A Look at Best Friends Whenever

(SOURCES:

http://la411.com/blog/post/building-character-with-time-best-friends-whenever-producers-jed-elinoff-scott-thomas-and-michael-kaplan-2

https://lostmediawiki.com/Fairest_of_the_Mall_(lost_pitch_pilot_of_cancelled_Disney_Channel_comedy_series;_2014)

https://web.archive.org/web/20170228082114/http://www.m-magazine.com/posts/best-friends-whenever-cancelled-disney-channel-does-series-will-not-have-a-third-season-126379/photos/best-friends-whenever-cast-138240 )

PREVIOUSLY ON SPONGEY444 (A Look at Jessie Season 4)

“Fink’s joke is played out but the actor makes it work even if it just makes me wish I was covering BFW instead”

Wish granted.

Hello, Spongey here.

By 2015, Disney Channel was in a transitional period when it comes to their live action shows. They were riding high in the early 2010s, with a fair amount of shows that were given decent treatment and were able to build off the successes of the past. Adults might be mixed on the likes of Jessie or ANT Farm but the lineup was still notable in its own way. By this point, Disney Sitcoms had a clear style to them even if some were better than others.

There’s a unified nature to them and you can easily detect one. Disney was really good at the synergy game with all the crossovers that help with this unified thing. But by 2015, a lot of their shows had ended or were starting to wrap up. They had to gear up a new slate and things needed to change somewhat.

They can have stuff that is more of the same like Bunk’d but they needed at least some shows that had a bit of a different feel. They had to at least try to experiment a little bit and they can helpful help them survive through the rest of the 2010s alongside the more standard stuff. I uh, throughoughly covered Jessie with its more mixed qualities.

So it only makes sense I look at a Disney Sitcom that is a proper banger that represented a direction for the channel…that didn’t quite fully take even though it should have. We’ll look at what made it tick, it’s rise (?) and ultimate fall, and why it deserved so much better than it got.

This, is A Look at Best Friends Whenever

A Look at Genie/Wish Episodes

Hello, Spongey here.

In 2023, I did a post on Body Swap episodes which was a huge hit. I decided to chase those views by making a post on Groundhog Day episodes. It was not a huge hit. However, I needed to complete the trilogy so I am here to do another plot type. I had a Twitter poll to pick which I do and here we are. This one isn’t based around a movie but rather a simple concept.

As you can see from the title, we are talking about episodes revolving around wishes and or genies. I didn’t want to lock myself to just either and I thought Genie sounded more interesting so it got included. Generally most cartoons will have an episode about a wish being granted as that can easily just be a dream in a more realistic show.

And Genies are just common in general, although not as likely to be in every show. For this, I am looking at episodes all or mostly about a wish being granted or a genie. There are shows that do that full time and some of those did get included as well. Otherwise we’re sticking to one off cases.

This is a more loose idea so finding a lot was a bit tough but I got a solid list of tons from over the years. Today we’ll look at 12 that I used a randomizer to pick from. All were random this time with jus t some being picked. Basically the first 6 were totally random, while the others I randomized two and picked from that to mix things up.

So how magical will things get with this plot type? We’ll go over how the wishes get used but mostly I’ll just judge how the episode is…as an episode, pretty simple. It’s time to jump in and see how these episodes fare for me.

This, is A Look at Genie/Wish Episodes

Spy Kids Armageddon

Holy shit-take mushrooms indeed

Hello, Spongey here.

You know what’s really big right now? Decades later sequels or “legacy sequels” as they tend to be called. Be it on TV in movies, it’s a common thing to bring back formant series. Sometime the same characters lead it or it focuses on a new generation. These can be hit or miss but there have been good ones amongst the whatever nostalgia grabs.

Today we’re looking at an example from 2023 that I just had to cover. Yep, we’re going back to Spy Kids. I’ve covered all the movies by now so it figures that I go back to it once it returns. Robert Rodriguez’ kids movies tend to have a certain charm even if they got weaker as they went on. I think Spy Kids 1 and 2 are fairly good family movies for what they are, while 3 is meh and 4 is just bad.

The 4th movie already served as the first decade later sequel for the series and it was an example of a fairly bad one. Although the most amusing part of it looking back on it is that it had Rowan Blachard who would later step into that revival world again with Girl Meets World. Anyway, it’s been 10 over years since then so you know Robert had to do it again.

He seemed to make a deal with Netflix as there was a Spy Kids cartoon on there and that’s where this movie landed. He also had We Can Be Heroes featuring Sharkboy and Lavagirl. I might cover that someday, it was okay. Then we got this which got mixed reviews and just came and went. It had some press but I didn’t see too many talk about it.

From my understanding, the old characters are mostly not in this, which is odd to me. Even 4 got Juni and Carmen, come on. Starting fresh is fine, but again you did that last time and still got your legacy appearence in there. I feel like that’s one reason not many talked about this when it came out, not much reason for nostalgic adults to care besides the name.

As I said, reception was mixed with a 54 on Rotten Tomatoes. I’ve been curious about so we’ll see how it fares. Should be an easy review. Not much reason to go over the crew, Robert did everything as usual. His son Racer is involved but now he’s an adult so should be slightly more mature. Sure. Anyway, let’s do it.

This, is Spy Kids Armageddon

Episode Battle #4: Transforming Narrators

Hello, Spongey here.

It’s time again for a new round of Episode Battle. Yes, it’s the series that not many seem to read but I enjoy doing anyway. There isn’t much to say for the intro this time. We got two more pairings that are fun ones. Not my craziest but it fits the bill for something else to put up this month. The latter pairing is one I say a lot about so stay tuned.

…Well actually it starts now so tune in now. Let’s just do it.

This, is Episode Battle #4: Transforming Narrators

Goosebumps Series 2000-Creature Teacher

Hello, Spongey here.

After a break, it’s time for me to return to Goosebumps proper. As a refresher, these Stine reviews are slowing down to “whenever I feel like it”. We’ll see what I end up covering going forward, but the Goosebumps stuff will be on the things I feel warrant a longer review vs the quick thoughts I’ve given elsewhere.

And boy today’s subject has been a longtime coming. I covered the sequel a while back and at the time I hadn’t read the first one. Now I have and I’ve been itching to review it. Goosebumps Series 2000 didn’t make a huge impression at first but overtime some of the entries have become classics. This one managed to create one of the more iconic Goosebumps monsters to the point where she indeed returned.

She also became a big fixture in the Goosebumps HorrorTown mobile game and was there from the start. Not much has been done with her since the sequel but ah well. She is the closest Series 2000 has to a mascot monster. The book has gone to be fairly acclaimed as far as Goosebumps books go. Which is funny cuz back in the Blogger Beware wasn’t that kind to it, for reasons.

But they were pretty much the only naysayers. You’ll see if I lined up with the praise although I have already reviewed this on goodreads so some of you already know lol. It’s a wild and interesting one. I think it perfectly Series 2000 and shows what I’ve been saying about it. At least I hope I have, I forget what I say sometimes.

So does it live up to the hype or will I flunk it? Let’s see.

This, is Creature Teacher

This cover is pretty good. It’s very in your face and perhaps it is trying too hard but it works. I like the design, with the contrast of the dress and the teeth/eyes. It’s not my favorite monster design but it is memorable and the cover certainly stands out. Tim Jacobus’ auto biography nd the art book show off tons of alt designs which makes you further appreciate the work put into these. So yeah, pretty good!

Animorphs-The Departure

Hello, Spongey here.

I think it’s time I truly talked about Animorphs on here. Yeah, no fancy intro, I wanted to cut to the chase. I talked about the Baby-Sitters Club movie last year to cover more from the 90’s Scholastic Big 3. Regarding Animorphs, I did review a ripoff of it but that’s not quite enough. Maybe I’ll cover a real BSC book someday but the movie is good enough for now.

I talked about Animorphs plenty when I read the series starting back in 2021 or so and when I covered Humano-morphs. But this is as good of a time as any for a refresher course. Created the wife and husband duo of Katheirne Applegrant and Micheal Grant (credited as KA Applegate), Animorphs debuted in May 1996 as Scholastic’s next big thing.

It centers around a group of kids that basically finds out that these slug aliens called Yeerks are around and taking people over. One alien who is part of the Andalite species lands, dies and before that gives them a cube that gives them the power to absorb any animal’s DNA and turn into that animal. But just for 2 hours at a time or they stay that way forever.

There’s more to it but those are the basics, these kids are now stuck in a war that gets more complicated and scary as it goes. It starts with the sort of set up you know and goes in more mature directions with it. It’s pretty well known for getting pretty dark and getting into some real themes, especially near the end. It still has its share of goofy-ness which adds to the odd charm of it all. And yeah, despite not growing up with it, I got into it when I finally did read it all.

The series does have a problem with being adapted it seems, between the TV show, hit or miss graphic novels and the movie that got trapped in development hell. The nature of it makes it hard to break into the mainstream like some other series but maybe someday someone will crack that code. It may have the oddest treatment of that big 3 but thems the breaks I guess

I figured I’d review one cuz why not. I put it to a Twitter poll, with 2 of the goofy filler books and 2 of the big heavy hitters. In the end, the winner went to one of the latter, shockingly. This was #19 in the series and came at an interesting time. It was after one of the side books, Megamorphs 2 and right before the “David Trilogy” which is a whole thing.

Big things were starting to happen and this is one of the big examples. Spoilers, this is a fan favorite. Did I end up agreeing with that? It’s time to jump in and see if this is one of the best in the series. I guess it’s morphing time.

This, is The Departure

I really like this cover. These have the same template for each cover so it’s hard to fully judge them per say but this one feels more “artistic”. The colors and Cassie’s pose gives it a sense of beauty that most of these don’t have. There’s not even a especially terrifying mid-morph this time, wow. The artist is David B Mattingly and this is some of his best work, solid stuff.

A Look at Jessie (Season 4)

Hello, Spongey here.

Well we’ve made it to the end of our journey covering the Disney Sitcom Jessie. You all know the drill by now. You should skim the other posts because I’m not explaining things too much, frankly. The show has had plenty of ups and downs so far. It started in a mixed place but at least tried, until Season 3 mostly gave up and just wasn’t that good. The shift in focus made the show kind of weird, with the extra focus on Jessie’s acting.

With things seeming to hit bottom, you have to wonder where you go from there. Disney shows are typically meant to have 3 seasons and it only gets a 4th if it proves to be especially popular. So the show may have ended there in another universe. I feel like they expected it to end there going in, so they focused a lot on her acting with the plan to get her to Hollywood at the end as the payoff. Then it got renewed and they had to change it.

Hell maybe she would have gotten married for real, that’s a sitcom thing. (Bunk’d even ends on a wedding). It may not be the case but feels likely, if it had ended early. Intead, it got that extra season. I recall Season 4 trying to right the ship by being a bit nice in places, and having more growth to some extent. While still having those bad aspects which made it feel weird and mixed.

We’ll see if my narrative holds any water. Before we get into it, we have to go over the history these shows have with 4th seasons. Once upon a time, Disney had a 65 episode limit, no matter how much the show could have gone on longer. But then That’s So Raven came along and proved to be so popular that it got a 4th season, bringing it to 100 episodes.

With the seal broken, it became common for shows to get a 4th season if they prove to be especially popular. I don’t know how close some from this period got to the 4th that didn’t get one but yeah. Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place and Good Luck Charlie would follow in its foosteps. For Suite Life they just changed the setting and made a new show for weird scummy payment reasons.

Jessie getting it felt a bit less special. For one, it wasn’t a as much of a music show as those others as Debby didn’t get as all into that stuff. It also didn’t quite break into the mainstream as much as the others although that was just a product on cable declining and whatnot. Now it seems you just need to be nostalgia bait to get one, or be Bunk’d.

Something that tends to happen in these 4th seasons is that there would be status qou change of sorts. Hannah Montana and Liv and Maddie moved to California, Austin & Ally opened a music factory, Wizards of Waverly Place had Alex give up for a bit (less drastic but it counts), Kickin’ It got a new location and Lab Rats started living on a bionic island. Raven and Good Luck Charlie avoided this despite the latter teasing it and Jessie follows suit.

Aside from one minor thing, it’s business as usual with no attempt to shake things up. That’s interesting given how mandatory it was. It can often feel forced so I don’t mind it too much but it may be a sign of just how uninterested they could have gotten behind the scenes, getting even more stagantn.

Guess we’ll see. There are less events this time which sometimes happen in final seasons, since it is past the peak and they save it for the finale. Either way, it’s all interesting. With that said, will the season pick up the pieces or are the “glory” days far behind?

This, is A Look at Jessie (Season 4)

UnGodly Goosebumps

Hello, Spongey here.

April Fools! Yep, it’s that time again. I’ve usually done some weird gimmick, like bring a guest to cover something. This time, it’s just me but I am doing something different. I usally review a movie or book, but today we’re riffing on…a thing. Yeah, I don’t quite know what this is but let me set the seen. We’ve talked about Goosebumps on here plenty.

And back in the 90’s, you had some soccer moms getting upset at the whole idea of horror for kids. There were calls for book bans and all that. But of course my favorite side of this were the Christians complaining about it. You know, the same some hating on Harry Potter and anything with magic in it. (Granted they did HP before it was cool and morally right thing to do)

There have been plenty of Chrstian scare films/videos about how that thing your kids like is evil. It was only a matter of time before Goosebumps got one. It got that one in 1996, as part of a larger show from Bob Larson. This a guy who made a name for himself as a radio and television evangelist. He has a Wikipedia page, so clearly he’s notable.

He’s still active to this day, on YouTube, Twitter, and even TikTok. He’s 80 by the way. He’s had tons of debates with Satanists, and has even done exorcisms over Skype. Man, the wonders of the digital age. One of his regular callers was the front man of death metal band Decide. I only mention this to say this qoute from that guy:

“Bob Larson is a fucking carny. He’s a showman, like myself. He does what he does for ratings and to sell his fucking cult-shit videotapes and his cassettes to you, the weak-minded fuck. Okay? […] Bob Larson has actually admitted this shit it to me. Bob Larson and me are actually kind of friends […] Bob Larson does what he does to make fucking money to support his prostitute habits”

Oh boy, even without that, it would all pretty obvious from the video we’re looking at today. In a way, I oddly respect the grift. The only trace of this is on archive.org. I can’t evidence of a VHS release, so I assume someone recorded this off one of his shows and then found it years later. Either way, I’ll have a little riff session on it. Not a big review, as it’s only 26 minutes and there isn’t too much to say on a reviewing level.

It’s April Fools so let’s have some fun. Let’s do it.

This, is UnGodly Goosebumps

Fear Street-The Prom Queen

Hello, Spongey here.

….It’s been a while, huh? Yeah, I so far I haven’t been doing my monthly looks at the works of R.L Stine. There’s a reason for that. The reason being that I was losing interest so I switched these to a “when I feel like it basis”‘. ….Not that complicated, weird. It’s not deep, honestly. I was getting a bit tired of doing one each month, it started to feel like an oblgiation.

I’ve gotten more into other things so I felt like diminishing the Stine reviews I do was a good idea. But there’s still plenty of his works I wish to cover and that is why I’m here today. We finally have a new Fear Street movie coming in May and I am pretty excited for it. It’s based on a certain book this time and that is what we’re covering now.

This book comes from the earlier-ish part of the Fear Street series. Released in March 1992, it wasn’t too long before Goosebumps came around. It’s become one of the more iconic ones, mostly based on the cover. I read it a few years back and thought it was fine, and it hasn’t stuck with me too much. But it’s time to give it a review and see how it holds up.

Did it deserve a movie? Is it one of the best? Is it better than I give it credit for? Let’s find out for ourselves.

This, is The Prom Queen

This is a great cover. It even kind happens in the book. The dress, the skull, it all works really well. Very puplp which works well. So yeah, great start.

Disney Channel’s Wish Gone Amiss

Hello, Spongey here.

It’s time once again to review a group of Disney Sitcom episodes. But this time we got ones that were clearly meant to be together. Both Disney Channel and XD would often do these nights were all the new episodes are connected by a theme. This theme can range from space to sharks. We’ve covered a few of through my Jessie retrospectives already.

I’d love how to know these come together. How often are these episodes just ones that already exist? You can tell when they were told to do cuz usually that episode can feel forced, like Jessie’s Spaced Out. But before all that, they had a big earlier attempt on July 13, 2007. On this night, they had 3 episodes about charecter making a wish on was is totally the same shooting star.

This was a one of the big events of summer 2007, alongside High School Musical 2. This even got a DVD release, the only time they did with an event outside of proper crossovers. I know I watched this when it aired and have come back to some of these. Not as much for one of them due to Disney hiding it. Otherwise, I do have fond memories of these.

But do they hold up? Or do I like them at least? That’s what we’re here to find out. We’ll look at these in the order they aired, according to the Disney Schedules Archive wiki at least. The DVD changes the order but whatever. Doesn’t matter but I gotta be accurate. I wish we would just get into it.

This, is Disney Channel’s Wish Gone Amiss Weekend