Liner Notes by Josh
Zaku, Cadillac of the stars!
Another in our long-mileage series of concepts that we came up with while sitting around in a room asking one another 'So, what're we gonna do this year?'
This particular time, Adam dealt out one LD from his collection after another, and we'd vote on it. As it turns out, the actual list of titles was relatively small. Gundam 0083 was the Big Thing ™ at the time, and while Adam owns all the episodes (plus that ultra-rare bonus 7" LD, one we ended up using as surprise footage for RIV) I know I for one wasn't too enthused about making a comedy out of 0083*-- and probably most of the Gundam fans (an overly serious lot if there ever was) wouldn't enjoy it much, either.
Even so, Gundam was ripe for parody use. It's a sacred cow that no one had dared touch (nor have they, since). Thus any alternate use of the footage would have to be used with some respect, or at least use footage from a Gundam show that no one much liked.
Acting ensign Kou Uraki, Jion Liberation Movement.
Back then, there wasn't much outside of the main tv series to use. In point of fact, there were only three possibilities: The aforementioned 0083, 0080, and F-91. The question you're asking yourself now is, "So why 0080 and not F-91?" Well, we all hated F-91. To the point that no one I know has willingly endured it since its release. Discounting that, its isolation from the rest of the UC calendar is problematic; back then all other Gundam shows were firmly set in the One Year War period, and the shared continuity is a huge boon for jokewriting. 0080, on the other hand, fits nicely into the early Gundam universe, contains a relatively small amount of actual mobile suit combat and as a huge bonus, large degree of interpersonal scenes -- best of all, involving children!
I believe it was Phill who came up with the Wonder Years take on the subject, which opened up a whole slew of 60s cliché jokes and music ideas. I later added the idea that it be the story of a young Kou Uraki from Gundam 0083, and if you fudge your UC history a little bit it seems plausible he was of that age in UC0069 -- which, gosh darn it, happens to have a humorous context as a bonus.
Kou, peeping at Slyvia.
So we had our concept and one of our characters. Using some of my Gundam knowledge (mostly gleaned from Operation X's 0083 subtitles and the two issues of their U.C. Herald fanzine I stole from Adam) I populated UC0069 with established characters and set upon inserting a few background Gundam jokes into the throwaway lines.
Voice acting proved interesting. First, since I am the standard choice for narrator/voiceover work, we needed someone else with a high voice to play young Kou. Enter our first turn trying it as the Japanese do it, using a woman for a young boy's voice.
One thing that chagrins me to this day is that one of our voice actresses didn't let Neil Patrick Harris pick up on her. On the first day of dubbing, it seemed he was at the La Jolla playhouse, where she worked during that summer. She claims (I have no proof this ever happened, but it sure makes for a good story) she caught old Doogie Howser himself checking her out. If she'd only played him into her hands long enough to bring him by to dub a few lines, UC0069 would have one more place in the history books. But she didn't. For the record, I always think of him as being Amuro -- instead he was one of my less inspired performances.
Lucette, Amuro, and Kou.
[Peter would like to cut in here to mention that Josh and the actor who played Doogie Howser have the same birthday, June 15th. To make it more ironic, Chis Lockwood ALSO has the same birthday. Josh would like to mention: I do not think that word means what you think it means.]
List of explanations
Kou's mom's carrot fixation would, of course, later tie into his aversion of the orange roots in 0083.
"Zaku! Cadilliac of the stars!" -- a result of having seen Empire of the Sun a little too soon before making this.
The Nosehair/"X" dialogue from that park bench scene is partially the result of watching the "X" scene in "JFK" about four times back to back. While it probably doesn't show the influence beyond a superficial level, I still think of Don Sutherland and Kevin Costner when that scene begins.
The entire "Dungeons and Dragons Generation 2" ad was something I'd wanted to do for ages, at least as long as I was aware of Lodoss War. Glad it worked.
Aside from the Basque Ohm reference, the rest of the news anchor's report comes from a pastiche of Frank Miller comics -- most notably Give Me Liberty and The Dark Knight Returns.
The most obscure reference of UC0069 is the final scene between Bernie and Kou. "Nights in White Satin" plays on in the background, which is a tribute to the final episode of the Sonny Steelgrave arc from Stephen J. Cannell's great 80s show, Wiseguy. Despite some inherent 80s cheese in the early episodes ("Dave already killed one frisbee. We kill another, and we all gotta move t'Tibet for the win-tuh.") -- and some extremely thick homoerotic themes in that particular episode -- the finale between Sonny and Vinnie remains one of my favorite TV episodes of all time. If you buy the DVD though, forget it. They couldn't afford the rights to the song and put some placeholding synth music there instead.
Before my time, Kou. Like honor.
* Despite the implication, Bernie survives the Sydney Colony drop. After making 0069, the idea occured to me for a 0083-based sequel to 0069, a sort of 'Big Chill' deal where Kou would finally feel the disillusionment Bernie apparently does. If that ever is produced (fat chance), Bernie would become Lt. Burning of 0083 fame. Trivia: the letter Burning receives posthumously from his wife in episode #8 of 0083 was from his wife, Sylvia Burning, thus providing a retroactive name for Sylvia in 0069.
The last piece of music in the episode proper, "The Song Remains the Same," by Led Zeppelin, was a serendipitous bit of luck. We finished UC0069 in the PARC Oakland Hotel on the first day of AnimExpo '92. However, we were stuck with a somewhat reduced selection of CDs for music choices since we only had what Phill and I brought on our road trip up from San Diego. After NiWS, is my favorite piece in the whole show.
UC:0069 Shouldn't be a "Good Enough" production, but it was the first SS production developed entirely outside of Peter's influence, so I think we all somewhat consciously didn't want to infringe on the name. That would have to wait for Anime Bites.
