Kimba, the White Lion, first color Japanese manga cartoon was shown in Chicago early 70’s on a UHF station but I have only met one person who remembers this show. Want to say it was shown in a block of Japanese shows, Speed Racer, Johnny Sokko and his Giant Robot and Ultraman.
Probably not very obscure in the UK but in the 70’s, local Chicago PBS showed a lot of British programming especially appealing to young me was the comedies (and Dr Who). Almost all Americans know the Monty Python Troupe and Benny Hill but I miss Dave Allen and The Two Ronnies.
One of my favourite cartoons that doesn’t get talked about much (seemingly) is “Jeff & Some Aliens”. Average slob Jeff shares a house with three aliens. The usual plot is Jeff has some mundane problem, the aliens lend him a high-tech device to fix it, and the solution goes horribly, horribly wrong (not unlike some episodes of “Rick & Morty”). I thought it was very funny; too bad it only ran for one season.
I had a girlfriend in college who loved this show because she was an Anglophile. I see now that the titular character was voiced by Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses.
Who lives down in deepest, darkest Africa? (Africa)
Who’s the one who brought the jungle fame?
Who’s the king of animals in Africa?
Kimba, The White Lion is his name…
(…And several butcher’s aprons.)
You left out Astro Boy, lucky you. Sorry, I despise Japanese animation.
There are a couple of oddball spy-fi shows that I used to think nobody else remembered. YouTube and Wikipedia have disabused me of that notion, but they’re still pretty obscure.
The Wilton North Report was intended as a parody of TV news. There was no Wilton North on the show, and it wasn’t a made up name either, rather it was the name of the building where the show’s studio was located. A long search for hosts delayed the show’s debut. In the end, a couple of obscure Sacramento DJs were chosen.
The Wilton North Report replaced Joan Rivers’ The Late Show. Joan had been fired months before The Wilton North show’s debut, replaced by a succession of guest hosts. One of these was Arsenio Hall, who produced better ratings than the rest, but Arsenio limited his stint to 13 weeks due to his Coming To America commitments. Arsenio would return to talk shows, but his new show was syndicated, not a Fox show.
Problems with Wilton North led Fox to try and revive the Late Show. But Wilton North debuted in December 1987. It lasted four weeks. The Late Show returned, with another succession of obscure hosts, lasting into 1988. While Ross Shafer was hosting the show, the Late Show had the distinction of hosting the only on camera reunion of all seven Gilligan’s Island cast members.
My go-to whenever this question comes up is Run, Joe, Run, a Saturday morning show about a German shepherd from the Army’s K9 Corps, crossing the country, trying to get back to his owner. Until internet search engines came along, I was about 80% certain that I just made that show up in my mind, because no one remembered it. Finding out that my memories weren’t false was a nice surprise.
I remember that show. Very elegantly filmed. IIRC, that was at the height of Tim Reid’s fame, when he had just become a household name as Venus Flytrap on WKRP in Cinncinnati.
DM was on Nick, and I have the boxed set of all episodes. And watched them too.
I still say “Good grief, Penfold,” from time to time.
My favorite episode was when their script editor didn’t show up, or something, and DM and Penfold had to deal with typos in their dialog.
This thread makes me realize that I spent way too much time watching TV at some points in my life.
This show was a constant source of conflict in our house because it was on opposite Combat!, to which I was passionately devoted. My mother insisted the TV be tuned to Daktari so my little brothers could watch it. This went on until I was given a small B&W set of my own (I think it was a Christmas gift from my dad). There was a similar situation in the fall of 1964, when my older brother wanted to watch World War I. I had absolutely no objection to that, except it too was on opposite Combat!
