Inspired by the ongoing saga of Daniel Hauser (which continues to reach new levels of stupidity…), here is some IMDB “It’s not a tumor” AKA Kindergarten Cop trivia!

• The lead role was originally offered to Bill Murray. Danny DeVito was also considered.
• The lead child, Dominic, was played by twins (a la Full House)(also there is probably a joke in there about the movie Twins starring Schwarzenegger and DeVito).
• Dominic has Ghostbusters sheets on his bed. Both Kindergarten Cop and Ghostbusters were directed by Ivan Reitman.

OK – so I guess I don’t have much trivia here, but could you imagine how different the movie would have been with Murray or DeVito???

Apparently, Winston is.

I had always thought that Winston was his last name, or that he only had one name. Now that Ghostbusters is on Blu-Ray, I can watch it properly and be able to read the name on Winston’s uniform.

Source: PvP, and wiki for the verification

Yes, Ron Jeremy, the guy from all those, ahem, adult, movies was an Extra in Ghostbusters.

It’s true, confirmed by the man himself.

Source: ProtonCharging.com which seems to be some type of hardcore Ghostbusters fan site. I got there from a site called ToplessRobot.com, which is a mildly entertaining NSFW pop culture site. Don’t ask me how I got there.

Here is the lynch pin to the story I did not know. There was a live-action children’s television show that ran from 1975-76 about a team of bumbling detectives who would investigate ghostly occurrences called The Ghost Busters. It has NO relationship to the 1984 Ghostbusters movie.

Now. Ghostbusters, which is now referred to as Filmation’s Ghostbusters (for clarity), was the crappy animated Ghostbusters show featuring 2 idiots and a gorilla for some reason. It ran from 1986-1988, which had the plot:
Jake Kong, Eddie Spencer and Tracy the Gorilla are The Ghost Busters. Jake and Eddie Jr are the sons of the original Ghost Busters from the live action series of the same name; Tracy worked with their fathers.

The better of the two shows was The Real Ghostbusters. It WAS based off the 1984 Ghostbusters film. It ran from 1986 to 1991 and was Emmy nominated. Interestingly, Ernie Hudson did try out for the voice of Winston, but the role was given instead to Arsenio Hall (for the first 3 seasons before someone else took over). Also, when Arsenio left, Dave Coulier took over for the Peter Venkman character, who before that was done by Lorenzo Music, who also did the voice of Garfield in the Garfield cartoons (his Peter Venkman also sounded like Garfield). TRG was ranked as the #22 best show in the IGN Top 100 Best Animated TV Shows. There were 2 The Real Ghostbusters spin-offs including Slimer! and Extreme Ghostbusters.

The interesting thing here is that the terrible Ghostbusters live action show actually did come first. So it was Filmation who sued Columbia and made them use a name other then “Ghostbusters” (hence the ‘the real’ on front).

Source: mostly Wiki and wiki.

And it was apparently good!

Published in 1986, Ghostbusters: A Frightfully Cheerful Roleplaying Game went on to win the H. G. Wells award for Best Roleplaying Rules of 1986.

It was a very simple rule set based around the idea that you just purchased a Ghostbusters franchise and are based in a city other than New York. Your character sheets are called Ghostbusters ID cards and can be found here. The game was revised and re-released in 1989 when it was renamed Ghostbusters International. It’s wobsite and scans of the rules can be found here and here.

Ecto Cooler was a flavor of Hi-C juice. It was a 1987 product tie-in between the juice company and The Real Ghostbusters, which was an animated cartoon based on the 1984 live action movie ‘Ghostbusters.’ The juice turned out to be way more popular then the cartoon, and the cartoon went off the air in 1991, while Ecto Cooler could be seen on shelves until at least 1997 (or later; see below).

Now, even though Jeff may argue this, the formula for Ecto Cooler is not, in fact Candy Apple Cooler. In fact, I could find shockingly little information on CAC, but did find out the dirt on Ecto Cooler.

This blag gives the full run-down, along with a link to the teaser commercial for the product (that’s right, Ecto Cooler had a teaser commercial), but basically, orange lavaburst is not similar, but he heard rumors that a Hi-C flavor Shoutin‘ Oranger Tangergreen (which has a green-lips mascot looking similar to Slimer) may be the same formula as EC. The guy did research. One really cool fact is that receipts when purchasing SOT would ring up as Ecto! That suggested that they reused the Ecto UPC. In the end, he did prove, as much as one can, that Shoutin‘ Oranger Tangergreen is the same formula as the wildly successful Ecto Cooler.

Lastly, the Hi-C wiki states that Slimer left the box for Ecto Cooler in about 1997, but the product existed until 2001, when it was renamed Shoutin‘ Orange Tangergreen and:

In 2006, Shoutin‘ Orange Tangergreen was renamed Crazy Citrus Cooler.
In 2007, Crazy Citrus Cooler was discontinued. The formula to make the Ecto Cooler and its counterparts is no longer made. Though the flavor is basically a combination of oranges and tangerines.

I think we’re in trouble. This solar storm thing looks bad.

You see, The Sun goes through natural cycles, and occasionally produces massive magnetic solar storms, which can wreak havoc here on Earth.

In 2003, two weeks of solar storms knocked out 2 orbiting satellites.

In 1989 a storm took out the power grid in Quebec.

In 1859 a storm caused telegraph wires to suddenly short out in the US and Europe which caused several major fires to break out.

A new study is out that says that when the next big storm hits we will be royally screwed. Like, the entire US Power Grid collapsing screwed. Like Banks closing and all international trade suspending screwed.

I’m talking fire and brimstone coming down from the sky! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes, the dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together – MASS HYSTERIA!

You get the picture.

So when is the next peak in solar activity expected? 2012 of course.

I’m starting to think that I may not buy Christmas presents that year after all.

Source: Fox News

OK – I do remember Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, but I did not remember some of the specifics.

The biggest feats of this project were that All-Stars from different production companies all came together on this project (though rumor has it Garfield was used without Jim Davis’ permission which is one of the reasons All-Stars was not rerun). The other was that it was shown simultaneously on ABC, CBS, and NBC. It aired on April 22, 1990. Which is another reason I’m surprised I didn’t remember more about it.

The plot is that Michael is a beer-drinking piggy-bank-stealing pot-head teen who is heavily influenced by antagonist, Smoke. The Cartoon All-Stars including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Gordon ‘ALF’ Schumway (who has the best lines EVER!), the Smurfs, the Chipmunks, Pooh, Garfield, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, the Muppet Babies, Slimer, and one ninja turtle (Michelangelo) try using witty dialog to convince him, “There’s nothing cool about a fool on drugs!”

You really have to check out the quotes page. I want to know how Simon (from the Chipmunks) knows what pot smells like. Was Dave dealing on the side???

All-Stars was financed by McDonalds (though Ronald didn’t make an appearance). It was released on VHS with a special introduction with then-President George H. W. Bush, and First Lady Barbara Bush. Alas, it is not currently available for purchase on DVD.

Source: Wiki and IMDB while researching TV cross-overs.

Could it be true? Part 3 in the works? I can’t imagine it would be good.

Other movies coming soon to an empty movie theater near you:

• Remake of RoboCop
• Terminator 14
• Yet another rendition of the Frankenstein story
• Fahrenheit 451
• The 15th attempt at making Dune into a movie

Source: LA Times via Hot Air

Ray… What did you do Ray? It’s the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

There was quite the heated debate about marshmallows at dinner last night. The Wife^® was imagining that there was a time that people had to eat Sweet Potatoes without the assistance of marshmallows. I disagreed, taking the position that Marshmallows have been around a long time. Maybe as long as Sweet Potatoes. She then claimed that Ma and Pa (if you know The Wife^® you know that no conversation is complete until Ma and Pa come up) didn’t have marshmallows.

Right now you are all wishing you could have been there to witness that stimulating debate.

Anyway, I take the position that we were both partially right, and partially wrong. Which is unusual, since I usually take the position that The Wife^® is fully wrong when we debate things as heady as marshmallows.

Lets get this out of the way first. Sweet Potatoes were first domesticated in South America about 5000 years ago.

The first marshmallows were consumed in Egypt in around 2000 B.C. So, Sweet Potatoes have been around for about 1000 years longer than marshmallows. I was wrong.

Marshmallow was made from the mallow plant that grows wild in marshes. The Egyptians squeezed sap from the mallow plant and mixed it with nuts and honey to form their version of the tasty treat.

Marshmallows were introduced to France in the early 1800’s. The treats had to be whipped by hand and it was quite a time consuming process. In the late 1800’s confectioners invented a way to automate the process, and that is when gelatin replaced whipped mallow root as the key ingredient.

It was in 1948 when the modern marshmallow came into being. A chap name Alex Doumak patented the extrusion process that is still in use today. In fact, together with Kraft, Doumak Inc. produces most of the commercially available marshmallows today. They are just packaged under different brand names.

So, as you can see, it would have been possible, though not probable, that Ma and/or Pa could have obtained some marshmallow for use on their sweet potatoes. Making me right.

Source: The National Confectioners Association and wiki pages on marshmallows (surprisingly unhelpful) and sweet potatoes