Tuned In+Remembrance | October 25, 2010

Remembering Creator of Moose and Squirrel

By James Poniewozik

Alexander Anderson, creator of Rocky and His Friends and the subsequent spinoffs involving the cold-war-era capers of the flying squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose, died Friday. TIME film critic Richard Corliss has this thoughtful appreciation: For many who grew up in the Eisenhower-Kennedy era, and for later generations enthralled by reruns, this megafunny enterprise set [...]

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Tuned In+September 30, 2010

The Flintstones Hit 50

By James Poniewozik

As you may already know from having visited Google, it’s The Flintstones’ 50th anniversary. I watched Flintstones reruns—and various later spinoffs—as a kid, but I hadn’t revisited Bedrock until a couple of years ago, when the Tuned In Jrs. went through a brief Flintstones phase. I can’t say it holds up as well for me [...]

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Tuned In+August 19, 2010

Robo-James Time Machine: Saturday Cartoons With Weird Al

By James Poniewozik

First of all, my apologies for the quality of this video clip, which is not great. The content, however, is awesome. Nowadays, TV networks have all manner of media and devices by which to imprint their fall shows on your consciousness before they debut. Advance video downloads. Cross-media promotions. Webisodes. Stealth advertising. Online interactive mysteries. [...]

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Tuned In+January 20, 2010

The Jaypocalypse Explained At Last

By James Poniewozik

Taiwanese Animated Hulk-Conan smash! [h/t The Awl.]

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Tuned In+December 4, 2009

CBS's Dirty Frosty: Snow Joke or Leaves You Cold?

By James Poniewozik

The holidays really do bring people together! Mediaite and conservative media watchdog Newsbusters find themselves united today in one belief: CBS shouldn’t have messed around with Frosty. The two sites knocked the network for some mashup promos that intercut the perennial kids’ cartoon Frosty the Snowman with rather adult dialogue from How I Met Your [...]

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Tuned In+November 9, 2009

Where Are the Cartoons Going? Not Cartoon Network

By James Poniewozik

  The surest sign that MTV had hit the big time was that it stopped airing music videos. Ditto VH1. The more of a mainstay Food Network became, the more it aired shows that weren’t about cooking. The big money for cable news channels is not in news, but in opinion.   Cartoon Network has [...]

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Tuned In+June 9, 2009

Futurama Is Returning!

By James Poniewozik

Is it really? Is the Space Pope reptilian? It is, and not just in the form of movie specials. Michael Ausiello reports that the sci-fi animated comedy is being picked up by Comedy Central for 26 new episodes. First Family Guy, now this? Someone bring back Home Movies!

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | April 30, 2009

T-Pain to Rock You Like a Cop, Live-Action-Style

By James Poniewozik

  Adult Swim has hit upon the inspired, or perhaps insane, idea of producing a live-action episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. I bring you this news mostly for the excuse to run a picture of Frylock—who will be played by rapper T-Pain—atop this blog.  The episode, which airs May 31, features Jon Benjamin as [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | April 22, 2009

Greenhouse Rock! The '70s Return for Earth Day

By James Poniewozik

  I recently spent a week’s vacation home with my kids, who were off for spring break. That meant a lot of visits to museums and the like, which, if you are a parent, you know means repeated exposure to the message that they, you and the rest of humanity are a plague on the [...]

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Tuned In+Uncategorized | December 25, 2008

Vacation Robo-Post: Merry _______ Christmas, Charlie Brown!

By James Poniewozik

Last year on this day, I linked to the infamous Charlie Brown Christmas “Hey Ya!” video. Today, there are more Peanuts mashups online than ornaments on a tree, but this one made me laugh the hardest this year, because I am 12 years old:  Surprisingly SFW! But I hope you’re not working today, because I’m [...]

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Tuned In+August 13, 2008

Anakin You Feel It?

By James Poniewozik

I’ve been spending more time than the average adult lately thinking about Anakin Skywalker. This is in part because the Tuned In Jrs. recently came into possession of the Lego Star Wars prequel videogame, allowing them to discover the franchise’s whole Jar Jar Binksian backstory. And I’ve been working on Time’s fall arts preview, one [...]

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Tuned In+February 12, 2008

Force Is with Cartoon Network

By James Poniewozik

Anakin Skywalker, right, kicks it prequel-style with apprentice Ahsoka. / Lucasfilm Ltd. Cartoon Network announced today that it snared the rights to the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which will debut this fall. This is not the previously discussed live-action series that’s been bandied about, but all-CG-animated half-hour episodes set within the timeline [...]