I’m sure no one is bothered by it, but I feel the need to explain all the kid’s shows I’ve been doing and likely will be doing here soon. First off, I’ve been in the mood for it having gone back and watched a bunch of 90’s WWE, and got really nostalgic for that time period. The main reason though is that I’ve recently found out how many cool things I can find on Tumblr.com, and that’s why I keep finding these fun things to use in my reviews. So we continue on the path to relive my childhood in talking about “KaBlam!” My main memory of this show was running into the house on Saturday nights with my sister after going to church then dinner with our parents to sit on the big orange couch we had in our basement to watch. The Saturday night block was great, and this show was one of the cornerstones. This is of course before she got friends and a life and I decided to watch “WCW Saturday Night” instead. Even so, this show not only was entertaining, it spawned a lot of different spinoffs, after spinning off from “All That” itself.
Following a theme song by The Toasters, “KaBlam” opened with the two hosts Henry and June. I don’t remember much about them. I know June was a real jerk to Henry while he was just trying to host the show. Honestly, I can’t find much of them. When they reran the series on Nicktoons years later they cut out the hosts. I know they were super cool and turned pages and stuff. So I just remember that they were in a comic book and introduced us to the skits in the show. I will point you to full episodes on Youtube, but I’m not refreshing myself with the hosts because we’ve got more important things to talk about! I will tell you though; I think June is better at eating watermelon than Henry.
Other than having a heavy ska presence, “KaBlam” seems like it was the precursor to the stoner humor on Adult Swim these days. Stoners and children seem to have very similar senses of humor, go figure. The best example of the stoner audience is the short “Sniz and Fondue” This is the cartoon that features two ferrets, one wearing a chef’s hat and the other a green mohawk. Just imagine a precursor to “CatDog” but they’re not connected and more manic. It’s pretty funny actually, but I like “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” too, so what do I know.
“Prometheus and Bob” was a short feature that…featured a space alien trying to teach a caveman about certain things. Then an awful monkey comes in and messes it all up. The alien Prometheus tapes himself trying to teach a caveman about technology. Bob was being taught all this 9,000 years ago apparently. He wants to help humans evolve, so he shows him how to ice skate and watch television; two things that are cornerstones of our lives. A stupid monkey thwarts all his plans in an attempt to keep humans stupid. I wrote way too much about it already considering what little happens. Moving on.
In order to not be totally positive, I’ll show pictures of two of the worst things that ever happened. To this day, if I ever see a grey faced or blue haired girl, I turn and run.
Those two shorts were awful. Somehow Angela got a spin off on a new network. I’m just happy I didn’t have to watch her anymore. Sadly Loopy stuck around all four seasons.
And finally, the things most people remember from this show, “Action League, NOW!” The Action Team is composed of a mishmash team of action figures that share voices with random radio people from Pittsburgh. They are clearly the inspiration for “Robot Chicken.” The team was made up of the super strong and super naked Flesh, Thunder girl who has an ego the size of Kansas, Stinky Diver who is the master of diving and being smelly, and of course
They are led by the chief and his dog Justice. Their arch nemesis was the evil MAYOR!
The face of evil.
“KaBlam” was fun. Plain and simple. It may be a little dated at this point, with all of the people saying “dude” and how awesomely extreme it was. Dated as it may be, if you come at from a nostalgic point as I did, I think you could enjoy what you find. There were a ton of one time shorts and random music videos from They Might Be Giants. Honestly, some of the shorts are groan worthy and even with the most rose tinted of glasses are just bad, but its kid stuff. Just enjoy it.
ACTION LEAGUE GO!
Credit Goes to: Tumblr.com, Youtube.com, Sharetv.org, Nickelodeonflashbacks.com, and therpf.com