The Great Space Coaster & Mr. Magoo

Hello again Friends.

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   I've been sitting here with Steve Urkel working on the question asked by a reader, Missing London. The comment was left today and asked if I could please explain the Great Space Coaster and Mr. Magoo.
   I really didn't watch Mr. Magoo like other kids did. However, Urkel over here, he knows Mr. Magoo from what I can tell.

      I found a video of Mr. Magoo for you and our other friends. You will find that I love TV theme songs so if you don't mind..



Thank goodness for www.youtube.com . I don't know what we'd do without it. A way to video reference most anything. Its great because I don't have to describe so many things.  I can just point you to it and you click and go. I often find lots of information ( or entertainment) in reading the comments of other people. :)

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   The Great Space Coaster ! How does one try to even begin to describe it?  The show from my memory was very wacky and fun and fast. I used to watch it in the mornings before school. ( and i mean like 1st grade ) I  think it's more of a 70s show but most kids watched it on reruns in the 80s.  As a kid it looked like a lot of fun. The theme song got me hooked on it. I had to watch it all before the school buss came to get me.  It's about 3 friends (Fran, Danny and Roy)  who are in a band. They go on a trip on a Space Coaster driven by this round little clown puppet called Baxter!  They would all get picked up in their part of the world and join the crazy puppet gang for fun and adventures, and I *think* education.
 
 


   The character I loved best was Garry Gnu ( that's Gah-New to you) Oh boy was he funny! He had his little news brief show and he'd say " It's the No Ganews is Good Ganews Show!" I  still say that.  He also would say " remember No Ganews is Good Ganews with Gary Gnu!" My favorite guest he would have on is this fast reading guy named "Speed Reader". Weather he was skipping parts of the book or not, he sure did talk fast! See Gary in Action :

 

  Other clever named Characters were friends Gariddle Gorilla and Knock- Knock ( some bird i have no idea what she was supposed to be.), Edison the Elephant and M. T. Promises ( like Empty Promises get it!!  he was EVIL). and There were smaller charters like the adorable Huggles who came later . They lived with Baxter and always asked,  " What's Snappenin?! " like " What's Happenin" get it? They had a cute theme song too!

  Here's Baxter with the Huggles  

   Anyways the best parts of the show for me was when the band sang songs. They had all kids of songs. The one I remember most is " Windel Worry Wart" and " Yellow Orange Day"   Very 70s Sesame Street style songs that you can't get out of your head even if you wanted to.

 


   Before I go, I just want to say as an adult this show looks a little well.. frightening! I don't know if its the reddish tent on the video or what.  The puppets look scary and I do not think I'd get this on DVD for my kids to watch.  I don't know how i didn't get nightmares. HOWEVER In my childhood memory, these puppets were my friends. This show introduced me through Roy's portable movie box: Simon and the Land of Chalk Drawings, Really Rosie( featuring Carole King), and La Linea. Mind gems I tell you! I am referencing the other cartoons below so you can see if they jog your memory.

    Okay, Urkel claims he has a date with Laura, so I have to let him go.That means I have to go to so as Levar Burtan used to say on my dearly beloved Reading Rainbow... " See ya next time!"



*Photo of Baxter with the Huggles courtesey of  http://www.cfhf.net/lyrics/great.htm

Click the videos  for the above mentioned Cartoons :
Simon and the Land of Chalk Drawings  - love him!!
 

Really Rosie featuring Carole King  :-)


La Linea  he's loud! OMG I remember this one!!  I didn't know he had a theme song! ha ha!

Thank you Steve Urkel for appearing here courtesy of my vivid imagination for our friends. :)

Also if you need anymore  information on cast list ect. please do like I did and visit Internet Movie Data Base www.imdb.com

Brandon Tartikoff & Jackson5

Hello again, fellow 80s Children!  I am sitting here thinking of things to make my blog fantastic for readers.  I sat and pondered. I have wanted to speak on this person for a while.  Today is the day.
   Brandon Tartikoff was an amazing television executive for NBC!  Have you heard of a show called The Cosby Show? Oh no.. Okay what about Family Ties?  or what about Alf, Highway to Heaven or the Golden Girls?  I thought so!   You have heard me mention Punky Brewster,( and you will continue to hear about it because that is a big part of my TV life he he). Well he thought up the show based on a girl named Punky Brewster at his school!  ( I bet she never shut up about that one ha ha!)
    These shows are classic, and some iconic. Lots of them are my favorites. He even came up with the "old folks shows" as I liked to call them: Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, Cheers (i watched it) and St. Elsewhere(guilty).
    He passed away in 1997.. If you notice, that is when lots of tv shows kinda went, well downhill in some ways. NOT ALL I still watch tv and I mean seriously, but it just feels like those shows of yesteryear just will never have the same pizazz!  God Bless You, Brandon Tartikoff
  Oh yeah and if you like Knight Rider, 227, Empty Nest and Different Strokes,  bow down.. :)

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 I would also like to take a moment to say how saddened I am by the early death of Michael Jackson. I know people are tired of hearing about it, but I wanna put in my two cents quickly where it's relevant. It's personal for me so I wont bore you with a lot of the high drama.
   I would like to say that my whole life I have known of Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5. My mother was a huge J5 fan. SO there was no escaping the love. I am proud for having him in my life and I will always have his music in my home and the love for him I will carry in my heart. I just want to quickly say that my little sister and I came upon the Jackson 5 cartoon in the early 80s when it was run on our local tv station. We thought it was so much fun.  I love anything with music in it and this was it for me. We didn't know they were old or anything. We just enjoyed the music and the fun wit of the cartoon. It goes to show that the material just has to be good to last over time. The Jackson 5 cartoon was something we did not miss. Heck i even had taped a few episodes on my tape recorder.  We learned the songs (even though we knew a lot of them and wonderd why. I guess we didn't match the cartoon with the group like that.) IT WAS THE BEST TIME EVER! My sister and I never agree on much and this cartoon stoped the shouting and fighting long enough for us to enjoy it!  MJ you are very much missed and thank you so much for being a HUGE part of my childhood and then some! much much love to you and your family!

 Until Next time my lovelies! I am gonna jump on the Great Space Coaster right after the Chipmunks finish performing their MJ Tribute!

:)  LOTS OF RAINBOW BRITE LOVE!
 Shala

 * Information on Brandon Tartikoff  courtesy of Wikipedia.com

Welcome 80s Children to the new nostalgic place called 80s Saturday Mornings!  Please please, come in.  Do you have on Footie Pajamas? Do you love sweet breakfast cereals? Do you remember the wonderment of waking up early on Saturday mornings in the 80s just to watch your favorite cartoon friends on TV?  Do you still miss the way the characters came to life, became  part of your fun world and how the shows seemed to  last all day? Do you miss 80s-90s television when the shows were more about friends and families? Do you wish that you had someplace to talk about it and hear about it? Do you still think about being one of the Eastlland girls on Facts of life? Do you wish you could have dated one of the girls at Eastland on Facts of Life ?  HA HA! THEN come on in!!! What are you waiting for?  This is the place.  

    My favorite memories as a child were these and many more. I love television and especially 80-90s television. Right before everything became a show with people getting kicked off.  Saturday morning for me was more than just watching some cartoons. It was my safe place to go. My ritual was easy. Wake up at 8am for Smurfs and end at 1pm just after the ABC Saturday Morning Weekend Special ended. Then i went outside to play (we will talk about what that meant too ) or I went rollerskating at the rink with my friends.

  These are things we did as children. this was fun and I hope you will join me in remembering, discussing and having a great time to reflect and get away form the craziness of today for just a moment.

   Soon i will be making a podcast. But for now, let's reflect. Let Rainbow Brite lead us to the land where the Transformers kicked robot butt, Pound Puppies needed adopting, Heathcliff and Denis The Menace were tearing up the neighborhood and Punky Brewster , the kids from the Wonder Years, The Cosby Kids and the gang from Saved By The bell were all our friends no matter how cool we were or weren't in school!  So, let Mr. Belvedere take your coat and hat. Let Vicki from Small Wonder take your cereal orders from the magic never-ending cereal box. Come on everyone Let's all get nostalgic!!

  Please tell me about your two most  favorite Saturday Morning Cartoons or 1 Cartoon and 1 TV show that you just had to watch. I will fill in later this week with mine. You can visit my Youtube channel where most of my best TV friends ( like Kidd Video and Punky Brewster ) Live 80s Saturday Mornings

* this is a place for EVERYONE no matter who you are. This is a pg rated zone. this is a place for people from all over the world. I was an 80s American kid but i would love to hear about kid shows from everywhere so please chime in. Mostly this is a place to have LOTS and LOTS of fun!!