25 Notes on Fox's 25th Anniversary

1
Leonardo DiCaprio and Danny Pintauro were celebrity contestants on an episode of Fun House. DiCaprio became a world-famous actor. Pintauro became (as of 2011) a Tupperware salesman.

2

This Totally Hidden Video prank, inspired by It's a Wonderful Life, traumatized me.

3
I watched an episode of Haywire, which followed Totally Hidden Video on Saturday nights, in the back office of a restaurant operated by my friend George's family. George died last year.

4
Only one of the three Babes is still alive.

5
Ed O'Neill was the first actor from a Fox programme to host Saturday Night Live.

6
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was the first animated series animated by computers.

7

Never forget.

8
The cast and crew of The Edge (Saturday nights at 9:30 PM) included: Jennifer Aniston, Tom Kenny, Paul Feig, Charlie Kaufman, and Bill Plympton. Not The Dana Carvey Show, but still formidable.

9

Co-written by Paul Dini of Batman: The Animated Series fame, "Weekday Afternoon Live," Tiny Toon Adventures' Saturday Night Live homage, doubled as a jab at The Simpsons. Spielberg shared Indiana Jones' theme music for use in The Simpsons' "Bart's Friend Falls in Love" episode, hoping in return that he could use The Simpsons' theme music in Tiny Toon Adventures' "Pledge Week" episode, and was denied. Thus: Blard Simpleton.

10
The Clock King was my favourite limited Batman: The Animated Series villain, but Josiah "The Interrogator" Wormwood was a close second. Wormwood's sole episode, "The Cape and Cowl Conspiracy," contains the first use of the Bat-Signal in the DC Animated Universe.

11
New Year's Eve 1992. Penn and Teller botch an escape from a champagne torture tank.

Or did they? To this day, I'm not sure that they didn't botch it on purpose.

12
My most vivid memory of The Simpsons is when Homer opens a can of beer that Bart shook up with a paint shaker in the first Simpsons clip show.

13
My most vivid memory of Married… with Children is a two-parter in which Al and Peg compete against Marcy and Jefferson in a supermarket shopping spree judged by Jerry Mathers.

14
I once conceived a live-action film adaptation of Bobby's World starring: Howie Mandel as Howard, Crystal Bernard as Martha, Zachary Ty Bryan as Derek, Christina Applegate as Kelly, and Rodney Dangerfield as Uncle Ted.

15
The pilot episode of MADtv featured a mash-up of Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction ("Gump Fiction") in which Phil LaMarr parodies his character in Pulp Fiction.

16

Before class one night, Chinese-school classmates and I shared impressions of Kogi, John Leguizamo's (Colombian heritage) impersonation of a Japanese talk show host on House of Buggin'.

17
My most vivid memory of The X-Files is a guest spot by The Enigma of the Jim Rose Circus. He fascinated me.

18
Partners' 1995 Thanksgiving episode referenced the runaway balloon in Friends' 1994 Thanksgiving episode, which was written by the creators of Partners.

19
My most vivid memory of Partners is a lazy trick-or-treater who claims to be "Kramer from Seinfeld," and later returns as "Chandler from Friends." It may be the reverse.

20

Why must I be cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs? Frosted Flakes – they're great!

This is regular rice, but it's brown, so they call it wild rice.

Why are these black olives in a can? The green olives are in a jar.

They're trying to tell you that you're cuckoo, you're wild, and you need to be locked up!

Warren Hutcherson adapted his stand-up bit about his father finding plots against the black race into a digital short for Saturday Night Special, Roseanne's Saturday Night Live challenger.

21

2Pac and Ice-T covered "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" on Saturday Night Special. I'm pretty sure this was 2Pac's final televised musical performance.

22

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno taped in Chicago for a week, during which Jay visited the Bundys, who live in Chicago, and bought their couch for Dennis Rodman look-alikes to sit on.

23
I remember a magic special involving silly costumed performers, à la the Aquabats. I recall a trick involving a gigantic hourglass. Alas, when I search the Internet for this special, I just receive results for Valentino's "Breaking the Magician's Code" specials.

24
After That '70s Show became a hit, Topher Grace used his leverage to request a complete set of The Ben Stiller Show, which was not readily available until 2003.

25
I recorded and still possess the complete run of American High on VHS.

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