Hey captain, you forgot something.
[Captain Kangaroo; Show ‘N’ Tell disc/filmstrip (1978)]
The GE Show ‘N’ Tell device functioned as a record player with an attached filmstrip display (which looked like a television screen – “Jimmy, look, we got you a TEE VEE!!”). You put the record on the player, crammed the cardboard-edged filmstrip into a hole in the top, and the record would occasionally emit synchronized low tones that automatically advanced the filmstrip. The model that I had in my malformative youth came with two record/filmstrip sets: Captain Kanagaroo and Hitler. I don’t know what the story was there.1 The b-sides of the records had no corresponding filmstrip, so you were visually SOL. The complicated plotline of the Captain Kangaroo b-side focused on the Captain’s attempts to leave the house for the day that are foiled by other characters (Mr. Green Jeans, the grandfather clock, etc.):
“The very first thing I do when I get up, I put a smile on my face
... and I’m off to see the world.”
“Hey captain, you forgot something.”
“Oh, yes. The very first thing I do when I get up, I put on my pants,
and a smile on my face ... and I’m off to see the world.”2
“Hey captain, you forgot something.”
“Ohhh, yes ... The very first thing I do when ...”
[etc]
So essentially, the captain had decided to leave his house ... nude.3
Between the captain’s senility, the repetition factor, and our experiments,
the whole thing was the bee’s knees. Whenever I don’t know how
to end a Macros2000 entry, I will refer to the joints of a random insect.
– Jeff Stendec (May 30, 1997)
1 Of course my sister and I immediately entertained the two remaining “illogical” A/V pair-ups (Hitler filmstrip with Captain Kanagroo audio and vice-versa), decades before that “Dark Side of the Moon” and Wizard of Oz faux-synchronicity thing.
2 Doc has called to my attention the following extrapolation: “This must mean that the back of the Hitler record said something like ‘The very first thing that I do when I get up, I put a tiny moustache on my face ... and I’m off to conquor the world.’”
3 Now imagine this accompanying the Hitler filmstrip.