It doesn’t matter whether you like sports or not, the Super Bowl is one of the biggest entertainment events of the year. The estimated 111.3 million viewers Sunday night made it the most watched television show of all time.

A big highlight from the night, at least for me, was the commercial presented by MetLife. The insurance company’s “Everyone” ad featured a bevy of classic cartoon characters.

A great aspect of the nostalgia-inducing spot was its use of B-list stars. Sure, the Peanuts characters common with MetLife advertising were present but so too were Saturday Morning heroes long forgotten. You could easily see popular ’70s and ’80s figures like Voltron, He-Man, and The Jetsons. Also on hand were lesser-knowns like Jabberjaw, Hong Kong Phooey, and Magilla Gorilla.

MetLife’s Facebook page has bios of most of them but cartoonist Mark Anderson has an exhaustive list in chronological order. Anderson even corrected MetLife’s mention of Captain Caveman to his doppelgangers Rock and Gravel Slag.

If you missed the ad, watch it below and then seek out the excellent coverage by Anderson. The Facebook page also has a few “behind the scenes” videos to check out. Oh, and see if you can find the numerous inclusions of the stripe shirt-wearing Waldo.

I may have given up on the Call of Duty games a year or two ago, but I still look fondly on the first game I ever owned on my Xbox 360, Call of Duty: World at War. If you’ve played that game (or Black Ops), you’re probably aware that legendary actor and all-around badass Gary Oldman voiced the Russian character Viktor Reznov. Well, Mr. Oldman was on Conan recently and the topic of video game voiceovers got brought up, and to the delight of geeks everywhere he spouted off a few Viktor Reznov phrases rather loudly.

I’ve always wandered what legit actors think about lending their voices to video games, and it looks like Oldman is a good sport about it.

Via The Verge

If you listened to our last episode of Bubble Pipe Theater, you heard me mention ‘A Muppet Family Christmas’ as I rambled on about the Muppets with Tim and Rob. I can’t believe I haven’t written about it on the site before, because it just may be my all-time favorite holiday special. It’s a unique blend of Henson characters that just couldn’t be possible today with Disney owning the Muppets.

‘A Muppet Family Christmas’ first aired on television way back in 1987 and I just have vague memories of seeing it as a kid. It wasn’t until 2003 when I picked up the (now out of print) DVD that I fell in love with it. The hour-long show is the perfect blend of Christmas warmth and the classic Muppet humor we grew to love with The Muppet Show and the early movies. Without further ado, I’d like to kick off a new series here on the site with 10 Awesome Things about ‘A Muppet Family Christmas.’

Emily Bear

10. Fozzie’s Mom

The whole premise of the special is that the Muppet gang is surprising Fozzie’s mom, Emily Bear, at her farmhouse for the holidays. Emily, as it turns out, is awesome, and was planning on ditching the snow and heading to California for Christmas. She doesn’t have a clue that a few dozen weirdos are on their way to her house, which is exactly why she decides to rent the place out to…well keep reading.

9. Fraggle Rock Characters

What? Fraggle Rock characters mingling with Muppets? How’s that work? Surprisingly well, actually. Doc and Sprocket rent Emily Bear’s farmhouse out for the holidays (apparently in an attempt to escape their house that is infested with Fraggles) only to pick another house that contains a Fraggle hole. Doc is his usual cranky self, but when The Muppets arrive he only briefly complains before getting to work making bunkbeds for all the extra guests. Eventually Kermit and Robin find the Fraggle Hole and meet up with the gang and join in one of the classic songs from the HBO series.

8. The Running Gags

Muppet fans love a good running gag, and this special has one in the form of an icy patch on Emily Bear’s door. It doesn’t sound very funny, but watching puppets who obviously do not have legs slipping and falling all over each other actually is. Everyone also keeps mentioning that outside it’s “Cold enough to freeze your Winnebago,” which I often use now to describe Indiana.

The Christmas Turkey

7. The Turkey

Leave it to the Swedish Chef to befriend a turkey and invite him to the farmhouse with the intentions of cooking and eating him. That’s just what happens, but luckily Gonzo finds him first and informs him of the Chef’s plans. The hip turkey (voiced by Steve Whitmire) returns the favor by hitting on Gonzo’s chicken girlfriend. Sounds like a Christmas with my family.

6. Sesame Street Joins the Fun

The other big surprise of ‘A Muppet Family Christmas’ is that the gang from Sesame Street joins the Muppets at the farmhouse, continuing the whole universe-colliding theme. Even though Kermit regularly appeared on Sesame Street, it’s weird seeing the characters together. The Sesame Street characters are far less manic and more innocent than the Muppets, but they were written into the special well. Their educational tendencies to talk about the alphabet or count snowflakes are used almost as a lack of social skills, and the result is pretty funny. Plus, the Swedish Chef just views Big Bird as a new (and much bigger) turkey, so you can imagine how that plays out. Spoiler: Big Bird does not get eaten.

"Even weirdos are cute when they're babies."

5. The Parts You Haven’t Seen

If you read my Muppet Geek’s Guide to ‘Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas’ you know that a lot of times when these older TV specials get released on DVD, certain parts are edited out. This one is no exception. When I got the DVD in 2003 I noticed there were some parts that seemed edited very strangely, and I was right. There are many parts that have been left out over the years (read the list here), but if you’re an enterprising Muppet Geek you can digitally acquire the unedited version online. I just watched the whole version and it’s a big improvement over the DVD.

The Two-Headed Monster as Santa

4. The Christmas Play

Bert, Ernie and a bunch of Sesame Street monsters put on a short play of The Night Before Christmas that is weird enough to be considered awesome in my book. Bert plays the role of Ma, Grover is a mouse with a mixing bowl but isn’t stirring, and The Two-Headed Monster is Santa. Sam the Eagle does not approve.

3. The Music

There is a surprising number of songs in this TV special. Over ten full songs and even more than that in the big Christmas medley at the end, but it never feels too much like a musical. It’s also a nice mix of traditional and modern (for 1987) songs. Even though the medley gives me flashbacks to high school choir concerts, I love the music in A Muppet Family Christmas. Besides, who doesn’t prefer a Muppet version of a Christmas song over it’s non-Muppet counterpart?

2. The Swedish Chef’s Duet with Big Bird

I’m a sucker for the Swedish Chef. Usually he just gets to spout his nonsense in the form of one-liners, but in A Muppet Family Christmas he sings “The Christmas Song” with Big Bird. Hearing the Chef (or Mr. Cook as BB calls him) sing his parts of the duet in typical Swedish Chef fashion always cracks me up.

Jim Henson and Sprocket

1. Jim Henson’s Cameo

Just as things get warm and fuzzy with the Muppets, Fraggles, and residents of Sesame Street joining in a huge Christmas carol sing, it cuts to a shot of the man himself, Jim Henson. He’s hanging out with Sprocket and comments that he “loves when they’re having a good time” but that someone has to do the dishes. While it would have been nice to see the other Muppeteers get some love, it always gives me goosebumps, especially because this special was made just three short years before his death.

Overall, A Muppet Family Christmas captures a time when everything the Henson company had it’s hands in were still living under the same roof. Today, with Henson still owning the Fraggles, Disney owning the Muppets, and Sesame Workshop owning the Sesame Street gang, something like this could never happen. But more importantly, it’s just a great TV special and I look forward to watching it a few times every year.

Oh, and if you still haven’t seen it, this would be a good place to start.

I’ve loved the work of Jim Henson my entire life, and it seems like each year my appreciation of his creativity grows more and more. Even with his life being cut tragically short, his body of work is huge. As you could tell from our Muppet podcast last week, everyone has different parts of Muppet history that they remember the most, and there are plenty of pieces to pick up on later in life and enjoy for the first time. For me, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas is one of the pieces of Muppet history that I didn’t see much as a kid, but now love as an adult.

There are a lot more dedicated Emmet Otter fans than me out there, but I recently did some digging, learning as much as I could about the special and comparing home video versions, so I thought I’d share the love a little bit.

Behind the Scenes

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas started as a book by Russell Hoban in 1971. It caught the attention of Jim Henson, who looked at it as an opportunity to dabble in more realistic animal puppets than previous Muppet projects allowed. Henson and crew set up shop in Toronto and built a huge, elaborate set that included a river and a main street that made up Frogtown Hollow. The set was “built up” to allow the puppeteers to work under the puppets (like most Muppet productions before) but in a scale that the Henson crew hadn’t attempted before.

The Riverbottom Nightmare Band riding snow mobiles

The story revolves around Alice and Emmet Otter, poor but lovable critters that long to do something nice for each other for Christmas, and set about to do just that in a story inspired by Gift of the Magi. Emmet and his friends form a jug-band to win the local Christmas talent show in order to get Alice a piano, while Emmet’s mom enters herself to get her son the used guitar he saw in the music shop window. They each do a great job, but they’re up against the Riverbottom Nightmare Band, a group of ruffians led by Chuck the Bear. They’re an edgy hard rock band and they upstage all the other acts and win the show.

This special marked the first collaboration between the songwriter Paul Williams and The Muppets aside from Williams’ appearance on the Muppet Show in 1976. He would go on to write many of the classic Muppet songs from the later films. The special premiered on HBO in 1977, and was later shown on ABC in 1980.

The Legacy

Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas was very well received and has since become a classic. It was never part of my nostalgia, but I remembered seeing it when I was younger. I sought it out a few years ago and now it’s part of my yearly Christmas special-watching traditions. Jim Henson created a world with Emmet Otter that feels real and lived in, and the crew did an amazing job technically. You were impressed the first time you saw Kermit ride a bike, but imagine seeing Emmet and Alice otter row a boat across a river while singing a song, or The Riverbottom Nightmare Band speeding through town in their convertible. If I would have watched this a lot as a kid, I would have just believed Frogtown Hollow was real.

The current version of Emmet Otter as available on Amazon

Speaking of Kermit riding his bike, he does just that in the beginning of Emmet Otter, playing the role of narrator. Along with Kermit’s appearance at the end of the special, this is why there is no complete version of the special on home video. If you browse the reviews of any version of Emmet Otter on DVD, you’ll hear from many people who seem confused when they pop in their copy to find that it’s been edited from the version they remember as a kid.

Thankfully there are enterprising fans out there, like Philfrog, who edited his own version of the special from various sources to create a complete edit for Muppet Geeks like me. The DVDs you can buy and the version that is on Netflix is edited heavily. Kermit is completely gone, as are some lines of dialog and some entire songs. I watched all the versions I could get my hands on, and Philfrog’s edit is my favorite, and the quality is great.

The benefit about the official DVD is that it includes a one-hour documentary about the production, so if you’re a Henson purist you might want to go ahead and pick it up.

I’m rowin’, where’s the singing?

Even though I didn’t watch it much as a kid, Emmet Otter’s Jub-Band Christmas is one of my favorite specials now. It’s unique, it’s got that Jim Henson touch that makes it special, and it’s got some good music and fun visuals. You don’t have to be a Muppet snob like me to enjoy it, so watch it on Netflix or Amazon Instant, buy the DVD, acquire the Philfrog edit, do whatever, just make sure you watch it this Christmas season.

Sources

1. Jim Henson: The Works – The Art, the Magic, the Imagination
2. Muppet Wiki
3. Wikipedia

Heads up Fraggle Rock fans: Amazon’s got a great deal on the Fraggle Rock: Complete Series Collection DVD set. This is the newer version (which is packaged a lot nicer than the huge one I have) and is normally a lot more expensive, but it’s a Gold Box Deal today on Amazon. If you’ve got some kiddoes around the house or your name is Rob and you mentioned on a podcast that you never really watched Fraggle Rock, you should probably buy this.

In 1984, the Muppets were on a bit of downslide. The Muppet Show had ended its five-season run in 1981, the same year the Muppets had last been on the big screen in The Great Muppet Caper. That’s not to say that Henson and company were bored by any means. 1982 had seen the all-puppet feature film, The Dark Crystal, and Fraggle Rock was introduced on HBO in 1983. And, of course, there was always Big Bird and his friends on Sesame Street to keep Muppeteers busy. But the Muppets – Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie, and the rest of the gang – were sort of off the radar at the time. They’d had a few TV specials here and there, and The Muppet Show was still being shown in syndication, but the characters were essentially shelved while Henson focused on other creative ventures.

But that all changed when their new film, The Muppets Take Manhattan, was released in theaters. It wasn’t that the film itself, which told of Kermit’s journey to bring the Muppets to Broadway, was a huge success. In fact, of the six original Muppet features, Manhattan ranks #5 with a box office take of only $25 million (Muppets from Space is #6, which should surprise no one). However, there was one scene in Manhattan that was destined to bring the Muppets back into the spotlight.

If you were alive in 1984, you probably loved this scene; I know I did. The little Muppets were adorable and the song was a catchy 1950′s throwback, complete with Fozzie, Gonzo, and Scooter backup singers. Although it is cuter than cute, if you think about it, there’s no reason for the scene to exist; it’s a dream sequence (not a flashback), and it’s inclusion doesn’t progress the story at all. It feels like a scene from another film, and there is some indication that this is not entirely by accident.

Shortly after Manhattan was released, the baby Muppets scene was spun-off as a Saturday morning cartoon, Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies. The show ran from 1984 until 1991, for a whopping 107 episodes, and earned 14 Daytime Emmy Award nominations, taking home seven. But it also spawned a ton of merchandise, ranging from toys, books, clothes, and even a comic book, surely bringing in millions for Henson.

The official story says that the show was created in response to the popularity of the scene in the movie. However, the film opened on July 13 and the cartoon debuted on September 15 – almost exactly two months later. It’s hard to imagine that anyone could put together a cartoon production, including a complete voice cast, writers, animators, and musicians, let alone get it on CBS’ fall line-up, in less than two months. Call me a cynic, but it would seem that the Muppet Babies were waiting in the wings, and just needed a good way to be introduced to the world. What better avenue than shoehorned into a major motion picture? And, hey, the idea worked, because to a generation of kids, the show has become almost as synonymous with the Muppets as The Muppet Show itself.

The Pre-Muppet Era

Even if it was a calculated decision, the concept of using a younger version of an adult character to relate to kids was not invented by Jim Henson.  For example, Robin, Batman’s boy sidekick, was introduced in 1940 to not only give Batman another character to talk to (the writers were getting bored), but to also draw in younger readers. As with Muppet Babies, the ploy worked – sales of Detective Comics doubled after the Boy Wonder made his debut.

After that, nearly every 4-color hero donning a cape and mask had their own kid sidekick – The Human Torch had Toro, Bucky fought Nazis with Captain America, The Sandman had Sandy the Golden Boy, Green Arrow mentored Speedy, Aqualad swam next to Aquaman, Kid Flash ran with The Flash, and Wonder Woman had Wonder Girl and even Wonder Tot by her side. Now it could be argued that these are not technically “baby” versions of the main character. True, they are separate characters, but at the same time, even the most obsessive comic book fan would be hard-pressed to supply any major differences between the basic skillset of the master and his apprentice; the kids were essentially mini versions of the masked heroes. Regardless, the idea was to use a younger character to rope in the kiddies, acting as their proxy for the paneled adventures.

But sidekicks aside, there’s no arguing that one of the first true “kid” superheroes was Superboy. Introduced in 1944, the character was conceived as a way to tell stories from Superman’s formative years. The Superboy comic book ran continuously until 1986, and he’s had his own title off-and-on ever since. He’s still an active member of the DC Universe, and served as the inspiration for the long-running TV series, Smallville.

Using Superboy as a model, the characters from Riverdale High – Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica – were “kid-ified” in 1956 as Little Archie, a comic book series that took the stuck-in-time teenagers and transported them back to their elementary school days. The comic remained in print for decades, lasting 140 issues, before finally being shelved in the mid-1990s, making it one of the longest-running “baby” versions of a franchise in existence.

Cute Overload

So while the “younger version” idea is not new, the examples are few and far between before Muppet Babies in 1984. Since then, though, things have gotten a lot cuter; nearly every franchise you can think of had its own “baby” version at one time or another.

Disney Babies – It’s no surprise that Disney was one of the first to jump on the Muppet Babies bandwagon.

Baby Looney Tunes (2002 – 2004) – Again, to be expected. It’s actually rather surprising it took so long to happen.

The Flintstone Kids (1986 – 1988) – This was one of the first old school franchises to be resurrected with kid characters.

A Pup Named Scooby-Doo (1988 – 1991) – As if Scrappy-Doo wasn’t bad enough.

Clifford’s Puppy Days (2003 – 2004) – What’s the point of making Clifford the Big Red Dog into a normal-sized puppy anyway?

Disney’s Jungle Cubs (1996 – 1997) – Did we really need a hip-hop version of The Bare Necessities?

Baby Felix (2000 – 2001) – This is such a sad attempt at making an old franchise relevant again.  I can’t believe kids even knew who the original Felix was in the first place.

Tom & Jerry Kids (1990 – 1994) – You can tell they’re kids, because Tom has a hat. Adult cats don’t wear hats, ya know?

Strawberry Shortcake Baby – Isn’t she already a little girl to begin with?

Garfield Baby – Who asked for this?

Baby Boop – Betty Boop for a new, lame generation.

Care Bear Cubs – Oh, good, deformed Care Bears.

Gadget Boy (1995 – 1998) – A kid version of Inspector Gadget? Go-Go-Away, Gadget!

Sesame Beginnings – This is a direct-to-DVD series of videos for babies in the same vein as those terrible Baby Einstein videos.

Little Rosey (1990) – Mercifully, Roseanne refused to take notes from ABC execs on changes they’d like to see to the show, so the series was canceled after only one season.

The New Archies (1987) – Apparently 140 issues of the Little Archies comic book just wasn’t enough. One of the pioneers of the “baby” movement tried again with this short-lived Saturday morning cartoon.

Pink Panther and Pals (2010) – This is apparently a teenage version of the Pink Panther.

X-Men: Evolution (2000 – 2003) – Of all of the shows, this one makes the most sense, since the X-Men are trained as students at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. Although it does break canon, as most of the characters on the show weren’t teenagers when they came to the X-Men. But this is minor compared to some of the other shows’ canon-busting concepts.

Tiny Titans and Mini Marvels – Since the mid-2000′s, both DC and Marvel have been publishing kiddie versions of some of their most prominent comic book properties. These titles generally take a humorous approach, similar to something you’d see in the Sunday comics section, giving kids a gateway to the characters without trying too hard to fit into the original canon.

Yo Yogi! (1991 – 1992) – I saved the worst for last. The theme song alone, what with its canned rap song record scratching, is just about the worst pandering you’ll ever see.  But the premise, a teenage Yogi and friends, dressed in trendy ’90s clothes, like Snagglepuss and his Dwayne Wayne flip-up sunglasses, hanging out at Jellystone Mall, makes me want to punch puppies in the face.  In an attempt to be so cool, Yo Yogi! only succeeds in being utterly transparent in its crass purpose for existing.

And those are just the ones that are younger versions of the main characters. There are also “baby” franchises starring the kids of famous characters, or spin-off characters that are obviously inspired by the founders of the franchise. For example…

Tiny Toon Adventures (1990 – 1995) – This is a rare example of the concept done right. The characters were similar to the original Looney Tunes, but just different enough to not feel too derivative. Many people don’t even put it in the same category as the other shows on this list, even though it’s pedigree is pretty clear.

Bozo’s Clown Babies – Creepiest. Thing. Ever. Thankfully this one didn’t really catch on.

Pink Panther & Sons (1984 – 1985) – The baby, Panky, has to hold up his diaper everywhere he goes. It’s so adorable, I wanna puke.

The Oz Kids (1996) – Thankfully this is not a baby version of the HBO show.  No, this one stars the children of Dorothy, the Tin Man, Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, Jack Pumpkinhead, the Wizard of Oz, and even Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, in their own mystery-solving series. I’m not sure I wanna know how the Tin Man and Scarecrow were able to reproduce…

The Baby Backlash

Of course there have also been a fair share of parody baby franchises that have satirized this blatant marketing ploy. One of the prime examples is Marvel’s X-Babies, a detour into pint-sizedom for the X-Men in the 1980s comic book series. The tiny team, made up of members like Wolvie, Shadowkitty, Colossusus, and Creepy Crawler, has actually become something of a Marvel staple, re-appearing more than once in subsequent years. They even faced The Mighty ‘Vengers, featuring Captain Amerikid, Iron Ace, Hawkey, and Thunderson, in 2000. The Simpsons riffed on the idea in a classic episode from season 19, “Husbands and Knives”, when Milhouse asks Alan Moore, writer of Watchmen, to sign a copy of Watchmen Babies in V for Vacation. Futurama got in on the act with the season four episode “Teenage Mutant Leela’s Hurdles”, when the crew of Planet Express falls into a pit of magical age-reducing tar and they all become teenagers.

The Next Generation

You would think that after 27 years, maybe the trend would be on its way out. In fact, thanks in part to the influence on America of the kawaii and chibi cultures of Japan, which focus on cute characters like Hello Kitty, the concept is just as popular as ever, especially in the toy world. Not only are we seeing Japanese Kubrick toys of popular franchises on Toys R Us shelves, but with so much competition from the internet and video games, companies like Hasbro and Fisher-Price are doing whatever they can to capture kids’ attention. But now, instead of simply making baby versions of popular characters, they just look sqaut and more kid-friendly, so that they’re more palatable for the pre-teen set. These designs are a win-win, as there are plenty of adults who buy these figures to give their office cubicles a little personality (myself included). Today, “cute” is the new “cool.”

Hasbro has really led the way in this “cute-fication” of popular franchises. Starting in 2007, they released kid-friendly versions of Gen X standards, like Transformers (Robot Heroes), Star Wars (Galactic Heroes), Marvel Superheros (Superhero Squad), G.I. Joe (Combat Heroes), and even Indiana Jones (Adventure Heroes). The figures were wildly popular with both kids and their parents. The Star Wars, Transformers, and Marvel lines have continued with new toy sets – Jedi Force Heroes, Rescue Bots, and Superhero Adventures, respectively.

Fisher-Price has gotten in the game as well, with their Imaginext line, featuring popular DC superheroes such as Green Lantern, The Flash, Superman, and Batman. Their small, chunky figures can even make Two-Face, the hideously scarred, horribly insane villain of the Bat-franchise, look like a pretty affable fellow.

It’s not just American toys that are being adapted for little customers. Even the popular British science fiction staple, Doctor Who, has seen it’s own “kid” toys. Most prominent has been the Time Squad series of figures, which has been popular on both sides of the pond. I mean, who doesn’t need a cute, little, terrifying Weeping Angel?

Teach Your Children Well

It’s hard to believe that something as cute and innocent as baby Muppets could cause a cultural earthquake whose aftershocks can still be felt nearly 30 years later.  While there have been some solid franchises born from this trend, most of these spin-offs have been nothing more than attempts to make a flailing franchise viable again. The idea worked for the Muppets and a handful of others, because the “baby” property was allowed to stand on its own, giving the creative team the freedom to do what it felt was best for the characters.  The less-successful attempts left in their wake have failed because they’ve tried too hard to be hip, and cool, and of-the-moment, the obvious result of some corporate board who guided the project based upon the latest marketing research numbers. Oddly enough, it would seem that the same lesson that can be applied to raising real children can also be applied to raising a “baby” franchise – give them the freedom to be what they want to be and they’ll make you proud.

Wow, I didn’t expect to get this bit of news in my inbox today. Nickelodeon and Shout! Factory are brining the entire first season of Rocko’s Modern Life, my favorite 90s cartoon, to DVD in June. This is especially surprising because for a while Amazon has had exclusive dibs on some crappy ‘best of’ DVDs, but now we’ll actually get all 26 episodes of the first season on two discs. I’m so excited.

Here’s the full press release:

ROCKO’S MODERN LIFE: SEASON ONE

Featuring All-Star Voice Cast of Carlos Alazraqui, Tom Kenny,
Charlie Adler and Doug Lawrence

Own this Hilarity-Packed DVD Set on June 21, 2011 from Shout! Factory

Flash black to one of the most beloved animatedNickelodeon series from the 1990s when Rocko’s Modern Life: Season One 2-DVD set arrives in stores nationwide for the first time on June 21, 2011,from Shout! Factory. Featuring all 26 wacky adventures of an Australian wallaby and his pals in 13 original episodes (two segments per episode), this DVD release has long been anticipated by fans but has not been available in stores until now. The collectible Rocko’s Modern Life: Season One DVD is priced to own with a suggested retail price of $19.93.

Created by award-winning animator Joe Murray for Nickelodeon, Rocko’s Modern Life is one of the most enduring Nick animated classics. The hit series boasts an all-star voice cast – Carlos Alazraqui (CatDog, Reno 911), Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants, Transformers animated series), Charlie Adler (The Super Hero Squad Show, Transformers), and Doug Lawrence (SpongeBob SquarePants, Camp Lazlo).

A favorite with viewers and critics alike, Rocko’s Modern Life debuted in 1993. Over the course of its four-season run on Nickelodeon, the series garnered a Daytime Emmy® Award and an EnvironmentalMedia Award. Brimming with anthropomorphic social satire and offbeat humor, Rocko’s Modern Life follows the misadventures of Australian wallaby named Rocko, who encounters various dilemmas and situations regarding otherwise mundane aspects of life. His best friend, Heffer, is a fat and enthusiastic cow, while his other friend, Filburt, is an easily upset turtle who often feels uncomfortable or disturbed. Ed Bighead lives next door to Rocko and detests him. These folks live in a bizarre district known as O-Town, and most of the episodes revolve around Rocko trying to cope with the absurdities and dilemmas he encounters in life.

Rocko’s Modern Life is a production of Joe Murray Productions and the Nickelodeon Animation Studios. It has been sub-licensed for home video distribution to Shout! Factory by Paramount Home Entertainment and Nickelodeon.

Emmy® is a registeredtrademark of the Academy for Television Arts & Sciences/The National Academy for Television Arts & Sciences.

About Shout! Factory
Shout! Factory is a diversified entertainment company devoted to producing, uncovering and revitalizing the very best of pop culture. Founders Richard Foos, Bob Emmer and Garson Foos have spent their careers sharing their music, television and film faves with discerning consumers the world over. Shout! Factory’s DVD offerings serve up classic, contemporary and cult TV series, riveting sports programs, live music, animation and documentaries in lavish packages crammed with extras. The company’s audio catalogue boasts GRAMMY®-nominated box sets, new releases from storied artists, lovingly assembled album reissues and indispensable “best of” compilations. These riches are the result of a creative acquisitions mandate that has established the company as a hotbed of cultural preservation and commercial reinvention. Shout! Factory is based in Santa Monica, California. For more on Shout! Factory, visit shoutfactory.com.

About Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon, now in its 31st year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books andfeature films. Nickelodeon’s U.S. television network is seen in more than 100 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for 16 consecutive years. For more information or artwork, visit http://www.nickpress.com. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B).

I really hope this signals the arrival of more classic Nickelodeon shows on DVD, because there are quit a few I’ve been waiting for. Bring me Salute Your Shorts and Angry Beavers next!

What shows are you waiting to finally be released on DVD in proper season sets?

Good news TMNT fans, Nickelodeon is finally letting some details out regarding their new CG TV series. Ninja Pizza has the scoop and the teaser video (which I couldn’t embed for some reason), so head over there to get your turtle fix! It’s hard to tell much from the teaser, but I like the character design. I’m still just crossing my fingers that we’ll get to see Bebop, Rocksteady, and Krang again. Oh, and Ace Duck.

Well, this is happening. Somehow I missed the news that Disney XD would be airing a new Tron cartoon staring Bruce Boxleitner, Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore, and Paul Reubens. I don’t get any TV channels, but somehow, count me in on this one.

Via Cartoon Brew

The Super Bowl (yawn) is just around the corner, and Volkswagen has already uploaded a commercial to their YouTube account, and it’s a gem. It’s not so much the concept that makes it great, it’s the physical comedy of the kid in the Vader suit. Watch it and tell me it doesn’t make you want to have a little kid to live vicariously through.