Re: Swat Kats change your life...

From: Ratman <rat_at_sard.mv.net>
Date: Wed, 31 May 1995 15:42:48 -0400 (EDT)

not sure what did it, but the who machine that does the mailing list was in
an unstable state. Programs were crashing constantly, and we finally had to
just reboot it.
Then it kept acting up, and I think we got it now. had to turn the cache
off.

Anyway, here's a message that was a victim of this (sorry Andy!)....
---------------------------

Date: Wed, 31 May 1995 06:47:44 -0700 (PDT)
From: Andy Hill <chance_at_unix.infoserve.net>
To: kats_at_sard.mv.net
Subject: Re: Swat Kats change your life...


On Wed, 31 May 1995, Matthew Milam wrote:

> I want to ask you guys something...
>
> Do you think that these cartoons even "Swat Kats" can change the lives of
> people
> in the world?
>
> I just want to know since my dad seems to detest everything to television
> Swat Kats: The Radical Squardon.

     Hmm...you generally keep tuning into a show because you like the
characters in it, and you may even like them to the point you either
consciously or unconsciously emulate them or aspects of them to a
degree. In this respect, perhaps they can "change your life" by adding
something to the mix. In my case, and this is going to sound incredibly
lame, the characters "work" to the point where they end up being added to
the list of personalities that make up "friends" you know - no blurring
of the lines of reality in this case - it's just that the same things I
like about the TMNT and SwatKats I also appreciate in three-dimensional
friends. Do you know how you can tell that the characters have become
more than just pretty colours going by in a show? You read someone's
fanfic or something and catch yourself saying "...(character) wouldn't do
that...no, that's wrong" or similar. Just as something seems very
obviously out of character with someone you've known for quite a while,
so too with characters like the 'KATS. In another respect, I find most
television really shallow, and I wouldn't give most of it the time of
day, but hearing a couple of months ago about the cancellation kind of
set off major alarm bells in my mind incessantly ringing "this is wrong".
Regardless of what the better parenting guides say, kids need heroes/role
models, and will look for them whether or not teachers/parents want them
too or not. T-Bone and Razor are great ones, and I was going to try and
do anything I could to make sure they'd stick around for people that
viewed them in this light. I've devoted hours to hassling Ted's boys, so
perhaps in this respect I've had my life-course altered (plus the fact
that I'm an animation fan, and anything this good belongs on the air, not
on the shelf).

     A lot of us are mid twenties/thirties etc, and we are basically the
first generation to grow up with cartoons as part of what makes us who we
are. The earlier generation, especially if they immigrated from overseas
in the 60's, don't generally have much appreciation for toons becuase it
was drummed into their parental heads during the 70's that "cartoons are
for kids". Well, that's nonsense. There are _very_ intelligent people
that watch cartoons like 'KATS (Harlan Ellison, apparently), and I think
you'll find that most adults who dismiss the entire genre as "crap" or
similar flick the channel and land on "Married with Children", which is
about the biggest irony I can imagine.

Andy




Received on Wed May 31 1995 - 16:31:07 PDT