On nostalgia. Time, it marches on.

[madbaker]

I watched a few episodes of Underdog recently. I loved that show when I was a kid.

Now that I'm theoretically an adult, guess what? They're bad. They don't have the wit and irony of Bullwinkle. I wanted to punt Tennessee Tuxedo through a wall. The only parts I still remotely liked were Go-Go Gophers (usually censored now for political correctness) and Commander McBragg. I didn't like McBragg as a kid; but I didn't know the parody of Victorian adventurers.

Some of this is inevitable. Even if The Phantom Mess hadn't been a steaming pile of crap, it was never going to live up to my memories of seeing Star Wars - because I'm not seven years old, seeing this sort of thing for the first time.

Underdog's lack of quality shocked me, though.

What I'm reading: Daryl Gregory, Pandemonium

Comments

[sarahbellem.livejournal.com]

I recently went back and watched a few episodes of ALF, which was my all-time favorite show growing up. My entire world revolved around watching it, and I remember how hysterically funny it was as an 8 year old. Revisiting it as an adult revealed that while the puppet itself was still prone to streaks of genius, the entire show as a whole was absolutely pure dreck.

I'm terrified to find out how bad Night Court is, 20 years later... :P

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

Have they censored out the taking of the pill to get the super powers?

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

They did in the '80s; I assume they're still cut.

[vittoriosa.livejournal.com]

Underdog was made into a feature film a few years ago. I hear it was horrible. However, I did contemplate seeing it because several scenes were filmed across the street from my apartment in Providence...weird.

[mad-duchess.livejournal.com]

OK, so I'm a tad older than you, but I was all asquee about Starsky & Hutch when I was a wee teenybopper. I had the same reaction when I saw an episode as an adult. I suddenly grocked that the reason my parents didn't like me watching it when I was a kid wasn't because it was too violent, but because it was just plain awful.
On a related note, it still made me smile giddily when I came out of OSH Monday afternoon to find a Gran Torino with a Starsky & Hutch paint job parked right next to my truck. :-)

[aastg.livejournal.com]

I watched Underdog as a kid, too - and at the time the only thing it had going for it was the theme. There was also a villain named Crabby Appleton - my Mom used to call me that. (She still does.)

I think that the last time I felt that let-down was seeing "Fireball XL5" 35 years later. Good theme, though.

[aimeric.livejournal.com]

I never liked Underdog that much.

"Welcome Back Kotter", OTOH...

Wow, that show hasn't aged well.