Heidi - classic or dud

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I remember the TV series. it went on FOREVER. It was dubbed into English and had some very sad bits about how Heidi was sad because she was far away from the countryside and being persecuted by the evil woman.

but didn't it have a happy ending where the crippled girl learned to walk and the wicked woman became nice and everyone moved back to the mountains?

― DV, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I never read the book.

― DV, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Grandfather Grandfather. As Heidi used to say. Constantly.

Crippled girl = Clara, evil woman = Frau something or other. I read all the books when I was a kid. I was particularly touched by an episode where Heidi hides the soft bread rolls from the rich people's house to give to the poor blind grandmother of Goat Peter (arf) but then they go stale OH NO! I always liked the idea of sleeping on hay. I have rethought that since realising it would be full of bugs and very prickly.

― Emma, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

nah i never watched the tv or read the book! i just dig the plaits!

― katie, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

DV is right that Heidi is the longest TV series ever broadcast. Also - and not unrelated - one of the most boring. A poor advert for the Alps as every time I go there I think of this awful saga.

― Tom, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Oh dear. I was the only fan then. Mind you I didn't like the little girl who played Heidi, she had short tightly curled hair, no plaits at all. She was also quite plain.

― Emma, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

does anyone remember silas - a great show - dubbed from german - he had a crippled friend yorick and a horse, magic times

― born clippy, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Was there a version of Heidi with Shirley Temple? This is the only thing to do with Heidi I can remember watching. It was no Little Princess.

― Nicole, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

was it the longest show ever or was it victim of "never see the start/never see the end" because of tv scheduling and schools breaking up for summer at different times? (cf Robinson Crusoe, Hunters Gold, Tin-Tin, ect)

― Alan Trewartha, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It was several years longer than Hunters Gold Alan.

― Tom, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

what was the name of Heidi's little boyfriend up in the mountains? he got all jealous when he thought she'd become all urbane and too smart for his rough rustic ways.

I remember liking the TV programme.

― dV, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Wait, how long was Heidi on? I thought that Days Of Our Lives was the longest-running TV show ever (I think it's been on for mor than 40 years).

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

DV it was Goat Peter as I referred to up thread. She ends up marrying him and becoming a teacher (apologies for Heidi spoilers).

Silas! Yes I had a memory of the programme but forgot the name. He was always sleeping in barns and stuff.

Anyway, Bagpuss / Bod / Mr Benn etc. etc. aren't they grebt....

― Emma, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

we used to call my grandfather "grandfather" in the dulcet alpine tones of heidi.

somehow this lead to calling my father "goat peter" ("where is goat peter?" "he went to the store for cigarettes."), something which persists to this day.

i don't know why i delurked to say this, but it does explain something about me.

― jess, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Becoming Mrs. Goat Peter: Classic or Dud?

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Is Heidi more intelligent than she was 2000 years ago? (when the show started, apparently)

― Alan Trewartha, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think it might be longer than that Alang. NB Dan I am not talking about anything as footling as mere measurable time.

― Tom, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Someone who doesn't twig that soft white rolls are going to get a bit stale if you stash them in your cupboard is pretty fucking thick whatever year it is. Dozy bint (oh how I loved to hate that Heidi...)

― Emma, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

When my hair gets too long, my wife calls me "Almöhi" (what Grandfather was called in German -- it is not, however, the German word for Grandfather). She also very much enjoys singing the theme song. "Hei-di, Heiiiiiii-di, Deine Welt sind die Berge..."

― Colin Meeder, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Goat Peter's goats are called Bahrli and Schwannli (one is black like a bear, the other is white like a swan) - displaying an interesting use of the distinctive Swiss German thing of using the -li ending as a diminutive.

― DV, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Hurrah for Jess and contributing 'Goat Peter' to the lexicon!

I have very blurred memories of Heidi movies and TV shows mixed with Pippi Lockstocking movies on pre-cable seventies TV. That and bad seventies live action Disney movies, like The Cat From Outer Space and that stupid one about the long-distance runner who could outrun cheetahs. Or anything with Dean Jones.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think I fancied Clara in the tv series when I was little. I agree with Emma about Heidi.

― Jeff W, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I remember Silas used to play a flute to attract some dancing grizzly bear.... why were the RSPCA never notified (probably because it Hungarian and over there RSPCA is a good hand at Scrabble)

Do you remember the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn on Thursdays?? Like Heidi but without the dubbing, therefore no excuse for being rubbish!

― Tarka the Otter, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think the Huckleberry Finn programme was better once it was just about Huckleberry Finn.

― DV, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I hated Hiedi, it was just the rubbish sort of programme like Black Beauty that they put on in the summer, when they thought no one was watching. But I was. And Why Don't You. *twitch*

― jel --, Thursday, 1 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Every New York Jets fan knows all about Heidi!

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"tim tyler:the boy who lost his smile", anyone? he had the best smile in the world but gave it away to an evil baron in order that the baron could clinch business deals. in return he was given unimaginable wealth, i think, but was desperately unhappy and so was rescued by a nun and a chef. classic. "patrick packard" as well; a ridiculously complicated dubbed saga remembered mainly for the credits which combined a soundtrack of the name repeated over and over in a 'euro-rock' style with intercut images of pineapples and a fjord.

― michael wells, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I hate Heidi - but in particular Goat Peter for quite obvious reasons.

I always though The Cat From Outer Space and Mooncat should have teamed up in a wildly varying production values special. Perhaps to be joined by the Brother From Another Planet.

Recuring 19th century kids book meme - sickly child in wheelchair wot can't walk is taugh to walk by fresh air and countryside. cf The Secret Garden (Dickon vs Goat Peter FITE).

― Pete, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

the evil woman was called Frau Rottenmeier, rather dickensianly.

― rener, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Another sickly wheelchair bound kid who learns to walk = Katy in What Katy Did. Though she was taught by the courage, strength & goodness of spirit of Cousin Helen. I never liked Katy, I always preferred her sister Clover.

― Emma, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

oh god, let's do Noel Streetfield books next. White Boots v Ballet Shoes FITE

― Alan Trewartha, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

DEPITE yesterday's pervertalist shenanigans (and a co-worker trilling "bye, heidi!" at me as she was leaving last night), i have my plaits in today once more!

― katie, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Dud.

― isadora, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

My mum was into ice skating as a kid and loved White Boots. I did lots of ballet lessons and was into Ballet Shoes. However my copy had a really ugly cover with a still from some 70s tv version. My favourite Fossil sister was Pauline, then Posy, then Petrova, I never like tomboy characters. I remember being quite freaked out by Pauline reappearing in another one as a big movie star who inspires the grumpy child actress character in, er, was it The Painted Garden? It was about a little girl called Jane who is plucked from obscurity to play Mary in The Secret Garden.

I read a lot of ballet books as a little girl but no horse ones contrary to popular belief.

― Emma, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I hope Goat Peter kicks Dickon's arse. I hated that guy. So tha could walk all along tha bastard!

― Sam, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

One day I will publish my "The Victorian Psychic Pony" story and you will all ph34r me.

― Alan Trewartha, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

blimey alang i already ph34r you!

― katie, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Does the pony encourage a sickly wheelchair bound child to walk again? If not we are not interested.

― Emma, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It enables a group of modern day children (inc our hero, who found the diary and locket that connects her to the pony back in time) to escape a pit collapse, echoing a collapse that happened 100 years earlier killing it's mother (the horses) and leaving one child wheelchair bound (at the very least).

― Alan Trewartha, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

DIckon was not the sickly kid in the chair he was the earthy Goat Peter type who knew all there was to know about plants and was was probably shagging Mary too. (cf GP and H). Idealised view of the working class, knowing their place whlst providing "a bit of rough" fantasy.

― Pete, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Who said Dickon was sickly? Eh? It was Colin of course but I'm sure no one has implied otherwise.

― Emma, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I believe Sam in his cryptic post above regarding a fight between Goat Petter and Dickon:

I hope Goat Peter kicks Dickon's arse. I hated that guy. So tha could walk all along tha bastard!

Dickon could obviously beat Goat Peter because he is English working class and would undoubtedly cheat (throw dirt in eyes). Unless Goat Peter uses his mastery of the worlds goats to come to his aid (a sort of goat based Aquaman).

― Pete, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I interpreted that at Sam's imitation of Dickon who was always a bit harsh with poor weak Colin.

― Emma, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I did NOT say that Dickon was sickly.

― Colin Meeder, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"a goat-based Aquaman" - there is surely a simpler way of putting this.

Also having power over all goats would make you the DEVIL.

― Tom, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

No, Tom - the Devil is The Lord Of The Flies. Flies and goats are not the same.

― DV, Friday, 2 August 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

two months pass...

Wasn't the nasty governess in Clara's house called Fraulein Rottenmeier? Very Dickensian.

― Ben Mott (Ben Mott), Saturday, 5 October 2002 19:15 (twenty-two years ago) link

Can we make this thread about Heidi Sugababe. She rocks.

― Graham (graham), Sunday, 6 October 2002 17:49 (twenty-two years ago) link

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