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sailorhathorI taped some "Penelope Pitstop" for this chick last night and it sent me on another I think this is true of most everybody who grew up in the 70's and 80's, because those decades were before all the anti-tv crap, but EVERYBODY watched tv while I was growing up. It was a huge part of our pop culture. Everybody watched certain shows and then talked about them the next day at school. I still have vivid memories of the Monday after J.R. was shot, how everyone had seen it (this was second grade!!), and everyone had their theories about who had shot him. There was one kid, Kevin Kane (who had bright orange hair), who got it right. Everyone else thought his wife or Cliff did it. Thinking back to that, all the kids I knew watched the adult primetime shows and soaps, and our parents never thought twice about it. That's so different from how things are today.
Anyway, television was, for me, like an extra sibling. It was a huge part of my childhood that continues to spark my imagination to this day. A very large part of my happy childhood memories revolve around tv, play-acting tv with my friends, play-acting tv with my dolls and Barbies, and so on. It was regarded as a fine way to spend your time back then.
Although all of this was true, I also spent a great deal of time playing outside and playing away from television. I was a big bookworm too; my teachers encouraged my love of reading quite a bit. Thinking back, I think I was pretty well rounded in how I spent my entertainment time.
"The Perils of Penelope Pitstop" was one of those shows that I loved for its PERIL! I was, and still am, a peril junkie. People must be put in danger or I am not entertained! Okay, that's not completely true, but peril does make for good conflict. I never even noticed the funny things about the show because I was so focused on the wacky traps The Hooded Claw put Penelope in. As an adult, I can watch it now and laugh my ass off at the fact that the Ant Hill Mob had the SLEEPY one, Snoozy, often drive the car. XD Why did they all pile in the front seat anyway? That's so 70's!! Remember everyone piling into the front of those huge station wagon seats? I can also laugh at the crappy Hanna-Barbera animation. There was one scene where the Ant Hill Mob were driving along, and Clyde is pointing forward for no apparent reason. He wasn't trying to point anything out, he's just sitting there pointing straight ahead for an entire scene. Gawd that's cheesy good fun. XD
Of course, there's always the inevitable question of why Penelope never knew that her guardian was also the Hooded Claw. It was so obvious. Poor naive kid.
I remember that it used to drive me insane that the episodes always started out with Penelope already in a perilous trap, and the announcer would say, "As you will remember in our last episode, Penelope was buried up to her neck in sand while the Bully Brothers barrelled toward her with a steam roller, blah blah blah," and I'd go, "WHAT? That SO did not happen at the end of the last episode! I watch this show every day! When did that happen?! Am I missing episodes? When else does it come ooooon?" I was too young and goofy to understand that there was no scene like that at the end of the last episode; it was just some sort of plot device the writers used to start out the episodes. I guess to make them seem like cliffhanger serials when they really weren't. But I was too young to understand that, so I thought there were all these Penelope Pitstop episodes that I was somehow missing. XD
Anyway... now I'm going to try to recall the names of all the Ant Hill Mob. Clyde, Snoozy, Softy (cried all the time), ummmm... Chuckles? (the one who laughed at everything)... Pockets. The others I don't know. And their car was Chugaboom.
Go to bed, little girl.
Anyway, television was, for me, like an extra sibling. It was a huge part of my childhood that continues to spark my imagination to this day. A very large part of my happy childhood memories revolve around tv, play-acting tv with my friends, play-acting tv with my dolls and Barbies, and so on. It was regarded as a fine way to spend your time back then.
Although all of this was true, I also spent a great deal of time playing outside and playing away from television. I was a big bookworm too; my teachers encouraged my love of reading quite a bit. Thinking back, I think I was pretty well rounded in how I spent my entertainment time.
"The Perils of Penelope Pitstop" was one of those shows that I loved for its PERIL! I was, and still am, a peril junkie. People must be put in danger or I am not entertained! Okay, that's not completely true, but peril does make for good conflict. I never even noticed the funny things about the show because I was so focused on the wacky traps The Hooded Claw put Penelope in. As an adult, I can watch it now and laugh my ass off at the fact that the Ant Hill Mob had the SLEEPY one, Snoozy, often drive the car. XD Why did they all pile in the front seat anyway? That's so 70's!! Remember everyone piling into the front of those huge station wagon seats? I can also laugh at the crappy Hanna-Barbera animation. There was one scene where the Ant Hill Mob were driving along, and Clyde is pointing forward for no apparent reason. He wasn't trying to point anything out, he's just sitting there pointing straight ahead for an entire scene. Gawd that's cheesy good fun. XD
Of course, there's always the inevitable question of why Penelope never knew that her guardian was also the Hooded Claw. It was so obvious. Poor naive kid.
I remember that it used to drive me insane that the episodes always started out with Penelope already in a perilous trap, and the announcer would say, "As you will remember in our last episode, Penelope was buried up to her neck in sand while the Bully Brothers barrelled toward her with a steam roller, blah blah blah," and I'd go, "WHAT? That SO did not happen at the end of the last episode! I watch this show every day! When did that happen?! Am I missing episodes? When else does it come ooooon?" I was too young and goofy to understand that there was no scene like that at the end of the last episode; it was just some sort of plot device the writers used to start out the episodes. I guess to make them seem like cliffhanger serials when they really weren't. But I was too young to understand that, so I thought there were all these Penelope Pitstop episodes that I was somehow missing. XD
Anyway... now I'm going to try to recall the names of all the Ant Hill Mob. Clyde, Snoozy, Softy (cried all the time), ummmm... Chuckles? (the one who laughed at everything)... Pockets. The others I don't know. And their car was Chugaboom.
Go to bed, little girl.
