In
“The Uptown 500,” a race is held in Tranquility Forest. The winner of the race
will have the opportunity to sing in a TV commercial, so naturally, Benita
Bizarre (Martha Raye) wants in.
After
a car accident between the Bugaloo Buggy and Benita’s car, the nemeses enter
the race. But Benita captures Sparky (Billy Barty) and warns the Bugaloos that
if they don’t drop out of the race, they’ll never see their friend again.
The
Bugaloos stay in the race, trying to buy time, while Nutty Bird goes in search
of the missing firefly. Fortunately, he
is found, and Benita loses the race.
You
have to admire the ambition of this episode of The Bugaloos (1970). With
no budget, and little in terms of studio space, the filmmakers here engineer a dramatic race through Tranquility Forest using nothing but two life-sized car props, a
lot of chroma-key work, and some inventive camera angles.
This
seems like it must have been an impossible episode to produce and pull-off, yet
it emerges as one of the more enjoyable of this late-span Bugaloo stories. It
is true that we have seen all this before, (Benita and Bugaloos in competition
for some singing prize), but the galvanizing principle of the race brings at
least some degree of freshness to the proceedings.
Once
again, however, it must be acknowledged that Sparky is the albatross around the
Bugaloos collective neck. He is constantly getting in trouble -- getting
captured, or doing something foolish because he feels bad about himself --
and this behavior necessitates constant rescuing.
Of course this, and stories like it raise a question. What if Benita Bizarre got what she wanted? What if she got a commercial? Perhaps, if she won, just once, she wouldn't be such a dreadful person.
Next
week: the final episode in The Bugaloos’ catalog: “The Good Old Days.”
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