User Reviews

Probably one of the best shows ever made for Saturday morning TV, not the usual animated dreck but a fun show that was also informative and educational. I remember best a show about horror, done for Halloween, where I first saw the unmasking scene from "The Phantom of the Opera". I even had a Curiosity Shop lunchbox! Hopefully, with the ever growing hunger of the cable/satellite TV monster, this show will someday resurface.

"Onomatopoeia" is the name of the multi-armed, fuzzy-faced puppet who made sound effects. His nickname was "Ono." One of the main puppets was a short little bearded fellow in a bowler hat who was an inventor. He also was in animated segments where he would talk of things that he did back in the old country in Bosnia—the first time I ever heard of that place. This was the show I saw the animated short "Flatland" on, and possibly "The Dot and the Line." Ray Bradbury did a spooky little poem called "The Groon" that was also animated here. The younger boy, who looked a lot like Boxy on the old Battlestar Galactica show, once had a slogan T-shirt on that said, "Shoelaces are a drag." Thanks to all the other commentators for reminding me of forgotten details. I too had a juvenile crush on Pamelyn Ferdin.

I have been looking for video of this show for decades. Thank God someone has finally put some clips on YouTube. If you haven't seen them, you have to check them out. The opening sequence is there, as well as a commercial and network promos for the whole Saturday morning lineup from 1971. If nothing else, it proves to my family that I didn't make this show up in my own mind.

I wish I could find the Halloween special...as many here have said, it stands out in my mind (few other things from that long ago have made it this far in my memory).

Onomatopoeia was my favorite, which explains a lot about me...

I loved the show at 9 years old. I not only remember the Onomatopoeia puppet... but I remember a bit of the song too. I also remember a cartoon Alien egg eater.... or something where he had a machine that fed him boiled eggs very quickly that slid down his throat so seemingly easy. I went and boiled me 3 or 4 eggs, cracked them, threw them in the air, and, yes, let them slip WHOLE down my throat (well, as whole as they would go). Yea, stupid. But what good memories! And I remember the little tune that he sang.... at least I think he was the one that sang the tune, but I know a tune that some cartoon character La La La ed on Curiosity Shop. I still hum it to myself to this day. Yea, I loved the puppets.

"I know a tune that some cartoon character La La La ed on Curiosity Shop. I still hum it to myself to this day. " I know exactly the tune you mean. I would love to find the episode and hear it again. That tune is what made me search for this show. I hope more people upload some video from this show.

I too remember this show. Shirley Jones appeared in the premiere episode. The animal puppets were classic. I had a punch-out book of the Curiosity Shop, that I could set up with all the animal puppets in the wagon or whatever that was they were all in. All I can recall of the puppets was the basset hound, the giraffe and the duck-bill platypus who was a person in a full costume and never spoke. He wore big sneakers too. Pamelyn Ferdin, a child actress all over tv shows back then, perhaps best found as one of the five children in the Guardian Angel episode of the sixties Star Trek, was one of the kids and the older boy can be found in several episodes of Brady Bunch as Bobby's friend, particularly in the episode with Joe Namath. A black girl was eventually brought in, I guess to appeal to affirmative action that was going on back then. I also recall the Halloween episode. All the puppets were dressed up as monsters and the platypus was a vampire. It was very creepy seeing them all like that. Was it the final episode I recall that had the children leave the curiostiy shop, saying good bye and once outside we were treated to them hopping around in multi-colored psychedelic swirls, with only their silhouettes moving, accompanied by some very funky music?

I would love to see this show again. For the longest time I equated Shirley Jones with this show more than I did Partridge Family.

Someone needs to put this thing on DVD. If only to scare the pants off of a new generation of kids. I was fascinated by this show, and remember precious little about it other than it featured three kids (including perennial favorite Pamelyn Ferdin) and a Laugh-In Joke Wall-type series of doors out of which a number of puppets would poke their heads and talk to the kids. And these puppets scared the HELL out of me. But it was a good scared because I loved watching the show. I don't remember anything about the cartoon elements of the show, or even that Chuck Jones and Mel Blanc were involved (when I watched it, at age five). But I read recently that Chuck was pretty heavily involved in the production of the show, so: daughter Linda Jones, if you're listening and you own the rights to this thing, put it on DVD! Does anyone remember the names of the puppets or what creatures they were supposed to be? There was one in particular which really gave me the heeby-jeebies, but I couldn't even describe it now to save my life.

I remember this show and also had the Curiosity Shop lunch box. It was from the good old days when T.V. wasn't only about making money. The major networks served the public interest in those days.

The girl in the show was also on "Lassie" and on the "Brady Bunch" episode where Jan buys the black wig. I think she was an episode of "The Odd Couple" too.

OK I have one word for all those who remember this show, Onemonapeia ( I hope I spelled it right). That was the name of my favorite puppet on this wonderful show. I was like 8 or 9 when this show was on and I remember I even had the lunch box. I remember that puppet in particular because he spoke in sound effects hence the name. I remember there were a lot of famous cartoonist involved in this show including Chuck Jones and voice over artist like Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, and Don Messick. I too wish somebody would release this on DVD along with other childhood memories of mine like Do-Do the Kid From Outer Space, The Bugaloos, Lancelot Link Secret Chimp and The Double Decker London Bus. I would love to have the opportunity to be able to watch these nostalgic favorites.

I have very fond memories of this show. In fact, I think it had a large influence on my career choice in animation. "The Curiosity Shop" would regularly show animated shorts that had no other venue in the US. There was a talking TV character that would show them on her screen. (She was a grandmother character with a shawl over her console and instead of legs, she sat on rockers like a rocking chair. I don't remember who provided the voice. Many of the animated films presented were from the National Film Board of Canada, Zagreb Yugoslavia and often Oscar nominees and/or winners. I distinctly remember some of the short films by Ryan Larkin, especially his Oscar winning "Walking". Interestingly enough, Larkin was the subject of the Oscar winning animated short film for 2003, "Ryan". I must confess that another reason I had to watch the show was my mild crush on child actress Pamelyn Ferdin. My hat is off to the late Chuck Jones for helping to create such a wonderful and influential show.

My twin girls, in first grade, just told me that they are learning about "sound" words, and I immediately had a flashback to the "Onomatopoeia" song, which I am pretty sure I first heard on the "Curiousity Shop" all these many years ago. Here are some of the lyrics, as I remember them (yes, I even remember the basic tune): "Onomatopoeia, Onomatopoeia, it's the word you spell by ear. Onomatopoeia, Onomatopoeia, it's a word for a sound that you always hear -- like a crash, bang, boom." I read on Wikipedia that a specific puppet represented the Onomatopoeia and made all kinds of sounds. Can someone, somehow, somewhere post a YouTube video with this song? I'll even settle for the lyrics. The so-called "modern" Onomatopoeia songs don't hold a candle to the Chuck Jones version. PLEASE, Please if anyone knows a link to the lyrics or the right YouTube video, post it in the comments somewhere! This was a truly great show - obviously, since I remember this from more than 40 years ago!

This was indeed a "lost" children's classic that was never heard from since it's original broadcast more than decades ago. This was probably the best children's show ever made for Saturday Morning TV which basically ran for three seasons on ABC-TV from September of 1971 to September of 1973. I don't know how many episodes were produced for this show,but during its run garnered more Emmy and Peabody awards for best children's programming and likewise this show was at the top of list for execeptional children's entertainment at it's finest,courtesy of its star and also the executive producer of this series,legendary animator Chuck Jones,who was also the CEO and head honcho of children's programming over at ABC-TV during the early 1970's,which Jones was responsible for bringing to the network brilliant shows as well including "Schoolhouse Rock","The Superfriends","The Jackson Five",and other interesting and informative specials which were both live-action and animated.

The Curiosity Shop was not the usual out of the mill animation dreck but out of the ordinary was basically a fun show to watch that was very informative and educational and sometimes there was something special waiting to happen in some of the episodes,but with Chuck Jones behind the helm you'll never know what to expect as long as you got something out of it and you'll learn a great lesson here too. As for the cast,they're were something too,especially the premiere episode which featured actress Shirley Jones of "The Partridge Family" fame,and also cast regulars Pamelyn Ferdin(a well known child actress who was best known for her roles in several TV shows including "Lassie" "The Brady Bunch",and also for her role as Tony Randall's daughter Edna from the series "The Odd Couple"),and also from Kerry MacLane and John Levin,Les Tremayne and Jere Fields,whom the producers brought in during the show's second season and also voiceover work from the greats in the business Mel Blanc,June Foray,Bob Halt,Don Messick,and also from Chuck Jones too.

By the way,the lunchbox from that decade is worth something these days,and its a classic! The Halloween episode is probably the best out of the series,and it explains in detail about horror and also when they did a unmasking scene from "The Phantom Of The Opera"! Impressive! Let's hope that this show resurfaces again especially with the hunger of the cable/satellite markets,or maybe sometime soon cable giant TV Land will bring this back as part of there TV Land Kitschen format,since they have restored countless 1970's Saturday Morning TV classic live-action shows and they may bring this back!

I remember watching Curiosity Shop when it was originally broadcast on ABC-TV in the 1970s,and my favorite episode on the show was the Halloween episode in which Vincent Price was the guest star, and the subject on that episode was "Fright ". Two nights after I watched a repeat of the episode, back in 1973, I had a scary dream about him in a haunted house-type setting like the Curiosity Shop was turned into for the Halloween show. In that dream, he frightened me with darkness and it gave me quite a scare, but I don't remember any darkness in the "Curiosity Shop " episode that he was in. I would like to see that show again on YouTube if somebody could find it and post it there so that I could download it to my YouTube playlist. I have read that ABC-TV had wiped away all the episodes of "Curiosity Shop " so I will never see them again, but I'll never forget that Halloween episode of the show and my scary dream about Vincent Price.