New Zoo Revue

Haha, I remember watching New Z00 Revue.

IT was a goofy show yet, educational and entertaining.

The way they would interact would make me chuckle.

These old shows were brilliant, and you could see producers and actors had heart back then.

I grew up in the 1950s and 60s, and by the 70s was wearing hair down to my shoulders, a Fu Manchu mustache and smoking a bit of pot. I also wore shirts with very large collars and loud, wide ties that one could use for a lobster bib if one were so inclined. NEW ZOO REVUE understandably was nothing I was watching. At one point, I got rid of my TV and did not get another one until several months later. My first child was born in 1977, my last two in the late 80s. Suffice it to say I have caught up with NEW ZOO REVUE in fairly recent years. It runs every morning on a local channel. It is fascinating to watch in small doses. I am not sure what message it is delivering, but I doubt it has anything to do with drugs and everything to do with manners and behavior. It is not CAPTAIN KANGAROO or BARNEY or THE WIGGLES or even MR. ROGERS, but it is oddly fascinating -- in measured doses. Mainly because of Doug, I think. That hair! Those clothes! And the way they all clumsily dance around at the opening to that horrible theme song! And that frog! Has there ever been such a frog? It vaguely reminds me of a show from way back when that featured two pretty women (Carol and ?) who sat on swings and taught simple messages and occasionally sang in sweet harmony. Quiet lessons for the very young.

The cast and crew of this children's show was first rate in my opinion. In fact, I sometimes catch it occasionally. It was one of the funniest and best shows of that time. I remember watching it when I was a child. I loved Henrietta Hippo and Freddy the Frog and the smart Owl. They were joined by human counterparts like Emmy Jo and the guy and Fran Ryan as Ms. Goodbody. The show was never that much of a hit but among kids like myself who watched it years later. I always enjoyed the silly costumes, the seventies hair and make-up, costumes, and set design. It wasn't anything like it is today as it is with technology but the place was friendly and warm and a memorable part of my childhood.

Ah yes, who could forget Freddie the Frog, Charlie the Owl and Henrietta Hippo teaching wholesome values to us kids growing up in the 70s, with the help of their hippy-dippy human counterparts Doug and Emmy Jo! I actually saw an episode broadcast sometime over the Christmas holidays on a low-power Indiana tv station (picked up by AT&T Broadband cable for the Chicago area): it was the episode where Freddie broke Henrietta's window with a baseball and ate her special diet cookie (gasp!). They had a trial and everything! And let's not forget the musical numbers; Emmy Jo's singing voice was tinnier than I had remembered, but the 70s wardrobe (complete with go-go boots!) made up for that. Believe it or not, there are actually 3 or 4 DVDs now available of New Zoo Revue episodes; and if that isn't enough, do a search on eBay and you just might find (among other things), record albums, figurines and ViewMaster reels! Now all I'm waiting for is a NZR reference to pop up on "That 70's Show" (and if it does, I want credit for giving you guys that idea!!!)

Like acid flashbacks, "New Zoo Revue" pops up frequently in velvet mornings after a long night on the town. Just this weekend I turned on the TV at 7 a.m. to find an oversize hippo, frog and owl cheerily sharing the screen alongside a human host with a disco lizard mustache, which led me to wonder: Do today's children actually watch this program?

I myself had never heard of this show until recently, but I cannot stop watching it when I come across it. Is it camp? Not quite, since the last time I watched the hostess was painfully struggling off-key to find the melody in the insipid ditty she was warbling. However, her horrendous rendition of an innocuous kiddie tune was offset by the eye-popping wardrobe both hosts were sporting. Oh my, the mile-wide collars, ugly plaids and oddly tapered trousers were mesmerizing in a fashion-wreck sort of way, but they weren't the worst sights to see in the wee hours. So maybe it is camp; after all, the similarly clad cast of CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC were the campiest camp of them all.

Other small pleasures could come from the random guest stars that sometimes join the cast. I swear that was Richard Dawson I saw in a chocolate brown suit alongside the above-mentioned proto-Barney creatures, and if that sight doesn't stir the drug-socked mind, I don't know what does.

Still, this program must seem as odd an entertainment choice to today's kids as "Pokémon" does to me. "New Zoo Revue" is endlessly watchable as a documentary of '70's conservative fashions, television production, and children's programming. And it's strangely fascinating how a television show can seem wholesome to a generation of kids that grew up to appreciate it ironically as adults who can now hone in on tenuous drug allusions throughout it (see also "Scooby-Doo").