The "Mister T" Show That Never Was

 There is a "Hanna-Barbera Fanon Wiki" dedicated to "Mister T: The Animated Series" which is the sequel to the 80s cartoon "Mister T". There are descriptions of the characters, the theme song, a cast list and synopses for every episode of its 7 season run.

The interesting thing about this, of course, is that none of it is true. It's all made up.

A few episodes worth highlighting:

• Season 2, Episode 19 which is based on Robert Klein's first HBO Special.
• "Mystery of the TV Attack" in which David Letterman guest stars.
• "Mystery of the Crazy Man" - Mr. T and the team find themselves helping Jerry Seinfeld when he is attacked by a crazy man. Who is responsible for this?
• Episode 88 "Mystery of the Innocent Man" based on the O.J. Simpson trial.
• Episode 127 "Mystery of the News Network" - Rachel Maddow calls Mr. T and the team for help when a string of sabotages occurs at MSNBC. Could the guys at Fox News be behind this?
• Episode 154 "Mystery of the Chemistry Teacher" - Mr. T and the team join forces with the Clue Club when a chemistry teacher is acting suspiciously. It turns out, he is making meth for the purpose of providing money for his family. Can the team convince him to give himself up before it too late?
• And on, and on.

Also worth noting the "Controversy" section. 

The show generated controversy for some mysteries revolving around murder, attempted murder, prostitution, attacks, and other things that would not usually be suitable for a children's show.

LGIO - The Weave

 In this episode, Mr. Let's Game It Out plays Satisfactory, which I think looks to be right up my alley, and invents a concept called "The Weave."

Enjoy.

The Band on Ed Sullivan

 

A couple things here. I'm glad that videos like this, which I've never been able to see before, are being uploaded and in such high quality. That's exciting. But, man, the acoustics of the Ed Sullivan Theater are terrible. And who shoots a musical performance entirely in close-up? In the words of Jack Packard, "How about you get some wides?"

JonTron - The Juiceman Jay Kordich

 

This isn't JonTron's strongest work but the subject is strong. There was an era there where I was watching the Juiceman informercial on a regular basis. 

The one I loved most isn't covered in the video and I haven't found it on youtube either. The one I was obsessed with was the one in a seminar-like setting where he's basically delivering a juice sermon and excitedly getting in people's faces. He was kind of a proto-Don Beveridge. This clip is the closest thing I can find to give you some of the idea:

I loved his infomercials so much I used to juice with my grandfather's juicer, and then later I'd do it with my dad and I own a juicer to this day. I really should use it more. I also need to learn more about that master class. I will pay that tuition if I can obtain some sort of official rank in the Juiceman hierarchy.

Tribal People Watch Bob Ross

 

Diet Soda

 
In college I was made aware of a study that had one group drink regular soda for a certain amount of time and another group drink diet soda. At the end of the study they had found that the people drinking the regular soda had lost more weight (or gained less weight, I don't remember) than the people drinking diet soda. I remember thinking it was an interesting example of experiment proving counter-intuitive results.

One of the ways the apparent paradox could be explained is psychologically - yes, the diet soda is technically better but people are prone to thinking "I'm drinking the diet soda so I might as well have two slices of pizza" etc. and in the end they ruin the gainz.

Aside from thinking it was a fascinating experiment, it never had much effect on my life because I just don't see the point in drinking diet soda. 

Fast forward to today.

Recently I ordered caffeine-free coke and what actually got delivered was caffeine-free diet coke. As someone who drinks caffeine-free coke this is an annoyingly common occurrence. I don't know what it is but for some reason people confuse the two with reckless abandon. To me, diet coke is cheap swill but I didn't want to be wasteful and also figured I'd re-check my assumptions.

To my surprise, I've found it to be a tastier beverage than I had anticipated but here's the thing... Switching to diet soda and keeping everything else constant, I've found that I'm eating more and the reason I'm eating more is not because I'm lying to myself. I don't count calories and I don't make bargains about what I can eat and what I can't. No, I'm eating because I'm insanely hungry almost all the time now and it's a pretty clear direct relationship to the soda itself.

So, I don't have a scale and haven't measured my weight and so maybe I'm hungrier and eating more but have some how lost more weight than I would have otherwise. I'm not suggesting anything about this experience is purely scientific and, in case you're wondering, some studies have shown diet soda increases appetite though there are conflicting studies. Still, the contrast has been so stark and so surprising, at least in terms of subjective experience, that the conclusion is clear - sugar tastes better than artificial sweetener and I don't enjoy being hungry so it's regular soda or water and that's it.