So I've recently started watching Cyberchase again (as noted in the last post) just for yknow, old time's sake (also due to the news that they would soon be receiving a 13th season!) and damn did this show bring back a lot of fond memories...
(And now, a brief history lesson from Mariel and her father)
the show first had a test pilot of the 7th episode "The Poddleville Case" and was test screened in elementary schools in 1999.
I can't quite remember how it all went with the test screening (Gonna ask one of my friends later) but the pilot remained lost media for years up until 2020 when the short showed up on YouTube, but was taken down. Thankfully the pilot is still available on Archive.org for your viewing pleasure.
Roughly 3 years later, Cyberchase was greenlit and premiered on PBS Kids worldwide in January of 2002 with positive reception.
I wasn't around during the time of the premiere but when I was, it was one of the shows I would skip cuz math and science weren't really my taste then. I was more of a "Fetch With Ruff Ruffman" kinda person. (Count me on "Team Ruffman" as well!)
Fast forward to 2012. My mom had just started her career in homeschooling me after pulling me out of a alternate dimension of hell known as the North Carolina public school systems.
Now if you lived in the South and your parents were either conservative or didn't afford cable (maybe both) I bet you probably watched the "UNC-TV" block like I did growing up. Every Sunday, the block would host "Read-A-Roo's Block Party" where every month, they would pick a random cartoon to air for an hour. Well around October or November, Cyberchase just so happened to be one of the cartoons that was airing. A soon to be 9 year old me was coloring with my dad while the show ran... Now around this time, I was REALLY fixated on medical related situations. Like if someone on TV or a movie was sick or injured, it would pique my curiosity. Idk why, but that was just me...
So the season 6 episode "Team Spirit" was playing in the background. I was minding my own dang beeswax when I suddenly overheard chatter about a then injured Jackie. Again, my interest in the medical field went viral and I made a B-Line for the TV (which really was less than a FOOT away) pun kind of intended. Yeaaaahhhhh I'm not funny. But of course, I couldn't watch the rest of it after Slider was chosen to take Jackie's place in the Olympics. So a bummed out me was sitting in church wondering how the episode continued and what I was missing out on.
About a year later, my Godmother came to visit us. We were gonna have one of our famous "Mall Days" and I was watching the 12:00 pm block of Cyberchase. the title card "Team Spirit" popped up, and of course, I had no clue which episode this was though it did seem like one that I had watched in the past... After a few minutes, when I can only call "the incident" (added a bit of suspence) occurred. I finally found the episode I saw on the block party! Sadly I could not watch the entire thing since we had to leave... again. (Thankfully I could watch the rest of the episode on my Godmother's phone by then.)
Enjoy my rambling? Well wait there's more...
So after finding the episode, having it be a regular repeat as well as other favorites like the "Cyberchase Movie" and a variety of the "Cyberchase ForReal" segments. I finally realized that for YEARS, I missed action packed adventure, learning math and science in a way that COULD have helped me through my elementary years, and hot skateboarders.... I'm looking DIRECTLY AT YOU, Slider.
(ಥ _ ಥ)
Anyways, I'll have my dad pitch his two cents in when he's able to. Now which episode shall I watch today.....
Well, the fact that Gilbert Gottfried was voicing yet another bird character grabbed my attention. I thought Christopher Lloyd was channeling Hans Conried's Snidely Whiplash character until I realized, no, that's pretty much his regular voice.
Now, about Word Girl..?
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