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

[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.

[bellatemple]

That's probably it.

And yes, Carebears is pretty bizarre. Not that I had any idea at the time, of course (I was madly into the Carebears when I was little), but when the kids at the preschool I was working at were watching it, I was sort of vaguely appalled.

Oh, and the first Carebear movie terrified me when I was small. It had an evil book in it! An evil book!

[hpchick.livejournal.com]

I loved that movie mainly for the songs. We used to have it on tape. I bet it's still at my parent's house somewhere.

My youngest brother used to watch it everyday when he was 3 or 4. My other brother, who was about 9, was creeped out by the evil book. He especially hated the part when the kids are being chased through the carnival to the song "Look Out! He's After You!". He always left the room or FF through those scenes. I used to be able to freak him out by saying, "Niiichoolaaas", just like the evil book in the movie.

[bellatemple]

I remember being freaked by the evil tree as well. I think I was very small when it first came out, like, two or something -- I don't remember a whole lot from then, just the evil book and the tree. I rewatched it in college with my boyfriend and ended up giggling in a sort of vaguely horrified manner the whole time -- he didn't get it at all.

[bellatemple]

(PS - it turns out the Carebears movie is totally on YouTube. Score!)