Saturday, September 29, 2012

In Search of Saturdays



Welcome to “In Search of Saturdays" a weekly advertising space designed to help our members find those long lost movies, cartoons, TV shows, toys, games and anything else that we’ve all been looking for for a very long time.

If you can’t remember the name of a show or toy that’s alright, post what you can remember and maybe someone here will be able to tell you what it is. Also please remember that if you are listing television shows or movies please let us know if you are looking to purchase these shows or if you just want to watch them online. Then we, the members of the group, will help try to help each other and go “in search of” those items for our fellow members.

A good places to start our searches is iOffer ( http://www.ioffer.com/ ) which, in my opinion, is better than eBay b/c you can find lots of shows there that you can’t find anywhere else.

***PLEASE NOTE*** 
This thread is for SEARCH LISTS ONLY, PLEASE DO NOT post videos or pictures of your favorite Nickelodeon shows in this thread. Please remember that THIS IS NOT A NICKELODEON THREAD. If you would like to post pics and videos of Nick shows please do that in my “Classic Nickelodeon Wednesdays”.

I have listed Nickelodeon shows b/c that is what I am personally looking for and I encourage all of you to post what you’re looking for. Videos and pictures are always welcome on this forum however this thread is for LISTS ONLY. Thank you.***

My Want List
This is a list of the Classic Nickelodeon programs that I’m looking for to purchase. Please note that I am a private collector who does not copy and resell my collection. The videos and DVDs that I collect are for my own private viewing here in my home or my Mother’s house where I originally saw them. If you have any of these and would like to sell me copies – for my private viewing – please contact me at peggysueclay@hotmail.com     Also, IF you contact me via email PLEASE PUT THE NAME OF THE SHOW IN THE SUBJECT LINE. Thank you.


*****NEW ITEMS ADDED*****
Muppets Magazine 1982
People Magazine – recent issue – no date – Marc Summers’ article

REGULAR PROGRAMS

Dusty's Treehouse
Hocus Focus
Kids’ Writes
Livewire
Nick Rocks Video to Go
Pinwheel – more than just the 6 hrs that’s currently available
Science International (aka) What Will They Think of Next?
Spread Your Wings
Standby...Lights! Camera! Action!
Studio See


PINWHEEL / PINWHEEL CARTOONS

The Adventures of the Mole
Bunny in the Suitcase
Charlie's Climbing Tree
Emily (Emilie) (my favorite)
Hattytown Tales
Magic Coco
The Magic Roundabout


SPECIAL DELIVERY

Beware, Beware My Beauty Fair
Clarence & The Ottaway (staring Billy Hufsey)
Kids’ Writes
Silver City (The Righteous Apples special)

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Classic Nick Wed. 5 – Paddington Heads To Newbury

Paddington Heads To Newbury
By Linda Serck 



The Peruvian bear who landed at Paddington Station actually can trace his origins to Newbury, the birthplace of his creator Michael Bond. Now, the little bear is donning his duffle coat and heading to the town's racecourse for a special party. 

Paddington Bear hails from darkest Peru, never goes anywhere without his duffle coat and hat, is a bit accident prone and is very fond of marmalade.

The little bear, one of the most popular characters in children's literature, is the creation of Michael Bond, who was born in Newbury on January 13, 1926.

Now, the bear is celebrating his 50th anniversary by visiting Newbury Racecourse to hold a special teddy bear's picnic at the annual Family Fun Day on Sunday 3 August.

Children are invited to bring along their favourite teddy bear and share some of Paddington's favourite marmalade sandwiches.

But what are the origins of this world famous bear?

Michael Bond was educated at Presentation College in Reading. During his time as a BBC cameraman he landed on the idea of Paddington Bear after he bought his wife a bear toy.

"I bought a small toy bear on Christmas Eve 1956. I saw it left on a shelf in a London store and felt sorry for it. I took it home as a present for my wife Brenda and named it Paddington as we were living near Paddington Station at the time.

"I wrote some stories about the bear, more for fun than with the idea of having them published. After ten days I found that I had a book on my hands. It wasn't written specifically for children, but I think I put into it the kind things I liked reading about when I was young."

His first book, A Bear Called Paddington, was published in October 1958 and Bond went on to write a whole series.

By 1967 his books were so successful that that he was able to give up his job with the BBC in order to become a full-time writer.

"The great advantage of having a bear as a central character is that he can combine the innocence of a child with the sophistication of an adult.

"Paddington is not the sort of bear that would ever go to the moon - he has his paws too firmly on the ground for that. He gets involved in everyday situations. He has a strong sense of right and wrong and doesn't take kindly to the red tape bureaucracy of the sillier rules and regulations with which we humans surround ourselves. As a bear he gets away with things. Paddington is humanised, but he couldn't possibly be 'human'. It just wouldn't work."

The Paddington books have sold more than thirty-five million copies worldwide and have been translated into over forty languages.

In 1997 Michael Bond was awarded to OBE for services to children's literature. He is married with two adult children and lives in London, not far from Paddington Station.


Happy Birthday Marty Schiff




Happy Late Birthday to my friend Marty Schiff who played “Hern Burford” on Nickelodeon’s Out of Control. Hope you had an awesome birthday Marty!!! 




Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Classic Nick Wed. 4 – Black Beauty


This week I would like to take a look at one of literature's most beloved, and well known, characters of which several book series, movies, two television shows and now a stage play have been based. Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to Black Beauty, a beautiful, intelligent, lightening fast, black horse.


Now if you’re like me and have (admittedly) never read the Ann Sewell novel “Black Beauty” then the 1972 British children's television drama series is the perfect introduction into the wonderful world of Black Beauty.

The series, which was shown by ITV in the United Kingdom between 1972 and 1974, was produced by London Weekend Television and distributed internationally by London Weekend International. And even though this wonderful series first premiered in the UK in the early 1970’s it became a part of Classic (80’s) Nickelodeon when the network aired it in the very early to the mid 1980’s

In a "continuation" of the Anna Sewell novel we first meet Black Beauty in the series premier “The Fugitive” where Samson Ryder is breaking in his uncle’s horses. Beauty throws Samson then runs away and is discovered by Vicky and Kevin Goren while they are exploring their new surroundings. Beauty has been badly beaten, his eye is infected and he has the chills after his long run.

The children take him home for their father, widower Dr. James Gorden, to mend but when Samson discovers that the Gordens have ‘his horse’ he attempts to reclaim him only to find out that he must recover before the doctor will allow him to be moved. But of course by this time the children have fallen in love with him and beg their father to buy him from the Ryders, which he is unable to do because of the horse’s great value.

By the end of the first episode Dr. Gorden saves the life of old Mr. Ryder and in return Mr. Ryder gives the black horse to the Gorden family. It is at the end of this first episode that Vicky names him claiming that his name should, “describe him”, thus settling on the name “Black Beauty”.

From that point on the series focuses on the Gorden Family and their everyday life as they do their best to help their friends and neighbors, always with the aid of Black Beauty.

As stated above Dr. James Gorden is a widower but has employed a strong, but kind-hearted, woman named Amy Winthrop as his housekeeper. Very little is actually known about either of these characters but in the second season we are introduced to Ned Lewis who is Amy’s nephew. It is also in this second series where we are introduced to Dr. Gordon’s second daughter Jenny, “who has been away at school and has only just returned” however we do not see Victoria again.

The show was cancelled in 1974 but in 1990 new life was breathed into the series with the arrival of “The New Adventures of Black Beauty” which, like it’s predecessor, lasted a full two seasons from 1990-1992 however it is only the first season which is directly tied to the original series picking up 20 years after the first series. It stared Stacy Dorning and William Lucas reprising their roles as Dr. Jenny (Gordon) Denning and Dr. James Gordon with both actors appearing in the first season only from 1990-1991 for a total of 26 episodes.

Both series featured the theme song, "Galloping Home", which was written by Denis King and performed by the London String Chorale and both are currently available on DVD.

Personal Note:
I remember watching this on Nickelodeon in the very early 1980’s so I was around 12 or 13 when I use to watch it. Back then I liked it because Beauty was a beautiful black horse, Vicky and Jenny were pretty young girls who I wanted as my friends or sisters, Kevin, Ned and Albert were kinda cute and Dr. Gorden was so handsome. It was the perfect show for girls of that age but now that I’m an adult I still think all of those things but now I can see what I didn’t back then.

This show wasn’t just entertaining, it was educational as well, it taught children how to respect their elders (something that they are very lax in these days), it taught them not to lie no matter what the consequences, it taught them to always be kind to animals and not to be afraid to get involved and help your neighbors. This is one of the most wholesome shows that I would personal allow my children, whenever I have some, to sit and watch all day if they wanted too because of the strong moral values it contains.

Original Series Main Cast

Dr. James Gordon – William Lucas (52 episodes, 1972-1974)
Amy Winthrop – Charlotte Mitchell (52 episodes, 1972-1974)
Kevin Gordon – Roderick Shaw (51 episodes, 1972-1974)
Squire Armstrong – Michael Culver (31 episodes, 1972-1974)
Vicky Gordon – Judi Bowker (26 episodes, 1972-1973)
Jenny Gordon – Stacy Dorning (25 episodes, 1973-1974)
Police Constable Dickins – Kenneth Thornett (16 episodes, 1972-1974)
Albert Clifton – Tony Maiden (14 episodes, 1972-1974)
Ned Lewis – Stephen Garlick (11 episodes, 1973-1974)


Main Cast – New Adventures of Black Beauty

Dr. Jenny Denning – Stacy Dorning (26 episodes, 1990-1991)
Manfred Groenwald – Gedeon Burkhard (26 episodes, 1990-1991)
Dr. James Gordon – William Lucas (26 episodes, 1990-1991)
Victoria 'Vicky' Denning – Amber McWilliams (26 episodes, 1990-1991)
Frank Coats – David Bradshaw (24 episodes, 1990-1991)
Hilda Burton – Ilona Rodgers (24 episodes, 1990-1991)
Samuel Burton – Bill Kerr (24 episodes, 1990-1991)
Isambard –  Claire Chitham (9 episodes, 1990)
Constable Carmody – Andrew Robertt (5 episodes, 1990-1991)
Lewis Duncan – Timothy Raby (3 episodes, 1990)
Farmer – Bruce Hopkins (3 episodes, 1990-1991)
Lord Fordham – Frederick Treves (2 episodes, 1990)
Nigel – Christian Burgess (2 episodes, 1990)

Saturday, September 15, 2012

In Search of Saturdays


Hey y'all,

I’m one of the administrators for a group on F/B called Your Childhood Memories Begin With Sharing and every week I have three set “columns” that I write for them.

On Wednesdays I do “Welcome Wagon Wednesday” and “Classic Nickelodeon Wednesdays”, which I post here each week.  And then on Saturdays I do “In Search Of Saturdays” which I’m going to start posting to my Yahoo group (A New Beginning For Classic Nickelodeon) and here on my blog as well. So here is my “In Search of Saturdays, I hope you like it and will participate.

In Search of Saturdays

Welcome to “In Search of Saturdays" a weekly advertising space designed to help our members find those long lost movies, cartoons, TV shows, toys, games and anything else that we’ve all been looking for for a very long time.

The instructions are simple. Each Saturday I will start the thread with my personal “looking for” list then everyone will post their own personal “looking for” lists.

If you can’t remember the name of a show or toy that’s alright, post what you can remember and maybe someone here will be able to tell you what it is. Also please remember that if you are listing television shows or movies please let us know if you are looking to purchase these shows or if you just want to watch them online. Then we, the members of the group, will help try to help each other and go “in search of” those items for our fellow members.

A good places to start our searches is iOffer ( http://www.ioffer.com/ ) which, in my opinion, is better than eBay b/c you can find lots of shows there that you can’t find anywhere else.


My Want List
This is a list of the Classic Nickelodeon programs that I’m looking for to purchase. Please note that I am a private collector who does not copy and resell my collection. The videos and DVDs that I collect are for my own private viewing here in my home or my Mother’s house where I originally saw them. If you have any of these and would like to sell me copies – for my private viewing – please contact me at peggysueclay@hotmail.com   Also, IF you contact me via email PLEASE PUT THE NAME OF THE SHOW IN THE SUBJECT LINE so that I don’t think it’s spam and delete it. Thank you.


REGULAR PROGRAMS

Dusty's Treehouse
Hocus Focus
Kids’ Writes
Livewire
Nick Rocks Video to Go
Pinwheel – more than just the 6 hrs that’s currently available
Science International (aka) What Will They Think of Next?
Spread Your Wings
Standby...Lights! Camera! Action!
Studio See


PINWHEEL / PINWHEEL CARTOONS

The Adventures of the Mole
Bunny in the Suitcase
Charlie's Climbing Tree
Emily (Emilie) (my favorite)
Hattytown Tales
Magic Coco
The Magic Roundabout


SPECIAL DELIVERY

Beware, Beware My Beauty Fair
Clarence & The Ottaway (staring Billy Hufsey)
Kids’ Writes
Silver City (The Righteous Apples special)

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Classic Nick Wed. 3 – Meet Jeff Hyslop

September 12, 2012

Meet Jeff Hyslop




Vancouver-born Jeff Hyslop is indisputably one of Canada's foremost preforming artists. Equally masterful as a singer, dancer and actor, he has starred with unqualified success in such landmark musical productions as Cabaret, Kiss of the Spider Women, Jacques Brel, The Music Man, The Producers, and of course, the role of Mike in both the London West End and Broadway productions of A Chorus Line. To many, he is the quintessential Phantom of the Opera, a role he embraced in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical for over 975 performances.

He also starred as Jeff the Mannequin in the TVO series Today’s Special, which maintained a huge popularity for over 10 years.

At age 21 Jeff was dancing and singing in Norman Jewison’s film - Jesus Christ Superstar. His numerous television appearances include series for both CTV and CBC-TV. The most memorable of these was his own Dancin’ Man Super Special where he partnered his favorite leading lady, Karen Kain.

He has received numerous awards including three Jessie Awards (Vancouver) - two for Best Choreography, the other for Best Director; five nominations for the ACTRA Award for Best Variety Performer and a Dora Mavor Moore Award in 1984 for On Tap.

Choreography and directing are a real love for Jeff and it shows in productions such as Peter Pan, A Chorus Line, On Tap, Guys and Dolls and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Local productions under his direction - The Matchmaker, Nutcracker (with Danette Bell), Anything Goes, and Stepping Out, all with the community players of Campbell River, B.C.

Continually broadening his career, Jeff is in demand for his teaching expertise in the realm of musical theatre, adjudication for Theatre BC’s ongoing Zone Festivals, and workshops in all crafts.

Showcase Theatre Festival in Campbell River, occupied Jeff’s time for five years. As Artistic Director he was able to bring to the stage a broad variety of entertainment – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Dream on Royal Street, Taming of the Shrew and Kiss Me, Kate!, Cabaret and Waiting for the Parade - as well as developing ‘Adventures in Theatre’ a unique young people’s program. In 2007, Jeff conceived the idea for a stunning new musical – Dancing in the Coal Dust, written by long-time collaborator - David Warrack. He is determined to bring this brilliant new work to audiences across this great country of ours.


Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Classic Nick Wed. – 2 – Pinwheel


Last week I told you a bit about the history of the Nickelodeon Network, this week I would like to tell you about one of their longest running and most popular programs “Pinwheel”.

If you will remember last week the Nickelodeon Network began life as the Pinwheel network or channel then in 1981 the network re-launched as Nickelodeon – The Young People’s Satellite Network. The name “Pinwheel” was taken from a children’s television show by the same name and aired every morning in 3-5 hour time slots and ran from 1979 – 1990.

Similar to the Sesame Street program Pinwheel featured both human and puppet actors interacting with each other to teach basic everyday good manors as well as teaching children how to use their imagination, play games and so forth. One of the most beloved and well-remembered games to come from Pinwheel was the “Gottcha Last” game played by (puppets) Plus & Minus. The game was very simple, one would tap the other saying “gottcha last” and run off while the other tries to catch him to “get him last”, back and forth they’d go all through Pinwheel House and the garden. What a fun game for children of all ages to play.

Other puppet actors who lived at Pinwheel House were Aurelia, a gypsy who lived and ran the house and used a special phone to dial the "Opposite City Operator". Then there was Silas the Snail who had an elderly-looking face and took an entire episode to go from one end of the garden to the other. He was a kind and gentle character who
was forever heading to the snails' convention but never made it on time.

Just the oposite could be said about the house’s green-faced equivalent to Sesame Street's "Oscar the Grouch", Ebeneezer T. Squint who was failthful to tend to his garden of weeds and whose one goal in life was to be on the front page of the Daily Noodle which was run by Sal & Smitty – but more on them in just a minute.

Then there was Luigi O'Brien who came from Italy and who ran a talking fruit & veggie stand. Molly the Mole was an elderly, blind mole who lived in a tree in the backyard. She was kind and made the most wonderful Root Tea. And last but certainly not last there were the Hobo Bugs Herbert and Lulu, we’re not sure what Hobo Bugs are or where they come from but these lovely creatures were a joy with their lovely little faces and bright smiles. (They’re two of my personal faves.)

As previously mentioned Pinwheel Puppets interacted with a variety of human characters as well, they included. A kind and very talented African-American young man named Jake. He collected small boxes which emitted various sound effects, he also played the guitar and sang. He was played by George James from 1981-1989 and helped write many of the songs sung on the show.

One of the most remembered characters from the show was Coco the Mime but what most people do not know is that two different actresses played her. C.C. Loveheart originated the role in 1979 and played her until 1981 then from 1982-1989 she was played by Lindanell Rivera. Both actresses had the same makeup, white base with red lips and hearts on their cheeks, the only way to tell these ladies apart is that Ms. Loveheart had Ms. Rivera had curly hair. (See picture above.)

Early I mentioned Sal and Smitty the elderly couple who ran a newspaper called "The Daily Noodle"; they were played by Dale Engel (Smitty) (1981-1989) and Betty Rozek (Sal). Too me it seemed as if they were everyone grandparents and lovelier grandparents you could not have found.

In every home there is always an artist and Pinwheel House was no different, their resident artist was Kim (played by Arline Miyazaki). A young Asian woman who was perhaps in ther early 20’s (about Jake’s age) who was always creating very beautiful paintings and who was also Aurelia the gypsy’s niece.

Pinwheel was also famous for the variety of foreign cartoons and stop-motion puppet shorts which aired regularly though out the shows run. After many, many long hours of research here is a list of the Pinwheel Cartoons.

PINWHEEL CARTOONS

The Adventures Of The Mole (Krtkova Dobrodružství),Alfie Atkins,  Bagpuss, Bod, Bugs, Bunny In The Suitcase (Kockásfülű Nyúl), Charlie's Climbing Tree, Chapi And Chapo, Crystal Tipps And Alister, Curious George, Emily (Emilie),  Flower Stories, Gumby, Hattytown Tales, Jim & Jam (Bolek & Lolek), King Rollo, Lilliputput,  Madeline, Magic Coco, The Magic Roundabout, Mixometric,  Mouse On Mars (Maus Auf Dem Mars), Musti, Paddington Bear, Picture Pages, The Pilis, Professor Balthazar, Peelie And Poolie,  Schnoodle, Simon In The Land Of Chalk Drawings, Teeny Little Super Guy, Tip And Tap

The last point I would like to touch on is the shows theme song, which was written by Jay Lee (music) with lyrics by Janet Gardner:

Pinwheel, pinwheel, spinning around. 
Look at my Pinwheel and see what I've found.
Pinwheel, pinwheel, where have you been? 

Hello, how are you, and may I come in?
Pinwheel, pinwheel spinning around. 

Look at my Pinwheel and see what I found.
Pinwheel, pinwheel, breezy and bright. 

Spin me good morning, spin me good night.