The Great Space Coaster
A syndicated children's series, featuring cartoons, live action segments, and puppets. The series was co-created by Kermit Love and Jim Martin, and featured a number of talent who either came, or went onto The Muppets. The premise followed three musicians from Earth, who travel to an asteroid-like planet out in space via the titular coaster, driven by Baxter, a life-sized circus clown puppet who is actually on the run from his mean ring master, M.T. Promises. Other bizarre characters include Gary Gnu (host of The Gary Gnu Show, where no g'news is good g'news), Goriddle Gorilla (a mischevious, gravely-voiced gorilla who doesn't quite think before he acts), Knock Knock (a sophisticated woodpecker who lives in a tree), among others.
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Off we go! |
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This series provides examples of:
- All Planets Are Earthlike
- Cousin Oliver: Later in the series' run, a small group of sickeningly cute baby aliens known as The Huggles were introduced in an attempt to reach out to younger audiences.
- Crossover: Supposedly Sid and Marty Krofft characters made guest appearances.
- Eccentric Townsfolk: Most of the native characters of this planet.
- Expository Theme Tune
- Fantastic Comedy
- Jerkass: Goriddle Gorilla, to a degree.
- Medium Awareness: Some skits involve the characters speaking to the audience, usually to introduce celebrity guest stars, or whenever Baxter is about to take the gang on another trip in the coaster.
- Running Gag: Gary Gnu pronouncing N words with a hard G sound before it (ala, "No g'news is good g'news").
- Show Within a Show: Had several recurring segments, such as "Speed Reader".
- Talking Animal