Here's an in-show ad from Off to See The Wizard, uncovered by online historian Ira Gallen on his TV Days YouTube channel.
Dorothy (June Foray) brings Scarecrow, Tin Man, & the Cowardly Lion some Curad bandages.
The Stories were a 1-hit wonder with "Brother Louie", which landed them on The Midnight Special in 1973.
Why is it relevant, nearly 50 years later? Mets infielder Luis Guillorme uses the song as his walk-up music.
You've heard by now that Conan O'Brien decided to end his TBS talk show, and is headed over to the network's corporate baby sister, HBO Max, with a new show to debut next year.
O'Brien opened the series finale of Conan on Thursday with a series of short skits, including one that recalls what got him his first talk show gig with NBC in the first place, back when he was a writer for The Simpsons 30 years ago.
Homer Simpson (Dan Castellaneta) drops by to do an interview.......
September marks 40 years since Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends debuted on NBC. Marvel and current corporate parent Disney are marking the occasion with a reboot intended for preschoolers.
Officially, Spidey & His Amazing Friends will bow on Disney Channel & Disney Junior in August, but some short pieces are already available on YouTube. Spidey (Peter Parker), Ghost-Spider (an alternate universe Gwen Stacy), and Spinn (Miles Morales, Marvel's other Spider-Man, given a new code name for this series to avoid confusion), have been repackaged as pre-teens.
Marvel's been down this road before, with Iron Man: Armored Adventures, which was produced for Nickelodeon/Nicktoons several years back. That series de-aged Tony Stark, Jim Rhodes, & Pepper Potts into teenagers. Going further down the age spectrum eliminates any hope of Gwen pursuing relationships with either of her partners, and, yes, there was a time when they were teasing a Miles-Gwen pairing in the books, not too long ago.
Let's take a look at one of those short pieces.
C. H. Greenblatt's latest, Jellystone, debuts on HBO Max in 5 weeks, on July 29. The trailer has been released. Prepare to cringe:
From Sesame Street:
A Muppet band rocks out with "You're Alive". For those of you with concerns about heart issues, this applies to you, too.
Sometime in the 70's, Coleco came up with a bowling game that kids & adults could both play.
However, Bowl-a-Matic 300 didn't survive the decade, despite this choice bit. John Quade, a veteran character actor in movies & television, appeared as the villain challenging the sheriff to a game. Quade appeared in a couple of movies with Clint Eastwood, including "Any Which Way But Loose" and "The Outlaw Josey Wales", and made the rounds of primetime television, including The A-Team, during the course of his career.
After having done commercials for Winston cigarettes, Busch beer, Welch's grape drink, and launching Flintstones vitamins, Hanna-Barbera was commissioned by Aurora in 1969 to help sell a new line of toys, which, unfortunately, save for Skittle Bowl, didn't last very long.
Fred Flintstone & Barney Rubble (Alan Reed & Mel Blanc) host, and introduce the one-off toon band, the New Generation (likely the Mike Curb Congregation or Curb & The Curbstones, since Curb worked on Cattanooga Cats for H-B that same year).
In 2004, Nick at Nite experimented with original, animated fare, mixed into their rerun-centric lineup.
For their first series, they turned to then-respected, now-disgraced icon Bill Cosby, who co-created Fatherhood, based on the book of the same name. The series ran for two seasons of 13 episodes each, 26 total.
Cosby served as an executive producer and writer, and cast Blair Underwood (ex-LA Law) in the lead role of Dr. Arthur Bindlebeep (yep, a Cosby name if there ever was one), and brought in former Cosby Show castmate Sabrina LeBoeuf to co-star.
Following is a sample episode:
We had this up before in its original form, as an episode of Kraft Suspense Theatre. However, that had been deleted twice before, and it's only available now in its feature film form.
Universal reissued the episode, "Once Upon a Savage Night", as the feature film, "Nightmare in Chicago", produced and directed by Robert Altman, and starring Charles McGraw, Ted Knight, Robert Ridgely, and Philip Abbott. More on this at The Land of Whatever.
It has been seven years since the last new episode of Johnny Test had aired. Come July 16, that all changes, as Johnny and his family return, this time finding a home on Netflix.
Billed as season 7, it's more of the same oddball comedy-adventure that previously aired on Kids' WB!/CW and Cartoon Network here in the US. Looks as though the entire cast is returning as well.
While Johnny Test has been a labor of love for cast & crew, fans have been divided over the years, finding Johnny to be a tad too annoying for their tastes. Seems even frenemy Eugene, aka Bling-Bling Boy, is more popular than Johnny is.
Here's the season 7 trailer:
Mumbly (Don Messick) gets shanghai'd by Inspector Shnooker (John Stephenson) when his latest case involves a ghost, namely, Fatbeard (Messick again). You know the drill.
We've talked before about how ABC used to have children's programming on Sundays. There used to be a full block of programming, just like on Saturdays, albeit smaller, and the cartoons were usually reruns shifted over from the Saturday block. ABC News contributed by producing a series of live-action programs with an educational bent from 1962-81. We've previously looked at Make a Wish and Animals, Animals, Animals, as well as the variety series, Kids Are People, Too. Now, however, it's past time to go back to the beginning.
Producer Jules Power came over from NBC (Watch Mr. Wizard), and developed Discovery, which anchored the bottom of the block from 1962-71, until it was succeeded by Make a Wish. Comedian Frank Buxton was the original host, paired with Virginia Gibson. Buxton left after four seasons (1962-6), replaced by newsman Bill Owen.
I do recall seeing some episodes from the Owen/Gibson era. None of Buxton's episodes are currently available, presumably lost to the mists of time.
Discovery's logo bears some resemblance to the one for Kenner's Spirograph drawing apparatus. Go figure. Anyway, the show covered a wide range of topics in its nine seasons. This sample, from Bill Owen's YouTube channel, covers "The Constitution":
Invincible was an Image Comics mainstay for 15 years (2003-18), totaling 144 issues. Coming from Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, Invincible finds new life in an animated series on Amazon Prime. The series has already been renewed for 2 more seasons after the 8-episode first season dropped.
Mark Grayson (Steven Yuen, ex-The Walking Dead) is a high school senior whose father, Nolan, aka Omni-Man (J. K. Simmons), is the most powerful man on the planet. Literally. Kirkman designed Omni-Man and the Guardians of The Globe as his analogues to Superman & the Justice League, but with less than traditional goals in mind. As the series begins, Mark is being bullied, but that will soon change as his powers begin to gestate and emerge.
I wouldn't try to compare this to the current live-action Superman & Lois, which also deals with a super-offspring just getting his powers, as this is far more graphic, violent, and in your face. The show's cast also includes Mark Hamill (of course), Sandra Oh, and another Walking Dead vet in Ross Marquand, plus, Oscar winner Mahershala Ali will be heard from during the season.
Let's check the trailer. Parental discretion is advised.
New Cartoon Network honcho Tom Ascheim is making plenty of waves.
On the heels of Mindy Kaling's take on Velma, and animated reboots of Batman & Superman, Ascheim is turning toward the Looney Tunes for another project.
The Tweety Mysteries (working title) pairs the iconic canary with a human podcaster named Sydney to solve mysteries. While Ascheim invoked the Nickelodeon produced "Harriet The Spy" as an inspiration, the fact that this is a live-action/animation hybrid, we must also consider "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" (which Tweety appeared in, oh, by the way).
Stay tooned.
When you think of the Fleischer brothers' body of work, what comes to mind? Popeye. Betty Boop. Superman. Out of The Inkwell.
But before Popeye could make his color debut, the Fleischers introduced Hunky & Spunky, mother & son burros introduced in a self-titled, Oscar nominated short in 1938. There would be a few more over the course of three years (1938-41), before Hunky was retired. Spunky would later appear periodically, including guesting in a pair of Casper shorts for Famous Studios, Paramount's successor to the Fleischers.
From 1940, here's "You Can't Shoe a Horse Fly", or how horse flies can easily mistake donkeys for horses.....!
Miles Laboratories and Hanna-Barbera made sure to educate parents about Flintstones vitamins in many of their earliest commercials.
This 1974 spot has Fred (Alan Reed) and Wilma (Jean VanderPyl) in teaching mode. William Schallert (ex-The Patty Duke Show, Dobie Gillis) is the narrator.
After Netflix rebooted She-Ra, Princess of Power into She-Ra & The Princesses of Power, which recently ended a 5 "season", 2 year run, She-Ra's brother is finally stepping back into the spotlight.
Masters of The Universe: Revelation, due to drop next month, brings back He-Man and the Masters, who've now been scattered in a storyline that is a direct sequel to the original 1983-5 Filmation-produced series that featured now-iconic creators as Paul Dini and J. Michael Straczynski.
Filmmaker, part-time actor, and all around geek Kevin Smith is at the helm for the new series.
While He-Man and friends have recently appeared in comics produced by DC, including a cross-over with the company's Injustice books, the Eternia storyline moves to Dark Horse with a 5 issue miniseries, written by Smith, and due to debut in time for the debut on Netflix, set for Friday, July 23.
Check the trailer:
Maybe Smith can do us all a favor and have Adam & Teela hook up after all this time.......
Now we know who will be in the booth with Dwayne Johnson for "DC's League of Super-Pets" (known as the Legion of Super-Pets in the books back in the Silver Age), and this is a doozy.
We know the People's Movie Star will voice Krypto. Frequent co-star Kevin Hart (i.e. "Jumanji") will be Ace, the Bat-Hound (prepare to cringe). The cast also includes John Krasinski (ex-The Office), Natasha Lyonne, Kate McKinnon (Saturday Night Live), and Keanu Reeves, who already has claimed his geek card by co-authoring his first comic book, BRZRKR, which debuted a few weeks back.
The movie debuts May 22, 2022, in theatres, and likely also on HBO Max.
From The Weird Al Show:
A group of miners breaks into Al's home, and chaos follows.
Plus, Al takes a page from Bill Cosby, and we have a show-within-a-show, with the adventures of Fatman ("Weird" Al Yankovic, based on his 1987 song, "Fat"). Michael McKean, David L. Lander, Clarence Clemons, and Martha Quinn guest star in "Mining Accident":
From season 2 of The Littles:
Seeing a human baby piques Lucy's curiosity, and when Henry (Jimmy Keegan) is tasked to babysit to child, Lucy & Tom offer to help, with disastrous consequences.
Plus: Lucy, Dinky, Tom, & Henry build an elevator out of a milk carton. ABC began soliciting ideas from viewers beginning with season 2.
Here's "The Little Babysitters":
1991 was a transitional year for NBC's Saturday morning lineup. By the end of the season, their freshman animated series (i.e. Yo, Yogi!, Pro-Stars, Wishkid) would all be cancelled, and the network would go all-in on a live-action lineup, built around Saved by The Bell.
This was also the year for an experimental spin-off from the early morning Friday Night Videos, which the network was tinkering with. Saturday Morning Videos had the cushy slot behind Bell, but few remember the show because it was a ratings bomb. It lost viewers from Bell.
There are no complete episodes. Just selected segments mixed with commercials. NBC primetime personalities served as VJ's for the series. In this sample, Raven-Symone, then on The Cosby Show, serves as co-host. Raven just stares into the camera to read her cue cards, it's clear.
Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, & Goofy are "Clock Cleaners", a legendary short in its own right, currently available for streaming on Disney+.
The Swiss masked troupe Mummenschanz made one of their first American appearances on Sesame Street before appearing on The Muppet Show during that series' 1st season. The group had been founded in 1972, but we don't have an exact date of this tape, in which two of the performers demonstrate "different" & "same", with some children commenting off-camera:
This time, we're checking out The Midnight Special from 1980, and Olivia Newton-John, with the first single from the "Xanadu" soundtrack, "Magic":
