The Moesha Universe

It is never uncommon for sitcoms to be a part of a bigger shared universe. One of the largest and most confusing TV universes is the ABC/Disney Channel Universe. Seriously, can you name all of the shows that are apparently connected and explain to me how they're connected? Please? And perhaps the most nonsensical universe is the Dan Schneider Universe, which consists of live-action shows from Schneider's Bakery and Nickelodeon in general. 

But neither of these sitcom universes are as interesting to me as what was subtly established on United Paramount Network, or UPN for short. It never would have happened without a sitcom called Moesha. Not only was Moesha the second of many Black sitcoms to premiere on UPN (thank you, CBS, for rejecting it), but it would also kick off a shared universe that, to this day, a lot of fans of the shows do not realize exists. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I present to you The Moesha Universe, also known by some as The Mara Brock Akil Universe. That is not to say that every show that screenwriter and producer Mara Brock Akil was involved in is connected. Nor is it to say that she did every show that is a part of this universe. The main shows confirmed are the UPN shows Moesha, The Parkers and Girlfriends, and the CW/BET series The Game.

The Spin-Offs

What seems to be a known fact by now is that The Parkers is a direct spin-off of Moesha, and The Game is a direct spin-off of Girlfriends. Moesha and Girlfriends are no different from a lot of other sitcoms, as they each have a very specific episode that is meant to be a backdoor pilot for a potential spin-off. 

Moesha and The Parkers

Kim Parker was one of the main characters on Moesha. She attended Crenshaw High School with her best friends Moesha Mitchell, Niecy Jackson and Hakeem Campbell. And her mother Nikki Parker was a recurring character on the fourth season. In an episode of Moesha called "It Takes Two" (Season 4 Episode 18), Kim and Hakeem attend a college fair at Santa Monica College, where Kim plans to enroll. When browsing, Kim runs into Nikki who had recently gotten her high school diploma. Nikki decides to enroll in Santa Monica College, too, much to Kim's initial embarrassment. During this episode, they meet Tyrell Radcliffe (aka T), Stevie Van Lowe and Professor Stanley Oglevee.

Kim and Nikki left Moesha after Season 4, and were joined by T, Stevie, and Professor Olgelvee on the Moesha spin-off The Parkers. T and Stevie would be recurring characters in Season 1 before joining the main cast in Season 2. Andell Wilkerson, who left Moesha after Season 5, also joined The Parkers in the main cast beginning in Season 2. Hakeem and Niecy made occasional appearances on the show as well. Niecy appeared on "Kimberlale" (Season 1 Episode 7), Hakeem appeared on "Three's a Shag" (Season 1 Episode 6) and "Road Trip" (Season 4 Episode 9), and both characters appeared on "Scary Kim" (Season 2 Episode 7). The latter episode also featured an appearance by my least favorite Moesha character... Moesha. And Moesha's father Frank Mitchell appeared in the episode "A Simple Plan" (Season 1 Episode 17).

Girlfriends and The Game

On an episode of Girlfriends aptly titled "The Game" (Season 6 Episode 18), we are immediately introduced to Joan Clayton's cousin, Melanie Barnette. She is a medical school student who decides to give up an offer of admission to John Hopkins University School of Medicine to follow the career of her boyfriend, football player Derwin Davis, much to the disappointment of Joan, as well as Melanie's parents. Throughout this episode we are introduced to sports agent Tasha Mack, her son Malik Wright (managed by Tasha), troubled married couple Kelly and Jason Pitts, their daughter Brittany and Derwin's publicist Dionne Taylor. 

All characters introduced in that episode of Girlfriends would later star on the spin-off, The Game. Melanie, Derwin, Tasha, Malik, Kelly and Jason would be the main characters, while Brittany and Dionne would be recurring characters. Melanie and Derwin briefly made a guest appearance on an episode of Girlfriends titled "It's Been Determined" (Season 7 Episode 22). Interestingly, no character from Girlfriends ever made an appearance on The Game.

How are the four shows connected together?

There have been two crossover moments between Moesha and Girlfriends, ultimately connecting all four shows.

Girlfriends and Moesha

On an episode of Girlfriends called "Old Dog" (Season 1 Episode 15), Joan and her best male "friend" William Dent are in a restaurant having a conversation. They meet the sassy Niecy from Moesha who (besides looking to be one of youngest customers) was eavesdropping on their interesting conversation, and asks for their bottles of ketchup and mustard. 

Moesha and Girlfriends

On an episode of Moesha named "That's My Mama" (Season 6 Episode 15), the newest main character Dorian Mitchell (Moesha and Myles' half brother) visits his biological mother Barbara Lee to get to know her. While doing so, he is introduced to Barbara's younger children, and her sister-in-law. The sister-in-law, in question, is Maya Wilkes from Girlfriends. This is when we find out that she is Dorian's aunt by marriage. However, Maya is not aware of this. This is because Barbara kept Dorian a secret from her family. Maya's husband Darnell and their son Jabari are automatically tied to Dorian by marriage, as well. And they were briefly mentioned on the episode.

Outside the Big Four

It would be less of a headache to just say that Moesha, The Parkers, Girlfriends and The Game are the only shows in the universe, due to the fact that some of the characters are related. But it's more complicated when you include shows that you wouldn't expect to be associated with Moesha. Yeah, that's right. The non-Moesha-Universe shows had crossovers with other shows, which had crossovers with other shows, which had crossovers with other shows, which had crossovers with other shows - two hours later - and so on. So to make my life easier, I will only focus on UPN shows that had crossover episodes with the Moesha Universe shows and vice-versa. Believe it or not, there are only two UPN shows connected with the main universe.

Moesha and Clueless

• Clueless - "Scream Again Murray, Scream Again!" Part Two (Season 3 Episode 5)
• While there were no on-screen appearances from any Moesha characters in this episode, Amber Mariens calls out Moesha's name. However, Amber says, "What? It could be a crossover episode," which could have been just a silly non-canon joke. Whether or not this means that Moesha was meant to be a show within Clueless, the reference was deliberately made to promote the upcoming horror film I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, which starred Brandy Norwood (who played Moesha on... well, Moesha lol). So take that reference as you will.
• Clueless - "Prom Misses, Prom Misses" (Season 3 Episode 20)
• Niecy and Hakeem guest star in this episode, dedicated to the week of prom. 
• Niecy is Sean Holiday's prom date, and prior to the prom, she along with Hakeem are visiting Bronson Alcott High School, so that Niecy could use the campus's high-tech photo lab for a portfolio she is working on. Judging by what's on the portfolio, I'd say it's not a school project.
• While Niecy is working on her portfolio and getting to know Sean's friend Murray Duvall, Hakeem sticks around and auditions for a chance to be a possible prom date for either Dionne Davenport or Cher Horowitz. Unfortunately, Dionne picks someone else and Cher picks no one, deciding to not go to the prom.

The Parkers and The Hughleys

• The Parkers - "Who's Your Mama?" (Season 2 Episode 15)
• Business owner Darryl Hughley from The Hughleys shows up in the opening scene of this episode. He owns all the vending machines in Santa Monica College, the main setting for The Parkers. His reason for stopping by the campus is because he needs to speak to recurring character Joe Woody about the lack of money in the vending machines. Unfortunately for Darryl, Joe can't help him due to simply not caring what goes on in the campus. But Joe quickly gets his comeuppance. 
• After seeing how Nikki gets candy from one of the vending machines (in this case: Milk Duds by mistake), Darryl eventually realizes that she has been stealing from the machines. When caught by Darryl, Nikki makes a run for it.
• The Hughleys - "Forty Acres and a Fool" (Season 3 Episode 15)
• Against his own will, Darryl's biological father comes back into his life and meets with Darryl's mother. While Darryl is spying on his parents at a restaurant with his wife Yvonne, Nikki shows up and asks Yvonne if he could borrow him for a couple of minutes to make someone jealous (probably her crush Professor Oglevee, for all we know). 
• Shockingly, Darryl and Yvonne agree to this, and it's clear that Darryl and Nikki don't recognize each other... YET. It's not until they dance very badly while trying to overhear the conversation between Darryl's parents, that he begins to smell Milk Duds on Nikki's shirt, asking "Don't I know you from somewhere?" But Nikki is so oblivious that she might have forgotten about that, as she thinks Darryl is hitting on her. When Nikki holds him too close, Darryl forces himself off of her and she says, "I don't need you anyway. I got a man." No you don't Nikki; not yet, anyway. And she walks off telling Yvonne that Darryl has "mama issues," with which Yvonne agrees.

These amazingly fascinating crossovers confirm that Clueless (the TV show, not the movie) and The Hughleys exist in the exact same universe as Moesha, The Parkers, Girlfriends and The Game. I am sincerely thankful that I kept these crossovers strictly UPN-based, otherwise I would have lost my mind. But if you want to find out about the other shows that Clueless and The Hughleys are connected with beyond the Moesha Universe, y'all can have it. I wish you all the best of luck; you're going to need it. For others that are not willing to give themselves a headache, all you need to know is that The Moesha Universe is most definitely connected to the ABC/Disney Channel Universe, mainly because Clueless and The Hughleys were originally ABC shows before moving to UPN.

And those are all of the UPN shows that exist within the Moesha Universe. 

Single Black Doppelgänger 

If you have made it this far, and have seen most if not all of these shows, you're probably asking yourself, "How can any of these shows be in the same universe, when some characters are played by the same actor?" To some people, this is an issue that makes little sense at all. But I promise you, this is nowhere near confusing, unlike Dan Schneider's obsession with f*** and having his characters exist in a world where they also exist on TV shows within said world. But both the Moesha Universe and Dan Schneider Universe share the same reason for their... choices: doppelgängers!

Doppelgängers are people who look almost or exactly identical, regardless if they are genetically related or not. I'm a doppelgänger, you're a doppelgänger and Moesha is a doppelgänger. Yes, actress Brandy Norwood has played three characters from this universe: Moesha Mitchell on Moesha, herself on the Moesha episode "Moesha Meets Brandy" (Season 4 Episode 1), and Jason Pitts' future second wife Chardonnay on The Game. Since Brandy Norwood was a main actress on Moesha and one of the main cast members on The Game, her multiple roles are the most noticeable, at least in my mind. 

But she's not the only cast member to play more than one character in the Moesha Universe. Her brother Ray J had a guest role on the first three seasons of Moesha as Charles, before returning to the sitcom full-time as Moesha's half-brother Dorian Mitchell. And Mo'nique played Nikki Parker on Moesha, The Parkers and The Hughleys, before guest starring as herself on The Game TWICE (Season 2 Episode 1, and Season 4 Episode 9).

The same thing can apply to many actors who played different minor characters throughout the Moesha Universe's run, including Gabrielle Union, Loretta Devine, J. August Richards, Ja'net DuBois and Kellie Shanygne Williams, to name a few. And yes, that includes Clueless and The Hughleys.

In Conclusion

So to summarize this blog entry, Moesha, The Parkers, Girlfriends and The Game are the main shows that all exist within the same universe. And two other UPN shows that are connected via crossovers are Clueless and The Hughleys.

What I like to know is, why did the Moesha Universe have to get all soap-opera-ish as time went on? I want to laugh, not cry!

And how come Niecy and Hakeem never had a TV show together or individually (especially while Lamont Bentley (who played Hakeem) was still alive), or joined the cast of The Parkers? Unpopular opinion: I have always favored Kim, Niecy and Hakeem over their best friend Moesha. So I may be a little biased. Pray for me, please.

All of these shows are admittedly very stand-alone that it's easy to miss crossover episodes. The most obvious stand-alone show would be The Game, despite a cameo from Maya's mother from Girlfriends (Season 4 Episode 9). Ask anyone if they knew that Maya had a brother who was married to Dorian's mother, Niecy went to the Bronson Alcott High School prom and inserted herself in an A and B conversation between Joan and William, the Santa Monica College vending machines are owned by Darryl Hughley, or Melanie is Joan's cousin. Chances are that people will say, "No," to all of these facts.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this piece on how Moesha, The Parkers, Girlfriends and The Game connect, along with Clueless and The Hughleys. I know for a lot of people, the Moesha Universe is something that they never knew existed. And that could be because UPN was nowhere near as massive as ABC, CBS or NBC, but that's another story for another day. It was fun watching the shows again after so many years, especially Clueless as that show NEVER airs in the United States anymore (both Clueless and Moesha were two of many acquired shows to air on TeenNick, back when the network was called The N). 

Feel free to trivia your friends with this cheat sheet, and I'll catch you guys later.

Also: JUSTICE FOR NIECY AND HAKEEM!

Final Destination 2 - The Time Death Went Backwards

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

If this poster doesn't give you chills, I give up!

You would think, that I have the Final Destination franchise figured out. But like I said in the very beginning of my previous blog about the series, each film causes you to think and learn something new every time. And unsurprisingly, I was right. That entry has been updated several times since its initial upload, and I do not see that ending anytime soon. But we'll see. Even though every movie in the franchise feels like one - as if you're watching a really long film - there are various differences sprinkled here and there. They sometime help or (in most cases) hurt the franchise's continuity.

Case in point: what did surprise me was that I basically missed one specific moment from Final Destination 2. I'll get to that momentarily, but I can tell you right now that while the moment doesn't seem to have any real affect on the franchise's continuity, I can no longer ignore it.

So about Final Destination 2...

I'll start with the synopsis of the movie. A group of people - mostly adults - start dying one by one in the order that they would've died in a highway pileup on Route 23 if they were not stopped by the visionary, Kimberly Corman. Blah blah blah, basically the general synopsis is no different from the other films in the series.

A group of people - mostly/mainly [age group] - start dying one by one in the order that they would've died in [accident/disaster] had it not been for [visionary] saving them from the accident/disaster.

But as made clear before, the movies are not as similar as we think they are from a distance. All you have to do is break them all down. In the case of Final Destination 2, after the main characters cheated Death, the order in which they die is reversed. This is later explained to justify the film's interconnection with Final Destination. How, you may ask?

By giving most of the survivors a forgettable backstory!

Most of these survivors of the Route 23 pileup were previously supposed to die during the events of Final Destination, where the survivors of Volee Airlines Flight 180 die in strange freak accidents.

Kimberly Corman

"About a year ago, My mom and I were at the mall. I was supposed to meet her outside, but I got caught up watching this news report about [Tod Waggner] who committed suicide. I kept thinking, "How can you strangle yourself in the bathtub? That's... That's stupid." It felt wrong. And yet..., I heard some gunshots and I ran outside. Some kids were trying to steal my mom's car. She tried to fight them off, she was a fighter, and they killed her. After the funeral I kept thinking that it should have been me. I guess everyone must think that but, I guess I was right."

Officer Thomas Burke 

"Last year my partner and I were heading out when a call came in about a train wreck. Frank decided to let me handle it alone. He died that night in a shootout. If that call had come in just... seconds later, I'd be dead too. Shit... The call about the train wreck, that saved my life? That was the night I scraped up, Billy Hitchcock."

Eugene Dix 

"It's not the first time I cheated death. A kid came to school with a knife... killed his teacher. Teacher would have been me, but I was transferred to another school two days before. Wait, wait. The teacher I replaced, her name was Valerie Lewton. She was from Mt Abraham. She died in an explosion."

Rory Peters 

"Hey, do you guys remember that theatre in Paris that collapsed last year and killed everybody inside? Well, I had tickets to go but one night, I'm in Paris and I'm just tripping on acid and sipping lattes and such. And then all of a sudden, [Carter Horton] out of nowhere just get WHACKED by this falling sign!"

Kat Jennings 

"So last May, I'm supposed to go and stay at this cheesy little bed and breakfast in Pennsylvania. Anyhow, there's this major gas leak that no one knows about, and all the guests suffocated during the night. I never made it; the bus I was on splattered [Terry Chaney] all over the road."

As you can see, those five people were going to die somewhere else but ended up getting distracted by the tragic events of the Flight 180 survivors. According to Clear Rivers, the only reason Death's Design is backwards is because she and the others from Final Destination survived the plane crash. 

So if Clear and the others never got off the plane, none of the Route 23 survivors would've survived their near-death experiences prior to the pileup? How do we even know that to be true?

Going by my belief about Death's Design, you could say that they would've had a similar situation to fellow Final Destination 2 character Brian Gibbons who just randomly died despite (allegedly) never being a part of Death's Design. But because they were eventually on Death's Design it's even more possible that they were on the same boat as Molly Harper from Final Destination 5. If so, that means that they were really never meant to die before the Route 23 pileup, similar to Molly never actually being a part of Death's Design until she became a passenger on Flight 180.

Whatever the case may be, the fact that the characters of Final Destination 2 were apparently supposed to die during the events of Final Destination makes no sense, and adds nothing to the former flick (or the whole of the franchise, really) and is never brought up again after just one scene. A scene that came in way too late into the film's runtime for anybody to care. But at least it makes the characters from both Final Destination and Final Destination 2 seem more "connected" than we think.

As for the other Route 23 survivors - Evan Lewis, Tim Carpenter and Nora Carpenter - we don't know what their deal is. Where were they when Clear was nearly killed? Where were they when Alex Browning died? You tell me, WRITERS!

Still lost? I don't blame you.

For years, I watched that scene over and over and over again, and could not understand the point that Clear was trying to make until now. But luckily there's a slightly less ridiculous and less convoluted way to figure out why Death is working backwards. I don't know how many people actually noticed, but I did. According to Kimberly's vision of the pile-up, the order of deaths were Officer Burke, Eugene, Rory, Kat, Nora and Tim (both at the same time), Evan, and Kimberly and her friends (who died the same time as her) - Shaina McKlank, Dano Estevez and Frankie Whitman.

When the pileup finally happened in real time, the main characters were already safe because Kimberly deliberately blocked traffic on the on-ramp. However after Officer Burke asked Kimberly to step out of her SUV, the highway accident had already happened. And less than a minute later, Kimberly nearly gets ran over by an oncoming truck, whose driver didn't think to stop for some reason. But Officer Burke quickly pulls her out of the way. Meanwhile, her friends Shaina, Dano and Frankie were still in the SUV, and were ultimately hit by the truck. Remember: Officer Burke intervened and saved Kimberly, while her three friends were too late and were hit and killed by the truck. So far, I was able to find three Death-cheating moments that could have caused Death to go backwards: (1) Shaina, Dano and Frankie cheated Death with Kimberly, because Kimberly did not drive them into the area of the pile-up. (2) Kimberly cheated Death twice by not driving into the area of the pile-up, and later dodging the truck that hit her friends. (3) Officer Burke nearly sacrificed himself to save Kimberly, but ended up cheating Death as well. What do all moments have in common? Kimberly's friends, whose Deaths would have been enough to cause Death's List to go backwards, as death would move on to Evan hours later, followed by Tim, then Nora, then Kat, then Rory, then Eugene, then tried to come for Officer Burke and Kimberly. 

Done and dusted!

Well, for now, at least. I don't think Final Destination 2 is a bad movie; it's actually one of my favorites. I just don't think that the characters' backstories were necessary at all. The return of Clear and Bludworth should've been all the writers needed for the sake of interconnection. But whatever. What's done is done, as I always say.

For what it's worth, the poster for Final Destination 2 tops my list for the best posters in the franchise! 

Blocks from the Past - Nick (Blog) on CBS

When you see the term E/I, it means you're reading a blog that's educational and informational.

A Warm Up 4Kids

When people think of Saturday Morning Cartoon blocks that premiered in the 2000s, probably the only two that come to mind are the constantly rebranded (and ripped apart) anime blocks that were owned by 4Licensing Corporation, better known by the majority as 4K!DS Entertainment. The first block debuted on Fox in 2002 as Fox Box, was rebranded as 4K!DSTV in 2005, and ended by the end of 2008. The second block from the company launched on The CW in the spring of 2008 as The CW4K!DS, and ended its run in late 2012, when it was known as Toonzai. To be honest, I didn't really watch these blocks for two reasons: 

1. I didn't care for  90% of their shows, and was slowly outgrowing Saturday morning cartoons at a very young age.
2. Beginning with the first block's third year (during which it was called 4K!DSTV), I was basically a pre-teen (later teenager) attending school six days a week. 

So yeah, I rarely made any time to watch their shows. Every now and then, if I didn't have to go to school on a Saturday, I would catch an episode Bratz, Cubix, Viva Piñata and Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight. Pretty good shows, if I say so myself. I never cared to watch the really popular ones like Yu-Gi-Oh! or Sonic X. Sorry. But thanks to the classmates I had within those ten magical years, I know enough about 4Licensing. The responses to the company - whatever you want to call it - have been rather scathing, to say the least. The most popular offenders were how the anime shows were badly dubbed, poorly censored/edited, and way too Americanized. I won't get into further detail about that because it's been asked and answered many times in many ways by many people via the internet. What I will say is this: 4Licesning had a lot of controversy and financial troubles that not even its rebranding from 4K!DS Entertainment to 4Licensing Corporation could save it. As of 2017, the company is officially dead.

In the end, I was fine with the aforementioned four shows that I did watch on those two blocks. I still watch them online to this day, and enjoy them a lot more as an adult. And if you were to combine both blocks as one (because they were basically the same), it would have been an active block for ten years (2002 - 2012). However, 4GoodnessSakesTV pretty much overshadowed every other 2000s kids block that came and went under our noses. One of those blocks in particular is the REAL topic of this blog. It's a block that was not as flawed as 4-Blah-Blah-Blah, but was definitely not without its own share of flaws.

Nick Jr. on CBS

Do you even remember Nick Jr. on CBS? What about when it became just Nick on CBS? No? Didn't think so. I don't really remember much of it myself, as the only show that I cared to watch was The Brothers García. Little did I know that the day I (barely) watched Nick on CBS would be the final season before it returned to its roots as Nick Jr. on CBS. It is very common for Nickelodeon to have blocks that are so incredibly short-lived that we either never heard of them or forgot about them. But unless six years classifies as short-lived, Nick (Jr.) on CBS was not exactly short-lived at all. Though it could've lasted as long as that damn 4by4TV, it certainly managed to outlast its very strange very 90s predecessor CBS Kidshow, formerly known as... Think CBS Kids and simply CBS Kidz... Oh my. Even CBS itself has a lot of shows and blocks (even well-known programs) that fly under the radar, then and now; including its own kids blocks.

Well, if at first you don't succeed, try try again. And try try again, CBS did. 

Nick (Jr.) on CBS

After reaching an agreement with Nickelodeon to air preschool content from Nick Jr. every Saturday morning, CBS premiered Nick Jr. on CBS on September 16, 2000. From that day to September 15, 2001 (oof, three hundred sixty-four days), the programs featured were Blue's Clues, Dora the Explorer, Little Bear, Little Bill, Franklin, Kipper, Maisy, Maggie and the Ferocious Beast and The Early Show. Wait, what? The Early Show? Yeah, that's right. The Early Show was technically a part of Nick Jr. on CBS, and would be on for two hours every Saturday morning. So despite a rather solid lineup, it seemed like things were already off to a rocky start. So that is flaw number one. Lord, have mercy. And on September 22, 2001, Little Bear, Kipper, Maisy, and Maggie and the Ferocious Beast were removed from the schedule, and replaced by Oswald and Bob the Builder. This schedule would remain until September 7, 2002. 

Much like the predecessor CBS Kidshow, Nick Jr. on CBS met the infamous E/I requirements from the Children's Television Act. For those unaware, E/I stands for "educational and informational". The best way I can describe the E/I rules is that basically any show airing during the daytime syndication hours has to have some educational elements even on a not-so-educational show, or something like that, I don't know. It just has to be educational to a certain degree. I personally didn't have a problem with the whole E/I thing since I'm a PBS Kid, and still don't. But the cartoon fanbase hated this and would continue to hate it to this day. 

Still, the content on Nick Jr. on CBS was educational by nature, making the block's second identity quite questionable honestly. More questionable than The Early Show in the block's slate.

Nick(elodeon) on CBS

In an effort to cater to a wider underage audience, Nick Jr. on CBS was retooled as Nick on CBS on September 14, 2002. While most found this era for the block to be triumphant, it would prove to be a very risky move as well. Unlike Nick Jr., the Nicktoons were far from educational or informational. The only Nick Jr. shows to return directly from the block's previous season as Nick Jr. on CBS were Blue's Clues, Dora the Explorer, Franklin and Oswald, along with that doggone Early Show. Joining these shows in the lineup would be the Nicktoons Hey Arnold!, The Wild Thornberrys, As Told By Ginger and Pelswick. Relatable shows? Well yes, although I wouldn't know about Pelswick; never saw that show in my life. Educational? Mmm... not really, but you can still learn something, I suppose. After all, these are slice-of-life cartoons, so surely it counts. Eh whatever. 

This lineup would only last until November 23, 2002 (just two months), as Franklin, Oswald, Pelswick and As Told By Ginger were removed. You literally had to be a teenager to really get into As Told By Ginger for what it was, or maybe that was just me. As for Pelswick, I guess no one really cared for that show, or maybe that was just me. Taking their place from November 30, 2002 to January 25, 2003 was NFL on CBS. I promise I'm not making this up. 

From February 1, 2003 to July 26, 2003, Rugrats and Chalkzone were added in the mix to fill the gap left by NFL on CBS. And on August 2, 2003, Rugrats was gone, and Little Bill returned to the block, making it the fifth series (sixth, if you count The Early Show) to return from the block's early years as Nick Jr. on CBS. And then Little Bill and The Wild Thornberrys were removed after March 6, 2004. Taking their place on March 13, 2004 would be All Grown Up! and The Brothers García, the latter being the only Nickelodeon series in the block to be entirely live-action. These would be the very last shows to be added for the Nick on CBS schedule, before this era made its final curtain call on September 11, 2004. 

If you were just as confused as I was about the slate changes to Nick on CBS, I honestly do not blame you. It took me a long time to understand what came, what went, and what was never a part of the schedule. I am under the impression that Nick on CBS, the way it was, was always destined to be a great big mess. The schedule changes were probably very irritating for a lot of viewers. And while there are cartoons that (in their way) teach life lessons, most of Nickelodeon's shows - sans the Nick Jr. shows - don't scream "educational and informational". So I can't help but wonder how this Nick on CBS era was even approved to begin with. Flaw number two. 

There is one particular show that should have been a part of Nick on CBS, but I will get to that momentarily. For now let's move on to the next-ish era.

Nick (Jr. is Back) on CBS

So the Nicktoons era was dropped and the block went back to its roots as Nick Jr. on CBS on September 18, 2004, which saw the return of full-time (if you will) educational programming on the block for the first time since September 7, 2002. Once again, this left Blues Clues, Dora the Explorer and The Early Show as the only shows to return directly from the block's previous identity as Nick on CBS. It also marked the return of Little Bill into the lineup after a second hiatus, and this time it would remain on the slate until the block's discontinuation. 

Rounding out the schedule was LazyTown, Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends and The Backyardigans from September 18, 2004 to September 10, 2005. On September 17, 2005, Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends was replaced by Go, Diego, Go!. From that day until September 9, 2006, the block's up final lineup was LazyTown, Go, Diego, Go!, The Backyardigans, Dora the Explorer, The Early Show, Little Bill and Blue's Clues, in that order. This was once again a solid lineup for Nick Jr. on CBS; something that Nick on CBS couldn't maintain, if its life depended on it.

For anyone who was actually a fan of the previous Nick on CBS era, it was a blow that the revamp to Nick Jr. on CBS meant there would be no more Hey Arnold, Chalkzone, or whatever else that was a Nicktoon/TEENick series. Anyone who wanted to get their fix of TV-Y7/TV-Y7-FV/TV-G Saturday morning cartoons, had to watch Kids' WB, ABC Kids, or 4NothingTV.

On January 19, 2006, after the split between Viacom and CBS (over a decade before they would merge for the second time), it was announced that Nick Jr. on CBS would be no more. Taking its place on September 16, 2006 would be a new kids block that was owned by DiC Entertainment and would go through three identities of its own: KOL Secret Slumber Party (2006 - 2007), KEWLopolis (2007 - 2009) and finally Cookie Jar TV (2009 - 2013). But that's another block for another blog entry. Still, how could anybody resist DIC? DIC is irresistible! Surely, it's the only type of DIC that all genders like.

Nick (Flaws Revisitsed) on CBS

The Early Show

This flaw is an obvious one: The Early Show airing on Nick Jr. on CBS, Nick on CBS, and Nick Jr. on CBS. I'm sure most would agree when I say, "Why?" Hey, I enjoy watching the news as much as the next Black guy. Not a day goes by that I don't watch The Today Show on NBC or the KTLA 5 News (KTLA is a Los Angeles affiliate for The CW). But upon researching the history of Nick Jr. on CBS, I couldn't help but laugh at the fact that The Early Show, of all shows, would even air in the middle of the block, instead of before the block. 

Wouldn't it had made more sense if Nick News with Linda Ellerbee aired on the block, rather than The Early Show? That could have helped strengthen the educational content of Nick Jr. on CBS, and would have been the most educational show on Nick on CBS. Speaking of which...

Nick('s Wasted Opportunities) on CBS

Brace yourselves. I know I'm going to get a lot of hate for saying this, but the Nick on CBS era was so flawed and weird. Sure, one can learn a few things here and there from watching The Brothers García, The Wild Thornberrys and Rugrats. But I never would have guessed that Hey Arnold, All Grown Up, Chalkzone or As Told By Ginger were even remotely educational, because they're not. Neither is any Nickelodeon show that isn't made for Nick Jr.

In fact, none of the shows that premiered during the Nick on CBS era were educational to begin with. They were just very popping shows at the time, and that is totally fine. Some still are... as far as pop culture is concerned, that is. They just happen to barely meet the E/I requirements, no matter how weak the educational elements were. Something tells me that some episodes of each non-Nick Jr. show was skipped entirely if it wasn't even 10% educational. 

It's almost like a religious network whose collection of shows, while wholesome to a sometimes cheesy degree, are very secular and non-religious. I'm looking at you, BYUtv and UPtv.

Some say that Nick on CBS would have been better and more relevant if Rugrats had stuck around longer. Even more would say that it would have been twice as better and relevant if more popular shows like SpongeBob SquarePants and The Fairly OddParents were a part of the lineup. After all, the message of The Fairly OddParents is, "Be careful what you wish for." And who already knew about the word 'barnacle' before watching SpongeBob SquarePants? We'll wait. I disagree, though. Neither cartoon would last a minute on the block; at least not on the watch of the Children's Television Act. So besides Nick News, as long as Nick on CBS had to follow the guidelines of E/I, why didn't they air, oh I don't know, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius? 

Granted it's not as hot as Rugrats, SpongeBob SquarePants, or The Fairly OddParents, but you cannot tell me that The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius did not meet the E/I requirements in some capacity; absolutely no way this was not considered. The many episodes that were made and topics covered for the show make it clear that this cartoon didn't need much to prove that it belongs in Nick on CBS. Jimmy Neutron would have fit in with the Nick on CBS block much easier than a bunch of babies, a couple of fairies and a dim-witted sea sponge ever would. He's a genius, a know-it-all and a scientist. MISSED OPPORTUNITY!

Also, if Nick on CBS lasted longer before going back to its Nick Jr. days, another show that could have made the cut would have been Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. Whether or not your middle school years were a piece of dog crap, this show was basically any kid's escape from the harsh reality of being a teenager. With so many different amazing off-the-wall ways of surviving middle school, it would have been something special to have this on Nick on CBS. But again, that is if the Nick on CBS era lasted longer than just two years.

Heck, even live-action shows that were on Nickelodeon or Noggin/The N at the time, such as Caitlin's Way, Taina, Romeo!, Sponk!, A Walk in Your Shoes, and Degrassi: The Next Generation, would have helped The Brothers García stick out less. A lot of kids, teens, and even families could relate to several of the characters and the topics covered. Almost in a similar fashion to a slice-of-life cartoon. But maybe this is just a personal bias. Still, this era of the block was called Nick on CBS, not Nicktoons on CBS.

So, yeah...

Again this is from the perspective of someone who's only seen Nick on CBS once, just to watch The Brothers García (I love that show). You could say that the biggest flaw for the Nick on CBS era is that they left out a lot of Nickelodeon's most popular shows as a result of the E/I policy, with the obvious exception being Rugrats. Who even watched Nick on CBS for educational content anyway? I know I didn't; I had PBS KIDS and Noggin (before it became a preschool network) for that. But like it or not, this is what needed to be done, in order for Nick on CBS to be a thing, and it just didn't work. It doesn't even sound like anyone tried to make it work, and if they did, I am not convinced.

I thank them for giving me a chance to see The Brothers García on a Saturday morning, instead of the usual Sunday night. But at the end of the day, maybe the Nick on CBS era wasn't something that really needed to happen. Then again, everybody doesn't have cable. Everyone didn't have cable back then, so Nick on CBS was a blessing for them, as well as a curse if they wanted to watch SpongeBob SquarePants.

If the Children's Television Act never existed, maybe things would have been less ridiculous for Nick on CBS, and all the other kids blocks that were affected by it for the next ten years. But as long as it was around, Nick on CBS was easily expendable. If you really cannot bring yourself to take as much time as possible to sort out which shows are actually (or at least remotely) educational and informational, and therefore eligible enough to be on Nick on CBS, don't worry about it and just stick to Nick Jr. on CBS. PBS KIDS and Discovery Kids on NBC could have had quite the competition.

Maybe.

It certainly beats watching 4Score&7YearsAgoTV, that's for sure.

Final Destination - What is Really Going On?

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Final Destination franchise is probably not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of iconic horror movies. If anything, it's a very misunderstood one. Plenty of people will dismiss it as just plain stupid. But having been a fan since the first movie premiered in 2000, the older I've gotten, the more I started to notice things that I never used to. And it's nice to have my own viewpoint of how movie's crazy logic works.

Each film causes you to think and learn something new every time. There seems to be no right or wrong answer to how Death's design is meant to work. Why not, you may ask? Because there a lot of contradictions and maybe even questions that are left unanswered. So it should come as no surprise that some of my theories may be different from yours.

So what is Final Destination even about?

No matter which Final Destination flick you choose to watch first, the premise is always the same, because the premise is Death's Design. The design (which is the entire film) always begins with a group of rather dashing people - classmates, co-workers, strangers, etc. - who become victims of an incoming accident.

• If the movie is led predominantly by teenage characters, the accident happens at nighttime by the end of their senior year of high school.
• If the movie is led predominantly by adult characters, the accident happens at daytime and involves cars.

One of the group members is the visionary who randomly starts to have an ominous premonition that something tragic is going to happen. This person then has an elaborate vision of the deadly accident - in which they die last, which reminds me:

• If the visionary is male, we actually see how he dies.
• If the visionary is female, her death is never shown.
• The latter tradition is broken in Final Destination: Bloodlines, as the female visionary Iris Campbell is killed on-screen in her premonition.

Immediately, the visionary snaps back to real time, sees what's about to happen, and tries to get as much people as possible out of the place where the disaster will happen. But everybody cannot be saved on time. Eventually the people who cheated death, which at first means to escape and ultimately survive an incoming disaster, ends up getting killed (in bizarre freak accidents) in the order that they would've died in the accident. That particular order is known as Death's List. The visionary then teams up with another survivor, usually of another gender, and they (along with other remaining survivors) have to figure out how to stop death for the final time. Admittedly, that goal doesn't make sense as everyone who is born is immediately dying. Yeah, I went there.

And that's pretty much the basis of Final Destination. While the idea is the same with every movie in the series, the argument of how to cheat death gets more complicated with every installment. This is especially if you decide to really analyze the movies to the point of exhaustion, as I did.

How does one cheat death again and get away with it?

This is where my theories begin; you're welcome. 

Imagine you are the visionary. So far, based on what the legendary coroner William John Bludworth says, there seems to be multiple ways: 

1. As the visionary, you have to remember the order that everyone was supposed to die in the disaster. The trick is to figure out when and how each person will meet their fate. To do this, you have to follow the signs, or omens, as you initially did before having the vision of the accident. The difference, however, is that all survivors are now capable of seeing or feeling a sign or two. The signs are not to be taken lightly, as even the most ridiculous ones can help you or another survivor physically intervene in someone else's near-death experience and save that person. This causes Death to skip that person and move on to the next person. But this doesn't mean that the person that Death skipped is no longer on Death's List. Once the others are dead (or skipped) it will come back to the person who cheated death for the second (or third, or fourth, or however many) time This was seen on every Final Destination film.
2. The other idea is to "kill or be killed". There will be that one person who will save themselves by any means necessary. One who cheats death can take the life of someone who was not on Death's List, ultimately stealing that person's remaining life. That's right, MURDER! But keep in mind that I said, "remaining." It's possible that the person who (accidentally or deliberately) gets killed by a survivor was already days or weeks away from dying anyway. Meaning the survivor-turned-murderer is still on Death's List either way. This was seen on Final Destination 5.
3. If all else fails, and you still have enough time to do so, you can immediately hide in a secluded indoor safe-proof area, free of anything that could potentially harm or kill you. Anyone who's on Death's List can do this, not just the visionary. It is not the most ideal way to live, but it seems like the best way to escape Death because you will be in a safe environment, and will very much be granted a longer and peaceful life. It is when you leave the place, that you are as good as gone. Final Destination 2 gives the best option: a padded room in an institution. On the other hand, both Final Destination and Final Destination: Bloodlines show us that living in a messy cabin is a big fat NO.
4. Then there's perhaps the most successful way to cheat death: you have to die. But here's the twist: Bludworth says that only new life can defeat Death. You have to sacrifice yourself, and you must be clinically dead (flatlining for five minutes, if not longer), ultimately breaking the cycle, and giving yourself and the remaining survivors new life. It's easy to assume that no survivor can pull this off. But as far as I know, only you, the visionary, can pull this off. And you can all start over with a clean slate and are no longer a part of Death's List. So far, the only time this technique was successful was seen in Final Destination 2. However, there have been several failed attempts seen in Final Destination, The Final Destination, and Final Destination: Bloodlines. This is mainly because either the visionary still had a pulse when attempting to die, someone else is not a visionary themselves, or it was not the attempter's time to die.

But isn't there a way to get out of a disaster and no longer be on Death's List?

Sadly, no. However, multiple viewings of the first five films seemed to have suggested otherwise.

1. As the visionary, according to The Final Destination, you are obviously the one who will try to stop an accident from happening. You must have the vision about it first, and then have enough time to somehow prevent it from ever happening. It was initially believed that this would automatically break the chain, and everyone who would have been a casualty was off Death's List. The exception would have been someone who had already cheated death by surviving a previous disaster (that they were supposed to die in), and managed to survive the recent accident that you prevented from happening (whether or not the person is a visionary themselves). But Final Destination: Bloodlines shows that it does not matter if the survivors of an accident that no longer happens had cheated Death in the past. If you, the visionary, stop the accident from happening, that means that you, and everyone that you saved, are all on Death's list. 
2. Perhaps the easiest way to avoid an accident is just by escaping it, as seen in the lead character's vision of the disaster. Basically, these people were never meant to die in the accident and therefore would've still been okay. But these people can't have been survivors of previous accidents that they were supposed to die in, otherwise they are toast no matter what. This was seen in Final Destination 2, The Final Destination and Final Destination 5.

So how do you explain Brian Gibbins?

Keep in mind: I'm asking myself this particular question as I type along.

There's something about Brian Gibbons from Final Destination 2 that just makes him mysterious. And it's hard to make out what it is. Brian almost got killed by a speeding news van only to be saved by Rory Peters, a survivor of the highway pile-up on Route 23. At the end of the film, he dies. But Brian was not one of the survivors of the pile-up. So where does he fit into to this analysis? Why did he eventually die and not some random bickering couple from Final Destination 3?

We really don't know anything about Brian because he was a minor character. Since he wasn't in the vision of the pile-up, we can easily assume that he was never in the highway, period. But then again, Final Destination 3 had a minor character named Perry Malinowski. She survived the roller coaster crash according to the vision that Wendy Christensen had, only to die a few days later. We just don't remember her being on the roller coaster because she was such a minor character, to point where she never said a word. Wendy didn't remember her being there either.

But if Brian was never at the highway, maybe he was supposed to die in an off-screen accident unbeknownst to us, let alone the creators of Final Destination 2. And if I was to go any further, maybe he (if he was the visionary) or someone else (if that person was the visionary) successfully stopped another major disaster from happening, yet he still remained in Death's List because he had already cheated death before. Or instead, maybe after cheating death the first time, he managed to flee another accident according to his or someone else's vision. Just a little something to think about. We may never know the real reason he is a part of Death's Design. But I can tell you this: it was not because of a speeding news van; at least in the messy canon of the Final Destination franchise.

As for the bickering couple that I briefly mentioned... who knows at this point? They argue, flee an incoming truck, and are never seen again. Next!

What about Molly Harper?

There also seems to be some confusion over Molly Harper from Final Destination 5. She managed to escape the North Bay Bridge before it collapsed - according to a vision that her boyfriend Sam Lawton had - and would do so in real life, as well. So surely, she should not have been on Death's List as a result. But then she (along with Sam) gets killed in the Volee Airlines Flight 180 plane explosion in the end of the movie.

Unlike Brian, Molly was a main character, but that's where the differences stop between her and Brian. What was she there for? How did she become one of almost three hundred people that died in the plane explosion?

Some say that Molly probably became a part of Death's List because she survived almost getting killed by fellow survivor Peter Friedkin (Remember what I said about the "kill or be killed" thing?). It sounds likely, as Sam saved Molly from getting killed. But still, she was not on Death's List, so she should've been fine in the long run.

But then lies another problem: months after the attempted murder, she and Sam die in the aforementioned plane crash, which was seen through the eyes of another visionary, Alex Browning from Final Destination, making Final Destination 5 a prequel by the way. If my assumption about Death's Design is correct (and that's a BIG if), she probably had a similar situation to Brian's. She might have cheated Death previously by surviving a disaster that came before the bridge collapse, except she was actually supposed to die in said previous accident according to a vision. 

Or maybe she's no different from anyone else who dies in the opening disasters of each movie, meaning she just happened to become a victim of an incoming accident. That would probably make the most sense, as Final Destination 5 ends where Final Destination begins. Plus, we don't have time to know every (potential) victim of an accident. And notice that I didn't assume her to be a visionary, because it's clear in Final Destination 5 that she had not a clue of what was going on (or did she), until Sam was able to put two and two together, after two of their co-workers (two survivors of the bridge collapse) died. 

Who really knows? How many times did I say, "two?" What is really going on?

Any last words?

Don't get me wrong: the Final Destination franchise is very fun to watch to this day, and the death sequences are very memorable and iconic. But the more I watch the movies, the more I find myself questioning a lot of things. I never question the physics, laws of gravity or the fact that the characters in Final Destination 3 and The Final Destination are made of rubber, because nobody should really care about those at this point. But I'm always questioning how the whole "cheating death" thing is really supposed to work. I guess we will never know, will we? The writers can never get it right.

Like I said, the premise of the Final Destination franchise is always the same. However, it is worth noting that while the entire film series takes place in the same universe, only two of the five movies are standalone sequels.

• Final Destination 3 and The Final Destination are self-contained and only make brief references to the first two films. It's a completely different cast for each movie. Neither film features William Bludworth. They sometimes feel like soft re-whatevers. And they have a slightly light and comedic tone. They could've been straight-to-DVD movies.
• Final Destination, Final Destination 2 and Final Destination 5 are clearly interconnected, to the point where they are an unofficial trilogy. This is evidenced by the fact that Bludworth makes cameo appearances in these three films. Clear Rivers, survivor of the plane crash, stars in the first two movies. And she and the other survivors of the plane explosion appear in both Final Destination in main roles and Final Destination 5 in archived footage (due to Final Destination 5 being a prequel to Final Destination).

I can already tell that my opinions about how the Final Destination series works is not at all what the creators had in mind. But I kind of blame the writers for the many plot holes that occurred throughout this underrated and underappreciated franchise. As so much is deliberately left to the imagination, it is only natural - and more than fair - to have my own viewpoint on it overall. Then again, you can't cheat death.

Welcome to My Blog!

Hey guys! I’m Jordan – aka JB and Jordie – and I’m a fraternal twin. I’m an artist born, raised and based in Los Angeles, CA, and majoring in Art with a focus on Graphic Design.

On this blog, I hope to keep you guys engaged with my interests, and thoughts about topics I find interesting. I love to draw, take photos, visit theme parks and museums, and watch action and horror movies. On my YouTube channel, I create a lot of playlists of songs that can be heard on a loop in theme parks, and songs from queer/trans/nonbinary artists past and present. And if any of these things catch your eye, stay tuned for more to come! 

Thanks for being here! – Jordan Brown