As a child of television growing up in the west end of Toronto in the early 1960s, I was always confused about the opening of a local children’s show called Commander Tom. A narrator boomed off the top that the commander’s top secret headquarters was, “somewhere on the Niagara peninsula.” “Somewhere”? It looked like a 50-storey
He started 67 years ago as a little green ball of clay. Now Gumby will be re-shaped and rolled out on several platforms by Fox Entertainment. Fox announced Tuesday that the character, introduced in the ‘50s in a series of home-made, stop-motion animated adventures, is now their intellectual property. Gumby, Pokey, the Blockheads and Roo
I couldn’t help but wonder if Eddie Murphy had stayed away too long before his long-awaited return to Saturday Night Live over the weekend. After all, it had been since 1984 — 35 years — since the youngest-ever cast member had electrified audiences at 30 Rock. In hockey terms, would Murphy bathe in Rocket Richard-style
“Who was once a little green slab of clay…Gumby!” If you recall that lyric, You probably grew up watching Gumby and Pokey and all their Plasticine pals. You probably, at one point, also owned a bendable green Gumby figure. Gumby dates back to the Eisenhower era of the mid-’50s. Teletoon Retro celebrates his 60th anniversary Thursday, Jan. 29,
Dave Thomas and Promo the Robot: somewhere on the Niagara Peninsula Do you remember Rocketship 7? The children’s series, which aired weekday mornings from 1962 to 1978 on Buffalo`s WKBW, was your typical, low budget little local morning show effort. You had your cartoons (those weird Davey and Goliath shorts plus Gumby), you had your
Catching up from beautiful downtown Liverpool, N.Y., home of Cinefest 29. People here are buzzed about the Syracuse Orangemen in the March Madness B-ball tourney, president Obama on Leno tonight and a bunch of old films from the `20s and `30s–pretty much in that order.The big gem from the floor of the Liverpool Holiday Inn