Grantovich.net

There is a tendency to look back on the media of one’s childhood through rose-colored glasses. That one videogame you thought was an incredibly challenging but rewarding masterpiece? Turns out it was just a third-rate clone of a Nintendo Hard platformer with more game-breaking glitches than you could shake a joystick at. That one TV show you watched religiously every Saturday morning with a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in hand? Turns out it was just an incredibly cheesy, lazily-animated product tie-in show with plot holes big enough to drive a tank through.

But sometimes you go back, take a second look at something you enjoyed as a kid, and think “Wow, this is exactly as awesome as I remembered it.” Usually that’s the point where you proceed to blow an entire evening on YouTube, DOSBox, or a console emulator, up to your eyeballs in nostalgia and grinning like you just won the lottery.

One recent “revisiting” of mine occurred when, searching for something unrelated, I discovered a playlist of probably-illegal The Magic School Bus episodes on YouTube (“Related videos” can turn up the weirdest things…). In my days as a young, impressionable elementary-schooler, I think this was one of the only ”educational” TV shows* that I would go out of my way to watch at home, because it was that good. But what with me being a grown-up college student nowadays, I hadn’t seen an episode in years.

In case there was any doubt: Yes, it’s still awesome. Coming from an adult perspective the science may seem boring due to its extremely basic nature, but it’s easy to see just how much effort went into making The Magic School Bus a fundamentally good show. Ms. Frizzle (a.k.a. Lily Tomlin) is positively effervescent, her class’s goofy antics and exaggerated reactions will appeal to anyone’s inner fourth-grader, and the show’s theme song is so damn catchy it ought to be illegal. Plus it’s hilarious to point out all the patent absurdities and flagrant violations of school health and safety protocols you never noticed as a kid.

So go out there and find something you thought was amazing when you were little, and see if it stands the test of time. At worst, you’ll laugh at yourself for ever liking it. At best, you’ll have a cake-eating grin plastered on your face for the next few hours.

* I think the only other one would have to be Bill Nye the Science Guy, who coincidentally was the SG Horton Distinguished Speaker at RIT this past fall quarter. If you ever get the opportunity to go see this guy, jump at it. He’s every bit as funny and engaging in real life as he is on the show.