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“House of Freakazoid”

Lonnie Tallbutt is a parody of Larry Talbot, the titular character of The Wolf Man (1941) and its various spinoffs and sequels, as played by horror icon Lon Chaney, Jr.

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“House of Freakazoid”

The title of this horror-themed episode pays homage to the various “House of” horror movie titles of the past, particularly the Universal flicks House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945).

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Episode 11 references completed!

Why Mo-Ron was renamed Bo-Ron for this episode is not entirely clear, but the consensus is that the change was probably demanded by the WB after they received complaints about the original name. It's no longer considered politically correct to call a moron a moron, or a spade a spade.

DYN: Outside the Hall of Nifty Things to Know, we have "Cogito Ergo Sum" (Descartes’s “I think, therefore I am”) and "Scientia Est Potentia" (”Knowledge is Power”, attributed to Bacon).

Grown-up Elliott is played by veteran voice actor Quinton Flynn, then just starting his career as the voices of Timon on Timon & Pumbaa and the Human Torch on The Fantastic Four. The bulk of his work since then has been in the video game industry (Axel in Kingdom Hearts, most appearances of Raiden in Metal Gear) plus a bunch of anime work (Kon in Bleach, Iruka Umino in Naruto, Marcus Damon in Digimon Data Squad).

The Nerdator had his voice provided by the late Aron Kincaid in one of his final roles in a 44-year acting career that included a brief burst of popularity as one of the stars of the inane beach party movies. DCAU fans will peg him immediately as the man behind Killer Croc in the Batman animated series, and he was also Sweep and Sky Lynx in the original Transformers.

DYN: The Nerdator has the skulls of Bugs Bunny and Tweety Bird hanging on his belt.

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“Nerdator”

In the good-looking-but-vapid-airheads White House, Pamela Anderson (the Baywatch star) is talking to Kato Kaelin (the beach bum who was a star witness in the O.J. trial), announcing a phone call from Fabio (the male model with Yvette Mimeux hair). President Kaelin's "I don't know--I think maybe--I heard a thump" is a direct quote from his testimony. In fact, that's a good summary of his testimony.

In the vapid airhead lineup at the end are Fabio and actors Keanu Reeves and Brad Pitt, the latter of whom notes, “This is the pits.”

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“Nerdator”

Nerds shown to have been captured by the Nerdator:

Writers: Stephen King, Anne Rice, John Grisham

Directors: George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Danny DeVito

Politicians: H. Ross Perot, George Bush, Hillary and Bill Clinton

Freakazoid crewmembers: Rich Arons, Mitch Schauer, Dan Riba, Paul Rugg, Peter Shin

I know I have been unable to identify everybody in these pictures, so any help would be appreciated!

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“Nerdator”

While the Nerdator explains his plan to Dexter, the music on the soundtrack is the opening theme of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in E minor (1888).

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“Nerdator”

FREAKAZOID: At least now we won't have to listen to any more of those DreamWorks stories!

Steven Spielberg (who got zapped away right before this cutaway) was one of the cofounders of DreamWorks Studios (originally DreamWorks SKG) in 1994 and is still a principal partner in the company.

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“Nerdator”

The woman who wants us to see pictures of Cody is Kathie Lee Gifford, the French-born American TV host/singer/actress best known for her 15-year stint on Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee, now one of the hosts on The Today Show. Her son Cody was five when this episode aired,

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“Nerdator”

SNYDER: Anyway, I stopped into a toy store--actually, it was a train store this weekend, Buzzy’s Roundhouse down there on Third; he’s got the big, uh, Canadian Pacific layout in the window--go in and say hi to Buzzy but don’t touch anything or he’ll turn on ya. (Laughs) Anyway, I went in for some of the Lionel O gauge track--not the smaller HO, but of course the full O gauge--

Tom Snyder really was an avid model train collector and these are scrupulously accurate model railway scales. The Lionel Corporation was a toy company whose trains were their claim to fame before they shuttered in 1993 (their trademarks and most of their product rights are now owned by Lionel, LLC). And yeah, Snyder did have a tendency to ramble.

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“Nerdator”

The chatty talk-show host interviewing our old friend the Pope is Tom Snyder, the late TV and radio personality who rose to fame as the host of NBC’s Tomorrow with Tom Snyder from 1973 to 1982. At the time this episode aired, he was in the midst of his 1994-1999 gig hosting CBS's Late Late Show, which was later taken over by none other than Craig “Roddy MacStew” Ferguson.

FUN FACT: Snyder, who never saw a parody of himself he didn't like, showed this scene at the beginning of his show one night, convincing at least one person to become a faithful fan of the show.

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Theme Song

“Floyd the Barber cuts his hair/Freakazoid, Chimpanzee”

Floyd Lawson was the town barber played by Howard McNear on the 1960s sitcom The Andy Griffith Show. He was based on a real barber from Griffith’s childhood and yOU DON’T UNDERSTNAD IT TOOK ME TEN YAERS TO GET THIS REFERE NC E I’M GOIGN TO HITS OMETHING

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“Nerdator”

SHATNER: Funny, they usually vanish after I sing Rocket Man.

Elton John’s 1972 song Rocket Man had its most infamous cover courtesy of William Shatner, whose spoken word interpretation of it was unleashed upon the world at the 1977 Saturn Awards ceremony. But hey, don’t take my word for it!

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Life happened, as life tends to do. One might say it even, uh, finds a way.

“Nerdator”

Fanboy mistakes William Shatner’s hairpiece for a Tribble, a fan-favorite alien species from Star Trek that gained some further notoriety with its appearance in the franchise’s most recent installment. Tribbles basically just sit around, coo, eat, reproduce prodigiously, and expose Klingon spies.

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“Nerdator”

Fanboy mistakes William Shatner’s hairpiece for a Tribble, a fan-favorite alien species from Star Trek that gained some further notoriety with its appearance in the franchise’s most recent installment. Tribbles basically just sit around, coo, eat, reproduce prodigiously, and expose Klingon spies.

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"Nerdator"

NERD: I have tickets for Yo-Yo Ma... wanna go?

Yo-Yo Ma is a highly respected French-born (ohohohohoho YES REALLY S2G) American cellist, a child prodigy who was performing by age 5 and has since received 15 Grammys and a bunch of shiny medals.

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"Nerdator"

The titular Nerdator's name and character design are a takeoff on the alien from the Predator franchise. They even used the same font for the title!

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"Next Time, Phone Ahead!"

Although not explicitly mentioned, Bo-Ron clearly chose Sprint as his phone service provider, since he's shown being thanked in a rather demonstrative fashion by actress Candace Bergen, Sprint's TV pitchwoman during her starring run on Murphy Brown (1988-1998).