Back In The Spotlight!

At the end of May 2018 online retailer TruffleShuffle.com announced the launch of a new product line.

So excited to welcome The Get Along Gang to @truffleshuffle_   https://t.co/r1rXh9NpYF pic.twitter.com/NhE9jl4iJO

— TruffleShuffle.com (@truffleshuffle_) 12 July 2018

There are currently 13 items listed, featuring vintage artwork by T.C.F.C's Mark Spangler, who helped to design The Get Along Gang back in the early 1980s along with Tony Byrd, Ralph Shaffer, Muriel Fahrion, Tom Jacobs and Linda Edwards.

It's not yet clear if this marks the beginning of an official relaunch or not. So far, there's been nothing in the licensing press or from American Greetings Entertainment, which is slightly odd. This could just be Am' Greetings "testing the water" rather than spending thousands of hours and millions of dollars working on a comeback for the Gang, only to find there isn't a substantial market for the property.

Other "legacy" I.P.s  A.G.E. have plans for  include Tinpo, a live action version of  Holly Hobbie and (yet another) animated reboot of the Care Bears.https://twitter.com/Zedoimi/status/1009453347101954049 
We at B.S.J. are naturally thrilled that this unjustly neglected franchise is back in the public eye and hope it does well,  unlike the last attempt to bring it back in 2005.💔😠

Better Late Than Never

At long last Mill Creek Entertainment have pulled their fingers out and released the Complete Get Along Gang TV series on region 1 DVD. In this case "complete" means "just the DiC SatAm episodes" and not, as some might have hoped, the Nelvana T.V. special as well. There's also no info on extras or overall picture and sound quality but at least we now appear to have a legitimate release instead of just another hastily cobbled together knock-off.

Here's the rear of the DVD sleeve with the (now complete) episode list and some hilariously off beam character descriptions. }-D

Zipper - It's possible the blurb writer meant "always looking for ways to work out" which would have been rather more accurate.  Idleness wasn't part of Zipper's character profile.

Portia - Although this character did sometimes lose her cool, in response to being patronised or ignored, in the DiC series she was typically depicted as level headed and perceptive beyond her years hence "logical Portia will figure it out" as the theme song puts it. In the Scholastic picture book "The Get Along Gang and the Crybaby" , Portia did cry and throw tantrums to get her own way until, with a little help from her friends, she learns not to.

It's also worth pointing out that the cover illustration now makes a lot more sense as the episode it's from, "School's Out" is actually included. The top screen grab on the rear of the case is from the beginning of "Bingo's Pen Pal" but the two beneath it are not from any known episode. You'd think that they'd be able to find at least two more scenes from actual episodes instead of falling back on stock photos.

The Fizz Awakens!

The Buddy Bears were intended to be a send up of "The Get Along Gang" and other allegedly similar shows which have faced in the past and continue to face entirely bogus charges of "promoting group harmony over individual validation". The thing about works of satire is that in order to work they have to resemble the thing they're attacking in more than just a superficial way and the B.B.'s just don't cut the mustard.

Besides having next to no visual resemblance to the characters they're ostensibly lampooning, their twisted take on "getting along" i.e. always doing what your buddies are doing or always ordering the same thing in a cafe, even if you don't want to, in every episode no less, is not backed up by the available evidence.

There are however scenes in the original, that could be creatively misconstrued by those skilled in the dark arts of spin and malicious gossip. Those scenes typically depict some character practicing so called "Individual Validation" in a way which puts the others at an unfair disadvantage and sometimes even in actual physical danger. Who in their right mind would celebrate and promote such a thing? Not the Get Along Gang and not their script writers and creators either!

This blogger can't promise that The Get Along Gang, at least in the form that it eventually took, will entertain or inspire all those who encounter it but for those in doubt surely it would be better to find out for themselves if it's for them or not instead of relying on unfairly biased and substantially untrue allegations made by "animation historians" and "walking encyclopedias of cartoon knowledge" that are not always as trustworthy as they seem.



P.S. Happy Star Wars day! :-)

Barrie Appleby DotCom

Just a short post to highlight artist Barrie Appleby's personal website .

Though mentioning his stint at Marvel UK only in brief, focussing instead on his more recent work for D.C. Thomson and other clients, because of his contribution to adapting "The Get Along Gang" for a British audience it still warrants a place in the newly re-titled Sidebar Of Honour. :-)

The Saturday Morning Historical Revisionism Society

WARNING: LINK LEADS TO AREA OF EXTREME SELF-SERVING BULLSHIT CONTAMINATION AND LAZY JOURNALISM. CAUTION ADVISED!



Now wash your hands...

Link

DVD Ahoy!

More info-morsels about the Cookie Jar/Mill Creek Get Along Gang DVD release have just emerged.

Massive hat-tip once more to Tristan Enorme .

Timey Wimey Team

From G.A.G. #69 (Marvel U.K., 1986)

 


Elisabeth Sladen (1948-2011)

A Counterblast Against Idiocy

Did you enjoy that?

Good :)

Now let me draw your attention to something that needs to be shouted from every rooftop in the Galaxy...

Big hat tip to Tristan Enorme.

Love Train

Trivia: On February 14 1984, "The Get Along Gang" were officially launched at the New York International Toy Fair.

It's That Time of Year Again...

...so what better excuse to post this festive scene from 1986;

,and a little musical number from one of this blogger's all time British Comedy Heroes to go with it.



http://www.mitchbenn.com/

G.A.G. DVD In The Pipeline?

It's a way off yet and Those Stingy Bastards Characters From Cleveland haven't yet had their say in the matter but it looks like Mill Creek Entertainment and Cookie Jar might just be bringing "The Best of the Get Along Gang" to DVD,(Region 1), next year.

Stay tuned for further details...

Sugar Candy Mountain Buddies

Another succulent treat from Marvel U.K.'s weekly Get Along Gang comic...:-)

Swap Shop

Getting dressed in a hurry and in the dark can be risky, especially on April the 1st...

Back on the Radar...

...For now, at least.

It's too early to tell if this will amount to anything much or what we'll end up with, if it does.


Original art at http://www.codeproject.com/KB/grid/DrawingRadarDisplayWithCS/Radar1.jpg

Lord of the 'Boards

Just a quick post to flag up this little gem on ex-DiC Get Along Gang storyboarder Jim Smith's blog. No not the big bloke with the axe and a slight anger management problem, brilliant though it is. Scroll down a bit... no just a bit further... there, yes that one. (Phew! You readers are such hard work at times.* )

It looks to be from "Get Along Gang Minus One"**, where Bingo "Bet it All" Beaver finds out he's moving house but can't convince his buddies that this time it's the truth and not just another scam...



*Yes, both of you.
**If anyone knows different feel free to comment.

Five Things I Hate About the G.A.G. Pilot Episode

I agree with the majority, that Nelvana generally did a great job of animating The Get Along Gang TV special, (WARNING- LINK LEADS TO AREA OF EXTREME YOUTUBE COMMENT IDIOCY) ,however, there are still a few elements of it I'm glad DiC didn't use in the series proper:

1. Your mileage may vary over DiC's Montgomery Moose but at least he didn't sound like Foghorn Leghorn. On Helium.

2. Making Leland Lizard part chameleon was a cool idea. Making him more irritating than Scrappy Doo, Jar Jar Binks, PeeWee Herman and a ton of itching powder combined? Not so much. That trilling, gargling sound he makes instead of actually speaking doesn't help...

3. Bingo "bet it all" Beaver. Yes, its the voice again. Nails down a blackboard or rusty gate hinge? You be the judge.

4. We're the Get Along choir, hi how are you
enjoying the show?, now it's our job to
Add a totally unnecessary running commentary
to what's happening on screen
despite the fact that you can see

It perfectly well, thanks all the same
and by about now we really can't blame
You for getting mad and wishing that we'd fall under a bus
'cause there's few things quite so grating
as intrusive voice-overs

5."Bing bang bong..." No, Dotty Dog, that's just rubbish. Here, take this stack of foolscap and a biro and write out "I will not make cheers that suck harder than a bagpipe powered vacuum cleaner.", twenty thousand times. Then go stand in the Naughty Corner, next to the person who did the voice casting.

The Traducers

A common charge brought against characters like "The Get Along Gang", is that they preach "The Complainer is always Wrong, the Group is Always Right" thanks largely to the screen/comic writer and contemptible lying gobshite Mark Evanier peddling  specious crap on his website and elsewhere and the seemingly endless churning of it by some of the web's more credulous elements.

Most, if not all online talk about the show seems to be dominated by those keen to pay lip service to individualism but happy to let someone else form their opinions for them. How ironic! All Evanier's efforts and those of his fellow traveller, the late Donald D. Markstein seem to have done is help entrench the very "Groupthink" they tried to attack.

Here's a mad idea, instead of following the herd and blindly parroting someone else's "P.O.V.", why don't all you "individualists" out there check out a few episodes for yourselves . You might just find that some of those long held assumptions of yours hold a lot less water than you thought!

Nobody's Fool

Paul Newman, 1925-2008

Let's De-Motivate!

Find more here , including the above, and make your own at Despair.com .