Sunday, April 26, 2009

A Cartoon for Old Men: Kid Notorious

Cartoons are usually a simple matter. You either get a big macho hero, a young lad or a pretty girl and put them in some sort of peril. That's just children's cartoons though. Shows marketed at teens and adults can get weird. For example...
Kid Notorious
Sounds simple enough, but it is not. This is a show based on a caricature of a real person- a celebrity to boot- that is produced by said person. Confused yet? We're just getting started.
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Robert Evans was a huge name in the 1970s. He produced movies and you may have heard of a couple. Chinatown, Black Sunday and Marathon Man, just to name a few. But this show came out in 2003. Why the big wait? Good question.
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The show is basically about him being a big Hollywood producer. The irony of this is that he was not so hot around this time. He had a falling out with some people and some personal issues that had side-tracked him. In the lead-up to this show, he had produced such blockbusters as Jade, Sliver and The Cotton Club. Ouch.
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His supporting cast was weird too. Niecy Nash (the black lady sheriff on Reno 911) played his old-timey black maid. Okay, sure. His best friend Slash (Guns n Roses guitarist) was played by, well, Slash. I don't see the connection, but, sure why not. Most episodes also featured Kid's girlfriend Sharon Stone, who is not played by herself. Well, you can't have it all.
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What is the plot about? Well, it's about everything. One episode has him fighting a Saudi oil sheik, another has him fencing with Leonardo DiCaprio (voice impersonated) and yet another has him trying to kill Kim Jong-Il. No, really. In that one, the C.I.A. hires him to go there as himself, since Kim is a big fan of the live-action Popeye film that Evans produced. I wish I could make stuff like this up, but I can't.
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Did the show last? Well, no. It was marketed at adults and teens, the latter of which were not alive when Evans was a household name anymore. Good planning, guys. It lasted a run of 9 episodes and never came back. It goes on the giant list of Comedy Central shows that only lasted one season like Strip Mall, Stella, etc. It was a very quirky show, so it's appeal was strange and limited.
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Want more forgotten sequels? That's what coming up next. Stay tuned...

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