Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa is an American animated television series for children created by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book artist Ryan Brown. Like “Turtles”, I would watch it but didn’t like it all that much.
First broadcast on September 12, 1992, the television series ran for two seasons, spanning 26 episodes, before the show was canceled on May 26, 1994 with Disney’s acquisition of ABC. The series was then broadcast on Toon Disney from April of 1998 to April of 2001.
Like many cartoons during its time, The C.O.W.-Boys dealt with a mutation of some kind; in this case, an irradiated meteor struck the late 1800s western plains creating a miles high mesa shrouded in clouds. Everything trapped on top of the mesa was “cow-metized” by the light from the “cow-met” and “evolved” into a “bovipomorphic” state. Inspired by old tales of the Wild West, this new bovine community developed to the point where they emulated that era’s way of life, including the requisite ruffians and corrupt sheriffs. However, their knowledge of Wild West living was limited, and as such, many things about their culture had to be improvised to ‘fill in the blanks’.
The series focuses on trying to keep justice in the frontier territory. The lawbreakers were too much for the corrupt regulators of Cowtown - Mayor Bulloney and Sheriff Terrorbull - to handle by themselves. Helping them out, whether they wanted it or not, were a group of peacekeepers known as C.O.W. Boys, short for “Code of the West.” Led by bull Marshal Moo Montana, the C.O.W. Boys also included the Dakota Dude and the Cowlorado Kid. The muscle-bound Marshal and his deputies had their hands full with various ruffians and outlaw gangs that plagued the otherwise peaceful town.
Where in Time Is Carmen Sandiego? was a children’s television game show loosely based on the computer games of the same name created by now defunct Brøderbund Software. Time aired on PBS from 1996 to 1998 and stars Lynne Thigpen as “The Chief”, Kevin Shinick as “ACME Time Pilot Leader” and “The Engine Crew” as various informants. The show replaced Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?.
Before the show begins, the viewing audience sees a live-action Carmen Sandiego in her CGI headquarters. She appears complaining to herself about something and quickly plots to steal the historical “seed” that lead to that something’s existence. She then summons to one of her V.I.L.E. gang members and tells them what to steal and where to go. The Chief then appears and tells the audience that if the stolen object is not returned within twenty-eight minutes (the length of the show), history will be changed forever. Then the show begins.
The new super enthusiastic party-style themesong I always thought was…an odd choice.
Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? was a Saturday morning cartoon show based on the Carmen Sandiego series of edutainment computer games. It should not be confused with the better-known PBS game show Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?. The Earth show was made by DiC Entertainment and originally aired on FOX. Its episodes have subsequently been repeated on both the Fox Family Channel and the Pax network. The series won an Emmy Award for “Outstanding Animated Children’s Program” in 1995.
The C.H.I.E.F. (Computerized Holographic Imaging Educational Facilitator) is the head of ACME. In the Earth series, the traditional role of “The Chief” was drastically retooled, becoming a wise-cracking sentient computer image not unlike Max Headroom. Playing a slightly more important role than his counterparts in the franchise, the Chief was still limited to providing exposition, alerts of Carmen’s recent crime and comic relief. He was voiced by Rodger Bumpass and was also featured in Carmen Sandiego: Junior Detective Edition.
This version of the Chief had a very intimate professional and personal relationship with Carmen. They were both trained as agents when ACME was in its infancy (the Chief more likely created as an attempt at an autonomous robotic agent, complete with android body), and were often partnered up with each other on many cases. They became fast friends, and although he was angered and shocked at Carmen’s defection to a life of crime, he didn’t have the heart to close her file. It’s clear that Carmen also thinks highly of their friendship, having once entrusted the help of ACME agents Zach and Ivy to help restore a virus-stricken Chief back to health after she ‘kidnapped’ him for a Christmas night to ‘relive the good ol’ days’, and once again teaming up with him to capture the criminal Maelstrom, whom they had captured during their detective years and had returned to take his revenge.
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? was a popular children’s television game show loosely based on the computer games of the same name created by now defunct Brøderbund Software. World aired on PBS from 1991 to 1996 and stars Lynne Thigpen as “The Chief”, Greg Lee as “The ACME Special Agent (renamed Senior Agent for Seasons 3-5) in charge of training new recruits” and Rockapella as the house vocal band and comedy troupe. Rockapella featured Sean Altman (tenor) Elliot Kerman (baritone), Barry Carl (bass) and Scott Leonard (high tenor) with Jeff Thacher (vocal percussion) joining in the final season of the show.
World holds the record for being the longest-running game show on PBS and as the second longest running children’s game show in U.S. television history behind Double Dare (for which Greg Lee was a contestant coordinator).
The show is noted for concluding with Greg, the sleuth and the audience pointing and yelling “Do it, Rockapella!” (”Hit it, fellas!” in the pilot episodes) into the camera, signifying the group to begin again their title song for the animated closing credits, which depicted members of Carmen’s gang stealing the names of production staff members against a background resembling a notepad (for the final season a black backdrop with confetti was used). After the credits and in season 2, the audience was invited onto the map to dance and sing the theme song. Greg and Rockapella sang and danced with audience members. Even the eliminated gumshoes would come out once again to dance with the sleuth.
Afterwards (beforewards during the 1st season), the Chief, who has joined in the celebration from her office, said “This is Lynne Thigpen speaking for Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?, and remember, (something funny in rhyme)” Sometimes the funny rhyme part wasn’t heard, instead (during some of the 1st season episodes) “See ya Next Time!”.
The end line bothered me every time because it doesn’t make any sense. The chemical plant trying to find her has nothing to do with her not being so average any more that would justify a “but”. A “because” maybe. But not a “but” since not being average isn’t in contrast to the plant wanting to experiment on her. Consequently I wanted to experiment on her too back in the day. 11 year old me saw a quirky blonde with a strong sense of ethics, cute smile and super powers and fell. in. looooovvez.
The show ran on Nickelodeon from October 8, 1994 to January 15, 1998, replacing Clarissa Explains It All on the SNICK line-up. Repeats of the series aired in 2003 on The N, but it was soon replaced there. The show is currently not on the air in the U.S.
The show focuses on a teenage girl, Alexandra “Alex” Mack, who becomes accidentally contaminated with an experimental chemical substance called GC-161. This results in certain powers, such as the ability to “zap” people and objects with an electrical charge, move objects by telekinesis, and morph her shape into a silvery liquid. Throughout the series, the owners of the chemical plant which had been researching GC-161 continuously search for the local kid who was contaminated in order to conduct experiments, although their attempts are futile. Alex’s best friend Ray, and her sister Annie, help her conceal the accident and her powers from her parents and others.
Later, this already great intro was replaced by an even more slick and snazzier version below:
Differences between the animated series and live-action film:
The premise of the animated series was greatly changed from the film, to the point where one only superficially resembled the other. Where in the film, Beetlejuice is the antagonist who ends up nearly marrying a disgusted Lydia, in the series they are best friends, and Lydia, socially misunderstood in the living world, frequently visits him in the afterlife. The Maitlands, the most significant characters in the film, are nowhere to be found in the series. Unlike the mind-numbing bureaucracy of the movie, the afterlife was converted into the “Neitherworld”, a bizarre and humorous parody of the real world, with the fact of it being the afterlife only rarely mentioned.
Episode formula
Episodes generally centered around the ghostly con-man Beetlejuice, his best (and only real) friend Lydia, and their adventures together in both the Neitherworld and the “real world”, a fictional New England town called Peaceful Pines (”Winter River” in the film). Beetlejuice’s core character, that of a ghostly con artist, remained the same, although in the cartoon he did not display the adamant lechery he did in the film outside of occasionally asking for a kiss. Lydia’s character went through comparatively greater change; she became far less “goth” than she was portrayed as in the movie and was presented as an upbeat girl who simply liked “weird” things such as spiders and horror movies (although, conversely, she tends to dress more gothically in the show than in the movie.) As in the film, Lydia could summon Beetlejuice out of the Neitherworld (or go there herself) by calling his name three times or as part of a chant:
“Though I know I should be wary,
Still I venture someplace scary;
Ghostly hauntings I turn loose …
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!”
Occasionally, there are other effects of this chant (for example, Lydia’s room changing to a gothic castle, or instead of Beetlejuice appearing, sometimes she goes to the Neitherworld).
Humor:
The show’s humor relied heavily on sight gags and wordplay, some of which was fairly sophisticated for its intended target audience, making it a favorite of a wide range of age groups. Many episodes, especially towards the end of the run, were parodies of famous films, books, and TV shows. It was kept clean (figuratively) in that it didn’t involve drugs or alcohol outside of mentioning that an old western town didn’t have a saloon because of the time slot.
Throughout the series, Beetlejuice would often try to scam residents of the Neitherworld — and, sometimes, the “real world” as well (Lydia’s parents were occasional unwitting victims of his pranks) — through various means, whether it be via baby-sitting (in which he actually sits on the babies) or trying to beat them in a race. Only Lydia, it seemed, was immune to his tricks; it was explicitly stated at several points that she was the only person Beetlejuice couldn’t deceive. It is also revealed that Beetlejuice is afraid of one thing more than anything else: Sandworms. This was hinted at in a single line of dialogue in the movie but expanded on greatly here. They appear as purple and green snake-like creatures with two pairs of eyes on top of each other and stegosaurus-like spines on their backs. Beetlejuice also has a major problem with nice things.
Series run
The series was a breakout hit for ABC in its initial season, and later became one of the first animated series to air on FOX’s weekday afternoon children’s lineup. This led to a situation whereby Beetlejuice was being seen Monday through Friday on FOX while still remaining on ABC’s Saturday morning schedule, making it one of the few shows in American television history to be aired concurrently on two different broadcast networks. Beetlejuice has aired in re-runs on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, and will air on Warner Bros. and AOL’s new broadband internet channel Toontopia TV.
