#bigheads

Today was my sister’s birthday and we got to celebrate by getting reacquainted with a piece of our childhood.

Rocco’s Modern Life: Static Cling was absolutely perfect. It kept the witty, bold, and satirical humor the old show had and gave it an important lesson that both the grown fans who know it well and the new generation that’ll be introduced by their 90′s parents can take to heart.

The most amazing part was immediately recognizing all the characters I hadn’t seen in years. Even right from the start (RIP Captain Compost Heap) I was grinning ear to ear.

But there was one familiar face that really warmed my heart.

I couldn’t be more proud of and happy for Rachel Bighead. Just seeing how relaxed and happy she was after finding herself immediately sold me on the message that change is a good thing, no matter how drastic it can be. As Ralph, the character spoke to me as a creative growing up in an overbearing household. It took a while for young me to connect the dots that Meet the Fatheads was Ralph’s way of venting his frustrations with the negativity he saw in his parents, which made his struggle make a lot more sense.

He made it, he followed his dreams and made it big doing what he loved, even having his own studio, but he was still miserable, because it all came from a negative place. Ralph never wanted the big job with all the praise and weight of responsibility, he just wanted to find his own way and have his parents accept him. However, no matter what, Ralph was still heading in the direction of being what someone else wanted him to be. Even Reconciling with his dad required some major personal sacrifice to even make a baby step, which is why Rachel was so important.

This special finally brought closure to the biggest issue that was never resolved by the end of the show. Rachel finally put her creativity and creations to work helping others rather than building herself up out of her comfort zone. She was just driving around a barren desert in an ice cream truck handing out popsicles to people in need, How awesome is that? Ed finally had to cave in because THIS time, it was finally all or nothing. The castle and walls he built out of his pride, greed, and disdain for Rocko were finally crashing down, so there was nothing to fall back on if he didn’t reconcile with his child. I don’t know where the Bigheads are gonna go now, but, wherever it is, I know they’re a lot happier.

Was I surprised that one of my beloved childhood shows came back and used a major plot point to say “Trans Rights?” Yes.