This Week’s Horrible-Scopes
It’s time for this week’s Horrible-Scopes! So for those of you that know your Astrological Signs, cool! If not, just pick one, roll a D12, or just make it up as you go along.
After checking the calendar we have to change what theme we’re working with - because it’s not quite time for Coyote Vs. Acme to come out. Which means we need to come up with something else - and we’re about to deliver. There’s entire generations who grew up on TV shows, and we’re about to give you a little reminder of just how unhinged some of these were in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. Go grab your bowl of Choco-Frosted Sugar Bombs Cereal and remember - people were stone cold sober when they created these shows!
Aries
The Sid And Marty Krofft Supershow (1976-1978) had live-action segments interspersed with musical numbers by the fake glam-rock band ‘Kaptain Kool And The Kongs’. What shows? How about Dr Shrinker, Electra Women and Dyna Girl, Wonder Bug, Bigfoot and Wildboy, and Mongo World. And the band? They released two albums and the songs were written by the squeaky-clean Osmonds! Let’s see if anyone sings along with those lyrics. So This Week… Ready everyone? “Don’t get left behind. Take a trip with us today. We will lead you to a land of dreams. Krofft’s got some super shows. They will blow your mind away. When you join us, you’ll know why we say.” So, who can still sing it?
Taurus
Paul Reubens built on the surreal world he created with Tim Burton in ‘Pee Wee's Big Adventure’ with Pee Wee’s Playhouse (1986-1990). Between the King Of Cartoons, the talking chair (Chairee), Genie, and Conkie the Robot (to name but a few), the playhouse was a dream you’d be happy never waking up from. So This Week… Before all that Kid-friendly stuff, Pee Wee was a VERY adult-oriented comedy act. Go look up his HBO Comedy Special from 1981 - just keep the kids away from it. “Mecha-Lecha HIGH, Mecha Hiney-Ho!”
Gemini
More Krofft brothers madness for you with Sigmund and The Sea Monsters (1973-1975). Sigmund is a lovable sea monster who gets kicked out of his parent’s house because he won’t terrorize people. He’s befriended by two young humans, brothers Johnny and Scott, who try to keep him out of trouble and out of harm’s way from his bullying brothers. This sets up a disturbing pattern, because Sigmund is always terrified. His family was a bunch of abusive dicks! So This Week… If you go to the beach and see a seaweed version of “Cousin It”, No You Didn’t! And neither did everyone in your group! Just walk away!
Cancer Moon-Child
We’ll give you the premise first. Mark, a kid who sneaks into a magician’s dressing room after the show, wants to learn how all the tricks were done. But the magician’s hat on the floor GROWS - so big that Mark climbs up on the brim, falling in, and ends up in a world populated by living hats. Mark is befriended by a Genie named Weenie as they battle the evil magician Horatio J. Hoodoo and his henchman named Raunchy Rabbit. So This Week… The show was called Lidsville (1971-1973) and of COURSE it was Sid and Marty Kroft’s work again!
Leo
Imagine you’re on Future Earth, and it’s losing an Intergalactic War badly. Earth’s surface is uninhabitable - but a tiny planet in the Large Magellanic Cloud has offered a way for Humanity to purge the radioactivity and save Earth’s people. This is the plot of Star Blazers (1979-1984) aka Spaceship Yamato aka Space Battleship Yamato. Reminding you the spaceship was the Real Life Japanese battleship Yamato, retrofitted with Wave Motion Engines, starfighter planes, and nine Shock-Turrets to battle through the forces of Deslok and the Gamalon Armies. So This Week… If you watched the “Star Blasers” version, you watched an inferior version. Go get the ORIGINAL Japanese version with subtitles and marvel at how brave these soldiers were. And the Doctor was NOT drinking “Spring Water” - that ‘water’ was flammable!
Virgo
Gerry Anderson produced several TV shows including Space: 1999, but that’s not what we’re discussing this time. Using something called “Supermarionation” he created Captain Scarlet and The Mysterons (1967-1968). Imagine a show using wires, electronics, and magnets to make a sci-fi show as compelling as any live-action show - with better stunt doubles! SoThis Week… Remember this disclaimer, “Captain Scarlet is indestructible. You are not. Remember this. Do not try to imitate him.”
Libra
OH, LOOK! More bat-shit craziness from Sid and Marty Krofft! Imagine that! Land of the Lost (1974-1976) whose premise is so bizarrely disjointed that maybe they used a focus group of sleep deprived, sugar bombed kids holed up in a room for brainstorming. “Come up with a show if you want to go home!” And they’d shoot back “Dinosaurs”, “A dude made up of blinking lights!”, “Wheezing monsters that remind me of Grandpa!!”, and an ape-kid called “Chaka”. (*PAUSE*) So This Week… Just because they made a movie based on this doesn’t mean it was good… ‘cause it wasn’t! Twenty years after Godzilla was created and the rubber suits for the Sleestacks were worse to look at.
Scorpio
How many of you remember Richard Pryor? Ok, how many of you knew he had a TV show for a while? Yeah, you’re all liars! Pryor’s Place (1984) was on CBS on Saturday Mornings and it replaced Bill Cosby’s Fat Albert. It dealt with inner city life, but unlike Cosby’s rose-colored view, Pryor’s Place was more sobering. While this was more realistic, it made for miserable kid show-fare. So This Week… Guess who co-created the show? That’s right - Sid And Marty Krofft! What did you expect? The Spanish Inquisition?
Sagittarius
If you wanted a weekly TV show with Godzilla production values, you just needed to tune into Ultraman (Original run 1966-1967). He was a Giant Robot who fought all sorts of oversized critters - think Power Rangers, but with just one main character. More charming than you’d expect despite its sub-par special effects, it’s worth seeing just for the awesome costume. So This Week… Maybe getting dressed well really CAN make all the difference in how you come off to everyone. Try a classic 1940’s three-piece suit for Thanksgiving and see how your family treats you!
Capricorn
No collection of Sid and Marty Krofft works is complete without a nod to one of the weirdest, trippiest, acid-trippingest one of them all, H.R. Pufnstuff (1969-1971). Who remembers what Pufnstuff was? That’s right, he wasn’t a MacDonald’s Mascot gone bad, he was a dragon. He saves Jimmie and his magic flute named Freddy, from Witchie Poo. So This Week… You will get a contact high from this show. Do NOT watch it on a day before you have to go to work. They WILL notice the glassy look in your eyes.
Aquarius
If we told you Claymation and God can be mixed to make a kids’ show, you might want us to stop talking, but we totally have to finish this thought. Does the expression, “Oh, Davey!” bring back any latent memories? Davey and Goliath (1960-1964) always seemed excessively somber, devoid of joy and filled with guilt. Imagine young Davey is trapped in a railroad car and the moral of this episode? You’re never truly alone with God at your side. But hearing God whispering “all alone, all alone, God is everywhere” is more ominous than comforting. He sounds like a surly hobo, not the voice of salvation. So This Week… Believe it or not, this is where some of us learned what and how a Cotter Pin works. So maybe it wasn’t totally bad?
Pisces
And finally, what 70’s cartoon used poor voice actors to replace slapstick vaudeville performers with iconic voices who had all died? Robonic Stooges (1977-1978) answered the question of “What Happens When…?” but nobody asked for this. The Three Stooges were huge in reruns in the 70’s, and Hanna Barbera thought kids would love a show where they were in cyborg form, fighting crime. So This Week… Those Stooges were built with spare parts just shoved into their torsos - no, really! Watch the intro for the show! So maybe the lousiness of the whole thing was just because of how they were built? Maybe it was just a bad idea from the get-go. You can do better with a better team behind you.
And THOSE are your Horrible-Scopes for this week! Remember if you liked what you got, we’re obviously not working hard enough at these. BUT! If you want a better or nastier one for your own sign or someone else’s, all you need to do to bribe me is just Let Me Know - or check out the Ko-Fi page ( https://ko-fi.com/icarusthelunarguard )! These will be posted online at the end of each week via Tumblr, Facebook, Ko-Fi, Discord, and BLUESKY.





















