Others1972 10

Elliot Nootrac from New York: “I am an animated cartoon”

The panelists are blindfolded for the segment, which features Nootrac (“cartoon” spelled backwards) on a television monitor, communicating in real time with Steve and the panel. Aniforms is the name of both the company and the process, a remarkably simple and clever system which is more puppetry than animation. Backstage, a puppeteer (David Duran) manipulates a physical version of the character, while at the same time providing its voice. When that image appears on a monitor, it looks like a simply drawn cartoon. Aniforms were already appearing on television before this. Garry Moore conversed with “Stanley” on his sixties variety show, and Captain Kangaroo featured a character named “Fred.” Nootrac made the rounds of the other G-T panel shows, and in 1983 a character named “Malcolm” would be featured in a strange, unsold game show pilot bantering with Alex Trebek. The system would see its greatest success on the industrial and trade show circuit.

Jim Wilson from Los Angeles County is an equestrian instructor: “I teach in a nudist colony”

Wilson teaches for the Elysium Institute in Topanga Canyon. He takes clients riding on the trails of the nearby state park, so they must be clothed for their lessons. Though “nudist colony” suggests a living community for naked people, Elysium and others like it were more of a resort or club, which members could visit to remove their…inhibitions. Elysium was founded in 1968, a product of changing societal norms. It would close in 2001, the last remaining nudist colony in Los Angeles County.

Special guest Red Buttons: “I’m going to sing a song about the panel”

When Buttons had his own variety show in the 1950s, “The Ho Ho Song (Strange Things Are Happening)” (Columbia 1953) became a surprise novelty hit for him. He performs that song here, with reworked lyrics poking gentle fun at the panelists. Steve, of course, provides piano accompaniment. Red also performs a selection from his album Love, Daddy (Golden 1972), a collection of poems he originally wrote as bedtime tales for his daughter.

10 Recorded August 17, 1972