Watch Cartoon Online

The Simpsons mascots TM & © 20th Century Studios, Inc.

 For the past several years, I've been watching some of my animated shows on a Magyar-based pirate site called Watch Cartoon Online (even though that kind of thing is more discussed on the sister blog).  At first, it was for American Dad! after it moved from Fox to TBS before I got Dish.  Then my DVR crashed, and I got a new one when I moved house. Now if Duncanville is renewed and is on Hulu for Series Four, I can watch it on WCO instead of paying for a subscription since I can't do streaming like most people these days (although I am considering getting it and a stronger ISP and leaving Dish.  What drove me to write this however was the other night, I fell asleep and missed most of the Sunday night lineup!  Then I learned that I have to register and pay for it now, and it's sort of a poor mans Netflix for animation, whether it's this type, or anime and Manga from Japan.  I could even go back to a certain episode of Bobs Burgers or The Great North (not on long enough yet for syndication).  WCO said that rises in electricity for the servers left them no choice, given recent events of the past year, and in a country with a little less money and a history.  I tried to watch them legally on the FOX NOW app, but it wouldn't properly recognise my Dish account.  I've had less trouble with the social, mind.

I'd only planned on using the site once in a while, but now if I nod off again in future, or something comes up and I forget to record or it can't wait, I have backup now.  WCO have tonnes of material.  They even have Loren Bouchards only current non-Fox series Central Park from Apple TV that I could look into.  It may not work on peoples TVs like the real streaming services, just phones and devices.

Impacted by Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma

 

The sun could be on CBS Sunday Morning.

This family health crisis and the lack of any ideas not covered by the mainstream media is why I haven't posted in a period.

UPDATE: Susan Sposato 1949-2023

Still need support to tie up loose ends.

Democracy Now!

Host and co-founder Amy Goodman at the 2010 Chicago Green Festival

 Democracy Now! is an independent, liberal news programme that airs in non-commercial, first-run international syndication, including many PBS member stations as well as radio (mainly NPR affiliates).  However, WCNY here in town has just pulled it from their schedule from subchannel GlobalConnect, which itself has just been retired.  The lineup has been revamped.  Unless they bring it back, there's nowhere else but online to watch it for those of us who can.  They did however, bring back PBS World, which other member stations provide, and the site says they'll still carry DN.  I hope so as it provides a different and alternative perspective to the hard-hitting headlines of the day.

UPDATE: The programme has returned to Ch. 24. It's just on a little less and GlobalConnect was restored in place of World.

Duncanville

Series star and co-creator SNL alum Amy Poehler at the 2012 Peabody Awards

 I'm still on my prom kick, and Duncanville is primed to be the next show to have one since the characters there seem old enough now (it already came up this season).  Duncan tries to plan a prom-posal for his girlfriend Mia, who is a free-spirited liberal who thinks prom is an outdated ritual, despite becoming more inclusive in recent years.  She does say yes.  Their other three friends manage to get dates.  Duncans parents Jack and Annie recall when they went to prom.  Their Kimberly can't wait until she's old enough, while little Jing is too young to fully understand what it's all about beyond being like a ball in a faery story.  Popular teacher Mr Mitch also DJs the do (he does it all in their small town).  Something must happen at the hotel or wherever it'll be held so we have a show.  Could happen next year in Series 4.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, Fox cancelled the show, and the remaining episodes will only be on Hulu (which I can't afford, so I will just go to "the other place"). Only having the show air during the summer didn't really help when ratings are generally lower.  Also, an episode Hulu aired showed the kids at a semi-formal, which is close enough to prom.

Bobs Burgers

Menu at a real life restaurant in the Benelux (same copyright as The Great North)

 With the Bobs Burgers film coming out (the rare time that I go to the cinema for a scripted, fictional film; it has a water main break, which is common in my area in the winter because of ageing pipes), I had an idea for an episode.  The Belchers and Gayle, Lindas sister, are invited to a wedding of their cousin on the sisters' side of the family, but their elderly parents in Florida can't make the long trip.  There isn't much extended family known, and it's a rare event for them (although they catered a wedding several series ago).  While my prom episode prediction went where I least expected it to in a recent episode (their Tina wearing a prom dress for a fundraiser), I pictured the wedding being at some multi-room venue in town with the local high school prom next door and Tina crashes it with an older boy that she meets across the aisle from out of town about to go to his own another weekend, but now that would have to be reconsidered now that prom has been done in some form.  Gene and Louise would have to sit at the kids' table with the flower girl and ring bearer.  Single girl Gayle is determined to catch the bouquet thrown by the bride! (Ladies, can you relate?!)  The kids make sure their spinster auntie wins the pools by the end of the do!  Linda has a bit of champagne! Gayle also gets a couple numbers from men she meets there, perhaps.  Cue mess!

I've been to more proms than weddings (a story for another day, mind), so I would go too if it were for real.  As for the plot, this could probably work.  Maybe another day, Bob and Linda could go to an adult prom since they met well after high school, but he might find it a bit too contrived for his taste.  We'll just go with a wedding then.

The Great North

TM & © 20th Television (Disney).

Groundbreaking animated series The Great North set in remote small town Lone Moose, AK is in Series Two on Fox.  What there needs to be is an episode about prom, since two of the characters, Ham and Judy (second from top) are at that age, although a similar episode aired last season.  A side plot would be Moon (top) having to dissect a frog in class and being able to do so aimlessly since he knows how to clean fish as the family run a fishing boat, and there could be an adult prom for newlyweds and film fanatics Wolf and Honeybee to go to while doting dad Beef chaperones and shows Moon what prom is like several years ahead.  Judys boss at work Alyson from the photo studio would take snaps and set up a booth.  Ham already found a tuxedo at the charity shop in a recent episode.  We would have to see which boy would come up with a prom-posal for Judy.

I couldn't write a script for a radio advert if I tried, and fan fiction doesn't sit well with the solicitors or writers unions.  If nothing is planned this year, maybe next year as it takes several months for an idea to go from the drawing board to air.  The other animated shows from 20th on Fox or TBS (American Dad! since 2014) have already put prom into the storyline in one way or another except Bobs Burgers as those kids are too young (unless their Tina tries to sneak into a prom, although she got to be a prom queen for a charity limo race), Housebroken is about house pets, while Duncanville also has teenagers that could have prom, even though that only airs in the middle of the year (The Simpsons had a flashback or two and flash-forward in their record-setting long run).

UPDATE (1 May 2023): The Series 3 Finale will have Judy and her friend Kima trying to get dates for the do, so I guess the spirits were telling me all along.  The episode is a cliffhanger for Sweeps, and the plot is not one Mary Whitehouse would have liked to put it that way.

Keeping Up Appearances

Patricia Routledge in 2012 at the local (Hyacinth Bouquet in a public house?!)

 It looks like Keeping Up Appearances has unceremoniously been removed from WCNY in my area, as it has from many other PBS member stations over the years.  While Britbox (a joint venture of the BBC and itv) if not other streaming services would now carry it, the shows cancellation from channel 24 would be inconvenient for those who can't afford streaming, or are unfamiliar with newer technology, even DVDs, which are available.  Hyacinth Bucket, I mean Bouquet (Patricia Routledge) would be straight on her white, slimline telephone with last minute redial to complain!  Some may even consider her an OG Karen like Mary Whitehouse perhaps!  If her Sheridan were here, he would be appalled!

In fairness, I've seen every episode hundreds of times.  Saturday night won't be the same.  I may have wiped any episodes from my DVR, which I now regret.  Other Britcoms have also been discontinued over the past few decades.  Affiliates have to pay extra for the rights, and the pandemic has dominoed into just about everything, including the station and viewers' budgets.  Also, Friday and Saturday nights in the past thirty years have left low ratings in the Nielsens as people go out in normal times, so the show became a lower priority after playing it all that time.  It used to even air on BBC America, which is now BBC in name only for commercial purposes.  Might as well watch Channel 4 (rival pubcaster in the UK which our Hyacinth thinks is for a lower class of people)! She had a good run over here.

UPDATE: It's alright!  The show is back on again.  Looks like it was just on another hiatus for a period. We were firm!  It has gone off of other stations however.  Now we just need a free photo of missus for Wikipedia since this one isn't suitable and the one from To Sir with Love had merely a legal loophole.