Wednesday, April 29, 2009

KID TV TRAUMAS PART 1...

I vaguely remember seeing Andy's Gang when I was very small and had all but thankfully forgotten it until recently when in a haze of pot smoke a friend uttered those danger words: "Dude ya gotta see this, it is FUCKED-up!" and proceeded to inflict two very badly copied episodes on the unsuspecting room. High or not, I cannot convey the surrealism and abject horror that is Andy's Gang. It's from the late Fifties so it has that odd black and white videotaped look of live TV from that era, and was hosted by raspy voiced Andy Devine a fat and I suspect drunken character actor mainly known for being "Cookie Bullfincher" in the Roy Rogers movies and "Jingles", Wild Bill Hickock's pal. The terror comes from two things that once witnessed can never be shaken. First, a main character named Froggy who would appear out of the ether summoned by the incantation: "Pluck your magic twanger, Froggy" which is odd enough given that one isn't often encouraged to pluck their "magic twanger" in public and rarely in front of children. Ah, Froggy. Imagine Kermit with throat cancer, doing crystal-meth, and being a right sadistic bastard and you come close to the magic of Froggy. He harrangues, he insults, he plays cruel jokes, and is a four-star prick! Some editorial even blamed him for starting the seeds of the Sixties revolution with his spiteful atitude toward authority!!! Having fun yet, kiddies? No..well hows about we tie strings to the paws of Midnight the cat (a real cat) and make her dance in a funny outfit? Still not laughing? Ok then, we'll take cute little Midnight, and a real hamster, and a real squirrel, and a real chihuahua, and a real bunny,etc., tie bloodflow stopping strings to all of 'em and make 'em play little instruments in a band for your amusement! They'll have the dread filled eyes of test-lab monkeys, but you'll be guffawing up a storm, right? RIGHT? There, in a nutshell, you have Andy's Gang. A nightmare train to merriment for the whole family! Whew! Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

Here's a horrible sample...........WARNING animal trauma ahead...




1 comment:

  1. Methinks you might like this based on what you're posting...

    http://penmallet.blogspot.com/2009/04/jonny-cats-last-ode-to-sergio.html

    ReplyDelete