today’s special
I was obsessed with the show Today’s Special as a child. Every few years I would do some searching for it to no avail. Well the internet has caught up wih the late 80s! YouTube has a bunch of great vids, including the intro. It’s painfully musical (and the singing isn’t even very good) and Canadian, and the storyline revolves around a department store with a mannequin with a magical hat that turns him “real” or at least real in a gay high school musical sense of real. The other characters are a dept. store window designer, a puppet security guard, and a talking puppet mouse. I do not know for sure, but I think a talking puppet mouse would shock me more than a living mannequin with a magic hat. In retrospect I have no idea why the mannequin didn’t leave the store when real a la Mannequin. I haven’t been this excited since Danger Mouse came out.
Now to lose many hours to Zoobalie Zoo.
9 Comments so far
1. nanette wrote on May 18th, 2008 at 7:17 am
My brother was obsessed with that show as well. I was too old for it, and I thought it was way past stupid and kind of annoying!
2. Jenn Miller wrote on May 18th, 2008 at 7:55 am
I loved Today’s Special! And I was way too old to be watching it when it came out, so don’t tell anyone.
3. Vanessa wrote on May 19th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Oh, thank god. Jeff always looks at me like I’m insane when I try to describe TODAY’S SPECIAL to him. I only saw it at my Grandma’s house and thus my memories are pretty fuzzy.
Now…does anyone recall THE POLKADOT DOOR? The Polkaroo gave me nightmares.
4. G "Motion City Soundtrack (Clean Version)" P wrote on May 20th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Jenny, thanks for posting that link! I have vague memories of watching that show in my pre-K years, but I was beginning to think that the memories were self-created (did I smoke sherms or something as a child?).
5. Miss E wrote on May 21st, 2008 at 5:05 am
Zoobalie Zoo!
6. jenny wrote on May 21st, 2008 at 6:29 am
Why, Ben Vareen, WHY?!
7. Sarah wrote on May 21st, 2008 at 10:00 am
I loved Today’s Special, but hadn’t thought of it in years . . . It was an odd show, I guess.
And as for Danger Mouse, last year’s end-of-year survival present was all the seasons of Danger Mouse on DVD. I love Danger Mouse
8. GP wrote on May 21st, 2008 at 6:15 pm
This one’s for the JB (and you don’t stop): “erotic tangerines…erotic letters from Ben Vereen!
9. amy wrote on May 22nd, 2008 at 2:23 am
omg I was just thinking about that show like three days before you posted this! the boy had no idea what I was talking about until I found the youtube video… then he remembered. That show was so mysterious.