Thursday, May 13, 2010

Agro's cartoon connection


Agro's Cartoon Connection was an Australian children's television show that aired on the Seven Network from 1989 to 1997. Shown on weekday mornings, it was primarily hosted by Agro, a puppet played by comedian Jamie Dunn.

Over the years the show had a number of co-hosts including Ann-Maree Biggar, Terasa Livingstone, Holly Brisley, Michael R Gibson and guest hosts Ian Calder and Stacey Thomson.




It followed on from a show called Cartoon Connection which had been hosted for many years previously by Michael Horrocks and Alex Wileman, Wileman went on to do New South Wales lottery broadcasts.



The show consisted of playing a variety of cartoons including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Popeye, various Hanna-Barbera cartoons, Samurai Pizza Cats and Sailor Moon while including small editorials presented between the cartoons in a variety of segments. One such example included Ian Calder appearing in a regular segment acting as a character, one of his more popular being Crikey the Clown where he would walk around the streets of Brisbane in an aggressive manner asking questions to anyone he met.



Other shows presented during the series' run included G.I. Joe, He-Man, Robotech, Power Rangers Zeo, The Bots Master, Masked Rider, Sonic the Hedgehog, Scooby Doo, The Mask and Mega Man. The Sunday morning edition of the program ran under the name The Super Sunday Show and included skits performed by the regulars, as well as presenting the UK sci-fi program UFO.



Notably the show's humour was sometimes provocative but always done in a way that would escape the notice of the show's primary audience of children. The program was criticized in Parliament for including product sponsorship within the program itself, rather than simply running commercial breaks.



In its final years the show lost in the ratings to its competitor Cheez TV, causing the Seven Network to cut its running time and funding until it was cancelled.