Remember that one day when you could wake up without an alarm? When you would get your favorite bowl of cereal and sit between the hours of 8 and 12? This is a blog dedicated to the greatest time of our childhood: Saturday mornings. The television programs you watched, the memories attached to them, and maybe introducing you to something you didn't realize existed. Updated every weekend.
Best known for playing Shirley in Laverne & Shirley, which
she reprised for the first season of the animated spin-off, Laverne & Shirley
in the Army, she also played Gerri Poveri in an episode of The Magic
School Bus.
Meet the band: Stephanie, Merilee, Butch, Wally and Elvis.
Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kids were a teenaged rock band that worked as secret
government agents for the World-Wide Talent Agency; solving crimes as they toured
around the world with the help of local agents (although you’d think being
famous musicians would make keeping a low profile for investigating difficult).
The band was comprised of lead singer and guitarist Butch Cassidy (Lloyd “Chip”
Hand II), tambourine player Merilee (Judy Strangis), bass guitarist Stephanie
(Kristina Holland), and drummer Wally (Micky Dolenz), as well as Wally’s trusty
anthropomorphic (though non-speaking) dog, Elvis (named after The King, voiced by Frank Welker). They
were given assignments and advised by a giant supercomputer named Mr. Socrates
(named for the Greek
philosopher, voiced by John Stephenson using a stereotypical robotic voice),
who was housed inside the WWTA and could communicate with Butch, codenamed “Sundance
1”, through the device in the ring he wore. Despite being an artificial
intelligence, somehow Mr. Socrates had a strong allergy to dogs which meant
Elvis had to be kept out of the lair. A running gag featured Elvis managing to
find his own way in or Wally forgetting about Socrates’ allergy and bringing Elvis
in with them. The characters were designed by Takashi Masunaga.
The Hex Girls poster in Scoob! baring the Sundance Kids' name (among others).
The characters would go on to make
appearances in several episodes of Sealab 2021: playing
as a band in “All That Jazz”; as residents of SeaLab Pod Six in “Let ‘Em Eart
Corn!” (with Butch and Wally sporting mustaches); “Butchslap”, where the
character of Marco (Erik Estrada)
was revealed to have been a Sundance Kid; and the character models for Butch
and Wally were recycled for the appearances of writer John Miller and creator/writer Adam Reed, respectively, in the
episodes “Swimming in Oblivion” and “Return to Oblivion”. The band was also
listed as a featured act for the Hex Girls—the fictional goth female group within the Scooby
universe—on a poster in the 2020 film, Scoob!
EPISODE GUIDE:
“The Scientist” (9/8/73) – The band must smuggle a scientist
out of a foreign country without being discovered.
“The Counterfeiters” (9/15/73) – The band investigates a
Latvanian baron for his connection to a counterfeiting ring.
“One of Our Ships is Missing” (9/22/73) – The band ride on a
cruise ship that’s targeted by a group of boat thieves.
“Double Trouble” (9/29/73) – The band must expose an
imposter prince put in place to hide his kidnapping.
“The Pearl Caper” (10/6/73) – The band heads to Honolulu to
search for pearl thieves and their stolen loot.
“The Gold Caper” (10/13/73) – The band goes to London to
uncover a gold smuggling ring.
“Road Racers” (10/20/73) – A diamond theft coincides with
The Grand Prix Cross-European race that begins in Venice.
“Hong Kong Story” (10/27/73) – The band deals with both
their fan club and the theft of a priceless jade statute.
“Operation G-Minus” (11/3/73) – An anti-gravity device is
stolen from a Munich toy expo.
“Orient Express” (11/10/73) – Mr. Socrates is taken over by
an enemy agent while the band is off delivering an important document.
“The Parrot Caper” (11/17/73) – The band escorts a parrot
that memorized an important formula to Switzerland.
“The Super Sub” (11/24/73) – The band sets out to retrieve a
stole experimental submarine.
“The Haunted Castle” (12/1/73) – Wally inherits a castle
that appears to be haunted.
When Laurie Meadoff visited the
Albany Empire (now Albany Theatre)
in London, she found a thriving and impactful social services and arts program
for the youth there. Inspired, when she returned to New York City in 1985 she
began the CityKids Foundation.
Originally meeting in the basement of a local church, the Foundation invited kids
from different backgrounds to come together and engage with each other through the performing arts. The Foundation
has grown in the years following into an internationally recognized one
dedicated to positive youth development and social emotional learning while
allowing the voices of youth to rise up and be heard.
The Kids (from top): Tito, David, Angelica, Nikki, Susan, Snoopy and John.
After their
first decade in operation, CityKids partnered with Jim Henson Productions to bring their
message to the airwaves. The series followed an interracial group of urban kids
in New York City—Angelica (Cyndi Cartagena), Snoopy (Hassan Elgendi), John (Dulé
Hill), Susan (Anne Ho), Tito (Renoly Santiago), and siblings Nikki (Diana
Smith) and David (Brad Stoll), and Frida (Audrey Ince)—as they dealt with
school and life issues, such as bad grades, damaging rumors, sexism, racism,
financial responsibility, and more. It was the first series targeted for a
teenaged audience by Henson and ABC, who
ultimately picked it up for broadcast.
Dread and Bird.
What made
the series stand out from other similar pro-social shows at the time was the
inclusion of Henson’s Muppets. All-new characters were created that would serve
as kind of a Greek chorus. They were never seen by or interacted with the human
characters, but they would offer commentary on the goings on in the story and
helping to drive home the lessons being conveyed. These Muppets included Dread
(David Rudman), a Rastafarian philosopher that ran a radio show with his
sidekick, a pigeon named Bird (Joey Mazzarino); Captain (Mazzarino), Libido
(John Henson) and Lieutenant (Rudman), who inhabited the head of a particular
character; Dirt Sisters Trish (Mazzarino & Elizabeth Regen) and Toya
(Rudman & Cenophia Mitchell), two girls who always gossiped with each other
over the phone; the Hot Dogs, anthropomorphic hot dogs that would sing songs
from the container they were being served from until a pair of tongs took one
out; Frankie Frank (Rudman), a hot dog rapper and leader of Frankie Frank and
the Footers; and the Koozebanians (Noel MacNeil & Rudman), three aliens
from the planet Kozzebane. David Gumpel served as the Muppet segment supervisor
while Rudman was the puppeteer captain.
Trish and Toya.
CityKids
debuted on ABC on September 18, 1993. The pilot episode itself, the only episode
directed by Savage Steve Holland,
aired as an ABC
Saturday Morning Specialin January featuring different puppet designs.
The series was written by executive producer Adriana Trigiani, Matt Callaway and Jeffrey Solomon, with Susana Preston serving as script
supervisor. The theme and series music were composed by Raliegh Neal II and Malik Yoba. Muriel Stockdale was the costume
designer. Members of the
CityKids foundations appeared on the show as performers, in quick candid interview
segments about the topic at hand, and worked as creative assistants and
production interns. Kate Hillis
served as the coordinator between the Foundation and the production.
Inside the head with Captain, Lieutenant and Libido.
Unfortunately,
the series never seemed to reach its target demographic and ABC cancelled it
after 13 episodes. The Foundation’s website currently hosts all but the pilot
episode on their website, as
well as separate clips of their kids performing from the episodes. The pilot
itself was preserved on the Internet Archive. While only Hill, Santiago and Stoll would go on to have active careers
in showbusiness, the Muppet characters would also go on to have careers recycled
as new characters in various Henson productions.
EPISODE GUIDE: “Pilot” (1/30/93) – While David tries to approach a girl he
likes, Susan deals with racial discrimination and sexual harassment. “Becoming a Man” (9/25/93) – David has ulterior motives for
wanting to have a bar mitzvah. “Get a Job” (10/2/93) – Angelica and John bet to see who can
get and keep a job first. “The Curse of Ali Baba” (10/9/83) – Nikki takes her new
credit card as a license to spend. “Bye, Bye Reputation” (10/16/93) – Rumors spread around school
about Angelica being under the control of the guy she has a crush on. “The Mural” (10/23/93) – A boy asks Tito to paint a mural of
his father, but Tito’s friends are against it as the man was a drug dealer. “Alterations with Attitude” (10/30/93) – David volunteers
for the Big Buddy program and gets saddled with a troublemaker. “Quality Time” (11/13/93) – Snoopy’s friends are suspicious
of his estranged father’s reasons for visiting. “Rooftop Thanksgiving” (11/20/93) – The kids band together
to help a hard-off family have a good holiday. “Pack of Lies” (12/4/93) – Snoopy lies about a family death
to get out of taking a test while Angelica buys something she hopes will help
her attract a guy. “Love Letters on the Hudson” (12/11/93) – Susan plans to
meet her secret admirer on the Hudson River with her friends. “All My Trials” (12/18/93) – Anjelica receives a fine and
summons for improperly disposing of trash. “I Am Woman” (1/29/94) – The boys make fun of Nikki when she
wants to play basketball with them.
Born
Laurence Tureaud, Mr. T was the youngest son in a family of twelve children in Chicago, Illinois. Having grown
up facing constant lack of
respect because of the color of his skin--hearing his father, uncle and
veteran brother constantly called “boy”--he legally changed his name in 1970 to
“Mr. T” so that “the first word out of everybody’s mouth is ‘Mr.’” He played
football, wrestled and studied martial arts at Dunbar
Vocational High School and became the citywide wrestling champion two years
in a row. He won a football scholarship to Prairie
View A&M University where he majored in mathematics, but was expelled
after a year.
Fools, consider yourself pitied.
1975 saw
Mr. T join the Army’s Military
Police Corps for several years before trying out of the Green Bay Packers football team, but a knee
injury kept him out. Instead, he became a bouncer for the club Dingbats
Discotheque where the Mr. T persona began to take shape. He started wearing
gold chains adorned with various pieces of jewelry that essentially served as a
“lost and found” box; the items typically left behind by patrons after a fight
broke out who could then reclaim them from him without going back into the
club. They were also meant to represent the chains that were used to bring his
ancestors to the country and held them down. While reading National Geographic, Mr.
T noticed the hairstyle on a Mandinka warrior
and decided to adopt it as his own as a simpler, more permanent visual
signature and a powerful statement about his African origins. His tenure as a
bouncer led to his also becoming a bodyguard whose reputation garnered him
clients such as Steve McQueen,
Michael Jackson, Muhammad Ali,
Diana Ross, Joe Frazier and
more.
B.A. Baracus and his signature van.
In 1980,
Mr. T took part in NBC’s Games People Playin
the “America’s Toughest Bouncer” competition,which he won by knocking
out Honolulu bouncer Tutefano Tufi in a
boxing match. This caught the attention of Sylvester Stallone, who had Mr. T
cast as the antagonist Clubber Lang in Rocky III. It was
this film that introduced his catchphrase: “I pity the fool!” He appeared again
as a boxer in the film Penitentiary
2and then in a
bit on the sketch comedy series Bizarrewith Super
Dave Osborne (Bob Einstein) before
landing a starring role as Sergeant Bosco “B.A.” Baracus on the series The A-Team. The
series was a massive hit in its first three years, and Mr. T became the most
popular character on it—especially with children.
Animated Mr. T helping out one of his charges, Kim.
What better
way to capitalize on that than with a cartoon centered around Mr. T? Then-network
president Brandon Tartikoff
ordered one from Ruby-Spears
Enterprises. Steve
Gerber and Martin Pasko
were given the assignment and came up with three different proposals for the
network. None of them, however, were selected. Instead, the show became yet
another in a long line of Scooby-Dooclones (almost fitting, as Joe
Ruby and Ken
Spears were the original co-creators of that successful franchise during
their tenure at Hanna-Barbera).
However, instead of a talking dog, Mr. T would be joined by the youth
gymnastics team that he coached. This emulated real life as, before joining the
Army, Mr. T had worked as a gym instructor for a government program where he
discovered a gift for helping children and continued to do so throughout his life
and career. Not only did Mr. T voice himself, but he appeared in live-action
segments at the beginning to introduce the story and at the end to deliver a moral lesson
to the audience.
Mr. T and his crew (clockwise from top left): Ms. Bisby, Kim, Jeff, Woody, Vince, Robin, Spike, Dozer and Garcia.
Mr. T and
the team would travel around the world to compete. Along the way, they would
end up encountering some kind of crime or mystery that they couldn’t help but
attempt to solve; such as the wreckage of a ship that doesn’t exist, spies
seeking to sabotage the space shuttle program, and even a relative of one of
the characters being framed. The team consisted of Robin O’Neill (Amy Linker),
the second-in-command eager to jump into situations; Spike O’Neill (Teddy Field
III), Robin’s little brother who worshiped Mr. T to the point he dressed and
talked like him; Jeff Harris (Shawn Lieber), a wise guy with a big ego; Woody
Daniels (Phil LaMarr in his first voice acting role), Jeff’s friendly rival
with aspirations of becoming a lawyer; Kim Nakamura (Siu Ming Carson), who
possessed a photographic memory; Sky Redfern (Cathy Cavadini in her first voice
acting role), a Native American; Garcia Lopez, an aspiring photographer; Vince
D’Amato, who wanted to be a movie star; Courtney Howard, who had an ex-con
uncle that turned into a magician; and Grant Kline, an ex-gang member Jeff
helped reform. Additionally, there was Ms. Priscilla Bisby (Takayo Fischer), their
mystery book-loving bus driver, and Bulldozer aka Dozer, Mr. T’s bulldog that
shared his taste in hairstyles.
“Mystery of the Golden Medallions” (9/17/83) – Woody tries
to adjust to being the new member on the team while they solve the mystery of
crooks smashing gold medals around town.
“Mystery of the Forbidden Monastery” (9/24/83) – After being
invited to a phantom competition, members of the team begin disappearing when
they investigate a nearby monastery.
“Mystery of the Mind-Thieves” (10/1/83) – The team
investigates who robbed the minds of a group of scientists that includes Kim’s
father.
“Mystery of the Rocky Mountain Express” (10/8/83) – Garcia
ends up exposed to a top-secret virus smuggled onto the team’s train by some
criminals.
“The Hundred-Year-Old Mystery” (10/15/83) – The team wants
to set up a gymnastics camp in Mississippi, but a local gang intends to stop
them.
“The Crossword Mystery” (10/22/83) – Solving a crossword
puzzle’s clue leads Ms. Bisby into discovering a word that puts her and two
professors into a trance.
“The Ninja Mystery” (10/29/83) – Vince is interested in a
movie location in New York City not too far from where mysterious ninjas are
robbing stores.
“Dilemma of the Double-Edged Dagger” (11/5/83) – The team
must clear Mr. T’s name when he’s arrested for robbing a museum.
“Secret of the Spectral Sister” (11/12/83) – While visiting
her family, Robin gets a mysterious call from her thought-dead sister just as
burglars break into her bedroom to look for something.
“Mystery of the Silver Swan” (11/19/83) – Investigating a
classic car leads the team to discover a counterfeit car ring.
“Case of the Casino Caper” (11/26/83) – Courtney gets the
team in trouble when she attempts to take down a pair of casino robbers on her
own.
“Fade Out at 50,000 Feet” (12/3/83) – Jeff’s cousin goes
missing from an air show while Woody falls for a shady woman named Vanetta.
“Riddle of the Runaway Wheels” (12/10/83) – Crooks have
their sights set on the Turbo Team’s prize stunt car to help them acquire their own prize.
Season 2:
“Mystery in Paradise” (9/15/84) – Despite a loss, the team
enjoys their time in Hawaii until a confrontation with pirates tests Courtney’s
fear of water.
“Mystery of the Black Box” (9/24/84) – After recovering a
black box from a downed supersonic jet, the team is being pursued by a group
that wants it back.
“Mystery of the Panthermen” (9/29/84) – The team
investigates an island in San Francisco where people are being frightened away
and abducted from.
“Mystery of the Ghost Fleet” (10/6/84) – While Mr. T
investigates a ship that doesn’t exist, Kim puts herself on a crash diet for an
upcoming meet that takes its toll on her.
“Mystery of the Ancient Ancestor” (10/13/84) – The team
works to get to the bottom of why the family that owns the town they’re in has
a grudge with Skye’s family.
“Magical Mardi Gras Mystery” (10/20/84) – Everyone suspects
Courtney’s criminal-turned-magician uncle when a jazz singer’s diamonds
disappear.
“Mystery of the Disappearing Oasis” (10/27/84) – Mr. T
braves his fear of flying so the team can go with Kim to meet her pen pal, who
just happens to end up abducted over her necklace.
“Fortune Cookie Caper” (11/3/84) – When a string of arson
attacks affects Jeff’s parents’ bookstore, the team investigates.
“U.F.O. Mystery” (11/10/84) – Woody’s stubbornness to avoid
getting glasses hinders the team and their investigating when their professor
friend ends up kidnapped by…aliens?
“Mystery of the Stranger” (11/17/84) – The team attempts to
rescue Spike after he’s abducted by a married couple.
“The Cap Cod Caper” (11/24/84) – When Spike accidentally
takes attention away from her victory, Robin attempts to top him and ends up
captured by oil smugglers.
Season 3:
“They Williamsburg Mystery” (9/14/85) – While restoring an
old house, the team get embroiled in a mystery of two colonial soldiers looking
for a buried secret diary.
“Mission of Mercy” (9/21/85) – The team must recover a cargo
ship full of donated goods from a team of mercenaries.
“Mystery of the Open Crates” (9/28/85) – Mr. T helps out an
old friend keep his youth center out of the hands of drug dealers while
Courtney learns a lesson about meeting one’s heroes.
“The Playtown Mystery” (10/5/85) – Nobody believes Spike
when he tries to point out that two amusement park mascots are acting
suspiciously.
“The Comeback Mystery” (10/12/85) – The team’s newest member
has connections to a gang and are using his past with them to keep him quiet
about their activities.
“The Cape Kennedy Caper” (10/19/85) – While visiting Cape
Canaveral, Robin stumbles upon two spies with plans to blow up the space
shuttle in orbit.
A spin-off of The
Brady Kidsand a precursor in concept to The
Magic School Bus, Mission: Magic! was the fulfilment of producer Lou Scheimer’s desire to show
how important a teacher could be to children. The series would center around a
teacher with magical powers named Miss Tickle (a play on “mystical”, voiced by
Lola Fisher) that had a special rapport with her small yet diverse class of kids—The
Adventurers Club comprised of the quirky Socks, word-confusing Vinnie (both
Howard Morris), their leader Kim, lovestruck Carol (both Erika Scheimer), nerdy
Harvey and athletic Franklin (both Lane Scheimer)—and her cat, Tut-Tut, who
could turn to and from a statue via a magical incantation. Her lessons would
become enhanced adventures as she was able to open a portal through her
blackboard, with Tut-Tut’s help and transport them all to magical worlds beyond
such as a world ruled by magic, one where everyone did things in reverse, or
even an underwater city. Filmation
sold the idea to ABC’s Michael Eisner, however there was
a catch: they wanted the series to feature Australian musician Rick
Springfield.
Miss Tickle and The Adventurers Club: Harvey, Carol, Kim, Franklin, Vinnie and Socks.
After learning to play the guitar at age 13,
Springfield joined various bands in England and Australia before winding up
with pop rock band Zoot
as a backing vocalist; eventually becoming the lead guitarist and vocalist in
1969. Zoot’s gimmick, wearing head-to-toe pink satin, earned them significant
attention and numerous teenaged female fans, but cost them being taken
seriously as musicians. After the band broke up in 1971, Springfield signed with
Sparmac Records and his debut
single, “Speak to the Sky”,
peaked at number 5 on the Go-Setsingles chart and at number 14 on the BillboardHot 100. His debut album, Beginnings,
became the first of seven of his top 40 albums on the Billboard 200. Springfield moved to the United
States in 1972 and signed with Capitol
Records until a scandal broke out that Capitol was paying people to buy his
albums, resulting in a radio station boycott. Springfield moved to Columbia Records in 1973 where he
recorded his second album, Comic
Book Heroes. His looks and style had earned him the status as the next
teen pop idol.
The psychedelic sounds of Rick.
ABC had
entered into an arrangement to help promote Springfield and felt that the
cartoon would be a good showcase for his music. It was decided that while Miss
Tickle would be the children’s steward, Springfield would be their guide once
they went through the portal with his owl Ptolemy (named for the Greek mathematician and astronomer
and playing with Tut-Tut on the nonsensical poem “The
Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward
Lear); either filling them in on the goings on or actively calling for
their help through a magic gramophone in dealing with situations like thieves,
despots and disasters. Springfield would go on to write and perform a song in
each episode related in some way to the story, albeit in truncated form to accommodate
episode runtimes, and the series’ theme. Fisher, an accomplished singer herself,
was able to perform a song of her own in an episode—not written by Springfield—as
well as some melodic spell casting. According to Scheimer in the book Creating
the Filmation Generation, she likely would have had more opportunities had
Springfield not been involved. Carol was depicted as having a crush on Rick,
not unlike the legion of his young female fans.
Drawing the magic door.
Mission:
Magic! debuted on ABC on September 8, 1973, airing alongside The Brady
Kids. This was one of the few Filmation series to not rely heavily on stock
footage, making it one of the more expensive they produced. Outside of the main
characters, each new world they visited necessitated new designs for both them
and their related characters. It was a way to give the series a different look,
compared by Scheimer to a Peter Max
painting or the designs for Yellow Submarine,
and to make sure each place fit the story being told. Additionally, the musical
numbers would be accompanied by their own kind of psychedelic visuals. In typical
Filmation fashion, each story contained a pro-social message. Marc Richards
wrote the entirety of the series as he did with The Brady Kids, and the
rest of the series’ music was composed by Ray Ellis and Norm Prescott as Yvette Blais
and Jeff Michael, respectively.
The magical Land of Prestidigitation.
The series
ultimately did no one any favors. It didn’t hit with audiences and only lasted a
single season. It did nothing for Springfield’s career that he wouldn’t do for
himself with the release of the album Working
Class Dogand its hit single “Jessie’s Girl”, as well
as his prominent role as Dr. Noah Drake in the soap opera General Hospital. He has
since continued to perform on stage and screen, as well as dabbled in writing
with his autobiography and a novel. While this and Miss Tickle ended up being
Fisher’s only credit for Filmation, she was the wife and manager of Jackson Bostwick who would become the
titular hero of their live-action effort Shazzam!in 1974.
Tut-Tut and the magical gramophone.
In 1974, Springfield released the
album Mission:
Magic!in Australia through Wizard Records.
The album contained the full version of all the songs he performed of the show
except for “Yes I Am”. While none of the songs have been included on any of
Springfield’s official compilation albums, the album itself has been re-released
in various territories under different names and lengths: Just Gotta
Sing(13 tracks), Big Hits(10
tracks), Backtracks,
Speak
to the Sky(9 tracks plus the titular single), Catch Me
If You Can(including 2 singles), Fan-Tastic
Rick Springfieldand Rick
Springfield. The album was reissued on CD in 2004. In 2007, BCI Eclipse
released the digitally remastered complete
series to DVD with additional special features.
EPISODE GUIDE:
“The Land of Backwards” (9/8/73) – The Adventurers Club
finds themselves in trouble when returning stolen jewels lands them in jail.
“Modran” (9/15/73) – The Adventurers Club tries to stop
crooked Modran from cheating to win a tournament, but he takes some of the kids
captive as insurance that he will.
“The City Inside the Earth” (10/6/73) – Rick calls the
Adventurers Club to a subterranean city where a scientist seeks to claim the
underground for himself.
Song: “Yes I Am”
“2600 A.D.” (10/13/73) – The Adventurers Club heads to the
future where they find Omni the robot is ruler over all humans, and he needs
help to save the Earth from a meteor.
“Giant Steppes” (10/27/73) – Miss Tickle must rescue Rick
and his friend Billy from a giant while the kids figure out how to get Billy
back to his throne.
“Will the Real Rick Springfield Please Stand Up?” (11/10/73)
– Rick and Ptolemy are acting strangely, and it turns out both have been
replaced by crooks that can change their shape.
“A Light Mystery” (12/22/73) – The Adventurers Club heads
through the door to find out which of three rulers stole a generator to help
them conquer the entire land.
