Oh Em Gee Oh Em Gee
The Mysterious Cities of Gold is coming to Dee Vee Dee!
For those of you who weren’t alive and watching Nickelodeon in the early eighties I should probably explain that The Mysterious Cities of Gold is the best show EVER. It is about Esteban a little Spanish boy during the Age of Exploitoration (I was going to just say “exploration” but Paris is watching me type and she went “more like exploitation” so this is like a compromise) who has a mysterious piece of an amulet and the worst superpower ever: he can make the sun shine.
Or it would be the worst superpower ever except for the fact that an ancient civilization left behind a solid gold solar powered jet plane shaped like a giant condor. Yeah. That’s right. A solid gold solar powered jet plane shaped like a giant condor.
I did say this was the coolest show ever didn’t I?
Anyway Esteban goes to the New World with a conquistador (Spanish for “with quistador”) named Mendoza. There’s also an Incan priestess girl named Zia and a boy from an ancient civilization named Tao. They’re searching for the lost Cities of Gold and its ancient treasures like gold and nuclear reactors.
The bad guys are other conquistadors and the Olmecs who in this cartoon are mutant alien chimpanzee people but in real life were a mysterious civilization that came before the Mayans and the Aztecs leaving behind only their giant stone heads and a haunting song still sung today: “Olmec Donald had a farm…”
If you didn’t watch the cartoon then it’s hard to explain exactly why it was so cool (except you know for the solid gold solar powered jet plane shaped like a giant condor!!!) but you have to remember that back when Nickelodeon was new they didn’t have any money for original shows so they mostly showed imported cartoons from places like Belgium and Japan and the Canadian children’s variety show You Can’t Do That On Television which they still showed after they mostly had stopped buying imported cartoons.
If you were lucky enough to watch You Can’t Do That On Television and you remember how much better it was than anything that came out of American Tee Vee at the same time that’s what The Mysterious Cities of Gold was like.
And oh wow I just went to Wikipedia to see if I could find out when the Dee Vee Dee is coming out in America and apparently they’re also making a full length animated movie too.
Anyway for everybody who was lucky enough to see this awesome show I wanted to let you know it was coming out and if you weren’t I highly recommend at least renting it.
Also, the same thing goes for You Can’t Do That On Television. There never was nor will there ever be a finer cold war era Canadian sketch comedy show with kids telling jokes from inside their lockers.
~Ariella Rasputin Wallflower
December 30th, 2007 at 8:41 am
It’s worth seeing YCDTOTV just to see Alanis Morissette getting slimed, which explains how she ended up overdosing on jagged little pills, riding the bus naked and playing God in Dogma and still not be trusted with any lines of dialog.
How ironic.
December 30th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
I totally loved Cities Of Gold! I HAVE TO HAVE TO HAVE TO get that dvd. Bless you, Ari, for the heads up. Not only entertaining but informative too! (You have no idea how much this just made my day!)
December 30th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
*dies laughing*
*Gets up tries to talk* Ari… Ari… *Giggle fit* Ari… *dies again*
*shakes head* Fan means she enjoyed this ‘reminder’ of her childhood
-A-
December 31st, 2007 at 12:05 am
Oh, now you’ve gone and reminded me of what I missed out on, Ari- cable TV back in the day! I was a poor little girl living in a little rural house and we had about 5 channels- so I grew up with Saturday Morning cartoons…and that’s about it. I did have Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain and… um… Arthur.
Man, all the shows I missed out on!
December 31st, 2007 at 12:32 am
Children of the Sun
See your time has just begun
Searching for your way
Through Adventures every day
Every day and night
With the condor in flight
With all your friends in tow
We search for the Cities of Gold
Ahhhh-ah-ah-ah-ah
Wishing for the Cities of Gold
Ahhh-ah-ah-ah-ah
Someday we will find the Cities of Gold!
Doo doo doo do doo
Ahh-ah-ah
Doo doo doo do doo
Cities of Gold
Children of the Sun
Someday soon you’re gonna find
That your destiny
Holds the secret, holds the key
Ahhhh-ah-ah-ah-ah
Wishing for the Cities of Gold
Ahhh-ah-ah-ah-ah
Someday we will find the Cities of Gold!
Doo doo doo do doo
Ahh-ah-ah
Doo doo doo do doo
Cities of Gold
Doo doo doo do doo
Cities of Gold
Ahhh-ah-ah-ah
Someday we will find the Cities of Gold!
December 31st, 2007 at 3:08 pm
First time I saw The Mysterious Cities of Gold was about six months ago, when my roommate was like…
“Oh my god, they have The Mysterious Cities of Gold on the HUB! That show was so awesome…
But I’m afraid to watch it now, because I know for a fact that it wasn’t actually awesome, but the child part of my brain is telling me it is… I don’t want to ruin that for him.”
We then proceeded to watch and the first couple episodes. My vote: Possibly awesome.
January 10th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
OMG I am cheering! I Loved that show to death! I lived, breathed and dreamed it as a child! And the worst part is I never saw the end of the series… My dreams have just come true!!! Off to Wikipedia…
June 19th, 2010 at 9:40 am
Interesting piece! Any opinions that you might be able to divulge to assist us in understanding your first section a bit more? cheers
September 2nd, 2010 at 2:15 pm
We enjoy this data shown and it has given myself several sort of commitment to succeed for some reason, so thank you.