A few days ago, I showed some YouTube clips of vintage Cap’n Crunch commercials. And as I was searching through the YouTube clips, I discovered something that was both unique and disturbing. All those cartoon characters we grew up watching on Saturday morning cartoons – Yogi Bear, Woody Woodpecker, Bullwinkle – were intertwined with commercials…
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Get Smart + 24 = InSecurity, Canada’s new TV comedy hit
Spy spoof TV shows are few and far between. The ones that work are the exceptions that prove the rule. Even Get Smart, a show that was very successful in the 1960’s, couldn’t recapture that success when it was revived in the late 1990’s (maybe one of the reasons was that Andy Dick was cast…
Read MoreThe ten worst superhero TV shows of all time
Let me state for the record. I am a major fan of superhero drama shows. Whether the shows are a retelling of the Les Miserables / Fugitive “man on the run” ethos (The Incredible Hulk) or just plain campy fun (the 1960’s Batman series), I do enjoy watching some costumed do-gooders battle the bad guys.…
Read MoreCaptain Power and the Soldiers of the Future – a failed attempt at interactive television
I don’t know what it is about science fiction shows that causes their fans to go absolutely nuts when the show’s low ratings doom it to cancellation. The networks put the program in a bad timeslot, they cry. The story was just getting good, they moan. We at least deserve a full-length movie to wrap…
Read MoreSaturday Morning Mel-O-Toons
They were probably the cheapest cartoons ever made for broadcast. Their source material actually came from phonograph records. In 1960, a company called New World Productions created over a hundred six-minute cartoons, called “Mel-O-Toons.” The cartoons, specifically designed for television broadcast, were a mixture of fairy tales, Biblical stories, folk legends and the like. The…
Read MoreRest in peace, Jim Fisk…
So much of our childhood disappears over time. The friends we made in our young years have shaped our future… but those friendships have become bittersweet memories as time goes by. And today, we lost another one. Rest in peace, Jim Fisk. Fisk was the host of WRGB’s “Breadtime Stories,” a 15-minute children’s program that…
Read MoreDownton Abbey – is this new British period drama better than Upstairs, Downstairs?
This has all the earmarks of a classic battle between two television networks, each showing what essentially looks like the same program – Chicago Hope versus ER; Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories versus the 1980’s Twilight Zone; I Dream of Jeannie versus Bewitched. I’ve previously blogged about the return of Upstairs Downstairs, and it looks as…
Read MoreNew “Upstairs Downstairs” episodes in America this April…
A while back, I blogged about one of my favorite 1970’s TV shows, the period drama Upstairs, Downstairs. This British television series ran for several years on PBS’s Masterpiece Theater, and was a fascinating series to watch. The show revolved around a political family, the Bellamys (who lived “Upstairs” at 165 Eaton Place) and their…
Read MoreJFK’s Assassination on the Twilight Zone
Before I begin my post, let me state for the record that as far as I’m concerned, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was murdered by Lee Harvey Oswald, who acted alone, who acted of his own volition, and whose motives were those of a deeply disturbed madman. And to answer the next question, “Where were you when…
Read More10 Saturday Morning Cartoons based on rock musicians
Yes, Saturday morning cartoons used to rot your brain cells out. But they also – believe it or not – were a functioning medium for the promotion of popular music. Let me explain. There were several instances where popular singers or rock groups would find their stories retold as wacky animated adventures. From the most…
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