Sunday, August 21, 2011

"Singing in the bathtub...." As sung by Tweety Bird

Hiya Doc, as Bugs Bunny would say! What's new in your world. The same old same old in mine except my dangerous little mind has been working overtime and that means's it's typing time!!!! Today's subject is Cartoon's and Children's shows. First off I must say that I learned one of my favorite songs from watching Cartoons, as sung by Tweety Bird "singing in the bathtub, Happy once again, watchin all my troubles go swimming down the drain (or dwain!). ahhh life should be that easy...but then it was a simpler time when we washed that man right outa our hair! The social reference to clean and getting rid of problems I love! Also, I used to sing that song to my niece, Dana when she took a bath. I often wonder if she remembers that?? Pam you may ask (or may not) what brought us to this crazy train of thoughts. Well what got me there was watching TV on Saturday and Sunday morning. I found it to be how you say...as Pepe Le Pew would ask....doo doo! I used to live for cartoon's and children's programing on Saturdays. The TV belonged to the children on that morning. Now you of the younger generation may argue and say well you watched crap in your day. Yes, there was crap and will always be crap but I think personally we had far better programming. It wasnt' going to change the world but it sure entertained and has held up the test of time as we are still all watching Tweety Bird (my personal favorite) Bugs Bunny, Wylie Coyote and Fred Flintstone. Did you know....Tweety Bird is a boy??? There is often great debate about that because of the eyelashes and coy attitude but according to Warner Brothers, he is a boy. Originally Tweety Bird aka Tweety Pie was created in 1942 he was pink not yellow. It seems the censors had an issue with that because people might thing he was naked! Well WTF....he's a bird....he was naked and Donald Duck didn't wear pants. The censors did have a bit too much time on their hands as it seems they still do because Bert and Ernie have been deemed Gay. Again, like the no pants and naked thing...do ya think we go around wondering if Bert is sleeping with Ernie...I think not!!! Looney Toones covered social issues as well. Now here's your fun fact...did ya know that The Flintstones were a homage to The Honeymooners? But I must continue. These cartoons were written for children and adults. I remember seeing Bugs running around doing impressions of Hitler and Winston Churchill. Often times the movie stars of the day were featured in a Warner Brothers cartoon, stars like Clark Gable. We also had programming that featured live actors like The Bugaloo's created by Sid and Marty Kroft the genius's behind H.R. Puffinstuff (anybody know what the H.R. stands for??) in 1970.they were teenagers with British accents dressed up like bugs who sang and thwarted evil in the Tranquility Forest. Phil Collins even auditioned for it. They were supposed to be the British answer to The Monkey''s who were the prefab group molded after The Beatles! Whew....confused yet? Then there was The Kids from C.A.P.E.R. that only ran for a small time in 1976 but I found it to be exhilarating TV, OK, that goes a bit far, but it was fun. It was produced by the one and only Don Kirschner (music mogul) and was about Teen Crime Fighters who sang. Everybody sang, we learned that from Tweety Bird! England had and still has Blue Peter, which has been on since 1958, The presenter (as the English call it) or host welcomes everyone a the bottom of the gang plank aboard The Royal Iris. You could earn Blue Peter Badges, such as Silver for people already with the Blue Peter Badge, Green for conservation and Gold for exceptional achievement, which I understand is VERY hard to get! Now day's we have Sponge-Bob Square Pants, Phineas and Ferb and Auqa Teen, Hunger Force. Ok, Phineas and Ferb might be amusing sometimes, but Sponge-bob just pisses me off. He's aggrivating! I bet even children think so! Now don't get me wrong, I'm not dissin all present day children's TV, I love using words like dissin, I feel so street and with it!!!! A Disney production of Handy Manny is teaching us all Spanish, including me who dropped the course in the 7th grade. Wilmer Valderrama, Fez of That's 70's show does Manny's voice and is teaching me to say hello, hola, which is more than Mrs.Cunningham did in 7th grade Spanish. Also the program is cool because Los Lobos does the theme song. I like Dora the Explorer for some of the same reasons. We travel around and learn Spanish. I swear between Manny and Dora I'm gonna learn to say more than hello! I miss Saturday and Sunday morning TV. We haven't even touched the afternoon movies on Saturday, I learned to love Tarzan and Hercules! Well, I appreciate you reading my little rant from my scary little mind that should have more on it than cartoons, but doesn't! I do have one thing that may or may not make you go hmmmmmm. Does anyone remember Kimba The White Lion. It was a Japanese cartoon from the 60's and was a very early example of anime, which I dispise now. Well, when I first saw The Lion King from Disney I coulda swore they stole the idea from the creators of Kimba. Ahh well, maybe it's just me and I know you shouldn't mess with The Mouse! So for now friends in the infamous words of Porky Pig...that's all folks (I can't even type his wonderful stutter)! Have a great Sunday and hope that maybe there is an old Tarzan movie on this afternoon...that or Charlie Chan! xoxox Pammy