The Pop Arena! Home of Nick Knacks, an show-by-show retrospective on the entire forty year history of Nickelodeon! Also, the Animorphs Book and Episode Guide, The Goosebumps Monthly, the Doctor Who Book Guide, and more!
This was the scariest episode of this show without a doubt. This episode disturbed me as a kid. I was born in 90. I think it was because we had a place called Johnny's Toys that gave us keys for our birthdays that we could use at the store to open a random gift each year.
At the 7:48 ish mark did R L Stine throw in a sex joke in a kids book? I mean it describes how warm and wet it is inside a cat and we all know what other word is associated with cats and are described the exact same way
Winx did well! amazing job, if you want a whole rewatch and still get context watch: S1-S2-S3: rai dub S4-M1-S5-S6: nick dub M2-M3: original dub fate the winx saga: netflix don't watch the rest.. childish soft reboots.
This was one hell of a trip. While watching I had to remind myself that the 'glory days' were already over by the time I'd started watching Nick, so I shouldn't have felt quite such a connection as it fell apart. My Nick experience was definitely Nicktoon focussed so in a sense this was watching my era pave over something else. Guilt maybe? They might have largely been through reruns but seeing that 'Nickelodeon' was a centralized place did make the channel feel more real. I believe both them and Cartoon Network had promos of the cartoon characters working or hanging around the studios at the same time.
I think Inspector Gadget is a rare instance of a TV show with sci-fi tech actually being improved by becoming outdated by real life technological progression. Penny's equipment is now all completely mundane, while Gadget's gadgets are still mostly impossible, and that kind of de-emphasizes the importance of Penny's tech and lets the fact that she's a small child routinely outdoing the cyborg supercop at his own job take center stage.
I got The Cuckoo Clock of Doom from the library once and I still hate Tara Webster, and the parents. The parents should be ashamed for accusing Michael Webster of lying about Tara Webster bullying him when he's not lying about Tara Webster bullying him, they accuse him of destroying his bike on his birthday when Tara destroyed it, she doesn't get punished for hiding in the clock so she can scare Michael in her monster costume, she causes Michael to fall on his birthday cake, she doesn't get in trouble for telling Michael's friends that he has a crush on Moona, tricking Michael into thinking that his shoes were untied, manipulating her parents into believing that Michael was bullying her when she was bullying him, she tells Michael that he was responsible for stuff that she did so he'll be grounded for nothing, she doesn't get in trouble for putting Kevin Flower's cap in Michael's backpack so Kevin Flowers would beat Michael up, the parents aren't concerned when Michael comes home with bruises on his face, Tara Webster doesn't get punished for opening Michael's birthday presents, stepping on Michael's foot, teasing him for being scared of the cuckoo bird, etc. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄📚🕰️🐥
This show, more than any other from my childhood, still makes me laugh out loud and it is 100% due to Penfold and his outbursts. Terry Scott's performance of constant wailing and doom casting gets me every damn time. Often in DM, a joke will play, I won't find it funny, but then Penfold responds/reacts to the gag and I laugh. Everytime.
I've always thought that Elfangor did most of his heroic deeds between the end of the book and his death.. The yeerks also respect Elfangor so he probably did things
I've never seen an episode of this show, but I can say: Damn, countering a resurrection spell is some true epic villain shit. Feels worse than killing in the first place, just because it has no benefit to you, it's just pure spite. We had an evil cleric do that to our party in D&D like 5 years ago and I still have trust issues with the DM (not really, he's great made a truly hate-able bad guy for us).
I've been following your series sense 2020, I really like it and have been working on my own idea with this as one of the major ideas that influenced me. Thanks for the great vid I can't wait for another anime I've never heard of until your video drops.
I don't think any show gives me almost a sad sense of nostalgia quite like "pete n pete". I liked it when I was a kid...but over the years have truly appreciated it for what it was.
That was quite a life story that you’ve told from your childhood, Greg. I’m sure that every one in a few kids who were your age back then tried using that cry-until-you-win strategy. Just don’t be surprised if this Carly Branderpack person you mentioned sees your video and decides, “Hmm, maybe I’ll start following Greg’s channel and watch more of those Nick Knacks videos he’s been making.”
I did the Nick studios tour in late 1995. I was able to see some of the filming of “Shelby Woo” and definitely remember the video game room, Played some ren and stimpy games.
This show acted as an early understanding of my dad's relationship to his family growing up. He refers back to this show often as a reference. I agree that Petes' Mom didn't get the focus she deserved, but the episodes that focus on Petes' Dad are in many ways the cornerstones of my understanding of the relationship between my father his father. He is a late baby boomer, had a dad who took them on long trips with odd competitions with neighbors, and often had very different dynamics with his two boys. This might be the most anticipated entry in your series that I have. This weird little show, with great music, bizarre characters, and real heart. Thank you for helping me revisit a peculiar time and place
I have absolutely zero memory of this show ever existing, even though this is my era. I saw 'Zoo Family' on the title and assumed it was just going to be about baby animals. And it can't be that I saw it around and forgot it either because I would *not* have forgotten a D&D episode. My only guess is that a) it aired on Saturdays and I had family things to do on weekends and didn't watch TV then, or b) I saw a single episode at some point, thought it was boring, and after that deliberately avoided it, leading to me then completely forgetting it.
So I should probably apologize for throwing you into the deep end with this request. Tbh, I had initially been considering a different episode, but because it was a season 2 episode it never aired on Nick. The ending of The Wizard’s Trap has stuck in my brain (mostly cause the back gift was such a good bait and switch) since I learned about in back in 2009, so that was the first thing that came into my brain. The fact that it isn’t a great first episode didn’t really occur to me. Oops. Sorry about that. To answer your question about how the fanbase views Nabu, that’s a bit complicated. Now I could be wrong with my memory of this as most of the fan sites I followed back then are long gone, but Nabu debuted near the end of Season 3 (which was originally planned to be the last season). The problem he was that he was underdeveloped and clearly just added to be Aisha’s love interest. Season 4 developed him more and had him propose to Aisha. (The Nick dub infamously tried to censor that by changing it to him asking to be her “forever girlfriend”, but I digress. ) This, along with his sacrifice made him a VERY popular character.
