One that I remember, which nobody else does, was about a guy who was a cartoonist, who lived in a loft apartment. Muppet-type (I don’t think they were actual Jim Henson Muppets, but some kind of knock-off) creatures would occassionally come and visit him. A staple of the show was that he’d go and visit two muppets who lived in a basement. He always talked to them through the window, and never went inside. I remember a cartoon segment about the basement muppets (who were brothers) and all you saw of them was their eyes.
The one thing about the show which sticks in my mind, was that one day, the host leaned over his drawing board, looked straight at the camera and said, “You know, <basement muppets> haven’t seen their parents faces. Their parents locked them in the basement when they were little, and they only open the door to throw food down to <basement muppets>. All <basement muppets> ever see of their parents is their ankles.”
Anyone have the foggiest idea of what show this might have been? It would have aired in the early 1970s.
Clutch Cargo is what Eric Stoltz’s character in Pulp Fiction is watching when Travolta calls him up to say he’s bringing over Uma Thurman, who is overdosing on heroin. I read somewhere that shows like that (there were a couple, I think) were shot with the actors talking through a sort of megaphone, so that only their mouths were visible. This was filmed and then somehow spliced into the animation. I agree, it was creepy.
I also remember the animated Hercules; in first or second grade, we used to sing a different parody of the theme song:
Hercules, he eats cheese and baloney!
Hercules, he is the world’s greatest phony!
Fighting for a [something],
With a rubber knife,
With the strength of ten
Little paper men!
That’s the sign of… HERCULES!
A couple of shows no one seems to remember but me are It’s Your Move, which ran for one season (1984) and starred a very young Jason Bateman (my brother and I loved that show), and the New Zoo Revue, which also ran for one season (1972) and featured Chuck Woolery of Scrabble fame. One of my very earliest memories is of New Zoo Revue.
Wow, what a great thread. I still sing the 8th Man theme–it’s very dramatic!
Jolly Roger, I grew up in Philly, seems like roughly the same time. Some more local shows I’m sure you recall: Happy the Clown, Wee Willie Weber, Sally Starr, Pixanne, and let’s not forget Gene London (with Debbie Dibbley, his girlfriend, and that scary Quigley Mansion shudder!).
OMG! Groovy Goulies! I forgot all about that show! I’m another person who also remembers The Ladybug Picnic.
A few shows I remember from my youth that no one seems to remember are:
*B.J. and Gigglesnort Hotel *- This show may have been local to the Chicago area.
Make A Wish
Magic Door
Pink Lady
*Making A Living *(a/k/a It’s A Living)
The Jim Stafford Show
On a side note, I was in a Dollar Tree recently looking for coloring books for my 5 year-old and they had *H.R. Pufnstuf *coloring books. WTF? Of course I bought the two I found. This show hasn’t been on in, what, 30 years?!
Great post, BTW. Making me more nostalgic for the old days when we had seven channels and you could almost always find something to watch. I have over 100 channels now and can almost never find anything to watch.
Lightning flashed, and something missed
A poor old crazy scientist
Had dropped a bag of jellybeans
Into his Frankenstein machine
And Shrimpenstein
Was created…
Wlch ylch aargh aargh, the first animated cartoon in Welsh, which appeared on BBC Wales in 1965. I believe it was canceled after the first series when people wrote in complaining that every sketch included a man walking up behind a sheep, then not doing anything.
Nobody but me remembers this because I just made it up.
Captain Scarlet was mentioned earlier–one of my favorite shows as a kid. Ditto the other Gerry Anderson shows, especially Supercar.
There was another puppet show from the 60s called Planet Patrol that I remember fondly.
Anyone remember Diver Dan? He had all these puppet fish friends–only remember one name, “Baron Barracuda”. I used to get a kick out of hearing that name mentioned in the song “Barracuda” by Heart.
As far as cartoons, who remembers Milton the Monster?
But one of the weirdest was Mighty Man–a miniature superhero with a dog sidekick named Yukk. Yukk wore a bag over his head because he was supposedly the world’s ugliest dog, and when Mighty Man would get in trouble, Yukk would remove the bag and immobilize the villain with his ugliness.
Actually, something I recently found disturbing was checking out the wiki page of a Canadian 'toon called The Raccoons, of which I’d had fond memories and realizing I was sixteen when it first aired. Why they Hell was I watching and enjoying some cheesy cartoon about raccoons when I was sixteen?
Wow. I haven’t though of that one in a while. There was another show on around the same time called Animals, Animals, Animals. Both of their theme songs come to mind occasionally.
“It’s a Living” was that show about all of the waitresses in a classy restaurant at the top of a hotel, wasn’t it. I can actually picture all of them, but can only name Ann Jillian.
I love these threads that dredge up all this old stuff out of the recesses of my brain. No wonder I can’t remember what I had for dinner yesterday - this is what has filled up the available memory.
I seem to have seen a lot of Japanese shows - I remember Ultraman an Johnny Sokko and his Giant Flying Robot as well as a lot of the cartoons already mentioned.
I adored Quark and was thrilled to see it finally out on DVD, although I’m guessing it won’t seem as funny to me know.
Anyone remember It’s About Time, with time-travelling astronauts meeting cavepeople? I can still bring part of the theme song to mind. Likewise the mostly best-forgotten When Things Were Rotten, which, in spite of it’s awfulness was still better than Mel Brooks’ later foray into the Robin Hood Myth. I remember one scene that amused me at the time - Misty Rowe as Maid Marion imobilizing the palace guards by asking them to open a stuck pickle jar while she beams cutely at them.
