Today's notes remind me of a couple of things I haven't thought of since childhood, or at least since some OTHER thing reminded me of childhood.
One is this puppet news anchor character I remember seeing on a children's program I used to watch, "The Great Space Coaster." I don't remember anything else about the show or the character, except his shtick. As he reads the news, every word that begins with an "N" is pronounced with an audible "G" preceding it. His sign-off line, I think, went something like ". . . and remember, no Guh-news is good Guh-news with Gary Guh-nu."
I wasn't too impressed with Gary, even as a child. I remember thinking what a pale rip-off of Kermit "Thee" Frog's Sesame Street News reporter character he was, to say nothing of the way the portrayal further contributed to the unfair stereotype of exotic animals as having bizarre speech impediments. Rather insensitive of a children's program, but this WAS the '80s, after all.
The favorite cartoon song topic reminds me of the title song of a 1945 Walter Lantz Cartune which used to turn up in regular rotation during the Woody Woodpecker half hour on the local station. It was called "Jackson, the Sliphorn King of Polaroo." Featuring narration by Hans Conreid and trombone solos by Jack Teagarden, I believe its plot concerned a trombone-playing lion who is shipwrecked on the South Pole, where he dazzles the local animal residents with his swingin' virtuousity on the instrument. They then elect him king, or something. The most memorable thing about it was the tune, although I can't remember any of the lyrics.
I haven't seen this one in about twenty years, but would surely appreciate knowing if it's ever been released on video in any form. Anybody into Walter Lantz Cartunes?
