My Memory Machine

This is something that I would do the day after Thanksgiving!
On
December 14, 2012
Now, normally I was going to do this article the day after Thanksgiving but...life HAS to happen! First...My Hard Drive Broke and it's unlikely that it can be fixed and I have the chance to replace it as soon as possible. I don't have the dough to get a new computer...but I do so for a Hard-Drive. The other is my brother was off all Thanksgiving Weekend and he'll have someone come over and they HAVE to watch "How I Met Your Mother" which wakes me up some nights...I don't mind it when it's a day I can sleep-in, but still...there's barney Stinson the Biggest Sitcom Bastard on TV (Top-16 Sitcom Bastards will be a list that I'll make in the near future).



So...it was postponed for next Friday and no one was home. Now when I was young, me, my mom, my brother, and my sister would spend the day after Thanksgiving by watching family-friendly films, playing board games such as Clue, Monopoly, Life, and Trivial Pursuit to name a few. And my mom would make finger-sandwiches for us. I still keep the tradition alive as much as I can...except I don't play board games.



I started the day with a new show with familiar faces called "The Looney Tunes Show" and after that I went 20 years back with a Steven Spielberg Animated Series called "Tiny Toon Adventures" with the episode called "The Acme Bowl" where Buster Bunny becomes the quarterback for Acme Looniversity and plays against Perfecto Prep. (For some odd reason...that game reminded me of the Cleveland Browns/Pittsburgh Steelers Game that was on Thanksgiving Weekend...maybe they should play Thanksgiving rather than the Detroit Lions that hasn't won Thanksgiving since 2003).



Next..."Animaniacs", another Spielberg Gem and since I'm commemorating Thanksgiving...I watched the episode "Jerkey Turkey" where Yakko, Wakko, and Dot play Native Americans and defend their pet turkey. There's another short in that episode called "Wild Blue Yonder" where a baby bluebird confuses his mom with an airplane. After that, I thought of playing my favorite Disney Movie and perhaps the most recognized film in The Disney Anthology Era (1942-1949) called..."The Three Caballeros"!



This colorful film features Donald Duck getting gifts for his birthday from Latin America. It also features Jose Carioca (who made an appearance in "Saludos Amigos") and Panchito. Now, that film was ahead of its time...20 years ahead to be exact since it seems VERY psychedelic. Speaking of Psychedelic...after "The Three Caballeros" came some cartoons from the 1960's. First, a couple of Pink Panther cartoons such as "Pink Punch" and "Pink Blueprint" and Tom and Jerry cartoons from the Chuck Jones era such as "I'm Just Wild About Jerry", "Ah, the Sweet Mouse-story of Life", and "Snowbody Loves Me".



Next...lunch and a matinee. The lunch is basically based upon what I had when my mom would make finger sandwiches...except they WERE sandwiches. It was basically Tuna Salad, Chicken Salad, Ham Salad, and Egg Salad. I also had some Potato Salad, Macaroni Salad, and Coleslaw. The Matinee was "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" which was Charlie Brown and his Peanuts Friends debut on the big-screen.



Next...I decided to watch the competitor of Charlie Brown, only because they were popular comics..."Garfield and Friends" and since I have the DVD, I would watch it as an hour-long episode just without the commercials. This is one of the many cartoons that I haven't outgrown. It's no longer on TV, but it's now on Netflix and Hulu (two things that I have and I may buy a box that streams these two by the end of this year).



Now, since "Garfield and Friends" WAS on Boomerang once, I decided to play my favorite Hanna-Barbera Character named...Loopy de Loop. I didn't play the Thanksgiving episode named "Drum-Sticked", but I was Thanksgiving-ed out! Still...a gem that I picked-up along the way.


The sun was about to go down and I decide to look-up "Sonic SatAM"on Netflix...and yes, that's on there too! I just love that show, too bad it never got a chance that it should. Good cast, good animation, it's like the Star Wars ewoks cartoons...except it's anatomically-correct animals.



Since "Sonic SatAM" was seen on ABC from 1993 to 1995...why not I watch some Looney Tunes and NOT "The Looney Tunes Show"...I already watched that! More so during it's Chuck Jones era where he rewritten Daffy Duck as a greedy bastard and Bugs Bunny being less of a jerk. Jones also brought us Pepe le Pew, Roadrunner, and storylines that could be sitcom-oriented...maybe that's why I love "The Looney Tunes Show".



Now, NOT a Looney Tunes Character...he was co-created by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway who would be the origin of Bugs Bunny and was first voiced by Mel Blanc for the first few cartoons. Hardaway would take over until Grace Lantz would be the voice of this red-head bird named...Woody Woodpecker!



Well, after a couple of Woody Woodpecker Cartoons...I'm tooned-out for the day! But since Woody Woodpecker is the mascot of Universal, why not a film from Universal Studios? Well...actually, the film would be known as "The Wiz" which featured Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, and Richard Pryor.



Basically...it's an African-American version of "The Wizard of OZ". It didn't succeed when it came out, but it has a cult following since it has Michael Jackson in it as well as a good cast. It also has one of the most interesting endings...Evilene, the Wicked Witch of the West would get flushed-down the toilet and everyone starts dancing in their underwear!



Well...it's getting late but I still had energy to play my favorite Video Game Mascot that has been part of my childhood...Sonic the Hedgehog. I have "Sonic Mega Collection" which has The Sonic Trilogy as well as some other Sonic Games. I played The 1st Sonic Game and Sonic 3 as Miles "Tails" Prower, the fox who's hero is Sonic ever since he was young.



With that...I decided to play some Beatles songs, which I was turned-on to during the same time-frame that I was turned-on to Sonic. Just some early songs from their library, and I have every known song from The Beatles as of now.



I will be going back and watching these cartoons and movies and such next year, maybe ON Thanksgiving next year! The reason why I've done this is because I wanted to reenact the way how cartoons would be on The Day after Thanksgiving. There was cartoons on all day or even in the morning, the networks would play SatAM Cartoons on that Friday while everyone else would shop. I was NEVER a shopper nor were my parents, it was a day where I didn't do much...but as we speak, this would NEVER happen again unless you have a DVD Player, some good SatAM cartoons...or ANY cartoons. But The Day After Thanksgiving is a time to turn on the SatAM Machine, toon in those classics, and drop out the Black Friday Shopping...we don't need that fiasco!

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