Headed off to work not long after that. Work was quiet the entire morning. It's the middle of the week, the middle of the month, and we're between holidays. Most people probably won't start thinking Easter until this weekend or next week. I did have to drive an electric cart back to WalMart that put me behind bringing carts back in the last hour. Other than that, no trouble whatsoever. The clouds were in and out, it's still windy, and it sprinkled slightly this morning. The sun is nice when you can get out of the wind.
Went straight home after I got off. Watched Let's Make a Deal while changing and having a snack. Came in just as two people opted to take money instead of boxes on the floor...which proved to be a bad choice, as the boxes held golf equipment and appliances, and the money didn't even amount to $100. A couple didn't do much better trying to win a trip to London, though they did get $400. A cat hung onto her $1,000 rather than spend it on the Door 4 Wheel. One of the people who won a low sum of money early on ended up being one of the Big Deal traders. The $800 he got from the Cookie Jar was still better than the $99 he started with. A maid and her hubby were equally happy with appliances and a gorgeous fur jacket for her.
Switched to F-Troop as I read about ADHD and did research on blog writing. "Yellow Bird" (Julie Newmar) is the long lost daughter of a wealthy Texan who was raised by Natives. Yellow Bird falls for Parameter, upsetting Wrangler Jane, while Agorn and O'Rourke think her father seems to have a pretty sweet deal.
It's an election year at Fort Courage, too. "The Ballot of Corporal Agorn" is the only one left that could decide the mayoral race in his home town of Passaic in North Jersey. The two candidates come out west to try to persuade Agorn that they're the ones he should vote for.
The others wonder "Did Your Father Come From Ireland?" when O'Rourke's Irish dad (Forest Tucker) arrives at the Fort. His obsession is bucket brigades and firefighting...and if there isn't a fire around to fight, he'll start one. Parameter tries to get him out, before everyone gets too hot under the collar.
Corporal Dobbs (James Hampton) wonders "For Whom the Bugle Tolls" when a camp inspector who is obsessed with buglers comes to Fort Courage. The others try to help him practice, then find a way to let the inspector hear music that's far sweeter than anything that ever came from Dobbs' instrument.
"Miss Parameter" (Patty Regan) is Wilton's equally clumsy and sweet-natured sister. She falls for Corporal Dobbs and tries to get him to marry her. Her brother and O'Rourke find her true calling when White Eagle falls sick, and there's no one else who can nurse him.
O'Rourke and Agorn are hoping for pasta galore when two Italians open a restaurant at the Fort. Turns out they're on the run from a gangster in their hometown and need hide in "La Dolce Courage." Parameter tries to find a way to keep the boss from running off with the daughter and blowing Fort Courage to heck and gone.
Worked on writing after that. Kathleen works in a flower shop, which she also lives above. Kindly Mrs. Kirkland teaches her how to run the shop and make arrangements. Kathleen has many wishes - to become a real writer, to have a home of her own - but right now, she's mostly worried that spring seems very late this year. Mrs. Kirkland tells her about Mother Nature and the different supernatural creatures under her care who look after the seasons. Perhaps something happened with one of them...
Broke for dinner and Match Game Syndicated at 7 PM. Things got pretty goofy in these episodes. In the first, Gary Crosby and Joyce Bulifant pick up Betty White's old gag of rolling up Gene's pant legs when he's talking to the upper tier. Gene also slipped and said "Charles" Cossell during one of their numerous jokes about Howard Cosell's obvious toupee. In the second, Gene breaks out a poster of a musical Gary appeared in during the early 60's, Two Tickets to Paris. (Which reminds me, I need to review that.) The music department kicked in with "There's No Business Like Show Business," which sent the entire panel marching around the desks.
Finished off the night at YouTube with some old childhood favorites that were slightly less weird. From about 1979 through 1985, every year in the spring and early summer, toy companies would release animated specials based around a new doll line or new products in an existing line. For instance, Strawberry Shortcake's Housewarming Surprise likely existed to promote their new line of "international" dolls and Strawberry's larger Victorian mansion-style dollhouse. There's also a really cute story about Strawberry moving and the Peculiar Purple Pieman and Sour Grapes wanting to steal the recipes those international friends brought.
The Care Bears made their animated debuts in The Care Bears In the Land Without Feeling. This is also the first of many times the Bears deal with a villain who comes off a lot scarier than you'd expect for this franchise. Professor Coldheart was their original antagonist. A little boy who is upset that he has to move stumbles straight into his trap and is turned into a slave. The Bears do their best to rescue him, but Wish Bear turns out to have the real solution to their problem.
For every Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake who are frequently revived and still talked about today, there's a Rose Petal Place or Herself the Elf only toy collectors and animation historians remember. Both of these lines began with much hype and barely lasted a year or two. In fact, several of the characters seen in the Rose Petal Place special here were supposed to have been dolls, but the line was canceled before they made it into full production.
The Charmkins was one of two videos my family rented after we got our first VCR around 1985. (The other was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.) The Charmkins were little figures intended to be jewelry who smelled like flowers. This special is the closest we came to having any of the toys. I still have a soft spot for the adventures of sassy Brown Eyed Susan (Aileen Quinn) and her brother Wee Winkie as they rescue Lady Slipper from a group of evil trolls who want her to dance and brighten up their swamp.
On the other hand, we had several Star Fairies dolls (and Rose still has her blue hard plastic lunch box based around the line), but I had no idea there was a special based on them until I found it on YouTube. Princess Sparkle creates four more fairies to help her create sweet dreams for kids. They bring one bored girl along in an attempt to grant her wish - a life of adventure. She gets a lot more than she bargained for when three silly elves steal Sparkle's wand in an attempt to grant their own wishes.
Poochie was also huge during my younger years. The fluffy pink and white dog with the puffy ears and dark sunglasses turned up everywhere in the early-mid 80's, on every toy and item that could be sold to a girl. I always thought Poochie was a random character without a backstory, but apparently, someone did put out a Poochie special in 1984...and it's an odd one. Poochie and her robot butler help a boy and his father escape a lost Egyptian city and convince its girl high priestess not to sacrifice them.
Peppermint Rose debuted in 1993, well after most dolls and fanciful animation of this type had gone out of style. I don't think the dolls or the special did well at the time, but it's actually pretty fun. Rose learns how great it is to do things yourself - or get help from a good friend - when she's brought by a wizard to help rescue a magical peppermint rose bush from a group of stinky bugs. Despite the dainty nature of the story, this one reeks of the early 90's, from Rose's attitude to the random rap sequence that has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the story and is never mentioned again.
If like me, you can't remember a spring without singing flowers, rapping teen girls, taking pink dogs, and wish-granting fairies, here's the shows for a trip down a springtime memory lane.
No comments:
Post a Comment