Pipkins and New Zoo Revue
Mar. 8th, 2025 02:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eerietomI haven't been blogging a lot lately. After all, how often can one say, “That album was a-MAAAAZE-ing!” or “That movie was SOOOO trippy!”? And I've actually been busy with music, trying to finish mixing the album I recorded in Japan.
I'm still doing my weekly tincture evenings with movies and music. I've rediscovered a couple of children's shows I saw as a kid: Pipkins and New Zoo Revue. When I saw Pipkins while living in England, Wayne Laryea (perhaps best known to Americans as Harmony from The Bugaloos) was the host as “Johnny”. Having rewatched several episodes with various hosts, it seems the Laryea-era was the best, mixing some very funny and sweet stories with some subtle educational moments. Episodes with subsequent hosts were good but the education seemed more obvious. The rest of the cast were puppets, including Topov the monkey, Pig, Tortoise, and Hartley Hare, who was self-centered, campy, sometimes a bully, and at times incredibly insecure—a sort of proto-Cartman from South Park, except Hartley usually learned a moral lesson by each episode's end.
Pig and Topov were males, but both were operated and voiced by women (Heather Tobias and Lorain Bertorelli). Watching the show now, I tend to see Pig more as a tomboy than a boy. Earlier versions of Topov had a peculiar fringe under his chin which was probably supposed to be fur, but it looked like a beard. This, combined with his voice and mannerisms, makes him seem somewhat androgynous.
Each time the host changed, so did the opening theme music and visuals, and the Laryea-era was the best, which started with a trumpet solo with Hartley silhouetted mysteriously as he operated the TV camera, making me think of the mysterious “shadow man” from the NBC Mystery Movie intro.
The mix of camp, compassion, and a sometimes surreal direction, with references and visual gags that probably went over the heads of the intended audience, make it an absolute delight to watch. I'd forgotten that when Topov needed to travel from one room to another, the operator would just throw the puppet across the room, in a rolled-up wad, not at all in a monkey-like manner. I had also forgotten Hartley's travel trick: he would speed off in a split-second (instead of ambling away) with a tremendous whoosh! sound, then reappear just as suddenly at his destination. And I have to wonder, are they puppets or animals? If they are puppets, do they realize they're puppets? There have been episodes where they talk about giving puppet shows, but do they mean they themselves are performing, or are manipulating other puppets? (both have occurred)
As a kid I didn't care for New Zoo Revue due to the grotesque costumes of the three animal characters: Henrietta Hippo, Charlie the Owl, and Freddie the Frog. I just happened to be thinking about it a few weeks earlier and checked it out. What a pleasant surprise! It wasn't nearly as cloying as I thought it might be. Not unlike Pipkins, the animals have their faults and usually learn a lesson by the end of the show.
The dialogue for both shows is at times a bit more like a sitcom, focusing more on character development than just driving a lesson home. One evening, I watched an episode of each that seemed to be made for each other: In Revue, Charlie (who is a know-it-all scientist) loses his patience with Freddie, who is naive and somewhat childlike. In Pipkins, a misunderstanding causes everyone to argue, which particularly distresses the sensitive Topov. It was touching watching everyone take responsibility for their actions and apologizing, demonstrating it's possible to be sweet without being pedantic.
I'm still doing my weekly tincture evenings with movies and music. I've rediscovered a couple of children's shows I saw as a kid: Pipkins and New Zoo Revue. When I saw Pipkins while living in England, Wayne Laryea (perhaps best known to Americans as Harmony from The Bugaloos) was the host as “Johnny”. Having rewatched several episodes with various hosts, it seems the Laryea-era was the best, mixing some very funny and sweet stories with some subtle educational moments. Episodes with subsequent hosts were good but the education seemed more obvious. The rest of the cast were puppets, including Topov the monkey, Pig, Tortoise, and Hartley Hare, who was self-centered, campy, sometimes a bully, and at times incredibly insecure—a sort of proto-Cartman from South Park, except Hartley usually learned a moral lesson by each episode's end.
Pig and Topov were males, but both were operated and voiced by women (Heather Tobias and Lorain Bertorelli). Watching the show now, I tend to see Pig more as a tomboy than a boy. Earlier versions of Topov had a peculiar fringe under his chin which was probably supposed to be fur, but it looked like a beard. This, combined with his voice and mannerisms, makes him seem somewhat androgynous.
Each time the host changed, so did the opening theme music and visuals, and the Laryea-era was the best, which started with a trumpet solo with Hartley silhouetted mysteriously as he operated the TV camera, making me think of the mysterious “shadow man” from the NBC Mystery Movie intro.
The mix of camp, compassion, and a sometimes surreal direction, with references and visual gags that probably went over the heads of the intended audience, make it an absolute delight to watch. I'd forgotten that when Topov needed to travel from one room to another, the operator would just throw the puppet across the room, in a rolled-up wad, not at all in a monkey-like manner. I had also forgotten Hartley's travel trick: he would speed off in a split-second (instead of ambling away) with a tremendous whoosh! sound, then reappear just as suddenly at his destination. And I have to wonder, are they puppets or animals? If they are puppets, do they realize they're puppets? There have been episodes where they talk about giving puppet shows, but do they mean they themselves are performing, or are manipulating other puppets? (both have occurred)
As a kid I didn't care for New Zoo Revue due to the grotesque costumes of the three animal characters: Henrietta Hippo, Charlie the Owl, and Freddie the Frog. I just happened to be thinking about it a few weeks earlier and checked it out. What a pleasant surprise! It wasn't nearly as cloying as I thought it might be. Not unlike Pipkins, the animals have their faults and usually learn a lesson by the end of the show.
The dialogue for both shows is at times a bit more like a sitcom, focusing more on character development than just driving a lesson home. One evening, I watched an episode of each that seemed to be made for each other: In Revue, Charlie (who is a know-it-all scientist) loses his patience with Freddie, who is naive and somewhat childlike. In Pipkins, a misunderstanding causes everyone to argue, which particularly distresses the sensitive Topov. It was touching watching everyone take responsibility for their actions and apologizing, demonstrating it's possible to be sweet without being pedantic.
