#106 - Jonny Fair - Para-toons!

Hello and welcome back to Phantom Journeys Podcast.

Thank you for being patient with us as we made some changes to the show.

On this episode, we talk to Mr. Jonny Fair, Cartoon Extraordinaire!

Go to www.phantomjourneys.com to find links to his podcast and other great show information.

Sit back and enjoy the show!

-Phantom Journeys.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Welcome to the Phantom Journeys Podcast with your mortal hosts, Matt McKerry and Kid Smith. Oh my god, I don't know what history.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

This podcast is brought to you by the Alien Soda Company. Your connection to pop culture and paranormal themed merch. Alien Soda Company dot shop. For all things out of this world.

SPEAKER_03 0:51

Well God. It's a ghost. I'm hearing voices.

SPEAKER_05 1:01

I'm not recording. So Matt. Hey, Kevin. We're back from the hiatus. Yes. And then we made some changes to the show, didn't we? We did. We made a couple of changes. We got a professional voiceover actor. We did. We appeared in the start of the episode. And we did a new opening to the show. Yep. And well, we have a special guest for everybody that's listening today. Yes. We have Mr. Johnny Fair, comedian cartoonist, voiceover artist and podcaster. He was podcaster of every Saturday morning. You can find it on YouTube. Mr. Verticol Fair is a cartoon official expert. Everything you want to know about Saturday morning cartoons is right here with our guest. Welcome, Mr. Johnny Fair. Hello.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Hello. Castle Ducula, home for many centuries to a dreadful dynasty of vicious vampire ducks. There were no ghosts on Ducula, so I couldn't bring it up. That's okay.

SPEAKER_05 2:01

So we're we're doing a little different thing than most podcasts or paranormal podcasts. We're actually going to talk about Saturday morning cartoons. Yeah. And how the paranormal either influenced them or they influenced the paranormal. Sweet. Sounds good. How's that? Well, sounds good, guys.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

I got a whole bunch of crap to talk about. Well, let's get the crap going. Well, you know, before even Saturday morning was a thing that they uh dumped all of animation onto, there was the uh 1937 Mickey Mouse cartoon, Lonesome Ghosts. And it kind of was the first time you saw people ghost hunting in a way that you would uh for the rest of time. Like it's it's the direct inspiration for Ghostbusters. Only the uh instead of SNL characters, you got Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. And then that classic scene where Mickey has to shoot Minnie up a Thorazine to get her to pass out.

SPEAKER_05 3:00

I remember this cartoon because it had one of those little toys where you put in this, it was this big yellow cartridge in the back, and you held it up to the light and you turned the the crank. Yeah. And it was that movie. So I've seen that movie inside and out, forward and backward, because you can actually watch the movie backwards by rotating the dial backwards. I actually got to watch them uh chase the ghost out instead of the ghost chasing them. There you go.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Ghosts go in, ghosts go out, ghosts go in.

SPEAKER_05 3:33

That's so I mean as we as we look at to the as Saturday morning uh cartoons in the paranormal, everybody's familiar with Casper on Scooby-Doo.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

That's right. Oh, yeah, we'll touch we can touch on them and uh all the things that ripped them off. Yeah, let's do it. All right. Uh but you know, uh, that lonesome ghost cartoon is really memorable to me. Like the the ghosts are all like blue and wearing like bowler caps. Um, but mostly like the if you uh the the cartoons on Disney Plus, and you should definitely check it out. But the audio in that cartoon is terrifying, like the sounds the ghosts make are legit not funny, like they're they're creepy. I don't know what they did. You can kind of barely tell what they're saying.

SPEAKER_05 4:16

So it's like actually they were trying to scare the kids as much as entertain them uh in early on.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

But it just sounds like all the characters are in a well. Huh. Interesting.

SPEAKER_05 4:30

And we'll put a picture of uh a clip, uh, one of the little clips from that uh uh episode up on the screen on our podcast, too.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Uh but yeah, and then uh shortly after that in the 40s, you do get you get Casper, um the the friendliest dead kid you'll ever meet. I guess you know, but technically he's not a dead kid. He's uh he's the child of uh two dead people. He's a he's a ghost child. Uh he wasn't a dead real boy till the movie in the 90s.

SPEAKER_05 5:01

Right. Do you think they did that just because it would be too tragic for kids' television to have it as a dead dead kid?

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Or I think it's worse. Uh like it's kind of a goofy joke that like he's the he's the kid, uh the son of ghosts. But you know, when we get when we make a movie, of course kids are gonna want to know how Casper died.

SPEAKER_03 5:21

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

And you know, I remember being in the theater and all the kids stood up and went, awesome! I like him better as a as a ghost child rather than a dead kid. I I don't it makes his like relentless happiness a little more justified. Whereas like I don't I don't think dead kid Casper is anything to be that cheery about.

SPEAKER_05 5:43

I'd be kind of traumatic. Yeah, yeah. Tragic. I mean he just he a kid died and now he's just in the afterlife forever.

SPEAKER_03 5:49

So he's he's a son uh uh of of two ghosts. Did they ever show the parents?

SPEAKER_01 5:55

I know I don't I feel like they must have shown, yeah, I think they did at some point, or at least like the traditional the knees down version of just legs. I think they did they might have done that with Casper, but I feel like they they did solidify it in the 40s. I don't know so much about uh when Casper came to television in the 60s and he got some new cartoons that they sandwiched between Baby Huey and Herman and Katnip. I think he was even more softened they didn't they didn't bring it up at all. It was it was just an it was like other animals going.

SPEAKER_03 6:29

Fair, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

But that's nothing compared to Casper in the 70s, where Casper went through some tough times. Uh so now he's on a show called Casper and the Angels. This is in 1979. Hanna Barbera, this is Hanna Barbera's second ripoff of Charlie's Angels after Captain Caveman, where they they stick Casper with some hot ladies, uh, and he's he they they solve crimes in the future with his uncle Harry, who's this uh uh crappy ghost man with a big red no, he's drunk in a big red nose. And he talks like this out of the way, Casper. Got another bottle to disappear into that's fine, that's funny. Much too much not not beloved Perry Scary, which usually they would stick him with his three uncles, uh, and it would be you know, two skinny ones, one big one, and then by the Casper movie, they were like, all right, stretch, Fatso, and Uncle Stinky. And they all got their own show in the 90s. In the 90s, they got the Spooktacular Casper show from 96 to 98, and that was more of a Spielberg uh affair, so it was like an animex kind of show where everybody's very aware they're on a show. And that one's actually not bad. There's one where Casper's sick of everyone saying he's not scary, so he turns into 1940s Casper and everybody's horrified.

SPEAKER_05 8:02

So when uh Casper was the uh with the angels, what kind of what kind of criminals did they uh go after? Were they monsters?

SPEAKER_01 8:11

No, there were space criminals. It was Jetson, it was a it was the Jetsons set pretty much, which they'd recycled like three times. There's like they took the Jetsons and were like, I don't know, use the backgrounds again, make uh the space cadets, uh making it a part of your family 2040 AD. They did it so many times, but it is nice to know that Casper still hasn't gone to heaven by 3,000.

SPEAKER_05 8:34

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 8:35

Still have some unfinished business, I guess.

SPEAKER_05 8:38

Making that making that ghost cash, yeah, for sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

That stash cash.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

So what what else do we have? We have um you had mentioned Scooby-Doo, yes, Scooby-Doo uh in 69, man.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Um, but you know what's you can't count the original series because the ghosts weren't real, right? It was always some land developer or Mr. Meanley, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:04

Gee, Mr. Nicely, I can't believe it was you, and then it wasn't the ghosts and monsters to be afraid of, it was the people around you that you would never suspect.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

Yeah, it was adults, man. It was all those people over 30. It's like dig this fossil. But in 1979, uh Scooby-Doo gets, let's let's face it, saddled with Scrappy-Doo. And what it what a coincidence! All the ghosts become real. So scrappy's like the dark hot harbinger of death. Because they weren't a problem before he showed up, and now there are no more land developments happening. Oh, they're all in jail now. Yeah, yeah, they're all in jail. These are just ghosts, these are just demons.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

That's interesting. Yeah, never thought of that.

SPEAKER_05 9:52

And then right after I was just gonna say, so Scrappy is actually the little devil that shows up in uh oh and Harvey's you mean hot stuff. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Well, you know, Casper uh inspired hot stuff. There's a Casper cartoon where they give him uh, let's call them mean pills, and Casper turns red and starts like poking people in the fanny and being a real dick. And they saw that and like, oh, we should just make a naughty Casper, and that's where they made hot stuff. Hot stuff has never been animated, they have never tried to make a hot stuff cartoon. I think because it's you know, Satan worshiping. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:30

And this was before the satanic panics, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

They really wouldn't have gone for it.

SPEAKER_05 10:35

So was that one more in just uh like comic books and stuff? Uh, because I remember seeing it.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Short comic books and like commemorative collectors glasses from gas stations and uh barbecue aprons. Like they they still merchandised the hell out of hot stuff, but they never really animated it.

SPEAKER_05 10:53

Yeah. Well, see, there there's there's a hot property right there just waiting to be snagged up and there's our hot stuff movie.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Where's our hot stuff hot sauce?

SPEAKER_03 11:03

That's what you need. Torn you into a ghost.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

Turns your tongue into a ghost. Then uh back to Scooby. There's still some more Scooby stuff. Uh so ghosts are real from pretty from 1979 through uh 87. In 87, you get your first Scooby-Doo movie uh for TV, uh, Scooby-Doo meets the Boo Brothers. And they're pretty much like uh three stooges. Um they're ghost hunters, but they're also ghosts. That Scooby and this is when Scooby and Shaggy and Scrappy are are no longer hanging out with uh Fred and Velma very often.

SPEAKER_05 11:41

Right. So what was the rift that caused the the rift between the uh Shaggy and Scooby from the rest of the group?

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Well, you know what? Canonically they've said like uh somewhere along the line, Shaggy was like, hey, that was the summer you guys were at camp.

SPEAKER_03 11:57

Oh well, how can I come?

SPEAKER_05 12:01

We were in rehab, they worked at a place this when they were told, oh, such and such is in it's gone to camp, and that was that was code for rehab.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

And you guys were like in juvie, right?

SPEAKER_05 12:16

Oh my goodness. Yes, the non-Shaggy ones that went to rehab. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

At that point, uh Shaggy, you can it's also when Shaggy starts wearing a red shirt instead of green. So if you if you see a red shirt Shaggy, that means the devil is real. Because he wears that through uh the the final Ghosts Are Real series, the 13 ghosts of Scooby-Doo, the one they did with Vincent Price in uh 1985, and he's still got his red shirt. Final time he wears the red shirt after that, ghosts are never real again. They never do we don't ghosts of Scooby-Doo.

SPEAKER_05 12:57

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 12:58

That is interesting, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_05 13:00

You know, I think I saw I I I don't remember watching the the episodes with uh the Shaggy with the red shirt, but I think I did see a picture of it, and I just thought it was like his cousin or something like that. I didn't realize it was Shaggy's as a scene, though.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Well, I take my identical cousin, Scraggly.

SPEAKER_05 13:15

Yeah, there's always there was always the identical twin brother or something, just so they could save on the animation, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Well, yeah, Scooby had Scooby-Dum. He was just white.

SPEAKER_05 13:24

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

Scooby-Dum.

SPEAKER_05 13:28

That was a he was gray or something, wouldn't he?

SPEAKER_01 13:31

He was like white and gray and had like a red pork pie hat. Oh, and he would go dum, dum, dum, dum.

SPEAKER_03 13:40

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_05 13:42

So when people think about Saturday morning cartoons, uh, a lot of uh comes to to Looney Tunes. Did Looney Tunes get into the paranormal a lot? Or I mean off the hand, I don't remember you know, Bug Spunny or them, but they did have like yeah, they had a Leo or something that was a monster or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Oh uh Gossimer. Gossamer, you know, if we were gonna talk about monsters, then that would be a completely different list. Uh but yeah, a lot of times uh the ghosts in Looney Tune cartoons turn out to be uh mice on each other's shoulders. So I don't know if they had like a straight up ghost. You know, anytime they would commit suicide and then come back into the room as a ghost, I guess that counts.

SPEAKER_03 14:23

Yeah, I guess so.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Yeah, it's a great trick, but I can only do it once. Post Scooby-Doo, you get into the Scooby ripoffs, of which there are many. Right. Um you get your speed buggy, jabberjaw, goober and the ghost chasers, um Buford and the Galloping Ghosts, the Clue Club. There's there's a lot of these.

SPEAKER_05 14:47

And were those all Hannah Hanna Barbera or?

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Yeah, they're all Hanna Barbera. They were just and it's not so much Hanna Barbera was just lazy, they were just told just do it again.

SPEAKER_05 14:59

It worked the first time, let's do it again. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

But the one the most relevant one here is 1971's Funky Phantom, where the goofy character that helps the teenagers is a dead man from the Revolutionary War.

SPEAKER_03 15:15

I can't say I've seen that one. No, I don't think I've seen no, I haven't.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

It's pretty bad. Um it's it's uh muds. It's the ghost is named Mudsy. So that's cool. And he he's got the voice, he's got the same voice as snaggle puss. So he's like, How's it going? Oh, don't worry, kids. It's 71. I'll have a Billy Beer.

SPEAKER_05 15:39

I could just see a revolutionary revolutionary um soldier talking like that, going being really popular.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Did that nitty gritty? Excuse me while I go to a club for a while. Yeah, and he had a ghost cat named Boo. Um, and then they would they would solve seeming I think it was seemingly paranormal crimes. I think they also turned out to be fake. But it was a bit of a stinker. There's not much to remember. I think funky phantoms on the lower end of the bull of the uh the Scooby one. I prefer Jabberjaw.

SPEAKER_05 16:16

I think Jabberjaw was the I never saw I never watched a lot of Jabberjaw. I did see um do uh the the buggy one speed buggy.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

Speed buggy's decent too. And it's uh that one's got Mel Blank doing his uh Jalopy voice that he did on the old that one's got to be Shaggy's cousin in that one.

SPEAKER_05 16:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Oh Tinker. Yeah, Tinker is just Shaggy wearing like goggles.

SPEAKER_03 16:41

Yeah, I I think personally, I remember growing up watching Saturday morning cartoons, but I don't like I remember I remember like Scooby-Doo and I remember like you know uh Casper, but these other ones I don't think I've ever heard of before. I remember like growing up watching like Transformers and what else, like Jesus the wheelboard.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Johnny and I back in foundation. Well, by the nineties, they weren't rerunning stuff from the 60s and 70s too much anymore. Yeah, just say good kids would look at it and go, absolutely not.

SPEAKER_03 17:19

No, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:21

Okay, so in the 90s, what were some uh cartoons that might have stood out in uh that would be paranormal based in then in the 90s?

SPEAKER_03 17:29

80s and 90s, that's 80s and 90s.

SPEAKER_05 17:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

Oh well, I mean, the big one of the late 80s, early 90s is uh Beetlejuice. Oh, that's right, the paranormal cartoon from 89 to 91.

SPEAKER_05 17:43

Beetlejuice. I'm not familiar with that story. Can can someone fill me in?

SPEAKER_01 17:47

The story of the movie of Beetlejuice. Like, what there's a lot going on in here. Uh in your fart. That's what well the weird thing about the Beatle Juice cartoon was is like, well, all the characters' names and the places are correct, but they have been completely recontextualized from the film.

SPEAKER_06 18:14

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

It'd be like if they made like a um nightmare in Elm Street cartoon, and Freddie and Nancy were really good friends and had fun in the Dream World.

SPEAKER_06 18:25

True.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Or an exorcist cartoon where Reagan and Pazuzu are like having fun in the dream world, solving mysteries and crimes.

SPEAKER_05 18:36

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

No, most importantly, making puns because all of Beetlejuice is just making really bad jokes.

SPEAKER_05 18:42

Can you imagine having to be the writer that that was your only job is to come up with uh 10 puns for each episode?

SPEAKER_01 18:49

Oh, there's 10 in a every two minutes. There are so many episodes of Beetlejuice. This is weird. Uh they they did 30 episodes on ABC, and then immediately Fox syndicated it. So there's 65 more on another channel. So it's one of the rare shows that was on like multiple channels for a long time. And then it was on Nickelodeon for years. Beetlejuice hung hung around. I burnt out on Beetlejuice pretty early because I was confused. I was like, I don't I don't know if I buy this canon anymore. What's going on? Didn't he want to marry Lydia? Now uh DH Lydia. He's always calling her babe, hey babes. You know what, babes? You can bowl me over and then he turns into a bowling ball.

SPEAKER_03 19:35

Yeah, yeah. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

It was decent. I mean, it had uh some of the earliest like CG animation for a TV show. Yeah, but like I I don't know what the Beatle just cartoon says about the paranormal. Like the neither world in the cartoon is so completely different than the one from the movie. At least in the in the movie, they're trying to say, like, well, the bureaucracy continues after you die. Yeah. Whereas whereas the show is just like, there's a tap dancing spider living in my bathroom.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

In the movie as well, it was almost like they had like like snakes like Dune, like you know, oh yeah, the desert desert.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Oh, yeah, sandworms. The sandworms they're in every they're in all versions of Beetlejuice, they're omnipresent. You know, they never overdid them, like even on the show, you'd expect them to have like a pet sandworm or something. It held back pretty good.

SPEAKER_00 20:36

Yeah, he would just go sandworms. You know I hate them, babes.

SPEAKER_03 20:44

So, what's what's one of your favorite Saturday morning cartoons that really stood out for you in the paranormal kind of realm?

SPEAKER_01 20:53

Um, this is a really weird one. Um, and I'm not necessarily saying it's good, but it is it is fascinating to watch. Um this one is uh 1975's Freddy Cat. This was um part of Uncle Croc's block, which was a show where try which was a parody of a cheap kids' show, but was one uh starring Charles Nelson Riley. Uh I'll say. Uh he he played Uncle Croc, who was this like bitter failure, who wore a crocodile outfit on this ramshackled show, who would introduce really bad filmation cartoons. And filmation made some of the worst cartoons ever. Um their best work is probably like He He Man. Well, not even He Man. Um probably like Bravestar.

SPEAKER_03 21:52

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

That was one of their last shows. Or um well, they'll come up in a minute uh when we talk about Ghostbusters, but They they did all the cartoons for this garbage thing. This this show was such a huge failure that ABC never ordered another Dalmation show again. So it was a it was a package show. So in between the bad sketches that didn't work, and that's the joke, that also featured Freddy Cat, uh a parody of MASH called Mush, where they were all dog where they were all dogs. Isn't that doesn't that sound fun?

SPEAKER_04 22:25

Was this still the Korean War? It's basically dogs in the Korean War?

SPEAKER_01 22:31

I guess so. It just sounds so depressing. Yeah, mush is and it's called Mush. And then there was a there was a caveman cartoon called Wacky and Packy, but it's not as fun to remember. That's mush. Um but yeah, Freddy Cat was a cartoon. It's about a cat who's on his his his ninth life, and he's so he's terrified all the time that he's gonna die. And whenever he says like a number, then the corresponding former life will show up like a ghost. Like if he says one, then like his first life, which is a caveman, will show up and cause havoc for him. And if he says nine, then a cloud shaped like a nine chases him down with lightning bolts.

SPEAKER_03 23:19

Crazy. I've not seen that one. I don't think I don't know. I don't know if I've seen that one.

SPEAKER_05 23:25

I've heard Freddy Cat, but I I I thought I knew Freddy Cat, but that's not the what was the cat that had the like the white brim hat and ran around with a tie or something like that. Are you thinking of Top Cat? Maybe. Maybe, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

Oh no, wait, you're thinking of Riffraff from Heathcliff.

SPEAKER_05 23:44

Oh yeah, okay, that's the yeah, that's the cat I'm thinking about it.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Yeah, that's the the secondary show on Heathcliff was uh Riffrack Riffraff and the Cadillac cat. And he had that hot lady cat that fetish eyes. Uh but Freddy Cat is the closest to like if David Lynch made a cartoon show because it is eerie and scary. It seems to always be night. Um it's just him running like all the time. Just oh god, oh god. And he's voiced by Alan Oppenheimer, Skelator.

SPEAKER_03 24:24

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

There you go. And his he's uh but he's uh and he's always going, this kitten's split and then and then runs off. And it's also got the uh the terrible 70s laugh track that they would throw on cartoons.

SPEAKER_05 24:40

Because you know there's a studio audience watching the cartoon being drawn.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

Yeah, because otherwise, how do you know this cartoon is a comedy? But it was the it was the the crappy one they would put on cartoons. It was the uh like low-level sad laugh. I watched a ton of Freddy Cats, and it is fascinating. I think uh just the idea, like I guess it's it's somewhat like a feline combo of Uncle Boon Me who can recall his past lives, and uh the Pink Panther strikes again. Where you're just haunt where you're just haunted by your your former lives and they actually make your current life worse. Um yeah, there's a caveman with a pet Bronosaurus, a stupid, a stupid wizard, a coleptopirate, a foppish Elizabeth Elizabethan swordsman, a cowboy and undertaker who keeps trying to like get the death going. And this like cool cat beat Nick, baby, like uh a uh fighter pilot from World War One.

SPEAKER_03 25:45

Wow. He's had quite a quite the line, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

Yeah, right, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:50

This is just suddenly just like next life. All right, I'm gonna do something completely different today.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

It's it's a fascinating flop. Well, it's a filmation, so the voices are terrible and the animation's terrible, and the design of the characters are terrible. They were not known for good shows, but like the the tone of the show is just bleakest, the bleakest cartoon. Oh god! Just him running from himself. Aren't we all?

SPEAKER_05 26:17

I was gonna say, aren't we all to some degree? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

It's probably the the most paranormal show I can think of. It's got the most like ghosts constantly showing up and the the reincarnation ramifications of it all are crazy.

SPEAKER_03 26:33

Yeah, yeah. Order than Ghostbusters are anymore.

SPEAKER_05 26:38

You know, because you know there was two Ghostbusters.

SPEAKER_03 26:43

There was there was the real Ghostbusters with the with a gorilla. Yeah, that's true. Right? Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

There's there's the so there's there's two Ghostbuster cartoons, one just called Ghostbusters because Filmation owned the name Ghostbusters, uh from a 1975 live-action terrible Saturday morning l uh show they did with uh the stars of F Troop. Um they when they uh didn't get the call to help make the uh movie version of the cartoon, they're like, well, we're gonna make our own anyway, and just call it Ghostbusters and so there's Ghostbusters and real Ghostbusters. That's right. Kids would watch the real Ghostbusters, and you learned quick, like, oh no, don't watch that other one. It also features Alan Oppenheimer as the bad guy. And he sounds exactly like Skeletor.

SPEAKER_03 27:38

Yeah. It was a good show. Oh I like that one. I thought it was interesting.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

It's like their best animated show. It's like it looks pretty well done. I don't want to watch it. But like it looks like they actually you watch the filmation cartoon, and every time someone talks, you see the back of them, you see the back of their head while they talk, they just turn around for every and then you see their arm move, and they're like, that's good enough. They tried with Ghostbusters, and the logo is pretty cool, even though it's the wrong ghost. It's it's fine.

SPEAKER_05 28:10

Yeah, it's fine. We're we're gonna take a quick momentary break, and we'll get back into it with uh Johnny Fair and the Paranormal and the Saturday morning cartoons, and we'll start up again with uh Ghostbusters.

SPEAKER_03 28:23

Absolutely. Sounds good. We'll see you in a couple of moments. Stay tuned.

SPEAKER_00 28:28

Stay tuned, and don't you dare fast forward through our sponsors. I'll know.

SPEAKER_06 28:46

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SPEAKER_02 28:53

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SPEAKER_05 29:19

And we're back. Um we're talking to Johnny Fair, car comedian, cartoonist, voiceover artist, and you can catch his podcast on YouTube called Every Saturday Morning. Welcome back with Johnny Fair, and we were talking about the Ghostbusters cartoon.

SPEAKER_01 29:37

Yeah, Ghostbusters. Now, did you guys you guys uh grew up with this one too, right?

SPEAKER_03 29:42

Did yeah I did.

SPEAKER_01 29:43

Now, how did you feel about this adaptation of a movie we all watch like a thousand times?

SPEAKER_03 29:51

But he was a fan of the one with the gorilla. Well, yeah, I did like the one with the gorilla. I thought it was a good TV show. Yeah, it was interesting, you know. Um also was probably the only show I had to watch at the time. It was either that or you know, something like countdown or something like that from BBC. Um he was in Ireland. I was I'm from Ireland, so um, but the yeah, the Ghostbusters Busters TV show, I liked it. It was it was fun, it wasn't the movie, right? Right, but the same characters, and you had like Slimer and all of that, you know, it was great, but so much Slimer. He was the hit of the show.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

They they really pushed a lot of Slimer. Um you know what? When I was eight, I loved Slimer, like I thought it was hilarious. Now that is the last part of the show I care about while on the Slimer.

SPEAKER_03 30:46

It was Venckman and Slimer that were the big the best friends on the show, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_06 30:50

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Well, yeah, Venckman one, where it was uh the voice of Garfield, Lorenzo Muzak, was doing film at first. It was so nice just to hear that voice get angry. Usually Garfield's pretty uh sleepy, yeah. He's like, Let's let me blast him.

SPEAKER_03 31:10

True, true.

SPEAKER_01 31:12

Do you uh do you guys remember any specific episodes you uh really like? I can't say that I watched that one.

SPEAKER_03 31:17

I'm sorry. I I do remember some episodes um crazy ghosts with like hats and like mafia-looking people, and then there you go, and they always came out of the the the order world, you know.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

The the well, I guess the uh the designs of the ghosts were really good, yeah. Like I think one of the few times drawings scared me were on the Ghostbusters, and it was in the middle of the I remember being a kid and it being the morning and watching the Ghostbusters episode uh about the boogeyman, yeah, yeah, legit creeped out and being like, just kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_03 31:59

True, true.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

That's that's that's probably their best episode is the Ghostbusters versus the Boogeyman, where we learn the boogeyman is an old foe of Egons.

SPEAKER_03 32:08

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

I never thought I'd see him again. Yeah, Spangler. That was the classic one. Oh, and I really liked the um the Sandman episode. Yeah, the evil sandman is we're we're going to make everyone sleep for 500 years.

SPEAKER_03 32:32

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 32:33

Did everybody go to sleep for five years? I didn't see that episode.

SPEAKER_03 32:36

You know what? It's it's been a really long time since I've seen the Ghostbusters heat uh cartoon, but I do remember as being it really gave more storyline to the actual movies in a way, and I think they kind of want to do that in future movies too, especially with the frozen realm and stuff like that, you know.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Well, there was there's an episode of the Ghostbusters cartoon where it takes place right after the first movie, right? You see them come back to the firehouse and it's been destroyed. And eagon the first thing Egon says is we gotta get rid of these suits. They've they're contaminated with way too much uh energy from from ghosts, yeah. The suits become uh sentient and attack them later in the episode. Pizarro versions of Prince and then an episode after that, someone's making a Ghostbusters movie, the movie we saw.

SPEAKER_03 33:36

Oh my god, yeah, and then go to go TV show for sure.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

It was decent, it was on for a while too, and then they added like these these um kind of cheaper Slimer shorts. So became Slimer and the real Ghostbusters.

SPEAKER_05 33:56

That's the way it always goes. That's it, yeah. The the lead the lead singer always kind of branches out and try to, you know, a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

Well, they they they sing the regular song, and then at the end, Slimer would slime over the word Ghostbusters with slime and go, and me, and me. Oh my. Yeah. Those stressed me out because Slimer would like get like part-time jobs. Nobody seemed to care that he was a ghost anymore. They're like, Oh, hey Slimer. Yeah, part-time dog. Like, everyone gets to hang out with Slimer for the day. That's true. That's true. Make no sense.

SPEAKER_03 34:35

So uh, yeah, that's good.

SPEAKER_05 34:38

So, in the the other uh version of the Ghostbusters with the with the gorilla, was the car I noticed they had a like a jalopy. So is that was that kind of a throwback to um speed buggy? Was it sentient too? I don't I never saw that one.

SPEAKER_01 34:51

Well, speed buggy was uh based on Mel Blank's car voice that he would do on the old Jack Benny show. Jack Benny had a shitty car, and then uh Mel Blank would do the voice of it.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

I'm not feeling so good. Cheap gas.

SPEAKER_01 35:08

So it would just be that joke. So speed buggy comes from that. I think this was, I mean, I don't I don't think this was a reference to speed buggy. If anything, it was um probably a reference to Schlep car from uh Sid and Marty Croft, where they had a show called Wonderbug, where this crappy car would turn into a beautiful car and that could fly and fight crime.

SPEAKER_05 35:29

You know what? I completely urged that one from my memory bank so you said it, and all of a sudden there's no reason to know this. I remember the vision of that as a kid now that you mentioned that. I've I hadn't thought of that in 50 some odd years. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

We know it's 70s because they use the word schlep.

SPEAKER_05 35:49

Well, you mentioned Charles uh Nelson Riley. And the idea of City Marty Crawford, he did Lidsville. Even though he's kind of scary as a kid, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

It's like, I'll blast your head off, child.

SPEAKER_05 36:15

That one was always creepy as a kid. Even as a kid, I was like, why anybody watching? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

Everyone should definitely watch the uh opening theme song to Lidsville, because you'll go, oh, this doesn't look like it should be on TV.

SPEAKER_06 36:29

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 36:31

One in one, it looks inappropriately terrifying, and two, is it done? They finished making it, like it looks it's so slapdash. That's the Sid and Marty Croft touch, though. It's like, oh, you you you put a lot of effort and then you just stop. Oh, they stopped there, I guess. Uh that's what it's gonna look like. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 36:51

So you brought up uh Sid and Marty Croft. So they did that one, they did Litzville. Um, they did the um the sea the sea creatures, the sea monsters, and then they did um the one with the um I don't know why I'm blanking all of a sudden.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

The um Land of the Lost.

SPEAKER_05 37:09

Land of the Lost with the uh the lizard people. I was trying to remember the name of the lizards. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:13

Slea.

SPEAKER_05 37:14

The slea stack, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:15

That's my my earliest TV memory.

SPEAKER_05 37:18

I remember watching all those.

SPEAKER_01 37:20

Being terrified by the opening theme, in which now you watch it and you're like, oh, that's a very not elaborate hand puppet. It just goes at the camera. When I was four, I screamed.

SPEAKER_05 37:34

Did they do now? I I don't remember off the top of my head, maybe it's just me making things up, but did Sidney Marty Croft do a ghost show or something along that line, or am I just thinking they did? Because everything was kind of creepy.

SPEAKER_01 37:48

I think at least one episode of every show they did did the haunted house episode. Okay, right, which is where like old shows are like, Well, that we can't do Halloween episodes per se, but how about they go to a haunted house? Someone has a sheet on, ooh, that's good enough. Aired in October.

SPEAKER_03 38:07

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

I think they definitely did that. I don't I can't I don't think they ever had an actual ghost though. That would require more special effects they go to that they had budget for. They only had money for blue screen technology, and that was the end of it.

SPEAKER_05 38:23

Yeah, and it wasn't very good blue screen most of the time.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

No, but it was memorable, it was weird and memorable, like no one else used it quite like that.

SPEAKER_03 38:34

Yeah, I don't really have a I don't have a memory of that TV show already, so I'm kind of blanking on that pairs and I'm not know if they'd actually made it across the pond, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

So I that's funny because all of their shows had at least like um well, I guess you're not British, but they would have like one British kid. So I guess because Oliver was really huge around that time. That's true. Yeah, did Sid and Marty Croft do one lost British child first?

SPEAKER_05 38:59

Did uh Sid and Marty Croft do um oh god, I'm just keep blinking the the big mushroom dude.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

HR Puffins?

SPEAKER_05 39:08

Yeah, that guy.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

That's their big one, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 39:10

Yeah, okay. That was because he was British too, wasn't he? The little kid.

SPEAKER_01 39:14

Oh the kid the kid, yeah, Jimmy. I'm coming, Jimmy.

SPEAKER_05 39:19

With his magic flute, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:20

Oh yeah, Freddie, Freddie. Yeah, I know way too much about HR Puffin stuff. Well, in Atlanta where I used to live, uh the scene in the CNN building used to be the Sid and Marty Croft like miniature theme park. Oh yeah. That that that burned too bright to stay more than like a couple months. Um footage of it is very hard to find, but it is terrifying looking, just like their shows.

SPEAKER_03 39:45

True. Um, what was I gonna say? There was uh a cartoon popped in my head, and there was it's possible that there's a a hidden meaning behind it, and I think it's Rubrats from the 90s, I believe. And I think the theory is that all the kids on the show are either dead or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 40:11

They're the seven deadly sins or something like that. I feel like there's a couple kids' shows that people like Ed and Nettie, I think people did it with that one too.

SPEAKER_05 40:19

Yeah, yeah. Well, there's the theory that Gilligan's Island was that Gilligan was the devil in the uh in the castaways for all one of the the deadly sins, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:28

Yeah, yeah in the last Gilligan's Island, isn't it revealed they were all dead?

SPEAKER_05 40:35

I don't remember that one.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

Then he hits them with his hat.

SPEAKER_05 40:40

I remember that the Coast Guard came and they were on their floating uh they're all dead, and they all died. Yeah, they've been floating there for years. Gilligan spelling out help with their bodies, they're all mummified, like that one the sailor they found been floating around in the in his boat for like seven years. I think the edited that ending out.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

I don't think any ghosts ever appeared on Gilligan. I know a vampire did.

SPEAKER_03 41:08

Oh, really? And if we were talking about weird TV shows as well, that that D D one. I didn't see that. I didn't see that one. Oh, what was it called?

SPEAKER_01 41:20

Oh, Dungeons and Dragons.

SPEAKER_03 41:22

Was it was it Dungeons and Dragons with the where they go on the roller coaster?

SPEAKER_01 41:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:27

It's really supposed to be just uh the old man is some drug dealer, and he just gave all the kids random drugs and and we're all tripping, you know.

SPEAKER_05 41:38

The cartoons you watch or let everyone listen I watched. I don't remember that.

SPEAKER_01 41:43

You think they really went to a magical world? What do you want?

SPEAKER_03 41:46

Yeah, but um, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:53

Um, what else?

SPEAKER_05 41:54

Do you do you think that the as time has gone on, they've sanitized cartoons more for the audience, or do you think kids are really missing out getting terrified watching Saturday morning cartoons?

SPEAKER_01 42:07

Well, one kids don't have to watch reruns, yeah. So they don't have to be confronted with old effects and iffy plot lines and weird shows, they don't have to deal with that, so they have no sense of history. Back in my day, and then and additionally, they they don't make cartoons and kids' entertainment as I guess recklessly as they used to. I don't know if reckless is the right word, but they they don't try, they don't go outside the box too often anymore. Yeah, you're not even allowed to have like your your stimpy kind of duh duh character anymore. Like that's a big no-no. They have to be kind of just a non-sequitur machine uh machine instead.

SPEAKER_05 42:53

Yeah. Do you think there's something missing when cartons go that direction? Do you think kids are missing out on anything, or do you think it's just a different perspective on or a different way of showing things that we weren't used to?

SPEAKER_01 43:08

You know, it's just such a different environment now. When we were kids, they were everything that we really watched was in their experimental phase. So Nickelodeon could air a different show all day, and some of them would be really weird and unpopular, and some would be huge. And then they the networks just get so big, they're like, Well, we can only air the stuff that's huge now, so it's the Spongebob channel from now on.

SPEAKER_03 43:34

I mean, is there still Saturday morning cartoons? Or would would it be more like just like everyone's watching anime now and and there's this yeah, everybody's an overload of that? A lot of streaming now, too.

SPEAKER_01 43:47

Yeah, streaming's pretty much killed. I mean, NBC started it, they killed off cartoons, and that's why they switched to Saved by the Bell type drama at like California. Your dreams and and the you know just different versions of that. So they they got the ball rolling, and then eventually Fox realized oh, if we just do Power Rangers, we don't have to spend money on animation ever. Oh, wait, there is a cartoon about uh little creatures you collect, and we don't have to pay to animate it. We can get that cheap, and they did.

SPEAKER_03 44:22

Yeah, yeah, those didn't help either.

SPEAKER_01 44:24

Yeah, even though they're still beloved now.

SPEAKER_03 44:27

True.

SPEAKER_01 44:28

They erased all the other stuff. Just got too big.

SPEAKER_05 44:33

There's one there's one that always I always watched, and I never was really scared, but at the end I just felt really creeped out, and that was Courage the the cowardly dog. Yeah, where cowards courage this little pup, and it's kind of drawn in a weird animation anyway, but he's trying to protect the family uh from ghosts and monsters and all these demons and stuff, and everybody else seems to be oblivious to it, except for courage.

SPEAKER_01 44:59

Well, yeah, there's a lot of ghosts on there. That's a good call. I just never I never think of the NickTunes or cartoon cartoons as Saturday morning, so I guess I didn't really immediately go to them. But yeah, Courage had so many creatures and was so disturbing. And there's lots of like bad ending episodes where it's like, I guess the old couple are just puppets from now on.

SPEAKER_05 45:23

Yeah, I mean, it wasn't always the the he saved the day, happy go lucky, feel good ending, and all out of them. It was you walk away like I don't know why, I just feel really creeped out.

SPEAKER_01 45:35

I kind of loved cartoons that ended with, oh well, it looks like they died.

SPEAKER_05 45:40

Oh, he wasn't successful this time.

SPEAKER_01 45:43

Plenty of Ren and Stimpy's and Tom and Jerry's, where it's like, oh, they died at the end.

SPEAKER_03 45:48

Oh, that was another one, wasn't it? That like uh Tom and Jerry. Wasn't it Jerry? Which one's the mouse? Jerry Jerry that Tom was supposed to have died in an episode, and he could never catch Jerry after that. And so you're just watching his watching, yeah, literally like there's one where he just he's sad and just sits on a train track staring off in the distance, the opposite direction of the train.

SPEAKER_01 46:14

You just hear it coming.

SPEAKER_05 46:15

Yeah, maybe you're on to something then. You're watching his maybe it was a TikTok or something I had watched. You were watching his uh version of hell, probably.

SPEAKER_01 46:24

So many old fun cartoons end with suicide. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 46:31

I wonder why they don't show that anymore.

SPEAKER_01 46:34

Well, I remember when I was a kid, they would start editing Looney Tunes. They would, you know, Daffy would take a blast to the face, but they would cut to Bugs Bunny like in a in a VCR paused pose. Right, right, right. Like, I don't remember this cut. What happened?

SPEAKER_05 46:49

I don't understand what happened.

SPEAKER_01 46:50

Oh, yeah. What happened between him putting the gun in his face, hearing a gunshot noise, and coming back in his face is all boom? What could have happened there?

SPEAKER_03 47:02

Yeah, that's cool. That's fun.

SPEAKER_01 47:06

Those are those are some classic, uh, classic cartoons. Uh of course I loved I loved Pee-wee's Playhouse. Yeah, I loved uh Muppet Babies.

SPEAKER_03 47:14

Oh, yeah, that was another fun one.

SPEAKER_01 47:16

Weird one very bit very big into Ninja Turtles. Who I don't believe they ever encountered a ghost. Yeah, not as much.

SPEAKER_05 47:24

I remember watching um the G.I. Joe cartoons. Yeah. Okay, uh, and at the very end, and knowing is half the battle.

SPEAKER_01 47:35

They would always prevent a ghost by telling you not to play in the construction site.

SPEAKER_05 47:39

True, true. After the whole cartoon is him running around with guns and shooting at people.

SPEAKER_03 47:45

You know, I think I think I had some weird childhood because I remember like Dino Riders and Jace and the Whale Warriors. Uh masks Dino Riders was pretty deep. M A S key. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:58

Ask the the show where they wear helmets.

SPEAKER_03 48:02

Underall, like navy and army, and those mask toys were pretty cool looking, though. Yeah, that is true.

SPEAKER_01 48:09

Uh I had no concept of like the show, but I was like, well, uh, whatever that gas station toy set is, that's pretty cool. Must be a show about gas and uh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:20

Another great one was XCOM. Oh no, um Starcom. Not parallel, not paranormal related now, but it was StarCom, I think it was. I don't remember that one. Yeah, yeah. It might have been a European one. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 48:37

Super Ted.

SPEAKER_03 48:38

Super Ted, oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 48:42

So good. You see, he's a Titan bear, but he has a cape on, so he's got superpowers. Am I correct?

SPEAKER_03 48:50

Is that it? Was Banana Man in that one or was Banana Man was on Nickelodeon whenever they had like five minutes?

SPEAKER_01 48:58

They're like, oh the show, the show's running short. Stick a banana man on. I couldn't believe how cheap those banana man were, too. We're sure we sure didn't like bananas. Yeah. What if it isn't banana man? And it was like one guy did everybody's voice.

SPEAKER_05 49:18

It was a spotty guy, wasn't it? Do do do do. I have no idea what you guys are talking about. I don't think that one at all.

SPEAKER_01 49:26

Oh British cartoons, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Danger mouse and Doug watched a lot of the The Window The Wind in the Willows stop motion show. I really like that.

SPEAKER_03 49:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:35

And that went into that, I think one of the last episodes I ever saw. I don't know if it was the finale, but like Toad thinks Toad Hall is haunted and is runs out screaming at the end of the episode. Credits. I remember being like, oh my god, no closure.

SPEAKER_03 49:52

What was that one movie that I think it was English? Uh it scared the life out of every kid that ever watched it.

SPEAKER_01 50:00

Could be Watership Down?

SPEAKER_03 50:01

Yes. Good lord.

SPEAKER_01 50:04

The rabbit in the sky. Yeah, when I finally saw that, because I'd been warned, and then I finally saw it, and I was like, oh god, like I don't know if you remember there was a 90s independent film called Slacker by the director of Dazed and Confused. And in that movie, you just see person pass by another person, pass by another person. That's how I felt with Watership Down. I'm like, who's this the main character of they all die horribly?

SPEAKER_03 50:35

We don't remember the movie, but it was traumatic.

SPEAKER_01 50:38

Who's the last one to die? I guess they were the main character.

SPEAKER_05 50:41

Your mind's probably blocking the traumatic.

SPEAKER_01 50:45

Oh, it's no fun. It's no fun. But it looks like it could be like a secret anymore type movie, but then once you get into it, you're like, oh no, like I just killed Buttercup or uh whatever.

SPEAKER_03 51:00

Yeah. That's so crazy.

SPEAKER_01 51:03

So kind of has a spirit, the rabbit in the sky flying around.

SPEAKER_03 51:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:08

I could see people getting tattoos with that guy.

SPEAKER_05 51:12

Matt was saying he'd just looking for a new uh tattoo idea. There you go. That's true.

SPEAKER_01 51:20

Oh yeah. Rabbit. And one of the plague dogs thought how to do it.

SPEAKER_05 51:29

So branching out from Saturday morning, what what what's on TV right now that would uh be heavily in the paranormal or um that kind of realm?

SPEAKER_01 51:40

Um well animated, there's a show on Disney called The Ghost and Molly McGee. Oh which I checked out a bunch of, and it's uh this ghost named Scratch gets kind of stuck haunting a she's kind of like Elmira from Tiny Tunes, but not that interesting. Uh but a little bit like that, uh, named Molly. And uh the ghost is named Scratch, and he's voiced by Dana Snyder, uh Master Sheikh from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Oh it's pretty good.

SPEAKER_05 52:11

You know, Scratch is a nickname for the devil.

SPEAKER_01 52:13

I know that's what I thought when I heard. It was like, hey, Mr. Scratch? Is he gonna is he gonna be his lawyer uh for her soul?

unknown 52:22

Crazy.

SPEAKER_05 52:23

Maybe there's another layer there that they just haven't explored yet.

SPEAKER_01 52:27

I mean, uh everybody didn't watch it, so it got canceled pretty quick. Oh well. People like it. There's two seasons of it. I from what I watched, it's decent. I guess when you the rule is when you are becoming when you become a ghost on this show, you you then have to fill in your misery quota with the ghost council, so you have to make the living's life a living hell. Yeah, or I guess you get written up or something.

SPEAKER_05 52:51

What happened what's the penalty when you get written up? You're already dead.

SPEAKER_01 52:58

I have no idea. Wow, I didn't get that far. Oh, I guess you go to hell.

SPEAKER_05 53:03

Oh, I guess it would be a penalty. Yeah, it's true.

SPEAKER_01 53:06

And then have you seen the show Ghosts on I think CBS?

SPEAKER_05 53:10

Yes, uh, live action one or the it's yes, with the the the BNB and the ghosts that live in the property. Are we talking the same one?

SPEAKER_03 53:21

Is that like the the there was a British version?

SPEAKER_05 53:24

That's right, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know, I know and now they got the US version on Paramount.

SPEAKER_01 53:29

And for and for once the American version doesn't suck completely.

SPEAKER_05 53:34

When I started watching the American version, I was like, oh man, but then all of a sudden it's like I think actually I kind of preferred it more than the British one after a little while.

SPEAKER_03 53:41

They done that with another TV show years from years ago. It's about like roommates, and there was one dead guy. Oh, one was dead, one was werewolf, and one yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:52

Inhuman.

SPEAKER_03 53:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's that was because that was a British one and then it it went to American. I think I actually seen the American first, actually. I think and then it's it went to British. Anyway, yeah, that's an interesting one.

SPEAKER_05 54:06

Yeah, but I like that show ghosts. Ghost, yeah, that is a fun one. They've they finished off the British version in kind of a touching way. Yeah. But the the American one, I I think they've added more layers to the character to the ghost characters than they did in the British. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:24

There's eight times as many episodes if it's an American show. Rank them out.

SPEAKER_03 54:31

Yeah. Oh, sweet.

SPEAKER_01 54:33

I don't know if you remember, there's an old show about ghosts from the late 80s, starring Eric Idle from Monty Python, and it was called uh Nearly Departed, where this it's the plot of Beetlejuice. There's a sloppy family moves into their house, and they just have to live with their new roommates who can't see them. No, I haven't I don't remember that one. It was pretty stinky, but it was it was interesting just because Eric Idle was doing an American TV show. And I think that the sloppy dad was Stuart Pankin, the the voice of the dad on dinosaurs.

SPEAKER_05 55:09

Oh, yeah. Dinosaurs was always fun. That doesn't that doesn't have a happy ending. No, with those spoilers.

SPEAKER_01 55:16

Oops, who could have seen that one coming? That was that was their argument for doing it. Like they they they pitched it, and the network was like, Good god, no. And they're like, how do you think this ends? And they're like, I guess you're right.

SPEAKER_05 55:29

They all just kind of wait around for the big asteroid.

SPEAKER_01 55:32

Yeah, they're like, do whatever you want, we're not gonna air it anyway.

SPEAKER_05 55:35

Not the mama. I yeah, I liked I like the there were their version of golf. They were going, now we're here watching the grass grow. I think I wait, I think I saw it move. It was funny.

SPEAKER_01 55:48

Yeah, so there's so many good episodes of dying. More more than you would think there would be for that.

SPEAKER_03 55:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:54

The one where uh the teenage son is experimenting with vegetables. There's there's one where the dad, Earl, is put in charge of TV, and all he does is come up with cheesy 60s show premises that makes everyone dumb. It's such a good show.

unknown 56:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:14

And and and uh there's all I think there's maybe one or two episodes Disney Plus won't air, but the rest are all there. They got rid of they had a pot episode that really split really split the stem on uh the issue by the end. So they do not have that episode on the side.

SPEAKER_05 56:30

Well, it's weird that they don't put those on there because they put the old Muppet shows on there with a disclaimer that Yeah, just slap them up. Few points in uh things in reality have changed since this episode was first made.

SPEAKER_01 56:44

Whenever they do that, I always play like, all right, where is it?

SPEAKER_05 56:47

Some of those they hit you over the head, like, oh yeah, I see that now. And then the others, like, what's so bad about that update?

SPEAKER_01 56:54

Yeah, well, there's one where like I think it was Johnny Cash was the host, and I was like, Oh, there's a rebel flag way, way, way back there. I sure, sure.

SPEAKER_05 57:04

There was one I was watching, I don't remember who the who the host was. It wasn't someone I was overly familiar with, but they do a southern plantation skit, and you're like, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03 57:14

Yeah, it's quoting it.

SPEAKER_01 57:18

What happens when you cover songs from like the 20s on your show?

SPEAKER_05 57:23

So this has nothing to do with really the paranormal or Saturday morning cartoons, but it might be a little controversial. How is it that Disney doesn't understand their property of the Muppets? It seems like they can't really get the Muppet our Muppet property up and running very well.

SPEAKER_01 57:38

Well, and they won't kill it off either. So yeah, I mean, I don't know what they want.

SPEAKER_05 57:42

They come up with like the one I like Miss Piggy as the talk late night talk show host. I thought that had a lot of potential. They just kind of like just dropped it. Uh, it was nice to see the Muppets actually be like in the real world, yeah, real people, you know.

SPEAKER_01 57:57

I thought it was kind of an interesting fine, but they I don't know what they want. I th I felt like with this new Muppet Show special, we were finally getting back on track. I was like, Yes, just do more of the thing we liked. And then they did one episode and it's gone. Yeah, now and it's gonna win a bunch of awards, and it's like, what do you need to be told here? Like, just do that, do that once a month. There you go. That's plenty of Muppets for the rest of time, but I don't know. I feel like every time Disney remembers they love the Muppets are beloved every 10 years, and they're like, Oh, yeah, put out a new Muppet thing, and everybody loves it, and then they're like, eh, but whatever.

SPEAKER_05 58:36

Maybe if they cut back on one Star Wars or one Marvel project and do a really good Muppet, you know, show, we'd be on to something.

SPEAKER_01 58:45

Well, if you remember, like back in the day, they fought to buy the Muppets. Why did they want them? They're not desperate to do anything with them.

SPEAKER_05 58:52

Yeah, they just don't seem like they understand their the what they have. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 58:56

They want to even even the worst Muppet project is better than than most things. Yeah, yeah. I I warn I warn men that I try to date, I'm like, Well, I hope you like the Muppets, man. You're gonna you're gonna see a lot of them.

SPEAKER_05 59:16

That's fine. So we're uh we've got about we got about 10 minutes left before we have to let Mr. Johnny Ferr go. So are there any projects you wanna uh let people know about? Do you want to talk about your podcast? We this is this is the time for Johnny Farr to promote himself.

SPEAKER_01 59:35

Oh wow. Well, you know, guys, I'm just trying to get myself out there. Uh I'd love to do more uh voice work. I'm entering uh a bunch of different writing competitions for my weird cartoon ideas, uh, but you know, nothing nothing to promote really right now. Uh all of my podcasts and old videos are still available at uh on YouTube at Adam Fairland, uh my old my old moniker. Uh but yeah, you can check out the podcast. There's like probably 50 episodes of every Saturday morning where me and my friend Dusty watch like every year's Saturday morning lineup. So it is a gauntlet of where I am dying at the end of every episode from like watching 12 different cartoons and telling you about them.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:21

That sounds good. We'll have to check them out sometime.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:23

It's a lot of fun. Yeah, I do a lot of goofy voices. I do a lot of goofy voices.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:28

That's good.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:28

That's funny.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:29

And so we haven't really and we haven't really asked you if you have had a paranormal experience, but do you have you had one that you'd like to share with us today?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:36

Have I had a paranormal experience? Hmm. You know what? I don't think I have. I'm waiting for one.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:45

You'll probably get one after this.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:52

I felt you know, when I when I was a kid, I felt like I was always having paranormal experiences, like what going to bed. Yeah. Like maybe, you know, my I thought just thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but maybe they're responsible for my life as it is right now.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:06

Hey, maybe it's all the cartoons you're watching. The ghosts are like distracted, like I remember this, and they're all sitting down with TV. They're sitting there watching cartoons with you, and they're not bothering you.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:15

Are the faces of those who've I've wronged floating up at me count as ghosts?

SPEAKER_05 1:01:26

And so, as if you didn't catch it, um, Johnny Fair is the new voice of Grim, our uh Grim Reaper uh voiceover for the introduction and everything else. So we want to thank you for coming on.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:40

Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks for for asking me to do it.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:44

Yeah, we're excited about starting off uh the and it's not really relaunch. We ended up taking an unintended uh high hiatus from the show, and then we're getting right back into it. So we're we've changed a few things up a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:57

Yeah, we're gonna make it better than the last time.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:59

Yeah, so we appreciate you coming on. Uh, we appreciate you uh spending your part of your Saturday with us, telling us about Saturday morning cartoons, paranormal, and cartoons in general.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:11

Always fun, guys. Thank you, sir.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:13

We'll put a uh link to your uh shows on YouTube on our website, mention you and uh as the voice of our new uh Graham mascot. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:23

It's me, the devil.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:26

And his arch nemesis, the devil.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:30

Very true. Although, if you're any good at the owner goatman voice, that's where we left off with the last game.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:38

Oh, yeah. Let's let's hear let's hear goat man on the on the goatman?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:42

Um, why does he have to be a goat?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:47

Think he was a devil goat. We'll work on something, we'll figure something out, change it up.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:54

Because we can you want to have a you want to go you want a goat man to replace we do a little skits before certain episodes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:05

And he wrote one uh a little while ago that had a goat man, and we were both like ah he was he was like he was like a demon who was like he had filmed a Necronomicon and he wanted to like go through all the pages, and and that was gonna be like you know, we'd find pages every episode, and we'd have to like, you know, that would be the episode we do.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:24

We did an episode about the Nephro Necronomicon. Yeah, we had the uh HP Lovecraft Society on talking about the uh Necronomicon from HP Lovecraft and whatnot.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:33

So I love the Necronomicon. There's a script I'm working on now where uh it involves a lot of uh serial killer slasher parodies, and somebody makes a birthday cake with the Necronomicon face on it.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:46

Very cool, very cool, very cool. All right, so we have we have four minutes left before Zoom kicks us off. So why don't we end it here? Uh Johnny, thank you so much for being on the show and can't wait to work with you again in the future.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:02

Well, thanks for having me, guys. I hope something I talked about made sense.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:07

Oh, absolutely. Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:08

Yeah, and I think you brought back a lot of memories for people.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:12

Of course. It's good times.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:15

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:17

So uh that's been Johnny. That's been Johnny. I've been Ken. And I've been Matt. And this has been the Phantom Journeys Podcast.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:27

See you in hell!

SPEAKER_00 1:04:32

You can help support this show by buying something from our merch store: t-shirts, posters, and more. Help keep the paranormal content coming into your ear holes. Use the coupon code GRIMG for a special listener discount. This has been the Phantom Journeys Podcast. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests, and not necessarily the views of our sponsors or producers. Living or dead. I'm Grim, your local Reaper. Be a part of the show and send me Grip. You know your hunky Grim Reaper, your experiences with ghosts, aliens, monsters, or even with me. Grim, we are looking for real experiences. You can send us an email through our website at least.com. If you survive, you can see.