This...Explains a Lot, Actually

[liz_marcs]

Now I've got something to blame for the strange that is moi.

BEHOLD!

I've been reliably informed by my mother that my first TV crush was Jimmy from H.R. Pufnstuf, which is pictured below.

How she could tell this, I simply don't know since I was pre-verbal when it ran on Boston television (it had to be re-runs because the initial run was during my pre-pre-verbal days).



As you can see, the above picture explains sooooooo much about twistedness of kids in the 70s.

And just about the entire collection of pictures showing off whacked-out children's shows explains sooooooo much about me.

(Oh my God! Sigmund and the Sea Monsters! I loved that show! It's about Sigmund, this baby sea monster, who runs away from his family and hides in this kid's tree house! And then they become friends! And have wacky adventures written by writers who were clearly high on green leafy things!)

Of course, everything after Pee-Wee Herman is pretty much a mystery to me, but you simply cannot match the utter pointless weird, zero educational content that was 70s children television. I mean, some you thought you had it bad with the Great Purple One...

I'm disappointed that Electra Woman and Dyna Girl didn't make the list, though. That was some serious WtF?!? right there.

Comments

[spiralleds]

Or Doctor Shrinker! Doctor Shrinker, Doctor Shrinker, he's a mad man with an evil mind... Talk about messed up.

[liz_marcs]

Dear God. Dr. Shrinker. I forgot all about him.

[fbf]

I actually own on VHS a collection (meaning one ep of each show) of all the Sid and Marty Krofft stuff. I personally had a deep love for the Buggaloos and Witchy-Poo was pretty awesome.

I proudly say that Dr. Suess, The Muppets, and Sid and Marty Krofft shaped me into the audlt I am today. Very scary, yet highly entertaining.

[liz_marcs]

Ahahahahahahahaha! Yeah, it is scary, isn't it. An entire generation of kiddies shaped by Sid and Marty Krofft.

The Muppets and Dr. Suess at least were good crack, right?

[learnedhand]

Did you check out the Wikipedia page you linked to for Electra Woman and Dyna Girl? Specifically, part about the pilot they shot for a series (starring Markie Post) showing an alcoholic, bitter Electra Woman whose husband had left her for the original Dyna Girl? Thank goodness that wasn't picked up.

[siliconivy.livejournal.com]

OMG! Pufnstuf! Sigmund! Land of the Lost! The Banana Splits!

yeah, it does explain a lot of those of us grew watching that. I used to go crazy, because I remember a cartoon I watched about a ghost from the revolutionary war solved mysteries with some teenagers (basically scooby doo where shaggy is a ghost human & scooby is a ghost cat. But with weirder sound f/x. i could never remember the name, but thanks to the wonder that is the web, i did find out it was called The Funky Phantom & only aired for one season, which could by why no one else seems to remember it.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

I vaguely remember that show, in that I remember a ghost and a Scooby Gang which...kind of defeated the purpose behind Scooby Doo which was basically "there's no such thing as the supernatural." And here the carbon-copyish cartoon had a ghost. Didn't remember any details about it or the name (thanks for telling me that...I think).

I think it was showed in a 2-pack with the cartoon version of the Addams Family back in the day up in Boston.

God, now I feel old.

[cindyg.livejournal.com]

Yay for Google! The cartoon you're thinking of is "The Funky Phantom" - I used to watch that when I was in high school. :)

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Bits of the opening of that silly cartoon have been going through my head for weeks now but I couldn't remember the name, and I never remembered to look it up when i was at a computer. Now my brain can be at peace. :)

[rubywisp.livejournal.com]

omg, i remember that show! i loved it! i loved all those shows. GAH.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

You mean the giant penis with a face? Weird!!

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Ahahahahahahahaha! H.R. does look like a giant penis with a face.

And white boots! Don't forget the white boots! That's key!

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

I saw that earlier today, too, and it does explain a lot. I grew up watching all of those wacky shows in the 70's. We used to play Land of the Lost in the woods. I once had a boyfriend sing the Banana Splits song to me naked. I think we were all scarred for life. *g*

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Ahahahahahahahahaha! Singing...naked. I don't know why some little part of thinks that rocks, but some little part of me does.

I'm not sure I could handle seeing a big screen adaption of Land of the Lost. The mental disconnect would give me psychological whiplash.

Did you see that Sigmund and the Seamonsters is due to get the same treatment? I think my brain hurts.

[secondalto.livejournal.com]

I can totally tell I'm a child of the 80's. The shows I remember that are listed there are Smurfs(which make me ask the question today, why was Smurfette the ONLY GIRL?), Snorks, Rainbow Brite and the Fraggles (I love all things Henson related).

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Rainbow Brite gave me cavities, a sure sign I was older than the target audience.

But Smurfs! Oh my God! I never got the Smurfette thing at all. Mystery of the universe that. Thinking about the sexual politics of that one makes my head hurt.

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

H R Pufnstuf was like an LSD flashback for kids.

I'm from a gentler time. We used to watch Crusader Rabbit. AndFireball XL5 which both fascinated and freaked my sister and me out. Oh, and Cecil the Sea Sick Sea Serpent.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

I vaguely remember seeing Cecil, but I may have seen it as part of some kind of compilation in my late grammar school years. Or maybe on one of those retrospective shows.

And Fireball XL5 I know more from the parodies than actual first-hand, having never seen the original. You almost have to know what that one is to be at all literate in the SF televised genre.

You realize this discussion is making me feel old, right?

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

Sid and Marty Krofft seriously rocked my world during my childhood. Land of the Lost was probably my favorite but i watched them all. I was sorry Dr. Shrinker didn't make the list. It was so utterly wacked out. Looking back on these shows now it's pretty clear that the creators were high as kites. I mean seriously, Lidsville? How these made it on the air is a complete mystery, but i'm so glad they did.

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

Sid and Marty Krofft were like the pied pipers of tiny tots, and rockstars in 70s children programming weren't they?

I'm with you on being mystified how these things were allowed to air. I cannot imagine any network, no matter how small and cable-tiny, even dreaming of putting these on the air.

[bellatemple]

. . . It skips straight from Rainbow Brite to the Teletubbies. What, no popples? No Paw-Paw Bears? Or Dinosaucers (dinosaurs from space!), Denver the Last Dinosaur (I . . . can still sing the theme song), Jem and the Holograms -- or heck, fast forward a bit to Eureka's Castle if you want crazy brightly colored puppets.

Or Carebears! Have you ever seen the Carebear movies? They're insane. The star friend breaks his little star arm trying to pick the lock on the crazy warped cage thing so the Carebears can escape. . . .

There's, like, decades worth of whacked out cartoonage they're missing, there. Tenderheart Bear scales a wall by pulling hearts out of his stomach. I mean come on!

[liz-marcs.livejournal.com]

*cackles*

Personally, I don't think Pee-Wee belongs on the list because Playhouse was purposely written that way, which I think is an important distinction if you're going to go with crack-headedness in children's programming.

I've never seen the Carebears. You make me almost sorry I haven't. *howls with laughter*

I suspect the writer missed the bits in between because they grew up with Sid and Marty and are now watching their own young ones' oevre.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

OH GOD SO MANY MEMORIES.

HR Pufnstuff, Lidsville, Sigmund, Land of the Lost...

Dude, Sleestaks still freak me out. And I had the biggest crush on Jack Wild. No lie.

[1-mad-squirrel.livejournal.com]

my first TV crush was Jimmy from H.R. Pufnstuf,

OMG! Mine too! I was old enough to watch it first run. I was born in '65.

I watched all those Sid & Marty Kroft live action Saturday morning shoes.

I loved Sigmund and the Sea Monster too, because I had a crush on Johnny Whitaker. I'm old enough to have seen Family Affair, at least the later seasons, in first run.

[mzlizzy.livejournal.com]

Jack Wild was my very first crush (I was 8) so I watched Pufnstuf just to see him. I may even still have the record from the movie, but I'm not sure.

[4thdixiechick.livejournal.com]

Ah, I remember a lot of these shows!
I watched pretty much all the Kroft shows, but like Will Ferrell, I drew the line at "Lids."
(This also explains a lot about me...)

TV show nostalgia FTW!

[4thdixiechick.livejournal.com]

make that "Lidsville"

[theantijoss.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha! Pufinstuf was like a freaking infomercial for acid tripping! LOL

Yeah, we had colorful childhood influences. *G*

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

YAY! I saw the same article in the Metro yesterday and thought - H R Puff'n Stuff - my favorite Saturday morning tv show.

Yes, I was rabidly in love with Jack Wilde (who played the boy, Jimmy) in HR Puff 'n Stuff as well. He wasn't only my first character crush, was my first celebrity crush. I watched the musical Oliver just for Jack Wilde - who played the Artful Dodger. He was in a few things, then disappeared.

They just don't do shows like that now.

[hpchick.livejournal.com]

I loved Jack Wild. I had a hard time with the concept of re-runs when I was younger. I totally freaked out when my mother told me he was only a few months younger than her. She was a young mother and constantly felt the need to remind everyone of it. She really didn't care that she was ruining my fantasies. I so did not need to know that the boy I was crushing on was twenty-something years older than me.

I loved H.R. Pufnstuf, Sigmund, Land of the Lost, Banana Splits, The Bugaloos, & Battle of the Planents. My friends had convinced me that I had imagine most of these shows. I love that the Internet now allows me to show them I'm not insane.

The Barbapapas should have been included on that Boston.com list. It was always on after Capt. Bob at 6 or 6:30 AM on Sat mornings here in Boston on channel 4, 5, or 7 before the rest of the Saturday morning cartoons started.

That article links to the theme songs on YouTube so of course I wasted most of the day listening to cartoon theme songs from the 80s. I started to play the air drum several times. I'm going to be hearing the ThunderCats, Gummi Bears, Alvin & the Chipmunks and Jem theme songs in my head all night.

[lord-siege.livejournal.com]

Wow! It's always so amazing to me to find out other people still remember this stuff. As I was born in 1970, I spent the first decade of my life absorbing these shows like a sponge (or like Bounty: the quicker picker-upper (damn commercials! get out of my head!)). But I had mostly forgotten about them (and had zero idea anyone else remembered them) until the late 90's when, while digging through the bargain bin, I came across a CD entitled Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Morning). I spent the next six weeks with my headphones on humming or singing along. Aside from (MANY) strange looks, I received a surprising number of comments from people who recognized the songs and the shows. It's unbelievable how these things stick with you.

For the educationally minded, I also recommend Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoolhouse_Rock!_Rocks), a tribute to one of the coolest attempts at educational cartoons I've ever seen.