My 90's and 2000's Experience: The Star Trek: Voyager Relaunch Novel Series (2003-2020)

 Hey everyone, how were your weekends? Mine was pretty good. So today I'm going to be talking about Star Trek novels, specifically the Star Trek: Voyager relaunch series that began publication in 2003, two years after the series ended its run on UPN. Despite it ending in 2020, my history with it only goes as far as 2014. I'll get into that a little later. Right now I wanna get into the history of the series before I get into my personal history with it. Let's get into it.

 Beginning in June 2003, the relaunch series began with Homecoming by Christie Golden. The DS9 relaunch series had started in 2000 with A Stitch in Time, which was written by Garak himself, Andrew Robinson and I guess the series was successful because Pocket Books began doing the Voyager series in 2003 and the TNG series in 2005. If you don't know what I mean by relaunch series, it's simple. Each TV show ended in the 90's or early 2000's. TNG ended with Star Trek Nemesis in 2002, DS9 ended with the series finale, "What You Leave Behind" in 1999, and Voyager ended with its series finale, "Endgame", in 2001. Each of these book series continued the story of each series where the TV show or movie left off. The Voyager series continued with The Farther Shore, also by Christie Golden, which acted as a continuation and wrap up of the initial storyline of what happened after Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant. It was published a month after Homecoming.

 Up next was the two book subseries, Spirit Walk, which consists of Old Wounds and Enemy of My Enemy, written by Christie Golden, and published in 2004. This duology is set after the Homecoming books, and Chakotay has taken command of Voyager following his promotion to captain. It also deals with the animosity growing between veteran crewmembers who'd been on Voyager since the ship began its journey through the Delta Quadrant, and those Starfleet officers who'd fought, suffered, and lost, but survived the Dominion War. This is the kind of thing that Rick Berman, Michael Piller, and Jeri Taylor had promised the show would be about when they originally created Star Trek: Voyager in 1994 with the conflict between Janeway's Starfleet crew and Chakotay's Maquis crew, which lasted all of one episode. Two at the most. Probably because Berman and Piller were too set in their ways and with Piller and Taylor as showrunners, things were done the way they'd been done on TNG. But that's a story for another time.

Aside for the tenth anniversary novel trilogy, String Theory, no new Voyager novels were published from 2005 to 2009, with the publisher focusing on the TNG novels, and then the major crossover trilogy, Star Trek: Destiny, which featured characters from TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise. Both Janeway and Seven of Nine played big roles in the TNG novels leading up to the Destiny trilogy. I won't spoil anything major here, but something happens to Janeway in those books. She gets better though.

Finally, in 2009, the novels returned with Full Circle, which was written by Kirsten Beyer. If you recognize that name, but don't read the books, and have never read these Voyager novels, it's because she was part of the committee that created Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard, and was co-executive producer for the first season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. 

After a total of fourteen books, published over a span of 17 years, the Voyager relaunch series ended on October 13th, 2020 with the novel To Lose the Earth. The relaunch novels were ended because of Picard, Lower Decks, and Prodigy dealing with events following the end of TNG, DS9, and Voyager, and the novels contradict the new shows. Which doesn't make any sense at all given that Paramount went out of its way to set the Kelvin Timeline movies, Star Trek (2009), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), and Star Trek Beyond (2016), in an alternate timeline/parallel universe. They could've kept these books going and have them be a separate continuity, given that the novels were never canon to begin with. Or, they could've just kept the books going since the novels take place before the destruction of Romulus, which was shown in the backstory for the 2009 movie, so there'd still be plenty of time for the backstory of Picard to happen. But, given that both Lower Decks and Prodigy revealed that Voyager was decommissioned as soon as she returned to the Alpha Quadrant, it makes sense that the novels would have to be discontinued.

My personal history with this relaunch began in 2003, as the books were being published. However, other than the Spirit Walk duology, I got every book up to Acts of Contrition, which was published in 2014. I had intended on getting Atonement, which was the next book in the series, which was published in 2015, but, between my parents and I getting ready to move, which ended up not happening until 2016, and me getting sick in December, 2015, I never got around to it. On top of that, there were also delays between books, after A Pocket Full of Lies was published in 2016. And with me not being able to get whatever the then current Star Trek official magazine was at the time, I had no idea that further books existed. And, being that Star Trek novels don't get talked about online very often, in particular on YouTube, I didn't find out that way either. 

I actually loved the Voyager relaunch novels, because, aside from Admiral Janeway appearing as a quick cameo in Star Trek Nemesis as Captain Picard's superior officer, we had no idea what happened to any of the remaining characters. And with Paramount being focused on prequels to TOS with the movies and TV shows since Enterprise started in 2001, both DS9 and Voyager were kinda just swept under the rug once the shows ended in 1999 and 2001 respectively. However, there was one aspect that I didn't like in the final two books of the series that I read, Protectors and Acts of Contrition. There will be minor spoilers for these two books, so if you're a Voyager fan and have never read these books, this is your warning.

In Protectors, Tom Paris's mother, Julia, consumed by grief over the death of her husband, Owen, decides to petition the Federation courts to declare Tom and B'Elanna unfit to be parents, effectively removing Miral, and their son, whose name I don't remember as it's been a few years since I read these books, from their care, simply because she's angry at Tom for having to lie to her about B'Elanna and Miral's survival during the Destiny trilogy, because of the fact that a renegade faction of Klingons were attempting to assassinate Miral. The hearing is shown in Acts of Contrition, but I had to wonder why, something as petty as family court to determine the fitness of two Starfleet officers to be parents was even being brought up in the first place. I get that these novels came out in 2014, when entertainment media had already taken more realistic elements, but from what I've read about Kirsten Beyer, she's a Star Trek fan, so why would she include this in here, considering the whole idea of Star Trek is that Earth is a utopia, where petty squabbles and disagreements over things like this no longer exist?

Especially because if you're doing this to someone like Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres, then wouldn't you have to do this to every Starfleet officer who has inadvertently put their child in danger simply by bringing them with them to assignments like on Deep Space 9, other starbases and ships like the Enterprise-D that allowed officers to have their families onboard? Because I don't know about you, but Jake Sisko was in alot of dangerous situations over the course of DS9's seven seasons. Same with all the children on the Enterprise-D in TNG. What about Naomi Wildman who was born on Voyager? I get Beyer was trying to add drama to the story and actually give Tom something to do, but, again, this is Star Trek, people in general shouldn't be THAT petty, but the wife and mother of Starfleet officers especially shouldn't be that petty when all Tom and B'Elanna tried to do was protect Miral from Klingon assassins. 

Unfortunately, there's no real information on the creative process behind the writing of these books, so I have no idea if this was something Beyer came up with on her own, or if she had help from Pocket Books. Paramount's licensing department didn't veto its inclusion, then again Paramount is so anti-Star Trek, and always has been, no matter what they say, the licensing department probably didn't care enough to veto it. Especially since by 2014, they were starting to get CBS All Access (now Paramount+) ready and getting ready to bring Star Trek back to television, not to mention preparing for the production of Star Trek Beyond. They probably weren't all that concerned about tie-in novels to a TV show that they had already ended thirteen years earlier, and wanted nothing to do with.

Aside from that, these books are great. It gave us more time with everyone from Voyager, given that they were being ignored in the shows and movies, AND at the time Homecoming came out in 2003, nobody, not even Paramount, had any way of knowing that Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and Star Trek: Prodigy would be a thing twenty years later. Even the comics being published by IDW were ignoring DS9 and Voyager for the most part, aside from the occasional appearance of certain characters in the TNG comics they were publishing. So if these novels were the only way I was going to get more from the characters of one of my favourite TV shows of all time, then, yes, I was happy to buy and read them so long as I had the shelf space and the money to do so.

Alright my friends, I think that's gonna be it for me for today. I'll be back soon for more blog posts in the very near future. In the meantime, I hope you all have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.   

My Star Wars Experience: Vector Prime and the Effect It Had on Star Wars

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Friday. Tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of the original publication of the first book in the Star Wars: The New Jedi Order series, Vector Prime by R.A. Salvatore. So I wanted to talk about that book and the impact it had on the franchise going forward. Let's get into it.

 Published on October 5th, 1999, Vector Prime was the first book in Del Rey's new line of novels set after Return of the Jedi. Bantam Spectra had begun their Star Wars novel program with Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn in 1991, but since then their approach, most likely due to the prequel era embargo they'd been placed under by Lucasfilm, things had gotten stale by 1999. Luke was too powerful, the Empire had been defeated, and there was no serious threat to any of the main characters. Especially since the Emperor and Darth Vader had been destroyed in Return of the Jedi and Thrawn was gone. So Lucasfilm, with the help of Del Rey, Dark Horse Comics, and author, James Luceno, developed a series where nobody was safe and there was uncertainty as to whether the New Jedi Order, led by Luke Skywalker, could defeat the latest enemy of the New Republic, the Yuuzhan Vong.

I first heard about Vector Prime and The New Jedi Order when I got issue #43 of Star Wars Insider. The news section, which was called "Star News" at the time, had a brief announcement article on the new series in that issue, and then by the time issue #46 came out in late 1999, the book had been published. I thought it was cool, but I didn't immediately rush out to buy the book in hardcover when it came out because hardcovers were pretty expensive 25 years ago. 

I did end up getting the book when it came out in paperback in the summer of 2000. I'm pretty sure I got it in August 2000, because I don't think I got it for Christmas or my birthday as I was focusing on getting the Bantam era novels, which I didn't own very many of at that point. I enjoyed it, but actually reading Chewie's death near the end sucked. I knew about it before I read the book because issue #47 of Star Wars Insider had a whole article on it. So I knew about it going into the book. That article did not prepare me enough that's for sure.

As I mentioned the novels published by Bantam had gotten stale by 1999, and with the world changing, and the Prequel Trilogy coming out, people were no longer interested in novels where there were no stakes because Luke was really powerful and the stories were disconnected from one another despite sharing the same continuity. Even to this day, the novels are no longer tied to Han, Luke, and Leia. And that was another problem that The New Jedi Order ended up fixing. That and the prequel era novels gave us so many other characters as well. Like Jax Pavan in Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter by Michael Reaves. 

While I do think The New Jedi Order was a bit too dark and not alot of fun, it was still important, because it revitalized the Star Wars book publishing program at a time where the books were just as important as the movies. But, it also signified the end of the importance of the novels as the franchise was entering into television with Genndy Tartakovsky's animated series, Star Wars: Clone Wars in 2003, and then Dave Filoni's animated series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars in 2008. Because we had weekly episodes of Star Wars coming out, people began gravitating away from the books and comics and they became the aspects of the franchise that the really hardcore fans experienced and the general audience had no interest in anymore. Which is fine, because Star Wars novels and comics are still being published today even though they're a more niche corner of the Star Wars Universe.

One thing that I feel is unique to Vector Prime is the marketing. While the Shadows of the Empire Multimedia Project had commercials for the toys and the video game, Vector Prime had a TV commercial, narrated by Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, for the book itself. I don't remember seeing the commercial for the book on any TV channel I was watching in 1999, but it exists. Which is fascinating to me because Star Wars novels and comics never got TV commercials before this, and I don't think any of the books had them after this. So this was an unusual way to market the book. 

According to Leland Chee, the former keeper of lore for Lucasfilm, and I did not know this until recently, Chewie's death in Vector Prime was one of the reasons that the Lucasfilm Story Group chose to relegate the original Expanded Universe to Legends, in favour of a new continuity in novels and comics. Which makes sense since you can't just retcon Chewie's death so that he can appear in the Sequel Trilogy movies, but keep The New Jedi Order and all the books that came after it in continuity. It just doesn't work. Especially when The New Jedi Order takes place within the same time period that the Sequel Trilogy movies ended up taking place in. 

Vector Prime, and just The New Jedi Order in general, revitalized the Star Wars novel publishing program in a way that caused it to grow to where it is now. Because, even the prequel era book program was slow to start following the novelization of The Phantom Menace and the first few books in the young reader series, Jedi Apprentice. I mean Rogue Planet didn't come out until 2000, and Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter and Cloak of Deception didn't come out until 2001. And that was because of potential spoilers for The Phantom Menace. So The New Jedi Order kept things going until the prequel era could be better explored once Attack of the Clones came out and authors could tell stories set during the Clone Wars.

Alright my friends, I think that's gonna be it for me for this week. I'll be back next week for more blog posts. So until then have a great weekend and I will talk to you later. Take care.

My 90's and 2000's Experience: Watching Step by Step For the First Time

 Hey everyone, how were your weekends? Mine was pretty good. It was quiet, but I wasn't bored. In fact, I actually had a few laughs last night. I watched the TGIF series Step by Step for the first time last night on DVD. So I decided to sit down and write about my experience watching the show for the first time. I'm not only going to be talking about my previous history with the show, but talking about how I watched the show last night, AND I'll be going over the episodes I watched. So let's get into it.

As I mentioned last week in part two of my TGIF overview post, I didn't remember watching Step by Step when I was a kid. So watching the episodes that I watched last night, that held true. However, I do remember seeing commercials for it on TV during Full House, Family Matters, and the summer reruns of the first season of Sabrina the Teenage Witch in 1997, before Step by Step moved over to CBS (along with Family Matters) for its final season in the 1997-1998 broadcast season. Mainly because of Patrick Duffy and Suzanne Somers, not because of any of the kids on the show. So that's my very brief history with the show.

Step by Step is about a blended family who come together when Frank, played by Patrick Duffy (Dallas), and Carol, played by Suzanne Somers (Three's Company) get married while on vacation in Jamaica. The basic premise is similar to The Brady Bunch but produced and set in the 90's, rather than the 70's. However, because it was made in the 90's, the writers could place the six (eventually seven) children, and even the adults, into more serious situations. The episodes usually end with Frank and Carol in bed about to have sex, or getting things ready for the next day, with Carol making some sort of chart, graph, or schedule for the family to stay organized.

Speaking of the family, the kids are Al, played by Christine Lakin, Dana, played by Staci Keanan (My Two Dads), J.T., played by Brandon Call, Mark, played by Christopher Castile (Beethoven and Beethoven's 2nd), Brendan, played by Josh Byrne, and Karen, played by Angela Watson. Al, J.T., and Brendan are Frank's kids, and Dana, Karen, and Mark are Carol's kids. There's also other family members who appear throughout the show, with Carol's sister, Penny, played by Patrika Darbo, and their mom, Ivy, played by Peggy Rea, who had played Lulu Hogg, the wife of Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke), and the sister of Rosco (James Best), on The Dukes of Hazzard for most of that show's run from 1979 to 1985, appear in the first season only, and Frank's nephew, Cody, played by Sasha Mitchell, appearing in seasons 1-5. Oh, and then there's the youngest child of Frank and Carol, Lilly, who was born at the end of season 4.

Because the show was produced by Miller-Boyett Productions, the same company that produced Full House and Family Matters, and would go on to produce Fuller House from 2016-2020, Step by Step shares alot of similarities with those other shows in terms of its writing, the way the episodes are structured, and the show's music score. And because the show was produced by the same company who produced Family Matters and aired on ABC at 8:30 pm, right after Family Matters, for the show's first two seasons, before it got moved to 9 pm to make room for Boy Meets World, Steve Urkel, played by Jaleel White, guest stars in season 1, episode 2, "The Dance". Unfortunately, this episode isn't on the DVD I have, but I'd love to track that episode down sometime, just because I loved Urkel on Family Matters and his guest appearance on Full House in that show's fourth season. 

When I was out of the city with Brad to surprise our pal, Jonathan, we went to a store called Chumleigh's. It's a second hand media store, similar to Odds & Sods here in Ottawa, except Chumleigh's sells books, video games, and VHS tapes, in addition to CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays. While we were there I found the 2006 DVD release, Television Favorites: Step by Step. This was the first ever DVD release for the series, and the only one until the individual season sets were released as Manufacture-on-Demand releases by Warner Archive Collection from 2018 to 2020, and the complete series set was released in 2023. 

So this 2006 release contains six episodes, as sort of a sampler release for people to buy to see if they like the show if they've never seen it before. Which is a good idea, especially in 2006 when one DVD box set for a season of television could be anywhere between $50 and $100 depending on the popularity of the show. So because of how pricey it could be to blind buy an entire season of a series you've never seen before, sampler discs like this were a great idea. Not every studio did them mind you, mostly because many studios never quite embraced releasing TV shows on DVD, the way others did. Warner Bros. was one of the major proponents of TV shows on DVD, as they began releasing their then modern shows like Smallville, One Tree Hill, and The O.C. as soon as the first seasons of those shows ended, as well as their classic shows like The Dukes of Hazzard, Batman: The Animated Series, and Friends pretty early on in the 2000's.

The episodes on this disc are "Pilot" (season 1, episode 1), "Rules of the House" (season 1, episode 3), "J.T.'s World" (season 2, episode 4), "Christmas Story" (season 3, episode 11), "I'll Be Home for Christmas" (season 4, episode 12), and "Your Cheatin' Heart" (season 7, episode 3). So there's a decent variety of episodes, though I am surprised that the series finale wasn't included given that the pilot episode was included. 

You all know how I feel about pilot episodes of a TV show that are simply called "Pilot", so I won't go over that again, but obviously I wasn't impressed that an early 90's sitcom would have a pilot episode called "Pilot". This episode does a great job at introducing all of the characters and telling the audience who they are as people. Carol actually reminds me of my own mom when it comes to her organizational skills, and her desire to keep the family organized. We'll see more of this in the next episode I'll be talking about. I also love Al and Dana as characters though both Karen and J.T. feel a bit too shallow for my taste, and neither Mark nor Brendan actually get very much screen time in this episode. Frank is your typical late 80's/early 90's sitcom dad, which is fine.

Staci Keanan and Christine Lakin have a podcast where they watch and talk about every episode of Step by Step. I listened to the first episode of the podcast, and apparently the opening title sequence was filmed at Six Flags Magic Mountain, which I've been to. They didn't say when exactly the opening title sequence was filmed, but given that the show debuted on September 20th, 1991, I'd say it was filmed either in late 1990 or early 1991. Regardless, it was about two years before I went to Magic Mountain on January 30th, 1993.

 "Rules of the House" is another great episode. One of the things I love about this show is that, despite being a network show and being a sitcom, it didn't shy away from showing the kids not getting along with each other. Not just in the usual sibling way that you'd see on Full House, but even J.T., Al, and Brendan don't get along with Dana, Karen, and Mark and it sticks beyond just these early episodes. Step by Step basically gave us what we never got with Star Trek: Voyager since the writers resolved the issues of blending the Starfleet and Maquis crews together. Again, Carol very much reminded me of my own mom in this episode. Though we never had family meetings when I was growing up. My parents usually decided on the rules and then told my siblings and I those rules, expecting us to follow them, as they were raised by their parents.

 "J.T.'s World" was my introduction to Cody Lambert, Frank's nephew. Cody reminds me of George (Giancarlo Caltabiano) from the 1998-2001 YTV sitcom, Radio Active. Both characters are really strange characters, though unlike George who is just out there, Cody has moments where he's really smart and really wise, often setting the other characters straight when they screw up and he notices. This episode is an homage to Wayne's World, which Paramount Pictures had just released earlier in 1992, several months before this episode aired and had just been released on VHS only two months prior to this episode's debut.

In this episode J.T. gets his own Public Access TV show, and produces it with Al, Mark, and Brendan as his production crew, and Cody as his on camera partner. Their relationship is strained when Lisa, a girl that J.T. likes, ends up falling for Cody instead. Lisa was played by Elizabeth Berkley, who played Jessie Spano on Saved by the Bell, which was still hugely popular and on the air at the time this episode aired in 1992. 

I always find it strange when a compilation of TV show episodes gets released on VHS or DVD, and a Christmas episode is included. Mainly because alot of people don't like to watch Christmas themed episodes except at Christmastime. Personally, I don't mind watching Christmas episodes anytime of the year, especially because alot of shows have Christmas episodes every season and if I'm watching a full season of a show, I don't like skipping an episode simply because it's a Christmas episode and I'm not necessarily watching the show at Christmastime. Though I do try to watch Christmas themed episodes at Christmastime in addition to the Christmas specials and movies that I watch during that time of year.

In "Christmas Story" Frank and Carol are arrested after they break into a toy store, that Frank had the key for as he'd been remodeling it recently, on Christmas Eve. They'd forgotten to buy stocking stuffers for the kids, and a train set that Brendan had asked for for Christmas. The deputy who arrests Frank and Carol was played by Don Knotts, and the officer is named Fief, as a nod to his character from The Andy Griffith Show, Deputy Barney Fife, which is cool. This episode is also an example of Cody being wise and setting the kids straight when they're so blinded by Christmas greed, they fail to realize that Frank and Carol are gone. 

In "I'll Be Home for Christmas", J.T. feels he is too old to celebrate Christmas with the family and he goes on a ski trip with some friends. Meanwhile Carol's grumpy aunt, Edna, comes to visit for the holidays, making the rest of the family miserable. Once again, Cody saves the day by telling Frank that he needs to be more forthcoming when it comes to J.T. My favourite part of this episode, aside from Cody and seeing the development of the bond between Carol's kids, and Franks kids, is Doris Roberts as Aunt Edna.

I loved watching Everybody Loves Raymond when I was in high school because of Doris, who played Ray's mom, Marie, and Peter Boyle, who played Ray's dad, Frank. So to see Doris in an earlier role (Raymond began in 1996 and this episode aired in 1994) was a surprise. A fun surprise too, because she worked really well with the main cast.

 The final episode on this disc is season 7, episode 3, "Your Cheatin' Heart". While it's not as good as the other episodes in this set, it's still really good. Rich, played by Jason Marsden (Max in A Goofy Movie) tries to surprise Dana, who is in a serious relationship with him, by secretly taking dance lessons for a wedding they're going to. But, he ends up breaking several dates with Dana to do so. Naturally, Karen and Al get involved and convince Dana that Rich is cheating on her. This episode is the most I've seen of Karen in this entire batch of episodes after the pilot, so it was nice to see her more involved in this episode. The character of Lilly seemed to be the writers's attempt at having a Michelle type character on the show. Unlike Full House though, which practically became the Michelle show by the end of it, Lilly was introduced too late in the series to have much of an effect on Step by Step in the way Michelle had. Mostly because Michelle was on Full House from the very beginning while Lilly wasn't born until the end of season 4, and didn't get main cast status until season 6.

I am very glad I finally got to see Step by Step after all these years. It wasn't a show I ever saw in reruns, and of course I didn't watch it during its original run in the 90's. Sure, it was only six episodes, with two of them being Christmas themed episodes, but they were really good episodes, and I enjoyed watching them. I found myself laughing several times. The show also doesn't feel as preachy as Full House does, which is good. Yet, it's still a show that kids can watch alongside their parents. 

I think that's going to be it for me for today. I've got two more blog posts for you this week possibly. I'm currently reading Star Wars: A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller as the friend I visited last week lent it to me, and I'm about halfway through the book right now. So that discussion is gonna happen sometime this week. But also, this Saturday is the 25th anniversary of the publication of Vector Prime by R.A. Salvatore, which was the first book in the New Jedi Order series which ran from 1999 to 2003, and essentially began the modern era of Star Wars book publishing, where there's a less cheesy tone to the novels being published. So I'll be doing a post talking about that book on Friday. Until then have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

My 90's and 2000's Experience: TGIF Part 2 - The Shows I Didn't Watch or Don't Remember Watching (1989-1999)

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I got an interesting week coming up this week, but, I figured I'd come on and do the second part of my two part TGIF overview. Last week I talked about all the shows I watched. This week I'll be talking about four of the shows I didn't watch or don't remember watching. These are all from the original 90's run of TGIF as I didn't watch any of the second run from the 2000's and I didn't watch the ABC Comedy Friday run in 2012-2017, or the third run of TGIF in 2018-2019. As I mentioned last week, I watched some of the shows, but not on TGIF. So let's get into it.

I'm going in chronological order of when each show debuted, so up first is Perfect Strangers. I honestly don't remember ever watching this show. That doesn't mean I didn't, but it ran from March, 1986 to August, 1993, so it's quite possible I did watch it, I just don't remember it, as I never saw it in reruns like I did Full House and Boy Meets World. I also don't remember watching it on Friday nights either. I do remember seeing Mark Linn Baker and Bronson Pinchot as their characters from the show, Larry and Balkie, in promos for ABC during Full House. I just don't remember watching any episodes.

Next up is Step by Step, which starred Patrick Duffy (Dallas), Suzanne Somers (Three's Company), and Staci Keanan (My Two Dads). It ran from 1991-1997 on ABC and then from 1997-1998 on CBS, but, again, I don't remember watching it. Looking at the cover image above it looks familiar, particularly Patrick Duffy and Suzanne Somers. However, we didn't really watch TGIF until the second season of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and the fourth season of Boy Meets World debuted alongside the only seasons of Teen Angel and You Wish, and by that point Step by Step was starting its final season over on CBS and was no longer part of TGIF. It aired in the 8:30 pm time slot for the show's first two seasons, then for the next three seasons it aired in the 9 pm slot before moving to the 9:30 pm time slot for its final season on ABC, so it's possible we did watch it or that I saw a few episodes here and there. I just don't remember it very well. I also can't find it on the lists of shows that aired on Global, CTV, CTV 2 (CHRO/The New RO/A Channel here in Ottawa), Citytv, or CBC, so I have no idea if it even aired on any Canadian channel at all.

The third show I didn't watch on TGIF in the 90's was the TV series version of Clueless. I remember seeing commercials for it on Global, as, despite its move from ABC to UPN at the beginning of its second season, it aired on Global for the entirety of its three season run. That's how I knew of its existence even if I didn't know the movie was a thing.

The last show on this list is The Hughleys. I remember seeing commercials for this show on TV during its run from 1998-2002, but I never watched any episodes. By the time this show moved to TGIF in the fall of 1999, we were basically just watching Boy Meets World so we could be in bed by 9 since I was having to get up at 6 to catch my bus for 7 on weekday mornings, and Mom wanted to go to bed since she'd just finished a week of nights at work and was tired. And since Boy Meets World and Sabrina the Teenage Witch weren't paired up on the TGIF schedule anymore, we didn't watch Sabrina anymore. Plus The Hughleys was only part of TGIF for a year before it moved to UPN, so it really wasn't on there for very long.

And that my friends is it for my look at TGIF. As I mentioned last time, it was a special time, where my mom, my siblings and I watched these shows, whether we watched them as part of TGIF or not. Getting to remember those times is exactly what Nostalgia is about for me. And it's why I reorganized this blog to the way I do it now. What's funny is that early 2010's stuff like The Avengers, Man of Steel, The Amazing Spider-Man, Arrow, and The Flash (2014) have either already hit their tenth anniversary or will be this year. Which means that Nostalgia is starting to include these shows and movies, as well as comic book stuff like DC's New 52. Which is insane to me since those things all came out when I was an adult.

That's it for me for today. I'll be back on Wednesday for another blog post. I'm not sure if it'll be a Star Wars post or a more general post, but I'll make that decision on Wednesday. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

My Star Wars Experience: Young Jedi Knights, Junior Jedi Knights and the Impact Both Series Had on the Star Wars EU of the 2000's

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today I wanna talk about two Star Wars young reader book series that were published when I was growing up in the 90's. They're the Young Jedi Knights series by Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta and the Junior Jedi Knights series by Rebecca Moesta and Nancy Richardson. So let's get into it!

Published from 1995 to 1998 for a total of fourteen volumes, Young Jedi Knights tells the story of the Solo twins, Jacen and Jaina, as well as their friends, Tenel Ka, the daughter of a warrior from Dathomir and the prince of the Hapes Cluster, and Lowbacca, the nephew of Chewbacca, and their adventures at Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy on Yavin IV. The series was split into three story arcs. The first one, encompassing the first six books of the series, told the tale of Jacen and Jaina's fight against the Second Imperium and its Shadow Academy, led by Luke's former student, Brakiss, who was first introduced in the second book of the series, Shadow Academy, and went on to play a role in The New Rebellion by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, which was published in 1996.

My first introduction to the series was sometime in late 1997 or the summer of 1998 when my mom picked up the seventh book in the series, Shards of Alderaan, from the public library for me. I eventually would go on to read the first six books in the series with four of them being borrowed from my fifth grade teacher, who had them in his classroom library when I was in grade 6 in 1998-1999. I loved them.

Junior Jedi Knights was a series aimed at slightly younger readers, as in the kids who were reading Goosebumps and Animorphs in the late '90s. The series was published for six books from 1995 to 1997, with Nancy Richardson writing the first three books and Rebecca Moesta writing books 4 through 6. The series focused on the youngest Solo child, Anakin, and his friend, Tahiri Veila, a girl who was raised by a tribe of Tusken Raiders/Sand People on Tatooine, while they train at Luke's Jedi Academy under the tutelage of the ancient Jedi Master, Ikrit, who looks like an animal that you would own as a pet. 

I only ever owned the first two books when I was a kid. They were actually owned by my brother, but not until sometime in the early 2000's. I don't think we ended up keeping them though, because I don't remember them being part of the huge batch of Star Wars novels that I got rid of in 2015-2016, before we moved.

I also wanted to mention something interesting. So in the first two or three books of Young Jedi Knights, it's mentioned that at the time of those two or three books, Anakin Solo wasn't quite old enough to start attending the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV, so one would assume that Junior Jedi Knights takes place after Young Jedi Knights. However, the weird thing is that every timeline of the Legends continuity, from Wookieepedia to The Essential Chronology and The New Essential Chronology to the early timelines included in the novels published by Del Rey from 1999 to 2003, namely the New Jedi Order series, place Junior Jedi Knights in 22 ABY (After Battle of Yavin) or 22 years after Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, and Young Jedi Knights in 24 ABY. If Anakin Solo was not old enough to train at the Jedi Academy in Young Jedi Knights, then why would Junior Jedi Knights take place BEFORE Young Jedi Knights? Like I said, it's not even an error on the timeline of Legends Books on Wookieepedia either. This placing in the timeline has been included in officially published reference books and timelines since 1999.

While neither series had much of an impact on the novels published by Bantam Spectra during the time they were being published by Berkley Jam Books and Boulevard Books, as mentioned earlier, Brakiss did appear in The New Rebellion in 1996. And because of his appearance in that book, Luke and Brakiss's encounter on the planet, Telti, was mentioned by Luke in book #6 of Young Jedi Knights, Jedi Under Siege, which was published just two months before The New Rebellion came out.

Brakiss's time at the Jedi Academy appeared briefly in I, Jedi by Michael A. Stackpole, which was published in 1998. This book served as a bit of a retcon of The Jedi Academy Trilogy by Kevin J. Anderson, as it placed both Corran Horn and Brakiss at the Academy during that trilogy of novels, despite neither of them having been created when the trilogy was published in 1994.

While the New Jedi Order series heavily focused on the Solo children, Anakin and Tahiri were the main focus of the Edge of Victory duology by Greg Keyes, which were books 7 and 8 in the NJO series. 

Master Ikrit appeared in the first book of the duology, Conquest, as did Qorl, the Imperial TIE Fighter pilot who crashed on Yavin IV during the battle to destroy the first Death Star in A New Hope. Somehow Qorl was never found on Yavin IV until 24 years later, when Jacen, Jaina, Tenel Ka, and Lowie discovered Qorl's crashed TIE Fighter in the first book of Young Jedi Knights, Heirs of the Force, despite the Jedi Academy having been on the moon since 11 ABY. That's a major oversight considering how long Qorl was stuck on Yavin IV for, and how often Luke and his Jedi students explored the jungles of Yavin IV.

Star by Star by Troy Denning, which was published in 2001, has all of the Young Jedi Knights, including Jacen, Jaina, Anakin, Lowie, Tenel Ka, Zekk, and Tahiri, on a deadly mission to infiltrate a Yuuzhan Vong Worldship in order to destroy the Vong's voxyn Jedi Killers, who were genetically modified vornskr from the planet Mykr, the world we first see Talon Karrde on in Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn all the way back in 1991. Tahiri and the other survivors of this mission continue to be important characters in the rest of the NJO series.

Tahiri, Tenel Ka, Zekk, and Lowie, along with Jacen and Jaina, are key players in Troy Denning's The Dark Nest Trilogy, which was published in 2005. I've never read this trilogy before. I completely missed it during this period as I was actually trying to complete my NJO collection, and was reading through that series.

The same characters, along with Jacen and Jaina, are also major characters in the Legacy of the Force series, which was published from 2006 to 2008. I've read a few books in this series, though I haven't read all of them. There are plenty of surprises though, and the Young Jedi Knights all play major roles in the series.

Zekk, Tenel Ka, Lowie, and Tahiri all appear in the Fate of the Jedi series, which was published from 2009 to 2012, and was the last series of Star Wars novels to feature most of the Young Jedi Knights, with Jaina's last appearance being Troy Denning's 2013 novel, Crucible, before Disney ended the original EU in 2014. None of them have their own storylines in this series however, as they had during the NJO days of the early 2000's. By this point, they were all adults, and all Jedi Masters, with Jaina getting married to Jagged Fel, her long time romantic partner. 

I feel like both Young Jedi Knights and Junior Jedi Knights are often overlooked by fans of the Star Wars Legends novels, simply because they're young reader series. Which is understandable, especially if you didn't grow up reading them. They're great books, but there have been so many young reader Star Wars novel series that have come out over the years, and most of the Legends ones are never mentioned in any other piece of Star Wars fiction. Though I think events from Jedi Apprentice, Jedi Quest, and The Last of the Jedi were brought up in the Dark Times (between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope) era adult novels of the early 2010's, namely Kenobi by John Jackson Miller. 

My point in bringing that up is that both of these series introduced so many awesome and important characters to the Star Wars Legends mythos. Characters who stood the test of time and became heroes in their own right. Yet these books are often overlooked. Which is unfortunate. I loved these books growing up, particularly the Young Jedi Knights series. I actually just did a re-read of the first six books as I have them in two paperback compilations, which contain three books each, that were published in 2003, called Jedi Shadow (Books 1-3) and Jedi Sunrise (Books 4-6). They still hold up, aside from that weirdness of where the Junior Jedi Knights series was placed in the Star Wars Legends Timeline.

Alright my friends, I think that's gonna do it for me for this week. I'm not sure when I'm going to be posting next week as I've got stuff to do next week, though I don't know what day I'm doing that stuff on. But I'll be back at some point. Also, come watch me on The VHS Club Podcast tomorrow night on YouTube at 9 ET as I'll be talking all about VHS with Katie and Nat. Katie assures me that the technical issues we faced last week have been resolved and that we're ready to broadcast tomorrow night. So come join me for that. Until then have a great rest of the day, a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

My 90's and 2000's Experience: TGIF: The Shows I Watched (1989-2019)

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm pretty good. I had a nice, quiet weekend. So today I decided to take a look at the shows I watched that were part of the various incarnations of ABC's Friday night comedy programming block, TGIF, which stands for Thank Goodness It's Funny. Next week I'll be taking a look at several shows I didn't watch. For this first part I'm including the shows I watched that were part of ABC's later attempts to revive the programming block in the mid 2000s, the 2010s and the modern day, when it became ABC Friday Night. So let's get into it.

TGIF was the brainchild of Jim Janicek, who was the head of promoting ABC's Tuesday night and Friday night comedy lineups, and ABC's president at the time, Bob Iger. Janicek's reasoning for creating this block was because he remember watching The Wonderful World of Disney, which he watched with his family when he was a kid, as pretty much all of us have done at one time or another since 1954. ABC also had a long history of airing family oriented sitcoms on Friday nights from The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and The Flintstones in the 50's and 60's to The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family in the 70's. And it all came from there. TGIF debuted on Friday, September 22nd, 1989, with megahits Full House (1987-1995) and Perfect Strangers (1986-1993), along with newcomer, Family Matters (1989-1998) and, sophmore series, Just the Ten of Us (1988-1990), which had debuted on Tuesday nights during the 1988-1989 season. While the lineup changed during the 11 years TGIF was on the air, the programming block was appointment television for families on Friday nights. Especially for kids who were too young to be out at night, and adults who weren't interested in the weekend night life of the 90's. So let's take a look at the shows that I did watch at various times during this period, and then next week I'll look at a few of the shows that I didn't watch or don't remember watching.

First up is Full House. I've talked about this show alot on my blogs over the years, but never when I watched it. It's funny, because I don't remember watching Full House when it was on TGIF. I remember watching it on Tuesday nights, but not on Friday nights, as it moved to Tuesday nights at the beginning of the 1991-1992 season. Nonetheless, it was part of the initial lineup of TGIF, hence why I'm including it here.

Next is Family Matters, which is actually a spin-off of Perfect Strangers as Harriette and Carl Winslow originally appeared on that show. Which is something I didn't know until I saw a few YouTube videos on the history of TGIF. I also didn't know that the actress who played Harriette, Jo Marie Payton, was replaced by Judyann Elder in the show's final season when the series moved from ABC to CBS. Probably because I didn't watch the final season since it had moved to CBS, and it wasn't airing on any Canadian channels, that I can recall, after that move. I talked about this show in my first sitcoms post I did a while back.

The 1990-1991 brought the Jim Henson co-production, Dinosaurs, to TGIF. I also mentioned this show in my first sitcoms post, so I won't go too in depth here. It only ran for four seasons, until 1994, but I loved this show when I was a kid.

Next is Boy Meets World. I don't think I've ever talked about this show on my blogs before, but it was one of my favourites growing up. I didn't start watching it until its fourth season in 1997, but this was the last TGIF show that my family was still watching by the time the original incarnation of TGIF ended in 2000. All the others had either ended or, in the case of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, were on later at night.

 While Sister, Sister began its broadcast run on TGIF in early 1994, I don't remember watching it. My sister claims we did, but it's possible she watched it in syndication sometime in the 2000s and I watched some of it with her. the 1994-1995 season was weird for me, because, other than Full House (most likely) and the series premiere of Star Trek: Voyager in early 1995, I don't remember watching very much Primetime television during this period. By this point we'd moved to the log house, and my siblings and I had our own play room area on the second floor, in the common area outside the three bedrooms (I shared a room with my brother), so we didn't watch much TV with our parents. At least, I didn't, as I had to be on my feeding pump full time, which was in my bedroom. Plus for the one season that Sister, Sister was airing as part of TGIF, it was on at 9:30, according to the schedule on Wikipedia, AND we didn't have access to ABC, just the over the air Canadian channels, plus PBS, since we didn't have cable. So if we did watch Sister, Sister it was after it had moved to a different night and was on in an earlier time slot, or it was in syndication in the 2000s. I do remember seeing commercials for Sister, Sister during Full House. 

Muppets Tonight was kind of like my generation's version of The Muppet Show, except taking place in a TV studio instead of an old theatre. It was only on ABC for a season before moving over to the Disney Channel for its final season, so I didn't watch it on TGIF for very long. I did love the show, even though I'd grown up watching reruns of The Muppet Show on YTV. Like I said, it was my generation's version of The Muppet Show.

The last staple of TGIF that I watched was Sabrina the Teenage Witch. I missed the first season in the 1996-1997 television season, but I caught it in reruns during the summer before season 2 began airing. This is the era that I remember watching TGIF during the most. Every Friday night, my mom, my brother, my sister, and I would sit and watch Boy Meets World, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and two other shows that I'll talk about momentarily from 8 pm until 10. By this point I was 10, about to turn 11, and my brother was 6 and my sister was 7, and so Mom let us stay up to watch TGIF with her since it was Friday night and we didn't have school the next day. This was also the era in which Teletoon and Space Channel were just starting to become a thing, Family Channel was becoming available to us, as it wasn't a premium cable channel anymore, and Pokemon was about to come into our lives.

Teen Angel was the first of the two shows that debuted during the second hour of TGIF. This was my introduction to Ron Glass, who played Marty's heavenly guide, Rod, a.k.a. God's brother, on this show. So when he appeared on Star Trek: Voyager as a different character in the seventh season I recognized him immediately. I also recognized him when I saw him as Shepherd Book on Firefly when I watched that show for the first time almost a decade later.

I remember watching You Wish, but I don't remember very much about it, other than there was a genie in it. Like with Teen Angel, You Wish only lasted one season, so it wasn't on for very long. However, what I remember most about TGIF's 1997-1998 season is the TGIF Time Warp week. This was basically a crossover between Boy Meets World, Sabrina, Teen Angel, and You Wish, where Salem swallows a time ball on Sabrina and then makes his way, with Sabrina close behind him, to the other three shows, sending all four shows into different time periods. Of course you didn't have that with most shows during that era, though Urkel from Family Matters would appear on Full House, Step by Step, and other TGIF shows from time to time.

 The last TGIF show from this era that I watched was Two of a Kind, which brought Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen back to TGIF following the end of Full House. This show was on at 8 with Boy Meets World at 8:30 and Sabrina at 9, with Brother's Keeper to round off the programming block at 9:30. Unfortunately Two of a Kind only lasted for one season and for the spring part of the 1998-1999 season, Sabrina moved into the 8 pm time slot, with newcomer Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pizza Place moving into the 9 pm slot. By this time TGIF, and ABC as a whole, was seeing declining ratings, despite the network trying to bring the ratings back to what they were at the height of TGIF in the early to mid 90's. But other than The Hughleys, which debuted in 1998, but moved to TGIF in 1999, there were no new lasting shows on TGIF. In the summer of 2000, Boy Meets World ended after seven seasons, Sabrina moved to The WB, and The Hughleys moved to UPN for the 2000-2001 television season. It was at the end of that season that I got a TV in my room and started watching The Simpsons, That '70s Show, Hollywood Squares, The King of Queens and The Drew Carey Show, among many other shows. But, that wasn't it for TGIF.

While I didn't watch it on ABC, I did watch 8 Simple Rules (initially called 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter). This series was my introduction to Kaley Cuoco, only a few years before she started playing Penny on The Big Bang Theory in 2007. I remember when John Ritter passed away in 2003, and his character on the show, Paul, died offscreen, bringing in James Garner and David Spade. Besides Tasha Yar on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Paul was the first TV character I ever saw who actually died. Even Mr. Hooper had died on Sesame Street before I was born. 

I also watched George Lopez. 8 Simple Rules, in its final season, and George Lopez were part of the second run of TGIF which only lasted from 2003 to 2005, though neither show were in the block together. George Lopez aired on TGIF in the 2003-2004 season, while 8 Simple Rules aired on TGIF in the 2004-2005 season. I loved both shows, but, because I wasn't watching them on ABC, it wasn't the same as it was in the 90's when I was watching Boy Meets World, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Teen Angel, You Wish, and Two of a Kind with my mom and siblings. 

In 2012, Tim Allen returned to TV with Last Man Standing as part of a semi-revival of TGIF known as ABC Comedy Friday, which ran from 2012 to 2017. I enjoyed this show when it first started, but, this was the early 2010s, so not only were comic book based shows becoming more prevalent, but American politics were starting to creep into alot of shows, whether they were dramas or sitcoms. Being a Canadian, I grew tired of that pretty quickly. I definitely watched it for two or three seasons before the CW DC Comics based shows became more prevalent in my life. But I dropped it after that.

2012 also saw the return of Reba McEntire to TV in a series, very similar to her previous show, Reba, called Malibu Country. I also didn't watch it on ABC. It was on Citytv here in Canada, right after Last Man Standing. I liked it, but, it only lasted for one season before being canceled, and I don't think it stayed on Citytv for very long, because I don't remember seeing it much beyond the first four or five episodes. It was fun seeing Reba back on TV again because I loved her previous sitcom, Reba, when it was on in the early to mid 2000s. 

This show replaced both Last Man Standing and Malibu Country in the ABC Comedy Friday lineup in the spring of 2013, though it was only temporary in the case of Last Man Standing. I only watched a few episodes of Happy Endings because Elisha Cuthbert, who I remembered from the Canadian series, Popular Mechanics for Kids, which aired on Global from 1997 to 2000. I didn't like it as much as I did Last Man Standing and Malibu Country though, and I only watched two or three episodes before I stopped. 

The last TGIF show I ever watched, even though it wasn't on TGIF when I was watching it during its first season, was Speechless. The show had started on Wednesday nights after Modern Family and The Goldbergs, but moved to Friday nights for ABC's second attempt to revive TGIF in the 2018-2019 season, which was the show's final season. By this point broadcast television had already begun its decline due to the rise of Netflix and Hulu (this was before Disney+ became a thing). Because of this, ratings weren't as high on any of the networks, as they'd once been, particularly in the 80's and 90's. So shows like The Goldbergs, Speechless and Schooled, which would've had high ratings in the 90's and 2000's, weren't getting as high of ratings in the mid to late 2010's. 

From 2017 to 2018, Friday nights on ABC were for shows like Once Upon a Time, Inhumans, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. rather than the sitcoms that had been a staple of the Friday night lineup on ABC since 1952, if not earlier. Which is probably ABC attempted to revive TGIF in the 2018-2019 season and kept the comedy block going in the 2019-2020 season, with news and current events show, 20/20, which had been a staple of the 10 pm to 11 pm time slot since 1987, becoming two hours, going from 9 pm to 11 pm, with American Housewife and Fresh Off the Boat being the only sitcoms in that one hour time slot from 8 pm to 9 pm. Since 2020, Shark Tank has taken over that 8 pm to 9 pm time slot, leaving ABC's Friday night lineup devoid of comedy or anything that's remotely passable as entertainment. 

TGIF is a product of its era. It was so much fun watching these shows whether or not I was able to watch them on Friday nights. But, what made it really special was getting to sit down on Friday nights with my family, while my dad was at work, and watching TV together after a busy week. Especially because, even though I wasn't in the hospital or going to appointments at the hospital as much by 1997, I still had school, and the occasional appointment. I also had physio therapy, a nurse coming in every day, Monday-Friday, and a Vitamin B-12 shot every two weeks. My sister also had ballet on Thursday nights, and all three of us had school, even though none of us had school related after school activities to go to. So it was nice to get to stay up later than normal and sit in front of the TV and watch shows that we could enjoy together, as a family. Even in the early to mid 2000's there weren't alot of shows that we'd sit down in the same room to watch since I had a TV in my room and by 2003-2004, my siblings each had a TV in their rooms. So while we may have watched some of the same shows, we weren't watching them in the same room.

There's also no such thing as appointment television anymore. Oh sure, we have alot of great shows being worked on by some very talented people, but with streaming services being prevalent, we can watch shows whenever we want. Even the ones that drop one episode a week. Now, I'm fortunate that my parents and I still have cable, and that Star Trek shows air on CTV Sci-Fi Channel, so I can still sit down and watch the latest episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Superman & Lois on Thursday or Tuesday nights at either 9 pm (for Star Trek) or 8 pm (for Superman & Lois). But there aren't any sitcoms that I have to sit down and watch at a particular time once a week. 

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. I'll be back on Wednesday to talk about the Young Jedi Knights and Junior Jedi Knights book series that were published in the 90's. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.