The Story of the Bremen Town Musicians

The Story of the Bremen Town Musicians is a Disneyland Record and Book and was released in 1970.
In the story a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster, all mistreated by their masters, leave them and meet in a desolate place. They decide to go to Bremen, known for its freedom, to live without owners.

On the way to Bremen, they see a lighted cottage; they look inside and see four robbers enjoying their ill-gotten gains. Standing on each other's backs, they decide to perform for the men in hopes of gaining food. Their 'music' has an unanticipated effect; the men run for their lives, not knowing what the strange sound is. The animals take possession of the house, eat a good meal, and settle in for the evening.

Later that night, the robbers return and send one of their members in to investigate. It is dark, and he sees the eyes of the Cat shining in the darkness. He reaches over to light his candle, thinking he sees the coals of the fire. Things happen in quick succession; the Cat swipes his face with her claws, the Donkey picks up his hooves and kicks him, the Dog bites him on the leg, and the Rooster crows and chases him out the door, screaming. He tells his companions that he was beset by a horrible witch who scratched him with her long fingers (the Cat), a man with a knife (the Dog), a monster who had hit him with a club (the Donkey), and worst of all, the devil who screamed from the rooftop (the Rooster). The robbers abandon the cottage to the strange creatures who have taken it, where the animals live happily for the rest of their days.

Baby Beans Doll

There were several variations in the "Beans" dolls series, which were popular in the early 70s. The dolls have vinyl hands and heads with "bean" filled bodies and limbs. This simple Baby Beans doll was advertised as "Lots of floppy, ploppy, posing fun, snuggly and soft". The doll in the photo was released in 1970 and is like the one I had as a child. It is one of the most popular today. She is the talking version of the Baby Beans line. She says "I love you, peek a boo, baby sleepy, go bye bye, play patty cake, night night,"

Charlie's Angels

Charlie's Angels was broadcast on ABC from 1976 to 1981. The Angels were three women who graduated from the police academy and were hired to work for the Charles Townsend Agency as private investigators. Their boss, Charlie, who is never seen full face, assigns cases to the Angels and his liaison, Bosley, via a speaker phone. However, in some episodes. Charlie is shown from the rear only (where the viewer only sees the back of his head and his arms). Each episode shows the Angels finding themselves in new situations in which they go undercover to investigate and solve crimes.

The main characters of the show were:

• Sabrina Duncan
• Jill Munroe
• Kelly Garrett
• Kris Munroe
• Tiffiny Welles
• Julie Rogers
• John Bosley
• Charlie Townsend

Season 1 Intro (with Farrah Faucett-Majors)

Season 2 Intro (with Cheryl Ladd)

Captain Kangaroo

Captain Kangaroo ran from 1955 until 1984. The show was built around life at "The Captain's Place," where the Captain would tell stories, meet guests and indulge in silly stunts with regular characters, both humans and puppets.

The characters I most remember include:

• Mr. Moose, whose riddles and knock-knock jokes invariably ended with hundreds of ping-pong balls cascading from above and hitting the Captain on the head.
• Bunny, who always tricked the Captain into giving him carrots.
• Mr. Green Jeans
• Dennis the Apprentice
• Bill Cosby, he did the Picture Pages educational segments
• Slim Goodbody, a man wearing a bodystocking which showed the internal organs of the human body painted on it in their appropriate locations.

Captain Kangaroo Intro

Remember the Ping Pong Balls?

Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.

Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. aired on CBS from 1964 to 1969.
The series was a spinoff of The Andy Griffith Show and featured Jim Nabors reprising his role as the bumbling, but lovable, Gomer Pyle, who had left the town of Mayberry and joined the U.S. Marine Corps. The series mostly revolved around Pyle's misadventures in the Marines, usually ending with his good-naturedness winning over adversity, especially his hard-nosed Drill Instructor, Gunnery Sergeant Vince Carter.

Other characters included Gilbert "Duke" Slater (Gomer's best friend), Sergeant Hacker, Bunny Wilson (Carter's girlfriend) and Lu Ann Poovie (Gomer's girlfriend).

1983 Dentyne Commercial

This is a Dentyne commercial from 1983. That's some bad breath!!

Little Golden Book: Boo and the Flying Flews

Boo and the Flying Flews is about a circus dog who is anxious to fly just like the members of the Flew family trapeze act.

The book is a Little Golden Book Eager Reader and was published in 1974.

Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics/Laff-A-Lympics

Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions from 1977-1978 and was a two-hour Saturday morning animated series that contained the following segments:

• The Scooby-Doo Show
• Laff-A-Lympics
• The Blue Falcon & Dynomutt
• Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels

Laff-A-Lympics, the co-headlining segment, was a spoof of the Olympics and the ABC television series Battle of the Network Stars. It featured 45 Hanna-Barbera characters organized into three teams - The Scooby Doobies, The Yogi Yahooeys and The Really Rottens - which would compete each week for gold, silver and bronze medals.

The announcers were Snagglepuss and Mildew wore the then-traditional yellow jackets of ABC Sports announcers.

Toss Across Game

Toss Across was first introduced in 1969 by the Ideal Toy Company.

It is a game in which participants play tic-tac-toe by tossing small beanbags at targets in an attempt to change the targets to their desired letter. The targets are three-sided blocks situated on a frame such that the impact of the beanbags can turn the block, changing the letter. Each block has a blank side, an X, and an O. As in traditional tic-tac-toe, the first player to get three of their letters in a row wins the game.

Mattel 'Tuff Stuff' Toys

These Tuff Stuff toys, made by Mattel, were released in the early 70s. The mixer worked by pulling a string and pushing the top yellow button to make the mixing blades rotate. The sewing machine also worked by simply pulling a string. Upon release, the foot would quickly move up and down to emulate the sewing.

The shopping cart was perfect for fitting a dolly in the front and for placing the Tuff Stuff food in the basket. My sister and I loved to play store when we were little!

Facts of Life

The Facts of Life ran from 1979-1988. A spin-off of the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, the series' original premise focused on the character, Edna Garrett (Charlotte Rae), as she becomes housemother (and later, dietitian as well) to seven girls at the fictional Eastland School, a prestigious all-girls school in Peekskill, New York.

The girls in her care included spoiled rich girl Blair Warner, gossipy Dorothy "Tootie" Ramsey, overweight, impressionable Natalie Green, and tough street kid Jo Polniaczek.

ABC Weekend Special

The ABC Weekend Specials was a weekly 30-minute anthology TV series for children which aired Saturday mornings on ABC from 1977 to 1997. It featured a wide variety of stories in both the live-action and animated realms.

The Great Grape Ape Show

The Great Grape Ape Show was a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions from 1975 to 1978.

Grape Ape is a 40-foot tall purple gorilla that always wore the same clothes: a cap, a green jacket and a bow tie. His catchphrase is repeating his name twice ("Grape Ape, Grape Ape") after anything anyone says, usually as a form of agreement or acknowledgment of what was said.

His best friend is Beegle Beagle, a normal-sized white dog. Along with his canine companion, Grape Ape travels around the world in a small yellow van driven by Beegle Beagle while Grape Ape sits on the roof. Always in search for adventure and usually finding themselves in all sorts of wacky situations, Grape Ape's immense size tends to initially shock and frighten those unfamiliar with him. His presence alone often terrifies people and animals, causing them to run off screaming invariably: "YEOW! It's a gorill-ill-ill-ill-la!". Given his size, his sneezes were equivalent to a hurricane; and when he cried, his tears could cause flooding in areas.

The Jeffersons

The Jeffersons ran from 1975-1985.

The show focused around George and Louise Jefferson and their son, Lionel, who moved from a working class section of Queens into a luxury apartment in Manhattan. George had long ago begun his career as a dry-cleaner and operated seven stores in ghetto sections of New York City. Other notable characters included:

• Florence Johnston, their backtalking, wisecracking housekeeper. She often teased George, mostly about his short stature and receding hairline.
• Tom and Helen Willis, an interracial couple. Tom and Helen Willis had two children, Allan and Jenny, who George insultingly called "zebras." Jenny and Lionel were married on Christmas Eve, 1976, but then divorced in the winter of 1985, due to marriage problems and disagreements regarding their daughter.
• Harry Bentley, a loyal, kind, friendly British next-door neighbor, who worked as a Russian language interpreter at the United Nations. A common sight-gag of the show was George slamming the door in Bentley's face mid-conversation. Bentley also had a bad back, and frequently enlisted George to walk on his back, since he was the same weight as a Japanese woman who had treated his back in that manner. He also became known for addressing the Jeffersons as "Mr. J" and "Mrs. J".
• Mother Jefferson, who constantly put Louise down as not being a good wife.
• Ralph Hart, the doorman.

Stickers, stickers, stickers!!

Stickers were very popular in the 80's. I had a pink sticker book filled with all kinds of stickers.My favorites were the scratch 'n sniff, like the Gordy stickers above. The best smelling ones were pizza, popcorn, pickle and cotton candy. They had a really stinky ones too. Puffy stickers and Wacky Packages were also popular!

Alvin and the Chipmunks

Alvin and the Chipmunks was an animated television series to feature the singing characters The Chipmunks, 1983-1990. The show also introduced the Chipettes, three female versions of the Chipmunks. In 1988, the show was renamed The Chipmunks.
The main characters of the series:

• Allvin Seville: The leader of the Chipmunks, Alvin is the talented troublemaker of the group.
• Simon Seville: The tallest brother and an IQ just short of Einstein, Simon is the intelligent realist and the most responsible of the group.
• Theodore Seville: The youngest and chubbiest, Theodore is the cute innocent butterball of the group.
• David "Dave" Seville: The Chipmunks' adoptive father, song writer and manager, Dave's patience is tested nearly everyday by Alvin, usually to the point where he yells "ALVIN!!!"