A Pumpkin Full of Nonsense

The list

1. 01

   A Pumpkin Full of Nonsense 1985

   Half-hour animated Halloween special; Sir Scrabble and two kids enter Nonsense, defeat the Muddler via spelling; aired Oct 31, 1985.

Where to watch: VHS · Beta

Facts from the original

• The special's full title is The Adventures of the Scrabble People in A Pumpkin Full of Nonsense, an animated television special from 1985.
• It was made at Jaime Diaz Studios in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• It was produced and directed by Alvaro Arce and co-directed by Jaime Diaz.
• In the special, a character called Sir Scrabble and two children travel to a land called Nonsense, where education has been forbidden.
• Sir Scrabble teams up with the residents to defeat an evil ruler, the Muddler, through the power of learning and spelling.
• Selchow and Righter, a U.S. board game manufacturer, financed and developed the special.
• It was based on, and also featured, Selchow and Righter's Scrabble People characters.
• The special first aired in syndication on October 31, 1985, and was re-run in August 1986.
• It was released on VHS by Vestron Video through its Children's Video Library label.
• Sir Scrabble, a resident of the magical town of Nonsense, follows a boy named Tad and a girl named Terry on the way to a Halloween party.
• Coming across a pumpkin patch, they stumble upon an enormous pumpkin and land right into the town.
• There they discover that the signs nearby have missing or scrambled letters.
• The Muddler is dubbed 'Baron of Bad Guys, Count of Confusion, Earl of Errors and King of Chaos.'
• The Muddler has rid the land of all education and vowels, greatly oppressing the Scrabble People, a group of youngsters who live there.
• Sir Scrabble insists on teaching the alphabet to Nonsense's residents, but the Muddler imprisons him, which satisfies Rotunda, the evil ruler's daughter.
• The towndwellers' learning and spelling skills, along with a teacher named Lexa—the area's only literate resident—rescue Sir Scrabble and set him free.
• Together with the human visitors they eventually defeat the Muddler, and Nonsense is renamed Makesense.
• Afterward, Tad, Terry and Mr. Scrabble head over to their party.
• The special was produced by Jaime Diaz Studios of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Arce Productions.
• It was financed and developed by Selchow and Righter, the owners of the Scrabble board game at that time.
• It showcased and was based on the company's Scrabble People property, which was introduced in 1984 and created by the designers of Coleco's Cabbage Patch Kids.
• The special originally aired in syndication on October 31, 1985, and was re-run in eleven markets in late August 1986 through Orbis Communications.
• During that period, it aired on WCBS in New York City.
• It was released on VHS and Beta on July 16, 1986 by Children's Video Library, a Vestron Video label.
• Vestron spokesperson C.J. Kettler said the acquisition of the special 'enhances our catalog significantly because all Scrabble People products, including the video, educate children while entertaining them.'
• Eden Ross Lipson of The New York Times called the special an 'elaborately produced effort' and added, 'It's cartooning for a cause—literacy—and if it falls short as both art and entertainment, it's not for want of trying.'
• A Pumpkin Full of Nonsense was certified with the Seal of Approval from Good Housekeeping magazine.
• A related see-also item is Scrabble, a 1980s game show based on the board game.