The Wacky 70's

[AndyC]

Detective shows.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3g3TARlQfU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EExXoKg5xdU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGJ82yhdMqk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2ON_YiJMPc&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4ReSTFDAHU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FepgxmNDuZ4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzaviQ6IG5c&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jonoCXm9sQM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C8EUrtEhfM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08cXyrDewlQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLax5kn8tF4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaHDut6z8yg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F0wlfmxKdU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz76342wQTg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOjJohZfYiM

[Flick James]

Now that we've fully embraced nostagia.

The Bad News Bears (1976). Not those ridiculous sequels. Those are good if you're looking for a so-bad-it's-good movie.

But the original was such an amazing snapshot of the mid-70's, and actually a very fine film. If you want to know what it was like playing little league baseball in suburban California as was the setting of this film, I lived it. I played little league in SoCal from 1976 to 1978, and I was always amazed at how closely that film mirrored my experience. The Bad News Bears is like a time capsule.

[The Burgomaster]

I don't think it's the 70's I miss so much...I just miss being a kid.

I actually miss the 70s.  A LOT.  Maybe to an unhealthy level.

I especially miss:

* The comic books.  I still buy 1960s and 1970s back issues on eBay and in local comic stores, but there was nothing like reading them when they were new.

* Mad Magazine.  Same as comic books.  In fact, Mad is a really great source of 70s pop culture.  If you read those old issues they have articles about hippies, Watergate, Vietnam, disco, women's lib, blaxploitation, and great satires of BILLY JACK, THE EXORCIST, THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, THE GODFATHER, BARETTA, PLANET OF THE APES, and other popular movies and TV shows.

* Aurora Monster Models.  I had the entire collection (all with glow in the dark pieces).  I had them lined up on the bureau in my bedroom.

* Drive-in theaters.  We've already had plenty of threads covering this topic!

* Rubber toy kits.  Remember these?  You'd get a series of metal molds shaped like dinosaurs, monsters, insects or whatever.  You'd pour colored liquid (they called it "goop") into the molds then set the molds into a special heating unit and the heat would cause the goop to solidify, creating rubbery toys.  I can't begin to imagine how many kids got sick from drinking the goop or burned from touching the heating unit (the hot surface was totally exposed . . . my little sister put her hand on it once).

* Saturday mornings with Sid & Marty Krofft.

* Masking my Christmas list by picking out toys and games from the Sears Christmas Wish Book.

Damn, I miss those days!

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

I don't think it's the 70's I miss so much...I just miss being a kid.

I actually miss the 70s.  A LOT.  Maybe to an unhealthy level.

Same with me, the 70's was a great time for monsters, monster magazines, and in general, it was as if anything and everything could be found on TV. Not so much today as most everything is "paid for" advertising and certain movies are tailored to be shown over and over again in repeat, with little or no variety iN between repeated showings (hello AMC and the Rocky movies..)

I especially miss:

* The comic books.  I still buy 1960s and 1970s back issues on eBay and in local comic stores, but there was nothing like reading them when they were new.

I still have a LOT of my old comics, some originals, some re-purchased at local and out-of-state flea markets.  Most of the ones I have are the old  Weird,  Tales From The Tomb and Witches' Tales.

* Mad Magazine.  Same as comic books.  In fact, Mad is a really great source of 70s pop culture.  If you read those old issues they have articles about hippies, Watergate, Vietnam, disco, women's lib, blaxploitation, and great satires of BILLY JACK, THE EXORCIST, THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO, DOG DAY AFTERNOON, THE GODFATHER, BARETTA, PLANET OF THE APES, and other popular movies and TV shows.

Oh yeah, Alfred E. Neumann     Mad Magazine was no-holds-barred, and some of their stuff was politically incorrect at some points, but not to the point where it was downright offensive.

* Aurora Monster Models.  I had the entire collection (all with glow in the dark pieces).  I had them lined up on the bureau in my bedroom.

Same. Both the originals and the re-designed ones of the mid 70's. The box art for these kits was amazing,  and I have my own collection of original and Polar Lights re-issues, and this time I've saved the boxes.

* Rubber toy kits.  Remember these?  You'd get a series of metal molds shaped like dinosaurs, monsters, insects or whatever.  You'd pour colored liquid (they called it "goop") into the molds then set the molds into a special heating unit and the heat would cause the goop to solidify, creating rubbery toys.  I can't begin to imagine how many kids got sick from drinking the goop or burned from touching the heating unit (the hot surface was totally exposed . . . my little sister put her hand on it once).

The Creepy Crawlers monster kit! And GOOP!  Remember, "if it's from Mattel, you know it's swell!" 

* Saturday mornings with Sid & Marty Krofft.

Land Of The Lost,  Sigmund The Sea Monster, The Lost Saucer, and a million other shows from the bizarre and perhaps chemically altered minds of the Krofts. Fun stuff.


* Saturday mornings with Sid & Marty Krofft.* Making my Christmas list by picking out toys and games from the Sears Christmas Wish Book.

Damn, I miss those days![/quote]

The old Sears catalog. That thing was like 1,000 pages long!

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

KUNG FU!!!!

Seems like all my freinds (including my idiot brother Glenn!) had a pair of Nunchuks!

Most folks think the Bruce Lee films started the Kung Fu craze-actually FIVE FINGERS of DEATH was a hit first!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm-TgM0fAt4

The Shaw Brothers!  They didn't make the Golden Age of martial arts, they were the Golden Age.  Let's not forget the 5 Deadliest men the world ever created:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ3agUcvlPQ

And, the Shaws also introduced us to a Kid With The Golden Arm 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3HlOox7Ui4

It was a great time for these movies!

[retrorussell]

Some kids educational programming:
THE LETTER PEOPLE
Come and meet the letter people, come and be with the family..

FINGERMOUSE (and the FINGERBOBS)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sBCJ7KQ7I0
HEY YOU GUYYYYYYYS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFYMijdQ_sA
NEW ZOO REVUE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izXWyCEyoIg
BIG BLUE MARBLE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1kkx2m-JSg
MULLIGAN STEW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=634-QuYgfMI
And a couple specials:
FREE TO BE.. YOU AND ME
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_26FOHoaC78
REALLY ROSIE (starring Carole King)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOBsMssUg8M&feature=related

[AndyC]

Oh man. Free to Be You and Me. Used to get that shown to us by teachers into the early 80s - the ones who went to college in the late 60s. That hippy influence gave an interesting folksy, artsy, occasionally surreal feeling to a lot of kids' entertainment well into the 80s, but some of the cartoons of the late 70s were particularly freaky. The Rankin-Bass animated Tolkien films, for example, and some crazy stuff from Nelvana before they settled into Care Bear mode, not to mention European imports like Barbapapa and Doctor Snuggles. And there were some freaky Canadian cartoons, such as The Secret Railroad, which was a veritable animated acid trip that was made originally in French and later dubbed in English.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_e2d1ADR00

[Flick James]

I didn't see it brought up, but does anybody who grew up in the 70's remember Wonderama? It was this kids show on Saturday mornings that had been around before that, but got very popular with the host Bob McAllister who ran the show from 1967 to 1977. The show had a kid audience with lots of segments thriving on audience participation. Every once in a while the "Exercise! Exercise!" song will creep into my head although I've not heard it since 1977.

[Allhallowsday]

I remember "Wonderama" and that song "Exercise!  Exercise! C'mon everybody do your exercise!  Hands on hips!  Hands on hips!  C'mon everybody put your hands on your hips!"  

...* Rubber toy kits.  Remember these?  You'd get a series of metal molds shaped like dinosaurs, monsters, insects or whatever.  You'd pour colored liquid (they called it "goop") into the molds then set the molds into a special heating unit and the heat would cause the goop to solidify, creating rubbery toys.  I can't begin to imagine how many kids got sick from drinking the goop or burned from touching the heating unit (the hot surface was totally exposed . . . my little sister put her hand on it once)...

I think you're referring to Creepy Crawlers which were made in Mattel's THINGMAKER...

[The Burgomaster]

...* Rubber toy kits.  Remember these?  You'd get a series of metal molds shaped like dinosaurs, monsters, insects or whatever.  You'd pour colored liquid (they called it "goop") into the molds then set the molds into a special heating unit and the heat would cause the goop to solidify, creating rubbery toys.  I can't begin to imagine how many kids got sick from drinking the goop or burned from touching the heating unit (the hot surface was totally exposed . . . my little sister put her hand on it once)...

I think you're referring to Creepy Crawlers which were made in Mattel's THINGMAKER...

CREEPY CRAWLERS was one of them.  I also had the MOTORIZED MONSTER MAKER, which was really cool:



I had the set with the guy in the front with his hands on the sides of his head (he would take his head off and put it back on as he walked) and also the caveman with the black hair and bare chest.

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

I remember "Wonderama" and that song "Exercise!  Exercise! C'mon everybody do your exercise!  Hands on hips!  Hands on hips!  C'mon everybody put your hands on your hips!"  

As our old friend and host Bob McAllister would say, "Whoop-a-diddy"!   

Hell yeah I remember Wonderama, Sunday mornings on WNEW 5.  Remember when they had the game where the kids would open the cans and the snakes would pop out?  You always won a prize no matter what was in the can!

Of course, let's not forget the song they ended he show with,  "Kids Are People Too!"

"they're really really people too....YEAH!"  Very good  post. 

[RCMerchant]

Burgomaster-Mebbe I should have pharsed that as being a kid in the 70.s. We may be brothers by a different mother! Walk into my apartment is like walking into a antique shop. I too think it's become an obsession with me. Like you-I snatch up old SGT FURY,WHERE MONSTERS DWELL, and KID COLT comics for idiotic prices. I buy old Famous Monster and Castle of Frankensteins off ebay. I have the monster Old Maid cards,the Aurora Dracula kit,tons of old MAD magazines,paperback books on UFO's and Ghosts-all stuff I usta have as a kid. I even got a Johnny West Geronimo with all his stuff! My furniture is even old. I dont sit well with this age. I'm a relic.
I like my computer,though. And vhs tapes. I buy dvd's but they scratch too easy. Yet I have a huge record collection. Go figure,eh? Sure-I miss Double Creature Feature-but it's nice to see my favorites any time I want.

[indianasmith]

Somebody else had the MONSTER MAKER?  I had something much like that as a kid, and I have tried and tried to tell people about it, and no one else remembers.  I vaguely remember a rubbery cube that you put into a special incubation chamber, and it slowly popped up and changed into a little toy dinosaur!  Seems like you could make them turn back to a cube, but I don't remember how.

[Allhallowsday]

THRILLA IN MANILA (the last of three MUHAMMAD ALI vs. JOE FRAZIER fights).  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_y7FiCryb8  


(swine flu, legionnaire's disease...)  

ELVIS: ALOHA FROM HAWAII
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idh-tkctXo8
 

THE BAND The Last Waltz  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMHyovwX7JM

[Umaril The Unfeathered]

Burgomaster-Mebbe I should have pharsed that as being a kid in the 70.s. We may be brothers by a different mother! Walk into my apartment is like walking into a antique shop. I too think it's become an obsession with me. Like you-I snatch up old SGT FURY,WHERE MONSTERS DWELL, and KID COLT comics for idiotic prices. I buy old Famous Monster and Castle of Frankensteins off ebay. I have the monster Old Maid cards,the Aurora Dracula kit,tons of old MAD magazines,paperback books on UFO's and Ghosts-all stuff I usta have as a kid. I even got a Johnny West Geronimo with all his stuff! My furniture is even old. I dont sit well with this age. I'm a relic.
I like my computer,though. And vhs tapes. I buy dvd's but they scratch too easy. Yet I have a huge record collection. Go figure,eh? Sure-I miss Double Creature Feature-but it's nice to see my favorites any time I want.

Creature Double Feature..was it the one on old WKBS 48, aka Philly 48? In my area of the Tri-State, we also got many UHF stations because we lived high on a hill, and had a rotary antenna.  I have many memories of UHF thrills and chills back in the day.

Nice find, RC.  I remember many ads for the Aurora monster kits in Famous Monsters and other magazines when I was growing up in the 70's.  Some of the ads were old ones from the 60's magazines as well.  Aurora was truly the king of plastics.