The Nostalgia Thread

[Schfifty]

Yeah. I actually kind of feel we should leave it to the moderators for what to do with this thread. Keep this thread, or merge it with the old thread (if it's possible)?

So...my childhood pretty much narrows down to eight things: Sesame Street, The Muppets, game shows, Pixar, Nintendo, PlayStation, Sega, and this TV channel...

 

[D'Snowth]

The Powerhouse era of Cn was the best. That's really when CN pretty much found its voice and it realy began to come into its own; it had so much personality then.

 

[Twisted Tails]

Well... I was a 90s kid (a.k.a 1990s) kid.

Winzie's House

Allegra's Window

(back then you had the "Face" bumpers before each Nick Jr. show)

Little Bear

 

[Harleena]

@muppetfan24/7 For a second I thought it said "Allegra's Window P0rno"…

 

[Schfifty]

The Powerhouse era of Cn was the best. That's really when CN pretty much found its voice and it realy began to come into its own; it had so much personality then.

Yep! And I'm glad I grew up with that era, because it was before the big change in direction occurred in 2004 with the new logo and theme. I like how the background colors on all the bumpers were different depending on each time of the day. I particularly liked the black color scheme that showed during the midnight hours.

 

[D'Snowth]

Yep! And I'm glad I grew up with that era, because it was before the big change in direction occurred in 2004 with the new logo and theme. I like how the background colors on all the bumpers were different depending on each time of the day. I particularly liked the black color scheme that showed during the midnight hours.

I liked the special holiday editions that had around Christmas time, like sledding into a tree and the plow destroying the snowman.

But what I don't understand is now people are actually shifting their mindset and are claiming that CN City (the aforementioned big change in 2004) was the best era, which couldn't be farther from the truth; that was the beginning fo the end of CN.

 

[Drtooth]

BAH! I remember when there was no Cartoon Network and you could watch all the old cartoons on syndication. And often times, they were the bizarrely unedited versions of them. Well, Looney Tunes and the like. Blackface gags and all. Not that I'm saying "where are my racist things that are only funny ironically now" but you'd be surprised that stuff was in tact in the 80's and early 90's.

Now if there's one syndicated package I miss dearly, it's the 80's syndicated edition of Mighty Mouse and Friends (or Playhouse...or whatever). Not only did you get the Terrytoons version, you got the Filmation series as well. And say what you will about most Filmation remakes of cartoons, their Mighty Mouse was tight! Kinda helps that limited animation often reused a crapload of times was what Terrytoons did near the end... but the writing for Filmation's Mighty Mouse was pretty good. Their Heckle and Jeckles were ..well...meh... Quackula isn't half as funny as the character Cosgrove Hall gave the world a few years later. Not to mention there would be those rare 1960's Bashki created series in the mix like Mighty Heroes and James Hound. Seriously... I was freaking obsessed with Mighty Heroes back in 2000 or so, going only on faded memory, the one shot comic, and a 20 dollar bootleg VHS.

 

[D'Snowth]

BAH! I remember when there was no Cartoon Network and you could watch all the old cartoons on syndication. And often times, they were the bizarrely unedited versions of them. Well, Looney Tunes and the like. Blackface gags and all. Not that I'm saying "where are my racist things that are only funny ironically now" but you'd be surprised that stuff was in tact in the 80's and early 90's.

I have an old tape full of public domain cartoons, and not only does it include this delightfully racist "puppetoon":

it also includes the uncut version of "Fresh Hare", with Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police suddenly singing "Camptown Races" in blackface. Y'know, as a kid, I had no concept of blackface, and I wondered why they were suddenly dressed like monkeys ('cause that's what they freakin' looked like).

 

[Drtooth]

Me too, sort of. Though some of the time they threw in something where the offensive caricatures were actually so bad they came off as frightening.

But man, I am no stranger to the embarrassingly okay in the 1960's Asian stereotypes. Seems they really got it bad in the 60's. That Mighty Heroes series I mentioned earlier? Two different Supervillains had incredibly racist Pan-Asian henchmen... and bot with the same voice! These are just painfully embarrassing to watch now.

Actually, I have a funny story. I was at this convention panel where we watched outrageous cartoon moments, and with a huge, long introduction and a blessing from one of the African American audience members, we watched Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarbs.... for all of 2 minutes to dead, stunned silence. Not even an ironic laugh. OUCH!

Now, I am of the kind to say these are awful, but by all means we need to acknowledge they exist for the sake of saying "Dear God, we were freaking horrible back then!" and by denying them, it's almost as bad as them existing in the first place. But I will not actively seek them out and get enjoyment from them. Even the one time I actually find one of these funny (A Sylvester and Tweety cartoon where Sylvester is disguised as a Swedish maid to get Tweety saying "Okay, everybody out unteel I feenish de yob!" gets blown up and turns into a...well... you know...and says "Now Ah Gotta Get Back in da kitch'n! Ah smell Somethin' buuuurrrrrrrrrrnin'!") I feel genuinely horrible about it.

Of course, those uncensored cartoons are best left to DVD collections for older animation fans. The kid friendly reruns that are easily accessible? Edit the heck out of that stuff. They're not ready to know about that stuff yet.

 

[fuzzygobo]

There were quite a few Tom and Jerry moments where either dynamite explodes in Tom's face, or they end up getting covered with tar, and you get a brief blackface gag. Most of these were edited out over time, but a few stray ones still exist. Tex Avery's shorts still have a few as well.

They even redrew the "Mammy Two-Shoes" character, most notably in "Saturday Evening Puss", making her white and giving her an Irish accent.
Sometimes it's hard to know what's more glaring- the original scene or the attempt to make it politically correct (or less offensive).