Saturday Morning's Greatest Hits: Party is a Groovy Thing (1975)

 Now, here's a band I'd never heard of until today.

From 1975, here's The People's Choice with their disco hit, "Party is a Groovy Thing":

Game Time: Bet ya didn't know Shari Lewis knew something about magic, too! (To Tell The Truth, 1977)

 I think you could tell To Tell The Truth was nearing the end of its 1st syndicated run in 1977 when they started doing stunt casting like they did a decade earlier near the end of the CBS run.

In game 1, ventriloquist Shari Lewis introduces viewers to her magician father, Abraham Hurwitz. Lamb Chop introduces moderator Joe Garagiola, and after the game, a little magic trick with father & daughter.

I guess this explains why Shari was cast as Honey Halfwitch in a series of shorts in the 60's, starting her cartoon career.

Saturtainment: The Shoes of Shoe-Cago (Here Comes The Grump, 1969)

 Sentient shoes? In the world of Here Comes The Grump, definitely.

Making it all the more obvious the series was both inspired by, and DePatie-Freleng's audition for, Dr. Seuss' madcap stories, which DFE would begin adapting two years later.

Terry (Jay North, Arabian Knights, ex-Maya, Dennis The Menace) and Princess Dawn end up in the city of Shoe-Cago. Marvin Miller paints the word picture to start.

No rating. Just a public service.

Saturtainment: Doctor Snuggles (1979)

 Time to go across the pond for our next entry.

The first remembrance I have of Doctor Snuggles was that it'd been imported to the US by one of the pay-cable channels in the early 80's. The series had launched in 1979 as a co-production between Dutch & British animation houses until a strike, either in the UK or the Netherlands, forced outsourcing of the animation to Korea and the US (DePatie-Freleng handled the final 6 episodes).

Peter Ustinov voiced the title character, and also served as narrator. Ustinov was no stranger to cartoons having narrated the Babar cartoons.

Following is a sample episode.

No rating. Just a public service.

Saturday Morning Ringside: WWWF All Star Wrestling (1971)

 Vincent J. (Jess) McMahon was never satisfied with 1 syndicated program. He needed to have 2.

In addition to Championship Wrestling, there was also All Star Wrestling, a title used by other promotions in other parts of the country, including the AWA. You'd get the occasional competitive feature match, but most of the hour was loaded with jobber matches, the likes of which you don't see anymore.

From 1978, you'll see 2 former champions, Ivan Koloff and Stan Stasiak, in separate bouts, the latter in the opener vs. Larry Zbyszko. Also on the card is Jerry "Crusher" Blackwell, who would later become a babyface (good guy) in the AWA in the 80's after turning on Sheik Adnan El-Kaissie. Once Blackwell lost a title match vs. then-champ Bob Backlund, he left the 3WF.

Vincent K. McMahon solos on commentary.

Rating: A-. We'll look at the AWA version another day.

Game Time: The Game of Life (2011)

 Hasbro decided to adapt the long running Game of Life into a TV show, which lasted 1 season on the ill-fated, Hasbro-co-run The Hub (now Discovery Family). Unfortunately, 15 years later, it appears as though Hasbro went old school, and wiped most of the episodes, save for this one.

I used to play the board game, which was lots of fun, but some of it got lost in the transition to television, sealing the series' fate.

Rating: B.

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: The World's Fair Affair (Fantastic Voyage, 1968)

 The CMDF are assigned to the World's Fair to intercept foreign saboteurs in this episode of Fantastic Voyage.

Standard fare.

Rating: A-.