Many apologies to my lovely Blogville neighbours for not coming round to visit much these days but things at work are stupidly busy and I've just been getting home and going straight to bed.
I've also got no time to write anything, but I was talking to a friend in the Colonies a little while ago and discovered that the TV of our respective childhoods came from two completely different planets.
Mine revolved around "Watch With Mother" - featuring such awesomely freakish wonders as The Woodentops, Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men, Andy Pandy and Muffin The Mule.
So today, in lieu of a post, I have been wallowing in nostalgia for the vanished world of my childhood and staring - frankly open-mouthed with horror - at these clips of long-vanished shows I loved.
Creepy beyond all measure (especially Andy Pandy) these will raise a smile from mum and Phil - and probably Lynn, who will be twenty-eight on Monday and of course cannot remember this stuff, and hopefully they will explain a lot about me to my Colonial chums.
And of course, they save me from having to write a post.
First up comes the wonderful innocence of The Woodentops, then the sheer imbecility of Bill and Ben, followed by a whole episode of shudderingly scary Andy Pandy and a final clip of Muffin The Mule (an act legal here until a few years ago).
What the fuck was going on with kids' TV back then?
Scary, creepy puppets and plummy-voiced upper class women and awful, awful songs.
It's a wonder I'm not in therapy.
The freak show starts here.
Enjoy!
28 comments:
Understood. Sorry you've been so busy.
I can't watch those clips. I might have gotten over my fear of children's television.
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you
may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;-
And this maiden she lived with no
other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was
more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee-
With a loved that the winged seraphs in Heaven
Coveted her and me.
.
.
.
.
.
Edgar Poe
I watched bits of each of these clips, and they're all freaky beyond belief! This explains soooooo much. I plan on watching these before I go to bed tonight, to see what kind of strange dreams I can conjure up. I just might have to find some video clips to post of the crap I watched on TV as a kid.
Scary. They make me feel much better about growing up on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain. I looked up the shows from my childhood, and they are really not bad. Of course they are from the 70's. That might matter. I don't remember the 60's shows.
Andy Pandy's only got one head!
I couldn't resist. I had to check one out. Now I'm going to have nightmares forever.
katie had the same idea as me, sugar! now, i've got to find crusader rabbit xoxo
Ooooh thank you thank you! lol. I wish I WERE going to be 28 on Monday. Alas, I remember all this all too well! Ahhhhhh I adored them all. I do have an Andy Pandy vid actually, but I no longer have a vid player so.....
What a treat that was darling Dive. xxxx
I wish I WAS. Doh. It's clearly age.........:(
Ah, happy days, Dive - happy days! Children's television today is far too geared to making them into abhorrently cheerful/cynical consumers! I loved the weird worlds of Andy Pandy, The Flower Pot Men and The Magic Roundabout - which, from my quasi-adult perspective, all have a touch of the genuinely surreal about them (in the sense of all being "marvellous").
The only book from this period of my childhood that I can recall having the same effect on me was an illustrated collection of Joel Chandler Harris' Br'er Rabbit Tales.
Scary. Kinda like Gumby meets Davey vs. Goliath meets Charlie the unicorn. You must Youtube Charlie the Unicorn.
Is that Muffin's tail or........
Sassy: I didn't have a fear of children'stelevision until I saw these again yesterday.
Now I'm terrified.
Anon: Sweeet.
Katie: I would advise against viewing this kind of thing before going to bed. Look what happened to me!
Vanda: We used to get Eastern European cartoons dubbed into English in the sixties. They were always the coolest cartoons available (except for maybe Tom and Jerry).
Sassy: You deserve nightmares for that! Hee hee.
Crusader Rabbit, Savannah? Is that some kind of cartoon about the rabbits of St.John getting their asses kicked by Salah al Din?
I only wish it were …
xoxox
Lynn: I'm so glad you enjoyed the, If you're anything like me they brought a mixture of wonderful memories and unutterably horror.
Lucio: The Magic Roundabout was truly trippy!
I've got Brer Rabbit books, too. Wonderful stuff!
Neetzy: I just watched a couple of Charlie The Unicorns on You Tube. Hee hee hee!
Thank you for that.
Phil: I think he's just pleased to see her.
Thank for your short but nice answer. Sorry if It wasn't appropriate. As you had post about childhood and nostalgia,I had thought it was correct. It wasn't.
More,last week,another mistake:I wanted amuse you and began to compare your garden as a sort of
"The Garden of Earthy Delights"of our friend Hieronymus..I have been infortunate!...Ow! Ouch! I have put my foot in It. So,in the future I have to pay attention to not be "un ange qui dérange"in your harem.
More,you are busy as a bee and have no time to answer. So,I have to be sometimes silent.
Have an happy week. Friendly to you.
Anonymous, you have never put your foot in it. Hee hee. I thoroughly enjoy your comments, both here and over at Lucio's.
Yes, I am really busy at the moment and have not got time to spend on the blog but hopefully things will ease soon and I can catch up.
I'm the same, Dive. I don't know how some people get around and visit everyone every day. But I miss you on the days I'm not here.
Andy Pandy crashed my browser. Enough said.
Oh. And Teletubbies. Some things never change.
Hi Vanda! Dive, I sent Vanda! I'm so proud of myself.
Hi, Petrea!
Be thankful that you didn't get to see creepy Andy Pandy. It truly is disturbing stuff.
I do miss not being able to visit everyone; hopefully this work panic will ease off a little after Easter so I can perhaps get back to what once passed for normal.
And thank you so much for the gift of Vanda! Hee hee. She's great.
I never was into Muffin though. Make of that what you will ;)
I don't get around to everyone every day either Petrea, I kind of dip in and out. Stoppit Dive.
You're welcome. She is. Her blog is cool, too, if/when you get the time.
By the way, thanks for telling us when Lynn's birthday is. I knew it was in April, but she never answered my email when I asked her the date. Too modest, is our Lynn.
Speak of the devil, as they say.
Ok. Creepy. A little.
I was telling Liv about this show that I used to watch as a child called Romper Room With Miss Linda. I told her how at the end of the show, she pretended to look through her magic mirror and would say, "I see Billy and Mandy. I see Gregg and Susan!" and so on and so on. Every time I would hear my name, it would just scare the shit right out of me.
She never said my name and it hurt my feelings.
"Do be a 'do-bee,' and don't be a 'don't-bee'." Wasn't that Miss Linda?
lol Petrea I would never knowingly ignore any email of yours, I just hadn't checked it! So - the 50 secrets are out. EEK.
Oh dear, and I thought you and Full had a good childhood... where did I go wrong.. tee hee....
Hee hee Dive! I remember watching Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men and I just had to take a peek at Andy Pandy as that was my father's nickname for me. It's true. He often sang:
Andy Pandy
Sugar and Candy
Went to the beach
And got very Sandy
Well, ok, he wasn't the brightest bulb on the planet.
He and my younger brother are the only ones who call me Andy.
We made the mistake of not thinking about how horrific some of the old classic cartoons are. You know, over time we think everything in the past is fabulous and wonderful. After setting my son loose with a DVD of old cartoons I found myself in a conference with the teacher explaining to her why she really shouldn't jump to any conclusions if she notices my son drawing swastikas during art time. Didn't think I'd be needing to have THAT conversation with a kindergarten teacher!
Lynn: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! YAAAY!
Muffin? In and out? You grow more incorrigible with each passing year, young lady.
Petrea: I've been over to Vanda's blog; it is indeed cool. I've added her to my sidebar and will visit when I can.
Hee hee, re. Lynn!
Maria: Yay! We had our own Romper Room, too. Must've been a franchise. Ours was Miss Rosalynd and there was a huge scandal when "Miss" got preggers and had to quit.
Petrea: Yup. Do be a doo-bee and don't be a don't-bee. What scary memories.
In our version one of the kids would always pee themselves and have to be led away. Hoorah for live TV.
Lynn: It's not 50; just 25 in stereo.
Mum: Now you know!
Mme: What a lovely memory of your dad. You'd make a cute Andy Pandy.
Wemdy: Welcome! That's an awesome post! Hee hee. Kids and parents … sheesh! You get to reach some understanding of one another when your kids are in their forties.
Great, I'm almost 42 and now I'm going to have creepy puppet dreams?
Thanks, thanks a lot.
Eric: You are still young. Believe me, the creepy puppet nightmares get worse as you get older.
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