Now We Know

Originally recorded in April of 2023, your latest unearthed prize from the Now We Know vault is our dive into the first (modern era) Mario movie, with the sequel set to hit theaters next month. And, oddly enough, both the beginning and climax of this one are very, very similar to the reviled 1993 live-action Mario movie!

In the 90's, the asking price for an athlete likeness endorsement was seemingly more within reach, even for a rather shabby outfit, than it is today. Such is the legacy of ProStars, the short-lived NBC cartoon series "starring" the North American sports star trio of Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, and Bo Jackson (hey, two for one!). The three didn't actually do the voices for their characters, of course, instead filming short, to-the-point talking head segments as themselves, and leaving the voice acting to the professionals (who, one assumes, were not far too famous for this ignoble task like the real men were). Originally recorded in January 2024, Kevin invites you into the ProStars pantheon.

Take me out to the baaaaallllgaaaaaame... very soon! With a new MLB season nearly upon us, and the World Baseball Classic just having wrapped up in an exhilarating victory for Team Venezuela, we present, from the Patreon vault, our January 2022 episode on Bonds on Bonds, the short-lived 2006 ESPN documentary series about the controversial Giants superslugger's quest for the home run record. Is it a good work of journalism? Not really! Did Bonds have an unusual amount of creative control? Reportedly! Does he therefore come off well? No!

Digging once again into the depths of the Now We Know vault, originally recorded in September 2022, an examination of On The Air.

July 1992. Mark Frost and David Lynch are a year removed from the cancellation of the landmark TV phenomenon Twin Peaks, and Lynch has just months prior screened Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me at Cannes, disparaged at the time, yet now considered a masterpiece.

So, the dynamic duo decide to pair up on a new show, in a whole new direction: a hokey sitcom about a 1950's TV station starring Twin Peaks alums Ian Buchanan and Miguel Ferrer. Met with scathingly negative reviews, it was pulled after just seven episodes. Did it deserve it? Well, you'll just have to lis-oh, whatever, yes! Yes it did! It's awful!

Crrrreeeeeeeak! That sound you hear is the door to the ballyhooed Now We Know vault, once again being opened to fetch your now-unlocked, once-paywalled episode for the week. This time it's Family Dog, the Steven Spielberg-backed, Brad Bird-created cartoon which aspired to be CBS' answer to The Simpsons. This was decidedly not successful, although at just ten episodes long, is it theoretically possible that a higher percentage of the entire run of Family Dog is better than the entire now-moribund 37 SEASONS OF SIMPSONS????? Probably not, but this much is true, at least: we never had to hear Martin Mull struggle to voice the dad from Family Dog into his 70's.

Guess who's back!?!?!? yeah it's willow.

Salutations and celebrations, as we once again dig into the shadowy annals of the Now We Know Patreon vault. This time, originally recorded in January 2023, we dig into the ill-fated, one (season) and done Disney+ series Willow, a follow-up to the film of the same name.

This week, unlocked from the depths of the Now We Know Patreon vault for the very first time, the missing piece of our classic advert puzzle: it's Commercials of the 80's and 90's volume four! This was the only episode of our long-running commercials series to be paywalled, so now the complete set is available free of charge right here on the main feed. Enjoy!

Your latest unlocked treasure from the Now We Know Patreon vault, first recorded and released in May of 2022: it's the Chip 'n Dale movie, starring Andy Samberg and John Mulaney, among others. I (Chris) honestly don't remember too much about this one, except that you only get like 30 seconds of Gadget as part of a rather distressing sight gag, but they did bring back Tress MacNeille for said 30 seconds! So maybe you can take some solace in that?

Fresh from the formerly paid-only Now We Know vault, originally released 02/24/23, it's our long traipse through the McGruff Smart Kids album, a cassette tape release with eight tracks of anti-drug jams across a swatch of genres, from the groovy, to the hard rocking, to electronic new wave, and perhaps the smoothest cut on the album, the Steely Dan-esque "Alcohol." Join us for a traipse through all eight of these tracks, expertly performed by McGruff creator/voice actor Jack Keil.

Your latest treasure unlocked from the Now We Know vault, originally released to the Patreon on 08/25/22 — our dive into the strange world of the long-lost live-action Sailor Moon pilot, produced by Toon Makers, with an eye towards American television. Oscillating between American-style animation and live-action sequences (somewhat similar to the Japanese action source footage paired with western high school TV drama featured in Power Rangers), this thing was, until relatively recently, a whispered-about relic, only screened once or twice at enthusiast festivals over the intervening decades. But now, you can watch it, like we did, and listen to us talk about it, like all decent folk should.