THROWBACK THURSDAY

THROWBACK THURSDAY

Sometimes you need to sit back and watch some classics. Summer is a dull time for television shows, since new seasons start in fall and come back from a break in the spring. When in doubt, streaming websites offer a lot of options for the viewer to kick back and watch some classic television. Some of the shows people can enjoy are, surprisingly enough, cartoons that are geared toward adults and teenagers. Some of these cartoons come on networks geared toward teens and adults, like MTV, and some come on children’s networks, but are deemed too crude and graphic for children, pushing them toward the teen demographic. These shows aren’t aired anymore, but can still be found on websites such as Hulu.
The first show to toss the viewer back a few years is “Daria”, created by Glenn Eichler and Susie Lewis. The show presents the life of Daria Morgendorffer. Daria was born weird, and now she tries to navigate high school with as little human contact as possible. Her only friend is Jane Lane, her best friend an eccentric artist, and Jane’s brother Trent, who is in a band called Mystic Spiral. Daria goes through normal teenage experiences: first crushes, boyfriends, and friend breakups. She takes each event in stride, however, with as much sarcasm and cynicism as she can muster. Daria’s dry sense of humor guides her through high school and home life, where she lives with her lawyer mother, her dim witted and dramatic father, Jake, and her vapid sister, Quinn, who is the president of the fashion club. This show is definitely geared toward those who feel like outcasts in the world and among their peers, showing them that it is possible to have characters one can relate to when the world of television is filmed for the “normal” teenager. Daria stands up for the outcast, even when she doesn’t want to or just doesn’t care enough. Daria’s distinctive, dry voice is given by Tracy Grandstaff, who is also known for Beavis and Butthead, another adult animated show that aired on MTV. Jane Lane is voiced by Wendy Hoops.
The next show is “Invader Zim”, which aired on Nickolodeon. This show was pulled from the air after two seasons due to the graphic nature of one of the episodes being deemed too inappropriate for children’s television. “Invader Zim” was about a short alien named Zim who, after begging his superiors, or “The Tallest”, to let him help invade the galaxy, they send him to a lost planet that no one had been to before, calling it “earth”. They send Zim to Earth with broken down technology, including a pieced together, brainless robot named GIR, hoping he would be lost in space and never return. To their surprise, Zim finds this Earth, and broadcasts to The Tallest that he is already starting his invasion. His plans get hitched, however, when he runs into Dib, a fellow student in the school Zim enrolls in to blend in with the humans, who is obsessed with aliens and fixates on Zim. Dib sets out to prove to everyone that Zim is an alien, with his disinterested sister, Gaz, tagging along.
The show was created by Jhonen Vasques, the creator of “Johnny, The Homicidal Maniac” the comic. “Zim” was pulled in 2003 after parents complained that an episode was too graphic for television, which included Zim stealing organs from humans to prove that he was human. In one scene, Zim opens his mouth to speak, and a large intestine tumbles out. Zim shoves the organ back in, and the nurse opens her mouth only to moo, showing that Zim has replaced her organ with a toy. The episodes are available for streaming on Hulu, and an “Invader Zim” comic is set to be released this year.