Back in the 80’s you could turn just about anything in to a time machine. Clocks, cars, chairs, but nothing was cooler than Bill and Ted’s telephone kiosk. And it was a totally original idea. No one had ever used a phone box before.
For the uninitiated, Bill and Ted were a pair of high school slackers who were gifted a time traveling kiosk by a middle aged hipster named Rufus, to help them pass their looming, make-or-break, history report and ultimately save the future. They also had a band whose music would end up bringing peace to the entire universe, because in the future no one has any taste. Following the success of the film, an animated adaptation was inevitable and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventures rock and rolled its way onto television on September 15th, 1990. For the first season, the show retained its original cast – including Keanu Reeves – and furthered the adventures of the two numskull leads as they bungled their way through history.
As the show jumped to FOX, and the cast was replaced the show’s ratings began to plummet. Giving the kiosk the ability to travel into television shows and the human body was just too much of a departure from the source material for many, and the show was cancelled just 1 year later. For the first year though, Bill S. Preston Esq, and Ted Theodore Logan lived on through the superior animation skills of Hanna-Barbera, and reminded us all that the key to a happy future is by being excellent to each other.
Join us as we wish Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures a very happy 26th birthday.
[…] Winter may be best known for his role as Bill S. Preston Esq. in the Bill and Ted films, but to fans of absurdist horror comedy, he’s the man who, along with Tom Stern (Saul […]