From the Golden Era of TV Cartoons

Last summer, we had a guest living with us. It was my daughter's college roommate. She had an internship with an LA production company. And because we had an empty room, we agreed to let her stay with us.

We quickly absorbed her into our Dinner and Jeopardy routine. And by the end of the summer she was ardently looking forward to my wife's bread crumb chicken and a lively half hour of world trivia. The great thing about Jeopardy is how it bounces all over the place. From capitals in Southeast Asia to home run hitters of the 1940's.

For some reason or other, last week we found ourselves talking about cartoon shows of our childhood. And that's when the topic of Magilla Gorilla came up.

My first recollection, was the intro song. Oddly enough, I remembered the tune but could not recite the lyrics, other than the chorus. I immediately went to the Google and found it.

Or at least I thought I did. They were badly remixed beat box versions and EDM versions. But not the original. Well, this morning I committed myself to a trip down Nostalgia Lane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvAtG3T2NDY

My oldest daughter, being preternaturally inquisitive, wanted to know more about this odd sounding show.

"What was is it about?"

My 44 year old brain responded and blurted out,

"Well, it's about this guy who owns a pet shop and can't sell this gorilla. Magilla Gorilla."

"What?", she said, "that's not a premise for a show. You people (meaning of my generation) had weird TV."

Let's gloss over the fact that these days you can watch a television show about 600 lbs. people who never leave their living room, people who hoard boxes, schmatta and tchotchkes, and couples who go apartment hunting in Ecuador.

Nevertheless I wanted to fact check myself and make sure my mind wasn't playing tricks on me. After all a kid's cartoon show about a pet shop owner who can't sell a talking gorilla did seem a little thin. Not to mention a little influenced by lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD.

It turns out I was right.

I'm not big on binge watching TV shows, but if this pandemic persists, and with nutty irresponsible fuckknuckles who refuse to wear a mask and insist on ingesting pool chemicals, I see no reason why it won't, I might have to hunker down for a few quality hours with Magilla and the peevish Mr. Peebles.

I bet that song is stuck in your head, isn't it?