Salute Your Shorts

You're listening to the Geekcast Radio Network

of Podcasts. It's time for the Telecast, brought

to you by the Geekcast Radio Network. And here

is your host for the show, Optimus Solo. Thank

you again, creepy intro people. As they said,

I am your host, Kevin Optimus Solo Thompson,

and I would like to say hello and welcome to

the very first episode of The Telecast, brought

to you by the Geekcast Radio Network. My co -host

for this episode is the co -founder of the Geekcast

Radio Network. You can most often hear him on

the Beast Unleashed and MWire podcast these days.

He is the man, the myth, and the legend, Steve

Megatron Phillips. Hello, Steve. Hello. And today

we're going to be talking about... I hope we

want to part. It's I hope we never part. Now

get it right or pay the price. Camp Oniwana,

we hold you in our hearts. And when we think

about you, this thing came apart. That's right,

folks. We are talking about Salute Your Shorts.

But before we get too far into our discussion,

just in case your memory banks are a little bit...

foggy on salute your shorts here's a little background

information on the show salute your shorts debuted

june 1st 1991 on nickelodeon it ran for two seasons

until june 29th 1992 and it aired a total of

26 episodes salute your shorts was a comedy drama

that is set at the summer camp camp animal It

focused on the lives of the teenage campers there,

and their strict but somewhat dumb camp counselor.

It usually provided a comedic look at both their

problems at camp and their problems with each

other. So what do you remember about Salute Your

Shorts from your childhood, Steve? I remember

I liked the antics that went on. And I always

remembered, before watching it again on YouTube,

There was something about the camp counselor

that was always hilarious and the dynamic he

had with the lead troublemaker, which I had to

find out his name again by watching it. But yeah,

that's pretty much what I liked about the show

was just there was a lot of pranks going on.

I mean, at the same time, it taught you lessons,

but it also there was just a lot of things to

laugh at. Right, and I think if you're at the

right age when you're watching it, that perfectly

plays to the types of stuff, especially maybe

more for the guys than the girls. But you hit

that pre -teen slash teenager, junior high years,

and you like seeing other people pulling pranks

and being the bad guys. That just kind of plays

into your character at that age. Oh, yeah. I

don't know about you. I wouldn't have been able

to name the characters just based off my memory

banks. I wouldn't have been able to name any

of them, I don't think, until I rewatched it.

But I was able to remember what they looked like

and kind of their characteristics. Yeah, I was

pretty much in the same boat with that. I didn't

remember any of the names, but it's been so long

since I saw it. It just kind of faded away. I

just remembered pretty much faces and what they

were famous for in the show. Right. And for me,

I'm assuming this is the same for you. I had

never watched an episode of this since I watched

it as a kid until I watched it this week. Yeah,

pretty much. Same thing. Yeah. So this is definitely

a little trip down memory lane just watching

these episodes this week, trying to prepare for

this record. So I think we might as well get

into the who's who of your shorts and talk about

some of these characters that we just mentioned.

Obviously, you have Kevin Ugg Lee, who is the

counselor played by Kirk Bailey. What did you

like or dislike about Ugg? He had kind of that,

I don't know, he was funny because he kind of

had that Christopher Lloyd -ish type thing from

Camp Nowhere. Yeah, to me it was like Christopher

Lloyd mixed with Mr. Belding from Saved by the

Bell. Yeah, it was pretty funny to watch him

just because he knew stuff was going on, yet

was always the butt of all the jokes. Right.

I think they had a good – you know, I'm not familiar

with Kirk Bailey that much. We'll get into him

a little bit later. But I think they picked a

pretty good guy to do it because he looks young

enough to be kind of like the camp counselor

but not so old that he couldn't be kind of like

on the same level as the kids at points. Oh,

yeah. And, you know, I think that worked well.

And then you had the we'll get into the female

campers first. The female campers, you had Zizi

Ziff, which was who was played by Megan Berwick.

She's the the nature lover, kind of the more

artistic vegetarian type character. Then you

had Telly Radford, played by Venus de Milo, who

is the African -American female athlete of the

group. And then the third girl was Dina Alexander,

played by Heidi Lucas, who was the girl that

was kind of the materialistic one, obsessed with

her looks and also came from a rich background.

What did you think of the girl campers? Well,

the rich girl I always thought was hilarious

because she's sitting here talking about things

that don't really matter at camp. Right. And

everybody's just kind of rolling their eyes and

she thinks she's... God's gift to the world.

I remember one episode I watched this week where

she was trying to persuade ZZ to get her vote

for becoming the chief of the bunk or something

like that. She's offering her all these clothes

and they show her closet and she's saying all

these clothes are imported from France or whatever.

The funny thing was she was always just wearing

a t -shirt or a sweatshirt. I don't know. She

didn't look like she was that fashionable, even

though that's what her character was. Yeah, that

kind of contradicted the character a little bit.

Yeah. What did you think about Telly and ZZ?

Telly was kind of the one that was more of the

one of reason, I think, of the group. I didn't

get... too much a vibe off of either one of them

just because of the particular episodes I watched.

Gotcha. But they, I think, wasn't ZZ the one

that had the glasses? Or was that... Yeah, I

think... No, well, Telly had glasses at one point

and they get broken and she has contacts. Okay,

then that's the one. Yeah, ZZ was the blonde

chick. She usually had a ball cap on or something.

She was kind of a... Tomboy. Kind of a tomboy,

kind of... an airhead at sometimes, whereas Telly

was, you know, the, she was a tough girl. She

was the athlete. Um, but, uh, yeah, ZZ was. I

don't know, ZZ was the one I kind of was most

attracted to as a junior high boy. Because, of

course, if you're watching this as a preteen

or teenager, that's part of what goes into your

thought process. So ZZ was the cuter one for

me. But I could probably relate most to Telly

just because she was kind of the athlete and

kind of the tough one of the group, I guess.

And ZZ was more of the normal. Right. Right.

And ZZ was usually if there was a feud between

the girls, it was usually between Telly and Dina.

And ZZ was usually caught in the middle or trying

to kind of mediate or whatnot. So that's kind

of her role. And then for the guys we have, there's

four main guys each season, but we do have a

switcheroo between season one and season two.

So the four guys in season one are Eddie Donkey

Lips Gelfand, played by Michael. Bauer. He's

the overweight kid who's always eating and kind

of the focus of all their gross or jokes about

farting or burping or stuff like that. And then

you have his main buddy, which is Bobby Budnick.

He's the redhead played by Danny Cooksey. He's

the bad boy of the group. or the baddest boy

of the group, I guess. And then Sponge Harris,

played by Tim Easter, who was the smallest kid.

He's kind of like the nerd with the glasses.

And then the fourth guy was Michael Stein, played

by Eric MacArthur, and he was the more popular

athletic boy that the girls liked and it seemed

like everybody liked. Him and Budnick kind of

had some clashes between each other. So what

did you think of the four guys from season one?

Michael was definitely the straight shooter of

the group. Yeah. Sponge was the one that was

easily swayed side to side. Donkey Lips, he was

just whatever Bobby Budnick wanted to do, that's

what he wanted to do. Right. They were kind of

just, they were like the Vulcan skull of the

group. Yeah. Cheap Power Rangers reference. I

won't go there. But, I mean, it fits with that,

you know, easily. And Bobby Budnick was, of course,

the one that liked to cause all the trouble between

all the campers and primarily the camp counselor.

Oh, yeah. So, in a way, he was kind of like Zach

Morris to Belding, like you were saying. Yeah,

well, it's almost like you have to take Michael

and Budnick and combine them to get Zach. Because

Michael's the popular... blonde you know whatever

and budnick's the bad boy and then you kind of

put them together and you have zach um which

one did you relate to the most um i probably

related more to michael but i liked watching

the bobby budnick character more okay that yeah

that just because of the hilarity that ensued

when he was around yeah i i definitely agree

um i i could see myself relating to michael the

most just because i see the most of myself in

him but i think they did a good job of putting

a little bit in each of the guys like i could

see a little bit of myself in budnick i could

see a little bit of myself in sponge because

he's the nerd and obviously we're all nerds um

so so it was kind of fun to be able to relate

to all the guys you wanted to hate budnick but

at the same time you wanted him in the scenes

Well, yeah, because he's what made the whole

show interesting, putting the problem in the

whole episode. I don't know if you were able

to watch any episodes from Season 2 or not, but

in Season 2, Michael is ridden out of the show

in between Season 1 and Season 2. And the way

they introduce Season 2 is that Michael had come

down with chicken pox, so he was taken away from

the camp. And then they say that after he gets

healed from chicken pox, he's going on some hiking

or camping trip with his parents in Europe somewhere.

So they write Michael out, and in comes a character

named Ronnie P. pinsky played by blake soper

um were you able to see any episodes with uh

with ronnie pinsky in it yeah i happen to see

um i'm i'm pretty sure it was the one of the

first ones he was in there and it was the chicken

pox one okay yeah that would be the first one

he was in yeah that's that's what i thought and

he was sitting there trying to pull these massive

pranks and he basically took the power that budnick

held previously you know between taking his bed

and taking all of his uh fame for pranks and

you know just making him feel like a weakling

and uh it ended up catching up with him by the

end of the episode but Yeah, so he kind of took

the popular kid at camp role from Michael, but

then he wasn't the good straight shooter that

Michael was. So it's not like they replaced him

with a clone of the same character. He was the

popular kid, but also just as bad as Budnick

was. Yeah, so he was possibly more close to the

Zack Morris out of them. Yeah, I was just going

to say that, actually. That's probably a pretty

good comparison. Because, I mean, it was just

funny watching him go through the episode, and

he's just kind of like, oh, nobody's going to

suspect me because I don't look like I would

cause any trouble. Right, which is usually the

worst nightmare, then. Yes. Um, the, uh, the

other character I wanted to mention was actually

a character that was never seen. Um, Dr. Khan

wouldn't, would come over the loudspeakers and

the whole camp and he would announce certain

things or, you know, but basically all you ever

do is hear his voice. You'd never see him. And

he was played by, uh, Steve Slavkin, according

to my sources, which was the, uh, creator of

the show. And, uh, you know, that was kind of

an interesting thing to have that character that

you're basically take the plot where they wanted

it to go. I don't know if any of the episodes

you had, uh, you got to hear Dr. Khan's voice,

but I don't know. I thought it was kind of interesting.

It's still one of those situations where sometimes

you're like, I just want to see what he looks

like, you know, kind of like, uh, the nanny from

Muppet babies or whatever. You're like, just

show the person, but it's kind of like Wilson

on a home improvement. Oh yeah. Yeah, exactly.

That's a good, good, uh, comparison, but I just

thought it was an interesting touch that they

did that. Yeah, I remember hearing his voice

in there, but I mean, he's a small part, yet

I can kind of see what you're saying, where he

pulls the plot where it needs to go, so it's

not dragging out in any location too long. Right.

Like if they if you needed to tell the viewers

that, you know, they're about to you needed to

go to like some type of like whatever kickball

tournament or some type of whatever, you know,

just put him on the loudspeaker and be like kickball

tournament starts in five minutes. Everybody

needs to be there or something, something like

that. I mean, that's not an actual example from

the show, but. That's kind of how they used him.

So looking through all of these different characters,

now that we've talked about all the different

campers and counselor and whatnot, do you have

any favorite characters or any characters that

kind of drove you nuts that you didn't like?

I mean, I know we kind of talked about them in

groups, but just overall. I don't know if I really

didn't care for any of them. I know I didn't

like when Ronnie took over from Budnick. Just

because I liked Budnick's character just for

the fact that he was the main prankster. Yeah.

I agree with that. I definitely think that the

Season 1 cast I liked better than the Season

2 cast. And it's nothing necessarily against

the Ronnie role, but like you said, I liked Budnick

better as the bad boy, and I liked Michael just

overall better than I liked Pinsky. Yes. And,

you know, I think my favorite character was Michael

in the first season. So that's why I was kind

of a little maybe bummed. I mean, I'm kind of

doing a retrospect here because I don't remember

exactly if I was bummed as a teenager, a youngster

when I was watching this. But watching it back,

I was kind of like, oh, Michael's gone. I don't

like this as much. So he was kind of my favorite

character. And I think my least favorite character

might have been Dina just because I can't stand

people that even though I know. I understand

her purpose and she was funny and stuff like

that, but I just can't stand people that are

materialistic. So that's kind of my favorite

and least favorite would be Michael and Dina.

Yeah. I can kind of see where she was needed

just because they're trying to diversify what

background each person came from. Yeah. Um, but

yeah, I mean, I could kind of see where she would

be, you know, not all that great to have around

just because she's constantly talking about,

Oh, I have. this i have this right i have this

my parents are rich like uh you can stop anytime

now but i do think they did you know like you

said i think it's needed and i think they did

a great job throughout the you know the seven

different kids that they had on at any given

point of putting a little bit out there for just

about every type of personality so that everybody

could find at least one character they could

connect to if not more oh yeah You know, whether

you're the nerd at school or whether you were

the athlete or whatever, you could find a character

in Salute Your Shorts that at least you could

see a little of yourself in. If not, like I said,

multiple characters. Any other thoughts on the

characters before we move on to the next part?

No. All right. I guess it is time for... The

good. The bad. The ugly. That's right, it's time

for the good, the bad, and the ugly of Salute

Your Shorts. So now that we've talked about some

of the characters, just kind of going over the

general overview of the entire show, what were

your favorite parts or what kind of notes did

you take as you were watching the episodes? Again,

I'd have to say the best parts were the pranks.

Just because you never knew who was going to

get hit with what prank and at what time. you

know how many people it would affect or if it

was going to backfire in their face yeah or how

long how long it would go before they get caught

oh yeah and so i mean it was just it was just

funny watching how those played out you know

especially in uh the first episode of like season

one they had you know the boys going after the

girls stuff and then the girls found out about

it set a trap and then the camp counselor got

hit with the worst of it Yeah, I love that episode

because I love the fact that they set all of

these different booby traps up. And that's just

something that would – you can imagine if you're

at camp. I never went to a camp like this or

anything like that. But you can imagine if you're

there, that would be the types of fun stuff that

you would do, like setting these booby traps

or trying to sneak into other people's bunks

and stuff like that. So you can relate to it

and kind of be like, oh, that would be cool.

Well, see, I went to a camp one year and – It

was one of the church camps I went to, and I

was one of the junior counselors. And so we actually

taped a guy to a pole, and we had a marshmallow

fight later in the night. So, I mean, it was

quite fun to do that just because you didn't

know who was going to get hit with what. Yeah,

exactly. And it was just, I don't know, it's

just the whole... part of the camp thing is hilarious

at best. I mean, it's, it's something that if

you're a kid, even if you didn't go there, it

was made you some, you know, something that you

wanted to do. Yeah. I remember taking, uh, when

we went as a teacher, when we took our class

to, uh, we had an overnight field trip that we'd

go to, uh, in Springfield, uh, Illinois, the

Capitol and whatnot. But I remember, um, putting

tape on the hotel doors on the outside. So if

any kid tried to get up in the middle of the

night, it would break the tape. And then you'd

be able to tell which kids got up. Oh, nice.

But, yeah, so I am a little bit familiar with

the pranks that kids will try to play. And as

a kid, I was definitely a prankster. I remember

one thing that always seemed to happen in every

episode was the food fights. There was always

some type of food or something like food -related

fight. It seemed like almost in every single

episode. And, you know, I don't know if that

was an intentional thing at the beginning or

if that's something that kind of developed as

they went. But, I mean, from pies being thrown

in each other's face, I remember one time, I

think it's Dina and Telly are like throwing something

at each other or squirting something at each

other. And eventually it's so slippery on the

floor that they're falling down. And it just

seemed like it was a recurring gag throughout

the entire show that there was always these massive

food fights. Which doesn't surprise me since

it's Nickelodeon. At that time in Nickelodeon's

career, they were always about throwing goop

at each other or getting slopped. That's something

that all kids can enjoy. Well, I mean, it was

kind of Nickelodeon's trademark at the time.

I know they've kind of strayed far away from

that now. Unfortunately. Yeah, I know. It's bad.

They had a lot of food stuff, especially in their

game shows, which we'll get into later at some

point. Between the food and the gag and all that

other stuff, it was just funny watching people

get hit with food or just random things and get

dirty. Yeah, exactly. That was something that

you could always tune into Nickelodeon and enjoy.

And this show just took it to another level because

they weren't just like little food fights or

something. They would start off little and then

it would just be like this massive, messy brawl.

There was a couple other things while I was watching

it that, like I said before in the first part,

some of the stuff I wouldn't have been able to

remember just off the top of my head before I

started watching these shows. But as I watched

them, there was a couple things that I was like,

oh, wait a second, I remember that. And two of

them, one, I remember as I was watching it when

they showed Ugg in his lawn chair. Oh, yeah.

I started to remember. I was like, oh, yeah,

he was always sitting in that lawn chair and

they'd always try to do stuff to him or whatnot.

But it was just interesting because that was

something I wouldn't have remembered without

watching one of the episodes. And I remember

them bribing him one episode about giving him

a new lawn chair. And he was, of course, all

over that. He's like, what do I got to do for

that? He could always get bribed. Another episode

I saw him get bribed by someone was offering

him salami or some food or something like that.

He's just like the worst counselor ever. Oh,

I know. He wasn't even really worthy of having

the part. It's just that it's almost like he

fell into it and he's like, well, I'm going to

make the best of it. Right, right. And the other

thing I remember that I actually had to... watch

a couple episodes specifically that had this

was the um the awful waffle i don't know if you

you saw this in any of the episodes but that

was uh budnick and donkey lips their their major

hazing prank kind of like you know think of hazing

as far as like taping someone to a flagpole or

stealing their clothes while they're in the shower

or something like that. But they would do this

awful waffle where they would lay a guy on the

table or on the floor or whatever. They would

take a tennis racket and basically make the waffle

pattern in their stomach. And then I believe

what the next step was was to squirt syrup on

it. So it was like a waffle. And I don't remember

the actual... that taking place, but I remember

Donkey Lips and Budnick getting all of the camp

to be chanting Awful Waffle while they tried

to hold someone down. Yeah, I remember seeing

them do that in the first one. Yeah, and I was

just like, that's another thing that I had totally

forgotten about, and then they started chanting

it, and I'm like, oh my goodness, the Awful Waffle.

I was like, I don't remember exactly what that

is, but I remember them chanting about it. I

didn't remember either. I just remembered that

that was another one of their little catchphrase

words. Yeah. So anything else that you kind of

noticed from the show or that we haven't mentioned

yet? I mean, the whole first episode, they create

the reason why the shows salute your shorts.

Oh, yeah. That's a great thing that you brought

up. I can't believe I almost forgot that. Yeah,

the shorts on the flagpole. Yeah, they hang Michael's

shorts on the flag. Yeah, and I remember them

doing it at the beginning of the second season

to Pinsky. And this time they have like, I think

Budnick puts like six pairs of his shorts on

the flagpole. Nice. And, you know, Bobby thinks

it's going to be this big thing. And he's like,

hey, Pinsky or whatever, salute your shorts or

whatever. And he actually says salute your shorts.

But Pinsky is like. Yeah, that's nice, Bobby.

And he just doesn't fall for it at all and goes

off with the rest of the campers. But, yeah,

that's obviously trademark Salute Your Shorts.

And that's something that I did remember even

without watching it was the good old shorts hanging

from the flagpole. That's pretty cool. Mm -hmm.

Anything else? No, I think that's it. All right.

So that was the good, the bad, and the ugly of

Salute Your Shorts. And now it's time for what

I think is going to be my favorite part of the

show. Things that make you go. Hmm. So here are

some of the things that you might not know about

Salute Your Shorts. Number one, you may not know

that after the pilot episode, it was actually

a year. before the seasons or the show actually

went into production and they actually made all

of the actors re -audition for their roles so

they auditioned for the pilot and then they made

them all audition later to be on the show and

i guess as it turns out if my information is

correct only uh budnick and donkey lips were

the only two that were in the pilot that made

it to the actual show wow So I guess that year

in between the pilot and the actual show must

have caused some changes. I don't know why exactly,

but apparently those are the only two that survived.

But they did have to go through two entire sets

of auditions to make it to the actual show. So

that's the first thing you may not know. Second

thing you may not know is that as crazy as this

show is, it did win some awards. Both Heidi Lucas

and Michael Bauer, that's Donkey Lips and Dina,

won Best Young Actor or Best Young Actress in

a cable series in 1993. It was also nominated,

the whole show was nominated for, in 92, for

Young Artist Award for Outstanding Young Ensemble

Cast in a Television Series. And this is something

that I definitely did not know myself. I would

never have guessed that this show won any type

of awards. No. It just doesn't seem like the

show that the critics or the people that do awards

would like. And not only those two people that

won the Young Actor, but the rest of the cast

was all nominated. So in 93, Sponge, ZZ, Budnick,

and Telly were all nominated, and Donkey Lips

and Dina actually won. That's crazy. Yeah, I

definitely thought that was crazy. So that kind

of brings me right into the third thing that

you may not know, and that is why the show was

actually canceled. Now, I've heard two different

stories as to why the show was canceled. And

basically, in preparation for this show, I went

and looked through different interviews with

cast members, both on YouTube and text version

and different stuff. And a couple of them commented

on why the show was canceled. Apparently, in

93, this is when MTV and Viacom bought Nickelodeon.

And according to one of the cast members, they

felt that what had happened was basically in

the merger or in the acquisition of Nickelodeon

and kind of trying to, as MTV takes over, that

Salute Your Shorts was just kind of one of the

things that slipped through the cracks and just

didn't survive the acquisition or whatever you

want to call it, the merger. And another one

of the cast members said that when MTV bought...

or Viacom, whatever you want to call it, bought

Nickelodeon, that the money was a little thin

at first and they couldn't afford Salute Your

Shorts because apparently Salute Your Shorts

had a bunch of high -priced directors and people

behind the scenes. And I think this was coming

from Donkey Lips that MTV was putting too much

money into Beavis and Butthead so they couldn't

afford to pick up Salute Your Shorts for another

season. Man. So according to Donkey Lips, Beavis

and Butthead killed Salute Your Shorts. Well,

that was a Butthead move. Exactly. And here's

an interesting one. This also comes straight

out of the lips of Donkey Lips. That sounds kind

of funny. But you may not know that in every

single of the 26 episodes, there is somewhere,

if you're a close watcher, you will find a hidden

rubber chicken in every single episode. Apparently,

the behind -the -scenes people, the production,

somebody in the crew or whatever, decided that

was going to be their running gag. So apparently,

if you watch every single episode and you've

got a good Where's Waldo eye on you, you can

find a rubber chicken in every episode. Which,

that's pretty common for a lot of the older shows

pre -2000. Yeah, they like to do different gags

and stuff. It's almost like Easter eggs on DVDs.

Oh, yeah. And they just like to place them there

to see who's actually paying really close attention.

Right. But I thought that was kind of a cool

thing, especially if someone's really into this

show and really likes it. It's a good reason

to rewatch the episodes and kind of gives you

something else to look for. And the last thing

that you may not know, and you're also not going

to believe, but I have it straight from the source

that, well, let me set it up a little bit. Apparently

at the time for Nickelodeon, they would often

have parties. The cast members would often be

going to parties or, you know, different get

togethers, not only with the cast members from

their show, but with multiple other casts that

worked for Nickelodeon. And this is something

that was brought up in an interview that I read

about Sponge. Sponge usually didn't go to these

parties because. You may not realize this when

watching Salute Your Shorts, but Sponge was like

11, 12, 13 years old during the show. His actor

was. Whereas most of the other actors were teenagers.

Some of them even 16, 17, 18 years old. So there

was a different dynamic between Sponge and the

rest of the actors. And most of the other actors

would go out to parties since they're in their

upper teens. And one thing that happened, I guess,

during one of these minglings between cast from

Salute Your Shorts and cast from other Nickelodeon

shows, Donkey Lips, apparently, in real life,

Michael Bauer dated Melissa Joan Hart. Clarissa

from Clarissa Explains It All. Wow. Now, I know

what everyone's thinking. They're like, wait

a second. That is absolutely not possible. But...

If you don't believe me, hear it straight from

Michael Bowers. So did you mingle with any of

those other people on those shows? Definitely.

I mean, when you're working for a network, when

we went on events, like they had Nickelodeon

Studios in Florida back then at Universal Studios,

and we went to do a few events out there, and

a lot of shows were being produced out there.

Ours was not. Yeah, I mean, I definitely met

everybody from, you know, the game shows, the

stuff. And maybe one of my ex -girlfriends was

Clarissa, maybe. You know, that's a little bit

of a tad bit for you guys. Nice. Yeah, you know,

she might have been my first or second wifey.

That's nice. Not literally wifey, but yeah. Yeah,

so straight from Donkey Lip's mouth there that

he actually dated Clarissa. That's crazy. Yeah,

that's definitely something I didn't know at

the time and something I wouldn't have believed

if I hadn't heard it straight from Michael Bauer.

So, yeah, things that make you go, hmm. I think

now it's time for us to go all VH1 on you and

answer the question as far as where are they

now? Just kind of give you a little heads up

just real quickly on each one of the actors and

what they're doing now because, you know, a lot

of people find that interesting when they look

back at shows from their childhood. A couple

of them, Megan Berwick and Heidi Lucas, that's

ZZ and Dina. are no longer in the business. They

did some little guest spots and stuff after Salute

Your Shorts, but both of them basically are doing

their own thing. Megan Berwick is living in Los

Angeles with two kids. And Heidi Lucas is also

currently working outside the entertainment field.

So those two, not much to say as far as where

are they now. Venus de Milo, Telly, she appeared

in Verizon's Free Up commercials. She spent most

of the 90s and even the 2000s guest starring

on a lot of different things like Party of Five,

My So -Called Life, Family Matters, Sabrina the

Teenage Witch. But it seems like she's also kind

of stopped since about 2003. I don't think she's

actually out of the business. I just think that

it's just been a little bit harder for her to

find roles since 2003. So the girls basically

haven't been doing much as far as the business

goes since Salute Your Shorts. But the guys are

a little bit different. Eric MacArthur, he's

basically kind of behind the scenes nowadays.

He directed his first feature film called Bottoms

Up in 2006. So he kind of made the transition

from an actor to director slash person behind

the scenes. Kirk Bailey. who was Ugg. Currently

he seems to be focusing on voice acting. He's

provided the voices for all the, uh, for anime,

the hack projects, hack projects. I, I don't,

uh, I'm not familiar with all the hack stuff,

but a lot of people are. And he also provided

voices in the movies, open season and over the

hedge. Nice. So he's been still doing stuff.

It just seems like he's been doing a little bit

more voice acting rather than, uh, you know,

on camera acting. The two most famous out of

this is Donkey Lips and Budnick. Michael Bowers

is still acting. He appeared in the season seven

finale episode of CSI as the next door neighbor

of one of the killer's victims. He provides a

voice of Eugene Reaper in Grand Theft Auto, one

of the games there. He can be seen on the high

-voltage dance mechanics for Mountain Dew's amp

energy drink commercials. And he also has his

own website, donkeylips .net. So if you're a

big Donkey Lips fan, you can go there and apparently

catch up with whatever he's been doing. Oh, and

I should mention that he was also on the movie

Hey Dude, Where's My Car? Nice. So if people

have seen that, he was one of the guys in the

bubble wrap suits. Danny Cooksey, like I said,

he's the most famous of the group. He was famous

before Salute Your Shorts. You might remember

him from Different Strokes. He was the voice

of Montana Max in Tiny Toons. That's awesome.

He was John Connor's friend Tim in the movie

Terminator 2. And he also is trying to get into

more of a – and you're going to see this as a

theme, I guess, for the Salute Your Shorts guys.

He's trying to get into – music career as well

he is married um to a makeup artist named amber

and they have a daughter named zoe so apparently

he's doing well for himself then it gets kind

of interesting with these last two guys because

they've actually both changed their name uh tim

easter actually is now officially his name has

been changed to trevor easter wow Yeah, apparently

he didn't like Tim as a name. He said he never

liked it, really. So when he had a chance, he

changed it to Trevor. And he has a very lengthy

interview that's online. It's all in text. But

if you're interested in the show or you're interested

in these people, it's kind of an interesting,

revealing interview. He comments that he struggles

with ADHD. This is the character that played

Sponge, the little nerd kid. He is also pursuing

a music career. And he also revealed that he

himself is bisexual and that he kind of felt

that Sponge, the character, would have been a

gay or a bisexual character in his later life.

I thought that was kind of an interesting take

on it. And he also is big time trying to push

for Salute Your Shorts to be released on DVD.

If you search for Trevor Easter on Facebook,

you'll probably find links to try to... I don't

know if he has a petition that you can sign or

whatnot, but he's been trying to gather enough

fan support to force people to put Salute Your

Shorts out on DVD. That would be cool. Yeah,

and it's kind of interesting to see an actual

cast member trying to lead the push for that.

Because usually it's all fan -based stuff, but

to see an actual actor trying to push for it,

it's kind of cool. And then the last guy, Ronnie

Pinsky here, Blake Soper, his real name is actually

Blake Sennett. And he is the lead guitarist for

an indie rock band called Rilo Kylie. And he's

also a lead singer slash lead guitarist for a

side project band that he has called The Elected.

And he is apparently, according to the source

I read, Pinsky is dating Wynonna Ryder currently.

Wow. So it seems like the guys, and I'm not saying

the girls weren't successful in whatever endeavors

they went into, but the guys are at least a little

bit more in the spotlight or a little bit easier

to find them nowadays. So that's basically all

I have for as far as where you can see them now.

Apparently three of them are trying to have music

careers now. Definitely cool. Yeah. So, you know,

that kind of... leads us to what I just said

with Trevor trying to push for the DVDs as far

as, you know, if someone is interested in Salute

Your Shorts, how can you watch the show now?

You can't watch it on DVD yet. He's still pushing

for that, but it has not happened. And I believe

I heard somewhere that on I don't know if it's

TV shows on DVD, but one of those websites that

that deals with TV shows being released on DVD

has the option for you to vote for which shows

that aren't released that you want. Apparently,

Salute Your Shorts is in like the top five or

the top 10 vote getters as far as all shows that

people want released on DVD that aren't. So maybe

one day it'll happen, but. If you're a fan of

digital media, you are in a little bit of luck

because just this year, 2010, two different volumes,

each of six episodes, has been made available

for purchase on iTunes, Amazon .com, MediaGo,

and the Zoom Marketplace. And I actually checked

this. If you go to iTunes and do a search for

Salute Your Shorts, it'll come up with two different

volumes. One has six episodes from season one.

The other has six episodes from season two. And

you can purchase them. Um, unfortunately each

volume is like eight 99, which, which for six

episodes seems a little bit steep. If it was

eight 99 for all of season one and eight 99 for

all of season two, that might be something I

would think would be doable, but eight 99 for

six episodes is a little steep. Yeah. So I guess

if you're a diehard fan, you can watch the show

on iTunes or one of those places if you really

want to. Otherwise, you're stuck with YouTube.

Just want to mention real quick on those of you

going to search for the show on YouTube, be prepared

to be frustrated. Yes. Number one, the quality

is not very good on these YouTube feeds. Yeah,

sometimes the picture and the audio don't line

up. And a lot of times the picture is a little

blurry. And the most frustrating part is since

these shows were basically half -hour formats,

a lot of the people have broken them into three

different parts, which are usually about eight

or nine minutes apiece. And for some reason,

when you go to watch these episodes on YouTube,

one of the parts seems to always be missing.

I watched one episode where I watched the first

two parts, and the third part was nowhere to

be found. So I have no idea how that episode

ended. And then I had another episode where the

first part was gone and all I could watch for

the second two parts. So you didn't know what

started in the first. Right. Which, you know,

luckily it's a show where it doesn't take a,

you know, a brain surgeon to figure out what

kind of what happened, but it's still kind of

frustrating not to be able to, to watch it. So,

you know, if you're going to go watch the show

on YouTube, it is available. There are. Quite

a few of the first season episodes. It seems

like there's only a few select season two episodes

available, but just kind of prepare to be a little

bit frustrated, I guess. Yes. All right, guys,

we're going to take a real quick break for some

important messages from the geek cast radio network.

Well, please don't go anywhere because we will

be back. The Beast on this podcast. Yes. This

podcast is released bi -weekly by the folks over

at geekcastradio .com. And I want you to listen

to it because it's the world's first Beast Wars

and Beast Machines review podcast. If you don't

listen to it, I will set my vehicles to remove

your sparks. and destroy you. So, from now on,

you will listen and tune in to The Beast Unleashed.

Or else. Excellent. Yes. Hey everybody, it's

Optimus Solo from Geekcast Radio Network's new

show, The Telecast, with some important information

on our theme song contest. The rules for this

contest are pretty simple. In Season 1 of The

Telecast, we will be covering 33 classic kids

shows from the 80s and 90s. Obviously, all of

these shows had theme songs, which sometimes

can be the most memorable part of a show. This

contest is going to test your memory on those

theme songs. How is that, you may ask? Well,

because we have taken 32 of those classic theme

songs and smashed them into one three -minute

clip. Your job is to identify the order in which

these 32 shows appear in that three -minute clip.

Also, you must be able to identify which one

of the 33 shows was left out of the clip. Some

of the shows should be fairly easy for you to

identify, while others may be a bit trickier.

For a list of all the shows in Season 1 and more

information on the contest, visit the telecast

page at geekcastradio .com. Also, remember to

tune in to every episode of the telecast, because

each episode will contain that show's theme song

in its entirety at the beginning of the show,

as well as the three -minute contest song towards

the end of the show. This has been Optimus Solo

from the telecast, saying good luck and happy

listening. welcome back and that brings us to

our never -ending effort to bash the jackasses

at ign and if you don't understand that you need

to listen to an episode of tunecast but basically

ign likes to put out their lists and their rankings

and i've yet to see one that i agree with so

that's why we are going to act On the telecast

as the IGN replacement crew. Basically, we're

just going to rank every show that we talk about.

It's on a four level system. So if we give it

one star or one whatever, that means basically

that we didn't like the show back then and we

still don't like it. A two rating means that

we loved it back in the day, but it's not really

watchable anymore. A three rating, we kind of

loved it then, and we still enjoy it when we

watch it. And a four rating basically means that

we want it on DVD, we love it that much. So what

would you give Salute Your Shorts, Steve? I'd

probably give it a three, just because I know

when it comes out on DVD, it's probably going

to be expensive. Yeah. Not that it didn't, I

mean, it kind of doesn't hold up, but it kind

of does at the same time. Yeah, I can see why

you're saying that. And I'm kind of borderline

between three and four on this one just because

when I have kids, it would be nice to have DVDs

to show them, to have them watch it, to have

intelligent television. An actual good Nickelodeon

show? Yes, compared to what's out now of just

randomness that doesn't teach you squat. Right.

But for me personally, I'd have to probably give

it a three. You know, I actually am going to

agree with you 100 % on this. I was thinking

about this a little bit earlier, and I thought,

you know, it might be a high three, but I still

would say it's a three. This is something that

I definitely loved when I was a kid. I still

enjoyed it when I was watching it. I wasn't bored,

or I wasn't like I couldn't not make it through

an episode. I was actually looking for trying

to find all the different parts of the episode.

Yeah, I spent about 15, 20 minutes trying to

find that part one, and then I was like, okay,

I'm going on to another episode. Right. But just

the fact that we actually wanted to see the other

parts kind of says something to it as far as

it wasn't like, oh, well, I don't care about

that part. We actually wanted to see it. I don't

know if I would buy it if it was on DVD. Like

you said, it would have to be the right price.

Um, but it's, it holds up for me to the point

where I could watch it and not, not be frustrated,

not be bored, not be, you know, annoyed with

it. Yeah. That's dated. And you can tell like

it's, you know, early nineties fashion and, and,

and they've got the almost mullet haircuts and

that clothes style. Right. But as far as like,

they don't insert a bunch of references that

date it, it's dated just based on the look and

the style, but it's not like they're talking

about stuff that kids wouldn't understand today.

Yeah. So I agree with you. I'm going to give

it a high three. So basically, I guess we can

– do you have anything that we missed? Do you

have anything that you want to mention that we

didn't talk about? Basically, any last words

for you on Salute Your Shorts? Again, really

good show. It's – there's a lot of comedy in

it, a lot of pranks. I mean, if you're one that

likes pranks and to see different – ways of pulling

them off, this is definitely the show for you.

If you like the old days of Nickelodeon, this

is also another show for you. Yeah, I was going

to say the same thing. This is basically Nickelodeon

at its prime. This is one of the later shows

from what I would call Nickelodeon's prime for

me. It came after Clarissa had already started.

Hey Dude had already ran. Snick, I think, had

already started by this point. So it came on

towards the end of this period of Nickelodeon's

live -action shows that are kind of ones that

I liked. But it definitely was one of the better

Nickelodeon shows, I think, of all time. Oh,

yeah. All right. I think that does it for this

episode. I would like to thank Steve for joining

me today, and I would like to thank all you guys

for tuning in to our first episode of the Telecast.

If you want to leave us feedback on the show,

there's three main ways to do this. First, you

can visit the website www .geekcastradio .com.

That's Geekcast Radio, all one word, where you

can comment on all of our different podcasts

and all the different episodes. Second, you can

rate our show and leave us feedback in iTunes.

Now, we don't care if you're going to rank it,

you know, one, two, three, four, five stars,

negative feedback, positive feedback. We'll take

it all. But please go to iTunes and give us some

type of feedback so we can improve the show over

the course of this first season. Or if you want

your comments to actually be a part of a future

show, you can call the voicemail line. The number

is 502 -526 -5821. Just tell us that you're leaving

it for telecast, the Salute Your Shorts episode,

and give us some type of name, whether it's your

real name, your screen name, whatever, so we

can somewhat identify you. If you want to keep

up to date with all things Geekcast related,

the best way to do that is to become a fan of

us on Facebook by searching Geekcast Radio Network.

And there you will get posts about all the new

content that we upload and anything Geekcast

related. So that's the best way to kind of keep

up with us. And while you're there, do me a favor

and also become a fan of BehindTheVoiceActors

.com, the best voice acting website on the Internet.

It's true. So that does it for now. We hope we

succeeded in entertaining you, informing you,

and most importantly, reinforcing the geek in

you on this episode of The Telecast. And we hope

that you will tune in for our next episode when

we will be talking about the adventures of Pete

and Pete. For now, I am your host, Optimus Solo,

with... Steve. Megatron Phillips saying keep

your feet on the ground and keep reaching for

the stars and we'll see you in 10 days for another

episode of the telecast don't worry folks we

didn't forget we just wanted to award those people

listening all the way to the end here is the

telecast theme song sound clip listen carefully

and good luck Discover this.