I know conversations about children's television have been done to death for those of us in our thirties and forties, but having just bought the box set of the Banana Splits we going ot have to break all the rules and discuss it.
Did you watch it? I loved it, right from the theme tune at the beginning with the buggies and the big slide at the theme park to the very end. But looking at it now, about 70% of it went right over my head. For example, are they meant to be firemen working in a fire station? They wear fireman's hats...
It is essentially bonkers. It's psychedelic beyond belief and when the 'they were all on drugs' cliche is trotted out on talking heads shows by those too young to remember Kid's TV's golden age, I think in this case they really were. It was made in California in 1969. It's not Torchy The Battery Boy so it's perfectly possible.
The headache-inducing pace of the show and sick-making camera angles are insane. It's perfect for kids because it's fluffy animal characters with funny faces (I used to work with someone who was the spit of the one with the big teeth) doing slapstick. And there's lots to catch the eye if you find your mind wandering: the mailbox monster, the thing in the cuckoo clock, the moosehead with flapping antlers, the Sour Grapes girls. And then there the cartoons.
Always love the Arbaian Knights, and I love it that the evil tyrant their united against looks like a Mongol emperor rather than some nasty Arab. And most of the villains have green faces. The same goes in alternate animated insert The Three Musketeers. I never understood why it was called this as there are four of them, plus that really irritating little American pipsqueak called Tooley that they always end up laughing at. My brother and I hated him.
The real bore of the week though is Danger Island. I'm only a few episodes in and I don't recall this at all. Loads of Mexican pirates attacking an elderly man and his suspiciously nubile crew. It's all staged and silly and filmed on a small pond. But it is episodic, not that that would have sunk in when I was a tot.
Anyhoo, I still get goosebumps at the theme tune. I reminds of going to my grandma's on Saturday morning. Whizzer & Chips (then Jackpot then Look-In as the years went by), cherry Corona (nastily sweet) and the Banana Splits. I dreaded it ending because not only was it followed by adult comedy drama Mr Deeds Goes To Town (boring!), but it meant we had to go out for a walk. Now of course I don't have to do any of things, but sometimes I wish we did.
The only thing about I don't remember and am not keen on the Monkees-style songs. No one can name a Banana Splits song can they? I wonder how long that lasted.
Anyway, I only watched four episodes and I'm quite exhausted. Someone tell me, I'm sure there was a cartoon insert about a scientist and crew shrunk to a microscopic size?
