Discussion [Lesser-Known Fandoms] Tell us about yours! (image-heavy)

Name of original work: Xenosaga
Original creator(s): Tetsuya Takahashi, Soraya Saga
Original language and country of origin: Japanese, Japan
Media type: Video games (Trilogy)
Short summary: Six thousand years into the future, mankind has abandoned earth and exists as a galactic Federation linked by the UMN, a network that is the basis of communications and hyperspace travel. Starships, mecha, and synthetic humans (Realians) are a common sight. Terrorized by the alien Gnosis and divided by factions struggling to control ancient artifacts, humanity's fate lies in the hands of a select few: Shion Uzuki, an engineer working for the largest business conglomerate Vector Industries; KOS-MOS, an anti-Gnosis battle android; chaos, a youth with mysterious powers; Ziggurat 8 "Ziggy," a 100-year-old cyborg with a past; MOMO, a Realian holding secret data within her consciousness; Jr., a genetically engineered bioweapon; and Jin Uzuki, Shion's eccentric sword-wielding brother.
Links for more info: Wikipedia
Images:

[image=http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/4179/3dshionqf5.jpg]
Shion Uzuki

[image=http://images.wikia.com/xenosaga/images/9/92/KOS-MOS_XS4.jpg]
KOS-MOS

[image=http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q258/tiki81/Xenosaga/3D_Jr.jpg]
Jr.

[image=http://www.rpgamer.com/games/xeno/xenosaga2/art/xenosaga2043.jpg]
The Elsa

 

It's occurred to me that I haven't been doing these for fandoms outside my Ultimate Challenge set. Fortunately, I think I've only posted for two fandoms that really qualify. [Correct me if I'm wrong.]


Action League Now!
U.S. stop-motion (mostly) animated series
Best-remembered as a segment of the Nickelodeon program Kablam!, this series was about a superhero team made up of action figures. Members included the Flesh ("He's super strong and super naked!"), Thundergirl, Stinky Diver, and Meltman. Their primary nemesis was the villainous Mayor. The animation was done very cheaply; instead of using miniature backgrounds and props, the producers just shot the toys in ordinary locations and interacting with everyday household objects.


The Snowlets
1998 Olympic mascots
These four snow owls, Sukki, Nokki, Lekki, and Tsukki -- the first syllables formed Sunoletsu, or "Snowlets" -- were the mascots for the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. They were given different personalities and were (like the 2008 Beijing mascots) associated with the classical elements.

 

Here are a few more from crossovers posted in the last few months.


Cartoon Planet
1995-1999 US animated series
Cartoon Planet was a spin-off from Space Ghost Coast to Coast, with Space Ghost, Zorak, and Brak (who had made only brief appearances on Coast to Coast) in a looser format of short pieces, recurring sketches, and songs. Originally, these were interspersed with old Tom and Jerry or Warner Brothers cartoons, but these were later excised. The bizarre characterization of Brak subsequently seen in The Brak Show came out of this program.

Clangers
1969-1972 UK stop-motion animated series
Clangers, created by Oliver Postgate, was an animated series about a family of creatures (voiced by actors using slide whistles) living on a tiny blue planet, alongside such friends as the Froglets and Soup Dragon. The show also made a famous appearance in the 1972 Doctor Who story "The Sea Devils" and a briefer one in the film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider.

Cold Comfort Farm
1932 UK novel (and adaptations)
Written in 1932 by Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm was the comic tale of Flora Poste, a young London woman taken in by distant relations, the rural Starkadder clan, who felt they owe her for some unnamed offense against her father. Flora's response to these circumstances was to set about upsetting the equilibrium of farm life and improving the prospects of the various Starkadders. A 1995 film adaptation starred Kate Beckinsale as Flora and featured Ian McKellen and Rufus Sewell as two of the Starkadders.

Quatermass
UK television serials
Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Rocket Group (created by Nigel Kneale) was the central character of various television serials (and their film adaptations), starting with The Quatermass Experiment in 1953, followed by Quatermass II and Quatermass and the Pit in the '50s and Quatermass in 1979. The first three were also made for the big screen, and a television remake of the original serial was made in 2005.

 

Well, it's at least as obscure as Avatar.

Name of original work: Pokemon
Original creator(s): (If known) Satoshi Tajiri
Original language and country of origin: Japanese/Japan
Media type: Video game, anime, manga
Short summary:
Pretty much your typical 'imaginary creatures' stuff. There's all these different critters called Pokemon that only say their names and nothing else, and people catch them in tiny red and white capsules and then keep them as pets and make them fight other Pokemon. I'm sure there's a way to explain it that doesn't sound so dumb, 'cause it's not, but I don't know it.
Links for more info:Wikipedia

 

From this week's first set for UDC4:


Arsène Lupin
French novels and short stories
In 1905, Maurice Leblanc wrote the first of a long-running series of stories about the talented gentleman-thief Arsène Lupin. The character, while not as well-known in the English-speaking world, has been a perennial favorite in France and other countries, inspiring films and television series (including a successful anime, Lupin III).

Atom Ant
'60s US television series
Atom Ant was the star of a series of Hanna-Barbera cartoon shorts starting in 1965. He was an insect superhero who battled gangsters, mad scientists, and their monsters to save the day. The shorts were originally aired with ones starring Secret Squirrel, but they were combined with different characters for syndication.

 

I'm sure someone out there will hate me for this, but whatever.

Name of original work: Equilibrium
Original creator(s): Kurt Wimmer
Original language and country of origin: English, America
Media type: Movie!
Short summary: Basically, a totalitarian government doesn't want people to feel emotion anymore, and uses a drug to stop people from feeling. The main character goes off the drug, and takes down the government.
Links for more info: http://equilibriumfans.com
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238380/
Images: Can be found on both of the preceding sites.

I'm in the middle of a fic for this, and hope to upload it in the future.

 

I love Equilibrium! I've got a half-written fic for that one myself.


Firefly
Short-lived sci-fi series aired on Fox, written and directed by Joss Whedon. Centuries from now Humanity must abandon the Earth. They find a fairly complicated star system with lots of habitable planets. The most habitable become the 'Core' worlds, which are soon thriving metropoli. Out on the broder planets things are more difficult, with a very 'western' flavor. The story follows the crew of a small freighter (a firefly class ship) as they help a brother and sister escape the clutches of the increasingly totalitarian government.


The Fall of Ile-Rien
Trilogy of books by Martha Wells, set in a fantasy version of WWI England. The story follows Tremaine Valiarde as she and her friends try to find the source of the foreign invasion and stop it before their world is lost forever.

 

I know it's been months since I've had more than a glance in, but did I miss something where someone didn't know what Firefly was? Really? [If so, I would presume the mods had them permabanned, so explanations would still be unnecessary.]

 

Age OF Fire
A book Series by E.E Knight
This series is hands down my favorite book series of all time. It's about three dragon hatchlings who are orphaned and have to grow up in a world were dragons are hunted almost to extinction. They are wingless for their first 15 years so they walk most of the time but these books are great action-adventure books although they are very violent. The first three books tell the tale of how each grows up and the last three, one of which will not come out until December 2010. But anyways, these are amazing books and are told from the perspective of the dragon protagonist in third person.

[image=http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n29/n148422.jpg]
[image=http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/mas_assets/full/parent-9780451462954.jpg]

 

I know it's been months since I've had more than a glance in, but did I miss something where someone didn't know what Firefly was? Really?

On the boards, I think it's pretty safe to say that most at know of Firefly. Off the boards... a disturbing number hear 'Firefly' and either go 'Whaa?' or 'bugs?!'
*is terribly happy when she hooks someone else into Firefly*

Ranger's Apprentice
Media Type: Book series.
Country of Origin: Australia
Summary: Teenage fantasy/adventure fiction. Basically, a group of orphans reach the age of apprenticship, and Will is chosen by the mysterious Ranger, Halt. He reluctantly accepts and is trained in stealth, tracking and archery (among other things). Many adventures against enemies that are trying to topple the kingdom of Arulean, Viking-like cultures, etc. Up to book 9 in the series, and over 5 years have passed between books 1-9.
Links: Wiki article

 

Name of original work: Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Original creator(s): (If known) Rick Riordan

Original language and country of origin: English/I'm guessing USA

Media type: Book series, soon to be movie

Short summary: (Taken off the back of the first book)
Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school...again. But can he really be expected to stand by while a bully picks on his scrawny best friend? Or not defend himself against his pre-algebra teacher when she turns into a monster and tries to kill him? Of course, no one believes Percy about the monster incident; he's not even sure he believes himself. Until the Minotaur chases him to summer camp....Suddenly, mythical creatures seem to be walking out of the pages of Percy's Greek mythology textbook and into his life. The gods of Mount Olympus, he's coming to realize, are very much alive in the twenty-first century.

Very good set of 5 books that are now done (though I've seen something about Riordan writing another story, whether or not it's in the same fandom hasn't been revealed yet). Great potential as a fandom too, pretty much just look at all of the old greek myths and find out how to modernize it, that's where you get a number of smaller sub-plots in the books. Like one where the main character kills a Nemean and he puts on it's skin like Hercules, but instead of becoming a cloak it becomes a duster. Just an overall great series that handles some deep thinking things but does it in a way that it's target audience can understand the message (8 y.o. to preteens). I can't be too high on it, definitely something for whoever enjoys greek mythology.

Links for more info: percyjackson.wikia.com/

 

And they're making it into a movie, which is coming out I believe next month.

 

Well, yes, but people who aren't on the board wouldn't be reading the thread, would they? So we can safely discount Great Aunt Eunice, who's never heard of Firefly (but, frankly, can't distinguish between Star Wars and Star Trek, either), in deciding what fandoms people may not know. I generally consider three categories of fandoms for inclusion: older properties, which members in their teens and early twenties may not know; foreign ones that may be unfamiliar in the US (which is much better at exporting than at importing anything that isn't Japanese animation); and those that are simply obscure.




Typing of which, my most recent set included...

Black Books
2000-2004 UK television series (18 episodes)
Created by Dylan Moran and Graham Lineham
Black Books was a situation comedy about Bernard Black (Moran), the misanthropic owner of a small bookstore, his assistant/flatmate Manny (Bill Bailey), and his friend Fran (Tamsin Greig). [The series is currently available on Hulu in the US, but registration is required, since it's intended for mature audiences.]

 

Ah, Black Books... Awesome! Friends recently introduced this series to me. For which I am very grateful!

 

From my latest set...


The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley
1989 US television series
This was a 1989 cartoon based on the Ed Grimley character, whom Martin Short had played on both SCTV and Saturday Night Live. Ed was manic and childlike, with a prominent cowlick at the front of his hair. Supporting characters included Ed's neighbors and TV host Count Floyd (SCTV alum Joe Flaherty in live-action segments).

 

Okay, I've written in a lot of fandoms since that last post, but I'll try to limit this to ones that are actually obscure.



Goofus and Gallant
Magazine comic strip
Created by Garry Cleveland Myers
Goofus and Gallant is a long-running feature in the magazine Highlights for Children (best-known as a staple of doctors' waiting rooms). The strip didn't have a real storyline but simply showed one boy, Goofus, doing something rude or dangerous and another, Gallant, doing the proper thing. And it's still been going since 1948.


Madame Fatal
1940 US comic book
Created by Art Pinajian
Madame (or Madam) Fatal was a recurring character in the Quality Comics anthology title Crack Comics from 1940-1942. Fatal was secretly actor Richard Stanton, who fought crime by dressing as an old woman. DC Comics bought out Quality in the 50s, appropriating its characters (including Plastic Man), but they've never made much use of Madame Fatal, for whatever reason.


UHF
1989 US film
Written by Al Yankovic and Jay Levey
UHF (released as The Vidiot from UHF in some countries) was a 1989 film vehicle for "Weird Al" Yankovic. He played George Newman, a hopeless slacker given a failing TV station by his uncle (who won it in a poker game).


Vancouver 2010 Olympic mascots
These might not quite be obscure yet, but within another month will be. For those already forgetting, Quatchi was a sasquatch, Miga a mythical sea bear, and Sumi an animal guardian spirit. Most importantly, the mascots had a sidekick, Mukmuk, who was a marmot.


Z Cars
1962-1978 UK television series
Created by Troy Kennedy Martin and Allan Prior
Z Cars began as a gritty (for the time) police procedural, focusing on a group of officers in the north of England. During these years, central characters included DCI Barlow (played by Stratford Johns), PC John Watt (Frank Windsor), and PC "Fancy" Smith (Brian Blessed). In 1965, the show ended, and some of the main cast were spun off into a show called Softly, Softly. In 1967, Z Cars was revived with a mostly-new cast as a twice-weekly soap.

 

Time to go through a few more of these. Most of 'em this time are older series the kids may not remember.


Hong Kong Phooey
1974 US animated series
Hong Kong Phooey was a Hanna-Barbera cartoon about a bumbling martial artist hero. Phooey (voiced by Scatman Crothers) was secretly Penry, a janitor at the police station staffed by Sergeant Flint and Rosemary, the telephone operator with a crush on Phooey. [Neither she, nor anyone else noticed that Penry/Phooey was an anthropomorphized dog.] The only one who knew the secret was his (non-anthropomophic) feline sidekick, Spot.

Horse Feathers
1932 US film
Horse Feathers starred Groucho Marx as Huxley College's new president, Quincy Wagstaff, who mistakenly recruits Baravelli (Chico Marx) and Pinky (Harpo Marx) for the school's football team. Their brother Zeppo Marx played Wagstaff's son, Frank. This is the film people are referencing when the password is "swordfish."

I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again
1964-73 UK radio series
I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again was a long-running sketch comedy series whose stars included John "Otto" Cleese and all three future Goodies (Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, and Bill Oddie). Much of the humor derived from puns and silliness, and songs by Oddie were a regular feature. Usually, an elaborate extended piece (often a historical tale or a retelling of a classic story) would take up much of the second half of an episode, and these sometimes included recurring characters such as the lecherous Lady Constance de Coverlet (Brooke-Taylor) and her manservant, Grimbling (Oddie).

I Spy
1965-68 US television series
I Spy chronicled the adventures of two globetrotting spies, Kelly Robinson (Robert Culp) and Alexander "Scotty" Scott (Bill Cosby). Using Kelly's cover as a professional tennis player (Scott was his trainer), the two would spend travel to different exotic locales, troubleshooting for the US government.

The Knights of Prosperity
2007 US television series
The Knights of Prosperity was a short-lived ABC comedy starring Donal Logue as the leader of a group of would-be thieves who came together to rob Mick Jagger's penthouse. After that failed, they moved on to other celebrities; they were still working on robbing Ray Romano when the show was canceled.

M.A.N.T.I.S.
1994-95 US television series
M.A.N.T.I.S. was a one-season Friday-night Fox series about the title hero (Carl Lumbly). Millionaire Miles Hawkins, paralyzed below the waist after he was shot during a riot, became a hero by wearing an exoskeleton he had designed. [Sadly, unlike some other Fox Friday failures, this has not aged well. Trust me.]

My Mother the Car
1965-66 US television series
My Mother the Car starred Jerry Van Dyke as David Crabtree, who finds a 1928 Porter with the soul of his mother (voiced by Ann Southern) inside. His family refuse to believe (and she refuses to speak in front of them), and typical sitcom hijinks ensue. The Simpsons' "Lovematic Grandpa" segment was a parody of the premise (and especially the theme song) of this series. [This show has been infamous for decades as one of the worst ever, based almost entirely on its premise, but it's unwarranted. The show's not great, but it's not painfully terrible, either; it's mediocre, but no more than a lot of 60s sitcoms (with and without fantastic premises) that have much better reputations.]

The Perils of Penelope Pitstop
1969 US animated series
The Perils of Penelope Pitstop was a Hanna-Barbera spinoff of their Wacky Races cartoon. Pitstop was a naive southern lass who would travel the world, menaced by the villainous Hooded Claw (voiced by Paul Lynde), who was secretly her guardian, Sylvester Sneekly. Protecting her (and also brought over from Wacky Races) were the Ant Hill Mob, a group of dimunitive gangsters. Unlike the earlier series, set in the present, this show tried to emulate the serials of the 20s

 

Mr. Drabb, I want to read your Vancouver Olympics mascot fics. That sounds like the greatest thing ever.

And now I want to write an Apocalypse Now style crossover fic about a guerrilla war between the Quatchis and the Ewoks, as if my muse isn't already derailed enough.

 

Every single fandom I've posted in this thread is one I've posted something for on the fic boards. If it's one I posted about this year (since I started using the Salacious Drabb sock), then it's in either the UDC4 or general drabble thread in my sig. And while I'm here, let's get two more fandoms out of the way.

The Guild
US web series
The Guild stars Felicia Day (who also wrote it) as a Cyd, whose character Codex is a member of "The Knights of Good," a guild on an unnamed fantasy MMORPG (that definitely isn't World of Warcraft). During the first season, she and her guildmates meet each other for the first time, and they become friends (more or less) outside the game as well.

Robbie the Reindeer
UK television specials
Robbie the Reindeer is the main character of three specials made for Comic Relief. [The first two have also aired in the US, but with mostly-new voice actors.] In "Hooves of Fire," Robbie (Ardal O'Hanlon/Ben Stiller), son of a red-nosed guy who must not be named, arrives at the North Pole as Santa's new navigator, but when villainous Blitzen (Steve Coogan/Hugh Grant) makes the navigator redundant, Robbie must train with the help of Donner (Jane Horrocks/Britney Spears) and Old Jingle (Harry Enfield/Jerry Stiller) to secure a spot on the squad. In "The Legend of the Lost Tribe," Blitzen, with help from rabbit accomplice Warren Hutch (Jeff Goldblum/Jeff Goldblum), comes back for revenge, and Robbie must seek the aid of a lost group of vikings. In "Close Encounters of the Herd Kind," it's Robbie's and Donner's wedding day, but the bride is kidnapped by the alien Queen Vorkana (Gillian Anderson), and Donner's sister Em (Kiera Knightley) works for a top-secret government agency dedicated to monitoring alien activity on Earth.

 

I don't know if these would count as lesser-known, but I don't see any of these stories being written on here for some strange reason. Maybe they are too tough to write for, but I would love to read some of these.

1. Avatar
2. Eureka
3. Warehouse 13

 

I haven't written any fics for this one, but I might one day, because I love this fandom very much...

Name of original work: The Witcher
Original creator(s): Andrzej Sapkowski
Original language and country of origin: Poland
Media type: Book series - two books of (loosely related) short stories and a pentalogy of novels (the first book of short stories and the first novel of the pentalogy have been translated into English). There was also a Polish TV series adaptation of the short stories, but it was crap (apart from the main character). Later a PC game was created based on the books.
Short summary: Geralt of Rivia is a witcher - a professional slayer of monsters. As a child, he was subjected to a series of mutations that gave him supernatural abilities - fast reflexes, superior sight and hearing, ability to heal faster than ordinary people, and ability to use low-level magic (called Signs). He lives in a world inhabited by humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes and dryads, although the relationships between humans and non-humans have been rather strained. It is also a world without a clearly defined good and evil, and with rather complicated politics, but Geralt has a strong moral sense of his own. His best friend is bard Dandelion, who occasionally travels with him (their friendship has been commented upon by several people as very strange). He also has a very, VERY complicated relationship with the sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg, but the bottom line is that they love each other, even if they don't always admit it. The two books of short stories are more or less unrelated adventures of Geralt as he roams the world, seeking work, but the pentalogy of novels deals with his relationship to Ciri, the "Child of Surprise", who is the heiress to the throne of the kingdom of Cintra and who was promised to Geralt by her father when Geralt freed him from a curse. Geralt was hesitant to take Ciri, as he doesn't believe in fate, but when chance (or fate) brought them together three times, the last time after the war with Nilfgaard during which Cintra was destroyed, he took her as his own daughter. He brought her to Kaer Morhen, the keep of the witchers, to train her as a witcher. Later, when it was discovered that she is a Source of magical Power, she was taken by Yennefer to study magic at the Academy of Arethusa in Gors Velen. But Ciri disappeared during a wizards' uprising, and Geralt, determined to find her, started to journey south, eventually gathering around him the most unlikely group of companions (a bard, a huntress, a vampire, and a Nilfgaardian soldier who claimed he wasn't a Nilfgaardian).
Links for more info: The Witcher Wiki
Images:
Geralt and Yennefer
[image=http://www.sapkowski.cz/gfx/galerie/ceska/z1pp84.gif]
Geralt and Ciri
[image=http://www.sapkowski.cz/gfx/galerie/ceska/zaklinac2/ciri_a_geralt.jpg]
Geralt, Dandelion and Yennefer (and a dragonling)
[image=http://www.sapkowski.cz/gfx/galerie/ceska/zaklinac2/hranice17.jpg]
Geralt (from the PC game)
[image=http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070720023216/witcher/images/5/5a/Geralt_z_gry.jpg]

 

Not remotely. Considering that one of them is the highest-grossing film ever (unadjusted, admittedly), it's pretty much the opposite of lesser-known. As for the two Syfy shows, I've drabbled one of them (twice, but the second isn't posted yet).

Since my last post, I've also drabbled the following that qualify.


Paranoia
US Role-Playing Game
Paranoia was created in 1984 by West End Games (which later also made the RPG for something called Star Wars) and was set in the underground dystopia of Alpha Complex. The Complex was overseen by a slightly loopy computer that sought to eliminate all communists, mutants, and other traitors (which, if you want to get technical, included just about everybody). Death was so common, each player got six clone copies of each character, and even then, survival wasn't assured. If you haven't guessed, this was a comedic game, with the humor coming from graphic slapstick violence, bureaucratic satire, and puns. Lots and lots of puns and other wordplay.

Raffles
UK Short Stories (and adaptations)
A.J. Raffles, created by E.W. Hornung, was a gentleman thief and master of disguise in a series of short stories written in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His assistant is his old schoolmate, "Bunny" Manders.

Raines
2007 US Television Series
Raines, which ran on NBC for all of seven episodes, was a cop show starring Jeff Goldblum as Det. Raines, who hallucinated the victims of the murders he was solving. The show made no pretense that these were anything other than figments of his imagination, and they altered as he learned more about them.

 

Well if that's the case: This should be better:

Birds of Prey
A one season only TV show that aired between 2002 and 2003 about The Huntress (the daughter of Batman and Catwoman) under the Oracle (Formerly BatGirl) and a young protege serve as protects of Gotham after Batman goes missing. A totally misunderstood series by the makers of Smallville.

This one I'm not sure if it qualifies, but...
The Greatest American Hero
The short lived television series from Stephen J. Cannel (The creator of The A Team). A liberal teacher is given a suit of unlimited powers but looses the instruction manual and to top it off, is forced to work with an ultra-conservative FBI Agent. Together they learn to work together to stop crime in it's tracks.

I still say Warehouse 13 qualifies, at least based on what the commercial says that the show is watched by 3 million viewers. That's not a lot of people when compared to shows like Heroes which at one time boasted over 24 million.

Maybe that could be a topic of discussion. How many views does a show have to have to be considered lesser known. LOL!

Glad to know that there others out there who like Eureka or Warehouse 13 along with me, let along Dr. Who.

 

Okay, let's look at those. Greatest American Hero, definitely fits lesser-known. It's an older series with limited airplay in recent years. If I'd posted any fic for it, I'd have written it up myself. Birds of Prey is borderline; I wouldn't have listed it myself but wouldn't feel insulted for seeing it.

As I've said before, consider the audience. The only people who would ever read this thread are the people who are on this board. What is the likelihood that someone here on NSWFFR wouldn't know anything about it? A current television series -- especially an SF show -- would have to be pretty darn obscure to warrant inclusion.

EDIT: Okay, I'm amending the above. First, there's one reason to describe something here that trumps most of what I've said: Somebody asked. You posted something in a fandom, and someone genuinely didn't recognize. If you get a "What's that?" -- and it's not a troll -- then yes, post here. If you don't get the question, then you're speculating somewhat. Would people be confused by the fic I posted for X? Now, some types of fandoms are pretty good candidates for this thread, and I laid all that out before. Other fandoms aren't remotely lesser-known, and describing them here just comes across as condescending. [There are few things more insulting to the intelligence than being lectured on something you already know.] For anything in between, I err on the side of giving readers the benefit of the doubt. If they ask, it'll go up, but otherwise I'll refrain.

Now, someone asked about this in another thread (and it was answered there), but since I have drabbled in it, it's only appropriate to include it here.

FoxTrot
US comic strip
Created by Bill Amend
FoxTrot, begun in 1988, is a newspaper comic strip about a suburban family. [Since the start of 2007, the strip has only appeared in Sunday papers.] Roger Fox and his wife Andy have three children, teenagers Peter and Paige and ten-year-old ubernerd Jason. Jason (who, like his family and many comic characters, has never aged) has been the breakout character of the strip, and he fits the nerd archetype to a T: gifted at math and science; obsessed with science fiction, fantasy, and comics; hopeless at sports; and frequently clueless in social situations. Oh, and he has a pet iguana, Quincy.

 

Okay, it's well past time I did one of these, so...


Dragon's Lair and Space Ace
1983 and 1984 US video games
A hit when it was released, Dragon's Lair was an attempt at a radically different video game. All the game's onscreen footage was created in advance by Don Bluth (The Secret of NIMH and An American Tail) and stored in the arcade cabinet on a laserdisc.* By using the controls at particular moments based on what was happening, players would either get through a scene or trigger a switch to a death animation. The story of Dragon's Lair centered on Dirk the Daring, a knight working his way through the trap- and monster-laden castle of the dragon Singe to rescue Princess Daphne. A year later, the makers brought out another game, Space Ace, using the same technique. In this game, the title hero's girlfriend Kimberly was abducted by a villain named Borf, whose Infanto Ray turned Ace back into his nerdy teenage self, Dexter. [At various points, players would have a chance to "Energize" Dexter back into Ace for brief periods.]


Viva Variety
1997-1999 US television series
Somewhere between The State and Reno 911! came Viva Variety. Thomas Lennon and Kerri Kenney played Mr. and the former Mrs. Laupin, hosts of a variety show somewhere in Eastern Europe, and Michael Ian Black appeared as their sidekick, Johnny Blue Jeans. The segments on the series included legitimate musical and variety acts, parodies of variety staples such as contests and ads, and the show's dancers, the Swimsuit Squad.


Yvon of the Yukon
1999-2005 Canadian television series
Yvon of the Yukon was a Canadian cartoon about a French explorer frozen for centuries before getting thawed out by a urinating dog. He befriends Tommy (the dog's owner), a boy living in the Yukon town of Upyer Mukluk. As Yvon adjusted to modern life in the remote town, the locals had to adjust to the hygiene-averse Frenchman's antics.










*Kids, imagine a really big DVD that held a whole lot less data.