Take Me Back Tuesday

In my informal surveys, I’ve found that not enough people remember, or are even aware of the one and only Fun House!

Hosted by the quite quirky JD Roth, Fun House was in many ways your typical 80’s kids game show. Considered a bit of a Double Dare clone, Fun House sure had one thing “DD” didn’t – a giant Fun House!

My most vivid memories of this crazy game show are not actually from the TV show itself, but of its complementary computer game! The side scrolling game was housed on a pile of 5 1/4 floppy disks, and had an 8-bit version of the show’s theme song that still sticks with me.

Now, back to the show. A big thank you to YouTube user (fittingly named) FHfan731 who has uploaded some videos to “take me back” to when the show was on the air. The stunt I remember the most has to be Pinhead. The kids would wear a crown or hat with spikes on it, and sit on a chair that is “cranked” up higher towards a giant balloon filled with “glop.”

Another memorable stunt on the show is Hats Off to You where the kids choose one of a group of hats filled with glop (spaghetti, whipped cream, and the like), or if you’re lucky, glitter.

Now, as if that was not enough, here is the absolute messiest of montages.

Now what about the Fun House that’s featured at the end? Here’s a great example, complete with some commercials of the time (“Mr. Potato Head… and his bucket of parts…”)

For the most complete assessment of this fun show, check out the original fan site, The Fun House Factory.

So as JD Roth said at the end of every episode, “I hope your house is a Fun House!”

I’ll be the first to admit I was a nerdy kid. And I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Since the beginning, (according to my baby book), I always preferred educational toys, activities, and movies.

We had a video rental store right down the street from our home that had the coolest section of kids videos, and you could rent them for $1 per week, per tape. Whether it was my future frugality brewing, or just that I liked them that much, I’d watch the videos over and over again in the course of the week. My favorites were often Disney, like DTV, the collections of classic cartoons set to “oldies” music. (One of those videos was the last thing I purchased on eBay!) But, the number one tape I’d watch so much that I am surprised that they just didn’t give me the tape was Donald in Mathmagic Land!

Short movies like Donald in Mathmagic Land helped grow the popularity and reach of the Disney brand and the recently opened Disneyland in a un-digital, not-so-connected world. Disney was one of the first to embrace the newer television medium, and the Oscar-nominated film from 1959 became one of its most popular educational programs.

Just a couple weeks ago, I watched Donald in Mathmagic Land via three parts on YouTube. And wow, having not seen it for many years, it really all came back to me! I hadn’t realized how much some of the imagery, songs, and other content had stuck with me all this time. And frankly, nothing on television since compares. They could probably show this video in high school or college math courses!

At just short of a half hour in length, several elements of math, including “real world” applications are explored in the “featurette”. Probably the most memorable is the musical scene with Pythagoras where Donald learns about octaves and how math relates to music. The common theme of the “golden rectangle” is also featured throughout the film.

Thankfully, Donald in Mathmagic Land is now available on DVD for current and future generations to enjoy!

The scene from the film is from the D23 Disney Community (and a nice page of Disney history). Also see Donald in Mathmagic Land on Wikipedia.

Take a look back at our blog for more reflective posts on favorites from our youth.

We haven’t seen a lot of green slime on Nickelodeon in the last 10 years. And that use to be kind of… their thing. I’m hoping for a return of the slime content and I think BrainSurge has the potential to start the revolution.

As of June 21, BrainSurge began its second season on Nickelodeon! It’s a kids’ game show reminiscent of early late 80’s and 90’s Nickelodeon shows like Double Dare, You Can’t Do that On Television and Figure it Out with lots of slime and gross contraptions.

Nickelodeon was a groundbreaking concept for kid’s television programming when it began at the end of the 1970’s. An entire network devoted to kids, fun and getting revenge on authority figures with cream pies. There was definitely a golden age of Nickelodeon that today’s kids are missing—and I don’t think I’m just being nostalgic.

In its early years, Nickelodeon produced simple, creative and inspiring television shows. Even the bumps and station id’s were weird and creative. For example, there was a series of short spots during commercial breaks in which ordinary kids with very ordinary bedrooms gave the cameras tours of their rooms.

Enough of what we’ve lost. Here’s how BrainSurge works:

The first round begins with memory puzzles that are actually pretty challenging. Two players are eliminated and sent down THE BRAINDRAIN, a long slide filled with earwax-like mush that originates from a giant ear.

In the next level the host reads a story and kids are pulled away on crazy-hand chairs with whoopee cushions if they answer story questions incorrectly. When there are only two players, they compete in a matching memory game. The final round challenges the winner to remember a pattern of lights on a floor grid, and then run across it.

If the last player completes the 6 x 6 grid before time runs out, he or she gets covered in slime and wins a grand prize! It’s a cool concept for a game show, because the viewer can work on the memory puzzles with the contestants.

Here’s to a slimy green Nickelodeon planet!

BrainSurge photo from Channel Guide Magazine. All others from FanPop.com.

Here in Happy Valley, the big thing of course is Penn State University. So when you say “Penn State” most think Joe Paterno and football, ice cream and farmland, probably. Add the Slinky to that list as 1938 Penn State graduate and mechanical engineer, Richard James, inadvertently created one of the world’s most fun and easily recognizable toys!

WPSU, our local PBS affiliate, sends Charlie Gudeman all over the central part of the Commonwealth in his fun “Where’s Charlie?” segments. The Slinky is still made in nearby Hollidaysburg, PA, and is actually the official toy of the whole state!

The inventor’s son, Tom, was the first lucky Slinky tester (as you can see in the picture). Imagine how much kids then loved these totally unique toys! Fittingly, Tom is a sales manager for Slinky to this day.

Also mentioned in the video, the Slinky has a lot of different uses! Two included using them as gutters, and putting them on posts so squirrels won’t raid the bird feeder! The Slinky of course was and is a great tool for the classroom to illustrate different kinds of waves.

So.. why “Slinky?” The term was coined by Tom’s mom and Richard’s wife, Betty. Meaning “stealthy, sleek and sinuous” in Swedish, it was the perfect name!

Personally, I’ve always been a fan of the larger, plastic Slinky. Last Halloween I couldn’t resist getting one in orange and black – my favorite colors!

For the full Slinky story, watch the whole video for yourself, and if you are looking for more toy history, check out the related video about baseball bats!

This has been a Take Me Back Tuesday post! For more about the history of the Slinky, check out the Poof-Slinky website.

With spring in the air it brings back a lot of outdoor memories from my childhood. When I was a child and the weather turned warm, I was outside all the time. And in my younger years you could usually find me in one place – my fort!

When it comes to a child’s “fort,” they come in all sizes – a cluster of bushes, a built-in section of a swing set, a manufactured playhouse, or for some lucky children an actual tree house (built by Dad in one weekend – or at least that is how it works on television!) For me, my fort was a bit unconventional – to say the least – but it was a 3’ x 3‘(ish) piece of paradise.

My fort was built of plywood and had three walls and a roof. Only three walls? Yes. That is because the fort was built against a large tree which served as the fourth wall (leaving a small opening as a door). For windows, there were two openings cut in two of the walls – perfect for multiple lines of vision. This all served as a great foundation for my fort. But I needed more than a foundation…

As I sat in my fort, the dirt floor started to be a bit much, and I realized I needed some sort of floor. I scrounged through my parent’s garage and found an old piece of linoleum from when our house was built. It was a bit bent and deformed, but perfect for the fort. Everything was perfect, but with large openings as windows it was difficult to spy on people – as it was not difficult to see my large head peaking out of my “windows.” So I needed something to give me more privacy. Shutters would have worked, a hinged flap would have been helpful, or a super-cool spy sliding protection shield would have been very James Bondesque. But that’s not exactly how it turned out for me. Instead, out of the kindness of her heart, my mom made me curtains. Looking back, I find this part of the fort absolutely hilarious. A fort with curtains? Seriously, who would have taken me seriously as a spy? But at the time all I knew was that they were perfect for providing me some much needed privacy for spying. So now my fort was complete, and ready for some spying.

I spent countless hours in my fort – fighting invisible intruders, spying on my neighbors (not much action there), and playing all sorts of army/war pretend games. Sometimes I would dress-up to fit the part, and sometimes I would just go up there to get away and have some alone time (being 6 years old can be stressful)! I wish I would have had something like the Fortamajig back then, as it would have provided a much more flexible “fort experience” for indoors and outdoors – but I’m not sure if would have left me with such fond memories (it would have been a solid 2nd fort!).

So there you have it – the ingredients for a dream fort: one large tree , three pieces of plywood, one piece of bent/damaged linoleum and a set of curtains. And lastly, a special thanks to my Dad for taking the time to build my fort; and of course, a special thanks to Mom…for the curtains.

A big thank you to Joel Williams for the tree house picture!

For those of you that know me, it may come as no surprise that I am NOT a Super Hero. Or am I? And operating a toy store is just my “day job.” You are not sure now, are you?

Practically all Super Heroes (yes, I am going to capitalize it throughout this post – it makes it more extra-special!) have day jobs, other identities, that allow them to function in society without their hidden powers becoming known. Maybe I choose to walk among this earth, playing with and selling toys, but underneath I am hiding a secret identity (more on that to come …).

That’s the best part about being a kid – your “secret” powers or your Super Hero status come to the surface far more often than it does when you are an adult. Throw on a cape, like one of these capes, and you are a Super Hero battling evil and saving the world, and all before dinner. It even takes Superman an entire movie to get that much accomplished!

But, while it seems to still not be totally acceptable to wear capes and show off your Super Hero identity all the time – even for kids – there was an answer that allowed kids, like myself at the time, to don their favorite Super Hero get-up without having to reveal the secret to the world (unless they wanted to, also more on that to come …).

I can’t believe I am going to reveal my Super Hero secret after all this time. But, I guess my days of saving the world and living a double life are now over. Or are they? This could all be a trick …

All this Super Hero can say is: Underoos were my true Super Hero! That’s right – Underoos. While I was known to wear my Wonder Woman Underoos, or my “Woman’s” as I so affectionately called them, as everyday street attire, these fancy underwear sets were actually produced to keep the Super Hero costume hidden. But, at the same time, let kids feel like they were the true Super Hero that they were.

While my choice was Wonder Woman – and why wouldn’t it be – there were plenty of options from which to choose, giving kids different special powers for every day of the week. From GI Joe, Batman and The Incredible Hulk to Batgirl and Supergirl, Underoos were the multi-purpose undergarments that kids loved to wear. Take it from me – I think I wore mine day and night for 2 years straight, which certainly made many people aware of my special powers (apparently cleanliness wasn’t one of them).

In order for you to fully understand my Super Hero secret, here is a glimpse at my Woman’s, and some of the other Underoos styles available, circa 1978:

My Underoos, and the special powers they provided me, are now long gone. While that may be the case, maybe my “day job” allows my super powers to be on display everyday anyway. Maybe owning a business that provides kids with their own Super Hero garb, dress up items and other imaginative toys that allow them to save the world – or just have lots of fun – is my true super power. If so, I need a new costume!

Picture courtesy of:
http://juvenileclothing.com/kidsunderwear/underoosg1.html