Sybil Bruncheon's 31 Days of Halloween!... October 29, 2011... Frost on the Punkin'

October 29th, 2011… This was the Halloween show we were producing with the fabulous ladies of the Red Ribbon Foundation up in Greenwich, Connecticut! ....A Costume Ball and contest, an elaborately catered banquet, prizes, dancing, a whole evening of incredible fun that took months of planning MONTHS!!...and, well, do you remember what happened??? A freak blizzard hit the entire North East! An ice storm that clung to all the leaves that hadn't even begun to fall off the trees.... and so right after I arrived in Greenwich with my co-host and costume designer Gefil Tefish and went to the venue to get ready, we listened as trees began crashing in the woods all around us mixed with the thunder and lightning from the "thunder-flurries" that rumbled all night long. Jim Cantore and the Weather Channel cast were apoplectic! The headlines reported power outages that ended up lasting for weeks afterwards in many areas. Thousands of trees were brought down, oftentimes right into people's homes and businesses. And of course, Halloween was basically canceled in the affected areas.

That night the entire committee and the volunteers divided up all the prepared (and sumptuously catered!) food, and we all retired to the chairwoman's beautiful home and had our own impromptu Halloween party with games, ghost stories, and bobbing for apples... or was it Harry Winston brooches? The old saying in show business is that "The Show MUST Go On!"... well, here's the poster for the only event in all my years that never took place!...an odd and wonderful piece of memorabilia in my collection. (ps. Interestingly, exactly one year later, Halloween was canceled again! Hurricane Sandy blacked out NYC and much of the metropolitan area! JEEESH!!)

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Sybil Bruncheon's TV reminiscences... The ups and downs of "the little screen"...

You know, folks, at the end of every television season, I get kind of melancholy about all the amazing TV shows that I was cast in over the years... but that didn't make it past a season or two... or even the pilot. Ah well...

TOUCHED BY A CARROT (1971-1973): A nice lady gardener falls in love with a huge orange vegetable she has grown. After winning blue ribbons at county fairs, it abandons her and later runs for president. Comedy ensues.

TAMBOURINE MAN-GIRL (1969): A lady gym-teacher decides that dodgeball offers no fulfillment and takes up with a traveling jug-band as their bouncer. Sadly, her nickname is "Mr. Debbie".

MR. POOF'S PIXIES (1973-1974): A Saturday morning children's show involving cartoons, guest appearances by zoo animals, carnival clowns, and pain-free dentists. I was hired to teach table manners and ballroom dancing to the preschoolers in the live audiences. I often smelled of urine, especially when we did "Kiddie-Tango"...

BUT I LIKE VEGETABLES! (1978-1979): A spin-off of TOUCHED BY A CARROT. The lady gardener, now single but still nice, makes her own way into the world of politics as a vegan candidate for governor of an unnamed but cattle-centric state, probably Texas. Her carrot-lover, now president, has an on-again-off-again romance/rivalry with her. Comedy ensues.

WHATTSUP? (1975-1976): A lady teacher in an inner city school has heartwarming (and life-affirming!) adventures with a gang of quadriplegic graffiti-thugs. She turns their lives around by making them into Bergdorf-Goodman make-up artists to the rich and famous. They hold their tools in their mouths.

HEY, GURRRRRRRRRRL! (1981-1982): A spin-off of WHATTSUP?, the lady school teacher takes students who've lost their arms in bizarre shop-class accidents and opens a hair salon on the roof of Saks Fifth Avenue. They do color, cuts, and blow-outs using their feet. Also heartwarming and life-affirming.

SCHOOL'S OUT …AND BURNED TO THE GROUND (1982-1983): Broad sit-com set in an end-of-the-world dystopia. Lady school teacher opens orphanage for children and childish adults, and makes due with radishes, foraged styrofoam, and common sense. A message at the end of every one of the three completed episodes.

I MARRIED MY DOG (1983-1984): A nice but awkward young paleontologist claims his bichon-frisé, Bitzy, is his reincarnated fiancée and marries her. Comedy ensues when the police find him walking her in a collar, leash, and negligée. I provided Bitzy's voice.

ZORT & THE POOOSIES (1984-1985): A man from another planet lands in suburban Milwaukee and gets a job at a brewery. He forms a garage band with three beautiful policewomen and they solve crimes on the side. I played their housekeeper, Bertha.

I'M A KID! BITE ME (1985-1986): A nice lady from a Republican gardening club, bumps her head, and through amnesia, becomes a wacky neighborhood troublemaker with a slingshot and a penchant for practical jokes on her former friends. Comedy ensues when she burns down the statehouse.

HI! MY FACE IS ON A MILK CARTON (1987-1988): An eccentric lady-performance-artist in NYC's downtown art scene begins meeting and saving street urchins during her sidewalk presentations. Each week, she rescues a new child and starts them on a new life... comedy ensues along with heartwarming, life-affirming messages and mild violence and nudity.

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