gonna be Snarf saying something and then

John just yelling, no, no, no, no, no. Yes, she

slipped through that because I am so bored. As

always, we want to thank you for joining us here

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You can also look for Tooncast and all Toons

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enjoyed this episode of Tooncast and wish you'll

join us next time when we will be giving you

our thoughts on something. It's the 250th episode,

folks. I don't know what the heck I'm doing yet.

For now, I am TF2 and Mike with John and Maggie

Schaefer -Hames. John and Maggie Schaefer -Hames.

The most professional duo in the world. and the

dog makes a trio. Thank you for listening, until

next time, oh yeah, and unleash the tune in you.

Beyond good, beyond evil, beyond your wildest

imagination.