Shark Bytes

Uncle Croc's Block was probably the last saturday morning kid's show I watched and given the year it debuted, sort of a Saturday Night Live for kids. Personally, I despised the whole Kroft adults-in-silly-costumes trend as a child and this parody of that style was very much appreciated by me as a kid! I was already getting into Harvey Kurtzman Mad magazine via the paperback reprints around this time and the show is definitely of that ilk. Ironically, by the time this show was off the air I had discovered the grown up SNL.

This was my favorite Saturday morning show because it was SO subversive. One couldn't take CNR seriously, he was wearing a Crocodile costume, a bad one at that! It was obvious him - and Jonathan Harris - hated being there and that was what really worked. It was David Letterman in a Croc suit! I'd love to see an episode or two again just to see how much of the humor rubbed off on me (I'm still subversive to this day). Also at the time CNR was doing the same schtick selling Bic Banana Ink Crayons in commercials dressed as a giant banana! (The pens were similar to the clear Bic pens we use today, only in a bright YELLOW - not clear - shell + not ball point, markers. Bic would do well to re-release them.) I noticed that recently a bunch of the Filmation library has been released on DVD. Hope a small special edition Croc set will be part of it; it would be a great bookend for the Lidsville set.

Of course it never jumped, you blockheads! Holy mackerel! Charles Nelson Riley hosting a kids' show?! The most subversive idea in the history of mankind!! Where was Jack Larsen? I can't believe he didn't try and pull a Mighty Mouse on this one. CNR unleashed on children? It's like appointing "Madame" as the president of the Boy Scouts of America!!!! It couldn't have been more camp if it had included marshmallows and mosquito repellant. I loved it.

Huntz Hall had a drinking problem which he didn't overcome until 1982...as crude as this sounds, he was probably intoxicated when he agreed to do this show. He was busy doing stage work and was a millionaire by this point, having made a nice bundle in oil, and from his Bowery Boys days. He didn't need to do drek like "Uncle Crock". Also recall that Norman Abbott, who directed "Ghostbusters," was a cronie of Hall's from their days as the "Little Tough Guys," a second rate series of films which were spun off from the Dead End Kids. I saw Jonathan Harris do a lecture at a SF convention, and when my friend mentioned "Crock," Harris went, "YUCK!" and cringed. Can't really blame him.

Someone mentioned Huntz Hall guest starring on this show,it may have been because he also appeared on an episode of Filmation's The Ghost Busters titled "Merlin The Magician" [comedian Carl Ballantine and actress Ina Balin also appeared]. He must have been available in 1975!!

Never jumped,but it wasn't the same when ABC trimed it to a half hour. Wasn't on long enough to jump the shark! The Groovie Goolies never appeared on this show,it was to have run under the title Super Fiends [and ran in a shortened version],but ABC decided to run the whole half hour Groovie Goolies to replace this shows' second half hour. This show was a riotous spoof of local kids' shows [Bozo was a big target!]and Filmation even spoofed their own show Shazam! on it. Why TV Land hasn't picked up this show is a major crime-it would give them a whole new audience-and also I haven't seen the live Uncle Croc segments in years!! Charles Nelson Reilly is a pro!! He was awesome as Uncle Croc,as was the equally great Johnathan Harris as the bitter director Basil B. Bitterbottom and Burt Reynolds sidekick Alfie Wise as Rabbit Ears,who actually had rabbit ears and a TV set on his chest with a test pattern frozen on it,predating Teletubbies!! Bring this show back someone!!

When they cut the show down from an hour to half an hour. Jonathan Harris character "Basel Bitterbottle" was really Dr. Smith with a different name. I remember a cameo appearence by a very old Huntz Hall.

I'm glad someone else remembered this little gem of a show. I remember Fraidy cat as a character who got into trouble when ever he would say nine. There was one episode in which Fraidy was tricked into saying nine by someone who asked him if he knew how to say no in German.