Curse of Solomon’s Gorge and Green Nightmare Review

you Ladies and gentlemen and welcome to episode

16 of mass mayhem. What's this two episodes in

a row? Really? Yes, we are back. I am your host

THJ one again. Joining me is tune master Tim.

Hello Hello How are you? I'm doing well. Thanks

again for having me on the episodes you know

now that Kevin has departed the show and I'm

having a good time and and Kevin did a fantastic

job. I just want to say that he did a good job.

I always liked the dynamic between you and Kevin.

For those listeners who don't know, I started

listening to GCRN with Tooncast. The first episode

I listened to was the real Ghostbusters episode

because that's my favorite cartoon and I had

heard about the podcast. on the internet so I

tracked it down and I just became an avid listener

ever since went back listen to all the tune cast

episodes and they've just hung on listening to

other shows but you know even with tune cast

that's when you and Kevin were doing shows together

and I just think you guys had a great dynamic

and I know you guys been by podcasting for a

long time so hopefully people be patient while

while you and I work out the chemistry here I

think it's worked out so far. We survived one

episode. We got 14 left. And I honestly, when

I say that, ladies and gentlemen, it's not because

I mean we survived recording with each other.

I mean we survived the content we're covering.

Because mask is such a... You know, everyone

always says, oh, stop putting your rose -colored

glasses on. You know, blah, blah, blah. No, I

have... The rose colored glasses for me and mask

like I've said last time are pretty much the

theme song and that opening You know assembling

of the team after that This is not this show

does not hold up 30 years. Oh my god. Next year

is the 30th anniversary and Oh my god, I'm so

old Well, we could always just be recording this

podcast and then just delay it another year,

so we'll have a three -year hiatus, and just

release it in 2050. No, folks, we are not doing

that. Yeah, and I hate to be so hard on the show,

but you're right. It's very difficult to watch,

but if you know the theme song and you've seen

the... The the transfer like the transformation

the hell the helmet is coming on to the mask

members and that sort of stuff And you've seen

Rhino transforming those things you've seen the

best parts of this cartoon you really have And

if you enjoyed the if you have the toys or have

seen the toys You know, that's that's another

cool thing about the show So, you know the cool

thing that came out of this show, but the show

itself. Yeah, it's it's better pill. Definitely

There are three things that are amazing about

this franchise, this property. The theme song,

the opening intro with the assembling of the

team, and the toys. I will never say a bad word

about the mask toys because they were so very

cool. It's just the plots are so bad in this

show. The sad thing is the storytelling in GEM

is so much better than this. Right, and see,

that's the difference between, you know, this

show and some of the other 80s animated shows.

I mean, people will say, okay, yeah, Transformers,

G .I. Joe, Jim, all these shows were just made

to sell toys. But if you really, if you look

at the behind -the -scenes stuff on some of the

DVD sets or you read some of the articles that

have come out, the writing teams... They didn't

go into it with that mentality. They didn't go

into it thinking, oh, well, I'm just selling

toys. I'm just going to write just thin plots.

And I don't really care. I'm just going to pick

up a paycheck. No, they really did put their

writing skills to work for the show. They came

up with series bibles. They came up with strong

characters. And they made it entertaining. It

wasn't just a cookie -cutter show where every

day or every week it's the same old tired plot.

And that's why those shows are so endearing and

hold up. Whereas Mask is, honestly, it's been

largely forgotten. I mean, people, you know,

have rediscovered it. But people don't have that

same fondness and love for it that they do for

the other shows because there isn't that mythology.

There isn't the strong character development

in the show that those other toy shows had in

that era. Yeah, there was an article, a few.

months ago that one I'm trying to find it now

here it is it was on Wired .com back in April

of this year an adult watches classic gem for

the first time and it's the article is is all

about this this female's reaction to what Jim

was. And it's, you know, I don't want to just

keep harping on Jim, but it's like, you know,

it's one of those things where in comparing Jim

to Mask, but it's one of those things where if

Jim can hold up 30 years later and Mask can't,

there's something wrong with what they did with

this cartoon with Mask. Yeah, and it had so much

potential because, you know, as you said before

and we talked about this before too, is that

it was that sort of meshing of G .I. John Transformers

together where you have the characters and you

have the vehicles and the vehicles transformed

so they can be two things. But they just, they

missed the mark. And, you know, you talk about

toy shows. I mean, besides the ones we mentioned,

another show that was largely designed to sell

toys was Jason the Wheeled Warriors. And I knew

of that one growing up again like mask But I

didn't get to watch it because it wasn't on a

station that we were able to pick up in my area

But I recently rediscovered that show and I think

that's an excellent show. It's a great sci -fi

series. It's very well written You know J. Michael

Straczynski was the head writer on that show

and he came up with You know some fabulous ideas

to make it work make an entertaining show rather

than just 65 episodes that were just there to

try to sell toys. Yeah, exactly. So we are going

to take a quick break. We're going to come back

with the first of two episodes today. Solomon's

Gorge. We're going to enter that after this.

I wouldn't have this, FLU, if you'd just done

what you were supposed to. You can't get the

flu. You're a robot. FLU. Flu. Faulty linkage

unit. When that goes, everything goes. there

t -bob we probably wouldn't even be able to find

at least they won't need any more service checkups

anybody got some tissues what's the matter got

a runny nose leaky batteries blowing unit on

I can see why the workers won't return superstitious

the lot of them They kept yelling about Saluma.

Saluma? That's the name of this gorge, isn't

it? Indeed. And it's the name of the ancient

god who said to dwell in these cliffs. It's all

superstitious rubbish, really. Yes, it is. I'm

sure you have ideas about what happened. There

were no strong winds, no seismic activity. We

checked. Only one thing. The water level in the

river and the well by the camp dropped abruptly

just before it all happened. First up this week

is the Curse of Solomon's Gorge. Mask goes to

Africa to stop Venom who has discovered King

Solomon's treasures, dun dun dun. Who's on the

team this time around? Well, of course we got

Matt. Scott and T Bob because they join us pretty

much every episode But we're also joined by Alex

and then later we bring in Gloria and Brad to

help us out with this adventure and On the venom

side we have miles racks dagger and Vanessa So

the core regulars The plot Another treasure hunt

And can we please get some stories stateside,

please? I'm getting sick of all these foreign

stories. It just, ugh. Well, that doesn't bother

me. But yeah, I wouldn't mind if they did some

more in the U .S. or, you know, some in North

America or, you know, just places that we're

maybe not as familiar with. I mean, besides going

to Paris or... Africa or you know some places.

I mean, you know There's still a lot they can

do there But yeah, it would be nice to see a

few more adventures in the US and see like I

think they did go to New York May there I think

they yeah, they did there and we spell the Statue

of Liberty I think we may have seen Mount Rushmore

in an episode Mm -hmm, but yeah, it would be

be nice to see more of that maybe in future episodes

Maybe maybe what did you think of the plot for

this one? As you said, this is another treasure

hunt so I Think it's just another sort of recycled

plot Not much different what we've seen before

it was again sort of leading off with the mystery

where The cars get crushed very oddly against

the wall. I mean, they're not just smashed They're

right crushed against this wall So you're like

how in the world did that happen? But yeah, it's

it's it's not a really good it's not a very good

plot Not really at all so The only high beam

I had was T Bob wants to be a toaster Because

he said that multiple times Throughout the series.

Did you have any high beams? I like that we actually

get to see Matt and miles fight briefly. I mean

it is brief though Yeah, but they have their

their masks on and they're actually, you know

shooting beams each other and fighting But it

ends very abruptly because Matt sees Scott and

T Bob. So Matt just like runs over there while

miles is basically using his helmet beam to melt

away some rock or something, or maybe it's the

Sphinx or something that was... Yeah, he's trying

to destroy the Sphinx. Yeah, and sends it, you

know, crashing down. But it just seemed odd that

here's this great fight starting to occur, and

then Matt just exits, just leaves the distance

over to Scott and T -Bob. What's going on with

that? He just runs away. I don't know what was

going on with that, but... Guess he ran over

there to save them from the falling Sphinx or

something. I I don't know. Yeah Well at that

time it wasn't even falling miles was just using

his beams against it Maybe he saw Matt running

away to Scott and T Bob and then decided he would

just Destroy that and try to crush them. It was

kind of hard to tell It was very quick it was

very sudden that Matt just ran off Yeah, it was

it was a little too sudden it's kind of like

he has some sort of secret to keep or something

All right, we are gonna head the low beams after

this The map led us to this control unit so I

know the rest of it must be here somewhere Well,

I'm not going down in that hole again I already

broke one brake cable. There's nothing down there

anyway except rocks, water, mold, and vermin.

Perfect diet for you rats. It looked like a kid

in a walking trash can to me. You idiot! Ow!

It sounds like an earthquake. So for low beams,

what do you got? Have a lot actually go through

all of them, but T Bob sneezing. I mean come

on Yeah batteries is his excuse. Yeah that yeah,

this got me They kept mentioning that the water

levels were fluctuating, but it took them a long

time to get to the point of why they were doing

that We later find out that it was basically

one of the ways that that they used to get the

the rocks to slide inside the gorge, which is

what caused the cars to get crushed up against

the side of the cavern wall or the wall of the

gorge. So I didn't like that. It shouldn't take

so long for them to reveal some of these things,

in my opinion. And then Matt knows what sort

of brake lines are used by Venom. That's how

he discovers that Venom is behind this he picks

up the brake line. He goes. Oh, this is the same

brand of brake lines used by venom What? Does

he know and what what special brand of brake

line is this that makes no sense? No, that makes

absolutely no sense Scott is really a mean ass

to T -Bob more than usual in this episode. Now,

don't get me wrong, ladies and gentlemen, I am

not sympathetic to T -Bob at all, but there are

some times where Scott is worse than he is, and

Scott was being really cruel this time around.

As I said before, I'll say it again, I'm getting

really sick of these generic treasure hunting

capers that always fail. Every single time Venom

tries one of these things, they lose. Yeah, you

mentioned Scott and T Bob. Did you mention or

did you notice that T Bob has a rocket booster

up his butt? That's what actually saves him from

getting crushed in the gorge Because we go into

a commercial break and T Bob, you know, he's

been sneezing and Basically acting like he's

sick and he gets caught inside the gorge It was

like he's gonna get crushed then we come back

a little break and all of a sudden he like Jettison's

this this rocket booster out his butt from where

usually the wheel pops out and then he shoots

out of the canyon preventing him from getting

crushed Such poor execution and the PSA was turn

off all appliances. What does that have to do

with treasure hunting? Right. You could have

done a PSA like, you know, don't go wandering

off into, you know, dark caverns without an adult

supervision, you know, something like that. Don't

go exploring or don't go running off without

even telling anybody. You could have done something

like turn off all appliances. Really? PSA's for

this show suck. A couple other things. We move

on is, you know, Gloria's brought into the episode,

but I kept thinking we haven't seen her and then

she shows up Just at the very end to rescue Matt

because Matt is in the water and his mask won't

work So then I'm like, okay. Well, she's gonna

obviously, you know come in to save him here.

That's what she was brought in for You know,

I really wish and I don't remember if I ever

saw this or I ever said this on the show before

I really wish Matt and Gloria and and Vanessa

and racks were just double date already Yeah

Something else that was weird. I don't know if

you caught this in the animation or not, but

Matt and Alex are flying around and Thunder Hawk

and Since it's flying around obviously the doors

were open Because those are its wings. Yeah,

and it lands and the doors come down Immediately,

but then they want to get out So the doors go

back up immediately in the same shot So it seemed

weird to me that the animators would even bother

to drop the doors down Yeah, that is very weird

I I don't know I can't explain what any of these

people will production wise we're doing on this

show So all right, we're gonna move on to the

last episode of the day For years we've been

trying to duplicate it. What for? Because of

a promise your grandfather made many years ago.

This is the journal my father kept describing

his encounter with the New Guinea mudmen. Mudmen?

What are they? Yeah, give us a dirt. Here's a

photo of some mudmen with your grandfather. Wow,

those masks sure are ugly. Yeah. Finally up today

is the Green Nightmare, or as it says on here,

Green Nightmare. This is episode 39, aired November

21st, 1985. Venom agent Vanessa Warfield sabotages

Matt Tracker's private jet which crashes in the

jungles of New Guinea. Rest of the mass team

then goes to rescue them yay a rescue mission

at least it's not a damn treasure hunt I I don't

know I will say that you know yay, we we have

You know the the power source of what powers

the masks we finally it only took them 30 something

episodes to explain that So I do like that as

far as the overall plot. I thought the plot was

fairly decent. It's just some of the moments

that happen in here is what I don't like. It's

just technical things. It's not like I have nothing

wrong with the plot I don't have anything any

of my low beams have nothing to do with the actual

plot it's more so technical things that they

do with the characters and or Certain things

characters say I really do enjoy the The plot

of this episode we get it we see an origin for

Matt and his and Matt's father Scott's grandfather

So I do like that as far as the plot goes. What

about you, right? I like this one too. I thought

it was a decent plot because we do get that backstory

of Matt's father and we have the gem and it's

more of a rescue mission and Matt trying to get

to this trisman so that he can give the gem back

and all this time after his plane crashes the

mud men don't realize who he is so they're chasing

him and Benham is involved in chasing down Matt

as well so I thought I thought it was a pretty

decent plot. I mean not great, but I think it's

better than your average plot for the show And

there was not action and adventure in in there

to make it interesting Absolutely, although I

did get very violent at one point Did you catch

that the custom agent that runs into Sly Rax.

He runs in to tell Sly Rax that Matt is there

with this gem, and Sly basically just takes the

guy and throws him against the wall very violently.

It's like, wow, that was quite violent for this

show. Yeah, that was. That was like, you know,

something Tom Cruise should be doing as secret

agent Ethan Hunt or something in the Mission

Impossible movies. Yep. Alright, let's turn the

high beams on after this. So, four high beams.

I think this is as many high beams as I've had

so far. I honestly don't remember. Let's see

here. Vanessa and Rax should date. I already

mentioned that, that Vanessa and Rax and Matt

and Gloria should double date. I really did like

their little tit for tat argument with each other

here. They do really sound in this episode like

they are an old married couple. Yeah, that was

good. We already gave it the office. I really,

it's very off, not very often that this show

can make me LOL, but I legit LOL'd at that T

-Bob line. Outside of learning about, you know,

Tracker's past and the mask and the gym and all

that stuff, I just found that this one was just,

it wasn't awesome, but it wasn't bad either.

Yeah. It really wasn't bad there were some interesting

things going on here You know how the plane was

brought down Because at first it looked like

Scott and T Bob they were actually going to pull

some cables so that Mack and put the jet back

into manual mode and land it safely But then

this darn bug that kept crawling all over T Bob

and inside of him Causes T Bob to dance around

me like causes the plane to crash And that bug

kept showing up all throughout the episode. So

that was somewhat of annoying so that'll be in

my low beams, but I thought they did some interesting

things and then when the plane comes down and

when it's crashed and they're inside of it the

mud men Basically, it just attacked the jet and

push it over the cliff Yeah, that was a little

Violent. Yeah, this has moments in it. I mean

for this show, I'm not saying it's it's On par

with some other other cartoons or shows, but

for this show it was pretty violent Yeah Yeah,

I mean Overall, I enjoyed this one, but there

are some glaring glaring mistakes That they make

in this show In this episode, so I think we're

gonna turn on the low beams after this He falls

asleep and I wind up with a nightmare All right,

ladies and gentlemen low beams for What's this

episode called green nightmare? There you go.

Um We're gonna explore a real jungle Like they

haven't before in nearly Every episode before

this right they've Scott's never been to a real

jungle. Come on now A real bug in T -Bob's system.

I kind of like I Cringed at that, but I did think

it was funny It was funny. I did too. I was like

oh boy But it kept happening and it it actually

did provide some humorous moments The title makes

no sense to the episode whatsoever Yeah, I had

thought about that, but yeah, it really doesn't

Green nightmare. There's nothing that's green

or nightmarish in this episode whatsoever I could

see if the gem was green instead of blue. Maybe

you could say that would be the green nightmare,

but There was nothing in this episode that had

anything to do about being the color green or

a nightmare The only thing I could think of that

they would tie that to is that they're being

chased in the jungle The jungle is green and

it's a nightmare for the team to be chased Yeah,

I'd give you that. Or for masks to be chased

by Venom and the Mudman. Yeah, I'll give you

that. What do you have for Low Beams? I didn't

actually write anything down for this episode

for Low Beams. Really? Yeah, I just kind of sat

back and enjoyed this one. It was good to see

Rhino again. There's some humorous moments, you

know fairly decent plot. I just sat back and

enjoyed it and nothing really bugged me that

much I've really thought that bug crawling in

and out T Bob was going to to be annoying at

some point, but I was fine with it Yeah, I mean

like I said before this episode it's It's a middle

-of -the -road kind of episode. It's it's not

like oh my god earth -shattering awesome, but

it's not cringe -worthy There are a couple of

them like Scott's line about the jungle that

was cringe -worthy But I don't think I'm gonna

take too much off for this one just because I

didn't you know I found it to be somewhat enjoyable

After all so uh... for me on this one i mean

you three masks out of five what about you uh...

same here three masks all right we're going to

take a quick break you're going to hear some

gcr and partner and you're going to hear some

regular gcr and ads and some other stuff we'll

be back with final thoughts after this now back

to man And I have a secret place to keep it.

Starting your own treasure trove, eh? We've got

to remember to turn off all appliances when we

leave the house. We're lucky. Yeah, your dad

doesn't know. No, what if this were an oven or

a hot iron? Any of those could easily start a

dangerous fire. You know what that means. Yeah,

we could have been crispy critter. Yes, that's

right. We have traveled to Eternia to enter Castle

Grayskull. Join Optimus Solo and TFJ and Mike

as they find themselves telling tales of Eternia.

We cover all things He -Man in this 45 episode

long podcast. You can find us on iTunes and www

.geekassradio .com. By the power of Grayskull,

we all have the power. Hey T -Bob! Look at those

neat strawberries! I think what we're all goes

trying to say is those berries are poisonous

Maybe but they can give you a pretty good stomach

ache or worse So we forgot to mention the PSA

for the green nightmare or green nightmare it

was um poison berries are bad I can see if, now,

wasn't this T -Bob going after the berries? It

wasn't Scott, right? Uh, you know, I don't remember.

I didn't write it down. I seem to think, and

listeners, you can correct me if I'm wrong, I

seem to think it was T -Bob going after the berries

and not Scott. If it was T -Bob, I have a huge

problem with this PSA because of the fact that

robots don't eat human food. If it was Scott,

you know, that's fine because obviously T -Bob

or Matt stops him from doing it and then the

chief comes back for the PSA and explains. It's

like, would you be okay if it were T -Bob picking

these poison berries and then giving them to

Scott to eat? No. No, no, no, no. no what i i'm

not okay with t bob doing anything with human

food whether it's edible or not uh... no what

i'm saying is is that it would be okay if it

was it would be okay if it was scott going for

the berries and t bob telling him not you know

warning him that would be okay but if it was

scott warning t bob not to do it that just makes

no damn sense Because he's a friggin robot right

What are your impressions of the series so far

Well, it's it's a bitter pill it has some moments.

Yeah, it has some moments But there there's so

much bad dialogue and lulls in the action and

mysteries For us, the audience, not necessarily

mysteries in the plot, but mysteries for us,

the audience, wondering how things are going

to tie together, but not in a good way. It's

not often where you're like, oh, I really wonder

where this is going. I'm really curious about

this. You're just going, well, why would they

even mention this? Why is this important? There's

some frustration there watching the series. It's

not the action -packed show that you would expect

it to be. Not at all. All the cool vehicles and

masks and everything. It just doesn't reach to

its potential, unfortunately. This is a series

that I think they could redo. They probably won't.

But it's a concept that could be redone and made

better. Yeah. Absolutely. With all the technology

we have nowadays, they could pull off a mask

movie at least. i mean if we're getting a new

power rangers movie if we're getting crappy bay

you know bay michael bay former movies i mean

somebody can pull off a decent mask movie i mean

if if two thousand eight night rider is uh...

short -lived tv shows any indication they can

pull off transforming vehicles you know just

inject nanobots into them uh... yeah I definitely

so I mean the technology is there they could

do it. It would look visually it would be Great

because you have the mask you have the vehicles

that I'm sure it would look good even if they

did a CGI cartoon I think it would be great.

I mean even with You know going back to transformers

age of extinction now that I've seen it even

with You know, all she got to do is take the

optimus prime truck from that the one the new

one he turns into with the the nose comb cab

uh... even if you took that repainted rhino colors

there you go there's rhino right there uh...

you know yeah exactly uh... so yeah mask movie

ladies and gentlemen one more thing that uh...

people from the eighties really want to see happen

So thank you for joining us here on Mass Mayhem.

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enjoyed this episode of Mazz May and wish you

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three more episodes from M .A .S .K. Season 1,

those being Eyes of the Skull, Stop Motion, and

the Artemis Enigma. Oh boy. It's gonna be fun.

Join us. Yeah. For now, I am TF2 and Mike with...

Toon Master Tim. Podcasting is the ultimate weapon.

We will catch you next time. Illusion is the

ultimate weapon.