Growing Up With Canadian TV: Vol.1 - TheCartoonGamer

okay I've been watching television and cartoons my whole life and being Canadian I was subject to a lot of canadian-made stuff Canadian content tends to get a bad rap online especially with animation with stuff like Johnny Test and George of the Jungle being the Front Runners but if you dig a Little Deeper you'll find we put out a lot of great shows over the years that next to nobody talks about if you're outside of Canada you may be aware of one or two like 16 or reboot but there's a lot more stuff that really only gain traction up here maybe in the UK and Australia too but I digress fellow YouTuber Nitro rad talked about some of the shows he grew up watching and I even made a little cameo in that video but here I'm gonna talk about the stuff that I watched when I was younger re-watched and some shows I hadn't seen until I was much older I'm a bit of a TV and animation nut so there's quite a bit to go over and no better place to start than at the very beginning no question about it a channel that was a big part of my early years was Treehouse TV the channel actually started as a block on YTV in 1994 before it became its own thing a few years later it's had stuff from Nick Jr PBS but when it debuted it put out some pretty unique content of its own some of my favorite stuff included crazy quilt and ants in your pants which debuted alongside the channel the former showed kids how to make different kinds of arts and crafts and the latter showed a bunch of music videos from all kinds of places Summer live action others animated and others from live music tours I always tried my best to make the stuff they did on crazy quilt and I still referenced things from ants in your pants to this day my mom still refers to me as Mr McLeod who likes to sing real loud referencing a song Done by John Lithgow of all people and every now and then I'll catch myself singing let's talk turkey Turkey Lurkey I wanna get my business fixed and in between treehouse shows we came to know host tansy and roosevel along with their friends in Tree Town acting like goofballs and just having so much fun entertaining children and teaching a lesson or two this one's got its own fair share of songs that won't leave my head like let's tell a Whopper let's tell an awful FIB a regular jaw dropper enough to blow your lid your lid Big Comfy Couch was another Big Show though it was on YTV five years before Treehouse came along Lunette and Molly were such a sweet pair of friends and I swear I've never had a fear of clowns and I attributed to this show and if someone in my house had messy hair they'd be and still are referred to as major Bed Head another one I watched was the Beatles a show about little creatures building books from the ground up and that one's also very well made by the time it aired I read just fine but it had such a charm to it and I just liked watching it all the shows I've mentioned have something going for them and I'll still go back and watch them every now and then it's all just super charming and adorable I also Gotta Give mention to the Treehouse voice guy who's been involved with the network since day one and is still there one of my animation teachers from college is like best friends with the guy and he told me some great stories now why TV and Teletoon were what I watched a ton of and if they had the same output of quality now as they did one before you'd have to pry me away from the television in my areas YTV was generally channel 25 or 30 in one place I lived and Teletoon was channel 47 or more commonly 45. talatoon was fun because it had cartoons old and new from all parts of the world for kids and adults I know I'm not the only one who watched The Detour when I wasn't old enough but early late night Teletoon oh heck no those bumpers did their job and kept me far away from whatever was going on after dark [Applause] I went over YTV a little bit in my Pokemon video on YTV and the WB but this was my favorite channel so much variety and a ton of fun hosts to get to know I loved all the hosts for the blocks over the years like AJ and later Andy from crunch Paula and Vortex Simon and zapix and sugar and Carlos in the zone of course I also liked Joyce who paired up with Carlos after sugar left but she was only in the zone for a literal year before she left she came in one New Year's Eve and was gone by January 2nd the next year I am not kidding the Channel's gone through many changes over the years but Carlos and the YTV voice guy were the biggest things that kept me Tethered to it for so long no matter what happened they always seem to stick around Carlos left YTV after 16 years in December 2018. I mean it had to happen eventually but you gotta give it to him he'd been on YTV for over half its lifespan when he left the voice guys been doing commercials for over 20 years and is still at it he's got all these different voices and personalities he's done in his promos and I have memorized so much of what he's put out I've got a lot of Inspirations but the YTV voice guy he's one of the most influential for sure I also like the Teletoon announcers those promos had their own brand of hilarious there is one man who most best results [Music] all right now that I've given you a brief look at how things were structured up here let's get into some of the cartoons that I watched here's one of my favorites and I hope it's one of yours stick it around this is definitely what you would call a staple it ran on YTV from 96 to 98 but was in reruns for an entire decade after so I saw this show front to back hundreds of times it follows Stacy and Bradley and their friends and the stuff they get up to from their crazy perspective the show kind of reminds me of Ed Edd and Eddie in terms of the art style it does the whole line boiling thing with the outlines notably in the earlier Seasons but also had characters colors bleed through those lines nailing the look of a crude five-year-old's drawing which is what they shot for everybody also had a wild imagination and half the times things got so out of hand you weren't sure if what just happened actually happened but as they say in the theme song what she got is what you see if there's one thing I've taken from this show it's the mountain of catchphrases everybody's got at least one and there's so many lines that'll get burned in your brain like it's your sister half sister oh man what's that funky smell holy mackerel and my personal favorite oh my God I do you guys like Dill is one of my favorite characters okay Polly was the smartest one of them all and she carried her dog pepperoni everywhere with her even though he's very clearly dead but when someone tells her this she gets so upset and denies it until they say okay fine he's not that's messed up but it's still really funny there was another really good joke I want to talk about there was an episode where Stacy had a mouse problem but the Exterminator was so expensive they had to give up cable for a bit so they surf through the channels to see if they have anything good left and Municipal erosion control policy Section 3 subsection 8. lint where does it come from and what can we do about it only three channels and one of them's friends this hit home for me because as a kid I went to my mom's workplace during summer and there was a crummy analog TV that only got five channels one was TVO the other some government stocks thing and something in French and in sticking around this scared the mice so bad they got out of there that had me rolling where'd they go duh some place that's got cable sticking around is just pure silliness and a ton of fun for kids and the kids at heart this is the evergreen forest quiet peaceful Serene ah now here's the quintessential Canadian show I think Canadian law states you have to at least be aware of their raccoons it's a bit before my time but it aired for years in reruns on aptn a network geared towards our first Nations population I guess because it had animals in it it later showed up on Teletoon Retro which is where I caught a few episodes it follows Bert raccoon and his friends as they have adventures in the evergreen forest and keep its natural beauty out of the hands of the greedy Tycoon Cyril sneer the fourth setting is great because that's just Canadian landscape wherever you go the raccoons could have taken place in my old backyard for goodness sakes the show has its share of the cliche environmental messages and morals but it comes from a good place as it progresses however the stories get more interesting and when re-watching stuff for this video I really got into what they were trying to tell I totally didn't expect that from an 80s cartoon where most other shows at the time were focused on selling toys or a brand or something zero is hands down my favorite character he's got some of the funniest lines in the show and I just love his voice it's one of the most unique things I've ever heard his voice is very raspy but he gets a lot of I have told you time and time again when you were trying up those plan Cedric the car has to eat gas Bill's smoking burn payment and not necessarily in that order you approved everything you must have caught me in a good mood for years I had no idea what he or his son were supposed to be I thought he was a pink elephant but I later learned he's actually an aardvark and don't let the show's name fool you he's the real star of the show out of all the cast he sees the most growth in development he starts out as the main foil to the good guys but as time goes on he still has jerkish qualities but he Mellows out a lot and becomes an anti-hero I'd kinda compare him to Wario and when it comes to things like family he'll always do the right thing in the second episode There Was An Old Mountain Legend of a monster called the Grim and Cyril's using this Legend to keep whatever's at the mountain a secret as a promise to his dying Uncle Sam he does whatever it takes to keep people away from it and had done so for 20 years so you guess whatever he's hiding was really valuable turns out the secrets Justice statue of his uncle that honored his generosity the name Sam is actually short for Samaritan and even though it goes against everything Cyril stands for well A promise is a promise I was like wow that that's actually really sweet if one breath ever gets out about this it'll be picking you off at the 50-yard line at next year's Super Bowl lips are sealed so is your fate re-watching this I got a newfound appreciation for something I used to think was just okay the raccoons is pure wholesome fun and it's still got a great soundtrack I love me some 80s synth music and raccoons takes off all the boxes both versions of the credit song Run with us have their charm but I like the one by Lisa Lowe the most it's got everything I need since it debuted in 2006 Ruby gloom's been re-running on TV up here all the time I saw a couple episodes back in the day but got around to watching it properly in 2015 and fell in love with it great animation unique setting and such a lovable set of characters to follow there's something to love about every single one and I can't think of somebody I don't like no one ever makes fun of or puts down anybody else and they're so supportive of one another they're so darn cute because they're all so sincere but they're not gullible or anything like that I can't tell you how many times I caught myself going oh just hearing these guys chat or solve some kind of issue together take the episode unsung hero where Frank and Len need a female singer for their band but Ruby's singing is awful they all agree she's not good so she decides to be their manager instead but not before firing herself in the cutest way imaginable thanks Ruby we'll step outside let us know when the yeah unpleasant deed is done you're fired oh okay done so how would you take it and all this takes place in a world that looks all doom and gloom and is always nighttime but everybody looks on the bright side of the dark side and things somehow turn out okay Ruby Gloom is like a Gothic version of Winnie the Pooh just going by the cast iris is definitely Tigger misery is Eeyore scaredy bat is Piglet and Poe is probably a mix of rabbit and Owl Ruby's one of my favorites because she's sweet always willing to help and it's just cute as a button misery is also great she's just as nice as the rest of the gang but her Outlook is a little skewed due to her bad luck there's even one episode where it's Friday the 13th and misery has nothing but good luck but she doesn't like it oh the poor thing other favorites of mine include missing buns tooth or Dare and hairless the musical a two-part musical episode you really can't go wrong with this show anyone who has a problem with it I I will fight them I'm not even sure how a show like this even comes about you got an Argentine comic book for older audiences being made into a children's show in a collaboration with Canada and Japan that sounds like a recipe for disaster but cyber 6 somehow managed to get out the door with a single season I remember when it first aired on teletune the style of the show combined with its evening time slot made for something that scared the crap out of me every time the mud monster Terra showed up in the intro I would look away and I remember seeing the eye episode and how it gave me one of my very first nightmares ever the dream was just the eye flying around my neighborhood turning people into mindless husks like in the episode Teletoon re-aired the show in 2007 and my brother and I took that chance to re-watch the series and loved it this is one of the few shows I can think of that is beautiful from start to finish lots of cartoons have intros with some of the best animation you'll see from the series but cyber 6 is the intro throughout the whole show and the intro itself there's nothing quite like it and it makes me want to sing with as much love and passion as I can muster feel my [Music] still one thing I always associate with this show is untapped potential what we have is great but I wish we had more than 13 episodes I love these characters and wanted to see them grow and adapt to new situations cyber 6 herself was my favorite always saw her as a cool big sister character my favorite episode is the finale the states are raised and it makes for a satisfying end to what story we do have Von Richter sends a living bomb to destroy the city and cyber 6 has to stop it I'm sure that everyone who's seen this one can agree it tucks at the heartstrings and I remember my first viewing like it was yesterday during the Final Act I thought cyber seeks was as good as dead until the monsters turn on Richter to save her such a sweet moment when cyber 6 and data 7 are making their way out of the building as the bomb's timer counted down my heart was racing and right when they got to the door foreign [Music] speechless thinking no no that can't be How It Ends that's not that's not fair turns out at the very end it's implied she survived and seeing Jose make it out of that scuffle without a scratch that was good too ah you know if we can't get a continuation of this series at least release the full theme song to tide us over until we do I know it's out there somewhere what's the hold up here we got For Better or For Worse based off the comic strip of the same name which is also Canadian this was one show that I wasn't too into but one that I would settle down to on a Sunday night at 7 pm where things started to get a little Cozier I'll tell you one of my favorite parts of the show was when the comics original artist Lynn Johnson would talk to the viewer at the start of an episode it was something usually related to the episode we were about to see and she'd often talk about stories from her own life and how they were integral to the creation of the strip at the same time she'd be drawing something on paper and being someone who loves to draw I found this so interesting at a young age and the fact that she Drew freeform still has me a bit jealous I gotta step my game up the Show's theme song was what I loved the most the viewer getting taken through the letters on the paper and seeing the drawing slowly come to life coupled with music that puts you right in the mood for the show I love that music same goes for the version used in the credits and they also use the credits to give viewers a peek into how the show was made the show only lasted 16 full episodes but I say it's a faithful adaptation with a lot of Hearts long after it went off the air anytime I saw For Better or For Worse in the newspaper or heck even hear the phrase itself this show immediately comes to mind another show that tackled topics of hectic family life was committed based off an American comic strip I first saw it when it briefly aired on YTV at 11 30 weeknights in 0506 though it was originally on CTV in like 2001 after years of being lost it showed up on the now defunct Canadian streaming service show me in 2016 and that's how I rewatched the series the humor is a lot more subtle and dry than the usual animated sitcom and I found it to be a nice change of pace a lot of the situations the family has to tackle I found very relatable even if I couldn't personally relate to something like the stress of getting your daughter her first bra it's one of those rare adult shows that doesn't have any kind of swearing or violence it's adult because of the subject matter and the fact that if kids watched it they'd probably lose interest real quick I know I did the first time for the more mature stuff they get by with subtle innuendo when I caught on I was like oh it's about to get a little Saucy I love Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy's performances as Joe and Liz respectively these guys are well known in the Canadian entertainment landscape and they have great chemistry they really do talk like a husband and wife some may think this Show's a bit unexciting but I enjoyed it I'm really glad I watched it interesting side note the original comic was made by the guy who created the Over the Hedge comic which got turned into a DreamWorks movie you might be familiar with the porcupine parents are voiced by the same people who played John and Liz and committed and I don't know if that's a coincidence or not but it's pretty wild I also wanted to delve a little bit behind the scenes on Canadian animation one of my good friends has a dad who's worked in the Canadian landscape for the last 30 years and his name is Mike zanyaska he's been an animator on the Raccoon 16 Carl squared Rupert Ned's new the first six episodes of Ren and Stimpy if it was Canadian more specifically from Nirvana chance his art he had a hand on it somehow he was also the art director sticking around for the first season something I discovered when I watched an episode on tape saw his name in the credits and went oh of course and if you remember the show Fun Pack basically the Canadian equivalent of what a cartoon or oh yeah cartoons he had his own recurring segment on there titled martini and meatballs which was one of my favorites because the characters all talk this insane garble and it had a weird picasso-ish 2D art style there was a behind the scenes video about all the shorts where he's featured in it and I showed it to him a while back and he was just like oh man I can't watch this I'm so embarrassed fun packs also where the show Sidekick has its roots and I remember when that show premiered I was like oh my gosh that's the show from Fun Pack from like way back and when I told Mr zanyaska he just went oh shoot Todd got his own show Sidekick itself was okay I didn't really watch it too much now some of you might be asking yourselves wait where's this show where's this show why didn't you talk about this show well that's what part two is for so tune in next time as we check out more great great stuff from the great white North [Music] thanks again for watching everybody I really appreciate it if you enjoyed what you saw feel free to give this video a like share it with a friend subscribe check out all my social media Pages check out my patreon page all that good stuff and while you're here here's some other videos I think you should check out might I suggest checking out Nitro Rad's video on Canadian television that's a great watch and features some cameos from other Canadian YouTubers and uh I somehow managed to sneak in there too be sure to check that out if you like this video and do any of you have a Canadian cartoon that you enjoy feel free to let me know in the comments below and with all that said I will see you guys next time later [Music] all right [Music]

Channel: TheCartoonGamer8000

Views: 67,136

Keywords: canadian tv, canadian cartoons, best canadian cartoons, top 10 canadian cartoons, thecartoongamer, nitrorad canada, thecartoongamer8000, the raccoons, sitckin around, ytv, keep it weird ytv, ruby gloom, cybersix

Id: 7RevjLv5hRU

Length: 20min 21sec (1221 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 22 2019