Monday, October 23, 2017

There's not a vampire zanier than...

With so many cult favorite TV shows being brought back to life in the last few years, I keep wondering why the best vegetarian vampire duck cartoon ever made, Count Duckula, hasn't gotten the reboot treatment. The show was spun off from Danger Mouse, which is already on Netflix in both reruns and new rebooted episodes. Why no love for the funniest tomato juice-swilling duck ever to descend from Daffy?

Nanny, has this information penetrated
what we laughingly call your BRAIN???
Count Duckula was a British production from the late 80s-early 90s that in my experience only played around 7am on Saturday mornings. It was always appointment TV for me! So far only the first season of the show has been released on DVD in the U.S., but luckily most of the episodes are available on YouTube. They usually center around Count Duckula's bumbling efforts to get rich and famous, much to the horror of his butler Igor, who is ashamed that Duckula does not follow in his vampire ancestors' footsteps. Along with Igor, Duckula is both accompanied and hindered by an enormous and extremely clumsy hen named Nanny, who is intelligence-challenged to say the least. Count Duckula is relentlessly pursued by the supremely stupid vampire hunter Dr. Von Goosewing, who, like many of my older relatives and acquaintances, just doesn't seem to get the whole vegetarian thing.

I consider Count Duckula to be part of the late 80s-early 90s golden age of cartoons/kids shows that were so smart, funny, and absurd that they became beloved by children and adults alike. For me, it's up there with the rest of its brilliant contemporaries, like Pee-Wee's Playhouse, Ren and Stimpy, and even The Simpsons. Check out an episode or ten when you can, but until then, enjoy the groovy intro and outro theme!

2 comments:

  1. I guess I was too old for this one. Have no recollection of it. I mean, I know OF it, just never watched. Would give it a go if it ever goes streaming.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It was hard to catch. As far as I know it only camae on very early on Saturday mornings, I think on Nickelodeon. Worth checking out on YouTube if you get the chance!

    ReplyDelete