September 18, 2023 • 28 mins
This week I’m doing things a bit differently. On this episode of Mount Molehill, I provide a brief update on my search for the Pancho’s Mexican Buffet jingle, and attempt to solve some minor, media-related mysteries from my childhood in real-time.
This episode of Mount Molehill was written, produced, and edited by Chris, with music by myself. This podcast features materials protected by the Fair Use guidelines of Section 107 of the Copyright Act. All rights reserved to the copyright owners.
If you have a molehill that you’d like us to turn into a mountain, email us at mountmolehillpodcast@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Welcome to Mount Molehill, aplace where even the smallest
mysteries become mountains.
I'm Chris, and this week I'mdoing things a bit differently.
I've been traveling a lot recently,and the fall season kicks off a
very busy part of the year for mewith Halloween, Thanksgiving, and
Christmas right around the corner.
So this week I'm taking adeparture from the usual format
(00:31):
to give myself a bit of a break.
This episode is going to startwith a brief update on the mystery
featured in episode 1, my search forthe Poncho's Mexican Buffet jingle.
And it's going to finish offwith me attempting to solve some
minor media related mysteriesfrom my childhood in real time.
I hope you guys enjoy, and theshow will be back to its regular
(00:52):
format in the next episode scheduledfor release in early October.
Which will kick off a series of mysteriesthat focus on the spookier side of things
in keeping with the Halloween spirit.
So, without further ado, here's a miniupdate on the Poncho's Mexican Buffet
jingle recorded during my recent travels.
(01:13):
Mount Mulhill Log, September 7th, 2023, 8.
30am Mountain Daylight Time.
We've just embarked on our journey.
Our destination?
Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas, inPoncho's Mexican Buffet jingle.
We're headed eastward, leaving behindthe comforting shadow and ever vigilant
(01:34):
embrace of the Sandia Mountains.
On a treacherous path that will takeus through the Great American Desert of
the Southwest, across the Llano Estacadoof the West Texas Panhandle, and closer
to Oklahoma than any sane traveler daretread, what will we find out there?
Mount Mulhill Log, Supplemental,945 AM Mountain Daylight Time.
(02:00):
We've made a stop for fuel and provisions.
I stand beneath a stucco sombreromeasuring 30 feet tall and 15
feet wide that sits atop the LaCida Restaurant in Tucumcari.
Before the small town was bypassed byI 40, La Cida was once a shining beacon
to road weary travelers on Route 66.
(02:22):
As it stands today, it is buta shadow of its former self.
Its parking lot is empty.
And as I gaze up at the sombrero, itspaint fissured from the unforgiving
desert sun, I can't help but wonderif I will find that Poncho's Mexican
Buffet has suffered a similar fate.
(02:43):
Mount Mulholland Log.
Supplemental, 6.
02 p.
m.
Central Daylight Time.
We've arrived at our lodgings.
Tonight, we sup not on chicken flautasand sopapillas, but on more austere fare.
We must rest and conserve our strength.
For we will need it in the coming days.
(03:05):
Mount mole Hill log, September 9th,2023, 9 0 7 AM central daylight time.
I'm outside one of the three remainingponchos in the DFW Metroplex.
It's not open yet.
And it's flanked on either side by thriftstores, laundromats and a bingo center.
(03:25):
I can't help but think that thislocation has certainly seen better
days, but even in its current stateof disrepair, it's most definitely.
A cipher sore eyes.
It's got a pink stucco facade bisectedby a zigzagged sea foam stripe.
And to top the sign we've gota line of Mexican and American
flags, and another sign that boastshomemade hot and fresh daily.
(03:49):
Children three and under, eat free.
I've still got a few hours yetbefore it opens, but I'm just
so excited to raise the flag.
Mount Mole Hill log, supplemental, 12.
03 p.
m.
Central Daylight Time.
I talked to some of the workers and outof respect for their privacy, I didn't
(04:11):
record them, but unsurprisingly, I wasunable to gain any new insight into the
history of the raise the flag jingle.
I might hit up the other two locationsin the DFW Metroplex over the coming
days if time permits, but I...
I think I may have finally reachedthe end of the road on this journey.
I mean, there's really not muchmore I can do at this point.
(04:33):
I've spent countless hours researchingand I've driven over 600 miles to come
here and find answers, which is morethan any reasonable person would do.
So as sad as I am to say that Istill haven't been able to find a
complete version of the jingle, Imean, I guess in a weird way I'm
happy that at least my journey withthis whole thing has come to an end.
(04:56):
You know, I can kind of just stopworrying about it and accept that There's
really nothing more I can do to find it.
And for what will probably be thelast time in my life, I got the
chance to raise the flag once more.
So not really any new informationgathered on my recent pilgrimage to
(05:19):
Poncho's Mexican Buffet, but it wasan intensely nostalgic experience
that I'm grateful for nonetheless.
I did also get in contact withthe musician who wrote the Freddy
Fender jingle for Ponchos, butthat was a dead end as well.
When I asked him if he knew anythingabout the Raise the Flag jingle, his
response was quote, I have no ideasabout Raise the Flag, never heard of
(05:43):
it, but good luck with your search.
End quote.
And so with that, let's move on to tryingto solve some mini mysteries in real time.
So, what I'm trying to figure outthis week are the names to a couple
of things that I have very vaguememories of seeing when I was a kid.
They're so vague that I'd almost hesitateto even really call them memories.
(06:07):
They're more like impressions.
But they've really stuck with me overthe years, and I remember trying to look
for them at various points throughoutmy life, but not really coming up with
anything, and I think they're kindof, uh, prime examples of the gnawing
questions that refuse to go away.
And I think it'll be interesting, ifI can find these two things, to...
(06:28):
See how close they actuallyare to how I remember them.
Uh, so the two things I'm lookingfor are, for lack of better terms,
what I've been calling Live ActionNinja Show and Little Green Guy.
We'll start off withLive Action Ninja Show.
So, this one is probably themore vague memory of the two.
(06:50):
I remember seeing a televisionshow when I was very young.
No idea what age I would havebeen or where I would have
been living at the time and...
My memories of it are so fuzzythat I can pretty confidently
say that it wasn't something thatI was able to see very often.
And seeing as how I've neverseen anyone mention this show on
the internet before, it probablywasn't on the air for very long.
(07:12):
But basically, all I can remember is thatit was a, uh, live action ninja show.
I guess I kind of vaguely rememberthis show that was like, a live
action martial arts show for kids.
I kind of seem to remember thatthere were different ninjas that
would fight each other in, like,a metal dome sort of thing.
(07:36):
And I have the impression that it wasa scripted show that was presented
as being real, sort of like, uh,pro wrestling, but with ninjas that
was aimed specifically at children.
And that's all I haveto go on with that one.
Little Green Guy.
Is a movie now, I never actually saw themovie, but I remember seeing a trailer
(07:59):
for the movie on a V H Ss of some othermovie that I rented from the video store.
I would've been veryyoung when I saw this.
I was living in Iowa at the time, soI probably would've been about three
or four years old when I saw this.
And what I remember from thistrailer is that I think the
movie centered around a group of.
(08:21):
young ish kids, like tweens,maybe teenagers, not really sure.
I think they were looking for somesort of treasure and there was like
this little green monster guy that wassomehow involved in the whole thing.
I want to say the little greenguy was like three feet tall.
He was wearing a tuxedo, orsort of dressed like a butler.
(08:45):
And he maybe had some wispywhite hair, and wrinkly green
skin like a knockoff Yoda.
The main thing that I have a somewhatdistinct memory of about this trailer
is that I feel there was a shot ofthe little green guy walking down
some stairs, and there was some fog.
For whatever reason, it feelslike it was at a train station.
(09:07):
I remember that in this shot, you don'treally see the little green guy's face.
Uh, he's brightly lit from behind,so you kind of just see him as a
silhouette walking down some stairs.
It was like, this is how the characterwas introduced in the movie, like
he's walking down the stairs, youcan't really see him that well.
And then he gets to the bottom of thestairs and the kids in the movie are kind
(09:28):
of scared of him, as his face is revealed.
My feeling is that this movie was like,a children's horror movie or something.
For some reason, I alwaysassociate this movie with that
one movie, A Gnome Named Norm.
That one with Anthony MichaelHall and a weird gnome guy.
Maybe the trailer for this movie wason the videotape of A Gnome Named Norm.
(09:54):
So that's all I have to go on andmaybe this won't be the most exciting
episode But it's just kind of afun thing for me to do where I can
continue to deliver episodes to youguys But at the same time take a break
from doing huge amounts of research.
And with that let's begin, shall we?
So let's start off withlive action Ninja Show.
(10:16):
Um, I'm just gonna Google liveaction ninja show 90s and 90s I'm
putting in there because that'sabout the time that it would have
been on and uh, if I don't put thatall I'm gonna get is Ninja Warrior.
(10:37):
So, okay, this one was really f ing easy.
That's all it took.
Um.
At least it looks like it.
Uh, so I'm seeing somethingcalled WMAC Masters.
I'm gonna go to theWikipedia article for that.
WMAC Masters.
Yeah, this logo is looking familiarthat they have on Wikipedia.
WMAC Masters is an American liveaction television show featuring
(11:00):
choreographed martial arts fights.
Let's, uh, before I dig into thisWikipedia article anymore, I see
that there are some YouTube clips.
So let's just check into,let's watch one of those.
From Universal StudiosFlorida, it's WMAC Masters.
Yeah, this is, this isdefinitely the show.
(11:30):
There's a guy in a karate gi andlike an octagon fighting some, uh,
ninjas in black ninja costumes.
Sweet slow mo of it.
The karate guy kickingsomeone in the face.
(11:59):
Skip ahead a little bit.
Oh, shi Okay, here we go.
Now they're gonna explain the show.
They're the world's greatest martialartists, competing for the ultimate prize.
Olympus, The Machine, Superstar,Red Dragon, Great Wolf, Tiger Claw,
(12:24):
Panther, Tsunami, Star Wars, Turbo,Their quest, reach full dragon belt.
This is so ridiculous.
Welcome to a specialedition of WMAC Masters.
(12:44):
Hi everyone, I'm Shannon Lee.
The World Martial Arts Council createda new competition for today only.
Six athletes will face offone at a time against the best
recruits from the WMAC Academy.
They have 45 seconds to score themost direct hits and knockdowns
while avoiding hits themselves.
The top four qualifiers willthen meet for an unprecedented
(13:06):
free for all in the battle zone.
Yeah, so skipping around, thisreally does, when I said...
Pro wrestling with ninjas.
This really does feel like that becausethey're, they have basically what
amounts to a pro wrestling promo.
They have scenes of tsunami and uh, someother guy training in the back and then
(13:28):
it's funny as they introduce the fightersays they have a little title card
that's like Chris Kasamasa, Red Dragon.
Height, 5'10 weight, 174, signaturemove, spin, hook, kick, uh, but as I'm
skipping around it looks like there'sa lot more to this than just wrestling
(13:48):
matches because it's They're fightingmultiple ninjas, and I guess at the
end it culminates with a fight betweentwo of the, uh, titular WMAC masters.
I don't know, but this is definitelyexactly what I was looking for, and
I got it on my first Google search.
I guess probably the last time I searchedfor this was, I don't know, a decade
(14:11):
ago or something like that, and...
Maybe these video clips hadn't made it toYouTube yet at that point, but, uh, yeah.
I'm glad I was able to findthat so easily, um, so some
information about the show.
WMAC Masters aired from 1995 to 1997.
(14:31):
It had two seasons and 26 episodes.
It's not really clear what channelit aired on originally, but my
guess would be something like UPN.
I did a quick search to see ifI could find some decent quality
rips of the episodes, but, uh,I didn't really find anything.
Although, it apparently was available forstreaming on a website called Toonzai.
(14:55):
From like, 2008 to 2012, so it's possiblethat some good rips are out there.
Um, it was never fullyreleased on home video.
There were like, three videotapesreleased with two episodes each on them.
And just like, skimming throughthe Wikipedia article on the show,
it's very difficult to understandlike, what the end goal...
(15:18):
What's it supposed to be?
It all sounds extremely convolutedfor a show aimed at children.
Well, I guess the end goalis stated pretty clearly.
Uh, the end goal is to get a goldtrophy called the Dragon Star.
That would prove its holder was thebest martial artist in the world, but...
The quest to getting the Dragon Staris the confusing part because there are
(15:43):
subheadings in the wiki article for formdemonstrations, preliminary matches in
Battle Dome finals, super challenges,and four man Battle Dome finals.
Dragon Star Matches, Battle Zones,Ninjas, and Special Match Mixed Doubles.
I mean, I don't want to get toointo the weeds right now to try and
(16:04):
figure out what all is going on here.
But the martial artistsinvolved in the show were, uh...
And a lot of things that you'd recognize,like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
movies, the Mortal Kombat movie, someof them even did the original acting for
the Mortal Kombat video game sprites.
So there's a certainpedigree behind WMAC Masters.
(16:26):
And yeah, that is, uh, WMACMasters, aka Live Action Ninja Show.
Let's see if I can be just as luckyon a little green guy, which I don't
hold out too much hope for gettingthat one knocked out as quickly.
So I think where I'm going to startwith this one is going to go to imdb.
(16:54):
com, going to look up a gnome named...
And I'm going to look in the triviasection to see if possibly someone says,
hey, trailers for such and such movieappeared on this VHS tape because it's
really all I have to go on right now.
(17:14):
Um, searching Google for little greenguy movie is probably not going to be
the most fruitful way of finding this.
So, no, not, not seeing anything inthe trivia section, just kind of talk,
you know, talking about some actors inthe movie, I guess Robert Siddar was in
(17:34):
this, uh, Connections, maybe that, nope.
Just talking about various shows thathave talked about this, so, huh, we'll
go back to advanced search on IMDb,feature film, short film, TV movie, video.
(17:54):
Release date, 1980, 1996.
Okay, um, so we've kind of been goingwith green guy, green person, green
monster, but it's a horror movie, solet's, I remember it being a horror
movie, so let's try to kind of stick withthose tropes and we'll say green ghost.
(18:17):
Maybe that will come up with something.
No.
One title, that was definitely not it.
Write that in the plot.
Absolutely nothing.
Um...
Write tuxedo.
Since I kinda rememberhim wearing a tuxedo.
(18:38):
Six titles.
Sweatin to the oldies.
He's one of them for some reason.
Some anime called Makeup.
Sailor Senshi.
I think that's Sailor Moon.
And some Finnish comedy from1982 called Breaking Out.
(18:59):
Okay.
Try tuxedo as a keyword.
76 titles.
Nothing so far.
What the hell is this?
I'm looking at something called SuperChristian 2, which is a video from 1986.
(19:20):
It doesn't have a description, justhas a picture of the videotape box.
Super Christian and theLone Christian are back.
Super Christian 2, behind the mask.
Definitely, definitely gottacheck that out at some point.
Uh, anyway.
Back to Little Green Man.
(19:40):
Um, nope, nothing there.
Uh, so, let's try Butlerinstead of, uh, Tuxedo.
118 titles.
Hmm hmm.
Lots of interesting things poppin up.
(20:01):
Got stuff like...
L.
A.
Goddess.
Job.
Hearts of Fire.
Golgo 13.
Did I just, did I just find it?
Ghost Chase, 1987.
In an old Hollywood mansion, thespirit of an old family retainer
(20:24):
inhabits an old grandfather clock.
When a movie company uses the mansionfor a film, the spirit inhabits the body
of a prosthetic robot based on the photoof the butler who then persuades the
two filmmakers To track down the greatgrandfather's fortune base before the old
house is destroyed, revealing a family...
(20:47):
Scandal.
Uh, so on this poster, thereis a weird, goofy looking guy.
Meet Fred, Lori, and Warren.
I will now proceed withthe leading off the will.
They're about to inherit their first big,this is tracking a little bit, but someone
(21:10):
is interested in their friend from thepast who holds the key to their fortune.
Yeah.
No, this is definitely it.
Yep, yep.
Little green ghost guy.
I'm waiting to see the sceneof him walking down some
(21:31):
stairs or something like that.
A friend who is about to takethem, if their spirits are
willing, on a wild ghost chase.
And I'm trying to talk, I'm justgonna try to talk over this so
that I don't get any sort ofcopystrike for just playing a song.
I think I just saw the Psycho House.
(22:00):
Lots of stuff going on in this trailer.
Um.
Yeah, guys fighting amedieval suit of armor.
So, so far I haven't seen the exact scenethat I remember as a kid, but I'm like...
(22:23):
99 percent sure thatthis has to be the movie.
There's a little green guy runningaround doing a bunch of s t.
And um, this definitely seems to havea different tone from what I remember.
Uh,
(22:47):
yep, nope.
He just winked at the screen.
Okay, oh, well, yep, IMDB's playinga second trailer, or maybe this
is just a scene from the movie?
Let's see.
(23:08):
Let's see if I can find a differenttrailer for this, preferably one
that doesn't have just a song in it.
Here's another one.
Probably the same.
Oh, this actually looksto be a different trailer.
Centropolis Entertainment.
(23:31):
Definitely more of a horrorvibe in this one so far.
(23:59):
There's a spirit going intothis little weird green guy.
Yeah.
Um.
This is...
He can move, and he speaks inthe same voice as that ghost.
He looks pretty heartless.
(24:21):
They're about to just start.
Here's Hollywood.
Hollywood?
You know a lot of movies like mineare made in Hollywood nowadays.
Movie?
If you were to take me to Hollywood, thisthing is, this movie looks like garbage
(24:43):
Let me skip around and see if Ican find that stairwell scene.
So yeah, I'm not seeingit in this one either.
I'm kind of surprised that thismovie has, uh, two distinct.
Trailers for it.
(25:04):
Let's see what this one is.
Uh, this looks like it's a review, videoreview someone did of this movie, so.
I'm not gonna spend too much timelooking at this, just gonna scan
it to see if I can find that scene.
You know, I'm not seeing itexactly how I remembered it,
(25:25):
but this definitely has to be...
Yeah, I mean, this is definitely, thisis the movie, Ghost Chase, from 1987.
Um, like I said, I would have seenthis trailer when I was three or
four, so it's no surprise that...
In my mind, some things got warped.
I definitely don't rememberit being, uh, so comedic.
(25:49):
But I remember wanting to see itreally bad based on this trailer.
Um, ha ha ha.
So, yeah, um, little kids obviouslyhave horrible taste in them.
And this was directed by Roland Emmerich,the guy that, uh, did Independence Day.
And the 1998 Godzilla movie.
So, wow, that's kind of...
(26:10):
I mean, he's not, like, the mostrespected director in the world, but
he's definitely some someone that peopleknow, so that's kind of surprising that
he made this movie, cause this doesnot seem to be a very well known movie.
It only has 845 ratings on IMDb.
Let's see what it'slooking like on Letterboxd.
(26:31):
461 people on Letterboxd havewatched this, so yes, this is not...
A very well known movie.
But, uh, I'm definitely gonna watch it.
And I'm glad that, uh, Ihave finally solved this 30
year long mystery for myself.
Heh heh heh.
It is definitely Ghost Chase.
(26:52):
Not exactly the same type of moviethat I was thinking it would be.
But I'm definitely gonna check it out.
Um, and yeah, I guess, I mean, that's...
That's all I got this time.
Full disclosure, it took me about onehour total to find both WMAC Masters and
Ghost Chase, but I edited a lot out ofthis episode because I realized that it
(27:15):
would probably be pretty tedious listeningto me search through IMDB for an hour.
Mount Mole Hill is written,produced, and edited by me, Chris.
With music by myself.
This podcast features materialsprotected by the Fair Use Guidelines
of Section 107 of the Copyright Act.
All rights reserved tothe copyright owners.
(27:39):
If you have a molehill that you'd likeme to turn into a mountain, whether it's
a mystery that you just can't solve,or just an interesting topic you'd like
me to delve into, please reach out.
You can email me atmountainmolehillpodcast at gmail.
com or you can call and leaveme a voicemail at 505 218 6894.
(27:59):
Follow us on Instagram to see updatesand supplemental material for the show.
Thanks for listening.
I'll be back with anotherepisode in two weeks.
Welcome to Mount Molehill, aplace where even the smallest
mysteries become mountains.
I'm Chris, and this week I'mdoing things a bit differently.
I've been traveling a lot recently,and the fall season kicks off a
very busy part of the year for mewith Halloween, Thanksgiving, and
Christmas right around the corner.
So this week I'm taking adeparture from the usual format
(00:31):
to give myself a bit of a break.
This episode is going to startwith a brief update on the mystery
featured in episode 1, my search forthe Poncho's Mexican Buffet jingle.
And it's going to finish offwith me attempting to solve some
minor media related mysteriesfrom my childhood in real time.
I hope you guys enjoy, and theshow will be back to its regular
(00:52):
format in the next episode scheduledfor release in early October.
Which will kick off a series of mysteriesthat focus on the spookier side of things
in keeping with the Halloween spirit.
So, without further ado, here's a miniupdate on the Poncho's Mexican Buffet
jingle recorded during my recent travels.
(01:13):
Mount Mulhill Log, September 7th, 2023, 8.
30am Mountain Daylight Time.
We've just embarked on our journey.
Our destination?
Dallas, Fort Worth, Texas, inPoncho's Mexican Buffet jingle.
We're headed eastward, leaving behindthe comforting shadow and ever vigilant
(01:34):
embrace of the Sandia Mountains.
On a treacherous path that will takeus through the Great American Desert of
the Southwest, across the Llano Estacadoof the West Texas Panhandle, and closer
to Oklahoma than any sane traveler daretread, what will we find out there?
Mount Mulhill Log, Supplemental,945 AM Mountain Daylight Time.
(02:00):
We've made a stop for fuel and provisions.
I stand beneath a stucco sombreromeasuring 30 feet tall and 15
feet wide that sits atop the LaCida Restaurant in Tucumcari.
Before the small town was bypassed byI 40, La Cida was once a shining beacon
to road weary travelers on Route 66.
(02:22):
As it stands today, it is buta shadow of its former self.
Its parking lot is empty.
And as I gaze up at the sombrero, itspaint fissured from the unforgiving
desert sun, I can't help but wonderif I will find that Poncho's Mexican
Buffet has suffered a similar fate.
(02:43):
Mount Mulholland Log.
Supplemental, 6.
02 p.
m.
Central Daylight Time.
We've arrived at our lodgings.
Tonight, we sup not on chicken flautasand sopapillas, but on more austere fare.
We must rest and conserve our strength.
For we will need it in the coming days.
(03:05):
Mount mole Hill log, September 9th,2023, 9 0 7 AM central daylight time.
I'm outside one of the three remainingponchos in the DFW Metroplex.
It's not open yet.
And it's flanked on either side by thriftstores, laundromats and a bingo center.
(03:25):
I can't help but think that thislocation has certainly seen better
days, but even in its current stateof disrepair, it's most definitely.
A cipher sore eyes.
It's got a pink stucco facade bisectedby a zigzagged sea foam stripe.
And to top the sign we've gota line of Mexican and American
flags, and another sign that boastshomemade hot and fresh daily.
(03:49):
Children three and under, eat free.
I've still got a few hours yetbefore it opens, but I'm just
so excited to raise the flag.
Mount Mole Hill log, supplemental, 12.
03 p.
m.
Central Daylight Time.
I talked to some of the workers and outof respect for their privacy, I didn't
(04:11):
record them, but unsurprisingly, I wasunable to gain any new insight into the
history of the raise the flag jingle.
I might hit up the other two locationsin the DFW Metroplex over the coming
days if time permits, but I...
I think I may have finally reachedthe end of the road on this journey.
I mean, there's really not muchmore I can do at this point.
(04:33):
I've spent countless hours researchingand I've driven over 600 miles to come
here and find answers, which is morethan any reasonable person would do.
So as sad as I am to say that Istill haven't been able to find a
complete version of the jingle, Imean, I guess in a weird way I'm
happy that at least my journey withthis whole thing has come to an end.
(04:56):
You know, I can kind of just stopworrying about it and accept that There's
really nothing more I can do to find it.
And for what will probably be thelast time in my life, I got the
chance to raise the flag once more.
So not really any new informationgathered on my recent pilgrimage to
(05:19):
Poncho's Mexican Buffet, but it wasan intensely nostalgic experience
that I'm grateful for nonetheless.
I did also get in contact withthe musician who wrote the Freddy
Fender jingle for Ponchos, butthat was a dead end as well.
When I asked him if he knew anythingabout the Raise the Flag jingle, his
response was quote, I have no ideasabout Raise the Flag, never heard of
(05:43):
it, but good luck with your search.
End quote.
And so with that, let's move on to tryingto solve some mini mysteries in real time.
So, what I'm trying to figure outthis week are the names to a couple
of things that I have very vaguememories of seeing when I was a kid.
They're so vague that I'd almost hesitateto even really call them memories.
(06:07):
They're more like impressions.
But they've really stuck with me overthe years, and I remember trying to look
for them at various points throughoutmy life, but not really coming up with
anything, and I think they're kindof, uh, prime examples of the gnawing
questions that refuse to go away.
And I think it'll be interesting, ifI can find these two things, to...
(06:28):
See how close they actuallyare to how I remember them.
Uh, so the two things I'm lookingfor are, for lack of better terms,
what I've been calling Live ActionNinja Show and Little Green Guy.
We'll start off withLive Action Ninja Show.
So, this one is probably themore vague memory of the two.
(06:50):
I remember seeing a televisionshow when I was very young.
No idea what age I would havebeen or where I would have
been living at the time and...
My memories of it are so fuzzythat I can pretty confidently
say that it wasn't something thatI was able to see very often.
And seeing as how I've neverseen anyone mention this show on
the internet before, it probablywasn't on the air for very long.
(07:12):
But basically, all I can remember is thatit was a, uh, live action ninja show.
I guess I kind of vaguely rememberthis show that was like, a live
action martial arts show for kids.
I kind of seem to remember thatthere were different ninjas that
would fight each other in, like,a metal dome sort of thing.
(07:36):
And I have the impression that it wasa scripted show that was presented
as being real, sort of like, uh,pro wrestling, but with ninjas that
was aimed specifically at children.
And that's all I haveto go on with that one.
Little Green Guy.
Is a movie now, I never actually saw themovie, but I remember seeing a trailer
(07:59):
for the movie on a V H Ss of some othermovie that I rented from the video store.
I would've been veryyoung when I saw this.
I was living in Iowa at the time, soI probably would've been about three
or four years old when I saw this.
And what I remember from thistrailer is that I think the
movie centered around a group of.
(08:21):
young ish kids, like tweens,maybe teenagers, not really sure.
I think they were looking for somesort of treasure and there was like
this little green monster guy that wassomehow involved in the whole thing.
I want to say the little greenguy was like three feet tall.
He was wearing a tuxedo, orsort of dressed like a butler.
(08:45):
And he maybe had some wispywhite hair, and wrinkly green
skin like a knockoff Yoda.
The main thing that I have a somewhatdistinct memory of about this trailer
is that I feel there was a shot ofthe little green guy walking down
some stairs, and there was some fog.
For whatever reason, it feelslike it was at a train station.
(09:07):
I remember that in this shot, you don'treally see the little green guy's face.
Uh, he's brightly lit from behind,so you kind of just see him as a
silhouette walking down some stairs.
It was like, this is how the characterwas introduced in the movie, like
he's walking down the stairs, youcan't really see him that well.
And then he gets to the bottom of thestairs and the kids in the movie are kind
(09:28):
of scared of him, as his face is revealed.
My feeling is that this movie was like,a children's horror movie or something.
For some reason, I alwaysassociate this movie with that
one movie, A Gnome Named Norm.
That one with Anthony MichaelHall and a weird gnome guy.
Maybe the trailer for this movie wason the videotape of A Gnome Named Norm.
(09:54):
So that's all I have to go on andmaybe this won't be the most exciting
episode But it's just kind of afun thing for me to do where I can
continue to deliver episodes to youguys But at the same time take a break
from doing huge amounts of research.
And with that let's begin, shall we?
So let's start off withlive action Ninja Show.
(10:16):
Um, I'm just gonna Google liveaction ninja show 90s and 90s I'm
putting in there because that'sabout the time that it would have
been on and uh, if I don't put thatall I'm gonna get is Ninja Warrior.
(10:37):
So, okay, this one was really f ing easy.
That's all it took.
Um.
At least it looks like it.
Uh, so I'm seeing somethingcalled WMAC Masters.
I'm gonna go to theWikipedia article for that.
WMAC Masters.
Yeah, this logo is looking familiarthat they have on Wikipedia.
WMAC Masters is an American liveaction television show featuring
(11:00):
choreographed martial arts fights.
Let's, uh, before I dig into thisWikipedia article anymore, I see
that there are some YouTube clips.
So let's just check into,let's watch one of those.
From Universal StudiosFlorida, it's WMAC Masters.
Yeah, this is, this isdefinitely the show.
(11:30):
There's a guy in a karate gi andlike an octagon fighting some, uh,
ninjas in black ninja costumes.
Sweet slow mo of it.
The karate guy kickingsomeone in the face.
(11:59):
Skip ahead a little bit.
Oh, shi Okay, here we go.
Now they're gonna explain the show.
They're the world's greatest martialartists, competing for the ultimate prize.
Olympus, The Machine, Superstar,Red Dragon, Great Wolf, Tiger Claw,
(12:24):
Panther, Tsunami, Star Wars, Turbo,Their quest, reach full dragon belt.
This is so ridiculous.
Welcome to a specialedition of WMAC Masters.
(12:44):
Hi everyone, I'm Shannon Lee.
The World Martial Arts Council createda new competition for today only.
Six athletes will face offone at a time against the best
recruits from the WMAC Academy.
They have 45 seconds to score themost direct hits and knockdowns
while avoiding hits themselves.
The top four qualifiers willthen meet for an unprecedented
(13:06):
free for all in the battle zone.
Yeah, so skipping around, thisreally does, when I said...
Pro wrestling with ninjas.
This really does feel like that becausethey're, they have basically what
amounts to a pro wrestling promo.
They have scenes of tsunami and uh, someother guy training in the back and then
(13:28):
it's funny as they introduce the fightersays they have a little title card
that's like Chris Kasamasa, Red Dragon.
Height, 5'10 weight, 174, signaturemove, spin, hook, kick, uh, but as I'm
skipping around it looks like there'sa lot more to this than just wrestling
(13:48):
matches because it's They're fightingmultiple ninjas, and I guess at the
end it culminates with a fight betweentwo of the, uh, titular WMAC masters.
I don't know, but this is definitelyexactly what I was looking for, and
I got it on my first Google search.
I guess probably the last time I searchedfor this was, I don't know, a decade
(14:11):
ago or something like that, and...
Maybe these video clips hadn't made it toYouTube yet at that point, but, uh, yeah.
I'm glad I was able to findthat so easily, um, so some
information about the show.
WMAC Masters aired from 1995 to 1997.
(14:31):
It had two seasons and 26 episodes.
It's not really clear what channelit aired on originally, but my
guess would be something like UPN.
I did a quick search to see ifI could find some decent quality
rips of the episodes, but, uh,I didn't really find anything.
Although, it apparently was available forstreaming on a website called Toonzai.
(14:55):
From like, 2008 to 2012, so it's possiblethat some good rips are out there.
Um, it was never fullyreleased on home video.
There were like, three videotapesreleased with two episodes each on them.
And just like, skimming throughthe Wikipedia article on the show,
it's very difficult to understandlike, what the end goal...
(15:18):
What's it supposed to be?
It all sounds extremely convolutedfor a show aimed at children.
Well, I guess the end goalis stated pretty clearly.
Uh, the end goal is to get a goldtrophy called the Dragon Star.
That would prove its holder was thebest martial artist in the world, but...
The quest to getting the Dragon Staris the confusing part because there are
(15:43):
subheadings in the wiki article for formdemonstrations, preliminary matches in
Battle Dome finals, super challenges,and four man Battle Dome finals.
Dragon Star Matches, Battle Zones,Ninjas, and Special Match Mixed Doubles.
I mean, I don't want to get toointo the weeds right now to try and
(16:04):
figure out what all is going on here.
But the martial artistsinvolved in the show were, uh...
And a lot of things that you'd recognize,like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
movies, the Mortal Kombat movie, someof them even did the original acting for
the Mortal Kombat video game sprites.
So there's a certainpedigree behind WMAC Masters.
(16:26):
And yeah, that is, uh, WMACMasters, aka Live Action Ninja Show.
Let's see if I can be just as luckyon a little green guy, which I don't
hold out too much hope for gettingthat one knocked out as quickly.
So I think where I'm going to startwith this one is going to go to imdb.
(16:54):
com, going to look up a gnome named...
And I'm going to look in the triviasection to see if possibly someone says,
hey, trailers for such and such movieappeared on this VHS tape because it's
really all I have to go on right now.
(17:14):
Um, searching Google for little greenguy movie is probably not going to be
the most fruitful way of finding this.
So, no, not, not seeing anything inthe trivia section, just kind of talk,
you know, talking about some actors inthe movie, I guess Robert Siddar was in
(17:34):
this, uh, Connections, maybe that, nope.
Just talking about various shows thathave talked about this, so, huh, we'll
go back to advanced search on IMDb,feature film, short film, TV movie, video.
(17:54):
Release date, 1980, 1996.
Okay, um, so we've kind of been goingwith green guy, green person, green
monster, but it's a horror movie, solet's, I remember it being a horror
movie, so let's try to kind of stick withthose tropes and we'll say green ghost.
(18:17):
Maybe that will come up with something.
No.
One title, that was definitely not it.
Write that in the plot.
Absolutely nothing.
Um...
Write tuxedo.
Since I kinda rememberhim wearing a tuxedo.
(18:38):
Six titles.
Sweatin to the oldies.
He's one of them for some reason.
Some anime called Makeup.
Sailor Senshi.
I think that's Sailor Moon.
And some Finnish comedy from1982 called Breaking Out.
(18:59):
Okay.
Try tuxedo as a keyword.
76 titles.
Nothing so far.
What the hell is this?
I'm looking at something called SuperChristian 2, which is a video from 1986.
(19:20):
It doesn't have a description, justhas a picture of the videotape box.
Super Christian and theLone Christian are back.
Super Christian 2, behind the mask.
Definitely, definitely gottacheck that out at some point.
Uh, anyway.
Back to Little Green Man.
(19:40):
Um, nope, nothing there.
Uh, so, let's try Butlerinstead of, uh, Tuxedo.
118 titles.
Hmm hmm.
Lots of interesting things poppin up.
(20:01):
Got stuff like...
L.
A.
Goddess.
Job.
Hearts of Fire.
Golgo 13.
Did I just, did I just find it?
Ghost Chase, 1987.
In an old Hollywood mansion, thespirit of an old family retainer
(20:24):
inhabits an old grandfather clock.
When a movie company uses the mansionfor a film, the spirit inhabits the body
of a prosthetic robot based on the photoof the butler who then persuades the
two filmmakers To track down the greatgrandfather's fortune base before the old
house is destroyed, revealing a family...
(20:47):
Scandal.
Uh, so on this poster, thereis a weird, goofy looking guy.
Meet Fred, Lori, and Warren.
I will now proceed withthe leading off the will.
They're about to inherit their first big,this is tracking a little bit, but someone
(21:10):
is interested in their friend from thepast who holds the key to their fortune.
Yeah.
No, this is definitely it.
Yep, yep.
Little green ghost guy.
I'm waiting to see the sceneof him walking down some
(21:31):
stairs or something like that.
A friend who is about to takethem, if their spirits are
willing, on a wild ghost chase.
And I'm trying to talk, I'm justgonna try to talk over this so
that I don't get any sort ofcopystrike for just playing a song.
I think I just saw the Psycho House.
(22:00):
Lots of stuff going on in this trailer.
Um.
Yeah, guys fighting amedieval suit of armor.
So, so far I haven't seen the exact scenethat I remember as a kid, but I'm like...
(22:23):
99 percent sure thatthis has to be the movie.
There's a little green guy runningaround doing a bunch of s t.
And um, this definitely seems to havea different tone from what I remember.
Uh,
(22:47):
yep, nope.
He just winked at the screen.
Okay, oh, well, yep, IMDB's playinga second trailer, or maybe this
is just a scene from the movie?
Let's see.
(23:08):
Let's see if I can find a differenttrailer for this, preferably one
that doesn't have just a song in it.
Here's another one.
Probably the same.
Oh, this actually looksto be a different trailer.
Centropolis Entertainment.
(23:31):
Definitely more of a horrorvibe in this one so far.
(23:59):
There's a spirit going intothis little weird green guy.
Yeah.
Um.
This is...
He can move, and he speaks inthe same voice as that ghost.
He looks pretty heartless.
(24:21):
They're about to just start.
Here's Hollywood.
Hollywood?
You know a lot of movies like mineare made in Hollywood nowadays.
Movie?
If you were to take me to Hollywood, thisthing is, this movie looks like garbage
(24:43):
Let me skip around and see if Ican find that stairwell scene.
So yeah, I'm not seeingit in this one either.
I'm kind of surprised that thismovie has, uh, two distinct.
Trailers for it.
(25:04):
Let's see what this one is.
Uh, this looks like it's a review, videoreview someone did of this movie, so.
I'm not gonna spend too much timelooking at this, just gonna scan
it to see if I can find that scene.
You know, I'm not seeing itexactly how I remembered it,
(25:25):
but this definitely has to be...
Yeah, I mean, this is definitely, thisis the movie, Ghost Chase, from 1987.
Um, like I said, I would have seenthis trailer when I was three or
four, so it's no surprise that...
In my mind, some things got warped.
I definitely don't rememberit being, uh, so comedic.
(25:49):
But I remember wanting to see itreally bad based on this trailer.
Um, ha ha ha.
So, yeah, um, little kids obviouslyhave horrible taste in them.
And this was directed by Roland Emmerich,the guy that, uh, did Independence Day.
And the 1998 Godzilla movie.
So, wow, that's kind of...
(26:10):
I mean, he's not, like, the mostrespected director in the world, but
he's definitely some someone that peopleknow, so that's kind of surprising that
he made this movie, cause this doesnot seem to be a very well known movie.
It only has 845 ratings on IMDb.
Let's see what it'slooking like on Letterboxd.
(26:31):
461 people on Letterboxd havewatched this, so yes, this is not...
A very well known movie.
But, uh, I'm definitely gonna watch it.
And I'm glad that, uh, Ihave finally solved this 30
year long mystery for myself.
Heh heh heh.
It is definitely Ghost Chase.
(26:52):
Not exactly the same type of moviethat I was thinking it would be.
But I'm definitely gonna check it out.
Um, and yeah, I guess, I mean, that's...
That's all I got this time.
Full disclosure, it took me about onehour total to find both WMAC Masters and
Ghost Chase, but I edited a lot out ofthis episode because I realized that it
(27:15):
would probably be pretty tedious listeningto me search through IMDB for an hour.
Mount Mole Hill is written,produced, and edited by me, Chris.
With music by myself.
This podcast features materialsprotected by the Fair Use Guidelines
of Section 107 of the Copyright Act.
All rights reserved tothe copyright owners.
(27:39):
If you have a molehill that you'd likeme to turn into a mountain, whether it's
a mystery that you just can't solve,or just an interesting topic you'd like
me to delve into, please reach out.
You can email me atmountainmolehillpodcast at gmail.
com or you can call and leaveme a voicemail at 505 218 6894.
(27:59):
Follow us on Instagram to see updatesand supplemental material for the show.
Thanks for listening.
I'll be back with anotherepisode in two weeks.
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