Come and HELP the Garden Grow (Again)

 

For those who don't need my personal pep talk to help the Magic Garden come back, or don't care about my random babbling about how much the show meant to me, click the banner under the blog subtitle above, or the show's title here, they go straight to their funding site.

The Magic Garden was as important a part of my (and many others') childhood as Sesame Street or the Electric Company.  

And now we all have a chance to help bring it back in an adorable animated form.

Even at the time I watched it as a little one it was obvious that Carole and Paula were best friends since childhood, and not just because the talked about it.  

In retrospect, it's obvious they were both teachers, and it's obvious that sometimes (or maybe more than sometimes) not everything went according to plan and they were fantastic at adjusting on the fly and having fun while doing it.

What wasn't obvious was that Magic Garden was a local show in the New York area, which I didn't learn until college, when those of us from around here discussed it fondly, and took pity on those who missed out. Clearly the rest of the world should get to join in the fun and learning.

What remains not obvious - considering  the show premiered the day before my second birthday, nearly fifty years ago- is that, somehow, Carole and Paula (who were clearly grown ups when it aired) look and sound much younger and in better shape than I do, and still sound almost exactly like they used to when singing amazing harmonies together.

It must be part of the Garden's magicalness.

Carole's voice was familiar in our home, as the original Broadway cast album of Grease was in high rotation in my Mom's rock n' roll albums. 

Aside - Its possible that Barry Bostwick's presence as Danny predisposed me to be a Rocky Horror fan, but never mind that now.

Paula also had a history of performing, with a folk group- "The Wee Uns," and they both have NYU Master's degrees in education.

The Magic Garden Series itself was fantastic.  There was a bit of a "hippie" edge to it, and the colors were on the psycheldelic side...

But it was the Seventies. Life was like that.  In first grade, thanks to gifts from my Mother's Aunts, I wore paisley and plaid suits to school. There was nothing else on the racks.

Though it is possible the show is responsible for folks my age from around The City having a thing for pigtails.

The show didn't have the rapid fire vaudeville/ Laugh In  inspired format of Sesame Street and the Electric Company, making it a generally feel more comforting and warm. 

The series can easily captivate children from later decades however, as proved by my daughter's enthusiastic reaction when the CD and DVD sets came out.  (Which, he said shamelessly plugging the campaign again, backers can get autographed copies of.)  This is a sentiment echoed by friends and family who showed it to their kids.

The combination of the two women's performing and teaching backgrounds greatly increased the feeling that they were speaking directly to not only to the audience in general, but directly to each viewer in particular.  Adding names to the "Hello Song" increased the personal touch. I knew other people had the same name as me, but after we sent a letter in, I was convinced I was the "Jeffrey" they mentioned on the air.  I'm pretty sure they understood this, as the "Hello Song" on the show album has a full two minutes of ever increasing speed names at the end.

Aside- THIS WAS SO COOL!!!!!

However, because the creators were from Brooklyn, the show never stagnated.  It moved at a clip to keep those of us in the New York area focused, and the pauses when we were supposed to (and always did) respond weren't long enough to take a nap.  

(I'm looking at you, Dora.)

Cary Antebi rounded out that cast as the puppeteer (formerly working for Henson, and also a New Yorker, sense a pattern?) that brought the mischievous and peanut obsessed (but lovable) Sherlock and naïve and anxiety prone (but lovable) Flapper to life. They added a sense of extra playfulness and a bit of anti-authority to the garden.  Considering he was the only puppeteer and Sherlock and Flapper often appeared in the same scene talking to each other, he's another example of the awesomeness of the show.

The beauty of The Magic Garden was Carole and Paula brought us an incredible variety of experiences, beyond the basic nuts and bolts learning of stuff like counting, words, and comparisons.  

The fables, folk tales and fairy tales in the Story Box (held together, despite the construction paper and felt props, by the cast's skill and total enthusiasm) were similar to the many folk songs, and kids songs from many various cultures featured on the show. They were all originally part of an oral tradition to pass on both entertainment and wisdom in their cultures.  The original songs and stories in the show carried a similar vibe.  

For example, I'm pretty sure "The Parrot Who Sang Opera" wasn't a folk tale in any culture, but given how much the three performers threw themselves into their roles, (Carole's dastardly villainy, Paula's little old lady laments and jigs, and Sherlock's over the top operatic lip synching and squawking) it should have been.

The problem with everything being easily available online now, is one has to go looking for a specific thing to learn about it. The Magic Garden was fantastic at providing us a gigantic cross section of these tales,  songs and myriad other items to broaden our young horizons.  However, because they were all framed in repeated segments, surrounding them in the familiar settings made the new stuff more easily acceptable.

The Magic Tree supplied instruments, animals and all manner of creative play items which Carole and Paula would share with us.  (When I was older and it was on during school, I seemed to always only catch the kinkajou episode on days I was home, it was maddening.)

Finally there was the Chuckle Patch. (I just learned their laughter was Carole's and Paula's speeded up. How cool is that?)  The Chuckle Patch was important, not only because it provided jokes, which I maintain are vital to kidom in general.  It was vital because Carole and Paula would very clearly delineate between the funny jokes and the terrible jokes. Kids love groaners just as much as hilarious riddles, and understanding the difference in the reactions, they cause, and which one a child prefers to elicit, is a keystone of establishing a kid's sense of humor.

The show was fun, educational, inspiring, and left a huge impression on all of us who experienced it originally. And now we have a chance to help bring it back in a new wonderful  looking animated form.

No it won't be exactly the same, but the world is a much different place, and they have quality people with Sesame Street cred  on the creative team. (Sesame Street continues as the gold standard for children's programming.)  Carole and Paula are providing input and voicing the sunflowers.  They've continued appearing and performing together all this time, and are doing fantastically on multiple social media platforms.  Therefore, it will definitely capture the spirit and important parts of the original, and be awesome in modern times.

I wanted to wait until I was an official contributor before posting this.  However, that means there is less than a month left!

Come on people! I know I've seen crowdfuning finance stuff almost immediately that in the grand scheme of things is almost totally useless.

This one is important!

This is a chance to return a warm, nurturing, fun, wisdom and learning imparting show to children in a world where they could really use that kind of boost.

HELP BRING BACK THE MAGIC GARDEN!

Back them, and share the link to their funding site wherever you can, please.

Click here for the campaign.

Or anywhere else that I mentioned the name of the show above.

Or in the banner under the blog's subtitle.

I'm serious, lets do this!

See ya, see ya, hope you had a good good time...

Da Dum!

WAIT!  

In doing a rewatch of the show DVDs, I have a question. 

In the very early episodes Sherlock was obsessed with acorns, 

but it quickly switched to peanuts.  

Were they worried kids would try to eat acorns to emulate Sherlock?

Did kids actually eat acorns?

I mean...I ate one once, but it had nothing to do with the The Magic Garden.

It was another case of me being a really smart kid up to the point of being stupid.

(Like the whale in the Natural History Museum thing again.)

I knew acorns were actually in the nut family, and animals ate them, therefore they should be edible.  The fact that I had never heard of anyone using them as food under any circumstances when they were so plentiful should have been a hint.

It was gross.

Sorry, that was a weird diversion even for me...

Anyway.

Hope you had a good good morning, mmm mmmm.

Hope we get to see you again.

Da dum

Whistle and fade out.