Tuesday, August 6, 2024

CROSSOVER MADNESS

 The 1950 Casper cartoon "Once Upon a Rhyme" shows Casper reading a book of Mother Goose tales. From the cover, Mother Goose invites the friendly ghost to enter her domain. He sees the Three Blind Mice (who of course don't see him) but his spectral appearance frightens both The Old Woman Who Lives in the Shoe and Miss Muffet's spider (Miss Muffet having already been scared off her tuffet by said arachnid.) Red Riding Hood isn't put off by Casper's ghostliness, so they become friends, after which Casper's scare potential saves Red from the hungry Wolf. 



It's a decent little cartoon, but it's more than a little odd that the pre-adolescent Red looks to be wearing lipstick.








CROSSOVER MADNESS

 From my review:

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The only reason Charlie and Vinnie are in "Oldies But Young 'Uns" is to set up the back-door pilot that appeared in the same season a few episodes later, focusing almost entirely on the antics of father and son (with a piddling guest-appearance by Al Bundy). Said pilot was titled "Top of the Heap," the same as the very short-lived sitcom that resulted. "Top" is IMO one of the worst back-door pilots ever made, but it was the only time the makers of MARRIED WITH CHILDREN succeeded in spinning anything off from their one huge sitcom success. Christina Applegate and David Faustino guested on "Top," but the show bottomed out in seven episodes. A retooled version, without any guest appearances, came and went equally quickly.