Speaker 1: Uncle Croc's Block was a bizarre attempt by Filmation and
Speaker 1: ABC to turn the traditional Saturday morning children show into
Speaker 1: a parody of itself. Premiering in nineteen seventy five, the
Speaker 1: series starred Charles Nelson Riley as Uncle Kroc, a crocodile
Speaker 1: who openly hated hosting his own children's program. Jonathan Harris
Speaker 1: played Basil Bitterbottom, the perpetually frustrated director, while Alfie Wise
Speaker 1: appeared as Uncle Croc's rabbit sidekick Mister Rabbit Ears. The
Speaker 1: concept was deliberately cynical, with the characters constantly complaining about
Speaker 1: the show, its guests, and the entertainment business This is
Speaker 1: TV casualty Uncle Croc's Block. The problem was that the
Speaker 1: joke was aimed at an audience that might not have
Speaker 1: understood it. Instead of presenting a cheerful children's host, Uncle
Speaker 1: Croc's Block gave young viewers a host who seemed annoyed
Speaker 1: that they were watching. The series was built around the
Speaker 1: idea of satirizing familiar children's televison conventions, but many of
Speaker 1: its references were aimed at older viewers. Its star time
Speaker 1: segments featured celebrities and parodies of popular television characters, while
Speaker 1: the program's animated portions included Fredycat Wacky, and Packy and Mush,
Speaker 1: a spoof of Mash. The humor was also unusually abrasive
Speaker 1: for Saturday morning television. Rather than simply making fun of
Speaker 1: children's programming, the series frequently portrayed the television industry as
Speaker 1: miserable and incompetent. Riley's performance was intentionally over the top,
Speaker 1: but the constant sarcasm and an intrusive laugh track did
Speaker 1: little to make the show appealing to its intended audience.
Speaker 1: Critics and later viewers have often described the program as confused, noisy,
Speaker 1: and mean spirited, with the individual elements failing to come
Speaker 1: together as a coherent children's show. ABC quickly discovered that
Speaker 1: audiences were not interested. The original hour our long format
Speaker 1: was cut to thirty minutes after poor ratings, with portions
Speaker 1: of the animated programming removed or rearranged. The shortened version
Speaker 1: could not save the series, and Uncle Croc's Block was
Speaker 1: ultimately canceled in February nineteen seventy six, only months after
Speaker 1: its debut. The failure had consequences beyond the cancelation itself.
Speaker 1: ABC president Fred Silverman ended the network's relationship with Filmation
Speaker 1: for Saturday morning programming and turned to other animation producers,
Speaker 1: including Hanna Barbera and The Croft Organization for Filmation. The
Speaker 1: cancelation was particularly unusual because the studio had already been
Speaker 1: paid for the full season, meaning it could avoid spending
Speaker 1: money producing the remaining material. Some of the animated segments
Speaker 1: survived beyond the show's brief network run. Fredycat Wacky and
Speaker 1: Packy and Mush were later circulated in syndicated Filmation packages,
Speaker 1: allowing per pieces of the failed program to live on independently.
Speaker 1: Yet the original Uncle Croc's Block remained largely forgotten, remembered
Speaker 1: primarily as one of the strangest misfires of the nineteen
Speaker 1: seventies Saturday morning television era. What made Uncle Croc's Block
Speaker 1: such a failure was not a lack of recognizable talent.
Speaker 1: Riley and Harris were experienced television performers, and Filmation was
Speaker 1: one of the industry's major animation studios. The real problem
Speaker 1: was the show's fundamental mismatch between concept and audience. It
Speaker 1: attempted to satirize children's television while still functioning as children's television.
Speaker 1: Resulting in a program that was too cynical for young
Speaker 1: viewers and too simplistic for the adults who might have
Speaker 1: appreciated its jokes. Uncle Croc's Block was an ambitious experiment,
Speaker 1: but instead of becoming a clever parody of Saturday morning television,
Speaker 1: it became one of the era's most memorable examples of
Speaker 1: how badly a children's show could misunderstand its audience.