'Look Around You'

Much of the world has already had plenty of time to discover 'Look Around You', British TV's inspired parody of educational programming.

I, on the other hand, am just discovering it now, so you'll have to excuse me while I take my turn to get excited about it.

It gets sillier; Looks like episodes are scheduled to begin airing here in the U.S. on Adult Swim. Looks like a perfect fit.



The first series of eight
10-minute episodes first aired in 2002...

(follow links to view)

Module #1- Maths
Module #2- Water
Module #3- Germs
Module #4- Ghosts
Module #5- Sulphur
Module #6- Music ▲ (above)
Module #7- Iron
Module #8- Brain ▼ (below)

- Plus the unaired 20-minute pilot episode:
Calcium



The second series of six
30-minute episodes premiered in 2005.

Here are some links to several video clips from series 2...

- Medibot
- Di-Tutetamine Brohohibe
- Slimby
- Computer Games
- Petticoat 5
- Toothpaste
- Synthesiser Patel
- Music 2000

- See also the BBC 'Look Around You' web page.

Rocket Robin Hood episode 'Dementia Five'! (1968)

Rocket Robin Hood was an animated TV series produced in Canada from 1966 - 1969.

Remembered fondly by many who grew up in that era, it was a sci-fi adventure series that took Robin Hood and his
Merry Men and put them in an outer-space setting in the year 3000.

I recall absolutely adoring this show as a kid, and being shocked revisiting it years later years to discover how clunky the limited animation was and how simple the stories were.

Watching the show's opening theme though, ▼ I can still see now what I saw in it then...



- As a small bonus, also check out one of the 'expository vignettes' about one of Rocket Robin's men.
Follow the link this small clip of Friar Tuck, which left an indelible memory for me, and may be responsible for some of my adult eating habits...

Sometime during the second season of the show, personnel change in it's production team brought in background designer
Richard H. Thomas and director Ralph Bakshi.

Bakshi had worked his way up in the field of animation while working for Terrytoons and Famous Studios, before opening his own studio in 1968. It was in '72 that Bakshi released his adaptation of R.Crumb's 'Fritz The Cat', his first in a series of animated feature films.

By the third season of 'Rocket Robin Hood', Bakshi and Thomas had given the look and feel of the series a new, slightly darker, more psychedelic tone that often made for some curious results.

Below ▼, 'Dementia Five' - - by far the 'trippiest' episode of the series...

- As a bit of trivia, much of the 'Dementia Five' episode's storyline, script, voice talent and animation cels were re-used in a Spider-Man cartoon (produced at the same studio for American TV), for the 1970 episode 'Revolt In The Fifth Dimension', which you can currently watch at You Tube - -

- Spider-Man: 'Revolt In The Fifth Dimension', Part 1
- Spider-Man: 'Revolt In The Fifth Dimension', Part 2

(Thanks are due to animation historian Jerry Beck for re-kindling many fond memories at one of his Comic-Con 'Worst Cartoons' presentations.)

Los Bravos - Like Nobody Else (1966)

This cover of an early Bee Gee's tune was recorded by Madrid's
Los Bravos roughly around the same time that their huge hit
'Black Is Black' made them the first Spanish beat group to score a top ten hit in both the U.K. and the U.S.

- You can also hear their version of the same song song in Spanish, as 'Como Nadie Mas Te Amo Yo'.

Sugar Pie DeSanto - Rock Me Baby (1964)

This footage of diminutive blues-belter Sugar Pie DeSanto was captured during the American Folk Blues Festival as it toured Europe in 1964.

The backing band on this clip includes blues luminaries Willie Dixon on bass, Hubert Sumlin on guitar, and Clifton James on drums.

See also:
- A video clip of Sugar Pie performing 'Baby, What You Want Me To Do' from the same concert.

- A 1999 Sugar Pie DeSanto interview at Roctober.Com.