Public Domain Highlights: Silver Screen Video

 Like that rash on your skin, this thread never goes away, where we highlight the best and worst, though mostly worst, public domain companies.  Today's company is a small but somewhat impact full company known as Silver Screen Video.

Very little is known about this company.  It, essentially, was another fly by day company.  Its earliest known tapes were around 1989, its latest.....around 1990.  Two years, and they couldn't keep a profit.  Clearly they couldn't be that bad......could they?

Well for the art covers for starters, yes.  The covers for a lot of their tapes are really bad.  Some of these looked like they were drawn by a five year old.  The many different volumes of tapes include Mickey Mouse, which we'll talk about later, Superman, Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Donald Duck, Popeye, Mighty Mouse, Woody Woodpecker, Tweety, Elmer Fudd, Heckle and Jeckle, and Casper.  

Our first infamous tape is Mickey Mouse which appears to be a collector's edition unlike all the other tapes.  Probably because of the value of Mickey Mouse and the growing popularity of Disney thanks to the Disney Renaissance from The Little Mermaid to Ducktales and Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers.  However, two problems.  One, Disney already put out valuable Mickey Mouse tapes as part of their own classic cartoon line and featured important classics like Steamboat Willie and such.  And two, this was a complete scam.  I have not seen the tape; I believe the Disney cartoons are the exact same quality as other VHS public domain tapes with speed up and edited out titles referencing Walt Disney.  But the actual contents are questionable.  The Mad Doctor is a legit Mickey Mouse cartoon that somehow got through the copyright cracks.  Minnie's Yoo Hoo never got copyrighted as it was used for Mickey Mouse Clubs in movie theaters across the country.  Two other cartoons are not Mickey cartoons, but Silver Screen passes them off of as such anyways.  First is Smile Darn Ya Smile.  The characters may look like Minnie and Mickey, but they were really Foxy and Roxy from an early Merrie Melodie.  Anyone looking at the characters could tell you that they are foxes, not mice.  Did Silver Screen think kids were that dumb, or were THEY that dumb?  Then finally is Circus Capers.  This is a Milton the Mouse cartoon by Van Beuren, the one cartoon that not only ripped off of Disney but one where Disney actually sued Van Beuren for.  One could easily confuse this as Mickey, but the main difference is the more rough animation, rougher than any early Mickeys, and pre-code jokes galore from sexual harassment to panties to an over sexuallized "Minnie Mouse" (I think her real name was Millie; could ber Mary).  You know.....for kids.

The more infamous tape is probably their most popular.  It's more popular as this was probably their only profitable if any profit was to be made.  They tried recouping funds by compiling 50 cartoons that they released and sell it on home shopping networks like QVC.  Hence why on the box art it said "As Seen on TV"......and we all know what those mean, if it sounds too good to be true and it's "As Seen on TV", it probably is.  Oh yeah....the box art.....well the first version of the box in 1989, well.............

Yeah......not very attractive.  This probably caused very few sales for this product, so in 1990, they

Much better art cover used
a year later

revised it, but not with original artwork.  Instead using artwork from UAV's VHS line called Kidd Video, which in all actuality is much better artwork, though some still slightly off.  So this would sell more copies of the product since it would easily target the demographic wanting some nostalgia, but by then it was already too late.  Silver Screen Video would fold not long after.  Gone and forgotten.  Besides, those 50 Cartoon tapes were also being put out around the same time by UAV, Burbank Video, and Starmaker, with better artwork (for the most part) and better quality.

So how was the quality of the cartoons on these tapes?  Well the good news is that Silver Screen did very little tinkering (if any) on some of their cartoons unlike Vidtape and Meta Video, but you still get what you paid for.  Since the 50 of Your Favorite Classic Cartoon tape was the most comprehensive, this will be the basis of the overall experience.

Though the tape itself I believe would be combined two smaller half versions called 25 of Your Favorite Classic Cartoons.  I won't review every cartoon on here, but there are some notible moments I want to point out, especially the Warner Bros. Cartoons.  We start with the first half with Popeye.  Sinbad the Sailor had a slight edit to remove the AAP titles, but removing such titles never happened on any of the other Popeye cartoons.  We then get a first glimps of the Warner Bros. Cartoons.  The quality seems fair for the most part, but there were issues.  Transitions for most of the cartoons are a little rough with some slight VHS damage.  Trust me, it's not due to age of the tape.  The WB shield zooming in on Fresh Hare has a weird audio glitch sounding more like a 70's disco sound effect.  The Superman cartoon seem to look fair.  As do some more cartoons, though Boo Moon had badly recreated time compressed titles for some reason.  The black and white Porky Pig cartoons are redrawn, obviously, and were prints from Kit Parker with edited on badly recreated titles.  These edits were done by Kit Parker, not Silver Screen.  Again, they put the cartoons out as is.  A Tale of Two Kitties seems to be the only low pitched Warner Bros. Cartoon on here.  It seems like the AAP titles on the Warner Bros. Cartoons were edited out except for The Wabbit Who Came to Supper.

The Unruly Hare as seen on Silver Screen
and probably other public domain VHS tapes

The second half......off to a bad start.  You see, none of these tapes have an FBI Warning, tracking, or company logo at the begining of the tape.  So the cartoons just start after ominous black.  For this tape, The Wacky Wabbit, a faded print by the way, starts us off suddenly.  As a result, a jumpscare occurs.  The next cartoon is Yankee Doodle Daffy.  Picture quality is fair, but oh my gosh the audio quality.......it's the worse I've ever heard.  It sounds like it's coming from a telephone it's that bad.  The tape continues with fair quality (Case of the Missing Hare looked faded though), but then comes a mystery I've been wanting to see, how The Unruly Hare looks on a PD tape.....it's actually not too bad.  Not as great as on MGM tapes at the time, but for PD tapes, not bad.  The one WB cartoon that has been messed with is the last one on the tape.  Have You Got Any Castles lost its opening titles.  I recall seeing that on other tapes though.  Not a Silver Screen issue as far as I know.

So what's the verdict....bleh.  Many of the fair prints ended up on better VHS tapes such as Starmaker.  The only impact may have been the 50 Cartoon Classics since it appeared on many home shopping networks, but that's about it.  Once it shut down, it was gone.  Just another cheap company with varying quality tapes and film prints.

The recent Really Loud House controversy proves one thing........

 

For those that have been following the recent updates, you may have heard about the leaked plots coming for the live action series for The Loud House.  There were statements of a girl (or boy, or non-binary....you never know in this day and age) named Charlie that's supposed to be in it and it's been suggested that this character or some other significant other is Lincoln's crush.  Immediately the backlash happened especially on Twitter.  "Who is this crush?  It should be Ronnie Anne!  This better say Ronnie Anne is his crush or I'll get furious!"  The tweets go on and on and on..........

Now, I don't know what is going to happen to the series, and if it has bad writing, I'm not going to defend that, but if fans start throwing fits sending death and harassment threats to the writers, producers, directors, and heaven forbid the actors, then yeah, I'm going to defend the people involved in the series.  This controversy brought to light an argument I've been making for a while now and that argument is this:

CARTOON SHIPPING IS TOXIC!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I was a kid, I never worried about what cartoon character is sleeping/dating with whom.  It didn't matter.  I wanted to see what the Rugrats were up to, I wanted to see what the Ed Boys are up to, I wanted to see the Powerpuff Girls win, the antics of Dee-Dee and Dexter, and trying to figure out just how old some of these theatrical cartoons were.  Once in a while there were set ups for a good dating episode, but that's all they were.

Today.....everything involves around shipping.  If you show one brief instance of sexual attraction regardless of what series it is, the fans will take to it and make it their life's mission to make sure that ship stays afloat.  And with the acceptance of the LGBT community growing this past decade or so, it got worse to fans wanting same sex relationships, and if you disagree with their ships, they will make sure that you get cancelled by calling you a homophobe and a racist.  

I'm not sure when shipping began, but it has to have originated somewhere in the 80's and 90's with anime, especially those involving romance.  As anime grew popular in the western world, some elements would transfer over into western cartoons.  Some were great such as art style, some not so great.  

Now, don't get me wrong.  I don't mind a good ship every once in a while.  Most of them are when I can picture myself having a relationship with someone that I could have a crush on.  For example, I rooted for Charlie Brown to get to know the Little Red Haired Girl.  I always rooted for the underdog to get the girl.  And I didn't mind a good episode about dating and/or crushes every now and then.  Even with girls, because there is nothing like a young girl in love.  But to assign every character with a boy or a girl counterpart and make it their life's mission is ridiculous.  This past decade has been all about that in cartoons.

The Loud House by no means is not the biggest offender in this case (Steven Universe and Adventure Time equally got that going), but it certainly has its share due to the nature of the show being a slice of life animated comedy.  Many of the kids are at their coming of age time in their lives, so of course at times dates would be brought up.  Not every episode, but a handful.

Again, don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the early moments when Clyde had a crush on Lori as I pictured myself in a situation of unrequited love.  The episode with Lucy and Rocky is among my favorites.  And I never had a problem with Luna dating Sam, ever.  But there were episodes that hinted some potential ships such as when Lincoln made Ronnie Anne cry so he is forced to date her to make up for it.  Immediately fans saw the two as a couple.  It should also be noted that there are moments throughout the series where there is potential for a love interest for Lincoln, but nothing truly became of it other than become good friends such as Stella and Ronnie Anne.  It's not to devalue the characters in any way, but there are certain lines that shouldn't be crossed in a kids cartoon.  There were also ships based around side characters such as Maggie and Luan simply because of one scene, one very brief frame where Luan made her smile.  Even though the point of it was to show a bonding between Lincoln and Luan making her birthday party happy.  And the less we talk about Loudcest, the better.  

It also appears that they were playing with the shipping fans throughout the series.  Whether it was intentional or accidental is debatable.  L is for Love has ALL the Loud siblings having a love interest including Lynn, but a couple seasons in she says, "I thought I had a crush once, turns out I was dehydrated".  Thus ticking off potential shippers.  Things get even weirder in the spin off series, The Casagrandes where Ronnie Anne becomes best friends with Sid Chang.  Now full disclosure, Sid's my favorite character in the Casagrandes, and any episode that revolves around Sid is pure joy.  That said, shippers went nuts over the friendship making it a gay relationship then even further with Lincoln having it a threesome bi relationship called Sidonnielincoln....or something like that.  Hints of these relationships may have been accidental, but they didn't feel so subtle.  In one episode, Ronnie Anne got two free tickets to Dairyland but has to choose between Sid and Lincoln.  Fans immediately saw it as "who will she choose?????"  In another episode where both Sid and Ronnie finally make it to a Twelve is Midnight concert, the following quotes were said: "We finally made it!"  "And we made it together!"  They then start hugging as chanting "Twelve is Midnight!  Twelve is Midnight!"  Now the scene itself is innocent enough except they sound like dog whistles for Sidonnie shippers, and that's exactly what they did next.    

Any criticisms of The Really Loud House regarding the series as a whole whether it's acting, casting, or writing should be welcomed, and you don't have to like it or watch it.  (And as a disclaimer to please leave the actors alone, they are having a grand time making the series and building strong relationships outside of filming).  But to get upset of the series simply because they're not going along with your ship is very immature, and you should stop obsessing over it.

30 years of Cartoon Network: a Retrospective

 

30 years ago this month, Cartoon Network celebrated a big anniversary.....30 years.  It was launched due to Turner's acquisition of Hanna-Barbera, not just the old library, but the studio itself, which meant that new content could be made for Turner.  With all of those resources as well as Turner owned cartoons prior to Hanna-Barbera (MGM, pre-1948 Warner Bros. Cartoons, and the theatrical Popeye cartoons), it was enough to launch an all cartoon channel.

Now Cartoon Network has fully acknowledged the big anniversary with many tributes, look backs, and other cool stuff.  Some of it, I do fear, is to convince their new owners, Discovery, that they are relevant.  If you have been reading the news, you know what I'm talking about.  Many animated shows are being canceled and deleted off of HBO Max.  These shows include Infinity Train, OK KO, and more recently Final Space.  And in the case of Final Space, all copies are being destroyed.  Now I have heard conflicting information about Discovery that they care about Warner Bros and its library, and maybe these shows were not that good to keep around, but these are someone's work.  Animators, writers, directors, and voice actors all worked on paid time to create these works, so to just throw them away as tax write offs, that's not good business practice.  So perhaps the celebration is more to scream "we are the network of the best shows, please don't delete our shows."  Or maybe they are being legit about celebrating their anniversary.

Regardless, they are doing a great job; I was able to look back on some memories that I had from so long ago.  While they and other people have been celebrating really well, here is my perspective on Cartoon Network's 30th.

Let me throw my bias out there: 1998-2004 were the best years of Cartoon Network.  Period, the end.  Now I know Dexter and Johnny Bravo came before then, but new episodes and reruns were still very constant at that time.  So why 1998?  That was the Powerhouse era, where a true balance between new, contemporary, classic, and weird.  Coming out of that era were Powerpuff Girls, Ed Edd n Eddy, Courage the Cowardly Dog, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and Codename: Kids Next Door.  During the Checkerboard era, the What a Cartoon Show was the biggest new show with many different shows from different creators.  This is where Dexter's Lab, Johnny Bravo, Courage the Cowardly Dog, and Powerpuff Girls came from.  All would get full series.  Here are my top moments from Cartoon Network's history:

1. the launch

At Turner, Ted Turner launched Cartoon Network with smiling Hanna-Barbera characters standing by his side as he pushed the plunger exploding the future to come for animation.  On the network itself, Droopy's Guide to the Cartoon Network was the very first show at launch, and within that show aired its first cartoon.....Rhapsody Rabbit.  It was the Vid-Y-Oh for kids master, but it was still the very first cartoon to air on Cartoon Network.

2. Bugs and Daffy Tonight

Now, imagine seeing Looney Tunes in prime time where they belong, something that hasn't happened since the 60's.  Well, that's exactly what happened in 1992 at launch.  An hour and a half of the AAP pre-48 cartoons.  This was the place to be for this content in 1992 and lasted until 1995 when it was rebranded as Bugs and Daffy.  

3. What a Cartoon Show

I pretty much already cover this, but this is where we were first introduced to series and characters that would be a part of the brand for many years.  Dexter had many episodes from the series, Powerpuff Girls had a couple, and Courage would actually get nominated for an Academy Award that year.  While most would come from Hanna-Barbera, some such as Courage would come from other studios as well.  This allowed a variety of art styles similar to Nickelodeon.  That would be the competing strategy.  

4.  Dexter's Laboratory

This is one of my favorite Cartoon Network shows.  I really loved the antics between Dee-Dee and Dexter.  Dexter being the smartest boy on the planet, but meh.....not so much street smarts, while his oldest sister Dee-Dee always interfering with Dexter's work in his secret lab just to have some fun with Dexter, a word that's not in Dexter's vocabulary.  The original era with Genndy Tartakosky at the wheel being the creator was the best era, but looking back at the later era, despite all the changes, it wasn't too bad either.  The characters were still well designed.  Dexter was the first merchandisable series for Cartoon Network, but it would be shadowed over with Powerpuff Girls.

5. Toonami

As a kid, I never watched that much, but looking back, this was the introduction to many of anime.  Sailor Moon was rescued and new episodes newly dubbed would debut there.  The Dragonball franchise would also take off here in America because of Toonami.  And many more shows would follow over the years now airing on adult swim.  Shows like Inuyasha, Kill la Kill, Akame ga Kill, and My Hero Academia have all aired there, many continue to air to this day.

6. The Powerpuff Girls

I was a fan of The Powerpuff Girls because it was a fun show with some great action to compliment it.  This was Cartoon Network's biggest hit at the time and it is still fondly remembered.  It since had many reboots including an anime version which was....weird.  But the original series was the best, no question about it.  Girls merchandise of Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup were through the roof.  And I also enjoyed the movie.  Here's hoping for a bright future with these girls.

7.  Toonheads

This show educated you on the history of animation usually set to a theme just like today with Me TV's Toon In With Me.  I have stated my love of Toonheads in prior posts, but this was the show that got me into animation history.  Topics include Before They Were Stars, Norman McCabe, early works episode, and the Three Faces of Tom and Jerry.  Some of these cartoons were exclusive to Toonheads only, so these were must watch and must record.  

8.  Ed Edd n Eddy

Ah my favorite Cartoon Network series.  I have expressed my love of the show on other posts, but this show was awesome.  No other show makes me laugh the same way as the Eds did.  With its unique art style, memorable characters, and fun stories, this series lasted a very long time ending in the late 2000's.

9.  Courage the Cowardly Dog

Now, you want to talk about a series that was closest to the Warner Bros. Cartoons, look no further than Courage even though the premise was different: a dog living with an elderly couple who is a scaredy cat, but always would save Eustace and Murial from any creepy danger from curses (Return the Slab......."What's yer offer?!"), ghouls, ghosts, zombies, and other strange creatures they embark.

10.  Cartoon Cartoon Fridays

Every Friday night, this was appointment television as the latest episodes of Cartoon Network originals would air during that time.  Once in a great while, so would Cartoon Cartoon Weekends, where fans could vote what series should be picked up next.  This is where we got The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and Codename: Kids Next Door.  Both shows are honorable mentions as I don't have the room to mention everything, but this should be a nice way to pay tribute to these two shows at the moment.

11.  The Popeye Show

For years on Turner networks, Popeye cartoons, especially the more classic Fleischer era cartoons aired in redrawn colorized forms.  Rare black and white airings were on Toonheads (sometimes) and Late Night in Black and White.  But the Popeye Show changed the game.  Black and white originals aired frequently with information about Popeye, Fleischer, and Famous Studios throughout.  As a bonus, Cartoon Network tried restoring the original Paramount titles back on the cartoons.  Most were recreations, but revolutionary at the time.  Today the black and whites look better with authentic original titles back on the cartoons and restored in HD, but back then this was a must watch for animation enthusiasts.

12.  The Looney Tunes Treatment and June Bugs

Finally, the wrap up the whole thing, from 2001-2020, this along with Boomerang was the exclusive home of Looney Tunes, and years 1992-2003 were the best years for them on Cartoon Network.  Longer blocks were made for more cartoons, longer shows like The Looney Tunes Show accommodated for more Looney time.  If that wasn't enough, there was The Bob Clampett Show, the Chuck Jones Show, and annual June Bugs marathon, with 2001 being the biggest and best June Bugs yet.  It was originally supposed to include the Toonheads episode, the 12 Missing Hares, but was pulled at the last minute.  It was the largest Looney Tunes package ever aired until 2021 when Me-TV's package was bigger with even more rare cartoons appearing on there.  I've talked about this many times on this blog how big of a deal this was.  Too bad Looney Tunes Back in Action killed the momentum.

These are just my personal favorite memories and I'm sure you have some other fond memories of Cartoon Network as well.  Let me know what they are in the comments section below.