The Wubbulous World of Dr. Suess Questions

[mupcollector1]

I'm a big fan of the show. I remember watching it every Sunday night about about 7:30pm or so on Nickelodeon. It was quite unite with the combination of puppetry and chroma key graphic backgrounds through out. Even though some of the graphics looks a bit primitive compaired to todays standards and there was a few mistakes hiding rods using chroma key, it still was quite amazing. I think the puppeteers when performing watching a monitor, the monitor would also show the graphics and I think some of the graphics were set in real time, like a character opening a door or something like that. Plus a lot of my favorite puppeteers worked on it. I love Bruce Lanoil's Cat in the Hat and Fox in Socks. He performes a lot of great energetic characters like the parot in the Muppet Treasure Island CD-Rom game and even a lot of great characters in the DinoTV segments on Dinosaurs, and Anthony Asbury is one of my all time favorites, I just love his Yertle the Turtle. So creepy and funny. Plus his expressive mouth movements. Amazing.

Anyway, There's something I wanted to ask about. One of my questions was why did it only last for 2 seasons. I thought it was a great prime time family show. And how come it changed dramatically by season 2. Season 1 was a great prime time family show and by Season 2, it changed format into a preschool Nick Jr show, literally. I was shocked when I seen this. The only thing I liked about it was Anthony's bird character and how Yertle had moving eyelids, whenever he had a cameo which I think was only 2 or 3 times in season 2. Bruce Lanoil left the show and Martin P. Robinson took over the role for The Cat in the Hat. Plus Cat's Playhouse became the new set and the chroma key was used only in short stories. But most of it was very preschool educational unlike Season 1 which was very story driven and more for family audiences.

I hate to say anything negitive or insulting season 2 because there are some bits and pieces I liked about it and I'm sure there might be some people who liked season 2. But me, I'm strictly season 1. That was The Wubbulous World of Dr. Suess to me.

My last question is regarding the DVD releases. Is there any plans at all for the complete series on DVD, or Season 1 on DVD? The DVD releases that are out (and I have two or three of them) have three episodes. One of them I have, all three episodes are from season 1 and has 2 of my all time favorite episodes on there. But most of them would mix seasons 1 and 2 within the three episode releases. I would really like the complete season 1 to come out. Even on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video and Netflix. I've heard there's only 3 episodes from season 1 that aren't on DVD yet.


Anyway, I would like to know what happened with season 2. I thought the format of season 1 was perfect.

 

[Oscarfan]

The complete series is on iTunes.

 

[mupcollector1]

The complete series is on iTunes.

Really? That's great to hear. Thanks, I'll check it out.

 

[Rugratskid]

I guess I KINDA enjoyed Season 1.

 

[mupcollector1]

It's interesting how people look at Dr. Suess' work because there's some that are quite political like The Lorax and others.
I think I'm going to do some more research on this because I'm very fascinated with political satire in cartoons. I still need to get Dr. Suess goes to War, a collection of his WWII editorial comic strips. Now that I think of it, next to Wubbulous World, The Private Snafu cartoons was the other collaboration that I thought was great, with the boys of Termite Terrace (aka the original Looney Tunes crew).

Even though Wubbulous World was different, I felt it was quite entertaining. It did have it's dark moments like Jane Kangargo was going to send Yertle to those screaming dinosaur skeleton rock things "I forgot what they were called". And I like the plots and the stories that were written and the puppetry tricks that were involved through out. Plus some guest Muppeteers from time to time like Jerry Nelson (The Snoozer), Almost There (Martin P. Robinson), Brian Muehl (Norval the Great), and Bill Barretta (Who are you Sue Snue).

And like I mentioned, Season 2 is like a completely different show. I sort of wished that it was given a different name like "Cat's Playhouse" so it would be separate. I'm sure that there's some good educational values in it for preschoolers and I know there's some cool gems within that season but I'll stick with Season 1 thank you. Still I have no idea if the change was due to low ratings or a suggestion from Nickelodeon or what. Just my opinion, I would like to see more quality family entertainment. I love adult puppetry and animation but I also like the G / PG rated movies and shows. I'm very old school in these kinds of tastes and still love the Ernest movies and Marx Brothers Films, and of course the classic Muppet Show episodes and classic Sesame Street (or what Frank Oz once called it "Children / Family" and The Muppet Show "Adult / Family", I loved how he coined those phrases ). I think it's a lot better personally then some of these CGI movies full of juvenile gags, bad slang jokes and too much deadpan humor. Just my opinion.

I was watching the previews on iTunes for season 1, it's definitely on my iTunes wish list.

 

[animalrescuer]

I like both seasons equally. Although, I wish most of the characters were more involved in the second season just like the first season. Let's face it, the second season of the show was way better than most preschool series nowadays. I wish the show was brought back on TV.