Information
> Information <
From my own memories, emails and newsgroup postings, I've made a comprehensive list of all the Round the Bend Information that I've found.
Round the Bend was a kids TV show broadcast
on CITV between 1989 and 1991.
It was about a fictional comic that was published from
the depths of a sewer, inhabited by the boss, Doc. Croc
and his inept rodent workmates, Lou Brush, Vince Vermin
and Jemima Green.
The show featured the various antics of Doc Croc and "friends", including Jemima's interviews conducted from celebrity toilets, Vince inevitably being smacked round the face by Doc. Croc's tail, with and without boxing glove (and I'm also told, a large hammer!) and Lou Brush generally doing really bad paintings.
As well as 'live-action' the show is also fondly remembered for its insane cartoons, such as:
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Wee-man and the Masters of the Looniverse (fighting against their arch enemy, Skeleface). |
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Y-fronto and the Thunderpants (fighting against their arch enemy, Bum-ra). |
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Pzycho the Magnificent. |
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Roger Prentice, the Apprentice Dentist in FALSE TEETH FROM BEYOND THE STARS. |
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False Teeth vs. The Atomic Banana. |
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Wooly the Wondersheep. |
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Transformabots ('Octopus Slime', anyone?). |
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John Potato's Newsround |
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Flabba flabba flabba flabba flabba flabba flabba flabba FAT MAN!!! |
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A singing bucket of slop that would sing current chart hits, e.g. Swill Collins, Mudonna, and Stink. |
to name but a few!
Contributions:
Thanks to Alan Newton, for piles and piles of information, including more great memories of characters such as:
Those killer white
teddy bears in shades who never used to say anything...
and there was some weird guy (their boss? can't remember)
who used to come down and try to take over....may have
been the landlord?....seem to recall weasels? dont quote
me on that... ;)
Or was he the head of a rival corporation? remember doc
croc was a comic editor...
More Stuff:
The nursery rhymes section was called 'doc croc's nursery
crimes' including a homicidal Miss Muffet....
The vegetables - family made from various veg - was a
skit on australian soap operas, with lots of bad
vegetable puns in it...think neighbours, i think they had
a carrot called carotene (charlene skit) and her
boyfriend was the equivalent of scott...
David Colemole and John Potato's Newsround...
McTickle & his magic kilt! fantastic...
big fat people who bounce around... (probably Fat Man)
He also gave me some more information on the whole false teeth and atomic banana thing, which apparently were seperate stories that joined forces for a special episode:
Yep, false teeth vs atomic banana was a special episode, where the two stories mixed together. False teeth from beyond the stars was a story about roger prentice the apprentice dentist and his lovely assistant saving the world against evil false teeth; the atomic banana was a show that involved a banana the size of king kong with a sylvester stallone accent wrecking cities; and false teeth vs the atomic banana was a special episode in the true spirit of bad 70s japanese sci-fi (think godzilla vs king kong) that played for a few episodes as I recall.
Alan Ronald has fond memories of:
Another peice of
info for the site...one special guest they once had was a
pile of rocks falling on Doc Crocs head.....wait for
it...................
THE ROLLING STONES
F*ck knows how I remember that joke but im sure it has
played its part in my life ever since!
Roger Hicks from Australia proves that Round the Bend was truly an international phenomenon!:
Think it was screened here in Australia at some time and was very much a favorite of mine. I only have very dim memories of the program, but I think it was Round the Bend. Doc Croc rings bells. What I remember that doesn't seem to be on your web site was fake music videos that seemed to appear. The only one I recall was Jason Dungavon (Donovan) which seemed to be a cow pat. It may also have been a duet with Kylie Manure (Minogue). I'm almost sure she was in it, but I can't be sure about the adapted name they gave her.
A guy known only as 'Dom' sent me this piece of info from a website (possibly TVcream?), that reveals Round The Bend was a spinoff of what sounds like an excellent comic:
OINK
(1986 - 88)
Greatest Comic Ever Made edited by Uncle Pigg
and full of comic strips like Tom Thug (left school, went
on dole, then moved to Buster and sent back to school),
Pete and his Pimple (anti-comic strip later most
Beano-ish thing in comic), Horace Ugly Face Watkins
(really badly drawn parody of comic strip later turned
into horrendous soap opera apread half the comic with no
jokes where it explored the real emotional issues of a
boy shunned by society (no, really it did)) and Burp,
which stopped making sense after about ten weeks and
became unfathomable set of images, which span off
surrealist Mr Bignose who would look scary in pre-Reeves
and Mortimer three panel strip. All this plus much, much
more including regular cartoons drawn by Marc 'Lard'
Riley who also appeared in hand coloured photo stories
set in estate in Altrincham, interviews with John Peel
and the Cult, self indulgent articles where readers sent
in references to Oink in local press (normally referring
to it as vile downmarket rag) and many TV parodies, plus
Frank Sidebottom's Fantastic Page (highlight - exercises
you can do in your dressing gown). First 18 months of
fortnightly issues featured very very loose theme each
issue which quickly became unworkable (one of the last -
'surrealism' issue). Went weekly at beginning of 88 but
was cut to 24 pages and seemed to go a bit childish, then
four months later reinvented as monthly 'magazine' with
new logo and 'new' all over cover when it was trying to
be Viz and alienated youth audience with far too many
cultural references.Upon closure, spun off into
disappointing CITV series Round the Bend with slightly
neutered ripoffs of Oink characters in cartoon form, then
Tom Thug, Pete's Pimple and Weedy Willy moved to Buster.
Latter two dropped after six months and former shadow of
former self as lovable rogue not socially inadequate
psychopath. On the whole, though, a work of genius.
Don't forget to contact me if you've got any Round The Bend info and I'll try and get it up on the site as soon as possible!
You may also want to check out the following Newsgroup Postings: View Thread: Round The Bend (16 articles), View Thread: round the bend? (3 articles).