Archive for the ‘television’ category
January 10, 2010
– – Gumby’s creator Art Clokey died Friday at the age of 88. The shape-shifting little green flexible guy grew out of a student project Clokey produced at the University of Southern California in the early 1950’s called Gumbasia, which led to shorts featuring Gumby and his horse friend Pokey, who seemed to be a practical, reality-based equine.
Gumby’s swooping head was based on the cowlick hairdo of his father, and Clokey’s wife suggested that he give Gumby the body of a gingerbread man. Gumby eventually became one of the most familiar toys of all time, although his creator didn’t allow merchandising for seven years after Gumby was on the air, not wanting parents to think they were exploiting their children. Clokey also created the moralizing and often satirized claymation duo, “Davey and Goliath” for the Lutheran Church, using the money gained to help bring a Gumby series back to television in the 1960’s. “Moral Orel” on Adult Swim is one such satire of the Lutheran Church contracted work, described as “Davey and Goliath meets South Park.”
Eddie Murphy brought a surge in Gumby’s popularity in the 1980’s with his send-up of the character on Saturday Night Live, who Murphy depicted as profane and cigar-smoking. Clokey, however, said he enjoyed Eddie Murphy’s portrayal.
As Eddie Murphy’s character might have said , “My creator dead?- -Dammit!” (pardon my French…) 😉
Categories: animals, furry, furry heroes, television
Tags: "Gumby" Creator dies, Gumby and Pokey
Comments: 2 Comments
January 4, 2010
– – Elmer Fudd has always been the perfect patsy for Bugs Bunny; although the outcome of their encounters is a given and you know Elmer couldn’t possibly hurt Bugs, you have to admire the rabbit’s artful and leisurely baiting of the incompetent, bumbling hunter.–Just sit back, relax, and watch a true master at work!
The great classics never really get old, and the woodland encounters of this duo are timeless, playing as well in the present as they did decades ago. Besides being hopelessly inept, Elmer is cursed with a speech impediment, engineered back in the days when Porky Pig stuttered painfully and it was not politically incorrect.- -Well, Elmer still has trouble with his /r/ sound, so “rabbit season” comes out “wabbit season.”– – We wouldn’t have it any other way! But after being coached and corrected several times on the /r/ sound, Elmer is spent, stomping off with complaints that the director is “getting on his nerves!.”
As part of Geico’s “Rhetorical Question” series, it’s good to see the mighty hunter again. Just be “vewy, vewy quiet, he’s hunting wabbits!”- –Looney Tunes forever!!!
Categories: animals, Brilliant but twisted, cartoons, television
Tags: Elmer Fudd Geico commercial
Comments: 2 Comments
January 2, 2010
– – U.S. TV hostess Ellen Degeneres has been named Woman of the Year by PETA (People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals) for her work in raising awareness of their campaigns promoting a lifestyle friendly to nature. Tim Gunn was named Man of the Year. PETA said that it gave Ellen its award for being vegan and championing a meat and dairy-free lifestyle, as well as for some of the guests featured on her show.
“The message that animals must be treated kindly and respectfully has reached scores of people, and many of them have changed their buying habits, all because Gunn and DeGeneres spoke up for the voiceless,” said PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk.
…and that’s a good thing!
Categories: animal rights, animals, furry causes, furry perspectives, television
Tags: Ellen DeGeneres, PETA Woman of the Year
Comments: 4 Comments
December 12, 2009
– – He ain’t cute, cuddly, or good-looking. It’s not even a great fursuit. But you gotta love this guy, and these commercials!
It’s the d-Con Dinner Guest or “Get Out” commercial series, featuring an uninvited guest of the rodent persuasion as he gets into homes where he’s simply not wanted. In one episode, this life-size, scruffy-looking mouse is confronted by the female homeowner, who sneers, “You disgust me!” to our hero. He’s not shaken; “Prove it!,” he counters in a deadpan monotone.
Maybe you wouldn’t want this guy in your house either, but I’d have him in for coffee and a Danish…he’s refreshing, furry, and a wonderful antihero!- -What a great counter to the usual cutesy mice we see!- –Bravo!!!- –As Soupy Sales would have had it, “Let’s all do the Mouse!”
– -Two paws up for this world-weary, unflappable rodent!
Categories: Brilliant but twisted, cool things, furries, furry, humor, television
Tags: d-Con Dinner Guest, d-Con Mouse, Furry Commercials, Mouse
Comments: 5 Comments
December 4, 2009
– – Stonehenge is freakin’ awesome!- -I’d like to be buried there…preferably after I’m dead, of course. A recent MysteryQuest episode considered the purpose of Stonehenge, advancing a theory that sound reverberations inside the ancient English circle of stones induced a trance-like state among participants in rituals held there. Other theories promoted in the past have considered Stonehenge as a shrine to a god, an ancient solar calendar, or even a sacrificial altar for an unknown pagan religion.
Now we all enjoy throbbing bass rhythms, and the dudes in England 4,000 years ago were no exception! Wailing on drums around the perimeter of Stonehenge reverbs nicely against those ancient stone monoliths, and grooving on this boots up the old alpha rhythms in your brain, which has been shown neurologically to promote slipping into a trance-like state; think Woodstock 2000 B.C.! Pretty soon you think you’re rapping with a deity, or at least some dead ancestors.–Far out!–Works for me!
The notion of human sacrifices was discounted by MysteryQuest as an infrequent occurrence, although remains of one poor devil on site called “the archer” revealed that he was used as a human pincushion and punctured with quite a few arrows; that could ruin your whole day!
The episode was in my opinion one of the better ones of this series so far, and I’m up to form a drum circle at Stonehenge if you are…have your people call mine… 😉
Categories: historical perspectives, mysteries, television, unexplained
Tags: Stonehenge, Stonehenge on MysteryQuest
Comments: 4 Comments
November 30, 2009
– – Kid’s shows used to have special effects that weren’t terribly special. Take, for example, Diver Dan, a cheesy black and white show from the early 1960’s that was shot through a large fish tank with the human cast simply on the other side of the tank acting out their scenes! Diver Dan wore a clunky old-style deep sea diving suit, and talked to anthropomorphic fish-marionettes that floated by.- -Here, Diver Dan is shown with the affable Finley.
Some of the fish characters were a hoot, however, and included the evil Baron Barracuda with his sidekick, Trigger Fish, who was usually shown smoking a cigarette! Don’t ask me how he managed to get it to stay lit underwater…they were innocent and politically incorrect times, anyhow… 
Categories: animals, scalies, television
Tags: animal-based kiddie shows, Diver Dan
Comments: 2 Comments
November 17, 2009
– – The original Number Six from the ground-breaking series The Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan, died in January this year at the age of 80.
The 1960’s television world boasted some of the best and the worst, ranging from the heights of Star Trek and The Twilight Zone to the depths of…say, The Cowsills. The original Prisoner show was a heady mix of geopolitics, sci-fi, and psychedelia that even The Beatles loved…a mix of Kafka and Orwell that sadly only lasted for 17 episodes but left an enduring impact…
…and Patrick McGoohan was one of the great ones, cool, tough, and cerebral all at the same time!
Categories: cool things, television
Tags: Patrick McGoohan, The Prisoner
Comments: 4 Comments
November 14, 2009
– – Way back in 1967, a surreal series debuted on television called The Prisoner which was part spy series and part sci-fi drama. The British cult hit featured none less than Patrick McGoohan playing a character called Six who was held captive in a bizarre place called The Village, a community led by a man called (- -what else?) Two. The ambiguous show was unlike anything else on television of the day, and while incomprehensible to many, it went on to profoundly influence television, music, comic books, and movies for decades to come; echoes of The Prisoner reverberated in an episode of The Fantastic Four, in the Twin Peaks series, and even in the comic book and movie of Watchmen, where Rorschach adopted the prisoner’s “Be seeing you” as his personal sign-off.
In the series, a man finds himself inexplicably trapped in The Village with no recollection of how he arrived. His fellow inhabitants are identified by number rather than name, and are under constant surveillance. Not knowing who to trust, Six is driven by a need to understand The Village, his reason for his being there, and how he can escape. You can read all kinds of things into it…
With Jim Caviezel in the lead role as Six and Ian McKellen as Two, The Prisoner debuts this Sunday evening on the AMC channel…Be seeing you!
Categories: cool things, television
Tags: Number Six, The Prisoner Returns, The Village
Comments: 2 Comments
November 5, 2009
– –Destination Truth recently had an episode with a secondary storyline line on the Arica Monster, a supposedly raptor-like creature inhabiting the Northern Chilean desert. On the desert road, people have reported seeing a dinosaur-like beast keeping pace with their cars, a neat trick. Described as large, standing on his hind legs, and having leathery skin, the beast is a fast runner with a distinctive three-toed print who attacks with razor-sharp teeth.
Destination Truth often has comic overtones that MonsterQuest lacks (remember the Mongolian Death Worms episode?), and Josh Gates and his team have such a limited budget that they are reduced to pursuing travel arrangements on Orbitz. They tend to take spills and get sick even while thoroughly enjoying themselves. As for the raptor remnant, expert opinion is that it was a rhea, an ostrich-like bird with a three-toed print…
Categories: animals, anomalies, cool things, cryptozoology, extinct species, mysteries, television, unexplained, unidentified
Tags: Arica Monster
Comments: 5 Comments
November 1, 2009
– – MonsterQuest recently aired a two-hour episode investigating the killing of over 100 peasants by a werewolf-like creature in southern France during the mid-1700’s. As the slayings occurred over 240 years ago, extensive speculation and reconstruction was involved as provided by a cryptozoologist and a criminal investigator.
The Beast of Gevaudan slaughtered primarily women and children in an often gruesome fashion, at times decapitating the victims, eviscerating them, or consuming limbs. The killings began in 1764, and continued for about three years, drawing the attention of Louis XV whose expert hunters dispatched a large wolf but failed to halt the peasant slayings.
That task was accomplished by one Jean Chastel, who used (–what else?) a silver bullet to kill the beast. Speculation by the MonsterQuest investigators and others has been that the true “werewolf” was in fact a striped hyena, which may have actually been trained to accomplish his mayhem by Chastel himself!
The Beast of Gevaudan will continue to fascinate speculators, and the events form the historical basis for much of the rich present day werewolf sagas, which one hopes will continue for the indefinite future…
Categories: animals, anomalies, cryptozoology, furry, historical perspectives, mysteries, television, unexplained, unidentified
Tags: the Beast of Gevaudan, The Real Werewolf
Comments: 5 Comments
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