Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast Episode #57 - 3 of the most WTF Children's TV shows of the 1980s!

Episode #57? - Some of the most WTF Kids Shows of the 1980s

Since I decided to start putting a show together on today’s show topic, I’ve had one song in particular stuck in my head.  PLAY DUMBO’s CIRCUS THEME HERE.

If that song sounds familiar to you then there is a very good chance that you grew up in the 1970s or 1980s like me and my sister did.  For some reason there was this theme around creating bizarre children’s shows that were a combination of live-action, human sized puppetry and animal characters.  The shows we will be discussing today seemed relatively normal in the 1980s but when you watch it as an adult, you wonder how anyone could have tolerated the shows without suffering from debilitating nightmares.  Just think back to my show about Showbiz Pizza and the Rock-A-Fire explosion and you will know what I am talking about.  

With that being said, on today’s show we will be taking a look back at what are arguably some of the most bizarre and WTF television shows that I can remember from my childhood including:  Welcome to Pooh Corner, Dumbo’s Circus and Zoobilee Zoo.  So, grab your pillow to scream into, a blanket to cover your eyes and turn on your tv built into a cabinet (which we had one of those by the way and my Grandpa helped my dad get the TV part out and he proceeded to turn the cabinet into a wet bar, but that’s a story for another time), here we go….

Hello and thank you so very much for tuning in to the Pop Culture Retrospective Podcast, a show inspired by, and in memory of, my big sister Rebecca and her love for all things pop-culture, especially the people, places and things of the 80s, 90s and early 00s.  My name is Amy Lewis and I am your captain aboard this pop-culture time machine. You are tuning in to episode #57 - WTF Kids Shows of the 1980s.  Let’s dive in, shall we?

We begin with one of the most popular WTF shows, Welcome to Pooh Corner.  THEME SONG HERE.  

In 1983, the Walt Disney Company launched their premium cable channel, the Disney channel.  The late 1970s and early 1980s were a tough time for the company financially.  Their movie releases were not very successful (ie. the Black Cauldron, Fox and the Hound, etc.) and billions of dollars were spent on opening what was then called Epcot Center.  They needed a way to generate more revenue and what better way to do that through a cable channel?  Like I’ve mentioned in other episodes of this show, in the 1980s there really weren’t a ton of options for shows for children to watch.  Beta Max players and later VCRs were pretty expensive so I imagine most families were like ours and really didn’t watch all that much TV or really only watched Sesame Street and saturday morning cartoons.  That all changed though when the Disney channel launched in the early 1980s.  

One of the first original shows to air on the Disney channel was called Pooh Corner.  It ran from 1983-1986.  Walt Disney, being the genius that he was, absolutely loved the WTP books by AA Milne.  He tried many times to purchase the rights to the stories but was unable to do so until the early 1960s.  During the 1970s and early 1980s, several animated features starring Winnie the Pooh and the 100 Acre Crew were released.  Animated features, however, were relatively expensive to produce so the Disney Channel went back to basics.  They put together a show where the characters were not animated, but rather were costumed actors.  The costumes of course resembled all of the main characters- Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, Kanga, Roo, Owl, etc.  The actors would move the costumes around and some other elements of the costumes, like the eyes or ears, were opened and closed remotely.  Like I mentioned, the costumed characters were moved around by actors inside of the suits, but their voices were provided by some notable voice actors and actresses.  There is a bit of overlap between the actors in Welcome to Pooh Corner and Dumbo’s Circus, so more specifics on the actors will be discussed during the next part of the show.   For example, Hal Smith provided the voice for Owl.  

Will Ryan provided the voice for Rabbit and Tigger.  He would later go on to provide the voice of one of Teddy Ruxpin’s friends on his animated series and also lent his voice to characters in various movies such as the Land Before Time, Mickey’s Christmas Carol and An American Tale.  Diana Hale provided the voice for Kanga.  She is also an actress and producer.  Kim Christiansen played Roo.  Phil Baron provided the voice for Piglet and Ron Gans provided the voice of Eeyore.  He also provided the voice of QT on Dumbo’s Circus but more on that later.  The one character that was not present on the live action show was Christopher Robin.  He is referred to in a few episodes but was never actually seen. The show started with the long intro song which we just listened to where a camera panned around a nursery room and showed all of the characters in stuffed animal form.  We also see a rocking horse that is vigorously rocking back and forth even though no one is riding it. We then met the show’s narrator, a balding Australian accented man named Laurie Main who has sideburns for days and an unkempt mustache.  He was often dressed in a red sweater and khaki pants.  Sitting in a brown wicker chair, he typically held a book entitled “Welcome to Pooh Corner” and introduced the audience to the show’s topic or theme.

The show was filmed against a blue screen, where backgrounds could be projected to make it appear as though all of the characters were walking through the 100 acre wood, or maybe standing in front of Pooh’s house or playing in the snow.  It was definitely a budget-friendly approach.

The show featured several original songs written by the Sherman Brothers.  If you are not familiar with the Sherman Brothers, they are the dynamic duo behind some of the Walt Disney Company’s most memorable songs including “It’s a Small World,” “There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow,” and “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes.”

Most of the episodes followed a pretty similar format to other children’s shows…typically the show starts out light-hearted, then some sort of minor problem arises, which is eventually resolved and all is well again.  Here are a few episode examples:  in “Piglet’s Slumber Party,” Piglet is struggling with feeling lonely so he asks his friends to sleep over, but no one can because of Pooh’s snoring.”  In “Tigger Takes a Fall,” Tigger falls off of a swing.  Which reminds me of the time I fell off a tire swing.  My grandparents had a tire swing for a while in their backyard and one summer day I was being pushed on it and the rope snapped.  I then fell and hit my head really hard.  I asked my mom why I could see two of her and I was then promptly taken to the hospital. All I remember is being in and out of consciousness and vomiting on my way to the hospital where my Mom worked for most of her career.  But I digress. There were also several Pooh Corner specials like “Too Smart for Strangers” which fed into the stranger danger panic that was so often present in the 1980s.  It also touched on good touch and bad touch. The shows always ended with an arts and crafts project.  Typically it featured one of the main characters talking to the audience as well as the narrator.  There were also several Christmas specials. 

The Disney Channel typically ran shows from about 7am to 11pm in the early days.  The channel did not have any commercials for many years since it was an additional fee to have it.  However, when the Disney channel transitioned to standard cable, reruns of Pooh Corner were no longer possible because the show ran for almost 30 minutes.  So by 2001, reruns of the show were gone, but certainly not forgotten.  And let me just say that I LOVED this show.  When it came out I was the prime age for it.  I loved the Winnie the Pooh stories all growing up and this show was certainly no exception.  Seeing the characters all come to life and talk to each other was perfect for a young kid like me.  The show, not surprisingly, does not hold up very well and is like torture to watch now, but at the time, it was magical.  At one point I believe some of the episodes were released on VHS but many of the episodes have been lost, probably laying in a landfill somewhere next to all of those damn ET Atari games.  Perhaps we can hold out hope that one day, Disney Plus will cater to their Gen X’ers and Elder Millennials by releasing all of the episodes of that memorable show.   

Let’s listen back to what you heard at the top of the show, the theme to none other than Dumbo’s Circus:  Beginning on May 6th, 1985, Dumbo’s Circus graced the screens of many a tube TV all across America.  It was sort of viewed as a spin-off of Welcome to Pooh Corner.  Just like in Pooh Corner, the characters were life-sized, played by actors and puppeteers and voiced by voice actors. It was produced for about 3.5 years and resulted in 115 episodes. It was one of the most popular tv shows on the Disney channel in the 1980s.  The premise of the show is Dumbo, the flying elephant from the 1941 film, is in charge of transporting a circus wagon filled with a cast of characters and circus equipment to each different location where they are performing. In the opening credits we see the main cast of the show setting up the circus and during the closing credits they are taking the circus down.  Most of the songs featured in the show were written by Phil Baron, who famously provided the voice for Teddy Ruxpin.  He also wrote songs for Sesame Street.  Dumbo is the only character from the original film.  Audiences got to meet several new characters that were original to the show.  There was Dumbo of course who was voiced by Katie Leigh. Dumbo often wore a red and gold banner around his neck with a matching red hat, or a blue and purple banner with a matching hat.  He often has a feather in his nose whenever he flies.  Leigh also provided the voice for Sunni Gummi in the Gummi Bears and apparently Rolf in Muppet Babies.  I’m sorry, did someone say versatile?  Leigh provided the voice of not only a male elephant, a male dog, but also a young, female medieval bear!  Anyways, Lionel, the lion of course, was voiced by Jim Cummings. He was the sideshow barker of the circus and often a helpful colleague of sorts to Dumbo. He often wore a blue outfit that looked a bit like something someone in a marching band would wear, complete with a shako, which I’m sure I’m not pronouncing correctly.  This was his breakthrough voice actor role, he would later go on to voice Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Darkwing Duck, among others.  Fair Dinkham- was a koala who is the ringmaster of the circus.  He is afraid of heights and fears, um, drowning in the water.  He is from Australia and is voiced by Hal Smith.  Smith, if you remember from earlier in the show, was the voice of Owl in Welcome to Pooh Corner and the first four animated WTP features. Typically Fair Dinkham was dressed in a red ringmaster jacket complete with a top hat. Lilli is the tightrope walking cat who was voiced by Patricia Harris.  She has a long history with the Walt Disney Company and the Jim Henson company.  She also voiced Daisy Duck on a few occasions including the song “Girl Talk” from the Totally Minnie Mouse album which was released on vinyl and cassette tape in the mid 1980s.  Here is a bit of that song:  Also, let’s touch on Totally Minnie for a minute, shall we?  We owned that album on a cassette tape.  I believe the tape was pink, of course.  Essentially the album, geared toward toddler and elementary aged girls talks about dating and exercise.  She offered young girls some tips on weight management on the song Minnie’s Workout Plan, let’s have a listen:  Ah, so that’s why I’ve had decades of body issues, because of Minnie Mouse.  Apparently I could have done a better job of both keeping my spirits up and my weight down if I would have done a better job of listening to her when I was 5 years old.  Anyways. Lilli often wears glasses due to her poor eyesight.  However, she is not afraid to go on a tightrope high up in the air without her dang glasses.  She comes from a long line of tightrope walkers.  She often wears leotards when walking the tightrope and skirts when she is not performing.  

Sebastian is the classic hobo alley cat and resident janitor of the circus.  He was voiced by Water Edmiston who was also the voice of Eddie the Keebler Elf in hundreds of Keebler commercials and many television acting credits.  Sebastian has a ventriloquist dummy named Sly.  Sebastian is often clad in tie up khaki capri pants with a matching vest and white t shirt.  He is the show’s trickster, he often tricks people into doing his work so that he can be lazy and take naps.  He often tricks QT into doing his chores and other remedial tasks.  Barnaby Bower is a silly dog who serves as a clown and magician in the circus.  His magic tricks often go wrong, but his heart is in the right place.  He often wears blue pants with suspenders and a small hat.  Finally, there was a character named QT.  He was an orangutan and the most physically strong member of the circus.  He played an organ-like instrument in the show.  

His character looked eerily similar to King Louie from the Jungle Book.  In addition to the main cast of life-size characters, there were also a handful of hand puppet characters like Flip and Flap who tell jokes to each other.    

Once again the gist of the show was that the show would start off on a fun and light-hearted note and then some minor problem would arise, the group would solve the issue and then happiness would return to the circus.  For example, in an episode entitled “A Very Special Place” Lilli breaks her ankle, but the crew all visits her at the hospital.  In another episode entitled “Kite Day” the circus ends up in a town that is supposed to be windy, but it’s not so they have to figure out how to fly kites without wind.  

Reruns of Dumbo’s circus continued until 1997.  Just like with Pooh Corner, the show’s length didn’t quite fit the Disney Channel anymore once they started having commercials.  If you visited Walt Disney World after the show went off the air, you could see Dumbo’s flying wagon at the studio backlot tour at what was then called MGM-Studios.  I don’t remember seeing that wagon unfortunately, however I do remember seeing the facade of the Golden Girl’s house.  Good times.  

If the characters in both Pooh Corner and Dumbo’s circus weren’t frightening enough, let’s wrap up this episode with the anthropomorphic crew that was Zoobilee Zoo.  THEME SONG HERE. Filmed entirely in San Fernando Valley, CA, the show’s original run was from 1986 to 1987, there were 65 episodes in total. All of the episodes were filmed during 1985 so all of the actors involved, who we will discuss momentarily, had an exhausting schedule  Unlike DC or WPTC, Zoobilee Zoo was not filmed in front of a blue screen with animations projected onto it.  Instead, the show was filmed amongst many actual sets like the character’s homes.  However, similar to PC, most of the characters had shirts as part of their costumes, but no pants. Reruns lasted until 2001.  The show aired on the Learning Channel before that station went down the toilet, the Hallmark Channel and PBS.  It was produced by WQED Pittsburgh.  When I have nightmares about a half-human/half-animal committing senseless acts of violence many of the characters from this very show come to mind.  In the show, there was a group of characters who each had a hobby and artistic interest which played out on the show.  They all lived in a Magical Land called Zoobilee Zoo.  Just like the other shows we discussed earlier, the theme around each show was cooperation, friendship, problem solving, etc. I think the reason why the characters are the stuff of nightmares is because each actor had a full animal costume on, but their face was shown but was covered with extensive makeup, a prosthetic nose and sometimes a mouth.  Before the show went into production, the characters were going to have full costumes, sort of along the lines of a sports team mascot, but the producer and director decided the characters should have real faces and thus real (ish) expressions.  There was Talkatoo Cockatoo who loved reading and writing.  Her costume was primarily green feathers, but with a few red and yellow accent feathers.  She also wore a pink t-shirt with an A on it as well as a colorful necklace.  Her face was painted bright yellow with red and orange accents.  She was played by Karen Hartman.  There was also Lookout Bear who loved adventures.  He wore a green shirt with a yellow and green pocketed vest.  His ensemble was complete with a pair of red chuck taylors.  He was played by Michael B. Moynahan.  Some of his other acting credits around this time are an episode of Family Ties, the movie remake of Beverly Hillbillies and many other acting credits.  Whazzat Kangaroo loved to dance and play music.  Her costume was primarily pink with a built in poach like any good kangaroo has.  Although there was never a baby kangaroo in there so it looked like she had sort of a saggy stomach which is sort of nauseating in hindsight. She had a teal and yellow bow tie which matched what appears to be a an oversized baby bib that she wore. She was played by Stephanie “Stevie” Vallance.  She had previously starred on shows like Bosom Buddies and LA Law.  She also starred in 3 Men and a Baby.  She is also a well-respected voice acting teacher.  Van Go Lion loved painting. He had blonde busy hair with a beret on top.  He often wore a long-sleeve red shirt with an apron covered with pant over it.  He also had matching red, shin-length socks. He was played by Forrest Gardner.  In addition to ZZ, he also starred in Captain EO, the groundbreaking 3-D film starring Michael Jackson which was created for what was then referred to as Epcot Center of my universe.  

He was also in the film Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Stayin’ Alive.  Bill der Beaver liked to invent and build things.  He often wore a black and white checkered vest over top a red shirt, as well as a tool-belt, and kneepads.  He often had accessories like a hammer and safety goggles on hand in case he needed to work on something.  Beaver was originally played by Michael Sheehan, but he left after 2 episodes to work on the show Jem.  Wow.  What an upgrade.  Or not.  He was replaced by Sandey Grinn.  After ZZ he would go on to do some behind the scenes work in movies like Beetlejuice and Child’s Play 2 and 3.  Bravo Fox was arguably the most murderous and sinister looking character of the group.  His character was dressed like he was going to a wedding in 1987, except he of course didn’t have pants on.  He wore a teal and pink tuxedo jacket, complete with a pink bow tie and a cumberbun I think it’s called, which was shiny gold and teal.  This was all topped off with fancy dress shoes partially covered by yellow spats.  He was played by an actor named Gary Schwartz.  He began his acting career at the ripe old age of 13 when he began performing as a mime. He is currently pretty heavily involved in the world of improv. 65 episodes aired during the show’s original run from 1986-1987, with re-runs continuing until 2001.  Ben Vereen played the role of Mayor Ben in the show.  He was a leopard, naturally who opened the show and provided an overview of the themes that would be discussed during the episode.  He was typically clad in a purple, open chested jacket complete with a red strapped medal. A talented actor and dancer, Vereen’s had an extremely impressive career including performing on Broadway in Jesus Chris Superstar, Wizard of Oz and Hair.  In 1987, the show won their one and only Emmy for costume design.  In hindsight that should probably be rescinded but perhaps by 1987 standards, they were outstanding. 

Zoobilee Zoo was released on 3 different VHS releases, but has never been released on DVD. However, if you were lucky, you may have seen the characters performing at your local library in full costume and makeup.  Although the show was orchestrated by Hallmark, they never produced any merchandise so that may have led to the series' quick demise. Here is an excerpt from an article in the New York Times which gives an overview of the show as well as some of the show’s goals which sadly didn’t come to fruition.  QUOTE ARTICLE HERE.  

In life, there are so many “could have beens.”  I could have been an astronaut.  Hillary Clinton could have been an amazing president.  Zoobilee Zoo could have been the next Rainbow Brite or Strawberry Shortcake had they decided to merchandise the crap out of all of the terrifying characters, but I guess we will never know…..

I hope you have enjoyed this look back on some of the most WTF children’s shows of the 1980s.  I had so much fun putting this show together and I hope that once again, the wait was worth it!  I hope you will join me for my next show where we will be discussing the most popular and hot ticket Christmas gift items for children in the 1980s. UTBKBSAHOTYM.