Curiosity Shop

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.

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.

"Onomatopoeia" is the name of the multi-armed, fuzzy-faced puppet who made sound effects. His nickname was "Ono." One of the main puppets was a short little bearded fellow in a bowler hat who was an inventor. He also was in animated segments where he would talk of things that he did back in the old country in Bosnia—the first time I ever heard of that place. This was the show I saw the animated short "Flatland" on, and possibly "The Dot and the Line." Ray Bradbury did a spooky little poem called "The Groon" that was also animated here. The younger boy, who looked a lot like Boxy on the old Battlestar Galactica show, once had a slogan T-shirt on that said, "Shoelaces are a drag." Thanks to all the other commentators for reminding me of forgotten details. I too had a juvenile crush on Pamelyn Ferdin.

This was indeed a "lost" children's classic that was never heard from since it's original broadcast more than decades ago. This was probably the best children's show ever made for Saturday Morning TV which basically ran for three seasons on ABC-TV from September of 1971 to September of 1973. I don't know how many episodes were produced for this show,but during its run garnered more Emmy and Peabody awards for best children's programming and likewise this show was at the top of list for execeptional children's entertainment at it's finest,courtesy of its star and also the executive producer of this series,legendary animator Chuck Jones,who was also the CEO and head honcho of children's programming over at ABC-TV during the early 1970's,which Jones was responsible for bringing to the network brilliant shows as well including "Schoolhouse Rock","The Superfriends","The Jackson Five",and other interesting and informative specials which were both live-action and animated.

The Curiosity Shop was not the usual out of the mill animation dreck but out of the ordinary was basically a fun show to watch that was very informative and educational and sometimes there was something special waiting to happen in some of the episodes,but with Chuck Jones behind the helm you'll never know what to expect as long as you got something out of it and you'll learn a great lesson here too. As for the cast,they're were something too,especially the premiere episode which featured actress Shirley Jones of "The Partridge Family" fame,and also cast regulars Pamelyn Ferdin(a well known child actress who was best known for her roles in several TV shows including "Lassie" "The Brady Bunch",and also for her role as Tony Randall's daughter Edna from the series "The Odd Couple"),and also from Kerry MacLane and John Levin,Les Tremayne and Jere Fields,whom the producers brought in during the show's second season and also voiceover work from the greats in the business Mel Blanc,June Foray,Bob Halt,Don Messick,and also from Chuck Jones too.

By the way,the lunchbox from that decade is worth something these days,and its a classic! The Halloween episode is probably the best out of the series,and it explains in detail about horror and also when they did a unmasking scene from "The Phantom Of The Opera"! Impressive! Let's hope that this show resurfaces again especially with the hunger of the cable/satellite markets,or maybe sometime soon cable giant TV Land will bring this back as part of there TV Land Kitschen format,since they have restored countless 1970's Saturday Morning TV classic live-action shows and they may bring this back!

My twin girls, in first grade, just told me that they are learning about "sound" words, and I immediately had a flashback to the "Onomatopoeia" song, which I am pretty sure I first heard on the "Curiousity Shop" all these many years ago. Here are some of the lyrics, as I remember them (yes, I even remember the basic tune): "Onomatopoeia, Onomatopoeia, it's the word you spell by ear. Onomatopoeia, Onomatopoeia, it's a word for a sound that you always hear -- like a crash, bang, boom." I read on Wikipedia that a specific puppet represented the Onomatopoeia and made all kinds of sounds. Can someone, somehow, somewhere post a YouTube video with this song? I'll even settle for the lyrics. The so-called "modern" Onomatopoeia songs don't hold a candle to the Chuck Jones version. PLEASE, Please if anyone knows a link to the lyrics or the right YouTube video, post it in the comments somewhere! This was a truly great show - obviously, since I remember this from more than 40 years ago!