Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Candle Cove

NetNostalgia Forum - Television (local)

Skyshale033
Subject: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
Does anyone remember this kid’s show? It was called Candle Cove and I must have been 6 or 7. I never found reference to it anywhere so I think it was on a local station around 1971 or 1972. I lived in Ironton at the time. I don’t remember which station, but I do remember it was on at a weird time, like 4:00 PM.

mike_painter65
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
it seems really familiar to me…..i grew up outside of ashland and was 9 yrs old in 72. candle cove…was it about pirates? i remember a pirate marionete at the mouth of a cave talking to a little girl

Skyshale033
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
YES! Okay I’m not crazy! I remember Pirate Percy. I was always kind of scared of him. He looked like he was built from parts of other dolls, real low-budget. His head was an old porcelain baby doll, looked like an antique that didn’t belong on the body. I don’t remember what station this was! I don’t think it was WTSF though.

Jaren_2005
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
Sorry to ressurect this old thread but I know exactly what show you mean, Skyshale. I think Candle Cove ran for only a couple months in ‘71, not ‘72. I was 12 and I watched it a few times with my brother. It was channel 58, whatever station that was. My mom would let me switch to it after the news. Let me see what I remember.

It took place in Candle cove, and it was about a little girl who imagined herself to be friends with pirates. The pirate ship was called the Laughingstock, and Pirate Percy wasn’t a very good pirate because he got scared too easily. And there was calliope music constantly playing. Don’t remember the girl’s name. Janice or Jade or something. Think it was Janice.

Skyshale033
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
Thank you Jaren!!! Memories flooded back when you mentioned the Laughingstock and channel 58. I remember the bow of the ship was a wooden smiling face, with the lower jaw submerged. It looked like it was swallowing the sea and it had that awful Ed Wynn voice and laugh. I especially remember how jarring it was when they switched from the wooden/plastic model, to the foam puppet version of the head that talked.

mike_painter65
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
ha ha i remember now too. do you remember this part skyshale: “you have…to go…INSIDE.”

Skyshale033
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
Ugh mike, I got a chill reading that. Yes I remember. That’s what the ship always told Percy when there was a spooky place he had to go in, like a cave or a dark room where the treasure was. And the camera would push in on Laughingstock’s face with each pause. YOU HAVE… TO GO… INSIDE. With his two eyes askew and that flopping foam jaw and the fishing line that opened and closed it. Ugh. It just looked so cheap and awful.

You guys remember the villain? He had a face that was just a handlebar mustache above really tall, narrow teeth.

kevin_hart
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
i honestly, honestly thought the villain was pirate percy. i was about 5 when this show was on. nightmare fuel.

Jaren_2005
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
That wasn’t the villain, the puppet with the mustache. That was the villain’s sidekick, Horace Horrible. He had a monocle too, but it was on top of the mustache. I used to think that meant he had only one eye.

But yeah, the villain was another marionette. The Skin-Taker. I can’t believe what they let us watch back then.

kevin_hart
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
jesus h. christ, the skin taker. what kind of a kids show were we watching? i seriously could not look at the screen when the skin taker showed up. he just descended out of nowhere on his strings, just a dirty skeleton wearing that brown top hat and cape. and his glass eyes that were too big for his skull. christ almighty.

Skyshale033
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
Wasn’t his top hat and cloak all sewn up crazily? Was that supposed to be children’s skin??

mike_painter65
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
yeah i think so. rememer his mouth didn’t open and close, his jaw just slid back and foth. i remember the little girl said “why does your mouth move like that” and the skin-taker didn’t look at the girl but at the camera and said “TO GRIND YOUR SKIN”

Skyshale033
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
I’m so relieved that other people remember this terrible show!

I used to have this awful memory, a bad dream I had where the opening jingle ended, the show faded in from black, and all the characters were there, but the camera was just cutting to each of their faces, and they were just screaming, and the puppets and marionettes were flailing spastically, and just all screaming, screaming. The girl was just moaning and crying like she had been through hours of this. I woke up many times from that nightmare. I used to wet the bed when I had it.

kevin_hart
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
i don’t think that was a dream. i remember that. i remember that was an episode.

Skyshale033
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
No no no, not possible. There was no plot or anything, I mean literally just standing in place crying and screaming for the whole show.

kevin_hart
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
maybe i’m manufacturing the memory because you said that, but i swear to god i remember seeing what you described. they just screamed.

Jaren_2005
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
Oh God. Yes. The little girl, Janice, I remember seeing her shake. And the Skin-Taker screaming through his gnashing teeth, his jaw careening so wildly I thought it would come off its wire hinges. I turned it off and it was the last time I watched. I ran to tell my brother and we didn’t have the courage to turn it back on.

mike_painter65
Subject: Re: Candle Cove local kid’s show?
i visited my mom today at the nursing home. i asked her about when i was littel in the early 70s, when i was 8 or 9 and if she remebered a kid’s show, candle cove. she said she was suprised i could remember that and i asked why, and she said “because i used to think it was so strange that you said ‘i’m gona go watch candle cove now mom’ and then you would tune the tv to static and juts watch dead air for 30 minutes. you had a big imagination with your little pirate show.”


(Originally posted on Ichor Falls.)

12 comments:

  1. oh man those vids are freaking hilarious i love that show

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  2. THEN WHO WAS STATIC?!

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  3. Was this a real show or what?

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  4. I found this at
    http://candlecove.wikia.com/wiki/Candle_Cove_(Program)

    Janice Stewart is a little 9-year-old girl, living in Ironton and the main character of the show. She has an older sister, Melrose, who constantly bullies her and that causes her deep fear and nervous behaviour. After finding a lost shoelace in the dog house, Janice is transported to Candle Cove and invited to the Laughingstock, a fantastic pirate ship where she joins the Laughingstock Pirates to live adventures and fight her fears. She's the only character from the show being played by a real person.

    Pirate Percy is made from ragged and lost pieces from Janice's dolls. He's the Laughingstock's courier and scout, and not considered a very good pirate, constantly accosted by fears and trembles. This puppet was the one which provoked more bad criticism in the original pilot episode, because of his "scrappy" look, but surprisingly the same puppet was kept to the running series. According to their creators "Pirate [Percy] incarnates both Janice's outer personality and disadvantages". His relationship with the other tripulants is ambigous; he's constantly scared of them and sometimes he attacks them with his knife; more than once, he tried to stop Janice from her mission by attacking her with his weapons.

    Ms. Laughingstock is the living, talking ship of the Laughingstock Pirates, and also the band's leader. She serves as Janice's "substitute mommy" and constantly pushes her beyond the limits. Laughingstock talks only twice in every episode of the show; the first one is in a long speech about the goal of the adventure, and the other one she says her signature order: "You have…to go…INSIDE.” According to the creators, Laughingstock represents the lost female duty sense, not the mother figure, for she doesn't behave as a mother but as a boss.

    Poppy is a red-haired moustached captain pirate and the second-in-charge on the ship. Poppy is the archetypical captain pirate, sporting a long, curly red mustache, hook in one hand and a patch on his eye. He's the one who loves Janice the most and is a confident and adventurous companion.

    The antagonists of the show are a rival pirate gang, the Rubber Fishes.

    Horace Horrible is the captain of the Rubber Fishes, oddly, he looks almost exactly like Poppy, but his beard is black with a moustache and he wears a red costume instead of a blue one as well as a monocle. He is also physically complete, having his two eyes and hands, unlike Poppy. Horace Horrible presents himself as "The grrrrreatest pirate, sorcerer and vain villain of the world"; he always carries a sword and a bottle of rum.

    The Skin-Taker is an inhabitant of the "Abyssal Kingdom" and roams around caves and seashores. His main function is tempting Janice (or Percy to commit robberies, treason or even murders or suicide). Horace Horrible claims to be his servant. The Skin-Taker is not defeated in every episode; he has managed to kill pirates from both tripulations, and crafted (on-screen) pieces of clothing from their skins. This character is by far the most controversial part of the show; he's present in 6 episodes, his scenes are lengthy and considered "frightening" by both kids and adults; also, his signature songs contain some ambigous and dark themes, including referrences to african voodoo. His look can be compared to that of Baron Samedi, a spirit from the Haitian Voodoo tradition.

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  5. Continued.
    I found this at
    http://candlecove.wikia.com/wiki/Candle_Cove_(Program)

    Season One (1971-1972)
    Following some good reviews of the pilot, it was quickly greenlit a complete "First season" for the show consisting of 9 episodes, that were going to be produced weekly. However, the show was pushed to a schedule more adequate for kids, right after the Local News, at 4:30 p.m. No other episodes were broadcast live, instead they were presented with two commercial cuts, previously recorded.

    Season Two (1971-1972)
    The second season of Candle Cove was aired two months after the first and consisted of an additional three episodes to the standard nine, bringing the total count to twenty-one episodes. Oddly enough by this time the last few episodes were not widely broadcast due to undisclosed reasons. This went generally unnoticed and unquestioned, leading to the belief that there had been only 9 episodes. The season also included the alleged "screaming episode".

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  6. one of my favorite pastas ever ;) an online classic

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  7. What's this?Candle Cove s1e04 p1 is only static for me.Can you tell me anyone who's seeing this what's happening in 7:13?

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  8. all of you need to know this in the second video look for the guy with the mask if you cant find him look in this time 0:38 i think it`s in a weird place here folding chairs (i think) clothes line and some clay looking walls adds on to the creepiness im soooo gonna put the pic as my bg in my pc (mdj101)

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  9. People, there's nothing there in any of the videos besides a bunch of static.

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  10. I remember this show! I was born in the 90's, but I distinctly remember them airing it on a local channel when I was a kid.
    While I do remember the skin-taker, he didn't really scary. He was actually one of my favorite characters, lol, but that was because I didn't like Janice for some reason. I think I was jealous.

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  11. I don't think the vids are that scary. =) They're adorable!

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