Archaic TPC Propaganda

Jesse Walker | May 26, 2006

Friday fun link: If you like semi-psychedelic musicals about an androgynous sprite who teaches kids how to use the telephone -- and who doesn't? -- check out Telezonia, a classroom movie I saw in the second grade and have spent the rest of my life describing to people who refuse to believe the film exists. Thank you, Google Video!

By the way: The guy who plays the letter Q had a recurring role on Gomer Pyle, while his partner Z went on to appear in Russ Meyer's Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens.

More news from my old school district here.

[Hat tip: Emil Gilliam.]

Comments

|5.26.06 @ 12:15PM|#

Whoa

I enjoyed this a little too much. People around me a work are concerned.

JG

|5.26.06 @ 12:21PM|#

Wow. I love the whole Jupiter and Beyond The Infinite effect when they're being transported through the phone line. Did Kubrick direct this?
Embarassingly enough, my family still had old rotary dial phones until we moved into a new house in 1998. I was the only kid back then who had any idea how to use them, but these kids are f-ing retarded.

|5.26.06 @ 1:25PM|#

Jesus Crust, that's even greater than that old bicycle safety video with the kids dressed as monkeys. Anybody ever see that? They ride into open manhole covers and shit. It's priceless.

QM|5.26.06 @ 6:05PM|#

Actually, the "transport through the telephone line" effects looks more like the opening of 70s-era "Doctor Who" episodes.

Warren|5.26.06 @ 11:37PM|#

Ain't got nuttn on Mr. B. Natural.

Nice link, very surreal. I'm kind of shocked that Ma Bell put out something this lame. My middle school years, we were treated to a series of AT&T science films featuring live actors interacting with animated characters. I remember some on meteorology and others on particle physics. Great stuff.

|5.27.06 @ 3:33AM|#

Kidnapping children and shoving them into strange holes. Bell got away with a lot back then. Ahh, the joys of a legislated monopoly.

|5.27.06 @ 2:10PM|#

Great post! Never saw this before.

The guy who's credited for the music, Dick Halligan, I think was also the keyboard player for Blood, Sweat & Tears. Small world (where musicians always need whatever work they can get!).

Jesse Walker|5.27.06 @ 7:54PM|#

I thought he was the trombonist...

At any rate, according to IMDb, he and the director worked together again on a Chuck Norris movie. Make of that what you will.

|5.29.06 @ 9:56AM|#

Chuck Norris doesn't need to dial a phone -- he just picks up the receiver and if the phone knows what's good for it, it will correctly connect his call.