La Linea

Although I try to program the blog in advance with thought-out themes and clips, sometimes I find things out-of-the-blue that are worth posting. This happens to be one of those times.

The other day I was looking at a YouTube clip I've had saved in my Favorites section for a long time, an old clip from Sesame Street. After viewing it, I saw a clip from The Electric Company highlighted in the right side of the screen; if you've been to YouTube, you're familiar with the area I'm talking about. That clip had highlighted the opening clip from an old 80s children's show called The Great Space Coaster. THAT clip, in turn, had highlighted something I hadn't seen in over 20 years and never thought to look for on the Web.

The Great Space Coaster used to air brief animations featuring a character that was made of only one pencil line and spoke nothing but gibberish. This character was often at the mercy of the artist, whose hand would be seen drawing on the spot for the character and his environs.

I've since learned that these cartoons originated in Italy and were called La Linea, also the name of the character. They first appeared in 1969 and were featured on television around the world for at least the next ten years. To my knowledge, the only time they appeared on American television was on The Great Space Coaster, which only ran for a couple of years in the early 1980s. They were only available on DVD in Europe for a few years some time ago and have never been available in any format in the US.

Here are several films of La Linea. I wish I could post all of them, they are so enjoyable.