Folks,
If you’re of a certain age, then when you were young, certain television programs from a certain pair of brothers provided lots of enjoyment and confusion, what with all kinds of trippy characters and costumes that seemed cast-offs from Star Trek or Doctor Who. Yes, I’m talking about the wild, wonderful Kroftt Brothers.
Now I was one of perhaps a few dozen folks back in the mid-1990’s when Saturday Morning: Cartoon’s Greatest Hits came out and then proceeded to stay up all night and day for a weekend to watch reruns of all those great shows on, I think, TBS. It was a hoot. FYI – this is a great album and I still listen to it every couple of months.
Anyway, the reason for this post is not to dwell on childhood entertainment and memories of simpler times. I wanted to share some crazy – good, and just crazy – news: there is a new movie coming out later this year (date TBD) called The Banana Splits. This is based on the original show which mixed live action costumed folks with cartoons.
Hearing that the trailer was out, I had to watch…and I did not realize this was a horror movie! OMG I cannot wait! Looks like direct to video and then a semi-permanent run on SciFY will be its fate. But wahoo, this looks like a neat remix of our childhood with some weird and scary stuff. Excellent.
So, you know, I just had to share – enjoy!
Consider this an open thread for non-SCOTUS conversation.
Amir Khalid
One Banana, two Banana, three Banana, four!
Jerzy Russian
I haven’t had a TV in years. Are Saturday morning cartoons still a thing?
Alain
@Amir Khalid: Somehow, I’m not surprised you were first to respond. When I was composing this post, I had you in mind for some reason.
ETA I’ve always found Liz Phair’s version perfect.
https://youtu.be/-JvB5AL59fM
Kylroy
If you’re interested in the convoluted reasons this movie got made…
About five years ago, a video game horror series called “Five Nights at Freddy’s” took off. It was about the animatronics at a Not-Chuckie-Cheese coming to life and killing people. There’s been over a half-dozen games at this point, novels, toys…and a movie has been in the works for at least two years. I suspect somebody saw the FNAF movie idling, decided to get the rights to an IP that had *actually* terrified people in their childhood, and beat them to the punch.
Alain
@Kylroy: If that’s true, it’s an inspired pick/reaction to FNaF.
Can’t wait to see if they have sequels – The Bugaloos, I’m hoping.
West of the Rockies
Hard pass. I liked that show (I was 7). The movie looks joyless and tired and like it had a budget of 20 grand.
The Dangerman
Oh, oh, Chongo! (I think that was from one of the Banana Splits show, anyway … I might have to google it now)
Me, just working on first coffee and rooting for the Big Bear Eagle to grow a pair and fledge on (the Mother keeps coming around as if to say, come on, get with it).
mrmoshpotato
WTF did I just watch? Is it possible to have a nightmare in the morning?
Kristine
@Amir Khalid: Four bananas make a bunch/and so do many more!
I watched The Banana Splits every Saturday morning. Also HR Pufnstuf (Who’s your friend when things get rough?)
The number of 60s-era cartoon jingles that have stuck in my brain is a bit terrifying.
Brachiator
Never really watched most of this stuff. My brothers and sister did.
Citizen Alan
I just wasted five minutes of my life explaining the nature and existence of the Banana Splits to two coworkers both under the age of 35 simply so I could then get them to watch this trailer and know what the hell was going on.
Kristine
::watches the trailer::
Very creepypasta.
Jay Noble
@Jerzy Russian: Alas, their time had passed. Saturday Morning Cartoons died in the 90’s when you could get those cartoons any day via Disney, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. Video tapes also played a role as did consolidation/elimination of various animation studios.
cliosfanboy
Was anybody else here a member of their fan club. I think I still remember the secret handshake.
MuckJagger
I used to like it when they said “The Banana Splits present…The Banana Splits!”
jimmiraybob
Uh oh. I must be of a different “certain age” since I immediately envisioned the Smothers Brothers.
Just One More Canuck
@Amir Khalid: @Kristine: Flippin like a pancake, poppin like a cork
Wakeshift
If there’s a dozen or so people who know (and love) that album of theme covers, I must be like number 9.
Sublime’s Hong Kong Phooey is…
Sublime.
Thanks for dredging up the memories,
which then immediately prompted
The Aquabats!
https://youtu.be/PL_RJ8Z7XLs
Way better than they had any objective right to be.
Wakeshift
@Citizen Alan:
I’ve learned Never Explain.
It’s simply not worth it.
Sometimes, though: the Ambush Approach.
Just – “Hey, watch this!”
Alain
@Wakeshift: It truly is. It intro’d me to Sublime. I still tear up when I think of what heroin stole from us. They were on the way to becoming something truly amazing, but I’m thankful for what we got from Brad and crew.
Alain
@Wakeshift: I just discovered them last week watching a Youtube doc on Two Tone, which I need to watch at least a half-dozen more times to absorb it all.
I’m all-in on ska, though I tend more towards the first and second waves. I like old Caribbean and Latin American music – I listen to Calypso, Cumbias, and other music from the 30’s – 50’s. It’s nice that there’s lots of great music being made now, but for me, the sound of an old recording from some small island studio sets my imagination adrift.
So mix that with a deep love of Bluegrass and Opera, and I’m complicated.
Wakeshift
Page error reload killed a mostly done reply, so here’s the highlights:
Aquabats “art” isn’t really their music; it’s the strange combination of playing loud, looking silly, and telling Power Rangers stories. Which I don’t and shouldn’t like, and yet their whole is greater than it’s parts.
It’s it’s own thing – separate category.
Agree about the huge and tragic cost, Brad and innumerable others lost.
Grateful for Sublime’s music and the space they opened up for others to follow
Notably: Long Beach Dub Allstars = remnant members plus assorted friends and guests, and Slightly Stoopid, who got started on Nowell’s label.
Lastly, Mighty Sparrow over Mighty Mighty Bosstones, every time.
*off to set up a new playlist…*
Alain
@Wakeshift: oh my, Mighty Sparrow, that’s a name I haven’t heard for a while. Time to crank me some Lord Kitch!
I’ll have to post more Ska/Calypso and see what conversations bubble up, you’ve given me something to look into (Long Beach Dub Allstars) and I thank you immensely for that!
LongHairedWeirdo
@Alain: It was, in fact, what made the album amazing for me. In fact:
@Just One More Canuck: that very line was the reason I had to go searching for that song.
You have to understand, I can get obsessed with music. I spent years (and *years*) looking for an old rap, Ya Mama by Wuf Ticket. I’d heard the intro (which runs for over a minute, IIRC) and never realized there was an actual song after it. (It’s a whimsical song – if you say you hate rap, this is the sort of rap that’s got enough bubble gum in it to help you realize that, once you start to get used to the differences, there’s fun in all kinds of music.) Now, I’m not glorifying that quest, or anything, but… have you ever *thought* of the difficulty of searching for a song with *that* title, on the internet, when you don’t know the artist? (“it was what? Wuf Ticket? Aw, damn. And you know, that was my *next* guess.) It was made worse because I grew up in Philly. It’s *YO* Mama, people, don’t screw it up again!
And then, I got obsessed with another song, because of *ONE LINE* in a SWIFTLY CANCELED COMIC BOOK SERIES whose only exposure came to me from buying those cheap, stripped, 2-for-25cents comic books in the mid-70s (which usually had a poorly selling Marvel title, or a *good* selling title (but that still had a print overrun), and an Archie, or Richie Rich, or some other garbage which I never read (where anyone could see me – I had too little reading material, but way too much self-consciousness to risk getting mocked for reading a dumb funnybook comic like Archie or Richie Rich). That song? That song was Mack the Knife. (The line? Angel, of the original X-Men, long before he became, you know, meaningful, asks if “could that someone… be Mack the Knife?”)
And so I searched for a singer with a good clear voice to help me understand the words. You see, I have chronic fatigue, which saps my ability to hear and parse things. So I saw this singer who I remembered had a good, clear, powerful voice, one where I could definitely understand what she sung, and I bought the song. No, I didn’t search for it on YouTube, I *bought* it, so I could hear the correct lyrics.
You may all laugh at me now, because that singer? Ella Fitzgerald. The cover? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OkasoG1gtc
(Isn’t it *amazing* to hear the words “Ella…and her fellas… are making a WRECK… of Mack the Knife!” in a song where some poor sorry bastard was hoping to hear the correct lyrics? Yes, I know who Ella Fitzgerald is, *NOW*. I just didn’t parse it properly *then*.)
Where was I? Right!
Banana Splits theme song. Do you know how hard it is to parse “flipping like a pancake, popping like a cork” when your senses aren’t firing, and there’s a complete lack of context?
“fillin ah ah pancake ba ba ba ba ork” (and the last, only because it rhymes with “Snork” (short for Snorky, per Google)).
I found a cover of it, with an album name something like Ralph’s World, which not only gave me the lyrics but also revealed new lyrics.
(It also reminded me of an old joke. WWII, a suspected spy, is asked to sing the fourth verse of the Star Spangled Banner to prove he’s an American. He immediately starts singing, and is immediately taken into custody, where a document search proves he’s a spy (or a dumbass German who doesn’t realize how stupid it is to wear a US military uniform while at war with the US). “Oh, yeah, right, like you *knew* there *were* four verses, without being taught trivia by German Intelligence!”)
Liz Phair’s version is not only awesome, it helped open my eyes to how much fun a person could have with music, without taking themselves at all seriously.
Good thing too – another one of my musical obsessions was Blue Moon. Not just *any* cover, of course… the Doo Wop version. And I may never forgive Kid Rock for “Bawitdaba”, clearly inspired by that version. (Here’s a live version. Seriously: if the only thing you remember is the “babababahbahbabada a bangadangdang a dingadongding”, you think you’ll find this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsXkbLv5lvk ) I don’t reckon you can get *there* if your dial is stuck on “serious”.
worn
I’m old enough to remember tuning in at dawn each Saturday morning to catch the ‘Splits on the small black and white televsion we owned. It was strange to grow older, become a fan of Bob Marley, and hear the song ‘Buffalo Soldier’ for the first time.
“Hey, I know that melody!” he said, out loud and to no one in particular…
Alain
@LongHairedWeirdo: I’ll make sure to spotlight some of the wonderful fun I find in a lot of Latin music in the cumbia neighborhood. I can listen to it for days on end and still be happy, bouncing around through life. Like you say, once you find the fun in a certain music, it is an amazing thing. And there’s some seriously silly stuff and it makes me joyful.
On the other hand, I heard a long-forgotten Stevie Ray Vaughn song a couple of days back and I realize I need to get more of his music. That Austin blues sound is just amazing. Not silly really, but serious fun, though I may be partial since I spent years 2-8 there.
Walker
This clearly looks like a grab for Five Nights at Freddy’s.
lurker dean
funny, i posted about his on fb. i remember the banana splits being the most insane show i had ever seen as a young kid. it was just nuts and really didn’t make much sense, but it was captivating. at first i was flabbergasted that it’s been remade as a horror movie. but the more i thought about it, the more it made sense – the splits were basically like a clockwork orange for children, a bunch of strange characters running around and doing strange things, lol.
Raven
@Alain: I had a buddy who went to see him, he said “damn he’s good but he only played one song. . . For 3 hours”!
Aaron
I have that album, ripped it, and it is still in my regular play list!