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 .

Stuffed

Partly inspired by Cornelia Parker's "Breathless" .

Toy Time

When I was sick and lay abed
I had two pillows at my head
And all my toys beside me lay
To keep me happy all the day

Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 - 1894


Ilkley Toy Museum

Avenue of Tropes

At last, the Get Along Gang or at least the Sat-AM cartoon series, has it's own page on tvtropes.org. Unfortunately it's looking a little threadbare, even though the show's a textbook example of  Trope Overdosed. *

There are so many G.A.G. related tropes that could be there*:

Merchandise Driven
Somewhat.

Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming
"The Bullies"
"Head In The Clouds"
"Zipper's Millions"
"Woolma's Birthday"
Most episodes in fact...:)

Amusing Injuries, Slapstick, Toon Physics
More than you'd think, given the type of show some have accused it of being. It has moments that come close,(see above) but Barney it ain't.

Inevitable Waterfall
"Camp Get Along"
"Caboose On The Loose"

Pinball Gag
Portia Porcupine in "The Wrong Stuff"

Shout Out
"Half a Map is Better Than None"
A wall carving in the Mole-Tec temple spells out the initials AG.
Some of Green Meadow's businesses are named after the show's background artists, Bridget Bottorf, Ted Blackman and Joe Pearson.

Applied Phlebotinum
"Montgomery's Mechanical Marvel"
(Hermie the Robot and his control box.)
"A Pinch Of This, A Dash Of That"
("Anti-gravity" paint)
"Engineer Roary"
(The old firewagon)
The Clubhouse Caboose

Food Fight,Covered In Gunge
"Caboose On The Loose"
(Leland Lizard with a big cake, although it's meant for Bingo.)
"Follow The Leader"
(Catchum Crocodile and Leland Lizard's comeuppance, with an even bigger cake. The Mother of All Cakes to be exact.)
"That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles"
(The whole Gang, with flour.)
"The Bullies"
(Montgomery Moose becomes "Moose a la Mode" when the Pig Sisters work him over with a can of aerosol cream and a handful of cherries.)


Kent Brockman News
"Nose for News", naturally.

Cultural Cross Reference
"Pick Of the Litter"
Bingo gives a Tarzan yell as he swings across The Old Swimming Hole on a rope.
"The Get Along Detectives"
The gang watch a movie called the Maltese Duck, starring Dogey and Fifi Bacall.
"Get Along Gang Go Hollywood"
A lobby poster for "The Maltese Duck" appears in one scene.
"Half A Map Is Better Than None"
Pretty much the whole episode is a ten minute nod to Indiana Jones, particularly "Raiders of the Lost Ark" .
"Them's The Brakes"
The Clubhouse Caboose jumps a gap in the tracks like the mine car in "Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom". Also has a "perilous mine car ride" sequence of its own.

Tree Buchet
"Zipper's Millions"
Used to catapult Zipper to the rescue of Dotty, Bingo, Woolma and Portia as they careen down a steep slope towards a cliff edge and certain doom. In a house.

Alliterative Name, Species Surname
Most of the characters.

Big Ball of Violence
"The Bullies"

Cross Dressing Voices
Bingo Beaver - Marla Lukofsky (Nelvana)
Zipper Cat - Robbie Lee (DiC)


Four Fingered Hands
Most characters, most of the time.

Limited Wardrobe
"Snowbound Showdown".(Lampshaded)

No O.S.H.A. Compliance
Dear God, too many to mention. Let's just say it's a good job they're cartoon characters...

No Mouth
"A Pinch of This, a Dash of That"
Portia Porcupine, by mistake.

No Fourth Wall
"The Get Along Gang Detectives"
DOTTY DOG: If the thieves are in this building, we'll make sure they never get out!
PORTIA PORCUPINE: And if they do get out, we'll make sure they never get back in again... (Dotty turns and stares at the camera in disbelief/bafflement)
The credit sequence (DiC)
(Towards the end, the Gang all turn and wave to the camera.)

Character Derailment
Dotty Dog, to a small degree. She was the gang's mechanical and scientific genius in the Nelvana produced pilot episode and some of the G.A.G. storybooks. In the regular series that talent belongs to Montgomery Moose.

Drowning My Sorrows
"Bingo's Pen Pal"
(parodied)

The Complainer Is Always Wrong

Has been falsely accused of promoting this.

(*Yes I know, it's a WIKI, so why don't I just edit them in myself? Don't think the thought hadn't crossed my mind but each time it tried, two words barred the way - Edit War. Frankly, life's short enough as it is without wasting time and keystrokes arguing with the insane.)

The Hat Comes Back

indianajones.com

Teetering On the Brink...

...of bankruptcy.

No, not this blog, or it's owner, (yet). The -

FIVE LEAST SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES IN THE GET ALONG GANG UNIVERSE












Inspired by:
The Five Most Profitable Companies in the Star Wars Galaxy
by Lore Sjöberg

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Blog...

From Get Along Gang issues #59 and #61 (Marvel UK, 1986).












Roy Scheider 1932-2008

Get Anim8ted!

Here's a little something made with a bit of free CGI software called Anim8tor.



(Don't ask me why, but I have an enormous soft spot for this particular cartoon pratfall.)

EDIT: Those sound FX and many more, including the wonderfully named "Hoyt's Boing", can be downloaded from Sounddogs.com. You have to pay for full membership but there are many free previews available.(Primarily MP3.)