Monday, April 03, 2023

Super Shows On a Not-Super Day

Slept in later than I'd wanted to and barely had time for my journal, breakfast, and the 2018 Muppet Babies. "Kermit and Fozzie's Eggcellent Adventure" takes them all over the back yard on the Easter egg hunt. Fozzie keeps rushing into things, ignoring Kermit's attempt to make plans, until he realizes that it's better to use your head and figure out a problem then run right into it. Animal's so eager to see the city of Ratlantis, he won't use the bathroom. He's embarrassed by "Animal's Little Accident," but the other kids admit it's happened to all of them. When you have to go, you have to go.

Headed out shortly after that ended. I wish I hadn't. Work was a pain in the rear. I was tired and frustrated. I kept messing up and getting upset. We were really busy, too. It's the beginning of the month, Passover starts this week, Easter is next week, baseball just started last week, and March Madness ended today. There was at least one person who bought way too much and we had to put away a quarter of her order, and I held up the line getting a price for another because there was no one in the meat department to put a label on it. 

They eventually pulled me to sweep and push carts. It was really too nice to be inside all day, anyway. It was sunny and still a little windy, though not to the degree of the weekend. It did cloud over a bit later in the day, but long, fleecy clouds, not heavy, threatening ones. Even outside, I still barely had the time to do much more than sweep and push those carts. Rushed out soon as I did one last round with the carts.

And of course, I'd barely gotten a block on the bike when the chain came off. Darn it! I was too tired to try popping it back on. I ended up walking home and feeling very tired and sore. A neighbor did help me get it back on later. The chain is old and does need tightening; he said he might try to get it to the bike shop in Cherry Hill later in the week.

Went straight upstairs and into Bugs Bunny's Easter Funnies. The Easter Bunny is sick and Bugs is busy, so Granny tries to find a replacement among the Toons. This is really more a salute to Oscar-winning shorts from Termite Terrace than a holiday special. Among the classic cartoons seen here are "Knighty Knight Bugs," "Birds Anonymous," "Robin Hood Daffy," and "For Scentimental Reasons." 

Did a quick episode of Bluey before I took my laundry downstairs and ate dinner. It's "Easter," and Bluey and Bingo are looking forward to getting chocolate eggs from the Easter Bunny. They're disappointed when they find no eggs in their pouches. Turns out that funny bunny hid the eggs in a special place, and it's up to the two puppy girls to search all over the house for them. 

Finished the night with three episodes of The Super Mario Bros Super Show on Tubi in honor of The Super Mario Movie debuting Wednesday. I do remember seeing this on various syndicated channels as a kid in 1989 and thinking it was fun but a bit strange. That's putting it mildly. Mario (Lou Albaino) and Luigi (Danny Welles) are normal Brooklyn plumbers living in a basement who encounter all sorts of strange people, from a spoiled girl who claims to be an orphan (Dannica Keller) to Albano's fellow wrestler Sergeant Slaughter, who wants them to fix his "Steam-O-Matic." Frankly, the wrap-around sequences don't make a lot of sense and are pretty silly, even by kids' shows standards, and the Italian stereotypes run pretty thick here. No wonder they were dropped after this first run of shorts.

The cartoons make only slightly more sense. Mario becomes "King Mario of Cramealot" when he pulls the Golden Plunger out of a sink and fights Bowser for the throne. "Butch Mario and the Luigi Kid" dodge Sheriff Mouser when Bowser claims they're outlaws in order to rescue Princess Toadstool. They get a grumpy genie to provide "Mario's Magic Carpet" to help them rescue Toadstool from Bowser and a nasty sultan.

Very strange stuff. At least the live action wrap-around segments did manage to get an interesting array of semi-famous people, including Elvira in one memorable episode. The cartoons are typical DiC of the time, funny but with so-so animation and goofy movie spoof storylines. Mario's main interest seems to be in his stomach more than anything. There's also this revolving around the first two Super Mario Bros games. Many of the characters, especially the ones from Mario 2, may not be as familiar to kids nowadays. Honestly, I'd see if you can catch a few of the cartoons sans the wrap-arounds or skip them unless you have really fond memories of when this was first on the air. 

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