Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?

"Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?" originally aired a few days after my 7th birthday. I still remember Sammy Davis Junior's Cheshire Cat, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble's 2-headed caterpillar, Zsa Zsa Gabor's Queen of Hearts and Daws Butler's Phil Silver-esque sportscaster and W. C. Fields-ian King of Hearts. Pretty top-shelf work from the Hanna Barbera cartoon factory.

For 49 minutes, this 62-year-old man was a child again. Highly recommended for other children of the 60s. Even though it's almost July, I may fire up 1964's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or 1966's How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

For years I had been asking people if they remembered a cartoon of Alice in Wonderland where Alice went through her TV set, fell down a "computerized" shaft on the other side, and met the white rabbit. They all politely told me I was nuts. Then, a couple of days ago, I happened to catch this on CN's Boomerang channel, and did a Snoopydance out of sheer vindication. I really *did* see this when I was a kid!

Admittedly, there's nothing that stands out about this typical Hanna-Barbara fare -- the most interesting bits (to a child of the time) would have been seeing Fred and Barney as the Caterpillar, and Alice having the same voice as Josie (of Pussycat fame). Still, the framework story is different: our Alice is assigned to read the book "Alice in Wonderland," then falls, hits her head, and dreams up this whole adventure through the TV set. In that sense, it's more like "The Wizard of Oz" than AIW.

Today's children would probably be bored by this show, since it hasn't aged particularly well, and runs for an entire hour. Also, the title song has a line about "watering down the beer" that wouldn't be used today. If you're in the mood for nostalgia, though, see if you can catch it on a Boomerang rerun.

I just wanted to share something.i really enjoyed the Toon tracker ABC Hanna Barbera Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice kid like you doing in a place like this"originally aired on March 30,1966 sponsored by Rexall drug store and Coca-cola company.The Rexall commercials were included with Alice and the white rabbit.Sadly the coca-cola commercials were omitted.Back on November 19,1967,the Debbie Reynolds special on ABC was cancelled and was replaced by Alice in Wonderland once again.I am actually trying to do a research of when the cartoon special was re-aired on November 19,1967 sponsored by McDonald's corporation.Would anyone have the version of when Alice falls through the TV set and lands on the ground where the announcer sponsored the show by McDonalds.I would love to see that extremely rare 5 minute version.Can anyone help me out?Please let me know.

"What's a nice girl like you

Doing in a place like this?

What's a nice girl like you

Doing in a place like this?

Oh, I've got a feeling,

You won't like it here.

The potato chips are soggy

And they water the beer.

So what's a nice girl like you

Doing in a place like this?"

Despite the widely held opinion that the material is unfilmable, Lewis Carroll's fantasy/nonsense classics Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1871) have frequently been dramatized for films and television. While few of these productions have successfully translated Carroll's verbal and intellectual experimentation into cinema, several are of superior quality and hold an under-appreciated place in the history of the fantastic film.

Alice's Adventures in Videoland have been uneven in quality; there has been a tendency toward parody and experimentation, and several fine productions have been broadcast.

Walt Disney's animated feature Alice in Wonderland (1951) has been criticized as unfaithful and disrespectful to the Carroll classic. Even less for the purist is Hanna-Barbera's prime-time television special Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1966). This hour-long animated musical is a good-natured burlesque whose colorful visuals, wacky script by comic Bill Dana (aka "Jose Jiminez"), and pleasant, tuneful score by Charles Strouse (of "Annie," "Applause" and "Bye Bye Birdie") result in a happy light entertainment.

Alice, a typical mid-1960's suburban American teenager (in hip-boots and mini-skirt), bumps her head while doing a book report on "Alice in Wonderland". She thereafter chases her dog, Fluff, into her TV set, falling into an astonishingly vulgar Wonderland.

Highlights include a guest appearance by cartoon characters Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble as a two-headed Caterpillar, doing the vaudeville-style "They'll Never Split Us Apart"; a Mad Tea Party with the Mad Hatter's wife, Hedda Hatter (voiced by Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper); Bill Dana's diminutive White Knight; Zsa Zsa Gabor's Queen of Hearts ("Off viss zerr heads, dahlink"); and a zany croquet game which degenerates into a frantic amalgam including football, cricket, surfing and Monopoly.

Most memorable is Sammy Davis, Jr.'s performance (as the beatnik Cheshire Cat) of the terrific theme song, "What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?", which was a hit novelty single in 1966.

The show is a superior example of the Hanna-Barbera studio's limited animation (not to mention limited imagination) during the heyday of "Yogi Bear", "The Jetsons" and "Jonny Quest", and as such is recommended to all cartoon fans and to those students of Lewis Carroll's "Alice" books who can take a little irreverent spoofing of the classic icon.