Yo Gabba Gabba!

As many of you may or may not know, my career in "Media Arts and Animation" humbly started out in Boca Raton, Forida. I designed cheap toys and packaging for a less than reputable company that changed its name about three or four times, due to its shotty financial book keeping. Kids, if your employers keep the company running by "robbing from Peter to pay Paul," get the heck outta Dodge!

Thankfully God spared me from that death trap, and delivered me to a job flowing with milk and honey. Currently I work for my church, on a three-man team that produces a weekly kid's show for our Children's Ministry. It's a really neat gig, and I'm quite proud of it! Considering we run on less than a skeleton crew and have a next to nothing budget, we put out some quality stuff. Check it out here:

www.youtube.com/markanthonycruz

Since it's our job to produce a kid's show, we've made more of an effort to pay attention to what the ankle-biting population of America is watching these days. That's when my buddy Rob brought a specific show to my attention called "Yo Gabba Gabba."

"What in the world kinda name is that," I asked.

"I don't know, but it's like crack for kids," he replied.

Needless to say I wheeled over to my desk, searched for "Yo Gabba Gabba" on YouTube, and saw this:

I was instantly hooked! I did a little more research and found that the show was produced and created by some of my favorite artists and musicians. Also it premiered in August 2007 and was already in production for a second season! I continued to devour tons of clips from the show on YouTube, and found that it wasn't just crack for kids...it was crack for geeks like me as well!

I said to myself, "Man, where were shows like this when I was growing up?!"  Then I felt it...the overwhelming sense of betrayal to my own childhood. I was brought up on shows like "Sesame Street," "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood," and "3-2-1 Contact!" These shows were a child's bread and butter in those days. I measured time with those shows. (i.e. 2 and a 1/2 hours...oh that's 2 Sesame Streets and 1 Mr. Rogers)

Now here I was, bedazzled by the glitter and glamour of "Yo Gabba Gabba"...stabbing my childhood shows right in the back. I felt like I was joining a gang, signing up to be a "Gabber," if you will. I could see it now, DJ Lance Rock leading a mob of rainbow-colored ruffians through "Sesame Street" and "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood..." taking what they felt was theirs. It didn't matter if you had some juiced-up snuffleupagus on your side, or a trolley for drive-bys...it was judgement day...and the streets ran red with blood, yellow feathers, and purple-panda fur.