The Tearing
Racing the Clock
Quick and the Fed
Medusa Bug
The TIFF
In the Belly of the Beast
The Crimson Binome
Enzo the Smart
Wizards, Warriors, and a Word from Our Sponsor
The Great Brain Robbery
Talent Night
Identity Crisis
Infected
High Code
When Games Collide
Bad Bob
Significant reference: The Road Warrior
Painted Windows
AndrAIa
Nullzilla
Significant references: Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers; Voltron
Gigabyte
NOTE: I recommend watching ReBoot: the Ride after this episode.
Trust No One
Significant reference: The X-Files
NOTE: I recommend watching ReBoot: the Ride before this episode.
Web World Wars
To Mend and Defend
Significant references: Evil Dead 2; Michael Jackson's Thriller music video; Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (plus a little Addams Family)
Between A Raccoon & A Hard Place
Significant reference: Looney Tunes
Firewall
Significant references: classic James Bond (The Spy Who Loved Me, Thunderball, Goldfinger); Wacky Races
Game Over
Significant reference: Mortal Kombat
Icons
Significant references: Conan the Destroyer; Xena: Warrior Princess; Braveheart(?)
Where No Sprite Has Gone Before
Significant references: Star Trek: TOS; superheroes (emphasis seems to be on Marvel)
Number 7
Significant reference: The Prisoner
The Episode with No Name
Significant reference: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Return of The Crimson Binome
The Edge of Beyond
Web Riders on the Storm
Mousetrap
Megaframe
Showdown
System Crash
End Prog
Daemon Rising
Significant reference: Austin Powers
Super-subtle reference: the Morris Internet Worm
Fun Fact:
AndrAIa was originally supposed to be a... somewhat more complete Fembot; she was to menace the User with her... guns, which would be disabled by him working his "karma". I'm not sure if they decided this was pushing the limits of decency a bit TOO much, or if it was cut due to time.
Cross Nodes
Significant references: The Mummy, Tomb Raider
Super-subtle reference: the Morris Internet Worm
What's Love Got to Do With It?
Super-subtle reference: the Morris Internet Worm
Sacrifice
Super-subtle reference: the Morris Internet Worm
My Two Bobs
Significant references: Pokémon, Dragon Ball Z
Life's a Glitch...
Significant references: Looney Tunes, Star Wars (original trilogy and The Phantom Menace)
Null Bot of the Bride
Crouching Binome, Hidden Virus
The Dire Straits music video that started it all!
Position in Sequence: Not technically part of the series, but is the reason it was created in the first place! Watch this first!
Position in Sequence: You'll get more jokes if you read it first.
NOTE: Some of this is stuff I heard from sources I can no longer remember. I believe it to be correct, but if you know any of it to be false, inaccurate, or misleading, please let me know.
Waaaay back in the mid-'80s, a couple of nice British fellows named Gavin Blair and Ian Pearson made the music video for Money For Nothing by Dire Straits. It was an... interesting process, fraught with headaches. A particularly aneurysm-inducing incident: They had a dual computer system, with one housing the programs, the other holding the files, so the one crunched the numbers from the other; at some point, the one with the programs suffered a complete and total meltdown.
Happily, the files survived, and they did eventually get the video done. As they were getting celebratorily drunk, one man said unto the other, "Hey, we should animate an entire TV series!" I strongly suspect that the other hit him, but nevertheless, they joined forces with one Phil Mitchell, moved to Vancouver, and founded Mainframe Entertainment.
They pitched their show, ReBoot, as an action-adventure, and sold it to YTV in Canada and to ABC in the United States. More specifically, they sold it just before ABC was bought by Disney. The result was that, when the show was actually in production, they found themselves under the command of ABC's Broadcast Standards and Practices unit. BSnP proved to be the worst everyone imagines of network censors and then some. Some known rulings they handed down:
The only two things BSnP seems to have been totally okay with were mockery of BSnP itself, with which the first season was rife, and skull and skeleton imagery.
Finally, at the end of season 2, just when (and probably because) the show was starting to get genuinely interesting and exciting, BSnP dropped ReBoot. It was the best thing that ever happened to the show. Cartoon Network picked it up, and, free of the censors at last, ReBoot was free to live up to its potential.
Countdown to Chaos
Position in Sequence: Although it's officially not canonical, this takes place before Season 1. However, contains references to and spoilers for things all the way through the end of Season 2. I do not recommend watching this first.
NOTE: BSnP had no control over what the creators did outside of actual episodes. The creators may have taken a bit too much advantage of this in places, that's all I'm sayin'.
All four ReBoot Adventure Gamebooks have been transcribed and are available here!
Position in Sequence: Takes place throughout Season 1.
NOTE: These gamebooks are even less canonical than the PlayStation game, and that's saying something.
The Making of ReBoot
Position in Sequence: Doesn't really take place anywhen, but refers only to Season 1.
The first IMAX ridefilm. (The second was "Journey into Chaos", and is sadly unavailable except for one short clip.) For those who can't afford a trip to Vegas and a time machine.
Position in Sequence: Between episodes 2.08 and 2.09, although the continuity isn't perfect.
As it is my own speculation, and not official material, I'm leaving this on a separate page. My analyses, overanalyses, patching of plot holes, and desperate rationalizations may be found here.
Position in Sequence: I attempt to explain things from throughout the series, right up to the last episode. It's sorted alphabetically, not chronologically, so wait 'til the end.
The comic! New pages each Monday at noon Pacific Now complete! (Technically.) Or go look through the blog, which is probably done with but you never can tell.
Position in Sequence: The comic takes up some time after the Season 4 cliffhanger left off, so... very much after. Also, it's of... dubious canonicity.
YouTube glitches sometimes. If a clip won't load properly, try getting it to reload: go to another episode and back, or to the next segment of the same episode and back, or just refresh the page. If it still won't work, let me know.
ReBoot is ©1994-2001 and property of Rainmaker Entertainment (formerly Mainframe Entertainment), who have given their kind permission for the show to be made freely available, at least until they're contractually permitted to make money off it again. ;-)
This page is ©2008-2009 Valerie Kaplan, a.k.a. ShinyHappyGoth; please notify her if anything's borked.