Monday, April 23, 2007

Awful Waffle

Tell me someone remembers the show Salute Your Shorts. Because no one in my office does. In fact, when I told the mail guy I’d give him an awful waffle if he didn’t deliver my NY magazine to my inbox soon, he and everyone in the surrounding area looked at me like I was nuts.

Just because we’re in cubes doesn’t mean we have to pretend we were cultivated here, do we?

Come on, Ug, Donkey Lips, that redheaded kid from T2? You know the one. The one with the mullet. What a badass. Check out how he totally screwed up the song by saying ‘fart’ instead of ‘part’. Wow, that still slays me.

The Nickelodeon of my youth rocked***. Hey Dude, Welcome Freshmen, and old-school You Can’t Do That On Television re-runs (Barf’s burgers—delightfully gross, and I remember this one skit where all the guys were growing mustaches, and Moose said she was growing one, and she lifted up her shirt and was growing it in her arm pit—priceless).

Going back even further, there was Today’s Special, Pinwheel, (whoa—how scary is this intro to watch today? You’re welcome for the nightmares to come tonight.) Reading Rainbow and my favorite of favorites: Square One. Mathnet was sweet.

Today, I wish T.V. was as good as it used to be and pass a little diversion to you. Thank you, YouTube. You’ve saved Monday once again.

***Addendum: Because of some excellent suggestions I am linking the following: Clarissa Explains It All (oh how I searched for the Hammer Pants episode where Mr. Darling and Sam danced in baggy glitter pants), Are You Afraid of The Dark? (remember that episode where it was another dimension and the other dimension people had no faces or the one where the big pinball was going to run down the escalator and kill that kid?), Pete and Pete and finally, what I think is the best Nickelodeon commercial ever: Inside Out Boy.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

still totally obsessed with salute your shorts - its out on dvd now i think.

thankfully i still have some old episodes on tape for some reason - the one i'm most thankful for is the mathnet movie, though! for some reason pbs aired a bunch of mathnets back-to-back instead of just at the end of square one...it's absolutely fantastic. but it was after they moved to new york, and everyone knows the best mathnets were while george and kate were still in LA.

Anonymous said...

on a side note, or not even a side note, an addendum maybe. (I didnt graduate college, so I'm not sure what an addendum is, but it sounds right used here)

I work occasionally with big pete from Pete & Pete. He is an electrician in the movie world. Which seems like a strange devolution, but the dude digs it.
And it works out for me, cause every time I see him I think of Pete and Pete which then sends me on to all the shows you mentioned in your post.

Which makes me smile.

No work today, time to go out side.

Katie said...

When i was younger and visited department stores, i totally wanted to find a mouse that lived in the wall and checked to see if the mannequins could be real.

Anonymous said...

That's funny, a friend of mine used to date the younger Pete. He would go to Phish shows in costume and get hounded by ecstatic hippies.

Anonymous said...

This is awesome.

Anonymous said...

Wow! I was thinking of Salute Your Shorts just the other day. The redhead kid always reminded me of Danny Bonaduce. I also remember the cheesy pre-teen soap "Fifteen". The horrible acting and bad lighting were just amazing. Good times, good times.

Anonymous said...

Welcome Freshman. Good call. The teacher's standup comedy act with his secretary on drums was a treat.

Youre thinking of Danny Cooksey. All good calls. Your co-workers must be retarded.

Anonymous said...

I went to high school with a guy who frequently showed up as "Teddy Forzman" on Pete & Pete AND I used to work with "Buddy" from "Hey Dude" who pretty much refused to talk about it. I didn't think that was fair of him.

No one at my job remembers Hattytown, which I'm pretty sure was a short that was on Pinwheel.

Mathnet was part of Square 1, which was a PBS show.

Anonymous said...

I lived in the same apartment building in Manhattan at 3rd and c with Little Pete from Pete and Pete for about 2 years. He became a staple at our garden parties and always had good bud. Very very cool dude.

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh, I loved Fifteen!! You know Ryan Reynolds (from Van Wilder) was on that show way back when he was young. I always thought he was hot and still do! Thanks for the blast from the past.

Oh yeah, LOVED Salute Your Shorts too!

missa said...

hells yeah I remember salute your shorts! I keep waiting for them to release it on DVD! Why is it not out yet!? Let's start a petition.

PS. your blog is linked on Gawker, you probably noticed by now. Good job!

missa said...

midwesterner:

Is it really out on DVD? It has a page on amazon, but reviewers say it doesn't actually exist!

(must be nostalgic...I'm getting obsessed.)

AuditoryCooze said...

The red-headed kid Danny Cooksey also had a metal band Bad 4 Good (aka my first cd ever.)
I would give my left one for a 6 hour tape of all of those shows.

Do you remember the afternoon movies, in particular "The Day my kid went punk"?

Noelle said...

Last week, I was just writing about how my younger co-workers don't know You Can't Do That On Television, the genesis of Nick's slime obsession. So sad.

I never would have thought of the show Pinwheel again until you mentioned it. Now I can't stop thinking "Pinwheel Spinwheel spinning around." Thank goodness for You Tube, indeed.

Also, since everyone here seems to know Little Pete (Danny Tamborelli) I have to mention that he was a freshman in my high school when I was a senior. He was in my sister's class, along with Chris Simms.

Anonymous said...

can't believe no-one has mentioned that Iggy Pop played an ongoing character on Pete and Pete. My kids used to watch it, and I thought I was hallucinating when I saw him. I have no idea what the connection was, or how he ended up on the show, but he was there. For real.

Anonymous said...

Pete and Pete IS on DVD ...

As far as who was a regular in Wellsville, we saw a multitude of hip guest stars from Michael Stipe to ... Michelle Trachtenberg and Selma Blair. Oh yeah. Best show Nickelodeon ever picked up. Check out this page for an episode guide:

http://pnp.norecess.org/

Mjones said...

I tried to find re-runs of Today's Special on DVD but alas, I cannot. I hate to think that my children will grow up in a world without any Hocus Pocus Alomagocus.

Anonymous said...

Pinky from Salute Your Shorts is now part of Rilo Kiley. I used to LOVE that show.

K said...

How could I have forgotten Reading Rainbow?? Thank you CodePink!

Also, I'm a little embarassed of this--but I really liked Rocko's Modern Life. Yes I am aware that at eleven, I was probably too old to watch it...

Anonymous said...

Please don't forget Picture Pages with Bill Cosby..."picture pages picture pages its time to get your picture pages - its time to get your crayons and your pencils!"

Anonymous said...

I emailed this post and thread to my husband who just informed me: "I was at a Deerhoof show in NYC and I saw Big Pete as a beardo walk by me a
few times."

Anonymous said...

I loved Salute You Shorts but I REALLY loved Hey Dude. Lots of famous people came out of those...Ben Stiller's wife was on Hey Dude and Alanis Morissette was on You Can't do That on Television.

I am such a dork for even knowing that but I don't care!

Anonymous said...

My siblings and I still talk about these shows as though having just seen them for the first time.

The Hammer Pants episode was indeed a classic!!!

Thanks for a quick trip down memory lane.

Double Dare, anyone?

nacho_supreme said...

Pete and Pete and Salute Your Shorts were both amazing...Remember Pinsky from the latter days of Salute Your Shorts? He was like, the new bad-ass prankster that moved in during the later seasons? See amazing bands Rilo Kiley and The Elected...

Anonymous said...

Also!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_World_of_Alex_Mack

I loved that show.

-J