Boohban

Lying on the couch this week in a position designed to minimise the chance of vomiting has introduced me to a whole new world of TV for kids. It's called the ABC and ABC2, and for once, I reckon I got my 8 cents worth.

I always thought that kids TV consisted of Sesame Street, Play School and a whole pile of ads for McDonalds and sugary cereals and plastic toys that choke half a billion kids a year. However, my eyes have been opened.

Some of the shows are dead boring (like "Titch"), but a few are very well made and some are truly whacky. I was quite taken with Boohbah, (more good info via this link) which is a freaky offshoot of the Teletubbies. I have never watched the Teletubbies until this week, and I liked them too. There's something about being sick and watching entertainment designed for tiny little minds.

Boohbah really got me from a technical perspective though as you've got 5 people dressed up in these enormously fat, furry suits. Apart from the fact that their head-disappearing trick reminds me of something that you can do with a foreskin, I was amazed at the stamina of the Boohbahs. I had to wear a Care Bear suit once for a store promotion, and it just about killed me to just stand around in an air conditioned shop for a few hours. Sweat was bucketting off me. These Boohbah guys are doing star jumps, leaping around and generally doing stuff that would turn the inside of the suit into a wet sponge. Considering the suits are wired with little flashing lights, I'd be a bit worried about sweating in one too much.

So I lay there on the couch feeling like crap and admiring these guys as they did starjumps in the equivalent of a furry NBC suit for a few minutes. They must be ex-Marines. If you don't know what I am talking about, watch Jarhead for the scene where they play American football in NBC suits.

I liked the kids stuff so much, I have taped about 10 hours of it. Certainly beats watching the news.