Underrated TV

[Drtooth]

Egads... I have to do everything around here, don't I?

I'll try not to mention foreign shows this time... there will be one exception, as you'll see.

Toonsylvania: The forgotten Steven Spielberg Presents cartoon of the 90's, mainly because it was the first cartoon Dreamworks and not a Warner Bros./Amblin cartoon. Absolutely one of my favorite Monster shows (right up there with Duckula), featuring a vain and vindictive Dr. Vic Frankenstine, his disgruntled assistant that's always vying for his position, Igor and the idiot monster Vic created, Phil. The show basically took swipes at different horror movie aspects, even mocking various Twilight Zone episodes (when Igor buys a cursed doll for Phil's Birthday)... once they even made satirized James Cameron's Titanic ego. Also featured, a sitcom about zombies designed by Mike Peters (the guy who gave us Mother Goose and Grimmy), Mellisa's Morbid Morals (where Igor tries to scare Phil out of various bad behaviors) and the very rare recurring segment that parodies B movies that was only used a couple times in the show's run. Unfortunately, this was one of the shows Fox set its sights on for cancellation for more Power Ranger time slots , and Dreamworks has been sitting it's big ol' butt over the dang thing, so it will probably never get a DVD release, much less a rerun somewhere.

Gadget and the Gadgetinis: A show so underrated, it was never shown in the US. While I do overall enjoy the classic Inspector Gadget series better, the story lines actually got a bit deeper. In one episode, Dr. Claw sends a Mad agent back in time to prevent Gadget's parents from ever meeting to effectively erase him from existence, while Gadget accidentally meanders through the past, almost erasing Dr. Claw instead. The only things I dislike about the series are the Gadgetinis themselves (two small robots that look like Gadget, but arguably smarter... one having to remind the other constantly that they're robots) and what happened to Brain (apparently, it's revealed he became so stressed out after the adventures of the first series, he retired and ran away, leaving him a nervous wreck that can't even hear Gadget's name without freaking out). Chief Quimby has also been replaced (promoted, but he appears in one episode... he's actually aged), and we get the (almost funnier) Colonel Nozzaire, who HATES Gadget with every fiber of his being, and wants to send him on dangerous missions in the event he won't come back.

Better off Ted: CURSE YOU ABC! Curse you for canceling this series and not putting it on Wednesdays in the time slot of that horrid Kelsey Grammer project that was rightfully canned after a couple episodes. If there's one thing I like, it's the manic satire of the business world this show painted, even making fun of companies that have PR advertisements every time they screw up.

Reaper:siggghhhhhh.... I hate the CW! Really. This demanded a third season, and it never got one because not enough older teenagers were watching because it wasn't about rich bimbos whining about how hard they have it for being rich and having multiple romantic partners. The series never got the ending it deserved, and I think it's too good to wind up like Pushing Daisies and Arrested Development and wind up having a movie that never comes out, or a comic book that never happens...

Oh yeah, on that note Pushing Daisies and Arrested Development

 

[Sgt Floyd]

Im gonna say FreakyLinks. It was a bit creepy but funny. its a shame it only lasted one season.

But then again, I have a very twisted sense of humor which matched the show so...

 

[JJandJanice]

Angry Beavers and AHHHH! Real Monsters- Two VERY good Nick "Nicktoons" that didn't and still doesn't get the praise it deserves. I'm not excatly saying it should be on "Spongebob's level" but it deserves more than it's gotten over the years.
Muppets Tonight-Well at least the second season when the show was getting better. Still not NEARLY as good as the Muppet Show, but still, it seemed like it was really starting to cook.
Futurama- As much as I love the Simpsons, in some cases during the early 2000s, Futurama would prove to be an EVEN better show from Matt Geoening. Too bad it had to live in the Simpsons BIG shadow.
American Dad- Perhaps not "overall underratted" but when compare to Family Guy and the Cleveland Show, yeah it's pretty underratted in the Seth McFarlane cartoon world.

I'm sure I'll think of more later.

 

[Drtooth]

Absolutely agreed on both counts of Futurama and American Dad. They are the BEST shows from both creators, and they're both a LOT more imaginative that the shows they live in the shadows of. American Dad is always the first show to have to go on Seasonal replacement, and I wouldn't be surprised if it gets canceled soon. Meanwhile The Simpsons turned into "How many stupid and fat jokes can we make about Homer" and "let's make this a Lisa episode so we can use her as a soapbox to whine about how much better we are than everyone else." Meanwhile, Family Guy is basically "Let's just keep the stoners and gamers that watch adult swim happy!" American Dad actually has crazy PLOTS and not gag after gag after gag shove together. Plus, the James Bond parody was the finest I've seen considering that's a well that too many have gone to too many times.

But I can do you one better:

The Critic: This wasn't just "Oh look, Movie parody!" It was a series about this little guy who no one understood trying to make it in his business and trying in vain to find someone to share that with. And when they did movie parodies, it wasn't "look what's popular now!" They even went as far as satirizing the fact that Hollywood completely abandoned Orson Welles and he was forced to do really bad commercials at times. If anyone has ever heard of the "Frozen Peas" fiasco (also parodied word for word in the Animaniacs episode "Yes, Always!") and his drunken wine commercial, they took brutal swipes at them. The show oozed clever, and even though they decided to give him a girlfriend in the second season (which I wasn't a fan of) it really deserved a longer stay on TV. Furturama at least got a big comeback with movies and a new season. The Critic only got a long forgotten web series that ONLY parodied movies and had a thin attempt at plot if you watch them all together.

 

[JJandJanice]

The Critic: This wasn't just "Oh look, Movie parody!" It was a series about this little guy who no one understood trying to make it in his business and trying in vain to find someone to share that with. And when they did movie parodies, it wasn't "look what's popular now!" They even went as far as satirizing the fact that Hollywood completely abandoned Orson Welles and he was forced to do really bad commercials at times. If anyone has ever heard of the "Frozen Peas" fiasco (also parodied word for word in the Animaniacs episode "Yes, Always!") and his drunken wine commercial, they took brutal swipes at them. The show oozed clever, and even though they decided to give him a girlfriend in the second season (which I wasn't a fan of) it really deserved a longer stay on TV. Furturama at least got a big comeback with movies and a new season. The Critic only got a long forgotten web series that ONLY parodied movies and had a thin attempt at plot if you watch them all together.

Geez, why didn't mention that one in my first post, . I love the Critic, I even own the complete series DVD set. That is a hugely underratted show.

In fact the season six episode of the Simpsons entitled "A Star is Burns" had the Critic himself: Jay Shermen as a guest character, which made creator Matt Geoening VERY upset. Which is too bad really as he felt it made the Simpsons look "second rate" and a "commerical for the Critic." So even right there the show was being treated almost like an "unwanted step brother" for the Simpsons that Fox took in. That is a shame really.

 

[Drtooth]

I pretty much have to say this.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Now this show IS popular with the kids, but I don't know how it resinated with older fans... and I feel that it's highly rated when it's compared with the biggie, Batman The Animated Series.

Now, Batman TAS is not only a great show, but a very important show. It stretched the limit of what you could do on an action cartoon. If anyone remembers Super Friends, they couldn't even hit the villains at one point, they had to trap them with lasers or something. Even TMNT's 80's series had them fight robots most of all, capturing everyone else in traps. There were a lot of themes that pushed boundaries as well. Of course, now every single Batman cartoon from now till the end of eternity will be compared, unfairly I might add, to that series.

Then of course there's The Batman. Not that I didn't enjoy it, but it really went through one heck of an identity crisis. First it wanted to be the Chris Nolan movies (a year before the first one premiered, mind you), then it wanted to be Batman TAS... and in between that it accidentally turned into Jackie Chan Adventures (especially when they add Batgirl, who was basically turned into Jade). While it had a lot of great moments, it also felt uneven in certain seasons. Especially the dreaded third season.

This new one KNOWS what it wanted to be right out of the gate. This is based on a long forgotten series of Batman comics where he DID indeed team up with a different hero every single issue. Something done in this series. And because there's always a new hero, there's also different villains. And this way we get to see a lot of long lost faces that were considered too weird for any of the more serious Batman or Justice League shows. And Plastic Man finally has a new gig since his 1980's series. And the show can either be very wacky or darkly serious depending on who's in it. Aspects of Batman's history are embraced and or throttled, even cracking jokes at the adult Batman cartoon fan base at one point.

Oh, and it made Aquaman INTERESTING. no one has EVER done that.

 

[Super Scooter]

Arrested Development and NewsRadio are two of my very favorite shows, but they were completely overlooked while they were on. NewsRadio has a manic, fat-paced, silly brand of humor comparable to the Muppet Show's antics. Arrested Development was just far too brilliant for television, and probably too brilliant for the movies as well.

 

[dwmckim]

You Can't Do That on Television. Yes, it was a bit of a hit when it was on (but still a bit underground because not everyone had cable/Nickelodeon at the time.) It never seems to be brought up when people talk about classic Nick anymore (even though the green slime originated from the show and remained a major part of Nick's identity for very long after). Many people dismissed it as either gross-out humor or a "can't-live-up-to "Laugh-In" copy that it was clearly influenced by) but here was a kids show that not only didn't talk down to kids but really got and identified with them - and adults could also really love it as well. The fact that it originated and had its roots in a Canadian station kept the show from having that Hollywood feel or tone of "what big stars we are". It always felt humble. And although the TONS of kids that would populate it over the years had its stars and duds, overall many of them felt like people you knew or could easily know. "Moose" and Lisa were actually a comedy team on par with many of the classic duos.

Definately missed. I can't quite name its direct influence Laugh-In as underrated because i think critics and general public alike rightfully respect and credit its place in television history, but man oh man the boob tube needs a current version of this show - whether its a kids show, all ages or what have you?

 

[Drtooth]

Considering I recently bought the DVD box set for a steal (in the figurative sense of the word), I' going to add...

The OTHER Ghost Busters.

Never has there been a more unfortunate co-incidence in entertainment history. Now, you really need to get the history of BOTH GB's in question... the movie was this close to having a different name (Ghostsmashers) and due to them not being familiar an obscure (but brilliant) live action Saturday morning kid's show from 10 years earlier there was some legal trauma, and so Filmation (who actually owned the name) didn't get the rights to animation and they purposely decided to make their OWN Ghost Busters cartoon because of the popularity of the movie (Columbia went to DIC instead for theirs). So basically we got one amazing Real Ghostbusters cartoon series (Real was part of the settlement) and a pretty decent OTHER series with a more. Dr. Claw/Skeletor/Cobra Commander type villain, giving them both a distinct feel.

Now, while we all can agree The Real Ghostbusters is one of the greatest cartoons of the 80's and the BEST cartoon based off of a film, the other Ghost Busters gets left in the cold (though, due to idiotic management decisions from the owners of the Real one, the Filmation series got released first). And even though it does have the air of preachiness in most episodes, it does manage to be a fun little show all it's own. Especially the episode "Outlaws in Laws." I'm still laughing from that one.

 

[mr3urious]

The only way I've heard about Filmation's Ghost Busters is because it's loved by a certain autistic manchild whom the Internet hates with a passion.