classic

High on the list of things none of you probably care about is the fact that Grover is my favorite Muppet of all time. He and I even share a birthday (it's true). What I love about Grover, besides his lovable furriness, is how willing he is to do himself bodily harm in the name of education. After the jump I've placed five clips of Grover doing what he does best: teaching kids no matter how much physical punishment it causes him. Now let's all learn together, shall we?

(S01E08) While I haven't been overwhelmed by every episode of Nightmares and Dreamscapes, for the most part I think they picked decent stories to base the episodes on. I would have liked to seen more of Stephen King's older short stories represented, but I guess the producers lost my phone number or they forgot to call and ask me which stories I would have picked.

Anyway, I would not have picked "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band" as one of the stories. One of my favorite things about Stephen King's short stories is how outlandish they can be, but this one, about a couple that winds up in a small town inhabited by dead rock stars, was just silly. I thought maybe they could turn that into something kind of fun and goofy for television, but instead they played it straight, which really wasn't the best approach.

I've lamented on this blog numerous times the absence of "classic" cartoons on television. I would even love to see Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies, Terrytoons, and selections from the Tex Avery library as part of Adult Swim. Heck, bury them at one o'clock in the morning away from the newer offerings, that'd be just fine with me as long as they were there and accessible. These days, however, the only "Looney Tunes" one can usually see are Baby Looney Tunes or Loonatics Unleashed, modified and updated versions that are just dandy for younger kids who might not know the history behind those characters, but not so great for older folk with a greater appreciation for animation history.

In the late 90s, Cartoon Network did offer something to those of us who like to delve a bit deeper into animation. The show was called Toonheads, and each episode would focus on a specific director, animator, voiceover artists, era, or whatever. One episode might be dedicated to voice actor Daws Butler while another would plot the evolution of Tom and Jerry as different directors took over the cat and mouse duo. Every cartoon would be separated by brief snippets about the work and the people behind it. The episodes weren't exactly rife with information, but it was nice to know there was a series that actually took these old cartoons seriously, rather than just slapping them into various timeslots as a means to fill up airtime. 

I know a lot of people praise YouTube, but it's well-deserved praise. The site has become a depository for just about any old clip from any show, commercial, or video you can think of. In fact, there's a huge amount of Sesame Street clips on there, and one person has taken it upon themselves to provide links to almost one hundred classic and not-so-classic clips from the show. I'd like to say I was the one with that kind of time on my hands, but I wasn't. I mean, I have that much time on my hands, I'm just too lazy to actually compile all those videos. The clips include some favorites of mine, such as the Alligator King, Ladybug Picnic, Mahna Mahna, and Kermit's "News Flash" segments, which I always thought were some of the funniest segments on Sesame Street. No Muppet plays the straight man better than Kermit. Well, maybe Bert. Anyway, enjoy them all.

[via Waxy]