Remember that one day when you could wake up without an alarm? When you would get your favorite bowl of cereal and sit between the hours of 8 and 12? This is a blog dedicated to the greatest time of our childhood: Saturday mornings. The television programs you watched, the memories attached to them, and maybe introducing you to something you didn't realize existed. Updated every weekend.
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He did the music for Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, California Dreams, The Addams Family (1992), Cave Kids, ChalkZone, Back at the Barnyard, Bunsen is a Beast and Johnny Test; worked on some music for Tiny Toon Adventures and Sesame Street; and wrote a song for SpongeBob SquarePants.
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Best known for retooling Good Morning, Miss Bliss into the successful Saved by the Bell franchise, for which he also produced and wrote, leading to the creation of the Teen NBC programming block. He also served as executive producer on California Dreams, Saved by the Bell: The New Class (appearing as Murray on an episode), Hang Time (appearing as The Commissioner on an episode), One World, and City Guys (which he created).
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He played Chef Pierre Goulash/Mr. Gordon in an episode of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, as well as provided additional voices to other episodes; Magneto in Pryde of the X-Men; Lugg Brother #1 in three episodes of The Pirates of Dark Water; General Massey in “Liberty and the Littles” and Monostatos in “The Magic Flute” episodes of ABC Weekend Specials; Rhino in three episodes of Batman: The Animated Series; Zeus in an episode of Animaniacs; Kilrathi Commander in an episode of Wing Commander Academy; Principal Blumford on California Dreams; the President in an episode of The Mask: The Animated Series; Santa Claus and Earth in episodes of Pinky and the Brain; the Red Skull (2nd voice) and the Beyonder in Spider-Man: The Animated Series; Vice President Obsequious in an episode of The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries; Nick (aka Santa) in an episode of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command; and an Event Judge in an episode of The Zeta Project. He also provided voices for The Addams Family (1992), Skeleton Warriors and What-A-Mess.
The 3rd weekend in our anniversary celebration ends with the programs turning a mighty big
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| Richard, Sly, Tony, Gail, Matt, Dennis, Jenny and Tiffani. |
California Dreams was created
by writers Brett Dewey and Ronald B. Solomon. The sitcom
had a dual focus on the Garrison family and their children’s band, which shared
its name with the series. The Garrisons had moved from Iowa to Southern
California, and guitarist Matt Garrison (Brent Gore) had, at some point, formed
the band with the friends he made in his new home and his younger sister, keyboardist
Jenny (Heidi Noelle Lenhart). The other band members included Tiffani Smith
(Kelly Packard) on bass and vocals, Antoine “Tony” Wicks (William James, who
got his role by sending in an audition tape) on drums, and the
“ba-boom!”-exclaiming Sylvester “Sly” Winkle (Michael Cade, whose agents
initially passed on the series to hold out for something better), who served as
the band’s obnoxious and constantly scheming manager. Also featured were Matt
and Jenny’s parents Richard (Michael Cutt) and Melody (Gail Ramsey), and their
younger brother Dennis (Ryan O’Neill). The show would blend real-life issues
with zany adventures; juggling between the typical family situations of the
Garrisons and the Dreams’ attempts at making something of their potential
musical careers in between classes and homework.
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| Practicing. |
Executive produced by Peter
Engel through his production
company, California Dreams debuted on NBC
on September 12, 1992. The series was written by Tony Soltis, Noah Taft, Paul Lander, David Garber, Lynnie Greene,
Richard Levine,
Robert Jayson,
Dawn Urbont,
Todd J.
Greenwald, Robb
Hammersley, Jeffery
J. Sachs, Debra
Fasciano, Mark
C. Miller, Bonnie
L. DeSouza, Keith
Hossman and Renee
Palyo. The opening theme was composed by Guy Moon, Steve Tyrell and Regina Crimp, with
Tyrell composing the rest of the series. Each episode would feature the band
playing a song somewhat tied into the overall theme of the episode. While many
of their performances were on the stage at their favorite hangout, Sharkey’s, or
their practice space, some were done like music videos. Although the band
members sung their own vocals, they didn’t actually play the instruments even
though they could.
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| Breakfast at the Garrisons'. |
While the series didn’t sit well with critics, who considered it an
unoriginal blending of Saved by the Bell, The Partridge Family and
Beverly Hills 90210, it did gain a loyal following as evidenced
by the packed houses the cast experienced when they would go on mall tours in
between filming. Despite its respectable ratings, the show had come around in a
time when NBC was shifting focus to more teen-oriented programming after the
massive success of Bell, which was in
its final season when the show debuted. As a result, NBC dumped all its
animated programming and reworked its Saturday schedule to include more teen
sitcoms similar to Bell to try and replicate its success. To that end, NBC asked for some changes
to be made to the show in order for it to be more at home in its new Teen NBC (TNBC) programming block.
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| New members, same sound. |
The Garrisons were phased out in order to focus solely on the band and
the antics of its members; with Richard reduced to a recurring character and
Gail only being a guest-star. Matt remained for the rest of the second season,
but Jenny was sent off to an Italian music conservatory after the third
episode. The first episode introduced the band’s second guitarist, bad boy Jake
Sommers (Jay Anthony Franke, singing voice by Barry Coffing), whose image
initially led to the band to consider him an ill fit for the group. The fourth
episode introduced Samantha Woo (Jennie Kwan, who actually auditioned for the
role of Tiffani the previous year), a foreign exchange student from Hong Kong
that stayed with the Garrisons in Jenny’s room. She eventually took Jenny’s
place as the band’s new vocalist and keyboardist.
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| The Dreams with Jake, Lorena, Mark and Sam. |
For season 3, the last vestige of the original premise was removed
entirely when Matt was written off of the show; the in-story explanation being
that the Garrisons had moved once again. In reality, Gore had conflicting
notions about how his character should be portrayed with the producers and left
the show as a result. In his place came Mark Winkle (Aaron Jackson, singing
voice by Zachary Throne), Sly’s cousin from New York who was his complete
opposite in personality. Samantha was taken in by the Costa family, which was
headed by a wealthy land developer. Their daughter, Lorena (Diana Uribe), was a
fan of the band and became an occasional benefactor when her lack of talent
prevented her from joining them outright.
The band members would undergo the standard trials and tribulations of
high school as they struggled with grades, money, getting gigs and romance
(usually with each other), in between hanging out at the beach or Sharkey’s.
After five seasons, the series ran its course. The final episode, “The Last
Gig”, was set months after the band graduated from Pacific Coast High School.
Jake wanted to keep the band going and tried to get his band mates recording
contracts, but each of them wanted to embark on a new journey: Tiffani went to
study marine biology at the University of
Hawaii; Sam went to study physics at Oxford
University; Mark returned to New York to attend Juilliard; Tony went off to study acting;
and Sly and Lorena stayed in town to study at Pacific
University. Jake takes the recording deal on his own with his friends’
blessings. Upon the conclusion of the series, the entire cast and crew received
a special 2-disc collection of all the songs from the series.
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| The 10-episode DVD. |
The series was nominated for four Young
Artist Awards between 1993 and 1994, as well as an NCLR Bravo Award in 1996. In 1992, MCA Records released an album
collecting the songs from the first season. Between 2009-2011, Shout! Factory released the first four
seasons on DVD, with 1
and 2 together in the same set. Season
3 and 4
were initially offered exclusively through Shout!’s online store. In 2011, Mill Creek Entertainment released a best-of
collection, featuring 10 episodes from the first three seasons. On March 4,
2010, Jimmy Fallon hosted
a reunion of the teenaged cast on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, with the exception of Aaron Jackson
and Diana Uribe, and a special appearance by Bell’s Dennis Haskins (who helped
Fallon eventually get a Bell reunion). Together, the cast
played the show’s theme for Fallon’s audience.
