Sunday, January 7, 2024

Flopcast 609: Memorial Show Part 2 - Paulie Had a Robot

Kornflake returns to join Kevin and The Mayor of Chickentown as we finish our look back at those we lost in 2023. Our coverage of the second half of the year includes: sitcom favorites (Chrissy from Three's Company, Bull from Night Court, Kraus from Benson, Chandler from Friends), cartoon favorites (the voices behind Harley Quinn, Solomon Grundy, and some School House Rock classics), musicians (members of The Eagles, Kool and the Gang, The Pogues, and The Association, as well as Tony Bennett and of course, Sinéad), a Smothers brother (who was also The Bear Who Slept Through Christmas), television's original Lois Lane, Lost in Space's original Major Don West, and many more. Then there are a couple of all-time Flopcast favorites who made unforgettable impacts on Saturday morning TV and beyond: Marty Krofft and Paul Reubens. And could the memorial show somehow include some relevant Chickens in the News? Well, sure. It's been a weird year. And it's a long show, because come on.

Show Notes

First, we must correct an omission from last week, a person Kevin actually met. Al Rosenberg was Bob the Puppet on the FX channel's Breakfast Time. Kevin's appearances on that show are discussed all the way back in Flopcast 025. Just below Bob in the photo below is The Amazing Race's Phil Keoghan!

Paul Reubens will be sorely missed. Kevin and Felicity recently revisited Christmas at Pee-wee's Playhouse in preparation for Kevin's appearance on Gleaming the Tube.

Thank goodness Marty Krofft returned to Atlanta so we could meet him!

Here's a special message for those of you who read the show notes (all 3 of you): almost all of the Krofft Saturday morning shows are now streaming on the Dove channel! You can get a free 7-day trial through Amazon Prime, and it's $4.99 a month after that. Binge Krofft in the new year...you know you want to!

Another Saturday morning staple was, of course, School House Rock, in which the powerful voice of Essra Mohawk taught us about suffrage and interjections. She was also an acclaimed singer-songwriter on her own, penning "Change of Heart", made famous by Cyndi Lauper, and "Stronger than the Wind", covered by Tina Turner.

Mark Goddard was a frequent guest at DragonCon as well as local shows, often appearing with Lost in Space costar Marta Kristen.

Finally, we suffered yet another loss in the world of Benson, Inga Swenson. She played Gretchen Kraus, one of several comedic foils to the title character.