This Year I Was Thankful For Qubo

We spent Thanksgiving in Chicago this year, which was fun and family filled (and food filled - ow). And while that was nice and all, what was most exciting about this trip was my discovery of something totally awesome. There's a Chicago channel, Qubo, that's a network for kids. And at night, at around midnight, as we were flipping channels we discovered something called Qubo Night Owl. In this overnight block they air classic Filmation cartoons. He-Man, She-Ra, Brave Starr, and Ghostbusters (not the Bill Murray one, the other one).

Now, if you're not a super geek like me, you probably don't recognize those last two toons. I'd totally forgotten that they existed until I saw them and then ran to the internet to do some digging.

Brave Starr is a Western in space. Marshall Brave Starr is a native American who lives on the planet New Texas with his friends and enemies. He has native spirit powers (Eyes of the Hawk and so on) and has a sidekick, a talking "techno horse" named Thirty Thirty, who can transform from horse to talking two-legger. And Wikipedia says that his character is based on David Lee Roth. Their chief adversary is the totally awesome Tex Hex.

How awesome does that guy look? Anyway, there was a strong moral theme through every Brave Starr episode.

The other show, Ghostbusters, I only watched a few times, because it seemed like a rip-off to me at the time. (No Slimer? I'm out.) I did some digging on Wikipedia and here's what I learned. It's actually based on an old short-lived live-action TV show from the 1970s. The Bill Murray film had to get rights to the name and after it became a hit, Filmation released the cartoon. It follows some kids, Jake and Eddie, and their pet gorilla Tracy as they fight the nefarious evil ghost wizard Prime Evil and his deep cast of ghostly henchmen. It's weird.

So I hit up the Qubo website to see what its deal is: it's a national station but it's not carried in all markets. For example, I can get it in my area on AT&T U-Verse but not on Comcast. You can check your zip code and carrier on their website.

I got my She-Ra on a few nights in a row and LOVED it. Thanks, Qubo for letting me have a sparkletastic Thanksgiving! (And I'd forgotten how ridiculous Bo's outfit is.)

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How You Know The '80s Are Big Right Now

Yesterday, CNN ran an interview with She-Ra. No, seriously. You can find it here. Here's my favorite part of the interview:

CNN: What was really going on between She-Ra and Sea Hawk?

Britt: Not a lot. I think honestly that She-Ra had a calling, maybe as Adora. If she was only Adora, maybe there could have been a relationship with Sea Hawk, but she had a much higher calling that really didn't include him.

Yes, that's right, CNN asked the actress who voiced She-Ra what was going on with her and Sea Hawk. Honestly, mad props to CNN's Katie McLaughlin. I couldn't have come up with the name Sea Hawk.

Here's my secret internet confession: while I was a pretty big tomboy, I was a huge, huge She-Ra fan. I'm talking I own the Crystal Castle complete with almost every She-Ra female action figure ever produced. Queen Angella? Check. Peekablue? Check. Castaspella? God I hope so because that name is awesome. (And yes, I say "own" in the present tense as I believe the entire collection is in my mom's garage right now.) Jealous ladies?

My brother had Castle Greyskull and a bunch of He-Man action figures and we had some epic battles. If we ran out of He-Men for She-Ra to fight, we'd toss in some of my brother's WWF guys. You haven't lived till you've seen She-Ra whip Ric Flair's butt. So am I more than a little excited that She-Ra just got a major media release? Yes I am! (Honey, if you're reading, for Christmas you could get me this to go with my Voltron collection. Hint hint.)



So ladies, any other She-Ra fans out there?

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