Reviews of the Bosch

Teamo Supremo :            Through it’s illustrious career of television animation, Disney would occasionally just throw something weird at us to see if it would work. Gummi Bears was such a show, literally inspired by junk food, but so was Marsupilami , Brandi and Mr.Whiskers , and Pickle and Peanut . Teamo Supremo was One Saturday Morning’s attempt, and like most of these other shows, has rightfully fallen into the annals of obscurity.           It’s about a trio of child superheroes which already sounds familiar to a show airing around the same time on Cartoon Network. Their leader, Captain Crandall, just summons two random kids, a Southern skip-roper and a Hispanic skateboarder, to join his team and they become Rope Girl and Skate Lad respectively, because the show likes to avoid originality wherever possible. Every episode is a formulaic beat-the-evil-villain story, usually without even the trope of a lesson to be lear...

Lloyd in Space :            This was created by the same team who made Recess , and admittedly it does show. This series also takes everyday menial kid problems and heightens them through presentation. But where Recess did that using an in-universe world order and social commentary, as well as a distinct tone, Lloyd in Space just does that through “future stuff”. It relies a lot on the gimmick that it’s set on a space station in the distant future but focuses on the everyday life of an alien kid. And that’s pretty much exactly the show’s problem. Given such a universe, this mundane direction isn’t exciting. Though there are minor twists, most of the lessons and shenanigans are just the same as you could get from any other average kid-based show, only this time they’re in space. With Lloyd’s mother as commander of the station too, this show is very much Deep Space Nine if it was told from the perspective of a whinier Jake Sisko.      ...

Teachers’ Pet :            “That looks like Cranium ” was my first thought upon seeing the previews for Teacher’s Pet . Sure enough, it was created by Gary Baseman, who designed Cranium , as well as Cheri and Bill Steinkellner from Cheers oddly enough. Despite the talent involved, this show is not an eighth as good as either of those other properties.           It’s about a dog called Spot (voiced by Nathan Lane) who wants desperately to go to school for no real reason explained other than adventure, which -yeah, it’s a bit of a long-shot you’ll find that in school. Donning glasses, an outfit, and the name “Scott” he enrols in the same fourth grade class as his owner Leonard, which also happens to be taught by Leonards’ mother, Mrs. Helperman. While Leonard finds out quickly enough who his classmate is, they hide it from his mother and everyone else. With nobody having the smarts or depth perception enough to see he’s just a ...

The Weekenders :            Does anyone else remember this show? Because I do, and it was actually pretty good. In fact I’d go so far to say The Weekenders was the most underrated show in the entire One Saturday Morning line-up. I think it may have been glossed over because while its contemporary shows were very energetic, The Weekenders was incredibly mellow. It’s animation style was also not always the most pleasing to look at. But in lieu of that, the show was surprisingly funny and clever.           It was about four twelve year old kids hanging out and getting into morality tales on the weekends in a beachfront California town called Bahia Bay. Much like Recess represented its own eponymous period as a freedom during school, this show portrayed weekends to much the same effect, but restricting each episode to the time frame of a weekend, beginning on Friday and ending on Sunday. Thus it’s the rare thing in a kids sitcom ...

101 Dalmatians :            Now we get to the shows based directly on Disney movies. And One Saturday Morning’s collection isn’t by any means the first. Aladdin and The Little Mermaid premièred in the Disney Afternoon, and The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh originally aired in the late eighties but was rerun on One Saturday Morning. And though I liked that latter show a lot as a little kid, 101 Dalmatians was the best Disney movie-turned series; and I won’t lie, a part of that does come from how much the show disregarded the movie it’s based on.           One Hundred and One Dalmatians is an enjoyable, subtle Disney movie that benefits from its cuteness, but also a bleak tone and fantastic villain. 101 Dalmatians is an energetic character and joke-driven comedy with not much of the films’ cute factor. The movie was set in London, the show on some middle American farm. It’s almost going out of its way to distance its...

Recess :            Now this is where it’s at! No show on One Saturday Morning was quite as popular or as fun as Recess ! And it was definitely the best show of the line-up, running for four whole years and over a hundred episodes. Though definitely a show for kids, it was characterized by some very smart humour and great commentary. It followed the lives of six fourth graders at Third Street School, mostly during recess where they’d interact with other kids, get up to schemes, and learn lessons usually more important than what they were getting in the classroom.            The show was frequently permeated by clever metaphor. Recess was always depicted as the kids’ one period of freedom in the day from their prison-like school routine. This was very much enforced by numerous details such as the worn, grim colourlessness of the school, the grumpy warden-like recess supervisor Miss Finster, and the fact the very catchy ope...

         This is something a little different for my theme month as it’s mostly a nostalgia trip, but I want to do it anyway. September 2017 marks the twentieth anniversary of Disney’s One Saturday Morning on ABC. For those unaware or who don’t remember, in the mid-90s, Disney, then under the command of Michael Eisner, bought the cable network ABC. This change of ownership made itself apparent through things like a trend of ABC sitcoms setting episodes at Disney Parks, Disney movies being given television syndication on the network on weekends, and in 1997, a new programming block of original Disney shows to air on Saturday mornings.           One Saturday Morning aired from 1997 to 2002 (before being re-branded as ABC Kids) and was, for all intents and purposes, the successor to the Disney Afternoon of the early 90’s. And while it featured a few live-action shows like Lizzie McGuire , Even Stevens , and whatever iteration of Power ...