The Tomfoolery Show

[Stockcarfan]

Can anyone remember this?

One of the main charactors was a chap with an umbrella for his head with his glasses/eyes on the outside of the umbrella. I can't recall much about it really (but i did watch it) apart from the theme music.....

We're putting on the nonsence, the funny stuff & noncence. The riddles, jokes & silly things, it's all tomfoolery.

Is pretty much how it went I think.

[sixtyten]

Re: The Tomfoolery Show

Oh yes,Sunday mornings in the early 70's this used to be on.
probably not funny nowadays but I loved it then..Edward Lear Nonsense

[Oggy]

Re: The Tomfoolery Show

The Tomfoolery Show
Characters & Voices.
The Yonghy Bonghy Bo
The Umbrageous Umbrella Maker
The Fastidious Fish
The Enthusiastic Elephant
The Scrooby Snake Based on the characters in Edward Lear's 'The Nonsense Books', the characters would tell jokes, limericks, and stories. The show was modeled after 'Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In'. The Tomfoolery Show was a short-lived collection of animated shorts based on the nonsensical poetry of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, with occasional nods to other literary classics by Ogden Nash and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The high-minded concept went straight over the heads of its young viewers and the show was cancelled after just one season, but not before introducing us to such amusing recurring characters as the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo (whose head was ever so much bigger than his body), the Scroobious Snake, the Obsequious Ornamental Ostrich, the Enthusiastic Elephant, the Fitzgibbious Fish, the Umbrageous Umbrella Maker and the Worrying Whizzing Wasp.

[dannyboy]

Re: The Tomfoolery Show

I seem to remember a chicken belting around screaming "the sky is falling" and someone tearing a page from an atlas to make a recipe for baked Alaska.

[Oggy]

Re: The Tomfoolery Show

Sounds like it, mad and zany, but fun.

[Stockcarfan]

Re: The Tomfoolery Show

I seem to remember a chicken belting around screaming "the sky is falling" and someone tearing a page from an atlas to make a recipe for baked Alaska.

Now that rings a bell in the old memory banks.

Pity it isn't available on DVD! Or is it?

[Oggy]

Re: The Tomfoolery Show

Love to buy it if it was on DVD, but not sure if it is.

[Bad News 88]

Re: The Tomfoolery Show

"Tomfoolery" was made by Rankin-Bass.

Featuring the characters from the minds of Edward Lear & Lewis Carroll...with a little help from Rankin-Bass scriptwriter Romeo Muller.

The *brilliant* incidental music as well as the Signature Tune was composed by Maury Laws.

The animation was done in the United Kingdom by HALAS & BATCHELOR, most renowned for their 1940's (1950's?) animated feature film adaptation of George Orwell's "ANIMAL FARM"

The character voices were provided by veteran actors Bernard Spear & Peter Hawkins - mostly renowned for their work in the Golden Age "Doctor Who".

The series ran from 1970 to 1971 on NBC TV in the USA. It also had a run on BBC 2 in the UK at that time as well..

VERY well done, brilliantly written & fluidly animated...and maybe a little too avant-garde and ahead of its time..it certainly left ALL of my childhood chums bewildered...their tastes were largely unprepared for something so challenging.

The bird character, by the way, was an ostrich....referred to in one episode as "Brucie".

STILL funnier than the Dickens (no pun intended) to THIS VERY DAY...for MY money!

Wish it had a DVD release of ALL the episodes.

[soundsfamiliar]

Re: The Tomfoolery Show

I remember this show being shown on Granada (my ITV region). I really loved the songs. It was great animation, sadley there are no DVD releases and it's not played on any stations.
(soundsfamiliar.biz)

[macster123]

Re: The Tomfoolery Show

the sky is falling,the sky is falling!