Special Delivery

 

Clarice (Janis Orenstein) – There's Always Tomorrow

You’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch

Jeff’s Christmas Dance

The Berenstain Bears – Count Their Blessings

Pumpkin Pie Wars 

Rose Bowl Parade 1-2-1982

Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade 1983

Special Delivery

Abby Hagyard from "You Can’t Do That On TV" Talks About Green Slime and More!

Fred Newman and Dan Sawyer – Doug – Bangin on a Trashcan

The Go-Go's on Rockpalast in Berlin 11/3/82

Special Delivery – Wild Rides

Nickelodeon Takes A Roller-Coaster Ride

Ellensburg Daily Record – March 19, 1982

By Debra Morgenstern Katz

  

Passive viewing is on the way out at Nickelodeon, which wants kids to get involved with television. Their new program “Wild Rides” (March 28) searches for the greatest roller-coaster ride in America – and you are there.

Matt Dillon hosts the half-hour show, which uses a new camera mount to make viewers feel as if they’re in the seat of the ride; the combination of rock music and the noise of the ride itself combine to provide the closest actual experience.

The pilots for “Kids’ Writes,” another show designed to get children actively involved with TV, make encore appearances on March 24 and 26. A troupe of five performers act out the letters, poems, riddles, dreams, songs and compositions that children have sent in, without changing the words or characters. It’s the closest kids can come to writing their own TV show.

Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzkAROxvONA

Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hCCZ8Lm5fo

Part 3 – sorry, no sound on this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm7xN45bTII

Article Link

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=860&dat=19820319&id=OIdUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PY8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=2766,6332220&hl=en

Classic Nick Wed. – You Can't Do That On Television

Classic Nick Wed. – You Can't Do That On Television

April 16, 2013

There is no way I could ever write something worth of the all time classic You Can't Do That On Television. So instead I’m just going to post the link to my favorite episode, Cosmetics – http://youtu.be/BgXCUdTPWs8

Classic Nick Wed. – The Snowman

Raymond Briggs’ children's picture book “The Snowman” was first published in 1978 by Hamish Hamilton in the U.K., and published by Random House in the U.S. that November. In 1982 the book was adapted into a 26-minute animated film by Dianne Jackson for the fledgling British public-service Channel 4 which debuted on British television on December 26, 1982 and was nominated for an Academy Award. Later this animated classic aired on Nickelodeon as a Special Delivery.

Howard Blake wrote the score and the story is told through pictures, action and music except for the beautiful song "Walking in the Air". In addition to the orchestral score, performed in the film by the Sinfonia of London, Blake composed the music and lyrics of the song, performed by a St Paul's Cathedral choirboy Peter Auty.

The film was produced using traditional animation techniques, consisting of pastels, crayons and other coloring tools drawn on pieces of celluloid, which were traced over hand drawn frames. For continuity purposes, the background artwork was painted using the same tools.

Film Plot (From Wikipedia)

The Snowman is the tale of a boy who builds a snowman one winter's day. That night, at the stroke of twelve, the snowman comes to life. The first part of the story deals with the snowman's attempts to understand the appliances, toys and other bric-a-brac in the boy's house, all while keeping quiet enough not to wake the boy's parents. The two then venture back outside and go for a ride on a motorcycle, disturbing many animals: pheasants, rabbits, a barn owl, a fox and a brown horse.

In the second part of the story, the boy and the snowman take flight — the song "Walking in the Air" appears at this point. They fly over the boy's town, over houses and large public buildings before flying past the Royal Pavilion in Brighton and West Pier and then out into the ocean. They continue through an arctic landscape and fly past many sights and animals such as penguins. Flying into the aurora they reach their destination.

The two wander hand-in-hand into a snow-covered forest and attend a snowmen's party, at which the boy is the only human. They meet Father Christmas and his reindeer, and the boy is given a scarf with a snowman pattern.

The story ends after the return journey. However, the sun has come out the next morning and the boy wakes up to find the snowman has melted. The boy begins to wonder if the night's events were all a dream, but he discovers that he still has the snowman scarf given to him by Father Christmas. Realizing the night's events were real, as the credits play, the boy mourns the loss of his new friend.

Stage Version

In 1986 The Contact Theatre, Manchester, adapted and produced by Anthony Clark, adapted “The Snowman” into a stage show, which included a full script and used Howard Blake's music and lyrics.  In 1993, Birmingham Repertory Company produced a version, with music and lyrics by Howard Blake, scenario by Blake, with Bill Alexander and choreography by Robert North.

Since 1997 Sadler's Wells has presented it every year as the Christmas Show at the Peacock Theatre. As in the book and the film, there are no words, apart from the lyrics of the song "Walking in the Air". The story is told through images and movement. Special effects include the Snowman and boy flying high over the stage (with assistance of wires and harnesses) and ‘snow’ falling in part of the auditorium. The production has had several revisions – the most extensive happening in 2000, when major changes were made to the second act, introducing new characters: The Ice Princess and Jack Frost.

The Snowman (film)

Directed By: Dianne Jackson

Produced By: John Coates

Written By: Raymond Briggs (Book)

Music By: Howard Blake (Composer)

Peter Auty (Treble)

Sinfonia Of London

Studio TVC London 

Running Time: 27 Min.

Language: English

Distributed By:

Channel 4, Universal Pictures (UK)

Columbia TriStar Entertainment (USA)

Release Date(s:)

26 December 1982 (Original)

29 December 1983 (David Bowie)

24 December 2002 (Mel Smith)

The Snowman – Book 

Author(s) – Raymond Briggs

Illustrator – Raymond Briggs

Country – United Kingdom

Genre(s) – Picture book

Publisher – Hamish Hamilton

Publication Date – 1978 

Media Type – Print

Pages – 32 pp

ISBN – 0241100046

OCLC Number – 788883530

LC Classification – PZ7.B7646 Sn 1978 

My Comments:

On a personal note this is one of my favorite Christmas shows. It’s a beautifully animated classic with beautiful music to accompany it. If you can find this DVD my suggestion to you would be to buy it and introduce your children, or yourself, to the wonderful magic of this moving film.

The Snowman (1982) with Original Introduction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE9KpobX9J8

Classic Nick Wed.6 – The Third Eye

In the spirit of Halloween this month I will be focusing on the Nickelodeon anthology mini-series known collectively as “The Third Eye” which begin airing on Nickelodeon in January 1983.

This hodgepodge of mini foreign shows consisted of a variety of serials from the UK and New Zealand and included: "The Haunting of Cassie Palmer" (1982),  "Under The Mountain"(1981), "Children of the Stones" (1976), and "Into the Labyrinth" (1981).   Later “The Witches of Grinnygog” was added to this line up however it never aired in this collection and was shown later as a Special Delivery.

What made The Third Eye so unique was that it wasn’t silly, upbeat programs that kids were used to, these shows were.  They were live action, sci-fi / supernatural theme, their strange and somewhat their bizarre nature and unclear target audience made them something of a novelty that hasn't been seen since its time on the Nickelodeon Network. The unifying theme of the show (and hence the name of the title, and opening montage sequence) was that of children with psychic powers.

Before each episode an on-screen announcement would read the following statement: "The following is a science-fiction program, and may contain some startling scenes. This show is intended for older children."

Then we see a room of children all standing in a black room with thin light beams fanned out over the floor. As the camera moves through them we hear: "Somewhere in the crowd, sometimes you find someone very special. Someone who hears the unheard, someone who understands the mystery. Sometimes, there's someone who sees with the third eye!" At that point the camera would stop on a child in the back of the crowd with an eye on his forehead them a series of natural disasters flash by.

And while the person responsible for developing the series for Nickelodeon is unknown its loyal followers have never forgot this short series and still lives in their hearts even to this day, and I should know because I’m one of them.

Starting next week I will begin posting about each series in order from my least favorite right up to Halloween night where I will finish out with my favorite show in this series.

Curious George Swings Into A Museum Exhibit

Curious George Swings Into A Museum Exhibit
By: ANN LEVIN Published: March 28, 2010

NEW YORK — Ever wonder why Curious George is so curious? Or why the monkey hero of the "Curious George” children’s books is so fond of travel, so prone to mischief yet always narrowly escapes disaster?

A new exhibit at New York’s Jewish Museum suggests that curious readers need look no farther than the real-life adventures of the intrepid husband-and-wife team that created the beloved character.

H.A. and Margret Rey — he changed the name from Reyersbach — were German Jews living in Paris on the eve of the Nazi invasion, increasingly concerned about finding safe haven. Two days before the Germans marched into Paris, they fled on bicycles carrying drawings for their picture books, including one about a mischievous monkey then called Fifi.

Curator Claudia Nahson said Hans and Margret created the monkey character that is always on the run while they themselves were on the run. The recurring motif of the monkey’s narrow escape from danger is another autobiographical detail.

Twice in the months leading up to their escape, the couple were questioned by authorities suspicious of their German accents. Both times they were let off the hook when officials learned what they were doing: making children’s books.

While the exhibit touches on the harrowing conditions they endured on their four-month journey in 1940 from France to New York, it’s more about the unusually long and fertile artistic collaboration between Hans and Margret, whose fiery personality is said to be the inspiration for George’s insatiable curiosity and spunk.

Hans Rey was a gentle, pipe-smoking, self-taught artist who toiled for a time in commercial art designing circus posters before launching his career as a writer and illustrator of children’s books. Margarete Waldstein, who shortened her name to Margret, was the more assertive of the two. She had studied art and photography at the famed Bauhaus School in Germany and had strong opinions about nearly everything, including her husband’s work.

Both loved animals. Hans liked to sketch in zoos, and the couple kept pet marmosets in their apartment in Brazil in the 1930s. Margret even knitted sweaters to keep the monkeys warm on the couple’s cold ocean passage to Europe in 1936, but the creatures didn’t survive the voyage.

The exhibition features nearly 80 original drawings and vibrant watercolors for the more than 30 books the couple wrote and illustrated. The most famous, of course, is Curious George — the "good little monkey” captured in the wilds of Africa by a man in a large yellow hat and taken to the city to live in a zoo and later, the man’s home.

The idea for George began in an earlier book about a lonely giraffe named Raffy who befriends nine monkeys, the youngest of which is called Fifi. Eventually, the Reys decided to develop a story just about Fifi. It was one of the stories they brought from France, only to learn when they got to the U.S. that American publisher Houghton Mifflin had doubts about the name Fifi for a boy monkey.

So, Fifi became George in the United States — and Zozo in Britain. The "Curious George” books eventually were translated into many languages, selling tens of millions of copies worldwide.

It’s not hard to see why. With simple lines and bright, buoyant colors, the Reys created an imaginary world full of innocence and optimism.

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At Walmart

I love it when I get to bring yall updates on new Classic Nick stuff and this one is very exciting for me, especially when my, or rather my Mom’s, discovery was so unexpected.

Okay so ya know you’re bored and you’re walking through Walmart with nothing to do, you’re just kinda killin’ time and looking at everything just to have something to do. And one of the things you like to do is kinda walk by the $5 movie bin, or in this case the 4-way, and casually look through the movies, not really expecting to find anything of any great impertinence, when low and behold you find a jewel in the mist of stupid movies. Well that’s what happened to Mamma and me a couple of weeks ago.

My Mom and I were over by the $5 movie display and I wasn’t looking through them b/c I figured why bother right? It’s the same movies they always have. Then all of the sudden my Mom picks up a DVD and says, “Isn’t this that cartoon of the snowman that you like?”, and she handed it to me.

I took one look at it and almost screamed my head off. She handed me the DVD version of Raymond Briggs’ “The Snowman” from 1982!!!!!!!!!!

Alright so the next question you’re going to ask is, “Why should we, the Classic Nickelodeon community care about this?” I’ll tell you why. This classic cartoon was showed on Nickelodeon as one of their Special Delivery movies!!!

This is a true holiday classic with the most beautiful animation I think I’ve ever seen in any movie and the musical score is just as lovely. And I think we all remember the beautiful “Walking In The Air” that was sung as the snowman and the little boy fly through the night sky.

If you’re looking for a true holiday classic, which also just happens to be a Classic Nickelodeon Special Delivery as well, then pick up a copy of Raymond Briggs’ “The Snowman” on DVD and fall in love with your childhood all over again.