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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

What the Biggest Loser Taught Me About Myself

Reality television is one of those genres that people seem to have a great divide over.  You either love watching it, or you hate it with a burning passion.

There are some shows that I can't stand watching.  For instance, I've never really been a fan of those talent shows like 'American Idol' or 'So You Think You Can Dance'.  I loathe the idea of the Bachelor, which treats its contestants more like eye candy and hunks of beef in the guise of 'finding true love'.  And don't even get me started on 'Jersey Shore'.

For the most part however, I can deal with reality television.  I love 'Kitchen Nightmares', I'm a self-confessed addict of 'Big Brother' (season premiere July 7, by the way), and I would absolutely love to get a chance to compete on either 'The Amazing Race' or 'Wipeout'.

Certainly, reality television has certainly been successful.  Look at Survivor for instance.  When it aired its first season back in the summer of 2000, nobody thought that it would last, and as of today, it has aired twenty-two seasons in eleven years.  The Amazing Race is filming season 19, Big Brother is on season 13, and Hell's Kitchen will be airing season nine this year.  Love it or hate it, reality television is here to stay for the long haul.

The show that I'm going to be talking about will be kicking off its 12th season this fall.  It also happens to be a show that I once loved, and once respected, but am finding it harder and harder to get into due to lots of things that I don't particularly enjoy about the show in recent seasons.  However, I do want to talk about it anyways because the show was an inspiration for me in recent years, and because it sort of relates to something that I would like to add at the bottom of this blog entry.  I guess you could say that like the entry before this one, today's blog entry was an inspired choice as well.


The Biggest Loser is a show that premiered back in the autumn of 2004.  Hosted by Alison Sweeney (and previously Caroline Rhea), the show has changed the lives of well over one hundred contestants who have appeared on the show over the course of eleven seasons.  You can see some of them in the video below, although I do apologize for the overall crappiness in quality.


The above image is from the fifth season of the show, which is probably the first full season that I watched, and is probably the season where most of the references will be from as a result.

It seems hard to believe now with so many reality shows focusing on weight loss on these days, but this show was really a revolutionary show at the time of its debut.  Without this show, we would have no 'Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition', 'Heavy', or 'Dance Your Ass Off'.

It seems to make sense though as to why we would have these types of shows on the air.  It's no secret that obesity is a problem in both Canada and the United States, and that many people are suffering from obesity-related health problems as a result. 

The Biggest Loser is probably known as the grandpappy of weight loss programming.  And the first few seasons focused on exactly that.


The show has trainers who appear on every episode of the series to give our contestants the training, the tools, and the emotional support they need to make it through the experience and to make themselves as healthy as possible.  Enter Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper, the two trainers who christened the Biggest Loser.  While Jillian has decided to leave the show after this season, I believe Bob is still sticking around, and since then, three other trainers have featured on the show.  Kim Lyons (who only lasted two seasons), and Brett Hoebel and Cara Castronuova (who joined the show last season).  After all, you can't have a show without trainers.

And woe befall you if you ever talk back to a trainer or not do the work necessary.  Here's just a couple of examples from past seasons.


Like I said, you don't really want to get on their bad side.  And the last video was shocking because anyone who's watched the show before knows that Bob is the CALM one!

The whole premise of the show is that people from all over the United States come to the Biggest Loser ranch in California to begin a fitness regiment that includes extreme workouts, learning how to prepare and cook nutritious meals, and having pop challenges designed to teach contestants about calorie intake and exercise preparation.  Sometimes the seasons will be individuals competing against others, while other times, you'll have couples.  There can only be one person named 'The Biggest Loser' however, and the winner receives a quarter of a million dollars as well as bragging rights for losing the most weight.

Of course, the road to becoming the Biggest Loser is not an easy one.


The thought of stepping on a gigantic scale that shows your weight in big bold white numbers on a plasma television screen would probably make most of us shake in our workout clothing everywhere.  Yet on the Biggest Loser, that's exactly what contestants must do.  This example above shows the pink team of Bette-Sue and Ali from Season 5.  As you can see, their individual weights are shown, as well as the combined weight of the team. 

On any season of the show where couples are involved, the team scores are combined with each other to make one larger number.  Each week, after a couple of challenges and a last chance workout, teams have to weigh in and see how much of a percentage of weight loss they have accumulated in the week.  On the couples edition, the team scores are totalled, and if your team comes in last, one of the members will be voted off.

When the teams become individuals, or if the season is made up of individuals from the beginning, then the bottom two who have the lowest percentage of lost weight will be up for elimination.



You see that yellow line?  The ones below that line are in danger of going home, and in this case, either Jay or Brittany will be getting booted off the show.  Sometimes, they'll even add a red line, which if a contestant is unlucky enough to fall below it, will result in instant elimination from the show.

That doesn't mean that they're off the show for good though.  To motivate the contestants who have been kicked off the program, the show offers a $100,000 At-Home prize for the contestant that has the highest percentage of weight loss of all the previously eliminated contestants.  Most of the at-home contestants do really well, and have a better success rate at keeping the weight off from my experience watching the show, so I guess if that isn't proof that weight loss can be done anywhere, I don't know what is.

There's also a chance that eliminated players can come back to the show through one of the many challenges that are played on the show. 

What are these challenges?

Well, I already talked about there being Pop Challenges, where players answer trivia questions about calorie intake and exercise.  Sometimes they'll have to prepare healthy dishes where the team that has the lowest calorie count wins.  Temptation challenges are also a key challenge in this show, where teams are bribed with high-fat foods, or even cold hard cash, in an attempt to gain advantages in the weigh-ins.

Advantages like bonus time with Bob and Jillian, or taking a two-pound advantage, or phone calls from home.

(Though, considering that if I were on the show, and I ate two whole bags of peanut butter M&M's to win a temptation challenge, I'd need a two-pound advantage to break even.  Just one thing about the show that bugs me.)

Sometimes, contestants will be taken off the ranch and brought back home as a challenge to see if they are ready for weight loss away from the ranch.  Some contestants prove they are, while others didn't.

Oh, and did I mention that on almost every season of the show, the final four end up running a marathon as their final challenge?

I don't know about you, but I get tired just thinking about running 26.2 miles, but to the credit of the players, each one of them has finished the marathon.

At the end of each season is a finale, where all the contestants are reunited on live television, and the winners of the At-Home player and the Biggest Loser are announced.



Season 5's winner was Ali, who lost 112 pounds during the course of the show.  What makes her story unique is that she was eliminated fairly early in the season, and won a challenge that brought her back to the game.  Quite a bit of that weight was lost at home, so Ali definitely proved that you could lose weight anywhere at anytime.

I will say that the show (especially in the early seasons) was a great show to watch.  Seeing the determination of the contestants fighting their way through workouts and challenges to better themselves was inspiring, and seeing the rewards show right on our television screens made it entirely possible to change your whole life.  The trainers were tough, but caring, and in the early shows, I really did learn quite a bit about food intake and exercise techniques, which I thought was a nice touch.

So why have I lost some love for this show?

Because it seems like one gigantic infomercial some days.

During season five, yes, you did have the odd bit of product placement in the program, but to be fair, almost every reality show is sponsored by a brand-name company.  It wouldn't be unusual for the show to repay their sponsorships by creating built-in ads for the product in the show.  And I would be okay with it if the product was pitched in such a way that it becomes somewhat educational (like say, an ad for Brita water filters saying that they'll keep you hydrated while protecting the environment).  I'm down with that.

It's when you have entire segments devoted to turkey breasts, or a challenge that is more or less a gigantic commercial for Wheaties that I don't find attractive or appealing.  I watch the Biggest Loser to see the camaraderie between teammates or to see people's excitement over losing seven pounds in a week...not to hear about the benefits of Ziploc containers.

And, speaking of contestant camaraderie, in recent seasons, I ask myself where that disappeared to.

In early seasons, it seemed as though contestants were genuinely sad to see others go, and we saw teams encouraging each other to succeed.  Nowadays, you see contestants throwing others under the bus to survive in the game.  Like, say, someone who has only lost one pound a week the past three weeks forming an alliance in the game to vote out someone who still weighed 325 pounds.

I hear what you're saying here...forming alliances to get rid of players who may be a threat to you down the road are a part of reality television competitions, and if this were any other reality show, I would completely agree.  But when you have people fighting to stay alive (figuratively and literally) getting voted out by people who look like they have reached their weight loss goals, it makes one wonder.

Don't even get me started on those contestants who seem to care more about the cash prize at the end than getting healthier.  I would need a whole blog entry on that alone, and it would not be very polite.

Really, I feel that the show has really lost something along the way.  I know the whole message of positive thinking and making healthy choices is a message that is still being portrayed on the show, but it seems to be taking a backseat in focus of manipulated drama, product placements, and meaningless challenges that have nothing to do with the show.  (Seriously, one of the prizes on last season was a Hollywood premiere to the preview of the movie 'Hop', which is basically a movie that centres on Easter candy and the Easter bunny...yeah, great movie to show people trying to lose weight, producers).

At a direct result of this, the show has lost its lustre in my eyes.  Can the show possibly get it back again?  I sure hope so.  Especially for contestants who really could benefit from such a program.  I'm unfortunately not holding my breath for that to happen.

Now, I suppose that all of you are wondering why I would focus my attention on a show that I really am kind of lukewarm about these days.  As I mentioned before in this blog entry, there is a reason.


The above picture is me.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to post a picture of myself as a child, but feel it's important for the story.  I was in second grade when that picture was taken.  Couldn't have been much older than seven years old.  And, I didn't look too bad, aside from the bowl cut.

The thing is that this picture is only a headshot.  You couldn't tell it based on this picture, but I was a stocky kid.  By second grade, I was already well over five feet tall, and although I did weigh almost ninety pounds in second grade, I was built rock-hard.  Not doughy by any means.  Unfortunately, I was in a class filled with fifty-two pounders who thought I was fat, even though I really didn't think I was.  Sure, I was bigger than the other kids, as in, I was six inches taller, but I didn't think I was fat.

But almost the whole class made fat jokes at my expense, so I guess if the whole class felt that way, it must have been true.

Still, it wasn't a fun experience, and I tended to go home and chomp down on the Oreo cookies in order to make myself feel better.  By ninth grade, this is what I looked like.



Granted, this wasn't my best look.  My shirt was two sizes too big (I thought if I wore baggy clothes, I could hide the excess weight), and the reason I look like I have a black eye was due to a mishap involving a softball in gym class the previous day.  But as far as size goes, I pretty much stayed this way for the next twelve years of my life.  I knew that the way I was going was downhill.  I had little energy, I couldn't find anything to fit me, and I basically ate all the wrong foods.

It wasn't until January of 2009 that things started to change.  At my workplace, a group of people were starting up a competition based on the Biggest Loser television show, and at the last minute, I decided to sign up for it, thinking that it was worth a shot, and that if I had even lost so much as one pound that I would have considered it a success.

So from January to May 2009, the contest went on, and through the support and positive feelings given to me by my awesome co-workers, I ended up shedding pound after pound, and ended up feeling better about myself.

By early 2010, I had lost seventy pounds total, and I was the slimmest I had been in years.  It was fantastic.

Unfortunately in 2011, I ended up having surgery, and during the recovery process, I gained back a little bit of weight, but I'm not at the point where I'm stressing out over a few additional pounds.

This picture was taken in March of 2011.  Notice any difference?



(And, yes, I am quite aware that the DQ sign in the back makes me kind of hypocritical, but I add that in moderation, a treat is okay!)

So that's my story, and what the Biggest Loser taught me about myself.  It taught me that I am worth making myself feel and look better for myself and not anyone else. 

Now comes the additional fun.

I have a friend named Heidi who also happens to have her own blog.  You can read it in the link below!

http://heidi-finishing-the-hat.blogspot.com/2011/06/friend-makin-monday-in-fridge-plus.html?spref=fb

It sort of relates to this entry because her whole blog currently details her own thoughts about weight loss, and her personal journey.  If you have a chance, read it, because she's quite the wordsmith herself.

Anyway, on her blog, she has a link to Friend-Making Mondays on another blog called http://www.alltheweigh.com/ (which for next week I will post ON a Monday), and from there, we post questions that the person on that blog posts as a way to link bloggers together and for people to read stuff from other bloggers.  So, I thought I would try this exercise, albeit a day late.

So, here's FM...T...LOL...entitled 'What's In Your Fridge?'.  You can answer the questions here, or if you've friended me on Facebook, you can post a reply there.

1.  List a few common items in your fridge.
I usually have some variety of fruit juice, ketchup, mustard, some form of poultry, some vegetables and fruits, yogurt, cheese...basi...cally everything from the food pyramid.
2.  What kind of milk do you drink?
I usually drink 1%, but can drink 2%. Whole milk makes me get cramps.
3.  Do you prefer fresh or frozen vegetables?
I prefer fresh of course, but like frozen peas better than fresh peas.
4.  What do you currently have to drink in the fridge?
 Lemon iced tea, water, milk, fruit punch...and although I shouldn't have it, Diet Pepsi...though I've cut back a lot on it.
5.  How often do you clean out your refrigerator?
I usually eat everything up before it gets to that point.
6.  What's the healthiest thing in it right now?
Healthiest thing is probably light yogurt. In cherry and lemon meringue flavours.
7.  What's the most unhealthy thing in it right now?
Unhealthiest thing is probably leftover vanilla ice cream from a dinner I went to on Saturday night.
8.  What do you wish you had in it that you don't have now?
Lea and Perrins barbecue sauce. It was discontinued 15 years ago and I still miss it.
9.  How often do you shop for groceries?
I'm usually buying groceries every day, but I'd say my big day is the first day off I have in the week. My work schedule is schizophrenic at best.
10.  What's the weirdest thing in your fridge right now?
Weirdest thing? Probably some eardrops from my last ear infection which I probably should toss by now...LOL...

I think this will be a fun activity to add onto this blog, so feel free to take part if you like.

As for me, I need to end this entry before it turns into a whole book!  Sometimes I get so carried away.



Monday, June 27, 2011

Monday Matinee: Labyrinth


The choosing of the film "Labyrinth" for the Monday matinee blog entry this week was an inspired choice, and as it turns out, the timing of the entry could not be better.

This past Saturday evening, I was invited over for a dinner and a movie night with a friend who I've known for at least two decades, if not more.  It was a great night, and we both had fun catching up with each other and reminiscing about good times.

The movie we both decided to watch was 'Labyrinth', which ended up being Jim Henson's final film before his death in 1990.  The film was about a teenage girl named Sarah, who was a bit resentful of her baby brother, Toby, and in a fit of anger wished that goblins would come and take him away.  Little did she know that those words would send her into a whole new world, where she must endure the trials and challenges within the labyrinth to storm the castle and save her brother from being turned into a goblin himself.

Before I continue on with further details about this movie, I will say that the timing of this blog entry could not have been more perfect. 

Today's date is June 27, 2011.  Labyrinth was first released in theatres on June 27, 1986.

Therefore, today is Labyrinth's 25th anniversary.

Pretty freaky, no?


Almost as freaky as a thirteen hour clock, wouldn't you say?

Now, going back to the story, I don't think Sarah really meant for goblins to take away Toby.  She couldn't help it that she was studying a book entitled 'Labyrinth', and reading the lines of the book aloud.  And sure, she was angry that Toby was playing with her teddy bear without her permission.  I'm sure that even she wouldn't have wanted goblins to steal him away just because of that.

Alas, that's exactly what happened.  She said it while the baby was crying, and when the crying suddenly stopped, she investigated and he was gone.  Vanished.  Without a trace.

Alas, she couldn't call Poppy Montgomery and the rest of the 'Without A Trace' crew to help her out...Poppy was only thirteen then.

Instead, all she got was a barn owl flying through the window, morphing into David Bowie.


David Bowie played Jareth, the King of Goblins, and he reveals to Sarah that he has abided by her wishes and taken away Toby.

But, wait!  Sarah didn't want that at all.  She wanted him to give back Toby, and give him back now!

This is where the 13-hour clock that I posted up above comes into play.  You see, Jareth would give Sarah back her baby brother, but only if she found her way through the labyrinth within a thirteen hour time limit.  If she was even so much as one second late, then Jareth would turn Toby into a goblin forever.

Of course, the challenge is a daunting one for Sarah.  Almost immediately, she gets lost in the maze, and can't seem to find a way out.  She eventually gets some advice from a very unlikely source.



Okay, so the worm kinda sent her in the wrong direction, but the worm also provided a valuable clue for Sarah (and a valuable life lesson).

When things get tough, and you feel as though there is no way out...you just might only be looking at something through face value.  If one thinks out a problem logically, and tries examining alternative solutions to problems, they may find that it's not that difficult at all. 

Sarah's little inchworm friend there wasn't the only ally she encountered along the way either.


There was Hoggle, a dwarf creature who treated fairies as if they were mosquitoes infected with the West Nile virus.  He refused to help Sarah in any way until she offered him up some of her jewelry.  It's revealled later in the film that he is working as a double-agent for Jareth, and Hoggle was supposed to stop her from reaching the castle in time.  He is extremely conflicted during the whole film, and often did things to hinder her journey.  However, when he genuinely feels guilt for trying to stop Sarah in her quest to save Toby, Sarah can find it in her heart to forgive him.

The next creature Sarah happens to meet is...well...take a look.



I only regret that clip was only ten seconds long...so here's another one for you...


Yep...I'm talking about Ludo!


Ludo, the beast-like creature, who may be scary-looking and gigantic on the outside, but warm and soft on the inside.  Sarah comes across Ludo when he's tied up by Jareth's goblins and tortured by them.  With some clever work on her part, she distracts the goblins long enough for her to rescue Ludo.  Ludo is grateful for the help and he considers Sarah to be a friend after she saved him.

He later gets a chance to prove his loyalty by using his powers to control gigantic boulders to scare the goblins away while Sarah sneaks into the castle to rescue Toby.


Finally, you had the tag team duo of Sir Didymus and his loyal steed Ambrosius.  Sir Didymus was the guardian of the bridge that spanned the Bog of Eternal Stench, and thus did not let anyone through without permission.  However, once Sarah asked him if they could have permission to cross, he agreed and quickly joined the team.

Sir Didymus was loyal, brave, and definitely someone you wanted on your team.  Ambrosius on the other hand...not so much.

The road that Sarah took was not linear by any means, and even with help from her new friends, she still got into trouble.  In particular with her misguided trust in Hoggle.  When Sarah began to get hungry, Hoggle handed her a piece of fruit, which she greatly accepted.  Sadly, the fruit made her space out in ways nobody thought imaginable.


Jareth gave Hoggle the piece of fruit to give to Sarah to stall her long enough for her to miss the thirteen hour deadline that she had been given to save Toby from the goblins.  And they almost would have succeeded had Sarah not come to her senses and fought her way through.

For you see, the whole journey through the Labyrinth was Sarah's coming of age moment.

Think about it.  When we're first introduced to Sarah in the film, she comes across as a spoiled, entitled brat.  She only cares about material possessions, and how good she looks to others, and how the world should revolve around her, and how she can't stand it when other people control everything she does.

Basically your typical fifteen year old in a nutshell.

It almost seemed out of character for Sarah to then befriend so many strangers, yet she did.  It seemed unlikely that she would have helped Ludo in her own world, but in the labyrinth, she didn't give it a second thought.  She asked Didymus politely if she could cross the bridge instead of pitching a temper tantrum like she usually did at home.  Even when Hoggle was playing all sorts of tricks to stall her, she eventually forgave him, which is probably something that she wouldn't have done before.

So why the sudden change in attitude?

One could argue that she was more than determined to save her brother at all costs, and figured that the more help she had to get to the castle, the better.  And maybe she figured out that the best way to find her brother was to put his needs before her own.


Or, just possibly, maybe she felt incredibly alone, and needed some company no matter who they were.

I mean, once again, just think about it.  When we're first introduced to Sarah, we only see her alone in the park reading her Labyrinth book and trying to remember the words.  We don't see her with friends in the park, or at her house, or even at school.  It's almost as if the film sort of makes out that Sarah has somewhat of a sheltered existence, and that's part of the reason why she was so meticulous about everything in her room...and why she was so against Toby taking a hold of her precious teddy bear.

Is it any wonder why she was the way that she was?

She may have entered the labyrinth as an insecure, bratty teenager, but she certainly didn't stay that way.

With the help of her newfound friends, she made it into the castle, and after a battle of wills against Jareth, she...well...I'm sure you can guess what happens at the end.  :)

All in all, Labyrinth may not have been all that successful at the theatres, but it means the world to a lot of people from my generation...all in all because of the life lessons one can learn from watching the film.

That being that any leopard can change their spots...if what they're fighting for is worth the change.

A profound message this Monday.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Sunday Jukebox: 'I Just Can't Stop Loving You' by Michael Jackson and Siedah Garrett

As you probably are aware by now, yesterday marked the second anniversary of the passing of a musical legend.

June 25, 2009 was the day that Michael Jackson, who many referred to as the 'King of Pop' passed away at the age of 50.

Certainly, his death was one of the most talked about news stories of 2009, and definitely a death that was filled with controversy and accusations.

I suppose that was nothing new to Michael Jackson though, whose whole life was filled with controversy and accusations towards him.

Now, I'm not here to cast judgment on what kind of a person he was, or what allegations were made against him.  I certainly do not want the focus of this blog to attack any celebrity of any sort, no matter how famous or infamous they might be.  So, I'm not even going to bring that up here.

Whatever crimes he allegedly did or did not do are irrelevent at this point anyways.  Michael is dead, and not able to defend himself any more, so I think it would be pointless to talk about it.

Seeing as how I have brought up Michael Jackson in this blog entry, it makes sense that I would feature one of his songs in the blog in memory of him. 

Of course, choosing one song out of however many singles he's released was definitely a challenge.  I mean, if you take into account his work within the Jackson 5, as well as his numerous solo efforts, that's a career that has spanned almost four decades.

It was then that the perfect song came across my mind.


ARTIST:  Michael Jackson
SONG: I Just Can't Stop Loving You (duet with Siedah Garrett)
ALBUM: Bad
RELEASED:  July 20, 1987
PEAK POSITION ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS:  #1 for 1 week


Michael Jackson's 'Bad' album was anything but bad.  Almost every track on the album was released as a single, and of the tracks that were released from the album, five of them hit the top of the charts.  Impressive feat, especially after the success of 'Thriller', which was released five years earlier.

The song I chose to feature in this blog entry from this album happened to be the very first single released from the album.  It was a duet that he had done with singer Siedah Garrett, who had just come off of recording back-up vocals for Madonna's 'True Blue' album the year before.

The song hit number one in September of 1987, but because of the fact that the next single 'Bad' was rocketing up the charts at the same time, the song fell off the charts rather quickly.

There is a reason why I chose this song...and oddly enough, it's not because I have an emotional connection to the song whatsoever.  I mean, it's a nice song, don't get me wrong.

I think it's the perfect song to describe the true fans of Michael Jackson.  How despite his death, and all the controversy surrounding him, the people still loved him for his music.

Just take a look at the video for the song that I posted above.  As far as I know, the song didn't really have an official video release, so the one I found was fan-made.  If you watch it really closely, you'll see clips of all his previous videos, as well as some concert footage, and the like.  It takes real dedication to make a fan video for an artist, as well as real loyalty.

See, no matter how one may have felt about him, one has to admit that his musical career was solid.  I can still remember back to about two weeks before he passed away, getting excited about his brand new concert tour, entitled 'This Is It'.  It was slated to be his final world tour, and the tour was supposed to have kicked off in the UK on July 13, 2009.

As we all know, the tour never happened, but just seeing his joy for performing for his fans, and his excitement for the tour, you couldn't help but think how tragic it was that he never got his chance to see his last tour out.

I mean, yes, there was that movie documentary that showed his rehearsal sessions, but it wasn't quite the same as seeing him perform live. 

In the end though, Michael Jackson loved his fans, and that's something that you can't take away from him. 

When Michael Jackson's funeral was broadcast on July 7, 2009, one could not believe the amount of people who paid their respects to the entertainer.  In that one moment, it was like whatever he had done, or allegedly did in his past didn't really matter.

I think in the end, that's all that really counted.


Michael Jackson
1958-2009

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Saturday Morning - One To Grow On

Back in the days when Saturdays used to air cartoons in their morning time slots instead of news programming and infomercials, each network had their own line-up to try and compete with each other to snag all the viewers who were under thirteen.

You had ABC, who banked all their success on Bugs Bunny and Tweety and their weekend specials.  Then there was CBS who had Pee-Wee's Playhouse, Garfield and Friends, and CBS Storybreak.

I will say this though.  My network of choice for Saturday mornings was usually NBC.

Part of it was the programming.  I liked most of the NBC kids programming that they aired back then.  Some of the cartoons that aired on this station were The Smurfs, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Kissyfur, The New Archies, Camp Candy, Captain N, Super Mario Brothers 3, Foofur, Kidd Video, and many more.  Quite an impressive roster of programming, no?

Their live action stuff was great as well.  I was a fan of Saved By The Bell, California Dreams, and Hang Time.  Some of the other shows like Chip and Pepper, and The Guys Next Door...ah...not so much.

Then there's the subject of this blog entry, which was probably the glue that held the NBC cartoon line-up together for six years.


One To Grow On ran from 1983 to 1989, and each segment only lasted two minutes each.  They would usually come on in between cartoon shows, and would often be introduced by NBC television stars at the time (such as in the image above where you see Kim Fields from The Facts Of Life).

What were these mini-segments about?

Each segment involved anywhere from one to four actors (usually children between the ages of 8-12) in a problem or conflict.  And with the help of NBC personality du jour, they would talk out the problem and offer a solution as to how the kids in the video could deal with the situation.

I thought it would be kind of fun to look back at some of these segments, and see if I could remember back to a time in which I faced a situation like that.

Oh, and to laugh at the retro 80s commercials that may appear in the segments.

All right...let's take a look at exhibit A, featuring Punky Brewster star, Soleil-Moon Frye.



Okay, so you have a little girl who is lost, and 'Punky' said that she should find help in the store, but not from any stranger.  She's right, of course.  Finding someone who works at the store, or a police officer in a mall is the best way to get help.

I should know.  I've had a couple of instances in my workplace where I've had to direct lost children back to their parents.  They did the right thing and found someone who worked there to help them.  Within seconds, they were reunited with their families. 

Great advice there, 'Punky'.

Onto the next scenario, presented by Family Ties actress, Justine Bateman.


Ouch!  Talk about being unable to keep your real feelings in check, right?  The truth is, I've been in both situations before.  Once, I was the kid who nobody wanted to work with.  Then the next project, I would be forced to work in a group with someone who used to pick on me in school. 

I really wish I had taken Justine's advice more seriously, because in both cases, they didn't turn out too well.  In the first situation, the other kids froze me out of the project and I rarely got a chance to even so much as share my ideas with them.  In the second case, the opposite happened, where I did all the work, and the other person got credit for nothing.  If only I had tried to listen to the others, or have the courage to speak to the teacher, maybe it wouldn't have been nearly a challenge.

All right.  We've heard from the women so far.  Let's get a guy's perspective.  Courtesy of Joel Higgins from Silver Spoons fame.


(Just sayin'...she could clean her room if she has nothing to do.)

But Joel does make a good point here, even if you chuckled a bit at the 'put on a fashion show for your goldfish' comment.  Yes, it would be nice to have friends over, or to go to a movie, but truth is, in my neighbourhood, there weren't a lot of kids around.  And my family didn't really have the extra income to go to the movie theatre every day.  So, like Joel said, I created my own fun with my own things in my own room, and it seemed to fill the void quite nicely.

Ah, now here's one from the A*Team's Dwight Schultz that will get you thinking. (P.S. Can you spot a very young Jaleel White in this segment?)



Yep...I can tell you exactly what poor Adam must have felt like.  I had trouble making friends in school, and whenever I did make a couple, my parents weren't exactly the most...um...how you say...welcoming to them.  I guess because of my experiences in school that they were only trying to protect me, but in fact were making the situation that much harder.  I did follow that advice though, and talked to them about it.  Most times their fears were unfounded, but in a couple of cases, they did know what they were talking about, and it turned out that they weren't really friends at all. 

Heh...I suppose this advice could also be used in adulthood when it comes to dating and romance, couldn't it?

This next One To Grow On moment is courtesy of Knight Rider/Baywatch actor David Hasselhoff.


You know that David has shown some questionable behaviour in recent years, but he was right on about this one.  Sometimes you catch people when they're having a bad day, and they say things that they don't mean, or act in a way that is out of character, but unless it's directed at you, you shouldn't take it personally.  It took me a while to get this lesson, but once I did, it proved to be a valuable one.

So, you see that One To Grow On was a very educational piece of television, and I'm sure it has helped a few kids make the right choices in life.

Looking at what has been happening in the world lately, I wonder if maybe NBC shouldn't attempt to bring this series back with current NBC celebrities.  Maybe we could all use a reminder of what's acceptable and what isn't.

With that, I'll leave you with one final One To Grow On moment, presented by Thom Bray of Riptide fame.


A little food for thought this Saturday morning, don't you think?  I know I'd like to live in a world where differences are respected, and people didn't attack each other for their beliefs.

Maybe One To Grow On was onto something there.

Friday, June 24, 2011

TGIF: Out Of This World



Imagination and Fantasy week comes to its conclusion with a show that really was out of this world, but first, I should tell you a little story.

Approximately ten years ago, I happened to be surfing web communities online, and one site that I happened to find was a small retro community called...


It was the summer of 2001 at the time, and I was killing time in between school years when I stumbled across this place.  I had been members of other online communities before, but this one was different.  I guess in many ways, it kind of inspired me to kick off this blog ten years later because the site was similar.  It took a look back at some of our favourite toys, television shows, movies, and fashion trends, and had dozens of articles and interactive features in regards to all things retro.

So being the retrophile that I was at the time, I signed up with a screenname that I borrowed from my favourite comic book character (one that I happened to feature on the Sunday, May 29 entry, matter of fact).

It was amazing how many people remembered the same things that I remembered.  Although we were all scattered all over the world, it was like we all came together remembering the days of our childhoods.  Future events happened to strengthen us further, such as the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the uncertainty of events shortly after.  Certainly the site wasn't absolute utopia, and quite often than not, some of us found ourselves at odds with others over the years, but it seemed like things never got too overly personal, and we were all friends again in a week or two.

Unfortunately, the site was pulled in 2003, and with the site's closing came some lost friendships and irreparable damage done to some relationships within the fold.  It was a sad moment to say goodbye to Yesterdayland, but through it all, I ended up with some amazing friends all over the world.  We send each other Christmas cards, and they were really great with me when I was recovering from surgery a few months ago.  Maybe someday I'll finally be able to meet some of them face to face.  I mean, let's face it.  I would feel more comfortable meeting a former member from Yesterdayland than I would on PlentyofFish.com.  That's a fact.

So now that you know all about what Yesterdayland was, I can tie it to today's blog entry.

On Yesterdayland, there was a sub-board called "Lost And Found".  This was a place where you could have some memory of some toy you played with or some retro snack food you remember eating in 1972, but couldn't quite remember what they were.  You would ask a question, posting every detail you could remember about the subject in question, and if you were lucky, someone else would remember it.

Sometimes, you'd have two different people remembering bits and pieces of the same topic, and not realize it.  That was fine.  It happens.  And sometimes you may have someone remembering some obscure record they heard during the summer they lived in Brazil, and nobody would have any idea what the person was talking about.  That also happened.

Then, there was a whole bunch of people who kept asking about the same show.  Mostly newbies who were brand new to the site.  It almost became a recurring joke to us because we had answered the same questions for months on end.  Questions like...

What was the show where they sang about swinging on a star?
I remember a show where a girl could freeze time by linking her fingers together, what was it?
Does anyone know a show where the girl had an alien dad who talked to her through a box?

Like clockwork, we'd have at least one of these questions asked every week or so.  Back in 2001, we didn't have such sites as YouTube, and the only way one could get video clips was to download them onto our computers.  All we could do was explain it as best we could in hopes that they would get it.

Now that it's 2011, I can proudly show you the answer. 


The show, of course, was called Out of this World, and this is where it ties into the Imagination and Fantasy theme for this week.  The show deals with a teenaged girl named Evie who finds out on her thirteenth birthday that she happens to be half-human, half-alien.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

The show debuted in syndication on September 17, 1987, and ran for four seasons (which for a show that didn't air on network television was pretty good).

As I said, the main character of the show was Evie Ethel Garland.  When she turned thirteen, her mother told her the truth about her parentage.  Evie had believed that her absentee father, Troy,  was a secret agent for the government, which explained why he was absent.  But when Evie started to develop skills that a normal human couldn't do, her mother had to tell her the truth.  Troy was an alien from the planet Antareus who ended up crashing his spaceship onto Earth in the 1960's.  His human appearance allowed him to mingle with the Earthlings, and he happened to fall in love with Donna (Evie's mother).  They married each other, and Donna gave birth to their child Evie in 1973.  The following year, war had broken out on Antareus, and Troy was forced to go back in order to protect the planet.

(Now you know why the show didn't last too long...)



At any rate, Evie discovered the truth and she was able to communicate with Troy through a crystal jewelry box in her bedroom.  The lid would open up and a bright pink light would shine, indicating that Troy was there.


TRIVIA:  Troy was never seen on camera, but his speaking voice was done by an uncredited Burt Reynolds.  He agreed to voice Troy as a favour to the producers provided that he wasn't identified in any way.

It took Evie some time to accept the fact that she was half-Earthling and half-Antarian, but once she fully understood, she was accepting of it, and was happy that she had both parents in her life again (even though one was on another planet, and the other one was a wee bit overprotective).

Very few people knew of Evie's secret though.  Certainly her mother Donna knew, and so did her two uncles, Mick and Beano.  She did have to keep it a secret from everyone else.  She didn't tell her two friends, Lindsay and Chris, and she couldn't tell Kyle Applegate, who happened to be the mayor of Marlowe, California (where the show took place).  This lead to some rather comical moments in the serial, where Evie tried to balance her human side with her alien side.

For the most part, she managed to do a great job of hiding it, but there were some instances in which it made it difficult.  Much like a classic mood ring from the 1970s, Evie's face tended to change colour depending on the mood she was feeling, which lead to some confused looks by those who weren't aware of Evie's secret.



And long before Zack Morris came along with his classic 'Time Out' move, Evie Garland could freeze time with the joining of her fingers.  She and Troy were immune to the effects of the time freeze, but everyone else were forced to stand in place until Evie clapped her hands to unfreeze everyone.

Sometimes it worked well for her.  Sometimes, not so much.

One bonus that Evie soon discovered about her alien DNA was that every year on her birthday, she was granted additional powers, and Troy was always on hand to help her understand what these powers were.

One episode of Out of this World that showcases this in action is the episode titled Julie's Sixteenth Birthday.



Oh...sorry...never mind, I meant EVIE'S sixteenth birthday.  (Evie's Sweet Sixteen to be technical)

In that episode, Evie turns sixteen, and Troy offers her a chance to choose one out of ten possible powers for her to have.  Evie is tempted by all of the powers that she has a difficult time choosing.

You know what?  Why don't I just find the episode, and post it here so you can see it for yourself.  It's a great introductory episode that introduces the characters as well. 




Quite the episode, huh?  I had kind of forgotten how bad the production value was on this show before I posted the episode from YouTube.

At any rate, Evie tried all the powers out, and decided to hold off of choosing one, because she didn't think she was ready to handle any of them, and that was a decision that she could live with.

I guess the lesson that Evie learned is that when one has too much power at their disposal, it can get pretty dicey.  And really, that's a lesson that all of us could learn.

I am curious though as to what you would do if you were Evie.

Seriously.  Imagine you're half-human and half-alien, and you were turning sixteen, and you could choose one of the ten powers.  Which one would you choose?  Here's the list again.

01.  Read people's minds
02.  Make others obey your every command
03.  Reverse time
04.  A free face lift
05.  Levitation
06.  Ability to change shoes quickly
07.  Make someone else invisible
08.  Make yourself invisible
09.  A money tree
10.  See through walls

(My personal choice would be #9...although #5 has possibilities)

So, that's the end of another TGIF entry, and as you can see, I've made it interactive.  Hope you take part!

And, with that, the Imagination and Fantasy week comes to its conclusion.  I hope you enjoyed the ride, and I hope to have more of these featured weeks very soon.  Remember, they'll always run from Monday to Friday.

We go back to normal tomorrow, but if you have any ideas for theme weeks, let me know!  You can reach me through the comments page, or contact me through this blog's e-mail address which is popcultureaddictlifeguide@yahoo.ca

This blog turns one month old today, and I want to keep this baby running for many months and years on end...and I really want to make this blog more accessible to everybody. 

Thanks for supporting me in this venture, and I hope to hear from you all soon.  :)

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Thursday Night at the Arcade: Super Mario Brothers 2


Super Mario Brothers 2 is widely considered by many to be the black sheep of the Super Mario trilogy, released on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Super Mario Brothers is known for saving the video game industry from complete disaster, and Super Mario Brothers 3 is considered to be one of the biggest selling video games of all-time.

But, why is Super Mario 2 seemingly ignored in the Mario world? 

Super Mario 2 was released in America in 1988, and it was a game that evoked some minor controversy.  Certainly, the gameplay was a lot different in the second game than it was the two surrounding it.  Instead of jumping on Goombas and Koopas, you had Shyguys and jumping birds with masks on.  And instead of hitting blocks to get items, you dug them out of the ground.



You didn't even get to fight Bowser, but some frog like creature named Wart.

It was like Super Mario 2 was a completely different game altogether from the other games in the Mario series.  If not for the fact that there were obvious characters from Mario in the video game, you'd think it wasn't even a Mario game at all.

Well, I have a shocking surprise for all of you.  For Super Mario 2 was in fact...

ORIGINALLY NOT A MARIO GAME AT ALL!!!


The game up above is a game that was initially released in Japan in 1987.  The name of the game was called Doki Doki Panic, and right away, you can see that there's something oddly familiar about the cover art.

Hmmm...let's investigate this further by looking at some actual gameplay.  First, let's take a look at Super Mario Brothers 2...



Now let's take a look at Doki Doki Panic...


What th-?  How is this possible? 

It's like they're the same game.

Because it IS the same game!

Here's the story.  Nintendo released Super Mario Brothers in 1985, and it became a massive success.  The following year, Nintendo made a sequel in Japan that was almost identical to the first game, only with much tougher levels and poisonous mushrooms designed to kill your Mario instead of making him big and strong.  The game was released in 1986, and became a hit in Japan, but when it came time to bring the game overseas, Nintendo of America refused to release it.  They claimed that it was too similar in development to the first game, and that the levels were simply too difficult for the public to beat.

Instead what they did was use the game Doki Doki Panic, slap Mario heads on the main characters, and marketed it as Super Mario 2.

In short.  Doki Doki Panic = Super Mario 2.

Now you might understand why Super Mario 2 is regarded as being the weakest link in the Mario world.

(For the record, the original version of Super Mario 2 was eventually released in North America in 1993 for the Super Mario All-Stars compilation for the SNES.  It was renamed Super Mario Brothers: The Lost Levels.  On a personal note, I do concur that the game is tough, but not nearly as impossible as they made it out to be).

The thing is...I don't see Super Mario 2 as being such a bad game, even if the whole idea of it was 5% persperation and 95% plagiarism.

The game did have a lot of good things going for it, and once we peel back the layers and dig through the Doki Doki influences, you'll see that the game itself did have some staying power, as well as influenced future Mario games.


One thing I liked about the game was that Mario wasn't the only playable character one could select.  In fact, you had four characters to pick and choose from, and each one of them had their strengths and weaknesses.

You obviously had Mario, who was more or less the average player in the game. 

You could play as Luigi, who had basically the same skills as Mario, only he could jump three times higher.

No longer is Princess Peach (or Toadstool) a damsel in distress.  She can yank veggies and throw things to the best of her ability.  She can even use her ball gown to levitate across waterfalls.

Then, there's Toad.  In the original game, he would piss you off constantly when announcing (almost boastfully) that the princess was always in another castle, but he really comes into his own.  He may not have the best jumping ability, but he can dig the fastest out of anyone, which made the pyramid levels easier to get through.



And, sure, the levels themselves were radically different from anything you had ever seen before, but at the very least, Super Mario 2 made an effort to bring different environments to the fold.  Yes, Super Mario 3 did it better, but Super Mario 2 tried.  They had the standard grassy knoll levels, yes, but there was also desert levels, ice levels, dark levels, etc.

They also had different looking enemies that were sometimes more challenging than the ones found in the original game.  With mini-bosses like Mouser, Clawgrip, Triclyde, and Fryguy, this game was hardly considered child's play.

Even some of the mini-monsters found in the game had staying power.  Birdos (the ostrich creature you have to defeat to beat a level), Bob-ombs (the walking bombs that explode without warning) and Pokeys (the little walking cactus creatures) have found places in future Mario games.  The game even had warp zones scattered throughout the game, provided you had a magic potion and warped into the red and white vase pipes before the potion wore off.

Oh, yeah...Super Mario 2 had rocketships, mine carts and whale geysers.  How cool is that?

In my opinion, Super Mario 2 definitely has a place in the Mario universe.  It was radically different from the other games, but it worked.  It has earned its place in the Super Mario All-Stars compilation.

Oh, one more thing.  There's a reason why I decided to choose this game as part of the Imagination and Fantasy week.

You see, Mario opened a door, found himself in the land of Subcon.  Had to rescue some fairies who were kidnapped by Wart, and once he defeated Wart, he, Luigi, Peach, and Toad were given a hero's welcome.  Just one problem...



IT WAS ALL A DREAM.

Apparently, Mario has had just as many warped dreams as I used to have a child.  Maybe he should lay off the mushroom pizza at midnight.  What do you think?

Whatever the case is, I still enjoy Super Mario 2, no matter what its origin.

I could talk about it some more, but alas, it is...


Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Across the Pond and Beyond: Simon In The Land Of Chalk Drawings

Just as yesterday's entry was about a show on TVOntario, today's entry also happens to have aired on TVOntario.

And the show happened to originate in the UK, hence the reason why it's featured in this week's 'Across The Pond And Beyond' day.

Because this is the third day in Imagination and Fantasy week, naturally the program has to have some kind of make-believe world, or make-believe friends, or a combination of both.

I think you'll agree that this entry has all of those things and more.


Oh, you know his name is Simon.  And the things he draws come true.

I'm sure at some point, all of us as children loved playing with coloured chalk.  I know I certainly did.  With brilliant shades of yellow, blue, and pink, I would have a blast creating my own art gallery on the front sidewalk.  I drew trees, and flowers.  I designed the coolest looking hopscotch course.  I basically drew until all the chalk was used up and my clothing was covered in yellow, blue, and pink chalk dust.

Such good times.

I was disappointed that my drawings didn't come to life though.  I drew and drew and drew some more, and not even so much as a green chalk caterpillar even moved.  I didn't seem to have the magic touch that Simon seemed to have.

Let's talk a bit about Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings, shall we?  It debuted in the UK sometime around 1974 (or possibly earlier than that even).  Each of the episodes weren't very long, usually only lasting five minutes if that.  However, it was entertaining enough for the show to be imported into other countries.  In fact, I think many American people were first introduced to Simon through popular children's shows such as Pinwheel and Captain Kangaroo.

My first experience with it was on TVOntario, though.  Sure, sometimes the voiceovers were changed depending on the region you watched it in, but the TVO people always aired the unedited British version, which I appreciated very much, because I liked the original voiceover artist.



Anyway, as you may have guessed by the title, Simon has a gift.  He has a magical chalkboard set up inside his house where whatever he draws on it comes to life in the Land of Chalk Drawings. 

But, how does he get there?  Easy.  He has connections.

His connection being his friend, Henry, who coincidentally happens to be a chalk drawing himself.

I could try to explain this more, but why not sit down and watch a full episode of the show along with me?  Are you ready?



Now that you have seen an episode of it, I can continue.

You see, all Simon had to do to enter the Land of Chalk Drawings was to climb a ladder that was leaning towards a fence near his house, and voila, instant transportation.

Or, was it simply just his imagination acting in overdrive?

Whatever the case was, if there's one thing that Simon taught me, it's that sometimes, creating a make-believe world where you are the master of your own domain isn't necessarily a bad thing.  As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog entry, I used to draw with chalk, and was disappointed that I couldn't create my own land of chalk drawings.

But, I did.  I used the power of imagination to pretend that I did have my own land of chalk drawings where I could have as many adventures as I wanted to have, and do what I wanted to do.

Because with the power of imagination, you have the power to be whatever you want to be at any time.  As someone who is trying to make a career in writing, I'm thrilled to have that streak of imagination coursing through my veins.  It makes me a better writer, and I'm sure it makes all the difference when typing stuff out on the old computer.

So, don't be afraid to show off that imaginative streak.  It worked for Simon!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

What the Polka Dot Door Taught Me About Myself

It took an incident that happened at my workplace just a few hours ago that made me feel incredibly old all of a sudden.

I was finishing up my shift at work, and I bump into a teenage co-worker of mine.  He's on my Facebook list as well, where I also post my blog entries, so I can only assume that he has read at least one of two of them (at least I can only hope as the whole point of this blog is to get a wider fan base of my work).  Anyway, I was telling him the subject of my blog, and he looked at me like I was talking some foreign language.  He had absolutely no idea what the show I was talking about was, and didn't even remember it.

Made me feel SO old.

Of course, I can't really say that I blame him much.  The Polka Dot Door did end production around the same time he was being born (again, I suddenly feel really old now, even though I just entered my thirties a month ago).

Still confused?  Well, here's the intro for 'Imagination Day'...which technically aired on Thursdays, but since Thursdays are reserved for video games (and to my knowledge I don't recall Nintendo making a Polka Dot Door video game), I thought I'd post it today.


The Polka Dot Door was one of the flagship programs for the Canadian children's network TVOntario (TVO for short).  Would you believe that the show lasted a whopping twenty-two years on the air?  Debuting in 1971 and ending in 1993, the show was a huge hit for generations, and kickstarted the careers of Gloria Reuben (ER) and Tonya Lee Williams (The Young And The Restless), just to name a couple.

The show was loosely designed after the British show 'Play School'.  You had a couple of hosts (one man and one woman), who would sing songs, do crafts, and do all sorts of fun things.  The theme changed each week, as well as the hosts.  I don't have a final count of how many different hosts the show had over the years, but you can bet that it was at least fifty different hosts and hostesses, if not more.

I was a big fan of this show when I was younger.  So big a fan that whenever the Polka Dot Door did their road shows to various towns all over Ontario, I hoped that they would make an appearance in my town.  When they did show up, I was there, and I was excited. 

Really, there was a lot that one could learn from watching the show, because the show itself was one that was educational (I guess because it aired on TVO, which prided itself in educational programming, it kind of had to be).

The show taught you about dinosaurs through song...




It taught you how to tell time...



It even taught you about the outside world by venturing outside the Polka Dot Door...


Okay, sure, none of the episodes were brought to you by a letter or a number.  But the Polka Dot Door was one of the first shows that showed me what kind of a world we really had...just how much bigger it was than just our backyard, or our school playground. 

The show also taught me how to take care of pets.  There was a pet shed in the backyard of the Polka Dot Door house, and inside, they showed you how to take care of a guinea pig, a rabbit, a budgie, and two goldfish named Freida and Fennel.  Sadly, I think the show probably went through a hundred Friedas and Fennels, unless they happened to find a super-goldfish that lived for a little over twenty years.

It happened to that one goldfish in the Guinness Book of World Records!  Times two!  Not impossible.  Unlikely, but not impossible.

And, yes...the show never had any talking Muppet characters like they did on Sesame Street.  They still made it work.  Humpty, Dumpty, Bear, and Marigold certainly filled the void left behind by the lack of a Big Bird or an Elmo.  Sure, their mouths were sewed onto their faces, but they still interacted with the hosts.  In fact, in later years, the show brought in some bilingual flavour with the introduction of the French-Canadian cat, Minou.

I'll never forget the day that the television blew up when I was younger, and I was upset that I couldn't watch Polka Dot Door that day.  So, my sister rounded up four stuffed animals, and pretended they were the four toys in the show.  She even got a mouse and made a Story-Time Clock out of a shoebox and construction paper, so I could play Polka Dot Door whenever I wanted.  It was really a cool experience.

Oh, and how can I have a blog entry about the Polka Dot Door without one of the most influential, if not the main character of the show?


Ah yes...Polkaroo.  The gigantic seven foot tall hybrid between a kangaroo and a bullfrog.  (Actually, does anyone actually KNOW what Polkaroo is supposed to be?  I'm just guessing).

Anyway...this is where the Imagination and Fantasy theme this week kicks in.  You see, Polkaroo seemed to be very much a real creature.  The catch is that in 99% of the episodes of Polka Dot Door I've ever seen, the female hosts were the only ones to ever see this mystical being. (There was one episode where the male host has seen him, but that was a rarity)

Was Polkaroo afraid of men?  Did he not like men?  Was he Gloria Steinem in a yellow polka-dotted jumper?

(Or was it the fact that in most cases, the male co-hosts were 'lucky' enough to have to don the life-sized costume while the women remained costume free?)

Whatever the reason, Polkaroo was quite the secretive friend.  He wasn't evil or mean-spirited.  He just wanted to have some fun.  He kind of reminded me of Drop Dead Fred, only more G-rated. 

The guy could have done more work with his speech patterns though...there's only so much one can do when the only word you know is 'Polkaroo!'

And, Polkaroo definitely had a lot to do.  In fact, Polkaroo's imagination was probably the most vibrant out of anyone else on the show.  Here's just one example.



I think that Polkaroo taught me something in that clip too.  Maybe the Space Program wasn't accepting Polkaroos in space back in the mid-1980's.  But as long as you had your imagination, you could go anywhere you wanted.  Polkaroo certainly did.

I almost wish that TVO would either repeat old episodes of this show, or put the show on DVD, because I think the kids of today are missing out.  Sometimes the simplicity of the show was all that I needed, because it brought forth the information at a level I could understand. 

And really, the show was wholesome, fun, and entertaining.  What more could a kid and a parent want?