Today, nearly thirty years later, the Green Lantern finally comes to the big screen. And on Father’s Day, I’ll be going with my son to see it.

We’ve shared many passing on the torch of fandom moments, some of which I’ve written about here. But this one is a bit different. Unlike Godzilla, which is appealing to us both in the same way, or Star Wars, which I resigned from the beginning to him being a prequel-brainwashed fan, Green Lantern is something which may not appeal to him at all. I’m hearing early buzz that the movie is a disappointment (I’ve been suspecting as much for a while, but I’m hoping everyone is just being negative). And, the things I love about Green Lantern may not be captured in this film. There may not be a Green Lantern vs. his equal (Sinestro? another rogue lantern?), and it may be more of just a bland origin story with a non-iconic villain setting the stage for later films. This may result in my boy giving it a “meh.” Rating.

On the other hand, I could be pleasantly surprised. I panicked at the start of Thor, as they laid out all of the backstory necessary for the film. I feared that the 15-minutes or so of prologue would lose my son’s interest, but he hung in there and loved the film. It may be that he gives Green Lantern a blindly loyal shot and comes out liking it. We will see.

But for me, it’s another chapter in fatherhood. Another interest shared, fingers crossed that it will take with him (probably not so much my daughter, but I’ll give her the opportunity as well.)

Ookla in the City
When Thundarr the Barbarian decided it was time to settle down, he and Princess Ariel got married, found an abandoned house and went about raising a family in their post-apocalyptic world. But what did this mean for their companion Ookla the Mok? Watch and find out as Ookla ventures out on his own in the ruins of New York City, facing the challenges that only a fanged monster can expect.

… and I’ll Form the Head
When Commander Keith Colgane is wounded on a mission, he is forced to take a new position training the best and the brightest Voltron recruits. With help from his assistant Hardware 2.0, Keith must assume responsibility for the new recruits while coming to terms with his own mortality. Can he form the head that gives his new life purpose?

Run Away with Brandon
Haven’t you always dreamed of traveling across America with a friendly Golden Retriever? Join Punky Brewster’s BFF as he visits some of the greatest landmarks in the nation. If you’re lucky, you might run into one of Punky’s old friends from the orphanage. Just be careful not to crawl into any abandoned refrigerators.

Run For Your Life, Scrappy Doo
Try as they might, Scooby Doo, Shaggy and the rest of the gang could no longer stomach Scrappy Doo’s irritating comments and inappropriate interruptions, so they did the only logical thing, framed him for murder. Now Scrappy is on the run trying to prove his innocence while avoiding capture from the recently demoted Dynomutt.

Hear more from the King of TV on The Paul Goebel Show podcast and at his website, www.TheKingofTV.com. You can also follow Paul on Twitter @PaulGoebelShow.

I embraced some of these fandoms whole-heartedly (others I replaced with my own less mainstream interests, such as Dan Fouts Chargers, Dan Majerle’s Suns, The Fixx, etc., ), and I see exposing my son to these as both a parenting duty and a reward.  Of the pop-culture passions from my youth, one of the most fun to share has been Godzilla.

Godzilla, the Japanese man in a rubber suit with all the glorious toy tank smashing, Kaiju wrestling, and fantastic music, has become one of my son’s favorites, and I have happily watched him share the phenomenon with his friends.

Let me clarify that we are not speaking of the Godzilla-creature from the 1998 Matthew Broderick film (aka GINO – Godzilla in Name Only or ‘zilla), we are talking about the original TOHO monster.

My son is a fan of all the classic films, but he tends to share Destroy All Monsters or Final Wars with his friends as a gateway film, just because the target audience is so desperate for action these days. I’m not worried, though, because he will just as happily sit and watch Godzilla vs. Mothra, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah, or any of the older films.  Where I used to have to wait to watch them weekends on Channel 11 or Channel 9, he can simply hit a button on his Zune – but the passion for the films is still there.

We own all the Godzilla video games for Nintendo systems and have a couple of Godzilla toys and shirts from various sources.  One of the best things we’ve discovered was Kaiju Big Battel. We first found Kaiju Big Battel as part of Monkey Bar TV’s Action Blast! But when that show ended, we continued to follow the mayhem, and last year we attended our first live Kaiju Big Battel match.

(Someone else took this video, not me – I just found it on youtube… but you can see me in the upper right corner, wearing a red shirt, at the 6:15 mark) It was one of the greatest experiences we’ve shared to date, and I can’t wait to go back again.

That’s pretty much been my whole vibe on sharing Godzilla with my son. Sharing Star Wars has been awesome. Being San Diego Charger fans together is incredible. But there’s something about Godzilla and watching my boy sell others on the fandom that shoots it right up to the top of the list.

Is it our own fault that Hollywood continues to make awful movies based on childhood projects from the 70′s and 80′s? I remember when I took my children to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. The experience was so excruciating, I wanted to abandon them and flee the theater. Afterward as they talked about how much they loved it, it reminded me of how much I enjoyed the first revival and my parents teaching me all about Ross Bagdasarian and the genius of The Witch Doctor.

I may be late to this party but it occurs to me that the plan is for me to take my children to The Smurfs and pretend that it was their idea. Then whether I enjoyed it or not, the kids will be hooked and just like many of us, will buy the stickers, socks and key chains bearing their favorite blue creature.

Now I wasn’t a fan of The Smurfs in the first place, but I recognized their significance to pop culture. For what it’s worth, they were the first cartoon to use their own name as every conceivable part of speech and never apologized for it. The Smurfs pioneered that practice long before The Snorks appropriated it or people started using Lewinsky as a verb.

What I came to realize was that I and my generation are directly to blame for the revival and subsequent molestation of our beloved childhood icons. I knew Yogi Bear was going to be terrible but I just had to see it for myself. It was clear that The Green Hornet would be sub-par and still I shelled out good money to witness it firsthand. I even chuckled at Eddie Murphy’s gassy antics in the remake of The Nutty Professor instead of LOL-ing at the far superior original with Jerry Lewis.

So before you bemoan the fact that Hollywood insists on co-opting your childhood memories, take a look at yourself in the mirror and be thankful that Romper Room will never be remade … probably.

Hear more from the King of TV on The Paul Goebel Show podcast and at his website, www.TheKingofTV.com. You can also follow Paul on Twitter @PaulGoebelShow.

He is the villian of the original Star Wars trilogy, despite his eventual turning against the Emperor. His redemption is the result of Luke Skywalker’s efforts and the exclamation point on Lukes development into a true hero.

However, if your child was born after the release of The Phantom Menace in 1999, he or she most likely believes Anakin Skywalker is the hero of Star Wars. Yes, that Anakin Skywalker, the man behind Darth Vader’s mask.

As George Lucas continues to cash in on the Star Wars franchise, he has moved from original trilogy to prequel trilogy to Clone Wars saga, where Anakin Skywalker and his sidekick mentor Obi Wan Kenobi fight wave after wave of droids and bounty hunters. Star Wars has been reduced to a modern day version of the GI Joe cartoons from the 80s. Cartoon commercials pitting good vs. evil in weekly battles, with a handful of key characters having quirky qualities and strange sounding names: in place of Serpentor, Cobra Commandor, the Baroness, and Destro, we have the Emperor, Count Dooku, Asajj Ventress, and General Greivous. Instead of Duke, Flint, and the rest of the Joes, we have Obi Wan, Anakin, and a mix of Jedi and clone commanders.

About a year ago my co-host Elton McManus and I spent a podcast episode discussing with my 10 year old son who was the real hero of Star Wars.  Not surprisingly, my son (born in 2000) believes Anakin to be the hero. Elton, being a 30-something die-hard fan of the original trilogy railed against the notion and lobbied for Luke. At 40 years old, I find myself siding with Elton, but I can completely understand why my son feels the way he does – and it saddens me.

The original trilogy clearly focuses on Luke, while the prequels are intended to follow Anakin as he makes choices which take him down the path to the dark side and he becomes Vader. Perhaps if it was executed better, I would have found myself rethinking who was the true hero of the set of six films. Unfortunately, Episode 1 gives us almost nothing in the origins of Vader. Episodes 2 and 3 begin to show his fall – but do so in such a clunky way that Anakin is more jerk than hero. In fact, I make a case in our podcast for Obi Wan to be considered the true hero of the prequels and as much a focus of the franchise as any other character.

Having bookended the main Star Wars storyline and left the before and after times for “expanded universe” writers to explore, Lucas has chosen to wring extra cash out of the franchise by fleshing out the time between Episodes 2 and 3. The first sanctioned Clone Wars expansion by Genndy Tartakovsky was more about story telling than selling products. This well executed microseries managed to show flashes of why Anakin Skywalker was considered a great Jedi before his fall without making him a hero. We still saw the glimpses of darkness in his persona that made Episodes 2 and 3 relevant.

On the other hand, the Clone Wars cartoon movie and current Cartoon Network seriesput Anakin Skywalker on a pedestal. He is ignorant and immature, not tainted and haunted. We are not watching a character walk the fine line between good and evil, constantly being pulled toward one side or the other, and with each episode… with each challenge overcome, Anakin seems more firmly entrenched on the side of good. We have no reason to think he might slip to the dark side, and the complete dissolution of his trust in Obi Wan in Epidose 3 is difficut to envision.

So, my son, his classmates, and nearly every person under the age of 12 (most likely under the age of 16) view Anakin Skywalker as a good guy. They do not even necessarily associate Darth Vader with being Anakin Skywalker.  To them, it’s more like Anakin dies and his body (or what’s left of it) is reanimated and possessed by an evil presence. And again, why shouldn’t they?  Lucas himself has revised explained the backstory of Vader to be that of “not a monster but instead as a sad man who made a deal with the Devil…and lost.” Lucas reinforced the youthful fans’ view in 2006 when he replaced Sebastian Shaw as the ghost of Anakin in Return of the Jedi with Hayden Christiansen on the DVD release of ROTJ. He would later explain that Anakin had died when he became Vader (I’m not paraphrasing it very well, but you can read a discussion of it Lucas’ justification for the switch here).

I’m sorry, but Anakin is NOT the hero of Star Wars. Of the prequels? Maybe. Of the Clone Wars? Sure. But of the original trilogy or the single film known as Star Wars? Absolutely not. And I feel badly for my son and his whole generation that they have been misled to think so.

If you have the time, please do check out Episode 43 of An Apotheosis of a Bombast and listen to the discussion we had about this topic.  You can listen to the episode here on the show’s main website or through the various podcast aggregators -  iTunes, Zune, etc., .

We found it interesting was that all of the films were older films, and none were seen in a movie theater. Among the films parents allowed their pre-teens to watch were The Rock, Not Another Teen Movie (featuring a cameo appearance by Perspectives’ own Paul Goebel), Animal House, Beverly Hills Cop, The Breakfast Club, Caddyshack, Air Force One, Sudden Death, Judge Dredd, Timecop, and Starship Troopers. All of the parents surveyed commented on how much standards had changed and wondered if those films would earn an R rating if released in their current state into today’s market.

We recognize that each household has its own criteria for determining what is appropriate entertainment, and clearly much depends on the maturity level of the individual child.

What films have you, as a parent, decided were too harshly judged by the MPAA? Do you disagree with the choices of these 5 parents? Please share your thoughts below.

The year is… 1982.

I was 11 years old in 1982. I’ve been a Charger fan since I was 8, and I was riding in ’82 high after special ’79, ’80, and ’81 seasons for the team. I had no understanding, at the time, of what was going on between the players and the owners, nor did I have any idea how long (and painful) a dry spell I’d have to sit through after it was resolved until the Chargers would again be a contender.

After the strike of ’82 and Fouts’ retirement a few years later, I thought every season might be the one where they got back on track. I believed Jim McMahon would be our savior. I thought Billy Joe Tolliver might get the job done. I renamed the running backs on my Commodore Amiga football game “Natrone Means”, “Marion Butts”, and “Gary Anderson.” I watched daytime episodes of Wheel of Fortune just to see Rolf Benirschke a few more times. I cheered when they drafted Ryan Leaf (who could’ve known?). I waited a long time for the Chargers to return to be the force they were in 1981.

A dozen years after the strike-shortened 9 game season, Bobby Ross, Stan Humphries, and Junior Seau finally got the Chargers into the Super Bowl. I enjoyed a few winning seasons. Unfortunately, it was a short run, and the team quickly fell back to the bottom of the NFL standings. I’m thrilled they got to the big game, and I appreciate every bit of the success they enjoyed and the pleasure they gave the fans – but as with all good things, it came to an end far too soon.

From 1997 to 2003, the Chargers averaged just over 5 wins per season. The year my son was born, 2000, the Chargers went 1 – 15. When a west coast team is playing that poorly, they just don’t sell fan paraphernalia for that team in east coast stores. Luckily, I had my sources. Ebay was just coming into its own, and I was able to get some toddler clothes for my boy. His uncle, who lives in San Diego, sent some items. I ebay’d a fathead helmet for his wall, and when the time was right I passed on a San Diego Charger doll I’d won at the Jersey shore in the early 80s.

There were plenty of reasons for him to root for other teams. We lived in the Jets/Giants television market, and the Chargers were NEVER on TV. His uncle was a Patriots fan, his godfather was a season ticket holder to the Jets, and no other family around were Charger fans. Although I had given him a Drew Brees Charger jersey to wear, he had plenty of other gear from other teams to wear too thanks to the clearance racks at Marshalls. It didn’t help matters that the Chargers were just plain awful during the first four years of his life.

None the less, my boy is as passionate a Charger fan as I ever was: maybe more so. He cried himself to sleep the nights the Chargers were eliminated from the playoffs in 2008 and 2009. His bedroom wall is a shrine to past and present Charger players, and nearly all his online user ids have the term “Charger” in them somewhere. He went out for Halloween as a Philip Rivers in 2009, and he has written the man more fan letters than I ever wrote Dan Fouts.

He’s enjoyed 3 years of the Chargers being a Super Bowl contender and saw them come one chilly AFC Championship game away from making the Super Bowl, just as I did when I was his age.  And just like I was in 1982, he’s blissfully unaware of the labor strife in the NFL and how it could cost his team a year that could be THE year. He’s counting down the days until the scheduled start of football, wondering if for the third year in a row the season will open with the Chargers broadcast on national TV, playing their Week 1 game on either his or my birthday.

Just I did in ’82, he believes his team is destined to win it all and that this is their time, and like me at his age, he has yet to endure a 4 -12 or 1-15 season as a Charger fan.  The “tough times” he knows as a fan have been playoff losses. Even when his Chargers went 8 – 8 in 2009, they won their division with an amazing end of season run.

I love that we share this common bond. Now that he’s older, I look forward to trying to take him to at least one game a year (maybe attending a road game at a different stadium each season?). I love that his fandom is sincere and his own. It may have been inspired by who I rooted for, but I am confident that the Chargers are his team now. He despises the Patriots, Raiders, and Steelers (his disdain for the Jets is only tempered by the fact L.T. now plays there).

As a Charger fan, I worry about how the Chargers will fare after a lockout this spring. I fear that a lengthy stoppage may force the Chargers to take a step back from being one of the NFL’s elite teams and close the window for this core group. As a father, I realize I need to explain to my boy what’s going on between the NFL and the players association and what effect it may have on our team, but I’m looking forward to riding out the next dozen+ years of Charger highs and lows with a fellow fan, my son.

What better way to celebrate than with some Schoolhouse Rock? Watch the videos after the jump and then please comment and tell us your favorite. (We are partial to Mr. Morton, but they’re all great.)

National Grammar Day was established in 2008 by Martha Brockenbrough, founder of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar.

Grammar fans and those who just are interested in short, frequently updated, informative podcasts should check out the Grammar Girl and her free podcast – available from her site, itunes, and many other sources.

We were reminded of Jean-Christophe Laurence’s video of children from a school in Montreal, Canada attempting to discern the purpose of several bits of 80s technology (originally posted November 23, 2010 at cyberpresse.ca).

We had not given it much thought, but it IS understandable how the busy signal may be on the same path to extinction as floppy disks, Atari cartridges, and cassette tapes. When you consider that nearly every cell phone and most land lines now have call waiting, perhaps it is should be more surprising that 2 of the 11 children HAD heard a busy signal.

Have your children ever heard a busy signal before? What was their reaction?

Please share your thoughts and experiences below.