Whatever happened to...THE GREAT SPACE COASTER?!

With my birthday coming up (it's tomorrow, and I turn 31...JOY), I took some time to reflect on my long and (admittedly) well-lived life.

And I realize there are a few things from the 80's (a decade of which I was a child in, when TVs came with dials and only a rare few had cable -- my family was one of them, which brought our channel total to 36! -- and we played round things called records when we wanted to listen to music...), to wit, the show above...THE GREAT SPACE COASTER.

The astute amongst you will notice that there's a Dora the Explorer tag in this post. We'll get to why in a minute.

The show is about three young singers (Francine, Danny, and Roy) who are brought to a habitable asteroid in space by a puppet clown character named Baxter who pilots the "space coaster", a rollercoaster-like spaceship. The asteroid is populated by strange-looking, wise-cracking puppet characters like Goriddle Gorilla, Knock-Knock the bird, Edison the Elephant and Gary Gnu, who hosts the "The Gary Gnu Show". Baxter is forever on the run from M.T. Promises, a nefarious circus owner (played by a large, top-hatted puppet) who plans to re-capture Baxter and return him to the circus he worked at before he escaped. Each episode ends with a different life lesson, and various celebrity guest stars (such as Mark Hamill -- imagine me, at four years old, watching Star Wars AND The Great Space Coaster all in one. Hello, Heaven! -- and Marvin Hamlisch) occasionally dropped by.

In each episode, Roy shows a short film on his portable, fold-up TV, often featuring segments from La Linea, an Italian animated series about a little man who is drawn (using a single line) at the beginning of the segment and then springs to life, communicating with his animator through high-pitched Italian mixed with gibberish. Francine, Roy, and Danny sing a song together in each episode (sometimes originals like "Wacky Talk", sometimes older songs like "Be a Clown" or covers of '60s and '70s hits), and the various puppet characters often sing songs as well. A few years into the show's run the MTV-like "Rockin' with Rory" segment began, where a DJ puppet would introduce "Danny and the Spacecoasters" performing cover tunes. While the action was mostly videotaped on the space set, it wasn't unusual for the characters to venture down to Earth for filmed musical numbers.

The Great Space Coaster was fairly popular in its day, and was merchandised with Goriddle Gorilla and Gary Gnu plush dolls, among other toys. But ratings began to slip a few years in, and the producers tried to correct this by bringing in new characters like the Huggles and Rory. The show is no longer seen in reruns and isn't available on DVD (some episodes were released on VHS -- yes, kids, VHS! -- although these are becoming increasingly rare), giving it a somewhat legendary status among those who grew up in the '80s. The show was quite innovative for its time, and is still occasionally referenced in pop culture today, as in the 2006 episode of Family Guy, "I Take Thee Quagmire", which included a parody of the the show's wild opening title sequence.

The show ran from 1981 through 1986. The series was directed by Dick Feldman, and distributed by Sunbow Productions.

And as for the Dora the Explorer reference...Chris Gifford, who played Danny on The Great Space Coaster, went on to become a writer and executive producer at Nickelodeon, where he co-created the Peabody award winning children's series "Dora The Explorer" and the successful spin-off "Go Diego Go." My nephews adore both series, and it's kinda cool that we have that strange connection to each other's shows.