What's New Scooby-Doo
Cartoon Network
2002-2006

When people reminisce about Saturday morning cartoons, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten. In the pre smartphone era of the world, fond memories come back of going to my friend’s house to watch re-runs with him and his brother. We would all sit on their red furniture, eat popcorn and bang our heads to the best theme song in the history of television. The band who wrote the song is still performing it at their concerts 20 years later. This is the same friend I used to play Mario Kart with.

I loved seeing the gang at the X-Games, or a fashion show in France. My favorite episodes are the ones where the gang visits a theme park and the one where the gang visits New Orleans haunted by ghosts during Mardi Gras.

Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorparated
Cartoon Network
2010-2013

When we were in middle school, this is one of the few shows my twin sister and I enjoyed watching together. As lovers of Scooby-Doo in general, we both felt this was a much more sophisticated story for the gang to be involved in. At the time the plot made no sense to us. We usually missed episodes when they first premiered and would more often watch re-runs completely out of order. From our perspective, we were engaging with each episode as a stand-alone rather than part of an overarching plot. I did try to play the flash game they released to coincide with the show’s plot, but found it confusing and abandoned it quickly.

The Looney Tunes Show
Cartoon Network
2011-2013

I am astonished at how much better this show as an adult then how I remembered it. Bugs Bunny got rich by inventing the carrot peeler and now owns a large, well-furnished home in the suburbs. Daffy Duck has been living with Bugs for years without paying rent, getting involved in get rich quick schemes, and driving a parade float. The series portray the Looney Tunes cast applying for jobs, getting traffic tickets, and going on dates. Bugs Bunny gets into a feud with his cable provider for shutting off his cable during the NBA finals.

The episode where Bugs refuses to ask for help putting up a shelf for his Nobel Prize continuously has me rolling on the floor and laughing. Having worked at Office Max for years, I have never seen a better representation of the store then I have in the Copy Shop Daffy’s girlfriend works at.

Wizards of Waverley Place
Disney Channel
2007-2012

One of the things I remember the most about this show is the movie. On Disney’s website they added a bunch of things to promote the film including a page where you could put yourself in a virtual postcard to send to someone. The cards were all based on scenes from the movie and I don’t think I ever sent one to anyone other than my parents, but I thought it was really cool to do on our family computer. One of my favorite scenes in the show is the crazy 10 minute sale.

I also remember playing through the flash game based on the movie multiple times. Bwcuase I never got an XBOX or PlayStation, while most of my friends had Halo or Call of Duty, I was playing Mario Kart and Flash games like Pizza Party Pickup in Internet Explorer on Windows XP.

Destroy! Build! Destroy!
Cartoon Network
2009-2011

“Hello, my name is Andrew W.K. and this is Destroy! Build! Destroy! It’s the competition where two teams destroy stuff, use the wreckage to build awesome machines to compete with, and the losers get DESTROYED!”

One of the episodes featured actors from Scooby-Doo the Mystery Begins, with the yellow team comprised of Shaggy, Fred and Daphne. Even though the film has a lot of flaws, I have a big soft spot in my heart for it and I really believe the actors were passionate about their performances.

In hindsight I think this is where some of my passion for building things come from. I’ve never taken any engineering classes much to the disappointment of my parents, but I always loved school projects where teachers encouraged us to build things. One of my favorites being making a recreation of the Batter Sea Shield out of cardboard and foil.