Yeah, I know...like, what gives?!? This series was just one you couldn't escape viewing ever since Moose 'n Squirrel made their ABC tee-vee debut some afternoon back '59 way, and at one time I can recall these cartoons being aired in a variety of formats at a variety of times on a variety of television stations throughout the then not-so-busy broadcast day. I remember at one time in my life THE BULLWINKLE SHOW (ostensibly the 1961-1964 NBC version that ran on Sunday nights for a spell) could be eyed and eared for that matter on NBC early Saturday afternoons while the fifteen minute ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS (supposedly the "cut downs" from the ABC version) would run daily in some market or other, while yet another BULLWINKLE show would run in syndication on another station about an hour earlier than the one on NBC. And from what I can tell THEY ALL CONTAINED THE EXACT SAME EPISODES!!!! Over saturation ain't the word for it---this was BLUDGEONING!!!
But I knew something was amiss when the local tee-vee station that had been airing these cartoons in one form or another since the year of 1963 canned BULLWINKLE in place of ALF reruns back 1991 way, and I even complained about it in typically shocked and indignant form in a brief edi-too-real to be found in the pages of my own long-forgotten crudzine. Back then the last of the good old shows that I grew up, were familiar with and just couldn't get enough of were disappearing from broadcast tee-vee and heading towards cable which really irked a UHF corner reflector person such as I, and although I resisted as much as I possibly could I hadda get the sad fact into me that THIS GENERATION OF TEE-VEE WAS LONG DEAD AND GONE---THE INTELLECTUALS AND DO-GOODERS GOT HOLD OF THE PROGRAMMING DEPARTMENTS (BECAUSE THEY "KNOW BETTER" THAN YOU VIEWERS) AND YOU'LL NEVER SEE FUN SHOWS LIKE THIS AGAIN EVER!!!!! And sadly enough it was true.
Even these days you can't find BULLWINKLE anywhere on the tube, not even on cable lest you look into one of those sub-sub-stations I can't even pick up locally! Lemme t ell you it still bugs me to no end even though I shoulda already had my fill of these programs by now but hey, BULLWINKLE was just as much a part of my suburban slob growing up life as snack foods and getting horny over feminine underwear ads in the newspaper supplement so don't be too hard on me all you better than me pseudo-intellectuals out there.
Thankfully these programs remain preserved on Dee-Vee-Dee, so I decided to splurge on the complete series because if there's anything I need more of in life it's not companionship or a positive outlook on life, but OLD TEE-VEE SHOWS!!! So bought it I did and like well...I'm sure glad I never tossed out my early-nineties VCR recordings despite the local station "bugs" and loss of quality due to slower tape speed. Like, I can do with those diversions if only to see the original episode openings without the new trademarked "Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends" logo masking out the original thus tampering with a whole lot history in the process! Plus in no way were these episodes presented properly...the later half-hour BULLWINKLE SHOWs are only fifteen minutes long and use the old ABC credits 'stead of the familiar dancing moose animation, and like when I want my old memories back I want them back proper! Also woulda liked to have seen the old ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS ones shown with the syndicated opening but alas, even that wasn't included as a bonus while some newer material custom chopped for this package (and mostly a waste) were!
Speaking of the bonuses sheesh, did the people who put this package together skimp! Yeah we get a few commercials with Bullwinkle hawking various General Mills cereals but none of the ones where he's appearing with one or both of the Cheerios Kids! A few appearances of the Bullwinkle hand puppet (later to make a guest appearance on FRACTURED FLICKERS) do show up and are proverbial doozies, but frankly more of these particularly sarcastic interludes were needed. And while I'm at it, what happened to that one series of episodes that looked as if it were animated by someone other than Gamma Productions and actually contained a laugh track? Might have missed that one somewhere in the mess but I dunno...
Mebbee I shouldn't quibble like this, since at least a good portion of my favorite era of tee-vee viewing has been made readily available to me again. These shows hold up swell with the neat gags and surprisingly adult humor (I even caught a "turn your head and cough" gag that was snuck in...fortunately the parents weren't in the room like they were when one was used in a mid-seventies TOM & JERRY thus causing a rather uncomfortable moment), and the whole shebang really fit in with the fine form of satire that was rife not only on tee-vee but in mags like HELP! not to mention via the burgeoning "sick humor" brigades. And hey, I better enjoy what I can while I can, because Don Fellman tells me that they ain't stopping with AMOS 'N ANDY...the New Reform Leagues brewin' even as we speak are gonna get rid of ALL of this evil and outmoded entertainment more sooner than later! An' if you complain it's gonna be nothin' but THE PAPER CHASE and I'LL FLY AWAY reruns for you at the Peace & Justice Gulag! And hide these we must, for the current crop of Pavliks are gonna be so ruthless they'll even make Kim Jong Un blush!
1 comment:
I feel like you're right about how they shouldn't mess with the title sequence if you are going to pay for eighteen whole discs. I must disagree with you about A.L.F., it's good.
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