Snckn-fstn-mckn-snckn- wawa-grr (Encyclopaedia of Cult Children's TV, The - Richard Lewis)

Member Name: pje

Product:	Encyclopaedia of Cult Children's TV, The - Richard Lewis
Date:	12/04/02 (503 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fact-packed & funny.

Disadvantages: Some daft omissions.

"Someone had to set it all straight. Finally I agreed to regress when
I figured it might be a way to blame some of my failings on Cheggers,
I urge you to do the same. " - So says Richard Lewis in the prologue to his Encyclopaedia of Cult Children's TV. (That's children's TV with cult status, and not TV for the children of cults, presumably.)

This is a lovely, funny little book. It has a picture of that famous Test Card on the cover (the one with the little girl playing noughts and crosses against a toy clown, from the days when toy clowns looked innocent, rather than like something out of a horror movie.) The cover also combines the colours of dooyoo and Ciao (green and orange) giving some idea what a merger would look like. (Just joking.)

This is one encyclopædia that you can actually read from cover to cover. There are facts, dates, and trivia, but mostly it's full of Lewis's amusing observations and opinion - so it is suitable for snotty twerps with silly beards and small penises. In fact if Lewis were to join dooyoo he could post many of the entries as opinions. Maybe we should invite him.
( You can check out his website at: http://freespace.virgin.net/goods.in )

Of course, the use of the word cult in the title is a crafty device. It enables him to pick and choose what to include. Also, he rather arbitrarily restricts himself to the years 1960-1988, thereby excluding the Woodentops, Muffin the Mule, Andy Pandy and the Simpsons, amongst others. And yet Champion the Wonder Horse, from the 1950's, is included. Strange.

Inevitably, he cheats when he gets to 'X' and 'Y' (what, no Yogi Bear?!) and misses out 'Q' altogether. On the other hand, characters have their own entries as well as shows, which makes it useful if you desperately need to know which programme featured the character Snufkin, say, or Claptrap von Spillderbeans. There's also a complete l
ist of Hanna-Barbera cartoons. It's a pity he didn't accord the same honour to other companies like Cosgrove Hall (Jamie and the Magic Torch, Chorlton and the Wheelies, Danger Mouse etc.) Or the actors who provided voices for the characters, like Don Messick (Scooby Doo, Muttley) and Paul Winchell (Dick Dastardly, Bubi Bear and Fleegle in the Banana Splits). These are names that keep cropping up, and deserve their own entries.

Many of the entries are quite short and pithy and some are quite scathing. He likens Crackerjack to "being stuck in a hospice with tertiary syphillis" and really lays into the nauseating Diff'rent Strokes. And (understandably) he is quite rude about Rainbow and the Smurfs too. But I think he is going too far when he describes the Play School teddies, and Hartley the Hare, as 'manky'. But then, without doubt, he speaks for children everywhere, when he says of Blue Peter: "If only you could have bought 'double-sided sticky tape' in your local WH Smith, life would have been different."

This is certainly the most sarcastic encyclopædia I've ever come across - Lewis doesn't take anything seriously, even making insinuations about Gotham City's dynamic duo - Bruce Wayne and his youthful ward Dick Grayson: "Holy catamites, Batman, what exactly *is* our relationship?" Oo-er.

You can find out an awful lot of stuff on the net (and a lot of awful stuff)but last year there was something I just couldn't find. Wiggglypufff had written an opinion on Wacky Races and I wanted to leave a daft comment. Specifically I wanted to quote what Muttley says after Dick Dastardly takes back a medal, as they both plummet to the ground, having failed to stop that pigeon! (Okay, maybe it's not quite the right cartoon, but so what?) But how to spell it? Nowhere on the net could I find anyone who had had a go at spelling it (drat, foiled again!) So full marks to Lewis for
his effort: Snckn-fstn-mckn-snckn-wawa-grr.

So if you want to find out who did the voice of Benny the Ball in Top Cat, what the theme music to Black Beauty was called, or if you just want an entertaining wallow in nostalgia, this is for you. I'm off to find Wigggly's old op now... Sheeeschsheeeschsheeeschsheeeschsheeesch!

¶ Hardback £9.99 ¶ ISBN: 0749005769 ¶ pp 354 ¶
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