1 Saturday Morning

I don’t even think there is one anymore to be honest. 1 Saturday Morning was on ABC every Saturday morning starting around 6 or 7 o’clock in the morning. I remember waking up at around 9 on Saturdays, getting myself a cup of yogurt and fruit, and running back t my room to watch Saturday Morning cartoons just like my dad trained me to do.

Recess

The House of Mouse

Pepper Ann

The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show

And let’s not forget everyones favorite School House Rock!

For years this was what was on on Saturday mornings followed by the Power Rangers. I would always relax on my bed until my parents got up and enjoy a morning with no school. It was refreshing and fun. And once Monday came along, I was able to talk to my friends about the awesome cartoons that was on that day. Now there were other channels that had Saturday morning cartoons. Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, WGN or now know as The CW, CBS, and NBC. When I turned 11 o 12, Saturday Morning Cartoons went from Cartoons to watching live action shows or even the news. The demand to watch cartoons in the morning was soon pushed to cable channels where you could watch cartoons all day. But it wasn’t the same. Saturday Morning Cartoons was a special moment in a child’s life. And to watch the new episodes of shows that come on in the morning on different channels was a real treat. But sadly they hardly do that any more. It’s 2012 and last week, Nick started airing their newest cartoon The Legend of Korra Saturday mornings at 11/10 EST. This gave me hope and a since of nostalgia. Having to get up excited over watching cartoons in the morning is how being a kid is suppose to be.

Old Nick vs New Nick Part 2

My Best Friend Carly hates iCarly. First of all, they have the same name. So when she would volunteer at Preschools and introduce herself, the little kids would ask her, “Hey aren’t you the girl from iCarly?” Second, they would ask her where Sam and Freddie were. Then they would ask her how come she wasn’t at home doing her show. This ticked Carly off 100%. Carly hated iCarly because she didn’t want to share the same name with a person who thought it was funny to make weird sounds and punch homeless people. She also didn’t understand the point of the show. Why was this girl trying to make the great points of Old Nick look so horrible? How was that even possible? Then there was the fact that people always called her iCarly.

The iCarly Cast. You might recognize Carly (Miranda Cosgrove) as the little sister from Drake and Josh and also School of Rock.

My friend looks nothing, and I repeat, nothing like Miranda Cosgrove. Carly has long wavy goldish brown hair while Miranda has straight black hair and as Carly says, “An annoying voice.” She was always disappointed when her youngest brother would watch iCarly on their TV at home. iCarly was a bad example and she learned nothing from her mistakes. According to my friend, Carly on the show broke at least 4 different laws whenever she watch the show (and she has seen the show about three times.) iCarly runs on doing stupid thing to make kids laugh. So how does that differ from the live action shows from the 90s?

All That was the preteen version of Saturday Night Live. They did crazy sketches involving food, loud noise, and wacky characters. Kennan and Kel was a show with two of All That’s members about two African American boys living in Chicago and the crazy things they got into. The Garcia Brothers, Unfabulous, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd, Clarissa Explains It All,  and more were shows I watched as a kid. Some were random, and some I learned lessons from. The way the shows kept your attention with story lines and entertainment were balanced in these shows.

Check it, check it, check it, now this is just an introduction before I blow your mind. The show is All of That and yes we do it all the time. So sit your booty on the floor or in a chair, ground or in the air, just don't go no where. 'Cause everything we do It's all of that! When entertaining you; We all of that! My posse and my crew. It's all of that! So sit still 'cause we're coming right back!

Now I have watched iCarly a number of times. Mostly to catch a celebrity who is randomly on the show like The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons. And I do have to say that I understand why it’s popular. It tries to use the old humor that Nick use to have with it’s 90s shows and it’s early 2000s shows. But it doesn’t have that lastly effect that the shows I grew up with did. iCarly’s audience are children between 9-14. So what happened to kids from about 6-8? They watch it too, but what do they get from it? What good is throwing food at people and laughing if they got hurt? What lessons do they learn besides falling in love and not getting the guy you wanted? At least when I watched Zoey 101 I learned something from it.

So the question that has been formed is this: Is there truly a difference between Old Live Action Nick and New Live Action Nick? And the answer is yes and no. Watching these shows with my 10 year old Golden Retriever, I have discovered that there is a difference but also a similarity. New Nick shows concentrate on relationships more than they do the heart of the show making it a mini TeenNick. Heck iCarly and Victorious are part of TeenNick showing the marketing for Teens. So what happened to the Live Action Shows that were market towards children as well? I guess that is the difference between the 90s and now. The 90s had shows and movies where they made sure you learned a lesson at the end. It could had been that brushing your teeth is important and a kid would have gotten it.

Here let me give you a better example.

Spongebob Squarepants when it first started vs now

When Spongebob first aired, there was a great balance between learning a simple lesson and having fun. Hey I’m not going to lie here, I learned how to tie my shoes better watching that crazy yellow sponge. Now he just goes around doing overly stupid things with Patrick not learning anything at the end. It’s like the more stupid and disguesting you are, the funnier it is. That was not really the case when Spongebob first stated. Having Patrick as the stupid one was enough to get the point. But having both Patrick Star and Spongebob not get the point just creates confusion and does not build a good story line.

So which one wins for me? Old Nick for sure. Old Nickelodeon gives more of a fun safe feel to it that balances everything together from learning a lesson to laughing your heart away. TV ahas changed since I watched it. I can barely watch cartoons on Cartoon Network anymore (That’s for a different post). But I know that once this new generation grows up and Nick once again changes how they do their network, those kids will be making a post just like mine saying how much better iCarly is than Show blah blah blah. But I know that when that argument comes along, my friend Carly will be right there to prove them wrong.

Old Nick vs New Nick

Any 90s kid would say this this is not even a battle since old Nickelodeon is where it’s at. But then some good things came from the new Nickelodeon like The Legend of Korra that airs this Saturday. But how does one really compare the old vs the new like the Nostalgic Critic does?

Old Nick ~  1991-2004 Cartoons (this was the time I stopped watching Nick)

1. The Rugrats
2. Spongebob
3. Doug
4. KaBlam!
5. CatDog
6. AAAHH! Real Monsters
7. The Ren and Stimpy Show
8. Hey Arnold!
9. The Wild Thornberrys (Tim Curry is in this show!)
10. The Angry Beavers
11. Rocket Power
12. Pelswick
13. As Told By Ginger
14. My Life as a Teenage Robot
15. The Fairly Odd Parents (I almost wrote the Fairly OodParents for all my Doctor Who fans)
16. Danny Phantom
17. ChalkZone
18. Action League Now!
19. Invader Zim
20. The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
21. All Grown Up (The very bad Rugrats sequel…)

Nicktoons ~ 2005-2012

Some of these should be in the other list but this was the best one I could find.

1. Avatar: The Last Airbender (A must watch show. the sequel airs this Saturday!!!!)
2. Catstrach
3. Planet Sheen
4. Angelica and Susie’s Preschool Dayz
5. The Mighty Bee!
6. Tak and the Power of Juju
7. The X’s
8. El Tigre: the Adventures of Manny Rivera
9. Wayside
10. Back at the Barnyard
11. The Penguins of Madagascar
12. Fan Boy and Chum Chum
13. T.U.F.F Puppy
14. Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness
15. The Legend of Korra

Now there is a huge difference between these two colons. First of all, the first colon 19 out of 21, 90%, of the shows were traditional cartoons and they took over Saturday mornings and the channel as a whole. The second colon, 8 out of 15, 53%, of the shows were traditional cartoons however they are now pushed onto their own channel were they keep replaying the same two shows (Spongebob and The Penguins).

But that is not all

Majority of Nickelodeon now is mostly live action and no Slim.

The Old nick was full of laughs, messiness, lessons to learn all the time.

Now most of the live action shows, they just yell, dance randomly and hurt each other trying to make people laugh.

It’s hard to say and this argument can go on forever. But as you can see I prefer old Nick. I’ll make another post talking about Live Action shows on nick.

Dear Monica Lewinsky

Oh look! Someone wrote me a letter!

I guess the best way to start this letter is to say hi and ask how you are doing today. So hi! How are you doing? How is your life in London? I really don’t want to be one of those people who just say “Hey you’re a whore!” because that’s not what this letter is about. Well, I guess in a round about way it is, but no. This letter is about how you changed the name Monica for me when I was in kindergarten and first grade. I figured that life would be simple with a name like Monica. But I was wrong.

See I had no idea who you were when the whole scandal or as you call it “mutual relationship” with President Clinton happened around 1996. I was only about 4 years old at the time and the only thing I knew about politics was that Clinton was the president and that the Mayor of Chicago was a Daley. But that was it. That was all I knew. So think about how shocked I was when the older kids started calling me Monica Lewinsky.

It started when I was Kindergarten in 1997. I was 5 and the new thing about politics I learned was that George Washington was the first President and that Abraham Lincoln was the 16th. At the catholic school I went to, we wore uniforms and went to morning mass every Thursday at 8:15 AM. After mass on one Thursday, something must have been on the news about you, because all of a sudden, the older kids started to say weird things to me.

“You are a home wrecker.”

“Monica Losewinsky.”

“Did you kiss him on the mouth or on the-”

“Wow, who knew he went after younger girls like you.”

“You should ashamed.”

“Why would your parents name you after that whore?”

How would those kids know what a "whore" looks like?

I didn’t quite understand what they were saying or what they meant. And when ever they would ask me why my parents named me after you, I told them they didn’t since they named me after the Saint. The older kids would then laugh and tell me that my parents supported home wreckers. Imagine the reaction my parents had when I told them what happened. I was so young and I was hearing “Whore” and “Home Wrecker”. They marched up to the school and talked to the principal. Then the principal, a older Irish Nun with red-orange hair, talked to the kids in 5-8th grade.. And boy did they get a lecture. And for a while, I didn’t hear people call me Monica Lewinsky. Not until I learned who you were until I was a little older. Out of the age of innocents and into the age of learning about life itself. I learned about what happened and started to understand how stupid the older kids at my Catholic school were. How could they claim that my parents named me after you when I was born before your whole ordeal. I mean that was kinda stupid right?

However the whole point to this letter is to ask you for an apology. Your mistakes hurt me when I was little. Even though I had no clue what you did or who you were, it really hurt me. I just wish things could change, but of course you can’t rewind time. After something has been done, you can’t change it.

Regards,

Monica From Chicago

At least she said it was a mutual relationship...

When I was Young I Believed that George Washington was Our Savior From Dinosaurs

When I was young, I believed that George Washington was alive when the dinosaurs still roamed the earth and he killed all of them instead of an asteroid shower. I was always telling stories. My parents and my grandparents always say, “You have a very active and healthy imagination for a child.” I would just shrug my shoulders and not think twice about it. I loved to tell people my dreams and thoughts. And when this thought came into mind that George Washington saved the human race, or more importantly America, from a massive Dinosaur attack, I believed it. Why wouldn’t it? It was pretty logical at the time. George Washington was the first president of the United States of America and Dinosaurs roamed the earth a billion years ago. And it wasn’t my fault that some adults would always say, “Back when the dirt was new…” when telling a story sometimes. So thinking that 1776 was a billion years ago just seemed logical.

George Washington’s Speech To The People About Dinosaurs

I was only 4 or 5 years old, still slept with a night-light because I thought that Father Time would some and take my soul when I slept. I was biting my nails out of nervousness. I still played with dolls as well. So I can honestly say that I knew no better. My mind was always all over the place. I never had a small attention span; I always paid attention to my parents, my teachers, and even every Disney movie I watched. I just had so many stories and ideas running around my head that I didn’t know what to do at times. My parents didn’t mind though. They just saw their daughter being happy. “Record your stories Moo. It might make a great story in the future.” I did have a recorder that my Grandparents gave me. So I was able to tape all my soap operas that my dolls went through when I played with them.

However whenever I would tell stories to my friends, they weren’t all enthusiastic as family was. The complicated story lines that I would make up, which lead to us just playing house, would sometimes confuse them. During recess, my friends at times would get angry by the games I would come up and I would just sit around them, quiet and reserved, following them and their games. I never had a chance to understand that having different games to play and stories to tell would lead me where I am now. I just knew that some day in the future, they wouldn’t make fun of me.

I was about 8 when I found out the truth about George Washington and the dinosaurs. It was a big shock to me, but I soon understood that my young naïve mind was playing tricks on me. George Washington wasn’t a dinosaur killer, Abraham Lincoln wasn’t the second coming of Jesus, and people didn’t have secret powers like Superman did. I got sad that the stories and ideas in my head weren’t true because I really wanted them to. I wanted to know something that most people didn’t. I wanted to be special.

I hated keeping a journal. Writing things down never really applied to me. I like draw mostly, thinking my stick figures were a work of art. My mom would give me a small flip notebook to draw and write in during church. That was the extent of my journaling when I was younger. Looking back, that was the only time I was allowed to be myself outside of home. Yeah it sounds corny, but it is true. I had those notebooks with Disney characters on them from when I was 3 until I was 10. They were always my way telling a story. Soon my mom or someone else would get me an actual journal which I paid no attention to until I was 18 years old and I was sitting in my first fiction writing class at Columbia.

Of Course Princess Tiana didn't exist back then but for Easter last year I did end up getting that flip notebook...

Looking back at myself as a little girl, I realized that I was always normal. That my family realized a talent that I didn’t know I had until I got into college. It wasn’t until college that I realized that God gave me a gift and I should try it out. “If you have a story to tell Monica, go ahead and tell it. Write it down and share it with the world.” My parents told me. I smile whenever I think about the times they would force me to write down stories I had and how even though I always complained, I was secretly happy. I would write for hours without noticing the world around me. I was able to write stories about George Washington killing off all the dinosaurs and feel safe knowing that somewhere, my idea was written down. Sometimes I wish I could go back in time to tell my younger self to keep telling stories and keep being yourself. Because if it wasn’t for my family, I don’t know where I would be.