Trivia / The Pop Arena

• Approval of God:
  • Lew Schneider, the first host of Make the Grade, approved of the Nick Knacks episode on the titular game show.
  • Michael Grant, husband of Animorphs author K. A. Applegate, commented on a couple of Greg's videos on the series, saying he appreciates the in-depth analysis. Applegate also humorously quote tweeted Greg's Twitter thread detailing the weirdest moments in each book with a shrug emoji.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Greg used to have a website for written essays, and a Blip.tv channel for videos that show his face. Almost none of this content resurfaced anywhere else, since he feels ashamed of his writing and reviewing skills at the Turn of the Millennium.
  • He also regrets his "Batman voice" and his use of the word "retarded" from the early Animorphs reviews. In a video for the ten year anniversary of his online career, he adds that he very much regrets the “Cassie is a moron” Running Gag, as he felt very pressured by the overly bombastic and snarky video review style of the time, and ended up just constantly insulting the series’ only major black character.
• Executive Meddling: Discussed in Greg's "Batman Forever Retrospective" how Joel Schumacher had originally wanted to try and create a more serious Batman reboot to the Burton films, but after Batman Returns responded so negatively with special interests groups the studio killed that idea, and thus an infamous legend was born.
• Follow the Leader:
  • Greg is imitating the SF Debris Opinionated Trek reviews. He isn't ashamed of it, though, and even references it in the opening of every Opinionated Animorphs review.
  • SF Debris himself would later do a book review for The Foundation Trilogy, though he found it a quite awkward process and says more are unlikely (he would later do more reviews on the Foundation Series). Though he also did World War Z later on.
  • More recently, production has begun on the Fox Kids Club, which is explicitly stated as being Nick Knacks for Fox Kids.
• In Memoriam: Sometimes, Nick Knacks opens on a dedication to a recently-deceased figure of Nickelodeon history:
  • Episode #018 Studio See: Eugene Pitt, one of the singers for many of Nickelodeon's classic jingles and promos.
  • Episode #025 Spread Your Wings: Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of SpongeBob SquarePants
  • Episode #033 Powerhouse: Chris Reccardi, an animator and director who worked on several Nick series, including Ren & Stimpy, My Life as a Teenage Robot, and SpongeBob.
  • Episode #040 Bananaman: Stu Rosen, the creator and host of Dusty's Treehouse.
  • Episode #047 Nick at Nite: D.C Fontana, who was an associate producer, writer, and story editor on Star Trek: The Animated Series.
  • Episode #067 Doctor Snuggles: Tuck Tucker, a director, animator, and writer for several Nick shows, including SpongeBob, Hey Arnold!, and The Fairly Oddparents.
  • Episode #077 Total Panic: Judy Grafe, who played mom Joyce on The Adventures of Pete & Pete, and Mike Nesmith, who was not only one of The Monkees, but the creator of the Nick show PopClips
  • Episode #080 The Patty Duke Show: Kirk Baily, who played Kevin "Ug" Lee on Salute Your Shorts.
  • Episode #087 Camp Runamuck: Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura in not only Star Trek: The Original Series, but also The Animated Series and Prodigy.
  • Episode #98 The Adventures of Superman: Richard Moll, who played The Drifter in One Hundred Deeds For Eddie Mc Dowd.
  • Episode #100 Clarissa Explains It All: Nerene Virgin, who played Jodie on Today's Special.
• Milestone Celebration: Nick Knacks #100 covers Clarissa Explains It All, a show that Greg finds groundbreaking for such reasons as marking Nickelodeon's first multicam sitcom, and proving that a smartly-written show about a charismatic teenage girl could gain fans of differing genders and generations.
• Missing Episode: Nick Knacks #056 (about Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea) received a copyright strike and was made unavailable to watch on Youtube. One of Greg's fans did repost it on the Internet Archive.
• Playing Against Type: He notes that the ghostwriter of #36. The Mutation was a comedy writer despite the completely serious storyline. It didn't work out well.
• Prop Recycling: He notes that the Garatron from #37. The Weakness feels oddly like this despite being in a book since its similar appearance to Andalites is pointless to the story. He even suspects that Applegate was throwing a little something to the people making the TV show.
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: Discussed out of necessity in #073: Looney Tunes and #089: Cartoon Kablooey. Greg details how the various ways Warner Bros. fragmented the Looney Tunes television rights, which led to the unusual package of cast-off cartoons available for Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon. The Cartoon Kablooey likewise goes into detail about how the show had very limited access to Paramount's classic cartoon library because the shorts featuring its big stars (e.g. Betty Boop, Popeye, Superman, Little Lulu and Casper the Friendly Ghost) had been, in Greg's own words, "sold off for scrap" by the time Nickelodeon created that show.
• Schedule Slip:
  • He's a busy guy and the show isn't his job, so this happens sometimes.
  • In #37. The Weakness, he mentions that he plans to review K.A. Applegate's series Remnants, sometime around 2070.
  • Nick Knacks Episode #005. Hocus Focus became the seventh episode posted (not counting specials), since finding information on its host, puppeteer Brad Williams, required more time than researching the subjects of Episodes #006 (Video Comics) and #007 (America Goes Bananaz) did.
  • Nick Knacks Episode #093 on Salute Your Shorts got delayed a month. Right before he completed the episode, the unaired pilot leaked online, causing him to throw out over a third of his work. However, he also said he was extremely happy this happened.
  • Nick Knacks Episode #96 on The Nick Hit List likewise was also delayed for over a month. This was because the series has largely been forgotten and almost no footage exists of it online. So Greg tried to dig up whatever he could to scant results.
  • July of 2023 saw Greg's computer suffering a major hard drive crash, which temporarily halted production for a good month. Due to which Nick Knacks Episode #97: Mork & Mindy took nearly 3 months to come out.
  • Nick Knacks Episode #98 on The Adventures of Superman was delayed for nearly two months.
  • His book Nick Knacks: The Book has been delayed since the Kickstarter was completed. One reason is he didn't want to do just a rehash on the web series and some major new information, such as getting in contact with Cy Schneider's family, has not panning out like he hoped. He later admitted the book was a massive undertaking he didn't expect and his recent health issues has not made it any better.
  • Nick Knacks Episode #99 on F Troop was yet another video that was delayed for over a month.
  • Nick Knacks Episode #100 on Clarissa Explains It All was delayed for two months. Not helped by how Greg's apartment flooded sometime in January 2024, leaving the status of all future productions into question.
  • In April 2024, Greg was evicted from said apartment after trying for months to get the flood damage fixed. Thus putting the future of all his productions in jeopardy.
• Technology Marches On: It inevitably comes up when reviewing #16. The Warning, aka "The one with all the dated computer references." He also notes how younger people might find it hard to believe there was a time when a cell phone was literally just a phone.
• What Could Have Been:
  • BET almost received a Nick Knacks episode, after Greg read that it started out as a nighttime block for Nickelodeon. ^note  The confusion likely stems over the fact that some early cable providers still had limited slots for channels in those days, and so some opted to show BET after Nickelodeon stopped airing at 8 PM so it would get some air time. As cable boxes and companies were able to expand their available channel spaces, BET would eventually get its own full-time channel on those providers and the practice would stop. However, he only finished half of the script before he found more credible sources, including an interview with the BET founder, reveal that it actually debuted on the Madison Square Garden Sports Network. Consequently, Greg instead released a Nick Knacks Addendum titled, "BET Never Aired on Nickelodeon".
  • The Nick Knacks Sample Platter on Power Rangers Super Megaforce was completely changed at the last minute as Jason David Frank died right before he released it. Greg notes that he didn't feel right releasing the original version as it was an extremely negative review of the episode.
  • His Nick Knacks Sample Platter on the Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Elephant Issues" was going to go into detail on what led to the episode being banned for many years until reairing on The Hub 20 years later, but after going through many TV listings and promos for his research, he could not find any evidence that the episode had been banned anywhere.

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