I absolutely love this theme!!! Haven't heard it since those evenings after dinner when the family (circa 1977 or so) would sit around the TV and watch this. Such memories.
I've never heard of Beatrice Witkin and Gerhard Trede before.
Really? We chat about them regularly on morning coffee breaks at work.
All kidding aside, I used to watch that show on an irregular basis and it was rather fun. The 70's had a lot of good syndicated television programming.
Lots of marimba/vibes/electronics/plucked bass music as well as acoustic guitar. All of it sounds sparse and tense, like the discussions at this board.
The opening credits could have been filmed right here at the olde FSM Boarde. There's footage of an FSM veteran chasing down and killing a newbie who's just introduced themselves, there are numerous shots of hippos and walruses which are a fair depiction of the athletically-challenged builds of many an FSMer, there's also a sunken-chested, sweater-wearing, horn-rimmed eyeglasses wearing guy who could pass for any of us.
To say nothing of the William Conrad narration, of course.
Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan were composers of electronic music who worked for Philips in the Netherlands. The album that I posted above was a US album combining music from each of them. It is hard to find, but there is an excellent 4-CD set from Basta that contains all of this music along with a bunch of other stuff from the same time and place. It also contains 7 different booklets!
Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan were composers of electronic music who worked for Philips in the Netherlands. The album that I posted above was a US album combining music from each of them. It is hard to find, but there is an excellent 4-CD set from Basta that contains all of this music along with a bunch of other stuff from the same time and place. It also contains 7 different booklets!
£44.95 is a bit more than I'd be willing to spend, but I like what I've heard.
Meanwhile, here's an artificial bump up of another cover version of Wild, Wild World of Animals (end title). Too bad no one's covered that opening theme.
The opening credits could have been filmed right here at the olde FSM Boarde. There's footage of an FSM veteran chasing down and killing a newbie who's just introduced themselves, there are numerous shots of hippos and walruses which are a fair depiction of the athletically-challenged builds of many an FSMer, there's also a sunken-chested, sweater-wearing, horn-rimmed eyeglasses wearing guy who could pass for any of us.
To say nothing of the William Conrad narration, of course.
Animals. So much like FSMers.
This reminds me of the SNL "Wild Kingdom" spoof, circa Reagan's election, in which they are following the migratory patterns of the Negro Republican!
HBO owns the series today; while the series has been made available on home videotape worldwide, the series has not seen release on DVD or Blu-ray formats. HBO currently offers clips of the series to commercial customers.
I am not seeing any VHS tapes on either eBay or Amazon. Are they hard to find?
HBO owns the series today; while the series has been made available on home videotape worldwide, the series has not seen release on DVD or Blu-ray formats. HBO currently offers clips of the series to commercial customers.
I am not seeing any VHS tapes on either eBay or Amazon. Are they hard to find?
I've never seen them, though through the misty fog of time I could have sworn there was a Time-Life advert for the tapes.
The opening track favors that Wild, Wild World of Animals sound but the strings stuff reminds me of the much later Clarke-Ponty-Di Meola album, "The Rite of Strings."
But mostly I'm getting that "Europe in the early 1970s" vibe--better break out the maroon leather jacket, black polyester dress shirt, lightly-flared tan polyester slacks, white buck shoes, and piss-colored sunglasses.
HBO owns the series today; while the series has been made available on home videotape worldwide, the series has not seen release on DVD or Blu-ray formats. HBO currently offers clips of the series to commercial customers.
I am not seeing any VHS tapes on either eBay or Amazon. Are they hard to find?
Just found this VHS of the episode, "Tarantula" over on Amazon. There may be other volumes available: