BLOG TO COMM

MUCH MAGOO ABOUT NOTHING!

Sorry if this ain't gonna be one of my ultra-longwinded Sunday posts (or maybe NOT!), but previous engagements (and a lack of solid writing material coupled with inertia) prohibits me from doing so. Maybe I should let you know that I am conjuring in my fetid imagination a writeup of the debut Mad River album while a number of classic magazine reads will probably get the nod more sooner than later, but as it stands here on the fourteenth of Janvier 2007 I really do not have the time, stamina or interest in popping out another humongous post for all three of you avid BLOG TO COMM snoremongers. Maybe comes Wednesday but not today, and if you don't like it I'll just tell you what Eddie D'Onofrio told me way back in the day..."tough turds!"

Just so's this post don't seem like a total waste lemme just tell you about one thing that is brightening my abode these dreary January days, and that's MR MAGOO ON YOUTUBE!!! Yes, because of the modern miracle of internet, one can now watch just about anything from clips of cute bikini-clad Japanese gals frolicking on sandy beaches to Jay Hinman dusting off his entire Judee Sill collection thanks to this wonderful site, and not only that but a lotta important (and long-lost) history relevant to me and perhaps even you is available in the HERE AND NOW thanks to the wonderful people at Youtube who present these fabulous clips of civilized relevance out of the goodness of their pea-pickin' hearts.

And as far as this "civilized relevance" goes, you can bet your bottom buckskin that Mr. Magoo figures rather heavily into the entire mental makeup of the one called Chris even though my memories of watching him on the box ain't as downright clear as the ones I have of being front and center for the forties-vintage BUGS BUNNY cartoons on channel 21 Saturday mornings or even such ratings toppers in the abode as SUPERCAR and WHERE THE ACTION IS. Naturally I, along with just about ever single-digiter in the sixties for that matter, was more than familiar with the famed nearsighted character (perhaps due to his commercials for GE light bulbs?) and a Mr. Magoo Soakie bottle is proudly snuggled in a box in the basement next to a slew of Felix the Cat and Ringo Starr empties, so it wasn't like the famed animated star was totally void in my life. Still, I can't say that I was as familiar with the Magoo cartoons as many of you readers probably were. Perhaps the classic shorts somehow missed being broadcast locally or worse yet had been banished from the airwaves by the time I would have remembered and appreciated them (though come to think of it I do recall being present for his mid-sixties prime-time series on NBC where ol' Magoo would play the part of various historical figures in loosely-based adaptations), but whatever...when I finally was exposed to a Mr. Magoo cartoon during my mid-teen days back when channel 11 in Pittsburgh was running some early-afternoon kiddie program (with "educational" filler swiped straight from SESAME STREET!) I remember laughing my head off even with the usual snow and interference hampering the reception as was wont the Pittsburgh stations that were lucky enough to blast a signal as far north as Sharon PA!

And even though I don't have that strong of a Magoo memory fixated in my six-oh pop kultured mind, the man does bring back a load of memories of my funtime pre-school toddler days (which were perhaps both the happiest and most magical as well as intensely frightening days of my existence) not only of the great television viewing that millions of kids would be inundated with (and with a max of three stations to choose from!), but of the way Magoo in his lovable, humorous and elderly fashion reminds me of a number of relatives who have long passed away which does tend to cause a nice lump to form in the epiglottal area thinkin' about how those people were some of the few who ever treated me decently during my up-and-coming days. I tend to get that way sometimes, and if you think that's living proof of my eternal wimpdom har-de-har-har then sorry I can't be a CYBORG like you!

Anyway, here, courtesy Youtube, is a great Magoo short which I know will knock your socks off unless you're so mindnumbed by way too many plays of Solar Anus to notice...



Now wasn't that high-larious??? And with the film skips, washed-out color plus the specks of dust and general worn-out-ness, this cartoon sure dredges up fond memories of GREAT AMERIGAN LOCAL TEE-VEE VIEWING of not only the sixties, but a huge hunkerin' portion of the seventies and eighties as well!

While we're at it, here's Magoo hawking Stag beer, probably from his short-lived sixties NBC series though since these are in black & white I'm not too sure about that (please correct me if I'm wrong)...



And finally, although a good month late for the season 'n all, here's a clip from the infamous 1962 Magoo presentation of A CHRISTMAS CAROL where the Ghost of Christmas Past takes ol' Eb Scrooge (played by who else but Our Hero?) back in time for a sad little number that does tend to pull on the ol' heart strings despite its Broadway schmalz...



Hope you enjoyed my little presentation, but before I go I gotta 'fess up to one important Magoo fact for you...back when I was a kiddie I was somehow under the impression that Magoo's Chinese houseboy Charlie (soon to be banished to the same limbo of Stalinized airbrushed cartoon characters as the Frito Bandito and the Funny Face drink mix flavor Chinese Cherry) was actually a GIRL because of his long cue, and that coupled with the strange ambisexuality of the Ghost of Christmas Past makes me wonder if Magoo was somehow responsible (albeit unintentionally) for the sexual confusion of many a lad during those maybe not-so-innocent days! Think about it...first we have characters like Charlie and the Ghost, then Batman and Robin are the stars of the television world, and coupled with the FACT that wartime pregnancies seem to produce more homos than the world can seem to bear its no wonder that by the seventies there was a big gay explosion that seemed to catch everybody by surprise! Throw into the equation the rise of bossy, domineering women who have all of the charm and sexiness of a snail and you don't have to wonder just where civilization took a wrong turn into decadentsville! Sheesh, I'm sure glad I survived the carnage relatively intact but if in case it was UPA/Magoo who were (partially) responsible for this strange turn in events all I gotta say is...did Bugs Bunny inadvertently lead to the student rebellions of the same stratum???

For a "short" post, I sure took up a lotta space! Ah Stigliano, you've done it again!