liveaction - 2/2 - Retroland

Sigmund and the Sea Monsters

Few people made a more profound impact on the Saturday mornings of the 70s than the creative duo of Sid and Marty Krofft. They whisked us off to one magical locale after another with such offerings as H.R. Pufnstuf, The Bugaloos and Lidsville. In 1973, a floating piece of seaweed inspired the pair to create a series a little closer to home. Breaking with their surrealistic style, they set their new show at a southern California beach, and called it Sigmund and the Sea Monsters.

Swiss Family Robinson

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Apparently, most of America did indeed dream of a house in the trees. Disney's version of Johann David Wyss' Swiss Family Robinson allowed audiences to live that dream vicariously, and they responded by making the 1960 film Disney's biggest live-action hit to that date.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

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There are almost as many similarities between Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Mary Poppins as there are between the Kennedy and Lincoln administrations – although those of the former are certainly less coincidental. Both films incorporated animation into live-action sequences. Both had magical guardians who managed to spellbind the precocious children under their care. Both took place in London and actor David Tomlinson had a supporting role in each film. Other than that, they were completely different.

Mary Poppins

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Out of the many films produced by Walt Disney over the years, one could argue that his finest achievement was Mary Poppins, the tale of a magical super-nanny based on a children’s book written in 1934 by P.L. Travers. With the enchanting duo of Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke and a masterful score, this 1964 classic has endured as one the most charming family films ever created.

The Apple Dumpling Gang

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Two of America’s most beloved funnymen, Tim Conway and Don Knotts, had appeared plenty of times together on television, but it wasn’t until 1975 that they began starring together in feature-length comedy films. Their first foray was as a pair of bumbling crooks in The Apple Dumpling Gang, one of the biggest live-action successes for the Walt Disney Company in the 70s decade.

Space Jam

The Bugaloos

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While The Beatles may have been the first insect-inspired foursome, another quartet of musical misfits came along a few years after their breakup. And unlike Paul McCartney’s solo band, these guys actually wore wings. Straight from the depths of the Tranquility Forest, it’s that lovable flying fab four, The Bugaloos!

Saturday Morning Live-Action Shows

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We spend a lot of time talking about all of the cartoons that filled the Saturday morning lineup of our youth, but today we thought we would focus on those wonderful live-action shows that we grew up with and were equally beloved. Some offered strange creatures in costume, others offered ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Today, we want to know what your favorites were, and why.

Disney On Sundays

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For many Americans who grew up in decades past, Sunday night provided a wonderful family tradition, where the whole clan would gather around to be entertained by the imagination of Walt Disney. Perhaps you knew it as Disneyland in the 50s, or Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color in the 60s, or maybe The Wonderful [...]