Downtown, An animated show about urban life in New York in 1999.
A really great show that, sadly, MTV canceled.
TV plays an essential role in my life, so I started watching reruns of all my favorites when the pandemic hit. Not from Netflix, Hulu, or any other technology and services provider. But from my DVD collection, while looking at my many choices, I came across a particular animated show that I watched when I was in High school. It was called Downtown, and an animated show was based on urban life and everyday life.
The show aired on MTV in 1999. Before reality shows on MTV such as Jersey Shores, and The Real World (I’m just naming a few there is a lot), Downtown was as unique as a reality show because all the episodes were based on real-life events, from real people. The creator Chris Prynoski and his producer would go out on the street, interview some kids by asking them to talk about random stuff such as crazy things they have done, where they live, or just a random conversation. Chris would record audio, animate to the selected audio, and finally write a script, explaining why the dialog felt like it wasn’t from a script but pulled on realistic events. An excellent example of this writing technique was found in the film” Clerk “ produced in 1994 by Kevin Smith. Who not only wrote, co-produced, and directed it, but also acted in it; he played the character “Silent Bob” who is…you guess it silent. (but only talks when he needs to prove a point on an important matter.)
Another interesting technique that Downtown uses is in every episode; the animation uses a zoom transition when two similar objects fade in and out to show the next clip. And when the characters describe items or tell stories, the scene goes into what looks like a surreal reality. But it makes it clear to the views what they are seeing is what the characters are thinking and describing.
The best way to explain what the show entails is “It’s a show about nothing or to be more exact “A Slice of life.” that follows not just the protagonist, Alex, a young male in his early twenties that is a geek with a crappy dead-end job at a copy shop but also follows a diverse and multiracial cast who all are of 20–30 something year old’s in their daily lives in New York.
The cast is friends of Alex, and one of the cast is his sister, who is the total opposite of Alex. In each episode, we see the protagonist and the other characters making mistakes and growing from experiences. Not to mention going through many changes and events in life.
For example, in the pilot episode, Alex gets his apartment. On moving day, he rented a van to move his stuff; he tells his sister Chakka to keep an eye on it because there is somewhat stuff in there. Chakka gets distracted, and the van gets stolen, and Chakka runs after it without Alex knowing about it. After Alex finished moving in. he says to his two friends Jen and Goat (no joke, that’s his name.)
“What was I thinking? What if I made the wrong move?” Alex says, laying on his bed, “I had it phat back home; no rent, no responsibility, all the chicken wraps I could eat!” But then Jen interrupts Alex to explain to him the cons of a grown man still living at home.
She blurts out, “No sex, no self-esteem, or no hope of leading a normal life.” Jen may have said it in a hurtful way. Still, she finishes her sentence by saying, “ Even if you made the wrong choice, you got to make the best of it now, and then spend decades complaining about your crappy apartment like every other New Yorker that isn’t a millionaire.”
“You must follow through and confront your destiny,” said Goat
“Of course, Goat tries to help by saying some positive, encouraging words, and you can even hear the drums implementing like if he was going to war. “Jen’s right, man, “Goat says with his arm out preaching. “You can not give up; you must not look back, come hell, high waters, or a fleet of Firangi coming up your ass, you must follow through and confront your destiny.”
Of course, to add some humor, his watch goes off, revealing it’s five o’clock. Goat goes from inspirational to just being himself and finishes with, “Got to go ‘happy hour,’ hey since you’re getting rid of stuff can I have the life-size Zena?” Goat says while still holding a beer bottle.
Downtown is proof that there are people just like you in some way:
- Grown-ups collecting action figures and comic books.
- High school crushes that you wanted to talk to but couldn’t.
- Kept pictures of a crush to provide ‘stroking matinal.’
- Love playing board game
- Sneaking into a dive bar and being underage.
I could go on, but perhaps you should watch the show to see what I mean; check out the videos on YouTube.com, and if you love the show as I did, you can get it on DVD.
