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TV Special
Cartoon All-Stars To the Rescue!
Join Wil and Mikey for a deep, Jefferson Airplane-laden trip down the after-school special rabbit hole. Just how manipulative is using children’s cartoons to confuse and manipulate them?
Tune in to find out.
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I hope you guys don’t mind if I get a wee bit personal here.
TV Crimes is really helping me through some dark times right now. The past two semesters I’ve been stuck in a major I despise, going to classes I can barely wrap my head around at the best of times. This has created a steady drain on my motivation that makes it difficult to get out of bed most days.
I’ve recently begun taking steps to improve my situation (going to therapy, exploring medication options, changing my major to something I actually like) but it’s still a struggle for me. TV Crimes, though, gives me a little jolt of pure, unadulterated joy when I need it the most.
At first it was a little escapism, listening and smiling while lying in bed. But now it’s even more important than that. When a new episode comes out, I think to myself “See, Logan, you can’t skip class to wallow in your rancid headspace because you need an excuse to walk somewhere so you can listen to the new episode!”
TL;DR: TV Crimes is saving my life, and I’m so grateful.
This is everything to me. Thank you so much for sharing your story here. To know that this thing we do for fun is actually helping people, makes me feel like a billion dollars.
I love TVCrimes, but this episode is above and beyond. It’s pure pure gold. You nailed it guys. Congrats.
I watched this cartoon before listening to the podcast. The voice of the Marijuana Ghost sounded so familiar it was driving me crazy. Turns out it was George C. Scott. Serving his country yet again in this one, I suppose.
Great Episode! Keep it up! Or… whenever you have time… of course…
Thanks for climbing on my soapbox 🙂 Sadly, all I feel at the end is the unmitigated anger against government wars on culture. The War on Drugs / Just Say No pograms gave us a salve and an opiate to make us adults feel like we were doing the responsible thing for our kids.
I started crying halfway through this episode.
My own cool ghosts never took the form of illegal substances but I understand addiction and I understand the pain and the shame of it. That’s where the ghosts live. That’s where they run back to when you’re strong and you think you’re beating them. They like their wounds there, and they wait.
Maybe Cartoon Mike is just looking for a thrill. Or maybe he’s self-medicating for a pain that he doesn’t want to talk about, or doesn’t even understand. I hope to God it’s the former because if it’s the latter then he sure as hell isn’t going to be helped by the knowledge that the fucking President of the United States thinks he’s a weak-willed delinquent. Or hearing his heroes tell him he just “needs willpower.”
The Cartoon All-Stars are shaming him. That’s all they’re doing. And it doesn’t work. It’s going to weaken him. It’s going to break down his self-regard, and it’s going to add a new wing to the massive and growing shame tower that his cool ghost lives in.
This is the thing that they have exactly fucking wrong: if the day comes when he hurts so bad that Marijuana Ghost can’t dull the pain anymore and he hooks up with Heroin Spectre, it won’t be because Marijuana Ghost tempted him -MG wants to keep him right where he is. It’ll be because Bugs Fucking Bunny ripped a hole in his soul that MG can’t fill.
I’m five minutes into the podcast, and the reading of the sponsors is HILARIOUS! My day has been made.
What if Theodore is really just the Drugs Ghost of Alvin and Simon?
Any word on when the next episode will be released? I know Wil is in Tabletop land at the moment, but I’m irrationally excited about episode ten of this podcast.
Dear Wil Wheaton and Mikey Neuman,
I LOVE TV Crimes. I tell everyone about it; it’s a genius endeavor. You gentlemen are doing a service.
The $40 hold music and Mikey’s clever use of sound effects make the show unique and even more enjoyable. No one could ask for two better hosts. I particularly enjoy plumbing the depths of Wil’s knowledge of child actors and Disney shoot locations. I am from Orlando and I don’t even know Disney that well.
Anyway, please consider these suggestions for future episodes of TV Crimes. I loved that you did Murder, She Wrote; that’s my favorite show to watch when I’m home, sick. The think you judged it quite fairly.
1. Sea Quest – The later in the series, the worse it gets. I personally think the Cuban missile crisis episode is super enjoyable.
2. MacGyver – Personal favorite! Maybe an episode where Murdock comes back from the dead. Again. Or the episode with the annoying gypsy child or his ‘friend’ Penny. She’s pretty helpless.
3. 21 Jump Street – If you choose to watch the episode High High, Michael Des Barres from MacGyver plays an acting teacher.
4. Magnum, P.I. – This was on after Murder, She Wrote every day, and it certainly committed it’s share of crimes. Especially against tiny, tiny shorts…
5. Jericho – My husband and I struggled through the entire show but it was so bad we could not bring ourselves to watch the final episode. Maybe you can do it for us and let us know how that shit show ended? How does someone ruin such an interesting premise? Lots and lots of one-dimensional characters.
Thanks for reading!! And thanks for making such a hilarious podcast; I’m looking forward to the next one. 😀
Good suggestions, Silvana! We have been planning our next show, and I’m sure we’ll discuss these. Except for MacGuyver, because MacGuyver is too mainstream for this podcast.
Hey, has anyone suggested reviewing an episode of “Cop Rock?” I’d forgotten all about that masterpiece until I saw a DVD of the show last week.
TV Crimes is my favorite podcast! Thank you so much for making my work day better. Also I’ve been spreading the word about it as well as Movies with Mikey which is some of the most intelligent and hilarious reviews I’ve ever heard about movies. Wil, I showed my daughter your youtube video about when you talked to the girl about being labeled a nerd. She’s been going through some similar stuff and it made her cry (a good cry). You’re now her hero and we watch your youtube show Tabletop together. Just wanted to say thank you to both of you for making the world a more fun and positive place. *insert $40 hold music*