Fads and Trends

At the time, there was a very popular song from a couple of years earlier titled "Open the Door, Richard". Of course, kids watch that short now and ask, "Who's Richard?".
 
True, but the thing about those is that Chaplin and the Marx Brothers are as iconic and classic as Looney Tunes are, so people still get those jokes.

At least, I hope they still get those jokes. If people don't still recognize Chaplin and Groucho, then the world is in far worse shape than I thought ;).

The other group of people who would recognize the "Richard" joke Speedy Boris referenced above is old music fans. I never got the joke until I grabbed a "Best of Louis Jordan" album and heard the song "Open the Door, Richard," which is pretty funny in its own right.

After watching the second volume of Fleischer Popeye shorts, I'd also put the start date of cel animation as viable entertainment to be about a decade earlier, starting with the Fleischer's Betty Boop and Popeye. At the time, they were more popular than Disney, and if you compare a Popeye cartoon from the time with a comparable one from Disney, it'll be pretty obvious why. The real problem that the Fleischers had was that they were bought out by Paramount in the 1940's, at which point their work dropped out of the public eye almost entirely, other than for animation or film aficionados.

This, in itself, is another trend in animation, which is that good business sense can trump great art in the long run. In this case, the beancounters and know-nothings who parceled out the Fleischers' body of work simply had no idea what to do with it, which is why we ended up with lots of new (and poor) Popeye cartoons rather than Fleischer Bros. reruns after school and on Saturday mornings, while Bugs and Daffy were embedding themselves firmly in the pop culture consciousness. It is undeniable that Disney was an innovator, but his contribution to the business of animation and the power of corporate branding were at least as great, if not greater, than his contributions to the cartoons themselves.

Trend #2 that follows from this is that you don't have to know what you're doing to find success. I don't believe that Warner Brothers had it in mind to make Bugs and Daffy and the Looney Tunes pop culture icons when they ran the 'toons incessantly on minor networks after school and on Saturday mornings. To a great extent, I think they still don't know how to handle the property.

-- Ed
 
You're right on your posts, these network producers are trying to destroy the child's minds by setting painful (and mostly unfunny) jokes that don't work, bad examples, unfair censorship, being sarcastic, making them grow up too fast, and overairing limited episodes, most of them really painful and unsatisfying to watch.

Let's start with the "jokes" on the Disney Channel. Do you remember The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody episode Orchrestra (I spelt it wrong, didn't I)? Well I do, it's when this young Russian violinist comes to Zack and Cody's high school and Cody thinks that this Russo is hitting on his girlfriend, Barbra. When the band teacher asks where the Russo would like to sit, he wants to sit in a student's front row seat. Here's the "joke":



Yep, the band teacher ordered her son, Billy, to the back of the room because the young Russian violin wants to sit there. Wow, Jeffery (the writer of this episode) great example, when a celeberity wants something, forget about your family like their starngers and make the celeberity happy.:shrug:

Second, the bad examples of The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody and Wizards Of Waverly Place.

A: TSLOZAK's episode Slumber Party (or whatever that episode is called), Zack kissed two girls from hiding the secret that Cody got London's hotel room for Stacey and both girls slapped him in the face. Not only that, after Stacey dumps Cody, the twins were grounded for a month for using London's room. Geez, that makes me feel bad because normally the girls would kick Zack's shin or stomp on his foot for kissing them, the punishment was way too much for this episode (and any TSLOZAK episode written by Tim Pollock), and thirdly this episode was written by a one-time The Simpsons writer from season four.

B: WOWP's episode New Employee, Alex's friend, Harper, needs a job at Alex's family buisness, but she's terrible at being a waitress. So, Alex put a spell on her to make her a really good waitress, or shall I say a professional. Harper does so well that she ruins her friendship with Alex and works at an ice cream parlor. When Justin, Alex's older brother, thinks up a plan to bring Harper back for Alex, Alex doesn't thank him, even though Justin remembers her to. What Peter (the writer of this episode) is trying to say is say "Thank You!" when you feel like it, not right after someone does something nice for you.

Thirdly, unfair censorship. In Braceface's camp episode, the bra parts were edited out. But in Hannah Montana, it's okay to say bra and even show it because it's "mature" and popular on the Disney Channel. Lizzie McGuire also had a bra episode.:ack:

Fourth, most Disney shows have sarcastic people and it's not even right.

Fifth, it's making us grow up too fast, like TSLOZAK and Disney Channel's Original Movie, Jump In!.

A: In TSLOZAK's episode Who's The Boss, Maddie tells some twelve-year-old girls that they're too young to understand this kind of telephone conversation, where London and Lance, the Tipton's pool boy, are trying to make their relationship stronger. But, these girls aren't too young, some of them already have boyfriends and one of them is even married. Another episode wirtten by one-time The Simpsons writer and one of the creators of this show.

B: At the beginning of Jump In!, Ziggy and his family have a conversation about how their day went during dinnertime. Here's the conversation:



OMG, I'm twice her age and I still don't have a boyfriend!

Lastly, overairing episodes of Disney Channel shows, most of them painful and unsatisfying. It's both annoying and benefitial to me. It's annoying because it shows many episodes of Hannah Montana, TSLOZAK, WOWP, Life With Derek (insulting Canadians at a new level), Cory In The House, and That's So Raven. It doesn't even air enough good shows that they used to air. It's benefitial because in case you missed this episode, it airs again in less than a week. Also, it opens me to different show because of the painful episodes that air almost all the time. If you had a choice to watch Life With Derek's episode Derek All Done or any season one episode of Cyberchase, I'll chose the second choice because it's less painful than this insult from Canada.

Overall, I miss show that have variety and make us feel good about watching this. Well that's it for my long post!:anime:
 
Did Braceface air on Disney Channel? I only remember it on ABC Family. It also depends when it aired. Some channels have mellowed out over time and allowed more stuff, like Disney Channel and Nickelodeon seems to push the boundries more these days.
 
Braceface did air on Toon Disney a few years ago and not only did they edit parts out of the episodes that did air, they did not air about 5 episodes due to content (tatoos, drinking, etc.). Needless to say, they also did not air any of the second half of Season 2 or any Season 3 eps--they remian unaired/unreleased in the US.
 
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