Recently, I posted the famous "A Case Of Spring Fever" video here on my blog (as well as on my myspace page). The delightfully frightening short was some sort of campaign by the American Spring Council (?) to let you know we're all damned to hell in a world without springs. The harbinger of this message is Coily the Spring Sprite, a gnashing little demon with triangle teeth who delights in the springless world of a doughy, frog-like man. We follow the poor dope as his world collapses due to the absence of energy retaining springs. Luckily, he takes back his wish to rid the world of springs and spends the rest of his day berating his cliche 50's friends on the importance of springs, like some kind of lunatic converted into Coily's dark army.
Now this particular "short" was shown as the filler for "Squirm" a MST3K classic featuring such memorable lines as "YOU GONNA BE DA WORM FACE!" and the infamous squealing tires on dirt. I figured this movie was a long forgotten B-classic but as it turns out, my friend Sarah not only remembers this movie but was forbidden to watch it (along with Porky's) as a child. Smart parenting to be sure, but why on Earth would any broadcast station use valuable airtime to show this wormy wonder? Who would dare show Squirm?
The answer HAS to be WTXX 20, the local Waterbury access channel that has stooped lower in recent times and is a WB affiliate (or something like that). Sarah is a Waterbury girl and it seems like the only logical place to show a b-rated movie about a wimpy New Yorker and a colossally inept worm farmer squaring off against a legion of electrified mutant annelids.
This train of thinking brought back a wonderful memory for me, one that caused a lot of trouble at the time. During my brief stint as a Cub Scout (I never reached the embarrassingly titled rank of "Weeblo") my troop was invited to be on the Channel 20 Kids Club, a live program that ran between afternoon cartoons and featured a live kid-infested audience. Part of the fun was helping Dr. Mel, the poor clod, give the weather report. A handful of us lucky scouts were selected to hold the maps, which we grabbed on one side while a puppet of some sort held the other. My moment of triumph came on live TV when, much to the delight of the children and the horror of my mother, I forcefully picked the puppets' nose I was sharing the map with! As the laughter rose in the studio, I couldn't help myself--the target audience (hyperactive kids) loved it! And so I dug into the fuzzy nostril of the aforementioned puppet and Dr. Mel went on reading his report. As soon as the cameras were shut off, I felt a forceful pinch on the back of my arm and I was yanked off the program by...some adult, I don't remember who. And oh, the shame that followed! I got is sooooo much trouble, even though Dr. Mel himself didn't seem to mind.
I hadn't thought about the incident in many moons, but in reflection it's pretty tame--and darn funny! The man, the marionette the moment--Me picking the puppet's nose on live TV--proof I've always been a goofball in the most important settings!
