VR Troopers

VR Troopers stood for Virtual Reality Troopers. It was another live-action super hero television series. This was ANOTHER Saban created tv series. It was similar to the Beetleborgs because this one too had 3 super-heros that would be transformed or as the term is something used; 'morphed' into fighting suits with super powers.

What I liked about this one over the Beetleborgs was that they had a dog; Jeb. The show had a similar concept to Power Rangers in that it was older super-heroes. I didn't like the Beetleborgs only because they were kids.

Unfortunately, Beetleborgs was chosen over VR Troopers due to ratings and the fact that there was more violence on the show. And because frankly, Saban was re-using the footage over and over again for many of their shows. The show only lasted two seasons before it was chosen over Beetleborgs. It did have high ratings, but as stated it used up pretty much all of the fight footage.

Basically if you didn't know this about ANY  of the three shows; Power Rangers, Beetleborgs and VR Troopers, the show used Japanese footage from a show they had over there, and was spliced with American footage.



Looking back at this show...I realize why parents had a hard time with this. Mostly it's about Karate, and kids can be quite violent when you get introduced to karate. When you don't know what you're doing with it. Karate is not about fighting and hurting others. Also looking back, these guys did NOT look like teenagers....Power Rangers HAD the martial arts in the show, but it wasn't as prominent as VR Troopers.

Big Bad Beetleborgs

Big Bad Beetlebogs. I can't talk about this show without mentioning that this was VERY similar to Power Rangers. They were around about the same time. Beetleborgs aired on September 7, 1996. Power Rangers aired on August 28, 1993.





The only real difference in the shows were that the Beetleborgs were created by Flabber, who in a way was like a genie. The kids who awaken him are granted one wish. There wish of course was to become their favorite Comic Book heroes; The Beetleborgs.Except with the wish it also let loose the Beetleborgs' enemies too. The show was about 3 kids; Jo, Drew and Roland. Drew is the blue 'stinger' Beetleborg, Roland the green hunter beetle, and Jo was the red striker beetleborg.

This is Flabber. Kind of looks like Jay Leno looking back at it...He lives in a haunted house with some monsters, who help out the Beetleborgs from time to time.

I personally liked the Power Rangers better, but I liked the concept of them becoming Bug/Insect heroes.Such as a Firefly, Dragonfly, Butterfly, and a cicada.

I watched the first two episodes on YouTube. It's super cheesy!, but as I kid I didn't think so at the time. It actually only aired for two seasons as well.

Transformers; Beast Wars

I opted to do Beast Wars because upon looking at the Original Transformers series, it ran from like 1984 till 1990. So personally I am not going to count it on this blog.

So I chose Beast Wars. A co-worker of mine recalled this series when he was younger. Although he was born in 1994, and I have another co-worker who was born in 1993. Basically they made and a couple other co-workers feel Old. Seeing as how when some of these shows were on, THEY were in diapers.

In any event; Beast Wars was similar to Transformers in that you had two waring factions. On one side you had the Predacons; Mostly made up Dinosaurs and some bugs/insect robots. On the other side was the Maximals. Mostly made up of...well...animals. Such as Rattrap and Optimus Primal - Who was an Ape. There were a couple of 'humans' in the show, they were neanderthals though and personally I don't see what they were doing there. I watched for the Dinosaurs, insects and the animals.

This is Rattrap in his animal form.

I liked this series when I was younger. I loved Transformers, and I liked Animals. What a great concept to put them together! The CGI looking back was really bad, but when it first came out it was awesome. Though again looking back, the acting was totally cheesy.

The show premiered on April 22, 1996. It ran until 1999. Spanning 3 Seasons with 52 episodes total.

ER!

ER was a show that for whatever reason I loved it. Which was funny because I can't stand the site of blood...but I watched this show Every chance I got. The show was created by Novelist Michael Crichton and it aired on NBC on September 19, 1994. I don't think I watched it when I was 8, but I definitely got hooked into the show when I got a bit older due to the re-runs. And then I would watch the new episodes later that night.

ER was an awesome medical show, because it wasn't just about the medical procedures and the lives performed, or in some cases lost. It was about the lives of the doctors in County General Hospital. Based in Chicago. The show ran for 15 seasons! It earned 23 Emmy's, 124 nominations. It won 116. IT became the longest-running prime time medical drama in American Television History! I Think that's quite impressive.

Which brings me to my next point. I am currently enrolled in College and I am going for my Medical Secretary Certification. I think do a degree in some way, shape or form ER made me want to do this kind of work. Granted I WILL not be a Doctor or anything, but still. I love watching Medical Shows. I loved ER, I got into House recently (go figure as the show was ending..BUT I'm buying the seasons up) and now I'm into the new Medical Drama; Monday Mornings. I think the show paved the way for other medical shows. I think that's awesome and that's saying something.

I got hooked into the show I think other than the medical drama of it AND...of course George Clooney as a Doctor wasn't too bad either. I loved him as Dr. Doug Ross. He was pediatric doctor and he was in a long time relationship with a nurse; Carol Hathaway. Played by Julianna Marguiles, who I think is a phenomenal actress.

This was the original cast I recall watching.

Let's Talk Boy Bands....Oh yea...

So upon returning home today, I turned on Pandora. What did I hear? An old Backstreet Boys song; Everybody. I loved this song. I had my wall COVERED when I was younger with photos of them. I used to make collages. I mean I don't think there was one spot of white on my walls when I was a kid.

The band formed in 1993 and slowly started to gain fame. Their first international album was released in 1996. Their second international album was released in 1997. The band was made up of five guys; A.J. McLean, Howie Dorough, Nick Carter, Brian Littrell, and Kevin Richardson. Brian and Kevin were cousins actually.I used to love listening to them sing. Brian was my favorite. And honestly I'm not sure why.There was just something about him I guess.

I was never a fan of Nsync when they came out around the same time. I was SO anti-Nsync it wasn't funny. My sister was into them. BUT before they showed up on scene it was Backstreet Boys. I think it was a sibling thing; we could never have the same interests. And she always had to copy me with something whether it was toys, movies, or even music.

Honestly, both Nysnc AND Backstreet were formed in Florida. Backstreet in 1993, Nysnc in 1996. Both consisted of 5 guys who could sing and dance. I had many of the Backstreet boys albums, and I watched them on tv whenever they had an appearance. I taped ANY concert on tv; yes with an old BLANK VHS tape. Talk about old school.

I should mention also around this time was the band 98 degrees. They only had 4 guys, two of which were brothers. Seeing a theme here? 98 Degrees did not gain AS much popularity back then around the time of Nsync and Backstreet boys. BUT they quickly caught on around 1997-1998.

To point out, I liked all of these boy bands. I liked certain individuals in each band. And each did have a similar singing style. But Backstreet to ME paved the way for the other bands who followed after them. Plus it was hard NOT to turn on the radio and not hear ONE of these bands songs.

I can say however, that Nync was originally supposed to be on a "temporary hiatus", but when that went on longer than 2006, Lance Bass; A member of Nsync officially confirmed that they had broken up.

As for 98 Degrees, they too were taking a "temporary hiatus" in 2002, and originally their website had not been updated. Yet they got back together in 2004. Though from 2006-2012 they are still on another hiatus. They have since gone to do other things.

Backstreet Boys never officially broke up and still perform together. Looking up on Wiki it states that they were still in the band. Though now it seems to be called NKOTBSB. They have joined forces with New Kids On The Block. Which I personally was never into. And why?...I have no idea.

OF all of the boy bands, I think the best one to have come out off all of this would be Justin Timberlake. He's been the MOST successful with his music career, he's gone onto doing acting such as Saturday Night Live, and various other movies; In Time, Friends with Benefits, and the Social Network. He has acclaimed Six Grammy Awards, and Four Emmy Awards. His latest single; Suit and Tie is *Currently* ranked No.4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

This was my first album when I was growing up. I still listen to it every now and again.

I THINK I still have this album somewhere...

This is the album my sister had when were younger. We basically used to have dueling boy bands.

To be honest, I don't listen to them anymore. IF I do its still their old stuff. I haven't listened to anything new by any of the new bands. I don't count listening to Justin Timberlake because he is no longer with the band. I do like his new music and he is really funny. Check him out on any of the Saturday Night Live skits. He is hilarious!

Power Rangers

I was told by my boyfriend to do the Power Rangers, so here goes;

I watched the show when it first aired in 1993. The show was about a group of teenagers who end up being recruited to save the world. The teenagers were given special coins or medalions. They were able to harness the power of the Dinosaurs with them. Each had a special color and a Zord that went with them. A Zord was a special transformer in a way for the Rangers. For example the Red Ranger had the power over the T-Rex Zord. The Color code back then was; Red, Pink, Yellow, Black, Blue. Later on it added Green. The Green Ranger was changed to White after a while.

With the help of Alpha 5; a Robot who helped out the Power Rangers, he was sort of like Q was for Bond. And of course there was Zordon, who a very long time ago was a powerful wizard...but ended up becoming a floating head in a cylinder glass case.

In the show the Rangers are confronted by Zordon's arch nemesis; Rita Repulsa (Awesome name huh?). She too is a powerful wizard, but she's not a very nice one. She wants to take over Earth and she uses clay figures to send down to Earth. The clay figures were put through a special machine which turned the clay into REAL life monsters that the Power Rangers had to fight.

I think I liked the show because of the aspect of regular teenagers turning into the Rangers and having the ability to use "DinoZords". I was big into Dinosaurs back then. That and Billy; The Blue Ranger's Zord was the Triceratops. I LOVED him. Plus each Ranger brought something different to the table.

The show ran from 1993 to 1995. This was the series I grew up with. I DID watch the movie as well; Mighty Morphen Power Rangers The Movie. I have to say I didn't watch anymore after the movie. I just didn't care for the characters anymore. It was nice to see most of the cast pass the torch on to others. I DID like the new Zords they got in the movie. Such as the Ape (Red Ranger) / Bear (Yellow Ranger) / Wolf (Blue Ranger) / Crane(Pink Ranger) and the Falcon (White Ranger). When combined it created the NinjaMegaZord.


 This was my Favorite Zord;
Triceratops Zord!

This is ALL of the Zords; T-Rex (Top Left) / Mastodon (Center)  / Triceratops (Center) / Pterodactyl (Top Right) / Sabertooth Tiger (Corner Left)

This is the Opening Theme. I STILL LOVE IT!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmOzHNgSw6Q

Rocko's...NOT so Modern life...

So for most of us you might recall Rocko's Modern life. If not....I'm sure you can find reruns somewhere! Yet in any event Rocko's Modern Life focused on Rocko, a Wallaby from Australia who moves to O-Town. Obviously a fictional town. There he becomes friends with a cow...named Heffer, which looking back is really funny because a Heffer is a FEMALE cow, not a Male Steer...And he becomes friends with a turtle named Filburt who is basically afraid of darn near everything.

Rocko moves to O-Town with his dog Spunky, who like Gary the snail in Spongebob Squarepants gets into all sorts of trouble but is there when they need them.

Joe Murray - was the creator of Rocko and Spongebob Squarepants. The show first aired in 1993 and ran until 1996 on Nickelodeon. I liked this show when I was a kid. Granted some of the stuff was sort of Ren and Stimpy-ish in that it did have some crude humor and I probably didn't get HALF of what was being implied or said in the show.

The show was really about Rocko trying to navigate his new life in America and trying to make friends, hold down a job and how to deal with people who come into his life.










I looked this up and I was so brought back to watching this in front of the tv as a kid!
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HmEGRVUcR0

Goosebumps (The Tv show)

Yes, I'm following up Are you Afraid of the Dark? With Goosebumps. I loved, loved, loved this show.....Although some of the episodes scared the crap out of me! Such as the Episode with Slappy the Dummy...OMG...I don't think I slept for a WEEK!

And actually the one with the Haunted Mask?.........Yea..........I don't think I slept at all as a child when I saw this. YET.....I kept watching every night, or week or whatever. The show ran from 1995 - 1998. So from 9 years old to I would say maybe...10-11 I didn't sleep. I slept with one eye open and the night light on in my room.

Anyways, the show was based off of the books written by R.L. Stine. I really enjoyed the books as a kid. I had quite a few of them. I forget now which ones I had, but I enjoyed them....until they started doing those "Choose your own adventure" books....KINDA dumb. I get the concept, but looking back I guess he was just lazy. Course how much more crap could he write by that time anyways?

In any event, what I found amusing about the show was that the show was Rated GB-7...because it may be too spooky for children under seven. So of course I took that to heart as a child and would yell at my sisters to leave the room because they would get scared and go cry to mommy....When I was the one sleeping with a night light and a teddy bear at the end of the night.



This is the Intro that I had as a kid, although this is not the Full version, but it's close enough. :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC3kue_C35g


As for the book series...well.....they started in July 1992. And here's a link if you wanted to know ALL of them. Although there is one set that was never released.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Goosebumps_books

Are you Afraid of the Dark?...

So  this show, really DID scare me as kid! I WAS afraid of the dark. Yet I watched stuff like this and Goosebumps! Which I'll do as my next post. Honestly? I loved the show, I liked how Kids got together in a secret place in the woods and told stories. Some had good endings, some had sad endings, some had...well really odd endings.

The show focused on 9 kids (Not all of the characters stayed, there were two who only really had two episodes before they were cut) who referred to themselves as The Midnight Society. They met in the woods at a secret location and told each other "Ghost Stories". I kind of always wished I could have done that, I wanted to make up my own group sometimes and hope that we could meet somewhere private and just be kids. Alas this never came to fruition. Oh well. Each of the society members were different, which was like how real friends were, which I loved. The show was awesome for its time.

The First Generation was the Generation I grew up with; which was from 1991 - 1996. There was a Second Generation which was from 1999 - 2000. Apparently it was also a book series. Never read them though.




This was the cast I grew up with on SNICK!

Here comes the Animaniacs!

Do I really have to talk about this one?! Everyone should know this! BUT in case you don't here goes; The Animaniacs aired on Fox Kids in 1993 till 1995, later episodes showed up on The WB from 1995 to 1998.

The premise was very cool for its time, it's all kinds of different characters within the show. And each episode dealt with different characters. Such as the 1930's characters named Yakko, Wakko and Dot.
There was Pinky and the Brain; two genetically engineered mice. One was smart and the other was well....stupid. The one that was smart always tried to take over the world, but was always thwarted in some way, or simply because of Pinky's stupidity never succeeded.
Slappy Squrriel and tons of other characters. Seriously watch the show! It now can be found on the Hub.







 I put up a link to the show's intro. Enjoy!

 The intro to the Animaniacs

Gargoyles

Who didn't watch this show?! I loved the Gargolyes! I actually had quite a few of the Action figures as a kid. I had Demona, and Goliath.

The show ran from 1994 (I was 8) to 1997. My sisters and I loved to go play outside with our action figures and pretend to be Gargoyles. Much was created after them; Video games, action figures, and a card game.

I have to say I owned a Sega Genesis for which the video game was created, but to my knowledge I never got it, nor do I own it. So I wish I knew what it was a like to play that. I did however play some odd Monopoly kind of board game, where I know you had to use a tape that came with it and it was played on your VCR and the video kind of dictated how to play. I was too young to comprehend, and I got mad and never played the game again.

I did like how the characters took their name from places within New York City; Hudson / Brooklyn / Lexington / Bronx /  Broadway. Though I have to say I really don't like NY to this day. I've been quite a few times, seeing plays mostly but really New Yorkers can keep it! It's just too much for me, so in a way I felt like how the Gargoyles must have felt when they awoke nearly a millennium later.

Batman the Animated Series

So this is my first post of my new blog. As stated in the side bar I've done a 90's blog before, but that was a group for school. I've made this one to be my own. So let's start this shall we?

How about Batman the Animated Series? I was about 6 when it first aired in 1992 and it ran until 1995. I used to love Batman. For whatever reason after the show was over me and my two sisters used to run and jump around the house after it was over. Of course we used different places as the Batcave, and I always was Batman. I made my sister (The middle child; she was 5 at the time) my arch nemesis. Typically it was whatever bad guy batman had to fight that afternoon.

It was VERY fun until my mother or father woke up from their nap and told us to go play outside. And of course we had to put our cool fort back together too. Though they also didn't really appreciate the fact that my little sister (she was only 2 at the time) was also sometimes tied up and being used as either a bad guy or someone I had to save.

I bet Batman never got grounded....