1984 12:00 on NBC: GOING BANANAS
Sep. 5th, 2013 01:34 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
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First, the description - A live-action show about a Monkey named Roxana Banana who is given super-powers by aliens and has wacky adventures. COULD ANYTHING POSSIBLY BE MORE PERFECT?!?!?
Folks, you know me. You know that I have a *fairly extensive knowledge* of 1980's Saturday Morning Programming, right? I mean, hey, I *did* start up a whole Preservation/Reenactment Society, after all... I know my way around a 1980's TV Guide and a 13-channel television dial (14 if you count the UHF).
So believe me when I say that I'm *pretty sure* this show didn't actually exist.
In 1984 i was *obsessed* with Oragutans, chimpanzees and "Monkeys" in general. I sold little baskets of fruit at our corner grocery store in order to reach my goal of buying myself a monkey that could drive me to school, wear pajamas, rollerskate and smoke cigars for my amusement. When i started seeing ads for this show in my comic books, I WENT NUTS! I HAD TO SEE IT!
I tuned in every Saturday at noon, only to find some stupid local educational show airing there instead, to be followed by an episode of Spider-Man & His Amazing Freinds before they moved on to Sportball programs. This is when I first learned about how Network Affiliates and Local Educational Programming quotas, and I was assured by the person who wrote me back from KING (the local NBC affiliate that I had written an 11-year-old letter of complaint to) that the show was airing in other cities but not the greater Seattle area.
HOWEVER! In the 30 years since it supposedly aired on Saturday mornings, I have not met a SINGLE PERSON who has actually SEEN, with their OWN EYES, a single episode of this show! Lots of people kind of think they maybe saw an episode, but ends up it was one of the many Orangutan-centric movies of the time ("Any Which Way But Loose", "Going Ape", "Canonball Run", etc).
To further my claim that this show never existed, I submit the fact that on ALL THE INTERNET, the only image you'll ever see of the show is the one I have posted at the top of this entry. No other pictures, no clips, no video, no theme song - NOTHING. Presumably produced by Hannah-Barbera, even the Wikipedia page doesn't seem to know anything about this show and/or if there's any proof to back up it's existence!
This makes me sad - I really want there to have been a show about a monkey given super-powers by aliens :(
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Date: 2013-09-05 09:35 pm (UTC)See this is where I think all us adults should never lose that part of us that loved cartoons. I don't mean we should be childish, but I mean we should always keep the inner child alive. I LOVE it when I talk to people my age and they remember these cartoons or comics and things and still have the heart and the imagination to still watch shows and not feel foolish about it.
Heck I have more toys now than when I was a kid. In fact I think I may be regressing. I was a 'small adult' as a kid and now I am just a BIG kid LOL.
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Date: 2013-09-05 11:02 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2013-09-05 10:58 pm (UTC)James Avery (later on "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" amd the voice of Shredder in the 1980s "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" cartoon series) and Bill Saluga (aka Raymond J. Johnson in the beer commercials of the era..."You can call me Ray...or you can call me Jay") played the bumbling bad guys out to kidnap the ape.
I believe the series was cancelled after half a season and replaced by reruns of "Thundarr the Barbarian".
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Date: 2014-01-08 12:16 am (UTC)I'd love to see/hear anything you care to share :)
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Date: 2014-01-08 12:21 am (UTC)I posted a link to a youtube video with audio from a few JBS segments but it says that this site marked it as spam.
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Date: 2014-01-08 12:46 am (UTC):P
I wonder why it's being blocked? That's weird?
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Date: 2014-01-08 01:24 am (UTC)Try this. Just remove the four spaces from the link above.
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Date: 2014-01-08 01:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-08 01:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-08 01:36 am (UTC)Video now says that I can't watch it because it's marked private.
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Date: 2014-01-08 01:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-08 01:54 am (UTC)May I share it with the rest of the group?
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Date: 2014-01-08 01:57 am (UTC)Feel free to share the link...I'll let you know if I come up with the theme from the actual show.
Further evidence of Going Bananas
Date: 2014-01-23 10:19 pm (UTC)http : // youtu . be/ EAe87N4IwGw