Curiosity Shop

Probably one of the best shows ever made for Saturday morning TV, not the usual animated dreck but a fun show that was also informative and educational. I remember best a show about horror, done for Halloween, where I first saw the unmasking scene from "The Phantom of the Opera". I even had a Curiosity Shop lunchbox! Hopefully, with the ever growing hunger of the cable/satellite TV monster, this show will someday resurface.

OK I have one word for all those who remember this show, Onemonapeia ( I hope I spelled it right). That was the name of my favorite puppet on this wonderful show. I was like 8 or 9 when this show was on and I remember I even had the lunch box. I remember that puppet in particular because he spoke in sound effects hence the name. I remember there were a lot of famous cartoonist involved in this show including Chuck Jones and voice over artist like Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, and Don Messick. I too wish somebody would release this on DVD along with other childhood memories of mine like Do-Do the Kid From Outer Space, The Bugaloos, Lancelot Link Secret Chimp and The Double Decker London Bus. I would love to have the opportunity to be able to watch these nostalgic favorites.

I too remember this show. Shirley Jones appeared in the premiere episode. The animal puppets were classic. I had a punch-out book of the Curiosity Shop, that I could set up with all the animal puppets in the wagon or whatever that was they were all in. All I can recall of the puppets was the basset hound, the giraffe and the duck-bill platypus who was a person in a full costume and never spoke. He wore big sneakers too. Pamelyn Ferdin, a child actress all over tv shows back then, perhaps best found as one of the five children in the Guardian Angel episode of the sixties Star Trek, was one of the kids and the older boy can be found in several episodes of Brady Bunch as Bobby's friend, particularly in the episode with Joe Namath. A black girl was eventually brought in, I guess to appeal to affirmative action that was going on back then. I also recall the Halloween episode. All the puppets were dressed up as monsters and the platypus was a vampire. It was very creepy seeing them all like that. Was it the final episode I recall that had the children leave the curiostiy shop, saying good bye and once outside we were treated to them hopping around in multi-colored psychedelic swirls, with only their silhouettes moving, accompanied by some very funky music?

I would love to see this show again. For the longest time I equated Shirley Jones with this show more than I did Partridge Family.

I have been looking for video of this show for decades. Thank God someone has finally put some clips on YouTube. If you haven't seen them, you have to check them out. The opening sequence is there, as well as a commercial and network promos for the whole Saturday morning lineup from 1971. If nothing else, it proves to my family that I didn't make this show up in my own mind.

I wish I could find the Halloween special...as many here have said, it stands out in my mind (few other things from that long ago have made it this far in my memory).

Onomatopoeia was my favorite, which explains a lot about me...

Someone needs to put this thing on DVD. If only to scare the pants off of a new generation of kids. I was fascinated by this show, and remember precious little about it other than it featured three kids (including perennial favorite Pamelyn Ferdin) and a Laugh-In Joke Wall-type series of doors out of which a number of puppets would poke their heads and talk to the kids. And these puppets scared the HELL out of me. But it was a good scared because I loved watching the show. I don't remember anything about the cartoon elements of the show, or even that Chuck Jones and Mel Blanc were involved (when I watched it, at age five). But I read recently that Chuck was pretty heavily involved in the production of the show, so: daughter Linda Jones, if you're listening and you own the rights to this thing, put it on DVD! Does anyone remember the names of the puppets or what creatures they were supposed to be? There was one in particular which really gave me the heeby-jeebies, but I couldn't even describe it now to save my life.