Distrubing kids programs

[BlackAngel]

As far as the commercials are concerned, my question is, why advertise for these types of medicine like propecia with so much side effects such as diarreah, dry mouth, insomnia, stomach aches, "frequent trips to the bathroom", etc.?  Why buy these thing to make one part of you better and other parts like crap?

[D]

What about the Electric Company? Easy Reader was a bigger pimp than the Count (He had a girl named Mel Mounds for crying out loud! And about half a dozen other women too) And the bad guys in Spidey Super Stories, man alive. Kilofax Mango had to be my favorite writer of that old stuff. Read any of his issues of Spidey Super Stories, and your mind will melt.

[Cullen]

"Hey Cullen, to my memory wasn't there only a couple of smurfs who actually wore clothes? Or pants at least."

With few exceptions, the Smurfs wore pants and a hat.  The hats varied for job function/personality. Greedy Smurf, for instance, had a baker's cap, Vanity Smurf had a flower in his cap, and so on.

Of the Smurfs you regularly saw, only Papa Smurf had color in his wardrobe, and only Papa Smurf and Smurfette had hair.

(Side note: Later in the series, the creators added more new Smurfs that contradict what I've said, such as Grandpa Smurf and Sassette.  These new characters started my gradual disenchantment with The Smurfs series.  In other words, I'm pretending they don't exist to maintain what little fondness I have left for the show...)

"Still when kids grow up and realize there is no stork the questions will come about baby"

Except there was a Stork in Baby's case.  Now, if you never caught episode where Baby was introduced, then there'd be questions...

(Side note: As kids, my middle brother and I never missed an episode of The Smurfs.  It warped our fragile little minds, I tell you...)

"I remember hearing that gargamel actually created smurfette as some scheme to get to them..i don't know if that's true but it might explain why she was the only female in a giant colony of presumably male smurfs."

This is true.  Gargamel did indeed make Smurfette.  Which begs the question if he wanted to eat the Smurfs (or uses them to turn lead into gold - his reasons for catching Smurfs changed later in the series) why didn't he make them himself?  Wouldn’t be easier (and less frustrating) than trying to catch them?

(Sidenote: When Smurfette was Gargamel's evil helper, she had black hair.  When she was "turned good," as it were, she became a blonde.  Never bothered me as a kid, but now I just shake my head...)

[AndyC]

There was a parody of those commercials that I really enjoyed. It was for an online stock trading service, but looked like a dead serious advertisement for a medication to treat some common complaint, baldness or something.

"Side effects may include headache, nausea, dry mouth, complete loss of all body hair, gigantic eyeball, the condition known as hotdog fingers, children born with the head of a golden retreiver...." and so on. Cut to the guy rushing to sell his stock in the company. Hilarious.

[AndyC]

There are a few questions I've had about the smurfs. All seem to be about the same age, except one really old guy. The only thing close to that I can think of is the Horta on Star Trek. Is the Smurf reproductive cycle like that?

Gargamel made smurfette to take advantage of the smurfs' natural urges, but they don't appear to have any females naturally. Why have the urges?

On the subject of the Thundercats, I found one thing puzzling. In the first episode, we see all of them naked, and they have no genitalia! Hidden by fur? It would have to be pretty small. I mean, every muscle shows through, but not the naughty bits. I know you can't show that in a kids' show, but wouldn't it be less bizarre to just dress the Thundercats from the beginning?

[Babydoll]

My husband thinks about the wal-mart commercials with that smiley face going around slashing prices.  If he saw that happening he would never go back to wal-mart again.   Also, some of the commercials have gotten so bad that they have disclaimer at the bottom of screen which nobody can read.  

What happen to tell the truth?  My husband told me that some of the kids shows  were just 30 minutes commercials to sell the toys.

[AndyC]

I don't know that Gargamel could make a genuine, usable smurf. As I recall, Smurfette was considered artificial until Papa Smurf worked his mojo on her and made her a real smurf (and a blonde). I could be wrong. It was a long time ago.

[Susan]

>>>Which begs the question if he wanted to eat the Smurfs (or uses them to turn lead into gold - his reasons for catching Smurfs changed later in the series) why didn't he make them himself? <<<

Exactly.

>>As kids, my middle brother and I never missed an episode of The Smurfs. It warped our fragile little minds, I tell you<<

Glutton for punishment? I only watched them I think back in 79 or 81..somewhere in that time frame when I owned my one and only smurf shirt when it was new and novel. Then I went back to my superfriends, I only strayed to the dark side a short while.

>>When Smurfette was Gargamel's evil helper, she had black hair. When she was "turned good," as it were, she became a blonde. <<

Shouldn't it have been the other way around? ;-)  Well I guess only a blonde would live with a village of men. Oops..did I say that?

Didn't papa wear red? Hmm. I think I asked about the clothes because I have this memory of whie tight pants and a creepy little ball of a tail out the back end. Smurfette I remember was very flirtatious and wore a dress but I don't have a memory of underwear, brainy always got kicked for being smart (can't have that in smurfville) You gotta wonder how they reproduce tho if the only females were genetically created.  I mean the storks brings it sure..but let's get real.

Here's someone's take on the smurfs that's kind of interesting:
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Cinema/3117/sociosmurf2.htm

[Chadzilla]

I remember that shows, most because I had a traumatic experience during one episode (revolving around the sudden inability of my body to properly dispose of some waste products - ouch!).  I only saw half of the episode, but I remember it.

[GypsyTRobot]

Hey where did you get Gigglesnort eps?  I need those!

Apparently Blob's sound effects were on a tape loop and the engineers just played it randomly - don't know if BJ was improving to the random sounds or what.  Also, I heard that the WGN props people wanted to operate Blob because to them, he wasn't really a puppet.  Fortunately the puppetteers overruled them.

[GypsyTRobot]

Electric Company - remember the episode where Morgan Freeman was dressed up like Dracula and running around with his tongue hanging out, after some little white guy in Lederhosen?  Funniest - episode - ever.     There was one with a ghost that scared me to death.  Also Rita Moreno scared me in general.   The kids on the show were total dorks though, even a little nerd like me could figure that out.

[Dan_I'm_The_Man]

 >brainy always got kicked for being smart.

No, as I recall, Brainy got kicked 50 yards for being annoying by babbling like he was a know-it-all.  Which he was'nt.

Brainy was the embodiment of the Scarecrow's answer to Dorothy's question "If you don't have a brain, how can you talk?"

SC-"Well, I've heard that people with no brains tend to talk a lot.  It makes them look like they have brains.

(Yeah, I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea)

[Bargle5]

I remember back on the old "Late Night with David Letterman" show they used to sometimes run over things with a steamroller. One of the things run over was a "cute loveable Smurf" doll.  It was a very satisfying bit of television.

[Frank Habets]

I'm an old guy who actually experienced the Smurfs as they came out in European comic books,  hence I can clarify a few issues about Smurfette.
Indeed she was a creation of Gargamel. Alas, Gargamel's idea of a hot smurfette was off  --he made her with black frizzy hair and short eyelashes. (Side-note: whenever cartoonists need a female version of a sexually undifferentiated cartoon-critter, they just add long eyelashes to the character).
Smurfette was ostracized by the smurfs, of course. She just came accross as a neurotic b***h, in the eyes of the male smurfs. Papa  Smurf simply gave her a make-up do-over with a peroxyde 'doo and turned Smurfette  into a sex symbol.   So of  all the smurfs, she would still be inedible to Gargamel, her metamorphosis being just cosmetic (though with Papa Smurf, one never knows).
***
Other clarifications:
The creator, Peyo, isn't Spanish, but Belgian. His name is Pierre Culliford and he invented the nom-de-plume Peyo based on his three year-old  nephew 's mispronounciation of his first name.

Why are they blue?
This was a suggestion by Peyo's wife, who thought that the blue would look nice when set against the lushy green backdrop . Madame Culliford  became the colourist for the comic books.

Origin of the name:
The original name is 'schtroumpf'.  When Peyo asked for the saltshaker during a lunch with Franquin (creator of the Marsipulami),  he asked "Please pass me the..."  then sneezed out 'schtroumpf'.

My take:
The original comics were witty and inventive. A great read for kids, and quite OK for adults too. When they were Americanized, a lot of the charm was lost, and the whimsical humour  demolished.  Sad, sad, sad.  Good Lord -- 'smurf '  doesn't at all sound like a sneeze :(

[josh patrick]

Oh shut the @#**! up. They are kids shows. damn dont take crap so seriously.