Thursday, October 31, 2013

Nick Jukebox Episode 6.2: Happy Halloweenie

In this special episode of Nick Jukebox, we celebrate Halloween with some Nickelodeon songs from Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Wow! Wow! Wubbzy, and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters.


Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Old School Lane's Patricia takes a hiatus

After recent events resigning my position as admin on the Re-Open Nickelodeon Studios FB page and starting a war with Roundhouse fans, I will be taking a hiatus. After the Halloween Casual Chats podcast, Nick Jukebox, and other projects, I need a break to clear my head and take time to rejuvenate. For those who have been sticking around with Kevin and I for almost 2 years, thank you for your support. We are eternally grateful. 

-Patricia

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

TMNT Episode Review S2E2: Invasion of the Squirrelanoids

In this recap, Patricia and Kevin review TMNT episode 2 of season 2 Invasion of the Squirrelanoids.

Old School Lane Presents: Turtle Talk Episode 6

In this episode of Turtle Talk, Patricia and Kevin  discuss about the first two episodes of TMNT 2012 Season 2. Plus they briefly discuss about TMNT: Out of the Shadows and Kevin's new Turtle toys that he received. 


Friday, October 18, 2013

Old School Lane Casual Chats Episode 22: Rocko's Modern Life/Legends of the Hidden Temple

In this double header podcast, Patricia and Kevin invite Manic Expression members to talk about 2 Nickelodeon shows celebrating their 20th anniversaries. In the first half, Patricia, Kevin, and Manic Expression members TheOtherDude92 and The Man with No Chin discuss about Rocko's Modern Life. In the second half, Patricia and Manic Expression members TheOtherDude92 and Brekclub85 discuss about Legends of the Hidden Temple.


Thursday, October 17, 2013

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: Mr. Meaty

As previously mentioned in my Nacho Libre review, there were no new Nicktoons, live action shows, or game shows that debuted on Nickelodeon. With the exception of Wow! Wow! Wubbzy, the only Nick Jr. show produced by Frederator Studios, only one show debuted on Nickelodeon. That show was Mr. Meaty, a Canadian/American puppet show that debuted on September 22, 2006.



Around that time period, puppets on preschool shows were pretty much dead. Shows were either a group of people in silly, colorful costumes, people in suits, or it was animated. The media decided to showcase puppets in a more adult direction with shows such as Crank Yankers on Comedy Central and Avenue Q on Broadway. Mr. Meaty was originally shown in shorts during the commercials on Nickelodeon and was eventually picked up for a TV series similar to The Adventures of Pete & Pete, KaBlam!, and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. So with that, the show was directed at a more teenage audience. How does the show hold up? Let's find out.

The show takes place in a fast food restaurant called Mr. Meaty located at the Scaunchboro Mall. The two main characters are Josh, the smooth talking ladies' man and Parker, the fat, nerdy teen. They work at restaurant encountering typical teenagers and going through everyday teen situations. However, the episodes take it in a different direction from time to time focusing on supernatural or science fiction scenarios that the boys have to solve in order to save the day. Episodes would have vampires, zombies, and aliens visiting Mr. Meaty for one reason or another and Josh and Parker would either stop them or befriend them. However, most of the episodes have a gross out factor to try to entertain the audience. In one episode, Josh and Parker's hands fell into the deep fryer and they actually ATE their hands. In another episode, one of their customers' nose fell on the fryer and Josh and Parker had to replace it. What did they replace it with? A sandwich. You heard me right. A sandwich. Genius. You also had your typical burping and farting jokes to seal the deal. Around Season 2, they toned down the gross humor and replaced it with more typical teenage problems about growing up. It was at that point in which teenagers stopped watching it and adults had petitions of cancelling the show. Many people including parents and vegetarians wanted this show to stop airing because they thought it was absolutely disgusting to see.



Eventually on May 23, 2009, Mr. Meaty was cancelled after 20 episodes due to low ratings, negative remarks from parents, and the help of the petitions to Nickelodeon of cancelling the show. This is truly one of the lowest points of Nickelodeon and quite frankly, one of the worst shows I've ever had the displeasure of watching. First and foremost, the puppets are absolutely ugly. I'm not blaming this on low budget like I did for Pinwheel, these look like they were the intentional design and it's absolutely revolting. The lip sync is off sometimes and the movements are very basic. Plus, Josh and Parker are the names of Josh and Drake's last name on Drake & Josh. It seems like they took the tropes of Drake and Josh and put it in reverse on Mr. Meaty. Parker is similar to Josh in which he's a fat, nerdy kid who can't get a date and Josh is the skinny, cool kid who gets all the girls and doesn't care about anything else. This is absolutely lazy. If this was not intentional, then it's one of the biggest coincidences I've ever seen in a Nickelodeon show. Maybe I'm wrong. You be the judge.



The one thing that kills this show for me are the cliched characters, terrible writing, and horrible jokes. None of the episodes were memorable and none of them were fun to watch. It's crude, it's disgusting, it's just plain lousy. However, as time went on, this show has developed a huge cult following from teenagers and young adults who watched the show when they were kids. But, I feel that there are much better shows out there involving with adult humor and puppets. I highly recommend you check out Sifl and Olly, Greg the Bunny, Crank Yankers, Avenue Q, and Sock Puppet Theatre. Stay away from this show if you can't. It's one of the worst shows that has featured on Nickelodeon and I'm not surprised that there wasn't another one in this format afterwards. I don't recommend checking it out.

That's all for now. Tune in next time as we conclude this episode with the last Nickelodeon movie to feature in 2006. The farmer from Barnyard can tell us what it is.



Hope to see you around Old School Lane. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Movie Review: Barnyard

2006 on Nickelodeon continues with another movie review. The 2nd movie to feature for Nickelodeon Movies was Barnyard. Barnyard was written, produced, and directed by Steve Oedekerk. Steve Oedekerk previously founded O Entertainment, the same production company that released The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius with him being the executive producer of the show. A few months before The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius ended, Barnyard debuted in theaters on August 4, 2006. Does the movie bring in good crops or has it dried out? This is Barnyard. 

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 The movie begins early in the morning with a farmer checking on his animals. Having to do his morning routines, he gets into his car and leaves. When the farmer is gone, the animals get up on two legs talking and gathering together for a meeting led by a male cow named Ben. Meanwhile, Ben's son Otis and his friends Pig the pig, Pip the mouse, Freddy the weasel, and Peck the rooster goof up riding on a ironboard with two large icecubes on a large hill. While riding, they hit the top of an oil rig and a chicken coop and make it to the barnyard where the meeting was taking place covered with oil and feathers. While the meeting was going on, Ben warns the farm animals about coyotes wandering in different farms stealing chickens and staying away from human technology, Otis' cell phone rings interrupting the conversation. The meeting ends with Ben approaching Otis to grow up from his wild antics and learn to be a man. However, Otis shrugs Ben's advise and immediately falls in love with a pregnant cow named Daisy who had just moved into the barn alongside her friend Bessie. He stumbles on discussing a conversation with her being a bit awkward. Daisy tells Otis to go away since she's not interested in her. We then cut to a montage of Otis doing human activities such as playing golf and making fun of the mailman without him knowing.


 That night, the barn has a huge party while the farmer's asleep involving with singing, dancing, playing pool, playing cards, and riding on a mechanical man. Otis wants to join in on the party, but he's forced by Ben to watch over the fence to prevent coyotes led by Dag from entering. Ben tells Otis about the day that he found him on the barn and learning to become a leader for the barnyard. Otis wasn't interested in being a leader just like him and leaves Ben disappointed. Later on, the coyotes sneak into their barnyard and almost steal the chickens, but Ben makes it on time to fight them. Ben defeats them, but lost his life in the process. With that, Otis is proclaimed as the new leader of the barn. The animals use Otis as an excuse to party all night long. He decides to give the position of watching over the chicken coop to Peck and Freddy, which is difficult since Freddy has a craving to eat the chickens. Otis hangs out with a group of cows known as the Jersey cows, whom Ben originally didn't want Otis to be around with. While hanging around, a group of young boys led by a fat kid named Snotty Boy decide to go cow tipping. Otis and the Jersey cows decide to have revenge on Snotty Boy by tipping them over. Later that night, Otis and the Jersey cows sneak into their next door neighbor's garage to steal their car. Mrs. Beady saw the cows stealing the car and warns her husband about it, but assumes that she's making things up. The cows drive up to Snotty Boy's house and sneak up to his room and tip him off of his bed. Snotty Boy screams and the cows get away driving. They celebrate until a cop car goes behind them. They act like real cows and get away from trouble.



When Otis returns home from the barn, he sees Daisy sitting alone. Otis approaches her and talks to her about himself while Daisy talks about life before she came over to their barn. Apparently, she was living a normal, happy life with her husband cow until one day a huge tornado hit their farm killing all the animals, except for her and Bessie. While they talk, Otis overhears Dag and the coyotes chasing a rabbit and heading towards the barn. Otis leaves Bessie and heads towards the coyotes to take them down to avenge his father. He meets up with Dag and tells them to leave the barn or else, but Dag laughs and orders his coyotes to attack him. With Otis injured and defeated, Dag threatens Otis that he doesn't let them take one animal a night, he'll come by and kill all of them. Otis, disappointed about his loss, decides to leave the barn. Daisy sees Otis packing his things and is concerned about what happened the night before and Otis confesses his problem involving with the coyotes and not feeling like a competent leader. Daisy tells him that Otis doesn't have to be brave to be a leader, he has to stick with his friends. Otis thanks Daisy, but leaves anyway. While he leaves, he learns that one of his friends Maddy, a baby chick, was kidnapped by the coyotes. Otis decides to face the coyotes to retrieve Maddy back. Otis heads over to the junkyard, where the coyotes live, to take down Dag. Dag laughs and sends his coyotes to take him down again and Otis is defeated. But luckily, his friends consisting of Pig, Freddy, Peck, Pip, the Jersey cows, and others help him out. Working together, they defeat the coyotes and Otis defeats Dag by hitting him far away with a golf club. The movie concludes with Otis and the animals finding out that Daisy is about to give birth so they use motorcycles to get back home. They arrive just in time with Daisy giving birth to a baby calf whom she named Little Ben. Otis promises to take of Daisy, Little Ben, and the barn and heading outside to see the stars.

 

When the film first came out, it received negative reviews by critics and viewers despite being a huge commercial success of making over $116 million dollars. In my opinion, this movie is mediocrity at its finest. It has a terrible, predictable storyline with bland characters, outdated animation, and horrible jokes. However, around the end of the film started to get interesting with the last fight with Otis and Dag, the struggle with being a competent leader just like his father, and the back stories of Otis and Daisy. If the movie would've had a tighter script, more dimensional characters, and similar to the drama that appears towards the end, it would've been a lot more decent. Maybe not as comparable to a Pixar or Dreamworks movie, but something more better than the movie we ended up with. I don't recommend checking it out.

That's all for now. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia

TMNT Episode Review: S2E1 The Mutation Situation

Good news, guys. We've gone to the next level reviewing TMNT 2012 episodes on our associated site The Comic Book Cast. Please check it out and subscribe to them. If you're a comic book fan, you'll love them!





Friday, October 11, 2013

Movie Review: Nacho Libre

The year is 2006. Brokeback Mountain, Cars, Borat, and Snakes on a Plane debuted in theaters. Ben 10, Psych, Ugly Betty, and Hannah Montana debuted on TV. 2006 for Nickelodeon was the beginning of its low point for the network. There were no new Nicktoons and live action shows that debuted and game shows were pretty much dead when Nickelodeon Studios shut down a year prior. With the exception of one preschool show and one show consisting of puppets, the remaining reviews from Nickelodeon will consist of 3 Nickelodeon movie reviews. The first one that came out in theaters was Nacho Libre which debuted on June 16, 2006.

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The movie is loosely based on the real life of Reverend Sergio Gutierrez Benitez, a reckless man obsessed with alcohol turned Mexican Roman Catholic priest who disguised himself as a Mexican luchador so he can be able to support the orphaned children. From 1973 to 2011, Rev. Benitez went by the luchador name of Fray Tormenta (Friar Storm) and competed in many wrestling matches sporadically. Nowadays he's retired from wrestling and is still a priest at the orphanage while another young man going by the name of Fray Tormenta Jr. continues the legacy. Many forms of entertainment was inspired by Fray Tormenta, specifically video game characters such as King from Tekken, Tizoc from Fatal Fury, Leon from F-Zero, and Greco from Chrono Cross. 



With the success of Jared and Jerusha Hess writing and directing Napoleon Dynamite, they were brought in by Paramount to write and direct a film based on Fray Tormenta. Jack Black, who was becoming a popular comedic actor around the 2000's with films such as Shallow Hal, Orange County, and School of Rock, was brought in to play as the main roll and with that. Does the film deserve the championship belt or should they throw in the towel? This is Nacho Libre.

The movie begins with Ignacio, an orphan boy in Mexico, who dreams of being a luchador. However, the other friars deny him of this saying that the Lord forbids wrestling. With that, he trains as a cook using limited amount of ingredients and spices and makes a bland bean soup with tortilla chips. Years later, Ignacio grows up serving the orphan boys the soup with chips telling them that despite the food tasting terrible, they should be thankful that they have it in the first place. Ignacio feels like he never got any respect due to a superior friar mistreating him and calling him worthless. One day, a nun named Sister Encarnacion moves into the orphanage to teach the kids. Ignacio falls immediately in love with her and wishes to talk to her, however the superior friar tells him to go into town to pray for a man sick with pneumonia. Thinking the man is dead, he gives a eulogy in front of his wife while the man wakes up. Ignacio then picks up the tortilla chips for the orphanage when a dirty, homeless man steals the chips and runs away.



Feeling discouraged with lack of money to feed good food at the orphanage, Ignacio decides to become a luchador to get money winning fights. He finds the dirty, homeless man who stole the chips earlier and fights him for revenge. Afterwards, Ignacio asks him to be his luchador partner, but he refuses. He then convinces him that if they win, they would receive 10,000 pesos. The homeless man, whose name was Steven, accepts Ignacio's offer. That night, they disguise themselves and call themselves Nacho and Esqueleto to keep their identities secret. Unfortunately, they lost the fight, but they receive a little bit of money for participating in the fights. The money that Ignacio earned is used to buy better ingredients for the orphanage. No one knows about Ignacio being a luchador with the exception of a chubby orphan boy named Chancho. Chancho and the other boys watch the luchador matches on TV secretly from the friars knowing and as time passes, Chancho dresses up as a luchador and wrestles the other boys. Sister Encarnacion stops the boys from fighting while Ignacio rushes in and tells them that wrestling is wrong despite Chancho knowing of Ignacio's secret.



As time goes on, Ignacio and Steven continue to lose luchador fights and wonder how they can start winning so they can be able to make bigger funds for their goals. Ignacio heads over to a gypsy named Emperor to give him advice on how to win more fights. Emperor tells him to climb a mountain and retrieve an eagle egg and eat it. With that, he would gain enormous power. Ignacio struggles with his task, but was able to accomplish it. Afterwords, they try their "new" power, but they still lose fights. So they decide to get advice from Ramses, the champion luchador, by sneaking into his party. It doesn't succeed very well with Ramses refusing to give Steven advice with his manager saying that the championship luchador tournament called the Battle Jam coming up will have Ramses win. With that, Ignacio and Steven decide to compete in the tournament without Ramses' help. They win most of the battles, but end up losing to a strong luchador named Silencio.

 

 Things turn for the worst when Ignacio's robes went on fire during praying and reveal his luchador outfit. The friars are shocked to see that Ignacio had been wrestling and order him out of the orphanage. Ignacio leaves telling them that the money he would win would go to the orphanage so that he can take them on trips. With that, he heads to the wilderness. Steven finds Ignacio at the wilderness telling him that Silencio can't fight Ramses due to an injury so Ignacio has a chance to fight him for the prize money. With that, Ignacio has the determination to fight once again. That night, Steven gives Sister Encarnacion a letter from Ignacio telling her that he is still alive and fighting at the tournament telling her to see him fight despite her not liking wresting. Also she confesses his love for her as a brother of God since they took an oath of celibacy when joining the church. We then cut to the fight where Nacho and Ramses fight for the tournament championship with Nacho winning so far until Ramses cheated the fight and unmasks Nacho. With Nacho unmasked and feeling discouraged, he looks up and sees Sister Encarnacion and the orphans cheering him on. Nacho then has a flashback of the eagle that he saw earlier remembering when he ate the eagle egg and it gives him the strength to fight again and defeat Ramses and win the tournament.



The movie concludes with Ignacio using the prize money to buy a bus to take the orphans on trips and Ignacio and Sister Encarnacion smiling and acknowledging each other.

When the movie first came out, it came in second place in the box office with Cars leading it. It was a commercial success making $99 million dollars overall despite mixed reviews with critics and viewers. As for me, while there are a few things that make it entertaining, there are too many flaws in this movie that weigh this movie down. First off is Jack Black himself. His Spanish accent is terrible with it sounding Italian a few times and he acts too much like Jack Black and not enough like the character he's suppose to portray as. Also the way that Steven is portrayed seems rushed and convenient to the plot when in the beginning of the movie he didn't believe in God and hated orphans with him quickly baptized by Ignacio and the plot progression make him change his mind. I wish that we would have gotten a little bit of more development with Steven other than just being Ignacio's luchador sidekick. I can also say the same about the other characters in the movie. They seem really tacked in with little to no development. The orphans, with the exception of Chancho, are barely see, the superior friar gets no screen time after Ignacio is revealed to be Nacho, and there's no backstory of our main villain Ramses other than being an obstacle that Ignacio needs to achieve in order for him to win the prize money. The scene in which Ramses removed 's mask should have ended the fight right there. Anyone who has seen a real luchador fight or even Mucha Lucha knows that the removal of a luchador mask represents dishonor and the fighter's defeat. Yet, only when Sister Encarnacion and the orphans show up that Nacho feels to fight again. It may be a nitpick to some, but to me, that pretty much ruins one of the most important rules of luchador fighting.

The worst part of the movie is the relationship between Ignacio and Sister Encarnacion. It seemed that the writers wanted to add in something else to give the story substance, but forgot until the end of the movie that Catholic friars and nuns are celibate to God. This relationship is absolutely pointless and leads up to nowhere. If they would have cut out this plot point out of the movie, almost nothing would have changed, especially since Sister Encarnacion has little to no screentime or character development in this entire movie. I think that bringing in the same people who wrote and directed Napoleon Dynamite didn't work for this film. It doesn't have the same charm and subtle humor that Napoleon Dynamite had. There were no memorable quotes, characters, or scenes that pop into my mind when watching Nacho Libre. I can see some traits of the characters from Napoleon Dynamite in the characters of Nacho Libre a little bit, but it wasn't executed as properly. I felt that they were trying to catch lightning in a jar twice with different characters, a different setting, and a different storyline, but it didn't mesh well with the overall project.

I felt that the story of Rev. Benitez should have been told legit as a serious dramatic film as oppose to a comedy because I think that there's something in there that can be told that could be a true inspiration for many people. They're not a lot of Mexican heroes in pop culture and Fray Tormenta is still being told today. If they would have giving Nacho Libre the same love and attention that Million Dollar Baby did in 2004, Cinderella Man did in 2005, and Rocky Balboa did in the same year that Nacho Libre came out, I think it would have been a stellar film. I know that someone could take this really fascinating story and make into a possible Oscar winning film. What it is now is a lackluster comedy with too many wrong things going for it missing the potential to be something worthwhile checking out.

That's all for now. Tune in next time as we look into another Nickelodeon movie with Barnyard. 

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Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia



Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Movie Review: Yours, Mine, and Ours

To conclude 2005 in the Nickelodeon tribute, we take a look at a movie produced by Nickelodeon Movies. It was a remake based of the 1968 film Yours, Mine, and Ours starring Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda. It's loosely based on the true story of Frank and Helen Beardsley having a rocky relationship with getting their 20 children together (ten from Frank, 8 from Helen's first marriage, and 2 from Helen and Frank). The children don't want them to get together since they liked their lives before and they do everything they can to break their parents' relationship. Desilu Productions, the same company that Desi Arnaz founded that produced I Love Lucy bought the rights to Helen's stories to make it into a motion picture. The movie, while it was a massive commercial success, received mixed reactions when it first came out, mostly due to the fact that it had little to nothing to do with the original source material.



However, as time passed, critics and viewers enjoyed it saying that it was a very entertaining movie with the main praises going to Lucille Ball's performance and the hilarious stunts the children did in the movie to break the parents apart. It was because of this movie, it inspired The Brady Bunch despite another movie with a similar premise Cheaper by the Dozen debuting 18 years before in 1950. Nonetheless, without Yours, Mine, and Ours, we wouldn't have one of the most beloved TV shows of all time.



So with that, what can go wrong? Well, in 2003, a remake of Cheaper by the Dozen debuted starring Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt and it was a commercial success despite the negative remarks. With the announcement of a sequel, Paramount and Nickelodeon Movies made a remake of Yours, Mine, and Ours on November 23, 2005 to compete with Cheaper by the Dozen 2 which came out a month later. Is the remake better than the original? Will they follow the original source material? Let's see and find out. This is Yours, Mine, and Ours. 



The movie begins with Frank Beardsley (played by Dennis Quaid) moving into a new house with his family consisting of 8 kids in Connecticut and Helen North (played by Rene Russo) and her 10 kids. They are both single due to Frank and Helen being widowed. Each of them go on dates in a restaurant with different people, but they meet up with one another being old high school sweethearts. Later on, they meet up at a 30 year high school reunion. They talk about what they're up to nowadays with Frank being an Admiral at the Coast Guard and Helen being a handbag designer. They immediately fall in love all over again, even with Frank and Helen revealing how many kids they have. The revelation doesn't strained their relationship as they decided to get married and move all their kids in a new house by the lighthouse where Frank and Helen had their first kiss. With that said, they decide to take the kids on a sailboat ride for them to get to know one another. But after a minor mishap with Helen squirting sunscreen on her face and Frank helping her to clean it off, the kids immediately don't like one another as each of them are annoyed with each of the clashing personalities. Since Frank and Helen raised their kids in a different way, each of them share their distinctive traits: Frank is a Coast Guard Admiral who raised his children in a disciplined matter so the kids are disciplined and Helen is a free spirited artist so her kids are free spirited in different ways from art to using the video camera to music. The kids from each parent hate one another because they are too different so they decide to have a plan to split them up so that their lives would return back to normal. They all agree.


So the plan starts with Frank's children causing a huge mess with the Frank's schedule at the chalkboard and Helen's children being disciplined with Frank's oldest son William, and ending it with a huge food fight and paint fight. The plan seem to work so far with Helen and Frank slowly getting strained with their relationship. However, they rekindle and have a family meeting saying that from that point on, there will be agreements with each other's way of raising their kids. Meanwhile, Frank's superior offers him a job to take his position as Commandmant at Washington, D.C. and Helen having the offer of making new handbags for a big company. While Frank declined the offer at first, Helen is excited about it so she gets to working on her handbags. However, the kids decide to clean her studio and more of the relationship begins to falter. As time goes on, the kids start to get along and help each other with their activities. But they still don't want to live with one another, so they decide to have a massive party/food fight that goes out of control. With that, Frank decides to take the job as Commandmant and breaks up with Helen saying that the chaos is too much for him to handle. The kids decide that they made a huge mistake and decide to bring them back together again. The older kids go after their dad while the younger kids mess the house bringing it into disorganization. When Helen gets back, she learns that the kids were behind the fights. Frank learns from the older kids about everything and the movie concludes with Helen shining the lighthouse bringing Frank back home, getting remarried again, and everyone living happily together as a family.



When the movie first came out, it was hugely panned by critics and audiences despite the movie making $72 million dollars at the box offices. It even has a rating of 6% on Rotten Tomatoes, the same percentage that The Last Airbender has. Overall, this is a very predictable, underwhelming, schmalzy movie with characters being one dimensional and bland with nothing that makes them standout outside of doing things that tie into their character. As for the performances, they're okay. Nothing really stands out from either actor or actress, with the exception being Rene Russo who did a good job as Helen and the nanny who took care of Frank's kids. This remake was even further from the original source material than the original movie was. Even though the original changed a lot of things from the book, it was able to stand out from the performances by Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball and there were a lot more funny moments in it. It seemed that this version of Yours, Mine, and Ours was made just to grab onto the success of Cheaper by the Dozen and it shows from the overbloated amount of kids with little to no personality and the wacky, crazy shenanigans to try to entertain the audience but failing to do so. Yours, Mine, and Ours is one of the most unnecessary remakes I've ever seen and I don't recommend checking it out.

That's all for now. Tune in next time as we go into the year 2006 and look into another Nickelodeon movie with Nacho Libre. 

 

Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Old School Lane Discussions: Top 10 Worst SNICK Shows

In this top 10, Patricia counts down the top 10 worst SNICK shows. Which shows from Nickelodeon ruined Saturday nights for millions of kids? Let's find out.


Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Old School Lane Channel Trailer

We have our own YouTube channel trailer. Please share this video with your friends and subscribe to us. Thanks guys!

-Patricia and Kevin


Old School Lane Casual Chats Episode 21: Interview with Caseen Gaines

In this episode of Casual Chats, Patricia brings back the first person they've ever interviewed in Old School Lane: book author/pop culture enthusiast Caseen Gaines. This time, they discuss about his upcoming book: A Christmas Story: The Behind The Scenes of a Holiday Classic. 


Old School Lane visits the Slimed! and A Christmas Story book events

Hey guys, Patricia here. Just got back from my trip to NYC where Kevin and I went to two book events: the Slimed! book event at 92Y and the A Christmas Story book event at Solas Restaurant. Both events were a lot of fun in different ways. First the Slimed! book event.



When arriving at 92Y, the line was already long. It was crazy because Kevin and I wanted to get there a few hours early to get good seats. Now that's what I call true old school Nickelodeon fans.



Next up, we went inside to see if we could get some VIP tickets, we were so lucky to get the last two. With that, some of the special guests who were appearing at the event were already there talking, mingling with other people, or getting drinks at the small bar. Kevin and I knew who we were going to see first.



Marc Summers, the host of Double Dare and What Would You Do? was going to be the showrunner for the book event. Kevin and I interviewed Marc last year for the Nickelodeon tribute discussing about his years hosting Double Dare, What Would You Do?, and being an executive producer for a couple of Food Network programs. He remembered us interviewing him and we once again thanked him so much for the wonderful thing he did hosting Double Dare. He is one of our childhood heroes and it was amazing meeting him face to face.

The next person we met was Harvey, who was the announcer of Double Dare. Not only was he just the person who would announce the show and tell the contestants what they won, but he also would interact with the audience and tell a bunch of funny jokes alongside with Marc and Double Dare assistant Robin Marella. Robin made it to the event, but unfortunately, we weren't able to have met her. But it was great meeting Harvey nonetheless. Plus we got Harvey's autograph.





Next we met two cast members from one of our all time favorite Nickelodeon sitcoms The Adventures of Pete & Pete, Michael Maronna who played Big Pete, and Hardy Rawls who played the dad. We also got their autographs.





Next we met Vanessa Coffey, who was the vice president of animation for Nickelodeon and was the main forerunner for the original three Nicktoons Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren & Stimpy Show. Not to mention, she was the one who came up with the concept of 11 minute cartoon segments, which is now a staple in cartoons. We didn't recognized her, but she was impressed with Kevin's Doug doll. Since there never was an official Doug doll for Nickelodeon, Disney released Doug merchandise when they bought the rights from Jim Jinkens, the creator of Doug. But speaking of which, Jim Jinkens showed up and Kevin was absolutely floored! As you know, Kevin is a huge Doug fan and he was so excited to finally meet the man who created one of his all time favorite cartoons.

Plus, we also met the voice of Skeeter Valentine, Mr. Dink, and who did the Doug soundtrack, Fred Newman. Fred was also the host of a kids' talk show host from Nickelodeon called Livewire back in 1980 and he's currently the sound effects man for the popular radio show A Praririe Home Companion. He even did the Skeeter voice and honked at us. It was amazing! Plus we gotten Jim and Fred's autograph.




The next following people we met were Jessica Gaynes from Wild & Crazy Kids and Sean O'Neal from Clarissa Explains it All before we were called to take our seats for the main event. Plus, we gotten their autographs as well.





For the next three hours, Kevin and I sat in the front row seats watching the people behind the #1 kids' network. There were a few panels that occured: there was the panel that contained the people who brought Nickelodeon from being almost bankrupt to the #1 network with the first creative director Scott Webb, the director of various Nickelodeon shows Bob Mittenal, the half of the advertising company Fred/Alan Inc. Alan Goodman, and more. The second panel had the co-creator and cast of You Can't Do That on Television, the third panel had the cast of Doug, which included Jim Jinkens, Vanessa Coffey, Doug creative director and creator of Clarissa Explains it All, Fred Newman, the voice actress for Patti Mayonaisse Connie Shulman, and the voice of Doug, Roger, Ren, Stimpy, and hundreds more Billy West. Afterwards, Fred Newman and Doug musician Dan Sawyer played music from Doug which everyone sang out loud. Next, the panel of Clarissa Explains it All, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, and a misc. panel concluded the event with joyous cheers from 900 people on their teens, 20s, and 30s reliving their childhoods. For those who missed the event, watch it right here! You can even see Kevin and I on our seats.

Next was the afterparty where we met Nick Arcade host Phil Moore. Despite Kevin and I making fun of him in Casual Chats episode 1, he was one of the funniest person on the event.


Next, we finally met the man himself, Mathew Klickstein. At the event, we slowly became good friends with him. He also autographed our book.



Next, we met and talked to Nick Arcade creators Karim Miteff and James Bethea, Salute Your Shorts actor Tim "Trevor" Eyster who was Sponge and Are You Afraid of the Dark? actor/meterologist Ross Hull who was Gary. He told us that not only did he remember our interview with him last year, but our interview was his all time favorite. It was a long 4 hour event, but it was worth it and one of the best nights I've ever had.



Next was the A Christmas Story book event at Solas Restaurant. It was small, informal, and much more quiet. It was much needed since being around over 1000 people for 4 hours was very tiring. I met Caseen Gaines for the first time face to face. As some of you know, he was the first person we've ever interviewed for Old School Lane when he talked about his first book Inside Pee-wee's Playhouse. Surprisingly, Mathew Klickstein and Jessica Gaynes showed up at the event and for the next 3 hours, we were talking about the movie, the book, and their upcoming projects. It didn't feel manipulating, it felt like I was talking with real friends. With that, I truly felt like I made some while I was there.



That's all for now. Tune in next time as Kevin and I discuss about the two books, our experiences with the events, and continue with the Nickelodeon tribute.

Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia