MovieChat Forums > The Disappointments Room (2016) Discussion > THE MAGIC GARDEN!

THE MAGIC GARDEN!

posted 8 years ago by mevans-972-945915
3 replies | jump to latest

Saw this movie yesterday. It was pretty bad...and boring for a horror movie.

But there was one cool thing about it. THE MAGIC GARDEN. There's a scene in the film where the little boy is watching TV and he's watching a children's program. And the producers chose to use a clip from the 70's TV show THE MAGIC GARDEN.

Which was kind of an odd unexpected choice. In that the show was a regional favorite that (to my knowledge) only ever ran on New York City independent TV station WPIX Channel 11. So if you didn't have WPIX on your cable system, you never saw it. I used to watch it everyday Monday thru Thursday at either 2 or 2:30pm. (Friday's the station showed Joya's Fun School).

There was even a Magic Garden record album (I have one of those too). The show was hosted by Carol and Paula. I think they were early education experts or something like that. The show had a talking bird named Flapper and a talking squirrel named Sherlock. There were these giggling flowers called the Chuckle Patch. And a Story Box.

But if you go see the movie (wait for Netflix), you'll see and hear the opening theme song, which was written by Carol and Paula. So hey -- maybe they got a check. Ch-Ching!

[–] superstarlet_04 8 years ago

Thanks for the info, I wondered if that was a real show! It looked like a real show but I wasn't sure if it was made for the movie. It definitely had a creepy vibe about it in the context of the movie. It reminded me of shows I used to watch called You and Me Kid, Today's Special and Pinwheel. Well pretty much any early 80s kids show.

[–] mevans-972-945915 8 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKof_Lgz0kk

BAM! 0:45 to the end of the clip is what's in the movie.

Yes, it was a real show. I don't know how long it ran. Wikipedia might have that answer. I watched it from probably 1975 until about 1978 (then I simply outgrew it). I was born in 1971. Show was designed for pre-schoolers.

[–] nealvan557 8 years ago

I grew up in NJ and remember that show well. I used to think it was really silly, but I guess I was a weird kid since I thought Mr. Rogers and Captain Kangaroo as well as The Electric Company were all very silly. I was born in 1960 and I thought all those shows talked down to kids above the age of 5-6, but were marketed to years older audiences.

Yes, Magic Garden was a WPIX local program only for those who got that channel as we did over the ancient airwaves. Imagine...TV without a cable connection?! LOL. In regards to the choice for this movie, once I got past the shock of seeing such a memorable show of my youth, it made sense simply based on the shows name. Plus, they characters were from Brooklyn and perhaps the show was a poorly shown childhood memory Kate B. would have been too young to have seen? Or maybe they director just wanted a shows opening song to be as annoying to Kate as it was to those watching when it was new?

And for all you raging liberals out there...that show was cancelled by the network because it got complaints from parents about the lesbian overtones the two hosts had. I've no idea if those allegations were true, but how they acted in the show bothered enough people to get it yanked.