The second episode from the first live series sees the Pink Windmill Kids building a wall in an attempt to keep out Grotbags - to the accompaniment of One Brick at a Time (from the musical Barnum). Her Great Greenness herself, meanwhile, is still not yet quite used to Robot Redford's "manner". Also, his head falls off at one point. Keep an eye out for that.
This episode was originally broadcast on Friday, 20th July, 1984, and the second musical interlude in Emu's Choice is Songs, originally by The Kids from Fame. There's all the usual segments such as the Post Office, and in a significant first, Prince Poorly (played by Michael Barrington) drops in to visit his cousins in Boggle's Kingdom in an episode that in all fairness goes on slightly too long.
To be frank, whereas the plots of predecessor Emu's World were strong enough to carry a 20-minute show in their own right, by the live era they didn't need to be, so they weren't. In fact, they're absolutely wafer-thin in this series, and basically amount any old excuse to get Grotbags to the Pink Windmill, whereupon she takes three brats hostage (for the Cauldron Game). This improved in the next series, but proper storylines still wouldn't make a full comeback until 1987. Those efforts were saved for Boggle's Kingdom in the meantime. All that said, there's still more than enough fun to be enjoyed here as Rod and Emu cause a bit of havoc when they attend a ceremony to present the keys of a van for children with difficulties, but the teething troubles soon return and things go genuinely belly-up during Emu's Spin Quiz. Honestly, it's almost excruciating to watch. Whoever thought that was a good idea for live TV...?
Many thanks to Louise for lending me this tape.
(Please remember that this is an old VHS recording, so don't go expecting 1080p HD quality. I'm fairly certain that this video isn't commercially available, and I've uploaded it for its historic interest only. That said, if you are a copyright holder and object, please don't hesitate to contact me.)
17 янв 2013
