Gumby Adventures

The Music Ball: A package parachutes into Gumby's ranch. The only writing on it are the words "Top Secret". "Let's open it!" It turns out to be a golden ball that randomly freaks out whenever Gumby and friends play music. They decide to use the strange object to get on Johnny Carson and MTV, after lunch, of course. Wouldn't you know it, the Blockheads steal it while they're eating, and they have a downright unnessecary chase scene to recover it. The short ends with Gumby's strange, phantasmagoric concert. Shrink-a-Dink: Pokey's unsure about a visit to Professor Kapp's lab, but eventually gives into his peers. They all go to the lab where the Professor unveils his shrinking machine. As everyone but Pokey patiently wait in the machine's area of influence, Pokey accidentally turns the machine on, shrinking everyone to the size of an ant. When enough time has been killed by unimportant events, Pokey unshrinks everyone and vows never to eat candy again. Hatching Out: The first half of this cartoon features Gumby being stalked and horribly devoured by a Tyrannosaurus, both in the Toy Store and on his ranch. A second later, everyone else arrives to find the dinosaur napping in the hay. Fortunately, Denali scares it off with a few ice cubes, but it left behind an egg. Prickle decides to dump it in a passing garbage truck. It hatches moments later, with Gumby inside. Turns out the whole thing was a dream brought on by too many nature documentaries about the mating habits of dinosaurs before bedtime.

Mirror-Aculous Recovery: While Prickle and Goo search for a hairbrush that's so important that it's only mentioned once, Gumby and Pokey enter a mirror, hoping to redeem the free hot fudge sundaes that a nearby sign promises them. Unfortunately, it's a trap set by the Blockheads, who shatter the mirror, trapping Gumby and Pokey in a strange other-world. When Goo fails to reassemble the mirror by reversing a tape recording of a note that shatters glass, Goo and Prickle get a clue and have Professor Kapp reassemble it with the most powerful plot device in the world. As the Worm Turns: The Blockheads are using insecticides on their farm, much to the dismay of the local earthworms. Fortunately, Gumby is the self-appointed guardian of all earthworms, and he rigs up a net to crash the Blockheads' crop dusting plane. Rather than press charges, the Blockheads agree to stop spraying, but then they start selling their worms as live fish bait. Gumby unites the worms of the world, and they devour the ground beneath the Blockheads' ugly, ugly house, destroying it. The worms of the world are free of their oppressors, thanks to Gumby. Wild Girls: Gumby is the world's biggest teen idol! Literally two trucks full of screaming girls chase after him and his band after the concert! After a brief interlude in Paris, where we learn how to order orange juice in French and Prickle's bread roll talks to him, Gumby and friends are chased by the girls back to their farm/studio! Gumby and friends are mobbed, and the girls carry off torn scraps of Gumby's clothes as souvenirs!

Lost Treasure: This harrowing tale of mystery and adventure begins in an antique shop, where Gumby and friends find a chest labeled "200 year old pirate chest". The shop owner claims that it's an ancient family heirloom that his great-great-grandfather passed down for generations, yet he's willing to give it up for $5.75. Rather than wonder how authentic a $5.75 treasure chest can be, Gumby and friends buy it, take it home, and crack her open. Inside are some jumping beans, which they have to waste some time waking up. They follow the beans to a tree, dig, and unearth a chest with more jumping beans. The Beetle and the Caterpillar: The Blockheads sell their forest land to developers who are itching to make a freeway, and it just puts Gumby in a bad mood, what with how the freeway will ruin his farm's ecology. Meanwhile, Pokey is eating a carrot, inspiring a local beetle to instantly grow to fifty times its normal size for five seconds. Disregarding the dangers involved with giant insects, Gumby decides to use the bug's strange properties to scare off the driver of the Caterpillar tractor that's clearing the forest. When another driver comes by, Gumby uses his own size-altering powers to scare him away, leaving us to wonder why he needed the stupid bug in the first place. A Smashing Hit: Prickle's only played the clarinet for one day, but that's no reason why he can't perform with the band at the cherry festival. By a stroke of luck, he happens upon the pitch that shatters every glass object in the city, and he, along with Gumby and other friends, run away before he can be prosecuted. They all duck into the book called "The Glass Menagerie and Dr. Jekyll". They find a glass museum, run by a mad scientist old movie Dracula, who lets them visit for free. Unfortunately, that's only because he plans on turning them into glass sculptures. He traps everyone under giant wine glasses, except Prickle, who finds his clarinet and shatters the glass again, freeing them. The moral: clarinets have as much potential for good as they do for evil, and must not fall into the wrong hands.

Gumbot: Gumby has been horribly abducted! A red helicopter snatches Gumby up and takes him to an evil robotics company, where the Blockheads brainwash him by making him look at flashing lights. Along with the other three or four brainwashed clay figures, he's forced to work for the evil robotics company, as evidenced by the way he jabs a screwdriver at a circuit board. Fortunately, Pokey saw the helicopter take Gumby, and even more fortunately, the Blockheads leave it parked on top of the building where they're keeping Gumby. The Blockheads are vaguely defeated, and Goo undoes Gumby's brainwashing by crying all over him. I guess the other clay figures are still working for the evil robotics company. Guitar Magic: Gumby's reckless skateboard stunts have finally paid off. After smashing up a guitar store a book about 17th century Spanish guitars, he's forced to accept a magical guitar that makes you fly around. It'll be a nice act for his next concert, once he's had it repaired. One of the Blockheads impersonates the repairman, and of course, Goo doesn't recognize him, what with how he's wearing a fake mustache and all, so she gives him the guitar. When she realizes she's been duped, Gumby and friends chase the Blockheads into a field, where they get caught in a hay thresher/baler. We end with Gumby's concert, where Gumby flies away with the guitar and is ultimately stuck on some sort of spinning blade thingy. Gumbitty Doo Dah: There's no real "story" in this one. It feels like a stream of consciousness; events happen with no real connection between them. One of the Blockheads molds himself into Gumby as part of a plot to steal Prickle's ball. Unfortunately, there's an alien in the ball, and it frightens the Blockheads away. Gumby's so happy about the turn of events that he rides on a toy top until it flings him off, into the clutches of a two-headed ogre. After frightening the ogre away, Gumby goes to play dress-up with Prickle. He dresses up as Eddie Murphy and a disturbing clown before going to spy on the Blockheads, who have a treasure map. The treasure chest they find contains Gumby, who gives them buttons to wear that have the peace sign printed on them. Gumby runs into Pokey and a paint set, and together they paint a large "The End" picture on the floor.

A Miner Affair: On the way to a gig in Tombstone Gulch, Gumby and friends are stopped by an old silver miner, who forces them, with his sheer charisma and a long whip, to work in his silver mine. Goo causes a distraction, which must involve their band equipment for some reason, and Gumby and Pokey dump a load of silver ore on him. They escape easily, and make it to the gig. The silver miner has the intelligence to follow them into town, where he's recognized and arrested almost immediately. All Cooped Up: While Gumby and friends are away, the Blockheads steal Chilly, the only chicken on Gumby's farm. They take her to the Eggspedition Building at Chickenco. What follows is a far too real description of corporate farming: chickens are kept in cramped cages for their entire lives, forced to lay eggs until they grow too old and then. . . . Well, it's still a children's show, so they don't go on to say. Chilly fakes an illness by not laying eggs, and when she's removed from her cage, she escapes the building, but gets stopped by the fence. We have to wrap it up quick, though, so Gumby and friends very conveniently come along and save her. Gumby shuts Chickenco down, and the world is safe once again. Gumby's Circus: Gumby decides to take advantage of the freaky qualities of his friends and family and puts on his own circus. My, but there's a lot to see. Denali shoots ice cubes into a bucket, Minga does a cartwheel, a walrus does a trapeze act, and there's a special request return performance by the growing and shrinking beetle from "The Beetle and the Caterpillar". The Blockheads try to sneak in to see the wonderful spectacle, but when they can't break in, they cut the ropes that hold Gumby's tent up. Nothing important happens, and the Blockheads are caged up, presumably to become part of Gumby's traveling show.

The Elephant and the Dragon: Poor King Ott. His elephant and his dragon just don't get along. The elephant insists that the dragon doesn't exist largely despite the fact that he walks past him every flipping day, and the dragon tries to prove his existence by roasting the nearby town. Every day. Ott sends for Gumby, who has saved his sorry butt so many times in the past. Gumby threatens to take over the elephant's job if he can't get along with the dragon. That shuts him up. Goo does a live report on the labor dispute for the evening news. Denali's House: Gumby realizes that he can't keep his wooly mammoth in the barn after he accidentally smashes holes in the floor. He hires speedy carpenters to build a house for Denali. The carpenters build a palatial residence for Denali. Unfortunately, Gumby had something simpler in mind. Ostrich Feathers: The Blockheads run Ostrich Ranch, a place where ostriches are raised for their feathers, much to the dismay of said ostriches. An ostrich with a horribly overdone Australian accent named Nifty manages to escape from the Blockheads' trademark lax security. Naturally, he finds refuge at Gumby's ranch. And we find out he was named Nifty because he's a nifty dancer. And he dances for us.