PokŽtalk for Monday, august 16th, 1999.

Hello! Welcome to PokŽtalk for Monday, August 16th, 1999.

In our first story, last Friday, CBS this morning ran a story on fake PokŽmon products. 
These can be dangerous because they often are manufactured using sub-par materials. 
they also gave several tips on how to spot them. Most will have fuzzy printing, will be 
missing copyright information or the Nintendo seal, and counterfeit playing cards will 
often let light through. Something to remember the next time you go shopping. Now if 
only the people at CBS could pronounce PokŽmon right.

While I was at my cousins' house on Saturday, I got a chance to download the PokŽmon 
trailer about five zillion times. Upon reexamination, it's pretty good, but would have 
been much better if it had dropped more subtle hints as to the nature of the movie 
being advertised. I'll bet you're all wondering how many shows I can keep putting a 
story about it on.

Before we go to a commercial, I'd like to talk about PokŽmon's continuing expansion on 
Kids' WB. As of last weekend, the show expanded to a full 90 minutes. That's longer 
than just about any show on TV. It's replaced almost all off of the non-superhero 
lineup. I'm sure that it will shrink down once the new season starts.

And now, the inevitable commercial.

Ad: The People's Court

Announcer: On the next People's Court: She says he stole her bike, then completely 
mutilated it trying to run away. He says she promised to follow him until he repaid her 
and he doesn't have to pay her until he has the money.

Judge Steve: Why didn't you sue him earlier? Do you have a crush on him or something? 
Is that why you follow him?

Announcer: On the next People's Court!

Gee, I wonder who that could be about? Remember, it is a fake commercial, although 
there is a People's court.

By the way, the next time you watch PokŽmon, be sure to turn the closed captioning. 
You'll notice quite a bit of latent captioning at the beginning and end of the PokŽRAP, 
presumably left over from when the show was syndicated.

Another thing I've noticed  is that in many episodes, we meet a character at the 
beginning of the episode which we are "taught" to hate. At the end of the episode, that 
character is someone we are supposed to like, and that's not always easy to swallow. I 
guess the point is that people are not inherently evil, and can be reformed with proper 
encouragement. (slow news week, can you tell?)

And finally, since PokŽmon has come to the Kids' WB, there's been a large array of 
crossover ads. Charmeleon and the Brain was pretty good, as are the series of PokŽmon
 Fever commercials. Strangely absent, however is a commercial where Pikachu 
thundershocks Elmyra.

Well, that just about does it for this edition of PokŽtalk. Hopefully next time there 
will be more news. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but...aw forget it.