Thank You for 1000 Subscribers + Special Giveaway

It's official! The Old School Lane YouTube channel has hit 1000 subscribers. It's all thanks to you that we were able to hit this huge milestone. As a special thanks, Patricia will giveaway a copy of Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age by Mathew Klickstein and a Nicktoons DVD to 4 people.

To get a chance to win, email us at oldschoollane86@gmail.com to let us know your name, how you got introduced to Old School Lane, and what were your favorite podcast, video, and interview.

The names will be drawn in two weeks from now on January 22, 2017 and if your name is drawn, PM your address so that the book and DVD will be sent to you. Good luck.

Patricia's Paradise City Comic Con 2016 Experience

A few days ago, I went over to Paradise City Comic Con over at the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center. It was once known as Magic City Comic Con which was at the Miami Convention Center, but the Miami center is currently being renovated and the remaining South Florida anime/video game/comic book conventions will be held at Ft. Lauderdale. With it being a newly named convention, it was smaller than Florida Supercon, but there were still plenty of fun activities to do and lots of awesome guests to meet.

Michael Maronna and Danny Tamberelli



Mike and Danny were both in The Adventures of Pete & Pete as the Pete brothers. I had already met Mike a few years ago at the Slimed! book event at NYC, but this was the first time I met Danny. They were really awesome guys as we briefly talked about Pete & Pete, the book event, and them even talking about a possible reunion next year. I even wore my Polaris t-shirt proudly as I got my picture with them. Danny autographed my Slimed! book next to Mike's autograph.



Later that day, I went to the Pete & Pete panel where Danny and Mike answered questions from the fans about things from the show, Home Alone 2, The Mighty Ducks, and All That. They told a lot of stories that made everyone in the audience laugh. It was even better when an unexpected guest showed up. Joey Fatone from NSYNC appeared asking a bunch of questions that the fans had already asked making the audience laugh even harder. He even called himself Frank saying that he wasn't Joey Fatone, but we all knew he was. It was, hands down, the best convention panel I've been to yet.



After the Pete & Pete panel, I walked over to Joey's desk and got a picture with him.




Lori Alan



Lori Alan is a voice actress known for characters such as Pearl from SpongeBob SquarePants, Diane Simmons from Family Guy, and even voiced Chairry on The Pee-wee Herman Show in LA. She was very nice and next to her was Rodger Bumpass, the voice of Squidward from SpongeBob. I had already met him at Florida Supercon two years ago and it was nice to see him again. I even went to their panel where a lot of kids showed up asking a ton of questions about SpongeBob. I was the only one who didn't ask questions on SpongeBob asking Lori about her experience with Paul Reubens at The Pee-wee Herman Show and Rodger about his experience working as the Chief in Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? It was a lot of fun, especially when seeing the kids smile whenever Lori and Rodger quoted lines as their characters.



Afterwards, I went over to meet up with Melissa Fahn, a voice actress well known for characters such as Edward from Cowboy Bebop and Gaz from Invader Zim. I asked her to autograph my Invader Zim DVDs adding her signature to my collection alongside Richard Horvitz, Rikki Simons, and Rodger Bumpass.



Next, I went to a few more panels such as Dante Basco's panel, an actor known for his roles as Rufio from Hook and Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. It was pretty awesome that a group of people remembered that the day he was doing the panel was the 25th anniversary of Hook and surprised him with a cake. There were questions about Hook, Avatar, working with The Nostalgia Critic, working with Mako, and representing Filipino actors. I met him afterwards and he was a pretty cool guy.



I later went to the Disney trivia panel and paired up with two Disney fans who were cosplayed as Esmerelda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Cooking Mama. We worked together to answer various questions from animated Disney movies, Star Wars, Marvel movies, and the Disney theme park attractions. We won 3rd place and had gotten Disney tattoos and an Ariel pin. I gave it to my sister as a gift since The Little Mermaid is one of her favorite Disney movies and Ariel is her favorite Disney princess.



I stayed until almost closing time and walked around to enjoy the last round of activities. I walked towards Tad Stones' table and asked him for a picture with him. Tad Stones is known for being the creator of Darkwing Duck. He even gave me a sketch of Darkwing Duck that he was drawing for free and autographed it.



I then went over to the video game room and played some Super Smash Bros. Melee with some people until it was closing time. I came home tired and starving, but it was the happiest I've been in months after going through a lot of personal issues and depression. It was just the thing I needed.

That's all for now. Tune in next time as I countdown my top 20 Hey Arnold episodes, do an analysis video on the Hey Arnold Christmas special, and release the last podcast of 2016. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia

Movie Review: The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie

After the commercial and critical failure of Rugrats Go Wild, Nickelodeon Movies decided to move on from the Rugrats franchise after a decade of milking it for all its worth and focus on the next big cash cow: SpongeBob SquarePants. Around the early 2000's, SpongeBob SquarePants was the most popular Nicktoon on the air. It was literally everywhere on TV, merchandise, clothing, food, VHS, and DVD releases. SpongeBob was becoming Nickelodeon's mascot. The next big thing to do for SpongeBob was its own feature length film. Written by creator Stephen Hillenberg and the top SpongeBob writers Tim Hill, Derek Drymon, Kent Osbourne, Paul Tibbit, and Aaron Springer, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie debuted on November 19, 2004.





Is this movie still as spongy almost a decade later or has it dried out in Shell City? Let's get into the Patty Wagon and venture into The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.

The movie begins as SpongeBob dreams about entering the Krusty Krab helping a customer named Phil add cheese into his Krabby Patty. The scene plays it out seriously with the police and citizens being surrounding the restaurant with Mr. Krabs being nervous and sweaty. With SpongeBob succeeding, the crowd cheers and he wakes up excited about the Krusty Krab opening up a new restaurant called the Krusty Krab 2. With that, Mr. Krabs has a big grand opening that'll announce who the new manager will be. SpongeBob, having won employee of the month many times, showing up to work early every day, and working overtime on numerous occasions, he's sure that he'll be the new manager. So excitedly, he gets himself ready and heads over to the grand opening ceremony.



Meanwhile while the ceremony is going on, Plankton views it from The Chum Bucket furiously that his plans from A to Y have never worked and that he has tried everything to steal the Krabby Patty formula. His computer wife Karen wonders about Plan Z. Plankton hadn't thought of it so he searches his file cabinet if there is a Plan Z. He finds it, reads it, and conjures up a new plan. Back to the ceremony, Mr. Krabs makes the announcement on the new manager being Squidward and SpongeBob thought he heard his name. Jumping for joy, he makes to the stage and makes a fool out of himself. Mr. Krabs explains that SpongeBob is too immature to deal with a huge responsibility of being the new manager and SpongeBob leaves the ceremony sad and depressed.





We then cut to King Neptune's palace where Neptune is about to sentence the crown cleaner to death for doing his job, but then his daughter Mindy comes and sets him free. Mindy tells her father to be a bit more kinder to people, but the King tells her that she needs to be assertive to run the entire ocean. The crown then gets stolen by Plankton and the King realizes that it's missing. That night, SpongeBob and Patrick meet up at the Goofy Goober where they were suppose to celebrate SpongeBob being the new manager. But SpongeBob is still crying from the rejection and being called a kid. SpongeBob almost leaves to go home when Patrick orders a sundae from the waiter. SpongeBob decides to stay for a while and they consume multiple sundaes. As time went on, they go through a druken stupor where they act even more stupider than usual and experiencing a bad hangover the next day. SpongeBob then makes his way to work.



King Neptune makes his way to the Krusty Krab 2 where he receives a letter that Mr. Krabs stole the crown and sold it to Shell City. Mr. Krabs tries to prove his innocence, but no one believes him. Squidward doesn't vouch for him and SpongeBob insults him while still in his hangover. But he finally gets out of it when Neptune attempts to attack Krabs with his trident. Mindy comes by and tells her father that he's being too harsh. SpongeBob even offers to go to Shell City to retrieve the crown. Neptune laughs at SpongeBob since Shell City is extremely dangerous and people who have gone there never come back. Mindy convinces her father to give them a chance. Neptune accepts and gives them 10 days to accomplish their goal, but due to Patrick's stupidity, they only have 6 days to do it. King Neptune freezes Mr. Krabs, Mindy assists SpongeBob and Patrick with the magic bag of wind to get them back to Bikini Bottom quickly as soon as they retrieve the crown, and SpongeBob and Patrick then make it to the garage and brings out the Patty Wagon. With that, their journey to Shell City has just begun.



Plankton begins the second phase of Plan Z by stealing the formula with ease, making Krabby Patties at the Chum Bucket, and people begin eating there. Eventually, he figures out about SpongeBob and Patrick heading to Shell City to retrieve the crown so he hires a bounty hunter named Dennis to stop them. Meanwhile, things seem to be going good for SpongeBob and Patrick until they hit the country road seperating Bikini Bottom to Shell City. The moment they cross it, the Patty Wagon is stolen by a biker and SpongeBob and Patrick continue on foot.



Meanwhile, back in Bikini Bottom, Plankton continues his plan and eventually Squidward finds out about it. Plankton reveals to Squidward about taking over Bikini Bottom and making it his own land called Planktopolis. The free helmets that he gave to everyone for every Krabby Patty bought are actually controlling helmets bound to follow Plankton's orders. Everyone on Bikini Bottom is captured, even Squidward. With that said, Plankton has succeeded in his plans and he claims himself victorious.



We then cut back to SpongeBob and Patrick walking and walking getting nowhere near Shell City. Time is running out and they need to come up with a plan. Luckily they found the Patty Wagon parked, but it's at a violent biker bar where people are inside fighting. SpongeBob plans on doing a distraction to get the key located in the biker's pocket, but Patrick decides to do it. With that, Patrick asks to go to the bathroom and SpongeBob follows. SpongeBob and Patrick wash their hands and out came a bunch of bubbles. They have a big bubble party dancing and prancing until one of them comes out to the bar. One of the bikers wonders who blew it and SpongeBob and Patrick pop all of them before they could be discovered. All of the bikers were lined up, including SpongeBob and Patrick, on who blew the bubble by concocting a test. The test is playing the Goofy Goober song and whoever sung it, blew the bubble. SpongeBob and Patrick try their hardest not to sing, but are relieved when a conjoined twin fish sings it instead. They all fight, Patrick grabs the key, and make their way towards Shell City.



While driving there, they then cut into a path filled with skeletons and skulls to get some ice cream. The nice old woman selling the ice cream wasn't an old woman at all, it was a monster who shaped the old woman with its tongue to lure prey. They run off and eventually escape only for the Patty Wagon to be lost in the process. They near a dead end where the only way to the other side is to climb down the ditch with a ladder and walk there. But SpongeBob gives up and claims that everyone is right about him being a kid. Patrick is also let down and they begin having a crying fest. All of a sudden, Mindy comes along and gives them the confidence to finish their journey. She places seaweed on their upper lips saying that they're mustaches and they have the courage to finish getting to Shell City. However, they get captured by Dennis who is squashed by a man in a old fashioned diving suit and take them to a gift shop leaving them in a drying table to wither away. SpongeBob and Patrick realize that they've arrived in Shell City, cry with joy, and dry out. But one of their tears makes its way to the outlet where the drying table is, short circuits it, release enough smoke to start the fire sprinklers on top, and restores SpongeBob and Patrick to life.




They escape with the crown, release the bag too early, and have no way of getting back. That is until David Hasselhoff comes by and says he'll take them back to Bikini Bottom. While they get back home, the 6th day has approached and King Neptune is about to take down Mr. Krabs with Plankton watching. But SpongeBob and Patrick make it in time and stop Neptune from burning Mr. Krabs. However, Plankton forces a controlling helmet on King Neptune and SpongeBob and Patrick are surrounded by Planton's zombie followers. SpongeBob then sings a rock version of the Goofy Goober song that is basically a similar version of "I Wanna Rock" by Twisted Sister, and frees the control with the power of rock.

The movie concludes with Plankton being arrested, Mr. Krabs changing his mind and letting SpongeBob being the new manager of the Krusty Krab 2, and SpongeBob being a big hero.





When the movie first came out, it was a big success at the box office making over $140 million dollars. However, it wasn't a critical hit compared to its other animated competitors such as The Incredibles or The Polar Express were. But with that, kids loved it, critics liked it, and adults enjoyed it. As for me, I enjoyed it as well. It came out when SpongeBob was at its prime, so the animation, jokes, and story were very decent. There are a few problems with it though. The plot was too convenient with the main protagonists. Plankton's plan was pretty much fool proof and the most diabolical he would ever come up with in the rest of the series. It seemed to hold itself back due to the fact that they knew that kids wouldn't want to see him win. So it added some quick MacGuffins and Deux Ex Machina moments like Mindy coming in to give SpongeBob and Patrick a confidence boost, the tear causing the sprinklers, the David Hasselhoff cameo, and the Goofy Goober rock moment where a laser guitar broke free from the controlling helmets. It's seems too unrealistic and doesn't really give the main characters a challenge on how to solve their problems. Also, the new character additions such as Mindy, King Neptune, and Dennis weren't developed enough. They could've have made great characters, but they weren't in the movie enough and when they were, they were only there to move the plot along. Also, the message that SpongeBob learns at the end was completely ignored and he resorted back in the most immature way possible. You would think that after all he went through, he would have slightly matured, but nope. He's still stuck on his ways and would be even worse over the years.

With that aside, I did like it. Heck, it's a much better movie than Rugrats Go Wild. It's adventurous, it's humorous, it has most of the characters we know and love, and it gives us a few twists and turns. It's an enjoyable movie. One of my favorites from Nickelodeon movies so far. When seeing it again, this movie almost reminded me of seeing a kid version of Pee-wee's Big Adventure. There's little subtle homages and scenes that supports this hypothesis with it starting with a dream, getting prepped up for the day, the item being stolen and sold off somewhere else, the journey to retrieve it, the biker bar scene, and the rock music at the end from Twisted Sister. Even the slogan from the poster is similar to Big Top Pee-wee. Maybe it's just a coincidence. I don't know.



 The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie was originally suppose to end the series there, but since it was such a gigantic success and with no other cash cow matching up to what Nickelodeon was airing at the time, the Nickelodeon executives kept the series going. Stephen Hillenberg demoted his position to executive producer and gave the forerunner of the series to Paul Tibbit. Many people felt that's when the show went downhill and the movie was the last great thing about SpongeBob. Yes, that's true. Coupled with that and the show going on for almost 15 years has made SpongeBob become an enraged series. Hopefully, the sequel ends the series on a more happier note when it debuts next year.



Overall, if you're a SpongeBob fan, I highly recommend checking it out. If you're not a fan, then it's not for you. If you've never seeing SpongeBob, see the older episodes of the series first and then see the movie. It might be enjoyable.

That's all for now. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia

 

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: SpongeBob SquarePants

Despite shows like The Angry Beavers and The Wild Thornberrys, Nickelodeon hasn't had a huge critical hit in a while. The newer shows weren't up to par with the older shows from the early 90's. The competition of the #1 kids' network was getting tougher and tougher with Cartoon Network, FOX Kids, and Kids WB dishing out top notch cartoons. With that said, Nickelodeon knew they needed a huge hit! On May 1, 1999, one Nicktoon came and became not only a huge hit, but a worldwide phenomenon. That show is none other than SpongeBob SquarePants.



The show takes place under the sea in a underwater town named Bikini Bottom. In it, a young naive yellow sponge named SpongeBob SquarePants lives in a pineapple and works in a fast food joint called The Krusty Krab as a fry cook. He interacts with his friends such as Patrick Star, a very dimwitted star, Sandy Cheeks, a squirrel from Texas who lives in a aquatic dome, Mr. Krabs, his boss at The Krusty Krab who's a real cheapskate and loves money, Pearl, Mr. Krabs' daughter, and Squidward, his neighbor and co-worker who hates SpongeBob and Patrick with a passion.



In each episode, you would see SpongeBob go through many things such as going jellyfishing with Patrick, pestering Squidward, working at The Krusty Krab, playing karate with Sandy, SpongeBob trying to get his driver's license, or SpongeBob being clueless of Plankton's plan of trying to steal the Krusty Krab secret formula to make Krabby patties.

The show was created by Steven Hillenberg. Before he would become a well known animator, he was a marine biologist teacher at the Orange County Ocean Institute around the early 80's. He decided to quit and pursue his second passion: animation. While going to school at the California Institute of the Arts, he created a comic book called The Intertidal Zone in which it takes place underwater with anthropomorphic sea life led by a sea sponge named Bob, which would be a precursor to SpongeBob.

Then around 1993, Hillenburg was hired by Joe Murray, the creator of Rocko's Modern Life, to become a director of the series. In that show, he met the people that would eventually be the main force behind SpongeBob SquarePants. Many of the writers, voice actors, and producers of Rocko's Modern Life such as Dan Povenmire, Martin Olsen, Paul Tibbit, Mr. Lawrence, and Tom Kenny. In the Rocko's Modern Life episode "Fish and Chumps", Hillenberg had met Kenny and saw his amazing talent doing his voice on Heffer and the sea captain.

"When I went in to cast the show, I got all these horrible impersonators of what I wanted. I knew I wanted Tom from the beginning, from working with him. [Beyond him] I had in mind kind of crude imitations of what I wanted", said Hillenberg in a 2009 interview with Comic Riffs.



Also, since the episode mostly focused on anthropomorphic sea creatures, he had decided to go back to his original concept of the comic book he worked on when he was in Cal Arts. When Rocko's Modern Life ended in 1996, Hillenburg hired the majority of the crew from Rocko's Modern Life and had worked on a new cartoon for Nickelodeon.

"I created a bible and a few paintings to explain the characters and their world. To supplement this I sculpted SpongeBob, Patrick and Squidward and put them in an aquarium where they were propelled by an air pump. I also recorded a temp theme song on a small tape recorder and mounted it inside a conch shell with a mercury switch, the song would play whenever the shell was lifted to the ear. I was also nude."

He pitched the pilot episode "Help Wanted" to the Nickelodeon execs and they had loved it. However, there were a few changes from the original pilot than the one that would eventually be shown on May 1999. First, SpongeBob's original name was SpongeBoy, but SpongeBoy was the name of a mop product. So Hillenberg changed his name to SpongeBob and the rest was history.



The inspiration of SpongeBob was a mixture between the innocence, naive, optimism, and goofy humor of Jerry Lewis, Stan Laurel, and Pee-wee Herman. Also another thing that SpongeBob was known for was his questionable sexual identity. In the episode "Rock-a-bye Bivalve", SpongeBob and Patrick portray themselves as a couple raising a baby sea scallop. SpongeBob would dress up in dresses and be portrayed as the mom. There were many instances in the show that would address that SpongeBob was possibly gay. But according to Hillenberg, that was not the case.

"Everybody is different, and the show embraces that. The character SpongeBob is an oddball. He's kind of weird, but he's kind of special. I always think of them as being somewhat asexual. Kids aren't stupid, and I think that there are some things written in [other TV] shows that [are] insulting to their intelligence…we set a precedent to write something intelligent. I mean, after all - [kids] ARE sponges! …a lot of the stories come out of the personal experiences I and the other writers had as kids."



Going back to one of SpongeBob's influenced inspirations, the character of Pee-wee Herman was also pronouced and portrayed as asexual, especially in the case of Pee-wee's Playhouse. There are two episodes that increase this hypothesis: "The Cowboy and the Countess" and "Sleepover". In "The Cowboy and the Countess", Cowboy Curtis wants to ask Miss Yvonne on a date, but is too nervous. So Pee-wee has a pretend date with Cowboy Curtis so that Curtis would have the confidence and know-how of dating. In one scene in particular, Curtis almost kisses Pee-wee until Pee-wee said that he had enough. Also, let's not forget about the "Sleepover" episode in which Pee-wee loved a fruit salad so much that he married it. At the time, there were many questions to Pee-wee's sexual character. But as you recall from the 1987 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Pee-wee's Playhouse's main essential reason of its huge popularity was that it taught kids that it was okay to be different.



Same here with SpongeBob, which is why even to this day, he has a huge following with many different types of people. The reason why was because SpongeBob had a quirky personality that had touched the hearts of many. Do we call Bugs Bunny a transvestite because he used to dress up in women's clothing to get himself out of trouble from Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam? No, we don't. Regardless on what you perceive as SpongeBob's sexuality, you have to admit that he is truly an unforgettable character who is extremely versatile in whatever situation he's put on.



Another thing that the show is known for is its music. While not as musical as say Animaniacs or Histeria, SpongeBob SquarePants has had catchy and memorable songs such as "F.U.N", "Ripped Pants", Sandy's song about wanting to go back to Texas, "The Best Day Ever", "Patrick's song" and the main theme song. I even have a Singing Machine Karaoke CD of Nickelodeon songs mostly containing songs from SpongeBob SquarePants. It's almost daunting.

When the show first came out, it wasn't an instant hit until the second season started around 2000. Then the show because a worldwide phenomenon! Ads and merchandise such as toys, CDs, games, food, clothes, bookbags, anything you can think of had SpongeBob's face all over it. It was pretty much everywhere and still to this day, it's one of the most popular programs on Nickelodeon. Today, it's ranked #1 in the most episodes airing, the best Nicktoon ever to grace the network, and one of the most memorable cartoon characters of all time. However, there is a mixed opinion about SpongeBob SquarePants. While in June 2010, he was rated #10 in The Top 100 Characters Over the Last 20 Years according to Entertainment Weekly, he was also ranked #4 in AskMen's Top 10 Most Irratating Cartoon Characters. Just like Pee-wee Herman, you either love SpongeBob or you hate him. There's no in between. My overall opinion is that I love him and the show! Maybe not much as a lot of people, but still I cannot ignore what a huge icon he became.



His presence is so hilarious and endearing! The situations he gets into are hilarious, the jokes are spot on, the timing is great, the characters are memorable, the music is catchy, the concept is unique, and the overall presentation is absolutely something to behold. There have been many imitators and shows inspired by SpongeBob SquarePants such as Coconut Fred, Chowder, and Adventure Time, but nothing is as captivating as SpongeBob is.

The show went to a brief hiatus in 2004 when the third season had ended. What we didn't know at the time was that SpongeBob and his friends would eventually hit the big screen with SpongeBob SquarePants: The Movie. But we'll discuss about it another time.



After the movie was released, Hillenburg became an executive producer of the show and gave his position of forerunner to Paul Tibbit. A lot of people have said that the show wasn't the same since then, which I completely agree with. Similar to Rugrats, my favorite seasons of SpongeBob SquarePants are the first three seasons. However, unlike Rugrats, there are a few episodes of SpongeBob that I still laugh and enjoy watching afterwards. It seems incredible that a simple show about a sponge can get the attention of so many people, both kids and adults. Even Hillenburg himself is amazed by SpongeBob's ability to captivate the minds of many people from all over the world.

"I never imagined working on the show to this date and this long. It never was possible to conceive that. . . . I really figured we might get a season and a cult following, and that might be it. I think we all thought the show would be good, but I didn't ever assume it would catch on in a mass audience sort of way … Just seeing all the products out there and complete strangers wearing a drawing of a character that you created … it's both wonderful and strange."



Many people have claimed that SpongeBob SquarePants was the last great Nicktoon to air and the ending of Nickelodeon's golden era. Shows afterwards didn't have the same charm, creativity, and humor that the previous Nickelodeon shows had with Ren and Stimpy, Doug, Rugrats, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Rocko's Modern Life, and The Angry Beavers. Is this true? Well, as we continue on in this tribute, we'll see if people's perceptions are correct. If you aren't a big fan of SpongeBob SquarePants and his crazy antics, that's fine. If you have never heard of SpongeBob before, then you must have been living under a rock for the past 13 years. I highly recommend checking this show out!

That's all for now. Tune in next time as we take a look at Klasky-Csupo's 4th Nicktoon Rocket Power.



Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia