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Since the introduction of the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, Nintendo has stood astride the world like a mighty colossus. Its theogony of video game characters has become even more ubiquitous and recognizable than Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes or Mickey Mouse and his gang. There are even Nintendo theme park areas and films now, like the animated "Super Mario Bros. Movie." The company is still going strong, too. The Nintendo Switch, introduced in 2017, soon became the third best-selling video game console of all time, trailing only behind Nintendo's own DS and Sony's PlayStation 2.

Apart from a few missteps (remember the Virtual Boy?), it's always been this way for Nintendo. Thinking back to the 1980s, certain enthused members of Gen-y might recall Nintendo Cereal, Nintendo wall calendars, and Nintendo-centric movies like "The Wizard."

In 1989, Nintendo even made its way onto the airwaves with "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show," a...

What does a Starfleet captain do after their five-year mission is cut short after three? If you're Captain James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise, you park it in the space dock and return to your normal life as William Shatner, whose career in television kicked off with his role as Ranger Bob in the Canadian version of The Howdy Doody Show in 1954. Following the iconic role, Shatner would go on to make appearances as a guest star on episodes for a host of television series, including Gunsmoke and The Six Million Dollar Man. It would take six years before Shatner settled back into a television series as the lead, a Western/adventure/spy/dramedy series called Barbary Coast.

The path to Rick and Morty started with Crusader Rabbit and ran through Winky Dink.

14 ‘The Woody Woodpecker Show’ (1957)

Besides the classic animated shorts, they also filled time with live-action footage of Disney animators in their glorified sweatshops, and a voice actor riffing over newsreel footage, in character as Woody Woodpecker.

13 ‘The Ruff and Reddy Show’ (1957)

Named after 19th century Whig Party star Zachary Taylor, aka “Old Rough and Ready,” this show was about a smart cat and a dumb dog who never met a woman because the studio would only pay for two voice actors. It was the first-ever Hanna-Barbera series.

12 ‘Tom Terrific’ (1957)

Tom Terrific was a child superhero who could turn into any animal or vehicle he wanted. He lived alone in a treehouse (with his sentient but stupid dog), and didn’t fight crime, per se, but rather raged against the adults in his life. Sounds pretty bleak!

Canadian actor William Shatner began his professional career in the early 1950s, appearing in an obscure film called "The Butler's Night Off." He worked in theaters, both as a manager and as an actor, in Montreal and Ottawa, and acted in the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in the mid-1950s. He moved to the United States shortly thereafter to pursue a Broadway career, and made ends meet by appearing on an episode of the Canadian version of "The Howdy Doody Show." Shatner racked up dozens of credits in film and on TV throughout the '50s and '60s, appearing in adaptations of "The Brother Karamazov" and "Judgment at Nuremberg" and on notable programs like "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "The Twilight Zone." In 1965, Shatner starred in "Incubus," the only feature film ever made in Esperanto. 

Then, in 1966, Shatner landed the lead role in a new science fiction series called "Star Trek.

Matt Groening's animated series "The Simpsons" hasn't been good since season [fill in the blank]. 

That seems to be a common discussion within "Simpsons" circles, anyway. There seems to be a general, unrecorded consensus that the glory days of "The Simpsons" are behind it, and that the show has been spinning its wheels since those glory days. There is no consensus, however, when those glory days were exactly. Some older "Simpsons" fans feel that the series peaked somewhere around season five or six. Other, younger viewers feel that the show was just fine up until the release of "The Simpsons Movie" in 2007. Just like "Saturday Night Live," however, the present always seems to be the worst time for the show. 

The fact of the matter is that "The Simpsons" has been running consistently since 1989, having made 768 episodes over 35 seasons. It is a cultural presence that once spearheaded the very tone of all popular culture,...

It seems as long as people have been watching television, William Shatner has been on it. Shatner's first television credit was in 1954 on the Canadian version of The Howdy Doody Show. While a trained theater actor and also a movie star, television has been where Shatner has shined. Most famous for the role of Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek: The Original Series, he has also had starring roles in T.J. Hooker and Boston Legal. Shatner has also appeared in some of the most famous television shows, from The Twilight Zone and Columbo up to Psych and The Bang Theory. It is hard to imagine television without William Shatner, and we don't even want to think about that.

The actor is still going strong, having recently voiced the role of Keldor in Masters of the Universe: Revolutions. But Shatner's latest project is a personal one. The documentary William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill...

Fox Entertainment has acquired the rights to the Gumby franchise.

The deal was made between Fox and the estate of Joseph Clokey, the son of Gumby creator Art Clokey. It gives Fox all rights to Gumby and associated characters across film, television and streaming, consumer products, licensing, publishing, and all other categories.

“Competition for globally recognized intellectual property is fierce,” said Charlie Collier, CEO of Fox Entertainment. “Uncovering this gem, with its built-in awareness and affinity, and bringing it to Fox, adds meaningful value and creative possibilities to the IP itself and to multiple divisions of our company. Fox is proud to be home to these iconic characters. Welcome one and all.”

The deal also gives Fox access to the full library of Gumby animated series, specials, movies and content, which will expand Tubi’s current offerings of the franchise. Fox will now work to develop new projects around the character for broadcast,...

This week, the pioneering studio Laika returns with “Missing Link,” the stop-motion animated family film starring Hugh Jackman and Zach Galifianakis. With “Missing Link” landing in theaters on Friday, TheWrap looks back at the history of stop-motion animation, going all the way back to the dawn of cinema.

“The Humpty Dumpty Circus” (1898)

The first ever stop-motion animated film was made by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith between 1897 and 1898, “The Humpty Dumpty Circus.” Though the film is lost to history, the directors used their daughter’s dolls to imagine acrobats and animals in motion.

“The Enchanted Drawing” (1900) and “The Trip to the Moon” (1902)

Early cinema experimented with editing techniques to create illusions and special effects on screen in what would become traditional stop motion. Shorts like “The Enchanted Drawing” (1900) or “Fun in a Bakery Shop” (1902) found actors on screen manipulating drawings or piles of dough as if by magic.

If David Lynch learned one thing from the uproar that greeted his original comments about Donald Trump (“Could go down as one of the greatest presidents in history because he has disrupted the thing so much”), which were made during an interview with the British newspaper the Guardian, it is this: In the internet age, what you say can and will be used against you. I have no doubt that whatever the public outcry against Lynch’s words, you could multiply it by a million — I mean it, a million — to register the gale force with which he was hit by it personally. That’s the way social media works, especially when you’re famous. For him, it must have been like standing in a hurricane.

The reason for the outcry, of course, is that David Lynch, in the eyes of so many of us, stands for values — he’s an artist,...

It's back and better than ever -- the makers of Pee-Wee's Playhouse capped their Saturday morning show with a Christmas Special to end all Christmas Specials. All the show's regular characters, special treats and creative extravagances are enhanced with a tall stack of celebrity guests, performers and walk-ons -- it's a 1988 time capsule. Pee-Wee's Playhouse Christmas Special Blu-ray Shout! Factory 1988 / Color / 1:33 flat / 49 min. / Christmas at Pee-Wee's Playhouse / Street Date October 6, 2015 / 19.97 Starring Paul Reubens, Annette Funicello, Frankie Avalon, Grace Jones, k.d. lang, Dinah Shore, Little Richard, Cher, Del Rubio Triplets, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, Joan Rivers, Charo, Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Carlson, Ric Heitzman, Suzanne Kent, William Marshall, George Mcgrath, S. Epatha Merkerson, Alison Mork, John Paragon, Lynne Marie Stewart, Vic Trevino. Cinematography David Lewis Film Editor Billy Fox Original Music Van Dyke Parks Written by John Paragon, Paul Reubens Produced by Steve Binder Directed by Wayne Orr,...

If you were to compile a list of iconic children’s TV characters, who would occupy a slot near the very top, say in the top five (to quote a recent Chris Rock flick)? Oh, we’re not talking about those denizens of “Toon-town”, so no Scooby Doo or Spongebob Squarepants. Well, at the dawn of the tube there was the freckle-faced marionette Howdy Doody and his pal/handler “Buffalo Bob” Smith. Then, as Mr. Doody hung up his strings, Bob Keeshan (a vet of that former show) arrived as Captain Kangaroo along with his real-life buddies (Mr. Green Jeans) and more puppet and costumed cast mates (Bunny Rabbit, Mr. Moose, and Dancing Bear). He was a TV mainstay for decades along with that gentle, soothing-voiced Fred Rogers and his puppet-filled neighborhood. Just a few years after his debut on PBS, a most influential classic educational kids’ program premiered on...

To watch "Pee-wee's Playhouse," which debuted on CBS in 1986, is to find oneself tossed headlong into wonder. An amalgam of allusions, textures, and styles, creator and star Paul Reubens' cracked vision registers as both nostalgic and ahead of its time -- the bridge between the children's television of midcentury ("The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show," "Captain Kangaroo," "Howdy Doody") and the new millennium ("Spongebob Squarepants," "Phineas and Ferb," "Adventure Time"). "This place is a madhouse!" the haughty, snooping Mrs. Steve (Shirley Stoler) proclaims in the series premiere, and she's right. "Pee-wee's Playhouse" asks viewers to hole up in their imaginations and throw away the key. Though I'm old enough to remember sitting on the floor in front of the television each Saturday morning, enveloped by "Playhouse," "Land of the Lost," and candlepin bowling as I sipped my...

Old-school fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise may have noticed something interesting in the run-up to Nickelodeon’s upcoming animating reboot: the lack of cowabungas.

The Turtles’ standby catch phrase — first introduced in the ’50s by The Howdy Doody Show and later popularized by Tmnt’s Michelangelo – has so far been conspicuously absent from the new series. Meanwhile, another four-syllable exclamation has appeared in its stead: booyakasha, word strongly associated with Sacha Baron-Cohen’s Ali G character.

What, we wondered, is up with that? Ciro Neilli, executive producer of Nickelodeon’s Tmnt update, had some answers for us.

If you’re wondering why Google is featuring Gumby on its homepage today, look no further. Today would have been the 90th birthday of Gumby creator Art Clokey. The interactive stop motion homepage doodle features the best-known characters from Clokey’s creation, which has lived in pop culture for more than five decades. “Art Clokey was an innovator in the field of animation and also a compassionate, inspiring artist,” said Google doodler Sophia Foster-Dimino. “We were excited to work with the incredibly talented animator Anthony Scott to produce this doodle, and we hope that it brightens your day!”

So, young Facebook generation,...

Plus Blake Skjellerup is a cover boy, Pee-Wee Herman writes for the Huffington Post, and the Glee photo shoot.

Editor's Note: As you probably noticed, our site was experiencing major technical difficulties all this morning and early afternoon. Our tech folks finally have a handle on the problem, but to resolve it they had to essentially roll back our site to what it looked like around 1:00am last night.

Unfortunately, that means that any posts, private messages, comments, forum topics, etc. posted between 1:00am and now have effectively disappeared. Our sincere apologies if this adversely affected you, but things should be functioning normally now.

And now, back to the meme...

Lock your liquor cabinets, Lindsay Lohan has been released from rehab! Alternate possibility: Drinks on Lindsay!

Banana boats.

Edward Kean, the primary writer for The Howdy Doody Show has passed away at the age of 85. He’s also...

Edward Kean, the main writer of Baby Boomer TV staple "The Howdy Doody Show" has died. He was 85.

Kean wrote the theme song "It's Howdy Doody Time" and is credited with coining the word "kowabunga."

Kean died Aug. 13 at a nursing care facility in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, due to complications from emphysema, family friend Del Reddy told the Associated Press.

Edward Kean, who helped create America's beloved Howdy Doody Show, has died at the age of 85.

Kean passed away at a nursing care facility in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan on 13 August.

He was the primary writer for the popular kids series, which ran from 1947 to 1960, and was responsible for the It's Howdy Doody theme song.

Kean is also credited with creating the pop culture phrase "kowabunga!", used by one of the show's characters and reclaimed as The Simpsons animated troublemaker Bart Simpson's catchphrase.

Actor Allen Swift, who voiced classic cartoon characters Might Mouse, Dinky Duck and Howdy Doody, has died at the age of 87.

Swift died on 18 April at his Manhattan home. His cause of death had not been disclosed as WENN went to press.

Swift landed his big break in 1954 when he filled in for Howdy Doody star Bob Smith, after the former host suffered a heart attack.

The role kickstarted his Hollywood career, and helped Swift win over 30,000 television and radio commercials, including promos for Jell-o, the Eveready battery, a toilet plunger for Drano, Vita’s Beloved Herring Maven, Hostess Ho Hos and Sanka decaffeinated coffee.

He also played animated characters Simon Bar Sinister and Riff Raff on TV cartoon Underdog, and most of the characters on the Tom and Jerry cartoons made from 1960 to 1962.

He appeared in several Off Broadway productions and in the Broadway plays including How to Make a Man, The Student Gypsy and My Old Friends.

Swift is survived by his wife, Lenore Loveman, a son, two daughters and five grandchildren.

Ira Stadlen was better known as voice actor Allen Swift. He provided the voice of the villainous Simon Bar-Sinister on the Underdog cartoon series from 1964. He was also many of the voices in the 1967 Rankin Bass feature Mad Monster Party? including Dracula, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, the Invisible Man, Felix Flankin, and Yetch.

Stadlen was born in New York City on January 16, 1924. He began supplying most of the voices for the supporting characters in NBC’s The Howdy Doody Show in 1952, and took over the voice of the lead puppet himself when Buffalo Bob Smith suffered a heart attack in 1954. He hosted cartoons as Captain Allen on The Popeye Show for station Wpix in New York in the late 1950s. He voiced the lead roles in the Gaston and Clint Clobber cartoons, and worked on the Tom and Jerry cartoons in the early 1960s. He was the voice of such cartoon characters as Odie Colognie,...

American voice actor Allen Swift, born Ira Stadlen and known as the voice of Tom's owner in "Tom and Jerry" cartoons, died April 18, according to the Telegraph of London. He was 86. Swift took his professional name from two of his favorite satirists, Fred Allen and Jonathan Swift, and did work in the early '50s on "Howdy Doody," voicing various characters including Tooter Turtle, Clint Clobber, and even Howdy. He also did voices in Gene Deitch's early '60s "Tom and Jerry" cartoons and recently guest-starred on "Law & Order."In a letter to the website CartoonBrew.com, Deitch, Swift's longtime friend and collaborator, said, "Allen [had] been suffering with a series of health calamities for several years, since he fell and broke his hip while walking his dog. From that moment, one thing led to another."Swift is survived by, among numerous other relatives, his son: the Broadway actor, mimic,...

In each episode of the Emmy-winning Saturday morning CBS series "Pee-wee's Playhouse" (1986–91), there was a "secret word of the day." When someone uttered it, everyone else would scream. If there's a secret word for the show's star, Paul Reubens, right now, it would be "comeback."The actor has spent the past year prepping his brand-new stage show, "The Pee-wee Herman Show," running through Feb. 7 at Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles. The ambitious production features 11 actors and 20 puppets—a first for Reubens, who on his series relied on the magic of editing to bring puppets like Pterri, Chairry, Conky, Globey, and Magic Screen to life. Reubens says the tension and anxiety of creating the live show are palpable, and he has one question on his mind: Are the puppets going to perform?"This show is in many ways like the series, except we never did that live," says Reubens. "A...

Art Clokey, whose legendary green clay TV character Gumby tickled, amused and/or confounded more than three generations of Americans, passed away in his sleep Sunday at his home in Los Osos. He was 88. A one-time orphan and would-be priest whose experimental animation blossomed into an empire of clay, Clokey first developed Gumby in 1956 for The Howdy Doody Show before spinning the grinning green slab off to his own children's series in 1957. A farewell glimpse at his handiwork -- and the unlikely fruits it wrought -- after the jump.

The creator of everyone’s favorite and most flexible green man died on Friday in his home in California. Art Clokey was 88 years old when, according to his son, he died in his sleep. Gumby made his television debut in 1956 on The Howdy Doody Show. A year later he starred in his own stop-motion animation program, The Gumby Show, which followed the adventures of the bendy clay man and his trusty orange steed, Pokey. Clokey also created the animated TV series Davey and Goliath that ran in the 1960s and 1970s....

Animator Art Clokey has died at the age of 88.

The star, who found fame as the creator of bendable doll Gumby, died in his sleep on Friday in Los Osos, California.

Clokey's Gumby toys featured on U.S. TV's The Howdy Doody Show in the 1950s and soon became a toy phenomenon.

Gumby, a green clay figure born from a student art project, enjoyed a surge in popularity in the 1980s when comedian Eddie Murphy performed a skit portraying the doll as a prima donna on sketch show Saturday Night Live.

Clokey also created and produced the 1960s programme Davey and Goliath and later landed his own syndicated show with Gumby.

By Reuters

Art Clokey, the creator of the iconic cartoonish clay figure Gumby, died in his sleep on Friday at his home in Los Osos, California, at age 88, after battling repeated bladder infections, his son told Reuters. Clokey, 88, invented the whimsical green clay character Gumby in the early 1950s that debuted on the "The Howdy Doody Show" and went on to become the star of his own successful television show, "The Adventures of Gumby." Read mor...

Television producer Ernest 'E.' Roger Muir has died of a stroke. He was 89.

He passed away on Thursday near his home in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire.

Muir helped create and was executive producer of popular 1950s series The Howdy Doody Show - a pioneering children's TV programme starring Howdy, a freckle-faced puppet.

After its 13-year run, Muir served as co-producer of the show's syndicated version, The New Howdy Doody Show, in 1976 and 1977.

He also produced several other successful series, including Concentration, The Newlywed Game and Pay Cards through his own production company with co-producer Nick Nicholson.

Muir is survived by his second wife, Barbara Horn-Muir, five grandchildren and one great-grandson.

Bob Keeshan, the man known to generations of children as Captain Kangaroo and one of the early pioneers of television entertainment, died Friday at his Vermont home after a long illness; he was 76. Getting his start in television as the voiceless Clarabell the Clown on the Howdy Doody Show in 1948, Keeshan started the Captain Kangaroo show in 1955 on CBS, entertaining children at his Treasure House alongside pal Mr. Green Jeans and a host of puppet friends. The show ran for 30 years on network television before moving to public television for six more years; during its run, the show won six Emmy Awards and three Peabody Awards. After his retirement, Keeshan remained a fervent childrens. advocate, writing books and lecturing across the country on the importance of educating children during their first six years. Keeshan, whose wife Jean died in 1990, is survived by three children. --Prepared by IMDb staff...