Rock TV

This article is about the episode. For the titular object, see Koopasonic Rock TV.

Super Mario World episode
"Rock TV"
Production number	225-110A
Episode	10
Airdate	November 16, 1991 November 23, 2024
Writer(s)	George Shea
Featured song	"Tail of the Dinosaur"
Captain N episode	"Three Men and a Dragon"
Episode chronology ← Previous "Gopher Bash" Next → "The Yoshi Shuffle" List of episodes

“What's the one thing most likely to rot people's minds and reduce their brains to mashed potatoes? I remember now! Television!”

—King Bowser Koopa

"Rock TV" is the tenth episode of the Super Mario World animated series. This episode can be seen as a commentary on television addiction, an issue that had gained widespread focus by the time it aired. In 1990, the year before this episode aired, the United States Federal Communications Commission enacted the Children's Television Act which required networks to strengthen educational values in children's television. After Super Mario World aired its lone season, NBC followed suit in 1992 by discontinuing its Saturday morning cartoon lineup in favor of expanding the morning news program Today to Saturdays.

This episode is notable for being the Super Mario World episode with the most Koopalings, with six, with Kootie Pie being the only one absent. Though most appear in the episode, Big Mouth is the only one with dialogue. This episode is also the last episode where Kooky appears, as well as the only Super Mario World episode where the real world appears.

Plot synopsis

While pacing back and forth in his castle, King Koopa muses about how he has not done anything exceptionally evil in a while. Trying to think up a plan of some kind, Koopa remembers one of his trips to the Real World; more specifically, how television can put people in a near vegetative state. Suddenly, Koopa comes up with the idea of using TV to rot the minds of the cave people in Dome City.

Later, Oogtar the caveboy rushes to the Dome Castle of Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and Princess Toadstool, telling them to come quickly and see something. Following Oogtar, the others are surprised to see what appears to be a giant, screenless television set.

Mario and co. discovering the giant, screenless television.

As the cave people stare in awe at the giant television set, King Koopa appears behind it with Cheatsy and Kooky von Koopa, who are helping him put on a rather crude human costume. Going into the giant television's empty screen, Koopa, in costume, introduces himself as "Robby Rockwell". "Robby" proceeds to tell all the onlookers that he is here to introduce "Rock TV". Oogtar proceeds to ask what Rock TV is, and Koopa explains that it has hundreds of different shows such as "Mister Koopa's Neighborhood" (which Yoshi finds fun) and "The World Dinosaur Wrestling Federation" (which is depicted as dinosaur puppets bumping into one another). After being booed for this poor performance, Koopa shows the cave people "Rock, Rock TV" with such stars as "Vanilla Ice Age"; after saying this, Koopa proceeds to dress up and dance around. Leaving the stage, Koopa returns in his Robby disguise and proceeds to tell everyone that they can buy their own "Koopasonic Rock TV" for ten coins and a coin a minute.

Mario's reaction after getting the phone bill.

Later, Mario and Luigi are in line to buy a Rock TV. Despite Mario saying that ten coins is a great deal, Luigi says that one coin a minute can really add up and reminds Mario of the "Speak to Santa Hotline" incident in Brooklyn, which added up to a $1,295.31 phone bill. Hearing this, Mario simply tells Luigi that paying for their TV will be easy, as all they need to do is bash blocks to get them. Approaching Koopa, Mario proceeds to buy a TV, despite Luigi's suspicion of "Robby Rockwell."

Yoshi reacting to King Koopa's "preview" of "Mister Koopa's Neighborhood".

Once the TV is at home, Princess Toadstool proceeds to tell Mario and Luigi that she will not have any part in watching the TV, saying that she and Yoshi are going for a nature walk, and proceeds to walk out with a protesting Yoshi. Putting a coin in the TV, Mario and Luigi are suddenly hit by the spell of a Koopa wizard hidden in the TV. Appearing to go into a trance, Mario and Luigi crouch down on their couch and begin watching "everybody's favorite Kooparobics show, Koopa Sez!". As Koopa, wearing fitness attire, begins giving demands on TV, Mario and Luigi and all the cave people begin to follow him in a daze.

After a while, Koopa says he has "a real special game [he] wants everybody to play," at which point Mario and Luigi's TV breaks down, snapping them out of the trance. On the rest of the televisions, Koopa orders all the cave people to go to Dome Castle and capture Mario and Luigi. Like robots, the cave people obey Koopa and, grabbing anything nearby to use as weapons, rush off to Dome Castle. At Dome Castle, Mario, frustrated with his broken TV, throws it out a nearby window and into the moat surrounding the castle. As Mario does this, he notices a mob of cave people storming the castle with clubs. Before Mario or Luigi can do anything, they are captured by the zombified cave people.

Brought to King Koopa's giant TV, Mario and Luigi are forced to participate in "All-Star Prehistoric Tag Team Wrestling", which has Hip and Hop Koopa as the judges and Big Mouth Koopa as the announcer. After going on an extremely long-winded speech, and introducing the Tyrannosaurus Twins, Big Mouth is finally shut up by Koopa, only to return, and then as he is introducing the Marios, one of the twins tosses him out. Koopa proceeds to introduce Mario and Luigi into the ring.

Attempting to be friends with the Tyrannosaurus Twins, Mario ends up being swirled around by the bigger of the two, while Luigi gets tangled up in the ropes and slingshot into the opposite side of the ring by the smaller one. With the Mario Bros. taking a beating, Princess Toadstool and Yoshi appear and, after seeing that Mario and Luigi are in trouble, with Yoshi's help, hitting an ! Block at the top of the giant TV, they release a swarm of miniature Marios. With Big Mouth, Hip, Kooky, and Bully Koopa chasing the miniature Marios and the Tyrannosaurus Twins distracted, the Princess manages to hit a ? Block, which releases a feather.

Attempting to grab this feather, Koopa is knocked aside by Mario, who uses the feather to transform into Cape Mario. With his newfound powers, Mario easily defeats the Tyrannosaurus Twins. In the next scene, Yoshi begins eating all the nearby Rock TVs, spitting the apparently disgusting-tasting Koopa wizards out of them.

As Mario and Luigi thank Princess Toadstool for helping them, Yoshi begins eating the nearby, giant TV. A panicking King Koopa tries to stop Yoshi because he thinks that the giant TV is still useful to him somehow, only to be crushed by dozens of falling blocks. A cheerful Yoshi, wanting to help the trapped Koopa, begins to eat all the blocks around him at an extremely slow pace.

Gallery

• 

  Title card

Cast

• Harvey Atkin — King Bowser Koopa
• Walker Boone — Mario
• Tony Rosato — Luigi
• Andrew Sabiston — Yoshi
• Tracey Moore — Princess Toadstool
• Gordon Masten — Big Mouth Koopa, singer #1
• Dan Hennessey — Bully Koopa, Green T-Rex twin, Singer #2, Caveman #1, Caveman #3, Caveman #4
• John Stocker — Oogtar, Oogtar's dad, Caveman #2, Caveman #5, Caveman #6
• Paulina Gillis — female singer, cavelady #1, cavelady #2, Oogtar's sister, Oogtar's mother
• Michael Stark — Kooky von Koopa, Orange T-Rex twin

References to real media

• The title of the episode, "Rock TV", is a reference to MTV. Additionally, Mario's line "I want my Rock TV!" is a parody of its slogan at the time, "I Want My MTV."
• The family King Koopa spies on watches Wheel of Fortune.
• "Mister Koopa's Neighborhood" is a parody of the children's show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Mario also tells Princess Toadstool and Yoshi that "maybe [he will] see them on PBS," referring to the network on which Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was broadcast.
  • In the Italian dub, this is replaced with Anche i dinosauri piangono ("Dinosaurs also cry"), which may be a reference to the telenovela Los ricos también lloran ("The rich also cry"), known in Italian as Anche i ricchi piangono.
• The "World Dinosaur Wrestling Federation" can be seen as a parody of the World Wrestling Federation, now called World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).
• "Vanilla Ice-Age" is a parody of the American rapper Vanilla Ice. Oogtar also says "Ice Age Baby," a reference to "Ice Ice Baby."
• The company name "Koopasonic" is a parody on the Japanese electronics company Panasonic.
• The aerobics show Koopa Sez is a reference to the children's game Simon Says.

Animation and continuity errors

• When the scene cuts to King Koopa walking around in his throne room, he is briefly frozen.
• When King Koopa stops to think, the screen shakes.
• When the woman in the family King Koopa spies on blinks, her eyes disappears. Similarly, the man's eyes disappear for a split-second after he blinks the second time.
• In the first shot of the boy in the family, he is wearing a red shirt and brown overalls. In the next shot, his clothes are the same color as his hat.
• The lighting reflecting on the man's collar and arm flickers.
• When the camera zooms to the flickering TV, the TV freezes.
• When the game show hostess reveals the word, the letters are off-center.
• When King Koopa is about to say television, part of his body becomes cut-off.
• When Princess Toadstool shrugs, she freezes midway through her animation. Later in the next scene, Mario and Luigi are briefly frozen.
• When Mario and his friends run over to the giant TV, Princess Toadstool and Yoshi appear from thin air.
• When Mario asks if his eyes deceive him, Princess Toadstool appears from thin air rather than walking into frame.
  • In the same scene, Yoshi can be seen briefly frozen before unfreezing to walk into frame.
• When Kooky is helping his father with the Robby Rockwell disguise, his shell's rim becomes the same color as his skin for a frame.
• When King Koopa is trying to get his Robby Rockwell disguise on, he briefly overlaps it.
• Once Cheatsy falls from the pipe, his feet overlaps it.
• In many scenes, the skin-colored gloves of King Koopa's Robby Rockwell disguise are incorrectly colored green like his hands.
• When King Koopa introduces Mister Koopa's Neighborhood, his eyes become smaller than normal.
  • In the same scene, his pupils and sclerae swap colors briefly.
• When Yoshi turns to Luigi while King Koopa is announcing wrestling, part of his tail disappears for a frame.
• Before Luigi crosses his arms, his buttons are the same color as his overalls.
• When King Koopa introduces "Rock Rock Baby", Luigi is depicted as Mario.
• When Luigi asks how do they get a television set, his eyes are blue like Mario's instead of green.
• When the scene transitions to the Marios and the cave people in line, the transition fades into the next scene rather than pixelate.
• When the shot cuts to Mario saying the TV set is cheap, the cave person behind Luigi is missing.
• When Mario looks at the bill, his eyebrows instantly swap position.
• When Mario faints after looking at the bill, his sideburns briefly disappear.
• When Mario hits the ground, a dust effect appears before he hits the ground.
• After Mario falls, one of his buttons switch from the top of the strap to the bottom part of the strap.
• When the flashback is ending, the bill can be seen freezing.
• After Mario suggests that Robby Rockwell's lips do not move because he has been watching too many cartoons, his mouth moves, but his voice is not heard. Due to the context, however, this may have been an intentional joke.
• When King Koopa gives Mario his Rock TV, the rim of his shell is colored dark-green instead of light-green.
• Before King Koopa actually appears on Koopa Sez, the TV is briefly shown with a gray screen and smaller background.
  • When King Koopa does appear, he is briefly frozen.
• When King Koopa tells everyone to get up, his right eyelid becomes the same color as his sclerae as he bounces on one leg.
• When King Koopa is in his joggers outfit, he appears with either some or no lines at all on his underbelly.
• When Mario gets up from the couch as King Koopa commanded, his right glove is briefly missing as he gets up.
• In the first scene with Oogtar and his family, King Koopa is not animated and his skin is colored tan while the TV's background is dark gray.
• When Mario and Luigi's Rock TV breaks down, the top-right corner is present, but when the former kicks the TV in frustration, it is missing. It reappears when he throws it out the window.
• Koopa Wizards are revealed to inhabit the TVs. But when the Marios' TV breaks down, there is no Koopa Wizard inside.
• When Luigi observes the broken Rock TV, his shirt is the same color as his skin.
• When King Koopa is telling everyone to get Mario and Luigi, he is not wearing his joggers outfit.
• When King Koopa fades away to a "Stand By" screen, the background not changing makes it appear as if King Koopa magically vanished.
• When the cave people are shown running towards the castle, Oogtar and a few others shift backwards briefly.
• When the Marios look at each other after Mario mentions that the Cave People are storming the castle, the stripes on Mario's gloves are the same color as his shirt.
• When a cave person is shown close-up running offscreen with a club, the bottom of their body is cut-off.
• When Mario glares at Oogtar, Oogtar is seen overlapping Luigi.
  • In the same scene, Mario and Luigi appear to be much larger than Oogtar and the cave person.
• When Luigi asks what show he and Mario will be in, their eyes are mostly closed while the cave people behind them are missing.
  • In the same scene, the spikes on King Koopa's shell and shackles are colored white like his claws instead of orange.
• When King Koopa pushes Mario and Luigi to the ground and they grunt in response, he grunts too as if he was also hurt.
• Hop is depicted with black eyelids in this episode instead of his usual green ones.
• In the second shot of Big Mouth announcing the wrestling match, his right leg clips into his underbelly briefly.
• When the Mario Bros. and King Koopa watch Big Mouth speak, the Marios' mustaches are missing while Koopa's shell rim is partially transparent.
• When King Koopa gets tired of Big Mouth's rambling and calls him out, he is much bigger than Big Mouth, with his eyes not looking at Big Mouth but rather the vine the microphone is connected to.
• When King Koopa throws Big Mouth, the microphone and the vine is missing.
  • In the same scene, Big Mouth's mouth is not moving as he talks.
• When Mario turns to watch Big Mouth fly away, his shirt is briefly the same color as his overalls while his left hand briefly disappears.
• When Big Mouth is insulting the Marios, his eyes repeatedly shift.
• When the orange dinosaur wrestler throws Big Mouth away, King Koopa and the Mario Bros. are missing.
• When the green dinosaur wrestler is waiting for Mario, the latter's shirt is the same color as his overalls.
• When King Koopa throws Mario into the ring, the former repeatedly switches between animation frames while his eyelid is the same color as his sclerae briefly.
• When Mario stumbles into the ring, Luigi is missing.
• When the green dinosaur wrestler sticks out its right hand, its shackle is on it instead of the other hand.
• In the scene where Luigi thinks the green dinosaur wrestler is friendly, he has four fingers on each hand instead of five.
  • In the same scene, his body clips to the wresting ring's floor repeatedly.
• After Luigi says the green dinosaur wrestler wants to be friends with Mario, he gasps in shock for no reason.
• When the Tyrannosaurus Twins throw Mario and Luigi into each other, their clothes switch, but the letters on their caps remain the same.
• When Mario says he is bruised everywhere, part of the floor can be seen near his back.
• When Luigi says that he is bruised everywhere, the shackle on the orange dinosaur wrestler is black with red spikes instead of green with black spikes.
• When Princess Toadstool turns to Yoshi, part of her hair behind her appears from thin air.
• When Princess Toadstool and Yoshi jump into the ring, the green dinosaur wrestler's sclerae are white instead of green.
• When Mario sees Princess Toadstool and Yoshi, his eyes lack his black pupil.
• In a couple of scenes, the stripe on the green dinosaur wrestler's horn disappears.
• When the Koopalings chase the mini Marios, Cheatsy can be heard screaming but is nowhere to be seen.
• When Bully screams while chasing a mini Mario, he has Big Mouth's voice.
• King Koopa appears to try to grab the Cape Feather despite not being seen in the ring at all during the match.
• When Cape Mario knocks out King Koopa, his cape is orange.
• When Luigi gets off one of the wrestlers, he passes through them while their jaw is transparent.
• When Yoshi spits out the first Koopa Wizard, his body briefly overlaps it.
• When Yoshi spits out the second Koopa Wizard from Oogtar's Rock TV, as it runs away, its face is completely white.
• When King Koopa urges Yoshi to stop eating the giant television, he is briefly layered in front of and behind the ring.
• When the scene shows King Koopa trapped under the destroyed giant TV, the screen is darker than usual.
  • In the same scene, Yoshi's eyes are briefly lighter than his body.
• When Yoshi says he will free King Koopa, the debris that King Koopa is under briefly moves to a different position.
• When Yoshi starts eating, the screen shakes until the episode ends.

• 

  Mario's missing sideburns

• 

  King Koopa's miscolored spikes

• 

  The orange dinosaur wrestler's miscolored shackle

Profiles

• Koopa Kronicles DVD:
  • English:
    King Koopa invents television! The people are crazy about it. He sells them sets to watch at home...but each TV contains a Koopa wizard that casts an evil spell over them! With the cave people under his control, Koopa puts the Marios on TV as the fall guys in Dinosaur Wrestling!

• Koopa's Stone Age Quests DVD:
  • English:
    King Koopa invents television! The cave people are crazy about it. He sells them TV sets to watch at home... but each TV contains a Koopa wizard that casts an evil spell over them! With the cave people under his control, Koopa puts the Marios on TV as the fall guys in Dinosaur Wrestling!

• Super Mario VHS:
  • Korean:
    킹쿠파는 바보상자 TV를 이용하여 원시인을 세뇌시켜 수퍼마리오를 잡아 커다란 공룡과 싸움을 시킨다.
    (Romanization: King Kupann Babosangja TVreul yong Wonsiineul senosikyeo Supeo Mariorl jaba keodaran gongryonggwa ssaumeul sikinda.)
    (Translation: King Koopa uses the Koopasonic Rock TV to brainwash the Cave People into capturing Super Mario and fighting giant dinosaurs.)

Dub edits

• In the French dub, Luigi does not mention the "Speak to Santa Hotline" when mentioning the trouble he and Mario got into with the phone company.
• In the original version, when Luigi asks Mario why "Robby Rockwell"'s lips do not move when he talks, Mario says that it is because he watches too many cartoons. In the Spanish dubs, he instead says that it is because he is a ventriloquist.
  • In the Italian dub, he instead says that it is because he watched too many Japanese cartoons.
• In the Latin American Spanish dub, Mario mentions seeing Mister Koopa's Neighborhood on cable instead of on PBS.
  • In the original Castilian Spanish dub, it is instead a survey.
  • In the Castilian Spanish re-dub, Mario merely mentions that he will see Mister Koopa's Neighborhood again.
• In the original dub, Mario says, after Luigi reminds him how they had to pay a $1,295.31 phone bill because of calling the "Speak to Santa" hotline, that paying for the TV is easy because, unlike how they previously had to earn money by working, they can now just hit blocks to earn money. In the Italian dub, Mario instead remembers how they had to perform live shows to repay the phone bill, but that it now will be different because everything that is shown on TV is fiction.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Albanian	Sa mirë me televizor	How good with television
Arabic	تلفزيون حجري Tlfzywn hjry	Stone TV
French (NOA)	La télévision	The TV
French (NOE)	La télé réalité	Reality TV
German	Die beste Show	The best Show
Italian	La Tv rock della pietra	The Stone Rock TV/The rocking TV of the Stone Age
Korean	올스타 레슬링 대회 Olseuta Reseulring Daehwe	All-Star Wrestling Competition	VHS
	록 TV Rok TV	Rock TV	DVD
Polish	Rock TV	-
Portuguese	Rock TV	-
Romanian	Rock TV	-
Russian	Рок ТВ Rok TV	Rock TV
Spanish	Roca Televisión	Rock Television
Spanish (NOE)	La rocatele	Rock TV	original dub

Notes

The family in the episode that resembles Norman's family from The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 episode "Mush-Rumors"

• The family King Koopa spies on in his flashback strongly resembles Norman's family from The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 episode "Mush-Rumors," except Missy is missing.
• When confronting the green Tyrannosaurus Twin, Mario says, "Leaping lasagna!", a parody of the catchphrase of the titular character of the comic strip Little Orphan Annie. The catchphrase was previously parodied in The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 episode "Life's Ruff", where Luigi says "Leaping labadors!" after the dogs refuse to listen to King Windbag when he orders them to line up.