Archer's Goon

Hooray it's the weekend! Time for another Saturday Matinee Serial! This week it is Archer's Goon!

Archer's Goon was adapted from the novel by Diana Wynne Jones in 1992.

Howard Sykes comes home from school one day to find a strange man in his kitchen -- a goon (he won't give his real name). He explains that Archer has sent him to pick up two thousand words from Howard's father, and he wont leave until he gets them. 

It transpires that thirteen years ago Howard's father agreed to write two thousand words of nonsense quarterly and give them to Mountjoy, a town official. In return he was promised an exemption from city taxes. The Goon says that the latest two thousand didn't get to Archer. Quentin irritably writes a replacement set and gives them to the Goon, who goes away—but the next afternoon, he is back, as they were a repeat of what had been done previously, and the agreement specified that they must not be a copy or paraphrase of anything he had done before.

So begins a quest involving time travel, magic, wizards, spaceships and all manner of awesome!

Bodger and Badger

Everybody knows, Badger loves... MASHED POTATO!

Bodger and Badger is a children's comedy programme which was first broadcast in 1989. It starred Andy Cunningham as Simon Bodger, who had a badly behaved companion, a talking badger with a love for mashed potatoes.

Series 1 featured Bodger and Badger working in Troff's Nosherama, a run-down café. Bodger worked in the kitchens as a chef. Both Bodger and Badger made friends with the waitress, Mavis. Troff's Nosherama was run by Mr Troff who was very arrogant. Troff had no idea of Badger's presence until the last episode in the series.

Visionaries - Knights of the Magical Light

A big post today, kind of forcing my hand to post more than one video in this post due to an over arcing story, its Visionaries - Knights of the Magical Light!

The story is set on the planet Prysmos, an advanced society where all electronics have failed and the people are forced to rely on the old magics. The Visionaries consist of two groups of knights — the Spectral Knights and the Darkling Lords. They are both called to for a competition by the wizard Merklynn. After surviving traps, dangerous creatures, and each other, the survivors on both sides are rewarded. Everyone of them is given a different animal totem which appears on the front of their armor, which they can turn into. The animals are selected by Merklynn based on their personalities.

I am including the first 3 episodes in this post, as they form one whole storyline, introducing the characters and their powers.

Bod

Today's second post is a short cartoon by the name of Bod. A classic for the older viewers!

The series follows the adventures of Bod and his friends (namely Aunt Flo, PC Copper, Farmer Barleymow and Frank the Postman).

Not a lot to say about this one, so here's a review from Amazon, which sums up Bod way better than I can!

Those who remember the children's animation Bod from the 13 episodes broadcast by the BBC in 1975 generally recall, with considerable precision, not stories but images. This is because the stories that constitute Bod, created by Joanne and Michael Cole, are mere wisps of narrative, in which, almost always, almost nothing happens (in "Bod and the Cake", for example, no cake arrives), serene anti-dramas which are elusive and thus hard to remember as stories. Its images, by contrast, are the heart of its minimalist charm and its unforgettable strangeness, from narrator John Le Mesurier's unvarying announcement, "Here comes Bod", to the moment the unvarying fivefold cast sashay towards the horizon at the end. Bod is small and bald, with a yellow dress and a Buddha-like imperturbability. He and his four eternal companions--Aunt Flo, Farmer Barleymow, Frank the Postman, PC Copper--are animated as sparely as a 60s cartoon from the Eastern bloc. In each episode, the five gather one by one, each arriving to their own characteristic perky jazz-folky theme, in their own characteristic gait (indeed, like a zen riddle, the walk itself is far more important than where they're walking to, or why).

Animaniacs

A later post than usual today, but as it is the first day of the New Year, is it any wonder? Kicking 2014 off in style, I give you an episode of Animaniacs, Warner Brother's collection of it's craziest characters, some of which were so mental, they had to be locked in the Warner Brothers tower. Not that it kept them from escaping regularly and causing total havoc!

Animaniacs featured an ensemble cast of off-the-wall Warner Brothers characters, appearing in a wide variety of roles.
Wakko, Yakko, and Dot Warner, are WB Studio creations who were just too "zany" to be of any use to the studio.
Pinky and the Brain are two mice bent on world domination.
Rita and Runt are a cat and dog team, who get into perilous situations every episode, put always seem to find time to sing a song.
Bobby, Pesto, and Squit are the Goodfeathers, part of a New York mob of pigeons, who worship Martin Scorsese.
Slappy the Squirrel is a late middle-age squirrel; she starred in a series of popular cartoons in the Golden Age.
Buttons is a watch-dog, charged with watching the mischievous toddler, Mindy.
Chicken Boo is a giant chicken trying to integrate into human society.
Flavio and Marita are two urbane hippopotami.