PokŽtalk for Sunday, August 29, 1999

Nice opticals, huh? There'll be more where that came from. Hello! I'm Steven Reich, and 
this is PokŽtalk for Sunday, August 29, 1999!

Now the guy who played the African-American Ghostbuster (why couldn't they have Dan
 Akroyd do this? I can remember his name!) will star in a video series of strategies for
 the PokŽmon customizable Card Game. I would like to note, however that this tape is 
unofficial.

Next weekend, the new season of PokŽmon starts, followed by a countdown of the top 
twenty PokŽmon, and a contest of Snoralax proportions (sorry, couldn't help myself). 
All this seems to indicate that PokŽmon is only going up.

In not so good news, as of September 6th, WGN, home of the Bozo Show and Cubs 
Baseball, will no longer be showing the Kids' WB. Although no reason was given, one can
 assume that because many areas now have their own WB station, this became 
redundant and resulted in decrease in ad revenue. I'll miss being able to watch PokŽmon
 twice each weekend. In case you're wondering, my primary WB is delivered on cable 
from Milwaukee. No word yet on what will replace the Kids' WB, although it will 
probably be syndicated programming.

And now, a commercial,

Ad: PokŽmon for Dummies (er, um, Parents, I mean)

Announcer: Parents, are you sick and tired of not having a clue what your kids are 
talking about? Well now IDG books is proud to present PokŽmon for Dum....I mean 
Parents. You'll learn how to say those hard-to-pronounce names:

Steven: See-l, See-l.

Announcer: You'll learn all about the television show.

Steven: Now, remember, officer Jenny is really a large plethora of characters, giving
 Brock a large number of chances to mess up his pickup lines.

Announcer: PokŽmon for Dummies, available at fine bookstores everywhere...I mean 
Parents! Parents! Parents!

Oh geez. Anyway, watchers of the movie Dudley Do-Right are treated to a very, very, 
small PokŽmon reference. Very, very small.

At the Spaceworld show in Japan this weekend, Nintendo released a movie of the 
upcoming PokŽmon 2. Although it was very poorly done, I could tell it looked a lot like, 
well PokŽmon 1, although I'm sure more interesting content helps make it different. I 
just hope Nintendo doesn't go much above 250 PokŽmon, or Gotta catch em' all will be 
little more than a sick joke.

By the way, my 16th birthday is coming up, and my mom seems to think we should get a
  truck. No way! I want one of those Pikachu Beetles, which will require a lot of good 
luck.

In PokŽmon movie news, Nintendo plans to release a handful of books and comics based 
on PokŽmon: The First Movie. Two will be books based on the two parts of the movie, 
Pikachu's Vacation and Mewtwo Strikes Back. Unfortunately, no "The Making of 
PokŽmon: The First Movie" is planned.

Finally, I've decided to run a little contest. You won't get anything if you win, but you 
will get your name read on-line. The contest is this: I want you to guess how many 
PokŽmon I've caught as of this morning. Whoever comes closest will get their name 
read out. In the event of a tie, whoever sent their guess in first will win. Send your 
guess by 6:00 pm CDT on Saturday, September 4, to yoshi1001@aol.com, and use 
"PokŽtalk contest" as your subject. Good luck!

That wraps things up for this PokŽtalk, so until our four-dimensional paths cross 
again, this is Steven Reich signing off!