The Elephant Show

Brought to you by the Geekcast Radio. Thank you

once again mouse, chipmunk, and guy with a really

deep voice as they said, I'm your host Optimus

Solo and I would like to say hello and welcome

to the 31st episode of the Telecast brought to

you by the Geekcast Radio Network. Today we're

going to be talking about... far into our discussion,

here's a little background information on the

show. Debuted, at least in the U .S., in 1984

and ran until 1989. In the U .S. it was planned

on Nickelodeon. JT, I believe it was running

on a C, is there a CBC? Yeah, the Canadian Broadcasting

Company, CBC, and I believe reruns also ran on

a kids channel, YTV. I don't know if that actually

stands for youth television or not, but... Yeah,

reruns ran on there into the mid -90s with the

show. Gotcha. The show length was 30 minutes.

It ran for five seasons and spanned 65 episodes.

For those of you that don't know, The Elephant

Show was comprised of Sharon Lois and Bram, a

non -speaking, tuba -voiced elephant, and together

with a couple of recurring characters and a bunch

of guests. They sang songs. They helped children

with their problems. They had adventures in places

like their kitchen, their yard, the school, the

fire station, and a multitude of other different

places. And JT is back with me here for this

episode of The Telecast. So JT, what are your

memories of The Elephant Show? I wanted elephant

in my life as a child. Like, I just remember,

like, here's the weird dichotomy of JT from Saskatoon.

I loved elephant like I I wanted to hang out

with elephant I remember this very vividly as

a child because elephant just went you know he's

playing on computers He's napping in the park

like he was just having all this fun like just

bopping around doing whatever he wants on The

other hand at least for a while when I remember

when I was a kid and I was first introduced to

show Bram scared the hell out of me because he

just and it's not that he's like a mean guy like

i've seen interviews with him on youtube like

he's the friendliest man you'll ever meet it's

just he has that really joker like shark grin

that as a child you know and i hadn't really

been exposed to a lot of stuff yet it just kind

of frightened me the first few times and then

you know it got into like listening to the songs

and uh i think when this is where my love of

the inner cut joke like the family guy aside

jokes where they cut completely another screen.

They had a lot of that in The Elephant Show or

Sharon Lois and Bram or Sharon Lois. That was

the confusing thing when you try to look in the

TV guide and you would find one, like CBC would

have Sharon Lois and Bram and then there's The

Elephant Show. So I'd watch Sharon Lois and Bram,

then I'd go watch The Elephant Show and then

I would basically watch a rerun. But no, I...

love the show it was like one of those first

like with the music and I loved all the like

the goofy jokes and my favorite out of the three

was probably Lois because she just seemed I remember

like in preparing for the show I watched like

the first three episodes are on YouTube on I

think of the Sharon Lois and Bram channel and

Lois just always she was the one that do a lot

a lot of the goofy little like inner -cut gags

and such like that and not that you know Sharon

or Bram weren't funny either it's just I think

she had more of that comedic sort of sensibilities

to what she did in the show and I mean overall

it's just you can't watch the show and not smile

yeah very true I mean especially when elephant's

on screen because elephant was my boy now what

how much did before you watched the episodes

in uh in preparation for This episode You know

if I just said the elephant show or Sharon Lowson

Bram's the elephant show What types of things

did you remember just strictly from your childhood

before watching any of the episodes like what

things stuck with you the most over the last

You know 20 some years elephant Eric Nagler because

I But yeah, I mean he's like the kind of like

the fifth Beatle of the show. I remember him

and the theme, the intro and like the theme song,

like one little elephant came out to play, dancing

on a spider web, you know, just I remember that.

Then I remember, you know, the Skinner Marinky

Dinky Dink, the outro song, which would end with

the three elephants doing this little soft shoe

piece. on a spider's web and then just you know

they they do that flourish and then the spider

is clapping and then the spider turns around

and says this has been it can be in perfection

you know and that's what kind of those are the

things that stuck with me the most yeah I didn't

remember as much about the actual format of the

show I knew there was singing involved I obviously

remembered the character of the elephant I remember

like you said the the intro song, the outro song,

and a couple songs that played at various times,

possibly only in one episode, maybe recurring

episodes, but there are certain songs that I

just remember hearing from Sharon Lawson Bram

that we'll get into a little bit later. But definitely

the music and the character of the elephant,

I remember. I didn't really remember too much

about the format of the show and what it comprised

of besides music. I don't think there was a lot

of... I don't think there was any kind of set

format like they had recurring bits But right

there wasn't really a structure at least that

I can recall Right, and that's what I couldn't

remember off the top of my head without watching

a few of the episodes now when I watch a few

of the episodes I remember certain things that

I'm pretty sure were recurring And, but as you

said, the format was kind of just a free for

all, which we'll get into. But yeah, the main

things that I remember, like you, is the elephant

character, the intro, the outro, you know, skimmerinky

dinky do, that type of thing. So yeah, I mean...

A lot of good memories about Sharon Lawson Bram

and I think maybe what I equated it to and why

I was somewhat interested in the show besides

that I was watching a lot of Nickelodeon at that

time. You know, Mr. Wizard's World, today's special,

The Elephant Show, kind of the pre -popularity

stage of Nickelodeon. You know, you talk to a

lot of kids these days or young adults these

days and you say Nickelodeon and, you know, ask

the question, What's the earliest Nickelodeon

show that you can think of? Most people aren't

going to go back this far. Most people are going

to start closer to the mid -90s type thing. Hey,

dude or something. Hey, dude, clear six points

at all. Are you afraid of the dark? Salute your

shorts. That's the stuff that they're going to

think is the earliest. And there was a whole

bunch of stuff with Pinwheel and The Elephant

Show and, like I said, some of those other shows

that kind of predated that. and I was watching

a lot of my family apparently was watching a

lot of Nickelodeon at this time because I have

very fond memories of most of them but I got

sidetracked a little bit but something else that

my family watched usually every December was

we watched a lot of the televised concerts of

Peter, Paul and Mary and most people should be

familiar with who Peter, Paul and Mary are if

not I apologize that you missed out of some a

little chunk of awesomeness. But Peter, Paul

and Mary are basically folk singers and they

did an awesome Christmas concert that was televised.

I'm pretty sure it was the same thing that was

televised every year. I don't think it was ever

like different ones. But I was a huge fan of

Peter, Paul and Mary and that style of singing

and how fun it was and the lyrics to the songs.

And so when I first... saw or experienced the

elephant show. To me, Sharon Lewis and Bram reminded

me a lot of them. Possibly in more of a childish

version of that. Not saying Peter and Paul and

Mary don't have songs aimed at younger children,

but it seemed like it was maybe a little bit

step up in the way, the complexity of it, perhaps.

Where Sharon Lewis and Bram are just more off

the cuff, fun songs that just... could mean something,

could mean nothing. Whereas I think Peter Paul

and Mary's songs had a little bit more emotional

tug to them. But I was a huge fan of Peter Paul

and Mary's, so when I saw Sharon Lois and Bram

on The Elephant Show, to me it was something

that I could identify with right away. And I

was like, oh, these are like these other guys,

and I like them, so I'll give them a shot. Yeah.

It's just definitely for me, I mean, it was the

absolute favorite thing that I still recall and

love the most was that the music. I mean, The

fact that the majority of the performances was,

you know, you'd have like Bram or, you know,

Sharon or Lois, it would have that one -on -one

with this group of kids and they would never

talk to the kids, like they would never talk

down to the kids, not the adults, like, meaning

like... talked out in like an insulting way it's

just they treated the kids like equals you know

it's just hey come on guys gather around you

know we're gonna sing a song and you know they'd

finish a verse and then they would explain why

it goes like this or they tell a little joke

and it's the way they treated kids i think is

what a lot of people grabbed onto with Sharon

Lowes and Brahms so and it also had that sound

and music touch where the where whoever it was,

Sharon Lowes or Bram were kind of like, you know,

Julie Andrews' character where they're teaching

the kids also either something about music in

general or composition or how verses work and

choruses work or how different languages or dialects

or different things like they would... infused

teaching into the song where it's almost where

it would fool the kids into learning. Where it's

not like, hey kids we're going to teach you something,

it's we're going to sing this song and in the

process I'm going to teach you something that

you're not even going to be learning. Yeah, I

mean you would learn stuff. I mean like I said

I watched a couple of the episodes on YouTube.

In like the first episode, Bram is teaching these

kids like this kind of traditional Scottish like

children's song. And he's, you know, explaining

them, like, how to get the, you know, Yorori

Yaktang, you know. Right. He's teaching them

without teaching them, or at least, he's not

trying to trick them. He's learning them without

making... Yeah, teaching them what certain words

might mean that they're not used to or familiar

with. He makes it fun. It's not a chore, as we

kids of that age would think, most kids think

learning is sometimes. It's just, I don't need

to know this. You know, but he made it fun, like

they made it fun. I mean, he's teaching them

how to basically do a Scottish accent while teaching

them a Scottish song and teaching them like certain

words in Scottish. I mean, for a specific example.

So, but yeah, it's the music, man. That's if

you can't, like I said before, you can't watch

this show and not smile. And if you can't, there's

something wrong with you. Oh, on a troubling

level. Plus there's the Magic of Elephant. There's

always the Magic of Elephant. We'll get more

into him here in a little bit and everything

that he was composed of and why we liked him

so much. So all right, it is time for the Who's

Who of the Elephant Show. Not a big mystery here

because they're basically playing themselves.

So there's not a lot to the Who's Who, but as

far as the elephant goes, the person inside the

costume's name was Paula Gallivan. And of course,

the elephant does not speak. Usually, the elephant

vocalizes things through the use of a tuba, which

somebody was playing, obviously, for a mic in

a different area. So that's what the elephant

consisted of. Then we have Sharon, whose name

was Sharon Hampson, Lois Lilienstein, and Bram

Morrison. That's a cool name, Bram Morrison.

Two of those individuals were from, Sharon and

Bram are both from Toronto originally, I believe,

and Lois was from Chicago, Illinois. So the fact

that I'm in Illinois and you're in Canada seems

perfect match here for this episode. And then

we had a recurring individual who you mentioned

before, Eric Nagler, who was in just about every

episode, I believe. Without watching all 65,

I can't attest to that for 100%, but I do remember

him being a key part of the cast. It didn't fit

with the name. You can't have Sharon, Lois, Bram,

and Eric in the Elephant Show, I guess. It's

too much. So it's Sharon, Lois, and Bram where

the main trio and then Eric had his own little

skit, sometimes interacted with the group, sometimes

did not. But obviously, like I said, they're

all playing themselves. They're not necessarily.

I mean, they do play characters, quote unquote,

I guess, but not... In the traditional sense.

Exaggerations of their actual personalities,

let's say. Right. Yeah. Who did, you said you

were drawn to one more than the other? Well,

of the main three, like Lois was my favorite,

because like I said, she did the more, she was

a little more wacky than Sharon or Bram, you

know, she did a lot more of the slapstickish

kind of jokes, like juggling scars, level three,

and you see her flipping in the air, and then

she just... sinking lower to ground because she's

like just tiring herself out trying to juggle

these things and I liked Eric too and I think

it was a combination of his skill as a performer

and just the way he looked because he had like

this kind of high pattern baldness starting to

go on and he had the ginger hair just kind of

going up everywhere he had that big bushy beard

and he's just like the night warmest nicest guy

like you wanted to hang out with this dude like

he just made everything seem fun and plus he

made me grew to love and respect the banjo. Yeah,

and a lot of other instruments probably. Oh yeah.

I love it whenever he played bongo drums with

like upturned pales. Yeah. That was my thing.

For me he was kind of like that, he was like

the fun uncle or the best friend's dad that you

would know possibly or that would be a cool dad

of a best friend or would be a cool uncle or

older, you know. cousin of some sort or something

like that like he just seemed like a lot of fun

to hang out with like he's the one that would

entertain you he would make you laugh he would

you know the the type of family member that would

also pull out a magic trick or do something like

that like that seems to be like what he would

be he'd be fun to hang out with um i wasn't as

scared uh necessarily i guess of bram um i was

such a i was a complete wuss as a kid so i'm

not kidding it came on and he'd grin and i'd

like He reminded me probably the most of Peter,

Paul, and Mary as kind of a combination of Peter

and Paul there. And for me, it was just kind

of a warm, welcoming, father -type figure on

the show. Whereas you have Eric, who maybe filled

more of the older uncle -type role. Bram seemed

very much like that dad, or like the teacher.

you know, one of your favorite teachers from

elementary school or something like that, where

he had like a warm, you know, even though a smile

might have been creepy to you and some others,

but a warm aura to him, yet an intelligent, experienced

individual who wasn't afraid of singing and having

fun and that type of thing. And I think that's

one of the things as, you know, growing up. in

certain areas, maybe not in all areas in the

world, and especially maybe not in today's society

as much as it was when we were growing up. But

when we were growing up, when your school had

the option to be in a choir, those classes would

end up being 90 % female. At least where I was

around, you had the choice. You could be in band

or choir or study hall or this, that, and the

other, and it was the girls that were in choir.

guys didn't go into choir even if they wanted

to sing because when you're in middle school

it's all about you know what everybody else thinks

unfortunately you're brainwashed not to be an

individual so to speak but to blend in so you

don't have to deal with the harassment and the

bullying or whatever so you know you weren't

in choir if you were a guy etc so for me maybe

seeing this show and it might have been the same

reason why I like Peter Paul and Mary because

those were guys that were not your traditional

pop singer or country singer or something like

that. These were guys who were not afraid to

sing in this style kids songs, just having fun

with music in general. And for me, you know,

that was a cool example because I didn't have

a lot of that exposure in my world to grown men.

who weren't afraid to do this type of thing.

And I think it strengthened my love of music,

my love of theater, made me not insecure when

it came time to high school and to try and out

for drama and try and out for theater. I was

all for it. I didn't care at that point because

I've seen enough guys who did it and I knew it

wasn't just about this is for girls type thing.

Yeah. And the one thing I was thinking of when

I was doing my research for this is They kind

of personified this whole kid friendly, like

the kids, they were one of the biggest stars

of this whole kid show genre that came through

like the 80s and into the early 90s. And you

can't really do stuff like this now, mainly because

the current generation of toddlers that are suffering

from every permutation of ADHD there is, like

no one wants to sit stay and watch something

that is really on a lot of levels pure because

Sharon Lewis and Bram were all about entertaining

kids educating kids you know get exposing them

to different types of music different types of

songs and you just don't have that anymore we

have Bieber you know and makes me sad a little

bit in the inside when I think about that well

the stuff that plays Nowadays and I'm not obviously

super in touch with with all things that are

playing for for for the younger audiences I watch

a little of this and a little of that And there

is some pure stuff out there. There's some just

genuine good morally based things or whatever

it might be but then we also have a whole bunch

of stuff like on the Disney Channel and and Nickelodeon

these days that just doesn't fit the mold of

the type of stuff we're talking about With things

like the elephant show. It's not our Nickelodeon

anymore Yeah, but I mean even the stuff that

is geared toward kids not the same type of stuff.

Yeah, it's it's it's more sitcom II or it's more

it's more Just it's so much product Like it seems

cuz I mean you look at stuff like there's that

I don't even Hey Mickey or whatever like the

current like Mickey Mouse cartoon. You have a

nick jr. Disney jr. Whatever. It's all CGI and

it's just Really, it doesn't have the magic of

those original cartoons. Even if you take cartoons

out of it and just look at what's available live

action -wise for kids these days, it's not the

same. It's not going to affect them that much.

You show a kid from today an episode of Sharon

Lois and Bram, they're... I think it would affect

them more than like the new episode of like iCarly

or some show It's much more sitcom. You don't

have a show a live -action kids show out there

that can compare to the Mickey Mouse The Mickey

Mouse show what am I talking about Mickey Mouse

Club? Yeah, or or or the elephant show you don't

have a live -action kids show out there that

can compare to mr. Wizard or Beakman's world

or or Bill Nye You don't have kind of that more

educational -based or arts -based thing. It just

seems like it's much more in the vein of sitcoms

and reality -type shows geared towards kids.

And I just think they're missing a big chunk

of stuff that helped develop the intelligence

of a portion of our generation, at least. I would

even say not that intelligence wasn't developed.

I think it's just... Or an appreciation of the

arts. Well, yeah, it's just you learn to grow

outside your own You know go outside the box

discover try new things and a lot of kids shows

today just don't have the soul that Sharon Lois

and Bram had or or have because I mean they're

they're still performing so It's just I agree.

It's just man We sound like grumpy old men. Oh,

God. Change the topic, man. Change the topic.

We sound like TF2 and Mike. I'm just kidding,

Mike. Oh. Oh. Low blow. Low blow. All right.

Then for the first time in a long time, it is

time for the good, the bad, the ugly. That's

right. It is time for the good, the bad, and

the ugly. of Sharon Lowson Brand's The Elephant

Show. For you, what are the good parts about

this show? I mean, I know we've talked about

a few of them already, but what kind of things

stood out that you liked the best about this

show, either as a kid or watching it back? Well,

like I said, as a kid, definitely loved Elephant.

And as you said, Paula Yalavan, it's a credit

to her to how much I loved Elephant. Elephant's

expression never changed. They never put different

eyes on him to carry over emotions. It was all

Paula's acting. There was a lot of acting involved

there. It was all physical acting. Elephant never

said a word. Ever. One of my favorite things

was Elephant. Like I said, I wanted to hang out

with Elephant as a kid. I remember this clearly.

you know that tilt of the head and the shrug

of the shoulders and just the enter the pep in

her step whenever she was doing those like uh

you know like the scenes with elephant where

he's always off you know he's going to school

he's walking through the park he's at the grocery

store which i would have loved to have been in

the meeting when they walked into a grocery store

so look we're gonna bring in this woman she's

gonna dress like an elephant she's just gonna

bop up and down the aisles we're gonna record

it and they're like Okay. Go for it. Yeah. That's

how much money you've given us. Oh, hell, break

some jars or something. No, I loved Elephant.

And like I said before, I like the fact that

whether it was the main three or Eric or any

of the guests, I think they even had Mr. Dress

Up on there a time or two. The adults in these

shows... treated the kids like equals and they

didn't talk down to them and They were sensitive

did the kids needs that's and the thing I really

liked was I'm not saying that my parents were

bad or anything. It's just I Didn't know any

kid friendly adults growing up Right. So it's

just I like the fact that they treated the kids

Just as kids and they weren't they weren't molly

coddling them or anything and they weren't like

no don't do that you're not wearing a helmet

you know they're not like today's parents where

they're way over protective and stuff like that

so yeah and really and again like i said the

music it was just a lot of fun to sit and listen

to these songs i don't remember if i sang along

probably not but um well i'll get in the music

here in one second uh I think one thing kind

of we touched on a little bit was the format

and the non -structure of it. I enjoyed that

because it made the half hour go pretty quick.

I like that they just kind of stroll right from

one scene into another scene, but there is things

that connect possibly throughout the episode,

but there's just little songs thrown in there

and it just seems like, you know, there's not,

pacing -wise, they don't miss a step. Like it

goes right from one thing and you're still thinking

about the story that's kind of going through

the whole episode. But while you're doing that,

you're going to entertain by a song here or a

little gag here. So even though there's kind

of an overarching continuity within an episode,

they move it along and have enough segments that

it feels like it's just one seamless quick thing.

And yet, like you said, they don't have the same

structure every episode. So it doesn't get old.

flow like they're there the episodes just flow

almost seamlessly from beginning to the end without

it without it without having too much structure

I mean there is a certain amount of structure

you know they're gonna have like this these jokes

here I'm sure there's a lot of thought go into

that but there wasn't like this rigid you know

you have this segment here followed by this segment

followed by this joke followed by these songs

it just it just flowed Right. And of some of

those segments in there, there's a couple that

I kind of appreciated that they threw in most

episodes. I'm not saying that they're in there

every single episode, but one was that they would

at one point go to a song that was from an actual

concert a lot of times, from an actual Sharon

Lois and Bram performance somewhere, which was

kind of cool because you could see when the camera

was on the audience, how the audience was reacting.

You could see them on a bigger stage. So it wasn't

like, oh, we're just doing this for the TV show

on a TV set. But we do this. We do this in real

life. We're on stages for hundreds or thousands

of people. And this is how that looks. Maybe

you can't attend one of these in person. But

you can get a glimpse as to what that would be

like. So I liked that. And the other thing was

the recurring Eric Nagler segments where I'm

not sure if I'm remembering this 100 % right.

But I'm pretty sure. there was a recurring theme

for him to show us how to make music or musical

instruments out of a variety of things, whether

it be household items, little junk things that

you can pick up, or different random things that

you could put together to create your own musical

instrument or stuff like that. And that was fun

because it was stuff that you could then try

your own, see if it worked like that, or just

kind of cool things that you could learn. So

I like that segment as well. I saw one today

where he basically made his own tuba. They would

show different things with kazoos. He had, I

can't remember what it was called, like a lip

or a mouth violin type of thing. Not really a

violin, it was like a mouth thing. I don't know

what it was called, but you basically put it

in your teeth and you could pluck it and make

noise. he would come up with these just random

things that he would say, well, I got this from

the bathroom sink. I got this from the garage.

Blah, blah, blah. I put it together and it's

a trombone or something like that. And you're

like, what? So it's kind of like the cool little

musical MacGyver, I guess you'd call it, that

I enjoyed with that. And getting back into the

music that you said, I would think for me, listening

back, the music was both the good part of the

show and at times, possibly some of them were,

I guess, you could see as bad. Maybe more so

looking back, like not all music is made equal.

And some songs are really cool, really catchy.

Some songs are kind of like, eh, that's kind

of lame. Maybe that's the adult, you know, kind

of looking back at it. But I do remember, and

this is not from rewatching any episode because

I didn't see an episode which had this part,

but I do have a specific memory from my childhood

of Do Your Ears Hang Low? That song done on this

show. Now obviously that's a famous song. You've

probably heard it in school or you heard it in

multiple things, but I specifically remember

it from the Sharon, Lois, and Bram show when

they did that at some point. Do your ears hang

low? Do they wobble to and throw? Can you time

in a knot? Can you time in a bow type thing?

I remember that song. There's some very catchy

songs like that. Who Ate the Cookies from the

Cookie Jar? Not to mention, obviously, The Skin

of Marinky Dinky Do. So there was a lot of songs

that were really catchy that really stuck with

me personally. And then there's probably just

as many songs that I could just throw away and

be done with. But that didn't take away the fact

that it was musical and it was still fun when

you were watching it probably as a kid. So those

are some of the things kind of I was thinking.

Anything else that you thought or reactions to

those things or anything else that you thought

were good or bad? I guess the ugly could be the

80s clothing. I try not to judge a decade by

their clothing. I mean, when I was a kid in the

90s, I had step shaved into the sides of my hair.

So I think the bad, there was some jokes or skit

bits I probably didn't like as a child. I know

there was this one. on one of the episodes I

watched where you're like, well, how do you spell

Sharon? Is it Sharon, Bo Baron, Babab? It's just,

as a child, if you can fall along to something

like that, you're a genius. But for me, there's

certain gags just didn't play. I mean, the 80s

fashion, well, make of that what you will. There

wasn't really a lot of bad and definitely no

ugly stuff for me. It's just... You know, maybe

there was the odd song that I didn't like as

a child the odd joke that I didn't quite get

but other than that Not a whole lot of negative

things to say Like we've said before we'll say

it again you you can't watch the show and not

smile like Or get you you get that warm feeling

in your heart, you know, so Hopefully if you

have one And for the first time in, again, a

long time, we're going to move into our next

segment, which is... Things that make you go,

hmmm. Alright, we have a whole bunch of things

that might make you go, hmmm, about The Elephant

Show. You know, we don't have a lot for Who's

Who or some of the inside stories maybe behind

the show, because not a lot is out there, but

we do have... Some interesting trivia tidbits

and things you might not know about the show.

Number one, in 1993, a panel of experts at TV

Guide rated The Elephant Show the number two

program for preschoolers in North America. 1993,

number two program for preschoolers in North

America. Coming from the Canadian show here.

That's pretty good. I mean, that's a hell of

a feather to have in your hat. Right, for sure.

And kind of going along that, flipping this around

a little bit, but number two, during his run

on the American Paid TV channel, it ranked number

two on TV Guide's top ten of children's programs,

beating Sesame Street, which was number five,

and Barney, which was number nine. I'm going

to say that first one, beating Sesame Street,

five points to you. Beating Barney, it's not

that hard. I don't know what number one was that

it ranked on TV Guide's top ten of children programs.

I guess I should have done the research to figure

out what beat it. Probably Blue's Clues or something.

Yeah, something like that. But The Elephant Show

coming in at number two. For all of you people

that don't know what it is, TV Guide is ranking

it above Sesame Street and Barney, which obviously

each had their different times where they've

been popular or not popular. Number three thing

that you might not know, by the time the final

rerun had aired, The Elephant Show had aired

65 episodes in five seasons and had been viewed

in Canada, the United States, Ireland, Australia,

Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Greece,

South Africa, and Great Britain, which means

it reached over 100 million viewers. It's kind

of a far -reaching grasp of where it was shown,

where it had impact. Just a simple show with

three folk musicians from Toronto and Chicago

getting together and having the ability to reach

over 100 million viewers. Definitely, they hoped

the show would be successful. I don't think any

of them thought they would get... They probably

looked at those numbers at some point and just...

We did good. We did good, guys. After the series

ended, Eric Nagler starred in his own series

called Eric's World, produced by the same producer

of the elephant show, Cambium Productions. Maybe

some people out there will remember Eric's World,

maybe some people will not. But that happened,

so if you liked Eric Nagler from the elephant

show, he had his own show. I might have to look

that up on YouTube, because I did not know Eric...

Well, I'm not saying he didn't work after the

Elephant Show. I didn't know he had his own spinoff.

Right. Number five thing you might not know about

the Elephant Show. The White House annual Easter

egg roll and hunt in 1994 featured Sharon Lawson

Bram. The trio performed at concerts in the Ellipse

and were invited into the White House to have

breakfast with Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton

in conjunction with that annual Easter egg roll

and hunt in 1994. Some political trivia for you,

I guess. That's a pretty, that's up there on

the cool stuff you've done in your life. It's

like made a TV show, successful TV show, recording

artist, met the president, had breakfast with

the president. Number six thing you might not

know about The Elephant Show. In 1995, the song

Old John Brattleham, which was on their 1978

album One Elephant Deuce Elephants, appeared

in the feature film Billy Madison starring Adam

Sandler. So one of the songs from their albums

apparently must have been Heard by Adam Sandler.

He included it in Billy Madison or somebody did

Pop culture reference there And number seven

thing that you might not know about the elephant

show and I guess this goes hand -in -hand since

we have already covered this show on the telecast

season one Sharon Lewis and Bram all appeared

in about five or six episodes of today's special.

That was the one with the black lady who worked

overnight in a department store and with the

mannequin that came to life. Okay, so yeah, it

was basically a kid's mannequin. Yes, and that

was a great show. Chris from Chicken Fat Pod

was on that episode with me, so you can go back

if you don't remember today's special and listen

to that one as well. Obviously they were being

produced and airing kind of in conjunction with

each other, so they made a little crossover appearance.

So those are all things that you might not know

about Sharon Lewis and Brahms. The Elephant Show,

which means it's time for us to pretend like

we're VH1 and to answer the question, where are

they now? You would think after reading some

of those statistics about how many people saw

the show, how high it was ranked by TV Guide

and different things, having breakfast with the

president, et cetera, that there would be a lot

of information about The Elephant Show out there.

That there would be information on all Sharon,

Lois, and Brann, that they'd each have some internet

pages or a big wikipedia page or something but

there's really not a lot about the show out there

we'll get into how you can watch it here in a

little bit but as far as finding out what these

individuals are doing right now i don't have

a lot you're gonna have i mean i know you have

a little tidbit that i'm gonna toss you here

in a second the most i can find that uh... they

continued as a group we said that the show basically

was from eighty four into the mid nineties there

in reruns And apparently, they stayed as a trio.

They performed at a lot of different functions,

events, charity type things, benefits. In the

year 2000, after the death of her husband, Loewenstein

retired from touring with the group. So the lowest

portion left after 2000, and then they continued

to perform. Sharon and Bram continued to perform.

perform as Sharon, Bram, and Friends with animal

-sized, life -sized animal puppets appearing

alongside them. Not necessarily just an elephant,

but it could be other animals. So it became Sharon,

Bram, and Friends. At times, Lois will record

with the group or show up for certain benefit

shows. Now, that was as of 2000. I haven't been

able to find much about what happened after that.

I know one of the other ones had a spouse that

died as well since then. Obviously, they're probably

not performing as much. You did have one instance

where there was a sighting of one of these members

though. Quick aside for the folks that don't

know, there's a sub -genre of rap called nerdcore

where the performers' lyrics in their tracks

are derived from their love of video games, comics,

and such like that. There's a Canadian nerdcore

rapper named Word Burglar, and on the music video,

I told Kevin this before the show, on the music

video he shot for a track called Rhyme O 'Clock.

Had a cameo from Bram which I thought was really

cool because and it's specifically in the track

It's like Sharon Lois and Bram and then there's

Bram, you know, just waving at the camera kind

of thing It just it was blinking you'll miss

it or sort of thing. I just thought that was

really cool. I was like That was Bram like holy

crap. Yeah, that's awesome And the fact that

you saw that is awesome as well. So if anyone

has any other information about where these Find

people are today. Let us know because I can't

figure out much more about them other than that

What you just said about that appearance and

some of the other little? Benefits that they've

done in the last ten years Okay, so this is the

point of the show where we take a quick commercial

break You'll hear some ads from some of the other

geek cast radio shows And some important information

and we'll be right back after the break Aaron

Lois and Graham's elephant show will be right

back after these messages Hey, Tara Strong here,

and you're listening to the Geekcast Radio Network.

Hey everybody, it's Optimus Solo from Geekcast

Radio Network's new show, The Telecast, with

some important information on our theme song

contest. The rules for this contest are pretty

simple. In Season 1 of The Telecast, we will

be covering 33 classic kids shows from the 80s

and 90s. Obviously all of these shows had theme

songs, which sometimes can be the most memorable

part of a show. This contest is going to test

your memory on those theme songs. How is that

you may ask? Well, because we have taken 32 of

those classic theme songs and smashed them into

one three -minute clip. Your job is to identify

the order in which these 32 shows appear in that

three -minute clip. Also, you must be able to

identify which one of the 33 shows was left out

of the clip. Some of the shows should be fairly

easy for you to identify while others may be

a bit trickier. For a list of all of the shows

in season 1 and more information on the contest,

visit the telecast page at geekcastradio .com.

Also, remember to tune in to every episode of

the telecast because each episode will contain

that show's theme song in its entirety at the

beginning of the show as well as the 3 minute

contest song towards the end of the show. This

has been Optimus Solo from the telecast saying

good luck and happy listening. Everybody knows

an elephant never forgets. And neither do Sharon,

Lois, Bram, or Nick Jr. We know how much you

like The Elephant Show. And so we're bringing

you more of the stuff you like. There's a whole

trunk full of songs and adventures. And all of

your friends will be there, too. So settle in

and watch Sharon, Lois, and Bram's Elephant Show

on Nick Jr. Hey guys, it's Optimus Solo from

GeekCast Radio Network's The Telecast coming

to you with an important message about our Listener's

Choice episode. That's right, for the first time

in Geetcast Radio Network history, we are giving

you, the listener, a chance to choose the topic

in one of our shows. This is how you can cast

your vote for what the topic should be. Head

on over to geetcastradio .com and click on the

telecast tab at the top of the page. Once there

you can find our complete Season 1 schedule with

all 35 episodes. Please look this over because

we would hate for you to cast your vote for a

show that is already on our schedule. Once you've

done this, just scroll to the section titled

Listener's Choice and click on the comments button.

All that's left for you to do now is to cast

your vote through a comment. For example, you

might say, Hey, I see that Nick Arcade is not

in your Season 1 lineup, so I'd like to cast

a vote for Nick Arcade to be the Listener's Choice

episode. It's that simple. So please go cast

your vote for your favorite show and stay tuned

for episode 34 to see which show becomes our

very first Listener's Choice. That does it for

now. This has been Optimus Solo from the Telecast.

Skinamarinky dinky dink, skinamarinky do, I love

you. Skinamarinky dinky dink, skinamarinky do,

I love you. I love you in the morning and in

the afternoon. I love you in the evening underneath

the moon. Skinamarinky dinky dink, skinamarinky

Thanks for staying with us everyone and you may

be wondering how can you watch this show now.

Unfortunately you don't have a whole lot of options

about this at all. DVDs not available. I did

find a website that claims to have some DVDs

out there. I would not trust that. because officially

there has been no release even though there are

apparently some bootleg copies of some type of

probably very low quality DVDs out there. It's

not available on Netflix or iTunes or Amazon

or anything like that. Your only option right

now to relive any part of this show if it's something

that you think you might remember or you want

to take a look would be the YouTube venue. Like

you mentioned there's at least three episodes

on YouTube. Maybe a variety of some other clips

and some other individual songs that they did

on the show But you can see at least three full

episodes on YouTube and the quality is is decent

for you know, 1984 type type of situation so

Unfortunately, your only option is is the YouTube

Avenue for how you can watch this show now. Yeah

and Should mention we did mention during the

show there quick, but the other thing is they

did have a Second series came out for only a

couple years called Skinnamorink TV Also episodes

that are available on YouTube if you want to

check that out. It's a little more Structured

as we were talking to how there wasn't a whole

lot of structure or more flow With the elephant

show so there is that available too if you want

And it's sure it's I thought that was just really

cool that you know They kept it going for as

long as they did Yeah, I do too. It was on for

a while, even though I guess it was only 65 episodes.

If you're used to cartoons, that doesn't seem

like a lot. But for a live action show that was

not playing seven days a week, that's a good

run. And it ran and reruns for a long time, so

it definitely had its good little run at things.

Alright so you can check out YouTube and this

is the point of the show where we kind of give

you our ratings as far as what we thought about

the elephant show. Currently we have for season

one of the telecast we're still working on a

four scale rating. The first if we give it a

one that means it did not appeal to us then...

It doesn't appeal to us now. Two would be we

loved the show back in the day, but we have no

desire to watch it ever again. Three would be

I love this show and I still watch it whenever

it airs on TV or I want to look it up on YouTube.

And four would be if it was possible, I would

own this show on DVD or Blu -ray. So JT, where

would you place The Elephant Show amongst that

scale? See, this is, I'm going to say three.

but I'm gonna alter it so you say I love this

show and it holds up but I don't watch it if

it was still on TV so I'm gonna give it a solid

three I would you know if I had kids I would

you know maybe rate it like three and a half

that you know I'd get the DVDs for my kids to

watch because this is a quality show yeah I'm

kind of with you I would say I did like the show

back in the day. So that would be kind of in

the two, three range. I don't think I would necessarily

watch a lot of it if it was on. I wouldn't be

afraid to check it out here or there or listen

to a song or something like that. But I wouldn't

necessarily watch it all the time on TV if it

was still on. So kind of a very low three for

me, a very high two. It's worth a watch. It held

a specific place and time. I wish there was a

modern day version of a show in this. type of

style or to fill this space. That I would be

in favor of, a modernized version of something

like this. So I'd kind of go, yeah, I guess a

very low three with mine. All right, anything

that you didn't get a chance to say or anything

we missed or any corrections that need to be

made for The Elephant Show, JT? Just looking

at some of the links I had here, one thing I

forgot to mention, there was that skimmering

show, but you look at... You talked a little

bit about some of the personal tragedies that

you know hit the group like you know Lois losing

her husband Same thing happened to Sharon, but

I was looking in this one blog as pop culture

addict lifeguide Apparently Sharon Had and kicked

the ass of cancer breast cancer three times in

her life. Oh jeez I was like Damn, that woman's

tough That's impressive. Yeah, and also like

when she lost her husband, that's when Lois toured

again, you know, in order to let Sharon deal

with her grief. And Bram had, you know, he's,

he had taken in the mid, the mid aughts, you

know, the mid 2000s. He had retired for a little

while just to deal with some hearing loss. It

turned out he had a benign tumor. and on one

side he had you know he underwent surgery to

deal with that to prevent further hearing loss

and it's just the fact that these people they've

gone through all this like really hard stuff

hardcore stuff in their life but they've never

stopped being who they are like they're still

touring they're still entertaining and educating

kids wherever they go and in also in 2002 Sharon

Lois and Bram were given the Order of Canada

which is as it says in this article, it's doubly

special for Lois given that she's American -born

and she's one of the only non -Canadians to ever

receive this award. Very cool. Chicago represent.

Yeah. Alright. I would like to thank JT for being

with me today and of course I'd like to thank

you, the listener, for joining us here on the

telecast. If you want to leave us feedback on

the show, there are a couple main ways to do

this. First of all, go to Geekcast Radio. where

the episode will be posted. You can comment on

it, get in on a discussion right there on the

web page, and you can browse the site and maybe

find some other podcasts that you may or may

not be interested in, as well as finding all

the old episodes of the telecast, episodes 1

through 30. Second, you can write our show and

leave us feedback in iTunes. It's been a while.

We have a lot of good feedback on iTunes, but

you can make some more modern... Show ratings

and leave that for us there if you want your

comments to be a part of a future show call the

voicemail line five zero two five two six five

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sure you say that you're leaving a message for

the telecast If you want to keep up to date with

all things Geetcast related, the best way to

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by going to Facebook .com slash Geetcast Radio

Network where TFJ1 Mike will keep you updated

on every new blog, podcast, or any type of newsworthy

thing that's going on at Geetcast Radio Network.

Alright, so that does it for now. We hope we

succeeded in entertaining you, informing you,

and most importantly, unleashing the geek in

you on this episode of The Telecast. And we hope

that you will tune in for our next episode when

we will look at another musical live -action

kids show from back in the day, that being Kids

Incorporated. For now, I am your host, Optimus

Solo, with JT from Saskatoon. And tune in soon

for another episode of The Telecast. Discover

this!