Card Sharks

The 1980s proved surprisingly fruitful for licensed greeting card mascots. It turns out American Greetings understood the Marvel playbook before Marvel did.!!HTML_PLACEHOLDER_0!!{% whitebox %}!!HTML_PLACEHOLDER_1!! !!HTML_PLACEHOLDER_2!!{% big %}!!HTML_PLACEHOLDER_3!!Today in Tedium:!!HTML_PLACEHOLDER_4!! One of the most-common complaints that you hear about modern media is that it’s often a retread of retreads. (One word: Marvel.) !!HTML_PLACEHOLDER_5!!The Big Bang Theory!!HTML_PLACEHOLDER_6!!, a show that was on the air for a dozen seasons and remains a rerun juggernaut, recently launched its third spinoff, !!HTML_PLACEHOLDER_7!!*Stuart Fails to Save the Universe!!HTML_PLACEHOLDER_8!!*. It looks like an interesting show, but it’s getting the backing of Warner Bros Discovery because it feels like a sure thing. And sure things are great and all, but original properties are full of risk. This was also true in the 1980s, when Saturday morning cartoons were peaking. But while many…