Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/04/14/a-simple-near-perfect-tv-them.html
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I wouldn’t consider it among my favorite TV show themes, but the fact that i remember it i guess says something to its credit at least.
Also can we not talk about that really weird Felix The Cat movie from the late 80’s???
Edit: as an aside, one of my top favorite TV themes is probably the one for That 70’s Show. I dare you to not get psyched or sing along.
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‘Near perfect’ as in ‘Oh well, cat does rhyme with cat.’
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It’s more of a jingle than a song.
Ah. Not the proper Max Fleischer Felix the Cat. I remember my dad being able to borrow 16mm silent cartoons such as the ‘Out of the Inkwell’ series for our birthday parties when I was very young. Much later, he sent off for a video of Felix the Cat and got these. I don’t think he ever bought a video again.
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You’ll laugh so hard, your sides will ache…
That’s how I remember it, too, but in this video she sang, “so much.”
Boy, they are really over-promising there, aren’t they?
Well, my heart went pitter-pat. Every. Single. Time.
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This is the first time I saw those cartoons in color!
I suspect the Suck Fairy has gotten to them, but I may have to rewatch some of those at home.
I remember one really odd scene where Poindexter and Felix find what they fear at first is The Master Cylinder. It turns out to be unoccupied . . . “an empty shell.” Which made Kid Me wonder, was Master Cylinder a robot who upgrades himself now and then, or a cyborg, or just a guy who lives like a hermit crab, discarding his metal suit now and then?
“Trans-Lux.” I think they may have imported Speed Racer. (Wiki, Wiki). Yea! Trans-Lux was a movie equipment pioneer who ran theaters, and distributed Felix and Mighty Hercules* and “Americanized” Speed Racer.
*“Hercules! Hero of song and story.
Hercules! Bearer of ancient glory
Kindness in his eyes
Iron in his thighs
Virtue in his heart
Fire in every part!
Of the mighty . . .
. . . Hercules!”
That’s from memory. I bet that’s close, though.
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Strangely, I don’t find that I require a television show for my heart to beat… though I can’t recollect ever laughing at a show (or anything else) so much my sides ached.
Hey Herc! Hey Herc!
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Like the Tooth Fairy but only blows your bicuspids?
Suck fairy flies over the things you enjoyed when you were younger – books, movies, TV shows, food – and sucks the joy and pleasure out of them.
“Jeeze, YooHoo is just watery chocolate milk when you come right down to it.”
“Man, I remember The Fantastic Mr. Fox as being really sophisticated. Maybe it was for a ten year old.”
“I shouldn’t have watched The Thunderbirds again. It was really slow, and those puppet eyes are kind of creepy.”
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Yeah, or “That’s strange. Narnia wasn’t such a blatant Christian allegory when I was 8,” or “Gee, this fantasy book wasn’t so appallingly racist when I was a kid. What happened to it?”
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But isn’t this perfection enough?
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I remember that perky little theme/jingle very well. Back when I was three I didn’t know what a master cylinder was and thought that the robot character’s name was “Mister Sounder.”
I also remember enjoying The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat from Film Roman when it came out in the 1990s. It revisited the trippy plots and visuals of the Fleischer Studios Felix cartoons (and others), which date back to 1919.
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Sure. But, choosing a Big Star cover is almost cheating.
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Stingray was much better. Faster, and took itself less seriously. Still stands up.
Oh, and thank you for reminding me of the damn Hercules theme song, which I now can’t get out of my head. (On the plus side, royalties from the song helped finance JAD records, which helped introduce reggae to the US.)
Felix the Cat always reminded me of the annoying cat in the old Katzenjammer Kids cartoons.
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Interestingly, I was a huge Oz fan as a kid – collected all the books, was a member of the club, etc – while being aware that there were horribly racist things in those books. That’s one of the reasons I liked them – NOT the racism, but as a fascinating look back at fantasy and technology and social attitudes from a hundred years ago. Reading about these characters marveling over the magical wonder of electricity while Chinese caricatures with buck-teeth and coolie hats run around in the background was a look into the past.
Plus I always giggled when one of the characters would say something excitedly and it’d be described as, ‘“Oh my goodness!” the Scarecrow ejaculated.’
