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Post by Old School Scooby Fan on Feb 7, 2020 7:14:27 GMT -5
I realize also that traditional cel animation by H-B was likely discontinued in 1984, in favor of digital ink. That could explain why H-B programs produced in the latter half of the 1980s, such as "Popeye and Son", "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo", and even the later seasons of "Smurfs", never got a DVD release as yet, though "Popeye and Son" did get released to Amazon for free viewing, oddly enough. Ruby-Spears likely followed suit in terms of digital ink animation by 1986, as I discovered the first season of the "Punky Brewster" cartoon appeared to be traditional cel animation, but it appeared they switched to digital ink by the second season, as the video quality was a lot better. And all of the animated Punky cartoons (except for "The Shoe Must Go On", due to usage of "Axel F" in the episode), did get released to DVD as bonus content. DIC Entertainment seemed to use digital ink and computers for their 1980s cartoons, particularly with "The Littles", since its Season 1 opening involved a rotating camera effect (not turning upside down, just to clarify), which you would never see on H-B cartoons even in the digital ink era. I am thinking DiC was likely ahead of the game when it comes to digital ink. Though I personally think "Inspector Gadget" got produced using cel animation. "Smurfs" had supposedly moved to digital ink in 1984, as the title cards all had a consistent background color scheme, and the font used in the titles (Cooper Black font, to be exact) were consistently blue, and red lettering in titles and an orange-y background were discontinued as of 1984. And you could tell that they moved to digital ink by that time by observing the video quality, which is much clearer than in the first three seasons. I don't know about "Pink Panther and Sons", I get the feeling it may have been produced using traditional cel animation, despite debuting in 1984, implying it may have been in development in 1983 or before, and maybe it was being considered for launch on NBC by 1983, but there was no room on the schedule to put it. And maybe the animators' strike of 1982 likely delayed the launch of the series, if it was being considered for launch in 1982. Oddly enough, there seemed to be no problems with some cartoon series produced in the latter half of the 1980s. A non H-B example of this is "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" - that did get released to DVD. Cel animation likely didn't prevail on that series, as I saw a shadow effect on April O'Neil's face, at least on one episode - this could imply it was created using digital ink. I'm still under the impression Warner doesn't wanna touch the majority of at least the '84 episodes because of how badly H-B's primitive digital ink and paint work has aged. "Snorks" was produced using digital ink, and did debut in 1984. And that series did get released to DVD. I am thinking it's more the case that Warner refuses to take any risks with releasing any series with Scrappy to DVD, considering that three DVDs with Scrappy involved did not sell well. I am thinking it has more to do with people's hatred for Scrappy. I don't hate Scrappy - maybe I'm in the minority.
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Post by Old School Scooby Fan on Jan 9, 2020 9:52:10 GMT -5
I am thinking that many of the Scooby games involve Flash animation, but with support for Flash ending at the end of 2020, it makes a whole lot of sense as to why they are being removed.
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Post by Old School Scooby Fan on Jan 9, 2020 9:04:49 GMT -5
I did also discover that in the Scooby & Scrappy-Doo segments during "The Scooby & Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour", there were background cues recycled from "Richie Rich" and the cartoon spinoff of "The Little Rascals". The episode titled "Picnic Poopers" did recycle a "Little Rascals" cue that I recognize from the episode "Cap'n Spanky's Showboat", when Alfalfa had his final hammock mishap just before the riverboat was completely refurbished, and I recognize Richie Rich cues in "One Million Years Before Lunch", "Basketball Bumblers" and "Comic Book Caper".
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Post by Old School Scooby Fan on Jan 2, 2020 17:15:13 GMT -5
I am wondering why there has been no DVD release of "The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show" nor "The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries" to date? Is it because people hated Scrappy so much, they refuse to see him on DVD?
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Post by Old School Scooby Fan on Jan 2, 2020 17:08:41 GMT -5
I checked out the first few seconds of the film. It doesn't appear to be an actual animation, but more in a slideshow of still images format. Nice to hear the original "American Top 40" theme and the Casey Kasem parody called Casey Keg.
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Post by Old School Scooby Fan on Oct 23, 2019 10:39:27 GMT -5
My two most favorite "Where Are You!" episodes:
"A Tiki Scare is No Fair!" "Don't Fool with a Phantom"
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Post by Old School Scooby Fan on Oct 23, 2019 10:35:56 GMT -5
Based on the comments, it sounds like the sea monster in this plot looked a lot better than the one in "The Creepy Heap from the Deep" a few years earlier. I didn't like the sea monster in "Creepy Heap" that much, though that episode is still watchable to me.
Oh, and Daphne sure looked hot in her bikini.
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Post by Old School Scooby Fan on Oct 23, 2019 10:32:18 GMT -5
There are only two favorites of mine:
"The Neon Phantom of the Roller Disco" - due mainly to the groovy disco music. "Twenty Thousand Screams Under the Sea" - due to Daphne looking hot in her bikini, though her bikini in "No Sharking Zone" in 1983 was a better color.
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Post by Old School Scooby Fan on Oct 19, 2019 11:11:37 GMT -5
I observed something about issue #29 whenever listed on eBay. It doesn't seem to sell as well, unlike earlier issues. I am thinking that it may be due to the seller's asking price being too high, considering it's a rare comic, though not as rare as the elusive issue #30. People couldn't afford issue #29, but lucky for me, I have plenty of money to be able to afford to buy it. But thankfully, I have zero interest in #30, more because of the stories not being interesting, as per synopses on Grand Comics Database.
Issue #30 was the final issue of the Whitman/Gold Key series, but it shows no sign of it ever appearing on eBay, and if it does, the seller's price will be extremely high.
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Post by Old School Scooby Fan on Oct 19, 2019 9:33:26 GMT -5
I noticed something about covers to Richie Rich comics during the early 90s. I discovered that, in 1990, some vintage covers were remade into modern-day art, though some original art was sporadically seen.
But, by August 1990 (cover dated November 1990), Harvey Comics did a major overhaul to its look. The traditional 1980s Richie Rich logo was done away with on covers, and acompletely new logo debuted. Also, titles were seen in TrueType fonts which implies that the covers may have been created using computers. Plus, by the Decemner 1990 cover-dated issues, the issues were basically reprints of older issues, albeit some omissions (i.e. no text ztories in 36-page issues).
I think this format change was a telltale sign that Harvey Comics didn't have the money to create new stories anymore, with the exception of New Kids on the Block, Saved by the Bell, Back to the Future, Alvin and the Chipmunks, etc. Other than that, nothing but reprints, including the Hanna-Barbera lineup.
And look at what happened in the summer of 1994 - Harvey Comics ceased publication. This time, for good.
And although Richie and Casper were later acquired by Ape Entertainment early this decade with new stories, Richie Rich seemed to not favor among modern day young readers,no matter how he looked. Personally, I think it favored more by baby boomers who were born in the late 1950s/early 1960s. I do love reading Richie Rich, even thoughI am not a baby boomer, but I guess I may be in the minority.
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Post by Old School Scooby Fan on Oct 17, 2019 20:12:05 GMT -5
I learned that there are two interesting stories in that issue which is a bit pricey, but thankfully I could afford it. It should arrive between October 26 and November 26, barring any postal delays due to Christmas approaching.
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Post by Old School Scooby Fan on Oct 17, 2019 19:17:31 GMT -5
I never knew the first season of Guess Who had more than 13 episodes, to be honest. But I am looking forward to seeing the Whoopi Goldberg episode, and later the Bill Nye episode.
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Post by Old School Scooby Fan on Oct 17, 2019 19:15:22 GMT -5
Don't worry, I do not post to golden-road.net anyways, so I am ahead of the game. I agree with the statement that Rachel being the last model from the Barker era is what's keeping the show alive to this day. Her departure, if it does happen, will likely be a poison to the show. When she leaves, you watch what happens to the viewership - and in a matter of time, CBS will likely do away with game shows and replace them with an expansion of CBS This Morning, the same way NBC did with The Today Show.
I am, however, undecided what my future viewership holds if Rachel leaves. I feel as if my viewership by that point may cease. I'll cross tbat bridge when it comes to that.
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Post by Old School Scooby Fan on Oct 16, 2019 12:10:46 GMT -5
It seems as if many older Hanna-Barbera series had steamboat plots. It happened in Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, The Little Rascals cartoon spinoff, and at least two Scooby-Doo series.
Of all the steamboat plots Hanna-Barbera ever produced, I like "Cap'n Spanky's Showboat" from The Little Rascals cartoon spinoff the most. Though "Showboat Scooby" is pretty good, probably my second most favorite steamboat plot.
"Cap'n Spanky's Showboat" used the Mississippi Queen as the episode's ship, but I wonder if the owners of the real Mississippi Queen (which was launched in 1976) could have sued Hanna-Barbera productions for using the name, which was likely a violation of copyright infringement?
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Post by Old School Scooby Fan on Oct 16, 2019 11:51:25 GMT -5
Scrappy may have remained unscrapped in Canada all this time, which explains Teletoon's appreciation for Scrappy (hence the reruns of "13 Ghosts" in recent years), unlike in the U.S. But, maybe Teletoon could have been airing Scooby bootlegs all along. There was a Canadian broadcast of "The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries" which has the Canadian "C" rating in the top left hand corner, and even the closed captioning icon in another corner, implying possibly being a bootleg from a recording of a 1984 ABC broadcast, which ASN aired that same season, and were acquired by Teletoon and its now-defunct sister network, Teletoon Retro.
I find that a lot of programming on Teletoon and later Teletoon Retro were previously aired on other networks, such as ASN (now known as CTV Two Atlantic), and maybe even CITV (now a Global network). Teletoon may have acquired bootlegs, and when Teletoon Retro was on the air, they may have been airing the same bootlegs, plus also shows that were aired directly from a purchased DVD ("Garfield and Friends" is a good example, as normally the syndication package has only episodes from September 1988 to mid-October 1992, whereas Teletoon Retro aired the full series, including the 1993 and 1994 seasons, though the 1994 season had the salsa opening instead of the hip-hop opening).
However, regarding Scrappy on Canadian broadcasts, Teletoon Retro never aired any Scrappy episodes during the network's final year on the air. In fact, they aired The New Scooby-Doo Movies as the only classic Scooby series during that time.
It may be possible that many of the Scrappy series, save for "13 Ghosts", were never released to DVD, though a small number of segments did make it to various DVDs.
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