Old School TV

I was at my mom's house over the weekend and managed to catch two things on television that I had not seen in years. You know, not since I was a lower case g.

The first was the Japanese children's cartoon Ikkyusan. First let me say that I had no idea that the Japanese television station NGN is kind of like MTV now, they have a billion stations. Ikkyusan I believe currently airs locally on either NGN2 or NGN3. When I was younger they would play the cartoon on the original station and I would catch it on occasion at my grandma's house. This was back in the early 80's and even then the cartoon was being re-aired. Looking back it seems quite odd that this cartoon about a young zen monk aired contemporaneously with the likes of My Little Pony and Thundercats. I only caught the second half of this weekend's episode, but I did catch the most memorable part of the cartoon for me, the end credits. Just like I remembered it, a little teru teru bozu hanging in wind and a song about Ikkyusan writing home to his mum. See for yourself:



Now if I could only track down a copy of the old series Oshin, I could really get nostalgic about Japanese television. (Note to Beyonce: if you ever find yourself hard pressed to write yet another independent lady type song, watch this series for inspiration).

The other thing that I caught airing over the weekend is Twilight Zone: The Movie. Since my sister and I used to always manage to catch it on TV when we were younger and I've never seen it on the big screen, I still consider this old school TV. After all these years the movie still manages to freak the heck out of me. Well, most of it does, the exception being the Kick the Can segment. That one is just sadly poignant. The worst tale is It's a Good Life, the one about Anthony, the boy with supernatural powers. The part that really freaks me out is when Anthony sends his sister into cartoonland, where she is supposedly trapped forever. Seems kind of lame, right? Well it is, until you realize that his sister is played by Nancy Cartwright, who became the voice of Bart Simpson for a billion years. See, she really was trapped in cartoonland, 4 eva!!!