ROCKS 6A: Count Duckula

WELCOME EVERYBODY TO THE FIRST DISCUSSION IN THE SIXTH STRAND OF THE NEW CLUB "R.O.C.K.S." - REWATCHING OLD CLASSIC KIDS SHOWS!
A big thanks to everyone that are joining us through all of this.

Threads 6A and 6B will focus on the 80s classic Count Duckula, who originally appeared in Danger Mouse but later got his own show, along with a new look.

This week we're watching the following episodes:

Unreal Estate (made as the pilot but not aired until series 3, for reasons unknown)
No Sax Please, We're Egyptian (the first episode actually aired)
The Ghost Of McCastle McDuckula

Just the usual friendly reminder to everyone that, whilst fans are obviously welcome to passionately discuss and give their views on these episodes, please remember to keep things on a friendly footing and respect your fellow posters.
Also, please do not post where or how to find the full episode online. And do not post asking others to PM it to you. You are however allowed to watch the show in whatever manner you want.

I really enjoyed all three episodes.
Castle McDuckula was definitely my favourite of the bunch. I still have the book of this episode I got at the school book fair when I was about 6 years old. I got it and the book of Restoration Comedy so naturally I decided to watch that episode as well.
No Sax Please....was a really enjoyable episode.
It's odd why they didn't show Unreal Estate first as it was the actual pilot. Of the three I would definitely say it is the weaker episode compared tot he other two.
The animation is a bit better than Dangermouse but the great witty and lever writing is still there.

This show was a spinoff from Danger Mouse, and Count Duckula got a great new look - with a fun twist. He's a vegetarian vampire! People have asked how it can be the same character as the more bloodthirsty Count in Danger Mouse, the most popular, and indeed most likely explanation I have seen, suggests that it isn't, but rather it's the next incarnation of the Count, and that the one we saw in Danger Mouse must have met his end somehow.

Apparently the original pilot "Unreal Estate" was never meant to be broadcast at all, I know that at that time British shows tended to make pilots that were specifically not for public airing. Why they did end up showing it after all in series 3, I have no idea. It's not a particularly amazing episode but it does introduce the basic concepts well enough.

That said, "No Sax Please, We're Egyptian", the first episode actually aired, does a fairly good job of introducing the regulars, aside from Dr Von Goosewing (although he is briefly seen in the pyramid towards the end of the episode, I have no idea why this is!). The Crow brothers were occasional villains, appearing about six or seven times in the show, fairly one-dimensional though. This is an episode that I enjoy more and more as I get older.

The Ghost Of McCastle McDuckula - yes, McCastle! - is probably the episode I have the most memories of from my youth as, like Mark, I had the storybook of this episode. This was one of several episodes where Igor took Duckula to visit one of his more bloodthirsty relatives in the hope of triggering the Count's latent vampire genes. It never worked - for Igor, that is, for us it was a hoot. The concept of a vampire looking for the legendary Loch Ness Monster . . . you couldn't do that in a serious show! And of course Von Goosewing here, improvising a "Wampire Blaster" from a set of bagpipes and a stag's head . . . and getting blasted with garlic himself! His madcap inventions have an almost Frankensteinian feel to them at times, although his name is of course derived from Van Helsing, and his attire resembles the cliched image of Sherlock Holmes . . . this is another one that I enjoy more as I get older. I think there were a lot of subtleties about this whole show that I didn't get as a kid. But then, my sense of humour took a while to develop.

Still, good show. I'll put up the next set of episodes this week.

Von Goosewing's ''Wampire Blaster'' is a bit ridiculous but not anymore than some weapons The A-team improvised.

The difference there is that was ostensibly a serious show. This is a comic cartoon about a vampire duck with a permanently gloomy butler and a hapless nanny who crashes through walls instead of opening doors. We know going in to suspend disbelief, so Von Goosewing's inventions can get away with being ridiculous.

"LiamABC, post: 120776, member: 25438" said:

The difference there is that was ostensibly a serious show. This is a comic cartoon about a vampire duck with a permanently gloomy butler and a hapless nanny who crashes through walls instead of opening doors. We know going in to suspend disbelief, so Von Goosewing's inventions can get away with being ridiculous.

That's what I'm meaning though. An invention in a children's cartoon about a vampire duck makes more sense than some of the inventions in an action show.