Hi everyone!

In retrospect, the thing I liked most about the show was that the
humor worked on two levels. The first level, of course, was directed
at the young viewer. But if you watched carefully, you could pick up
on the fact that 'Uncle Bob,' and especially the crew members, were
having a ball. As kid's shows go, this one was pretty low-budget.
Robbie the Robot was essentially a few cardboard boxes artfully put
together, while Marvin Mouse was your classic sock puppet. But that
didn't stop the crew from trying to 'put one over' on Uncle Bob
whenever they had a chance. One episode, I remember seeing short
clips from 'McHale's Navy' interspersed into the show on a sporadic
basis, forcing Uncle Bob to explain who that strange person was. For
example, a Japanese officer on the bridge of a sub became
the 'mailman.' Of course, Bob would try to get back at the crew.
After one obviously unplanned interruption with McHale's Navy
footage, Uncle Bob referred to the mysterious person who had just
been seen onscreen as the 'producer.'

Another classic involved a crew member who would sneak up behind
Uncle Bob and Archie and place his right hand on Archie's right
shoulder, giving the impression that that was Uncle Bob's right hand,
which of course was never on display. Seeing Archie's eyes rotate
from the mysterious hand on his shoulder to Uncle Bob and back again
had me rolling with laughter.

My kids wonder why I used to watch this stuff. But when there were
only 2 or 3 channels available, just about everyone you knew would
see the same things on tv and be able to relate. Sadly, in today's
era of '57 channels & nothing on,' this type of shared experience is
becoming all too rare.

One question. When the characters sang, it was generally lip-
synching to records, such as Marvin singing 'Winchester Cathedral.'
Does anyone know who the artist was that sang 'Paper Tiger' for
Petite? (I could swear that was a 33-rpm record played at 45-rpm).

Thanks!

poorsoul9