Dredged from the bowels of my collapsing memory banks I give you more murky programmes and decaying films to ponder:
The Onedin Line - my Mum loved this period drama set in some olde-worlde UK sea port, which I've visited within the last 20 years but for the life of me can't recall where it is! The main maritime character had huge dundreary sideburns. Anyone Onedin?
The Lotus Eaters - I think this was set in Greece and starring that stalwart of Sixties British TV, Ian Hendry. My parents watched it drinking snowballs and Bells so I may have too. Remember it?
The Sandpiper - again, a parental thing. I don't recall it but I know they watched it. It may have been a movie? Anyone?
The Graduate - Dustin adjustin' to sex, I've never seen it but the poster is everywhere. You graduated?
Love Story - again, a Sixties/ Seventies milestone in sad cinema with Tatum O'Neale but I've never clocked it. Too sad now. You?
Astronut - a cartoon about a small green bean-like alien with a TV aerial on his head. I think his human pal was called Oscar. Yes?
Roger Ramjet - Rog may have been a character in another kids' cartoon. He may have been Penelope Pitstop's boyfriend too. A very formal and polite chap. A gallant racing driver perhaps?
Josie and the Pussycats - Wow, I recall these groovy gals. A great cartoon and catchy songs too. Optimistic. I was in love with Josie. You too?
Top Cat - maybe the best cartoon I ever saw as a kid, along with Scooby Do in the Sixties. Officer Dibble and the feline crew were the backdrop to my childhood. Most friends get to call him TC. Oh wow, I could sing the whole theme song. Was it Boss Cat in its native US?
Terrytoons - heard of this but not sure what it is. Telebugs too.
Super Ted - the Welsh yellow wonder bear. Me and the Missus used to watch this when we lived in Llanfairfechan in the early 80's on S4C. A great show. Wonder if Ted spawned any merchandise?
Fingerbobs - Brian Cant? Small animals on his fingers? Cute Seventies kids' show with Brian's hands.
Trap Door - my grandson and his 30-something dad adore this old cartoon. I say cartoon, its stop motion plasticene I think. Like Morph on Vision On. I don't recall Trap Door first time round but I love watching it with Moonbase Junior now. "Don't you open that trap door!". Do you?
Invasion of the Saucer Men - a classic 50's B-movie. Just never had the pleasure. Have you been invaded?
Ed Wood - a film starring James Woods I think but again its passed me by. Being a Woodsy myself am I missing something?
Bubba Ho Tep - I've heard Bruce 'Ash' Campbell stars in this horror spoof but I've not seen it. You readers?
Vampyr - an early, very early vampire film from Germany I think. Covered in all the horror books I ever devoured from being a little monster but somehow I avoided it. I should do something about it shouldn't I?
Man Alive - I remember the brilliant rock theme tune, Classical Gas I think, but not the show. Was it like Panorama, which is amazingly still going?
Nationwide - this must have been a regional news show with... Frank Burke is in my mind. What's in yours?
Woodentops/Bill and Ben - I get these mixed up. In fact all I can see and hear are Bill and Ben in their wobbly pots and their mate Weed saying her name a lot. Are they related?
Watch with Mother/ Andy Pandy - again, I meld/ weld these two. Andy wore blue stripey clown pyjamas and a hat I remember, sort of silky looking. I remember feeling sad when he waved bye bye. Maybe I had to go to bed then. Watch With Mother? I hope I did. You?
Jackanory - a staple of my childhood. Those wonderful tales read by the cream of the Sixties and Seventies TV crowd. Not a single story has remained in my head but I loved the telling. Did you?
Sesame Street - another main food group of my youth, my Missus's youth and my daughter's too, all in different and evolving forms. I adored the Count, Big Bird, the grouch in the dustbin and of course Cookie Monster. My Missus and Daughter, who watched it in Europe, loved a character called Samson. Did you visit Sesame Street in your neck of the woods?
Clapperboard - the original Film review for kids. Was the guy called Kelly or something. A great Kids show and like Newsround, different and informative. I've grown to love movies above all other media. Howasabout you?
The Krypton Factor - an 80's obstacle game show I think. I recall it most when me and the Missus stumbled across its abandoned assault course somewhere deep in the Lancashire countryside. is that possible?
The Angry New York Pigeons - this isn't its name but says what happens. New York pigeons meets Goodfellas. In fact, was it called Goodfeathers? I was an adult when I saw this in the 90's maybe? Hilarious!
Pork Butts and Taters - me and my daughter adored this show when she was little. It may have had another name?
Talespin - another of little Miss Woodsy my daughter's faves. Lots of cartoon capers in a plane in South America is what I recall.
Lenny the Lion - an old puppet and handler type show like Sooty. Lenny was an affable cat and may have promoted Trebor in TV ads too?
Potty Time - the genius of Goon Michael Bentine burst through in this mad slice of explosive puppet zaniness. I thought it was fantastic and funny. Did you?
Road Runner - yes, the rapid desert bird avoiding the various ACME- supplied traps of Wile.E. Coyote. The stuff of my childhood for sure. Beep beep! You too?
Dempsey and Makepeace - no idea.
Escape Into Night/ The Changes - apparently excellently scary kids TV from the early Seventies, I must have been listening to my Bay City Rollers records! Never seen them. Anyone?
Taz - the crazy cartoon Tasmanian devil that spun wildly when provoked. I howled when I saw it in the 80's? 90's?
Softly Softly/ Z cars - old British crime dramas in black and white for monochrome evenings. My folks' watched them so I did too now and then I reckon. When my Dad got a Z car - a Zephyr Six - I thought it was the batmobile! Do you recall these shows?
Edgar Wallace Mysteries - I recall these being really creepy when I was a kid in the Sixties. It must have been the last thing I watched before bed at some point. The opening involved a tinkly tune, foggy incense and a bead curtain opening I recall but I could be wrong. I know its on now on TV so I should watch it but I'm scared!
Onedin line is supposed to be set in Liverpool, but it was filmed in cornwall/devon/gloucester docks. Peter Gilmore played Onedin. I watched the first few series, but eventually gave up.
ReplyDeleteThe Lotus Eaters I remember watching but I have no idea what it was about.
Top Cat was Boss Cat over here in UK. Some stupid copyright wrangle I seem to remember yet the intro song stayed as "Top Cat". Great fun from TC and the gang.
"Flobalobalob" was about the most intelligent thing to be uttered by Bill and Ben, and of course "Weèeeeeeed" by Weed but again I dont remember what they got up to in their pots.
Loved Z cars (the theme tune is playing in my head right now), tis one of the few progs I remember back to the days of b&w. Was it Peter Ellis who was the Sarge?
So it was Boss cat here. I really don't remember that. Ha ha, flobalobalob made me laugh. That's just what Bill and Ben burbled every show!
DeleteTOP CAT was a British brand cat food so the BBC changed the show name to BOSS CAT. The show was a cartoon version of The Phil Silvers TV show where he played Sgt. Bilko.
ReplyDeleteActor John Slater from Z Cars was a customer at the same store where we both bought pipe tobacco in the 60's. He would shop on his way home from the studios still wearing his TV make up.
A cat food! Thanks Terran. That's cleared that up. I don't smoke but if I did I'dwant to smoke a pipe. You just don't see them anymore. I remember a nice Z Cars plastic toy car that was available at the time.
DeleteEd Wood made cheapo movies in Hollywood in the 1950s and early 1960s. His most famous movie is probably the stinker known as "Plan 9 from Outer Space," which by the way was Bela Lugosi's last film.
ReplyDeleteThe Ed Wood biopic is a wonderful love letter to 50s Hollywood from Tim Burton with the (nowadays reprehensible) Johnny Depp as Ed. Well worth a look!
DeleteThanks. I've seen Plan 9. Tor Johnson and the amazing vampirella lady, who's name I forget. Its hardly the worst film ever made. I will check out Ed Wood one day Looey.
DeleteThe Onedin Line (1971-80), 19th Century seafaring tales. Sea Captain James Onedin wants to start his own shipping line, but the owner of the ship he wants will only let him have the vessel if James also takes the old boy's daughter as his wife. Dad really wants to get rid of her, and James really wants the ship. Peter Gilmore was the man with the sideburns.
ReplyDeleteJosie and the Pussy Cats was followed by Josie and the Pussy Cats in Outer Space. I liked the drummer, Melody.
Andy Pandy, a puppet, was one of the first shows I can remember on TV in NZ. But it dated back to the 1950s in Britain.
Sesame Street was on, I think starting in the 1970s in NZ ? Oscar the Grouch lived in a trash can (rubbish bin).
Dempsey and Makepeace (1985-86) was a lot like The Professionals - plenty of gun battles and car chases, but with male and female cops. Tough American cop Lieutenant Dempsey is from New York, but is sent to Britain, as the bad guys want his head. Sergeant Harriet 'Harry' Makepeace is upper class British (did she have a title ?). Good fun, the usual kill-joys complained about all the violence. They are paired up in a special Police unit called SI10, a bit like CI5 in The Professionals. There was a set of die-cast vehicles from the show.
The British police series Z Cars lasted from 1962 to 1978. Spin-offs included Softly, Softly, and Barlow. I think the term Z Car referred to a vehicle equipped with a radio. The plastic model might be by Fairylight. There was also a die-cast model by Spot-On, and much, much later one by Corgi.
There was a 1965 movie called The Sandpiper, with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Is this the one you remember ?
Most of the others I do not recall, so I doubt they made it to NZ.
Great info Paul. Thanks. So a Z car had a radio. i thought they were all Zephyrs but that's just me!
DeleteThe actor who played Bela Lugosi in 'Ed Wood', and won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in that role, was Martin Landau, otherwise known as Commander John Koenig in 'Space 1999'.
ReplyDeleteReally! What a great role to play Mish. So it was an oscar winning film? Wow!
DeleteZ cars, some later Softly Softly and the Saucer Men film are on Youtube, if you want to rediscover them.
ReplyDeleteCheers Andy!
DeleteFrank Bough presented Nationwide. A well respected presenter. He presented Grandstand, a Saturday must in the sixties. Horse racing, wrestling, football, winter sports, track and field. You name it they probably had it on at some stage. I even remember roller derby bouts. Not sure if was ITV though.
ReplyDeleteZ Cars-what a show for actors starting out. Peter Ellis, Brian Blessed, Frank Winsor, Stratford Johns, Colin Welland Even Leonard Rossiter, Ian McShane and Sally Gleeson had parts
Frank Bough! Of course! Alas I was never a sports fan Khusru, unlike my Dad. I left the room when Grandstand and World of Sport were on. For me that was the signal that Saturday morning Kids TV was over! It lasted until my Dad did the Pools and then normal telly resumed.
DeleteBill and Ben and Andy Pandy for sure.
ReplyDeleteBTW-On a live recording at Christmas/New Year of Lindisfarne in the early seventies they play a medley of tunes and one is the Z Car theme, the boozy crowd erupt into boos
ReplyDeleteHa ha. I saw Lindisfarne in Wakefield about 25 years ago.
DeleteClapperboard was presented by Chris Kelly , who went on to present Food and Drink.
ReplyDeleteIt was a kids film review show on ITV in the 70s, but often had behind the scenes pieces, such as one that I particularly recall, about the filming on set of The Land That Time Forgot.
Not to be confused with Screen Test, which was a movie based obsrevational quiz show.
Screen Test! Another one I'd forgotten about. Was that John Craven?
DeleteWell my televiewing on a saturday morning is sorted for the next few months. Talking Pictures are running a Saturday Morning Picture Show. The Lone Ranger followed by Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe , then a Superman cartoon from 1941 that I've never seen before. Next week more of the same and Popeye too! I dont know when these were last on tv (I remember Flash being on during the low 70s), so I'm in heaven watching these again!
ReplyDeleteSounds amazing Timmy. I will have to have a gander too!
DeleteThe pigeons you reference, Goodfethers, was a reoccurring skit on the Animaniacs (a great cartoon that also had Pinky and the Brain)
ReplyDeleteAh, thanks Dave. I loved Pinky and the Brain too! next week I'll take over the woooooorrld! ha ha
DeleteScreen Test was presented by Michael Rod, who went on to Tommorrows World, I believe.
ReplyDelete