I think i posted this earlier in the wrong section, anyway, does anyone remember this show?
Ok this has been driving me crazy, I remember this show where there was this Wizard, or maybe his name was Merlin. It wasn’t Mr. Wizard, I remember he had some sidekick, maybe a puppet. They would go into a janitors closet or something and play movies, the only one that I can recall was when it was very hot out, they decided to watch a movie about snow, polar bears, and penguins. And they talked about how just watching the movie made them cold.
For some reason I thought it was on Pinwheel but I couldn’t find it at all online. Any help would be appreciated.
Sounds a bit like Today’s Special. It routinely ran after Pinwheel, and was one of the first regularly-scheduled series on Nickelodeon. Set in a department store, the lead character was a mannequin that came to life thanks to a magic hat (played by a human), several secondary characters were puppets. The “janitor’s closet” I think is a reference to the puppet character that was the store’s security guard; the show routinely retreated to his room, where they used his security monitors to watch movies.
I remember “Today’s Special” but also “Pinwheel.” At least I remember part of the theme song. Something like “Pinwheel pinwheel spining around . . .” something something. I recall it being similar to “Sesame Street.”
Wow, haven’t posted in YEARS and didn’t even know if my old account worked, but…
I’m pretty sure it’s “Hocus Focus”. I remember it fondly as I remember a lot of the REALLY ancient Nick shows.
If I remember correctly, this young apprentice wizard named Crispin sent himself to the modern day to learn more about it and set up shop in a film library (I think). That was where he showed all the cool films. (I especially liked a cartoon called “Kick Me”, which was the result of drawing on frames of film.) He had a talking book (with a face), a shapeshifting pet called an Oulak, and a couple of modern-day allies–an absent-minded professor and a young lady named Daisy whom Crispin seemed to have quite an interest in. It was an unusual and interesting show and I really liked all the films (animated and live-action) that they showed.
I don’t think it’s listed on IMDB–the only Hocus Focus on there seems to be something else entirely.
I also remember other Nick shows from those days, especially Video Comics. Unlike the Marvel Heroes “animated” cartoon from the sixties, this didn’t even make any pretense of being animated…they moved the camera from panel to panel with actors reading the lines. They focused on DC…none of the Big Three, no Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman, but plenty of Green Lantern, the Flash, and Adam Strange, along with some one-shot stories. (This was the first place I’d ever heard the Green Lantern Oath.)
In that it had puppet characters interacting with live people in the interstitial segments between the foreign cartoon cavalcade that went on for five hours, yes. Mostly it was an animation fest for the elementary school set. Hattytown, Magic Roundabout, that green toy rabbit with the telescope, Professor Balthazar, that Czech mole… good times.
Pinwheel, pinwheel, spinning around. Look at my Pinwheel and see what I’ve found.
Pinwheel, pinwheel, where have you been? Hello, how are you, and may I come in?
Pinwheel, pinwheel, breezy and bright. Spin me good morning, spin me good night.
My 4-year-old self dug Pinwheel. Sitting in the basement with my Kool-aid mustache and my corduroy overalls, I could waste a whole day watching. Honestly, I believe the running time was like 5 or 6 hours.
I think the Simon cartoon was my favorite.
Hello my name is Simon/
and I like to do drawings …
Captain Kangaroo ran Simon long before Nick was a gleam in the eye of whoever came up with it. I would have sworn, however, that the theme song went “And the things I draw come true…”
As soon as I saw the threads title I new this would be in my head all. day. long.
Pinwheel, pinwheel, spinning around. Look at my Pinwheel and see what I’ve found. Pinwheel, pinwheel, spinning around.Look at my Pinwheel and see what I’ve found.Pinwheel, pinwheel, spinning around. Look at my Pinwheel and see what I’ve found.Pinwheel, pinwheel, spinning around. Look at my Pinwheel and see what I’ve found.Pinwheel, pinwheel, spinning around. Look at my Pinwheel and see what I’ve found.Pinwheel, pinwheel, spinning around. Look at my Pinwheel and see what I’ve found.Pinwheel, pinwheel, spinning around. Look at my Pinwheel and see what I’ve found.Pinwheel, pinwheel, spinning around. Look at my Pinwheel and see what I’ve found.Pinwheel, pinwheel, spinning around. Look at my Pinwheel and see what I’ve found…
AHHHHHH!
No worries, I’m glad to have it corrected in my memory. It’s funny the things that get mixed up in your head as a kid, and I’ve never been an SNL fan so I have no idea how that got in there.
On Today’s Special I don’t think Jeff, the magical mannequin, ever left the department store (and only took place at night) so I don’t think they would have had a “it’s really hot today” themed show unless they worked in a story line where the A/C broke in the building. I have no memory of “Hocus Focus” and I watched most everything on Nick back in the pinball logo era. Maybe it was on USA, I think they also had children-themed shows in the morning at that time that I don’t remember as well as Pinwheel and its ilk.
I’m very sure it was on Nickelodeon back then (I started watching back in 1980). This was still back before the silver ball, when they had a mime as their mascot (Nickelodeon ORIGINAL Mime 1980-1981 - YouTube). I watched this all the time as a 3 year old.
Nice find! I know my family got wired for cable in 1981, and Nickelodeon was one of the stations on the box (only about 13 channels, set by mechanical toggle switches on the box, no remote control, and 4 of those were devoted to the local stations). The clip of Hocus Pocus didn’t jog any memories so I must have missed it somehow, and the mime must have gotten kicked to the curb before we got cable too.
I too remember these commercial-free days of Nickelodeon! I especially liked all the European/Canadian short films they used to show, which otherwise would have had no exposure on TV.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I just saw one clip on youtube, that ran a brief example of the show and HOCUS FOCUS is exactly what I was thinking of. Funny how that one episode sticks in my head all these years later.
I’ll tell you what the ironic part is, I worked at MTV/Nickelodeon for 10 years in the late 90’s/early 00’s. They have almost everything that they ever aired in the NOC Tape Library, and you can take the tapes out if you had the correct budget code.
I wish I was this nostalgic back then when I worked there…
and yes that Pinwheel song will never leave my head! :smack:
