Whoops! Looks like I missed "TV Tuesday". Don't even have a good excuse, especially since I pretty much had the post ready in advance. Oh well, it's just a day late...and better late than never, right guys?!
Starring:
Omri Katz as Marshall Teller
Justin Shenkarow as Simon Holmes
Mary-Margaret Humes as Marilyn Teller
Louan Gideon as Betty Wilson
Nathan Schultz as Bertram Wilson
Nicholas Schultz as Ernest Wilson
Francis Guinan as Edgar Teller
Julie Condra as Syndi Teller
Written by: Jose Rivera and Karl Schaefer
Directed by: Joe Dante
My, what a way for a show geared toward
younger children to kick off. “Foreverware” was the only episode
I ever remember watching from its initial run, and the memories were
strong enough for me to not only want to revisit this particular
installment, but the entire series as a whole. It’s bizarre, and
rather gutsy for a kid’s show, and those are probably two good
reasons that it never took off.
In “Foreverware”, we are introduced
to Marshall Teller (played by Omri Katz), whose parents decided to
get away from the violence of New Jersey (“just across the river
from New York City”) by moving to the town of Eerie, Indiana, “a
town so wholesome, so squeaky clean, you could only find it on TV.”
But things in Eerie aren’t so normal after all, and within mere
seconds of the family moving in, they are greeted by a freakishly
upbeat woman by the name of Betty Wilson, who seems rather desperate
to sell her product to Marshall’s mom, via a product party.
That product is “Foreverware”, an
alternate to Tupperware that’s so strong, it can keep anything
fresh forever. As a test, she gives the family a bologna sandwich
from 1974, which looks like it had just been made earlier that day
(as good as it looks and smells, though, no one dares to try it).
Marshall gets a creepy vibe from her mother’s new friend, and using
a clue from Betty's creepy twin sons, teams up with his friend, Simon
Holmes, to get to the bottom of the mystery.
And what a mystery it is! One of the
sons hands him a note that says “Yearbook 1964”, so Simon and
Marshall go to a library and pull up a local school's yearbook from
that year. What do they find? It seems that Betty's sons went to that
school almost thirty years ago...and look exactly the same as they do
now! Intrigued, the detective duo sneak over to Betty's house where
they see her...sealing her sons inside two huge Foreverware
containers! I guess when she said it can keep anything fresh,
she meant it!
Together with the sons, who have grown
tired of repeating the same year of school over and over again,
Marshall concocts a plan to remove them from their vacuum-sealed
slumber so that they can age and die the way nature intended. This
definitely isn't your typical kiddie show.
One thing I'm liking about “Eerie,
Indiana” is that, unlike many shows geared toward younger
audiences, it doesn't consist of over-the-top color palettes and
ridiculous overacting. Well, Betty and her posse are, but they exist
as parodies of women who throw “product parties”, which were big
back then, and seem to only be growing in popularity as the years go
on. Other than that, though, the characters are played rather
straight and normal, which is probably another reason that the show
failed to be a hit with its target demographic.
This episode didn't really suck me in
all that much, but it's rare for a show to do that having seen just
one ep, so I'm not holding that against it. The idea itself is
weirdly wonderful, and I can't even imagine an adult show attempt
something so off-the-wall, but there's just something...too
straightforward about its execution that left me wanting a lot more.
It isn't flashy or stylish, it isn't particularly well-written...it's
just a single inspired idea wrapped up around a lot of uninspiration.
Marshall Teller has nothing that makes him stand out as a great main
character, and his nerdy friend Simon is entirely forgettable.
Marshall's family is also the stereotypical television family, with
his hot blonde sister who barely has any lines, and the nerdy,
out-of-touch parents. It's not exactly a recipe for excitement no
matter how much you're looking forward to watching this series.
Granted, these are observations after
just one episode, so maybe it will find its footing and these things
will end up growing on me. Or then again, maybe it never will and it
was rightfully canceled after just eighteen episodes (the nineteenth
episode wasn't added to the series until syndication). But whatever its ultimate fate is, you've gotta give it some credit for scorning the mainstream and trying something new. That, in and of itself, is always special.
And always ensures swift cancellation.
RATING: 6/10
FULL EPISODE
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