I wasn't sure where to put this; if this is the wrong forum for this thread, please don't hesitate to move it, mods. But I really wanted to share this with my fellow animation enthusiasts.
Season 3 of Rocko's Modern Life came out on DVD this week on Tuesday, July 3rd. Yesterday I went to my local Best Buy to purchase it (I meant to get it on Tuesday, but that day I had to go back to Wegman's to restock my fridge because all of my food got spoiled in a state-wide power outage that left my complex without electricity for 3 days).
Anywho, I go the Nickelodeon shelves and notice that Vol. 3 isn't there, just volumes 1 and 2. (It turns out that Vol.3 is currently only being sold online.) We ask the guy working there (who looked to be about 20-22) where the latest volume of Rocko's Modern Life is, and this dude gives us a look like a Redwood just started growing out of my left nostril and I had just asked him for a French Fried Frog Leg Burger on a bright green bun. First, he takes us to the live-action TV show section, then when Space Demon points out that Rocko is an animated show, he starts looking for it in the anime section. Then he asks his co-worker (who seemed to have a little more on the ball) if he knew where the "Rosco's Modern Something" DVDs were. My jaw dropped to the floor. This dude genuinely did not know what 'Rocko's Modern Life' was.
I know it's been a while since the series has been in wide circulation, but even my 26-year-old otaku brother is familiar with Rocko's Modern Life and the other early Nicktoons. Has it really been that long?
Just to illustrate how ignorant I am: all through my childhood, roughly 1965 to 1975, I never saw cable TV. My parents and I had only the four broadcast networks: CBS = channel 12, ABC = channel 34, NBC = channel 40 and PBS = channel 46. It wasn't until I graduated high school that I could see glimpses of cable television, and later, satellite TV. Cartoon Network and Boomerang and Nickelodeon and the Disney channel were only seen in snippets and snatches. Only in the last three years have I assembled complete seasons of Rescue Rangers and Josie And The Pussy Cats and Ranma ½. Other cartoons I can glean online from the studios' websites on a catch-as-catch-can basis.
This accounts for the reason I'm often behind the curve on many cartoons.
I've moved this thread to "Free-For-All" as "Other/Multiple Studios" is really intended for discussions about animation studios and their films - ones aren't covered by the preceding listed studios.
I guess this thread is more a general discussion of the state of cartoon (un)awareness in the general public.
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Back by popular demand - "La-la-La-la.. I can't hear you!"
