Saturday, April 07, 2007

 

Welcome Back, Tyd! Do you remember bad local tv?



It seems that Tydwbleach is back with us after a disturbing incident in which either Spencer, Spencer's friend "Donut," or the Hammond B-3 organ somehow removed her internet service. Fortunately, a guy in a truck showed up and fixed things. Whew! I was worried that I had somehow cheesed her off with my Poppadeaux's story.

Anyways, thinking of Tyd made me think of Detroit in the 1970's, which made me think of Sir Graves Ghastly. Sir Graves was the host of just one of several poorly-conceived television shows in Detroit between 1960-1985. The first of these seems to have been the "Soupy Sales Show," which was on at lunch. Legend had it that Soupy left Detroit after jokingly telling kids to "take all the money out of your Mom's purse and send it to me," giving an address to which the loot was to be mailed. Sir Graves Ghastly also had a kid-oriented show, which always began with Sir Graves rising out of a coffin. Hmmm. Maybe now you can understand some of the formative influences on people like Eminem, Kid Rock, Iggy Pop, the Insane Clown Posse, and Mitt Romney (all of whom grew up in Michigan in this era). Other local shows included:

-- "The Ghoul"
A competitor to Sir Graves Gastly, The Ghoul amped up the macabre content of the genre by blowing things up, including his beloved "froggy."

-- "George Perot Travel Hour"
George Perot was an enormous man sitting in a wingback chair who seemed completely incapable of simple locomotion, much less somehow leaving Wayne County. Nonetheless, every week he would describe amazing intercontinental adventures. His show was live, and towards the end he was at least once spotted sleeping while a guest was talking.

-- "Bowling for Dollars"
The ultimate Detroit game show, Bowling for Dollars was notable for its unappealing prizes, which often included a pair of retread tires.

-- "Albert Safety"
Albert Safety was actually a feature of Canadian television, which we could pick up. In short, Albert would fly over disasterous situations, warn against the behavior engaged in, and then let the kids shown go ahead and die. For example, he might fly over the lake as a little boy is going under. Albert would look down, ruefully intone "Never swim alone," and then just continue on his way. It was Albert Safety who first warned me of the dangers of playing with blasting caps, setting off a lifelong (and thus far unsuccessful) search for some blasting caps.

--"The Detroit Zoo Chimp Show"
Once a week, the chimp show at the zoo was featured on local television. Basically, they dressed the chimps up like people and made them do things like ride bicycles, hold tea parties, dance maniacally, and kiss one another. This is the kind of thing that happened before the whole "natural habitat" fad entered the zoological scene in the 1980's.

-- "Milky the Clown"
Not, as one might expect, an entertainer for the La Leche League, but rather the spokesclown for the Twin Pines Dairy Company. I think that Milky may have started the whole trend of clowns totally selling out and getting corporate sponsorship, including the former (and somewhat lewd) Ronald McFun becoming the ubiquitous Ronald McDonald.

I realize that some people might think I am making this up. Help me out, Tyd! Or Sleepy Walleye! And... bonus points if you can identify the guy pictured here....

Comments:
I heard that Ronald McDonald died-- he was messing with the cable tv, and the police came at night and shot him.
 
THAT GUY IS BILL KENNEDY!!!!!!
ANd now.... BACK to our MOVIE

I remember all of these people EXCEPT ALbert Safety...

I remember the ghoul too. BUT there are two you missed:

Bozo the Clown...

I was actually ON this show with my Brownie Troop. I got called to play a game of Musical chairs, and I won a six pack of Orange Crush Then when they panned thru the audience, I apparently was sitting weird and Uhmmm You could see my underwear.. HEY!!! Those stupid Brownie uniforms were SHORT!!!!

HOT FUDGE:

I think this was the name of the show... where you had this green furry monster named Seymour. ALso I think ARtie Shaw? and then also this guy named Larry who went on to great fame and fortune writing and singing jingles - I cannot remember for what products, but he had a very gravely voice

ALAN ALMOND's PILLOW TALK:

A CLASSIC CHeeezefest of a radio show on WNIC at nights until midnight I think that played stupid love songs by people like air supply, and much much worse and had dedications and stuff and this guy with a realllly deep voice who just flat out REFUSED to show his face publicly I think the guy may STILL have that show on the air somewhere... SO frightening b ut when I was in like 9th grade I had a cruch on this guy from my summer camp who lived in California and we would write letters and do all this stupid stuff and I would listen to this stupid show and just cry every year, especially right when camp ended every year (I went to ELEVEN years of summer camp). IF I could have I would have MARRIED Thom Benedict right then and there but thank goodness I didn't because he turned out to be this total flake of a guy and now he travels around the country trying to save like wild hawks for some like HAWK group or something. So anyway I would listen to this music and this guy's show just to get EXTRA SAD I guess,and I would practice writing my name like Mrs. Liz Benedict, Mr and Mrs Benedict. etc... because I was 14 years old.
It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. But it never worked out between Thom Benedict and I because he was in lust with my friend Sherry. She was in lust with this other guy - TIM JORANKO, in fact, and so it went. Thom lived in San Pedro, CA and his zip code was the same as on the can of tuna. WOW. I ate a lot of tuna that year. He would send me pictures of his turtle, and the beach and I would send him pictures of my cat.
I totally remember having like braces and being all Middle school ish and all of that.

SONNY ELLIOT:

The weirdest, sweetest stupidest corniest weather guy ever in the history of the world When every other channel had like Doppler radar and stuff this guy still had like a chalk board and like big magnetic smiley face suns and frowning clouds.


BILL BONDS:

I cannot even really explain Bill Bonds. He was this like permanantly drunk local anchor with an ego the size of a Buick. He was always getting fired and DUIs and stuff He was crazy. There is a GREAT You Tube thing on him that shows him totally losing it on the air he is INSANE

RITA BELL:

This local woman who had this show with a movie and she looked like that phone operator person that Lily Tomlin used to play. So frightening.

OH and Osler do nOT be jealous but I have George Pierrot's autograph.

GAWD I think I typed myself in to a frenzy.
 
Why is saving wild hawks any crazier than being a LUTHIER??????
 
Wow. Local TV in the Washington, DC area was not nearly as exciting.

On the other hand, we Washingtonians are VERY PROUD of the fact that Ronald McDonald was invented by then-local radio personality Willard Scott to promote the opening of a McDonald's restaurant in suburban Maryland.

Willard was one of the Joy Boys on Top 40 radio in DC before he became a weatherman on Channel 7 and eventually went on to the Today Show. He still does radio ads for local businesses.

The TV horror show emcee was Count Gore Vidal, who hosted "Creature Feature" on our local UHF "junk" television station.

The same guy also played Captain 20 in the afternoon, introducing episodes of Ultraman, Speed Racer, Gigantor, Tobor the 8 Man, and other classic cartoons. He was dressed in a cheap space suit and sort of looked like a Vulcan from Star Trek. The "look" kind of evolved over the years. At first he was kind of animated, but he became more "Spock-like" over time. Drugs, or boredom, probably.

For a few years they had Gerbil races. You could send your name into the show and Captain 20 would pick names from a bowl. Then Capt. 20 would call you at home and wait exactly 3 rings and 10 seconds. If you answered you got to pick a gerbil.

If your Gerbil won you got a prize.

Of course, the gerbils had no interest in running down the narrow chutes, and usually just rolled around or licked themselves. So after a few years they were replaced by monkeys.

Captain 20 ended every break by raising his right hand and giving the split finger Vulcan salute and saying "Live Long and Win Lots of Prizes."

--In Cleveland, when I was younger, the guy who did the midday cartoon shows was, Captain Penny, a train engineer. Why he was also a captain, I don't know. He wore an engineer's cap, a kerchief and overalls. He ended every break with "Remember, you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool Mom."

There was also Captain Cleveland, which started in 1968 and was VERY bizarre and strange (what surprise... in 1968..). Anyhow, we moved about three months after I discovered that show. They were definitely NOT following the rules and I really thought that was cool.
 
On a totally different subject, osler you should read the editorial in today's Washington Post about the use of laptops in law school classrooms (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/06/AR2007040601544.html?hpid=opinionsbox1). It reminded me of why Underwood banned the things and why, at least when I was at Baylor, the WiFi was cut off in the classrooms.
 
Hey- I thought Bozo the Clown was from Chicago- he went off the air when I was 12 or something...but I remember, at many birthday parties, we would play "The Grand Prize Game"-- stupid national television market killing local shows! And IPLAW- was "Count Gore Vidal THE Gore Vidal, or were the names just coincidence?"
 
TradeLG -
The editorial is right... I am taking a class and almost everyone takes notes by hand. It's interesting that young people are much more engaged in the classroom than adults are in every single work meeting I attend where everyone is checking their blackberries (or crackberries!) I feel self conscious when I -rarely - pull out my TREO to add a TO DO item in class - as no one uses them!

IPLG -
I loved Captain 20! And, Ultraman and Speed Racer. What was the monster show that was like Ultraman? It was so funny to see the animation be so bad and the English words not fit the actors mouths as they spoke Japanese. Look what I found on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuppRPWS8ic - there are several episodes!

I also used to love Creature Feature!
:)
 
That first picture reminds me of a shorter, eviler raymond.
 
Tyd--

I looked up the Youtube video of the Bill Bonds on-air freakout, and it was too horrible and disturbing to even provide a link... wow.

Horrifying.
 
I don't remember any truly local Waco shows, but I always loved the Banana Splits Gang, HR Puffenstump, and am still hooked on Bewitched reruns on TVLand. I also loved Fat Albert "Hey Hey Hey", great theme song....Saturday mornings are just not the same, wake up, grab your Poptarts and Tang and sit in the den until American Bandstand came on, then go ride your super-cool ten speed bike all day. Sigh. At least the Poptarts remain the same, I live on those.
 
Ok Between Osler and Tyd you'd think that local Detroit TV would be covered completely. However...
You forgot Count Scary, channel 4 WDIV's Sir Graves rival. He showed "3D" movies, the glasses distributed in the Free Press or handed out directly by Count Scary himself as he drove through Grosse Ponite in the "Scarey Mobile". If I remeber correctly he actually was played by a guy from G.P.

I remeber Bill Kennedy smoking... a lot ... while on the air. Chain smoking and drinking coffee while name dropping and telling stories about Bette Davis and Merna Loy.

I loved Hot Fudge.
I can see more when I talk to Seymore
Just me and you, some hot fudge too
We'll see all our problems through
But it definitely wasn't Artie Shaw, he was a big band leader in the 1940's.
 
Canadian TV was better.

Mr. Dressup
The Friendly Giant
The Irish Rovers Hour
Roll Out the Barrell
Hockey Night in Canada
Live Curling
 
Count Gore Dival "borrowed" his name. Just as his alternate ego Captain 20 borrowed "Live Long and Win Lots of Prizes."

Bozo and Romper Room were both licensed around the country. There were versions in many cities around the country.

Thinking about it, I now remember "Wonderama" with Bob McAllister on Metromedia Channel 5 here in DC. There was doofy song that I can't recall just now...but I will, at about 4 AM, most likely.

Also, Maury Povich got his start here as a reporter and weekend Anchor (back when he was a real journalist) on Channel 5. Of course, his Dad was the Sports Editor of the Post.
 
Walleye... You are right it was not Artie SHAW it was like Artie Johnson??? this weird blonde guy He loooked like the grown up version of that 7th brady kid OLIVER you know they extra kid they put in when the show is dying...


ITs pretty weird with a Luthier, but traveling around living in tents and motels and talking about hawks to me would somehow be worse....

Yeah that Bill Bonds You Tube thing is VERY VERY disturbing.

Osler I just sent you pics of Spencer freaking out at the Easter Bunny and his B day party and other stuff. tons of SPencer pics OH I might have forgotten the Easter pics... but ck your email
 
Wow. I wish I'd grown up in Detroit now instead of Morganton, North Carolina. We were too small for local TV. But I do remember an uncannily similar experience to Tyd's Brownie-troop-on-TV experience. The one local-ish show we had was some kids' show out of the Asheville, NC station. I think its sole purpose must have been to showcase the steady stream of Brownie troops that came on it.

I have this memory of some intrepid parents driving us up the mountain in a bad thunderstorm so we got to the TV station wet and frazzled, and then I think they gave us all McDonald's burgers and (although a lot of my memories are hazy) I remember sitting near the top of these cheesy bleachers in front of the lights, and about halfway through the show found I was sitting on a hamburger. I don't think I ever watched that show again.

Now, "Lost in Space" is another matter altogether,though. I moaned for weeks when that went off the air. I shudder to think how hard our parents' friends must have laughed at our re-enactments of Lost in Space episodes. Do they re-run those anywhere?

Not that I would get them over here in Heidiland, though.
 
My favorite part of "Lost in Space" was the robot that would wave its arms around while yelling "Emergency! Emergency!"

I really want one of those. It would be helpful in class, for example.
 
"sleepy walleye said...

Canadian TV was better.

Mr. Dressup
The Friendly Giant
The Irish Rovers Hour
Roll Out the Barrell
Hockey Night in Canada
Live Curling"

HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA just RULED. SO did the Irish Rovers, but I did not know that Mr Dressup was Canadian.

Extra Points: I can sing OH CANADA from memory, and I can do a Canadian accent pretty well.


Bonus Round: Brownies, in Canada are called Girl Guides.

HOW IS DETROIT???? I wonder if I will ever get back there. i miss ist sometimes.
 
IT WAS Artie Johnson.
 
FOUND THIS ON IMDB about HOT FUDGE SHOW:

IMDb user comments for
"Hot Fudge Show" (1976)



Hot Fudge-Comin at Ya Now- Hot Fudge-Come on, 4 January 2007
8/10


In the spirit of the Great Space Coaster, but a few years earlier.

Hot Fudge was one of the psychedelic kid's shows that I grew up on. Seymour was a big, fuzzy, green puppet, with a crescent smile of enormous teeth which nearly split his head, I recall him wearing a variety of Elton John-type shades.

He "played" piano, and had a Jesus looking dude in a white tux, sitting next to him. They would have a moral discussion and then do a song about it.

Don't remember much else except the opening theme, Seymour and the Hippie.

No one else I know remembers it at all. I grew up in Jersey, so if it was produced in Detroit as a previous post said, it wasn't just local. Seymour reminded me a lot of Sherlock the Squirrel from the Magic Garden (another psychedelic kids show if there ever was one.) People always talk about LSD's effects of music and movies of the 70s, but it seems kid's show writers got a dose as well.



I can't get this show out of my head. I remember as a child watching this show and the theme is still in my head. If adding to the comment list will help generate some buzz to bring shows back, I am glad to add. I almost need to seek therapy to get that song out of my head. If you can bring that show about that British boy stranded on an island with puppets and singing on TVLAND and the Banna Splits. You most certainly could bring back Hot Fudge for a week or at least sell some reruns.


I also watched this show!, 17 May 2004
Author: Leslilu from Puyallup,WA

I lived in Guam at the time, but I have always had this show in my mind- remember the theme song- "It's hot fudge -hot fudge, hot fudge" and I had a doll- it was like a hairy thing, like from the Adams Family, and it had a styrofoam recliner that he rode in. I took that doll everywhere with me. I didn't know anyone else who had ever seen it, til now. :) Wish I could find some media on it! I would love to have the theme song, or see some of the old shows, just to relive the corniness of it. I cannot hardly remember anything else about it. My little brother doesn't even remember it, but I was about 7 when it was on. How many seasons did it run? Two?
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Muppets in the disco era, 20 May 2003


I remember way back when watching this show when I was 5. The songs they had were pretty cool like the puppet "Seymore" and the Hot fudge gang theme song. The funky lights the show had in the background while the songs were sang was like a music video. Simply 70s with a hip puppet called "Dr. Teeth".
 
http://www.amazon.com/Viva-Arriva-Larry-Santos/dp/B0000020PW/ref=m_art_li_0/102-2303689-0107351

You can here that LARRY guy - samples of his album...


WOw I ll bet you all wish I would go back to being Missing in Action huh?
 
Geez, and here I was, proud that I remembered that the big song on Wonderama here in DC was "Exercise, exercise, come on everybody do your exercise!"
 
Hey Osler you forgot Aurthur Penhallow on WRIF.
 
I thought it was Wanda the Clown?

In Texas, it was Wanda the Witch...and my mom's name is Wanda, so she got all kinds of crap for that.

Apparently there was a Wanda the Clown show in Seattle, though, so she got a whole new load of name-related crap out there, hahahahaaa.

--Stef the Pef hates resnet with a deep, burning passion
 
FTR, I can still sing most of "The Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen Anthem" from Ren and Stimpy, haha.
 
aM5KUi The best blog you have!
 
Rx1dRd actually, that's brilliant. Thank you. I'm going to pass that on to a couple of people.
 
actually, that's brilliant. Thank you. I'm going to pass that on to a couple of people.
 
Thanks to author.
 
Good job!
 
Hello all!
 
Please write anything else!
 
Magnific!
 
Hello all!
 
Good job!
 
Bill Kennedy! Thank you. I haven't been able to think of his name for years. I grew up flipping between WKBD in Detroit with his movie show and the Prize Movie on WUAB in Cleveland.

And speaking of Captain Penny show, anyone remember Jungle Larry bringing the animals on. www.junglelarry.com is collecting photos and memories any of us have.
 
How about Morgan Presents for Detroit nestilgia. He was this goofy weather guy dressed to look like a mad scientist that did 5 minute weather broadcasts
 
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