Episode 34: That Girl in Wonderland (1973)

We're anyway, welcome to ranking on Bass and offhand joke that just won't go away. I'm your host. Mike White joining me, of course, is a man who knows all kinds of jokes about being a window washer, mister Chris Stashoe. They go up, they go down, they go up and they go down. Also with this is a real bitchy boss.

Mister Richard had him for don't slow what you're doing in that office whole day. But it has nothing to do from the single book for wonder Corporation. Wow, I'm pressed. I was not expecting that. So there you go.

I mean it's like one it's like one degree array from Shawley in the books. I mean, it's the voices of the characters and this, I'm so exaggerated. It's so it's a cool it's a lot. On this podcast, we discussed the works of Arthur Rinkin Junior and Jules Bass, specifically some of their stop motion and animated working. On this one, we are talking about the last episode of the first season of the ABC Saturday Superstar movie called That Girl in Wonderland and guys, we are just about to break my wife.

She is asked to please never play that again. You've really been scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as all this breaking and bass stuff. That's almost a direct quote. I'm gonna point something out, Mike, your wife is finally where my wife was every Mike White March, I am done. I am through.

Do not subject me to this any longer. I hope you at least watched like an episode of two of That Girl with your wife to wash the taste out of that girl. And see, I watched an episode or two of That Girl, just so I can have some frame of reference as to what I was supposed to compare this too, given that that's the that's I mean, without the show That Girl, It's just a title that makes zero sense. Well, I used to watch That Girl when it was on, not originally because I think it was off the air before I was born, but I definitely watched a lot of that Girl, to the point where when she is talking with Donald, I'm like, oh Donald, yeah, that was her her boyfriend slash fiance's name. Okay, And I'm just like putting stuff together, but this does not capture why you should be watching That Girl.

I mean, in my opinion, oh oh no, that the That Girl Show, Marlo Thomas insanely charismatic, insanely charming. This cartoon, other than the fact of where we had to watch it, which again it's on YouTube, otherwise known as in the show notes. Yeah, Saturday Superstar Special. Rankin was not putting their best foot forward, if they were even attempting to put a foot forward at all. It was Ted Bessel who played Donald Hollinger, who was her boyfriend in That Girl and then that character is represented in this animated special, but it's voiced by Ted Schwartz instead of Ted Bessel, And I'm like, oh, well, why couldn't it just be him?

Right? Maybe he wanted nothing to do with this, or maybe it's busy. Yeah, maybe it's like the Star Wars Holiday special. We just don't talk about it, just pretend like it doesn't exist. Oh, Richard, what did you think of the special?

Well, I didn't hate watching it to the degree that I had hated watching certain other ones. It was it wasn't great the presence of Marlo Thomas. I mean, I'm already fifty percent in because I love her and she's also one of my people. The Lebanese oh no jokes Okay, I'll go on it. So am I what am I gonna make?

Proud people? The fine Lebanese people. I'm a huge fan of mash and Jamie Farr, one of your kings amongst men. So that's right, no jokes. I'm not gonna mix it up with lesbians or anything like that.

Ellen, Okay, well, now you've just gone through all the various jokes. And who doesn't like Kibby? I mean, Kibby's delicious. I go back, Oh my god, all about Yeah, all right, I forgot, I forgot. You know you're a chef?

Yeah, alright, alright, anyway, you know I love her, and you know. The animation style, now, this seemed to be yet another animation style that wasn't what we have seen before, which is fine. I will say this though, and tell me if I'm being crazy slash racist, slash pervy. But did did? The Anne Marie character seemed to be illustrated in a way that reminded you more of Japanese animation, more like anime, that sort of big block of black hair, giant eyes with big black pupils.

I was sort of like, oh, this is like kind of how the women are illustrated in the anime shows that my son watches now fifty years later. Yes, actually you took the words right out of my mouth. It is. It is exactly that. And what's weird is she is the only character represented that way.

All the other characters, like the Boost character is like, she looks like the way that she talks, like all the characters look the way that they talk. Essentially, the woman on the phone who answers the phone, it's just the most Can you imagine having to say that every time you answer the phone in a real world setting, mind you in a fairy tale? Just I want to die? But she's the Wow, what a difference? Thank you for calling Blockbuster?

Yeah? Wait a second, is that a part of your personal history that I'm mine? That is? Yeah, yeah, I've worked Blockbuster. I worked at three Blockbuster locations from nineteen ninety two to about nineteen ninety six or seven.

At least you didn't have to sing song Blockbuster, right. So how did it go? Did you say you say hello, Wow, what a difference? Or you just pick up and go, wow, what a difference? This is Blockbuster?

How can I help you? I think it was more like that. It was either that or thank you for calling Blockbuster. Wow. What a difference, But it makes more sense to answer with the wow.

Well, you know, I used to answer the phone Hello, let us amuse you, laugh and learn comedy, traffic School, I can help you. Wow. That's when I worked at the traffic school, and one day a week I'd work in the office to earn a few extra bucks. And it was their big innovation was you don't say how can I help you? You simply assert I can help you.

And then you let them say I got a ticket and I need to sign up for a class and chew a vista. Hey, you bring the excitement, Richard. They just bring the you know time it was bring the paperwork and the twenty nine dollars in cash. Court orders are a hell of a thing. Oh yeah, I won't go into that.

Some things need to remain secret. God, I will say, though, to your point, Richard, they definitely made her the more conventionally beautiful of all the characters, if the only character that could be considered not kind of off putting to look at. Yes, yeah, and Donald was the attractive male character, so they're like our romantic leads. Though Donald looked a lot like the window washer guy. To me, there was the one fantasy that she has, Oh, I guess it was the Wizard of Oz part of it where one was the scarecrow.

I think it was the window washer was the scarecrow and Donald was the tin man. And I was having a hard time keeping them straight at that point. And I guess for me, the thing that I guess, my expectation was it was going to be somehow Marlo Thomas's character in these fantasy settings, and I didn't know what it was going to be. And I feel like the framing device doesn't work really well. Like it's so for all the complaints that we've had about oh hello, I didn't see you there, let me tell you a still like we're all of the complaints and kind of are like poking fun at that because of how ham fisted it is.

When they try to do something more narratively, I would and say complex, but different, markedly different. It really doesn't work like at at all. Frank Well, it felt very breaknet like as I'm watching it, I was getting tired just because I was moving so fast, to the point where I was like, is this sped up? Like right? But their voices didn't sound sped up, but they just were talking so fast and things were happening so fast that was just like, this feels very bizarre.

It feels like it's running, you know, one hundred miles an hour when it should be more like fifty five. And it was a little bit hard to settle in on what the you know, what the real problem, you know, like the real plot problem. Essentially, what happens the setup of the show is that Anne Marie comes in to interview for the position of secretary at this children's book publishing company, and what ends up happening is she displays such knowledge that they assume she's coming into interview for the job of assistant editor, which apparently is also a position that's open, and so rather than reveal that she was there to be a secretary, she just goes with it. Yes, that's exactly what I'm here for. And then they're like, okay, well, if you can come up with a really great idea for a book that we can put on our sort of December release schedule, you will get that job.

You've got one week, I think they give her an amount of time, and so now that's her goal. That's what she wants to do, but what gets in the way of that isn't super clear. She immediately sort of establishes contact with Donald Hollinger, her boyfriend friend, and they, you know, they sort of have a charming interaction. They are clearly happy with each other and they're just having sort of normal boyfriend girlfriend troubles. But but it was a little hard to figure out beyond just her kind of you know, various things happening as she's trying to think of a good book, there was no sort of other real thing going on.

Yes, the other women in the office kind of try to sabotage her a little bit, but beyond that there oddly wasn't a lot going on here. I totally agree. Yeah, it's like a rom com type of situation, but just plays out in a very odd way. I mean, I could see this being live action with what's her name, Kate Hudson, and I don't know, Ryan Broynolds maybe is playing Donald. Well, you know, it's like it was, it kept walking right up to the edge of being about Donald being frustrated because her work was keeping her too busy so that they couldn't date.

Now you know, more adult sort of world of storytelling that they might have been able to go all the way, and maybe they felt like, well, kids aren't going to get that, but I think it would have been great now they didn't do that on the date or on the night when they finally have time for a date, and Donald was like, great, finally we can go to the nixt game. I got tickets. She's busy, but she's not busy doing anything work related or pursuing her career. She's busy sort of spending the money she doesn't have yet, going to get guitar lessons and going to meet with a designer to redecorate her apartment, and going to buy new clothes, which isn't really the best feminist look, but okay, this is for kids.

And it was nineteen seventy four. Maybe that wasn't what they wanted to do, But if you wanted to just take another half step, the plot of it could have been Donald, I'm really busy now pursuing my dream job. And you've got to be okay with that because you've got your dream job. So rather than whining and muling about how we're not seeing the knicks, maybe you helped me out a little bit. And at the end of this when I succeed, everyone's happy, and we'll be back with these commercial breaks with Yogi Bear on, Noah's Ark and Huckleberry Hound.

Oh it's the Shroud of Turn. Yeah. My wife was just like, who's this cartoon for. This is not for little kids. It is not.

It is not for little kids, And like that's the other thing that's strange, Like the advertisements are for little kids, but then the the the actual cartoon that that is meant to be, the entertainment parts just that Girl's not for kids anyway, Like I guess it could be, but it's for kids in the same way that all of that television can be for kids, and that it's inoffensive and doesn't necessarily push the I mean, I love Lucy can be for kids, you know what I mean. Like I watched a plenty of it growing up. It's not really for kids, but I wouldn't say it's in any way not made in a way that kids could enjoy. But this cartoon, like, yeah, I just don't get who this is for. Similarly to Red Baron, but I think in this it makes even less sense because the source material that they're placing in these classic stories of old is.

Yeah, I mean, she's a character, but why this story, Like it's why is she en Hansel and Gretel all of a sudden, It's it's so straight. It's like it's like that that knee jerk sort of impulse of we have to go to this sort of public domain, fairy tale place. That's what the kids want to see, and if and if we're not doing that, then it's got to be about them consuming shit, because kids want to consume stuff, so it's got to be about her buying stuff. And it's like, well, okay, well that that's what we got. You know.

It's love her and Don Hollander was really sweet. There was nothing like overtly offensive or like he's being an asshole, you know, or he's calling her six seven e times before she even gets to work, and I'm like, dude, you better back off, Like when can we talk? When am I gonna call you? No? No, I'm like, is that your crone of a boss again?

Lady, she is at work. Do not bother someone when they're at work. At most you text them, but you don't have phone call conversation. No, you call their boss's office while they're in the meeting with the boss and then go, is that you imitating your boss again? That piece of shit?

Yeah, she's right behind me, isn't she right? It was kind of interesting. Oh, I guess they're in the same building though, so I guess I can't. But I'm like, she is arriving at this place that she's never been for the first time, and he's calling her there, right, But then it's like, oh, they're working in the same building, and so he's just I guess calling downstairs. So it's sort of like, hey, are you how's the meeting going?

But again, I think he could have been more supportive. I think he could have been more on board with, well, what do we need to do to help you get this job? You know, it's like, Lenny, help you know you need to. Let's let's go on a on a carriage ride through a central park and maybe you'll come up with some ideas or something. I mean, like, I don't know, I know, I'm trying to rewrite this thing fifty years later.

I'm sorry, I'm on strike. I'm going a little crazy. Old pencils down here, Richard. Come on, you can't be rewriting anybody's work. I'm scabbing.

I'm scabbing, yes, yeah, I mean even the thing with like oh I gotta stickets for the Knicks and the games in five minutes. It's like, unless Anne Marie's really into basketball, you don't just spring that on somebody. No, No, that was a little frustrating. And then and then I don't know that she ever really resolved, like like the women who already worked there, the phone operator and the other secretary start out, is the weird like NEMICI to her like, oh, we're gonna screw things up for her for some reason. I guess because you know, bitches be crazy or something was.

You've seen Peggy. That's her whole thing. It's just like I'm going to tell the boss on you so I can get ahead because descent must be crushed in the workplace. Well yeah, I mean I get but fine, then you know you want to start. They're fine, But then it didn't turn into like throughout the course of the show, it's like, oh wait a second, they actually become allies, like like like somehow they realize, why are we fighting against each other?

Let's all this could be great or say you know what I mean? I don't know again, rewriting it fifty years later, But why not at least have a little forward motion with these character relationships. So at the end they're like, they're like kind of pulling strings to to, you know, help her set her up for success. And then at the end they all celebrate. It's like, oh, at first we didn't like you, but now it's awesome, You're gonna be here.

Yay. Yeah, that transition, if that transition really happens, it's like, what when when did you guys start to like her? When did you stop making her get coffee? And what is the time span of this whole thing? Yeah?

Yeah, And she had such a problem when she would go into these fugue states and start to imagine all of these characters around her inside of the fantasy's very Wizard of Oz. And then people would come up and be like, and Marie, we have to do this or that or the other thing, and she's oh, and she just starts like she's still in the fantasy. And I'm like, wait a second. You should be able to snap out of this a lot quicker than you are right now. And Marie, quick, there's a propane leak.

We gotta get you out of this house, I can see Wonderland. The rabbits are talking to me. It's like the oracle in Delphi. She just starts like sitting in a room, just like tripping and imagining herself for whatever reason, on top of everything else. And here's I think this was the strangest thing for me.

The framing device to all this was was a reason to get Marlo Thomas into the story, right, I mean, I think we would all agree, like the whole point of this is just to get the three, like the three or four characters from the real world into these stories and have her in those stories interacting with them. But it is just such an uninteresting way because it doesn't it doesn't feel organic. And I'm not saying like there's a good way to do this, but there's got to be a better way than this, where it's just like I'm just gonna sit at my desk and trip for half an hour, Like yeah, wait a second. Here, it's like nothing did double duty. It wasn't like, oh I'm having I'm having problems with Donald, but in these stories he's the perfect boyfriend.

But then by the end I kind of learned, you know that I don't need a Prince Charming. I just need someone who's on my side or whatever. I was just gonna say, is it's Stu Hempel, who's the teleplay writer? I believe, I believe you're right? Yes, yeah, which I don't.

Have we seen him before? Has he done other Rank and bass? Don't think so. The name doesn't sound familiar. Yeah, nothing about what he was doing necessary early felt kind of like you were joking at the beginning.

It didn't start with what you've never heard the story of Anne Marie getting a job as assistant editor at a New York based children's book publishing company. Well, sit down, kids, you're gonna love this. These are the lost chapters of that girl. I, honest to God, thought that the framing device of this was going to be like she like hits her head, thankful, Right, Okay, good, I'm glad it wasn't just me. I thought it was going to be like something to the effect of a framing device that would allow her to go to Wonderland.

I didn't assume that Wonderland is like the name of the magazine, right, exactly right. It's like beyond idiotic as far as I'm concerned, Like the idea of just not doing the easy thing here and making it so complicated. I get that they were trying to do something. Maybe at the time they thought this was novel and oh, it's not just the lazy thing. But I don't consider this.

I wouldn't have considered this lazy if they had done that, I would considered it just, well, that's what I expected, which there's nothing in a lot of ways, there's nothing wrong with meeting expectations. But when you do something so drastically different that it's not much of anything, it's just kind of a it's just so drab and just not entertaining. And Marlo thomass as Anry cannot save this. That's the That's the other thing. If this were live actions, she might be able to, but because it's just her voice performance, she can't save it well.

And it goes back to that same problem that we've talked about for the last I think wow quite quite a while. Definitely since Anna and the King, this whole we're gonna wedge a pet in here, Oh my god, a stupid dog like it doubles his Toto and the Wizard of Oz section, But otherwise it's just there. No, you gotta have an animal that's a law. Wow. I'm disappointed it wasn't a talking animal.

I was kind of hoping at least in those with an ethnic accent. Oh there you go. Maybe Look Danny Thomas comes in and doesn't voice work a little girl? What are you doing? It's uh, I guess the other the other question that I have in all of this, obviously, you know, we we've talked about Ranking and Bass and they're they're kind of taking of other famous people and utilizing them in I don't say creative ways, but utilizing them, you know, Danny kay Thing, Crosby, Oh Burrow Ives.

I mean, is is this now the worst I think this might be up there for like the worst utilization of like a exterior talent that Ranking and Bass has had. It's so just it's like it's like to say, it's low hanging fruit might not even be strong enough. Dude. We just came off of Willie Maze. Yeah, but at least it was still a sports thing.

Like, at least it was still a sports thing. It's not like they took Willie Mays and they dropped him in the middle of his hair a desert, you know, and they were like, well, ride a camel to go see the Pyramids and tell us about that. Like, this is just so bizarre. It's like it doesn't even it doesn't even trade in the good things that Marlo Thomas brings to That Girl, because, like I said, I watched the first episode of That Girl, and she's very charming from the first moment she's on screen. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that Girl's good.

That's good, and it's free on YouTube right now. Wow. Yeah. I was very disappointed that they didn't actually confuse that That Girl theme song, and I was really hoping they would do an animated version of the That Girl opening. I know me too, yeah, because that's one of the most classic openings that Mary Tyler Moore.

I mean, they're right up there together. Yeah, yeah, Young Women in the City. In fact, I think That Girl when people discuss sort of late sixties, early seventies, you know, female lead television, that Girl comes up as well. Anne Marie was really the first single girl pursuing a career blah blah blah. But it's like, yeah, she was technically single, but she was always with Don Hollander.

She had a boyfriend, and it played a large role in her life. Whereas Mary did not have one consistent partner, although oddly enough, in the seventh season of The Mary Taylor Moore Show, Ted Bessel did show up for more than one episode as a boyfriend of hers. Well maybe that's why he was too busy to do that girl in Wonderland. Yeah, it's also weird than the optics of giving her a secretary at the end of the cartoon, Right, is that not like a because again, like to your point, Richard, like the idea of Anne Marie in the actual show never gets married. I mean, that's it's a pretty strong message for the mid seventies or mid sixties, early seventies, right, Like, you don't need to be defined by a man or you know, your relationships.

You can just be you like and then to give her a female secretary in this cartoon, and that'd be like a gag. It's just like again the gender politics and optics aside, Like it wasn't a weird thing, I guess when this came out, but like to look at it now, it's like, huh, that's a little odd. I know it is. Again, it's like you kind of have to take feminism where it was the idea that it's like, oh, as a young woman, I would have a position of authority such that I would earn a subordinate. Is a huge feminist leap forward.

That the boss is a woman. Now, of course the secretary is going to be a woman. That's not questioned, and that there will be a subordinate that's not questioned. The fact that the boss of that subordinate is female. Wow, grab your hats.

What's really odd. I did look up the writer since we were talking about him, and he was really known more as a children's book author than anything else, though he did write some plays, he wrote some musicals. Of course, he wrote some television shows, but he was working a lot on well. He did a snow White in the Seven Dwarves adaptation The Great Radio Comedians for PBS. But yeah, just an odd choice of who to pick to write your that Girl in Wonderland story.

For a minute, I thought maybe he was a that girl writer, right, that would have made more sense. Yeah, yeah, But I guess it's like, no, no, we need I don't know someone who knows the children's book industry. This is going to be a quasi documentary. I just don't. Yeah, I don't.

I guess I just don't understand who this was for, because you got to figure out who this is for before you make it. And if if we still can't figure out who it's for after watching it, it's like, I don't think you guys really had a strong sense of strong sense of the ideas you really wanted to get across here, because there are other things. I mean, we know Rankin and Bass does Jackson five and the Osman's like, those are things that are much more facing towards a younger generation than that girl is. You know, yeah, at least for this Saturday morning crowd, the crowd that's going to have sugar smacks advertised to them as a healthy option in the morning. Fucking I forgot that the sugar smack bear is like doing a patois too.

It's ah, I forgot that he's like a he's a cool jive bear, as they would say. Yeah, he si reminds me of Dean Martin. He's got that voice or a little bit more like Bing Crosby. I guess, I don't know, but it's scary and aggressive. It feels like he should be driving a van.

Yeah, well, hey, who likes honey smacks? You like honey smacks like I'm good or sugar smacks, honey smacks, that's the frog. Yeah it is. It is funny. It's like, oh, you're eating a pickle and drinking a root beer for breakfast.

That's unhealthy. You should have your healthy breakfast. You know, part of your healthy breast sugar smacks you milk, orange juice, eggs, a multi vitamin. You know what part of breakfast? Is this dessert?

Right? Yes? Because with the name like sugar smacks, you know you're getting your daily fill of what's a sugar here? So that must be I mean, I mean ingredient. It says a sugar and hydrogenated corn.

Well what hey? You know what? Though, I will say watching it with all the cartoons like it made it more enjoyable. For sure. Commercials were Commercials were amazing.

To see the two back to back Captain Crunch commercials with John the Foot instead of Jean Lafitte. That was hilarious. And the Crunchberry Monster as well, which does it doesn't get a lot of representation in twenty twenty three, the big yellow crunch Monster. So and to have like Bernie Rubble was having a crisis of faith, Yeah, I was. I mean, there was at one point Yogi Bear on Noah's Ark and I was just yeah, it was very confused.

He's like, here we are on Noah's Ark. All right, Well that's not a bingo card slot that I think anybody would have had, but we're here now. Oh yeah. The cartoons were better than the than the cartoon, The ads were better than the cartoon itself. And then of course you saw the Jackson five four Alpha bits.

Yes, yeah, I was like, wow, okay, all right, we're getting what we know. And then oh and then the Barbie commercial Barbie Camping. I know, right. So Yogi's Arc Lark was another one of these Saturday Morning Superstar movies. There was the second episode of this season though it sounded like, yeah, coming up next week, we're gonna hear from me.

I'm gonna be on Noah's Ark. Yeah, like I said, Huncle berry Hound is going to be finding out where the spear of Lnginis is. It's like, what is going on? It's such a weird thing to contrast Yogi Bear with Let's just you know, I found a piece of state John the Baptist too, Oh is there? I was burning down Rome eggs to stage left.

You mean, I've got to tear those gladiators to bits. All of this is just way better than what they put forward. My god, Yogi's arc Lark, come on you guys. They literally were like, Okay, we're gonna have a bunch of various animal cartoon characters. Where do animals gather a zoo?

Oh a zoo? Really great idea, Jenkins, low hanging fruit. How about something a little bit more original? Okay, Noah's Yeah, that's thinking. That's what I like.

Noah's arc. It's also for kids, it's religious. I love it. I was kidding. No, no, we're using it.

And when Yogi talks to Noah, it's gonna be a hoot. I mean it's probably gonna be Yogi and Boo Boo rather than Yogi and a female bear. Right. Oh yeah, no, no, it's gonna be I don't think this is enough. Cupids, right, what's a cubit?

There we go. Now we've come full circle until the cause. I will say, for me, as as as a child of the of the nineties, who was who had a lot of toys advertised to me, the toy ads were shockingly disappointing. Weebels tilts over. Yeah, weebels wobble, but they don't fall downs.

This is the act. This is the action form and function is that it just tilts over. It's an egg with a magnet or a piece of a metal in the bottom. We got a lot of these pieces of We got a lot of these pear shaped pieces of wood. What do you guys think we should do with them?

You were you excited about g I Joe uh Secret Mummy? You can figure out how it ends by buying this prom by buying this product. It actually, I think really speaks to what this is about, because it's not about the cartoon, like and I think probably we would have realized that even more so if like Red Baron had had the cartoon like the ads or you know, any of these, or Willie Mays had had the ads, because like, the ads are so entertaining and everything in between is not. But it's like, just keep keep them in front of the screen for seven more minutes until we can get to the ads. Like, Yeah, the ads were my favorite part.

I think they were good. They were actually like the Captain Crunch ad with the back to back ad was more entertaining and told a better minute and a half long story than this forty five minute thing did. Because that's the other thing. This is an essentially featured length. It did not need to be this long, like at ad all, Like it's it's dragging by the first ten minutes, but by the time we go to the third or fourth, you know, like you mentioned Mike Fugue state, it's like, I don't I don't need to see this again because he's not.

They're not going to do anything with it. They did, they just they never do, even if we're seeing characters from the real world. Yes, because the fantasy doesn't propel the main narrative in any way. It just takes you out of the main narrative, explores the characters a little bit, and then brings you right back into it. It's not like she's solving problems or something.

No, no, actually it's really Donald is the one with the problem in this show. It's like, oh, no, I've got a problem. My girlfriend is going into the workplace and now she's a little bit too busy to devote herself exclusively to my needs. And you know, at the end, she's sort of like, but Donald, you're the one who said I should go for this job. He's like, I'd said, you should get a job, not a whole new lifestyle that's going to occupy your time when when really I need you as as as just an accessory to my lifestyle.

Yeah, I can't stop making this a feminist manifesto. I mean, I don't blame you, because it does feel very like he's very selfish. Right, Well, well it's not. It doesn't ingratiate the character to the audience. But he's like, you're working, Like the fuck do you expect bros?

Somehow pal Like, right, she's Anne Marie. He's just Donald. Yeah, he's just Donald. It's Anne Marie, and it's Donald is what it is? Richard, Well that's wow.

That's what it should be, right, that's what it should be. I thought a lot more. It made a lot more sense. I couldn't find a whole lot of Oppenheimer thematic analogies, but I tried. When Anne Marie looks at the screet as eye and become death worlds, that's what she goes into one of her fantasy states and just destroys the world.

And then when we I'm back her fingers like on the button. Yeah, no, every stuff I must destroy it to grow anew, it must be cleansed first, you know, look, Rankin and Bass, I think you know your joke at the beginning of the show, Mike does ring true. At this point, It's like, guys, you have to change with the times, and this is just not going to cut it anymore, because, like, again, this is seventy three. I mean, this is a different time and a place, and we're coming up on the eighties where cartoons really start to hit their stride for kids, and like, and the seventies, I mean, the seventies are no slouch either, obviously, you know, Hannah Barbera, A lot of stuff in the seventies is starting to push the envelope.

And this is just lazy and cheap and not compelling. And again, I don't know what kid is going to watch this and go I want to see more of that. Like I'm just more like, I'm glad this is over. What's going to be on next? Right?

Well, having gone through so much much of this and I know we're sort of coming into the end of our time with Rankin and Bass, it is funny that the true innovation and their true success is the stuff we already knew about which I guess makes sense. It's the stuff that has lived on decade after decade, Rudolf, you know, heat Miser, snow Miser. It's those, it's those AnimagiC specials that really felt like you were seeing something new and different that you weren't seeing every day, and there was a certain there was a certain goofy charm to those characters and to those voice characterizations that that just continually draw you back, obviously year after year after year and become sort of implanted in your soul.

That was their innovation. That was their high water mark, and it's so odd that it came first, and it's even odder that in the ensuing twenty five years they never really took steps forward in terms of either design, storytelling concept. They they hit it hard out of the gate, and it was a long decline creatively as far as I'm concerned. And we haven't even mentioned and I think that this is probably even further. The craziest thing.

None of the voices in here are people that we've seen before. They're not they're not ranking in bass regulars, they're no Paul Freeze, Romeo Muller's name is not on this anywhere like this is essentially Ranking in Bass in produced and directed by But that's it, like in terms of like even the people that we've seen before, like there's there's not even there, there's not even anything. There's no more laws, even like nothing. I don't think you would know, Like if you didn't know, you wouldn't know that they had anything to do with this. There's none of I mean other than having an animal.

But everyone did that. So what's weird is Willie Mays and they say, hey, kid actually did still kind to feel like Ranking and Bass, Like this is the first thing we've watched where I'm like, this doesn't feel like Ranking and Bass at at all, frankly because it's because even though like the subject matter is kind of hinky, the story is a little poorly constructed. If I heard Paul Freeze's voice, if I heard somebody's voice that I recognized, I might be like, Okay, they still have the usual group of regulars that come around that are working with them and doing the usual, you know, set of voices. It's not even that this just seems so foreign to all of the things that we've watched before on this show.

I will say that a couple of the actors have done other things that we've seen or will see. The British Bright will be doing the voice in Pinocchio's Christmas and she was two voices in twice the Night before Christmas. That was a heaven for tune. Yeah, and then Ronda Mann was also Mother Nature in the Year without a Santa clause. But then you come to like ten what was it Ted Schwartz where he is just a Hannah Barbera asbro guy all the way through, like doing your Scooby and Scrappy Doo shows.

He's doing you know, Transformers, g I Joe. He was Spider Man in the eighties as well. He's got a eight. He's the one with the most familiar voice for me. Well, and he even shows up in one episode of Bernie Miller's show, Believe It or Not.

Oh wow, Oh, I'd love to see that or know which one it was? Was the Thanksgiving episode, yes, from season four, Season four, Thanksgivings. That's been it's been a while, yeah, but I mean they're I mean they they've been in so I mean a couple of these people have been in one other thing. But again it's it's not like regular It's like, oh, it's not Billy Richardson, It's not it's not any recognizable voice. And I'm not saying, oh, you know, if if if Paul Freeze had done the voice in the Wizard of the Odds section, it would have been way better.

It's like, no, it might have just been a waste of Paul Freeze as time more than anyone else. I wasn't gonna save it. It's just it just feels so hands off from like so hands off in so unranken and beast. It feels more generic than the most generic things we've already talked about of felt. And to be honest and to be fair, it's not like other people were doing groundbreaking quality work, Hanna Barbara.

You know, other than the few things we remember, it was not great stuff. No one was. You know, the world of animation at that point was in the gutter. It was for kids. Kids programming was considered nothing except a way to sell breakfast, cereal and toys, and so they sort of sank to their level, you know, which was unfortunate because they're at their best, they were better than anyone.

This is a weird time for animation in the seventies. It's just it's not there's there's gonna be a huge resurgence coming up in like a you know, in like five to six years in the eighties. But right now it's just like this, this is the kind of stuff, and it's yeah, yeah. It wasn't until I don't think it was until the eighties and later that kids who grew up on this sort of programming began being the people producing the programming, and they came in going, Okay, well I know what we saw, but let's either a make fun of that or be just do it better. And the other thing I've got to ask, I mean, similarly to me, we talked about Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny, you know, so long after the fact.

I mean that movie's made, you know, ten fifteen years after the fact, but this came out two years after the show was off the air. Like that. The what like I don't even understand, like was that girl still popular in seventy three or had the conversation moved on? Like it just it's weird that they're like, oh, that girl it's been off the air for two years. Well, you know, strange again too.

All I can say is going back to the comment Mike made earlier. It was only because it was in syndication. Like I never saw it as a child, and I never saw that girl at night. It was always on at you know, nine thirty in the morning or something. So again maybe that was the connection.

It's like, well, kids have seen it because it's plays during the day now, so they at least have an opportunity to see it. Beyond that, I'm not sure why that actually, I mean, other than the fact that they'd already worked with Danny Thomas and Marla Thomas on Cricket on the Hearth and so it's like, hey, we had a good time. They had a good time, let's just do this. I just again, it's it's not like this was being made in nineteen seven when the show is still on that you know, it's just the show's been off. So you could have picked a show.

I mean, I don't know what's on in seventy three, but you know, you could have picked something that was maybe on in seventy three, just as a more topical piece of storytelling. I I know, it's weird because it has the Partridge family, right, it has the sensible like the story is of a sixties sensibility being told in the mid seventies for kids, like kids growing up in the seventies, not in the sixties. But yet the story is like that girl's not for kids. It's just bizarre. This whole thing is bizarre.

And I guess I didn't. I guess the framing device made it stranger than it could have been otherwise. I mean, if it had just been Oh, I bumped my head and now I'm in wonderland, like kids would probably be okay with that. But but there's like inner office stuff and she's talking to her annoying boss. It's like what fucking kids have bosses in the office, Like they don't they're far away from you.

Oh no, and Marie's gonna get fired and then she'll get unemployment and have to now hunt for more jobs. And it's a humiliating experience. Yeah, like what kid is saying that in seventy three? Like it just it's it's strange. I look like you know.

Another thing you know that I think of when I think of animated stuff, and seventy three is the Star Trek animated series was on in seventy three. Wow, And that's not really I mean, it's for kids in the sense that like it's an animated series and it is Star Trek, but like it's better done than this because they understand like the formula, because they're just doing our Trek animated, Like they're trying to force too many things into this and it just doesn't. Like I'm not saying they should have just done it that Girl episode animated, but it might have at least it might have might have spoken to Marlo Thomas's talents better, that's for sure. Until we come back next month, Chris, what are you up to these days, sir?

Working on podcasts over at Weirdingwaymedia dot com. You and I do a whole bunch of seventies speaking of the seventies TV shows, We do a whole lot of seventies TV police programming and uh yeah, and then anthology shows and weekly movie podcasts, all the good things that I work on, which you can find over at Weirdingwaymedia dot com. What about you, Richard, Well, since I'm on strike because I'm a member of the Writers Guild, I just stay at home and peer in the garage window and watch Susan produce eighties TV Ladies. Another podcast on the weirding Way Network, Mike, what are you up to? Well, since I'm not part of the WGA, I am currently writing a much needed TV special called Barney Miller in Wonderland.

I would watch that in a R beat. Yes, I'm going to produce it as if it was made in nineteen eighty three, nineteen eighty four, two years after Barney Miller went off the air. I'm just aiming for that type of revival type of thing, and then maybe it'll be so popular that there'll be a whole line of other things we can do. Cole Chack and Wonderland, Colombo and Wonderland, Night Gallery and Wonderland. It'll be fantastic.

Rod Serling wakes up and he's you know, what is the strange world I'm in? And who is this? A loss that I can't stand? Jack Layard, what are you doing? I would give so much to see an animated Barney Miller, right.

I want Jack Sue in there. I want fish Well with Barney. It's great because he's got the mustache. He could just like be behind the mustache the whole time while he's talking, and you just don't even have to do the lip flap. But what if it was like an exact, exact for shot, frame for frame redoing of an episode just at that same pace.

You know, Levitt comes in, uh Luger, just all of them, but animated. You could do fantasy casting. Man, you could do You could have like you said, Jack, Sue could be there. You could also have Chano there. You could have just have him all all time Wentworth.

Mike would be back in every episode. Oh, man would be amazing, But Mike would be like Wilson from Tool Time and he'd be like behind the Yeah, you never never see him, right. I thought that. I thought more that Barney's mustache would be sentient, so like you would talk to Barney and then like his mustache would talk to him. What do you think, mustn't think about that?

Yeahs around the opposite. Yeah. See see that's how you inject the fun to the show. Yeah, that's why it's animated. It has to be animated, right, And then it's weird.

There's a couple of geese that live in the station house and they just speak as well. So it just turns out Wojo, what's was a teenage ninja turtle and an overcoat the whole time, bar and I really liked this pizza. Yes, so I'm working on that, and I'm also working on podcasts that are all available at the Weddingweightmedia dot com website. So thanks so much everybody for tuning in. I want to think Abby's Stabby for our artwork, as well as the Great Octopus for our theme music.

Be sure to subscribe to us in your favorite podcast platform. We'll be back next month when they look at Rank and Embasses the cone Heads plus some other Rank and embass animated works such as The Jackson Five and The Osmans. We are talking pop culture, rank and embass and animation all together, very similar to what we've been talking about this week and the previous month, so hopefully things get a little bit better. So yeah, until then, be sure to rate and review the podcast where we get it, Tell your friends, tell your family, and please stay weird.