Oscar The Rabbit - childrens tv programme

[Billy Casper]

Re: Oscar The Rabbit - childrens tv programme

Oscar (1977) was a strange offering by the Little Angel Puppet Company. It was broadcast by Tyne-Tees TV on weekday lunchtimes and concerned the adventures of the eponymous rabbit, who fell down a dustbin into the world of Rubbidge, a Wonderland-esque location peopled by the friendly likes of Zaggy the Dragon, The Great Wooferoo, inventor Sir Feathersqueak (the knight with the clock), and the malevolent Ger-Nashers, a cave-dwelling pterodactyl, who possessed several sets of false teeth of varying degrees of “fierceness”, which he kept hanging on a washing line. It also featured a jaunty fairground theme tune and narration by Lance Percival.

[weetam]

Re: Oscar The Rabbit - childrens tv programme

INFO FROM THE MAIN DYR WEBSITE

Deinitely!!!!!, we used to get it in Scotland about mid-late afternoon, I can remember him swinging about on a tyre at the either beginning or the end of the programme, It was called something like Oscar and the great Wooferoo, I remember the tune vividly and Karen O you are right about the sort of fairground style music and yes it was very screechy in places, Gnashers was the Pterodactyl and the Dragon was called Zaggy and did involve the Washing Line of Death, I think Gnashers may have also appeared in a very similar type of programme called The Dinosaur Show and it was set to a black background but you could sometimes see the movements of the persons controlling the puppets in the background. I reckon this was out about 1977ish,same time as Jamie and The Magic Torch
mark welsh 17-Sep-2008, 02:49:08 PM

Oscar, Ganshers and the Great Wooferoo! I have been trying to track this down for years, even contacted Tyne TV and tried to contact Lance Percival who did the voices but to no avail. The land they all lived in was at the bottom of a dustbin and every now and then a piece of trash would fall out of the sky, like an old tin can or a fish skeleton, the whole thing was completely weird and nightmarish and I have never forgotten it. The BFI own the reels and the rights and we are unlikely to ever see it again unless someone wins the lottery and buys it off them, I would!
JudgeAnderson 18-Apr-2009, 07:26:23 PM

Report bad post

Can you remember anything else about "The Dinosaur Show" or if there is photos or DVD of it> cheers

[HOORAY]

Re: Oscar The Rabbit - childrens tv programme

I vaguely remember "Oscar the Rabbit" too. I had forgotten about the pteradactyl thing!

My sister and I used to spend our Easter holidays at our grandparents and they received Border Television (ITV). Oscar the Rabbit seemed to be shown at midday, or slightly earlier (it couldn't have been later as ITN's 'The World at One' news was at 1 O' Clock and 'Emmerdale Farm' was around 2PM).

We stayed in the Scottish Television region, and I can't remember if it was shown there - if it was, we would have been at school anyway.

What a pity it is locked away in the archives.

I remember Oscar vividly, it must have been the ultraviolet. Gnashers was always trying to eat that pesky little rabbit - I have strong memories of the cauldron bubbling. It was shown very sporadically in the South, & always at 12.00, or 12.10, depending on Pipkins, Mumfie, Rupert, Little Blue or Issi Noho (which no one remembers, but I still can't get that flutey theme tune out of my head!).

Having looked at the TV scheduling posted, it's no wonder people don't remember it well - you were lucky to see more than a handful of episodes, & I only saw it when I was sick! Ditto Cloppa Castle!

I've done some research here http://youcantdothatontvanymore.blog...1_archive.html & here http://www.vintagemedia.co.za/television/oscar , & it seems like the original production was Tyne Tees, with the original episodes dubbed into Afrikaans later (it started 9 months earlier in the UK), & then at some point the English puppeteers sauntered off to South Africa & started making them there.

That said, there is no correlation in the order of episodes, & I think ITV as a whole just couldn't be bothered to show all they made. The last 2 shows were broadcast 7 & 11 months after those preceding them. To further confuse the issue, the South African link above explicitly states that theirs is a separate production - which would be a bit mad wouldn't it! Hopefully, they only meant the not UK shown series 3.

Either way, even back in the 70s they knew that routine was important for kids, & they royally screwed us about with this & many other shows. You'd wait for this but instead you got Animal Kwackers, Rainbow & then the blooming Sullivans. Then you turned over from the News at One, & it was a 30 - 45 minute wait for Pebble Mill to finish & get 15 minutes of relief from Barnaby the Bear, Mr Benn etc., & then nothing till tea time! But some days it was the Flumps - aargh!

How we all survived, I'll never know.

[Jerry]

Yeah..it was an afrikaans kids show..UK done a dubbed version..about a rabbit called Oscar..and a pterodactyl called Knersus..had a great theme tune..especially the closing tune where the pterodactyl played the Trumpet sole!..my favourite part!!
you can't get the English version.but the afrikaans version is on YouTube.. just type 'oscar and knersus'