The Olden Days podcast
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Yay, Jake and Rosey are doing a new podcast! Just been listening to the Knightmare episode, debating which series is the best. A thoroughly enjoyable listen as always, even though I disagree with some of their views. (It's definitely true that the likeability of the teams is an important factor, but I think Series 6 is the best in that respect, not one of the worst! It's probably the best series overall IMO.) Elsewhere they make some very good points about why certain things did or didn't work. The stuff about Tim trying to bring the show closer to his original vision, and consequently losing some of what actually made it so popular, is spot on. And I just love listening to fans discussing anything to do with Knightmare, so I wanted to say thanks for recording this. Can't wait to see what other nostalgic topics will be covered in later episodes!
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Thanks so much Annie, we're really glad you enjoyed it! We hope that anyone who enjoyed our episode commentaries a few years ago will get a kick out of our podcasts, so here are links to what we have so far:
Introduction http://yourlisten.com/TheOldenDays/the-olden-days-introduction
Episode 1 (Knightmare) http://yourlisten.com/TheOldenDays/the-olden-days-episode-1-knightmare
Episode 2 (Ghostbusters) http://yourlisten.com/TheOldenDays/the-olden-days-episode-2-ghostbusters
Episode 3 (Masters of the Universe) should be available this time next week, if all goes according to plan!
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Episode 3 (Masters of the Universe) http://yourlisten.com/TheOldenDays/the-olden-days-episode-3-masters-of-the-universe
Knightmare is mentioned!
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Episode 3 (Masters of the Universe) http://yourlisten.com/TheOldenDays/the-olden-days-episode-3-masters-of-the-universe
Knightmare is mentioned!
This was a fun listen too, even though I can barely remember any details about these cartoons - I probably haven't seen them since the '80s or early '90s when they were broadcast! All that really sticks in my memory is the opening sequences, the two heroes and their animal companions, Skeletor, and Orko (vaguely). And I remember the She-Ra cartoon as being almost exactly the same as He-Man in every respect, except not quite as good, although I still found She-Ra slightly more appealing because I always tended to prefer female characters.
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Episode 4 (The Chipmunks) http://yourlisten.com/TheOldenDays/the-olden-days-episode-4-the-chipmunks
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Still enjoying these... I'm afraid I don't have anything much to say about Alvin and the Chipmunks as I haven't seen it since the '90s, though I liked it at the time and still remember the catchy theme song! (I loved the name "Brittany" which I first heard on that show. It doesn't have the same appeal now it's such a common celebrity name!) The Mysterious Cities Of Gold should be a little more familiar to me as I rewatched it three or four years ago.
Going back to the Knightmare podcast, is there really a new knapsack in Series 6? I've had a quick look at each series and I can't see any obvious change - the only one that seems noticeably different is the Series 8 knapsack which is square instead of rounded. What am I missing? Is there a particular scene where you can see it more clearly?
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Episode 5 (The Mysterious Cities of Gold) http://yourlisten.com/TheOldenDays/the-olden-days-episode-5-the-mysterious-cities-of-gold
By the way, the best shot of the knapsack looking firmly square that I could find was Alistair standing in front of Dooris in the third episode of Series 4.
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By the way, the best shot of the knapsack looking firmly square that I could find was Alistair standing in front of Dooris in the third episode of Series 4.
Ah, thanks for that - I see what you mean, definitely different from the Series 6 one!
I have strangely mixed feelings about MCOG. I was absolutely enchanted by it when I was 6 - I don't think I understood the historical context of it all, but it felt really magical and awe-inspiring, especially the stuff with the medallions and the Condor which always stuck in my memory. Alas, when I revisited it as an adult, it just didn't have the same effect on me. It was too hard to suspend my disbelief at some of the technology and coincidences, and I found a lot of things really annoying (Mendoza's sidekicks, that awful squawking parrot, some of the dubbing issues, and the incredibly repetitive music which often dominated my attention - I was surprised that Rosey said she hadn't really noticed it!). The stuff with the Olmecs was just bizarre and seemed to completely derail the story arc, too. It's disappointing when I don't love a TV show as much as I did in my childhood. On the other hand, I can see that it's very well done - I was impressed by how imaginative and ambitious it was, and I particularly loved those educational films at the end of each episode, which I don't think were ever broadcast in this country.
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Listening back today, I noticed how we hadn't mentioned Kokapetl (the parrot) or the documentaries and I was rather surprised that they hadn't cropped up in our chat. (I guess the closest I got was talking about the real-life history of Macchu Picchu, which is the subject of one of the documentaries.)
The way you describe watching it as a 6-year-old tallies exactly with how I felt watching it at exactly the same age, and I can see that we've reacted strongly to some of the same things when re-watching as an adult but kind of gone to different extremes with whether we like them, which is interesting.
I find what you say about the music particularly interesting. There can be no denying that there is an awful lot of it, so I can see that each little tune would get repetitive rather quickly if you don't find that it complements what's going on in the story; it's all a matter of personal taste.
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I have strangely mixed feelings about MCOG.
I didn't see MCOG when I was a kid; I only really saw it in any large degree when Forester burned me a DVD of a bunch of episodes and I watched then once a day, usually with lunch. I was in my early-to-mid-twenties at the time, IIRC.
I loved what I saw - I've long been a fan of the Japanese animation style and it was great to see it being done for something which isn't really anything to do with Japan. The historical context is a nice touch, and I'm quite pleased the conquistadors aren't automatically portrayed as heroes. I'd've liked to see more of the children - Esteban, Zia and Tao are the main characters, as suggested by the opening credits, and the episodes follow them, primarily - but I want to know more about them!
I'm pretty annoyed that I ran out of MCOG when I did, as there's a continuing storyline to be followed (this was both a good thing and a bad thing, as it kept you interested, but also teased out the story at a snail's pace!) and I wanted to see where it was going; I did, however, often wonder if the writers knew where it was going. At some points, it seemed as if they didn't - they just wanted to keep the series running and not reveal anything. It didn't work with Lost and it didn't quite work here!
Overall, though, great series; I'd like to see the last few episodes, though.
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Episode 6 (Digimon) http://yourlisten.com/TheOldenDays/the-olden-days-episode-6-digimon
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Episode 7 (Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds) http://yourlisten.com/TheOldenDays/the-olden-days-episode-7-dogtanian
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I doubt there's anyone of a certain age who doesn't have at least a passing familiarity with the Dogtanian theme tune. That's another poor point about the second series, actually - it features a new recording of the famous theme tune with almost entirely new lyrics that make even less sense than the old ones and don't sound nearly so cool!
Episode 8 (The Adventures of Sinbad) http://yourlisten.com/TheOldenDays/the-olden-days-episode-8-the-adventures-of-sinbad
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This time it's the low-budget Canadian romp The Adventures of Sinbad.
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Anyone who's ever been to secondary school should find something to relate to in the subject of our ninth podcast - Grange Hill: http://www.yourlisten.com/TheOldenDays/the-olden-days-episode-9-grange-hill
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We are still releasing these every other week. The latest episode features CITV classics Fun House, Finders Keepers and Terror Towers, and there is more than a bit of cross-referencing with Knightmare!
http://yourlisten.com/TheOldenDays/the-olden-days-episode-13-citv-gameshows
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I had no idea there was an American Fun House!
I never watched most of the programmes featured in recent podcasts, with the exception of Bucky O'Hare. I always liked Jenny (a pretty, kickass female character with magical powers was right up my street), and the episode set on her home planet is the only one I can remember. Not sure how much I really followed the rest of it, but it did have one of the most memorably awesome theme songs of any cartoon!
Love Watership Down, so I should enjoy the next episode.
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As promised, here is a podcast about Watership Down, including a shout-out to Annie: http://yourlisten.com/TheOldenDays/the-olden-days-episode-14-watership-down
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