“Pagmulat ng mata, langit nakatawa sa Batibot…”

Long before numerous cable shows aired 24/7 on TV, these are the lines greeting young viewers at around 9 o’clock in the morning. Filled with humor and original Filipino stories, the Batibot show was part of every Pinoy kid’s life from the early 80s to the mid-90s.

For the very young, Batibot is the local alternative to “Sesame Street” some decades ago.

Originally named “Sesame!” when it premiered on TV in early 1980s, Batibot was produced by Philippine Children’s Television Foundation in partnership with Children’s Television Workshop, the creator of Sesame Street. Years after, the show’s name changed to Batibot and followed an all-Filipino format until its last year in 1998.

Kids stay glued to the TV in the morning to watch stories, music and features as hosted by Kuya Bodgie and Ate Sienna. Add to that a lively, colorful bunch of talking animal puppets.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

WHAT would happen if you turned The Three Stooges — Curly, Larry and Moe — into (bumbling, of course) bionic crimefighters?

Well, you don’t have to think too hard; you just have to watch “The Robonic Stooges” cartoon.

Here’s a YouTube clip of the opening credits.

REMEMBER the classic hotdog commercial featuring this young girl who was writing about her crush Carlo in her diary?

Well, you don’t have to picture it in your mind because you can now find them on YouTube. Fellow tech journalists Jing Garcia and Rory Visco (thanks guys) and I were talking over lunch today about the classic advertisements in Philippine television. And of course, this “Goodbye, Carlo!” ad (I forgot which agency made it) immediately came to mind.

The ad starts with our young lady writing about Carlo who sat beside her (I assumed in school), and telling her that she’s pretty but “fat.” So she vowed to stop eating chocolates, spaghetti, and hotdogs. Then, she looks over at her table where two juicy hotdogs are waiting to be eaten. For a few seconds, she thinks about her diary entry, and writes, “Goodbye, Carlo!”

Here’s the video clip.

Other classic Filipino television ads could be found on YouTube. You only need to do a search on “Pinoy” and “ads” and you’ll get a slew of them. I just found the “I Can Feel It” soap ad featuring Alice Dixon and Sheila Ysrael looking very, er, young back in the 80s.

“I can feel it!”

WHEN I was a kid, Christmas wasn’t complete without watching the Rankin/Bass “Animagic” TV special, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” How many of you remember this classic?

Here’s a trailer of this Christmas classic on YouTube.

HOW many of you remember this strange cartoon series? “Tomfoolery” was one of my favorite shows as a kid. Gotta love Edward Lear’s limericks, heh.

Here’s a video on YouTube from toontracker.