When kids TV was cool - My all time favourite show ever

So we finally come to our last post in this series where I’ve looked back and shared with you some of the delightful programs I used to watch as a child.  I’ve enjoyed watching the DVDs again and bringing back the lovely memories I associated with them and enjoying the delightful innocence of children’s TV when it wasn’t too PC and scared of offending anyone and children enjoyed it for what it is.

So we finally come to the last television show and my all time favourite and it still is enjoyable to watch even now, I often return to the DVDs to watch when I’m in need of a laugh and the films are all incredible and one of them is ranked as my all time favourite Christmas film which I could watch at any time of the year but always gets many views during the December month.

So……

It’s time to play the music

It’s time to light the lights

It’s time to get things started

On the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, Muppetational,

This is what we call THE MUPPET SHOW!!!!!!

Yes my all time favourite show as a child has to be The Muppet Show.  I can’t remember how old I was when I fell in love with Kermit, Fozzie, Piggy, Gonzo and all the others but I know I was very young. This was taken one Christmas and I must have been either one or almost two because they house we are in is the one we left before my second birthday.

I had clothes with Muppets on, I still do. My famous Muppet pants that Lauren bought me a couple of Christmasses ago are the comfiest PJ pants ever and I have Muppet socks featuring Piggy, Kermit and Animal. I still have a mug with Animal on it that was from when I was younger as well as my more modern ones, the Animal mug has a date of 1978 on it which was when I was only 2 so that’s a guide to how long I’ve been a fan of these guys.

Of course when we went to Florida earlier this year, we went to Hollywood Studios which is the home of the Muppets at Disney so naturally we had to do the Muppets 3D Vision ride and have my photo taken by the Muppet fountain.  My love for the Muppets has never wavered since I was a child and to this day they still make me laugh over and over.

The Muppet Show was an old style variety show hosted by Kermit the Frog.  It featured a special guest star every week who featured in various sketches, dance routines and stand up.  Miss Piggy was a prima donna pig who was always jealous of the other beautiful female guest stars and the way her beloved ‘Kermie’ always got on with them or adored them.  Fozzie Bear had a regular stand up spot, telling awful jokes and getting heckled by Statler and Waldorf, two old curmudgeons in the theatre box. Gonzo was always coming up with new daredevil acts, usually involving dangerous or impossible stunts and the band Electric Mayhem provided the music led by Doctor Teeth.  There are various other Muppets milling around the theatre such as Scooter the Gopher, Hilda the Seamstress, Uncle Deadly, Robin the Frog (Kermit’s nephew), the Swedish Chef who cooks a variety of inedible dishes, Bunsen Honeydew the scientist and his assistant Beaker, Sam the American Eagle who takes offence at all the nonsense the Muppets come up with, the Newsman who tries to deliver Muppet Newsflashes with little success, Wayne and Wanda, a singing duo who never get to finish a song and various other monsters and creatures.

Currently there are only three series available on DVD and I hope that maybe one day series 4 & 5 will finally get a release and trust me when they do I’ll be first in the queue to buy them.  However until then I must make do with the first three and I’ll share with you some of my favourite guest stars.  Now I will point out that these may not be my favourite celebrities ordinarily but in their episodes, they do shine.

Series 1

Rita Moreno - sings Fever with Animal on drums who keeps interrupting her.  
She gets her own back!

Bruce Forsyth - replaces Fozzie as the stand up comic and teaches Statler and Waldorf a lesson

Series 2

Teresa Brewer - she is just so adorable and I love her first musical number
Cotton Fields

John Cleese - refuses to work with pigs until a monster eats his contract (and his agent) so ends up in a Pigs in Space episode and complains about his final closing number.

Series 3

Racquel Welch - Piggy gets jealous of Raquel’s popularity among the male Muppets and her getting a solo number, so she hijacks her performance of I’m A Woman

Spike Milligan - Muppet News Flash acted out by Spike, simply hilarious.

So there we have it, The Muppet Show finishes off my collection of children’s TV shows that made my childhood enjoyable.  I will leave you with one of the all time most well known clips from the Muppet Show which was actually featured in Episode 1.  All together now…...

When kids TV was cool - Part 4

So we are coming to the end of my journey down children’s TV lane and this is the penultimate post as my final show deserves a post all to itself.  Next week you will find out my all time favourite show which is still popular to this day with children and adults alike.   However for this post I am going to talk about a show which many people may not remember but it was a favourite of both myself and my younger sister and a series which still features heavily in children’s items now.

First up is the series Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds.  It was a Spanish/Japanese animation based on the novel by Alexander Dumas, this 26 part story tells the story of young Dogtanian and his quest to become one of the kings guards.  However all the characters are mainly dogs, hence the name Dogtanian and his companions are the Muskehounds.  The cartoon tells the story of young Dogtanian who sets out from his home town of Bearn with a message from his father to Monsieur Treville, captain of the Musketeers.  Along the way he meets up with Athos, Porthos and Aramis the bravest of the the Musketeers and also Juliette, a sweet girl who is Queen Anne’s maid in waiting whom Dogtanian falls in love with.  He comes up against some villainous treachery from Cardinal Richlieu, Count Rochefort (known to Dogtanian as the ‘Black Moustache’ for he doesn’t know his name), Widimier a bumbling captain of the Cardinals Guards, and Milady de Winter, commonly known as Milady, a cunning cat.  The story is quite faithful to the original story with a couple of exceptions in that Juliette is not someone else’s wife, but unattached.  Also Milady is not executed at the end of the series as she is in the novel and even comes back for the sequel (which I never saw).   

My sister and I loved the series, although I never knew the novel and still haven’t read it to this day but I thoroughly enjoyed the cartoon and found the characters adorable and engaging.  My favourite was Aramis, a rather dashing King Charles Spaniel.

My second show this week is the beloved Mr Men.  Based on the books written by Roger Hargreaves, these wonderful characters each have their own story.  Narrated by Arthur Lowe originally and later by John Alderton, these stories have all proved timeless.  I had all the stories as a child, my sister after me enjoyed the stories and recently I bought all of them for my niece to ensure the delights continue into the next generation.  They are used in advertising and merchandise to this day.  Some of my favourites include Mr Chatterbox and his magic growing hat, Mr Mean and his potatoes and Mr Snow delivering Christmas presents.

There were more stories released in books and cartoons other than the main stories but it’s the original books and stories that are especially dear to me.  I also remember another series by Roger Hargreaves called Timbuctoo but I don’t remember it being released as a cartoon.

So these are my choices for this week and next week I will reveal my all time favourite show from my childhood.  There are many other shows I remember from being a child that I have not gone into in more detail such as Inspector Gadget, Knightmare, Button Moon, He-Man, She-Ra, Dungeons and Dragons, Button Moon and Paddington.   However there is still one show that remains at the top of my list and I will reveal all next weekend.

Until then, enjoy my other reviews.

When kid's TV was cool - Part 3

As we once again delve into the world of vintage children’s TV, I am sitting here in bed watching the two programmes I am talking about today.  I have certainly been enjoying watching these old shows again, reminding me of a time when children’s TVv was simple yet so enjoyable.

First up this week is Bagpuss.  Much like the Flumps, this was a programme that seemed to run for years and years but again only thirteen episodes were ever made.  Bagpuss was a show that has always stayed with me, I remembered every character and their quirks.  I remembered the opening credits and the closing ones too.  

Bagpuss himself was a stuffed toy cat who belonged to a little girl named Emily.  The other characters were all either toys or ornaments in the shop where Bagpuss lived.  The musical toys were a singing rag doll named Madelaine and a banjo playing frog called Gabriel.  There was also the ‘Marvellous Mechanical Mouse Organ’ which was an old musical theatre which had carvings of mice on it.  And finally my favourite was Professor Yaffle, an old carved woodpecker bookend who had some wonderful sayings such as ‘Fiddlesticks and flapdoodle’ and he made a wonderful noise each episode which is impossible to describe or put into words, it was a sort of laugh but it was unique.  All the characters would come to life when Emily spoke her magic words.

‘Bagpuss, dear Bagpuss.  Old fat furry catpuss.  Wake up and look at this thing that I bring. Wake up,be bright, be golden and light. Bagpuss, oh hear what I sing.’

The show followed a traditional format of songs and stories which all revolved around the object that had been brought into the shop that week.  It was usually dirty or broken when it was brought in and the toys would mend it or clean it and then leave it in the shop for the owner to come and collect.

With the other shows I have talked about I remembered watching them but I could never ever remember any specific episode of each show.  With Bagpuss there was one episode which I vividly remembered.  There was a mill which made chocolate biscuits from breadcrumbs and butter beans.  It wasn’t a particularly spectacular episode but for some reason I always remembered it.

My second choice for this week is another Hanna-Barbera creation, the legendary Hong Kong Phooey.  Hong Kong Phooey was the ‘Number One Superguy’.  He was a superhero, solving all the crimes in the town but no-one knows his real identity.  Each episode starts in the same way.  Rosemary, the police telephone operator takes a call from someone reporting a crime and goes to tell her boss Sergeant Flint all about it.  Meanwhile, the station janitor Penry is working nearby and hears all about the crime and dashes off to the vending machine.  He slips behind it and jumps into a filing cabinet and after his cat Spot frees him from the sticking top drawer, he emerges as Hong Kong Phooey.  He drives the Phooeymobile which can change into any vehicle when HKP rings his gong.  

HKP is not the smartest of superheroes, in fact it’s mostly Spot who solves most of the crimes but everyone thinks it’s HKP. He uses The Hong Kong Book of Kung Fu which usually comes up with some crazy named move suitable for that specific criminal but as with everything else, HKP usually gets it wrong or gets tangled up and Spot usually intervenes so HKP still manages to pull off the capture of the villain and thus ensures HKP remains the greatest superhero of all time.  Sarge thinks HKP is amazing although thinks his alter ego Penry is useless, and Rosemary has a bit of a crush on HKP and runs his fan club, even going so far as to make up their own fan song Hong Kong Phooey, we love youey, whoo whoo whooey!’  I swear to god I don’t make this stuff up.

Hope you enjoyed the latest installment of my childhood heroes and I’ll be back next week with some more.

When Kids TV was cool part 2

Hey everyone

I continue my stroll down the childhood memory lane this week with two more of my adored shows from yesteryear.

First up is The Flumps.  This was a series that seemed to be on the TV forever but in actual fact, only 13 episodes were ever made, the BBC just kept repeating them regularly but us being naive little kids never actually realised we were being duped.  We just enjoyed seeing them again.

The Flumps were, well I’m not sure what they were actually, they were just Flumps.  They weren’t flumps as in the marshmallow sweets you can buy in the shops, but that was the name of their race.  My best description of them would be pompoms on legs.  There were 6 Flumps in the family.  Grandpa Flump was the oldest and he spent most of his time sleeping or playing his Flumpet (a trumpet like instrument).  There were the parents Mother Flump and Father Flump.  Mother Flump was an excellent cook and usually spent her time in the kitchen, Father Flump could be found in either his workshop inventing things, or in the garden growing vegetables.

There were three children Flumps.  Perkin, a boy flump and Posie a girl flump.  I don’t think it was ever specified if they were twins or not but they looked around the same age and then there was Pootle, who was my favourite (and quite possibly a lot of other people’s favourite too).  He was the youngest Flump and was always getting into mischief, getting his words mixed up or getting confused with the things the other Flumps said to him.

The episodes tended to follow the usual kids TV format of a main story line featuring the Flumps and a song about the theme of the episode.  All the episodes were narrated and sung by British actress Gay Soper and the iconic theme tune was played on a trombone by George Chisholm.

My second show this week I remember with great delight was the incredibly crazy Wacky Races.  Made by Hanna-Barbera and unlike my previous shows, came from America.  I remember this being shown quite a lot when I was a child.

Each episode featured the same characters, eleven race cars in total all competing to be crowned the World’s Wackiest Racer.  Each race crossed a different state and each competitor had their own unique vehicle.

Car number 1 was The Boulder Mobile and was driven by The Slag Brother, Rock and Gravel.  They were cavemen and their car resembled a large rock. It’s powered by the brothers hitting it with their clubs, although it’s special power features being carried through the air by a large Pterodactyl.

Car number 2 was called The Creepy Coupe and was driven by the Gruesome Twosome.  This car was like a Haunted House on wheels featuring an array of various horror themed characters such as witches, ghosts, dragons and snakes, all of which are used to speed the car along.  The drivers themselves are Big Gruesome who resembles a Frankenstein type creature and Little Gruesome who is a vampire.

Car number 3 is the Convert-A-Car driven by Professor Pat Pending.  His car can convert into almost any vehicle or even moving objects such as a drill or giant bow and arrow in order to get past any obstacle thrown in his path.

Car number 4 is the Crimson Haybaler driven by The Red Max.  Max is an ace flying pilot and his car is a mix of both car and plane.. It mainly drives along the road with the other racers but is capable of flight for short periods, again usually to get over any obstacles in the way or occasionally to leap into the lead.

Car number 5 is the Compact Pussycat driven by Penelope Pitstop.  Penny is the only female driver in the race and is a stereotypical Southern belle, always maintain her appearance during the race and her car has all sorts of beauty gadgets installed.   The Pussycat and Penelope’s outfit are a very girly pink and the car is a convertible sports car.  All the other drivers are very polite to Penny (with the possible exception of Dick Dastardly although even he is less mean to her than the other racers).  Peter Perfect has a bit of a crush on Penny and she finds him charming and sweet.

Car number 6 is the Surplus Special driven by Sergeant Blast and Private Meekly.  The vehicle is an army tank which uses the cannon to blast itself forward to give it extra speed.  Blast and Meekly are, as their names suggest, two soldiers.  Meekly drives whilst Blast shouts the orders from the cannon tower.

Car number 7 is the Bulletproof Bomb driven by the Ant Hill Mob.  The mob are seven miniature gangsters called Ring-a-Ding, Danny, Rug Bug Benny, Mac, Kirby, Willy and their leader Clyde.  The car is a sedan and in order to gain extra speed, the Mob resorts to Getaway Power which is done by the mob sticking their feet through the bottom of the car and running, carrying the car along.

Car number 8 is the Arkansas Chuggabugg driven by Lazy Luke and Blubber Bear.  The drivers are just like their names suggest with hillbilly Luke in the driver’s seat, most often found asleep and steering the vehicle with his bare feet. Blubber the bear is his pet grizzly bear but is far from grizzly.  He never speaks but whenever their vehicle malfunctions (which is often), he blubbers and cries.  Their only form of improving their speed seems to be by pouring various types of liquids into the tank which usually cause the aforementioned malfunctions.

Car number 9 is the Turbo Terrific driven by Peter Perfect.  Peter is a very gentlemanly driver and rarely resorts to any kind of cheating or dirty tricks to win.  He considers himself the best driver with the best car, a dragster but the car often falls apart during the races.  He will often stop to assist his crush, Penelope Pitstop.

Car number 10 is the Buzzwagon driven by Rufus Ruffcutt and Sawtooth.  Rufus is a giant lumberjack and Sawcutt is his pet beaver.  The buzzwagon is put together from logs and the wheels are buzz saws.  They don’t have any form of boosting their speed but the wheels tend to cut through anything in their path, even the other vehicles on occasion.

Finally the last car is numbered 00 and is driven by Dick Dastardly, a moustache twirling villain and his sidekick Muttley, a dog of unidentifiable breed who doesn’t speak but laughs wheezily every time his master’s plans go wrong.  Dastardly actually owns the fastest and best car by far and if he wasn’t busy trying to cheat his way ahead or hold up the other racers with his dastardly schemes, he could likely win most of the races fair and square.  As it turns out, Dick Dastardly won a total of zero races, quite apt considering his car is numbered 00.

With the exception of Dick Dastardly and Mutley, all racers won more than one race and the results are as follows

The Ant Hill Mob    4

Luke and Blubber Bear 4

Penelope Pitstop 4

Peter Perfect 4

Gruesome Twosome 3

Professor Pat Pending 3

The Red Max 3

Rufus Ruffcutt & Sawtooth 3

Sergeant Blast & Meekly 3

The Slag Brothers 3

Dick Dastardly & Muttley 0

Whilst there was no theme tune specifically, each episode started with the narrator introducing the racers.

These are my shows for this week, I’ll be back next week with two more classics from the archives of children’s TV.