Special Delivery

 

Adam Irigoyen, Kenton Duty & Davis Cleveland – Monster Mash

Elvira – Bride of Frankenstein

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown – Intro Only

Home & Family – DIY Flying Saucer and Allen Pumpkins

Fall Handcraft Ideas Jar Decoration Art and Craft DIY Handicraft

The Adventures of Black Beauty – Out of the Night

Before CGI animation, there was Ray Harryhausen – Stop Motion Works

Special Delivery – Old School

Pinwheel Songbook 

Dusty's Treehouse – An Anniversary Episode Behind The Scenes Starring Stu Rosen

Today's Special – Sleep

Spread Your Wings – Steve's Violin, Germany

Mr. Wizard’s World

Adventures of Black Beauty – Good Neighbors

Vegetable Soup I

YCDTOTV live 1981

Special Delivery – Black Beauty

Adventures of Black Beauty – Season 1

The Ponies

The Ruffians

Two of a Kind

Foul Play

Sailor on a Horse

Wild Justice

The Barge

Father and Son

Special Delivery – Adventures of Black Beauty

  

Three Locks to Fortune

The Recruiting Sergeant

The Debt

The Horse Healer

The Witch

Classic Nick Thursday – William Lucas’ Obituary

Actor who played Dr Gordon in the 1970s screen phenomenon of The Adventures of Black Beauty

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/jul/17/william-lucas-obituary

William Lucas, who has died aged 91, was already a veteran television actor before he played Dr. Gordon in The Adventures of Black Beauty (1972-74). In a three-channel age, the programme became essential Sunday-teatime viewing for many families and regularly appeared in the weekly Top 20 TV ratings with stories that were a continuation, rather than an adaptation, of those in Anna Sewell’s best-selling 19th-century novel.

Lucas and his co-stars – Judi Bowker and Roderick Shaw as the doctor’s children, Vicky and Kevin, and Charlotte Mitchell as his loyal housekeeper, Amy Winthrop – found themselves part of a screen phenomenon that owed much to writers such as Ted Willis and Richard Carpenter. Denis King’s Galloping Home theme tune evoked childhood memories that led to it being heard over future decades in other programmes – perhaps most memorably in Absolutely Fabulous, accompanying Jennifer Saunders’s dream of running through a field, Black Beauty-style.

 Lucas’s character, James Gordon, is a widowed GP moving from London to set up a country practice in the village of Five Oaks. He saves the life of the disabled owner of a black stallion – and is presented with the animal as thanks. His children are seen enjoying adventures with Black Beauty, often bringing villains to heel. For the second series, Stacy Dorning played the doctor’s other daughter, Jenny, returning from school and replacing the departing Bowker.

The programme’s popularity led to Lucas and Dorning reprising their roles two decades later for The New Adventures of Black Beauty, a 1990-91 series produced by a New Zealand television company that showed Dr. Gordon and the grown-up Jenny emigrating.

The actor was born William Clucas, the son of Albert, who worked in a Sheffield steelworks, and his wife, Ada (nee Mellor). He had an older sister, Joan, who took him to the cinema, where he enjoyed Humphrey Bogart and Spencer Tracy films, as well as Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals.

On leaving Burnage high school, Manchester, Clucas worked in a bank, then served in the Royal Navy during the second world war. A string of jobs followed – from cafe chef to farm labourer and lorry driver – before he achieved his ambition to train as an actor by winning a scholarship to the Northern Theatre School, established by the Bradford Civic Playhouse’s artistic director, Esme Church. Advised that his surname was too obscure, he changed it to Lucas.

He began his career in 1948 as an assistant stage manager at Chesterfield Civic Theatre, where he met Doreen Moorhouse, who acted under the name Rowena Ingram. They married in 1954. Repertory work followed in Coventry, Liverpool, Richmond, Windsor and at the Bristol Old Vic. Later, Lucas appeared in the West End as Frank Thorney in the tragicomedy The Witch of Edmonton (Mermaid theatre, 1962) and Martello in Tom Stoppard’s Artist Descending a Staircase (Duke of York’s theatre, 1988-89).

His big television break came with the part of the blackmailing car dealer Reg Dorking in Portrait of Alison (1955), a crime thriller serial written by Francis Durbridge. Lucas was the only cast member to reprise his role for a film version later the same year (released in the US as Postmark for Danger).

On TV, he was a regular as David Graham in The Strange World of Planet X (1956), Charlton Bradbury in The Crime of the Century (1956-57), Jim Pereira in the second series (1958) of the hotel saga The Royalty, Jonathan Briggs in the serialisation of Frank Tilsley’s novel Champion Road (1958) and Durea in the London underworld thriller Solo for Canary (1958).

He starred in The Infamous John Friend (1959), in the title role of the smuggler and spy for Napoleon, and was Detective Inspector Mitchell in the crime dramas The Days of Vengeance (1960) and Flower of Evil (1961), and Eddie Prior in the thriller serial The Prior Commitment (1969).

Lucas appeared in many television plays and was Inspector Lestrade, perfectly portraying his smug character’s wrong deductions, in A Study in Scarlet and The Second Stain, two 1968 episodes in the Sherlock Holmes series starring Peter Cushing. He even took the title role in a TV production of Rigoletto (1958), recalling: “Happily, the singing was dubbed.” The best of Lucas’s later television performances was in The Spoils of War (1980-81) as George Hayward, the Labour party-supporting father in a Lake District family coming to terms with peace after the second world war.

There were also appearances in three soap operas, the first, in 1966, as Bill Finlay in the football serial United! In Coronation Street, he had a short run as Dennis Maxwell (1971), the crooked personnel manager at the Mark Brittain Warehouse who had an affair with Elsie Tanner, and he later played Judge Parrish (1996), who found Steve and Vicky McDonald guilty of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice after accepting stolen whisky. He was a regular in the short-lived British-expats serial Eldorado (1992-93), as Stanley Webb, a retired doctor formerly in the Royal Army Medical Corps who was revealed not to be married to his “wife” Rosemary, but eventually tied the knot.

The early years of the new century saw him in episodes of Last of the Summer Wine, Doctors and The Bill (2005).

Lucas’s film roles included William Morel in Sons and Lovers (1960), the leader of a gang of crooks in Touch of Death (1961), an ex-convict being blackmailed in The Marked One (1963) and Jacob Venable, the criminal nephew hunting for the feline witness to a murder, in the Hammer Films production The Shadow of the Cat (1961).

In retirement, Lucas enjoyed DIY – keeping his lifelong fondness for carpentry going – as well as fishing and cooking.

He is survived by his second wife, Camilla (nee Idris-Jones), whom he married in 1993, and by Daniel and Thomas, the sons of his first marriage, which ended in divorce.

• William Lucas (William Thomas Clucas), actor, born 14 April 1925; died 8 July 2016

You Know You’re Addicted to Classic Nickelodeon When / If...

- (For those with on-screen search) You still search for “Pinwheel”, “The Tomorrow People”, “YCDTOTV”, “Today’s Special” and various other Classic Nick shows.

- You ever wished you could jaunt, or had any other TP special power.

- You’ve ever wanted to go to London to search for the Lab or the Tomorrow People.

- You always talk in rhyme because Muffy does.

- You know the real meaning behind “hocus pocus alamagocus”.

- You can name all, or most, of the original cast of the TP. (I can yay!)

- You know that TP is the short form for “The Tomorrow People”.

- You didn’t like the 90’s remake of the TP.

- You were disappointed when the CW version of the TP didn’t include any of the original cast, and when they did they were under different names.

- You’ve started naming your pets, or children, after Classic Nickelodeon characters.

- To this day you are still afraid to say, “I don’t know”, or “water”, and when you do you look up and duck because you think slime or water is going to fall from the sky / ceiling.

- You spend your free time searching eBay and iOffer for Classic Nick stuff. (videos, games, books, etc.)

- You did, or still, have a crush on Jeff from “Today’s Special”.

- You actually know which one is Plus and which one is Minus.

- You ever tried any of the experiments on “Mr. Wizard’s World”.

- You remember watching music videos in between each show, this was BEFORE Nick Rocks.

- (For ‘80’s fans) You remember when Nick use to show more than just those crappy cartoons all through out the 90’s.

- (For ‘90’s fans) You remember what Nickelodeon was like before it became the “SpongeBob Square Pants” network!

- You remember the “nickelodeon song” that they use to play in between shows.

- You sit around thinking of ways to update “Pinwheel”, “Today’s Special” and “YCDTOTV”.

- You’ve ever done the “Hobo Bug Giggle Dance”.

- After watching the “Pinwheel Songbook” and hearing Ebenezer sing about his “lovely weeds” you’re out and about with your Mom, or your friend, and they are looking at different plants and mention something about weed control and you break out into song…

“Weeds how I love my lovely weeds

I attend to all their needs

They’ve my buddies they’re my weeds.

Weeds when you’re troubled my heart bleeds

All my care and whoa received

When I’m caring for my weeds”

- While you’re singing this they just look at you and laugh b/c they actually know the song and know that this is nothing unusual for you. (Guess that would make them a fan too huh?)

- You have a sound box collection. (Like Jake did on “Pinwheel”.)

- You campaign to have national “Les Lye” and “Don Herbert (Mr. Wizard)” days.

- You knew that Don Herbert was Mr. Wizard’s real name.

- You still have a crush on Christine (Moose) or Kevin/Alistair from “YCDTOTV”.

- You still have, or found on eBay, a “Double Dare” NES game. – And still have the system to be able to play it on! (I did find it and I have played it!)

- When you saw Marc Summers on “Unwrapped” you wondered why he wasn’t behind a podium reading off questions and why no one was covered in goop.

- You’ve ever built, or still want to build, your own “Double Dare” obstacle course.

- You’ve ever walking into a café and ordered a Barth Burger.

- You’ve ever made green slime.

- Not only did you make the slime you used it on your friends, or had them use it on you.

- You campaign to have a “show and tell day” at work so that you can take in different parts of your Classic Nickelodeon collection to show them off.

- You knew when, “it was just the introduction to the opposites.”

- You’ve ever said, “Duhhh I heard that.”

- You remember, “Who got you last.”

- You remember when “Pinwheel” was lunchtime entertainment.

- You know the significance of “Dare”, “Double Dare” and the “Physical Challenge”.

- You wanted to live on your own tiny planet with a talking rose like “The Little Prince”.

- By the end of the 80’s you could name the two shows Dave Coulier was on.

- You remember when “Uncle Joey” from “Full House” hosted “Out of Control”.

- You remember when you saw Dave Coulier on “Full House” and said, “Hey that’s the guy from “Out of Control!”” (I actually did that and I know others who have done that as well.)

- Your toughest lessons as a preschooler came from “Today’s Special”.

- When you meet someone named Jeff, Jodie, Sam or even Muffy you immediately start to sing the "Today's Special" theme song in your head so that you can remember their name. (This happened to me recently and it did help!)

- You go on Facebook and search for all your favorite CN shows then join every page and fan group you can find for it.

- When you can’t find a page or group for your particular show you start your own.

- You spend hours on eBay and iOffer hunting down your favorite CN shows. (I do this.)

- When you can’t find what you want you start hunting down private collectors and buy your shows through them. (I have done this several times and it was worth it!)

- You create a list like this to celebrate in your obsession!

- You start a CN Yahoo group, website and Facebook page / group.

- You still write fan letters to your favorite CN stars.

- While watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade you start to wonder what a CN parade would look like then start designing the floats and giant balloons. (Guilty)

- Every year on Halloween you dress up like your favorite CN character / cartoon.

- To celebrate Half-O-Ween in May (like Christmas in July) you dress up like your favorite CN character / cartoon.

- You hang out at, or ride, every roller coaster named in “Wild Rides” hoping that you’ll run into Matt Dillon.

- You program your cell phone to play a different CN theme song for every person on your contact list.

-Your default ringtone on your cell phone is the theme from “Pinwheel.” (Mine actually is.)

- You wonder if Smitty is still looking for the Admiral Byrd.

- You’re still hoping that Ebeneezer will full fill his life long goal to be on the front page of the "The Daily Noodle".

- You wonder if Silas the Snail is still trying to get to the other side of the garden, or if he’s ever going to make it to the snail convention.

- When you see the (then new) Energizer battery commercial it reminds you of the “Livewire” opening credits.

-You are friends with several CN stars.

-Someone asks if they can interview you for a new Nickelodeon documentary which will look back on the history of Nickelodeon. (I blogged about this not long ago.) 

-Your playlist is filed with music from Pinwheel, Today’s Special, Black Beauty’s theme, and so forth.

**NEW** You Know Your Mom is Addicted to 

Classic Nickelodeon When / If She...

-When you tell her it’s “John & Stephen’s” birthdays and she knows who you’re talking about.

-She asks you to with them happy birthday for her because she knows your friends with them on Facebook.

-She knows that a Barth burger is.

-She knows how to make REAL slime. (Not the versions they have out these days.)

-When you tell her that “Jake from Pinwheel” called you back she knows who you’re talking about and wants to hear all about it.

-She knows who Sam and Muffy are.

-On the day you’re supposed to go hang out with her she calls you and asks you to bring over Black Beauty and The Tomorrow People.

-She helps you put ideas together for your upcoming CN convention. (We’re working on it.) 

Classic Nick Wed.– History of Nickelodeon

As an advocate for Classic (80’s) Nickelodeon I’d like to give you a brief history of Nickelodeon from my perspective as a First Generation Nickelodeoner.

I started watching Nickelodeon back in 1979 when it was still known as the “Pinwheel Network” and, while I don’t remember a lot of the shows I do remember that there was a commercial with an old fashion nickelodeon machine where I man looked over into the “N” and watched a little film much like the man in this picture. (Or it might have been a real machine – hard to remember I was only nine or ten at the time.) Anyway the song that played over it was, “Music Music Music” by Teresa Brewer. A year later in 1980 the network re-launched as “Nickelodeon: The First Network For Kids” and the rest is history.

Teresa Brewer – Music Music Music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5-yXOP5eLk

That may sound kind of funny to us today but in 1950 that was a big hit for her and as it turned out was just right for the budding television network. So what aired back in the good old days of the Pinwheel / Nickelodeon Network? Here is a list of as many shows as I could find. Do you remember any of these, and if so which ones?

PROGRAM LIST 1979 – 1987

Adventures of Black Beauty, The

Adventures in Rainbow Country

Adventures of the Little Koala

Against the Odds

Alpha Repertory Television Service [ARTS]

America Goes Bananaz

Bananaman

Belle and Sebastian

Big Ballot, The

By The Way

Children's Classics

Curious George: Monkey Collection

Dangermouse

Double Dare

Dusty's Treehouse

Finders Keepers

FIRST ROW FEATURES

Camerons, The, Bungala Boys, Davey Jones' Locker, Escape From The Sea, Great Pony Raid, The, Hide And Seek, Lionheart, Operation Third Form, Up In The Air, Wreck Raisers

Going Great

Go To the Arts

Hangin' In

Hocus Focus

Kid’s Court

Kids in Performance

Livewire

Little Prince, The (Le Petit Prince)

Marc Summers’ Mystery Magical Special

Matt & Jenny On The Wilderness Trail 1850

Monkees, The

Mr. Wizard's World

Mysterious Cities of Gold, The

National Geographic Explorer

Nick Beat

NICK'S FAMILY PICKS

Christian the Lion, Danny, I’ll Find A Way, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Little Men, Robinson Crusoe, Son of Monto Cristo, Storm Boy, Where’s Willie

Nickel Flicks

Nick Rocks Video to Go

Out Of Control

Pinwheel

PINWHEEL CARTOONS

The Adventures of the Mole, Alfie Atkins, Bagpuss, Bod, Bugs, Bunny in the Suitcase, Charlie's Climbing Tree, Chapi Chapo, Crystal Tipps and Alister, Curious George, Emily, Flower Stories, Gumby, Hattytown Tales, Jim & Jam, King Rollo, La Linea, Lilliputput, Madeline, Magic Coco, The Magic Roundabout, Mixometric, Mouse On 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

Pop Clips

Powerhouse

Rated K: For Kids By Kids

Reggie Jackson's World of Sports

Science International (aka) What Will They Think of Next?

Sixteen Cinema

Slim Goodbody

SPECIAL DELIVERY

8th World Invitational Double Dutch Championship

A Cricket in Times Square

Adam & The Ants: The Prince Charming Revue

Adventures of Dinosaur Badlands

Adventures of Marco Polo Jr., The

Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Alex and the Wonderful “Doo Wah” Lamp

Amazing Mr. Blunden, The

Americanization of Elias, The

Avengers of the Reef

Bambi Meets Godzilla

Beware, Beware My Beauty Fair

Big Apple Birthday

BMX World Championships

Brave Frog's Greatest Adventure, The

Cadichon II

Circustown (Documentary)

Chocky

Clarence & The Ottaway

Clay Creatures

Clever Jack

Cody

The Darts: In Concert

David Johansen: In Concert

Day the Derby Almost Died, The

Dinosaurs!

Dinosaurs! – A Fun-Filled Trip Back in Time!

Drawing a Blank

Dr. Snuggles

Duran Duran: In Concert

Dynaman

Electric Grandmother, The

Eurythmics in Concert

Foghat: In Concert

Get Along Gang, The

Grandma Did Not Wave Back

Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics

Gulliver’s Travels

Haircut 100

Haunting of Harrington House, The

His Majesty, The Scarecrow of Oz

I’ll Find A Way

Ivanhoe

Joshua's Confusion

Jungle Book, The

Kajagoogoo in Concert

Kids’ Writes I, II

Let The Balloon Go

Little Fox, The

Little Women

Molly's Pilgrim

My Mom's Having a Baby

Nightingale, The

Nikkolina

One of a Kind

Peanut Butter Solution, The

The Police: Synchronicity Concert

Portrait of Grandpa Doc

Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure

Ransom of Red Chief, The

Reggie Jackson's World of Sports

Rikki Tikki Tavi

Robinson Crusoe

Rosie

Silver City (The Righteous Apples)

Snowman, The

Someday, Sometime

Stowaway, The

Talking Animals

Tin Soldier, The

Tuck Everlasting

UFO Kidnapped

Velveteen Rabbit, The

Water Babies

We Are All One People

Whistler World BMX Bike Championships

Wild Rides

Witches and the Grinnygog, The

World According to Nicholas, The

Spartakus and the Sun Beneath the Sea

Spread Your Wings

Standby...Lights! Camera! Action!

Star Trek: The Animated Series

Studio See

Today's Special

THE THIRD EYE

Children Of The Stones, The Haunting of Cassie Palmer, Into the Labyrinth, Under The Mountain

Tip Top With Suzy Prudden

Tomorrow People, The

Turkey Television

Vegetable Soup

Vic's Vacant Lot

Video Comics

Whatever Turns You On

You Can't Do That On Television