On October 14th, a two DVD a 1 CD set of episodes and songs from The Magic Garden will be released. For those not familiar with the show, the Magic Garden was a daily kids show featuring the two hosts, Carole and Paula, singing songs and telling stories. It was originally produced in New York in 1972 and then syndicated all over the country, with reruns of the 52 episodes airing in some areas, including New York, through 1984.

As far as I can recall, the show didn’t air in my area (or I was too young to notice it), but I was able to view the few episodes of the series that were released on VHS in 1994. Despite the shows’ age and low budget, I thought it was a fun show. The two hosts were great and the show worked as a nice example of non-network childrens’ tv from the early 1970s.

The DVD set features 10 episodes on two DVDs, with a bonus CD featuring six songs. Unfortunately, it doesn’t contain the opening or closing theme.

Pre-order the set from Amazon.

Carole and Paula are still performing together in the New York and New Jersey area. Here’s another clip:

Check out their official site for dates, as well as background information on the two hosts and the show.

Coming out either two weeks later (October 28th) or one month later (November 11th), a two hour DVD, ZOOM - Back to the ’70s, will be released featuring clips from the PBS produced show that ran from 1972 to 1978. The show featured children and young adults performing skits and songs sent in by viewers.

Currently, there is not much information about the release, but the two hour running time suggests that it will not be just a DVD version of the ZOOM - Best of the ’70s VHS tape, which was released in 2000 and ran 40 minutes. If/when any additional information pops up, I’ll post it.

Since reviews are starting to show up some UK DVD sites (here and here), I am assuming the set will be released at the end of the month.

As mentioned previously on this blog, the series’ owners are attempting to get the show released on DVD in the US, but nothing has been announced yet.

If you are in the United States, you will need to a multi-region DVD player to watch the UK DVDs - DVD releases in the US are Region 1, while the UK ones are Region 2. For more information on Region Codes, go here.

I’ve already pre-ordered my set and hope to have a review for it once I get it in.

That doesn’t mean the show will never be released. Later in the chat, someone else asked about some other Filmation series based on DC comic characters and was told “Rest assured our goal is to release the entire dc comics library at some point.”

So there is still some hope it will be released, but don’t look for it on your local retailer’s shelf anytime soon.

Their Myspace page features new video featuring the Kroffts, as well as Krofft Kwickies, which are episodes of most of their series edited down into four to five minute shorts.

I know this doesn’t have much to do with live action series, but I’m assuming that fans of the live action Saturday morning shows of the 1970s might be interested in some of the animated shows listed (Filmation’s Tarzan, Super Friends, etc…) from the same time period.

The survey also has a space to leave comments, which might be a good place to request that Warner Brothers release the Banana Splits or Skatebirds, which combined live action segments with animated ones.

So if you don’t want to deal with shipping costs and possibly shipping delays, you can order it here:

I’ve already ordered my copy via Canadian Amazon and will throw up a review once I get/watch it.

I added the opening credits uploaded by another Youtube poster and made it into a playlist. Enjoy!