The Return of Gumby

The Return of Gumby

United States - 1956

Director - Art Clokey

F.H.E., 1987, VHS

Run Time - 50 minutes

Episodes

• Witty Witch
• Hot Rod Granny
• In a Fix
• King for a Day
• The Groobee
• Gopher Trouble
• Rain for a Roo
• Chicken Feed
• The Zoops

A Gumby Summer

A Gumby Summer
United States

F.H.E., 1987, VHS

Volume 8

Run Time - 1 hour

I bet you thought I had forgotten about my mission to track down all the Gumby VHS tapes I could find. Not so lucky. Here I give you another in F.H.E.'s multi-volume series. This tape has a volume number on the label, but higher catalog numbers do not.

• Gumby League
• Motor Mania
• The Blue Goo
• A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts
• The Missile-Bird
• Pokey Express
• Rain Spirits
• Mason Hornet
• Shady Lemonade
• Making Squares

The World According to Gumby

The World According to Gumby

United States
F.H.E., 1987, VHS

Run Time – 30 minutes

• The Big Eye

• Outcast Marbles

• Tail Tale

• Haunted Hot Dog

• Indian Challenge

This is a short one. When I rented these as a kid I didn't understand the concept of running times and I was always profoundly disappointed when they were over after only five episodes. As a result I often ended up watching the same tape four or five times before returning it. Maybe that's why I feel compelled to gather them all together in the archive now; so I can play a constant loop of Gumby as my mind degenerates into psychosis.

Gumby For President

Gumby for President

F.H.E., 1987, VHS
Volume 9

Run Time – 1 hour

• Candidate for President

• Yard Work Made Easy

• Toy Joy

• Mysterious Fires

• Siege of Boonesborough

• Little Post Pony

• Point of Honor

• Do-It-Yourself Gumby

• Gold Rush Gumby

• Wishful Thinking

I'd vote for that wholesome son of a little green ball of clay.

Gumby and the Wild West

Gumby and the Wild West

United States

Director - Art Clokey

Avid Home Entertainment, 1991, VHS

Run Time - 1 hour

This volume is a mixture of anything remotely referring to the mythical American west and a few that don't. A confusing mix of naive racism and naive empathy and Gumby's usual childlike association with fantastic nonsense. I cannot find exact dates for any of these episodes. Amazon has this tape listed as "volume 4", though I can find no such label on the cassette or box. As with Gumby Magic, I think it's just an arbitrary designation particularly because the tapes with actual volume numbers are released by F.H.E.

Episodes:

• The Kachinas

• The Glob*

• School For Squares

• Goo For Pokey

• The Golden Iguana

• A Groobee Fight

• Hidden Valley

• Tricky Ball

• Ricochet Pete

*features the same public domain music that is featured prominently in Night of the Living Dead.

Gumby Magic

Gumby Magic

United States

Family Home Entertainment, 1987, VHS

Run Time - 50 minutes

This tape is listed at Amazon as "Gumby vol. 2," but it doesn't say that anywhere on the product. These later F.H.E. cassettes don't have volume numbers on 'em.

Episodes:

• The Magic Wand

• Mirror Land (Dec 29, 1956 modified version of Lost Found)

• Robot Rumpus

• Moon Trip

• Trapped on the Moon

• Gumby on the Moon (an edited a spliced version of the previous two episodes)

• The Eggs and Trixie (Dec. 28, 1957, a modified version of the episode Egg Trouble)

• Eager Beavers (modified version of Tree Trouble)

• The Magic Show (a modified version of episode The Magic Wand)

I found out the hard way when I was a kid that being a fan of Gumby didn't look cool with the ladies, and I still ocassionally get shit for it from my friends. Now, emboldened by the death of Gumby creator Art Clokey, I'd like to begin the semi-complete record of Gumby cassettes that I've been sitting on for a while.

Rhino issued a DVD box set in 2002, but they were all the re-dubbed versions from the 1980's. I don't remember too well, but in any case I couldn't afford the set so I stuck with the VHS tapes. The problem with those is that the episodes are all out of order chronologically, jumping from the early 50's to the late 60's on the same tape, and the tapes themselves seem to have little order. For that reason I offer this somewhat clarifying ongoing "Gumby Archive." I'll include whatever information I can dig up, but send clarifications if you have any.