Mr Rogers (Re: EP283: Grandfather Paradox)

[Talia]

I sing the theme song every time my Mac is 'thinking.' 

Anyone old enough to remember Romper Room?

Well, at the risk of total public embarasment- I was on Romper Room. Yep. My Mom still has the tapes.

Can I have your autograph?

Ok,ok. I was like, 5 years old but apparently told my mother I wanted to be on TV. We lived in the LA suburbs so somehow she got me on Romper Room. You taped 4? episodes over 2 days and that was it. Pretty normal kids overall except for one Stage Mom who was scary. All I remember is walking around a Harlem Globetrotter in romper-stompers. And if anyone doesn't know what romper-stompers are then they are to young to remember Romper Room anyway. : )
And that was my fifteen minutes of fame. I should have held out for something better. ; )
Now, back to our regularly scheduled derailment.....

she

Fixed that for you. :p

[Sgarre1]

ah yes, Romper Room, Wonderama ("Kids Are People too" - they filmed an episode at our achool, I think, or had a traveling show), The Magic Garden, Kukla, Fran & Ollie... then the WB and Fox bought up a bunch of indie stations and killed local TV...

As for Mr. Rogers - I still remember when the Oscars did their "those we lost" obituary segment that year and when his face came up on the screen the entire audience got to their feet and applauded en masse.  The guy was loved, make no mistake about it...

[Fenrix]

Better than both? The endlessly creepy Gigglesnort Hotel.

I haven't heard of that one...

It's a weird hotel set in a town full of cartoons that are shown on screen as creepy puppets. There's a character named Blob who was a muttering incoherent blob of clay on a pillar that was manhandled by the one human. There was an angry dragon in the basement that ate coal and heated the place. The guy in charge thought the hotel was a ship and had his room done up like the bridge of a sailboat.

Gigglesnort Hotel was a syndicated children's television program which aired starting in 1975 and ran for 78 episodes, until about 1978. It was hosted by Bill Jackson, previously best known as the host of the Chicago-based children's program, The BJ and Dirty Dragon Show. The program was set, as the title implies, at an old hotel, where Jackson's role was a desk clerk.[1] The program featured many of the characters from the previous show, including Dirty Dragon, the Old Professor, Weird, Old Mother Plumtree, and several others, such as the hotel's owner, Old Man Gigglesnort, who were created just for the program.[2][3][4]

The show was widely praised by critics, and became one of the highest rated children's shows in WLS-TV history.[1][5][6] It was syndicated in 1978, airing in several markets nationwide as well as Canada, Italy, and Saudi Arabia.[7]

Jackson made a final appearance for a presentation for the Museum of Broadcast Communications, "Saturday Morning with B.J. and Dirty Dragon: Bill Jackson, Live in Person—One Last Time", in December of 2009, saying this would be his last time appearing as a performer.[8][9] In 1995, he donated all his original puppets to Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications.[4]

wikipedia

Here's the site for the guy who owns the rights to the show. Crazy bastard thinks childhood nostalgia is worth more than it is.

The opening on youtube

Gigglesnort Hotel was utterly Satanic. There was nothing cute or funny about it - it was horrifying and wrong.
Eg: The Blob of Clay didn't "talk" - it continually whimpered in agony and terror as the other characters molded, manipulated and taunted it... All except for the lone human, who would sculpt, re-face and attempt commiseration with his fellow prisoner in Gigglesnort Hell. Then along would come the Dragon, who would eat some coal, let fly a litany of insults, and then spew huge amounts of smoke from his nostrils. I used to hide in the corner when it was on TV.

Also I would be unfair to my forum avatar if I did not mention the phenomenal Smile Time. A shame it went off the air so suddenly.