In 1971 a short-lived
Saturday morning kid’s show premiered, called Curiosity Shop. It was designed
to be a commercial rival to the popular public program Sesame Street. It
featured child hosts, puppetry, and the animation of some TV comic strips. Chuck
Jones was made the executive producer, and so many other people of pop cultural
significance were associated with it that it is surprising that it in not
better known. I remember an episode (come upon almost by accident at the time;
I was not a dedicated watcher) of Vincent Price singing “On-o-ma-to-PEE-a, On-o-ma-to-PEE-a”
and his sing-songy pronunciation of ‘onomatapoeia’ (a term meaning a word that sounds like the
noise it mimics). I hear Price every time I see the word. The show premiered ‘Three
is a Magic Number’, which kicked-off the popular Schoolhouse Rock, for corn’s
sake. Probably the main reason it is not better known is because there were
only about a dozen episodes produced, and when the show was over, most of them
were erased. Only one or two have survived, almost by accident, as have the
animations.
One of these animations was
a short directed by Abe Levitow, one of Chuck Jones’ old cronies from the
Warner Brothers studios. It featured characters from the comic strip The
Wizard of Id, who were voiced by Don Winchell and Paul Messick. Which is
all a long road leading to the fact that this was my first unwitting major exposure
to The Wizard of Id. This short can be seen today on YouTube.
But if I’m remembering
things correctly, my first real encounter with the Wizard was getting The
Wizard of Id: Yield (1974), probably a year or two after the publication
date. The strip had been running since November 1964, developed by Brant Parker
and Johnny Hart, who had already produced B.C. (which we’ll be getting
to later). The title was of course a parody of The Wizard of Oz,
combined with the Freudian idea of the Id, the chaotic, unformed area of the
mind. The strip still runs today, after the deaths of the original creators and
being bandied about between members of their families for decades.
My love of both fantasy
and satire made it the perfect franchise for me. Since at least The
Flintstones the idea of humorous commentary on modern times by transposing
them onto an anachronistic historical milieu was a popular concept. The King of
Id was a satire on a vain, touchy, and tyrannical government, the Wiz and his
powers on the bondage of the technical and creative class to the same. Besides
these major themes there were the usual and versatile tropes of humor: characters
such as the Wiz’s battle-ax wife Blanche, the alcoholic court jester Bung, the
corrupt lawyer Larson E. Pettifogger, the cowardly and inept head of the
military Sir Rodney, and the perpetually unfortunate prisoner the Spook were
just part of the cast that kept life among the citizens of Id (called Idiots)
lively. Between the revolting peasants and the constantly attacking Huns, life
for the King (whose short height was a sore point) developed into a royal pain.
For a while I became so
obsessed with Id that I feverishly dreamed of a line of figures for them, based
on the form of the Pogo Possum premiums made as tie-ins for his animated
special. Perhaps it was a fancied resemblance between Churchy La Femme’s nose
and Sir Rodney’s enormous schnozz. A while ago they started putting out
hard-backed anthologies of Id (I have two), but that seems to have petered out.
I also have at least two more Tattered Remnants besides those listed below whose titles have been lost with their spines.
Ala Kazot!
Charge!
I’m Off to See the Wizard
Yield
Suspended Sentence Indeed!
Well, This is Another Fine
How Do You Do
The Lone Haranguer Rides
Again
Every Man is Innocent Until
Proven Broke
I Dig Freedom
The Peasants are Revolting!
The Wondrous Wizard of Id
Abra Cadaver!
Pick a Card, Any Card
The Fing is a Kink!
There’s a Fly in My Swill!
The Wizard’s Back
My Kingdom for a Horsie!
We’ve Got to Stop Meeting
Like This
Remember the Golden Rule!
Let There Be Reign
Help Stamp Out Grapes
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