This column features stories from students exploring the intersection of creativity and technology through Hive Learning Network programs in NYC and Chicago.
Quentin Tarantino, the film director of Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, once said when talking about the generation which came of age in the 1970s, "The number-one thing we shared wasn't music, that was a sixties thing. Our culture was television." You could say a similar thing about the generation which has come of age in the last decade. Movies have become creatively bankrupt with few films that seem to be universally accepted by the "Millennial" generation (The Dark Knight being one of the few exceptions). The bitterly divided realm of music between the modern and retro camps leaves music of the table of universal sharing. And while the Internet is the undisputed uniter of the current generation, television comes a real close second. Whenever I have conversations with my classmates, the number-one thing we always come back to when discussing media is television, children's television in particular. You can actually divide up the current generation into four camps: Disney Kids, Cartoon Network Kids, Nickelodeon Kids, and the poor saps that didn't have cable. That seems to be the case because the children's television of the late 90's and early 00's did a really good job at taking the universal desires, fears, behaviors, and events of childhood and producing entertainment out of them that was intelligent, touching and, most of all, funny. So prepare for an extreme nostalgia blast with my list of the top 10 favorite television episodes of my childhood.
10. Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius- "Raise the Oozy Scab" (2002)
The beauty of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius was that it was able to take the adventure fantasy that most small children have and make them into episodes which many children's imaginations (including my own) run wild. "Raise the Oozy Scab" is the perfect example of this formula. Jimmy, the arrogant, sexist and yet somehow likable protagonist of the series, is paired with his archrival Cindy, the equally intelligent and stubborn ying to Jimmy's yang, for a science project. Hoping to drive Cindy away, he creates a dangerous project to find the lost treasure of the Oozy Scab, a famous sunken 19th century pirate ship lying somewhere at the bottom of the ocean. Much to Jimmy's surprise Cindy decides to come along and they, along with Jimmy's two best friends, Sheen and Carl, go an adventure through the bottom of the ocean in order to find pirate treasure. This episode played on my fantasies of exploring the ocean and exploring the dark mysteries of the deep ocean. It also does a great job of showing the errors of Jimmy's arrogant and sexist ways, ending on note emphasizing humility and self-restraint.
9. SpongeBob SquarePants - "SB-129" (1999)
SpongeBob SquarePants is, without a doubt, my favorite television series of all time. This quirky, trippy celebration of undersea life lacks the depth of series' like Hey Arnold!, and Jimmy Neutron, but nevertheless it's charming originality and creativity rank it atop my favorite TV series list. In this episode, Squidward, the Debbie Downer octopus, is trapped in a freezer while trying to avoid the perpetually annoying SpongeBob and Patrick. He is cryogenically contained in the freezer for 2000 years and is released by SpongeTron, SpongeBob's robot descendant and discovers that he is in the future. From there, unfolds a convoluted and hilarious journey back and forth through time which shows that, as misanthropic as Squidward is, he needs other people in order to survive. CHROME!
8. Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius - "Monster Hunt" (2003)
Another aquatic-based Jimmy Neutron addition to the list, this episode had Jimmy, along with his close pals Sheen and Carl, rent a boat from grizzled sea captain "Cap 'N' Betty" and go on a quest to defeat the infamous "Lake Monster" in Retroville Lake. An obvious send-up of Jaws, this episode takes all of the romantic sea-adventure and action elements of Jaws and transplants them effectively into the children's animation format, while also adding some hilarious gags and cutting down on the violent brutality and paranoia of the feature film.
7. Hey Arnold! - "Das Subway" (1996)
This is the only series on the list which comes close to SpongeBob. This series tracked the life of Arnold, the football headed idealist kid growing up in the big city with his diverse group of friends. The series was mature and reflective while also being funny and adventurous. It was also one of the few children's animation shows which dealt with growing up in an urban environment, a rarity among the predominantly suburban and rural backdrops of most children's TV shows. This episode had Arnold and the crew stuck in the subway, a common occurrence for most urbanites, but dragged it on far longer than most of us could bear. This episode does a good job of conveying the fact that the subway is the great unifier of most great American cities. No matter your race, gender, religion or politics, on the subway, whether we like it or not, we all come together.
6. Recess- "Terrifying Tales of Recess" (2001)
Recess was great at capturing what it felt like to be in elementary school. You did think that the kindergartners were savages and that the sixth graders were gorillas. While everything may not have played out the way it did in the Recess series, it always felt like it was a fictionalized version of elementary school life that rang truer than most TV series on the subject. This episode was an anthology of horror stories in a near rip-off of Treehouse of Horror episodes. I like this episode purely for the way it presents all of the segments. It bottled up all the feelings and moods associated with Halloween and put them in a television episode. I'll never look at a potato chip the same again.
5. SpongeBob SquarePants - "Graveyard Shift" (2002)
In this episode, Mr. Krabs, the owner of the restaurant Squidward and SpongeBob work at, decides to keep his restaurant open 24 hours, leaving SpongeBob and Squidward to work a boring night shift. During the doldrums of this dark shift, Squidward tells SpongeBob the fictitious story of the Hash Slinging Slasher, a former employee who cut off his hand accidentally before being run over by a bus. To surprise of both of them, he shows up. This episode plays off my childhood love of ghost stories and memories of eating at fast food restaurants at three in the morning and wondering what was lurking in the darkness surrounding the establishment. It also has some of the best moments in the entire SpongeBob series, such as when the infamous Slasher finally shows up, and having a character from a 1922 silent German Expressionist film make a cameo is always amazing. "Nosferatu!"
4. SpongeBob SquarePants - "Ripped Pants" (1999)
Never in my life did I think that a television episode based around someone ripping their pants could be so iconic, memorable and ultimately hilarious. SpongeBob accidentally rips his pants at the beach, making everyone laugh. He does it over and over again making himself the star of the beach, until he does it so much that it becomes boring. It touches on the universal childhood misery of taking a joke you think is funny and running it into the ground and then feeling awful about yourself. The beauty of this episode is that it takes that horrible embarrassment and makes something charming and sweet out of it. It also contains one of the best musical numbers of the entire series (go and YouTube "I Ripped My Pants SpongeBob" -- trust me, it's still as great as when I first saw it).
3. Hey Arnold! - "Wheezin' Ed" (1996)
In this show, Arnold and the gang head out to Elk Island, an island in the middle of a river which runs through the city, to try to find the treasure of Wheezin' Ed, a sadistic bootlegger who is rumored to have left his entire fortune on the island before dying. The gang arrive and instead have to outrun a duo of penny counterfeiters. This episode, like it's obvious inspiration, The Goonies, takes the childhood fantasy of the adventure you always planned to have with your friends but didn't because you realized you couldn't do it and does it. Also, urban legends in general make great subjects for children's TV as they are so rooted in the mystery and fantasy that defines childhood. This episodes encapsulates that perfectly.
2. SpongeBob SquarePants - "Sleepy Time" (2000)
The concept of dreams is an integral part of not only being a kid, but of being a person. They are gateways to our thoughts, desires, and fears. Dreams, being a realm of extreme imagination, appeals to the sensibilities of most children, as most children possess overactive imaginations. "Sleepy Time" explores that by having SpongeBob explore the dreams of his friends and neighbors. This leads to hilarious situations such as helping the cheap Mr. Krabs fish for a $1 bill, or survive Plankton's apocalyptic nightmare of destruction. This episode incorporates themes of astral projection, out of body experiences, lucid dreaming, and voyeurism all while being funny and not too heavy-handed with those themes. That is good children's television.
1. Hey Arnold! - "Arnold's Christmas" (1996)
The most heart-wrenching episode on this list, "Arnold's Christmas" is one of the few children's television episodes to deal with the heartbreak and tragedy that followed the end of the Vietnam War and the pain of being a refugee in a different land. The premise is that Arnold gets Mr. Hyunh, the Vietnamese immigrant tenant of the boarding house Arnold lives in, as his secret Santa and tries to find the perfect gift for him. He discovers that Mr. Hyunh gave up his daughter to an American helicopter pilot during the Fall of Saigon in order to guarantee a better life for her. He has come to America to look for his daughter but has never found her. Arnold is determined to find her and get Mr. Hyunh the perfect Christmas gift. This episode explores complex themes in a way that most children will understand and states that the true meaning of Christmas is not the pleasure which comes from material things, but the pleasure which comes from helping other people. To paraphrase Rick Perry, "If you don't cry at the end of this episode, you don't have a heart."
So there you have it, my 10 favorite television episodes of my childhood. What are yours?