What A Cartoon! - Welcome to Eltingville

boy i hope somebody got fired for that blunder

Me and my friends loved Eltingville (and the rest of Dorkin's output of the time, we'd be dumb teens and run and yell MERV GRIFFIN sometimes) but we saw Eltingville as much more of a cautionary tale. Something that we needed to think about so we didn't become too obsessive about our hobbies. That we needed to be well rounded people. You could love Magic the Gathering, Star Wars/Trek, Dr Who, Warhammer, Marvel and DC but also be able to do things that didn't result in arguing about if Ms Marvel could beat Wonder Woman that turned into fist fights.

twistedmentat

You’re all against me! You all know I knew it! - Henry/Josh

Talking Simpsons

It’s ok. We’re none of us perfect.

DL MacDonald

We are holding Henry accountable

Bob Mackey

I hate to be that guy… but Henry. Callisto was a Morlock and not part of the Marauders.

DL MacDonald

As a self-admitted "Toy Boy," the argument of what is needed for a display hits too close to home. I'm the type who has multiple Foot Soldiers in his TMNT displays (yes, displays, because you need to represent all forms of media the turtles have appeared in) even though I'm just buying the same figure over and over. And it does become a compulsion. I've been buying NECA's TMNT figures based on the original cartoon for the past few years and I'm buying characters I barely remember. Smash? Kerma? And I even two versions of Vernon! When do I say enough is enough? I don't know, but probably soon because I'm running out of room. You guys mentioned it more than once that this show does have somewhat of a Mission Hill feel to it. I'm guessing that series played a role in this not getting picked up because the higher-ups at Cartoon Network could just say "We already have a dorky show in Mission Hill and it's already paid for that no one watches, why invest in another one?" That's obviously in addition to the stated reason that this show required a "real" budget for animation when the Williams Street stuff did not.

Joe Hodgson

It was a real trip reading the comics and seeing one of the characters say “Every movie coming out is being made for us!”, in a story written in 1994. That only became more true when this pilot aired, and as you said, it is the overwhelming reality now. One of the things that struck me about the era of fandom as seen in Eltingville is how much of it is based on really obscure stuff—old things, things with cult followings, or things that were failures when they came out. The Buck Rogers TV show they reference so much barely lasted two seasons! It reminds you that there was a time when, if you liked Science Fiction or fantasy, you really had to dig to find things that matched your interests—now, it's almost completely reversed, where it feels like almost every movie and TV show is some kind of Sci-Fi or fantasy thing. Another funny realization I had is that by not being picked up as a series, Welcome to Eltingville became the exact sort of obscure cult object that the Eltingville Club would have been obsessed with.

Christmas Ape

I enjoyed this a ton and I'm so glad this was picked. I was sad after watching it thinking, "Man, too bad it didn't get picked up!" until learning afterwards it was a comic and I'm definitely going to go get the omnibus for the comics now, especially after some of the jokes Henry mentioned in the comic that made me laugh out loud.

Grant Baxter

In 2002, I lived on Staten Island, attended a school near Eltingville, and was friends with comic book dorks. But I didn't know about the show until a few years later. Somebody told me that the Jim Hanley's Universe on New Dorp Lane was the inspiration for the comic shop in the show.

Marty

I had never heard of this comic or the pilot until it was introduced to me through this podcast. Compared to other modern animated properties that heavily name drop and incorporate real world geek culture for its humor (like with Inside Job, Family Guy, et al), I must give it to Eltingville for being more humanistic and based on relatable experiences. Plus the characters, while not the most likeable, feel more real than in many other adult animated series.

Alex Irish

This would have probably been too close to home if it had come out in 2002 when I was 16 and spending a lot of time at a comic book shop in a strip mall with a dollar theater and an asian massage place that got raided, but what a fun time capsule it is now.

Chris Dobson

Oh I have seen the ending of this probably before athf or ghost.

Cossover

I’m so glad you guys did this episode. I remember seeing this one night and thought it was a fever dream as none of my other friends knew what I was talking about. I was an early adopter of Adult Swim and this was one those things I forgot I saw until rewatching it again. Thanks guys for talking about this.

Boyd Adkins IV

My biggest memory was absolutely losing my mind while hearing The Aquabats’ theme song play on Cartoon Network (they’re my favorite band and the stamp of approval made me an instant fan of the show). The song lived on my burned cd mixes for years and the lyrics still pop in to my head on a weekly basis 👍

Tom Buck