You Can't Do a Little, 'Cause You Can't Do Enough

by Allison Pang

I've been home most of the week with a sick sproglet. (And to be perfectly honest, I'm feeling a bit like warmed over garbage myself. He's got strep, and I've apparently been fighting something off for weeks that includes burning eyes and cotton head.  Makes for lousy days, particularly when I have a ton of things to do.)

It also means we're watching a lot of TV together, simply because we can. Which includes a fair bit of Spongebob, among other things.

But I've been thinking a bit to the days when I was a kid and I got sick. (I actually had mono in 4th grade, so I was out of school for over an entire month...and with mono you're not supposed to run around at all. Meant a lot of book reading and TV watching.)

Of course, back in the 70' and 80's we didn't have much in the way of cable, so we were stuck with three or four channels and that's about it. There might have been a few cartoons in the morning - basic kid shows like Sesame Street or the Electric Company or whatever. Rocky &  Bullwinkle. The Great Space Coaster? (Which I freaking hated with all the fury of a thousand suns. No Gnus is Good Gnus be damned.) The New Zoo Review? I was all about a little Freddy the Frog action. Games shows like  Press Your Luck,  The Price is Right, $25,000 Pyramid.

And then it was all soap operas, which I disliked intensely.  But mid afternoon, the awesomeness of the Sid & Marty Krofft shows would pop up. H.R. PufNStuff. The Bugaloos. Sigmund the Seamonster. Land of the Lost.

Looking back on them now, I kind of have to wonder at my fascination with those particular shows, but I'll admit to a bit of fond nostalgia when I show my own kids the wonders of the Sleestaks.

Which I can do, since my mother-in-law bought us the entire Land of the Lost collection on DVD. I'm both horrified and grateful.

But really, H.R PufNStuff was my absolute favorite. When I was five, I was completely in love with Jimmy, although to this day I couldn't tell you why. I still really dig PufNStuff's smoking white cowboy boots, though. (And yes, I realize the lyrics are probably a huge reference to drugs, puffing on magic flutes and all, but still.)



Oh...and the Bugaloos too. All about groovy faeries who were probably also high.



Actually, if you wanted, you could just skip my post entirely and watch this - because this is pretty much everything I was trying to say. (Badly.)