I have a weird maybe it happened maybe it didn’t memory associated with this show. It seems to me that the vampire segment wrapped up in week 12, and the other two segments were supposed to conclude in week 13, but that week 13 got preempted and was never shown.
Again, I was 7 or 8 when this was on, but I remember being really ticked off about that.
Since I screwed up the quote, it should be noted the show in question is Cliffhanger.
Maxx expert checking in. First off, the Maxx did wear a mask and was buff, but not due to steroids.
Second, the cartoon ended abruptly but the comic book it was (almost word-for-word and shot-for-shot) based on went on. The part with the Maxx taking off his suit and finding his own “outback” in a greenhouse was tacked on to supply an ending of sorts where there shouldn’t have been one. IMHO, and according to the comic, that part “didn’t happen.” Julie did leave town, but the Maxx stayed the Maxx, showing that something wasn’t quite resolved yet.
I highly recommend the comic for anyone who liked the series. Most of it is available in trade paperback, I think. The show ended at Issue 11. Julie’s story continued until Issue 20. Issues 20-28 or so were Sara’s story, 10 years later. The last few issues splintered off into other stories that were supposed to eventually relate together, but never did. (Really, it was writer/artist Sam Kieth wanting to get away from the Maxx and work on other stories, but trying to appease the fans by shoehorning them into the Maxx story.) The final Issue, #35 was Sam finally saying the hell with it, I’m gonna wrap up the loose ends as best I can, and move on to the non-Maxx stories I need to tell. (It was a really touching an beautiful ending, too.)
The door was left open for some future Maxx stories if and when Sam ever gets the urge again.
Again, I cannot recommend the comic book enough, but if you really need to know what happened:
Mr. Gone wasn’t killed, just decapitated. This part was actually in the show, he masqueraded as a piece of talking clay and tricked Sara into putting the clay into Julie’s apartment to spy on her.
After he was discovered, he had the isz retrieve the head, and kidnap a doctor to sew it back on.
Julie thought she had to leave because that was the only way she knew to keep people (like the Maxx) from being hurt. Turns out that wasn’t enough becausse she still never faced the Truth that Mr. Gone tried to help her accept about the “slick blue surface”. Which was… MEGA-SPOILER
The wet surface of her Buick in the rain, the night she (I warned you SPOILER!) willingly ran over a plumber named Dave, thinking for a moment that he was the man who raped her. She piled trash over his body in an alley (named Mike) left him for dead, and blocked out the memory.
Luckily this alley had a rip in it that lead to the spirit world, the Outback, (i.e. Julie’s subconsious.) At that moment, her spirit animal, B’rer Lapin, (a rabbit) was trying to get through to the real world to help her deal with this trauma. Also, Mr. Gone was traipsing about her Outback at the same time, and knocked a purple lamp through the rip. This lamp was part of the Trash that covered Dave, and was infused with the spirit of B’rer Lapin, which caused it to melt and cover Dave, healing him and turning him into The Maxx.
Dealing with this memory and accepting her role in creating Dave/The Maxx’s situation was the key, and Mr. Gone was really trying to help her remember, but not so quickly that she wouldn’t be able to deal with it. Mr. Gone also happened to be a serial murderer and rapist, so he wasn’t exactly a good guy, but in this case he was trying to help.
Sorry for being so long winded, but when you’ve got such a specialized area of expertise, you gotta take advantage when the subject comes up. 
How about the Banana Splits? Wild kid’s show… And I always thought Johnny Quest was bizarre with the real moving lips…
Damn, I thought I was going to get to be first to mention Lexx. Hands down the strangest show ever on TV. A giant phallus-shaped spaceship that talked and could destroy planets, stolen by a janitor who was accompanied by a girl who was a love slave and also a lizard, and a guy who was literally dead, and a robot head (yes, just the head of a robot) who had a human mouth and was in love with the girl. And the bad guy eventually set loose a swarm of robot arms that consumed the universe.
Actually, I didn’t think he DID use steroids. I just knew he was big and may have had a rabbit head.
Granted, a guy with a rabbit head would probably have been taking SOMETHING, but…
Ah, young Aussies are wistful for “The Aunty Jack Show”, which was hosted by a bloke trying to be a woman, wearing a velvet dress of perhaps size 38, pince-nez, moustache, and wearing one golden boxing glove, which he/she hit people with who disagreed with him/her.
He/she drove a motor bike, with sidecar, and roared through and around Wollongong, the most unscenic coastal town in Australia.
…and yes, it was a comedy.
Oh gosh, hands down I’d have to say it was My World And Welcome To It.
The show was completely odd, and absolutely riveting. NOTHING like it was on before, and probably since.
Just remembered some really old ones: the Soupy Sales show had some really bizarre stuff - was kind of a Pee Wee precursor. Also don’t forget Uncle Miltie wearing dresses on his show.
Gotcha, just wanted it to be clear.
He did have a rabbit head, in the Outback. But not in the real world.
Actually, you might be referring to Clutch Cargo.
Johnny Quest was fully animated (albeit cheaply). Weird sound effects though, IIRC.
Mr. Smith, about a sentient orangutan who becomes an advisor for the President.
As for Japanese TV, there’s not much comparison. There’s the children’s show from a while back which featured an animated stick of poop who (years before Mr. Hankey) would jump out of the toilet and give advice to kids. There was also one of the many Power Ranger-type shows that featured an active nude model on the good guys’ side and a former hardcore porn actress as the head villain.
For the adults, there was:
Gilgamesh Night. Your standard variety show, with humor segments, movie reviews, cooking features and guest stars. The twist was that it was all done by porn actresses wearing little or nothing. Truly a great show that will be deeply missed.
Super Jockey. The show finished with someone coming on to hawk their new product, business, album, concert tour or whatever, accompanied by a couple of models. The models would be sent to a changing room where they were given 30 seconds to change from their clothes into bikinis before the changing room curtains dropped to the floor. They then had to jump into a boiling hot tub of water, and however many seconds they were able to stand the heat, that’s how many seconds they were allowed to pitch their product.
Ronbu Blackmail. Boy makes date with girl. Girl goes to meeting place. Boy calls and cancels date. Boy2 walks up and hits on Girl. Girl (usually) goes with Boy2 out to dinner. Boy2 sweettalks Girl. Girl is swept off her feet, oblivious to the fact that Boy2 is an actor and Boy, TV host1, TV host2, and half of Japan are watching via hidden cameras laughing their asses off (well, perhaps not Boy). Boy2 invites Girl to hotel room. Girl says yes. Boy2 opens door to room. Girl walks in to find Boy, TV host1, TV host2 and several cameras waiting for her.
Daisuki. Not sexual or gross, but bizarre for being one of the most mind-numbingly boring programs not to regularly feature farm equipment. Three celebrities (Naoko Iijima, someone and someone) would travel to different places around Japan, where they would eat at a local restaurant and then play pachinko. No side commentary, just real-time footage of them eating. Followed by footage of them sitting in front of pachinko machines watching little metal balls bounce around. Sometimes, for variety, they’d play board games. The only reason for watching this was because it came on before Gilgamesh Night and late-night tv schedules were unpredictable.
Diver Dan: 60’s B/W children’s series. Marionette fish friends and foes of real person diver dan. Main villain was a barracuda with a monacle and a Bela Lugosi accent.
Amazing Three: 60’s Japanese cartoon. Three aliens, disguised as a horse, a duck, and a rabbit ride around in the center of a giant tire, helping mankind. I had quite a crush on the rabbit in both her lapine and humanoid forms.
A few nitpicks, hes a class 5 security guard, supposedly even lower than a janiter. The ship is a giant bug. VERY VERY weird show (I LOVE IT!).
Another vote for Lexx.
Another vote for Aeon Flux, which is made even weirder because there is no continuity between the episodes, the main characters are sometimes bad, sometimes good, sometimes die. Major characters (like the big bad guy) are sometimes a minor nobody that gets killed in the first 5 mins of the next ep. Its best if you consider each episode as an individual, standalone story.
Also I’d like to mention another Anime made by the people that made Aeon Flux, its called Reign, the Concourer. Its about Alexander the Great, but its set in a future/retro Aeon Flux type world. It has some VERY VERY deep aspects, as well as alot of the philosophy of the time, from Pato to Diogenes to Pythagorus, and all that makes it even weirder. The costumes, world, buildings, technology, etc etc is very surreal, almost going as far as H.R. Geiger’s work. Even the animation style is incredibly weird, it is similar to comic books stlyer, but with greater contrast and weird color schemes. The only thing I don’t like about it is that the women wear too much and the guys way to little. The show is on at midnight on the cartoon network, at least where I live.
Another vote for The Prisoner in the “surreal” category and Sifl & Olly in the “so bizarrely funny you fall out of your chair laughing and don’t even know why” category. Chester is my personal hero.
And we musn’t forget Night Flight. Not so much a show as a dreamlike pastiche of late-night weirdness. I was just relieved to discover it was an actual program and not some freaky childhood hallucination.
Another oldster here joining DMark and Zoogirl–Queen for a Day was by far the strangest TV show I’ve ever seen. I have vivid memories of them draping a fur cape over unattractive sobbing women and presenting them with refrigerators. Dark Shadows was very peculiar at the time it was on. Soap operas did NOT generally have vampires in the sixties.
Teletubbies
:eek:
Granted, I only saw the show once. Or twice.
So sue me.
I believe kaylasauntie still has the dresser from the bedroom suite that the late kaylasgrandma won on Queen For a Day (circa 1957). kaylasmom reports that she hasn’t seen the Braille children’s books from that show for many a year.
And of course, the Amana refrigerator freezer never made it to the '70’s.
Night Flight once showed Fantastic Planet(mondo bizzaro animated sf film, green aliens who have sex by joining with GrecoRoman stone statues among other things) in its entirety.
Another episode had the host receiving a message from aliens. They had been inspired by Night Flight transmissions-their leader had been surgically altered to look just like the host, the alien leader clothing and office were the same as the host’s. IOTW the alien was the host acting and talking normally. The true moment of brilliance was other aliens jumping into frame in religious frenzy. They wore masks made from photos of the host and shouted “The prophecy is fulfiled! The prophecy is fulfilled!”