Hate for the 80s/90s Munks

For Gen Y'ers like myself, the Chipmunks I grew up with were the Chipmunks of the 80s and 90s, which means my overall exposure to them was mostly through reruns of the 1983-1991 ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS series on Cartoon Network, and whenever channels like Disney would occasionally run THE CHIPMUNK ADVENTURE.

I've noticed in recent years, however, that there's an unfortunately increase is disdain for this incarnation of the franchise, though I can kind of understand why this is happening. The Chipmunks have been around for almost 60 years and have gone through a number of different incarnations over those decades, and not only that, but they are a musical group that not only can release original songs, but adapt well to a variety of different genres of music when doing cover tunes as well. That said, I've noticed one of the biggest complaints the 80s cartoon gets is that the series focused less on the musical aspect of the franchise in favor of character-driven storyline, as opposed to THE ALVIN SHOW, where the music was more forefront. Admittedly, that's what I like about the 80s series, is that the characters were really fully developed over the course of the show, taking them from one-note characters to more well-rounded characters with personalities and traits that you don't see a lot of in cartoon characters; character development is usually something that's discouraged in cartoons, and I think it's one of the things that make the 80s series as great as it was. Another common complaint I see is that apparently Bagdasarian Productions' handling of the series. Again, this is something that does make a little sense when you think about it: song replacements on DVD can be forgiven, it's a legal issue that a lot of older shows (particularly cartoons and other kids show) have to face for DVD releases - but admittedly, having Bagdasarian Productions virtually re-release the same DVD sets over and over again, and maybe only adding one or two new unreleased episodes to re-releases really doesn't work too awfully well in their favor, and it just doesn't seem feasible to repurchase sets of episodes you've already purchased in the past just for the sake of one or two new ones. I'm pretty sure almost, if not all episodes from THE CHIPMUNKS GO TO THE MOVIES season has seen a release on DVD: that right there could be a full set, and it's practically be the closest thing to a complete season set we'll ever get, since, again, legal issues regarding music clearances and licenses is really preventing us from getting season sets otherwise.

I think the rarity and nostalgic filter of THE ALVIN SHOW is really underplaying its intrigue, and since it gets less focus or any kind of treatment from Bagdasarian as opposed to the 80s series is probably another reason why more and more fans are wanting more of it since episodes of the 80s series are pretty much available in any form: DVD or the internet. Not to mention, in additional to original songs, I think most other songs used on THE ALVIN SHOW were public domain, so I don't think there would be many problems to release a complete series set of it - there certainly appears to be a market for it.