#and - this one's crazy - sam the machine from sesame street

[freakartack]

Best muppet?

Oh gonzo for sure

[danny500]

the History of the Muppets

the muppets are some of the most iconic characters ever not many people know this but jim henson started the whole Adult puppet show trend in the 50s he made the first Adult puppet show Sam and Freinds he also made old commercials for wilkins coffee back in the day which were way darker then the other muppet stuff had muppets shooting each other dropping guillotines on each other throwing bombs and one of the darkest has a muppet in a electric chair jim henson did not want to be known as a kids performer because of Sesame Street so he decided to make a new adult puppet show that would also appeal to kids called the muppet show which the very first episode tried to be as diffrent from sesame street as possible it was called Sex and Vilonce but however jim henson could not go to far back in the day he had to keep it family freindly for the most part there was still some mild adult humor such as puppets drinking alcohol and smoking and at times the muppets was still kind of edgy one of the puppets had a gun a turtle shoots a puppet with a gun one puppet goes crazy and jumps off statler and waldorfs balcony a girl sings a song and theres a muppet seen tied up in the closet freezer and basement then she shuts them all a puppet says a girl is his Sax Symbol and in one of the darkest episodes ever statler and waldorf kill a bunch of muppets and even shoot one muppet in the head with a arrow so well he could not go to far it could still be kind of edgy at times then he made some muppet movies like the muppet movie were some people in a bar throw bottles at fozzie rowlf talks about cracking open a couple of cold ones and a guy almost shoots kermit with a gun then he made another muppet movie which well family freindly was aimed at Adults and had some deep topics then he made a movie called the great muppet caper which well family freindly was more edgy with one puppet swearing a puppet makes a suggestive joke and a guy points a gun towards kermits head he also made a show called the jim henson hour were a dog mobster has a machine gun and kermit says maybe there show would do better if they added some sex after that he made 2 final films the dark crystal which was pretty creepy and dark and was not for kids and labryinth which was also pretty creepy and dark then brian henson helped make a show called Dinosaurs which was aimed at adults but they wanted to make just as fun and appealing for kids as well there was swearing puppets drink alcohol there was some dark humor at times and some adult humor and the final episode is one of the darkest endings of many shows they kill all the characters in a giant snowstorm then brian henson wanted to do what his dad did with the muppets try to make puppetry for adults he even got ABC to promote muppets tonight as a adult puppet show but instead it got marketed as a kids show which brian henson did not like it had some adult humor puppets drink alcohol and theres a pickled egg who acts drunk then he kind of proved puppetry could be for adults with another show called farscape and a puppet show called puppet up then he made a film for Adults called the happy time murders which proved puppetry could be for adults and was what jim henson wanted all along a more adult puppet show for adults with the muppets there was also a ABC show which was a more adult muppet show rowlf had a bar there was jokes about puppets hiding drugs and one muppet hires the mob to steal a ring and it still is implied to have blood on it and there was also a very dark joke in one episode with that being said the characters are iconic and were originally made for adults even his other 2 shows sesame street and fraggle rock well made for kids worked for both kids and adults sesame street had parodies to stuff that was not for kids and celebrities no kid would know about sometimes to make it for evreybody fraggle rock had some mild adult humor and tried to make a show for evreybody as well those 2 shows work on 2 levels for kids and adults thats why i still like Sesame Street and fraggle rock to this very day

[larrygoldsteinwrites]

The List

It was 1976. The Bicentennial. I had just started kindergarten in Mrs. Walsh’s class at Jefferson Elementary School. I was equipped with some generic metal lunchbox each day, and equally generic naptime mat. But at some point early in that school year, I’m not exactly sure when, I had an awakening. I discovered something that would alter my life irrevocably. No, it wasn’t girls, although that was on the horizon. For me, everything changed the day I was introduced to The Fonz.

Until this point in my pre-kindergarten life, most of my days consisted of board books, chewable toys (many of which were not supposed to be chewable), and shows like Sesame Street and Electric Company. Those PBS shows were fantastic, don’t get me wrong. Electric Company was funky, trippy and had Morgan Freeman on it (and that groovy animated music video with the pinball machine and the counting is right up there with any Spike Jonze joint). But this was something on a whole different level. This was Arthur F-ing Fonzarelli. Snuffleupagus and Big Bird were sent packing faster than poor Nikki and Paulo.

 Soon my cream cheese and jelly sandwiches (I know) were nestled in a shiny new Happy Days lunchbox. Naptime was when I busted out that sweet Fonzie mat. And I didn’t care how warm it was out, I was wearing my leather jacket to school every damn day.

They jumped the shark when he jumped the shark.

And so began my life-long obsession with everything television, something that carried through all the way to my career. So of course when I started this blog, I knew that a nostalgic television post would soon be in the cards. It had to be.

For me, TV is like music - when we hear certain songs from our past, it immediately reminds us of things from that time period, and that’s why everyone loves whatever their version of “oldies” is. And I’m no different. But for me, it’s just as strong for television. Show me an old episode of Sanford & Son, and I immediately get taken back to my living room floor after school, munching on Twizzlers and waiting for Fred and Aunt Esther to get all up in each other’s grills. Carol Burnett? My grandma introducing me to it when she babysat me while my parents went on vacation. Price Is Right? Home sick from school. Hee Haw? Well, I don’t know what happened with that one, don’t judge me.

Growing up in Western New York, we had a pretty eclectic variety of TV stations – everything from Toronto to New York City to Atlanta to Chicago. And yes, I’m old enough that we had 13 channels for a long time and no remote control. Then it all changed when we got those fake wood grain table-top cable boxes with three rows of buttons. But 13 channels were all I needed. We had WPIX in the mornings, with reruns of The Munsters, The Brady Bunch, Star Trek and of course “TV PIX”, a video game segment where kids called in and one lucky winner would get to play some random Atari game over the TV by yelling “PIX!” every time they wanted some shlub in the control room to fire a missile. Good times indeed (By the way, WPIX has an amazing Facebook page that posts pretty much every single promo and commercial that ever ran from back in the day – nothing puts you in a good mood like hearing that Crazy Eddie spokesman losing his damn mind over 4-head VCRs and tape recorders, or the raspy-voiced Carvel grandpa bragging on Cookie Puss.).

So yeah, when I wasn’t playing outside (which I did A LOT because, you know, 70’s), I was catching up with the Ingalls family, Bob Barker, The Sweathogs, all of it. I would say those were the “good old days”, but then I would sound old as dirt, plus have you watched a rerun of Silver Spoons or Diff’rent Strokes lately? They’ve aged about as well as Lindsay Lohan. And of course there was some guilty pleasure crap in there as well – from That’s Incredible to Real People to Battle of the Network Stars. But it was all pretty great when you’re a kid.

Seriously, this was no worse than My Strange Addiction or I am Cait.

So everything was cruising along nicely in my world with Fonzie, Mork and JJ Walker. Then, suddenly, in 1980, I had another TV-related awakening. This one kicked me in the ass and eventually led to my parents attempting to curtail this new obsession. They failed miserably. Or more accurately, they simply gave up and accepted it.

I was staying at my Grandma’s apartment for the weekend. It was the clichéd elderly grandma dwelling: uncomfortable furniture, TV way off to the side, little glass dishes of horrible hard candies, and a general smell of musty antiques. So I was bored as hell for the most part.

But my saving grace was that the guest room had a small TV in it. And that was huge back then. I could actually watch TV in bed, this was fantastic! So I excitedly hopped into bed ready to watch a sitcom. What I found instead changed everything.

At first glance it looked like boxing. Except that one of the guys in the ring was dressed like a cowboy. Leather vest, cowboy hat, leather gloves, and damn was he huge and mean looking. He began mercilessly pummeling his much smaller opponent, who looked like a rag doll compared to the cowboy, who even had a cool name: “Blackjack Mulligan”. At one point, Mulligan grabbed the other guy by the head, in what the announcers called “The Claw”. This must have been a really big deal, because the commentators were suddenly freaking out and warning me that I should look away.

Turns out I didn’t have to, because suddenly a big red “X” covered the screen, along with the word “CENSORED”. What the hell was happening?!? I couldn’t see anything! The announcer apologized profusely, saying that it was simply too gruesome for television. When they finally removed that damn red X, the match was over, Mulligan was putting his hat back on, and the remnants of his opponent lay twitching and bleeding in the ring. OH MY GOD WHAT IS THIS??? This is the greatest thing I have ever seen in my entire life. That was it, I was instantly hooked on pro wrestling. God help Ruth and George, they were in for many years of television hell.

  My dad had no choice but to know all about Animal and Hawk.

I religiously tuned in every week to see this testosterone-fueled version of soap operas, and somehow convinced my dad to take me to see it live every year at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. And this was right before the days of Hulk Hogan, Cyndi Lauper and all that crap that brought wrestling into the mainstream. This was back when live wrestling crowds were super sketchy, the smell of marijuana was thick in the air, and you saw some folks that scared the hell out of you, like the guy who sat next to us one year who had almost no teeth, and was very proud of the button on his denim jacket that was simply a close-up of a vagina.

It got so bad that my parents were forced to have an intervention, which is where the title of this post comes from. They called me into the kitchen, and asked me to sit down. On the table was a pad of paper and a pencil. They asked me to make a list of all the wrestling shows I watched on a weekly basis. Saturday was the big day, there were at least 4 shows that day alone. They looked very serious, so I did it, and gave them the list. My dad, clearly frustrated, said “Yeah, this is crazy, we need to cut this list down.” WHAT? It was like asking a Kardashian to chill out on the social media for a while. I was devastated, but I somehow managed to eliminate a few shows. It was difficult, it hurt, but I did it.

At some point this obsession would eventually give way to another, much less violent one.

 Arthur Fonzarelli --> Blackjack Mulligan --> Sam “Mayday” Malone.

 I had Ski Club each Thursday night for years, so my dad and I would hurry home as fast as possible so we wouldn’t miss the opening joke on Cheers at 9pm. And that’s what I mean about how television shows take you back to so many amazing times in your life – one of the reasons Cheers remains my favorite show ever is that for years, Ruth, George and I would settle in on the couch every Thursday night and watch it all unfold inside that Boston bar. It was the one show we all agreed on. My parents couldn’t stand most of my other shows, but this, this was our appointment television. As soon as those few first few piano keys started playing, all was right with the world. That song was the ultimate stress-reliever for me, and it’s no coincidence that it’s Shane’s favorite lullaby for me to sing to him to this day.

  I almost named our family dog Ernie Pantuso.

Sure, television today could not be more different than “back in the day”. It’s like comparing Otto Graham to Tom Brady (As a Bills fan, it pains me to even write that). Nowadays, not only are there countless choices, but a shitload of REALLY good choices as well, so many that it’s impossible to stay up on everything that’s great on TV. But there’s always something about the shows you grew up on that makes them special. It probably has to do with the fact that for most of us, everything was simple and easy back then. No bills to pay, no job to stress out about, no kids to take care of. Now it’s hard to totally lose yourself in a show when you realize you have 25 things to do the next day.

  You can have your Jon Snow, I’ll take Rerun.

Someone told me that my blog reminds them of the show The Wonder Years. And I totally get that, because as a total nostalgic sap I loved that show. So it all makes sense. But I don’t want my blog to simply be about nostalgia, it’s just kind of starting out that way. But hey, maybe just for the hell of it I’ll write a “very special episode”, those things need to make a comeback anyway.

[oltnews]

Photo: file Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Eddie Vedder were some of the great figures who were part of "One World: Together at Home", the charity festival led by artist Lady Gaga, Global Citizen and the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise funds for the fight against the pandemic coronavirus, which was a parade of celebrities from different fields. the special program, visible on social networks and for several television signals, also presented performances of own Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Stevie Wonder, Chris Martin, Billie Joe Armstrong, Lizzo, Shawn Medes and Camila Cabello; John Legend and Sam Smith, Billie Eilish and his brother Finneas, Keith Urban, Kasey Musgraves, Burna Boy, Jennifer Lopez, Céline Dion, Andrea Bocelli and Maluma .. It was a two hour collectionunder the direction of Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert, a six-hour maratórica day during which a large number of artists offered a song from their respective social networks. The special show also appeared with others figures that send messages related to the fight against the pandemicmainly with thanks to health staff and teachers, including Pharrel Williams, Beyonce, Usher, J Balvin and Alicia Keys; comedians Amy Poehler and Ellen DeGeneres; television star Oprah Winfrey; former footballer David Beckham and his wife, former Spice Girl Victoria Adams, and actor Idris Elba. Among the personalities who joined the festival they also met with political figures like former first ladies Laura Bush and Michelle Obama; the tycoon, creator of Microsoft's Bill Gates; the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres; and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. No more than the words of some doctors work with people infected with hiv or advice for the prevention of the virus in a didactic and humorous tone, as in the case of the intervention of certain characters from Sesame street, a short film with Bob Sponge or the version of Jimmy Fallon and The Roots, in style, as is often done in your own television show, the classic totally "Safety Dance", with a modification of the letter in which recommended to wash your hands. however, the best moments of the transmission were offered by the artists this made some interpretation, in some cases of their own songs and on the other, recreations of classics. Among those who approached his own material found Paul McCartneyone of the first figures to appear, with "Lady Madonna" and a greeting in which he remembered that his mother was a nurse who served in the Second World War. "The coronavirus knows that if there is a beatle involved that is in trouble," said Jimmy Kimmel at the end of the legendary musician's performance. The Rolling Stones, for their part, offered a version of "You can't always get what you want"It started Mick Jagger with an acoustic guitar and you added Keith Richards, Ron Wood and Charlie Watts, and included with the help of a hint of support." Stevie Wonder excited me with "Lean on me", Elton John made his bet with "Im still standing""Chris Martin spoke to" Yellow "and Eddie Vedder is featured with" River Cross ". Lady Gaga chose to open the transmission with "Smile"Charles Chaplin, Billie Eilish interpreted the standard "Smile", Taylor Swift brought the drama with "Soon youll be better", and the emotion of Lizzo with "A time is gonna come". however, one of the best musical moments was the intervention of Keith Urbanwho for a version of "Higher love", Stevie Sw, chose sobregrabarse on video, with three different guitars, to what amounted to a rhythm machine. There were also duets such as Shawn Mendes and Camila's Hair, "What a wonderful world"; and John Legend and Sam Smith in "Stand by me". The Latin touch was in Maluma's hands with "Carnival" and Jennifer Lopez with "People". In the two old bands that no longer exist like The Beach Boys and NIrvana, and others like Daft Punk or the singer Justin Bieber were present through old video clips. However, all events, whether artistic, political or members of civil society, were messages emphasizing preventive measures and recognition of doctors, researchers and health personnel; as well as in civil society organizations that target vulnerable sectors of the population. Transmission sought to raise money to continue the fight against the pandemic, but did not give figures on the results of the crusade. (function(d, s, id) var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;js.src = 'https://connect.facebook.net/es_ES/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v3.0&appId=1410314005864209&autoLogAppEvents=1';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); https://oltnews.com/mccartney-rolling-stones-and-elton-john-at-a-charity-festival-full-of-characters-play-crazy-game?_unique_id=5e9f2d1e1958e