Today’s Special

It's time for the telecast brought to you by

the Geekcast Radio Network. for the show, Optimus

Solo. As he said, I'm your host, Optimus Solo,

and I'd like to say hello and welcome to the

12th episode of the Telecast, brought to you

by the Geekcast Radio Network. And today we're

continuing our look at puppet shows from our

childhood by going deep into the vault to cover

a show most of you have probably never even heard

of. And it's for that exact reason that I had

to look outside the Geekcast Radio network to

find someone to join me on this one. I know you

guys didn't want me riding solo again, and I'm

very happy to have with me today Christopher

Stapleton from Chicken Pot Pod. Hello, sir. What's

up, my man? How you doing? I am doing. And for

those that didn't get the joke, there was one

episode I did solo, and I tortured them by playing

a music clip from the song Riding Solo. So I

know they didn't want to hear that music again.

I'm glad I can lend my obscure 80s pop culture

aficionadoism to your beautiful podcast. I think

you just invented a new word again. It is. It

is. That's what I do. That's how I roll. But

to get back to that show that I was guessing

most of you hadn't heard of today, we're going

to be talking about... Well, I guess that's all

locked up tight now, as it should be. Hiya there,

Jody. Oh, hi, Sam. Well, everything's all safe

down here. Let's go upstairs. Can you handle

him? Is he too heavy? No, no, I can manage fine.

Well, on our way to the children's department

once again. Okay, it's clear. The customers have

all gone home now. Focus, focus. Today's special.

It's for everyone. Today's special. Come join

in the fun. With magic everywhere A world for

us to share And friendly faces Hoping that you

will want to meet us there For today's special

It's about to appear It's about to appear Today's

special Shout it loud and clear Today's special.

Today's special is adventure. That's right, folks.

We are talking about today's special. And just

a quick background information on the show before

we get our discussion going. It debuted in 1982

on Nickelodeon, ran until 1987, also sometimes

aired on Hallmark and PBS here in the States.

It was a seven -season show, and it lasted 121

episodes. So, Christopher, what do you remember

about today's special? I was very young, early

80s. I was born in 77. So I remember two shows

primarily on Nickelodeon, Pinwheel, which was

fantastic and seemed to last 13 hours, but I

know it's only an hour -long show. And then today's

special, and I just absolutely love this show

for some reason, this quirky Canadian weird puppet

show. I just loved it. I was enthralled with

it. I really enjoyed it. I love the theme song,

the whole bit. It was a lot of fun for me. I

don't think there may be anything more weird

than early Nickelodeon television. I agree. I

don't know if it's Nickelodeon or Canadians.

They did pull a lot from Canada, and those are

some weird people up north. Yeah, and Pinwheel,

I believe, was like the flagship show of Nickelodeon

when it first began. Now, I'm a little bit older

than you. I was born in 81. And so my pinwheel

memories are real, real, real hazy. But the two

shows I remember from Nickelodeon growing up

at an early age was this one, Today's Special,

and then You Can't Do That on Television. Oh,

yeah, absolutely. Love that show. Another weird

Canadian show. But there's something specific

about early Nickelodeon shows compared to, you

know, like 90s or, you know, current. I mean,

there's nothing like the early 80s Nickelodeon.

Absolutely. Yeah. My favorite. They don't make

anything like that. No. They should, though.

They should. I don't know if they put away with

some of it, but we'll see. As far as some of

the actual characters from today's special, we

had Jeff. who was the mannequin -slash -human

adult male of the show. We had Jody, the female,

and then we had a couple puppets, Sam Crenshaw,

Muffy Mouse, and then we had the TXL computer.

Do you remember? Who are your favorite characters,

or which ones did you like, didn't you like?

Give me your thoughts on some of these people.

Jeff was my hero. I wonder if the movie Mannequin...

I guess I was 87. I wonder if that took cues

from today's special. It had to take something

from it. It has a little familiarity. Of course,

I'm sure they never saw it either. But Jeff was

my hero. I had a crush. What was her name? Jodi?

Is that her name? Yeah, Jodi. I had a crush on

Jodi when I was six. And Sam Crenshaw was probably

the creepiest puppet ever created. And then Muffy,

I just couldn't understand why they could not

maybe make the mouse hole bigger for her because

she always gets stuck. I just never understood

that. That's such a crazy house. Yeah, but I

do remember the computer, too, though, very ahead

of its time. Yeah, the computer with its, like,

flashing lights and its, like, voice of God,

female God. Yes, booming voice. It was great.

We actually had a supplemental episode where

we broke down our favorite puppet Muppet. characters

of all time and I actually put Sam Crenshaw on

there even though I agree he is kind of creepy

freaky combination there for something about

him that just stuck with me I liked his character

I do, too. I do, too. Very warm. It's kind of

like your grandpa. But something about the face

or the human hands, I don't know. It was just

a really weird, creepy puppet, but I did like

it a lot. I remember one episode where he was

in a garbage dumpster, and they were looking

for something or whatever, and he needed to get

out, and they gave him a boost and threw him

over the garbage dumpster. to get him back outside.

And you see the puppet, but then you see these

human -sized legs. It makes perfect sense. And

then he landed in a bunch of garbage bags, and

he was just kind of sitting there, but then his

leg would move every once in a while, and it

was like, that does not belong to that puppet.

It was very weird. I also remember Jody singing

a lot. Yeah, she did. She had a good voice. And

Jeff could dance. He could cut a rug. Cut a rug,

and he had the styling outfits. He did. He looked

like he's always about to go play golf. So you

said Jeff, would that be your favorite character

out of them? I'd say so, yeah. I liked him. Did

you have a character you didn't like? Not really.

I think this is before I really had taste. Luckily.

I could not be objective. I was just enthralled.

Yeah. Looking back at this show, sometimes I'm

like, why did I like this? But I still do. I

know. I could watch it right now, honestly. I

wish it was on DVD. I really did. Yeah, it's

a crime. But we'll get more into how people can

watch it in a little bit. Just real quick, I'd

probably second you. I think Jeff was, at the

time, was my favorite character. Looking back

now, I would probably pick Sam Crenshaw. Muffy

was... If I had to pick a least favorite, I'd

pick Muffy. Only because, for those of you that

don't know, she always talked in rhyme, which

was fine. There's nothing wrong with talking

in rhyme. But it was something about how soft

-spoken she was and the way she delivered the

rhymes that sometimes bugged me. And the fact

that it was nonstop. Absolutely. It's just me

nitpicking, I guess. But a mouse that rhymes,

whatever. But let's get right into the meat of

the show, which is... The good. The bad. The

ugly. That's right. It's time for the good, the

bad, and the ugly of today's special. And we

already mentioned that Sam might fall under the

ugly section. Or at least the creepy section.

I wanted to talk about a couple things in particular.

One, you kind of brought up a little bit the

intro to the show. Yeah. What are your thoughts

on the intro? You know, I remember it really

well, but I did play it back a few days ago.

And I think it's fantastic. I mean, it's trippy,

early 80s, you know, stylized, green screen -ish

kind of stuff. It's kind of animation. It's a

lot of fun. It really is. And I think that's

probably the most nostalgic part of this entire

show because I just remember getting giddy when

the intro came on anyway. And I think it's fun.

I think it's a lot of fun. I remember the floating

heads part. That is the number one part I remember.

That is burned into my subconscious forever.

And so in the throwing of the hat. Yes. Yeah,

but that's – it's a lot of fun. I think it's

great. And the theme song is great too with it.

Yeah, the theme song is great. And it's that

part that you're talking about where all of a

sudden these live action people are now cartoon

floating heads. Come on. Spielberg is taking

time. And that's just something about this show

was the combination of you have live action.

You have your adult, your real people. You have

your puppets. You have animation. You would have

times where they do these little still shots.

The screen would be just a picture. It looked

like you were reading a storybook in a library

at some school, and they'd show you the illustration,

and boom, there it is on screen. It was almost

like a variety show kids -wise. Yeah, it was

very stylized to be such sort of a low -budget

Canadian show. Yeah, and the other thing that

I remember from the intro besides the floating

heads and the throwing hat was at one point where

Jeff is frozen, and they outline him in a bold

color, and then where he was turns into this

galaxy. Yeah. Come on, man. It's trippy. It's

like space and stars. Someone's crazy on drugs

producing this show. But that was their way to

get him from mannequin to real life person. That

was genius. I love it. Speaking more about Jeff,

thoughts on the magic hat? I love the magic hat.

And I mean, I think this concept is, I mean,

because it's just a puppet show. The fact that

they've got this sort of magic hat. And if I

remember correctly, if he left, the the um the

store and it's kind of a department store if

you actually leave he's just mannequin period

so he's only uh human when the hat is put on

his head they say hocus pocus alamogocus yes

which i will never forget and uh he comes to

life come on it's just such a cool until that

until the hat gets knocked off until which happens

you know multiple times No one's hat gets knocked

off that often. No. Of course, on this show,

all the time. I was watching an episode where

his hat got sucked up by a vacuum. Of course.

You know, when I'm vacuuming around the house,

I've lost, I can't tell you how many hats. You

know, not socks or something like that. Not shoelaces.

Oh, that's ridiculous. Don't be silly. No, hats,

nonstop. I'm talking bowlers. Earmuffs. Anything

on my head is crazy. It's all in one. I'd say

Hocus Pocus Alamogocus just edges out the other

– what's the other? Jombies thing from Pee Wee

Herman. Oh, God. Mechalecahi. Yes. It just edges

that out for my favorite incantation from a children's

program. I feel bad for the people that have

never heard the term Hocus Pocus, Alamogocus.

There's something wrong with those people. Now,

do you have the same thing? I should have said

this in the whole Little Memories or whatever,

but if I'm talking with my friends about shows

from the past or our childhood or whatever, no

matter who I'm talking to and no matter how much

of a guru they think they are on pop culture,

this is the one show I can bring up and no one

ever knows what I'm talking about. Really? This

is your stumper. I don't know why. I don't either.

This is 82. I can't believe it ran seven seasons.

That boggles my mind. Wasn't there a bunch else

on then? I don't know why, but I guess it was

just right time, right place. I'm surprised,

too, because I try to talk about it with my friends,

and they're clueless. Yeah, it's like I can name

other stuff. You can say you can't do that on

television. Maybe some people don't know it,

but most people that I talk to do. I say today's

special, and they're like, ABC weekend special?

No. That's not what I'm talking about. I guess

it just never was as mainstream as some of the

other Nickelodeon shows. Dang mainstream people.

Pinwheel's similar. I mean, I think a few more

people know of Pinwheel, but I think a lot of

it's the fact that I'm from – I'm 33, so I might

be a little bit older than a few of these people,

but it's tragic that they don't know about it.

I'm a better person having seen it. Yes, as am

I. But in one sense, I wasn't as a kid. I don't

know if you had anything as far as when you would

go to a department store after watching this

and see mannequins. Did it affect you at all?

Yeah, I tried. I tried throwing hats. Random

mannequins. Or taking them off. Yeah, absolutely.

Maybe reverse it. And it just would not, it didn't

have the same effect, unfortunately. Well, I

saw this as an even younger age because, what

was I, like two when this? So I don't obviously

remember it from when I, it came out the year

after I was born. So I don't remember the early

years. But it was still playing when I was like

five and six. And it actually somewhat, I think,

traumatized me with mannequins in stores because

I was convinced that they were alive. And that

was not good. Were you scared that an army of

mannequins were going to raid your home? It was

close to that. It was more so where I would pass

a mannequin in a store, and then I'd quick look

over my shoulder. Yeah, they're always up for

no good. I swear that one's arm was in a different

place a second ago. It was attached earlier.

Right. Which was not nearly as traumatic as if

I would have came across those mannequins as

a child that didn't have an entire body. Yeah,

but can you imagine a mannequin coming to life

and not being just jovial? Yes, that would be

quite well, except for the ones that have no

lower body. They just would be so appreciative

that they're animated. But then again, they're

missing their lower half. That's probably upsetting.

So then it's just like a floating mannequin,

and that's even worse. Okay, I'm with you. I

don't know. As a kid, I was a little scared of

them. Not necessarily scared. I was just cautious.

Yeah, okay. That's good. Another part of the

show I wanted to bring up that I don't know if

you remember or not, but, well, basically the

premise of the show is they would have a theme.

They would be talking about pets or they would

be talking about memories or garbage. There was

something that was an overlying theme. And that

would go from the beginning of the show to the

end, but in between they would break it up by

breaking into a random song or having some dance.

They would put these little puzzles on the screen

to quiz the viewer. Right. Like, this is an outline

of a vacuum. What is it? I call them hat suckers.

Yeah? So that's what I would guess. A hat sucker.

A hat sucker. Those things that eat my hats.

And then they would slowly fill it in with color

until you knew. And then they'd be like, did

you guess a vacuum? Which, were there kids out

there that didn't know what that was to begin

with? No, I'm an idiot, but thank you for reminding

me. And another one of the segments that they

would break the show up with was they would go

to the Mime Lady. Yes. Do you remember the Mime

Lady? I do. Yes, I remember the mime lady, and

I don't like mimes. I have never liked mimes,

and I was probably the only kid in America frustrated

when they cut to the mime lady. I was like, please

cut away from the mime lady. So your fear of

mannequins – Is your fear of mimes. Yes. Which

could only be trumped by my fear of clowns. Okay,

okay. It has nothing to do with this show. Oh,

but still, you make a good point. Because I don't

know anybody that's not somewhat afraid of clowns.

Yeah, exactly. But yeah, the mime lady was cool.

She'd just do her little thing and act out stuff

kid -wise, mime skits. It was just another way

to break up the story, which it was really good

that they did break up the story because the

story itself sometimes could be a little slow

and, I don't know, maybe boring at times. Simple.

Yes. It needed that variety show breakup. Yeah,

absolutely. Let's not forget this is for preschool

-age kids, so it had to be somewhat simple. Do

you have any episodes or skits or songs or anything

that sticks with you or that you remember specifically,

or do you just have these general memories? I

have very general memories. I need to go back

and watch a few episodes, but I do specifically

remember every... single episode, and again,

I was preschool age, but I'm watching this stupid

rat get stuck in her mouse hole every single

time. I'm like, can you rhyme to Sam maybe? Buddy,

can you get a jigsaw and just hook me up? That

doesn't rhyme. It frustrated me to no end that

they could not just pop out a new hole for her,

just enlarge it slightly. I knew she had a really

Big Fear of Cats. Yes. Which most mice do, I

guess. And I don't know that I have a specific

episode I'm thinking of, but it's kind of this

cluster of memories that I've got going on. Right.

I didn't remember the mouse house in – yes, that's

another one. I didn't remember that until I watched

an episode on YouTube, and then she was in it,

and it was, again, this vacuum episode, and then

he stuck the vacuum. I mean, the moral of this

show is that this vacuum is, like, super -powered

and eating everything. I mean, it's already eaten

Sam's hat, Jeff's hat, a ticket to, what is her

name, Jody's ticket to, like, go see Valdi. So

she couldn't go. And at one point he's going

over because Muffy asked him to help clean her

mouse house. And so you see this vacuum get stuck

inside the mouse house, which is, the vacuum's,

like, as big as the house. It was probably bigger.

And she says, you know, she's all good because

she's glued everything down so nothing will fly

away except for the dirt and the dust. Well,

she didn't glue herself down. Oh, tragic. So

that's when we lost Muffy. Yes. So she didn't

make it. Her tail was never the same. It's mangled.

So the moral of the story, vacuums are evil.

Yes, do not vacuum, people. Especially if you

value hats. Um... There is. I have to bring one

episode up because I don't remember any. I mean,

the only reason I'm remembering the vacuum episode

is because I just watched it. I'm not going to

lie about that. But there is one episode that

I actually remember from my childhood, which

is rare for me. I have a good memory about, like

you said, general memory type things. I don't

usually remember specifics. But there was another

episode that actually brought me to tears when

I was a kid. And I don't know if I was just an

over -emotional kid. But there was an episode

where Sam Crenshaw is selling his car. And the

car's name is Gertrude. And he goes to a used

car salesman guy whose name is Smiling Jack or

something creepy. And he has written a song for

his car. And he wants the group, including the

salesman, to sing the song before he agrees to

sell the car to him. Very demanding. Yes. And

this song sticks with me like no other because

by the end of this song, I was absolutely in

tears. And it goes something, and I'm going to

play it during our commercial break so everybody

can hear it in its entirety, but the gist of

the chorus is it goes something like... Gertrude,

oh girl, my heart's in a whirl, cause these goodbyes

are hard to come by. I'll try not to cry as we

say goodbye. And it keeps going. And something

about that, it just got to me. And I was crying

by the end of it. I'm crying right now. It was

something about, I think I had never to that

point viewed an object. as having feelings. And

I wish I had never done that. And now you're

overly attached to your car, aren't you? Well,

everything now. Everything. It's like, I can

get rid of that toy. That toy has feelings. Yeah.

Maybe that's it, subconscious, because I'm the

same way. Maybe this episode had the same effect

on me. I just can't remember it. I don't know

why I like this show, because it traumatized

me with mannequins, and it traumatized me with

inserting feelings into it. Why are we talking

about that? This is therapy for you, right? It's

good. I'm Dr. Phil. I'm getting it out. Let's

talk about today's special and the emotional

scars that it has left. So it was very special.

But, yeah, I don't know why that exact one. I'll

put the link to YouTube in the post as well because

there is a YouTube clip. Someone else out there

feels the same way because there's a YouTube

clip that is just this part of the show. Oh,

wow. Just this song with the visuals and everything.

And the old car guy, even though his name's creepy,

it's like Smiling Jack or something, he looks

like Santa Claus. So it's an interesting little

clip, but I just wanted to bring that up because

that's a rare episode that apparently... almost

30 years later is still with me. So anything

else we want to say before we move on to the

next section? Any parts of the show that we didn't

talk about that you remember? I remember really

wishing I could find a department store that

looked like this. Yes. And I don't, you know,

I guess my mom always said, well, go into the

store and stuff like that, a department store.

And I always had my hopes up that I could find,

I guess, this very department store. There's

something about that that seems so cool and so

magical for obvious reasons. And Sears, you couldn't

find it in Sears. No, and just the elevator up

to it and all that. Just such a cool kind of

place to me and, you know, could never find that.

Still searching. I am. That's all I do, actually.

You wander. Wandering through towns looking for

department stores. Exactly. All right. Well,

I think that does it then for the good, the bad,

and the ugly of today's special. And now it is

time for... Things that make you go. Hmm. That's

right, it's time for things you didn't know about

today's special. We don't have a lot of them

because, like we said, this is somewhat obscure

and there's not a lot of trivia out there. But

I'll give you a few things. The first thing you

might not know about today's special is it was

actually nominated for two Gemini Awards for

Best Children's Series in 86 and 88. Another

thing you might not know, and this speaks directly

to your goal of finding a department store that

looks like this one. The department store it

was set in... was actually based on the flagship

location of the Simpsons department store in

Toronto. Really? I've got to book a flight to

Toronto then. I don't know if it's still there,

but it was based on it. Okay. So I'm not sure

if the store is still standing. Maybe someone

listening can help us out here, and then you

can have a vacation destination. There we go.

Another rhyme for you. But, yeah, it was based

on an actual store in Toronto, so maybe some

of our Canadian listeners can help us out. The

third thing, last thing I have for y 'all that

you might not know about today's special is some

of you also may remember a show called The Elephant

Show. Oh, I do. Sharon Lois and Bram from The

Elephant Show actually appeared in four episodes

of today's special. I did not know that. I did

not either, and I unfortunately did not have

enough time to search out specific episodes on

YouTube to see if they're even out there. But

I would be interested to see the crossover between

The Elephant Show and today's special. Check

that out. But if you are interested in The Elephant

Show, stay tuned for a future episode of the

telecast because we'll be talking all about it.

And this is the point of the show where we all

go VH1 on you and try to explain where are they

now. Just a few things we're going to talk about.

I just have three people. It's not real super

interesting stuff, so we're going to kind of

go pretty quick. But Jeff, our favorite mannequin,

is actually involved in musical theater workshops

and directing theater productions in Vancouver.

So while you're in Canada looking for the show

in Toronto or the store in Toronto, you can go

take a detour to Vancouver and see Jeff. Yeah,

that's super close. And also in your trip to

Canada, because you know Canada is a small place,

you can find Jody, who is apparently a big politician

now. She's part of the Ontario Liberal Party.

Really? So there you go. She still wears that

same jumpsuit. If she does, I don't think she's

winning a lot of elections. I don't know. I'd

vote for her. The only other person I really

want to talk about was my favorite puppet. I

always want to say Muppet. Jim Henson, you've

cursed me. But Sam Crenshaw, who was voiced by

a fellow named Bob Dermer. Now, he's pretty much

retired at this point, but the reason I wanted

to bring him up is he was also in the animated

cartoon The Raccoons. No way. He was Ralph Raccoon.

Huh. And he was also in The Care Bears. What?

As the voice of Grumpy Bear. Shut your mouth.

That's Sam Crenshaw? That's Sam Crenshaw. I did

not know that. So that is some crazy talk there

for those of you that like some good old cartoon

from the 80s talk. That's actually all he's ever

done animated -wise is the raccoons and Care

Bears as far as my information goes, but also

Sam Crenshaw. That's very cool. So that's some

information for you. We're going to take a quick

commercial break here. During it, you're going

to hear the entire song. I think it's called

Tribute to Gertrude or something like that. You're

going to hear a couple other Geekcast radio commercials,

and we'll be right back. After these messages,

we'll be right back. Hey, Tara Strong here, and

you're listening to the Geekcast Radio Network.

Tuesday through Thursday at half past six, TV

Ontario offers a mix of song and dance, a story,

a game. Today's special. That's the name. It's

dark outside. The store is closing. But Sam the

Night Watchman isn't dozing. Jody's working on

a display that has to be ready by break of day.

Muffy's busy all the time. Listen quite closely.

She speaks in rhyme. Though Jeff is a mannequin,

say the right phrase and he comes alive right

under your gaze. These four characters come together

to learn about things from shoes to weather.

When other people come into the store, then they

enjoy themselves all the more. Tuesday through

Thursday at half past six, TV Ontario offers

a mix of song and dance, a story, a game. Watch

today's special. You'll be glad you came. future

tales the beast unleash podcast is over not gone

you can hear more of this great podcast discussing

all the episodes of beast wars and beast machines

on geekcastradio .com we include voice actor

and writer interviews with stellar hosting by

steve mike and michael head on over to iTunes

or the net, or else I will send you my vehicles

to extract your spark and destroy you. Yes. This

is Jason Marsden, voice of Duke from G .I. Joe

Renegades. You're listening to the Geekcast Radio

Network. Yo, Joe. Of course, I'll sing with you,

Sam. Oh, dear friend, I'd be proud to sing with

you. Gertrude, it's the least I can do. Great.

Oh, brother, a song to a car. Gertrude, old girl,

my heart's in a whirl Cause these goodbyes are

hard to come by We'll try not to cry as we say

goodbye Not singing, Jody. I don't think I want

to buy a car from a man who wouldn't sing goodbye

to my old Gertrude. Gertrude, old girl, my heart's

in a whirl. That sticks. These goodbyes are hard

to come by. We'll try not to cry as we say goodbye.

You're more than a car. You're like a friend.

That's why I hate to see you. This long road

in While we've traveled through blizzards Through

fog and through ice And we've crisscrossed this

whole country Once or twice We got only one ticket

In all of those years From that big traffic jam

When I jabbed your ears You're a true old girl

My heart's in a whirl Cause these goodbyes Are

hard to come by We'll try not to cry As we say

goodbye Remember the time That I forgot your

break And you almost drifted Right into the lake

You waited at the church For me and my bride

You gave the new Mrs. Crenshaw Her very first

ride All of those memories Go back such a long

way They make this goodbye So hard to say Gertrude,

old girl Cause these goodbyes are hard to come

by. We'll try not to cry as we say goodbye. Well,

so long, Gertrude, old girl. You'll take good

care of her now, won't you? Oh, don't you fret,

Sam. I'll make sure she gets a good home. Er,

garage. All right. Thanks for staying with us,

everyone. And you may be wondering how you can

watch today's special now. Unfortunately, there's

not a lot of ways to do this. It is not available

on DVD. Not available on Netflix. And for all

you iTunesers, it's not available there either.

It's a crime. Yes. At this point in time, the

only way that you can watch anything related

to today's special is good old YouTube. I'm sure

there's other video like YouTube Knockoff. I

don't know if you can see it on Hulu or one of

those, but YouTube is your best option, I guess.

You can watch the intro. You can watch little

segments here and there. And it also has full

-on episodes that are usually broken up into

three or four parts. So usually like ten -minute

parts or eight -minute parts or whatever, and

there's three or four of them, and that's a whole

show. There's actually quite a few episodes out

there. Some of them have pretty good quality.

Some of them are a little blurry. But there is

enough for you to get the gist of what the show

was. So the only thing that's bad is if you're

a super fan of the show, you're not going to

be able to go purchase it anywhere at this point.

And my cat's upset about that. Yeah. She's really

upset about that. She's a big fan of Muffy. She

wishes Muffy was here, but I think she's afraid

the vacuum's coming or something. Oh, God. But

don't worry, because she's on the floor, so it

won't get her. It only goes for hats and things

up high in corners. So if you want to watch it,

head on over to YouTube, type in today's special

episode or today's special intro, and have some

retro fun. Yep. So we're going to do real quick

our IGN replacement crew. IGN likes to list things

and rank things, so this is where we impersonate

them. This is the breakdown, because I haven't

said this in a long time and for Christopher's

benefit here. If we give the show a 1, it basically

means the show was not good then when we watched

it back in the day, and it's still not good.

A 2 would mean that you loved the show back in

the day, but you have absolutely no desire to

ever see anything about it again. A 3 would mean

you loved the show back then, and you would still

watch it if it was on TV or if you came across

it somewhere. And the last one is if it was on

DVD, you would own all of it. So those are your

choices. Oh, man. Are you going to go first?

Yes, I'll go first here. This one is something

that I'm going to go. Today's special, I think

I'll go right around a three. That means I loved

it back then and I would watch it if it was on

TV. I'm not 100 % sure I would buy it. I'd be

tempted to if the price was right. I'm going

to completely agree. I have to concur. I think

pre -YouTube, if there was no way to find this,

my hand would be forced to purchase it. Yes.

Since I can go to YouTube, I'm going to go with

a three. Yes. If I came across it and it was

like a couple dollars. Exactly. $10. Or if it

came with a hat. Okay. Then I'd spend more money.

You just changed the game. $15 if it came with

a cap. It came with a cap. I can see that. Yeah.

And if it was actually magic, I'd go $25. All

the way to $25. Yeah. Well, I'm a big spender.

If it came with a soundtrack. Okay. So we'd basically

both give it a three. We'd watch it if it came

across TV, or we'll go search it out on YouTube

and whatnot. So what are your last words or final

thoughts on today's special? Sam's creepy. That's

what we've learned some things here today. Muffy

rhymes, and that's annoying. Yes. Jeff is a good

dancer. Correct. His hat needs to be stapled

to his head. And Jody's... pink pantsuit. That's

what I remember. Mimes are creepy. Like I said,

this is an era of TV and Nickelodeon. I don't

know if you realized or you read that Nickelodeon

was actually previously called Pinwheel. the

name of the entire channel. And so, but this

was an era like pinwheel, uh, today's special,

even like in the Turkey TV and you can't do that

on that television. All that stuff was just some

of my best TV memories as a kid. And so I have

a little bit of a. fondness to this show that

most people never heard of it, but this is one

of the top, top of my list memories from TV.

There's not a lot of shows out there that there

was nothing like it before and there's been no

attempt to recreate it. And I think, like, right

now, obviously, this wouldn't exactly connect

with someone who's never seen it before. It's

a nostalgia factor. Right. But I do think the

premise would be good for kids, and so I think

it's got replay value. It's got replay value,

but, you know, like you said, this, and you can't

do that on television and stuff like that. They're

100 % unique. Very, yes. There's nothing else

you can compare those shows to. Yeah, yeah. Which

is very rare. I think it's the unique formula

of the era, Nickelodeon, and those amazing America's

Hat. Yes. Well, it's what you get. America's

Hat, I want to tell you, watch out for vacuums.

Yes, because that's another thing we learned,

that vacuums eat hats. Exactly. And that mannequins

can traumatize kids if they come to life. Exactly.

And don't have legs. Exactly. I basically would

echo everything you said. This is just a piece

of my childhood that I'll never forget. This

has stuck with me for 30 years almost. There's

something that a channel or a network can get

away with when they are first starting, when

they're trying to establish themselves. I think

we saw it in the early days of Fox. Yeah. Where

they were willing to do some other stuff. And

we saw it here with Nickelodeon, and it's something

really cool about that little time when a channel

is trying to establish itself. Yeah. So, you

know, great nostalgia. Like you said, I don't

know if you'd really want to watch it over and

over. And if nobody had any, didn't watch this

as a child, they wouldn't want to sit through

a lot of episodes now. But the formula, like

you said, could be used again. I agree. As long

as you have a hat. Must have a hat. That's a

must. All right. So I'd like to take this chance

to thank my co -host for today, Christopher Stapleton.

How can people listen to more of you? Go to hocuspocusalamagocus

.gov. And I'm not there. I do a little podcast

called Chicken Pop Pod, P -O -P -P -O -D. And

it's just pop culture retro stuff like this.

And we have a lot of fun. We just rebooted. We

spent three years doing it, and we just rebooted,

kind of started all over and recapturing the

original magic that we had. So we're having a

lot of fun. So you can catch that at chickenpoppod

.com. And I tweet and Facebook and all that stuff.

So everything that I do is Chicken Pop Pod. Yeah.

If you go to Google and you just type in Chicken

Pot Pod, you'll probably get everything. You'll

get everything. Yeah. Except for Hocus Pocus,

Alamogocus .gov. Yeah. That won't come up. No,

it won't. No. We haven't properly linked it yet.

You haven't taken ownership of that one yet.

Actually, I might buy that domain just for kicks.

And for those people that are listening that

are not aware, you need to go listen to Chicken

Pot Pod. That's probably my number one favorite

podcast outside of our own, of course. It's absolutely

hilarious. The guys do a great job. And if you

just want to escape and enjoy a half hour or

an hour and just laugh with nostalgia and retroness

sprinkled along the way, And if you want to expand

your vocabulary. Ooh, with made -up terms. Yes.

So they also educate you. Yeah. We actually de

-educate, I'd say. It's probably a proper term.

Wow. I wasn't going to go there. As far as us,

you can stay in touch with us by going to www

.geekcastradio .com. You can comment on all our

different podcasts there. You can search us out

on iTunes. You can rate the show. You can leave

us feedback and tell us what we need to improve

or what you want to hear in the future. You can

get your comments as part of a future show if

you call our voicemail line. It's 502 -526 -5821.

Just tell us which show you're leaving the feedback

for and what you want us to call you. If you

want to keep up to date with all things Geekcast

related, go to facebook .com slash geekcastradionetwork,

where Mike is constantly giving information on

what we are doing. You can also be a part of

our theme song contest. Remember that the theme

song contest song plays at the end of every episode.

And basically what it is is it's a mashup of

the 33 different shows that are part of Season

1. You just have to tell us which order they

play in. So if you do that, you can win a prize.

We also have the Listener's Choice episode where

you get to pick our 34th episode topic. So if

there's a show that's not part of Season 1 right

now, a kids' show from the 80s and 90s that you

want us to talk about, go to geekcastradio .com

and find the Listener's Choice post and comment

on what show you want us to talk about for that

34th episode. 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. For now,

I'm your host, Optimus Solo, with... Christopher

Stapleton from Chicken Pot Pot. Saying hocus

pocus, alamogocus, and tune in in 10 days for

another episode of The Telecast. Discover this.

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