You Ever Notice...and What's the Deal...

[CensoredAlso]

They were saying Sunny D was healthier. They just weren't preachy about it.

 

[Drtooth]

Now that I think about it, all I remember is that stuff Stewie rehased. They probably did. And now that i think about it, I seem to recall 1980's cereal commercials bragging about their vitamins.

But when you get all preachy about how healthy something that really isn't that healthy, and/or is only a slightly healthier option than something else (SUBWAY ) it tends to come off as a false statement that only suckers in... well... suckers. Sunny D did have vitamin C in it. I'd say that and the fact it doesn't give you gas.

But UH, I hate when Subway does it. For 2 reasons... first of all, cold cuts are teaming with nitrates and sodium... not that much healthier, actually. And then they have those offensive commercials where relatively thin, if not slightly overweight (read, not fat) people break chairs and fall through floors for eating one freaking burger. Especially when they can do funny, engaging commercials from time to time. I LOVED those ones with Jon Lovitz.

 

[minor muppetz]

They were saying Sunny D was healthier. They just weren't preachy about it.

Though when watching that commercial, I can't help but feel it was produced by a religious company (though it has nothing to do with religion).

 

[CensoredAlso]

Though when watching that commercial, I can't help but feel it was produced by a religious company (though it has nothing to do with religion).

How so?

 

[minor muppetz]

How so?

I don't know how to explain it.

 

[minor muppetz]

It seems like on How I Met Your Mother, sometimes there's a commercial break after the opening, and sometimes there's not. And I'm talking about the original CBS broadcasts, not reruns. Anybody know why they would sometimes follow the opening with a commercial break and sometimes not?

I can't remember if I've asked about this here or in the questions thread, but how come on Taxi and Newhart (and I think it's also common on How I Met Your Mother), it's just as common for an episode to have a scene after the last commercial break, before the credits, as it is for an episode not to? I have the first season DVDs of Taxi and Newhart and know that it's not a case of the tag being cut in syndication or on Nick at Nite (I assume the Taxi DVDs are uncut, I've never really noticed anything that's not in syndication there, but have noticed plenty of scenes on the Newhart DVDs that were cut in syndication).

 

[minor muppetz]

The "start" button on a video game controller is often called the "pause" button, even though it says "start". It does start the games, but people surely use the button to pause more than start.

I'd ask "what's up with that", but is labeling it the start button an "artifact" or "artifact title"? I know that the Atari 5200 was the first system to have a pause feature (did systems before them have "start" buttons? I guess those would have only been able to start the game). It seems more appropriate to label the start button "the artifact" these days, as you can also start a game by hitting the A button (or the X button, on a PlayStation system). I can't remember if the start button was even able to start games for the Nintendo 64 (I only remember hitting A to start those games).

 

[minor muppetz]

I've noticed that the packaging for every video release of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show avoids images from the live-action segments. Why is that? Okay, it makes sense when they're not pictured on releases that only include the animated portions (and I recently read that there's a "complete series" release that only has all the animated segments), but it's interesting that it happened on the early VHS releases from Kids Klassics, which had two live-action segments and only one animated segment. So the live-action ones are prioritized in the VHS content on early releases (I know later ones have less of the live-action stuff) but the packaging has to focus exclusively on the animated portions?

 

[minor muppetz]

On Pee-Wee's Playhouse, does the red door have a knob? It seems like the door usually only gets pushed (either way), and I don't ever remember seeing a knob there. But the door does get pulled open when the Salesman shows up... How does Pee-Wee pull the door open? And does he ever lock it (with all the furniture alive I guess it would be hard for people to break in and steal without being seen... Though there was an episode where a new neighbor managed to steal from the playhouse, without anybody seeing him steal)?

And what's the deal with Jambi's wishes? Pee-Wee usually only gets one wish per day, and on occasion Pee-Wee lets other characters have that wish. But then there are times when other characters make a wish and he grants it, without Pee-Wee confirming that it's okay for them to have their wish that day. This includes the time when Pee-Wee falls asleep and the others with they could see what he was dreaming (and this is the episode where the playhouse catches fire... If not for that wish he could have wished for the fire to go away, though I don't think that episode showed whether he tried to make that wish), and one time when Jambi has a snack and wishes he had a second, and decides to just grant his own wish (in the Party episode Pee-Wee let Jambi have his wish as a present, so I guess that means Jambi can't just grant wishes to himself very freely). And in the Christmas Special (which I haven't seen) he gives Pee-Wee a second wish, presumably because it's Christmas... So it is possible for him to grant more than one wish.

And recently, I read about the old VHS releases of Pee-Wee's Playhouse from Hi-Tops back in the '80s. What's the deal with most of them being single-episode releases, while a few have multiples? Volume 3 had three episodes, and then there was a five-episode video which didn't have a volume number. And that episode had Monster in the Playhouse, which was also available on it's own (while the rest of the episodes included weren't)?

 

[minor muppetz]

A few things about a few movies...

Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey

In this movie, the family has to move to San Francisco for a few weeks, and has to leave their pets with a friend who lives somewhere on the way there. The family planned to occasionally visit on weekends during that time (I used to think they were going back home when they planned to visit). However, after they hear that the pets had been located and they go to the animal shelter to pick them up, they seem to have gone back to their permanent home afterwards. Did the father's temporary job relocation just happen to suddenly end when the pets were found? Did he make arrangements with his boss to go back home?

Also, the pets don't realize that they were going to be without their owners for awhile (I used to think that they did, and that Shadow simply couldn't understand Peter on the phone telling him that they'll visit later than he had told him, leading to them running back), and eventually they decide to go home. How interesting is it that their owners just happened to be home by the time they got there? What if they had made it home when the owners were still out of town?

Billy Madison

Early on, when the father tells Billy that he's planning on letting Eric inherit the company instead of Billy, he tells him that now he doesn't have to look for a job. Why? If Billy got to own the company, he wouldn't have to look for a job because he'd have one, which until then had been guaranteed for him. So maybe his dad was still going to be spoiling him (maybe he should have told him he'd cut him off in addition to not letting him run the family business), but it seems like he wouldn't need to look for a job either way.

Baby's Day Out

When Baby Bink gets kidnapped, the robbers ransom note says "don't call the police". Why'd they do that, besides not wanting to be caught? I don't think the note says anything about what they'd do if the police were called. And the parents do call the police anyway.

And throughout the movie, they worry about not getting the ransom money when the baby escapes. Why not just go to where the money is supposed to be anyway? Yeah, I know Norby asks Eddie if they should just go and see if the money is there. And Eddie seems to figure out that they would most likely have the cops there when they collected it. Just because the baby's not with them?