Rewind Weekend

No. Not a weekend celebrating my book Rewind – although don’t let that stop you having a look with an option to buy. No, this weekend was about nostalgia. A long Easter bank holiday in a bubble for one and no eggs anywhere in sight. What else to do but watch the gogglebox. In fact, it was only two pieces of nostalgia to top and tail the holiday – Friday and Monday.

Nostalgia is an affection for the past, although dictionaries would say that this is in particular in respect of happy times. I did not have a particularly happy childhood. I have not had a particular happy adulthood. Nostalgia is comforting though and yes, I have definitely thought many times when watching an old show, if only I could go back to the first time I watched this. However, as Rewind highlights, it is only worth going back if you do so with knowledge.

Anyway, back to nostalgia weekend. Friday was ‘The Sound of Music’ which I have not watched all the way through for many years. I was not intending to watch it all the way through this time either, I was just filling in time until another film came on. As it transpired I recorded the other film and kept on watching. TSOM ties me to my childhood because not only do I have the vaguest memory of looking down on the Von Trapp family as they sang ‘So long, farewell’ so it must have been high up in the gods at the cinema (not on first release obviously). but my grandparents had the LP and I had to listen to that many times on visits there. It was also watched on TV whenever it was on – usually Christmas. Not only do I know all the songs but I can name the child actors that played the children.

On Monday something very different. ‘Scoob’. There has not been a kid born in the 70’s or afterwards that has not grown up with Scooby Doo, because basically his adventures have never stopped being made. This is a new film but the nostalgia was sprinkled throughout. Not least near the beginning, where after a few minutes the old song from the original ‘Scooby Doo! Where are you?” was heard with the same if slightly updated graphics.

Then there was the addition of Dick Dastardly – which was slightly disappointing because it didn’t sound like him and Muttley was missing until the end. Oh those ‘Wacky Races’ where DD raced ahead to set a trap when he could have stopped wasting time and just gone on and won. Unlike TSOM, I cannot remember all the racers and the cars. From absolute memory and with no Googling; Dick Dastardly and Muttley in the Mean Machine 00, Penelope Pitstop in the Compact Pussycat 6, Peter Perfect in the (Something) Special 9, The Anthill Mob and Chuggaboom 7, The Gruesome Twosome in the Creepy Coupe 2, Professor Pat Pending in the (Something) Convertible 3, Rufus Roughcut in the Buzzwagon 4 or 5 and I think the Boulder Brothers may have been 1. Not nearly a full house of 10 runners and riders.

The ‘Scoob’ credits that rolled back the years too. Frank Welker was the original voice of Fred and the only one to ever portray him in my memory other than in the two live action films, although he voiced Scooby in this, which he has also done before. There was also Don Messick, who even though he died in 1997, had archive snickering for Muttley in this film. Coincidentally, back in 1969 when Frank Welker first voiced Fred, Don Messick voiced Scooby Doo.