Joe Bowie, the voice of Ro-Revus, answered questions about his creation of the naughty little frog for the June Bugg Show back in the late 1960s on South Carolina Educational Television.

Here’s the film that made Ro-Revus famous around the world (he was already famous in South Carolina in the late 60s-early 70s on public TV):

How To Be A Man

For centuries, parents have struggled to usher their children through the magical, often treacherous, journey to adulthood. But in mid-century America, a new form of tutelage was engineered: the classroom film. Suddenly, the prickly issues of sexual development and juvenile delinquency could be addressed in tidy, ten-minute sermons disguised as dramas. To deal with the subtleties of behavior and the importance of fitting in, social guidance films were made on such topics as coping with failure (Planning For Success) and teasing (The Other Fellow’s Feelings). The films in this collection-curated and introduced by Skip Elsheimer, founder of the A/V Geeks educational film archive sample some of the lessons that were routinely taught to boys. In them, one sees slices of Americana, discovers the world of educational cinema (with a language all its own), and gains an insight into the hopes and fears of the parents and educators who relied on the power of cinema to initiate, educate and indoctrinate the young.

How To Be A Woman

As the daughters of the baby boom reached adolescence, the American school system struggled to educate them on matters of sexual and social development lessons that were not always being taught at home. To the teacher uncomfortable with such topics, classroom films were a godsend. They depicted the reproductive system in anatomical detail (Growing Girls) or through puzzling symbolism (The Wonders of Reproduction, produced by the Moody Institute of Science). Beyond sex education, classroom films addressed a wide array of social issues, from the importance of cooking skills (You’re the Judge, starring a young Bonnie Franklin), to self-defense (Attack) and how to appear more pleasing to others (Improve Your Personality). Often corny, sometimes frightening, these cinematic life lessons curated and introduced by Skip Elsheimer, founder of the A/V Geeks educational film archive provide a fascinating window to the hopes and fears of parents and educators in mid-century America.

An odd film about gender and Church doctrine involving pipe cleaner people – one of which is Asian.
Available on the Creepy Christian Cinema DVD…

One of the greatest films in the A/V Geeks collection – a violent kid’s version of Diamonds are Forever! Available on the “Be Your Own Blockbuster” DVD.

THE POTHEADS IN LET’S GET NICE (5 minutes, black and white, 1969. Made by Alfonso Sanchez, aged 18.) Some of the hallucinatory effects of marijuana-smoking are imaginatively conveyed through trick photography. Time seems to stand still and the world stands on end when one is under the influence of this drug (thanks Dwight Swanson for finding this blurb)

In this short, our housewife learns about the wonders of the garbage disposal. This film is a favorite with audiences due to the high-speed photography of grapefruit rinds and bone being pulverized.

This film is available on The Modern Housewife DVD-R

Proto-claymation goes awry with talking teeth and a demonic tooth decay character. A food group hoe-down highlights the importance of good nutrition to help maintain healthy teeth.

This film attempts to calm childrens’ fear of the dentist by having a very scary clown get a cavity filled. Nitrous oxide-inspired!

This film is available on the Best of A/V Geeks 4 DVD-R.

It is also available on the Clowns and Caveman DVD-R.

Filmstrip that teaches us that even troublemakers have their problems.

This film is available on the Focus on Filmstrips DVD-R