The Last Day of qubo on NBC

10:25AM
Today is June 30th, 2012, and not only is it the end of June, it's also the end of one of the Saturday morning blocks I watched during my childhood, qubo! From the time I heard VeggieTales and 321 Penguins and Larryboy Stories were going to be on there, I was so excited about this, since at the time, I really loved VeggieTales and Larryboy! I watched it every week. Well, there was one week I missed (when Lyle the Kindly Viking aired and Larryboy's animated version debuted) because I was grounded for acting up at religion class. I got to see the re-run of that episode, and I saw "The Angry Eyebrows" on DVD. When it got cancelled, I was really sad, but the other programs are really cute and good. If you are a fan of qubo, and have anything else planned for the day, you should take some time to read this page.

10:30AM

It's fun to learn with the Zula Patrol!

The first program of the day was Zula Patrol, an educational show that teaches about science concepts. Each episode begins with a stupid remark about space. This episode had one planet talking on a telephone and a snowball that looks like a snake. Multo wants everyone to see this "snowball", then the pet thing is taking a bath. Wizzy and Wig claim it ate the soap, but then the dog slips on the soap and destroys the "beautiful turbo drive". Then they see the beautiful  "snowball", which we now know is a comet. Then Zeeter says she has always wanted to take care of a comet. Then, she tells everyone to get out of her way otherwise she'll miss it. Zeeter then hops onto a ship to get the comet, but then she gets spun around fast. Wizzy and Wig say "Whee!" as this is happening. The leader says that comets cause things to spin fast or something like that. Then, the ship reaches (more like crashing) the comet, Zeeter introduces her self with this dialogue:
Zeeter: Hello, my name is...Ooof!
Conrad Comet: I've never met an "ooof" before!
Then Conrad helps them get out of space by spinning, because of the thing the leader told them. Them, once they finally get spun off the comet, and the comet tells them "See you in a thousand years!". Then, they wave things like the Pretty Cure Miracle Lights to help her come home. Then, after Conrad leaves comes the Multo Moment, where he repeats the same thing from the encyclopedia. The second segment begins with the narrator singing to a group of space rocks. Then we see the Zula cast having a camp-out. Multo pulls out a bunny thing that produces some sort of food with fire. Then, Wizzy and Wig see a "shooting star". Multo pulls out the encyclopedia and says it's really an asteroid. Then, the villian drops a lame pun:
"Enjoy your little cook-out, chums!"
Then he tells that he wants the Zula Patrol to die. No, this really happened. Then the villian meets and asteriod who acts like the TV version of Bo Sheep from US Acres and a grandma rock. Then we cut the the leader of the thing cleaning a mirror and saying "497, 498, 499....".

Here's what Bo Sheep looks like.

Then, the same person goes outside and helps a bird. After this happens, Bo Sheep the Asteriod tells them that they're headed straight towards Zula, and Zeeter decides to stop the asteroids from coming to Zula. Then, Zeeter gives ideas to the Captian, which he responds with "Rock" to each idea. Then, Multo sends the bunny to stop the asteroids, and the villian gets angry at it, and the hair, which sounds like Louis from Family Guy, tells him he has a backup plan. We find out that they actually saved the day, and Multo mentions the song "Polly Wolly Doodle" for no reason.
 Then,  Zeeter says she has to do her chores, and her ship hatches a group of eggs. Then, the narrator tells about Gums Ahoy. Which leads into the next Multo Moment, about "The Wonderful World of Asteroids!", where he argues whether graham crackers or marshmallows are good with the food they made earlier in the episode. This ends the episode.
The first thing to air on qubo's first day way VeggieTales. The first thing to air on qubo's last day was Zula Patrol. I think I'm going to cry.

11:00AM

Next came Shelldon. No, it's not a US Acres or Big Bang Theory spinoff. It's a thing about seacreatures. First, we see the blue crab, Herman,  get a desk stuck on his back as everyone's prepearing for a game. Then they tell a story about "Billy O Limpet", and Herman says "Yeah! Billy O Limpet! My hero!". The story tells about how strong he was. Then, everyone has to play this game with a where they throw a stick to jump over something. First, Connie gets a pink stick and is able to jump onto it. Then, Shelldon gets a yellow stick and flies so high that he gets hurt and hits a record. They then go to see the person who runs a sport, whose place is closed for lunch. Then, they argue to see Marioka because their constitution says so. Then the person who runs the place thinks about annoying people and lunch, so since she's annoyed, Shelldon, Connie and Herman decide to take over the place while they let the person at the front desk go to lunch. They go to the elevator and talk to Marioka, who is an old man who says that the olympic games are delayed due to a ship causing danger. Marioka tells the kids to listen to the sounds of the ocean, which Connie mistakes for drums, and the kids tell what they see in their minds about the ship. Marioka tells Shelldon, Connie and Herman to stop the ship from hitting their shore. The kids have to find Dr Shell and tell him about their mission to save their shore. They can't find Dr Shell, but then, his super stereo equipment blows them away. Then, they list the things they saw at the ocean. The kids say they have to wake up the ship with their voices. Everyone has to use their voice to wake up the ship (Screaming with Binky, anyone?), but the kids want to use Dr. Shell's invention, and it works on Dr Shell. Herman decides to ask people playing a game to wake up the ship, and they bully him because they interrupted his game. Then, Herman decides to wear shells after he tells the people the news, and he stops once the coach tells him to lift up something. Herman uses the word "Mush" to lift up something, and then a cheerleader girl who looks like a sea creature version of Milk from Pretty Cure 5 says a rhyme. 

This is who the cheerleader character reminds me of.

Then, Crabby is practicing music and Connie interrupts him, and tells her mission. Crabby says he's going to play rock music, and mentions Rolling Stone in his sentence (really, this did happen!). Then, Shelldon tells the sea creature who looks like Milk they have to save the ship, then, they all have to cheer together. Herman runs a race in order to make everyone cheer, and before this happens, he mentioned Billy O' Limpet. This works, as the ship turns away, and Marioka gives Shelldon the gold medal.  Dr Shell tells what happened after the episode, and tells the kids about how a symphony involves people working together. So that's the lesson? Wow.

11:30AM
Next came Jane and the Dragon, which is my favorite show of the block. I got addicted into it once I saw a clip that was a related video to one of Madagascarqueen's crossover videos. Instead of reviewing "Shall We Dance?", I am instead going to talk about the commercials aired on the last day while watching it.

Here's the Let's Move! Park Day PSA, known by some as "Today Is Saturday". The ad was shown a couple of times today. In the ad, a voice sings "Today is Saturday! Today is Saturday!" over and over as kids do healthy activities. A narrator tells the viewers to go to the website to get ideas for healthy activities. I often wonder why a majority of American children are fat. That Spongebob must have caused everything wrong with kids in the world, including selling Kids Meals and candy with him on it...

Look at this. The Mia company decided to be like Sketchers by using a cartoon bug to sell flip-flops that light up, much like the Twinkle Toes and Hot Lites shoes Sketchers makes. The ad uses a catchy jingle like Sketchers uses for their shoes, and shows kids running around like maniacs in their Firebugs shoes (Yes, that's the name!). These look pretty cool, but too bad they don't make them in my size!

The award for "Most Repetitive Commercial" went to the Ad Council's Action Hero commercial. This contest is already over, so why would they have been running it? Either this is a TV commercial for the winning movie, or a mistake on the network's part. The second place winner goes to the Best Friends Animal  Society for their ad that is just people sitting on a couch with their pets, talking about how shelters are great. For the first day, I would give this to the ad where the mom says "I am folding the pants. The pants are looooong!" to a baby for bornlearning.org, since it appeared during every commercial break on the first day. The second place winner for the first day goes to the "Reading...everybody's doing it!" commercials. Yes, that's the ad with the line "Please wash you hands in the toilet!".

This was the very last commercial shown on qubo, not counting promos or bumpers. It's not for the Lorax DVD, but it's a PSA featuring The Lorax that the Ad Council made to encourage children to visit the forest. The Ad Council did similar things with Meet The Robinsons to tell children to invent stuff (I even noticed this running until April of this year!) and with Little Einsteins, to tell kids to sing, dance, paint and play instruments. I never saw that one on TV, but I did remember seeing the GUTEN TAAAAG! ad that had the same message, as well as the Van Gogurt one. The first ad on the first day, for those who are wondering, was that one for bornlearning.org I mentioned earlier. Also, for those who are curious, the last promo shown was for Babar.

The only commercial for a toy shown today was for the Dream Lites. They may look like another Pillow Pets ripoff, but the commercial explicitly states they aren't Pillow Pets knockoffs, because to the company making them, Pillow Pets knockoffs are by other companies. Unlike most ads where I showed 2 pictures, I doubled them to show you what the Dream Lites are. The kid in the first picture looks like my cousin Jack a bit, and his name is Billy, the same of the male protagonist of Popples, which was the possible inspiration for Pillow Pets, since they transformed from a plush toy into a plush ball, similar to the pillow pet transforming from a stuffed animal to a pillow. Anyway, the Dream Lites are supposed to help children sleep and not be afraid of the dark by projecting a background of stars with the animal's face in the middle. You can change the color of the light, too, just by pressing on the back another time, as shown in one part of the commercial.

Here's the "Reading Is Fundamental" PSA. I sang along with this everytime it came on during today's qubo broadcast. Most of the time, it was the short version, but one time when it was the long version, not only was it during Babar, but it violated a rule saying that you can't show commercials featuring the character in it, otherwise it would be considered a 30-minute commercial for the series' products. But that might be different, since this was a PSA, and it wasn't selling toys. 

12:00PM

Aww, Jane and the Dragon's over, and Babar's coming on now!

Everyone loves Babar, don't they?

On today's Babar, "To Duet Or Not To Duet",  one of Babar's kids is feeling sick. He says he has a piece of music to finish, but he can't, because he's sick. Babar tells the child a story about a music preformance. The story shows a human playing the piano, and Babar wants to play the piano. After the preformance ends, they say Leopaul is coming to town, and Babar wants to give a musical welcome with Baa Baa Black Sheep, but they complain it's not good enough. Babar wants to practice the piano in just 4 weeks, and he has to give up something in order to learn to play the piano. The human tells Babar to practice, practice, practice and practice in order to be able to preform the song. It seems that Babar's really good at doing this the first time, because we cut to people being amazed by his preformance. I agree with them on that, too! The second time  he is really bored, and tells his friends he's trying to play the piano, and will give up everything but tennis. Then, Babar listens to a radio drama about a police station, and asks the human for help with the song and he can only play the first 4 notes. He thinks on giving up and says he'll never learn this piece, and tells that it's hard to give up the things you like, but the human and Babar's father tell him they're proud at him. Then, on a car ride, he tells another elephant that he has a different plan: to make a speech instead of playing the piano. But the elephant he's riding with tells that they should do a duet with the human. Then, during a storm, something goes wrong with the piano, and he's trapped into a vortex, but it was all just a dream. Then, Babar and his dad drink warm milk, and Babar asks his father to tell him a story, but then the story goes like this:

"It was the old king's-(rooster crow)"

Roy: Did Nelvana get the GoAnimate Rooster Crow from the 101 Rooster Crows CD I got from that stupid horse?

So...the story lasted one second? So Babar has a sleepover with his friends, where they play tennis, swim in a pool, and do other stuff. Babar decides to listen to his favorite radio drama, Lance Armstrong (I don't think I got the name right), and the radio's broken. Papador decides to read a scroll to him, but ends up falling asleep. Then, Babar has another dream, where the piano is messed up again, and everyone laughs at him. The human leaves after the incident, and then, we find out it was a dream again. Babar runs to the human, and tells her about his problem with the piano, and the human decides to comfort him with advice. Then, the lady tells him he'll help him practice all morning. The day then comes, and he's nervous. He stares at the human, and plays Baa Baa Black Sheep, and then, a different song than the one from before starts playing. That's the end of that story. The boy he told the story to asks him to sort his rock collection for him. The end!

12:30PM

Next came Willa's Wild Life, which reminds me of Chibi Maruko Chan, but with animals in it. 

The first part was "Pas the Dooley", which starts with a bear dancing to a samba number. We see that Willa's dad ordered a train set. The penguins are interested in it. Willa's friend, Billy, comes over and kicks his soccer ball over the fence. Willa says her dance class is fun, and her teacher once was a Broadway performer. (Really? I wonder which musical she was in?) Willa coaxes Billy into dance class, and he joins, but he fails at doing what the others do. Then, Billy tells that he'll be a fool of himself for joining the class. Meanwhile, the model train has been finished, and the first test run is given. It can't go up a hill, so Willa decides to play the dance class music, and Billy starts dancing. Then, she shows her animals dancing to the dance class music, and yet again Billy fails. Willa uses Samuel the Camel as an example for posture, and Jenny Giraffe is used as an example of gracefulness. Then, the two seals said that Willa's friend needs "Za", or energy, to do the dance. Then we cut to the model train again, which is chasing them. We found out Billy did the Swan lift when he was trying to stop the model train. Then, Billy gets a gold trophy and does great in class. Willa's dad says "Here comes the locomotive!", which is holding the penguins in it!

Then came "Perfect Partners", where we see the animals watching a show, and it's going to get cancelled. I couldn't watch the rest of this because I had to go somewhere.

1:00PM (I watched my recording of this two hours later)

They remind me of mahou shoujo characters, don't you agree?

Then came the final show, Pearlie, a show about magical fairy. Did you know that Pearlie's voice actor did Nozomi Yumehara in the English Dub of Pretty Cure 5?
The first half, Tooth Affairy, begins with Pealie blooming flowers, making a rainbow, and fixing a slide, only to  make a good looking man-fairy come out. Apparently, Saphaira falls in love with him. He's also the tooth fairy, and he's a list-maker like Pearlie. Pearlie decides to get a new bag  for the tooth fairy while the tooth fairy watches the bat creature. Pearlie tells her friends about the tooth fairy, who shows her friends the old bag, which she throws in the garbage because it's too vintage. Then, they go to a girl's house and can't find her tooth. They find it in a cup, and Jasper has a hard time pulling it out. The tooth fairy then gives out stupid facts about teeth, Pearlie delivers the teeth she collected, and then it's revealed she broke the rules because she forgot to bring the gold coin. Then we see the reason why in a flashback-she fell asleep when the mentioned it in fairy school! Then, they find two mice who stole some gold coins, and they give the coins to the fairies. When they go to the first house, Jasper almost get caught in a fan! The tooth fairy gives out more stupid hygiene facts, and in the end, Pearlie delivered all the gold coins. Then, the tooth fairy pretends to be a dentist on another fairy!
Then comes "Trick in the Stick", where Pearlie can't find her wand. They say a chant about why she needs her wand. Then she says that she lost her wand somewhere in the forest. Then, the bat creature is choking to death. Then, the fairy who owns the bat decides to explain some plan about magic. The same two mice from before are seen using a wand. The mouse who found the wand is named "Wade". 

Wade Duck: Help! Double help! Someone stole my name!

(In case you don't get the joke, Wade Duck is scared of everything)

He argues that he didn't find it, but he still gives it to Pearlie. The fairy who owns the bat watches her use the wand, and the flowers multiply. Then, she makes the flowers bloom again, and the same thing happens. It seems like this wand is a clone wand. Then a fairy with orange hair (who looks like Cure Muse of Suite Pretty Cure) wants to see Pearlie and we see that she has Pearlie's wand, and tells that she is a tree fairy, and her best friends are bugs. Pearlie tries to make the wand work right, but it fails. Then, the orange hair fairy tries to meditate. Wade's brother thanks Pearlie for giving him the wand he found back. Then, Pearlie makes everything that went wrong go away. We cut to the orange-haired fairy meditating again. Then, they play a wand-catching game, and the wands were swapped, and so, everything is back to normal again.
4:00PM-Final thoughts 

A block's last day is a rare event for me to catch here in New York. For example, I lost interest in Kewlopolis when it got cancelled, and didn't find out it was cancelled until November, and when ABC's last day was supposed to air, we had a minor earthquake that was followed by a hurricane (coincidental, I know!), and the hurricane was all over the news. To make up for not seeing the last day, I saw Spy Kids 4D: All The Time In The World, which was a great movie, to say the least. I'm glad to say that I finally saw a full last day of a block!
The new block, as I said before, is great if people don't get the PBS Kids Sprout block like me. But there is an NBC Kids block that someone made up that I actually would have preferred over what they are doing now. I present to you this NBC Kids schedule someone made for one reason only. Try to guess why.

If you guessed "Garfield and Friends", you're right! It's possibly my favorite show in the whole entire world!
Anyway, it's amazing that qubo was able to stay on NBC for 6 years, but at least is still on ion!

But anyways, farewell, qubo! I'll miss you!