Hocus Focus (Part Two) - Nick Knacks Episode

What once was lost, now is found. An episode of Hocus Focus has surfaced, and now we can finally see what Brad William's headline show was all about. Also, Jim Jinkins as a sleazy filmmaker!
You can watch the discovered episode of Hocus Focus on Jon QUBE's channel!
• HOCUS FOCUS #38
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[@PinkieLopBun]

I’m the person that contacted Jim Jinkins about the footage he had, and this episode was in fact from his tapes. I found this out yesterday (didn’t hear from him for a little while before then due to the holidays), but by that point, this video had already been scripted and probably recorded or I imagine the part about whether or not that worked out would have been written a bit differently. In any case, I’m really glad it worked out in the end. I don’t have a date, but there should be another Hocus Focus episode going up at some point.

[@angelmarie2281]

Thank you so much!

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Glad to hear!

[@doryna_sira]

Thank you for helping get in contact with him, and please give him our thanks for sharing this with us!

[@neonlightmole9634]

Nice job on working things out with Jim Jenkins. It's always interesting when we get odd circumstances like this when it comes to Lost media, like how despite the Johnny quasar short being considered lost for many years, the voice actor for JQ had a copy of the full short the whole time, and nobody knew it until a few years ago..

[@KaseyWynne]

One year later (nearly 2 years, now) any news on the other episode?

[@iam9991000]

The "being immortal on film" is very ironic given that most of this show is lost.

[@JeffLandryComedy]

VLRgospel09, even more ironic that the show was set in a film library.

[@Xenunnaki]

Extra irony points as of all the episodes that could have resurfaced it was this one

[@stephenholloway6893]

Let alone this being the lone surviving episode thus far.

[@blackbearcj5819]

It seems so poetic that after 40 years give or take, this is the first episode to see the light of day again. With the kind of kid I was, I think that if I was alive in 1979 and old enough to watch this, I would have liked it. I enjoyed longer format educational stuff, I always wanted more and more from the educational stuff I was getting when I was younger. For me now, yeah it did feel slower than I think it would have for me as a kid, where I think I'd be more engrossed, but I just love that this was found and I get to see more of Brad Williams contribution to Nickelodeon's history.

[@ChuckD79]

Footage has also surfaced of a promo featuring Jim Jinkins as his recurring HF character, Professor Rhombus...a stereotypical bumbling scientist with glasses, a bow tie and wild/unruly hair.

[@atariblue]

That Ah-Ha moment when you realize Doug's creator, Jim Jinkins was associated with Nickelodeon much longer than just his claim of being one of the first Nicktoons. I assume that was mentioned in the one of the early Nick Knacks eps, I've lost track of which one's I've watched so far.

[@neonlightmole9634]

There's that, and the fact that the show's music composer and the voice actor for Skeeter and mr. Dink was the second host of Live Wire.

[@atariblue]

@@neonlightmole9634 I didn't know that either. That's very awesome. Thanks for enlightening me.

[@NJ_Dsneybuf]

The _Pinwheel_ episode marked the first time Greg mentioned it.

[@Malkmusianful]

oh my god Jim Jinkins is the cameraman? he's already got mad Mr. Dink energy just from the tone of his voice. he has that gravel that I think inspired him to find somebody that sounded like him, but an actual actor.

[@codyssmith73]

I'm happy we have uncovered this. While I agree with you that the pace is slow, the message here is really really good and there's a lot of charm in the Kryspen character.... he might be an adult, but he's a young adult in a place he doesn't know all that well and is very innocent & naive thanks to that, much like a kid would be.... and as much as the "magic" tricks were cheesy, there's charm to that too. In other words, now that we know more about the framing device this show had, I can see that it is indeed a good framing device. Also, had that version of The Giving Tree been around before this? I loved the book as a kid, so to see it be brought to life like that was awesome (I'm probably gonna watch it in full now). Not sure how I feel about the other shorts though, the 2 live-action ones feel like they wouldn't grab my attention much as a kid, and that last one is just.... odd in both the best and worst way possible. I hope somebody has an idea of what it was and who made it, cause I haven't the faintest idea. Anyways, Greg.... let's hope 2020 is good to you. Nick Knacks has become one of my fave series across KZbin, and even though all of this is before my time & a lot of it is stuff I've never watched, I find it all fascinating.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

A lot the films used would've been anywhere around 5-10-20 years from when the show aired. The Giving Tree was originally published in 1964 while this filmed version came out in 1973. I actually saw the film when I was in primary school in the early 80's.

[@neonlightmole9634]

Whoa nice timing, especially since this caps off the year that was Nick's 40th anniversary. Props to JohnQUBE for finding this. He's been on a roll with these.

[@jbanks979]

Honestly amazing there are now TWO dead series revived since starting this, in an era where cable was in its infancy, and the original runs were seen by no more than a few thousand, and almost no one had VCR’s, and neither show left much of a pop culture legacy...... Makes me think there’s a copy of every missing Dr Who SOMEwhere

[@TheDanishGuyReviews]

I follow the news about missing Doctor Who episodes. It's been said there are 2 confirmed episodes, but the hunter said it'll take a while to extricate them, because the collectors are very protective of them. (Personally, l think they should either copy them or give them up completely, for the good of humanity. They'd be heroes!) Others MIGHT exist, but in countries that are no longer on speaking terms with England, so even starting to look might prove difficult. I LOVE your optimism, though! Fingers crossed!

[@newstarcadefan]

This is a pleasant surprise. It still is a shame that even in 1980 they didn't think future generations would want to watch the older programs like this.

[@PinkieLopBun]

Someone on the Lost Media Wiki forums identified the last short. It's a short from 1973 called B'raesheet by John Teton. earthlightpictures.com/pages/braesheet.html

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Reading the link, it's interesting the guy went back and completed it in 2010.

[@schizoidboy]

I remember seeing this clip on an arts program. I forget the name of it but it showed classical music and other types of high art things. The music is from the Firebird Suite by Stravinsky.

[@stephenholloway6893]

It's great that an Hocus Focus episode has been found. Rather or not any Nickel Flicks episodes will be found will remain to be seen.

[@bakomusha]

I'll never understand why this series isn't more popular! I hope more eyes get on this channel in 2020, and all your hard work pays off more then it already has. Certainly when you come to the "nicktoons era" you'll see a massive spike, but till then I'll be here watching vids the moment they are posted!

[@Montork]

oh my f god. that cheesy wizard costume and intro and the intro voice? i love it. it fills myu soul with sparks

[@KaseyWynne]

Of all the shows from the early years of Nick, this is the one I'd like to see the most.

[@allanforbes7720]

Thank you for preserving this history! I didn’t realize the wizard’s voice was the same as “Plus” from Pinwheel until watching this. My parents must have got cable shortly before Nick cancelled this show.

[@cristinasydnor9509]

This is a show I would watch regularly!

[@PlatformerFan]

Pleasantly surprised to see another episode up before the end of the year. Thank you for the upload, and I hope you enjoyed the holidays with your family.

[@lorddalek]

All I can tell you about the last short is the soundtrack is Stravinsky's La Oisseau du Feu. However even that's been a dead end as to determining what the title is and who made it.

[@doryna_sira]

Yeah, and it's going to be tough doing searches for it, because the last segment from Fantasia 2000 was also set to the Firebird Suite. That's all I could turn up when I did a search. Someone better at working search engines than me might have more luck.

[@lorddalek]

@@doryna_sira The only other thing that comes up is Allegro Non Troppo. I've seen Allegro Non Troppo though and this ain't it.

[@iam9991000]

@@doryna_sira you can use minus in google searches to exclude things you don't want for instance fantasia.

[@doryna_sira]

@@iam9991000 Indeed you can and I did; still had no luck. Of course it could be it's just that obscure.

[@lorddalek]

In all likelyhood this is probably from some former eastern Soviet bloc country like Czechloslovakia or Poland. Hence the lack of credits.

[@SabreRoseTiger]

Thank you for showing us this! I wish I could help you with that short, but all I know is that the music is Stravinsky's The Firebird and it looks like a couple other people have already mentioned that. By the way, I ordered a used copy of The Complete Time Traveler that you recommended in your addendum on 1979. Imagine my disappointment when it arrived and I discovered someone had stuck a barcode right over Brad Williams's picture. The book itself is a fun read, though.

[@stephenholloway6893]

Consider 2019 started with By The Way footage it's kinda fitting that the year ended with an episode found of Hocus Focus.

[@vgtrp]

Regardless of the quality of Hocus Focus, I'm just glad an episode was unearthed. Also, I can a couple of those shorts being riffed on Rifftrax.

[@jenniferschillig3768]

IIRC, there was always one long short and a couple of other shorter ones. Sometimes I liked the long shorts and sometimes I'd check out during them. (One of the longer ones was about the making of a Mr. Rogers episode.)

[@voodoom5880]

Holy crap seeing this brought back a flood of memories.

[@Furore2323]

Delightful!

[@TORLBC]

It's just cable, you can find it deep in the recesses of the world. Brad Williams lives!

[@KaseyWynne]

Like you, if I had seen this in 1979, I probably would've been a bit bored, but watching it now, I do admire the show. Unlike pinwheel, which I don't think has anything for adults, especially the Qube version, with it's 24 songs per episode, this at least tries to be about something, and teach a moral, even if it's blatantly spelled out at the end by Kryspen. And Nick should be given kudos for trying something a bit more ambitious for their package shows. They could've just done another by the way.

[@CinnamonGrrlErin1]

I'll have to sit down and watch the full episode, but this reminds me a bit of mst3k, with the framing device

[@jenniferschillig3768]

This show was probably my first exposure to The Giving Tree. (Either that, or it was shown in between shows on Nick or HBO.)

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

I recall it being ran in school myself!

[@Montork]

also, the giving tree crushes my heart.. and gives me nightmares to be honest.. cause that crap is horrifying. like? you know without branches the tree will die. who cuts the libs off a thing and leaves it to die a slow painful death? who cuts down on the very thing they enjoyed as a child.. preventing further children from enjoying it.. why ask a tree for real estate. like? mankind all over.. and it hurts to watch how horrifying people can be. like? makes me want to plant even more trees...

[@MaliceInCandyland]

This video is from 2019 and I see that a bit more footage has been uploaded to KZbin since. There's 8 minutes of an episode called "Sir Tim Returns" and a full episode called "What Will You Be."

[@TheEman590]

A full episode of Hocus Focus? This is a surprise. I remember the Giving Tree from when I was Elementary school. One of those books you find at a young age like Goodnight Moon and Dr. Suess

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

It's a popular one, but then a lot of Shel Silverstein's work tends to be perfect school fodder.

[@TheEman590]

@@ChristopherSobieniak I see.

[@iam9991000]

We got another one damn.

[@Feelthefelt]

Hocus Focus was still airing on Nickelodeon in the late 80s, because I absolutely remember that theme song. I don't think I ever watched it though because by then, those package shows were really boring for a 5-year-old. Same for 'Today's Special'.

[@PinkieLopBun]

Are you sure you’re not confusing it with something else? I’ve never come across any record of it airing past 1981.

[@Feelthefelt]

@@PinkieLopBun I'm sure of it. I think it aired on Today's Special...

[@KaseyWynne]

@@Feelthefelt Today's Special was it's own show, imported from canada, about a department store after it closed. (you might be thinking of special delivery, and Doug did mention it showed reruns of old nick shows after they'd been canceled)

[@Feelthefelt]

@@KaseyWynne Yeah. I misspoke. I meant Special Delivery. Always confuse those two.

[@KaseyWynne]

@@Feelthefelt No worries, I wasn't criticizing you :) They have similar names, and I can see getting them confused.

[@schizoidboy]

Personally I remember this show from long ago. It was my introduction to a lot of film shorts including cartoons. The length might have had to do with the fact there were no commercials on the channel at the time, it was cable after all. They were also doing a lot of experimenting at the showing things from England and Canada. Things really took off when they showed "You Can't Do that on Television." This where Nickelodeon got it's slime logo.

[@cameronmarnoch5236]

I really kinda admire this show. It tries to be moral in it. Not sure if it works as is, but it probably would have done better with a second series and/or a shorter running time.

[@cameronmarnoch5236]

Though, I might have liked it as a child, simply because I was always drawn to the Doctor Who figure who was both childish and clever.

[@TORLBC]

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaa

[@RainbowMilk1996]

Putting him on film, huh?

[@TheMister123]

Firebird! :-)

[@billgreen3138]

watch same idea on gigligans island chassing a butter fly

[@lewiskent550]

Can you review doctor who just war

[@billgreen3138]

illusionist use that music on tv cool specials the one the guy dreamed about

[@Magmaster13]

Can we get Philly Philodendron but with a Marijuana Plant?

[@segundovargas]

Is it just me, or does Williams sound a bit like Will Ferrell?

[@TackyRackyComixNEO]

He even kind of looks like him here. I wonder if young Will Ferrell saw this show and modeled his comedic acting around him? They seem to have very similar nuances to their performances.

[@segundovargas]

I wonder if Greg thought the same thing... and had conflicting feelings about it, since he doesn't find Ferrell that funny.

[@TackyRackyComixNEO]

@@segundovargas He certainly is very dependent on the person whether or not you find him funny. Personally, I feel like I could take him or leave him depending on the material he's working with--he elevates already good material, but he drowns with lesser material.

[@TackyRackyComixNEO]

Why do I feel like that trippy last short is the kind of thing bill wurtz would've made had he been around in the 1970s?

[@SonicMoon1]

Yeah wouldn’t replaced the last bit of show dialogue with DBZ sound effects.. What? You can’t tell me that it doesn’t fit!