My 90s and 2000s Experience: CJOH TV (Cable 7)

 Hey everyone, how were your weekends? Mine was pretty quiet. It was at least nice outside on Saturday so I could go outside for some fresh air. Today I'm going to be talking about a local TV station that I watched for as long as I can remember. It's known as CTV Ottawa now, but up until 2011, it was known simply as CJOH TV, Cable 7. Out of all of the local TV channels and national TV networks, CJOH is the one I have the most experience with. So, let's get into it!

Originally debuting in 1961, CJOH TV was a huge staple here in Ottawa, particularly in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s. In fact many of us who grew up in Ottawa in those decades, grew up with this station. For me it was the home of many of my favourite TV shows. Disney shows, teen dramas, sitcoms, both Star Trek and Star Wars shows aired on CJOH at one time or another. In fact, the last time I watched CJOH (now CTV Ottawa) was in 2023 when the series finale of The Goldbergs aired. It was also one of the channels that I got on the TV in my bedroom, both the original one that I got in the summer of 2001, when I was going to have surgery on my right knee and would be stuck in bed for a couple of weeks, and the TV/VCR combo set that I got for my 16th birthday in 2002. But, what made it so special?

Aside from the numerous TV shows I watched on that channel, from Degrassi: The Next Generation and The Big Bang Theory to Star Wars: The Clone Wars (first season and a half only) and Star Trek: The Next Generation (1989-1990), what made CJOH special, and different from CBC and The Global Television Network, was the people. Specifically the news anchors and the news reporters. It wasn't just that they were good at their jobs, but they were involved in the community. From 1989 to 2010, CJOH News, originally known as Newsline, Max Keeping and Carol Anne Meehan were the news anchors, along with J.J. Clarke as the weather reporter. There were others, some I met, others I never got the opportunity to meet, but Max, Carol Anne, and J.J. were the core trio, and the ones I interacted with the most, besides reporter Leanne Cusack.

My personal involvement with CJOH comes through my childhood as a disabled person, who spent my entire childhood being in and out of the local children's hospital, CHEO. Everyone at CJOH worked at the CHEO Telethon every year, and I was one of the many children whose story was told by CJOH. I even visited the studio (the one that was on Merivale Road) so I could be interviewed for the Telethon. Leanne Cusack, the reporter I mentioned earlier, was the one who interviewed me the most when it came to stories about CHEO. In fact, I remember one time where I was at the hospital for an appointment, and we happened to run into Leanne in the lobby as she was there to do a story for one of CHEO's anniversaries, and she asked if she could interview me quickly for the story. I agreed and we went upstairs to the 6th floor and she interviewed me near the nurse's station of the Medical Day Unit, a place where I spent a lot of my later childhood days.

During my many interactions with J.J., he would often joke with my parents that I might actually replace him as the weather reporter for CJOH News when he retired, being that my weather "predictions" that I would make in jest, would actually be right sometimes. I think that's one of the reasons I leaned towards being in the media, either TV or Radio, when I was deciding which program to apply to for my college application in the mid 2000s. Unfortunately, the TV Broadcasting program required students to carry heavy equipment around as part of the training, and even in my wheelchair, I wasn't able to lift and carry heavy equipment. But, I loved listening to the radio, so I ended up going for Radio Broadcasting instead of TV Broadcasting.

All of the people I've mentioned have either retired from broadcasting, left CTV Ottawa, or have passed away, but the CHUM Media Mall (now known as the Bell Media Mall) in the Byward Market, in Downtown Ottawa, had an open door event where the public could go in and meet the personalities both in front and behind the cameras and microphones (radio stations are in that building too), in 2010, and Brad took me. We were waiting in line to go in, and Max had come out to say hi to the people waiting in line, but, when he saw me he came right over, said hi, and then proceeded to lead Brad and I ahead into the building as if I was royalty. I got to see the people who I met growing up, as well as some of the radio hosts that I'd been listening to on MAJIC 100 since the station began in 1991, AND some of the TV hosts from CJOH's sister station, CHRO/The New RO/A Channel (now known as CTV 2). Max and Carol Anne both remembered me (I missed J.J.) and they were absolutely blown away that I was 23 years old, had been in college for Radio Broadcasting until I got sick, and how well I was thriving compared to the sick boy they met almost twenty years earlier. 

Growing up though CJOH was the channel where I watched all of the Disney Afternoon cartoons since we didn't have the American networks that aired that block. The first cartoons I remember watching on CJOH were The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears, which were aired in an hour long block known as the Gummi Bears-Winnie the Pooh Hour. Later on, during the mid 90s, CJOH, as part of CTV, was owned by the Baton Broadcast System (BBS), and on weekend mornings they would air a children's programming block called BBS Master Control, hosted by former YTV Program Jockey, Jenn Beech, which aired all the Disney Afternoon and One Saturday Morning (which became ABC Kids in 2002) animated shows like Gargoyles, Timon & Pumbaa, Jungle Cubs, Aladdin: The Animated Series, and the Disney produced seasons of Doug.

There were also two local shows that we watched on CJOH when I was growing up. The first was Homegrown Cafe, which was basically a local variety show hosted by J.J. Clarke, and featured many singers and actors, including Ryan Gosling. Which is crazy to me. The second was called Regional Contact, which was hosted by Joel Haslam and Kathie Donovan, and they went to different locations in the Ottawa Region to try out different foods, and other activities run by local people. It used to air on Saturday nights at 6:30 pm, between Newsline/CJOH News and airings of Star Trek: The Next Generation (in the early 90s obviously) since the Saturday night newscasts were only half an hour long while the weeknight newscasts were an hour long.

I could go on and on about all the shows I watched on CJOH over the years, but, I think I'll leave it off here. The channel was a huge part of my life for so many years, between the CHEO Telethons, watching the news with my parents, watching everything from sitcoms to Star Trek, to knowing the on air personalities.

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. I'm not sure if I'll have more blog posts for you this week, but my next post is going to be my 400th post on this blog, so I might do that post later this week or wait until next week, I dunno yet. Until then have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Why I Started Blogging: A Josh's Geek Cave and Review Basement Retrospective

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. The week started off pretty busy, so that's why I'm just getting around to doing this post today. It's also not going to be a long post either. With this week being the 10th anniversary of me starting my blog over on Word Press, as The Geek Outpost, I just wanted to talk a little bit about why I started blogging in the first place. So, let's get into it!

To start off we need to go back to February, 2015. I was 28 years old, lived with my parents, had a girlfriend, and had been out of college for almost five years. I can't work, and I was encouraged by my girlfriend at the time to write reviews and post them. I'd kinda started doing this in the Notes section on Facebook back in like 2010 or 2011, but I didn't continue with them. Also at this time, superhero movies and TV shows were extremely popular thanks to the huge success of the MCU, which had started with Iron Man in 2008, but had really taken off with The Avengers in 2012, and the success of Arrow on The CW, which had debuted in October, 2012. I was also heavily into YouTube channels such as Geekvolution, The Nostalgia Critic, ComicPop, Comicstorian, and Comics Explained at this time. So my goal was simple: write reviews about comics, books, TV shows and movies that I had access to, mainly what I could borrow from friends, owned physical copies of, owned on DVD, watched on TV, or went to see in theatres.

I was also steeped in geek culture in 2015. Not only because the MCU was everywhere, and DC Comics based TV shows were coming out, but I was attending Ottawa Comiccon every year for the entire weekend it was scheduled for. I ended up getting a lot of content for my blog from my attendance of Ottawa Comiccon. These first two years were filled with uncertainty because I got really sick and my parents and I were getting ready to move into the city after 23 years of living out in the rural area where we'd been living. So I wasn't sure if I'd be able to continue doing the blog since I couldn't fit it into my schedule because of showings, hospital stays, and the actual moving part. But, once we got settled into the new house (not so new now though), and I had fully recovered from my medical issues, I got back on track.

Then the pandemic hit and suddenly I found I had a lot more time on my hands than I ever had before so I moved over here to Blogger and set up The Review Basement, which I ran for almost two years before I started Josh's Geek Cave. Though it'd still be another few years before I finally settled into how the blog is now.

I started this blog because, aside from having a girlfriend who encouraged me to do so, I had the time to do it. I had the time to put as much effort into it as I do. I have the time to sit here, and type out blog posts the way I want to do it. In a way I really do think of this as my job. While I don't post daily like I used to and most weeks I don't post more than once a week, even when I'm not posting I'm thinking about what I'm writing about that week, gathering the images I need for each post, and even looking information up for said posts. I don't commit anything to paper in terms of planning my week of posts out. Normally on Thursday or Friday every two weeks I decide what I'm going to post for the next two weeks and then I do the work to get what I need for said post, such as images and looking stuff up to make sure I'm remembering correctly what channel a show aired on, or what VHS or DVD release I first saw a movie on, that sort of thing. 

Most of all though, I keep this blog going because it's fun. I never expected to have more than a couple of readers. Namely a few close friends and my family. Instead I people who read my blog all over Canada and the United States, and probably in other countries too. Which is super cool. I've also been on podcasts and my blog has been featured on other blogs too. 

I've been asked before why I didn't do YouTube or my own podcast. The answer is that, YouTube is not what it was back when it first started in the late 2000s. Plus I've always felt I can get my ideas and opinions out in writing better than I can in a video. As for doing my own podcast, it's pretty much the same reason. I've found it easier to get my thoughts and opinions out in writing than I have speaking. Also, I can do it anytime, be it day or night without disturbing anyone. And that would be the case whether or not I was living with my parents. It also gives me the chance to do this however I want, and allows me to take my time writing the posts as well.

I think that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with lots more blog posts. Until then, have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Del Rey's 90s Star Wars Novel Reprints

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. As promised I'm here to talk about Del Rey's 90s reprints of their classic late 70s and early 80s Star Wars novels. While these books had many reprints throughout the last few decades, I'm going to be focusing on the reprints that have the "Classic Star Wars" logo on the front covers. So let's get into it.

First up is The Star Wars Trilogy, which contains the novelizations of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. This compilation was originally published in 1987. This edition was published in 1989, which is weird to me given that nobody knew if there were any Star Wars fans out there anymore in 1989, which is why it was a gamble for Lucasfilm to decide to work with Bantam Spectra to publish Heir to the Empire in 1991. All three novelizations also got new editions with the "Classic Star Wars" logo on the front cover in 1994. I had the 1993 edition that didn't have "Classic" in the title. Mine was a later printing though as it had an ad in the back of the book for the novelization of The Phantom Menace, which wasn't coming out until 1999, and I didn't get it until 1999 or 2000.

Next is Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster, which was originally published in 1978, less than a year after Star Wars had been out in theaters. This edition contains an introduction by George Lucas, which was written just before he began writing the first draft of the script for The Phantom Menace. Oddly enough this introduction was included in all future editions of this book, including the 2015 Legends banner edition. This was also the first edition of the book to have the "Star Wars" logo printed anywhere on the book, though it's not on the title page for the book.

Next is The Han Solo Adventures by Brian Daley, which includes Han Solo at Stars' End, Han Solo's Revenge, and Han Solo and the Lost Legacy, which were originally published individually in 1979, and 1980. This compilation was originally published, without the "Classic Star Wars" logo on the cover in 1992, which is the edition that I have in my collection, but was reprinted with the logo in 1994. In 1997 all three books got their own individual editions with the logo on them. This would also be the last time the books would have their own individual editions published for whatever reason.

Finally there was The Lando Calrissian Adventures by L. Neil Smith, which includes Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharu, Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Oseon, and Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of Thonboka, which were all originally published individually in 1983 and were the last Star Wars novels to be published until Heir to the Empire in 1991. This was the first time this compilation would be published and it came out in a trade paperback edition as well as a mass market paperback edition. For some reason the individual books didn't get republished outside of the compilation after their initial 1983 publications. So the only way you can read these books is through this compilation, including its mid 2010s Legends banner mass market paperback edition and its 2024 Essential Legends Collection trade paperback edition.

The reason I wanted to do this post is because whenever people talk about Star Wars books from the 90s, they always talk about the ones published by Bantam Spectra, but I think a lot of people forget that, while Del Rey lost the license to publish new Star Wars novels, they could still reprint the books they'd published in the late 70s and early 80s, similar to how Bantam was still able to keep their Star Wars books in print throughout the 2000s and early 2010s despite the fact that Del Rey had the license for the franchise. Plus Del Rey was publishing the Essential Guide reference book series in the late 90s before getting the novel license back. Not to mention both publishing companies are owned by Random House, so the license has remained in house for the last fifty years.

These editions would've been the ones I might've been introduced to these earlier Star Wars books in the 90s had they been on the shelves at the bookstore. Instead I got the 1992 edition of The Han Solo Adventures, because I think my parents had it before me (they had Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command which is how I got those books), a 1979 paperback edition of Splinter of the Mind's Eye from a friend of mine in high school (before buying a copy of the 2006 edition in 2009 or 2010), and the 2005 edition of The Lando Calrissian Adventures, which I got in like 2012 or 2013. Still though, I'm glad I had the chance to read this original books as they're quite different from later Star Wars novels. 

Alright my friends that's it for me for today and it for me for this week. I'll be back next week for more posts. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to be writing about next week, but I have some ideas. So until then have a great rest of your day and a great rest of your week and I will talk to you all later. Take care. 

My 90's and 2000's Experience: Early TV Show DVDs

 Hey everyone, how were your weekends? Mine was nice and quiet. Today I'm going to be talking about early DVD releases of TV shows. While these are all TV shows that I've seen and enjoyed watching during my childhood, I didn't own most of these particular DVD releases for these shows. They're still worth talking about though. I've chosen to talk about fourteen shows and their early DVD releases that aren't complete season or series sets. These sets are akin to how TV shows were released on VHS in the 80s and 90s. So, let's get into it.

The first show I'm going to talk about is Star Trek: The Original Series, which originally aired on NBC (in the U.S.) and CTV (in Canada) from 1966 to 1969. The series had Laserdisc and VHS releases throughout the 80s and 90s, but from 1999 to 2001 Paramount Home Video released forty volumes of TOS on DVD. These were single disc releases that contained only two episodes per disc. Generally, these early DVD releases didn't have imaginative DVD menus the way a lot of season DVD box sets released in the 2000s would have. Like the VHS releases, which only contained one episode per tape, unless it was Columbia House's Star Trek releases, buying all 40 volumes was probably cost prohibitive, not to mention space prohibitive, so chances are pretty good that some people only got a handful of these early TOS DVD releases. I'm sure most people waited until the complete season box sets came out in 2004 to get the series on DVD.

Next is Medabots, which was released from 2002 to 2003 by ADV Films, the company that would release another Anime series I'm going to be talking about today. Twelve volumes were released, with about five episodes per volume. I loved watching Medabots when the English dub, produced by Canadian animation studio, Nelvana, aired on YTV from 2001 to 2002. I haven't seen the show since then though, because I didn't own any of the DVD releases until a month ago, when I got the first volume, Transport Metabee!, for Christmas from one of my friends. This volume contains the first five episodes of the series. I'm planning on watching it very very soon though.

Next up is the 2002-2003 ADV Films DVD releases of the original English dub of Sailor Moon, produced by DIC Entertainment. These releases contained six episodes per volume, and for all 89 episodes, ADV released fourteen volumes. As I mentioned in my Sailor Moon blog post that I did about a year ago, these releases did have corresponding VHS releases, but those tapes held only four episodes per tape, stretching the first two seasons across twenty volumes that were released between 2000 and 2002, wrapping up only a month before the first two DVD volumes were released.

Next is Inspector Gadget, which I did an entire blog post on almost a year ago. Its first DVD release was by Sterling Entertainment, which released a single volume titled The Gadget Files, which contained the show's pilot episode and then the first three episodes of the show. And this was the only release the show had until 2006 when Shout! Factory got the license. The series wouldn't get a complete series box set or even season releases until 2013.

The first DVD release that Power Rangers ever had was a single disc release, which contained episodes from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers In Space, Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, and Power Rangers Wild Force. The Best of the Power Rangers: The Ultimate Rangers was released by Buena Vista Home Entertainment in 2003 to celebrate the franchise's 10th Anniversary. However, this would be the only time any of the pre-Disney era seasons of Power Rangers would see any sort of DVD release until Shout! Factory began releasing the complete season and series box sets in 2013.

Beginning in 2003 and going until 2009, Buena Vista Entertainment would release two to five volumes per season for all of the Disney era seasons (Ninja Storm to RPM). Because of the inconsistency of where the show aired from season to season, these DVDs were the only way some kids who grew up watching this era of the franchise had to watch these seasons, and none of these releases contained every episode of each season either. There was probably about 25 episodes per season released for the seasons that had five volumes released, 20 for the one season that had four volumes released, and ten episodes for the two seasons that had only two volumes released. I actually had two volumes of the SPD releases and one volume of the Mystic Force releases in the early to mid 2010s as a friend of mine gave them to me, but I ended up getting rid of them when I finally got the complete season sets for both seasons. Also, Ninja Storm, Dino Thunder, and the first three volumes of SPD had corresponding VHS releases.

Pokemon is interesting when it comes to its home media releases because it's the earliest show on this list to have DVD releases coming out at the exact same time as its VHS releases while the show is brand new. From 1998 to 2001, Viz Media released twenty-six DVD and VHS volumes containing three episodes each (four episodes for Volume 17, Picture Perfect). The DVDs are exactly the same as their VHS counterparts. Same cover designs (just bigger to fit the DVD format), same designs for the spines, and same number of episodes on each disc as there are on each tape. 

Then we have Batman: The Animated Series, which had four DVD releases with volume 1 containing five episodes, and the remaining three volumes containing four episodes for a total of 17 episodes being released on DVD. These DVDs came out between 2002 and 2004. Like the Pokemon DVDs, these DVD releases had corresponding VHS releases, but only the first three volumes had them, with all three volumes being released in 2003.

Batman Beyond's early DVD releases are weird. The first volume, which contain the first two episodes along with four other episodes from the first season, came out in 1999, not too long after the show's debut. Two more volumes, which were just four of the corresponding VHS releases combined into two volumes, were released in 2004, a whole five years after the first volume, Batman Beyond: The Movie. The complete first season DVD box set didn't come out until 2006.

Now this DVD release is actually really weird. It's a release for the first season of Digimon, but there's no volume title or volume number, and unless you look at the back cover there's no indication what episodes are on it. I can't even find anything about it on Wikipedia or the Digimon Wiki or anything. Luckily Soundout12, a YouTuber I'm subscribed to did a video chronicling the entire history of Digimon on DVD a year and a half ago, and he showed off the covers of the release. So this DVD contains the first thirteen episodes of the first season, which had a total of 54 episodes.

In 2004 Star Wars: Droids - The Adventures of R2-D2 and C-3PO got a single DVD release. This release contains a single two-sided disc and each side contains four episodes of the show's 13 episode run, edited together into movie length features. Side one contains episodes 5-8 and side two contains episodes 10-13. 

In 2001 Lions Gate Home Entertainment released Sabrina: The Animated Series on DVD. This release contains five episodes of the series. According to the Wiki for the show, the episodes on this disc are episodes 2, 4, 63, and 42. While more episodes would get released on DVD over the course of time, there are no complete season sets or a complete series set for this show.

 

In 2002, Lions Gate Home Entertainment released a single volume of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! on DVD. This was actually a combination of two VHS releases that Lions Gate released at the same time, Action Adventures and Mario's Monster Madness. The DVD contained eight episodes as each VHS release that it covers contained four episodes. Many DVD releases for the show would come out over the next decade, but this was the earliest one. Two of the episodes on this release were from The Legend of Zelda series that aired on Fridays instead of the Super Mario Bros. episodes.

While The Legend of Zelda had two episodes included on the The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! DVD I just talked about, the show would have its own DVD release from Sterling Entertainment in 2003. It only contained the first three episodes of the series, as did its corresponding VHS release. Shout! Factory released a complete series DVD set in 2005, which would get re-released by NCircle Entertainment in 2012, but this release was the only one put out by Sterling Entertainment, and the only volume release of the series to come out in the early 2000s. 

I focused a lot on animated shows and kids shows because that's mostly what was coming out in the late 90s and early 2000s. Although complete season sets for older shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation and newer shows like Star Trek: Enterprise, Smallville, The O.C., and One Tree Hill started coming out in 2002, it would take most of the 2000s and well into the 2010s for other older shows to start getting season sets.

The reason I wanted to do this post is because these DVDs were the easiest way for kids to be introduced to these shows outside of reruns airing on broadcast television, in the same way I was introduced to certain shows through VHS releases in the late 80s and early 90s. Especially because complete season box sets were just starting to become a thing in the early 2000s, and they'd cost anywhere between $70 and $100 per season well into the late 2000s. And, like with the VHS releases of the 80s and 90s, there was no way people could buy and own every DVD release that came out for these shows. Like I said earlier in this post, Star Trek: The Original Series had a total of 40 DVD volumes to complete the entire series, so there probably weren't that many people who actually owned all 40 volumes as they were coming out. Especially because DVD players were still pretty expensive when the early TOS DVDs were coming out between 1999 and 2001. So all they could watch was whatever volumes they owned. 

There are dozens of shows I could've talked about in this post, but, these fourteen shows are ones I watched throughout the 90s and 2000s that had DVD releases between 1998 and 2004. I might do a part two at some point to talk about the shows I didn't include in this one for whatever reason. We'll see though.

That's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more posts. I think later this week I'm gonna do a post on the paperback reprints from the 90s of the original Star Wars novels that Del Rey originally published in the late 70s and early 80s. I might wait to do that next week though. We'll see what I feel like doing as the week progresses. Until then, have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care. 

My 90's and 2000's Experience: Oldies Compilation CDs

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today I'm diving back into the world of music and CDs. This is going to be a look at four compilation albums of music from the 50's, 60's, and 70's that my dad had on CD when I was growing up. I actually have three of these albums on my computer and I'm listening to at least two of them as I write this blog post. Before I start I'd like to remind you that this is not a review of these albums, I'm just talking about each album and when I remember my dad first putting them on. I'm also not going to talk about every song on the album either. I'll just be talking about the ones that really stuck with me. So, with that out of the way, let's get into it.

First up is The Seventies Generation: 1970-71, which was a compilation that came out in 1999. As the title suggests, these are all songs that came  The two songs that stood out to me is track 5, "Come and Get It" by Badfinger and track 6, "Arizona" by Paul Revere and the Raiders. I don't remember if my dad bought this CD himself or if he got it for his birthday or Christmas in 1999. I just remember hearing the album for the first time with "Ride Captain Ride" by Blues Image starting it off and then ending with "Hitchin' a Ride" by Vanity Fare. Aside from the songs I was hearing on the radio, and the more modern day music that I had on CD, this album, along with the other three that I'll be talking about here shortly, was part of the soundtrack of my life in middle school and high school, and while I had my favourite songs on all four albums, I still enjoyed listening to all of the songs on each of them.

 

Next is 15 Super Oldies: Too Good to Be Forgotten, which initially came out in 1989. My dad didn't get it until around 1998 or 1999, sometime close to when he got The Seventies Generation. I think. I don't actually remember. I just remember not hearing it for the first time until I was twelve or thirteen years old. But this album has "Da Doo Ron Ron" by the Crystals, "When A Man Loves a Woman" by Percy Sledge, "I Got You (I Feel Good) (Live)" by James Brown, and, of course, "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets. I'd known "Rock Around the Clock" because it was the opening theme song for the first few seasons of Happy Days and I remembered hearing it on reruns of those earlier episodes. Also, Morgan Lee (Melissa Galianos) sang the "Da Doo Ron Ron" part of that song in an episode of the 1998 sitcom, Radio Active during that show's first season. So those songs are the ones I remember the most from this particular album.

 

Now this album (with a different cover) is the reason I knew the biggest hit that came out of the soundtrack for Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014, "Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Suede, and "Go All the Way" by Raspberries, which was also in the movie and on the movie's soundtrack album. Oddly enough "You Sexy Thing" by Hot Chocolate was used in a commercial for milk in 1998-1999, around the time I was watching Animorphs, Radio Active, and the first season of Pokemon, so I associate that song with those three shows more than I do with this compilation CD, even though it didn't appear on any of those shows. And "My Sharona" by The Knack was on a mixtape that my dad played all the time when I was younger, so naturally that song stuck out to me as well. Especially because it's the first track on the album.

The last album I'm talking about today is Rock 'N' Roll Reunion: Class of '64 is actually my mom's CD. And while it has some songs on it that I love, I honestly haven't heard them anywhere but on this compilation. The two songs that stuck out to me on this album, and became my favourites are "Come A Little Bit Closer" by Jay & The Americans, "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)" by Jan & Dean, and "Under the Boardwalk" by The Drifters. Honestly, for the longest time I actually thought that the Beach Boys sang "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)" because Jan & Dean sounded so much like the Beach Boys, which makes sense, since the two bands were producing albums around the same time. Plus, I thought it was funny that there was a song about an old woman driving dangerously because it made me think of Granny from the Looney Tunes and the Penguin's Aunt Miranda from a Batman newspaper comic strip published in 1946. I was anywhere between 11 and 13 when my dad got this CD for my mom, as it came out in 1997. This is also the only one on this list that I don't have on my computer currently. I used to, but I never got around to putting it back on once I got a new laptop back in 2020 or 2021, whenever it was. 

So the biggest reason that these albums mean a lot to me, aside from the fact that my parents played them all the time when I was a teenager, is that they're the only way I found out about all of these songs at the time. I didn't have Guardians of the Galaxy to introduce me to "Hooked on a Feeling" and "Go All the Way". I didn't have movies and TV shows to introduce me to "Come a Little Bit Closer" or "Da Doo Ron Ron" (in it's entirety). And the radio station I listened to, which had a 70's show on Saturday nights and an Oldies show on Sunday mornings, didn't play a lot of these songs despite all of them fitting in the description of Oldies or 70's music. I probably heard "Rock Around the Clock" on the radio quite often on the Sunday Morning Oldies Show on MAJIC 100. Plus, very few of these artists ever had the original albums these songs were put out on originally re-released on CD or even audiocassette and not all of them had "Best of" or "Greatest Hits" albums released, so these compilation albums were the only way to hear these songs. They're definitely the only way that I had to hear these songs. 

And that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more posts. Next week I'm gonna talk about certain TV shows that had DVD releases in the late 90's and in the 2000's before they ever got complete season DVD box sets. These DVDs were more like the DVD equivalents of the VHS releases of TV shows in the 80's, 90's and early to mid 2000's. So until then have a great rest of the day and a great rest of the week and I will talk to you all later. Take care. 

My 90's and 2000's Experience: Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001)

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Thursday afternoon. Tonight is the 30th anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek: Voyager, the fourth live action TV series in the Star Trek franchise. So, in honour of that anniversary, I'm gonna be talking about Voyager here on the blog. I'm reverting to the format of this series to the one I used last year, because I think it works the best compared to the one I used for my discussion on The Jungle Book last week and that I'd planned to use for all future blog posts. So, without further ado, let's talk about Star Trek: Voyager. Let's get into it!

Premiering on Monday, January 16th, 1995 on UPN with the two hour TV movie, "Caretaker", which I've already reviewed on the blog, Star Trek: Voyager was the flagship series for the United Paramount Network, Paramount's attempt at owning a television network, with the hopes of keeping up with CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX. Paramount had had the desire to own its own network since the 1970's, when they'd originally planned on using the unproduced Star Trek sequel series, Star Trek: Phase II, as their flagship series for their proposed fourth network (FOX wouldn't come into being until the 80's), the Paramount Television Service or PTVS. However, the deal for the PTVS network fell through and the pilot episode for Phase II, "In Thy Image", would be reworked into the 1979 feature film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and the franchise's return to television would have to wait until 1987 with Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Voyager was unique because, not only was the captain a woman, but her crew wasn't fully Starfleet either. Set up in both The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, the Maquis, a group of Federation colonists who fought against the terms of the Federation-Cardassian Treaty of 2370, make up part of the ship's crew complement. And while DS9 had a good mix of Starfleet and non-Starfleet crew, Voyager had the difficult task of melding the two crews together into a single unit for the sole purpose of survival in an unknown, dangerous, part of the galaxy, far away from any Federation help. 

One the problems facing the writers of this show is that for the first time in nearly 30 years, Star Trek was a network show. Therefore, while it was free from some of the restraints that TNG and DS9 had as first run syndication shows, Voyager had other restrictions that plagued network shows in the 90's. Particularly network shows that aired between 8 and 10 at night. While network censorship wasn't as bad in the 90's as it was in the 60's when Star Trek had originally aired on NBC, they were still significant due to the fact that Star Trek had a lot of brand recognition that made it a symbol that Paramount and UPN couldn't afford to mess up by making it go as far as DS9 had in terms of how heavy an episode's subject matter could be.

Which brings me to the conclusion that placing Voyager on a brand new network, one that held very little else for non-Star Trek fans to keep tuning into the network for, was a huge mistake. The thing about FOX, CBS, NBC, and ABC, as well as The WB, and other smaller networks that have existed over the decades, is that they had a wider variety of programming to engage the audiences with. Indeed, when Voyager debuted in January 1995, ABC was seeing huge ratings with sitcoms, particularly the shows airing on the TGIF block on Friday nights. NBC had also seen a huge success with sitcoms such as Friends, and of course FOX had The Simpsons, as well as the children's programming block, FOX Kids, keeping an audience of all ages tuned in on a daily basis. UPN didn't have such a power base to draw on.

By the time Voyager debuted in 1995, Star Trek had also become less popular being that DS9 was considered at the time to be the antithesis of Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future, and TNG had just recently ended its seven year run. So placing the newest Star Trek series on a network that hardly anybody knew about, it being brand new, with very little programming to maintain a general audience's interest in said network, made Voyager a difficult show to keep on the air. Yet, in it's own limited way, at least compared to TNG's almost runaway success from 1987 to 1994, the show succeeded.

 As with TNG and DS9 before it, Playmates Toys produced a line of toys based on the new show. However, they weren't sold worldwide, as I never saw a single toy from the Voyager line when I was a kid. In fact the first time I ever saw a toy from the line for sale anywhere, was at Ottawa Comiccon back in September. And oddly enough it was the Janeway figure. The line included the entire main cast of Voyager, minus Seven of Nine, though she got her own figure in the Star Trek variety toyline that included figures for characters from all four live action shows and eight or nine movies that were out at the time, as well as Seska, a Vidiian, Lt. Carey, B'Elanna Torres in her full Klingon form from the episode, "Faces", a Kazon, and a variant of Chakotay, who is wearing his Maquis outfit. That's the entire line. Which pales in comparison to even the DS9 line. Of course a toy of Voyager itself was produced, though there were no roleplaying toys such as tricorders, phasers or communicators, as those were released through the toylines for both Star Trek: First Contact in 1996 and Star Trek: Insurrection in 1998.

Voyager had a series of novels published by Pocket Books, beginning with a novelization of the pilot episode, "Caretaker", which was published on February 1st, 1995, a few weeks after the show debuted. Though unlike the TOS, TNG, and DS9 novels, which continue to this day, there hasn't been a Voyager novel since 2020. Which is when The Autobiography of Kathryn Janeway was published. Not that Star Trek novels are as hugely popular or as integral to the franchise as the Star Wars novels have been, but they've sold well enough that Simon & Shuster continues to publish them.

Marvel Comics also published two comic book series based on the show. The first was a 14 issue monthly series, and the other was a limited series. WildStorm also published a few Voyager comics in 2000 and 2001.

The show also had trading cards published by SkyBox, the company that had done trading cards for Star Trek since 1991 or 1992. 

I think the lack of merchandise for Voyager has to do with the change in people's tastes in the mid-90's. Star Trek has always been a popular series, but its popularity has diminished since TNG was on the air in the late 80's and early 90's. Particularly during the show's fifth season in the 1991-1992 broadcast season, when everything you could name was coming out. Toys, books, comics, trading cards, model starships, Halloween costumes, pins, jewelery, VHS tapes, you name it, Star Trek had it. And they were cheap enough that the average person could afford to buy them. Nowadays to get a decent Star Trek action figure, you end up paying a huge amount for anything Star Trek related. With the exception of books and comics mind you. 

Part of the problem is by the time Voyager started airing, other franchises either returned or had begun to spring up. Power Rangers began in 1993 and stores could barely keep Power Rangers merchandise in stock. Also, Voyager debuted only two years before the Star Wars Special Editions came out in theatres, and Star Wars mania had already taking over between the success of the novels being published by Bantam Spectra, the comics being published by Dark Horse, the Original Trilogy getting a VHS re-release in 1995, the anticipation of the Special Editions, AND the anticipation of Episode I, which was due to come out in either 1998 or 1999 (George Lucas and Rick McCallum weren't locked in on the release date for the movie yet). On top of that Batman was about to release another movie, and the FOX animated series was just wrapping up its final season (on FOX). So Star Trek wasn't popular with kids anymore, and adults were also being taken by newer Sci-Fi shows such as The X-Files and Babylon 5, as well as the 1994 film, Stargate, which would launch the Stargate franchise. Not to mention shows like Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman were airing as well. So Voyager had a lot going against it. So while Star Trek had, and still has, a very devoted fanbase, the series is just niche enough that, despite Paramount's best efforts, there just wasn't enough of an audience to support Voyager during its original run in order for the same amount of merchandise that TOS and TNG had to be produced for Voyager.

Even the VHS market wasn't enough to get people onboard for the new show. While Columbia House released most of the show through its subscription service, Paramount Home Video's retail releases didn't even make it through the show's third season. In fact, they didn't start releasing the first season on VHS until April 4th, 2000. They stopped releasing the show on VHS on September 3rd, 2002. Though the Columbia House releases began in 1998 and continued until 2003, a full year after Paramount Home Video stopped releasing their retail releases.

All seven seasons were released on DVD in 2004. I have the first three seasons on DVD and I love the packaging for them. They're colourful and stylish, especially in comparison to the original DVD sets for TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, and Enterprise. They also have some decent bonus features on them as well, focusing on particular episodes, characters, and the seasons as a whole. Voyager has yet to be released on Blu-ray, but maybe it will someday. Especially because it'd probably be much easier to do so given that the show used CGI for the ships given that the show wrapped up in 2001 as digital technology was beginning to gain momentum in the film and TV industry.

I love Star Trek: Voyager. It is one of my favourite TV shows of all time and in my Top 3 of Star Trek shows. TNG always felt high brow, because the characters had interests that weren't what most people were into in the 90's. Playing poker, archaeology, building ships in bottles, playing the violin etc. DS9 started to change that with Bashir's fondness for spy novels and Sisko's love of baseball. But, Voyager felt more realistic. The Doctor loved taking pictures with his holo-camera, Tom Paris loved watching old cartoons from the 30's and 40's. The crew played board games. Some of my favourite scenes on the show are when Harry Kim is playing Kal-toh with Tuvok or Neelix or Seven of Nine are playing Kadis-kot with Naomi Wildman in the Mess Hall. Or in the first two seasons when Chakotay is playing pool with Tom and Harry in the Holodeck recreation of Sandrine's, a bar that Tom frequented in Paris, France. 

I also loved that the crew dressed down during off duty or light duty activities. Very rarely did you see Picard and the crew of the Enterprise wear t-shirts. I mean there are scenes where Janeway is in a t-shirt in her quarters, simply reading a book. The Voyager crew felt more like real people. Not because they had conflict with each other from time to time, which TNG hadn't been able to do thanks to Roddenberry's edict against such things, but because of how they interacted with each other. And it wasn't just the main crew that were awesome either. It was recurring crew like Ayala, Chell, Carey, Hogan, Samantha Wildman, Tabor, that made the ship feel so alive. 

I also love that the show retains its storyline each season. For example in the season 4 episode, "Retrospect" Janeway and Chakotay refer to an incident involving Seven of Nine in the previous episode, "Prey", even though "Prey" has nothing to do with "Retrospect". I also love that Janeway doesn't get over the fact that she was responsible for getting Voyager stranded in the Delta Quadrant at the end of "Caretaker". It stays with her throughout the series and haunts her, even though her decision was made to protect the Ocampa from the Kazon following the Caretaker's death. 

Personally, I do wish it had taken a little bit longer for the Starfleet and Maquis crews to learn to work together, even though Chakotay immediately placed his faith in Janeway's leadership. I mean there were instances of it throughout the first season, with Seska's defection, the problems between B'Elanna and Lieutenant Carey in "Parallax", and the Maquis officers that Tuvok trains in the season finale, "Learning Curve". But the episodes where this conflict occurred were few and far between.

I also didn't care for Robert Beltran's performance as Chakotay. It had nothing to do with the way the character was written either. Out of the entire cast Beltran is the one that felt like he was just doing a job, that he wasn't passionate or excited to be on Star Trek. Like he didn't care about Star Trek. Whereas the rest of the cast were either fans of Star Trek, had appeared in episodes of Star Trek previously, or knew enough about the franchise to respect and appreciate the fact that they were on Star Trek. For example Tim Russ (Tuvok), Ethan Phillips (Neelix), and Robert Duncan MacNeil (Tom Paris) had all appeared on Star Trek previously. MacNeil had played Nicholas Locarno in the TNG season 5 episode, "The First Duty", Ethan Phillips had played a Ferengi in the TNG season 3 episode, "Menage a Troi", and Tim Russ had played a mercenary who Picard did a Vulcan Nerve Pinch on in the TNG season 6 episode, "Starship Mine", had played a Klingon in the DS9 season 2 episode, "Invasive Procedures", and had played an unnamed Starfleet officer who served on the Enterprise-B in Star Trek Generations (1994). So at least the rest of the cast felt like they were genuinely pleased to be the stars of a Star Trek TV series. 

Whenever I've talked about Voyager on my blogs in the past, I've mentioned that my sister and I always watched the show together. Especially the reruns that aired on The New RO (formerly CHRO and A Channel, currently known as CTV 2 Ottawa) in the 2000's. I've also mentioned that I bonded with one of my friends in high school over Voyager. She wasn't a Star Trek fan, but she loved Voyager and so we'd talk on the phone while watching one of the reruns that were on after school. I didn't have very many friends who were into Star Trek, so being able to spend time with a very close friend of mine, watching the show together meant a lot to me. Even though it was only over the phone. However, I think the reason I love Voyager so much even to this day, is because it was fun, it was funny, and it had an emotional depth to it that TOS and TNG lacked outside of a few episodes, and that only DS9 surpasses. The characters were also great. In fact, and this is a spoiler for season 3 of Star Trek: Picard (2020-2023), I felt it was extremely appropriate for Tuvok to be the one to promote Seven of Nine to the rank of Captain in the series finale, since he helped her in her rediscovery of her humanity following her removal from the Borg Collective just as much as Janeway and the Doctor did.

I haven't even scratched the surface on what I can talk about for Voyager, but I think I will stop here for now. I may revisit the show on the blog at a later time, but for now, happy 30th anniversary Voyager, I'm thrilled you've been given some love on Picard, Lower Decks, and Prodigy over the last five years. 

Alright my friends, that's it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more posts. I probably won't post anything tomorrow, but I think I'll have some music to talk about next week. So until then have a great rest of your week and a great weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

My 90's and 2000's Experience: The Jungle Book

 Hey everyone, the holidays are over and it's time to kick off a whole new year here at the Geek Cave. As I mentioned in my last post, this year marks the 10th anniversary of me becoming a blogger. Which means I'll have lots of surprises for you this year. I've got some great ideas for the blog in 2025 and I hope you enjoy what I have planned this year. Today though I'm kicking off 2025 with a quick discussion on my favourite movie of all time: Disney's animated classic, The Jungle Book. I'm doing this a little differently than I did last year. For the movies and TV shows that I cover on the blog, I'm going to use the image of whatever physical media release I have or have had of the thing I'm talking about. So, if you want you can imagine that you're watching me on YouTube and I'm holding the VHS and/or DVD/Blu-ray of what I'm talking about. Except that I'm not. I'm writing a blog post. Same will go for books and comics, and anything else I talk about. Now, without further ado, let's get into it.

The Jungle Book is the first movie I ever saw in theaters. I talked about this in a post a long time ago, but Disney did a theatrical re-release of the movie on July 13th, 1990. I was 3 years old at the time and being that I was somewhat healthy at the time, my parents took me to see the movie. I don't know why they picked The Jungle Book as the first movie they decided to take me to see in theaters, but I suspect it has to do with the fact that I had The Bare Necessities episode of the Disney Sing-Along Songs series on VHS and was already singing along to both songs from the movie on a daily basis.

I love the music in this movie. The Sherman Brothers were major contributors to the Disney animation studio in the 60's, and everytime I watch the movie I catch myself dancing and singing (mouthing the words) along to them. Especially "The Bare Necessities" and "I Wanna Be Like You". Terry Gilkyson wrote "The Bare Necessities" and he had originally been hired to write the songs for the movie, but his songs were mostly grim and dark and not what Walt wanted for the movie, so he called in Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman in to do all new songs. But, he kept "The Bare Necessities" in because his staff at the studio loved it. I guess it was just one of those things where if the stars hadn't aligned properly or whatever, that song would never have been in the movie and I would've missed out on many hours singing along to the song. I actually have the entire soundtrack on iTunes because of how good it is.

There are certain points in the movie where I can't help but laugh. Like the first appearance of Colonel Hathi and the elephant brigade. And both times that Mowgli encounters Kaa the snake, voiced by the wonderful Sterling Holloway. Just the fact that Mowgli defeats Kaa the same way both times, simply by pushing him out of the tree, is funny and ridiculous to me at the same time.

But I think the character that represents The Jungle Book the most for me, and is my favourite character from the movie, is Baloo the bear, voiced by Phil Harris. He's just so much fun and I think Phil Harris, who ended up doing two more voice roles for Disney in the 70's, put so much life into the character just by ad-libbing and making the character his own.

The funny thing about The Jungle Book is that the 1997 VHS release was the first tape I bought to restart my VHS collection back in 2019. I've had the DVD for about ten years now. I currently have the Platinum Edition DVD in my collection, but I originally bought the Diamond Edition DVD for myself for my birthday not too long after it had come out back in 2014 and I also had the Limited Issue DVD, as I rescued it from my grandparents's house just before the pandemic hit in 2020. Up to that point I'd only ever had the original VHS, which had come out in 1991. Truth be told, I bought the Diamond Edition DVD thinking it was the Platinum Edition DVD, as the cover it showed on the website listing on the Chapters Indigo site showed the Platinum Edition DVD cover, not the Diamond Edition cover. So when I had the opportunity to get the Platinum Edition, I took it. And a friend of mine gave me my current copy of the Walt Disney Classics VHS.

I did a rewatch of the movie this weekend, and I watched it on both VHS and DVD, because I felt it was necessary. It had been a while since I'd watched the movie. It still holds up. And I think that's because, even though the remaining people said that Walt Disney was very hands on with the movie, Walt really couldn't've been as hands on with the movie closer to when it was released in 1967, as he passed away on December 15th, 1966, while the movie was still in production. So while he was more hands on during the development and early production of the movie, I really think it was the talents of the animators, musicians, voice cast, and writers that really made this movie what it is. 

If you've never seen this movie, I highly recommend watching it. It's on Disney+ and is pretty available on DVD and Blu-ray if you wanna seek it out on physical media. 

That's it for me for today. I don't know if I'm gonna do another blog post this week or not. But, I am making another guest appearance on the VHS Club Podcast this Thursday night, January 9th, at 9 pm (Eastern Standard Time) to discuss the premiere episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Encounter at Farpoint" with Katie and Nat. Until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.