https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQM3Fd3eN9E
Hey guys! Remember 1990? That was a good year!
I used to watch this shit before school. There are only like two surviving episodes. At least on Youtube. And they were uploaded like ten years ago. And I don’t think that they’re complete.
It’s a live action show with cartoon segments. Like The Super Mario Bros Super Show. But whereas The Super Mario Bros Super Show seemed to be a cartoon show with live action segments tacked on, Wake, Rattle & Roll seemed to be a live action show with added cartoons. The live action parts seemed more a part of the show than in the Super Mario Bros show. At least that was my impression. I haven’t really seen either show in 30 years.
Anyway, I hated Wake, Rattle & Roll but I still watched it. The robot was creepy and I hated that he was doing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rip off voice. He says “dude” and shit like this.
So I looked it up. No, D.E.C.K.S. (the robot) was voiced by Rob Paulsen, who “appeared” in a recent Chris BORES video, and was also the voice of Raphael on the TMNT cartoon.
Why didn’t the people responsible for the TMNT cartoon sue this guy into oblivion? Or at least ask him to stop? Wake, Rattle & Roll ran concurrently with the TMNT cartoon. It started a couple of years after the TMNT cartoon and when Wake, Rattle & Roll ended a few years later, the TMNT cartoon was still going strong. Why did nobody approach him and ask him to stop or change the voice or anything?
Anyway, watching this episode now, I was right about this robot. It’s creepy as fuck. Totally lifeless. But for a brief moment, this character was something of a cultural icon. See this public service announcement for an example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr3wLS64A7M
Also, I didn’t realise it at the time, but this was just a vehicle for Hanna-Barbera to show cartoons. That’s fine, I guess, I just didn’t know it. At least the cartoons they showed were original. There was Monster Tails, which was okay, and Fender Bender 500, which I greatly preferred. Fender Bender 500 was an update on Wacky Races, which I also seem to recall watching and enjoying. I liked how different people would win each episode and they’d show the scores and shit. I think Laff-A-Lympics was another cartoon that did this kind of thing.
Which brings us to 10:00 in the video. D.E.C.K.S. says, “This is bigger than the Goodwill Games”. He pronounces “Goodwill” oddly so it took me a minute to figure out what he’s talking about.
But no. Remember the Goodwill Games? I’m so *nostalgic* for them . I don’t remember ever watching that shit but I remember that this existed. So I looked it up.
This started in 1986 and it ended in about 2001. Ted Turner created it as some kind of response to the US and the Soviet Union boycotting different Olympics. It was held every four years. And it was eventually cancelled because nobody was watching that shit. Except, oddly, D.E.C.K.S., who seems really excited for it.
This was 1990, so it was taking place in Seattle that year. Was Hanna-Barbera owned by Turner? Yes. yes, it was. Turner purchased Hanna-Barbera in 1991. So maybe this episode was made after this acquisition. Presumably, it was. Why else would they make this bizarre comment about the Goodwill Games?
So that’s kind of shady. Advertising this shit in their children’s programming.
The concept was largely irrelevant by 1990. When did the Soviet Union end? 1991. I’m so *nostalgic* for the collapse of communism in Europe. I remember a teacher came in with a West Germany or West Berlin t-shirt and some obnoxious student raised his hand, “Actually, West Germany no longer exists.” The teacher acknowledged this fact and said that she hoped that t-shirt would be worth money one day.
I’m seeing vintage West Berlin t-shirts from “the 90s” on Ebay for thirty-five bucks. So hopefully, she invested her money in other stuff too.
7:45 – I know this is going back but after watching Monster Tails, this girl says, “Those Teenage Mutant Mongrels are way cool.”
Was TMNT, or at least the 1987 cartoon, also owned by Turner? Is that how this was all able to happen? I don’t know. I can’t figure it out.
Anyway, this episode features the crew partaking in some kind of exchange with a Soviet father and son. Or something. This was during the collapse of the Soviet Union, of course, so it’s a much more sympathetic treatment of the Soviet characters. Finally, you could buy Levi Strauss blue jeans in Moscow. Freedom at last.
You don’t really see any Russian characters on tv today. I don’t think so, anyway. I haven’t watched television in like ten years. But it used to be huge. I’m so *nostalgic* for anti-Soviet propaganda.
After one year, the show moved to the Disney Channel, which is interesting. A Hanna-Barbera show on the Disney channel. But I never watched it there because I didn’t have the Disney Channel.
I just forgot about the show and so did everyone else. The actors became crack addicts or something.
You know what other show is forgotten about? Fudge. Eve Plumb of The Brady Bunch fame was the mother. This was during “the 90s” so there was a lot of 1970s *nostalgia*. But yeah, I’m so *nostalgic* for Fudge. I watched an episode recently. I’ve never seen a more obnoxious child actor in my life. No wonder he never worked after this show.
And what about Knights and Warriors? I can go on about 1990s *nostalgia* all day but I have to go cry and masturbate to my Wings DVD boxset.