These days are aaaaallll... filled with bad comics like this one.
Monday, January 28, 2013
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60 comments:
Bringing back George Washington... well there is Cupcake and her time machine.
I too grew up watching the show, but only on Nick-At-Nite back then when they used to air classic sitcoms before infesting their schedules with 90's sitcoms. Even though it did invent the TV term "jump the shark," at least it introduces to the funniest alien of all time named Robin Williams. Speaking of which, your theory on the missing Cunningham brother makes a whole lot more sense than this comic. When is somebody gonna write a comic about that?
The plaid joke reminds me of "Hard Times for Haggis" from Ren & Stimpy, where there's one character who whenever he moves, his plaid suit doesn't move with him. Bizarre yet always fascinates me.
From what I can glean, the Happy Days animated series was, well...that because the producers really wanted to make a Doctor Who animated series, but the BBC refused to give them the rights because they felt it would demean the property (big shock). But the producers had just gotten the rights to make a Happy Days animated series, so they figured they'd go ahead with their Doctor Who ideas using the Happy Days characters.
Granted, that explanation raises further questions.
Althou I mostly know Happy Days from refferences on other shows (like Family Guy, Friends etc..) and clips on youtube, but this was a fun review.
Also you should do a "Quick Look At" at the cartoon. Or perbabs you might ask CR if he'd like to do a crossover on Familiar Faces.
A few random thoughts :
It's a real tear jerker to see Linkara remembering his dead sensei at the beginning of the review.
I don't really know the publication timing, but could the cover be a reference to Dial H for H.E.R.O ?
Bullies are a superstitious cowardly lot, so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts. I must be a creature of the night, black, terrible... A leather clad biker ?
The third one kind of makes sense for me : when you see parents act more immature than yourself for the first time, it can be quite a shock.
Credit : Funny, I remember Fonzie accident, when he tried jumping over a record amount of cars (I think) with his bike only to injure himself (I think it was a peer pressure aesop), but I don't recall ever watching the Shark episode.
The Moonmen look like angry sperm with devil tails.
...Was that Mork guy from the stinger a recurring character? Did things like that happen often in the show? And why wasn't THAT the comic instead of three boring non-stories?
This review was just plain great.
I especially loved your impressions of Fonzie and Shaggy. Plus, that comparison to Scooby Doo was pretty funny. Also, I noticed that one of the girls in the second panel you showed from the third story was wearing the outfit Daphne always wore in the original Scooby Doo shows. I guess the artist REALLY wanted to do a Scooby comic instead of this one. I can't say I blame him.
Also, LOL to your theory on Richie's brother.
And also again, Fonzie once had an alien thumb war with Mork? That settles it, I DO need to watch this show(and Mork and Mindy)!
Wish you did more Shaggy impressions this episode since that was the best joke by far.
"...Was that Mork guy from the stinger a recurring character? Did things like that happen often in the show? And why wasn't THAT the comic instead of three boring non-stories?"
Not often. Mork was played by Robin Williams before he was WIDELY famous and the episode originally ended as a dream. He was an alien sent to earth to get a human specimen and he had incredible powers.
The character proved so popular that he was spun-off into his own sitcom called Mork and Mindy and the ending in syndication to the episode had Mork giving a report that said he was going to go live on earth in the 1970s. He reappeared in another episode to assist with a clip show.
It is hard to adapt a sit-com into a good comic book, but Gold Key didn't do so badly with action-adventure and science fiction shows. Some of those made for reasonably good storytelling:
http://comicsradio.blogspot.com/2013/01/gold-key-and-tv.html
First off, you look awesome in a leather jacket
second, don't give Jack Chic this much credit
third, should I feel bad for only finding out about Happy Days after being told that Johnny Brave was meant to be a mix of Elvis and The Fonz?
'EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE- (Five years later) EEEEEEEEY, great review, Lewis. Nice jacket. I myself never really saw the show at all, mainly because I didn't exist as well. I have to find the cartoon, just for that intro at least. As a theater man myself, I have never really heard that superstition about the good dress rehearsal, just the Scottish Play superstition and not saying Good Luck. I have no clue where that came from. I agree, it is stupid. Can't wait for next week. Miller Time. Also, Fonzie Kid. Please consider that character, even it is a one off joke.
Ironically, "Chick" was what Archie liked to be called when he first debuted. I don't give the writers credit for knowing that, so it's probably a coincidence.
The reason for the blond hair was because freckles and red hair with it being bright red would have gotten a lawsuit from Archie Comics.
Note on the police. Not only are they running in with guns. All fingers are not only on the Triggers CAN YOU FIND A TRIGGER NOT YET PULLED? Look! All the fingers are all the way back and fully flexed! Every Gun Is being shot only without the bullets flying out yet!
The Plaid is also turned 45 degrees on some girls skirt same phenomena. Same squares different slant.
The credits don't seem as smooth as usual. Were some frames dropped in rendering? Anyone else seeing them hopping a bit?
I'm pretty sure The Fonz went to the hospital from dare devil trick accidents at least 3 times but meh the Shark happened when the series appeared to run out of ideas the others didn't happen at or near the same kind of situation.
Of all the references, I never expected a Hearts of Space reference.
This comic is so wr--- it's so wrwrwrwrrwrwr....it's not right.
Also I could totally see Fonz in Harry Potter
Fonzie: Whoa Magicamundo!!! Hey!!!! Mr. D.
To add what DWP102589 said, the producers in question were Hanna-Barbara. Yeah, they were the ones who wanted to make an animated Doctor Who series first.
And thank god the BBC said "no" because that would have terrible. But unfortunately they traded one phone booth for another with Bill and Ted years later.
Wait, the hell is Movie-Brat of all people doing here? This isn't an horror comic, he/she never comes to this blog at any point, and he/she pretty much dissapeared off the face of the Earth after leaving CBUB. Not to mention, the same guy/girl who is increasingly paranoid (to the point of psychosis) over protecting his/her privacy and his/her identity is now posting on a public blog.
Did one of Fonzie's word just happened to sound like the words "Movie Brat", and Movie Brat was thus once again summoned by the sound of someone else speaking his/her name?
By the way, the review was great as always.
I was never really into happy days. It was on before I was born reruned a lot when I was a kid. Now the animated series? Where can I find that?
The pictures in Harry Potter can indeed talk to you(what more, if they have a phone in the picture, they can call you). That's how the kids get into their dorm room: a picture asks them for a password. Heck, the pictures being able to talk is often used as a plot point(ie the criminal Sirius Black in book 3 is first discovered because one of the paintings sees him and freaks out). I know you haven't seen a lot of harry potter, just pointing that out.
"The character proved so popular that he was spun-off into his own sitcom called Mork and Mindy and the ending in syndication to the episode had Mork giving a report that said he was going to go live on earth in the 1970s. He reappeared in another episode to assist with a clip show."
Mork and Mindy is a Happy Days spin-off? Interesting. Nobody here in Germany knows about Happy Days, but Mor and Mindy was quite popular Oo
That's a real superstition? I've had plenty of good dress rehearsals that had good performances following. I don't get this at all.
I think my favorite joke in this episode is about the Happy Days Animated Series. "WHY AM I NOT REVIEWING THAT???" I was laughing so hard. At the beginning I was wondering why you were wearing a leather jacket and hitting a music player to make it work, and then your description of the Fonz came up. Great review Lewis.
maybe someone else already stated it but, at least in the Harry Potter movies only the paintings were talking characters, the rest of the printed photos are mostly like animated Gifs who can't talk
Chad's shirt reminds me of Stan from Monkey Island:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWHCJptXh-M
Who would willingly try to win a trip to Detroit?
"Wait, the hell is Movie-Brat of all people doing here? This isn't an horror comic, he/she never comes to this blog at any point, and he/she pretty much dissapeared off the face of the Earth after leaving CBUB. Not to mention, the same guy/girl who is increasingly paranoid (to the point of psychosis) over protecting his/her privacy and his/her identity is now posting on a public blog."
I don't know if or what problems you may have with Movie-Brat or anyone else, but keep them off of my blog.
Great review, good sir! If you didn't know how to react to this comic, I think all know you will react to the return of ASBAR with All-Star Batman and Robin #5. I looked ahead to see what to expect and the first thing I saw was an alternate cover for issue 5 with Wonder Woman's ass on the cover. You know, I may not remember reading Wonder Woman comics growing but I'm sure can remember not seeing her as some sex symbol.
That plad thing is a constant in animation, particularly old cartoons. Its always so distracting and bizzare. I got a laugh out of that joke if only because I'm glad I'm not the only one who notices that weird crap.
In fact I'm pretty sure Stan in Monkey Island was the first time I noticed that.
Did you know Henry Winkler voiced Ambush Bug in the final episode of Brave and the Bold? That episode was essentially one big tribute to jumping the shark. It was hilariously meta.
And I'm with Greycat you should do more Quick Looks, I loved the Amity Horror reviews.
"Mork and Mindy is a Happy Days spin-off? Interesting. Nobody here in Germany knows about Happy Days, but Mor and Mindy was quite popular Oo "
Yep! The pilot episode has a flashback of him going to see the Fonz to ask for romantic advice, who in turn sets him up on a date with Laverne from Laverne and Shirley (another Happy Days spin-off).
Your complaint of there being "no jokes" reminded me of when Doug reviewed "Junior." He said it was merely a series of conversations, with no real punchlines interspersed.
...yeah, this comic is at about that level.
This is not the first time I've heard the name "Chick" used as a male name. On the Richard Grieco "21 Jump Street" spin-off "Booker," the name of Grieco's boss was Chick Sterling. Brad Jones would know the show. Useless trivia for you.
Anyway, nice episode! I had never heard of the cartoon before, and now, I'm glad I never did.
Is Howard dreaming of being Flex Mentallo?
"Dial F-O-N-Z for fantastic."
That gave me cancer.
In reference to the comic:
The hell was that?!
I saw some of Happy Days when it aired in the 80s and then caught more when it went to Nick-at-Night. (though I'll admit I was more of a Mork and Mindy fan than HD).
But just, wow, did the comic writers get bored halfway through the comic and just let things end?
And I know Richie could be a little neurotic but not to THAT extent.
As much as GoldKey's Star Trek comic had some fail science and strange plot holes, it was at least an enjoyable story, from my view anyway, this was just three rejected scripts for parody shorts of Happy Days more than anything.
BTW, were you wearing the jacket you wore for the Search for Spock review?
That Happy Days cartoon is right up there with Giligan's Planet in terms of WTF-ness.
The static texture from the shirt reminds me of everyone's clothes on "Chowder". Apparently this comic is an oddity in time space that brings forth material from all across the multiverse. Strange.
The Fonz truly is remarkable.
At one point there was actually going to be a cartoon featuring both Scooby Doo and the Fonz. I read an article about it years ago, but now all I can find is this publicity artwork for the show (and the rest of that year's Saturday Morning Cartoon lineup). The idea was abandoned and no episodes were ever made as far as I know.
Linkara, have you ever read any of Marvel's ALF comics? I don't remember a whole lot about them, but I do remember that in most (if not all) of the stories would reveal some new power or ability that ALF had. (These powers were never mentioned in the ALF TV show, though.)
I was sort of expecting "Rock Around the Clock" but that was pre-live studio audience when Fonzie took the show over.
Great review...and yeah, I sort of saw the weird Scooby thing before you brought it up with some other girl looking like Daphne other than the one you pointed out...she had a hairband in the second tale. Honestly I don't get why certain comic books need to even exist but it was the late 70s and the show was one of the biggest things on TV...so people needed something with less channels for reruns and whatnot. Oh and BTW: had a thought of Marty during the part with the time-machine early on...and he was actually on stage performing "Earth Angel"; remember he took over for the other guitarist, thus allowing him to do that number and then leading up to "Johnny Be Good". (would have been better than Richy and his spacemen, tell you that)
BTW: great theory on Chuck...at least the Orkans got him before Mork went to Boulder to meet Mindy.
I never really watched Happy Days, but I did pick up a couple discs of Mork & Mindy later in life, and love the early seasons. Some of Robin Williams' best improv in there.
Plaid does that in a lot of mediums, really. I'm pretty sure static plaid is actually some kind of multi-universal eldritch being.
I was honestly expecting that joke to end with a cut back to your own plaid shirt. Except yours isn't composed of eldritch entity, so it's probably just as well that you didn't.
Also, nice jacket.
I wonder if the Fonz liking the idea of a vacation to Detroit or Indianapolis has something to do with his love of cars, what with Detroit being a big car manufacturing city and Indianapolis (of course) being the site of the Indy 500. Not that that would make his comment funny really, but it would make it less random.
Aw, and here I thought you'd be a fan of the Monkey Island games. There's no way you wouldn't make a reference to the character of Stan from those if you were with Richie's plaid. (In fact, in modern games, they actually went to effort to make Stan's jacket still do that, and characters notice it). Others mentioned it, but I wanted to expand a bit on it.
Other than that... boy... this comic... um... happened. Not only did it badly rip off Archie as you said, but it badly ripped off Scooby Doo at the same time
Man, now you got me thinking about an old diner that used to be near my house called Arnold's that was a Happy Days themed restaurant. They even played Happydays on TVs in the dining area, and had a table-top arcade machine running Pac Man.
They shut it down and as well as the icecream parlor next to it and turned the whole place into a Condo complex.
Also, if the plaid sirt thing got to you, Never see the anime version of the Count of Monte Cristo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gankutsuou:_The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo
I couldn't watch it because it hurt my eyes.
What? No Chuck Cunningham joke?
I'm surprised during the Detroit bit you didn't use the iconic scene from Kentucky Fried Movie.
Great review on this stupid comic.
I don't know whether they were trying to emulate Archie or Scooby Doo with these stories, but man, this is an incredibly lame anthology comic.
"From what I can glean, the Happy Days animated series was, well...that because the producers really wanted to make a Doctor Who animated series, but the BBC refused to give them the rights because they felt it would demean the property (big shock). But the producers had just gotten the rights to make a Happy Days animated series, so they figured they'd go ahead with their Doctor Who ideas using the Happy Days characters."
... and now all I can think of is what sort of thing would happen if you gave the characters a time machine and the ability to alter history.
All glory to our Immortal Emperor the Fonz?
"What? No Chuck Cunningham joke?"
...Did you actually watch the episode? I made TWO Chuck Cunningham jokes.
Pretty nice episode. Now I'm wondering if there's a comic based on Love American Style
I think the deal with this comic stems from the fact that some things just don't translate well from one medium to another, and Happy Days seems to be one of them. Granted, I can't hold out a lot of hope for something presented on this show, but I like to think there's half a chance that the jokes in the comic might have worked out better if readers could have at least heard the characters' voices reading those lines instead of just trying to wing it from memory.
My meories of the show come from catching the very ends of episodes on whatever channel was airing reruns before Nick-At-Night came on. I remember that it was just before Transformers or Real Ghostbusters came on. And even that's getting to be thirty-plus years ago now.
But anyway, great review, Linkara. I'm gonna go try to warm up now. Hopefully, it's not as cold where you are as where I am right now...
@ Maxis: There's a difference between deliberate artistic choice and just having an apathetic comic book artist. One makes Gankutsuou, the other makes this.
OK, so unrelated to the comic, I'm sorry. But I was wondering if you had an opinion to offer on the cancellations of Young Justice and Green Lantern in order to bring in a couple of new shows.
I'm disappointed, I was seriously waiting for Velma to appear. xD
Another one to add to the long list of the impressions you can do! Awesome! ^^
Also... leather jacket?
"Dude, that's tight!"
Maxis Lithium and Shanethefilmmaker...
You guys said what I wanted to say! Grr.
'cept I did make it all the way through Count Of Monte Christo.
~ Mik
Why the fuck are you including a crappy feminist website in your link list?
"Why the fuck are you including a crappy feminist website in your link list?"
Because I'm a feminist and this blog is a feminist-friendly zone. If you havea problem with that, you no how to close your browser.
This reminds me, my current guilty pleasure is a Darkstalkers cartoon that I didn't know existed .I gotta say that this comic was just dull in my opinion.
Not sure if anyone’s told you this already, but speaking as someone who’s done a fair amount of theatre myself, I feel I should comment on that superstition, and the way my my director interpreted it to us.
As a player (this applies not just to actors, but also lights, stage crew, ECT,) you could have the most spot on, award winning dress rehearsal imaginable, and still have the actual performance be a disaster if anybody isn’t giving it their full effort. That usually comes from people feeling overconfident about the show, which can be a hard thing NOT to feel after they’ve rehearsed it a thousand times, and that there’s absolutely nothing that could go wrong.
In reality, theatre operates under Murphy’s law, and the players always need to be prepared for it. As such, the phrase “a good dress rehearsal leads to a bad performance” is meant to be seen less as some kind of prophecy, and more as a boost to prevent players from feeling overly confident; to make sure they don’t half-ass the performance.
However, this comic interprets that to mean that they’ll mess up the performance strictly BECAUSE they had a good dress rehearsal. And that is just friggin stupid beyond belief.
I just had an interesting thought, what if Fonzie was originally from Canada, he says Eh and he fixes things by hitting them and he can resist getting frozen.
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