Okay... first off, if anyone outside of Canada ever thought they saw a cheap game show, they were never in the Great White North during the 1970's. Grand prizes included toaster ovens, dinner for twos, and the cash sometimes almost went to triple digits. Included below are some clips from some of the cheesiest games ever played on television.
The Premier Episode of the Mad Dash
Check out Alex Trebek's 'fro in Pitfall (admittedly this show had a budget)
Definition actually lasted until the 80s, but still brings the cheese
Pay Cards was produced in Canada and syndicated to the US... so you know it was good!
Get your pop culture retro fix on with the Cap'n, the Count, Frankenberry and Mr.T.
And as a special bonus a rare episode of the Sugar Bear cartoon before cereals were afraid to put "sugar" in their names.
via youtube.com
If you really want to get a sense of how trippy kids' shows can get, check out this intro from the classic HR Puffnstuff. Oh, I know that Japan has done its best to create some very surreal and bizarre anime for the past 30 years that have become even more crazy when adapted for the US, but Puffnstuff was just "Woah man, is that Mayor McCheese and a talking flute" kinda trippy.
via psfk.com
This art installation is very cool. Kind of the more esoteric, less tacky version of the Fremont Street Experience in Vegas. Set up at the National Gallery in Washington D.C. I somehow wish that the process includes the Dr. Who theme song and a Starchild. Click the psfk.com link above for more details.
Probably most of you have seen this film. Probably most of you remember this shot. Probably most of you know why it's so special. If you're a lover or student of film, it's worth watching this three minute uncut tracking shot every once in a while to remind you that film isn't all about remaking old classics... that is until they remake Goodfellas with Will Ferrell, Luke Wilson and Martin Lawrence. As you watch this, think of the planning involved and realize that sometimes genius can be expressed over a nasally vocal track.
Since I've been getting some nice responses from the two installments of Sesame Surrealism, and since it's too late to post a long and rambling lovehate about the minutae that is my pop cultured life, I give you Sesame Songs.
To refresh you on the basic concept, so many of the animated clips on Sesame Street, completely normal within the context of the show when we were kids, are odd to downright bizarre when watched on their own years later. The songs, however, were sometimes completely groovy and endlessly catchy.
Sunny days sweepin' the clouds away... I hope you are inspired to Do The Pigeon... that sounded dirty and probably illegal.
via wimp.com
I don't remember ever playing Tetris in an arcade with a heavy-duty joystick. Maybe then I would've considered some of these speed moves without fear I was going to break something. Raise your mug to this guy's fifteen minutes!
via youtube.com
When I was too young to remember anything but the theme song, or even know where the cartoon came from, Prince Planet was my first exposure to anime. I cannot say that I continued to love the style for its own sake, but what I did love was Battle of the Planets which was the Americanized version of Gatchaman... just some retro kitsch for your weekend.
I'm sorry - I realize this will probably be posted 1000 times by different people, and it's the height of bad blogging to simply embed a video for its own sake, but it's not often I have to stand up and walk away from the monitor because I'm laughing so hard.
via theonion.com
via youtube.com
When I was very young this Rankin and Bass production would come on at 6am on Saturday mornings with the New Adventures of Pinocchio... not the greatest animation or storytelling by any means, but hey, it was 1961 when this was made and a couple decades later before I saw it... if it was Saturday mornings and there was a cartoon, I watched it.