Comments | mister_punchy: AND NOW IT'S TIME FOR THE "RAMBLIN' ROD" POST

mister_punchy

AND NOW IT'S TIME FOR THE "RAMBLIN' ROD" POST

Apr 01, 2009 17:23

I recently took home a box of aged but sturdy VHS cassettes from my parents' house; the greatest of them all has the triple-feature of Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Muppets Take Manhattan dubbed off a CBS Fox rental cassette (complete with FBI warning for context), and one of my personal 1985 guest-shots on the Ramblin' Rod show. Nearly anyone who ( Read more... )

tales from the video store, living in the past, the weirdo club

Comments 17

ruth_the_sleuth April 2 2009, 00:47:59 UTC

I was always really jealous of the kids on Rambin' Rod--but also of the kids on All That, Barney, and all the other kids on ensemble shows that I can't remember right now. (But not Zoom. Zoom was totally gay.)

mister_punchy April 2 2009, 19:31:11 UTC

Man, pitting our childhood Nickelodeon landscapes against each other, "You Can't Do That On Television" could kick the ass of "All That." Especially since Kenan is still hanging around and being aggressively unfunny all these years later.

How's your "Friday the 13th" project coming along?

ruth_the_sleuth April 3 2009, 17:50:46 UTC

I'm about to watch 7. 5 was, as predicted, totally lame, although I DID like the (somewhat surprising) ending. And I was both happy and somewhat disappointed that 6 took a turn for the tongue in cheek (remember the kid reading "No Exit"?). On one hand, I'm amazed it took them 6 installments to get there, and on the other hand, it's kind of less satisfying to laugh at something that's actually trying to be funny.
Also, I was at the Hawthorne Fred Meyer last night (because my friends dragged me to Me and my Other Tenth-Grade Friends Playing Emo Rock at the Hawthorne Theater last night, and I decided to wander around the produce aisle talking to my friend for a half an hour instead) and I saw the horrific babies of the previous post. Also a similar mylar-covered easter basket with a dinosaur in it. A dinosaur...OF CHRIST'S LOVE.

mister_punchy April 3 2009, 18:14:16 UTC

The Hawthorne Fred Meyer's is way better than the Hawthorne Theater anyway.

6 is fun. I like the Sartre, the "So what WERE you gonna be when you grew up?," and Jason staring quizzically at the paintball dude's severed arm. I also like that Tommy is able to put a 300-pound boulder in a weak little rowboat and just paddle out into Crystal Lake with no consequences. "it's kind of less satisfying to laugh at something that's actually trying to be funny." -- God, just wait till you get to Jason X.

5 is hilariously tasteless and stupid. Lots of cocaine, trashy waitresses who flash themselves in mirrors for no discernible reason, New Wave Violet getting stabbed while dancing the robot, dumbass Junior, Dudley from "Diff'rent Strokes" chasing Jason through a rainstorm in a tractor, the famous outhouse sing-along, and best of all, a killer who, for some reason, keeps a picture of himself in his wallet.

Thread 12

blackbeltjones April 2 2009, 23:31:10 UTC

Did Ramblin Rod have some sort of costume? From channel 11 in Washington, we had Ranger Charlie and Rosco the raccoon. For most of the late 80's to the best of my recollection, Charlie was a rotund Tom Bosley/Walter Mathhau type. At some point in which I believe was the early 90's Ranger Charlie became a girl. I used to perpetuate the myth that Ranger Charlie got a sex change op.

I'm surprised back then they were still showing some pretty racist cartoons that made the world seem like a shitty Spike Lee movie at the time.

mister_punchy April 3 2009, 00:35:16 UTC

Ramblin' Rod's costume was just a cardigan sweater covered in buttons that kids brought him. He had a halfassed nautical theme and exited on his tugboat at the end of every show. It had wheels on it and he just walked while pushing it. Every kid who noticed that for the first time thought they'd really pulled one over on Ramblin' Rod.

( ... )

inkspottedgecko April 2 2009, 23:51:12 UTC

I am totally jealous...I always wanted to get on WGN's bozo show. I could school all those tools on the bozo buckets. The kids always sucked.
Other amazing shows I wanted to be on:
Chic-A-Go-Go & Check Please.
I miss Chicago TV

mister_punchy April 3 2009, 00:37:07 UTC

It's funny how seeing old photos/clips of that shit brings back such vivid feelings of jealousy for the stupid kids who made it on there.

Even though the more times I write "Ramblin' Rod," the more it sounds like a battery-operated marital aid.

blackbeltjones April 3 2009, 01:52:38 UTC

I know the feeling! Many other kids north of the border and myself had some deep seated anti American feelings at such an early age seeing all those smug American kids getting their faces on live TV. We were all seething with rage every time a new licensed character Ralston cereal commercial came on. Little did we know by not having it sold up here, we were oblivious to how inedible they really were.