Get In Direct Contact With Thousands of Music Managers and Music Management using All Music Industry Contac ts. Caitlyn Marie Jenner born October 28, 1949, formerly known as Bruce Jenner, is an American television personality and retired Olympic gold medalwinning decathlete. Back in July, the German website for Volvo slipped and accidentally released a partial image of the 2018 Volvo XC40. Today, thanks to another leak, we now have a full. What Was The Poochie Of Cars This week our new friends at The Onions A. V. Club are looking back on 1. CGI graphics into old movies could be a horrifyingly effective way to jump start a film franchise. Soul patches, the swing music revival, boy bands, fucking Smash Mouth everything in 1. It was a kind of sweet spot in modern times, past the worst of the AIDS epidemic and the Cold War, but well before 91. Twitter. Some of you may be too young to know this, but there was a time when we maybe collectively felt like the future might be better, not shittier. Thats how a lot of the 1. All of this got me thinking, as I am ostensibly paid to do, about the cars. Particularly after this story, which examines one of the better episodes of The Simpsons, The Itchy Scratchy Poochie Show, from February of that year. If you havent seen that one, its about how a committee of TV executives tries to make the Simpson kids favorite ultra violent cat and mouse cartoon more real, more EXTREME, more relevant to a 1. They do so by adding a dog character who embodies pretty much every grating cultural trait of that decade. Hes loud, he does extreme sports, he wears sunglasses and denim shorts and a leather jacket, he rapsand he implores you to recycle. Needless to say, Poochie doesnt work out. His arrival is heralded as the Worst. Episode. Ever., and that alone is a line that endured well past this shows prime. The storyline was also apparently a meta commentary on The Simpsons questioning its own relevance after being on TV for about a decade, and on what studio executives and audiences supposedly expected from the series as it went on. From The A. V. Club The Itchy Scratchy staff dutifully plows ahead on figuring out how to rasta fy him by 1.
Meanwhile, Roger Meyers Jr. Caught in the middle are people like voice actor June Bellamy an affectionate stand in for the late June Foray and Homer himself, who just wants to please the audience and make them laugh and cry until we grow old together. Its a tricky balance to acknowledge that behind every soulless by product of committee thinking, there are also people with actual dreams and good, artistic intentions without coming off as mawkish or condescending. Poochie manages to engender a twinge of compassion for all involved, even if theyre uniting behind a rapping dog. This kind of commentary can be applied to a great many product and marketing decisions, including cars. Especially cars. If we think of cynical, committee driven attempts for an aging brand to stay relevant and hip with whatever flavor of the week the coveted youth demographic wanted at the time, the best example I can think of was the Pontiac Aztek. That went into production a mere three years after that Simpsons episode but could unquestionably be considered a product of the sincere and extreme 1. Infamously crafted by a crowded General Motors kitchen of designers, engineers and bean counters to be aggressive for aggressives sake to the Gen X ers and their extreme urban camping active lifestyles, the Aztek sold poorly, was dogged by quality problems and came out looking more brutal than beautiful. I think its fair to say the Aztek isnt really as bad as everyone thinks it is. It probably wasnt that much worse than any GM car of that era, many of which were kind of terrible. But it was still a high profile, well recognized failure, the kind of failure that gets taught in business schools today. And it didnt save Pontiac, but who knows if anything really could. But whats crazy is that for all its many flaws, the Aztek actually presaged what was to come. Quite well, in fact. It was one of the first true crossovers of the modern post AMC Eagle era, an SUV ish body on a car platform in this case a minivan platform that came in front or all wheel drive but lacked true off roading capability. Now, the crossovers rule the market, even in previously large car averse places like Europe. The Aztek may have died on the way back to its home planet, but it sent an invading army to take its place. Most of them look better than the Aztek, though. But this isnt about the cars that were ahead of the curve. Its about cars designed to make brands relevant and edgy that ultimately failed. Whats your favorite example of thatThe devastation in Texas is horrific. People are just literally trying to keep their heads above water and many have been stranded for days without food. But one ABC.