The "You know what?" thread

[minor muppetz]

The classic Warner Bros. and MGM cartoons have a history that short of parallels each other.

Warner Bros. and MGM animation were both started by Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising, and their eras are rather obscure while later eras are much better known and were more widely broadcast over the years.

And it seems like Tex Avery made both animation studios what they would become better associated with. I keep seeing things that say that Tex Avery was responsible for making the Looney Tunes looney, and he seems to be the most celebrated director of MGM cartoons in the 1940s and 1950s, with his one-shots being the best-known. His cartoons were given a home video series, Tex Avery's Screwball Classics, for years fans have been wanting a DVD collection of Avery's MGM one-shots (and Warner Home Video had considered it at one point), there was a Tex Avery Show before Bob Clampett and Chuck Jones got theirs on Cartoon Network. And when it comes to MGM animation directors in the 1940s and 1950s, were there any others besides Avery, William Hanna, and Joseph Barberra? And did Hanna and Barberra direct many MGM shorts outside of the Tom and Jerry series?

And even the later years of both studios during the golden age parallels each other. Both studios eventually closed down their animation studios and hired outside studios to animate, eventually getting studios they would own - or at least I think. I know they outsourced the studio Chuck Jones started and eventually purchased it, and during the last few years of the 1960s, Warner Bros. had a merger with Seven Arts (or did one of the two companies purchase the other?) and a studio owned by Seven Arts did the animation for Warner Bros. for the rest of the decade. Of course MGM closed its studio sooner than Warner Bros. did (when theatrical animation was still popular), mainly because rereleases were just as profitible as new releases, and only started production on new Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts after either a renewed interest in the characters or animation in general (though Chuck Jones would direct and produce two one-shot shorts for the company).

And the later eras of both companies would be ones rarely represented on home video until recently (though they seemed to turn up on video internationally). The Looney Tunes Video Show was the only Looney Tunes video series released in America to contain any post-1964 Looney Tunes, and a handful of post-1964 shorts appear on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection (however, in 2004, there was a 4 Cartoon Classics bonus disc included with The Polar Express when purchased at Walmart, which primarily featured post-1964 cartoons). But then the Looney Tunes Super Stars collection included a number of post-1964 cartoons - in fact the Road Runner release did not include ANY pre-1964 cartoons (when I say "post-1964" I usually only mean 1964-1969, not Looney Tunes shorts produced long after, but I would like to point out that this Road Runner release is also the only Looney Tunes DVD to feature later cartoons as part of the main program as opposed to bonus features), in addition to a couple post-1964 cartoons being bonus shorts on the Mouse Chronicles set. And around the time of those releases, all of the Chuck Jones-produced Tom and Jerry shorts were released in a boxed set, and then in 2014 the Gene Dietch cartoons were given their own collection, which ended up being Warner Home Video's last collectors-market DVD of classic animation (though it's been said that Warner Home Video is planning a new Popeye set if that CGI movie gets made, and here's hoping that Space Jam 2 will lead to Warner Home Video remastering more Looney Tunes).

 

[D'Snowth]

I gained three subscribers on YouTube this week . . . but then I lost three subscribers in twenty-four hours. Ouch.

 

[D'Snowth]

I'd kind of like to try my hand at an Odd Couple fanfic: I have an idea of what the story would be, but the problem is I can't make up my mind how Felix should be written, because I can actually see him in two completely different mindframes within the context of the plot.

 

[minor muppetz]

Recently, Alan Muraoka said on Facebook that it's his 18th year on Sesame Street, when it's actually his 19th. He seemed to be going by season, as the seasons now tend to start halfway through the television season, just after the years have changed.

But this has got me thinking, with most (but not all) seasons since season 31 premiering after January, if the next few seasons premiere around the same time as they have been, then we'll get season 48 in 2018, season 49 in 2019, and season 50 in 2020 - meaning that the 50th season will most likely premiere a year after the 50th year/50th anniversary season (assuming they will celebrate that season).

But who knows? Maybe one or more of those seasons will premier a few months sooner and the 50th season will premiere by 2019.

 

[D'Snowth]

I'm pretty sure I mentioned that, almost verbatim, in another thread.

 

[cjd874]

More allegations about Trump & his "dealings" with Russia, before he's even been sworn in. A large part of me says, "He is NOT fit to be President at all because he is inexperienced with politics, doesn't connect with the youth of America, and lacks moral decency. It won't be long before he's out of office." But a small part of me says, "You know what? It might sound crazy, but I want to see just how far he tries to go, before he royally screws up and he has to bear the burden of his actions. Will he actually try to serve our country for the time being, or will he just continue to be a blithering idiot?"

This "he's not my President" thing is not going to go away for a long time. The Democrats (and quite a few Republicans, I imagine) are going to spend the next few months (or God forbid, years) trying to get him out of the White House...and who can blame them?

 

[D'Snowth]

It still amazes me that in the midst of Russia - one of our most notorious enemies - interfering with and influencing the elections, that Republicans and Drumpf supporters were so dead-set on him winning that they're actually just brushing the whole thing off. Had this been any other circumstance (like, say, if Hillary won instead, for example), you can bet your brass that they'd be a full-blown, global witch hunt against Russia for their dirty deed. So, if the Middle East did the same thing and helped Drumpf win, would the right brush that off as well? What about ISIS? What if they were involved? Would the right actually give them a free pass this time because they helped Drumpf win?

 

[cjd874]

Had this been any other circumstance (like, say, if Hillary won instead, for example), you can bet your brass that they'd be a full-blown, global witch hunt against Russia for their dirty deed. So, if the Middle East did the same thing and helped Drumpf win, would the right brush that off as well? What about ISIS? What if they were involved? Would the right actually give them a free pass this time because they helped Drumpf win?

That's all hypothetical at this point. I can't say for sure. No one knows who else might have been involved with this mayhem. But like you, I am pretty worried about our government, economy, racial issues, and public education...what does he think he's going to do in the upcoming future? He needs to see what he's getting himself into, and deal with it in a practical and realistic manner.

I've been learning a lot about Frank Zappa lately. He was not only a musical genius, but he was also pretty knowledgeable when it came to politics and business. Thirty-five years ago, Zappa talked about politics, and I think it accurately predicted what our government has come to. Let me know what you think of this, D'Snowth.

 

[D'Snowth]

Yeah, I would say he's pretty much hit the nail on the head - honest politicians are, indeed, a very rare seed; even now, one of Drumpf's defining qualities is his dishonesty, but it goes beyond even him. The whole gun control debacle, for example: the idea of Obama enforcing stricter gun laws was that he was wanting to gun sales to have much more thorough background checks on people wanting to buy guns, so as to try and prevent shootings like the recent Fort Lauderdale shooting, from happening by allowing guns to fall into the hands of mentally unstable people who run around causing destruction and devastation . . . House and Senate, on the other hand, resorted to their usual fear-tactings by scaring the American people into thinking Obama was going to personally come and take away everybody's guns and thus, "infringe on our Constitutional rights to bear arms."

 

[cjd874]

Yeah, I would say he's pretty much hit the nail on the head - honest politicians are, indeed, a very rare seed; even now, one of Drumpf's defining qualities is his dishonesty, but it goes beyond even him. The whole gun control debacle, for example: the idea of Obama enforcing stricter gun laws was that he was wanting to gun sales to have much more thorough background checks on people wanting to buy guns, so as to try and prevent shootings like the recent Fort Lauderdale shooting, from happening by allowing guns to fall into the hands of mentally unstable people who run around causing destruction and devastation . . . House and Senate, on the other hand, resorted to their usual fear-tactings by scaring the American people into thinking Obama was going to personally come and take away everybody's guns and thus, "infringe on our Constitutional rights to bear arms."

Right. In the video, Zappa said "Reagan is an actor, and he should stick to acting." Similarly, Trump has been a businessman all his life, and so I think he should stay with that. Of course I'm not a famous person like Zappa, but that's just my opinion. Oh yeah, and the gun rights issue freaks me out too. Wonder how that will turn out with DT in charge.