SNL's "I'm Just a Bill" Parody on President Obama's Immigration Plan

I'm always ready for a Schoolhouse Rock parody!

Blast from the Past: Saturday Morning in the 70s, Pt. 2: The Cartoons

Saturday morning cartoons--an absolute weekly event during most of my childhood--are a thing of the past. There are entire channels dedicated to cartoons and children's programming, but it's just not the same as the big three TV networks having a slate of kids shows from 6 to noon every Saturday. They competed against each other, and ran promotional ads in comic books to get our eyeballs on their channel. And we all watched. I don't

remember any kid my age who didn't.

My first edition covered the live-action shows, and this time I'm going for the cartoons. These are my favorites, in no particular order.

1. Josie and the Pussycats (1972-73) - A weird amalgam of Archie Comics style and Hanna-Barbara Scooby-Doo-like storytelling. But I loved the music, and Sebastian the cat.

2. Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969-1970) - Scooby-Doo ran for many, many years, in many, many formats. But long before the insufferable Scrappy-Doo came along, was the original. And dig that music!



3. SuperFriends (1973-1986) - The first season was a kid-friendly version of The Justice League of America, complete with ordinary kids Wendy and Marvin (with WonderDog). The show picked up steam and popularity with the introduction of the Wonder Twins, Zan & Jayna. But the closer they got to the feel of the JLA, the more I liked it.

4. The Pink Panther Show (1969-1980) - This is another one that ran under a great many titles, but I always liked it, with its mix of segments, from the Ant and the Aardvark, Tijuana Toads and The Inspector.



INTERLUDE A: In the News (1971-1986) - CBS ran these mini news programs between cartoons. They brought our mornings to a screeching halt. But as I got older, I started to enjoy them.

INTERLUDE B: Schoolhouse Rock (1973-2009) - Unlike the previous, I loved these shorts. Almost all of them. We looked forward to Schoolhouse Rock just as much as the regular cartoons.



5. The Brady Kids (1972-73) - The Brady Bunch cartoon version included Marlon the talking mynah bird, and Ping and Pong, the pandas, for no particular reason. I was only 6, and I was rolling my eyes at the wacky animal sidekick trope. Speaking of which. . .

6. The Partridge Family 2200 A.D. (1974-75) - For some reason, the Partridges have a different mom, and instead of touring on a bus in the 70s, they're flying through space in the 23rd century. With a robot dog called Orbit.



7. The Tom & Jerry/Grape Ape/Mumbly Show (1976) - Though Tom & Jerry went through many, many titles (and their theatrical shorts are their main draw), this mouthful of a title still sticks in my head, and thus deserves a spot on the list. Unfortunately, the only video I can find is of the version without Mumbly.

8. Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1972-1981) - I loved this show, and Bill Cosby (here's hoping he's not guilty of the current allegations), but it always heralded the end of cartoons for the day, which was also sad.
 

And now, the weekend is over, and it's time to go to school work! Happy Monday!

Blast from the Past Civics Rocks!

This weekend has been a very full one, both with work and with obligations, leaving me little time for blogging. So, this week's Blast from the Past is a rerun, but a good one! Everyone remembers Schoolhouse Rock if they're of a certain age, but usually they remember the numbers songs or the parts of speech. Maybe though, you'll remember "I'm Just a Bill," and recall that they did a whole series on civics called "America Rock." I think our society could really use a refresher, don't you?

And that will do it for this week. Have a great Monday!

Blast from the Past: Political Schoolhouse Rock!

This week's Blast from the Past is political in nature, because of the torturous two-year campaign we've all been through. WHAT? Yes, more politics, but the best, most patriotism-inducing, rah-rah America loving kind of politics you can get! Back during the bicentennial celebration, ABC produced several patriotic, political Schoolhouse Rock segments, to augment their grammar and math ditties. Some of them became the most famous of them all, including I'm Just a Bill and The Constitution.

And that will do it for this week. I'm off tomorrow, and salute our veterans for it! Have a great week.

Blast from the Past: Saturday Morning Cartoons of the 70s!

This week for my weekly Blast from the Past installment, I'm revisiting a theme I've used before. But the challenge for me is, to use kids shows I haven't used before. See how many you remember.








1. The Tom & Jerry Grape Ape Show - This show had several iterations, at one time including "Mumbly" and I'm sure, several others. I remember digging the theme song as a kid. Tom & Jerry as friends? Not as much.
2. The Mumbly Show - And speaking of Mumbly, this is apparently where the T&JGAS theme came from.
3. Speed Buggy - We'd watch anything in the 70s. At least we got Mel Blanc for Speed Buggy's voice.
4. The Krofft Supershow - Speed Buggy got ripped off as Wonder Bug in this live-action show. Also along were the dreadful Magic Mongo and Bigfoot & Wildboy. Oh, and Kaptain Kool & the Kongs (as bad as they sound).
5. Electra Woman & Dyna Girl - This was actually a segment from the above show, but is often remembered as its own show. It was a pretty clear copy of the 60s Batman, with a gender reversal.
6. SuperFriends - This was the DC Comics Justice League of America "simplified" for kids. It started out fairly juvenile, and season by season, got closer to the real deal. This is from "simple" year one, with Wendy, Marvin and WonderDog.
7. The Groovie Goolies - Weird. Very likely this was a pot dream come to life.
8. Fat Albert - This was always the last cartoon of the day, and even though it wasn't a favorite, we'd watch it anyway.


Happy Monday everybody!

Blast from the Past: Schoolhouse Rock!

This batch of videos will delight the 70s child in you, unless you're inner child is younger than that. If you're too young to remember these clips, do yourself a favor and watch them anyway, if only for the pop-culture knowledge. And hey, you might learn something. Enjoy.








1. Preamble to the US Constitution - Sing it with me, "We the people, in order to form a more perfect union!"
2. I'm Just a Bill - This should be required for anybody who thinks they know about politics, but only gets the talking points. Oh, yeah!
3. Interjections! - One of my favorites.
4. Conjunction Junction - What's your function?
5. Figure Eight - Sung by the late Blossom Dearie.
6. No More Kings! - Despite what they may think, presidents are NOT kings!
7. Elbow Room - A cleaned up lesson on Manifest Destiny.
8. Lolly, Lolly, Lolly - Get your adverbs here!

Blast from the Past: Superhero TV Shows!

OK, folks, the blog has gotten wayyyy too serious of late. So much politics, so much news. . . We need some fun stuff! My go-to fun time diversion has always been super heroes, in print, on film or on TV. And I was a lucky kid, growing up in the 1970s and 80s. Super heroes hit a couple of times in that time frame. Some were hits, some were not, but you can better believe, I watched them all.






#1 - Automan - Desi Arnaz, Jr. starred in this short-lived ABC series, about a computer whiz who invents a virtual reality super hero. He can only appear at night (when energy use is lower), and he comes with a cool "AutoCar" and a sidekick called Cursor. Now, remember, this was 1983, and hardly anyone knew what a "cursor" or "virtual reality" even were. And the special effects were pretty impressive considering a TV budget and no CGI.

#2 - Spider-Man - CBS had hit shows with The Incredible Hulk and Wonder Woman, so they tried another super-hero show, and it was. . .well, not a hit. It was aired only sporadically, and Spidey didn't look much different than he did on The Electric Company. Still, the cast was good, and it was nice that they tried.

#3 - Isis - CBS's Saturday mornings had a hit with a live action Shazam! (Captain Marvel) show, so they spun off a female super hero show called Isis. She was invented for TV, but became part of the DC Universe alongside Capt. Marvel. It was very preachy, with a moral lesson each week. But I loved it.

#4 - Electra Woman & Dyna Girl - On ABC Saturday mornings, there was a strange live-action show called The Krofft Supershow with Captain Kool & the Kongs. It featured a "futuristic" band (name in the title), and several short regular segments like Dr. Shrinker, WonderBug and this one. EW&DG was a rip-off of the old Batman show, with women heroes. It was bad. . .oh so bad. And for some reason, I watched every episode anyway.

Classic TV Themes: Saturday Morning

I know, I know, it's Sunday morning. But I feel the blog needs another dose of fun, and I got to thinking about how boring Sunday morning TV was when I was a kid. Religious sermons, Meet the Press (which I never miss today!), and Davey and Goliath. Ugh. No, Saturday morning was where it was at, and these were some of my favorites.

#1 - Superfriends - The ultimate for a DC Comics fan like me. This was in the unfortunate "Wendy, Marvin and Wonderdog" first season, but it has a warm spot in my heart anyway.

#2 - Scooby Doo, Where are You? - The first version of Scooby Doo, a show that changed a little too much and too often. The first season was the best, and the theme song rocked.

#3 - Josie & the Pussy Cats - Yeah, I know, apparently I would watch just about anything. But, the theme song was pretty cool, eh?

#4 - The Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm Show - Yabba Dabba Doosy! One of the early cartoon "spin-offs," one you don't see much anymore. Maybe for a reason. . .