Videoland

Introduction.

The Epic of Videoland.

I first received a Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES, when I was seven years old.

The year was 1989, and the machine sat attached to my parents' spare television set in the unfinished laundry room in our basement.

It was the year the French animation company Deke premiered the Super Mario Bros. Super Show for North American audiences on weekday afternoons.

Four days a week, the show featured cartoons based on the Super Mario characters, and on Fridays, there was a Zelda cartoon.

On Saturday mornings, Captain and the Game Master portrayed the adventures of a high school boy from Northridge, California, sucked through his screen into Videoland.

In this Nintendo-inspired fictional world, Kevin, the titular Captain and Game Master, was aided by Kid Icarus, Mega Man, Simon Belmont, and Princess Lana in his battle with Mother Brain.

It was a very stupid experience.

I was watching a video or a series on Videoland here in the Netherlands.

That's a commercial thing.

And you know who was on that thing? The Addams Family.