Another Lockdown's making me ponder much more than usual and even more cartoons and telly are surfacing through the house-bound fog! Howsabout.....
1. Wait till Your Father Gets Home: I can still hear the theme tune of this US toon but I've no idea what the plot was. Sort of reminds me the later Simpsons! Remember this old show?
2. Crystal Tips and Alistair: I recall this being animated in a shaky style as if they were simply moving bits of paper. Crystal's voice was sort of croaky I think. What was Alistair?
3. The Three Muskateers: Oh Wow, I adored this US cartoon. I assume it was Hanna Barbera, who probably influenced me much more than Disney as a kid. You too?
4. Mr. Ben: I think this tailor stepped through a mirror and became someone else, a bit like Stars in theor Eyes ..."Tonight Matthew!". Did Mr. Ben have adventures?
5. "We don't do duvets" was a catchphrase used in a launderette by one of two zany human characters in a live action show in the Eighties. They played guitar a lot and sometimes dressed as hippies. Any ideas?
6. Hong Kong Phooey: I loved anything to do with Kung Fu in the early Seventies and this was kickin! No idea if Phooey had an enemy and I always get this show mixed up with Inch High Private Eye! Any insights readers?
7. Woobinda: I reckon this was about flying vets but that's all I can recall, 'cos Daktari pops into my head as soon as I start to concentrate! I adored my die-cast Daktari Landrover and the toy figures! Do you know Woobinda?
8. Please Sir! When I think back the kids in this TV show seem really mature and savvy for High School kids. Were they much older actors? I think I was in love with some of the girls! The teacher, John Alderton? was a good actor and played a great part. Did you like Please Sir?
9. Timeslip: all I can see when I think of this kids' sci-fi show is a kid with specs on and a thick wolly polo neck. What was it about?
10. My daughter watched a kids' show in the early Nineties about a dog that was really a human. No idea what it was called but she loved it and its catchy theme tune. Any ideas?
Where to start? Wait till your father, i think was a camp 70 sitcom wit Patrick Glover as an ineffective parent. Crystal Tips was Yellow Submarine type stop motion drawn animation of a girl with rainbow hair and her dog. Mr Ben, similar style of animation about a salariman who nipped into a shop during his lunchbreak and stepped into a world of new characters. Woobinda Animal Doctor, cross between Skippy and Daktari in a plane, Please Sir! John Aldreton as a bumbling teacher in charge of a class of sex crazed teens, Timeslip - that spotty gerk kid from Penda’s Fen, finds a time dilation in an old government bunker and slips into the remote future with his siter ‘Icebox sequence’ and other time periods too. Great theme music.
ReplyDeleteAn insightful resume Wote. Thanks. I hope other readers remember these shows too like you do. Who dod that Yellow Submarine stop motion? Was it the Monty Python guy?
Delete'Wait Till Your Father Gets Home' was a US cartoon/sitcom series loosely based on a sanitised version of live action US 60s comedy show 'All In The Family' (which, in turn, was based on the UK's 'Till Death Us Do Part'). It was arguably an earlier, gentler version of 'The Simpsons'.
ReplyDeleteWote is thinking of British 70s sitcom 'Father Dear Father', which starred Patrick Cargill as the ineffectual father.
Thats the one Mish. I was never a fan really!
DeleteBlimey, Till Death Do Us Part! My parents loved it! Una Stubbs and Alf Garnet, the original Royale Family! For years I though Alf said to his son in Law. "You stupid Skarskit!" Only later did I realise his son in law was from Liverpool! He's Cherie Blair's Dad isn't he?
DeleteWhat? Warren Mitchell is Tony Blair's father-in-law?!
DeleteNo Paul, it was Tony Booth that was Tony Blair's In-Law. Tony Booth had 8 daughters, one of which was Cherie. Una Stubbs is still alibve. I suppose her other famous role was Aunt Sally in Worzel Gummidge d'ya reckon?
DeleteI place Mr Benn high up in my list of favorite kids tv programmes, its up there with The Clangers, Bagpuss, Magic Roundabout and The Herbs. Wearing his pin stripe suit, white shirt, tie and bowler hat he goes into a shop (was it a fancy dress store?) "As if by magic, a shopkeeper appeared" and gave him a costume to change into, whereupon he goes through a magic door to have an adventure. I remember him as a spaceman, in scuba gear, a wizard and in a safari suit. Great fun.
ReplyDeleteTimeslip I saw only a little of , but I do have the accompanying book adaptation which, for some reason only covers about half the series. The only bit I remember seeing on tv involved the time portal shifting and the kids ended up crawling through someones fireplace.
Hong Kong Phooey "Number 1 superguy" goes into that same deep pit as Double Deckers. Give me Wacky Races anytime !
I might have to catch up with Timeslip. Sounds interesting. That fancy dress shop for Mr. Benn's changeovers rimgs a bell. It would explain why they had so many different costumes!
Delete'Woobinda: Animal Doctor' was just as Wote describes.
ReplyDeleteAs kids, we used to jokingly call it 'Woodbinder : Tree Surgeon'
Ha ha, like it Mish. I might have had a Woobinda annual. I definately had Daktari annuals. Classic Christmas gifts those annuals. Don't think I got any at any other time of year!
Delete3 Muskateers I think was one of the cartoons intercut with either Banana Splits or Double Deckers. Along with Shazam, Arabian Knights (size of an elephant!) and that show about the family innthe jeep who shrunk themselves down with a portable ray machine and got into a pickle in the garden with giant ants etc. Hong King Phooey was of course one of a long line of HB cartoons like Josie and the Pussycats, Funky Phantom etc
ReplyDeleteI remember that cartoon about the shrunken family!Don't remember its name however.One episode had them fleeing from the now gigantic family cat.My problem with that was that the grass was taller than the cat,the cat should have towered above the grass.Thats how my then five year old brain worked.
DeleteIts obviously not Land of the Giants. What was that show Brian?
DeleteI always get Shazam the superhero mixed up with Shazzan, the cartoon where they bring two halves of a ring together I think. Banana Splits was childhood in itself!
DeleteI remember the two daughters on" Wait til your father gets home"were liberal minded;one being the free spirited hippie type,and the other being a protest-sign toting collegiate type.Hong Kong Phooey was voiced by Scatman Crothers,Dick Halorann of "The Shining"fame.
ReplyDeleteGreat info Brian! Ta very much. Scatman Crothers! Wow! What a voice! I love the scene in the Overlook Hotel were Scatman describes everything in the pantry. 56 hams, 92 barrels of beer, 101 sacks of chilli powder and so on. Class!
DeleteI don't think any of those beat Dogtanian and the three Muskehounds, I remember some, Mr Ben, Wait 'till your father gets home and Please Sir! Time Slip I'm not sure about.
ReplyDeleteDo you remember Timpo and Swoppets figures?
ha ha, Dogtainian, pure Genius Khusru! Yes, Timpo and Swoppets. You could change their parts couldn't you? I adored the cowboys and Indians. They even had tiny pistols and holsters! Is that right?
DeleteYes. Exactly. Not going cheap on eBay
Delete5. is Trevor and Simon on Going Live, find them on YouTube, we still refer to anyone from the rave era as "Moon Monkey's" in the barbershop- MJ
ReplyDeleteTrevor and Simon! Of Course! They were classic MJ! Was Going Live their moment in the sun? Wonder of they're still going?
DeleteHong Kong Phooey, as I remember it was a dog who was a bit of a klutz. His day job was to sweep out the police station and he would jump into a filing cabinet and emerge as Hong Kong Phooey when need arose.
ReplyDeleteGood memory Unknown [who are you?]. Sounds like Superman. From klutz to awesome hero by way of an office! Number one super guy! Everyone was kung fu fighting back then, even the Goodies!
DeleteThe Three Musketeers was part of The Banana Splits.
ReplyDeleteMr Benn (that seems to be the correct spelling) rings a very vague bell. Based on a book character.
Loved Hong Kong Phooey. Yes, he was a Janitor at the police station, and turns into a superhero. He was a dog.
Timeslip was a great series. The boy was Simon, and the girl was Liz. They discovered a portal of some kind that allowed them to travel in time. First back to WW2, and then into the future. Not sure how many different stories there were, but at least two, perhaps more.
It was Father, Dear Father where Patrick Cargill had two teenage daughters, a scatter-brained housekeeper, and a large dog.
So you saw Timeslip as well Paul. I'm struggling to remember it at all. I will have to watch an episode. Just looked up Mr. Benn and yeah, you're right, it was a book first by kids author David McKee. Amazingly he created Elmer the Patchwork Elephant, which my daughter loved as a book in the Eighties. He first published Elmer in 1968! if you go into a modern bookshop Elmer will be somewhere in the kids section, probably lots of Elmer merchandise as well. Elmer's big!
DeleteTimeslip. I think it was the second story, the one set in the future (which of course is now ancient history) where they meet up with future versions of themselves. There was a man who was helping them to a degree, but I think he turned out to be a robot, not a human ? Sorry if that is a bit vague, it is a long time since I have seen this series. It has been released on DVD, but I do not have this.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of Elmer the Patchwork Elephant.
Cheers Paul.
DeleteI'vd been tempted to buy the DVD set of Timeslip, but its pretty pricey. Twas £47 the last time I was in HMV (nearly a year ago now, what with this lockdown business), and, as with a lot of 70's stuff, alot of it got wiped. So the DVDs only have 1 or 2 eps in colour, the rest is b&w. At least its all there tho'.
DeleteDont remember much about Timeslip, but, as I recall, the future (I'm guessing the 1990s) was cold and frozen, thanks to a Global Winter!
ReplyDeleteAm I wrong ?
Dunno Mish but it sounds like they knew what was coming!
Delete