October 11, 2022 • 36 mins
We keep the live-action train going this time as we discuss a little-remembered Saturday morning show featuring Benji, the dog that owned our hearts in the mid '70s til the mid '80s. This show actually holds up kinda well! Almost as well as Fruit & Fibre cereal held up to scrutiny from the health nuts out there. How well, you ask? Listen and find out!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:07):
It's time to PLoP down in frontof the TV and the Way Back Machine
with a bowl of your favorite cerealto relive the cartoons that made it worth
Waken up early on the weekend.It's the Saturday Morning Supercast. Good morning,
(00:34):
and welcome to the Saturday Morning Supercast, where it's always Saturday morning and
the cereal bowl is always full.I'm Jeff, I'm Cory, and I'm
Olivia, and today, folks,apparently I have some explaining to do to
Olivia because we are discussing another liveaction It's another in our live action series.
You know, it's funny. Wegot a message just a little while
(00:56):
ago from one of our listeners andsaid, hey, could you guys do
some live action shows? And Isaid, oh, you're like in a
couple of months when these all starteddropping. So we're discussing another live action
show. This one is called BingieZachs and the Alien Prints doesn't really flow
trippingly off the tongue, but itwas a show that dared in nineteen eighty
three that I remember vividly and Iwas glad to be able to find it
on the YouTube's. Your mileage mayvary, as especially as evidence by Olivia's
(01:22):
pre show comments. We'll get intothat in a bit, because first I
would like to talk to YouTube aboutPost fruit and Fiber cereal. Now this
is not to be confused with Kelloggsfruit and fiber. If you go to
Wikipedia, look up fruit and fiber, you'll get the Kelloggs information, but
not Post. Post is what we'rethinking about here. And you might be
asking, why are you discussing fruitand fiber That doesn't sound like a kid's
(01:45):
cereal. It's because I used tosee this advertised on Saturday mornings. Did
you guys remember seeing it advertised atall? I do not. Nope,
not a bit. Okay, sojust me it's weird you had had You
had cereals like fruit and Fiber andtotal that are sort of aimed at adults.
But I remember I remember specifically seeingthem on Saturday morning. What I
(02:07):
did not remember, and what Idid not know until I started doing some
research, is that Tim Conway andHarvey Korman did a series of ads for
Fruit and Fiber cereal. Did HarveyKorman break during everyone? He in one
of them? He did? Inone of them? He did? H
Yeah? He and Carol Burnette,the old people who were ever allowed to
do that because they've earned it,in my opinion, and because with Tim
(02:28):
Conway around, how could you not? But yeah, they did. They
did a series of ads, andyou know, it played on their their
personas of you know, Tim Conwaykund of being the buffoon and Harvey Corman
being you know, the straight manand sort of uptight. But fruit and
fiber had two different versions. Itstarted in nineteen eighty three, and I
didn't find any information, couldn't findany hard and fast dates of when it
(02:51):
was off shelves, but it wason shelves for a while. It appeared,
like I said, in eighty threeright as the big fiber boom hit
and I realized that ber boom isa hilarious terms that's not visually it was
right there. Yes, it wasone in a long line of what I
call the colon blow cereals of theais. Yes, and when when when
(03:15):
when people found out about the benefitsof fiber, So I think post just
thought, well, you know,fiber is not really that sexy, so
let's add fruit somehow. That wasgoing to make it a little more palatable.
Um. So they started with theapples in cinnamon there was also a
fruit or a date and dates,raisins and walnuts version, but then we
(03:36):
also later on we got a MountainTrail that added pineapple and coconut, peanuts
and raisins. Basically it was trailmix in a in a cereal and it
only. But the thing is theoriginal only had three grams of fiber in
it, so you think about it'sbeing built as a fiber rich cereal and
only having three grams not really awhole lot of fiber there. But the
(03:58):
Mountain Trail version had twenty percent morefiber, which if I do my math
correctly, I can't. What isit now at three point six grams aber?
Sure? Yeah, sure? Andthen eventually we got peaches, raisins
and almonds, and ads for itwould have people who could only remember the
fruit in the name, which isfunny to me because there wasn't much fiber.
(04:18):
That was one of the running jokesin the ads, and I put
jokes in air quotes. There wasone last version in the eighties, wild
blueberry and Almond, which actually soundslike it might be kind of tasty to
me. I've found some information indicatingthat it sold up until like the early
aughts, but I haven't. Again, I haven't found a hard and fast
(04:38):
date. Kellogg's Fruit and Fiber isstill sold in the UK, but not
here, and it has nine gramsof fiber just for reference to recommended daily
allowance of fiber is twenty five gramsfor women in thirty eight for men.
So you're not even getting for men, you're not even getting ten percent of
your daily fiber. Right for women, you're getting just over ten percent.
So I guess I neither of youhave any experience with fruit and fiber cereal.
(05:02):
Nope, not a bit. No. Kid Liff would not have touched
it, right, kid Jeff didn'teither, And it really has always sounded
to me like one of those thatI tried, like the honey bunches of
oats, the almonds once you know, a little almonds livers in it and
almost choked even with milk on it. It was just sort of drying everything.
(05:23):
And that's sort of what I imagineknees would be. It would really
be like, you know, pouringmilk in a bag of trail mix and
trying to eat it, don't youthink, yeah, kind of. I
mean, looking at the pictures ofthe product, the flakes already look like
brand flakes, which I'm not opposedto. That's what's for breakfast. If
that's all we have, I'm gonnahave a bowl, but it's not something
(05:45):
I'm gonna seek out. Then wethrow in there two different kinds of raisins,
both the sultanas or golden raisins,and then regular raisins, And now
I'm going to really start to haveissues and just fibers a running joke in
my family anyway. I'm sure I'vementioned this before, but my grandmother was
(06:10):
always on the search for the highestfiber cereal possible, and so every morning
she would usually start her day witha modest bowl of fiber one. And
any time that you were there inthe morning and you happen to see her
have her bull of fiber one,she would remind you, faithfully, you
know, this has the most fiberof any cereal. Great, okay,
(06:32):
And so my grandfather joked with herthat he would and well joked at her
because she didn't think it was funnythat it was goat food or rabbit wrong.
And by the way, fiber onehad eight grams of fiber in it,
oh person. So yeah, soit's this running joke that any anything
(06:55):
with fiber in the title is somethingthat my grand mother would seek out.
Anything that has brand in the title, my father would probably seek out.
And here's their daughter slash granddaughter withno desire to go north toward any of
those things at all. Yeah,Brandon, fiber. It sounds sounds like
it sounds like sounds like a duo, like a folk duo from the sixty,
(07:20):
doesn't it. Yeah, like they'relike they're they're going to open for
Hall and notes. Yeah, yes, I love it. Uh, Corey,
What about you? Anybody in yourfamily? Do you remember anybody in
your family? Possibly my grandparents atone point, but I don't think so.
You said your granddad. I thinkso. But I can't see grand
(07:42):
Bar buying into that. I can't. He just strikes me as a kund
who always wanted his eggs and sausage. I mean, yeah, you're out
wrong. But he also appreciated theregularity of things. So who knows that's
true? Folks. I don't knowif we've talked about grand Bar a love
in the show, but he's oneof the great people who ever lived.
Um truly. Uh. I lovethat man and I miss him. Yeah,
(08:07):
yeah, what what was the thing? He would always wake up and
he would say, good God,it's later than it's ever been. Yep,
exactly. I say that all thetime, say it all the time.
It is mine, it is.And what's the other one about balloons,
ham rambled of beef, balloons,whips, chains, teddy bears,
rubber balls, something else? Yeah, I can't remember at all. Yeah
(08:31):
he was, he was. Yeah, everyone should should should know a grand
bar at some point in your life. UM agree, but that that's true
though, But I can see thehim him appreciating that part of it.
Um, have either of you reachedthe age where brand or fiber is a
concern in your daily diet? Hell? No, nope, okay, I
refuse fair enough. I don't knowif I just lucked out. So what
(08:56):
you're telling me is it got abetter digestive system my grandmother or my dad.
Well, you know, I'm sureour diets in general are better than
our grandparents or our parents. Corey'smaybe not because your your dad was was
kind of a kind of a granolaguy, wasn't he a little bit?
(09:16):
Yeah, a little bit. Idon't know that. My grandmother though,
like always cooked, was was verymuch into like whole real food, not
processed, often skipped a little shortcutsyou know in kitchen um hacks and stuff
in favor of doing things the longold fashioned proper way. Um. Whereas
(09:41):
with me, like I have,I've embarrassingly frequent drive up windows and eat
my meals out of a paperback.So well, fair enough. Yeah,
actually, you're you're probably right.The more I think about it, the
more I think, yeah, mydiet is probably horrendous compared to the generations
that came before me. Although Iwill say my mother never met a salt
(10:03):
shaker. She didn't like, Ohwell, okay, yeah, yeah,
that was my grandfather. Yep.And I will say again my mother,
you know, I threatened to puton her tombstone it ain't got but a
cup of sugar in it when shetold me that one time. And I
was discussing my dietary restrictions as adiabetic, and she said, and I
quote, it ain't got but acup of sugar in it. Yep,
too bad. She was talking abouta cup of water at the time,
(10:26):
you know, No, it wasI think it was. It was some
sort of cobbler, I think.And I had to explain to her that
that was probably my carbohydrate intake fora week. But then, yeah,
and that's because it wasn't eating fruitand fiber at the time. So so
what you guys are saying that isthat if fruit and fiber made a triumphant
comeback, you would not be interestedin it at all in any flavor.
(10:48):
Yeah, I'm good. I haveto say I would be willing to try
the apples and cinnamon because I likethat. The apples and cinnamon became harvest
medley that had added almonds and youguessed it raisins, And there was a
tropical fruit version as well, Butthe apps and cinnamon and the blueberry and
almond. My horrendous experience with twentybunches of oats with almonds notwithstanding, I
(11:09):
would probably give that one a tryas well. I do love blueberries,
I do too, so I might. No, I could see myself possibly
giving that a chance, right,but like any the other ones, just
because they lean so heavy into theraisins as the fruit content, right,
Yeah, And I guess that's becauseraisins are easy, you know, to
dry it out. They have along shelf life. Makes makes sense,
(11:31):
makes sense? So all right,Well, folks, I would love to
hear if anybody else out there hasany experience or memory of fruit and fiber.
I realize this is not the mostfun discussion to have about a cereal
to go with our Saturday Morning cartoon, but I think you'll agree that Binge
Zacs and the Alien prints, whenwe get into it, is sort of
the fruit and fiber of Saturday Morningtelevision. Fair. We'll find out in
(11:54):
just a minute when we come backfrom this short break. I take it
you all enjoyed my segue always yeah, always, always, always, and
never I was gonna throw when thenif somebody had deep, fond memories of
fruit and fiber, my deepest condolences. I am so sorry. It's all
(12:20):
right, different truks of different cowbooks, right, Okay, So let's
go ahead and talk then about Beni, Zachs and the Alien Prince. This,
as I said, it's a liveaction science fiction series created by Joe
camp who is a creator of theBeni film series. Now, the Bengi
in question is, of course,a little scruffy dog who was very popular
in the seventies and eighties. Therewere I think three films by this point.
(12:43):
There was Beni there was For theLove of Beni, and there was
Beni The Hunted, which I've notseen any of them because I don't like
seeing little dogs in peril. Right, Thankfully, we didn't get much of
that in this series. It wasproduced by Hannah Barbara and Mulberry Square Production
Companies, and it aired on Saturdaymorning starting nineteen eighty three, which is
wanted. The fruit and fiber connectionmade sense with repeats airing in the US
(13:05):
and internationally for a number of yearsthroughout the eighties. In the show,
the dog Benji helps an alien princenamed Ubi and his droid Zach of a
various henchmen sent by a dictator tocapture the prince. And one of the
reasons I really did want to talkabout this and it was not something that
I knew as a kid, butit makes perfect sense now is that the
series was taped in the Dallas FortWorth area. Yeah, which I didn't
(13:28):
know until when we were researching it. I thought, because what were you
watching the first episode again, there'sa couple of points where it's showing the
skyline out. Oh, that lookskind of familiar, and I found out
why. Yep, the interiors weretaped at the last Colleena Studios and Irving,
which is a suburb of Dallas.And yeah, and I remember as
a kid thinking Ubi has an accentthat sounds like the kids in my neighborhood.
(13:50):
And now I know why. Nowyou know why. And as you
guys were watching it, did youhear that that sort of Northeast Texas twang
that he's got a little bit No, no, I was distracted by some
other things though, which we willget into a minute. Allow me to
give donally to provide a synopsis.Now, this synopsis is not described until
(14:13):
the episode Double Trouble, which isepisode nine of thirteen, but we get
a good idea of the background fromthe opening of each episode. The credits
show what's happening. So, atyrant named Zanu has taking control of the
distant red planet of Antars, whichis way off in another galaxy, as
Ubi describes it. Yeah, andZanu has the King of Antar's killed and
(14:35):
imprisons the queen, and Ubi's monologuefrom the episode Double Trouble explains, my
mother is there, probably in prison, my father's dad. I have a
guardian sorta. He's not really aperson, he's a droid and those people
in the back black van you guessedit from Antars. He's being pursued by
these two sort of bounty hunters.The opening sequence of the series shows how
the Crown prints their son and heir, Prince Ubi, who's played by Christopher
(14:58):
Burton in one of his only creditsscreen credits, escape to Earth with his
droid Zachs, which is voiced byRick Spiegel, and when they land on
Earth, they're befriended by a straightdog named Benjie, who remains their companion
for the run of the series.Two bounty hunters from Montars named Dara and
Kaiber, along with their droid Zord, who was at level ten programming when
I believe Zax is only level nine, are sent to Earth to find and
(15:20):
capture Ubi, and most of theplots involve the two bounty hunters chasing Benji,
Zax, and Ubi in their blackChevy van, which is not creepy
at all, no rights, andtheir efforts almost always end in failure,
usually due to some failure of oneor both of them. Combined with Benji's
incredible intelligence and loyal assistance, there'snever any doubt that Benji is a major
(15:41):
heroic figure for the show, andhe seems to do a better job of
protecting you be than the level twodroid. Zax is level two, So
so Zord is eight levels higher thanZachs. And so, in order to
survive on Earth, the on Terransmust wear a special bracelet known as a
cipher. And there's one episode wherePrince Ube ciphers stolen a gang of boys
and he gets very sick without it. That's sort of their their kryptonite.
(16:03):
And so, so I saw thisshow when it aired again Saturday Morning Cartoons.
I was always the only kid whoknew when the new season of Saturday
Morning Cartoon started, and I watchedall of the preview episodes that aired in
primetime, and so I knew aboutthe show and I was very much looking
forward to it. Did either ofyou watch this when it first aired or
at any point before we decided totalk about it. Yes, I would
(16:27):
have been just maybe one or twoyears too young to really be aware.
And it didn't ever air in syndication. It aired, like I said,
it aired on the network for severalyears after, but I don't know that
it ever aired in syndication. So, Corey, did you remember any of
it when you sat down to watchsome of the episodes that are available on
YouTube. The only thing I rememberedwas when I started watching it the intro,
(16:52):
when I saw Zax, I went, okay, I remember that robot.
Yeah. For some reason, Ialso had a fleeting memory of it.
Reminded me of the robot and theblack hole. Yeah, Vincent,
Vincent, ye, but yeh yeah, it must have been the eyes.
But that that clued me in thatyes, I had watched it before,
(17:14):
but nothing outside of that came back. Okay. There were two moments in
particular that I remembered. One isin the episode, the second episode,
where he almost gets captured again,but he goes because there's another Ontari and
his crash landed and the ship isfound is located by his found and there's
(17:36):
like a bunch of news crews outthere, right, and Uby goes to
look at it to see if hecan find somebody from his home planet.
And he says, I wonder ifthey're going to destroy her. And I
remembered that vividly, and somebody sayingwhat does that mean? He says,
well, I you know ships likethis, I assumed they're always sort of
called she and then that's when thetwo bounty hunters capture him for that episode.
(17:57):
The other thing I remember is he'sordered a satellite dish from some local
electronic store in this town that he'sin, and he says something to either
Zax or Benji, and he says, you better be nice or I will
let you help me build my newsatellite dish. And the way he says
it, he says my new satellitedish. And that's when I was a
kid, I thought, that doesnot sound like a professional actor, because
(18:22):
I was used to hearing, youknow, people with like a fairly nondescript
accent, and I heard that,and I thought that sounds like a kid
from around here. And so whenI found out later on that it was
filmed in Dallas, everything fell intoplace, yea. And I also remember
wondering, how can you afford asatellite dish? My friend has one of
those, and they're very expensive.So through these are the things that bothered
me as a kid. So itoriginally premiered in September seventeenth of nineteen eighty
(18:47):
three. The last episode aired forthe first time on December seventeenth of eighty
three, and again they worked.They aired over and over again after that,
like they did on Saturday Mornings.So overall thoughts, I'll ask Corey
to go first, because I havea feeling like Olivia's overall thoughts are going
to be fairly humorous. It's usuallythat way. You can really tell that
(19:08):
this was shot on VHS. Yeah, very much, even without the aging
of the quote unquote film very much. Everything looks hand cam and in fact,
a lot of stuff with the sacklooked very cold. You could see
the wires and everything like that.But see, I never noticed any wires,
(19:30):
did you not. I saw acouple of times around and a few
other things that I thought. Theeffects overall were actually not bad, especially
when you consider when it was made, the likely budget they were working with
him that it was for Saturday Morning. I actually was fairly impressed with the
effects overall. No, and Iagree, a lot of the effects were
very good, but there was LikeI said, there was just a couple
(19:52):
of times where you could see awire or two. But overall it felt
really long, like it did notfeel like a half hour show. It
felt almost like an hour show tome. Yeah. Well, the other
the pacing and everything's at early eightiespacing that we talked about before. Yeah,
I mean yeah, but I thoughtthat was an interesting trip down memory
(20:15):
lane of a simpler time. Andyeah, like the costumes straight out of
a Superman for the bad guys.Oh my god, get out of my
head. There's just a lot ofstuff. I was like, Yeah,
that's that's pretty damn funny. Olivia. How about you? Well, I'm
going to start off with a coupleof questions. One, we may have
(20:37):
answers, how dare you two?The audacity three? Piggybacking on Corey's feelings
of it just being long, Yes, of course I felt long because we're
watching Discount General Zod run around ajunk car lot for six minutes. No
(20:59):
wonder felt long, shoot Discount GeneralRod and uh and kmart URSA yea,
what pondered this with me for justa moment. Why is it that like
eighties into early nineties though, honestly, you still see this trend now,
um space aliens are shown with thoselike sticking out shoulder not shoulder pads necessarily
(21:29):
and not necessarily like pauldrons. Yeah, but it's costumes. It's like a
cardigan. It's like a yeah,it's like a pointy cardigan. Yeah,
Like, why is it? Howdid we establish this, this expectation that
aliens and life forms from other planetshad clothing with sticky outie pointy roof a
(21:55):
frame shoulders. Well, i'll tellyou. There was a meeting and they
decided, Okay, in the seveneverybody's going to be wearing the silver Jiffy
pop bag looking things. So inthe eighties we have to one up at
what what can we do differently?Oh, pointy shoulders? That that there
was a meeting. Um, I'msurprised you weren't invited. Honestly, I
probably wasn't alive yet there was thatpossible. But Corey, you were there,
right, I was there. Iwasn't there, And I believe,
(22:18):
if I remember correctly, Corey wasviolently opposed to it, but he was
shouted down by not only violently butvehemently. Yes, and that's the way
it went. I got kicked out. Yeah, yeah, I fought for
him his return, but it didto New Avail. Um. So,
but yes, that that's what happenedthere. That's what happened there. So
uh yeah, it is slow.But um, I would also like to
(22:42):
note that Joe camp directed every singleepisode show. I actually, I will
say, though, I would goso far as to say, comparing this
to a show like Going Bananas,Uh, this looks like Seinfeld next to
Going Bananas. To me, okay, I think the the leap in quality.
While it's not it's I wouldn't sayit's a good show. It is
(23:03):
a better show than Going Bananas.Maybe not to say by the Bell standards.
I think we can all agree sayby the Bell is the gold standard
of Saturday morning live action, certainly, but I really did. I found
myself far more entertained by this showthan I expected to be. It helped
that, I was. The plotsare inconsequential enough that you can drift off
(23:25):
and do something else while you're watchingit and come back and when something exciting
happens and watch it. But that'snot a compliment, Jeff, That's not
a compliment. It is because withGoing Banets, I never my attention never
came back until there was a loudnoise and then I was like, what
is that oak? And then Iwent back to whatever I was doing.
Yeah. So I tell you whatwas fun though, was trying to find
(23:49):
people who I knew since I knewit was all they were all Dallas actors.
Didn't find a person that I knewin the show, but there was
one name that I reckon knows thatyou guys might also recognize. In episode
nine, one of the cops namedLeroy was played by an actor named Alan
Accles. M No, Well,his last name is the Wind, the
(24:14):
Key Anon. He is the fatherof Jensen Accles of Supernatural fame and who
is now on The Boys. Ibelieve, Yeah, they watched, Yeah,
he Jensen Accles grew up in Richardson, which is a suburb of Dallas
as well, and Jared Pedaliki isfrom San Antonio. So you got two
Texas boys on Supernatural. But yeah, Jensen Accles. That's why there's an
episode of Supernatural that allegedly takes placein Richardson, Texas, because that's where
(24:38):
he's from. Okay, But inthe episode, they're out in like in
the middle of nowhere, like inthe forest. It's like it's Austin now
and has a little beer brewery outthere. That's probably Jared Padaliki because I
think maybe Walker is filmed there.Plus he got in trouble there. But
yeah, Alan Accles who was onan episode of Supernatural The Sun several years
(25:00):
ago as well. Oh good,So that that was that was fun to
kind of kind of spot him inthat particular episode. So how many episodes
did you guys get through, Olivia? What one and a half? Two?
Yeah, that would be one,just one? Just one? Was
it the first episode? Yes?Okay? Sorry Cory? How about you?
First two? And that was it? Okay? I actually got through
(25:22):
four episodes of this stocking. Yeah, and my favorite was episode number nine,
Double Trouble, And I really Iwould like for you guys to go
back and watch it. You don'thave to watch the whole thing, but
I would like for you to goback and watch a few minutes of it
because this is sort of a prince. In the popper Tape episode, there's
a local boy named t J.Parker who's a troublemaker. He shipped a
(25:44):
shoplist from a store and the problemis he looks exactly like you be.
So in this one, Christopher Burtonhas a dual role, and I have
to say he actually does a reallygood job of playing two different characters,
and especially when you consider that he's, you know, he's a Dallas kid.
He didn't have a whole lot ofHe had done some commercials and everything,
(26:06):
but he's a kid. It's thefirst time that I saw that.
I saw the kid, and Iwas like, Okay, he actually,
he actually could do this. It'sa shame he didn't stick with it or
whatever happened that caused him to notstick with it. It's actually not bad
and it's a pretty good episode becauseyou get a lot more a lot more
adult characters instead of just instead ofjust about the Bounty Hunters. And at
(26:27):
that point, I believe the twoBounty Hunters were played by two different characters.
They brought are two different actors.They brought in two actors of the
midway through and replaced them with theseother two guys. But they end up
posing as so Ubi gets taken inand arrested and they're trying to find his
family, and the two Bounty Hunterspose as his parents, and of course
(26:49):
the cops see through it and everything, so they don't get them. But
by the end of the episode,TJ gets reunited with his parents and he
sees the air of his ways andstops just to do better. His parents,
however, are like old as dirt. I kept expect him to say,
oh, we're his grandparents, butno, these are his parents.
But it was the eighties, sothey were probably in their mid thirties,
(27:10):
right. But there's also a characterthat UBI has befriended who is like a
fisherman down on like a dock somewhere, and during the episode he learns that
Ub is actually an alien, butyou know, promises to keep his secret
and everything. Sure. Yeah,yeah, So you you mentioned Corey,
(27:30):
you mentioned Zach being the thing thatyou remembered about it. Olivia, what
did you think about the design ofZach. I always liked it. I
thought the big eyes were good forkids. What did you think about that?
At least visually, Zachs didn't reallybother me. I liked the big
eyes. It appealed to me inthis same way as like Wally and Johnny
(27:56):
five from Short Circuit, So thatwas fine. I was okay with that.
Yeah, I did like the designingCorps you. I mean you mentioned
that it was that it was abig dose of nostalgia and reminded you of
Vincent, and I think that's agood thing, right, But it's different
enough. I thought it was apretty unique design. What about you Yeah,
absolutely had had a good streamline lookedto it. I liked that they
(28:17):
were able to kind of move theeyes. I'm sure they had like fifteen
different plates that they could just kindof pop on for everything. But yeah,
I thought it was fun. Iliked it, and like I said,
I never, if I did noticethe wires on it. It was
very very minor, very seldom,like a time or two I expected to,
and I was actually looking for them. Personality wise, I didn't even
(28:41):
mind them because a lot of timesin these shows from the eighties, especially
the Saturday morning shows, especially thecartoons we've been talking about, you know,
the characters like that can be super, super annoying. And I just
didn't really find any of the maincharacters, at least of the heroes either
or a trio really annoying. Ofcourse, Benjie's a dog, so automatically
gonna like him, right, ButI didn't really. I didn't find Ubi
(29:03):
to be that annoying, and Ididn't really find Zax to be that annoying
other other than he was always dismissiveof Benji and I thought that was a
little odd, but I just chalkedit up to professional jealousy. Sure,
um, but what about Zack's voice? Did it even? Did it stick
out to you at all? No? Not for me? No? Not
(29:26):
really? Okay? Yeah, andI um, like I said, it
didn't. The fact that it didn'tstick out for me tells me that it
probably was not that annoying. ButI think the thing that I liked the
most about Zax is if you stopand look at him, you can kind
of tell what he was kid beastfrom, especially like the neck being that
sort of corrugated pipe. Corey.I'm sure you could probably look at it
and figure out how to build onejust from looking at it. Probably.
(29:48):
Um so, But but Olivia,you you hated this, and you and
you're upset with me now for forforcing upon you. Um. I don't
hate you. I could never hateyou. She's not mad, she's just
disappointed. Yeah. Yeah, uhwas this worst thing going bananas for you?
(30:10):
I felt a similar level of nonenjoyment, Huez, and I just
didn't because as broad as these folkswere, I didn't feel like there was
nearly as much mugging on this showas there was ongoing bananas. Yeah,
it could possibly be too, Um, I don't know. Maybe I just
(30:32):
got super cut up on discount.General's odd and well that's that's a legitimate
concern, so much soft focus vasolineon the lens, and that episodes of
Reading Rainbow usually have better filming andcinematography. Um could be those things.
Yeah, well we have to andwe also have to keep in mind that
(30:56):
again Benji was uge at the time. Yes, and I'm missed out on
that. I've Benji never really caughtmy interest as a kid me either,
and as much of a dog personas I am, I just I know
there's one that involves him being kidnappedor dog napped, yes, or maybe
it's a kid that gets kidnapped orsomething. Now it's him. It's an
(31:19):
episode. It's fairly late. No, no, no, in the one
of the movies. Ye a movie. Oh oh, you're talking about a
film. Yeah. I think inthe first one he saves two kids,
and in the second one he getsabducted or something like that. Sure,
and then the third one again he'sout in the wilderness, and I just
I yeah, I don't. Idon't want to see dogs in peril,
especially a cute dog like Benji.For those of you who are still fond
(31:42):
of physical Media. The entire serieswas released a DVD by Good Times Home
Video as four separate releases of threeor four episodes each, and a single
release with all thirteen episodes. SoI'm sure you can go to Amazon or
eBay and find Benji Zacs and theAlien Prints the complete series for your home
viewing enjoyment, or you can justgo to YouTube and watch them. If
(32:04):
you pick this up on Good TimesHome Video? Are those indeed good times?
Are they? Well? If you'rea fan of Benji Zax and the
Alien Pruts, they are, mm okay yeah, yikes, okay,
folks. Well, so I'm guessingthat Olivia would not, not is not
ever going to revisit this. UmNo, I'm going to step away gracefully,
(32:28):
step away gracefully. I don't knowthat you can do gracefully right now
after all this, Olivia, It'strue, It's true. Okay, I'm
gonna I'm gonna stomp away and havea hissy fit. So if it was
rebooted today with you know, modernproduction values, modern editing, um and
everything, do you think it's something? Do you think the concept is something
(32:50):
you can get behind, Olivia,I'm sure it would be fine. Is
children's programming. It's just not veryoften that I find myself drawn to kids
shows that have animal, live actionanimal lead characters. So there's a pile
of movies like, oh, whatwas the one with the geese flyaway Home?
(33:16):
And the one with the cat andthe dog and they're trying to find
their people? Oh, Milo withthe Adventures of Milo and Otis. Yeah,
that there's a ton of those typeof movies that were really big when
I was a kid or okay,maybe a teen, so maybe not exactly
(33:37):
like in my interest area, butby then I had a nephew and there
it's likely that you know, youwould have seen those at my house because
of him, right, But yeah, just never never could get into those
with one really specific exception other thanthat they're just not my thing. And
(34:00):
what was that exception? Babe BabeYes, directed by George Miller of Mad
Max fame. Hell, yeah,I could watch that beautiful piggy any day.
Some pig. Nope, wrong story, that's Charlotte's Web. No,
no, no, you're you're thinkingthat'll do pig that'll do. That's it
(34:22):
I do, It's notunt it,right, But then I was like,
no, that's not right, butwhy does it sound almost right? Yeah,
that'll do pig, that'll do thata great James Cromwell. Okay,
so Corey do you have Corey doyou have any intention of revisiting this at
all on YouTube? I'll watch theTwo Princes, the one that you're talking
about, but that will probably beit for me. It's episode nine,
Double Trouble, and if anybody outthere is on the fancy give that one
(34:45):
a try, because, like Isaid, I again, it's not He's
not Olivier, but there are twovery distinct characters there, and when you
think about his age at the time, he was like nine years old,
it's it's it's decent work. Andplus you can see Jensen Accle's dad in
a very very small role as leRoy was his last name, Jenkins.
I wish, I wish. Iwill say. The last credit that Christopher
(35:08):
Burton had is for a TV showcalled The Real Adventures of Sherlock Jones and
Proctor Watson. Oh yeah, that'sthe one, and I don't recognize any
of the other names in it.Mark Ritz and Michael Costello were Jones and
Watson. That's Luke Costello's. Thatgrandkid is he really I don't know,
huh maybe so No, he's anotherlocal boy, a great to s So
(35:35):
well, you have a folks,I'd love to hear your thoughts, because
there's got to be somebody else outthere who remembered this show, uh semi
fondly and went back and revisited itand enjoyed it on some level more than
Olivia at least, So we'd loveto hear you. We'd love to hear
your thoughts on it, So headedthe Facebook page and let us know,
especially if your family was big onthe fiber kick of the eighties and you
(35:57):
had fruit and fiber in your house. So until the next time for the
Saturday Morning Supercast, I'm Jeff,I'm Corey, and I'm Olivia and it's
time for college sports. So let'sgo build a robot in the backyard.
Thank you for listening, and don'tforget to follow the show on Facebook It's
Saturday Morning Supercast and follow at MarvinDog Media on Twitter.
It's time to PLoP down in frontof the TV and the Way Back Machine
with a bowl of your favorite cerealto relive the cartoons that made it worth
Waken up early on the weekend.It's the Saturday Morning Supercast. Good morning,
(00:34):
and welcome to the Saturday Morning Supercast, where it's always Saturday morning and
the cereal bowl is always full.I'm Jeff, I'm Cory, and I'm
Olivia, and today, folks,apparently I have some explaining to do to
Olivia because we are discussing another liveaction It's another in our live action series.
You know, it's funny. Wegot a message just a little while
(00:56):
ago from one of our listeners andsaid, hey, could you guys do
some live action shows? And Isaid, oh, you're like in a
couple of months when these all starteddropping. So we're discussing another live action
show. This one is called BingieZachs and the Alien Prints doesn't really flow
trippingly off the tongue, but itwas a show that dared in nineteen eighty
three that I remember vividly and Iwas glad to be able to find it
on the YouTube's. Your mileage mayvary, as especially as evidence by Olivia's
(01:22):
pre show comments. We'll get intothat in a bit, because first I
would like to talk to YouTube aboutPost fruit and Fiber cereal. Now this
is not to be confused with Kelloggsfruit and fiber. If you go to
Wikipedia, look up fruit and fiber, you'll get the Kelloggs information, but
not Post. Post is what we'rethinking about here. And you might be
asking, why are you discussing fruitand fiber That doesn't sound like a kid's
(01:45):
cereal. It's because I used tosee this advertised on Saturday mornings. Did
you guys remember seeing it advertised atall? I do not. Nope,
not a bit. Okay, sojust me it's weird you had had You
had cereals like fruit and Fiber andtotal that are sort of aimed at adults.
But I remember I remember specifically seeingthem on Saturday morning. What I
(02:07):
did not remember, and what Idid not know until I started doing some
research, is that Tim Conway andHarvey Korman did a series of ads for
Fruit and Fiber cereal. Did HarveyKorman break during everyone? He in one
of them? He did? Inone of them? He did? H
Yeah? He and Carol Burnette,the old people who were ever allowed to
do that because they've earned it,in my opinion, and because with Tim
(02:28):
Conway around, how could you not? But yeah, they did. They
did a series of ads, andyou know, it played on their their
personas of you know, Tim Conwaykund of being the buffoon and Harvey Corman
being you know, the straight manand sort of uptight. But fruit and
fiber had two different versions. Itstarted in nineteen eighty three, and I
didn't find any information, couldn't findany hard and fast dates of when it
(02:51):
was off shelves, but it wason shelves for a while. It appeared,
like I said, in eighty threeright as the big fiber boom hit
and I realized that ber boom isa hilarious terms that's not visually it was
right there. Yes, it wasone in a long line of what I
call the colon blow cereals of theais. Yes, and when when when
(03:15):
when people found out about the benefitsof fiber, So I think post just
thought, well, you know,fiber is not really that sexy, so
let's add fruit somehow. That wasgoing to make it a little more palatable.
Um. So they started with theapples in cinnamon there was also a
fruit or a date and dates,raisins and walnuts version, but then we
(03:36):
also later on we got a MountainTrail that added pineapple and coconut, peanuts
and raisins. Basically it was trailmix in a in a cereal and it
only. But the thing is theoriginal only had three grams of fiber in
it, so you think about it'sbeing built as a fiber rich cereal and
only having three grams not really awhole lot of fiber there. But the
(03:58):
Mountain Trail version had twenty percent morefiber, which if I do my math
correctly, I can't. What isit now at three point six grams aber?
Sure? Yeah, sure? Andthen eventually we got peaches, raisins
and almonds, and ads for itwould have people who could only remember the
fruit in the name, which isfunny to me because there wasn't much fiber.
(04:18):
That was one of the running jokesin the ads, and I put
jokes in air quotes. There wasone last version in the eighties, wild
blueberry and Almond, which actually soundslike it might be kind of tasty to
me. I've found some information indicatingthat it sold up until like the early
aughts, but I haven't. Again, I haven't found a hard and fast
(04:38):
date. Kellogg's Fruit and Fiber isstill sold in the UK, but not
here, and it has nine gramsof fiber just for reference to recommended daily
allowance of fiber is twenty five gramsfor women in thirty eight for men.
So you're not even getting for men, you're not even getting ten percent of
your daily fiber. Right for women, you're getting just over ten percent.
So I guess I neither of youhave any experience with fruit and fiber cereal.
(05:02):
Nope, not a bit. No. Kid Liff would not have touched
it, right, kid Jeff didn'teither, And it really has always sounded
to me like one of those thatI tried, like the honey bunches of
oats, the almonds once you know, a little almonds livers in it and
almost choked even with milk on it. It was just sort of drying everything.
(05:23):
And that's sort of what I imagineknees would be. It would really
be like, you know, pouringmilk in a bag of trail mix and
trying to eat it, don't youthink, yeah, kind of. I
mean, looking at the pictures ofthe product, the flakes already look like
brand flakes, which I'm not opposedto. That's what's for breakfast. If
that's all we have, I'm gonnahave a bowl, but it's not something
(05:45):
I'm gonna seek out. Then wethrow in there two different kinds of raisins,
both the sultanas or golden raisins,and then regular raisins, And now
I'm going to really start to haveissues and just fibers a running joke in
my family anyway. I'm sure I'vementioned this before, but my grandmother was
(06:10):
always on the search for the highestfiber cereal possible, and so every morning
she would usually start her day witha modest bowl of fiber one. And
any time that you were there inthe morning and you happen to see her
have her bull of fiber one,she would remind you, faithfully, you
know, this has the most fiberof any cereal. Great, okay,
(06:32):
And so my grandfather joked with herthat he would and well joked at her
because she didn't think it was funnythat it was goat food or rabbit wrong.
And by the way, fiber onehad eight grams of fiber in it,
oh person. So yeah, soit's this running joke that any anything
(06:55):
with fiber in the title is somethingthat my grand mother would seek out.
Anything that has brand in the title, my father would probably seek out.
And here's their daughter slash granddaughter withno desire to go north toward any of
those things at all. Yeah,Brandon, fiber. It sounds sounds like
it sounds like sounds like a duo, like a folk duo from the sixty,
(07:20):
doesn't it. Yeah, like they'relike they're they're going to open for
Hall and notes. Yeah, yes, I love it. Uh, Corey,
What about you? Anybody in yourfamily? Do you remember anybody in
your family? Possibly my grandparents atone point, but I don't think so.
You said your granddad. I thinkso. But I can't see grand
(07:42):
Bar buying into that. I can't. He just strikes me as a kund
who always wanted his eggs and sausage. I mean, yeah, you're out
wrong. But he also appreciated theregularity of things. So who knows that's
true? Folks. I don't knowif we've talked about grand Bar a love
in the show, but he's oneof the great people who ever lived.
Um truly. Uh. I lovethat man and I miss him. Yeah,
(08:07):
yeah, what what was the thing? He would always wake up and
he would say, good God,it's later than it's ever been. Yep,
exactly. I say that all thetime, say it all the time.
It is mine, it is.And what's the other one about balloons,
ham rambled of beef, balloons,whips, chains, teddy bears,
rubber balls, something else? Yeah, I can't remember at all. Yeah
(08:31):
he was, he was. Yeah, everyone should should should know a grand
bar at some point in your life. UM agree, but that that's true
though, But I can see thehim him appreciating that part of it.
Um, have either of you reachedthe age where brand or fiber is a
concern in your daily diet? Hell? No, nope, okay, I
refuse fair enough. I don't knowif I just lucked out. So what
(08:56):
you're telling me is it got abetter digestive system my grandmother or my dad.
Well, you know, I'm sureour diets in general are better than
our grandparents or our parents. Corey'smaybe not because your your dad was was
kind of a kind of a granolaguy, wasn't he a little bit?
(09:16):
Yeah, a little bit. Idon't know that. My grandmother though,
like always cooked, was was verymuch into like whole real food, not
processed, often skipped a little shortcutsyou know in kitchen um hacks and stuff
in favor of doing things the longold fashioned proper way. Um. Whereas
(09:41):
with me, like I have,I've embarrassingly frequent drive up windows and eat
my meals out of a paperback.So well, fair enough. Yeah,
actually, you're you're probably right.The more I think about it, the
more I think, yeah, mydiet is probably horrendous compared to the generations
that came before me. Although Iwill say my mother never met a salt
(10:03):
shaker. She didn't like, Ohwell, okay, yeah, yeah,
that was my grandfather. Yep.And I will say again my mother,
you know, I threatened to puton her tombstone it ain't got but a
cup of sugar in it when shetold me that one time. And I
was discussing my dietary restrictions as adiabetic, and she said, and I
quote, it ain't got but acup of sugar in it. Yep,
too bad. She was talking abouta cup of water at the time,
(10:26):
you know, No, it wasI think it was. It was some
sort of cobbler, I think.And I had to explain to her that
that was probably my carbohydrate intake fora week. But then, yeah,
and that's because it wasn't eating fruitand fiber at the time. So so
what you guys are saying that isthat if fruit and fiber made a triumphant
comeback, you would not be interestedin it at all in any flavor.
(10:48):
Yeah, I'm good. I haveto say I would be willing to try
the apples and cinnamon because I likethat. The apples and cinnamon became harvest
medley that had added almonds and youguessed it raisins, And there was a
tropical fruit version as well, Butthe apps and cinnamon and the blueberry and
almond. My horrendous experience with twentybunches of oats with almonds notwithstanding, I
(11:09):
would probably give that one a tryas well. I do love blueberries,
I do too, so I might. No, I could see myself possibly
giving that a chance, right,but like any the other ones, just
because they lean so heavy into theraisins as the fruit content, right,
Yeah, And I guess that's becauseraisins are easy, you know, to
dry it out. They have along shelf life. Makes makes sense,
(11:31):
makes sense? So all right,Well, folks, I would love to
hear if anybody else out there hasany experience or memory of fruit and fiber.
I realize this is not the mostfun discussion to have about a cereal
to go with our Saturday Morning cartoon, but I think you'll agree that Binge
Zacs and the Alien prints, whenwe get into it, is sort of
the fruit and fiber of Saturday Morningtelevision. Fair. We'll find out in
(11:54):
just a minute when we come backfrom this short break. I take it
you all enjoyed my segue always yeah, always, always, always, and
never I was gonna throw when thenif somebody had deep, fond memories of
fruit and fiber, my deepest condolences. I am so sorry. It's all
(12:20):
right, different truks of different cowbooks, right, Okay, So let's
go ahead and talk then about Beni, Zachs and the Alien Prince. This,
as I said, it's a liveaction science fiction series created by Joe
camp who is a creator of theBeni film series. Now, the Bengi
in question is, of course,a little scruffy dog who was very popular
in the seventies and eighties. Therewere I think three films by this point.
(12:43):
There was Beni there was For theLove of Beni, and there was
Beni The Hunted, which I've notseen any of them because I don't like
seeing little dogs in peril. Right, Thankfully, we didn't get much of
that in this series. It wasproduced by Hannah Barbara and Mulberry Square Production
Companies, and it aired on Saturdaymorning starting nineteen eighty three, which is
wanted. The fruit and fiber connectionmade sense with repeats airing in the US
(13:05):
and internationally for a number of yearsthroughout the eighties. In the show,
the dog Benji helps an alien princenamed Ubi and his droid Zach of a
various henchmen sent by a dictator tocapture the prince. And one of the
reasons I really did want to talkabout this and it was not something that
I knew as a kid, butit makes perfect sense now is that the
series was taped in the Dallas FortWorth area. Yeah, which I didn't
(13:28):
know until when we were researching it. I thought, because what were you
watching the first episode again, there'sa couple of points where it's showing the
skyline out. Oh, that lookskind of familiar, and I found out
why. Yep, the interiors weretaped at the last Colleena Studios and Irving,
which is a suburb of Dallas.And yeah, and I remember as
a kid thinking Ubi has an accentthat sounds like the kids in my neighborhood.
(13:50):
And now I know why. Nowyou know why. And as you
guys were watching it, did youhear that that sort of Northeast Texas twang
that he's got a little bit No, no, I was distracted by some
other things though, which we willget into a minute. Allow me to
give donally to provide a synopsis.Now, this synopsis is not described until
(14:13):
the episode Double Trouble, which isepisode nine of thirteen, but we get
a good idea of the background fromthe opening of each episode. The credits
show what's happening. So, atyrant named Zanu has taking control of the
distant red planet of Antars, whichis way off in another galaxy, as
Ubi describes it. Yeah, andZanu has the King of Antar's killed and
(14:35):
imprisons the queen, and Ubi's monologuefrom the episode Double Trouble explains, my
mother is there, probably in prison, my father's dad. I have a
guardian sorta. He's not really aperson, he's a droid and those people
in the back black van you guessedit from Antars. He's being pursued by
these two sort of bounty hunters.The opening sequence of the series shows how
the Crown prints their son and heir, Prince Ubi, who's played by Christopher
(14:58):
Burton in one of his only creditsscreen credits, escape to Earth with his
droid Zachs, which is voiced byRick Spiegel, and when they land on
Earth, they're befriended by a straightdog named Benjie, who remains their companion
for the run of the series.Two bounty hunters from Montars named Dara and
Kaiber, along with their droid Zord, who was at level ten programming when
I believe Zax is only level nine, are sent to Earth to find and
(15:20):
capture Ubi, and most of theplots involve the two bounty hunters chasing Benji,
Zax, and Ubi in their blackChevy van, which is not creepy
at all, no rights, andtheir efforts almost always end in failure,
usually due to some failure of oneor both of them. Combined with Benji's
incredible intelligence and loyal assistance, there'snever any doubt that Benji is a major
(15:41):
heroic figure for the show, andhe seems to do a better job of
protecting you be than the level twodroid. Zax is level two, So
so Zord is eight levels higher thanZachs. And so, in order to
survive on Earth, the on Terransmust wear a special bracelet known as a
cipher. And there's one episode wherePrince Ube ciphers stolen a gang of boys
and he gets very sick without it. That's sort of their their kryptonite.
(16:03):
And so, so I saw thisshow when it aired again Saturday Morning Cartoons.
I was always the only kid whoknew when the new season of Saturday
Morning Cartoon started, and I watchedall of the preview episodes that aired in
primetime, and so I knew aboutthe show and I was very much looking
forward to it. Did either ofyou watch this when it first aired or
at any point before we decided totalk about it. Yes, I would
(16:27):
have been just maybe one or twoyears too young to really be aware.
And it didn't ever air in syndication. It aired, like I said,
it aired on the network for severalyears after, but I don't know that
it ever aired in syndication. So, Corey, did you remember any of
it when you sat down to watchsome of the episodes that are available on
YouTube. The only thing I rememberedwas when I started watching it the intro,
(16:52):
when I saw Zax, I went, okay, I remember that robot.
Yeah. For some reason, Ialso had a fleeting memory of it.
Reminded me of the robot and theblack hole. Yeah, Vincent,
Vincent, ye, but yeh yeah, it must have been the eyes.
But that that clued me in thatyes, I had watched it before,
(17:14):
but nothing outside of that came back. Okay. There were two moments in
particular that I remembered. One isin the episode, the second episode,
where he almost gets captured again,but he goes because there's another Ontari and
his crash landed and the ship isfound is located by his found and there's
(17:36):
like a bunch of news crews outthere, right, and Uby goes to
look at it to see if hecan find somebody from his home planet.
And he says, I wonder ifthey're going to destroy her. And I
remembered that vividly, and somebody sayingwhat does that mean? He says,
well, I you know ships likethis, I assumed they're always sort of
called she and then that's when thetwo bounty hunters capture him for that episode.
(17:57):
The other thing I remember is he'sordered a satellite dish from some local
electronic store in this town that he'sin, and he says something to either
Zax or Benji, and he says, you better be nice or I will
let you help me build my newsatellite dish. And the way he says
it, he says my new satellitedish. And that's when I was a
kid, I thought, that doesnot sound like a professional actor, because
(18:22):
I was used to hearing, youknow, people with like a fairly nondescript
accent, and I heard that,and I thought that sounds like a kid
from around here. And so whenI found out later on that it was
filmed in Dallas, everything fell intoplace, yea. And I also remember
wondering, how can you afford asatellite dish? My friend has one of
those, and they're very expensive.So through these are the things that bothered
me as a kid. So itoriginally premiered in September seventeenth of nineteen eighty
(18:47):
three. The last episode aired forthe first time on December seventeenth of eighty
three, and again they worked.They aired over and over again after that,
like they did on Saturday Mornings.So overall thoughts, I'll ask Corey
to go first, because I havea feeling like Olivia's overall thoughts are going
to be fairly humorous. It's usuallythat way. You can really tell that
(19:08):
this was shot on VHS. Yeah, very much, even without the aging
of the quote unquote film very much. Everything looks hand cam and in fact,
a lot of stuff with the sacklooked very cold. You could see
the wires and everything like that.But see, I never noticed any wires,
(19:30):
did you not. I saw acouple of times around and a few
other things that I thought. Theeffects overall were actually not bad, especially
when you consider when it was made, the likely budget they were working with
him that it was for Saturday Morning. I actually was fairly impressed with the
effects overall. No, and Iagree, a lot of the effects were
very good, but there was LikeI said, there was just a couple
(19:52):
of times where you could see awire or two. But overall it felt
really long, like it did notfeel like a half hour show. It
felt almost like an hour show tome. Yeah. Well, the other
the pacing and everything's at early eightiespacing that we talked about before. Yeah,
I mean yeah, but I thoughtthat was an interesting trip down memory
(20:15):
lane of a simpler time. Andyeah, like the costumes straight out of
a Superman for the bad guys.Oh my god, get out of my
head. There's just a lot ofstuff. I was like, Yeah,
that's that's pretty damn funny. Olivia. How about you? Well, I'm
going to start off with a coupleof questions. One, we may have
(20:37):
answers, how dare you two?The audacity three? Piggybacking on Corey's feelings
of it just being long, Yes, of course I felt long because we're
watching Discount General Zod run around ajunk car lot for six minutes. No
(20:59):
wonder felt long, shoot Discount GeneralRod and uh and kmart URSA yea,
what pondered this with me for justa moment. Why is it that like
eighties into early nineties though, honestly, you still see this trend now,
um space aliens are shown with thoselike sticking out shoulder not shoulder pads necessarily
(21:29):
and not necessarily like pauldrons. Yeah, but it's costumes. It's like a
cardigan. It's like a yeah,it's like a pointy cardigan. Yeah,
Like, why is it? Howdid we establish this, this expectation that
aliens and life forms from other planetshad clothing with sticky outie pointy roof a
(21:55):
frame shoulders. Well, i'll tellyou. There was a meeting and they
decided, Okay, in the seveneverybody's going to be wearing the silver Jiffy
pop bag looking things. So inthe eighties we have to one up at
what what can we do differently?Oh, pointy shoulders? That that there
was a meeting. Um, I'msurprised you weren't invited. Honestly, I
probably wasn't alive yet there was thatpossible. But Corey, you were there,
right, I was there. Iwasn't there, And I believe,
(22:18):
if I remember correctly, Corey wasviolently opposed to it, but he was
shouted down by not only violently butvehemently. Yes, and that's the way
it went. I got kicked out. Yeah, yeah, I fought for
him his return, but it didto New Avail. Um. So,
but yes, that that's what happenedthere. That's what happened there. So
uh yeah, it is slow.But um, I would also like to
(22:42):
note that Joe camp directed every singleepisode show. I actually, I will
say, though, I would goso far as to say, comparing this
to a show like Going Bananas,Uh, this looks like Seinfeld next to
Going Bananas. To me, okay, I think the the leap in quality.
While it's not it's I wouldn't sayit's a good show. It is
(23:03):
a better show than Going Bananas.Maybe not to say by the Bell standards.
I think we can all agree sayby the Bell is the gold standard
of Saturday morning live action, certainly, but I really did. I found
myself far more entertained by this showthan I expected to be. It helped
that, I was. The plotsare inconsequential enough that you can drift off
(23:25):
and do something else while you're watchingit and come back and when something exciting
happens and watch it. But that'snot a compliment, Jeff, That's not
a compliment. It is because withGoing Banets, I never my attention never
came back until there was a loudnoise and then I was like, what
is that oak? And then Iwent back to whatever I was doing.
Yeah. So I tell you whatwas fun though, was trying to find
(23:49):
people who I knew since I knewit was all they were all Dallas actors.
Didn't find a person that I knewin the show, but there was
one name that I reckon knows thatyou guys might also recognize. In episode
nine, one of the cops namedLeroy was played by an actor named Alan
Accles. M No, Well,his last name is the Wind, the
(24:14):
Key Anon. He is the fatherof Jensen Accles of Supernatural fame and who
is now on The Boys. Ibelieve, Yeah, they watched, Yeah,
he Jensen Accles grew up in Richardson, which is a suburb of Dallas
as well, and Jared Pedaliki isfrom San Antonio. So you got two
Texas boys on Supernatural. But yeah, Jensen Accles. That's why there's an
episode of Supernatural that allegedly takes placein Richardson, Texas, because that's where
(24:38):
he's from. Okay, But inthe episode, they're out in like in
the middle of nowhere, like inthe forest. It's like it's Austin now
and has a little beer brewery outthere. That's probably Jared Padaliki because I
think maybe Walker is filmed there.Plus he got in trouble there. But
yeah, Alan Accles who was onan episode of Supernatural The Sun several years
(25:00):
ago as well. Oh good,So that that was that was fun to
kind of kind of spot him inthat particular episode. So how many episodes
did you guys get through, Olivia? What one and a half? Two?
Yeah, that would be one,just one? Just one? Was
it the first episode? Yes?Okay? Sorry Cory? How about you?
First two? And that was it? Okay? I actually got through
(25:22):
four episodes of this stocking. Yeah, and my favorite was episode number nine,
Double Trouble, And I really Iwould like for you guys to go
back and watch it. You don'thave to watch the whole thing, but
I would like for you to goback and watch a few minutes of it
because this is sort of a prince. In the popper Tape episode, there's
a local boy named t J.Parker who's a troublemaker. He shipped a
(25:44):
shoplist from a store and the problemis he looks exactly like you be.
So in this one, Christopher Burtonhas a dual role, and I have
to say he actually does a reallygood job of playing two different characters,
and especially when you consider that he's, you know, he's a Dallas kid.
He didn't have a whole lot ofHe had done some commercials and everything,
(26:06):
but he's a kid. It's thefirst time that I saw that.
I saw the kid, and Iwas like, Okay, he actually,
he actually could do this. It'sa shame he didn't stick with it or
whatever happened that caused him to notstick with it. It's actually not bad
and it's a pretty good episode becauseyou get a lot more a lot more
adult characters instead of just instead ofjust about the Bounty Hunters. And at
(26:27):
that point, I believe the twoBounty Hunters were played by two different characters.
They brought are two different actors.They brought in two actors of the
midway through and replaced them with theseother two guys. But they end up
posing as so Ubi gets taken inand arrested and they're trying to find his
family, and the two Bounty Hunterspose as his parents, and of course
(26:49):
the cops see through it and everything, so they don't get them. But
by the end of the episode,TJ gets reunited with his parents and he
sees the air of his ways andstops just to do better. His parents,
however, are like old as dirt. I kept expect him to say,
oh, we're his grandparents, butno, these are his parents.
But it was the eighties, sothey were probably in their mid thirties,
(27:10):
right. But there's also a characterthat UBI has befriended who is like a
fisherman down on like a dock somewhere, and during the episode he learns that
Ub is actually an alien, butyou know, promises to keep his secret
and everything. Sure. Yeah,yeah, So you you mentioned Corey,
(27:30):
you mentioned Zach being the thing thatyou remembered about it. Olivia, what
did you think about the design ofZach. I always liked it. I
thought the big eyes were good forkids. What did you think about that?
At least visually, Zachs didn't reallybother me. I liked the big
eyes. It appealed to me inthis same way as like Wally and Johnny
(27:56):
five from Short Circuit, So thatwas fine. I was okay with that.
Yeah, I did like the designingCorps you. I mean you mentioned
that it was that it was abig dose of nostalgia and reminded you of
Vincent, and I think that's agood thing, right, But it's different
enough. I thought it was apretty unique design. What about you Yeah,
absolutely had had a good streamline lookedto it. I liked that they
(28:17):
were able to kind of move theeyes. I'm sure they had like fifteen
different plates that they could just kindof pop on for everything. But yeah,
I thought it was fun. Iliked it, and like I said,
I never, if I did noticethe wires on it. It was
very very minor, very seldom,like a time or two I expected to,
and I was actually looking for them. Personality wise, I didn't even
(28:41):
mind them because a lot of timesin these shows from the eighties, especially
the Saturday morning shows, especially thecartoons we've been talking about, you know,
the characters like that can be super, super annoying. And I just
didn't really find any of the maincharacters, at least of the heroes either
or a trio really annoying. Ofcourse, Benjie's a dog, so automatically
gonna like him, right, ButI didn't really. I didn't find Ubi
(29:03):
to be that annoying, and Ididn't really find Zax to be that annoying
other other than he was always dismissiveof Benji and I thought that was a
little odd, but I just chalkedit up to professional jealousy. Sure,
um, but what about Zack's voice? Did it even? Did it stick
out to you at all? No? Not for me? No? Not
(29:26):
really? Okay? Yeah, andI um, like I said, it
didn't. The fact that it didn'tstick out for me tells me that it
probably was not that annoying. ButI think the thing that I liked the
most about Zax is if you stopand look at him, you can kind
of tell what he was kid beastfrom, especially like the neck being that
sort of corrugated pipe. Corey.I'm sure you could probably look at it
and figure out how to build onejust from looking at it. Probably.
(29:48):
Um so, But but Olivia,you you hated this, and you and
you're upset with me now for forforcing upon you. Um. I don't
hate you. I could never hateyou. She's not mad, she's just
disappointed. Yeah. Yeah, uhwas this worst thing going bananas for you?
(30:10):
I felt a similar level of nonenjoyment, Huez, and I just
didn't because as broad as these folkswere, I didn't feel like there was
nearly as much mugging on this showas there was ongoing bananas. Yeah,
it could possibly be too, Um, I don't know. Maybe I just
(30:32):
got super cut up on discount.General's odd and well that's that's a legitimate
concern, so much soft focus vasolineon the lens, and that episodes of
Reading Rainbow usually have better filming andcinematography. Um could be those things.
Yeah, well we have to andwe also have to keep in mind that
(30:56):
again Benji was uge at the time. Yes, and I'm missed out on
that. I've Benji never really caughtmy interest as a kid me either,
and as much of a dog personas I am, I just I know
there's one that involves him being kidnappedor dog napped, yes, or maybe
it's a kid that gets kidnapped orsomething. Now it's him. It's an
(31:19):
episode. It's fairly late. No, no, no, in the one
of the movies. Ye a movie. Oh oh, you're talking about a
film. Yeah. I think inthe first one he saves two kids,
and in the second one he getsabducted or something like that. Sure,
and then the third one again he'sout in the wilderness, and I just
I yeah, I don't. Idon't want to see dogs in peril,
especially a cute dog like Benji.For those of you who are still fond
(31:42):
of physical Media. The entire serieswas released a DVD by Good Times Home
Video as four separate releases of threeor four episodes each, and a single
release with all thirteen episodes. SoI'm sure you can go to Amazon or
eBay and find Benji Zacs and theAlien Prints the complete series for your home
viewing enjoyment, or you can justgo to YouTube and watch them. If
(32:04):
you pick this up on Good TimesHome Video? Are those indeed good times?
Are they? Well? If you'rea fan of Benji Zax and the
Alien Pruts, they are, mm okay yeah, yikes, okay,
folks. Well, so I'm guessingthat Olivia would not, not is not
ever going to revisit this. UmNo, I'm going to step away gracefully,
(32:28):
step away gracefully. I don't knowthat you can do gracefully right now
after all this, Olivia, It'strue, It's true. Okay, I'm
gonna I'm gonna stomp away and havea hissy fit. So if it was
rebooted today with you know, modernproduction values, modern editing, um and
everything, do you think it's something? Do you think the concept is something
(32:50):
you can get behind, Olivia,I'm sure it would be fine. Is
children's programming. It's just not veryoften that I find myself drawn to kids
shows that have animal, live actionanimal lead characters. So there's a pile
of movies like, oh, whatwas the one with the geese flyaway Home?
(33:16):
And the one with the cat andthe dog and they're trying to find
their people? Oh, Milo withthe Adventures of Milo and Otis. Yeah,
that there's a ton of those typeof movies that were really big when
I was a kid or okay,maybe a teen, so maybe not exactly
(33:37):
like in my interest area, butby then I had a nephew and there
it's likely that you know, youwould have seen those at my house because
of him, right, But yeah, just never never could get into those
with one really specific exception other thanthat they're just not my thing. And
(34:00):
what was that exception? Babe BabeYes, directed by George Miller of Mad
Max fame. Hell, yeah,I could watch that beautiful piggy any day.
Some pig. Nope, wrong story, that's Charlotte's Web. No,
no, no, you're you're thinkingthat'll do pig that'll do. That's it
(34:22):
I do, It's notunt it,right, But then I was like,
no, that's not right, butwhy does it sound almost right? Yeah,
that'll do pig, that'll do thata great James Cromwell. Okay,
so Corey do you have Corey doyou have any intention of revisiting this at
all on YouTube? I'll watch theTwo Princes, the one that you're talking
about, but that will probably beit for me. It's episode nine,
Double Trouble, and if anybody outthere is on the fancy give that one
(34:45):
a try, because, like Isaid, I again, it's not He's
not Olivier, but there are twovery distinct characters there, and when you
think about his age at the time, he was like nine years old,
it's it's it's decent work. Andplus you can see Jensen Accle's dad in
a very very small role as leRoy was his last name, Jenkins.
I wish, I wish. Iwill say. The last credit that Christopher
(35:08):
Burton had is for a TV showcalled The Real Adventures of Sherlock Jones and
Proctor Watson. Oh yeah, that'sthe one, and I don't recognize any
of the other names in it.Mark Ritz and Michael Costello were Jones and
Watson. That's Luke Costello's. Thatgrandkid is he really I don't know,
huh maybe so No, he's anotherlocal boy, a great to s So
(35:35):
well, you have a folks,I'd love to hear your thoughts, because
there's got to be somebody else outthere who remembered this show, uh semi
fondly and went back and revisited itand enjoyed it on some level more than
Olivia at least, So we'd loveto hear you. We'd love to hear
your thoughts on it, So headedthe Facebook page and let us know,
especially if your family was big onthe fiber kick of the eighties and you
(35:57):
had fruit and fiber in your house. So until the next time for the
Saturday Morning Supercast, I'm Jeff,I'm Corey, and I'm Olivia and it's
time for college sports. So let'sgo build a robot in the backyard.
Thank you for listening, and don'tforget to follow the show on Facebook It's
Saturday Morning Supercast and follow at MarvinDog Media on Twitter.
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