Zoinks! Like, where's Casey Kasem?

Oh, I definitely agree. My kids watch it all the time, and I'll actually go into the DVR and delete ones that are from the era when Scrappy was involved. He was like the cartoon puppy equivalent of the red-haired kid on Different Strokes.

The movies are a definite guilty pleasure.

 

Casey's shows were often a pleasant weekend escape for me as a child of the early 1980's.

My parents fought like crazy on the weekends, usually on Sunday mornings as they would complain about something that happened the day before, when they were both home.

Sunday mornings were horrible. Screaming. Slamming doors. Crying.

But Casey's AT40 would be how I drowned out the yelling and found something to distract myself. Once my parents finally divorced, my mother and I would listen to the AT40 on our mornings. A bonding 'thing' between a single mom and her only kid.

I would even say it inspired me, later on, to go into radio (as an FM DJ) before a life spent in TV sports and news.

Years ago, I discovered, on the weekends, that his original broadcasts would play on weekends where I lived. I crave those mornings, even now, to hear his voice, the corny stories about how The Fixx came to be, or how the guy from Glass Tiger beat his "personal problems" (i.e. a $3000 a day coke addiction).

To me, Casey Kasem was a giant -- and his voice took me to a better place.

 

How else did 90s kids learn about 70s icons other than their parents and the Scooby-Doo movies? The original Globetrotters, Sonny and Cher, Mama Cass Elliot, Laurel and Hardy, Dick Van Dyke, Don Knotts....I went back and watched the episode with Jonathan Winters after he died last year.

And, of course, he also guest-starred on Saved by the Bell back in the day as well.

Does anyone else live in a market where they rebroadcast his countdown on Sunday nights and listen to it last night? I'm curious if they mentioned it at all.

 

One of the unexpected highlights of my drive across the country in moving to the Pacific Northwest nearly four years ago was stumbling upon an "American Top 40" countdown from 1973 being played on the radio.

http://kluv.cbslocal.com/2010/08/15/casey-kasems-american-top-40-the-70s-22/

I heard songs 28 through 19 before the station faded away.

28. Three Dog Night "Shambala"
27. Isley Brothers "That Lady (Part 1)"
26. Carpenters "Yesterday Once More"
25. Donnie Osmond "Young Love"
24. Seals & Crofts "Diamond Girl"
23. Deep Purple "Smoke on the Water"
22. Lobo: "How Can I Tell Her"
21. Aretha Franklin "Angel"
20. Elton John "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting"
19. Grand Funk Railroad "We're An American Band"

 

He's missing again. He's dead, but he's missing.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/gossip/la-et-mg-casey-kasem-body-missing-kerri-kasem-restraining-order-20140718-story.html

 

There is some greatness on the entire Top 40 list. Unfortunately I'm familiar with at most a quarter of the songs on the list.

This is a neat little song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32QBDDSmyfM

 

Here's a better one, from the same guy.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dQhApraUzmQ